by Sarah Suk
“Valerie? Did you hear me?”
“Huh?” I looked up from the Halloween list to see Ms. Jackson staring at me, her eyebrows pinched together in concern.
“I asked if business is going okay for you two.” She glanced back and forth between me and Charlie before turning back to me and pointing her pencil at my face, eraser end first. “You look stressed.”
“Me? I’m fine,” I said at the same time Charlie said, “She’s totally stressed.” I pinched him in the elbow, making him yelp.
“Really, I’m fine,” I said. I meant it too, if “fine” meant trying to think of a way to squash the sudden competition that was Wes Jung and his K-pop beauty products. He hadn’t had another sale since the face masks, but I knew the competition wasn’t over yet. I had to stay ready.
“Just remember not to get too caught up in your sales,” Ms. Jackson said. “It’s important to focus on your studies, too. Those colleges will be interested in V&C, but it won’t mean squat if you start flunking all your classes. You hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Ms. J,” Charlie said, but my mind was already on the Halloween Market. If Wes was going to be there, I’d have to bring my A game. He was the one who had started the war, but I was going to finish it.
He stood in front of me now, smiling hesitantly and revealing his vampire fangs. With his slicked-back hair and glasses, he looked like Grease meets nerdy Count Dracula. It would have actually been kind of cute if he wasn’t the enemy.
I kept my face neutral and gave him a stony look until the smile slipped off his face. He cleared his throat, running his hand through the back of his hair.
“Um, I like your costume,” he said, trying for a different approach. “It looks vintage.”
I blinked, surprised that he’d noticed. Halloween was my favorite holiday because it gave me the perfect excuse to go thrifting for a costume. Umma hated it when I went thrifting. She couldn’t understand why I’d want to wear someone else’s old clothes when I could wear something brand-new. But even she couldn’t argue the fact that it was the perfect place to find a Halloween costume.
Before I could respond to Wes, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle jumped out from behind me, whirling a pair of nunchucks over his head. “Boo!” he yelled.
Wes and I both jumped. Charlie grinned, his eyes crinkling behind his orange eye mask. He was wearing a plastic turtle shell on his back and a full-body green jumpsuit with a yellow turtle belly across his torso.
“Hey, Donatello, you scared the crap out of me,” I said, pressing a hand against my heart.
“Uh, I’m Michelangelo,” Charlie said. “I was Donatello last year.”
True, for the record. Charlie had been reusing the same Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume since freshman year, just swapping out the eye-mask color and weapon of choice to be a different character each year. Lucky for him, he’d hit his growth spurt early and the costume still fit, albeit a little short around his ankles.
“How’s it going, Wes Jung?” Charlie said coolly.
Apparently, Charlie’s version of getting back at Wes had been to volunteer him for a math problem during class. When he’d told me about it, he was so proud of himself. “I did it in vengeance for V&C.”
“That was your version of vengeance?” I’d said. “You’ve never seen John Wick, have you?”
“Trust me, Val. You gotta wear down the competition from all sides. He was definitely fazed.”
Well, he definitely had some creative ways of taking out the competition. As for me, I had some strategies of my own up my sleeve.
I watched Wes out of the corner of my eye as he began to set up his table of products. He had nothing I hadn’t seen before. More Crown Tiger lip balms and face masks. Was that all he had? He was going to have to try harder than that if he wanted to stand a chance against V&C. “Did you bring our stuff?” I asked Charlie.
“Yep,” he said. He slid off his turtle shell. The shell was hollow on the inside, doubling as a huge backpack. He zipped it open and pulled out our beauty products.
The Halloween Market was one of my favorite places to sell, because it wasn’t just about beauty. It was about enhancing people’s costumes. I had products that I held on to for the whole year so I could release them around Halloween. I’d split them into two piles: one to sell on the Monday before Halloween, so people could prepare for their costumes (we’re talking hair dyes, lipsticks, and eyeliners in all different colors) and one to sell on Halloween day, with products that people could use to add a little extra glamour to their costumes on the spot.
