Halloween is a big deal at Egmont College. People talk about Halloween for weeks beforehand, gossiping about what they're going to dress up as and which Halloween party is going to be the wildest. Students spend hours on their costumes, hoping to win costume contests or just to impress their friends. On Halloween, all of the students and professors dress up in elaborate costumes, and there will be at least a dozen different parties to attend that evening, even if it's the middle of the week. The festivities continue on for another few weeks afterwards, if only as an excuse to get rid of extra candy.

Egmont's obsession with Halloween is something that I've never understood. Even when I was little, I usually just threw on a pair of animal ears or a witch's hat for Halloween. Some years, I didn't even go trick or treating. Halloween was more of a precursor to the winter holidays than anything else. I definitely don't get why it's considered the greatest holiday of them all in a college town surrounded by a statewide retirement community, but I don't want to be a killjoy, so I always celebrate Halloween at Egmont by dressing up in some sort of fancy costume, even if my heart's not in it.

For Halloween during my junior year, I dressed up as my Dungeons and Dragons character, Darkhan Carter. That morning, I found a long, green dress that seemed like something that she would wear, and I paired it with boots and a dark brown cloak. I then took the staff that I had bought at a convention a few years earlier and headed for breakfast.

Aditi and Kara immediately figured out who I was supposed to be. "That is an awesome costume," Kara said. "You look exactly like Darkhan."

"You should come to the party in Greenway tonight," Aditi said. "I bet everyone would love your costume."

However, nobody else was able to tell that I had dressed up as my D&D character. A few people in my Environmental Policy class complimented me on my costume, especially the ornate staff, and then immediately asked, "Who are you supposed to be?" As soon as I started telling them about all of Darkhan's incredible exploits over the course of our D&D campaign, they usually stopped listening.

After lunch, I went to Jonas' class, and when I got there, I was surrounded by superheroes, witches, wizards, vampires, pirates, Jedi, zombies, and ninjas. I glanced across the room at Joyce, and she had a cup of coffee on her desk and her nose was in a book, as usual. She had curled her hair, she had replaced her round glasses with a pair of square ones, and she was wearing a suit and tie. A plastic guitar sat under her desk, next to her backpack.

Everyone had dressed up, and Jonas was no exception. He was wearing a pair of cat ears, and he was wearing a T-shirt that had a picture of a cat on it with the words "Wanted Dead and Alive."

"Who are you supposed to be?" a kid dressed up as Marty McFly asked.

"I'm Schrödinger's Cat, obviously," Jonas said. "Anyways, happy Halloween to everyone! I hope you're having a great day so far, but we do need to get started on researching for your next project."

He passed around a stack of papers and began to explain the assignment. We were working in pairs to design an experiment using the techniques that we had learned so far, which seemed easy enough. Jonas then started reading off the groups. "The first group will be Leo Schultz and Ashley Tran." Leo and Ashley high-fived as Jonas said, "The second group will be Dani Bloomberg and Joyce Nielsen."

I glanced across the room again, and Joyce smiled slightly as her eyes met mine. I wasn't sure how I felt about being Joyce's lab partner. I could probably trust her to do her fair share of work, but there was always the risk of getting distracted. Even at that moment, I was too busy staring into her deep brown eyes to listen to Jonas.

Once Jonas was done explaining the project, we all moved to sit next to our partners so we could start brainstorming. "What do you think we should research?" I asked. "I think it might be interesting to study the interactions between fish species, but we can really do whatever you want..."

Joyce shrugged and said, "I don't really care. I like your Halloween costume, by the way."

"Thanks. I dressed up as my Dungeons and Dragons character, Darkhan Carter," I said, before she could ask who I was supposed to be.

"Well, you look really good," Joyce said, smiling.

"Joyce, we should get back to work," I said, and we spent the remainder of the class period attempting to finish the worksheet that Jonas had passed out. When it was time to leave, we still hadn't gotten very far. Joyce and I needed to do a lot more research before we could decide on a project.

"I like your costume a lot, Joyce," I said as the two of us walked out of Jonas' classroom. It was the understatement of the year. She looked beautiful in that suit, and her new glasses accentuated her soft brown eyes.

"Thank you," Joyce said. "I'm Lesbian Buddy Holly."

"It's unlike you to dress up as a white guy," I said.

"Dani, you don't get it. Buddy Holly changed the world. He paved the way for the rest of us. He was one of the first rock artists to write his own songs, and he standardized the guitar, bass, and drums ensemble, while at the same time being one of the first rock artists to use non-standard instrumentation. Music wouldn't be the same without him, and he died when he was only a year older than me.

