The Halloween Party

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Madeleine scowled at Jude, embarrassed, as Lee put his arm around her waist.
She leant against him slightly. "Careful, Judy," she said sweetly, using her limited powers to transform her nails into razored silver blades. "Annoy me again, and I might just scratch your eyes out."
The threat was somewhat lessened by the fact that her nails returned to their normal, bitten-down state.
"Or something," she said, laughing and recovering with good grace, ignoring the worried voice at the back of her mind.
It'll be fine in a couple of days, relax...
Well, it had better be.
"Isn't Ailith here yet?" she asked, craning her neck and standing on tiptoe, trying to see over the heads of the gathering crowd. "You did ask her, right?"
Someone accidentally brushed against her, and she lost her balance and stumbled into Lee again. "Sorry," she murmured, before glancing at Jude again. "You did ask her?"
He better have. There was obviously something about to go on there...

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude blushed unwillingly- and knew it wouldn't go unnoticed. Silently swearing at himself, Jude straightened up and cleared his throat.
"Yeah, well, I did, but she's not here yet," he shrugged. "Or she might not be coming. Y'all tell me if you see her, okay...?"
He trailed off, catching sight of Macy's ice crown and a flash of green hair he knew belonged to Steve. He smiled in relief and nodded towards them.
"Got to go say hey," he grinned, dodging past Maddox and Lee. "Again, dude, great punch. No wonder your girlfriend is so hot..."
Ducking a playful swing from Lee, Jude inhaled deeply, hoping his flaring cheeks were cooling down, and hopped over to Macy and Steve.
"Hey, Macy," he said breathlessly from behind her. "Hi, Steve..."

[Macy Deltine]

"Oh, hey." Macy said, as Jude came over to them. She hadn't seen exactly what had just had happened, she just heard some people fighting, then some crashing. She had been distracted by Steve, who was telling her again, about his mother. He would often tell her stories about his family, and would often make Macy feel bad. She had a wonderful life, compared to his.
"Are you okay? You seem like you've run around the school, but I wouldn't think you just have, because it would take a long time, unless you could run really fast, what part of America are you from? I'm from New York." Steve said rather quickly.
Macy let her eyes wonder around the room, becoming slightly annoyed at some people moving the decorations around. Didn't they know that Macy had put that pumpkin in that corner for a reason?
Her eyes moved around the room, over all the students who were talking or dancing. She noticed a ginger girl, in a long, red dress, slinking around the room. Jessica Harte had apparently gone as Jessica Rabbit, for her namesake, and hair colour. She didn't want to think about her too much, after their encounter while decorating the room.
She snapped out of her daydream, and came back to Steve and Jude.

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude blinked several times, trying to make sense of the fast stream of words that'd just spilled out of Steve's mouth. The guy looked a little hyped up- though that was probably just to do with his bright green hair, sticking up messily in all different directions.
"I'm from Housten in Texas," smiled Jude, finally. "It's the only part of America I've ever been to. What's the Big Apple like?"
It was cruel that he knew already knew this about Steve because of his horrid nickname 'Bonkers from Yonkers', although Jude could tell why people thought this about Steve. His fast manner of talking, and multi-colour changing hair was very much out of the ordinary.
And after all, if you weren't normal, you were crazy, and didn't belong.
People sucked.

[Macy Deltine]

"It's amazing, it's brilliant, it's the best place ever. Well, some parts of it, at least. I'm not too found of Brooklyn, I had to live there for a month or two, and the people aren't too nice there. I like Manhattan, though, my mother would take me there for my birthdays, before she was sent to live away from us." Steve talked quickly, looking at the floor. His hair flashed black, while he talked. "My mom's from the south, though, Tennessee. I've never been to the south. The furthest away I've been was to Chicago, one time. That was fun." His hair went back to the usual green. Macy looked at Jude, who wasn't accustom to the speed of Steve.
Macy was getting a bit annoyed at her crown of ice weighing down her head. While Steve talked, and Jude tried to keep up, she put her hands on the crown, melting it. As it ran down her head, the water froze in her hair, so it looked as if it had snowed on her, or that she had been frozen for years, and had just awoken.
When she was finished with her hair, she looked at Steve and tilted her head slightly, watching him talk. He turned round to her and looked at her hair.
"Macy, your hair's nice." He said.
"Oh, thank you, Steve. Augh, what is Jessica Harte doing with Levi?" She asked, watching Jessica, now standing by freshly-punched Levi, looking at him up and down. Actually, Macy didn't care what they were doing. They can do whatever, Macy was happy where she was at the moment.

