Mostly Ghostly* (open)

[Gaby.Lily.Kaci.Eva.Cam♥]

Ahh October! The leaves were changing, the weather was becoming more crisp, and Ocean Springs residents were filing in and out of the costume store like it was nobody's business. Why the big rush you say? Halloween was right around the corner and the annual Halloween bash was getting ready to begin! Ava ran around, very excited for this spooktacular bash. This was going to be her first Halloween in OC and she couldn't be more happy with her chosen residence. In the past Ava has been everything from witches to Gypsy's to the queen of hearts, but this year was different...this year she was going to dress up as "Mother Nature." It was a bright, green flow dress costume equipped with a flower wreath headband and matching branch necklace. She had picked it up from Party City- her one stop shop for everything Halloween.

Ava had chosen a pumpkin costume for Annabella since she was only a few months old. She had debated between that and a peas in a pod costume, but decided to spare her some future baby picture humiliation. It was a cute costume, though the pumpkin costume fit more snugly. After dressing Annabella and perfecting her own costume, she packed a matching green diaper bag and headed for the party. Upon arrival she was awe struck by the decorations and hoped they would not scare little Annabella. The entrance was decorated as a haunted house and the room inside was dragged out in purple spider webs and a fog machine effect. The walls were plastered with webs and fake spiders were hanging from the ceiling. There was a large punch bowl in the center of the room, shaped as a witches cauldron and filled with a blood red fruit punch liquid. Jars of fake eyeballs were the centerpieces on each table, and the buffet served only ghoulish food such as chicken fingers shaped like human fingers, and spaghetti with eye balls. It all smelled so good, if only you can get past the gross food effect.

A few other people had shown up, but Ava didn't really recognize any of them. She wasn't sure if any of her friends were planning on attending, but she decided to sit down at a table with her daughter, listen to the ghoulish music, and wait for more people to show up-- perhaps someone she already knew...if not, then she prepared herself for a mass introduction.

[{Allison} Alaska]

christa wasn't one to normally attend most social events. she usually felt out of place and she never knew what to say. most people didn't understand her sarcastic nature, and she often times regretted ever coming to these events in the first place. however, she was making an exception to her 'christa, if you go to a party i am going to mentally stab you for a week' rule. halloween was her favorite holiday, and despite the fact that was much to old to be dressing up and going out, she wanted to have a little fun for once. you never knew, maybe tonight wouldn't suck so bad as all the other nights usually did.

for the annual halloween bash in ocean springs, christa had picked out a costume that was very... christa-ish. she'd decided to dress up as a member of the pink ladies from the movie grease. she wasn't a big fan of the leather pants that she was wearing, for they stuck to her thighs and made her feel awkward and out of place, but she wore them anyway. the pink jacket that she was wearing had come from a vintage store, and the old woman she'd bought it from had told her that it had been an actual prop from the movie grease, so it was authentic. glancing in her car's rearview mirror once more before stepping out, she made sure that the polka dot ribbon scarf she'd tied around her neck before she'd left wasn't choking her. her dark hair was pulled into a sassy side ponytail, sleek and simple. she looked good, and she knew it. finally stepping out of her car, she licked her lips again, tasting the clear vanilla lipgloss. walking towards the building, she noted that it was pretty awesomely decorated. she made a mental note to find out who put the bash together, so she could comment on how nice it looked. it was much better looking than most of the halloween parties she'd been to in the past. noticing that there was a table with blood red punch on it, christa made her way over to it, and filled a plastic cup of it, her thirst getting the better end of her common sense. after all, she'd learned from previous lessons that most of the time punch bowls filled with punch usually had alcohol dumped in it at some point, unfortuneately.

turning around, she glanced around, not seeing anyone she recognized yet. maybe some of her friends would show up later and she could hang out with them. walking around aimlessly, sipping her punch every few steps, she emerged herself into thoughts. she nearly didn't notice that she'd knocked into a woman, several years older than herself, accompanied with an adorable child, if it hadn't been for the fact that she'd accidentally dumped her punch on the woman. her mouth flying open, christa began to rapidly apologize, feeling like an idiot. "oh my gosh, i'm so sorry! i totally didn't mean for that to happen! please excuse my stupidness," christa said standing there awkwardly, hoping that this woman wouldn't start screeching at her.

