Viva Vermont! (5 page)

“Party pooper,” said Taylor.

“Rhiannon's right,” said DJ firmly. “No alcohol.”

“Whatever.”

“Could we do it for five dollars a person?” asked Kriti.

“That'd be about $250,” said Taylor, “which is fifty bucks split five ways.”

“I don't think you can do anything very nice for only $250,” said Eliza.

“Well, you can always contribute more if you think we need
haute cuisine
,” teased Taylor.

“Well, maybe I will.”

“We need to get going,” said Kriti, glancing at the clock. “Or we'll be late for school.”

“So, it's settled. Everyone gets to invite eight people,” Taylor reminded them as they left the table.

“And no booze,” added Rhiannon. “Make sure the guests understand that too.”

Taylor rolled her eyes. “Great, I get to invite my friends to a kiddy party.”

Taylor would probably have no problem getting friends, particularly guys, since she was usually surrounded by several, to come to any kind of a party (booze or not). On the other hand, DJ wasn't overly confident that she even had eight friends to invite.

5

“
WOW, I CAN'T BELIEVE
we're pulling this off,” said DJ on Sunday afternoon. She stepped back to watch as Kriti and Eliza carried the large punch bowl out to the dining room table. She would've helped, but she'd only been out of her walking cast for a couple of days now and she still wasn't too sure of herself. Besides that, she wasn't too sure about the punch staying in the bowl as it sloshed back and forth. She expected to see the whole thing all over the wood floor any second. Fortunately, Inez had the good sense to remove the expensive oriental carpet earlier that day.

“I'm not going to be responsible for cleaning that,” she had grumped to DJ and Rhiannon. “It's bad enough you girls are putting spiderwebs on every single thing in sight. Don't expect me to clean that up either.”

“I think we should've put the bowl on the table before we filled it,” said Kriti.

Eliza groaned as some of the strange gloppy green mixture of Sierra Mist and lime sherbet slopped out of the bowl and splattered onto the dining room floor.

“Don't worry, I'll get it,” said DJ, using a black napkin to blot it up.

“Be careful, Kriti!” commanded Eliza.

“What's in that stuff?” asked Casey. She paused from where she was perched on a stepladder, stringing a spiderweb from the chandelier, to peer down at the weird green mixture. “It looks like snot.”

“It's called Eye of Newt Punch,” said Kriti as they finally settled it in the center of the table. “Whew.”

DJ picked up a bowl full of frozen green gelatin balls and began plopping them into the punch.

“Are those Jell-O shots?” asked Taylor hopefully.

“No.” DJ scowled at her. “They are just plain Jell-O balls disguising themselves as eyeballs. Get it?”

“Remember, this is a non-alcohol party,” said Kriti sternly. “No booze.”

After a disagreement—with Rhiannon and DJ against the rest of them—the girls had finally agreed to go with a scary theme for the party. “It's one thing to throw a Halloween party,” Taylor had argued, “but if it's only pumpkins and bobbing for apples, you can count me out.” Eliza, Kriti, and Casey had all agreed. Consequently, by Sunday afternoon, Carter House had been transformed into a haunted mansion. The food, according to Eliza, was supposed to be “creepy and weird, but tasty.”

Eliza had taken charge of the menu. She'd found a Martha Stewart website, and their Halloween menu included things like Graveyard Cake, Witch's Fingers and Frankenstein Toes, Coffin Worms, Spider Nests, and other weird-looking items. By the time they were finished, DJ wasn't sure if anyone would actually want to eat this stuff since it looked like something that had been dug out of the backyard. But the general effect was spooky and fun.

Casey and Rhiannon had turned the front yard into a graveyard, complete with ghouls and ghosts. The backyard was outfitted with an apple-dunking tub and a pumpkin-carving table, although the weather had turned cold enough that it was possible no one would want to go outside. But at least it wasn't raining. The girls had set up the family room with old horror flicks and popcorn, and the third floor, “Club Ghoul,” was all set for dancing. Taylor had hired a disc jockey who had agreed to come dressed as a vampire.

“Now we better get into costume,” said Rhiannon. “Our guests will be here in less than an hour.”

“That's only if they come on time,” said Eliza as they were heading up the stairs. “Anybody who's anybody knows that you never come on time to a party.”

“Even a kiddy Halloween party with no booze?” countered Taylor.

“Well … I guess we'll see.” Eliza actually smiled at Taylor. Okay, Eliza and Taylor hadn't exactly been on friendly terms, but perhaps that was changing. DJ hoped so. It was hard enough living with five girls, but it was even harder when there was a big squabble going on.

