Chapter 1

~Grant~

       All holidays were always so important here in the village of Spruceworth; Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Diwali, New Year's, Canada Day, everything. Whenever any holiday rolled around, the whole village would decorate their shops, even if the owners didn't personally celebrate the holiday.

       Spruceworth had always been so inclusive.

       Since Halloween was right around the corner, that was what everyone was decorating for. I wasn't living at my home so I didn't have a place to decorate, which was why I was helping with the city hall.

       Well, much rather decorating it by myself. Someone was supposed to be helping me but he was too busy napping on one of the benches in the city hall courtyard.

       I was standing on a ladder, attaching fake webs onto one of the windows when the mayor walked out of the city hall. "Great job, Grant," he said. "It's coming along great."

       "Of course it is," I said. "Because I'm the one doing all the decorating. Alone. With no help."

       "I thought you got help," he said.

       I gestured towards the sleeping teenager on the bench. I tried waking him up numerous of times, even by throwing decorations at him, but he just pushed them off of him in his sleep or even let them stay on him.

       "You have other grandchildren," I said. "And even great-grandchildren. How come I have to be the only one to decorate the city hall?"

       "Because you're the artistic one of the family," Grandpa said. "I want to beat the village out for the best decorations and I can't do that with any of my other grandchildren or great-grandchildren helping out."

       "There's not even a competition for the best decorations," I said. "You don't have to beat everyone so it would be great if you can, I don't know, get other people to help. And I'm pretty sure Destiny and Kenny have an artistic side too being theatre kids. They've had their share helping with set designs and stuff like that."

       "Grant, my grandchild, why haven't you mentioned that before?" Grandpa asked. "I knew the were theatre kids but I had no idea they helped with set designs. I shall give them a call right away."

       "Good," I said. "Because I'm close to quitting."

       Grandpa just chuckled before walking off to call Kenny and Destiny, seeing if they would be able to help decorate. 

       I got back to work with the spider web decoration and once I finished putting it up, I climbed off of the ladder to admire my work. Since it was done by me, it was absolutely flawless. Too bad I was already annoyed with decorating since I was the only one doing it.

       I looked back at the bench where Ollie was still sleeping and normally, I would let him nap but he did promise he would help me decorate, and I couldn't have him break his promise. 

       So I picked up the box of fake spider webs before walking over to Ollie and dumping it on top of him. I was hoping he wouldn't just push it off of him like he had been doing with the other decorations.

       Thankfully, he didn't. He actually woke up this time before noticing there were a bunch of fake spider webs on him. He pushed them off of him before looking up at me. "Seriously?" he asked.

       "What?" I asked. "You promised you would help me decorate but here you are, napping instead."

       Ollie sighed as he sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Sorry. I had a hard time falling asleep last night."

       "Why?" I asked.

       "The usual," Ollie said before standing up from the bench. "I'll help you now. What else is there to do?"

       "A lot," I said. "But my grandpa is giving two of my cousins a call to see if they can come help so we're not the only one doing it. We can just continue working on the spider webs."

       Ollie nodded and put the webs I dumped on him back into the box before we decided where we were going to put the next bunch. We chose yet another window, so we moved the ladder over and Ollie said he would put the webs on while I handed him what he needed.

       I gave him some to start off with and while he was doing so, Grandpa walked over. "Kenny is busy, but Destiny is able to come with her kids to help out."

       "Finally I'll be getting some help around here," I said which caused Ollie to glare at me. "Don't look at me like that. You were sleeping and you're just helping me now."

       "Ooh, speaking of help," Grandpa said as his sight set on something nearby. I looked over to see my sister and my friend walking by. "Hennessy, my dear grandchild, why don't you and Vikram come help us set up the Halloween decorations? I'm just an old man who can't do much work."

       "Yet you're the mayor who does a lot of work," I pointed out.

       "Don't sass me, child," Grandpa said.

       "Well, either way, Hennessy isn't going to help," I said. "She doesn't want to be anywhere near me. And she's not going to put her stubbornness aside just to help her dear, old grandfather."

       Hennessy crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me. "I'll have you know that I was actually going to agree to help out. That's why Vikram and I are here in the first place."

       "Whoa, what's up with you two?" Grandpa asked. "Yes, you two argue all the time but this? I feel some tension in the air. Come, tell your grandfather what the issue is."

       "Ask him," Hennessy said as she glared at me yet again before going to where the decorations were to start setting up.