"Take the Beatles, for example. They named themselves after Buddy Holly and the Crickets. The Beatles wouldn't have even had the same name without Buddy Holly.

"How about Bob Dylan? He saw Buddy Holly live, and so did Mick Jagger and Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards even based his guitar playing on Buddy Holly's. Anyways..."

In the middle of Joyce's rant, a freshman dressed up as Elton John walked by. "Hey, do you know where the Science Library is?" he asked. "My biology class is meeting there today, and I'm a little lost."

"You wouldn't even be wearing glasses if it wasn't for me!" Joyce exclaimed.

"Who are you?" the kid asked.

"BUDDY FUCKING HOLLY!" Joyce shouted.

"The Science Library is on the third floor," I said. "I can walk you there if you want."

"No, I think I've got it," the freshman said. "Thank you."

He walked away, and Joyce continued ranting about Buddy Holly. "Anyways, it's safe to say that every musician working today has either been directly or indirectly influenced by Buddy Holly. He showed all of the nerdy kids like you and I that they can be rock stars too. He gave us hope. Also, I'm not Buddy Holly. I'm Lesbian Buddy Holly."

"That's great, Joyce, but why do you care?" I asked. "You listen to classical."

"I don't just listen to classical," Joyce said. "Also, I know most people listen to pop and rock. I love Buddy Holly because I love you..."

I smiled, unable to believe what I was hearing.

"...and everyone else who listens to rock music. Anyways, we should probably do some more research on Everglades fish species. When do you want to work on it?"

"I'm free tonight or tomorrow afternoon," I said.

"I have class tomorrow afternoon, but I'm not doing anything tonight," Joyce said. "Do you want to just work on it right now? We can always go to Jonas' office if we run into any trouble."

"That sounds good," I said, and the two of us headed upstairs into the Science Library. The kid dressed up as Elton John glared at us as we walked inside, but we soon found a spot nestled amongst the bookshelves. It wasn't quite as comfy as sitting in the beanbag chair in Jonas' office, but being mere inches away from Joyce made up for it.

We both took out our laptops and started searching for journal articles. "Hey, I found a good one from a professor at Ohio State," Joyce said. "I'll put it on our shared Google Doc."

"My sister's applying to Ohio State as a safety school," I said.

"You're from Ohio, right?"

"Yeah, I'm from a suburb of Cleveland."

"How did you end up in Florida?"

"I wanted to go to a liberal arts school, and this was the best one that I could get into. I visited here during my junior year, and I just fell in love with Egmont," I said. "Also, my great aunt lives here."

"That's cool," Joyce said. "I don't think I could ever be so far away from my family though. I have three younger siblings, and I like being close enough that I can visit them whenever I want."

"You have three siblings?"

"Four, actually. My older sister graduated from college already, and she lives in Atlanta."

"I could never handle four siblings. I love Sydney, but I wouldn't want another sister."

"Sometimes I love having a big family, but a lot of the time it's just difficult. I don't see my cousins very often, since they live abroad, so it's nice having at least some other kids around."

"Where do your cousins live?"

"My extended family on my dad's side live in Denmark, and my mom's side is from Nicaragua. We visit them every few years, but it's not enough."

"That's really neat. Aunt Shirley is the only member of my family that lives outside of Ohio."

"What do you think of Florida, by the way?"

"Most of the time, I love it, but sometimes, it just feels so fake," I said. "It's a little like Las Vegas."

"I think it's just the Gulf Coast that's like that. You should come to Miami sometime. It's completely different from here." She paused and then said, "I'm totally going to sound like Holden Caulfield if I say this, but Southwest Florida is full of phonies."

I laughed and said, "I get what you mean."

"Just don't judge the whole state by this little corner of it."

"You know, I really haven't been anywhere in Florida outside of Egmont Beach. Mom, Dad, Sydney, and I went to Disney World when I was seven, and I visited Aunt Shirley a few times before I started college here, but that's about it."

"We both need to get out of Egmont Beach," Joyce said. "Before long, we're going to start turning into those old ladies who push their dogs around in a stroller on campus."

"I've seen them do that, and I think it's crazy," I said, laughing. "Are we going to paint the dog's nails too?"

"Of course. We're going to treat them like furry little children, just like everyone else who lives in Egmont Beach," Joyce said. "By the way, are you doing anything tonight?"

"I don't know," I said. "I might just stay in my dorm and catch up on my homework."

