《Hocus Pocus》Chapter 2: Meet Max Dennison
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"Poor Thackery Binx. Neither his father, his mother, nor anyone else, ever knew what became of him those 300 years ago."
A woman dressed in a witch costume stood in front of a high school class retelling the story of the Sanderson Siblings.
"And so, the Sanderson Siblings we're hanged by the Salem townsfolk. Now, there are those who say that on Halloween night, a black cat, and the spirit of Winston's lover, (Y/n), still guard the old Sanderson house, warning off any who might make the witches come back to life!"
The teacher threw a black ribbon at some students and they jumped back and screamed a bit before laughing.
All the students applauded at her performance. All except one student. Max Dennison. He was a teenage boy with short brown hair and was wearing a tie dye shirt and writing something on a piece of paper.
"Gimme a break." He muttered.
The teacher heard him and looked down at him with a frown.
"Uh-huh...we seem to have a skeptic in our midst. Mr. Dennison, would you care to share your California, laid back, tie-dyed, point of view?" She asked.
One girl in the back glanced up from her desk and her (e/c) eyes fell on Max.
"Okay. Granted that uh, you guys here in Salem are all into these black cats and witches and stuff."
"Stuff?" The teacher repeated, making everyone in the class groan.
"But everyone knows that Halloween was invented by the candy companies. It's a conspiracy." Max shrugged, and the class gasped.
"It just so happens that Halloween is based on the ancient feast called All Hallows' Eve." A girl with long blonde hair corrected. "It's the one night of the year where the spirits of the dead can return to Earth."
The class clapped for her speech, as well as the girl in the back.
"Well said Allison." The teacher praised.
Max wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to her.
"Well in case Jimmy Hendrix shows up tonight, here's my number."
The class 'oohed' as the bell rang, and all the students got up to leave. Max smiled at Allison and she gave a small smile back as she walked away.
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The guy sitting behind her came up to Max. "Max. Fat chance." He said.
Once he left, Max scrambled to get his things, and as he turned to leave, he bumped into a girl, making her stumble back.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Max apologized.
"Oh, no. It's-it's fine." She quietly replied.
"Uh, I'm Max. Max Dennison."
"I know. I'm (Y/n)." She introduced.
"Oh, like the story." Max commented.
The girl nodded.
"Well, nice to meet you. Sorry again." Max rushed out of the room, (Y/n)'s eyes following after him.
...
Max ran out of the school doors and unhooked his bike from the bike rack. He hopped on and rode down the sidewalk hoping to catch up to Allison. He saw her walking with the girl from before, (Y/n), and rode up next to them.
"Allison." Max called.
"Hi." She greeted.
"Hi. Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you in class." He apologized.
"You didn't." Allison reassured him.
"Oh. I'm Max. Max Dennison." He extended his hand.
"I know. You just moved here, huh?"
"Yeah, last week."
"Must be a big change for you." She commented.
"Yeah, that's for sure."
"You don't like it here?" She guessed.
"Oh, I mean, the leaves are great. It's just...I don't know. Just all this Halloween stuff." Max shrugged.
"You don't believe in it?" Allison asked.
"What, like the Sanderson Siblings? No way."
"Not even on Halloween?"
"Especially not on Halloween." Max confirmed.
"Well, you better be careful, (Y/n)'s a big believer of this stuff." Allison lightly teased her friend, making her roll her eyes.
"Oh yeah? You are?"
The girl nodded. "Uh-huh. You don't want to mess around with the Sanderson Siblings. Especially on Halloween."
"Come on, you honestly believe in all that witchy stuff?"
(Y/n) just shrugged.
"Trick or Treat." Allison said, holding up a piece of paper.
Max took it and watched the two girls walk off. He unfolded the paper to see his own phone number and frowned.
...
Max rode his bike through the town on his way home, and he decided to cut through the woods. He hopped over rocks, and dodged trees, the different colored leaves crunching under the wheels of his bike.
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He came upon an old cemetery and was weaving through grave stones when two guys popped up.
"Halt. Who are you?" One of them asked. He had long blonde hair and was wearing a leather jacket.
"Max. I just moved here."
"From where?"
"Los Angeles." Max responded.
The two guys looked at each other confused.
"L.A.?" Max simplified.
Recognition flashed in their eyes. "Oh, dude!"
"Tubular." The other said. He had on a tan jacket and a fedora that covered his very short hair.
"I'm Jay. This is Ernie."
The guy with the hat grabbed Jay by his jacket. "How many times do I gotta tell you? My name ain't Ernie no more. It's Ice."
"This is Ice." Jay reintroduced.
Ice turned around and the word 'Ice' was shaved into his hair.
"So, let's have a butt." Jay suggested.
"Uh, no thanks I don't smoke." Max denied.
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"They're very health conscious in Los Angeles." Ice commented and they both burst out laughing.
"You got any cash...Hollywood?" Jay asked.
"No." Max replied.
"Gee, we don't get any smokes from you...we don't get any cash...what am I supposed to do with my afternoon?" Ice asked.
"Maybe you could learn to breathe through your nose?" Max suggested.
Jay burst out laughing, but Ice glared at him and he stopped.
Jay glanced down Max's feet and noticed his shoes.
"Woah. Checkout the new cross trainers."
"Cool. Let me try them on." Ice demanded.
...
Max rode out of the cemetery without his shoes and pulled his bike into his house. He went inside where his parents were unpacking all their stuff.
"Hey, Max how was school?" His mom, Jenny asked.
"It sucked." Max snapped.
"Hey, hey, hey. Watch your language." His dad, Dave, warned.
"I can't believe you made me move here!" Max yelled as he stomped up the stairs.
"He wasn't wearing any shoes." His mom noticed.
"Well, must be some form of protest." Her husband muttered.
...
Max stormed into his room and threw down his jacket and backpack. He fed his fish in his fish tank and laid down on his bed.
He grabbed a pillow and hugged it to his body pretending it was a person. "Oh, Allison. You're so soft. I just wanna..."
Max didn't get to finish his thought because his closet burst open and a little girl in a witch costume jumped out.
"Boo!" She exclaimed before she burst out laughing.
"Dani!" Max grumbled.
Dani ran over and jumped onto Max's bed. "I scared you, I scared you! Ha-ha! Ha-ha!" She teased.
She fell back into the bed. "I'm Allison, Allison. Kiss me I'm Allison."
"Mom and Dad told you to stay out of my room."
"Don't be such a crab. Guess what? You're gonna take me trick or treating." She said, happily jumping on his bed.
"Not this year Dani." Max sighed.
"Mom said you have to."
"Well, she can take you."
"She and Dad are going to the party at Town Hall." Dani informed him.
"Well, you're eight. Go by yourself." Max insisted before going over to his drum set and began playing.
"No way. This is my first time. I'll get lost. Besides, it's a full moon outside. The weirdos are out."
Max kept playing his drums, and Dani came up to him and wrapped her arms around him, and he stopped.
"Come on Max. Couldn't you forget about being a cool teenager just for one night? Please? Come on, we used to have so much fun together trick or treating. Remember? It'll be like old times." She pleaded.
"Well the old days are dead." Max shook her off and continued playing.
"It doesn't matter what you say. You're taking me."
Max stopped playing again and looked at her. "Wanna bet?"
Max got up and climbed the stairs of the small tower in his room.
Dani stomped to the middle of the room and screeched. "MOM!!!"
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