Oh God, now this was childish. The thought passed through my mind over and over as I trudged with my friends up through town and to the old high school. The place had been deserted since the new one was built over fifteen years ago and was scheduled to be demolished in the Spring. The rumor, what I was told about the school since starting here a few months ago, was that it was haunted. It was a rite of passage every year that seniors had to spend the night in the vast halls of the school on Halloween.

I was with three of my best friends, all of us 18 years old. It was late, well past the time for trick or treating to be over, making this a forbidden treat for girls who almost always did what we were told The streets were mostly deserted, lights out in most of the houses in this neighborhood as kids were tucked into bed after their exciting night of dress up and candy hording.

We giggled as we walked, ducking behind bushes and into darkened yards every time a car would come by since we were out well beyond curfew. And between times we whispered of the scandal that had been the reason the old school was considered haunted.

"I heard he shot her, then shot himself," Patricia said earnestly trying to sound a little less breathless with excitement than she was. Patricia was the youngest of the group, only just turning eighteen a few days ago. She was tall, dark haired with beautiful blue eyes, skin that was creamy white and a smile that lit up her face.

"No, he didn't kill her," Bridgett, the tiniest one in the group at barely five feet tall said. She was dark haired also but her hair curled and reached her mid back. Her brown eyes twinkled in the light of the street lamps and she almost danced along the sidewalks, eager for the adventure. "Her boyfriend found them. He got told that she was fooling around on him and followed them to the school that night. He shot them both then disappeared. No one's seen him since."

"You both are wrong." Stephanie was the oldest of the four of us and very full of her own importance. "After her and her lover snuck out of the Halloween party, her boyfriend did find them out. But she's the one that pulled the trigger on the gun after the two guys were fighting over it. She killed the guy she was fooling around with accidentally and then killed her boyfriend out of rage." She shook back her long hair, running her hands through it, a habit she'd had for years. Her eyes were gray and steady, and she pulled Bridgett back and into the brush as another car drove by. "When she went to run out of the school, she stumbled going down the stairs and broke her neck."

I was the newest member of Stephanie's crew, her word not mine. I had moved to this small town in no where Michigan a few months back when my Mom and Dad decided to get divorced. Well, decided was a timid way to put it, more like knock down drag out screaming at each other. So Mom moved me and my little sister here, stuck me in a school with a quarter of the students as my old one and half of the programs I had been enrolled in at my other school. They didn't even have a pool.

I was almost as tall as Patty, my hair also dark but straight and long. I used to be on my old school's swim team and had the long lean body of a swimmer. The idea of spending the night in an old school wasn't exactly how I had planned to spend my Halloween. Parties, boys, even stupid costumes would have been better than this. But Stephanie had taken me under her wing when I started at the school and she had decided that we were going to keep up this tradition. So who was I to argue with the Princess?

"What's wrong Danielle?"

My head jerked up as Stephanie's voice yanked me from my thoughts. She was looking at me as we walked with that look in her eyes. She was waiting for me to argue with what she wanted to do. I knew that. She liked confrontation. She was always willing to put in her two cents and she was always right, or at least she thought she was. It was about the only thing I didn't like about her.

"I'm fine, just a little cold." I wasn't used to the cold Michigan weather. Where I was from, it was sunny and warm. Michigan was rainy, and I could see my breath plume in front of my face.

"You think this is cold, wait until January." But she seemed to take the excuse and turned back towards her mission.

The school loomed over us, huge and old, two stories of moldering bricks and broken windows. There was a high fence surrounding it studded with no trespassing signs every few feet. Through the years, kids had knocked enough holes into it so that we were able to get in easy. Stephanie led the way around the building and up a pile of half rotten boards to a window that would be easy for us to climb through. She held the frame open carefully and motioned us through.

The rest of us looked at each other, waiting to see who would go first. Bridgett stood at the bottom of the pile, eyeing the big building warily.

"It doesn't look this big during the day."

"Baby," Stephanie said scornfully.

"Am not," she shot back.

"Are too."

"Okay, children," I stepped forward between the two of them. "Knock it off, I'll go first." Stephanie turned back to the window and I turned to follow her, but not before catching Bridgett sticking her tongue out at Steph's back.

