Jessa turned over the page on her calendar and unthinkingly clenched her fist in excitement as the highlighted box for October 31st came into view. Since she was very young, Halloween had been Jessa’s second favourite time of year, closely following Christmas. As far as she was concerned, it was even better than collecting chocolate eggs at Easter, and even more fun than counting down to the New Year while wearing silly glasses and hats. So, in honour of their youngest daughter’s strange love for the holiday, Mr and Mrs Baxter had, every year, gone out of their way to make it an extra special occasion. Mrs Baxter, whose professional career was in events management, seemed never to tire of party planning, and this Halloween was no exception. It was to be the biggest Baxter party yet.

“Have you decided on your costume, Jessa?” Jean Baxter asked her daughter, handing her a box of Cinnamon Twist.

“Yes,” Jessa replied matter-of-factly. “I think I want to be a zombie this year.”

Audrey looked up from a large book and grimaced.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Jessa retorted.

“No...” Audrey rolled her eyes.

“Do you want a costume this year, too, Audrey?” their mother asked the oldest sister.

“No, thanks, I’ll just be a doctor. I can bring my lab coat home and wear that.”

“Again?!” Jessa exclaimed. “Doctor Bored-rey, paging Doctor Bored-rey to the operating room, stat!”

“Firstly,” Audrey placed the book onto the table with a loud plop, “I wouldn’t get paged verbally because that makes no sense. And secondly, some of us have work to do, Jessa, and we don’t have time to worry about Halloween costumes.”

“Whatever you say, Doctor Bored-rey.”

“Jessa, please,” Audrey glared at her younger sister. Jessa muttered something under her breath, but it was drowned out by the tinkling of cinnamon squares tumbling into her bowl.

“Oh, you girls,” Mrs Baxter sighed. “Thirteen years and—”

“And worlds apart,” Jessa finished. “We know.”

“Well it’s true, you two are so different, sometimes I still wonder if there was a mix—”

“A mixup at the hospital. We know. You need some new catchphrases, Mum.”

Mrs Baxter playfully swatted her youngest daughter on the back of her head, then her face showed concern as she turned to Audrey.

“Sweetheart, maybe the university is putting too much pressure on you.”

“It’s what I need to do, Mum.”

“I just worry about you.”

“There’s no need, I’m fine,” Audrey assured her.

Despite always having an intelligence level above average for her age, Audrey was also introverted, shy, and an overachiever. She’d only ever scored the highest grades possible in every exam, a fact of which Jessa had been reminded throughout her whole life.

Jessa stared into her cereal bowl, swishing the little squares around in the milk. “I got an A on my parapsych physics project,” she blurted out. Her face immediately heated up with shame at her lie. She had actually received a very respectable B- on the project, but she knew that wasn’t enough to compete with Audrey.

“That’s wonderful, Jessa!” her mother beamed proudly. “What did that entail, then?”

“Well, we’ve been learning about waves and frequency and stuff, so we’re learning how that applies to telekinesis. Some of the others aren’t very good because they’re not good telekins, but I am.”

“I’m so glad you’re doing well,” Mrs Baxter smiled. “So do you get to work on your abilities much in lessons?”

“Not really. Not yet, anyway. We have science lessons, but it’s mostly theory at the moment, like how the sciencey stuff explains the parapsychey stuff.”

“That all sounds very interesting. And do you think it’s helping with your telekinesis?”

“I mean, my psych skills aren’t strong yet, but yeah, I think I’m getting better.”

“Gosh, it’s so fascinating. Don’t you think it’s fascinating, Audrey?” Mrs Baxter asked. But before Audrey could reply, she was distracted by the sound of a loud buzz as her phone vibrated on the table. She swiped the screen up to reveal the message, and smiled cautiously to herself, before swiping away the message before her mother or Jessa could see.

“Was that you-know-who?” Mrs Baxter squeezed her hands around her mug.

“Mmhmm,” Audrey giggled. Jessa raised her eyebrows at her sister’s sudden girlishness. Audrey never giggled.

“What’s going on? Who’s the text from?” she asked.

“Audrey has a new boyfriend!” their mother jabbered.

