Chapter 13

My life settled into something of a routine. In the morning I got up early and ran. When I got back I would shower, dress and wake Lana up. School, lunch with Lana, and more school. In the evenings I swam laps while Lana watched me. After another couple of wins for the swim team my social standing jumped. I even had cheerleaders talking to me. But I still ate lunch with Craig and my other friends. What the popular kids called the nerd and geek squad. I didn't care. These were the people that had been my friends from the beginning.

The high points of my day all included Lana. Whether it was kissing her awake, talking to her at lunch or best of all when she snuck into my room at night, I was happiest when I was with her. We had date nights on Friday or Saturday nights. We would get something to eat, go to the movies and walk around the mall like regular teenagers. After school we sat at the table, did our homework together and helped each other check it. In the evenings we sat downstairs and watched television together. In some ways it was more like we were a young married couple than two fourteen year olds just starting high school.

The first bump in our routine came when one morning in mid September. Judy looked at me and asked. "Nathan, have you thought about what you would like for your birthday this year? It is coming up soon."

Lana spun in her chair and looked at me. "Your birthday is coming up? When is your birthday? When were you going to say something to me? How come you haven't mentioned it to me?"

Holding my hands up in self defense, "Calm down a second. I haven't said anything because I really haven't thought about it. And my birthday is October the 31st." Turning to Judy, "There isn't anything I want or need for my birthday. I have friends now. I even have a girlfriend." I thought for a second. "Actually there is something I would like to do. I would like to have a birthday party."

Lana looked at me oddly, "You were born on Halloween?"

"Yeah, October 31st at 11:59 PM. Almost to the witching hour."

"That explains a lot about you. Hey, we could have a Halloween party. With prizes and stuff."

Judy agreed that was a good idea and they were off to the races. One good thing about having money is that you can make things happen quickly. If people were going to have time to get or make costumes we had to get the word out fast. So a few days later with the school's permission, the following poster went up.

Nate Long's Halloween and Birthday Party

The theme will be Highschool of the Dead

Prizes will be awarded in the following categories:

Best Costume $100

Scariest Costume $100

Best Movie Monster $100

Sexiest Female Costume $100

Sexiest Male Costume $100

Best Male Costume $50

Best Female Costume $50

(All costumes must be PG-13 or G rated to enter.)

Blood, Brains, and even some Human food and Drinks will be provided.

Everyone is invited. Please NO Presents.

Halloween Night starting at 8 PM and going to the Witching Hour

Just to help you imagine the poster. On the left side of the writing it had a Frankenstein's Monster, arms outstretched lurching along with a creepy castle behind him. The right side had a very sexy looking witch with a haunted house behind her. It was on orange paper and looked really nice. Lana designed it and Judy had copies made.

Our friends got a hand delivered card. It was a black envelope with an orange card inside. The card had the same Frankenstein and witch. Inside was handwritten and invited them to the party but invited them to dinner at six pm first. The party became something of a tradition and in later years a lot of your social position in high school depended on whether or not you got the hand printed card. There was a good deal of excitement over the upcoming party. I asked for volunteer judges for the costume contests. I explained that you couldn't be a judge and a contestant which everyone thought was fair. I wanted ten judges total, five boys and five girls. And I offered an honorarium since they would not get to try out for the prize.

Everyone showed up for dinner. I had a variety of food but I knew some costumes (mine included) wouldn't let them eat easily. So I had several kinds of smoothies and milk shakes that could be drunk through a straw. I almost hated that some of my friends were judges as their costumes were great. Craig was a very real looking Frankenstein's monster. Plus there were some creepy looking zombies and several hot witches and vampiresses.

Until eight, we all took turns giving out candy to trick or treaters. Sometimes Judy had to give out the candy to some of the littler kids as they were afraid of us. I guess that the word had gotten out that I was a soft touch on Halloween as I swear hundreds of kids came by. Judy had to send people out to buy more candy twice. I admit that we weren't stingy with the candy. I just love Halloween.