[Gaby.Lily.Kaci.Eva.Cam♥]

The loud music was beginning to make Annabella anxious and fussy, so Ava began gently rocking her child back and forth soothingly in her arms. Annabella did not give Ava the reaction she wanted, it turned out the rocking motion was not settling, rather it was annoying. She had just finished a large bottle of milk and now her mother was trying to make her vomit by tilting her back and forth, back and forth. In response to this annoyance, Annabella began crying-- trying to convey the message that the rocking motion needed to stop. Ava continued rocking her child, and now began rubbing her back, assuming Annabella needed to let out some gas from that bottle, but Annabella just kept crying. Finally, Ava stopped rocking Annabella and this encouraged Annabella to stop crying, and even smile a little, "Such a good girl." she whispered as she placed Annabella in her spider web decorated stroller.

Just as Ava was standing back up, some girl, younger than her, collided with her. This girl had been holding a cup full of the blood red fruit juice and now that cup was airborne. Just as Ava was about to get back on her feet, the cup fell on her, sending droplets of fruit punch all over her. She was drenched in fruit punch, from head to toe...her costume was ruined-- she would never get the stain out! Her first initial reaction was to scream at this girl- how dare she spill her punch all over her costume! But then Ava realized that this girl had not intended for this to happen, it was an accident, "I'm alright." she hissed, "Can someone please get me a towel?" she requested, a little snap of bitterness on her tongue. She glared at the girl, less than pleased with this new face, but tried to control her temper, "I know you didn't mean it, and I'm not mad...at you...I'm just...(she tried to think of a good word for it) wet. I don't like to be wet." she finished, blotting her costume with a napkin from the table.

In response to the change of attitude in her mother, Annabella resumed crying. Ava sighed, "oh yeah Annabella, thats just what I needed, a migraine on top of everything else." She hadn't meant to take her anger out on her daughter but Annabella's tears were pushing her too far. After snapping a bit at her baby, she clenched her fist and then relaxed her muscles. Ava hoped nobody else had heard her little tirade toward her daughter, to an outside listener Ava would have came across as a bad mother. Annabella continued crying, so Ava scooped her up and lulled her with a pumpkin themed pacifier. Although sticky, Annabella was content for the moment.

[Farris {JR.BR.SR.PL.PL}]

"I think this is a horrible idea." Jude muttered as he walked to the party with his sisters. Brinley and Scout walked along after him. Scout held Natalie in her arms and Brinley had Molly. Jude had the stroller, which was empty at the moment. The family had just moved to Ocean Springs that week and it just so happened the Brinley heard about this party and that was all Scout needed to beg and plead with her older brother and sister to go to this stupid party. Jude didn't like Halloween, he was more of an arbour day kind of guy. Mostly because that was a holiday that involved no money, no buying expensive costumes that would be worn once, there was no candy to buy and the chances of someone being beaten up or killed by a guy in a mask were much slimmer on arbour day. Of course Scout, at age sixteen, lived, breathed and died for Halloween, because she got candy and something about just loving the feeling, the same reason Brinley gave for loving Christmas. His family was very hard on everyone financially. Of course they both insisted on bringing the kids so now they were going to have to push the stroller around the party and just hope that everyone knew that you should move out of the way when a Rockefeller was pushing the double stroller because they didn't stop for anyone or anything.