I slipped one leg over the window frame, still laughing silently at Bridgett's childishness. Back home, Stephanie would have been told to 'fuck off', or called a 'bitch'. Not had a tongue stuck out at her. This town had to be festering back in the sixties. After climbing through the window, I stood looking at the spider web encased hallway covered in graffiti from the many years of being abandoned. I took out the flashlight that I had stashed in the deep pocket of my coat and flicked it on, shining a beam up and down the hallways.

Patricia was next through the window and she held it open for Bridgett who got a boast through from Steph. She was the last through and dusted her hands off on her coat.

"Well, it hasn't changed much." She turned down the hallway and started towards the stair leading up to the second floor.

"Where are you going? What do you mean, it hasn't changed much?" Patricia hurried after her, grabbing Steph's coat to stop her.

Stephanie had gotten out her own flashlight and used it to point in the direction of the stairs. "Tim brought me out here a couple of times last summer. No big deal," she added quickly. "And up," she said simply.

"But, that's where it happened. I didn't think..." Patty's voice stuttered to a stop at a single look from Stephanie.

"So you thought we were going to do what, come up here and sit around down here all night? Maybe tell ghost stories? Hell no. I want to see the spot it happened. I heard if you are here on the anniversary at the exact time it happened, you can see their ghosts." Stephanie grinned. Something new, something interesting, anything that took the dullness out of small town living. God she couldn't wait to get out of this town.

Bridgett grabbed for my arm and held tight as I followed Steph up the stairs. She shrieked once and almost jumped into my arms. When we all turned to look at her, she pointed with her own flashlight beam to a corner where a rat was busy doing rat things. "I hate rats."

Stephanie scoffed, tossed her mane of hair and continued towards the intersection of hallways, shining a beam of light through the mostly open classroom doors as she went. You could hear our footsteps echoing through the empty halls, smell the odor of rodents, old dust and something nasty rotting. Creepy shadows were everywhere, and I began to get a bad feeling about this whole thing.

We hadn't heard of anybody else coming out here tonight and had purposefully not told our boyfriends or anyone else what we were doing. This was our night out and our opportunity to crow the next day at school. But Stephanie wanted more than to just be able to crow. She wanted to have something special to be able to tell everyone, something guaranteed to make her center of attention for months.

So we trailed after her, Bridgett with a death grip on my arm, Patty slightly behind me. I flipped open my cell phone to check the time. Just after 11 o'clock.

"What time did the murders happen?" I called out after Stephanie.

"A few minutes before midnight." She grinned back at me, her smile slightly evil looking in the beam from her flashlight as she held it under her chin walking backwards. "Makes it even scarier, doesn't it? Wooooo!" she said, trying to sound like a ghost howling.

She turned and took another step towards the other hallway. She shifted, intending to shine her flashlight into one of the classrooms when a pair of arms reached out, dragging her inside. Her scream was echoed quickly by the rest of us and I started to run forward, ready to do what I could to rescue her. when I heard her snarl and the sound of a fist hitting material covered skin.

"Tim, you ass."

I took a deep breath calming nerves that were starting to stutter a little in the incredible creepiness of this place. Stephanie walked out of the room, Tim's arm around her shoulder, his hand inches from her breast. She pushed him off of her and glared at him.

"How did you guys find out we were here?"

Guys? Oh, shit.

My worst fear was confirmed, behind Tim, Nick, Brian and Terry walked out. Terry and I had been dating only a couple of weeks and I was still a little shy around him. I didn't need for him to see me tonight in this scary school, doing something so totally immature as screaming at shadows and maybe making a fool out of myself.

He smiled at me and walked over, giving me a one armed hug and a kiss on the cheek. Terry was very tall, and muscular. He played hockey all winter and kept in shape during the off season playing baseball, basket ball, whatever sport was up, he was involved. But he didn't have the normal jock mentality. He loved books and movies and carried an A average. And all of this was on top of being gorgeous.

He intimidated the hell out of me.

I heard Bridgett shriek again as Nick picked her up around the waist and kissed her.

"That's how we knew," Tim said.

My brow furrowed in confusion.

"We heard Bridgett scream," Nick said. He hugged his girlfriend and then put her feet back on the floor. "No one screams like she does. Especially during..." He cut off abruptly, his breath coming out in an audible woof as Bridgett smashed her small fist into his stomach.

