A chill hung in the air as the Hawkins summer months left in a haste, the leaves turning orange as fall began to take up residence in the small town in Indiana. As Halloween drew closer and closer, decorations dotted the front lawns of nearly every house in town, its residents becoming excited for the spooky time of year. This included the Henderson family, as Anna, Dustin, and Claudia had spent nearly the entire weekend leading up to Anna's seventeenth birthday decorating the front yard with gravestones, jack-o-lanterns, and enough orange lights to illuminate the entire block.

"Son of a bitch!" Dustin's voice echoed from the other room, causing Anna to peek out from her bedroom door to see her younger brother upending the couch cushions in the den in a desperate search for something she couldn't figure out. "Son of a bitch!"

When searching under the couch cushions seemed to be of no avail, Dustin rushed into the living room where Claudia sat with Mews watching the evening news, leaving the sofa upturned in disarray in his haste. Anna followed after him, quickly fixing the cushions he'd left behind and entering the living room to see him doing the same to the other couch, from which he pulled out a small copper coin before looking at it in disgust.

"Another stupid penny," he sighed, tossing it behind him and narrowly missing Claudia as Mews began to meow in protest.

"Dusty, watch it!" Claudia scolded. "You almost hit Mews."

"Can I please check under your cushions?" he asked her, eyeing the chair she sat in.

"Dusty," Claudia chided.

"Mom, please?" Dustin asked. "It's an emergency!"

Claudia groaned in response, less than thrilled about being booted from her chair, and Dustin mimicked the groan as she stood up, cradling Mews close as he continued to meow. "Who's your buddy? Who's your buddy?" Claudia murmured to Mews, attempting to calm down the disgruntled feline.

Dustin searched through the cushions, smiling as he retrieved two quarters, and looked back up at Claudia gratefully. "Love you, Mom!" he shouted, running past Anna and back towards his bedroom.

"Well, then..." Claudia murmured again, sitting back down in her chair with Mews in her lap. "Annie, are you going out tonight, too?"

"Yeah," Anna replied. "Landon's mom's out tonight, so we're having a movie night at his house, and then I'll probably just stay the night either there or at Becca's."

"Well, have fun," she said. "Tell your friends hi for me."

Anna smiled, ducking back into her bedroom to finish getting ready for the evening as Dustin's muffled voice sounded through the wall connecting the two rooms, conversing with his friends over his walkie talkie. Anna grabbed a pair of overnight clothes from her dresser, stuffing them into her backpack as Dustin finished his call, now leaning against her door frame as he began to knock on the open door.

"I need a favor," Dustin said, causing Anna to look back over at him as she zipped up her backpack.

"What kind of favor?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared back at him quizzically.

"A few quarters kind of favor?" he asked, puffing out his lower lip in a pleading gesture.

"No," Anna deadpanned.

"Pleaseeee?" Dustin begged, bringing his hands together as he continued to plead. "I'll pay you back, I promise!"

"That's what you said last time," she reminded him, slinging the backpack over her shoulders. "You still owe me a dollar."

"And I'll pay you back as soon as I find more." he insisted. "Please, Anna? I'll do all your chores this weekend."

"And next weekend?" she pressed.

"Deal!" he exclaimed, desperately.

Anna sighed as her brother continued to give her the puppy dog eyes. "Fine," she sighed, grabbing her purse from her bed and rummaging around inside until she found her coin purse, pulling out eight more quarters. "But the kitchen better be spotless."

"You got it!" he assured her excitedly as she deposited the quarters into his hand. "Thanks Anna, you're the best, love you, bye!" he yelled in a rush, disappearing as he raced out of her room and towards the front door to get his bike and meet his friends.

As Dustin left, Anna grabbed her things, bidding her mom goodbye and heading out to where her car waited in its new regular spot on the side of the road at the end of the driveway, conveniently just out of sight from the window in the living room so her family would never notice Anna's car gone in the middle of the night. When Claudia had first asked about the switch, Anna insisted it was simply easier to park on the street than in the driveway, so she never worried about her car blocking her mother's in, and to Anna's relief, Claudia agreed, not thinking twice about the switch or her daughter's potential ulterior motives.

Anna reached the Forest Hills Trailer Park, the gravel crunching under her tires as she followed the familiar path to Landon's trailer. The light was on inside, illuminating the window enough for Anna to make out three figures inside, alerting her that Becca and Michelle had already arrived. Anna parked next to Becca's car in the grass, killing the engine and grabbing the bag of chips she'd bought earlier that day for the occasion as she hurried up the steps, knocking on the door.

"You're late," Landon chided playfully as he opened the door, stepping aside to let her in. "I thought maybe we'd have to start without you."

"Arcade fund emergency," she said, waving it off as she stepped further into the living room, setting the bags of chips next to the other snacks each of them had brought for movie night that evening. "So, what are we watching?"

"I got these two from Family Video earlier today," Becca explained, holding up a VHS in each hand, one reading Children of the Corn while the other read Footloose. "Figured we'd put it to a vote."

"I voted for Children of the Corn," Landon explained. "But so far, I'm outvoted by these two for Footloose."

"Two words," Michelle retorted. "Kevin Bacon."

"Yes, thank you," Becca agreed, giving Michelle a high five.

