Title: The Porch
Author: arimi
Category: Everybody AU/CC
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine
Series: Playground
AN: Since it Halloween… and it’s always fun with the kids… To Spook, although you don’t read fic… this one is for all you!

A small hand reached up and pushed the doorbell, making it buzz. Their little bodies huddled together, trying to get as close to the door as possible. The seven kids cried out in unison, “TRICK OR TREAT!”

“Be patient Michael,” Mrs. Evans warned when she saw him reaching for the doorbell again.

“Yes ma’am,” Michael said sullenly. He didn’t understand why Max’s mom and dad had to go with them. He understood why they went last year, but this year, they were second graders, they were too old to have chaperones. And it’s not like they didn't know their neighborhood. Michael wanted to kick Max or even Isabel, but both of them were not even close to him. Michael carefully looked to his left, he didn’t want to be poked by Maria’s wings again, but she wasn’t standing next to him, Alex was.

Finally the red door opened with a swoosh. A skinny lady dressed in a black cat-suit jumped out from behind the door and tried and scare them, but the seven of them just looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

“Hello Phillip, Diane…” she said in a nervous giggle.

“Hi Beth,” answered Diane with a wink.

“So what do we have here?” Beth looked down at the little ‘trick or treaters’ at her doorway. “Well aren’t you a cool Spiderman. What’s your name?”

“Michael… Thank you ma’am.” Michael smiled as she dropped a handful of candy in his bag. He took a few steps back so that the others could get their turn.

“Now you look like Harry Potter. Very cool owl Alex.” He gave her a big smile when she said he was cool and mussed up his hair.

“Thank you Mrs. Foster,” Alex said politely and made his way towards Michael.

“Now aren’t you the prettiest angel I’ve ever seen.” Mrs. Foster bent down and gave Maria an adoring look.

“Actually I’m a fairy, see?” Maria reached in to the pouch that hung on her wrist and sprinkled the glitter for Mrs. Foster to see. “Fairy Dust…”

“I’m so sorry Maria… but you're still very pretty. I love your wings!”

“Not when they are poking your eyes out!” Michael yelled from behind them. He wanted Mrs. Foster to know, so she wouldn’t get hurt, since she gave him three pieces of Almond Joy.

Maria quickly turned around to make a face at him, but her wings struck Mrs. Foster in the cheek, who let out a small ‘ouch’.

“I’m so sorry Mrs. Foster. It was Michael’s fault. He distracted me.”

“It’s ok sweetie, here ya go.” She dropped a few more pieces of candy in Maria's bag, just so she wouldn’t feel bad for hitting her in the face.

“Liz, are you a scientist again?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Well it fit you well.”

“Thank you ma’am.”

“Now let me guess… Hmm, Charlie Chapman?”

Max gave her a wide smile for guessing correctly. “Thank you Mrs. Foster,” Max said when Beth finished dropping the candy in his bag.

“Now aren’t you a handsome pirate Kyle,” she said in her most manly voice.

“I’m supposed to be scary lady,” Kyle said annoyed. He didn’t want to be handsome with his eye patch; he wanted to be mean and scary like the pirates in that movie. Maybe he should have let Michael knock out a few of his front teeth like he generously offered.

“Kyle-” Phillip admonished.

“Ahmmmm…. I mean Mrs. Foster.” Kyle walked away really fast after she finished dropping the candy in his bag.

“And who are you supposed to be Isabel?” Mrs. Foster asked the strangely dressed girl, who usually on a regular day would be flawless.

“I didn’t want to do this. I am really too old for this. But my parents made me. So I’m my mom,” she stated defiantly.

Beth looked up to catch Diane’s reaction to her daughter’s tone. Beth, who had two daughters of her own, knew these little antics that children play on their parents and she wasn’t about to let Isabel off that easy, even if she was only seven years old. She looked down once more and gave the adorable blond a devilish smile. “Oh I see…” Beth nodded in understanding. “Well I guess you don’t need this candy then… since you are all grown up.” Beth had to suppress her laughter when she saw the look of horror flush on Isabel’s face. It was the swelling tears, which were verging on spilling over, that finally got to her. “Here you go. We won’t tell anybody.” Beth patted Isabel on her head before Isabel ran off towards her friends to compare their bounty.

Kyle looked up as soon as Isabel joined them. He looked behind her to see her parents talking to Mrs. Foster as they looked at the group huddling together.