They started past a girl who was covered in red, sticky goo. Scout stopped and readjusted Natalie so she could get into her bag. "Hi um... Your covered in gross... is that part of the costume or would you like a wet nap or something?" She asked, kissing the top of the little girl's head. She smiled at the other girl's baby and then looked back up at her. Having seen that Scout stopped Brinley and Jude came back. All three looked related, the same brown hair, Scout and Jude had blue eyes, Brinley had brown. "I'm going to go see about getting Molly quiet and happy." Brinley said, Jude nodded. "You okay?" He asked, both the girl covered in punch and the one who apparently dumped the punch, since she was apologizing like it was going out of style he figured it wasn't like she meant to do it. Natalie started to whine so Scout readjusted her again. Scout smiled at Ava, though she didn't know her name and started digging through the diaper bag that sat against her hip. She found the wet naps, she didn't like the smell of baby wipes so she avoided them by using the wet naps. She held the small package out to the other girl.

Jude turned to see Brinley talking to someone, Molly bouncing on her hip, a small stuffed duck in her hands. He wasn't the father of either Molly or Natalie, but sometimes it felt like he was in charge of his sisters and the babies. They had parents, they lived with their parents, but they were almost always out of town. They stayed long enough to fill out the paper work then Angie was off to Japan and Gerard was running off to Europe, he didn't tell them a specific place though. So the only way to get ahold of him was to call his cell and hope he answered.

[Gaby.Lily.Kaci.Eva.Cam♥]

As Ava held her daughter, a new bunch of faces entered the party. They were all a bit younger than herself, as expected (most people in Ocean Springs seemed to be younger than twenty), but they were clearly all related with brunette hair and either brown or blue eyes. One of them offered her a wet nap and she graciously accepted it. As she blotted her arms and legs with a wet nap, she decided to introduce herself, "Thank you so much for the wet nap, I'm Ava...kind of new in town, as I suspect you five are, this is my daughter Annabella, how old are your twins?" she asked, waving to the two little ones in the stroller. While she waited for an answer, another one of the siblings, a male this time, asked her if she was alright, she looked up and smiled, "Yeah I'll be alright, I'm just not a fan of being sticky. I'm Ava, this is my daughter Annabella, and it's nice to meet you...all" she finished, deciding to acknowledge each sibling so as to not come off too selective. The wet naps were filling up quickly with the slimey red juice so she turned them inside out to continue de-stickifying herself. It couldn't have been water that spilled on it her could it? No, it just had to be fruit punch, red in color and horribly sticky. She sighed as she thought about the wasted money she had spent on buying this costume. She had bought it for a retail price of $50 and now it was covered, stained with red juice and it would take a material to restore it to it's usual glory.

To make matters worse, Annabella had become sticky from Ava holding her, and now Annabella needed a wet nap or two, or three, as well. Annabella was not content with this new feeling of having her hands stick together when she tried to grab her pacifier. She was not content with her legs sticking together every time she kicked either. Why was this happening? She cried, hoping her mother could make it all better for her. Ava sighed, "Sorry mommy got you all sticky sweetheart.", she turned to the friendly girl who had offered her the wet napkins and was dismayed to find that she had use the package of them up, "Do you have anymore per chance?" she asked, meekness in her tone. She was afraid she was pushing her luck too far and did not want to come across as too needy to her new friends.

Meanwhile Kaci had entered the party. It had been too long since she was last seen around Ocean Springs. Gaby had forced them to move after her engagement had been broken off with Justin. No matter where Gaby went around town, there had been a memory of Justin there, and Gaby could not go on having his memory haunt her everywhere she went. The whole Justin fiasco had ended so badly, so quickly. One minute they were a happily engaged family and the next he was suicidal and then just up and disappeared. Gaby doubted that he was even still alive, and wondered what had driven Justin to walk out on them so suddenly, without any explanation, at all. Although Kaci wasn't a fan of Halloween, Gaby had forced her to wear a costume. Kaci arrived in her short nurse costume, and scanned the place for any familiar faces. She noticed a few people who looked her age, and she assumed they were all related since they all had an identical brunette hair tone.

