Chapter Text
The cold wind made the dead leaves that were on the ground take flight and dance in the air. It was a clear sign that Autumn was here to stay, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Unlike Summer, which meant warmth, sunshine and everything associated with fun, Autumn meant coldness, cloudy skies, wind, and return to school for kids and teenagers. But, Autumn also meant the return of some good things like warm clothes, hot beverages you could share with your friends, and of course, Halloween.
Believed to have originated from the ancient Celtic harvest festivals, Halloween was known as the festival of Samhain, which celebrated the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. Throughout the centuries, this pagan celebration was Christianised and the word "Halloween" which meant "hallowed evening" or "holly evening", began to be used to identify that night. Nowadays, Halloween was known as one of the best nights for both kids and grown-ups who wanted to put on a scary mask and just have fun. Plus, for kids, it was the one night in the year where they could go out and trick-or-treating, with one purpose only… to get as much candy as possible.
The more superstitious ones believed that on that night, the barrier between the world of the living and the world of dead was frailer, allowing the living to contact the dead, and the dead to walk among the living. Whatever Halloween meant to people, it was coming. In four days, Paris, just like the rest of the world would be celebrating it. And in Collége François-Dupond that would be no exception. Every year, for the past 20 years, the school would organize a Halloween party to celebrate the holiday; This party would be entirely organized by the students, with a little help from the teachers. Though the teachers would supervise it, all the final decisions would be for the students to make. And, like every year, one of the classes would choose the theme of the party, upon which the rest of the classes would help assemble the whole thing. The previous year it had been a "Hack and Slash" theme party. On this year, it would be a "Transylvanian Vampire" theme party. The choice had been made by Miss Bustier's class, after voting it. There had been numerous ideas, but in the end the classical vampire theme was the one that proved to be the most voted.
In their classroom, the whole class was sitting in a circle, discussing what they were going to have on the party. While discussing how they were going to do with the decoration, Chloé suggested that she would call her dad and ask him to send a crew of workers to assemble the whole thing, as well as one of the most prestigious interior designers in all of Paris. But the others politely refused the idea, telling her that it was a cool idea, but that if they did that, they would be going against the rules of having the rest of school participating in the preparations. Slowly but steadily, and with a little help from Miss Bustier who just loved Halloween, the whole class came up with an amazing plan for the party.
"This will be the best Halloween party ever." –Sabrina said.
"I can't wait to see the others' faces when we showed them these plans." –Kim declared. –"It's going to make last year's party seem like
"Of course it will. I mean, you guys have me to help you get all the realistic props we'll need to make things extra realistic." –Chloé said, as she texted her dad. –"Now, how many coffins you think we're going to need for this? 20 or 30?" –she asked. They had agreed on her asking her dad for live performers to pass off as vampires during the party, to give the party a spookier effect.
"Chloé, this is only a school party, not an embassy party. I think 7 or 8 will be enough." –Marinette declared.
"Don't be ridiculous. What is it that they say when planning a party? Shoot for the Moon! And that's exactly what I'm doing." –Chloé told her.
"I think you're the only one who says that, Chloé." –Sabrina chuckled.
"Well, you know what I mean." –the blonde said. –"Fine, I'll ask him for 10 coffins, so we can have two extra coffins, to maybe place food plates or, if Nino wants it, they can be used to place his disc-jockey equipment.
"That would be awesome!" –Nino said. Like in every other party the class arranged, he always volunteered to be the DJ, and this time, it would not be any differen.t. He knew all the best beats, and what was hot when it came to music. Who better than him to be the party's DJ? –"And I've got just the perfect soundtrack for this party. I've been working on it for the past couple of weeks, and you'll pardon the pun, I dare to say it's ghoulishly awesome and sick!" –he said.
"Alright, alright, stop flattering yourself, mister." –Alya giggled, as she placed her right arm around her boyfriend's shoulder. –"We know that you're the best DJ we know."
"Well, music is always important in a party." –Nino told her. –"After all, no decent themed party is complete without an awesome soundtrack, so people can dance to it."
"Speaking of dance, I was wondering if we could have a dancing competition." –Rose said. –"I know we already have so many activities, but a dancing competition would be great."
"You're just trying to come up with an excuse to show off your dance steps, aren't you, Rose?" –Alix joked.
"Well… maybe…" –Rose giggled with a sheepish smile on her face.
