Halloween was only a week away. The month of October it seemed had flown by. It was hard to believe that almost twenty one days had passed since me and my fellow doughnut club members had gathered together down at that little doughnut shop on main. With my favorite holiday being only a few days away, I decided one bright, sunny afternoon to put to rest something I've been meaning to do for a while. I decided to finally go down to Spirit's and buy a costume.

Now, I'm not your stereotypical girl. Yes I love to shop, and spending a whole day in the mall, hunting bargains and sells can be fun and all. But I rarely get to the mall, once a month if I'm lucky. I'm either tied up helping around the family farm, or I'm tied up helping Lily and Robin with their bakery, and now I'm tied up with cheerleading practice. Pile in schoolwork and the chores Kayla wants done each week, and that leaves very little time for anything else beside sleeping and eating.

I'm joking of course, one of the charms of living in a small town is life moves at a slower pace. Unlike say the big cities, I'll use Clinton as an example. In Clinton everybody is always in a hurry, nobody would even stop to give you the time of day. They have appointments to keep, business to attend to, chores and errors to run. People just seem like they're always in a rush. Vicksburg's the same way. But in Benton, it's common to find people lingering around the lobby of the Post Office, you know exchanging gossip and catching up.

Heck even at Sunflower, our local supermarket, you can expect to spend fifteen minutes getting stuck behind somebody who's talking to somebody else. And if you don't watch yourself, you might find yourself drawn into the conversation. That's just part of a small town living in the rural south.

Anyway I had procrastinated long enough. It was time for me to take a deep breath and take the plunge. And so withdrawing some money from the bank, and gathering up my courage, I biked over to the newest business to call Benton home, the huge, pop-up shop, that all in one Halloween superstore, Spirits.

As soon as I walked through the door I was greeted by an animatronic witch that twisted its body around and cackled loudly. A seasoned explorer of the woods and other supposedly haunted locations. The cackling witch only made me grin a little. I often wonder who's going to buy those over priced toys. I knew most of the animatronics at the store ran between one hundred and two hundred dollars. That was a pretty steep price to pay for some fancy Halloween decoration.

“Hey! Welcome to Spirits!” Shouted a blonde girl from behind the sales counter. Her baby blue eyes started to twinkle a little as locked eyes with me. “Oh Madeline! It's so good to see you girl! I was wondering when you would show up. Considering most of your gang has already been here to pick out their costumes!”

“Gang?” I questioned as I peered toward the blonde girl.

“Yes! Taylor and her mom were here a few days ago. Daisy's here now.” She paused as she started to think. “Jamie's helping Daisy pick out a costume. And yes, Jamie's going to wear a costume this year. Trust me on that. I'm not taking no for an answer.” She said smiling as she peered toward me. “I was kind of mean, and threatened a repeat of the Halloween before last on her. You know, the one where Heather showed up at her house and gave her that huge, public gunging?”

I nodded my head. How could anyone in Benton forget that night? See the Halloween before last, I think the Halloween of my Freshman year, so that would two years ago.

Anyway, that was before I got to know Jamie and before she became my best friend forever. The main difference was this, I was sure of myself as Madeline, I had embraced it, Jamie was still going back and forth. Anyway, Lily had written a letter to our local talk show hostess, Heather asking if she could not drop by and visit her and maybe gunge her sister. What happened next will always go down as one of the biggest and best Halloween pranks ever, Heather Ford not only paid the Potter's a visit that night, but also brought a freaking gunge tank! She then delivered what must have been the most epic of gunging to poor Jamie who was in her night dress, hair in rollers in front of the whole block. The girl still blushes every time somebody mentions it.

“Anyway, I trust your here to look for a costume?” Lily said smiling softly as she waved away the topic.

“Yes Ma'am.” I said whistling as I looked around. It might be rude but my eyes started to wander. Halloween decorations of all kinds from wooden tombstones, to bundles of fake cobwebs lined the walls, and sandwiched between them were rows upon rows of costumes.

“Cool, take your time and look around. We had a little bit of everything. We have cute ones, and we have the naughty ones and we have the very naughty ones that your mom would never ever approve of.” She said, smirking. “Though she totally wore one when she was your age.”

I giggled a little at that. There was some truth to that saying after all. Kayla, my older sister who had taken the role as mother and mentor to me these past three years would have raised seven hundred dollars worth of Cain before giving in if I wanted to buy one of them revealing costumes.