“Mum!”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it! But it’s all right, Jessa can keep a secret. We haven’t had any Baxter girl talk in a while.”

“Fine, yes, I’m seeing someone,” Audrey said. “But I still don’t want to say too much. He’s very handsome, though, I can tell you that.”

“What’s his name?” Mrs Baxter prodded for more information.

“His name is Hugo.”

“Hugo?” Jessa mocked. “Is he another Cambridge posh boy?”

“No, he didn’t go to Cambridge,” Audrey snapped. “But even if he did, there’s nothing wrong with being well educated.”

“Does he wear tweed? Does he have a monocle? Does he wear a top hat to dinner?”

“Come on, Jessa,” Audrey rolled her eyes.

Jessa checked that their mother had turned away and then poked her tongue out at Audrey.

#

The final lesson of the day on Monday afternoon was art, which was always a really fun way to not do much work. And everyone liked Ms Storm, the art teacher, even when she thoroughly perplexed them with all her constant allusions to Mother Earth and artistic spirit guides. So, nobody was surprised that Ms Storm wanted to take advantage of an uncharacteristically warm October day by taking the students outside to draw leaves.

The Winsbury garden was small but elegantly maintained by Tony, the school’s caretaker and groundskeeper. Formed by the Winsbury School building on one side, and a tall ivy-covered wall around the other sides, the garden was a sanctuary. The sound of Central London commotion faded into the background, hidden by the rippling whispers of trees and bushes, and the lazy burble of the miniature waterfall.

Jessa, Flynn, and Maggie rustled through the fallen foliage to find leaves with the best colour-to-shape ratio, then retired to their favourite corner of the garden, next to the old stone archway that they were convinced hardly anybody else knew about. Jessa sat cross-legged on the old wooden bench, with her sketchbook balanced between her knees. Flynn took the other end of the bench, and Maggie spread out her chunky cable-knit cardigan on the paving stones to use as a blanket.

“Do you mind if we sit with you?” a voice asked.

Tonia Pitts and Annora Huff stood before them, leaves in one hand, sketchbooks in the other.

“Not at all,” Maggie was the first to welcome the pair.

Tonia took the place between Jessa and Flynn on the bench, while Annora simply plopped herself onto the ground, her skirt billowing like a little parachute on her way down.

“Thanks,” said Tonia. “Cecily’s back there talking about her Halloween party. It was driving me mad.”

“And she’s talking about it extra loud to make us feel bad,” Annora added. “I think we’re the only people who aren’t invited.”

Jessa had spoken to Tonia many times before, and found her to be very friendly, if a little blunt, but she realised that this was probably her first ever interaction with the usually shy and quiet Annora.

“Nah,” Jessa replied. “We didn’t get invited either. Do you want to come to my party instead? It’s at my house, and it’s going to be really fun. Here…” she scribbled down her address onto a blank sheet from her sketchbook and ripped it out for Annora and Tonia (on the assumption that the two of them were always together, so they probably wouldn’t mind sharing the one invitation).

“Cool, thanks!” Tonia folded up the paper and slipped it into her bag.

“Sorry I didn’t properly invite you,” Jessa said sheepishly. “I honestly thought everyone was going to Cecily’s party, so I didn’t bother asking anyone else.”

“Yeah right,” Tonia said through teeth clamped around the pencil end she was chewing. “You’d have to pay me to go to that.”

“I wouldn’t go, even for a hundred pounds,” Annora stated.

“A hundred?” Tonia thought about it. “Make it two, then I’ll go to Cecily’s. But don’t worry, Jessa, I’ll go to yours for free.”

#

Jessa counted down the days. The party was set to have the best turnout of any Baxter gathering in recent history. Her four friends from school were coming, in addition to some of the neighbours who had children close to her age, and some aunts and uncles and cousins always came along. Audrey’s best friend Sarah usually turned up for a little while, which Jessa always enjoyed because Sarah was a medical student and had plenty of gory stories about freak accidents and flesh-eating infections.