"I don't see why we couldn't have a dancing competition." –Adrien said. –"I mean, we already have an awesome DJ to keep us dancing to the beat, so why not take full advantage of it?" –he asked the others. –"It doesn't have to be a serious competition, of course. Just something that chill out and we can even offer a trophy to the best dancer."
Hearing him speak, Marinette lost herself in Adrien's eyes and voice. The blue-haired girl just could not resist when he took charge of things. Though she no longer obsessed over Adrien, and just how handsome and nice he was, Marinette sometimes still reacted the way she did when he was near her. Noticing her mind was on cloud nine, Alya made her come back to Earth, by calling her.
"Marinette? Marinette!"
"Huh, sorry… I was…"
"Distracted? I noticed, girl." –Alya smirked. –"We were asking if you think your parents could help out by lending a few sweets for the party."
"Oh, I think so." –Marinette said. –"I can ask my dad if he can make some of his famous Halloween chocolate spiders for us. We could then put them on the centre table we talked about, right next to the chocolate fountain." –she told her.
"Okay, we'll leave that to you." –Nathaniel said.
"And what about the decorations? Do you think the others will be able to pull off this stunt? We only have three days to do this, and making these realistic crypt walls, along with the tombstones it's going to take a lot of work." –Kim told them. –"And I'm not even talking about the rst of the things that will be adorning the rest of the school."
"Well, the tombstones we can always go to a store and get some of those cheap ones and ask some of the other students to give them a realistic look. I can ask my dad to lend me some special stage inks he has to do that." –Mylene suggested. –"As for the crypt walls, I think if we all help out a little, it can be done." –she said. –"Besides, it's not just going to be us working. We'll have the whole school helping us with this."
"Yeah, and we can't have anyone slacking off on the job." –Ivan said, as he looked at Chloé, who was known for not doing a thing when it came to handwork.
"What are you all looking at me like that?" –the blonde asked them, after noticing everyone was staring at her.
"Because you tend to let the others do all the work, while you just sit and watch the others work." –Ivan answered her.
"He has a point, Chloé." –Juleka agreed.
"You do tend to do that every time there's some handwork to be done." –Sabrina admitted, though she was a little afraid of how her friend would take those criticisms. She was slowly changing into a better person, but there were things that still bothered her, and made her unhappy about it.
"Well, this year is going to be different." –Chloé declared, much to Sabrina's surprise, who expected her to be offended by those remarks. –"I'll be dirtying my hands this time… just as long as I don't break any of my nails." –she said, upon most of the class chuckled. –"What?! I have very fragile nails, and you know it."
Sabrina chuckled after hearing her say that. She really expected her friend to react just like she always did when people told her that she did not work at all, but once again, she surprised her and just about everyone else, by admitting that in the past she let everyone else do her work for her, and that she was going to make an effort to also help out. It was those little things that made the redhead and the others see just how hard Chloé was trying to become a different person.
"That's good to hear, Chloé." –Adrien said, which made the blonde smile. –"And, we can try and get you something
"Oh, thanks Adrikins!" –Chloé winked at him.
When they ended discussing every single detail, they told Miss Bustier that they were ready to present the whole plan to the rest of their fellow students. While they went to the library to photocopy a couple of fliers Nathaniel had been working on while they talked, to be handed to all the students, Miss Bustier went to notify the principal, who quickly announced on the speakers that all classes were to report in the auditorium in 10 minutes. One by one, the other classes joined them, taking their seats, waiting to hear what Marinette and the others had planned for them that year. Although quite big, the school's auditorium was slightly small to have every last student inside, so some of them were forced to seat either on the stairs or remain stand up.
To explain everything, they chose Alya to speak for all of them. Being a natural speaker, the brunette was the obvious choice. Plus, unlike most of her class, she was not afraid to speak up in public. It took her less than 15 minutes to explain everything she and the others had come up with for that year's party and to her and all her friends' surprise, everyone loved the idea. Then, after she finished talking, Principal Democles got up on the stage and applauded Miss Bustier's class idea, stating that it was one of the best themes ever. He then began to assign each of the classes to a specific task, as Alya had said; making sure that every last class had a task assigned to.
"Now, I don't have to remind you all that this is one of the most important events in our school year, and as such, I expect no less than the best of what you can give us." –Principal Democles said. –"To help you on your assignments will be your teachers, as well as your fellow students from Miss Bustier's class, who will tell you what to do." –he said. –"And without further ado, I wish you the best of luck on this endeavour, hoping to see something that will surprise me, as well as every other staff member of this school."
