The Night Tournaments

22 - Claude

~ One Day Ago ~

"Ack, I totally should have planned this earlier," Ivy Radcliff said regretfully from the other side of the call. "What are you dressing up as for Halloween, Clodhopper?"

"I have a huge Super Mario costume waiting in my closet," I answered, chuckling. "But there's only a day left, Ivy; you don't have to go out of your way to match with me."

"Shush! Ivy Radcliff always finds a way," she protested confidently as she grinned. "Actually, I'm pretty sure that my brother's going Halloween shopping later today, so I'll just get him to give me a ride. I'll be the Luigi to your Mario!"

I blushed, looking away from the camera. "Really? I mean, if that's what you want to do . . . I can't say that I have any objections."

"Great! That's another problem solved, then," Ivy said, satisfied. "Make sure to stuff your face with chocolate tomorrow! Oh, and don't save your candy until it gets all musty crusty. I made that mistake once and swore to myself that I'd never make it again."

I laughed and shook my head. "All right, I'll keep that in mind. Bree, Flynn, Arielle, and I are all going to Archer's house before having fun in his neighborhood."

"Gosh, that sounds so fun. I miss all of you guys," she told me, smiling sadly. "I'll be having the time of my life with my friends over here in Malibu, too, but . . . I mean, it's just not the same. Compared to all of the awesome things that the six of us did in Paris, everything else always seems kind of anticlimactic now, to be honest."

"We miss you, too," I said as I smiled back at Ivy. "Believe me, our group really doesn't have the same liveliness and excitement as it did when you were a part of it."

"Are Arielle and Archer still going strong? And Bree and Flynn?" she inquired, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Yup, as strong as ever. I mean, it's not as noticeable anymore, since there aren't a lot of times when the five of us are all together, but I haven't witnessed anything negative," I replied with a thumbs-up.

Ivy pretended to wipe sweat off of her forehead. "Well, that's a relief. Hey, don't tell this to Bree . . . but I can sense that Alan Anderson still thinks about her a lot. One time, I tried to set him up with this girl because he was acting uncharacteristically mopey and isolated, but he kept declining all of my propositions. Like, talk about infuriating!"

I sighed and bit my lip. "Obviously, I'll always root for Flynn because he's one of my best friends . . . but I genuinely feel bad for Alan. I mean, it seems like he liked Bree a lot, and he was a pretty good guy."

"I feel the same way," Ivy agreed, pityingly clicking her tongue. "Maybe he would've had a chance if he'd met her first? Argh, I don't know; all of this thinking is making my head hurt."

"Anyhow, I hope that he finds happiness in the near future, too," I said as I ran a hand through my disheveled hair. "And have fun tomorrow, Ivy - I'm sure that you'll have a great time."

"The same goes for you! I'm sending all of y'all my love," she gushed, blowing air kisses. "Don't forget to send pictures of your costume, Clodhopper! I'll be transforming into Luigi soon, and trust me, you don't want to see an angry Luigi."

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~ One Day Later ~

My head was spinning in circles when I finally managed to fight my way out of the neighborhood parade. I looked around with my dizzy vision, but all of my friends were nowhere to be found. It was likely that they were still tangled up in the boisterous crowd . . . but since I was powerless against the horde of people, there was no use in attempting to dig them out.