Stephanie punched a finger into Tim's chest, causing him to wince. "So you guys didn't know we were going to be here?"

He caught her hand and pulled her around so her back was against his front. "Nope, we just figured we'd see what all this bullshit was about with the high school. This is the last year it will be here." He hugged her around the waist. "And you girls said you were busy tonight."

Terry gave me a nudge and nodded towards Patty and Brian. The two were lip locked like they hadn't seen each other in months instead of just hours since the last bell at school today. His hands were molded to her ass under her coat, hers were in his hair.

"Wow," I whispered, impressed. I'd seen them at it before but never like this.

"Hey, you two get a room," Stephanie snapped.

Patty pulled her lips out from under Brian's for a second and gave Stephanie a smirky smile. "What, jealous?"

Terry leaned close and whispered in my ear, "I am, wanna try that?"

I reached under his coat and tickled his side, knowing he couldn't help but squirm away from me. He gave me a mock glare that had me laughing.

"Now I know Superman's weakness." I had started calling him that, teasing him, after the first time I saw him without a shirt on in gym class. He'd been setting up for a lay up shot, his body rippling with muscles. Talk about a stomach! Tight with packed abs that were absolutely delicious.

"I'll Superman you," he growled, snaking out a hand to pull me to him. He bent down and covered my lips with his, pushing his tongue in my mouth, which startled me for a moment. We'd kissed, we'd even made out, but he never went right at it this way. I liked it.

I let him coerce my tongue from my mouth and then followed his back between his lips. His mouth locked around it, suckling gently. I rose up on my tip toes so that he could reach me easier and so I could be against him better. His arm locked around my waist holding me up against him. And wow, the way it felt. His body was hard against mine, even through the thick coats we were both wearing. And he moved against me, subtly, letting me know that he was just as hard under his jeans.

I felt my face flush. I was still a virgin and even though I had strong feelings for Terry in the short amount of time that we had been together, I didn't know if I was ready for that step yet. But I loved the way he kissed and the way he touched me like I was the most important thing in his world. I didn't know if he was this way with his other girlfriends, but Stephanie told me that he wasn't. She said that he barely looked at girls, he was more into sports. Until me.

"All right, knock it off you guys." Stephanie's voice was loud and commanding, you might even say bitchy.

Brian looked over from where he was chewing on Patty's neck. "Hey Smithers, control your woman would you?"

Even as I heard him say that, I knew it was the very worst possible thing he could have said. I cringed and Terry, knowing what I knew, stopped kissing me and pulled me further along the hallway. Tim got a pained look on his face. He pulled Stephanie closer to him, probably trying to stop the outburst that we all knew was inevitable. Even Patty was shaking her head at Brian. I saw her mouth the word 'stupid' at him and then smack him on top of the head.

"His woman?"

"Steph, he was just goof..." she cut me off with a hand in the air.

"Control his woman?"

And then amazingly, Tim wrapped his arms tighter around her waist and picked her up, carting her off and around the corner of the hallway before she could continue.

I looked at Patty and the two of us looked at Bridgett, and we all three started laughing, knowing that all hell was going to break lose over that move.

Terry stroked his hand over my hair, pulling me close to him again. And suddenly, I was ecstatic that he was there.

"Wanna check out the rest of the school?" His lips brushed my ear, causing me to shiver in response.

"Let me guess, more dirt, more rats and more graffiti?" I snuggled in close to him, he was so warm and solid.

At that moment we heard the first scream. I was out of Terry's arms and running up the hallway in seconds. Terry was a step behind me and then quickly two steps ahead. We were both athletic but he had a longer stride. The others were right behind us.

The scream came again, the voice I recognized as Stephanie's. We turned the corner at the junction of the two halls and slid to a stop, Bridgett running into my back...

"Damn it, Stephanie!" I hissed at the girl who was bent over. Her and Tim were standing in the middle of the hall, laughing their asses off at scaring all of us.

"Happy Halloween, Danielle," she managed to gasp out. "If you guys could have seen your faces." She put her hand on Tim's arm. "It was hysterical."