“Are your parents gunna stop and talk to everybody?” Kyle asked annoyed. “We are never going to get enough candy.” Kyle was getting upset because his sack was not as heavy as the others and he wanted to be the one with the most. He eyed Alex’s sack and wondered if Alex would notice if any of his was missing.

“Mom! Dad!” Max yelled. “Hurry up! We still have a lot of houses to go to!” It was Max’s idea for the group to go with his parent this year, and he didn’t want his parents to embarrass him in front of his friends.

It was still early, but the streets were getting busier and busier with ‘trick or treaters’ in their various costumes. There were houses where they had a wait inline to get their treat since everybody was out tonight. And in-between houses the seven of them would walk and compare to see who got the most.

As the night whine down their bags of goodies got heavier and heavier. They all were satisfied with the amount of candy that hey had obtained except for Alex. He didn’t understand why people were giving him money instead of candy. He was not as chunky as Michael or Kyle, he was the skinniest of the guys, but no one wanted to give him candy, only money. Looking into his bag he felt disappointed, he could have sworn he had more chocolate candy before.

Kyle threw his bag over his shoulder, carrying it like a duffle bag, since it was almost twice as big as his friend’s bags. He reached in his pocket and took out a Kit Kat and started to open it with his teeth. He had to eat the Kit Kat first since it was chocolate and he was afraid that it would melt in his pocket and make a mess of the other candy in there.

“I think we have enough,” Liz said with a yawn. She was getting tired from lugging her bag around.

“No way! There's still a couple of more houses!” Kyle said enthusiastically. The sugar rush made him a bit hyper.

“Com’on kids, it’s getting dark and I think we did good today,” Phillip commented as the tired to coax the kids to go home.

“But Dad! We only have a few houses left!” Isabel whined.

“Isabel…”

“But Mom….”

“Phillip? Diane?” questioned a voice behind them.

The two adults turned around to see a man in his late 30’s with a small blond girl around the same age as their kids. “Ed? Ed Harding?” Phillip asked. Phillip reached out and grabbed the man’s hand and gave him a hardly handshake. “Honey, don’t you remember Ed. He went to high school with us. How are you doing?”

“Good… Very good. How are you two?”

“Great, still here. Now who is this?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, this is my daughter Tess.” Ed put his hand behind her back and nudged her forward.

“Hello Tess, I’m Mrs. Evans,” Diane said in a sweet voice as she bent down lower.

“Mom! Daaaaaaaaaaad!”

Diane turned around to see her daughter yelling for their attention. She gave Isabel a stern look, which quiet her right away. “Ed, would you mind if our kids take little Tess around these last few house. We’re almost done.”

“No… of course not. Now Tess, go run along and have fun with your new friends. Daddy will be right here. Ok sweetie?”

Tess quickly nodded and nervously walked towards the group. She hated being the new girl, but moving around a lot made her understand that she had to be the brave one. “Hi I’m Tess,” she introduced herself to the group.

“Hi Tess. What did my mom say?”

“Oh she said we can go around and they will stay there.”

“Cool,” Kyle said with a smile.

“I like your costume Tess. I was a ballerina last year,” commented Maria.

All eight kids started to walk as they started to ask Tess all sorts of questions. She was really enjoying herself, never had she felt so liked by so many people. It felt as if she’s known them all her life. Slowly they walked from one house to the next, comparing as they moved along. Tess continued to walk to the last house when she felt that her new friends were no longer next to her. She turned around to see all of them behind her, standing fixed on the sidewalk.

“What's wrong?” she asked as she walked towards them.

“This house is haunted,” Alex said blankly in whisper.

“Yeah…” Isabel added as her eyes open wide as she looked at the old run down house.

“There no such things as ghost, Alex,” Tess replied in a knowing voice.

“Yes there is. Once we were playing football, the ball fell in the yard. When we went there to get it back, the ball was no longer there.” Michael gulped as he told Tess what happened to his football.

“You’re a scary cat Michael,” teased Kyle.

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

“Will you two stop it,” Liz intervened. “I heard that the old lady that used to live here died in there and that her ghost still haunts the house because they never found the body.”

They all looked at her in horror. Liz was not the kind of person who told lies or exaggerated, so all the rumors they heard must be true since she would never lie to them. Everybody turned to Tess, looking at her smugly. Her embarrassment showed brightly on her face.

“Tess if you are not scared, why don’t you go and see if it’s haunted,” Isabel challenged her new friend.

“Hey, don’t pick on the new girl,” Kyle said protectively.

