She was so excited about bringing Ryan to Halloween town that she could barely focus on her test that next day. She was wearing his jacket that day just so she wouldn't forget it when she went to the mortal world. She knew that she couldn't fail or else she'd get in trouble with her parents, but she couldn't stop thinking and worrying about what her father would think about Ryan. Their very friendship depended on her father liking him.
When she finished her test, she waited while Dr. Finklestein graded it. What if her dad didn't like Ryan? Well, it would mean that she couldn't be friends with Ryan anymore. But if that happened, would she still try to sneak out and see him? If she decided to, would she even be
able to? Her parents would probably be watching her like hawks for a long time, and when they decided she could be trusted on her own again it would probably be too late to find Ryan. She had no idea where he lived, so she couldn't find him and tell him she could visit again.
Pretty much everything was riding on what her parents thought of him, and she would have no choice but to give him up if they hated him.
"D plus," Dr. Finklestein said finally, bringing Anna out of her thoughts.
"I passed?"
He didn't look happy, but then again, he very rarely ever did. "Just barely,"
Just barely was good enough for her.
Hoping that passing her test was a sign of things to come, Anna hurried out of Dr. Finklestein's manor and to the cemetery. She kept trying to calm herself down, but nothing she tried seemed to work. Every time she would start to think positive about things, she kept subconsciously reminding herself of the possibility that her parents wouldn't like him and they couldn't be friends anymore. She tried not to set herself up for disappointment, but it was hard.
He was waiting for her in the same place they always met, although this time
he looked worried that
she wouldn't make it. Normally, she would've taken a moment to mull over the irony of this, but she didn't have time. She ran up to him, trying to control the smile on her face.
"Ryan, my parents want to meet you." She started, although she wished she hadn't started it like that. "They seem to think that you're out to hurt me, and they just want to make sure you're not." and she wished she hadn't said that even more.
But Ryan didn't seem to mind, he just smiled as she handed him his jacket and said, "Sounds okay. I've always been curious about where you live anyway. So, when do you want me to come over?"
"Today,"
He was surprised that it was so sudden. "Seems kind of last-minute, doesn't it?"
She nodded. "Yeah. But it's either we do this tonight and get it over with, or we can't hang out again until we do. I'm sorry to say that my parents are really..." She stopped to think of the right word. "...Overprotective."
She was sure he was going to think something bad about that. She didn't know why, but she almost wanted to take it back and try to think of a better word. But instead Ryan just smiled that sweet, easy-going smile that always seemed to make her stop wishing she could take things back. She'd miss that smile if her parents didn't let her keep being friends with him.
"Makes sense," He said, "If I ever brought a girl home, I'm sure my mom would act the same way." What he did next made her heart start hammering against her chest like it wanted to fly out and bounce around the cemetery like an escaped maniac.
He. Grabbed. Her. Hand.
Swallowing the nervousness starting to climb up her throat, she nodded and walked with him back to the tomb she used to cross over into the mortal world. But the whole way there, she kept stopping to tell him something different about her town and how it was different from the mortal world. She just didn't want everyone in town to scare him. Someone might accidentally scare him to death-- and then given an
award for it at the Halloween celebration for that year.
"And then there's the behemoth-- he's got an ax in his head. Then there's the three Mr. Hydes. The smaller one lives underneath the hat of the main Mr. Hyde, and then an even smaller one lives under that one's hat. There's the Clown, he always rides on a unicycle and--"
"Anna, calm down!" Ryan said, grabbing her arms with a pleading smile on his face. "I'm sure everything is going to be fine. Okay? I
promise not to get scared by anyone."
"But you haven't met Igor, he scares
me sometimes." But the more she tried to convince him to be afraid, the more he wanted to go to Halloween town. She wished he would just get scared, or maybe a little nervous at least, but for some reason he never did. She didn't know
why she wanted him to get scared, there was just something about it that she thought would make her less nervous.
"You're overreacting," He said, "I'm sure that everyone in your town is harmless, and even if they're not, I know you won't let any of them do anything. Everything is going to go fine, I promise. Okay?" and, for some reason, she felt herself nodding and partly believing him. There was just something about the gentleness in his voice that soothed her fears and left her feeling like everything really would turn out fine.
"Well, just don't say I didn't warn you." She said, walked a few more steps, then added, "Oh, and if they really do scare you and you die-- you might be the scare that gets someone an award." He thought this was odd, but let it go. At least someone would get an award, unlike the kids at school who like to leave dead rats in his locker just for the sheer joy of seeing him scared.
The moment they stepped into town together, Anna was nervous about the way everyone stopped and looked at Ryan as if he was a freak show. But Ryan? He looked just as curious about them as they were about him. Curious, but not scared, much to Anna's own surprise. He honestly wasn't scared by the swamp creature looking out of the fountain, or the obese corpse woman stopping and adjusting her glasses to get a better look at him. The wolf man didn't scare him a bit, and neither did that weird little bat thing that even Anna didn't know what was.
