Courtney's POV: Everyone is always excited about Halloween. Egging people's houses, ding-dong ditching, getting and eating plethoras of candy until you vomit, dressing up in hopes of freaking somebody out. All... but me. Halloween means the school talent show, but it also means I have to deal with you-know-who scaring the piss out of me.

I requested a costume online. Well, not exactly requesting, per say. I was looking in an online Kohls catalog, and found a costume and I called in and requested one be put on hold for me. Turns out, it was the last copy of the costume. :)

The costume was basically a short black torn dress, made of velvet, and it had pink fleece ruffles all over it so it was kind of punk. I never said I'm uptight all the time. But Duncan.... he's just a royal ass. He makes me so much more uptight than I naturally am, and I just want to kick him so badly.

Maybe I will.

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October 30th, Afterschool hours...

I ran home and immediately started fishing through my closet. The talent show started in four hours, since it was 2:30, it started at 6:30 and ended around 10-ish. I didn't want to wear my costume, because the songs have nothing to do with it. The songs I auditioned with were just my audition songs. The songs I'm singing are Mad and Behind These Hazel Eyes. Duncan.... he just kept changing his mind over and over at practices. First he's doing this song, then that one, then this one, then that one. UGH, it gets really annoying and I know you probably can't feel irritated by it, but when you have to spend 3 days a week with him after school for an hour and a half, for 2 weeks, you go ballistic.

There's nothing good! I yelled in my mind. Then, I decided to go look in the laundry.

Nothing.

"Mitzi!" I called.

"What?"

"Can I borrow some of your clothes for tonight?"

"Why?"

I rolled my eyes. She knew where I had to go.

"Because I have no good clothes! Where did they all go?!"

"Um...I think Duncan stopped by here this morning. After you left for school."

O.O That explains it.

I let out a high screech.

"WHERE DID HE TAKE MY CLOTHES?!"

Mitzi came into my room, chewing on avpoptart. "Heck if I know."

"Ugh." I got up and started searching through my older sister's endless closet of beautiful clothes.

There were cottons, silks, satins, fleece, anything you can think of in any color, she had.

I pulled out a dark purple sparkly fleece top with large arm-hugging sleeves. I found a pair of black skinny leggings and put them in my free hand, slipping the shirt in the same, and fingered a pair of bright red strappy hooker heels.

Walking out of her room with the clothes, I adorned them to my body.

Slipping on the heels, I fastened a pair of silver hoops to my ears and rolled on some pink lipstick.

"Hey, Court??" Mitzi called from the living room.

"What?"

"I hope you don't mind, but I told Duncan to pick you up."

"WHAT!?"

DAMMIT! MITZI!! I wanted to rip her head off, but I didn't have time to.

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Two hours later, I sat on the couch eating a burger from the BurgerKing down the street. Mitzi, being 18, went out to hang with her friends. My parents worked night shifts today, and I was just starving.

I picked up my cell phone, half my burger in my mouth, and flipped through the list of contacts.

I dialed Tiannah's number, swallowed what remained of my burger in my mouth, and said hi after she did.

"Yo, you getting ready?" She asked.

"Yea. Hey, how are you getting there?"

"I'm walking."

"Ten city blocks?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?" She giggled. "I like exercise."

I giggled back. "No, it's no problem."

"So how are you getting there?"

I snorted. "You-know-who is driving me, apparently. My sister told him to."

"Ouch. Did you ring her neck?"

"Not yet."

She snickered at 'yet'.

"So what're you singing?" I twirled a lock of my hair.

"Going Under."

"Um...I don't know that song."

"You'll like it."

"Oops, gotta go get ready to leave."

"M'kay, I'll be walkin outta here in a bit."

"Bye."

I heard a click and I hung up.

I slid a few small gold chains through a little extra slit in my pants, to another one on my other side of my front. They were a bit leaned to my right a bit more than the left, but it looked incredible.

I headed into the bathroom with a two thick black sharpie markers and requested Mitzi come help me.

After an hour of her sitting on the toilet, me standing in front of the sink next to it, and her drawing on my left arm with the marker, she slipped the cap on and gasped.

"Wow, it looks better than I thought it could."

"Really?"

"Yeah, look." She pointed to the mirror, so I turned and gasped.

On my tanned left arm, she drew an array of swirls and dots and marks.

"Why do you want henna for the show?"

"I don't know." I shrugged and click-clacked out of the bathroom.

I passed the door - when I heard a car honk. I looked at the clock. 5:47.

"Mitz, I'm leaving!" I grabbed a black leather purse, slinging it over my white fur coat, and locked the door behind me as I ran out into the late October cold.

My eyes traveled from the door - to the black Harvey motorcycle parked in the driveway, the driver slipping his helmet off.

"Don't you have a car?" I crossed my arms as I stood in front of the driver.

"Nah, I felt a motorcycle was better." Duncan smirked in the cold, his pale skin turning paler.

He wasn't dressed like he normally would be; he wore all black, from his skinny jeans, to his checkered converse, to his leather jacket. His hair was down in kind of an emo-style instead of his horrendous mohawk, and he mimicked me by having silver thin chains adorning his jeans, like I did my pants.

I rolled my eyes and climbed in the back of him.

"Ya sure you wanna go this way? 'Cause we can always walk 15 blocks with Tiannah." He smirked wider.

I slapped him and he slipped his helmet back on, revving the engine, pulling out of the driveway, and driving off.

I screeched lowly and straddled his waist, clinging as tight as I could to him. A warm feeling seemed to rise within me, but I pushed it out of my mind and closed my eyes tight, a tear dripping down my eye, my stomach in knots like I was on a roller coaster.

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