Seventeen years...and nothing.
Seventeen long years...and Jack was still happy.
In the seventeen years that had gone by, Lock, Shock, and Barrel hadn't heard a word from Oogie about any plan. They often found themselves thinking that Oogie was getting senile. He acted like their pet, in a way. All they had to do was give him bugs to eat, and never heard any word from him otherwise. Unless they asked about his plan, of course, in which case they would just get an aggravated "Just wait," and then nothing else.
Shock sat in front of her large vanity mirror, brushing her hair. Over the last seventeen years, she'd managed to grow a thick mane of black hair that she took probably a little too much pride in. Sure, she never really styled it in any specific way, but she was proud none the less. No one else in town had such lovely hair, not even Jack's precious little skeleton daughter.
In fact, it hadn't just been her hair that changed in the last seventeen years. She'd grown into a very pretty young woman, managing to somehow fill out in all the right places. She had a shapely figure, but not so shapely that she was disproportionate. Everything on her seemed to complement everything else. Her purple witch's dress had to be replaced with one of similar design, except for the way that the waist of the dress had to be taken in, and the top of the dress had to be let out a good few inches. Same style of dress, different proportions.
Shock smiled at herself when she got up from her vanity mirror and crossed the room to grab her hat. Was it wrong for a person to be so vain? The town had maybe a total of two girls, and Shock's only competition was the bony little girl of the town's still-reigning king. While Anna had her own little sparks of beauty, Shock was noticeably the shapeliest girl in town. The witches had a niece that came to live with them, yeah, and she was pretty too she supposed-- but she was too small and too gawky to be in the competition at all.
Walking into the living room of their tree house, Shock saw Lock lazily draped across the couch with metallic candy wrappers settled on his red shirt. Lock had changed just as much as Shock had. While he still had those two pointed locks of hair that looked like devil horns, they'd gotten a little taller while the rest of his hair got a little longer. His hair would dangle off the edge of his earlobes now, too long to be considered short while too long to do anything with. Not only that, but he'd grown a...a...oh...she didn't want to call it a "Goatee" because he didn't have any hair on his upper lip, but he had a tuff of hair on his chin. It was half-a-goatee.
He'd grown tall and thin, but he was still strong. On one of the many mornings he came into the kitchen wearing nothing but his baggy red pants, Shock had taken the liberty to notice the many muscular curves on his arms. They weren't weightlifter big, not by far. In fact, he could easily be flattened by a weightlifter if the event ever occurred. But that was okay. Thin but strong worked on him. Too bad he hid all his mini-muscles under a slightly over-sized red shirt and baggy red pants.
Passed out on the lounge chair next to the sofa was Barrel, who was roughly Shock's height now--if not a few inches taller. He still had a smooth, angular face, but it was usually hidden underneath the tall collar of his over-sized skeleton shirt. He was skinny for a boy, not like Lock who was thin but strong. Barrel was just...thin, and his hair had puffed out quite a bit. He usually kept it in a messy pile on top of his head, but that was okay on him she supposed.
Agitated at the fact that they were still passed out from their late-night candy party, Shock picked up one of Lock's discarded shoes and hurled it at him. He shouted some very unbecoming swears when it hit his face, and his shouting woke Barrel up. Shock smiled proudly, killing two birds with one stone was always fun when the stone was Lock's shoe in his face.
"Gah Shock!" Lock yelled when he realized what happened. "What’s your problem?! We never throw anything at you while you're sleeping!"
"That’s crap and you know it," She snapped. "Remember that time you snuck a snake into my bed?"
"But I didn't
throw it!"
"And that’s why I only threw a shoe. If you
had thrown that snake, I would've smothered you until the struggling stopped."
Barrel bit back a laugh and tried not to look like he thought the whole thing was hilarious. He wasn't sure why he still thought their fights were funny, ever since Shock turned twelve she's been picking especially violent and seemingly random fights with Lock at least once a week every month. He didn't get it, but as long as he wasn't the one getting yelled at all the time, he didn't care.
He was about to wonder how much longer their arguing could go on, but Shock stopped it by announcing their plans to go and pull a prank on the behemoth. When she explained her idea to them, the two boys shared an agreeing look before letting Shock know that they'd do it. They made it seem like they had a choice in the matter, and Barrel supposed they did, but it was easier to just go along with what Shock wanted. Especially when her idea sounded like a lot of fun.
So together, the three of them went to the pumpkin patch, where behemoth spent most of his afternoons tending to the plants. While he wasn't looking, they had time to rig a few of the pumpkins before throwing themselves into a safe hiding spot from where they could see their plans unfolding. But as they were hiding, Shock felt the side of Lock's hand brushing up against the side of her hand. She swallowed and bit the inside of her lip, trying to pay more attention to their prank. But it was hard. Locks hand was just so...warm. She wanted to hold the whole thing, but didn't. In fact, she moved her own hand away from his under the pretenses of trying to get a better view.
When the behemoth came to tend to the rigged pumpkins, the three braced themselves for a good laugh. They waited, and waited, and waited, and nothing happened. He took care of the pumpkins like all the others before and moved on without ever knowing what had happened. When he left, the three came out of their hiding spots and tried to figure out why their trick didn't work. As it so happened, the moment they touched the pumpkins, all three pumpkins exploded sending guts and seeds into their faces. Dousing them in it.
"Aah!" Shock shouted, trying to get the goo off her. But just as she wiped some off her face, Lock accidentally threw some of the goo on his arm right into her face. "Lock!" She shouted, punching him in the arm. That one small accident had sparked yet another argument between them, and this time it got a lot more violent than it usually did. Shock tackled Lock, who tried to overpower her. Barrel just sat by and watched as his two friends fought, and as their fight got so bad that they fell off the side of the hill.
They tumbled together down the slope, skidding across the mud and landing in a large growth of bushes. Lock fell, and when he pulled himself up off the ground he realized that Shock was lying underneath him. Her thick black hair had fallen into her face, causing a blush to creep onto his face. He wasn't sure if it was how she looked that made him blush, or the fact that he was still laying on top of her. She opened her eyes and looked at him, the two of them sharing a moment of stunned silence.
Shock felt her stomach tighten, and her skin felt like it was crawling. She knew the right thing to do was to get angry and push him off. Maybe call him a pervert and storm back to Barrel as angrily as she could, but the right thing seemed to fade away in the moment, leaving her unable to rationally think.
"Um..." Both Lock and Shock looked and saw Barrel watching them through the bushes, a surprised look on his face. "I hope I'm not interrupting..."
"Of course not," Shock snapped, pushing Lock off her. "All you were doing was being my witness to Lock's perverted mind."
"Oh yeah,
my perverted mind," He snapped under his breath. "I'm not the one who started it."
But their arguing was simply a cover for the fact that they couldn't deny having secretly enjoyed the moment. They'd never admit it though. Not to Barrel, not to each other, and definitly not to themselves.
---------
A/N Below:
omg. This last bit came to me at the brush of the moment, I was like 
OMG I GOT SOMETHING and I put it in! For some reason, when I pictured an older Shock, I always pictured her being amazingly built. I don't really know why, but ah well.
Hey, a guest named "Ashley" suggested I draw a picture of what Anna looks like, and believe me I totally would-- if Paint wasn't the only drawing program I had, and my pictures always come out looking awful. So, until I get a scanner or better paint-skillz, I can't really.
