I THINK THE KIDS ARE GETTING TOO EXCITED TOO EARLY WHEN IT'S NOT EVEN Devil's Night yet." Kat was in the garage, checking under the hood of her Lumina APV. She thought she'd heard a funny rattling sound earlier, and wasn't sure where to look. She wasn't going to mention it to Damien. He'd already made too much of the fact that she didn't know much about cars and he did. He had to, owning two Lamborghinis. One of those Lamborghinis, a big silver LM 002 [sic] that looked to her like a narrower version of the Hummer, sat outside the garage right now. [Note--did they HAVE Hummers back then?? I have no clue.] Dino Garris sat on a crate nearby, dividing his already distracted glances between the Chevy and the Lamborghini. He was itching to go try out the big vehicle's seats, but knew it would be a bad idea. He knew that from experience.
"I dunno about that. I loved Halloween when I was little. Heck, I'd still be out there picking up candy if I could!" He gave a weird laugh and then cocked his head, looking confused. "Then again, I never could eat any of it, not unless I wanted to slip into a coma or something..."
Kat ignored him. The fact that he didn't appear to have yet discovered NutraSweet didn't surprise her too much. There was a lot he wasn't sure about yet.
"I wish I knew what was causing that darn rattling," she muttered, poking around absently with a stick. "Like there's rocks in the gas tank, only up front..."
"Ask Dami. He should know."
Kat gave him a dirty look. Dino's face brightened as if he hadn't seen her at all.
"Oh! Hey! That reminds me! I was gonna tell the kids, I thought they might like it, but maybe it's for older people..."
"What is?" Kat asked, after waiting a moment for him to clarify.
He shook his head as if snapping out of a daze. "Oh. This dance the school's holding. Not a student dance. The high school, I mean. It's for Halloween. I was gonna tell Harvey and Ez about it, but I s'pose it's for older people, 'cause they're gonna use the money for something, donate it or something, I dunno." [Note--yet again with the dancing...as I said in the original draft of this novel, it seemed I'd use any excuse I could to get music and dancing in my stories!]
Kat grimaced. "A Halloween dance? There's an oxymoron." [Note--I have no idea what she means by this. Huh.]
Dino's face screwed up. "Oxy-what?"
"Never mind." She leaned back towards the van. "May as well drop it. It probably goes on late. The kids aren't supposed to be up past ten."
"Aw, c'mon, they're only kids..." His attention drifted again as Damien's Countach pulled in, and he drifted away himself, no longer caring for the bedtime rights of children under eight.
Kat scowled when Damien got out and saw her and came right her way.
"Hi, Kat. Car trouble?"
"It's fine. I'm just taking a look at it. You mind?"
He gave her a disgustingly sweet smile. "Not at all. You can look at it all you want. By the way, did you notice that funny rattling sound it was making last time you drove off?" [Note--*LMFAO.*]
Kat's scowl deepened. She stood up, nearly banging her head on the hood--and threw back her arms. "Go on, go ahead, I know it's killing you. What do I know about cars anyway? I'm just the stupid woman."
"No, you're not stupid anything, Kat," Damien replied, still with that annoying smile, as he came around to the front of the vehicle. "You're just automotively challenged."
He broke off with "Ow!" when the stick Kat had been holding struck the back of his shoulder. She snorted and stomped off, stopping only once to kick at the LM 002's [sic] front tire. Dino whirled away from the Countach to catch the absolutely horrified look that passed across Damien's face; Kat saw it too and smirked, disappearing inside.
"I'm telling you, Dami, you kick her tire back," Dino prattled, coming up to join him. "She had absolutely no right to do that, not to such fine Italian craftsmanship--"
"Shut up, Dino. It's just the tire." He bent over to examine the engine. "Now if it were the fender, that'd be a different story."
"Yeah, yeah, it would, fenders are a completely different story." He bounced from foot to foot, reminding Damien vaguely of the kids when they were excited about something. He glanced up at Dino briefly, then back at the car.
"Something on your mind, Beav?"
"Huh?" Dino immediately brushed it off for later. "The high school's hosting this dance, this Halloween dance--I thought you might--"
"Dino. Careful. Kat might hear. I'm telling you, I'm already involved."
Dino's look grew dirty. "No, idiot. I just thought you'd like to go. Check it out, see what it's like--Kat could come, if she'd ever get over you fixing her car..."
"I'm not fixing anything. It looks fine to me." He slammed the hood down. "Maybe she should just take it to a professional."
"But you're a professional, aren't--"
"No-no-no. I sing. Singing to a car will not cause it to fix itself. I know. I've tried."
He wiped his hands off and left the garage, walking back outside to where it was starting to sprinkle. Dino frowned to himself and followed. "You've sung to your car, Dami? What the heck for--?"
Like Kat, Damien ignored his prattle. "You said something about a dance?" he asked, half listening, as he got in the LM 002 [sic] and started it up, driving it into the grass beside the garage to get it out of Kat's way.
"Oh. Yeah. Tomorrow night in the high school gymnasium."
"Tomorrow's not Halloween."
"Yeah, I know, but they're raising money for something, and I guess it's an adult thing, the dance I mean, but I'm not too sure--"
"Do you have to dress up?"
"Goodness, I hope not. No, I don't think so. I think ifya do you get like a rebate or so much off the admittance price in or something, but I don't think you have to..."
"Great. Maybe I'll show up." He rolled up the window, got out, and slammed the door, wiping his hands again. "And maybe Kat'll be in a better mood. She'd better be, when she sees the two of us going out together."
Dino at first looked confused by Damien's smile, then scowled and batted at his arm. "You wish."
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