Serena

T w e n t y-o n e

It's been officially three weeks since the homecoming dance—more specifically, since Jake has asked me to be his girlfriend. Halloween was only a day away and I was beyond static because one, it was my favorite holiday, two it meant that I'd get the leftover candy that my aunt Tess passes out, three it fell on a Saturday, and four because Jake and I were going to go to Mint Hill to their Halloween event called Scream-A-Geddon.

Since it was outside of Charlotte, a lot of college kids from the university will be there so it'd be busy. Thankfully though, this place was pretty big given that it was out in the middle of nowhere and had tons of things to do such as several haunted houses, zombie paintball, a haunted hay ride, fun houses, and a haunted corn maze. It came from Florida and Jake had been to the original one since its right outside of Tampa, but this one apparently seemed 10x better from what he'd heard. On the down side though, I haven't done anything like that since what happened and I'm not overly jumpy, so we'll see what happens.

Lee and Alex were going to come as well so it's safe to say that I'm pretty excited. She was slightly upset that we didn't go to their party after the dance, but when I told her way and that Jake had asked me out all was forgiven.

Things—surprisingly—were still looking up. Thanks to study sessions with Jake, I had managed to bring my grade up in math to a high C which in itself is a miracle. I had also been told by Dr. Kim that, given my progress, I only have to come see her twice a week now. Aunt Tess had gotten promoted to head nurse at the hospital which meant she'd be able to spend more time at home.

Currently, I'm stuffing my face with popcorn watching The Conjuring with Jake and his stepdad, Max, and his mom. Apparently, Jake said a scary movie would be a good way to decompress from a Friday full of mid-terms and though this movie terrified me, I can honestly say it was true.

Miranda had made us popcorn, smoothies, and homemade rice crispy treats that looked like little ghosts—apparently she did this every year and passed them out to kids for Halloween. She was also more of a scaredy-cat than I was when it came to movies like these because so far she's spent the first forty minuets of the movie buried in Max's arms hiding her face with a pillow asking him "What's happening now?" every few minutes.

Since school's gotten out, I've pretty much been over here since then. We spent the first half of the day playing video games until his parents got home and they cooked us dinner and rented the movie. I honestly enjoy hanging out with them, too. Miranda is very sweet and Max is hilarious. Though Jake isn't his biological son, he treats him like so and I can tell he really loves him.

When a jump scare happens, Jake flinches and some popcorn spills onto our laps. "Shit," he mutters to himself.

"Language," I hear Miranda say, though her voice is muffled with the couch pillow. I chuckle and help pick up the mess, and by the time the movie has ended my adrenaline has me wide awake.

"Well, thank God that's over with," Miranda says and Max flips on the light.

"Woman, you hardly watched a combined ten minutes of the film," he says, picking up our empty smoothie glasses.

"I could still hear what was going on Max, and it was scary, okay?" he retorts. He grins and I chuckle, shaking my head. When I start collecting the popcorn bowls and plate from the rice-crispys she stops me, "Don't worry about that Serena, I got it."

"You sure?" I don't mind," I tell her, holding out the plate.

She gives me a genuine smile and nods her head, "You're our guest. I'd be rude if I let you clean up."

Jake slings his arm around me shoulder and gives me a kiss on my temple, "Trust me, this is not a war you can win."

I let out a small laugh and wave Max and Miranda goodbye and head towards the front door. When I step outside, the cool October air envelopes me and I can't help but to shiver slightly.