“I have a name, thank you.”

“Yeah… New Girl.”

“So are you going to go?” Maria questioned.

“I don’t know…”

“Well if you do not want to go, I will.”

The group looked at Maria in awe. They all were too scared to go, but they thought everybody would feel the same. Maria just stood there with her wings bent in strange directions, due to Michael fixing them, as if nothing mattered at all.

“I don’t think it’s true, plus ghost aren’t scary.”

“Are you sure Maria, do you really want to do that?” Liz questioned her best friend.

Maria nodded to answer Liz. Her mom had always taught her not to be scared of the dark and her mom always said that “ghosts are just as scared of you as you are scared of them”. “I’m going to go ring the door bell to show you all that there is nothing to be afraid of. There’s probably no one there. Look how dark the house is.” Maria just shrugged her shoulders as her friends looked at her strangely. She turned around and started to walk towards the house when she felt someone’s hand grabbing her arm. Looking back Maria saw Michael next to her.

“I’ll go with you,” he offered.

“Ok.”

Michael and Maria made their way towards the house as their friends stood close together on the street. Michael put his hand out to push the gate open. It creaked as Maria and Michael passed through, then slammed with a bam as it hit the latch, locking them in. The yard was over run with tall weeds and grass, making the sidewalk to the house small enough for only one person to pass at a time. Michael was in front with Maria closely behind him, holding on to the back of his costume.

“I thought you said you weren’t scared,” he whispered.

“Who said I was scared?” She let got of his shirt then nudged him over so that she could be in the front.

The wood groaned as they stepped on the stair that led to the rotting porch. Maria stopped in front of the front door and looked toward her right. Michael scratched his eyebrow nervously then nodded his head. Slowly she raised her arm and used her index finger to press the doorbell. Like church bells, the doorbell rang loudly and echoed in the house, making it come alive. After a few seconds the sound died and Maria and Michael stood there listening for signs of life behind the door. A few seconds passed before the two let out an audible sigh of relief that no one was inside the house. Smiling at each other they then turned around, ready to join their friends.

It was the squeaking of rusted hinges that made the hair on their back stand up straight.

“Oh wait… don’t go,” said the screechy voice behind them.

Looking at each other they both swallowed the knot, which formed in their throat, down to their stomachs. Both of them were on the verge of running, but their curiosity got the best of them. Slowly they turned around to see a very old lady standing on the threshold of the door.

“Oh good… glad you didn’t go. You two are my first ‘trick or treaters’ tonight,” said the old woman in a high pitch raspy voice.

Maria and Michael took a step forward and put their bags out and shouted “Trick or Treat” in unison. They both tried to give their most sincere smiles as they waited for the old woman to drop candy in their bags. But instead of giving them candy so they could go, the old woman bent down to look at them.

“Oh what are you young man,” the old woman asked as she breathed down on him.

Swallowing hard, Michael spoke, “Spiderman ma’am.” He accidentally looked up and noticed her eyes pitch black, which caused chills to run down his back. He stared to get really nervous when she patted him on his head, mussing up his hair. The feeling got worse when the old woman turned towards Maria.

The old woman smiled broadly to show off her toothless mouth. “And I guess you must be a Fairy.” All Maria could do was nod since the fear somehow found its way back to her throat when the old woman brushed her wrinkled hand against Maria’s cheek.

“Oh, your candy! I can’t believe I almost forgot.” Slowly the old woman turned around and walked back inside her dark house.

Michael and Maria looked at each other to see if they should run or not. She was really creeping them out, but before they were able to make a decision the old woman had returned. Confusion covered their faces when the old lady returned with a weird looking hat on her head, but their confusion quickly turned into delight when they noticed the big bowl full of candy in her hand. Once again they opened their bags and said in unison, “trick or treat!” As much as they tried, both of them were unable to get their attention away from the hat on her head. It sat strangely on her uncombed peppered hair.

The old woman grabbed a handful of candy as she slowly bent down to get closer to the two. They both gasped when they saw something moving in her hair, like a worm crawling out of her head. As the old woman bent lower, they both jumped and screamed in horror as they saw small beady red eyes looking at them. Without a moment to lose, they both ran as fast as they could towards their friends, leaving their bags of candy behind.

The old woman stood there puzzled. It was the nipping on her cheek that got her attention. Red eyes greeted her when she turned to look at her pet rat who finally decided that her shoulder was a better place to sit on than her head. “I told you to say inside! Now you’ve gone and scared the daylights out of them!”