Out of Charlie’s turtle shell came a parade of nail stickers, red lipsticks, liquid glitter eye shadows, and special-edition two-tone lip tints. Adrenaline rushed through me as I looked at the items I had so carefully curated just for this day. This was my element, and I was ready to make some sales.
As students began to trickle into the market, I took a scan at the other vendors setting up their tables. Among them were Matt Whitman, dressed up as a bee with his homemade honey; Ethan Phan (at least I thought it was Ethan Phan—it was hard to tell with the white sheet thrown over his head for his ghost costume) with his newest pottery creations; and Joanne Patel and Rebecca Sanders, the school’s craftiest couple, selling their Halloween-themed bracelets and dressed up as Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon’s cat, Luna. The two girls waved at me, calling, “Cool costume, Valerie!”
I waved back before turning my attention to my table. Joanne and Rebecca were sweet, but it was hard not to see everyone at school as either competition or customers, and right now, they were competition. Charlie and I had won the Halloween Market ribbon the past two years we participated, and I didn’t want to lose my streak. It might not have been hard cash, but it was still validation that I was doing well, that I was on the right track. I couldn’t let myself get distracted. I popped a grape Hi-Chew into my mouth to get my focus on.
“Valerie, you look so cute!” Kristy said, arriving at my table in a Princess Peach costume. She twirled a parasol over her freshly dyed blond hair, glancing over at Charlie and batting her eyelashes. “Hey, Charlie. How’s it going?”
“Well, if it isn’t my Mario Kart player of choice,” Charlie said, making Kristy giggle. He put an arm around her shoulders and gestured to our products. “Can we interest you in anything at our table, Princess Peach?”
“Mm-hmm, I definitely see something that catches my interest,” she said, giggling behind her hand.
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes as Charlie grinned. “Did you see these pink flower nail stickers?” he said. “These were practically made for your costume. Not to mention, they really bring out your eyes.” It was totally cringe. How the heck did nail stickers even bring out anyone’s eyes? But Kristy was eating it up, and I had to admit, Charlie had a way with people that I could never quite imitate. We almost always sold more when he was around.
“Oh, hey, Wes,” Kristy said, noticing Wes at the table next to us. She squealed. “Oh my God! You have more Crown Tiger stuff?”
“Happy Halloween, Kristy,” Wes said.
Charlie frowned as Kristy slid out from under his arm to check out Wes’s table. “Hmm,” she said, her excitement dimming as she scanned the products. “I already bought all this stuff during your first sales. You don’t have anything new?”
“New?” Wes said, looking genuinely confused. Lord help him. I felt a flash of annoyance. Did he know anything about running a business at this school? It was just as I suspected. He was totally clueless. No way was he going to hold anyone’s attention span trying to sell the same product all the time. “No. Not right now.”
“Too bad,” Kristy said. She turned back to me and Charlie, all smiles. “I’ll take the nail stickers.”
“If you get two sheets, we’ll throw in a bottle of base-coat nail polish for twenty percent off,” I said. “It’ll help protect your nails when you put the stickers on.”
“Ooh, Valerie, you know I love a good deal,” Kristy said, her eyes
lighting up. “What about the lip tints? I’ve never seen these before.”
“They’re two-tone, so they’re great for getting that gradient look on your lips,” I said. “And they also double as a moisturizing lip balm.” I held up two fingers. “If you buy two, you get the third half off.”
“Wow, Kristy, nail stickers and lip tint?” Charlie said as Kristy surveyed the different colors. “You’re not even going to give anyone else a chance to win the costume contest, huh?”
She laughed, swatting Charlie in the arm. Then she turned to me, fishing out her wallet. “Give me everything you told me about, Val. I’m sold.”
Charlie high-fived me as Kristy skipped away with her new products, parasol twirling over her head. “Way to start off strong!” he said.
“Like I always say, make deals that feel like steals,” I said, ending our high five with a fist bump.