"Come on, Dani! It's Halloween!" Joyce exclaimed. "You have to go out tonight."

"I don't know about that..."

"My friend Nico is throwing a party in the Greenway lounge. I think you should come."

I thought about it for a moment. It was the same party that Aditi had mentioned over breakfast, so most of my friends would probably already be there. Getting to see Joyce in her Lesbian Buddy Holly costume one more time would just make the experience even better. "I might show up," I said.

"Great," Joyce said. "I think we've made enough progress on the worksheet for today, and I should probably get something to eat before the party. I'll see you there!"

We had hardly made any progress at all, so I stayed in the Science Library for another hour or so, searching in every available database for relevant articles. I was far more productive when Joyce wasn't around, but I missed her company.

I walked to Greenway Hall just as the sun was beginning to set over the Gulf of Mexico. As I opened the door and entered the lounge, I was hit with the smells of sugar and vodka. Greenway was nothing like it was when I went there for D&D. There were at least five times as many people there, and instead of circling around a table and calmly discussing the campaign, they were scattered throughout the room, trying to shout over the music and everyone else's conversations.

Aditi greeted me as soon as I entered the lounge. She was still dressed up as Sherlock Holmes, and she had a half-eaten chocolate bar in one hand and a plastic cup in the other. "Dani!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're here."

"Yeah, me too," I lied. Already, I wanted to leave, but I also didn't want to go home without seeing Joyce one more time.

I looked around for her, but she wasn't hard to find. A girl with a pair of devil horns on her head had brought a karaoke machine, and within a few minutes, there were a bunch of people crowded around the machine, waiting for their turn to sing. After a few mediocre singers, Joyce took the microphone, and unsurprisingly, she decided to sing a Buddy Holly song.

Everyday it's a-gettin' closer

Goin' faster than a rollercoaster

Love like yours will surely come my way

A-hey, a-hey-hey

Love like yours will surely come my way

When she sang "love like yours" for the last time, she pointed out into the crowd. Maybe I was imagining things, but I swore that she pointed right at me.

That moment didn't leave my head all week. When I went to work that weekend, I was still thinking about how Joyce had looked in those glasses and the sound of her voice. It was the only thing that could get me through the drudgery of my job.

I did everything that I was supposed to do, but when I got a moment to myself, I snuck away from the zoo visitors and sat down on the pool deck, my legs dangling in the water. Spock was the only dolphin in that pool - the other two were in the other pool, where the zoo guests could watch them swim. As usual, he was floating listlessly on the surface, barely registering my presence. "Hey there," I said to him.

Spock chirped quietly, as if he was greeting me too.

"You've probably had a better week than I have, haven't you?"

He floated at the top of the water, clearly uninterested in what I was saying.

"Hey, at least your former best friend isn't following you home from work every day," I said. "I don't know what Blake wants, but I'm scared, Spock. Our friendship didn't exactly end on the best terms."

Spock lifted his head slightly to get a better look at me, and then went back to floating.

"The only thing that makes me happy these days is this girl named Joyce," I said. "She's in my biology class, and she's so cute, but she's definitely giving me mixed signals."

Spock was still lying motionless in the water. I should have known better than to tell a dolphin about my love life.

"I just don't know what to do anymore," I admitted.

Spock was still frozen in place.

"What do you want, Spock? Are you hungry or something?"

Spock chirped quietly, and I went into the supply closet, grabbed a fish, and held it over the water. When Spock didn't move, I tossed it into the water, right in front of his snout. "Are you happy now?" I asked as Spock ate the fish and then swam into the other pool, where the visitors could see him. The only sound was my voice echoing through the room.

On my way home, as Blake followed me all the way back to the college, I realized that I was going off the deep end too. I wasn't sure whether it was Blake or Joyce that had finally made me crack, but the fact that was talking to dolphins now definitely wasn't a good sign. I decided to Skype Tanner when I got home. We hadn't spoken in a while, and talking to my friends and family back home usually did a good job of keeping me grounded.

As Blake drove away, I got out of the car and walked back to Wallace Hall. Once I was safely in my dorm room, I turned my computer on and Skyped Tanner.

It took him a few minutes, but he picked up. "Hey Dani," he said. "I wasn't really expecting you to call..."

"I can call you another time if that works better," I said.

"No, it's okay. I didn't want to work on that Poli Sci paper anyways." Tanner laughed and then asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," I said. "How's your senior year so far?"