I was so mad that I turned and started walking away, determined to leave and go home even though my mom thought I was staying at Bridgett's and her mom thought she was staying at Patty's who was supposed to be staying at Stephanie's. Stephanie's parents didn't much care what she did, she was the Princess and could get away with anything. And it pissed me off. Terry was behind me, knowing that I was ready to blow at the first person who talked to me, he stayed quiet.

Stephanie trotted up behind me, trying hard to get the smile off her face. She'd managed to calm the laughing, finally and caught up to me, grabbing my arm.

"Don't be mad, Dan, we were just playing."

I turned, intending to give her a piece of my mind when I realized what she had called me.

"Sure, Steve," I smirked, knowing it irritated her as much as being called Dan irritated me. "No problem. It's all just in fun isn't it?"

"Okay," she conceded. "I deserved that. But come back. You know this party won't be any fun without you." She leaned in closer, looking over her shoulder for the other two girls. "You know this won't be any fun if you leave. Those two will get scared and wanna go home. Please, Dan, stay?"

If she hadn't said please, if she had just stuck with the same authoritative bitchiness that I was used to from her, I probably would have left. Instead, I sighed and gave her a dirty look that said volumes. "No more shit?"

She gave me an innocent, butter won't melt in her mouth look and made an x shape over the place her heart would have been if she'd had one. Yeah that was a mean thought, but it was how I felt. Then she squealed and wrapped her arms around my neck, strangling me.

"Let's go back... see if we can keep the others from freaking out on us tonight."

We turned the corner in the hallway, Steph holding onto me as if I'd leave if she let go, Terry following right behind me. The gang had camped out, sitting against the walls. Patty was straddling Brian's lap, lip locked again. Bridgett was giggling, and I saw that Nick's hand wasn't visible but was under her coat.

Tim was a few feet away and when he saw Steph, he wiggled his finger at her. She let go of me and walked over to her man. Well, stalked over actually, her hips moving beneath her coat like a hunting cat about to attack. I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of her, the sleek way she moved was one of the sexiest things I'd ever seen. Even when she sat down on Tim's legs, she moved herself closer, scooting her ass along the long length of his thighs in a way that just screamed sex.

"Would you do her?" Terry whispered in my ear.

I looked up and back at him, he wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. At first his question shocked me a little, and then I thought about it. What would it be like?

Whoa. I wasn't in to girls. Was I? Would I, no could I do that? I looked at Stephanie once more, curious. Her coat was open and Tim's arms were inside of it. They were kissing. What would it be like to change places with Tim? I knew what my breasts felt like, would hers feel the same? The idea was unbearably arousing and confusing at the same time.

I turned and grabbed the collar of Terry's coat, pulling him down to me until I could reach his lips with my own. I kissed him, thrusting my tongue between his lips to search his mouth, feeling the sharp edge of his teeth before rubbing against his tongue. I slowly unzipped his jacket, stepping inside the material to feel the heat of his body.

Before he could stop me, I slipped one of my cold hands under the hooded sweatshirt and tee shirt he was wearing, letting it rest on his skin and then trailed it up to his nipples. My cold fingers ran over and around his flat nub, even as he jerked a little at the frigidness of my hands.

It must have felt good because the next thing I knew, he pushed me around and my back slammed against the old cinderblock wall. His knee thrust between my thighs until I was riding it, moving against the hard seam in the crotch of my jeans. The pressure rubbed just right and I moaned into his mouth, surprising myself. He'd always been gentle, never taking, always asking. It was another thing about him that had intimidated me, the way he was always in control of himself.

He wasn't now.

His hand pulled mine from under his clothing and forced both of them over my head, holding my wrists tightly with one of his large hands. His other hand was ripping open the zipper of my coat, pulling on my sweater until he could find his way under it to my skin.

I fought him, even though I didn't want him to stop. It was strange, a scary, heady feeling to have the power to turn him on like this. I didn't want it to stop. I didn't think about the others, or what they were doing or seeing if they were watching us. I didn't care.

A little voice in my head was shouting warnings and I wickedly ignored it, pushing it back behind the great wall of feelings that was blocking everything else.

Terry's hand was warm against the supple skin of my stomach. He moved it up over the ladder of my ribs and around to my back. I arched away from the wall, giving his hand room to touch me if he wished. Instead I felt a tiny snap and then the restriction of my bra gave away.