Jack O' Lanterns

October 31st, 1985. Halloween.

If you would have told Johnny he'd be spending Halloween carving pumpkins with his friends, he wouldn't have batted an eye at you. However, if you told him he'd be doing it in the backyard of the old Asian man who saved his life nearly a year ago alongside the kid he terrorized and nearly killed on Halloween, he'd probably punch you and tell you to "Shut the fuck up!"

But, here he was, standing shoulder to shoulder with the kid who set a hose on him on Halloween and across from the man who kicked his ass and his friends' asses not even ten minutes later. Funny how the universe worked.

This time, things were different. This time around, there wasn't a skeleton or a showerhead in sight. Instead, there was a wide variety of things around the table they had set up to carve pumpkins on. To the right of him was Daniel, dressed as a vampire, complete with the cape and the teeth, an outfit courtesy of Mr. Miyagi's sewing skills. Across the table from Daniel was Jimmy, resuing an old Spider-man costume that Mr. Miyagi had patched up for him. Next to him sat Mr. Miyagi himself, in his classic khakis and sporting a hat, claiming he was Indiana Jones for the night. On the other side, stood Bobby and Tommy, with Bobby dressed as Luke Skywalker and Tommy as Freddy Kruger, providing a very stark contrast in costumes for anyone who saw them standing next to each other. Across from those two, stood Dutch, dressed as Casey Jones, complete with the hockey sticks and mask as he aggressively scooped the guts and seeds out of the top of his pumpkin. And Johnny? He'd begrudgingly decided to go as Han Solo to match with Bobby's costume, a tradition they've had since they were little. It sure was a strange, unfamiliar sight to anyone who knew Johnny, but Johnny really couldn't have asked for a better way to spend Halloween night.

"Shit, I fucked up."

Johnny looked up from his pumpkin to see Bobby holding his pumpkin up to his face with a frown. He bit back a smile, raising an eyebrow as he asked,

"Whatcha do this time, Brown?"

Bobby glanced over at Johnny from across the table, glaring just slightly at his friend's failing attempts to hide his amusements. Still, he slowly turned the pumpkin so that Johnny and the rest of them could see how he'd gone and totally disregarded his previously outlined nose and freehanded right into where he had planned to carve the pumpkin's mouth.

Dutch was the first to laugh, loud and abrasive as always, as he pointed a carving knife at Bobby's pumpkin. He was followed by Johnny and then Tommy, even Daniel started laughing, eyes wide and one gooey hand holding his side.

"Oh, you weren't kidding," Jimmy commented, finally deciding to join in the laughter with the rest of them, "How'd you end up doing that?" He waved at the pumpkin with his spoon, accidentally flicking some pumpkin guts onto Dutch's arm who was too busy laughing to notice.

"I don't know!" Bobby huffed, setting his pumpkin down and glaring at the five of them. "But go ahead, laugh at my expense." He waved them off and rolled his eyes fondly before turning to Mr. Miyagi who sat to the left of him.

"Hey, can I restart?" He asked, "I don't think I can fix this." He pointed at the pumpkin that was originally supposed to be a classic carved face but now looked like a plastic surgery patient gone wrong, complete with the scalpel still sticking out of their face.

Mr. Miyagi looked at the pumpkin, chuckled, and then looked back at Bobby.

"What's wrong?" He asked, raising an eyebrow "Looks fine to me. Very spooky."

"Yeah, but," Bobby frowned, watching as the old man turned back to work on his own pumpkin, "it wasn't what I wanted it to look like. Can't I just restart?"

"Could," Miyagi nodded, "But no more pumpkins."

Bobby blinked, "I thought we got extra? Didn't we get extras?" He looked over to his friends but got no response right away. Dutch had just noticed the goop on his arm and was currently smearing it over the front of Jimmy's shirt, Johnny was doing that weird thing where he stared at Daniel like he didn't know if he should kiss or punch him, and Tommy was busy stabbing his pumpkin with such vigor Bobby wondered if he should say something.