Upon finishing the speech, all the classes went to the gym, where they were going start working on their assigned tasks. Arriving there, Alya, once again her class's spokesperson, told the whole school how they were going to do everything. At the same time, Chloé was on the phone with her dad, getting a head start on getting the props they were going to need for that party.
"Yes, dad, like I said on my text, we're going to need 10 coffins and we're also going to need a couple of more things." –the blonde said over the phone. –"No, it's nothing extremely fancy. Just one of those old crystal chandeliers and a couple of old Gothic statues, you know? The kind that you see on old vampire movies." –she went on. –"Yes, those exactly, dad. You can get a few of those, can't you? You can? Oh, thank you, daddy. Yes, I love you too."
"You sure are on a roll today, Chloé." –Pollen whispered to her, from Chloé's handbag.
"Well, I'm just trying to help the others." –Chloé whispered back at the bee kwami. –"Besides, this way I'll make sure that this party will be remembered by everyone as the coolest Halloween party ever." –she smiled.
Getting down to business, every last student went either back to their rooms to get started on the task their class had been assigned to, or stayed right there in the gym to get started on setting up the place. Marinette and the rest of her friends were some of those who stayed in the gym.
While the girls began to work on some of the decorations, the boys handled the sound system. Nino wanted to make sure that the school's sound system was working fine, before they set up everything the next day. As he did that, he kept talking to Adrien, who was helping him out.
"So… is the almighty DJ happy with what he has to give us awesome beats?" –Adrien joked with his best friend.
"You know the school's sound equipment is pretty standard, but it will do." –Nino winked at Adrien. –"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have this to work with. But if I could get my hands on some really professional equipment… man, I would make the house come down." –he joked.
"Just try not to do it with us inside, okay?" –Max joked, as he helped Kim carry one of the speakers. Max was many things, but a heavy-lifter he was not. Seeing him in a bit of distress, Ivan went to help him out a little.-"thanks, Ivan."
"Anytime." –Ivan told him. –"Times like this I'm actually happy to have strength of a bear." –he whispered at him.
"Well, even if you didn't have me to grant you that, with what you usually eat, you would have the strength of at least a bull, kid." –Muria whispered at Ivan, from his pocket.
"Keep it down, Muria!" –Ivanm hushed at the bear kwami. –"Do you want to get spotted?"
While Ivan helped out Max and Kim, Nino kept chatting with Adrien.
"You know, I never actually had the chance to go out and trick or treating." –Adrien said.
"Oh, yeah, I bet." –Nino said.
"The exception was last year when I went with you guys." –Adrien said, as he remembered of going trick or treating with Nino, Alya and Marinette the previous year. He had gone as a musketeer, Nino as a mime, Alya as a witch and Marinette as a cheerleader. –"That was one cool night."
"I was there, remember, bro?" –Nino chuckled. –"That had to be my best year for getting candy. Do you believe that I ate the last piece of candy I got on Halloween the day before school started?"
"I believe you." –Adrien answered him, remembering the huge sack of candy Nino filled that night. –"Mine lasted me until just before Easter."
"I should have given you half of mine, because you had to go home earlier, thanks to your bodyguard who spent the night acting like your shadow." –Nino said.
"It's okay, it's in the past now." –Adrien sighed. –"Too bad we're already too old to go trick or treating."
"Tell me about it. I mean, the rules should say that after 13, it's not cool to go trick or treating." –Nino told him.
"Rules? What rules?" –Adrien asked his friend.
"You know, the "rules"?" –Nino said, using his hands to make the "quote" sign.
"Oh, those rules…" –Adrien laughed.
"Yeah, those rules… Fortunately, the rules don't say we can't have fun on this holiday." –Nino said. –"And that's just what we're going to do… your dad is going to let you come to the party, right?"
"I'm counting on it." –Adrien said. –"He has been on a good mood lately, so I'm guessing he'll let me come without a hitch… but, I'll probably have my bodyguard stuck to me like glue." –he sighed.
"Oh, don't worry. I'm sure Master Fu won't mind show up and hypnotize him for a couple of hours." –Nino suggested.
At the same time, not far from where the boys were, Marinette was helping the rest of the girls with the making of a few decorations. These were going to be hanged all over the school, to give the place a more Halloweenesque feeling. After having drawn all sorts of scary drawings on the orange, black and purple cardboards, they began to cut them. The only ones that were not doing that were both Chloé who was still on the phone, trying get a couple of more props to be delivered that day, and Sabrina, who was basically cataloguing everything Chloé was ordering. Soon, there were dozens of black cats, witches flying on a broomstick, pumpkins and ghosts cut out.
