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"Last minute Halloween costume suggestions, go!"
"What?" Peter peered out from behind the door of his locker, blinking down at her.
History had been as boring as she had predicted, and she hadn't even been trying to pay attention. Mr. Lawson's voice was monotonous, and all of the words that left his mouth seemed to mix together the longer she tried to listen. She scraped by only with the help of Peter's tutoring and, even then, most of the materials left her head by the time she'd done the tests.
Dani grabbed the orange leaflet from the inside of her notebook, "Tina's Halloween party," she explained, Peter giving her a nod as he finally realized what she was talking about. She furrowed her eyebrows, "Isn't being on the basketball team meant to give you invitations to these things instantly?"
"Well, it did," the boy replied, and Dani watched as he pulled his own leaflet out of his locker, before putting it back in, "I might have forgotten about it, though. I don't think I can go, I have a shift tomorrow."
"Can't that creep Keith cover for you?" she asked. Peter looked down at her, and Dani could tell that he was torn by the way he puffed up his cheeks. She pouted, "Please? We never go anywhere on Halloween since we stopped trick or treating, all those years ago. I miss putting on a dumb costume and doing something other than watching horror movies."
He rolled his eyes, "Okay. But," his voice was stern, "No matter how much someone pisses you off, you're not going to start throwing punches."
"But-"
"No buts," he shook his head, "It's been less than two weeks since the principal told you that you'd be kicked out of school if you caused another fight. After that, it really is goodbye, Iowa State."
Peter was right and, deep down, Dani knew it. She didn't really agree with how everyone seemed to think that she was the one starting fights; after all, she only threw the first punch after the other person gave her a reason to. She'd been that way since kindergarten; there had been one day where a boy had kicked sand into a younger kid's eyes, and Dani was pretty sure she'd knocked out one of his baby teeth. As she grew older, she'd come to realize that punches weren't the answer to everything but, sometimes, people really fucking deserved them.
"Fine."
"Thank you. I'll talk to my boss tonight," Peter nodded, looking relieved. Dani hugged her books closer to her chest as he turned back to his locker, pulling out the books he'd need for his next class, "How about Dorothy and the Scarecrow?"
A few seconds passed before she grinned, "I probably have a dress somewhere that could work. Yeah, let's do that!"
Peter chuckled, "Oh, thank god. I was afraid you'd say you wanted me to go as the Tin Man instead. Body paint is a hassle to get on and off."