"It's pretty tough, but that's to be expected at Oberlin. I just can't believe that I'm graduating in the fall. College went by way too fast."

"I get that. High school feels like yesterday sometimes."

"You know, my girlfriend and I watched all of the Star Wars movies in a row last night, and I don't think I've made that many jokes about the prequels since I was in Quiz Bowl. Remember that time when we played Coarse and Rough vs. Irritating and Gets Everywhere?"

"Yeah, I remember that I was the only one who didn't get the joke. What about the time when we played Episode VII vs. The Expanded Universe?"

"That was the first time you played! That was a good time."

We reminisced about our Quiz Bowl days, trading memories back and forth until I blurted out, "You know, there's this girl in my biology class who knows Madeline."

"Madeline?" Tanner said. "I haven't heard from her since she stopped showing up to Quiz Bowl."

"You know why she stopped showing up, right?"

"No, I don't," Tanner said. "She never told me." I was surprised, to say the least. Tanner must have noticed, because he asked, "Do you know?"

I paused and then said, "It's up to Madeline to tell you if she wants. Anyways, she apparently went to Julliard."

"I'd believe that. She was an incredible cellist back in high school."

"There's a recording of her playing on YouTube. That's how Joyce found her. I'll send you the link later."

"Have you talked to Devon recently?"

"Not really. He and I kind of drifted apart."

"That's a shame. Last I heard, he was studying math at Carnegie Mellon. You know, given how dysfunctional we all were in high school, all of us Quiz Bowl kids are doing pretty well for ourselves now."

You don't know the half of it, I thought to myself.

We talked for a little bit longer, mostly about Tanner's friends and how many papers he had due in the next week. He had just told me about something funny that his professor had said when all of a sudden, my phone started ringing. "I should probably take this call," I told Tanner after glancing at my phone. "It's from my great aunt. I'll talk to you later."

"See you later, Dani," Tanner said. "Maybe we could hang out over winter break or something."

"I still don't know what I'm doing over winter break. I might just stay in Florida."

"That's smart," Tanner said. "Anyways, keep me posted, and I'll talk to you another time."

"Bye Tanner," I said. I turned off my computer, but the phone had stopped ringing. However, Aunt Shirley had left a voicemail, and I listened to it.

"Hi Dani," Aunt Shirley said. "I thought it might be nice for us to spend some time together while you're down here. Call or text me and let me know what you'd like to do. I'll see you soon!"

I immediately texted Aunt Shirley, asking her if she wanted to explore the Everglades. "There are some good places in the Wetland Research Area to go hiking," I told her.

"Why don't we go to that zoo where you work instead?" Aunt Shirley texted back. "There's less mud there."

I personally wouldn't have minded getting a little bit of dirt on my shoes if it meant that I could see some wild animals, but I did want to keep my great aunt happy, so I texted her, "Sure. I can show you around."

Aunt Shirley and I made plans to go to the zoo and dinner after my classes finished on Friday. Throughout the week, I looked forward to our trip to the zoo, even if I had other things on my mind. There was the class project that Joyce and I had barely started on, studying for the psych class that I already regretted taking, and of course, there was still D&D on Friday night. Knowing our DM, it would probably be another uninspired dungeon crawl, but uninspired dungeon crawls were what I needed at that point.

Joyce asked me if I could work on our project after Jonas' class, but I said, "I'm going to dinner with my great aunt, and then I have D&D. Can we work on it tomorrow?"

"I guess so," Joyce said. I hated that I would have to wait until the next day to see her, but I reminded myself that Joyce Nielsen wasn't the only person in the world, as nice as that would be.

Aunt Shirley had said that she would pick me up in front of the Rhodes Center, but when I left the building, stepping around the Egmont Panther again, I didn't see her. I wasn't surprised. Aunt Shirley was usually late, so I sat down in front of the Rhodes Center, and ten minutes later, a sleek, black luxury car pulled up in front of the science building.

Aunt Shirley rolled down the windows. She was wearing sunglasses, and her white hair was perfectly styled as she shouted, "Dani! Are you ready for a ride in Rupert?"

Yes, my great aunt names her cars, but if you drove a Bentley, wouldn't you do the same thing?

I got into her car, and as usual, there was music playing. It was the same song as the one that Joyce sang on Halloween, so as Aunt Shirley headed toward the zoo, I turned up the music. "I'm surprised," Aunt Shirley said. "Usually you switch to that alternative station you like right away." I shrugged, and Aunt Shirley asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," I said. "How are you?"