“I hope we didn't do all this work for nothing,” said Taylor as she and DJ went into their room.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what if no one shows?”

“Why would no one show?”

Taylor gave her a DUH look. “Because it's a
kiddy
party with no booze.”

“I think it'll be fun.”

“Yeah, well …” Taylor was getting out her costume now. She'd been keeping it secret, but she was going to be a witch, and DJ didn't think that would surprise anyone. But instead of an ugly witch with warts and bad hair, Taylor was going for the sexy, seductress type of witch. Well, no surprises there either.

DJ, on the other extreme, was dressing as a scarecrow. Naturally, Taylor thought her costume was juvenile. But DJ didn't care. She already had the overalls anyway. Together with a plaid flannel shirt, bandana, and a straw hat, it seemed pretty simple … and maybe a little lazy too.

Taylor shook her head when DJ emerged from the bathroom with a scarecrow face now painted on. “You look like you're about five years old.”

DJ shrugged. “So?” Then she frowned at Taylor's outfit. “You look like a Halloween hooker.”

Taylor gave her a seductive grin. “Hey, thanks! Just what I was going for. Tricks for treats.”

“You're insane.”

Taylor reached over and touched DJ's hair. The chlorine at the pool had been taking a toll on it lately. “Well, at least this straw hair goes with your costume, Deej. Nice touch.”

DJ looked at herself in the mirror. Next to Taylor she probably did look like a five-year-old scarecrow with straw hair. But it wasn't as if she had anyone to impress tonight … and certainly no one she needed to look “sexy” for. Not that she'd do that anyway. But unlike the other girls (including Kriti!) DJ did not have a boyfriend coming tonight. Sure, she'd invited Caleb in an offhanded sort of way, and he'd been nice enough about it, but had—no surprises here—declined. Why would a college student want to come to a high school party? The truth was she wasn't too excited about the whole stupid party herself. She just didn't want anyone to know the real reason why.

DJ practiced making a scarecrow smile in the mirror. But it looked pretty pathetic. So she pulled out an eyeliner pencil and decided to go ahead and draw a smile right on her face. Okay, it looked slightly goofy and ridiculous, but she might need it before the night was over. As much as she tried not to show it or dwell on it, DJ was acutely aware that her ex-boyfriend (also her first boyfriend) Conner Alberts was coming to the party tonight. And she knew that he was bringing his new—make that old—girlfriend Haley Callahan with him.

Eliza had made that clear enough. “I invited Conner and Haley,” she'd informed DJ. “I didn't see how I could not invite him. I mean, he is Harry's best friend. I just hope you're okay with that.” DJ had acted like it was no big deal. But Eliza didn't stop there. “And just so you know, he is bringing Haley. I hope that's not a problem for you.” Although DJ suspected that Eliza would be glad to create problems for her. Still, DJ acted like it was perfectly fine.

And it wasn't like DJ had to hang with the happy couple tonight. There should be plenty of guests to mingle with. Although she'd been trying to be nice to Haley lately, especially since Haley had reached out to her by giving rides to the pool during DJ's non-driving period. And DJ had told Conner, “No hard feelings.” Still, it hurt to think of it—how it had felt to be dumped by him for Haley. But that had been DJ's little secret. As far as she knew, no one even suspected that she still had feelings for Conner. And that's just how she planned to keep it.

On the positive side, DJ's “broken heart” had been one of the main things driving her prayer life lately. She knew enough about being a Christian to realize that the best possible therapy was to give her sadness and disappointments to God. And she had no problem talking to God about this kind of thing—she knew he wasn't going to tell anyone. Plus, she always felt better afterward. And so, after Taylor went to check on the disc jockey, DJ spent some time praying. And, as usual, she prayed for the other girls in the house, finally coming to Rhiannon and her situation with Bradford.

That was the other recent development in the Carter House romance scene. Lately Bradford had been trying to win Rhiannon back. He'd sent her notes and flowers and had apologized many times over. But Rhiannon had been maintaining a “safe distance.” She'd been patient with him, putting up with his attention in a tolerant and somewhat amused sort of way, but she always kept him at arm's length. Just the same, DJ had suspected all along that Rhiannon still liked Bradford. But maybe she simply wanted him to do penance or something that proved to her that he was really sorry for hurting her when he'd allowed Taylor to derail him.