[Macy Deltine]

((This is through the eyes of Jessica Harte))

Jessica sat at the side of the common room, looking over the room. She could have done such a better job, if Macy had let her. Her red hair fell over her eye, making a long curve around her face. She had gone as Jessica Rabbit, as she already had the dress, and thought she looked rather good in it. She watched Levi Ryder walk to the side of the room in disgust after getting punched by whatshisface, Lee something or other. The one that the head of the Warriors was dating. How could she pick him over Levi? Well, that just meant he was free. Jessica could have gone over and start flirting, but then he could reject her. She hated getting rejected. But, again, it was worth a try...
She could hear her sister's voice in her head saying: Jessie, are you so obsessed with boys? Lana was three years her junior, and didn't inherit powers, like Jessica did, from their father. But Jessica ignored her sister's voice. Maybe this could be a Halloween miracle. She gulped down her drink and stood up. She walked over to him, and flicked her hair.
"Are you okay? I can't believe what he did to you, but I'm sure that you could have taken him out in one, swift, move, but you were..eh...distracted." She laughed. "Do you like the place? I practically did it myself, but Macy went round taking all the credit. I hate the heads of the groups. I was meant to be the head of Academics, but they bumped me, probably out of pity, you know, coming from a single mother, and whatever. I'm Jessica, by the way. You can call my Jess, or Jessie, I don't mind."
In actual fact, the only person that called her Jessie was Lana, but that didn't matter right now. "Oh, what happened to your tooth?" She asked, noticing a gap on his mouth. Atleast he had to reply to a question.

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Standing before the mirror, a scowling Levi tested the new gap in his gum tentatively. After cleaning of the blood with his water powers, he'd discovered (with some colourful language) that one of his incisors was missing.
For the love of Pete - how the hell did Lee Norris manage to knock out one of his teeth? Levi had no doubt that in a fight, he'd have Norris knocked out in about a second. He'd just been distracted.
He blamed Madeleine's bloody catsuit. It was the sort of thing that distracted every guy in a mile radius.
But he'd get Norris back for it - how dare he even think that he could get away with that?
His mouth hurt - but it didn't sting half as much as the humiliation of being beaten - not once, but twice - by a Spy who had won a chess championship... four times.
Honestly, what had Madeleine been thinking? He knew that she'd come running back to him within the fortnight, but he wasn't going to wait for a stupid little...
A redhaired girl came up to him and smiled at him. He vaguely recognised her as an Academic.
"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice high and breathy. "I can't believe what he did to you, but I'm sure that you could have taken him out in one, swift, move, but you were..eh...distracted," she added, with a laugh.
Talks a lot, he registered. Quite pretty.
"Do you like the place? I practically did it myself, but Macy went round taking all the credit. I hate the heads of the groups. I was meant to be the head of Academics, but they bumped me, probably out of pity, you know, coming from a single mother, and whatever." She smiled at him again. "I'm Jessica, by the way. You can call my Jess, or Jessie, I don't mind - oh, what happened to your tooth?."
He turned and half-smiled at her. "Got it knocked out. I'm Levi, and I know all about the bumping thing. I was supposed to be head of the Warriors, but they picked Madeleine, probably cause of her brother being dead. And yeah, I love what you've done with the room."
A half-formed plan was forming in his brain...

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith looked at herself critically in the mirror. What is wrong? Tacky cheerleading outfit, check. Orange face paint and splochy fake tan on legs, check. Side pony-tail, check... Mmmm. She glanced at her watch on her bedside table. She should be there now. Poor Jude will think something's wrong. But this isn't right. Why?! She looked back again. Ever since she put on the too short skirt with the ridiculous split and the almost too low v-neck she suspected something was wrong. What was ... Ah. Got it. Not halloween-y enough. Well how was she supposed to know she'd never been to one of these before. The closest she'd ever been to this was when she attended that function the christmas before she enrolled at the Assassin's School. And that was formal. She looked around and spotted a tube of fake blood on the floor. Mmm.... She squeezed some onto her top on her last rib in an oval shape and did the same on the back. She tore a hole along the fake blood and then pulled out a lump of metall from under her bed and pulled a bit off. She smoothed it into a short, wide blade and stuk it to her back. She made a longer piece with a hilt out of some more metal and stuck it to her front.
Ailith looked at herself again, "There. Much better." And for the fun of it squeezed the fake blood bottle again at the base of her skull through her hair and made another sheet of metal and stuck it there too.
"Right, definately done." Ailith placed the bottle back on the floor exactly the angle she found it at and left.

Ailith stood on tiptoe. It made not one ounce of difference. Just have to do this the hard way... She walked around the room and eventually saw the back of a familiar head. There was a group of people between her and him though, she tried poiltely to squeeze past butt people kept walking in front of her. This is ridiculous. Ailith was frustrated now. He was literally a metre and a half away and yet it would take her all night to try and cross it.
"Sod this... Hey Jude!!" Ailith sang loudly. She knew Jude would hear her. How could he not, they were only a bit over a metre apart and he had enhanced senses!

