Only Fools

Chapter Twelve

"Trick or treat!" I say happily as I hold out my pillowcase to the elderly lady standing in front of me.

"Aren't you a little old to be doing this?" she asks me with a laugh as she hands candy to the kids around me.

"I'm actually seventeen, so I'm technically not an adult yet," I tell her in an "as a matter of fact" type of tone. She raises an eyebrow at me, but gives me a handful of candy nonetheless.

"Thank you, ma'am," I say as I tip an imaginary hat in her direction. She just chuckles as she turns around and shuts her door.

"To the next house we go!" I say excitedly as I reach Ivy and her siblings. While Ivy responds with an eye roll, the others cheer and begin to jump up and down.

"Ok guys, but this is the last house," Ivy says in an authoritative tone.

"Aw," the kids and I whine at Ivy's ruling.

"Seriously, Ivy? It's not that late!" I try to reason with her, but she simply sends me a glare in responds and motions for the kids to keep moving.

"You're the one that actually has plans after this, so I'm not sure why you're encouraging them to keep going," Ivy whispers to me as her three siblings run ahead to the next house.

"I want them to at least think that I tried. I have to keep making them like me more than you somehow,"

"Itch only likes you so much because he has a crush on you,"

"What can I say? He has good taste. What do you make of the other two then?"

"Shut up," Ivy grumbles. I throw my arm around her shoulders and let out a laugh.

"Hey, they still love you. They just have more fun with me. That's all. You can't help that you're naturally a responsible person, so much as I can't help that I'm such a catch that even your nine year old brother can recognize it,"

Ivy rolls her eyes at me, but a hint of a smile lingers on her lips.

As we walk back to Ivy's house, the kids constantly try to change her mind, but with no avail. Within five minutes, we've reached her front door and as soon as she unlocks it, the kids burst through into the living room to begin their traditional process of candy trading.

"You know, I really don't think I'm going to be able to eat all of this candy. And it would be a shame for it to go to waste...." I trail as I walk over to the kids with my pillowcase in hand. Their eyes begin to widen in excitement as they can most likely guess where this is going.

"And so, I must bestow it all upon you three,"

With that, I tip over my pillowcase so that the candy all falls into the space between them. I quickly hurry over to Ivy with a mischievous smile on my face as the kids lunge forward to grab whatever candy they can.

"And now the fights begin. My bet's on the little one,"

"What?" Ivy asks as she snaps her head around to look at me.

"Itch. He may be tiny, but he uses it to his advantage. Besides, we both know that the other two have low pain tolerance and Mitch isn't afraid to 'accidentally' use his elbows,"

"Plus his little crush on you may just be the motivation he needs,"

"Yeah-" I begin to respond to Ivy, but I'm suddenly interrupted by the sound of the front door opening behind us.

"Welcome home, Mr. and Mrs. Charleston," I say politely as Ivy's parents step into the house. They both offer me small smiles before their attention is quickly redirected to the kids fighting in the middle of the living room floor.