Ryan was a freak if he didn't think all these people were the least bit scary, but a freak in a good way. She liked that he wasn't scared, it was actually kind of a turn-on. But then again, there was nothing about him that
wasn't a turn on for her.
She stopped them outside the big iron gate outside her house.
"Ryan, try to be polite okay? If they don't like you, I can't--"
"I
know, you already told me, remember? Don't worry about it though, I'll be the perfect gentleman if it means we can keep being friends." and it took every bit of self-control he had in his body not to kiss her forehead.
He followed her to Jack's house, where they found her mom in the kitchen making frog's breath soup. Just before they went into the kitchen, Ryan quietly coughed into the sleeve of his jacket and whispered to Anna, "What's that smell?"
"Mom's famous frog's breath soup," She said, "It tastes a lot better than it smells, I promise." But in her mind, she added,
unless dad snuck in some deadly night shade to knock him out. but she didn't feel like scaring him by saying it out loud. Her dad probably didn't do anything anyway.
When they went into the kitchen, Sally looked at them from over her cauldron and smiled.
"So this must be Ryan," She said pleasantly. She put the wooden spoon on the counter and came over to shake his hand. "I'm Anna's mother, pleased to meet you."
"Likewise," Ryan said, very politely shaking Sally's hand. He tried not to stare at her stitches, or the way some of her was made of cloth and some was made of skin.
"Jack should be home soon, so you two can just take a seat at the table." She said, and the two kids sat at the table as they were told to do. Sally added a few more ingredients to the soup to tone the frog breath smell down a little. She might've put too much. "The mayor's got your father working later than he wanted."
"They're still not done?" Anna asked, "They've been working since last year..."
"You know how the mayor can get," Sally said, "He's more of a perfectionist than your father." Suddenly, it occurred to Sally that Ryan probably had no idea what they were talking about. She quickly explained to him that Anna's father was the pumpkin king of Halloween town, and that meant that he had to help the mayor oversee the preparations for Halloween.
That had been the first time Ryan heard anything about Anna's father being the pumpkin king. "So...that makes you the pumpkin princess, doesn't it?" He asked Anna, who wished in the deepest part of her heart that he hadn't learned that about her. Sure, if they were going to be anywhere near what she wanted them to be, he'd have to learn it sometime. She just wished it hadn't been right then. She nodded. "That’s cool," and that’s all he said about it. She wanted to ask him if that was okay. If that meant that he would treat her differently, but she didn't have a chance to. Just then, her tall skeleton father came home.
At first he looked perfectly pleasant, until he saw the human boy sitting at
his dinner table next to
his daughter. He was just glad Sally had been in the room to make sure they didn't do anything that the human boy was probably thinking about doing to his little girl. If she hadn't been, and they were, he would've killed that boy on the spot.
"Jack, Anna's friend is here," Sally said before anyone could have a chance to say anything.
"I see," Jack said, trying not to look or sound as full of hate towards the human as he felt. He reached to shake Ryan's hand, and he'd hoped that was enough to scare him off. But he didn't know why it would be, he'd been spending almost every night with a skeleton girl. But being her father, he hoped to intimidate Ryan. "Pleased to meet you young man,"
"Likewise sir," Ryan said politely.
But if he
did intimidate him, he couldn't tell.
Around that time, the soup had finished cooking and Sally poured four bowls of it before serving them to everyone at the table. Zero came in barking for a treat, but when he saw Ryan...he just sort of floated there. Unsure of what to do about the human in his masters' house. He could get mad and bark like crazy at him, but everyone seemed to
know he was there and not mind it. So, he just quietly took his treat and ate it just like he normally would.
Except he kept an eye on the human. Just in case.
Ryan did his best to be as charming as he could, although it was hard when Jack asked about his parents and he had to tell them the truth. He thought about lying, but then he figured it wouldn't look good if they found out the truth and started assuming everything else he said was a lie.
So, he told the truth.
"I live with my mom," He started, "My dad left a year after I started Jr. High and because my mom has a hard time keeping a job, I took a job after school to help pay for everything."
Jack seemed taken back by his answer, if not a little skeptical of it. He hadn't expected such a noble answer out of the kid, even though he liked what he heard. Responsible boys who help their mothers aren't as likely to hurt his daughter as a rich kid who’s had everything handed to him on a silver plate. Or, at least, that’s how he saw it. Aside from nobody, no matter what their situation, being good enough for his little girl in his eyes.
That hadn't been the first time Anna heard about his father, but she didn't know that he'd taken a job after school to help his mom. He'd said that it was because he needed extra spending money. Which was probably part of it.
When Sally asked about his grades, Ryan said that he had a 3.0, something that made very little sense to Anna. Especially while she was trying not to stare at the way his black hair fell against his face, taunting her, making her want to touch it and push it back...