[Jude Dorrian]

The second he heard her over the sound of Steve and Macy's conversation, Jude felt his chest unclench, which was kinda weird, because he hadn't realised it'd been so tense in the first pace. Excusing himself to his friends, Jude straightened his jacket, and stepped backwards into the mass of people. He couldn't wait until people started getting more excited, and moved onto the dance floor. Then at least, they could have some breathing space.
He found Ailith easily enough- in the promised cheerleader outfit, but with a nice little gory twist. He brushed sheepishly at his own greyish face paint. She'd done a much better job of looking dead than he had.
And she'd also managed the miraculous task of looking nice at the same time! Although maybe he shouldn't tell her that. She wasn't meant to look nice. It was Halloween, after all.
"Hi, Ailith," he grinned at her. "Wow, em, the blood looks... great. Really great. You should try that look more often."
Okay, that sounded better in his head.

[Will Wright]

Will rolled over and threw the covers of her. She got up and crossed to the mirror. She looked awful. She suddenly felt a warm precence pass through her.
"Hello?" she swirved round to see if anyone had come in after Tamika. Nobody had.
She got changed into her costume and looked across at the other bag were Anton's costume was.
They had planned to go to the part together as cow boy's and girl's, but it hadn't materialized.
"Well, I'm not going to put his money to waste. I might as well try to enjoy myself!" she put on her stetsen and walked down the corridor to the common room.
As she was about to enter Levi Ryder ran out covered of blood.
"Don't tell me I missed all the fun!" she whined. There was a lot of talking behind the door. She graped the handle and took a deep breath. The only people who had seen her out were Jude and Lee.
As she enetered faces turned towards her and started whispering. She looked over the crowd and saw who she was looking for. She managed to push her way throught the crowds to the punch bowl.
"Hey Mika," she said."Zoning again, Mika?"
"Will... I can see dead people..."
Will looked at her eyes which held no sign of lying.
"What, do you mean you can see dead people?"

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith frowned in mock confusion and then laughed. I'm sure that sounded better in his head.
"Yeah, good look huh? Lovin' the grey. I wouldn't say it suits you, I definately prefer you pink," What are you saying, ye weirdo?! Ailith tried to claw back the comment, "but it's a pretty cool effect. Reckon we should do some spying in th..." As she looked about tho admire the costumes a figure who usually grinned from ear to ear was downcast and running a tongue along his mouth, "Levi took it a bit far didn't he? Is he missing teeth?"

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude burst out laughing, looking over at Levi.
"Awh, Ailith, y'all really should've arrived a few minutes earlier than you did," he grinned. "Lee punched those pearly whites out! Lee!"
Ruddy fantastic, that's what it was. Jude definitely had it up there in his top ten moments.

[Ailith Rayner]

"Awh! And I missed it! Dang! I woulda givin' him a little something too while Lee was at it. What he do? Say something about Madeleine?"
"That prick couldn't take it when she dumped him- he insulted Lee and called her a wh*re!"
"He what?! Like he can talk! What a ... well justice has been done now. He's wrecked his pride now. Good on Lee! Where is he? I want to congratulate him." She stood on tiptoe and craned her neck.
Almost immediately she sank back to her heels and said, "Maybe later. So have I missed anything else?"

[Jude Dorrian]

Jude shook his head. "Nah, I don't think so. Actually, the music is just starting up so I reckon the party's only really beginning to get going..."
As if on cue, the music seemed to rev up a notch, and there was suddenly a surge of people forward as the dance floor began to fill up. Jude winced automatically, cupping his ears. Well, there was something hadn't been banking on...
"Why's it so loud?" he muttered, rubbing his ear lobes fiercely.
A horrible thumping was beginning to reverberate around his eardrums; again, something he hadn't been banking on. Was music always this loud at parties? Suddenly, green, blinding lights began to dance in front of his eyes as the room was tossed into semi-darkness, with nothing but coloured beams of light flickering around across the faces of people.
He rubbed wildly at his eyes this time, but he'd completely lost sight of Ailith, the lights hurt so bad.
He reached out blindly, and caught her hand.
"Ailith?"

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith's eyes widened as she realized there was something wrong with Jude his arm shot out and Ailith grabbed his hand.
"Ailith?"
"I'm here Jude. Can you hear me? Let's get out of here huh?"
Ailith quelled the panic rising inside. She pulled Jude close to her so he sure it was her and she shoved past people and cleared their way to the door.
A girl shouted from nearby, "Ooh, Jude, on the first date? You are a fast mover!"
Jude shook his head and muttered, "Ignore her."
"Who is she?"
"My ruddy sister."
"Ah the one and only huh?" Ailith laughed.
"Huh!" he snorted.
She fung wide the door, pulled Jude through into the corridor outside and shut the door behind her. The bass still echoed in Ailith's ribcage but the noise and light level was significantly lower.
"Are you OK?" Ailith asked softly.