"Alright Anna, help me out here." Landon said. "Vote with me and we tie and move onto Heads or Tails to decide, or betray me and vote with them."

Anna looked over at the tapes Becca still held onto, studying the covers of each of them. To Landon's credit, Halloween was only a few days away, and a horror movie wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, moving them into a tiebreaker game to let the fate of a quarter decide their entertainment for the evening. On the other hand... a guaranteed two hours of looking at Kevin Bacon on a screen didn't sound like such a terrible idea.

"I'm so sorry, Landon, but I think I'm going to have to vote Footloose." Anna said as Becca and Michelle began to cheer excitedly.

"Boom!" Becca exclaimed. "I knew I could count on you, Anns."

"Yeah, yeah," Landon playfully rolled his eyes as he took the Footloose tape from Becca's outstretched hand, taking it out of the case and placing it in the VCR.

Anna grabbed a can of root beer from the table along with one of the chocolate chip cookies from the container Michelle brought, leaning back on the couch as Landon got the movie ready. "So where's your mom at tonight?" Becca asked, flipping the light switch so the four of them were bathed in darkness, except for the illuminated screen of the television. "Night shift at the hospital?"

"Nah," Landon said, shaking his head, a tone evident in his voice that Anna couldn't quite discern. "She's got a date tonight."

"A date?" Becca and Michelle chorused excitedly as the movie intro began to play.

"Go Eliza," Anna mused, smirking. "Have you met the guy?"

"Yeah," he explained. "He lives a few trailers down, Wayne Munson. He's Eddie's uncle."

"Eddie?" Becca asked. "That guy who gave you a ride to Jason's party over the summer? The one who sells weed and is repeating senior year?"

Landon nodded. "He's not so bad." he assured them. "He gives me rides to school sometimes. Yeah, he can be obnoxious at times, but he's harmless. Mostly just plays guitar loud enough for the entire park to hear and re-enacts battle scenes from his D and D games with his friends outside."

"He sits in front of me in Click's class." Anna added. "He seems okay."

"So Wayne's a good guy then?" Michelle asked.

"Yeah, seems to be," Landon said. "I mean, he can't be any worse than my old man. I just want her to be happy, you know?"

The girls nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I get what you mean." Michelle assured him. "My mom's been dating that Bob guy for a few months now and she seems happy. He's really nice, even if he doesn't have much in common with me and my brothers. He tries, though. Anything's better than Lonnie, anyways."

The conversation lulled as the movie officially began, and the group watched amidst handfuls of popcorn, cookies, and potato chips as it continued to play. Even Landon found himself getting into the spirit as the music played, dancing along in their spots at the catchy tunes. When the movie finally came to an end, Landon flipped the light switch back on before retrieving the movie from the VCR and passing it to Becca, who shoved it into her backpack.

"Well, if Eliza's out with Wayne more nights, we'll have to do this more often." Becca suggested with a smile, causing Landon to roll his eyes again once more, though a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"Only if I get to pick the movie next time." Landon retorted, opening the trailer door for the girls as the cool October air began to drift inside.

"I think we can manage that," Anna agreed, reaching up to ruffle Landon's hair, but he playfully swatted her hand away. "Later, Roberts."

The four friends bid each other goodbye as Anna got into her car, and Michelle followed Becca into hers, getting a ride home from the Harrington girl. Anna watched as Becca's red car disappeared from sight around the corner, and Anna followed suit, taking a left out of Forest Hills, but when she got to Cornwallis, she took another left, heading in the direction of the Henderson house so as to not raise suspicion if Becca were to catch Anna's car in her rearview mirror.

Anna drove around aimlessly for a few minutes, giving Becca time to drop Michelle off at home and get back to her house, not wanting to risk the blonde discovering Anna's car parked in its usual spot a block over. When she finally deemed the coast safe, she took the quickest route back to Cornwallis, stashing her car and crunching through the leaves on her way back to the Harringtons' backyard, pulling her jacket tighter around her as she shivered in the chilly night air.

She climbed her usual path up the trellis, seeing Becca's bedroom light on and checking to make sure the coast was clear before passing and pausing in front of the unlocked window on the other side of the top floor. She slid it open, ducking inside and closing it behind her to reveal Steve sitting at his desk, working on homework to the dim light of his lamp.

"Hey, roomie," Steve greeted in a soft voice, looking up from his work just long enough to shoot Anna a grin. "How was the movie?"

"Good," Anna said. "What are you working on?"

"Oh, it's just this stupid essay for early admissions for college," he explained, frustration lacing his tone. "Nancy thinks applying early will help my chances of getting in, I just have to write the damn thing first." he shook his head. "It's probably time to call it a night, though."

Steve rose from his desk without another word, placing his things back into his backpack before excusing himself to the bathroom, giving Anna enough privacy to change into her overnight clothes, as was their usual routine since beginning their newfound sleeping arrangement. As soon as she was dressed, Anna climbed into her usual side of the bed, grateful to finally be sleeping for more than a few hours each night, and Steve rejoined her a few minutes later, turning off the light of the lamp as darkness fell over the room.

Steve had claimed the arrangement must be working, as he hadn't yet needed to catch her before she found her way back into the pool, but Anna couldn't shake the fear that, one day when she might need him, he'd be nowhere to be found.