All My Mother's Rules

Chapter 27: Monster Mash

Mom made good on her promise to help make Halloween outfits for Lisa and me, and she had over delivered. Not only had she made the shirts, but she had gotten a hold of red and white striped leggings and pale-blue tutus for both of us. I also had a blue bow in my hair to complete the outfit.

True to my promise to Lisa, I had given her the "Thing One" shirt and the rest of her outfit earlier today. She had been a bit hesitant about the leggings – I swear I've only ever seen her wearing a dress – but agreed to it once I showed her the tutu that was also part of the outfit.

I was grateful for the tutu as well. The leggings mom had gotten were skintight and certainly would have exposed the outline of the pull-up I had on. Having safely made my way through mom's toilet training regimen, I was back to stealing my sister's pull-ups so that my continuing bladder problems would remain unnoticeable.

I arrived at the entrance to the gymnasium where the Halloween Party was being held to see Lisa loitering by herself in the hallway. Half of the lights in the hallway had been shut off. After we had left for the day, students on the Halloween Committee had filled the school with spooky decorations. Cobwebs covered the walls and ceiling, a couple of lockers had skeletons peaking out of them. The remaining lights were covered in orange and red tape, causing them to cast an eerie glow.

Lisa had her back to me and was looking into the gym. With the noise from the crowd inside, along with Halloween music playing through the speakers for a spooky ambience, there wasn't any way she was going to hear me walk up to her. Still, I crept up as quietly as I could before reaching up to grab her shoulders from behind.

"Boo!"

Lisa gave a quiet shriek and jumped, before turning around to face me with her hands resting at the front of her tutu. We were a perfect match, except for the fact that Lisa had a good six to seven inches on me.

"I don't know if I really like Halloween that much," she said, shuffling her feet and looking like she was uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry I scared you, but it is Halloween, after all. Besides, you look great in the costume."

"I do?"

"Yeah, I bet we have a chance at winning the costume contest for best team outfit."

"Do we have to?"

"Of course, that's the whole point of dressing up like this. Now come on, let's go inside. I bet there is something to snack on."

The lights inside the gymnasium were as dim as the hallway, but the music was much louder now that we were inside. Strobe lights hanging from the single flickered and flashed. A couple hundred students were inside already, many of them dancing in the middle of the basketball court, but still no sight of Desi or Samantha.

We made our way around the edge to the snack bar. I grabbed a chocolate cupcake with orange frosting while Lisa helped herself to a Halloween themed Rice Krispies bar.

"Sarah, is that you?" Desi called out from behind us. "That is just so cute."

I turned around and gave my outfit a twirl.

"Clearly, you should have been ballerina rather than a cheerleader," Desi said.

Desi had kept her Halloween outfit simple. Dressed as a ghost, she had a white sheet with holes cut for her eyes, nose, mouth, and arms.

"Boooooooo," she drawled, with her arms raised above your head.

I leaned away in mock terror.

"Have you guys seen Samantha yet?" Desi asked.

"Nope, I wonder where she is at?" I replied.

We had pestered Samantha the whole week leading up to Halloween, and she hadn't given us so much as a single clue as to what her outfit was going to be. Samantha had insisted that there was no way we were going to be able to guess what she was going to dress up as, and despite our best efforts, she had told us we hadn't even come close. Knowing her, though, she was certainly going to go all out with whatever she decided on doing.