       Vikram sighed. "Why am I caught in the middle of this mess? I'm actually considering not being friends with any of you until you figure all of this out."

       "Rude," I said as Vikram also walked to the decorations.

       "So..." Grandpa said. "What's going on with you and your sister?"

       "You actually don't know?" I asked. "I thought someone would have told you considering Mom basically kicked me out of the house and I crashed at Destiny's for a bit."

       "A day," Ollie corrected, keeping his focus on the spider webs. I could tell the feud between me and my sister made him feel awkward so I tried my best to leave him out of it, or at least not bring it up around him, but it was kind of hard since he was basically part of the feud too. Unintentionally, but still part of it.

       "Same thing," I said. "I'm still not living at home."

       "And how come I wasn't made aware of this," Grandpa said. "If you need a place to stay, you're more than welcomed at my house."

       "Oh, no, it's fine, I've been staying with Ollie," I said. "And about me and Hennessy, to keep a long story short, she likes Ollie too."

       "That's why your mom kicked you out?" Grandpa asked.

       "Well, you know her," I said. "Always taking Hennessy's side because I'm too much like my dad."

       "You do know that's not a bad thing, right?" Grandpa asked. "He was an amazing man. Him being an alcoholic shouldn't make him any less than a man. It wasn't his fault he couldn't get away from it."

       "I know," I said. "But Mom doesn't know that. Same with Hennessy. Can we change the subject now? It's getting a bit depressing." I looked up at Ollie. "You need any more webs? Or even fake spiders?"

       "I'll take some more web, and then spiders after," Ollie said so I gave him some more web.

       Shortly after, someone tapped my leg so I looked down to see Destiny's son Harry smiling up at me. I couldn't help but smile as I knelt down to give him a hug. He immediately threw his arms tightly around me. Destiny had four kids and I really didn't want to pick a favourite, but that was kind of impossible with how adorable Harry is.

       I just didn't tell Anastasia, Ace, or Delta.

       I probably would eventually.

       When I pulled away from the hug, I signed to Harry, asking if he wanted to help me and Ollie with the decorations. He nodded excitingly before grabbing an armful of the spider webs. There was a bush nearby that could use the webs, so I told Ollie I was heading their with my four year old second cousin.

       "Before you go," Ollie said, stopping his decoration as he looked at me. "Have you ever been in the city hall before?"

       "All the time," I said. "Why?"

       "Has it always looked so spooky?" Ollie asked.

       I furrowed my eyebrows and looked inside the window Ollie was decorating, seeing the normal foyer of the city hall. "What are you talking about? It looks completely normal."

       "I'm talking about the flickering lights, the shadowy figures, and the curtains moving even though there's no wind," Ollie said.

       "...Are you drunk?"

       "What? No. I'm trying to be sober, you know that."

       "Okay, but nothing that you're seeing is actually there. Are you sure you're not drunk?"

       "Yes, Grant. I'm very much drunk even though I never drank today. I swear, I'm seeing the weirdest things in the window. I can't be the only one."

       "Well, you are. Maybe you need more sleep. You did say you had a hard time falling asleep last night."

       Harry started tugging on my leg so I looked down at him and when I did, he signed, Ghost. I furrowed my eyebrows, asking where before he pointed to the window Ollie was decorating.

       "Well you actually aren't the only one," I said. "Harry said he saw a ghost. It's probably just my grandpa's decorations inside."

       "If it was, you would see it too," Ollie pointed out and I couldn't reply because I had no explanation for it.

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woo the story is beginning! i also love my precious bean that is harry <3 i wanna hug him so much.

i also love grant and ollie so much <3

i also love julian so much <3 idc if he wasn't mentioned in here. i still love him.

i'm also trying to find a cast for grant. i'm thinking of using troye sivan even though i already have him cast in another book. i have used sabrina carpenter twice in the exact same series, and troye's two characters would be in different series

long story short, yay or nay for troye as grant?

i'm still trying to figure out POVs and stuff but i knew ollie/grant were for sure going to get one, so i gave the first one to grant. i'm probably going to choose pairs to be in the story/share a storyline and they would just alternate throughout the cycle.

like (just for explanation) if i only chose grant/ollie, shaw/holden, dan/destiny, the povs would go grant, shaw, dan, ollie, holden, destiny.

yeah idk why i had to say that lol. i could just do the povs without explanation and you all would just go along with it.