.pictureperfectaftxrnoon:
Todd loved Halloween. Growing up he hadn’t always been able to celebrate the spooky holiday, and so now that he was out of his teens and officially an adult, he was taking full advantage of his maturity and getting spoopy. as. hell. When he’d been especially young, before his mother had been killed, they hadn’t really celebrated all that much as his mother had never been able to afford costumes or make up, and hadn’t ever been much of a dab hand at face painting. As a kid who got to watch all of his school friends parade into class the next day with bags of candy, telling tales of all the scary things that they had gotten up to and who or what they’d dressed up as, it had been a little disappointing, and he’d throw his fair share of tantrums. Looking back, he realised how wrong it had been. He was just a kid, but he’d regret every sour pout and harsh word that he fired towards his mother every single day for the rest of his life.
Of course, it hadn’t all been bad. Sometimes they would spend the holidays with Nick and his mom, and his cousin – or, as Todd preferred to consider him, his brother – had even taken him trick or treating one year. They didn’t have very good costumes, but Nick had used all of his pocket money to buy Todd fox ears and a bushy tail, and had even painted some whiskers on his face, too. Then there were the times he’d spent with Cooper, too, but it was often hard to look back on those memories fondly. All of his memories of Cooper were tarnished ever so slightly, even the best ones. They were all tainted by the presence of Cooper’s father, and so Todd pushed them – and Cooper – to the back of his mind. Because, really, aside from the mess with his old friend, he’d lost his mother, and though Nick tried, Todd hadn’t wanted to celebrate anything after he lost her. He didn’t want Halloween, or Christmas, or Easter, or birthdays. He just wanted his mom, and that was just about the only thing he couldn’t have.
Now, Todd was surrounded by the most amazing friends! He had Anna and Dixie, who just so happened to be two of his most favorite people in the whole world, and he had Nora, and Farrah, and even Judy! The point was, he had loads of really awesome friends, and while there were still days that he lamented his crumbled friendship with Cooper – like the other night, when he’d retreated to his room, ignoring Nick and his aunt’s concerns, crying into his pillow after seeing Cooper’s flirtatious display on his blog – there were also days where he just couldn’t stop smiling.
Today was one of those days.
When Nora had asked him if they could wear matching costumes for Halloween, he’d jumped at the opportunity. Nobody had ever wanted to be like him because, in all honesty, he wasn’t exactly cool, and yet Nora wanted them to be a unified pair! Like, if one person looked at her, they’d have to wonder where he was too! How cool was that?! The only problem was, well… Todd couldn’t really figure out the train of thought behind their costumes at all. It had gone entirely over his head. He’d been too embarrassed to even pose the question to Nick, knowing full well he’d just mock him and call him a dumbass, and in the end he’d just kept it to himself, opting instead to make his costume alone. (He’d had no choice but to make it given that it was such a strange request, and he couldn’t find a substitute for what she wanted even online!)
He’d giddily left the house, ignoring the way that Nick had hollered and howled upon seeing him, chasing him out the front door while waving his phone around, sending snapchat after snapchat to Judy. Whatever, clearly Nick didn’t know art when he saw it. He felt quite proud walking down the street, noting the way that he turned so many heads as he made his way to meet Nora at their agreed upon spot. He felt quite content knowing that people were clearly impressed by what they saw, even if he didn’t understand it entirely.
He wanted his costume to be a surprise to Nora, though, given all the work that he’d put into making it! So, after arriving outside of The Writer’s Stop, he ducked down a side alley, and waited intently for his friend to show up. His plan was to make a grand entrance once she arrived, and a grand entrance was exactly what he gave her!
When he spotted Nora up ahead as he peeked around the corner, his nose crinkled in confusion. Her costume made no sense! His mightn’t have been amazing, and the entire concept had been completely lost on him, but at least his was recognisable! At least he looked like a giant bolder, as opposed to… whatever she looked like. Shaking his head in confusion, he slowly stepped out from behind the wall, completely forgetting about the big reveal as he stared at her, an incredulous look on his face.
“Uhhh, Nora?” he addressed her, approaching her and watching as the girl’s head whipped around as she tried to discern where his voice was coming from. “I know you’re super smart, and your parents, like, discover rocks for a living, so I know you don’t think that that’s what a pebble looks like…”
Nora had only ever experienced Halloween through televised portrayals. Travelling around the world had admittedly beaten travelling across a neighbourhood in search of free candy, but there was something appealing about dressing up and having fun for one designated night of the year. But that was something she’d filed away along with all the other teenage experiences she’d missed out on like prom and signing someone else’s yearbook and deciding exactly which Molly Ringwald romantic movie moment she wanted to re-enact with whichever boy she happened to be crushing on at any given time.
Now that she was in Cherry Grove though, she could embrace those teenage experiences – or at the very least Halloween, as she was too old for prom and yearbooks and she had yet to meet a boy who had the same appreciation for Sixteen Candles that she did.
What made the whole thing miles better was the fact that she’d somehow manage to convince Todd that they should wear matching costumes, and he’d given her free reign for their choice. It made sense that her first Halloween costume should embody all of her favourite interests and every 90’s kid going would recognise a Flintstones costume when they saw it, right? So she’d told Todd her idea fleetingly and trusted that he would see to it and find something appropriate to go along with her Pebbles ensemble: a Fred costume, a Bam Bam, even a Dino. She’d definitely take a Dino.
Even Alasdair’s lurking couldn’t sour her mood as she scraped her hair into a bun and slid her cute little bone accessory into it. Her brother wasn’t best pleased about her going out and having fun with her long legs and bare midriff on show, but she’d long since learned that his protective big brother act was only an excuse to exert his power over her. So when he’d turned up his music and gone for a shower, she seized the opportunity to grab her pumpkin bucket and run out of the house.
Already, kids were pouring out of nearby houses and traipsing across lawns so they could knock on doors and exchange jokes for free sweets. Given that this was her first time trick-or-treating, Nora couldn’t help but feel nervous that if she didn’t hurry up and meet Todd so they could be on their way, then all the good candy would be gone and they’d be left with oranges and monkey nuts. With that in mind, she picked up her pace and headed towards their designated meeting point, hoping she was going the right way. Her sense of direction in Cherry Grove was still a little hazy, after all, and it wasn’t like she could use any sort of tracking skills to find a five foot something blonde pizza addict amidst the other human beings that lived in this concrete little town.
She nearly didn’t recognise him when he stepped out from behind the wall, too busy looking for a bright orange shirt-dress, a large dinosaur head or a cute little Bam Bam outfit. It was only when Todd addressed her that she realised her best friend was standing right in front of her covered in some sort of monstrosity. Was his real costume underneath it? She gaped at him for a minute until his words hit her with a jolt of painful realisation and her jaw slowly dropped.
“Todd…” she began slowly, wondering which strange dimension she had suddenly entered. “You have watched The Flintstones before, right? You know who Pebble is, yeah? Come on, Todd, are you pulling my leg? We don’t have time for this! I just passed a group of eight-year-old Charlie’s Angels and they’re sweeping up all the Three Musketeers bars they can. I’m not above fighting an eight-year-old, you know.”