Shortly after Kaci walked in, Gaby followed. McKenzie and McKayla were now four years old and they wanted to dress up as identical mermaids this Halloween, so Gaby had granted their wish and bought their mermaid costumes. As for herself, Gaby was dressed in her usual witch costume, not too flashy but better than some of the costumes she saw around here. Upon arrival, Gaby strolled toward the drink table, only to find people gathered around a woman, her age, who was covered in red juice. She smiled approvingly at one of the 'kids' who offered the woman some wet napkins and then introduced herself as she smiled at the little babies in the stroller and reminisced in memories about the twins when they were that age, "Hello everyone, I'm Gabriella Summers. I usually host this bash, but I've been out of town for a while. It's always nice to see new faces so why don't you all introduce yourself?" she suggested.

[Farris {JR.BR.SR.PL.PL}]

"Here, want Help?"[/color] Scout asked, she handed Natalie off to Jude and dug through her bag for babywipes, which she did use for Natalie, and another package of wetnaps. "If you need more I can get some from my sister."[/color] She smiled. That was why everyone called her Scout, it wasn't her actual name, but because she was always prepared, well almost always, but that was another story for another day. Jude took Natalie so Scout could help Ava. Brinley came back, still holding Molly on her hip. All of the Rockefellers had dressed up, Natalie was a purple kitten and Molly was Dora the Explorer. As for the older ones, Scout was a gypsy, Brinley was a fairy and Jude was a pirate. He had commented it at home that if they kept the outfits they could go to a ren-fest. "I'm Scout, this is my brother Jude and my daugher Natalie."[/color] Scout grinned. "And this is my sister Brinley and her daughter Molly."[/color] Jude looked at the girls. "We just moved here too, after a few problems with the town. It started with a faulty pack of condoms and sisters who can't keep their hands of my stuff." He wasn't embarressed to talk about it, because it hadn't been his fault in any way shape or form and it wasn't like Brinley or Scout had a problem talking about it.

"And thus My slutty sister and I ended up with two adorable babies within a year and a hald of each other." Brinley finished for him. Jude was a complainer, so she didn't have a problem with egging him on. Molly squirmed around and Brinley put her down. She toddled around between their legs, singing the Dora the Explorer theme song the best she could. She was barely a year old so she was going to 'dougha dougha dougha da esploa!' over and over again. She started to fall back and landed on her butt, looking up at the new people with interest. She started babbling even more when another women, with two girls almost her age walked over. Brinley kept one eye on her little girl as she got up and started towards them. "Molly."[/color] Brinley said as Molly toddled toward them. She looked at her mom and back at the other girls. She stuck her fingers in her mouth again and pointed at them.

"Hi Gabriella, I'm Brinley, this is Scout, Jude, Natalie and Molly." She pointed to each of them in turn. Jude still held Natalie in his arms, gently boucing her to keep her quiet and happy. Natalie gurgled and waved her arms up at her uncle. Molly started for the twins again, grabbing onto Gaby's leg to keep from falling over again. She looked up at Gaby curiously, Molly liked to study people. She was an observer. She kept her hand on Gaby's leg as she walked closer to the twins. "Cute kids."[/color] Scout quipped to the general area, there were a lot of kids around them.

[Gaby.Lily.Kaci.Eva.Cam♥]

Ava was so relieved that Scout had been so prepared, "Thanks so much, I owe you big time!" she remarked as she began wiping the red juice off of her daughter, "What kind of mother am I? The kind that gets her baby sticky, apparently", she told herself out loud as the wipe moved from Annabellas hands onto her legs. She looked up at all the guests in embarassment after realizing she had not kept her thought to herself, "Oops, sorry, you'll have to excuse my inability to think silently." she joked, hoping she played it off enough. She listened to the Rockefellers basically tell their whole background story to her and admired their open book attitude, "Sounds like you guys have had quite an adventure. Your daughters are beautiful though and so well behaved." she admired, "I think I was blessed with one of the most fussy angels on earth." she teased as she kissed her daughter on the forehead.