“So, if you don't mind me asking.” Lily paused. The moment she paused she leaned in and smirked. Her smirk extended from one side of her face to the other. “What kind of costume are you looking for?”

I blinked and blinked again. Slowly I opened my mouth and when I did the words came tumbling out, they just spilled out.

“I was hoping for something a bit risque. Like I'm no longer a twig.” I said blushing a little. “Heck, cheerleading practice, hiking through the woods and my pills have really transformed me.” I said blushing as I ran my hands over the curves of my body. You see over the last two years, an amazing and painful transformation has taken place. My body had become far more curvy, my manners more feminine and my chest had started to develop. I was now mostly on par with girls around my own age. My facial expressions had started to soften and I had found myself developing maternal instincts toward the younger members of our group. Those members included a trio I called “The Brat Pack” . Allow me to name them for you, Cerridwen Whitethorn, cute as a button pagan witch. Taylor Anna Croft, I always found myself saying her full name when such a mood struck me, the strawberry blonde haired princess of the group. And finally, James William Bell, or Daisy Isabella Bell, the gender fluid odd one. Who switched between 'He' and 'She' as often as people change underwear.

Yep, all those developments had caused me to feel better about me. So I felt more comfortable in my own skin. That sense of comfort had embolden me, and had given me the courage to branch and try something more risque.

“Oh! I bet Matthew would love to see you in that.” She said, smirking a little. “Oh! Are you going to attend the safe Halloween celebration tonight?” She asked, smiling softly.

I found myself blinking again. I had planned on going ghost hunting that evening. I had totally forgotten about the Safe Halloween thing till Lily brought it up. I raised an eyebrow and shrugged my shoulders.

“I kind of wanted to. I would have, but Jamie caught that cold, I know she had volunteered to do that ducking stool. I mean she was one of the few brave, or foolish people who volunteered. I mean have you seen that pond? It's totally overgrown with duckweed! Who ever gets dunked in there is going to have one heck of a time getting all that moss out of their hair.”

I know. Jamie getting a cold and a run of bad luck. Since a lot of people had already paid to see her get dunked. But we found a new volunteer. Want to guess who that brave new volunteer is? Here I'll give you three guesses and a clue, the first one does not count. Her name starts with a 'D'.”

“Daisy?” I said blinking. “OMG! Did she really volunteer?! Oh I'm so going to go now. I'm so going to drag Heather and Kayla along too!” I said bouncing up and down.

“Yep. She volunteered alright. Short of a last minute thing. I mean, they needed at least for volunteers to run the thing. And Jamie catching that bug knocked them down to three. So there was talk about just doing away with it. But then Daisy volunteered. She just walked into mom's office one afternoon with the form all filled out. All the boxes checked, all the lines sighed. Girl had her 'T's' crossed and her 'I's' dotted and mom just stamped her approval. Next thing you know, money started to flood in.” Lily paused to catch her breath. You see what I mean about small town living, you walk in to buy a costume and you get flooded with information.

“Like when Jamie got sick, we had to return all the donations. But once word got out that Daisy had volunteered to take her place money started to flood in. Pandora donated, Kayla donated, Heather donated, Mrs. Croft donated, heck even the little doughnut shop you guys hang out at each Sunday morning donated. Of course, Robin and I had to donate. And Mom and dad donated. Then Daisy did something amazing. She went to that new McDonald's, and asked if they would donate. And they  did, girl! Heck McDonald's, Sonic, even The Cow Pen Jr. Donated. The girl is going to get soaked to the bone! I swear she might just need to grow gills before the nights are finally over.”

I blinked and blinked again.

“Cool.” I said blinking. “So the brat really volunteered.” I paused again. “What costume did she settle on?”

“Not sure. I know it's something Disney, I think it's one of the princesses. What can I say, I was never a princess kind of girl. Heck, I never even really played with barbie dolls a lot. I mean I had some, but I donated them to charity when I turned thirteen.” She said. “I guess, Jamie going to a princess girl.”

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“No, it's just I feel cheated a bit. I graduated last year. And I only get to see Jamie on weekends. She is developing, and I'm not there to see it. I miss having her around all the time. I kind of wish, I just kind of wish she had been born a girl all along. I would have adored having a little sister to tease and play with. Now, it seems Daisy has become Jamie's little sister..”

“Feeling a little jealous?” I asked.
Lily nodded her head.

“Anyway, I'll let you shop, just give me a holler if you need anything.” And with that Lily left me alone to browse the racks of costumes.

To be continued~