Everyone at school except Jessa and her friends was totally compelled by the unrelenting gossip about Cecily’s party. Apparently, Cecily Graves’ party was being held in the ballroom of her father’s newly acquired hotel. Apparently, there would be a famous pop singer performing. Apparently, a world-renowned designer had personally created a series of dresses for Cecily to wear throughout the evening.

On the contrary, the most famous person invited to Jessa’s party was probably her Uncle Morris, who lived up north and once won first prize in a pie-making contest. But Jessa kept her invitees interested every way she could, with mentions of her mother’s best homemade spread of sandwiches, mini pizzas and cakes, and a family friend who was bringing a top-of-the-range FolioMax Hologram system with all the good party games. If they were lucky, Jessa’s telekinetic Auntie Stella might even have one-too-many shandies and treat everyone to her infamous floating cups routine.

#

Saturday, October 31st finally arrived, and Jessa spent all afternoon making up her zombie face into a perfectly gruesome mess of fake bruises, dried blood and flaking skin. She rubbed baby powder into her long hair and brushed out the waves to make a grey frizzy mass that protruded from all over her head. She pulled on an old shirt of her father’s that she’d purposefully dirtied with shoe polish and some strategic rips, and finished the look with a drizzling of fake blood over her chin and down the front of the shirt.

At exactly 5 pm, Flynn arrived at the door.

Jessa stared at his costume. “What are you?”

“Can’t you tell? I’m a ghost!”

“Oh,” she looked closer as Flynn stepped into the light of the house and she realised he was wearing a little makeup to lighten his skin and darken his eyes. “You look a lot like regular Flynn, though.”

“Well yeah, just because I’m a ghost doesn’t mean I’d look different. I’m Ghost Flynn.”

“All right then, Ghost Flynn. Give me your coat. What do you think of my costume?”

“You look quite disgusting.”

Flynn was greeted warmly by Mr and Mrs Baxter, dressed as a pirate and wench respectively, who immediately pulled him to the buffet table and handed him a paper plate. Just a few minutes later, the doorbell rang again. Jessa opened it to Maggie, wearing a hand-sewn cat costume, complete with collar, tail and ears, and a painted face with suitably cat-like eyes and whiskers.

“Meow,” she presented a bottle of cola. “I brought fizzy pop. I know you have plenty, but it’s polite to bring an offering for your host.”

Tonia and Annora ran up the driveway just behind Maggie.

“You guys didn’t dress up?!” Jessa exclaimed.

“Yeah, we did!” Tonia splayed out her arms under a colourful cape.

“We’re each other!” Annora curtseyed in Tonia’s denim skirt.

It wasn’t long before the other guests had arrived, and the entire downstairs of 88 Duke Avenue was buzzing with the sound of friends and family and neighbours, some meeting for the first time, some reuniting after long whiles apart, and some who saw each other regularly but still found reason to celebrate. Even Annora, who Jessa suspected would be too timid to enjoy the party, had a great time and turned out to be a commendable guest, beating all the other players and defeating the hologram Dance King in the FolioMax DanceOff tournament. Everything was going perfectly until Jessa noticed Audrey take off her lab coat and remove the stethoscope from around her neck. Reduced to her regular clothing, Audrey said goodbye to a handful of people and walked toward the front door.

Jessa followed.

“Why are you leaving?” she asked as Audrey’s hand unlatched the front door.

“Sorry Jess, I have plans with Hugo tonight.”

“He can come here! Invite him to the party!”

“I don’t think so. He hasn’t met Mum and Dad yet, and I don’t want to put too much pressure on him.”

“So this is the perfect way for them to meet him. It’s so casual.”

“Yeah, but still no. Not tonight, Jessa. Maybe another time,” she walked up the path towards the front gate. Her zombie sister still followed.

“Audrey, why are you being weird?”

“What do you mean?” she turned around. “I’m not doing anything, I just—”

“Yes you are,” Jessa interrupted. “You’re being weird with me. We met your old boyfriend, why can’t we meet this one?”

Audrey resigned. “Fine, I’ll tell you. I suppose you had to find out eventually.”

“Find out what?”

“You kind of… already know him,” she said quietly.

“What? What are you talking about? I don’t know anyone called Hugo.”

“No,” Audrey paused. “You know him as Mr Fletcher.”