Her attention was then focused on the woman who introduced herself as Gabriella Summers, "Nice to meet you, I'm Ava Mendez and this is my daughter Annabella. We're generally new around this town but we are hosting this bash after a long plea from the mayor guilted me into it. Haha." she explained, "Your children are adorable as well, very cute little mermaids." she complimented, winking at the twins.

McKenzie and McKayla just stared at all the commotion, unsure as to why this random woman was winking at them. Since there were so many people around, they both decided to hide behind their mothers legs and keep to themselves. As McKenzie buried her face in her mothers dress, McKayla noticed a girl around their age moving towards them. She peeked out from behind her mothers legs and waved curiously, "me McKayla." she introduced, "sissy Kenzie." she finished. Gaby laughed at her daughters adorable little introduction and then encouraged her twins to not hide behind her legs, "They won't bite, I promise." she encouraged as she felt another little hand tug onto her leg. She immediatly looked down and smiled, "Well hello there little one, did you want to play with my girls?" she asked, taking McKenzie by the hand and bringing her around to the front to say hi to Molly. McKenzie was terrified as her mother brought her closer to the strangers, she hid her face in her free hand shyly.

Gabys attention then returned to the Rockefellers, "Nice to meet you all." she remarked, "Welcome to Ocean Springs.", she finished with a warm smile. Meanwhile Kaci wandered over to where just about everyone seemed to be gathered, "Gabs I'm heading over to Lillians, she needs help dressing the girls. I'll be back." she commented as she headed for the door. She was paused for a moment, noticing a male, about her age, who introduced himself earlier as Jude. He was cute, but she knew she shouldn't act upon her feelings-- just look at how that turned out for her in the past, "I'm Kaci, by the way." she quickly introduced herself to the pack, hoping in specific Jude would memorize her name. She smiled at him, and then continued heading for the exit, which was now blocked by a bunch of oncoming guests. Whose idea was it to make the entrance and exit in the same spot? Bright idea...not!

[Farris {JR.BR.SR.PL.PL}]

"Don't say that, she'll hold you to it." Jude rolled his eyes. Scout stuck out her tongue and took Natalie from his arms. She kissed the baby's head and smiled down at her. Natalie reached up and took a lock of her mom's hair. "Ow." Scout muttered trying to untangle the baby's hand from her hair. "Oh it's fine, babies get sticky. If I beat myself up everytime Molly got sticky or I got Molly sticky..." Brinley shook her head. She looked down at Molly who grinned and turned back to the twins. "In our defense, if it weren't for Jude's crazy ex-girlfriend the condoms wouldn't have been faulty."

[/color] Scout shrugged. "We'll explain it all someday but the group needs to be at least tipsy and the kids can't be around because there are a lot of awkward moments and some very, very bad language."[/color] Scout laughed, Jude just rolled his eyes. "Did I bring this thing for nothing?" He asked, kicking the stroller. "Quite possibly."[/color] Brinley nodded. "Relax, it'll be used tonight." She glanced at Molly again, not wanting her to toddle away.

"Wow... lots of new people."[/color] Brinley commented. Natalie started whining and wriggling. Scout shushed her and rocked her gently. "She's not the most well behaved child in the world. Mommy just snuck her a bit of Xanex didn't she?"[/color] Scout smiled to show she was joking she didn't feed her child seditives to keep her quiet. She just didn't put her down for her nap and therefore she was really tired. It wasn't the best thing to do but quite frankly Scout hadn't had time to put the baby down for a nap anyway she had been in charge of getting everything together for the party today.

Molly waved at the girls. "Mowwy." She replied, pointing to herself. She still had her hand on Gaby's leg, looking up at her, wide eyed. "No bie?" She asked, still working on the talking thing. She finally pulled her hand away, balenced and toddled a bit closer. She fell again, hitting the ground. "owwy." She said, looking up, trying to find her mom. Instead she got her uncle, bending to help her up. She stuck her fingers back in her mouth and walked over again. Molly waved at them again with the hand she wasn't gnawing on. Brinley smiled at the little girl before looking back at the adults.