After dinner they all went into the living room, where Ryan was asked about how many friends of his knew about Anna. That question, like the one about his family, had made it difficult for Ryan to keep up that 'I'm-nice-and-can-answer-any-question-you-ask-without-emotionally-reacting-to-it-in-any-kind-of-way' charade.
"None, actually," Ryan said, he wanted so badly to say that he didn't have any friends to tell. That he was the only kid in school who ate lunch by himself in the hallway because if he ate in the cafeteria with everyone else someone would likely throw something at him. That he often found dead frogs and mice in his desk because some of the other kids thought it would be funny, and that he got knocked around at school on a regular basis for some reason that everybody seemed to know but him.
But he didn't want Anna to worry about him, he'd known her long enough and had talked to her enough to know that if she found all of that out, she would worry herself sick. She was the only person, besides his mother, who was nice to him and didn't treat him like there was something
clearly different about him but didn't want him to know what it was. In fear that he would change it and there wouldn't be anyone to beat up on anymore.
No, for Anna's sake, he lied to her parents and said that none of his friends knew about her.
"Good," Her father said, smiling in a sort of dark way. "Because if you did tell anyone, I know some people who would happily cut out your tongue and make sure you can't tell anyone anything ever again."
"Dad!" Anna squeaked from surprise, but her father just smiled it off.
"Oh calm down. The boy knows that all he's got to do is not tell anyone."
"Which I fully intend to do," Ryan said, thought about it, and then decided to add, "I wouldn't like it if my other friends started hogging her all the time anyway." but then he wished he hadn't said that. Or, at least, he wished he had phrased it better. The worst part was that he couldn't even tell if her father didn't like that answer or not.
Jack and Sally stepped out of the room to discuss what they thought of him, leaving the kids in the living room with Zero, who had decided that since Anna liked Ryan-- he could give him a chance. Besides, if worst came to worst all he would have to do is bite Ryan's hand and make him wish he'd never gone anywhere near his master's little girl.
Jack leaned against the kitchen wall and said frankly, "I don't like him."
"Oh come on Jack," Sally said with a smile. "You'll never like
anyone Anna brings home. I actually kind of like this boy, he seems like a pretty responsible kid."
"What? That mother thing? You
bought that?"
"Yeah, I did because I don't think he was lying. I mean, he had a slight change of...I don't even know what to call it...in his eyes. You know? He suddenly got really sad in his eyes, and I think that's a good indication of the truth. But I don't know for sure." She said. "I just think we should give him a chance."
But Jack didn't think so. He didn't like Ryan, no matter how responsible he tried to make himself seem. But maybe Sally had a point when she said that nobody would be good enough for Anna in his eyes. Maybe Ryan wasn't as bad as he liked to think. Maybe he wouldn't defile his daughter like some punk kid.
When Jack and Sally came back into the room, the two kids sat in attention. They almost looked like they were in the army and the two drill instructors had come in. Jack had his arms crossed, and Sally had her hands behind her back, looking very pleasant. Anna wished that was an indication that everything was okay and that she could still be friends with Ryan-- but the pessimist in the back of her mind refused to let her believe that.
"We've come to a decision," Jack said finally. He looked over at Sally, who continued for him.
"We've decided that there isn't any harm in letting you kids keep being friends."
She could hardly believe what she was hearing, and for a seemingly long moment she was stuck in a paralyzed state while her mind tried to keep up with the big news. But once everything processed, she smiled and thanked her parents.
"Thank you !" She cheered, jumping up and hugging her mother. Although, she made sure not to cheer too loudly. She didn't want to seem
too happy about it.
"Thank you sir," Ryan said, not hugging anyone.
"Under one condition," Jack added, making both the kids look at him, but he was looking directly at Ryan. "You make sure
nothing happens to her. If anything at all happens to my little girl, I'm going to win the award for most precise skinning of a human boy. Understand?"
"Daddy!" Anna gasped, surprised at all the threats he's made to Ryan in just that one night.
But Ryan didn't seem to have a problem with the conditions.
"That's completely fine by me," He said, still smiling. "I mean, I'd never let anything happen to her anyway." His sweetness, and the way Anna let herself believe he meant it made her blush. She knew full well that he meant that he wouldn't let her get hurt, but she liked thinking it was a little deeper than that.
"Alright then," Jack said. "I guess you have our permission."
After the happiness had died down a little, and after Anna left to walk Ryan back to the human world, Jack sat on the sofa, exhausted.
"I hope we made the right decision," He said, watching Sally walk around the coffee table and sit beside him. She put her head on his shoulder and felt him wrap his arm around her.
"I'm sure we did."
-------------------
A/N Below:
o.o GOLLY! This was a long chapter, wasn't it? I guess it kinda makes up for the shorter chapters I wrote before it, but I honestly didn't expect it to be this long. I just had a burst of energy I suppose. lol
