Never Fear

08

Willow and Maggie looked at each other before eyeing up the school. It had been decked out for the prom only because the school were seemingly too lazy to rent out a place to hold it.

"Well they tried their best." Maggie reasoned and suffered a dumb look from Willow. Picking up her skirt, Maggie tottered forward towards the door. Willow looked over her shoulder and sighed, she was looking out for Jonathan, although a part of her doubted he'd already be inside. Perhaps he had decided not to come? Maybe offering to meet him would have been the best way to make sure he attended.

Shrugging and walking in, Willow stopped beside Maggie who was annoyingly conversing with Sherry. Willow and Sherry still didn't get on, Sherry still liked to pick on Willow during P.E, and Willow still liked to comment on her lack of intelligence in every other lesson aside of cheerleading. Unfortunately, Maggie was on the cheerleading team and a good friend of Sherry's which meant the two came into contact a lot. Of course, the bullying of herself wasn't the only thing which peeved Willow off about the blonde girl in front of her. She joined in with bullying Jonathan from time to time. It was annoying to witness, apparently before Willow arrived Jonathan had told Sherry he had slight feelings for her. Sherry acting the complete opposite to how anyone else would act, she laughed and told everyone this led to more tormenting for Jonathan.

"I like your dress, Will." Sherry said sarcastically. As if the girl couldn't get anymore annoying she decided to shorten Willow's name. Willow hated being called 'Will' for a nickname. Not even Kevin and Sue dared to call her it because they knew how much it annoyed her.

"Huh, yours is very....pink." Willow mulled over while eyeing up the pink thing Sherry was standing in. Willow's dress was dark red and stopped just below her knees, it was simple. But Willow loved it. Maggie was wearing a similar style to Sherry, the skirt stopped just above her ankles but instead of being pink it was a turquoise blue. The night progressed rather slowly from that moment. Maggie dragged Willow to dance with her a few times. Eventually Willow stood outside looking up at the sky, Jonathan hadn't shown up, which saddened her slightly considering after tonight everyone went their separate ways to college.

"I never knew you could look so pretty." Looking up at Bo, Willow gritted her teeth and refused to retort. "I mean, we're all so used to seeing you look like a boy, seeing you here and now...well let's say it's a shock."

Willow crossed her arms, it was a little amusing to see that Bo considered living in trousers and shirts, or t-shirts, as 'looking like a boy'. "Tom boy you idiot." Willow muttered.

"Whatcha doing out here all on your lonesome, huh? Ichabod stand you up? That's such a shame, I would never do that to a pretty girl like you."

"Piss off." Willow rolled her eyes and walked away from him, the only problem was Bo and his little gang decided to follow after her. Being stuck in the car park with five pursuing males wasn't really what Willow wanted from her evening.

"You should listen to the lady, she clearly knows what she wants and it isn't you." A muffled voice spoke. Willow stopped walking and stared with wide eyes at Jonathan. Who was only a few hours late and instead of dressing in a suit like everyone else, stood in his Halloween costume. The only difference was the mask was more improved and fitted better, his shirt was black and had buckles attached to it, he wagged a gloved finger in Bo's direction.

Bo looked startled, "Halloween has been and gone, Ichabod, don't you know that?"

"Halloween can happen all year round. Don't you know that?" Jonathan replied indifferently, hearing Willow's name being exclaimed Jonathan and the dark haired girl looked to the door. Maggie and Sherry stood eyeing the group up. Sherry laughed, Maggie looked confused. The laughter spread to Bo and his friends and everyone stood hysterically laughing. Maggie pulled Willow away from Jonathan slightly and shot Sherry and the laughing males a look. Jonathan rocked on his heels, "Oh dear," he sighed and shook his head sadly. Maggie and Willow gasped when Jonathan uncrossed his arms from behind himself and shot a gun up into the air.

One little thing can spark something so much greater. Hysteria kicked in, the people who were loitering outside screamed and ran around. Chaos and panic surrounded the area, Bo leapt into a car and drove as quickly away as he could. Because driving away would clearly lead to safety. Sherry and the rest of Bo's gang gripped onto each other and scattered, in the midst of his reckless driving Bo careered right into the cheerleader. The car then screeched to a horrifying stop, Maggie screamed and put her hands over her ears blocking out all the chaotic sounds.

Jonathan nodded, "That's better, yes?" Willow looked at him and watched as he turned and walked briskly off.

Willow leaned down and took off her shoes and ran quickly after him, Maggie called out for her to come back but would she listen, no. Jonathan looked over his shoulder and picked his pace up. In no time he too was running, the one thing which he liked to jibe to Willow about was her skill in P.E., which was coming into effect. She easily caught up to him and crashed into him.

A tight grip encased around his waist and the two went hurtling to the grassy ground. "What's the deal, Jonathan? You could have killed someone!" Willow exclaimed seriously yet quietly at him. Behind his mask he rolled his eyes and pushed himself up and managed to shift the weight so Willow was laying underneath him.

"It was just a little test really. It's interesting to see how people react to one thing." He shrugged, Willow just looked up at him with confused eyes. "Oh come on, don't look at me like that." Pausing he looked over his shoulder and down towards the school where the screams were still happening. Smiling lightly he looked down at Willow again. "All the most problematic people in one place at the same time on the same night, it was an opportunity too hard to miss."

"...That's sick."

"Is it?" Jonathan seemed generally confused. "I thought out of all people you'd understand somewhat."

"I don't." Willow muttered and fidgeted. The wet from the grass was slowly seeping through her dress and chilling her skin. "You get bullied, and what? You decide to try and kill them?"

"No! This was never about killing," Jonathan shook his head.

"You wanted to scare them to the point of being mentally scarred for life?"

"That's more like it."

"How the heck did Grandmother Crane even let you out?"

"Oh," Jonathan frowned and leaned down closer to her, Willow edged her head back against the grass more. "She's dead." He whispered simply in her ear, Willow gasped and looked at him with wide eyes. Hearing distant sirens the two broke away from staring at each other. As if suddenly snapping back to reality, Jonathan jumped up and helped Willow to stand, although she waved off his hand several times. "I think you should go back down, make sure Maggie is all right. Not only that, I presume you'll have to make a statement." Jonathan mused while patting her on the shoulder.

Willow looked up at him with teary eyes. "Who are you?" Willow questioned with narrowed eyes, she was so confused and that confusion hurt.

Jonathan smiled and took a step back. "Scarecrow."

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(Edited: 30/Sep/2019)