A little before eight, people started showing up. Normally it would be a bad idea to have kids from 14 to 18+ at a party. But I was determined that there would be no bullying or hazing. So I had six off duty Sheriff's Deputy and Highway Patrolmen there in uniform. Two were working the door. If your costume had anything that could be used as a weapon, you had to check it until the judging. And anyone that smelled like alcohol was turned away at the door. Two more were helping the caterers watch the punch bowls and two were circulating. I am sure that some of the "cooler" kids left thinking it would be a lame party. But I didn't care. No one was going to start a fight. And damn sure no one was getting drunk and killing themselves or someone else on the way home.

At eight thirty, Lana and I took the stage at the end of the ballroom. Rapping my skull headed cane on the floor for silence, I said, "Good evening, denizens of the night. I am Baron Samedi, Lord of all Undead. All the undead say Yes Master."

All the caterers were dressed as zombies and knew their cue. But I think a number of party goers dressed as vampires, zombies or other undead monsters surprised themselves by answering back, "Yes Master". Hey, what fun is having mind control if you don't use it every once in a while, heh, heh, he.

"Good, good. As long as everyone understands their place. This is my companion for this evening, Evil Lyn, Vampire Princess."

Lana walked stepped forward and curtsied. Lana/Evil Lyn was hot. Her evening gown was almost floor length and black. The neckline plunged so far down that you could see her belly button. It took a generous amount of fashion tape to prevent a wardrobe malfunction and a bit of quick talking to get her mother to agree. But it was worth it. I had purchased a set of orthodontic quality fake fangs for her. They had to be glued in with denture cream and she had worn them at home for several days to get used to them. There is a reason that Hollywood vampires talk funny. It is hard to not bite your tongue with them in, lol. And it made kissing her an interesting event. But she liked them (boy, did she like them. I figured it would take me and her mom both to talk her out of wearing them to school everyday.)

Me, well, I wasn't nearly as pretty. If you don't know, Baron Samedi is a African/Haitian/voodoo Loa. He isn't exactly the Lord of the Dead, more like a gatekeeper. But it was my party so he was Lord. He is pictured as having a skull for a face and boney hands. So my face was blacked out with a skull painted on in flat white. I wore black tight silk gloves with hand bones painted on. We had found a old(I think it had been made in the forties) set of white tie formal wear including top hat. It had been distressed and was sprinkled with "graveyard dust". And I had my cane. It was black lacquered hickory with a stainless steel skull on top. I rather liked it. It was not only fashionable but would make an excellent weapon in a pinch. All in all, I thought I looked very authentic.

Lana and I walked off the stage and the DJ started his spiel. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Monsters and Ghouls. Welcome to the First Annual Halloween Party and Birthday Bash. We want everyone to have fun and be safe. I want to see all of you up shaking your booty and partying down. But the first dance will be our Host with the Most and his lovely companion, Baron and Evil Lyn." The first song was "Blood Waltz" by Kristen Lawrence. As we walked out, I handed my top hat and cane to Craig who was acting as my minion. I bowed to Lana, she curtsied to me and we waltzed. We had been practicing and taking lessons for this since the flyers went up. I don't think we will be on Dancing with the Stars anytime soon but we did a credible job of ballroom dancing. After we had made one circuit of the room, Judy came out with her date and one of the maids that was an excellent dancer and her date began dancing also. That was a signal for the rest and a number of other people joined us. Some just did a box step or simply moved in place but to my surprise a number danced very well.

That set the tone for the rest of the night. The DJ didn't just play waltzes. He played a number of Halloween favorites set to a techno rhythm and top forty hits. One of my favorites was Trance - Darkness and Magic. It was a surprisingly good dance song. After that first song, Lana and I danced together a lot. But I wanted it to be fun for everyone. So like a good host and hostess, we also danced with a lot of other people. We would see someone hanging on the sidelines and one of us would drag them onto the floor. Once most people figured out that no one was going to make fun of them, they wanted to keep on dancing and looked for a dance partner.

One odd note for the evening happened when I was dancing with a lovely young Black woman. I didn't know her but she had asked me to waltz. There wasn't that many of my peers that liked to waltz so I took her up on it and signaled the DJ to make the next song a waltz. Once we were dancing, she said "This is a nice party. But some people might get offended at your choice of costume."

"And why is that?"

"It's never good manners to make fun of someone else's beliefs."