The Eccedentesiast

Chapter Twenty-four

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Chapter Twenty-four
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"Who's going to be Jack Skellington?" Emma asked,

Connor raised a hand. "I am. I'm the tallest." He smirked and funnily ran his hands down his rectangular-shaped body.

Gabriel's arms cross over his chest, a friend replacing his tight-lipped smile. "I am, too."

"But I'm still taller than you."

"By an inch!" Gabriel defended, showing off the amount with his thumb and index finger merely touching. "Why? You don't think I can pull it off-" he cut himself off, holding up his pointer finger. "Hold on." He leaned into the group and whispered, all the while looking into each of their eyes, "Is it because I'm black?"

They all grunted, rolled their eyes, and threw their arms in the air.

"It is, isn't it?" he fumed.

Emma rubbed her shut eyes. "Here we go again." She pinched the bridge of her nose and then stared right at him,

Connor looked at him with irritation as Gabriel kept on ranting. "I don't care what you think of me! I'm beautiful!"

The rest just ignored the yells and thought of it as background music as they sorted out ideas.

"If either of those . . . weirdos are going to be Jack, then the one that isn't is going to be Oogie Boogie," Daniel said.

"Do you want to be Sally?" Brian gave his attention to Emma. "Or Zero?" Emma glared at him. "They're both very small."

Emma gave him a fake smile. "I'll take Sally."

"Got it."

"Okay, we've sorted some things out," Connor said as he blew a strand of hair away from his face, "and I'm going to be Jack Skelligton."

"Gabriel gave in that easily?" Brian chuckled.

Gabriel coughed. "I didn't want to be him anyway."

Emma squinted her eyes at him. "Then why'd you make such a big fuzz about it?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. It's been a while since I've been in a fight with you guys and I miss the yelling."

𖨆

"Can I please have your attention?" Daniel hit two pans together while he stood on the kitchen island. The action caused a loud slamming sound to echo throughout the whole place. "Ladies," he bowed to Isabella and Emma, then turned to the guys. "Other manly looking ladies." He let the pans fall to the floor, making Isabella scream.

Emma laughed silently next to Gabriel as he, too, laughed. "I would like to introduce," he pointed at the kitchen doorway, "my big dick, hot as Takis hot, funny as in, 'no'," he played air drums, "Xavier something Goldberg. I'm still trying to figure out his middle name."

"I don't have one!"

Just on cue, Xavier entered, limping on one leg. He was going to say hi to everyone when his voice decided to run away into the deep depths of the planet Earth.

"Oh!" Isabella gasped and covered her mouth with both her hands. "I'm so happy to meet you!" She ran to him and Xavier flinched.

Daniel stood behind her. "It's alright. She rarely bites."

Isabella turned to slap the back of Daniel's head and then turned back around to hug Xavier—against his will.