I felt Wes watching the exchange out of the corner of my eye. He was frowning in a way that looked like he was trying to solve a puzzle, like he was realizing for the first time that running a business wasn’t just about having a great product. As more and more people shopped at our table, my confidence rose higher. Wes might have Crown Tiger fans, but even fans get tired of the same old product. If all he had was lip balm and face masks, maybe I really didn’t have anything to worry about.
“Attention, ghosts and students,” a voice came over the loudspeakers. “The Amazing Haunted House Race is about to begin in fifteen minutes, starting with the senior student track. Everyone wanting to participate, please come to the front doors of the school. Remember, the winner of each track gets a fifty-dollar cash prize—if you make it out alive.”
The voice cut out with a foreboding crackle.
Wes frowned, glancing around as if hoping someone would explain what he had just heard. That’s right. I’d almost forgotten he was new around here. Charlie and I took turns running the Haunted House Race while the other watched the market table—he ran it last year so it was my turn this year—but Wes would have no clue what that even means. For a second, I wondered what that was like. It must be difficult being the new kid, in senior year no less.
Charlie sucked in a breath beside me, grabbing my arm. “It’s Pauline,” he whispered. He smoothed his hair. “How do I look?”
“As good as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle can look,” I said as Pauline approached Wes’s table, wearing a lobster costume. I heard him ask her about the Haunted House Race and she began to explain.
“You know that thing she and I used to do back when we were friends where we would share under-the-sea facts with each other?” Charlie said. “After we worked on the aquarium science project together?”
To be honest, I only vaguely remembered this, but I nodded anyway. “Yes.”
“Well, I watched this documentary with my mom the other day, and I feel like Pauline would be really into it too. I’m going to tell her about it as a fun fact, like old times. Should I go for it? I’m gonna go for it.”
“Go for it.” As much as I felt like it would be better for Charlie not to reopen himself to heartache, it seemed like he was determined to live by his motto of “senior year, no regrets.” I’d tried to warn him. The least I could do now was to give him a thumbs-up.
“Hey, Pauline!” he called.
Pauline and Wes both turned around.
Charlie froze. “Um. So.” He opened his mouth and closed it again before glancing at me, totally panicked. Hoo-boy. Charlie had dated a lot of girls, and he sure could charm a crowd, but when it came to Pauline, he completely lost his cool trying to impress her. This I remembered distinctly from sophomore year.
Under the sea, I mouthed to him.
“Right.” He nodded, swiveling back to face Pauline. “So. Want to hear a fun fact?”
A flicker of recognition crossed her face. Even if I didn’t remember their history of back-and-forth fact swapping, it seemed like she definitely did. She nodded slowly like she wasn’t quite sure where this was going. “Okay. Sure.”
“I recently just watched a documentary about haenyeo. Have you heard of them?”
Pauline shook her head, raising her eyebrows. Her cautious expression turned curious.
“Haenyeo are Korean female divers in Jeju Island,” Charlie said eagerly. “They’re really cool. There’s this whole community of women, some even in their seventies and eighties, who go diving for seafood for a living.”
“Haenyeo,” Pauline repeated, like she was commiting it to memory. She smiled. “That does sound really cool.”
Wow. Go, Charlie. Looked like his idea was actually paying off.
She cleared her throat. “Want to hear about something I learned recently?”
By the elated expression on Charlie’s face, I guessed this was part of their back-and-forth. She was reciprocating! Truthfully, I was surprised. I’d always taken Pauline to be kind of cold, especially after the way she’d ghosted Charlie. But maybe there was hope for them after all.
“Hey, Charlie, you’re cool with watching the table while I run the Haunted House Race, right?” I said. Probably best if I stepped out of the way to give them some alone time. He nodded gratefully, catching the hint.
“Oh, are you running?” Wes asked. He cleared his throat. “Pauline was just telling me about the race and I was, um, thinking about giving it a go myself.”
I frowned. Was this guy really going to insist on competing against me in everything? How annoying.