"You know how it is," Aunt Shirley said. "My neighbors are nuts, Dorothy wants to sue me over business decisions that I made over fifty years ago, and my great-niece is on her way to becoming the best marine biologist in the world."

"Thanks, Aunt Shirley," I said.

"How's Sydney doing?" Aunt Shirley asked.

"She's kind of busy with college applications."

"Surely, she's not too busy to call her great aunt every once in a while."

"I don't know, but next time I talk to her, I'll remind her to call you. She probably just forgot."

Aunt Shirley shook her head, mumbling something about how kids these days are so forgetful, but before we could keep arguing over Sydney, Aunt Shirley arrived at the Egmont Zoo. I showed her around, taking her to each exhibit, but she didn't seem particularly interested in the animals. Even the dolphins didn't captivate her. McCoy jumped around like crazy, and we spotted Kirk swimming past us through the glass, but Aunt Shirley seemed more interested in telling me how the zoo could spend its money more efficiently.

"Is there anything in that garage back there?" she asked, gesturing toward the garage behind the dolphin exhibit. I was surprised that she brought it up - not many people even noticed that it was there.

"Not really," I said, doubting that Aunt Shirley wanted to hear about my D&D rulebooks. I had tried explaining Dungeons and Dragons to my great aunt before, but she didn't really get it.

"It's such a waste of money. The zoo could knock it down and build another exhibit there." I wanted to argue with her, but I was too busy staring up at the giraffes to pay much attention. "Come on, Dani. We've already seen the giraffes."

"They're cool," I said.

Aunt Shirley walked away, forcing me to follow her. We headed into the parking lot, and as she drove to a nearby restaurant, there wasn't a red Mazda in sight. I wasn't sure why Blake hadn't followed me, but perhaps it was simply because he hadn't recognized Aunt Shirley's car. I could believe that - our cars looked nothing alike. I wanted to think that Blake was done stalking me, but some part of me knew that he wasn't. There were definitely more tricks up his sleeve.

Aunt Shirley and I went out to dinner, and I relaxed a bit as I ate my panini and chatted with her. I was back in a familiar routine: making Aunt Shirley think that I was doing okay. I didn't mention any of the less than stellar grades that I had gotten, and I didn't even think about mentioning Joyce or Blake to her. Aunt Shirley knew even less than Tanner did about what had happened during my junior year, and I had never properly come out to her. I wasn't sure what she would think of me if she knew that I was gay, and I didn't want to find out.

After dinner, Aunt Shirley drove me back to Egmont College, pulling over and dropping me off in front of Greenway Hall. She then looked at the fuel gauge and said, "Rupert needs more gas. Dani, I'll see you later."

"Bye Aunt Shirley," I said as I hopped out of her car. However, I soon realized that I had forgotten my backpack in her car, which had my copy of the Player's Handbook and my character sheet in it. "AUNT SHIRLEY!" I shouted as she started to drive away.

Aunt Shirley stopped and rolled down the windows of her car. "What is it?" she asked.

"I forgot my Player's Handbook and character sheet in your car," I said.

"What's a Player's Handbook?" Aunt Shirley asked as I opened up the door and grabbed my backpack.

"It's a D&D thing," I said as she rolled her eyes.

I said goodbye to her again once I had my backpack, and then I walked up the hill until I reached Aditi's dorm. When I opened the door, she was in the lounge, but none of the other members of the party were there yet. "You're a little early, Dani," Aditi said.

"Yeah, I know," I said. "I went out to dinner with my great aunt, and she dropped me off here a little bit early."

"Oh, okay," Aditi said. "How's that Florida Everglades class you're taking? I'm thinking about taking it senior year."

"It's amazing. I couldn't recommend it more, but..."

"But what?"

"We have this project right now, and I'm working with Joyce Nielsen."

"That's the girl you like, isn't it?" When I gave her a strange look, she said, "It's blatantly obvious, Dani. You should ask her out already."

"I don't think she likes me that much," I said. "She probably just thinks of me as a friend."

"Come on. You two would make an adorable couple."

"I don't know, Aditi," I said.

Thankfully, Kara, Jermaine, and Wyatt all walked into the lounge, interrupting our conversation. "You're late to your own D&D campaign," Aditi said to Wyatt.

"I had a lot of homework," the Dungeon Master said, but it was a weak excuse.

The rest of our party arrived shortly afterwards, and the game began. At last, all of my worries floated away. There was nothing left but Darkhan Carter and her fellow adventurers. Not even Lesbian Buddy Holly could distract me from my quest.