In fact, Bradford had spent the past two days begging Rhiannon to invite him to the Halloween party. He'd already been invited by Taylor, which DJ felt was in bad taste. Taylor had assured them that she hadn't invited him to come for her sake since she was going with Seth Keller now. But Bradford rejected Taylor's invitation, telling everyone that he would only go to the party if Rhiannon invited him personally. And so she had finally caved at youth group the night before. Yes, Bradford had also been back in youth group. Poor guy, he really was trying to straighten out. So now it looked quite likely that Rhiannon and Bradford were seriously getting back together again. DJ just hoped that Bradford wouldn't hurt Rhiannon again.

Anyway, now it seemed that DJ, the poor scarecrow, would be the only Carter House girl without a boyfriend at the party tonight. She was trying to convince herself it was no big deal. And that she could always slip away to her room if she felt like a misfit, which seemed likely.

Rhiannon stuck her head into DJ's room. “Hey, we're supposed to head downstairs,” she said. “Your grandmother wants to take a photo of all of us in costume before the guests arrive.”

“Great outfit.” DJ paused to admire Rhiannon's dramatic attire of flowing skirt and scarves and flashy jewelry. “Although I don't usually think of gypsies as having red hair.”

“I'll bet there were a few.”

“Anyway, you make a very pretty redheaded gypsy.”

“Thanks. And Bradford is coming as a pirate.”

“You guys will be a colorful couple.”

Rhiannon smiled in a nervous way. “A couple …”

“Are you excited about getting back with him?”

Rhiannon shrugged. “I'm just praying that it doesn't turn out like last time.”

“It won't,” DJ assured her. “Bradford learned a lesson.” “Let's hope so.”

Now Rhiannon studied DJ's outfit with an unimpressed expression. “Hey, I could've helped you to put together a real costume, DJ.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Well … it's not like you went all out.”

“I happen to think it suits me.” DJ swaggered toward the stairs now, breaking out into the old scarecrow song from The Wizard of Oz. “I would while away the hours, conversing with the flowers, if I only had a brain.”

“Wait up,” called Casey.

“No way!” yelled DJ when she saw Casey's costume. “Catwoman!”

Casey held up her hands like claws then hissed.

“Where did you get that outfit?”

“I ordered it online. It's a rental. Garrison is coming as Batman.”

“You guys will be quite the dynamic duo.”

“Yeah, it's probably a little over the top, but I've always dreamed of being Catwoman.” Casey frowned at DJ now. “A scarecrow?”

“Yeah, yeah, Rhiannon's already raked me over the coals for my lack of creativity.”

“Come on down, girls,” called Grandmother. “The general is taking photos.”

Grandmother was dressed up too. Like Taylor, she was a witch, but instead of a short black dress with a plunging neckline, Grandmother was a more dignified witch. Still, she had no warts or hooked nose.

“Line up, girls,” ordered the general. He was actually wearing his general uniform, which was a little tight around the middle.

So they lined up with the others, and General Harding took several photos. “You girls look so pretty,” he said after he finished. “Well, except for the farmer there.” He chuckled.

“I'm a scarecrow,” DJ corrected him.

“We can't even tell that you're a girl, Desiree,” said Grandmother. “Surely you could've come up with something better than that?”

DJ looked at Eliza, who was “masquerading” as Miss America, complete with pink sequined gown and tiara. Then she looked at Kriti, who was wearing the belly dancer costume that Eliza had ordered online for her. Poor Kriti looked slightly uncomfortable and was showing way more skin than normal.

DJ just shrugged, pretending not to have been offended. “Well, at least I'll be comfortable.”

“Good point,” said Casey. “I'll be losing these spike-heeled boots before too long.”

And before too long, despite Eliza's comments about how the fashionable always arrive late, the guests began to come. DJ decided to keep a low profile. Although Grandmother had asked Inez and Clara to manage the food and serving, DJ decided to hang with them and help.

“Why are not you out there with the partiers?” asked Inez.

“I'm not really into it.”

“Why are you hiding your pretty figure beneath those hideous overalls?” asked Clara as she put more witch's fingers on a tray.

“I'm not hiding anything.” Then, feeling like she didn't even fit in the kitchen, DJ decided to go out and mingle.

“Hey, DJ,” said Haley, waving. She was dressed as a fairy princess, and Conner was a goofy-looking knight. Corny, but sort of sweet too.

DJ forced a smile and hesitantly approached the fairy tale couple. “You guys look cute,” she said.

Conner seemed to grimace as he said a halfhearted “thanks,” but Haley smiled brightly, then started to chatter on and on about what a great party it was … how the decorations were so great and the food was … blah-blah-blah. DJ was unable to focus on Haley's words. All she wanted was to get out of there.