A sudden idea sparked into my head as I remembered what Charlie had said about calculus class. You gotta wear down the competition from all sides. Bolstered by the success of our Halloween sales, I locked eyes with Wes and straightened up, a smile spreading across my lips.
“Care to make it a little more interesting?” I asked. “We make it a bet. Whoever beats the other in the Haunted House Race wins.”
“Wins?” He frowned, his little vampire teeth poking into his lower lip. I tried not to think about how cute this actually was, because—focus, Valerie—this was Wes Jung, business-idea stealer. “Wins what?”
I considered this for a moment. “Loser has to help the winner advertise their business for the rest of the night.”
“What kind of advertisement?” he asked, his eyebrows rising in interest.
“No limitations. Winner gets to choose.”
“So you’ll do anything I say, then?”
My stomach did a weird lurch at his words. This would be a much easier conversation if his vampire teeth weren’t so distracting. “No,” I said. “You’ll do anything I say. Because I don’t plan on losing.” I cleared my throat and stuck out my hand. “Do we have a deal?”
“Uh, Val, is this a good idea?” Charlie asked.
I nodded. Yes. I would show Wes once and for all who he was dealing with.
Wes stared at my hand, considering. He looked from me to Pauline, who smiled and held up her lobster claws as if to say, Your decision, buddy.
He took a breath and put his hand in mine. My heart beat faster as he shook it once. He looked me in the eye, not letting go right away.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s do this.”
* * *
“Welcome to the Amazing Haunted House Race, seniors,” Mr. Reyes said, dressed as one of the aliens from Toy Story. All the teachers had coordinated to be Toy Story characters; from Mr. Reyes to Ms. Jackson to Mr. McAvoy, who was helping run the carnival in his Hamm the piggy bank costume. “The rules here are simple. The first floor of the school has been transformed into a haunted house. Whoever can first make it all the way to the band room on the other side of the school wins. But beware: there might be some creatures of the dead that want to stop you from getting there.”
He wiggled his fingers and made spooky ghost noises. Half of the twenty seniors in line to race giggled nervously, while the other half rolled their eyes from cheesiness.
I adjusted my Minnie Mouse ears and took my place at the starting line. Wes stood beside me, double-knotting his sh
oes for the race. I had no idea how fast he was, but regardless, I had the advantage of having run this race before. I knew what to expect.
Mr. Reyes raised his conductor’s baton in the air. “On your mark! Get set! Go!”
The doors to the haunted house opened, and we bolted inside.
I zigzagged down the hallway just as a zombie leaped out from behind a column wrapped in fake spiderwebs, jerking his head in creepy movements, his arms outstretched toward us. Two people behind me screamed, changing course, but I ducked under the zombie’s arm and kept on running.
A line of creepie Chucky-like dolls blocked the hallway, singing a disturbing lullaby in unison. “Come play with us,” said one of the dolls, who I was certain was Amelia Perry. She smiled, the porcelain shine of her doll makeup shining under the pumpkin-shaped string lights. “Come play with us.”
Ugh! Gross. I turned the other direction to take another route, racing through a graveyard maze and dodging a group of mummies who were gleefully wrapping some of their captives in toilet paper.
Somewhere along the way, I’d completely lost sight of Wes. Was he behind me? In front of me? All I could hear was the sound of my classmates screaming, shoes skidding against the floor as they ran this way and that, creepy Halloween music pulsing through the halls. And then I saw him.
There! Just ahead. The boy with the vampire cape and the ripped skinny jeans. Somehow he had slipped through everything and was headed down the hall that led straight to the band room. I pushed forward as hard as I could, gaining on him until we were neck and neck. He glanced at me, pumping his arms harder, but I refused to lose. Not now. Not when I was so close.
Just as we were about to turn the corner to the band room, a witch’s body dropped from the ceiling, dangling in front of us with her mouth wide open in a wicked snarl. I screamed, falling backward into a bank of lockers strung with cobwebs and pumpkin lights.