Mylene, who had just finished cutting out a witch, and was getting ready to cut a pumpkin, noticed that Marinette looked a little absent-minded, as she kept looking into one of the gym walls.
"Marinette? Marinette?! Can you hear me?" –Mylene asked her, bringing her back down to Earth.
"Uh?! What?"
"I was saying, what are you thinking about, Marinette?" –Mylene asked her.
"Me? Oh, I'm just… I was just thinking about how Adrien, unlike us, never had the chance to experience Halloween like we all did." –Marinette said. –"And I was thinking that we should do something fun for him to enjoy it the same way we have."
"Are you thinking about going trick or treating one last time?" –Rose asked her, as she finished cutting a black cat.
"No, we're already too old for that, Rose. But, I was thinking of maybe doing something cool here at the party." –Marinette declared.
"Like what?" –Rose asked her.
"I don't know yet… I am still trying to think of what we could do." –Marinette said. –"But I can't think of anything that screams "This is it!" you know what I mean?"
"Well, it depends on what you're looking for" –Mylene said. –"What's the thing that you like the most about Halloween? That's always a good starting point for you to go from."
The question Mylene made her was quite the conundrum for Marinette, because the answer was not easy. There were so many things she liked about Halloween. From trick or treating to her dad's famous pumpkin pie, in which he would use a special blend of spices to give it its unique flavour, there were just too many things for her to choose from. The blue-haired girl had to think hard to choose only one.
"Well, there is one thing that I've always loved about Halloween, ever since I was a kid. And, I know you're probably going to say that I'm lying, but Alya there will confirm what I'm saying." –Marinette pointed at the brunette, who was then trying to draw a series of bat on -"I love to be scared."
"You, scared?!" –Alix laughed –"You, Marinette "Scaredy-Cat" Dupain-Cheng, likes to be scared?" –she laughed once again. –"Yeah, right, tell us another one, because you won't fool us with that one, Marinette."
"It's true. I like to be scared." –Marinette said.
"She's not kidding; she really enjoys being scared on Halloween." Alya said. –"When we were younger, she was always asking her parents to try and scare her on Halloween, because she liked to feel her heart beat like a drum." –she said.
"I know it's sound silly, but I still like when that happens." –Marinette said. –"And I know that I'm really a big scaredy-cat most of the times, but not Halloween." –she admitted, not revealing to the others what a big fan of horror films she was.
"Me too. I'm also not a big fan of scary things either. But on Halloween I also like tom be scared, because I know everything is fake." –Mylene said. Mylene was a true scaredy cat most of the times, and she was not afraid to admit it.
"Well, there you have it. That's something you could do… you could try and scare Adrien." –Juleka said. –"You could try and find a way to scare him and make him feel just like you do when you get scared."
"But, how do I do that?"
"Well… I don't know." –Juleka shrugged her shoulders. –"But I'm sure you will come up with something, sooner or later" –she said, as she exchanged looks with Rose, who smiled back at her.
"Juleka's right. You will come up with something." –Rose seclared, as she winked smiled back at Juleka. The girls had been dating for a couple of days then, and decided not to tell anyone about it, until they felt it was time for their friends to know the truth. They even asked secrecy to their kwamis. Still, it was hard for them not to show just how in love they were with one another. So, they focused on the task at hand.
"I hope so… I really wanted to show Adrien just how awesome Halloween can be." –Marinette sighed.
"You will, Marinette. You will." –Tikki whispered from the girl's handbag.
"Tikki's right, you will." –Alya said. –"But, in the meantime, how about you give is a little hand with these? –she said, as she pointed out to a bunch of cardboards with multiple drawings on them. –"These here aren't going to cut themselves, you know?"
As they went back to work, they all imagined how Halloween night was going to be. And though there thoughts were quite different among them all, there was one common thought among them. They were all thinking and wishing one thing and one thing only, that Hawk Moth would not decide to spoil the festivities, by launching yet another akuma on the city. They had had their share of akuma attacks in the past few weeks, not to mention the fact that Manon Chamack had found about Marinette's secret identity as Ladybug, and ended up becoming a Keeper of the secret. The last thing they all needed was for that psychopath and his minions to show up and cause trouble during Halloween.