They all paused to look at the girl that came over to them and talked to Gaby. "Hey." Jude nodded at her, He was bored, very bored, he got bored easily and this wasn't his kind of party. It was nothing compared to last year, when he went to a party that got so out of hand the cops were called and he spent the night in jail. His parents had been really annoyed, but whatever they really didn't care about what he did until it got to them. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at all the ladies surronding him. [/blockquote]

[Gaby.Lily.Kaci.Eva.Cam♥]

Ava watched as Gaby's twins introduced themselves to little Molly, "Very polite kids you have there Gaby", she complimented, "Well done." she finished in admiration. Her attention then shifted to Jude, was he serious about his sister expecting a favor back someday? Maybe, but for now she decided not to take him too seriously, "Karma- what goes around, comes around", was her only reply. Her attention changed gears again and was focused on Scout now, "Its good to know I'm not the only one with a sticky baby" she laughed, "But seriously, I don't think this red juice is ever going to come out of our costumes" she finished with a disappointed sigh. There were so many people around now, and with all these people came the ever changing focus of Ava's attention. She looked over at Brinley curiously, "I bet that's going to be quite the story. It will be sharing time later, I definitely agree that there are too many little ears around now", she said with a nervous giggle. What does Jude's ex-girlfriend have to do with faulty condoms and his sisters daughters? She was sure that was going to be one interesting story. As she began brainstorming possible Rockefeller family secret scenarios, Annabella began crying again, making certain that her mother did not forget to get her all cleaned up. Ava jumped at the sound, and was snatched out of her brainstorming world and back into reality. She grabbed a new wet nap and continued wiping Annabella clean.

When Scout mentioned Xanex, Gaby had to laugh, "If only that were legal..." she teased, winking at her own two daughters, "Wouldn't that make motherhood a lot easier? Haha", the thought was very entertaining to her. McKayla looked up at her mother, unsure as to why all these people seemed to be winking at her, while McKenzie giggled at Molly's reciprocated introduction, "pway?" she asked, pointing to a Halloween themed moon bounce excitedly. Gaby looked down at Molly and watched as she toddled over. She was just about to go help the little girl up when Jude intercepted his niece, "Is she alright?" she asked as if the thought had been programmed to come out. She could clearly see that Molly was fine, but still felt obligated to ask the question.

As all of this was going on, Kaci was trying to shove her way through the crowd, but her attempt was left in vain, "Fine I'll stay then!" she yelled randomly. She felt so defeated and...trapped. She returned to the group, "Looks like there's no way out of this snooze fest, I'll be over by the punch bowl...oh wait, I can't go there because the punch is all over you." she hissed, looking toward Ava. This party was so not a party. After the long hours spent in the car driving back to the very place she was forced to up and leave a few years back, her patience was very testy. Instead of dropping subtle hints toward Jude, she decided to see if he wanted to dance...at least it was something to do other than talk to all the adults gathered around them, "Hey Jude, want to dance or something? I'm tired of all this adult commotion." Kaci was not one to make the first move, but Jude was the only boy around relatively her age and it's been a while since she had been able to have some kind of social life. The past few years had been spent as her sisters babysitter and now it was time for Gaby to raise her own children. Justin was in the past, Gaby needed to move forward and make a brighter future for herself and her children.

[Farris {JR.BR.SR.PL.PL}]

Scout readjusted the baby in her arms. She was wiggling wanting to get down and crawl. "Shhh baby it's okay." She said as the baby started to whine, wanting to get free. "You can't run around on the floor baby girl." She bounced the baby gently, reaching into the diaper bag hangig off the stroller and handed a teething ring to her daughter, that quieted her. Scout smiled happily and looked at all the others. "Don't listen to Jude, he likes to think I'm a lot more horrible than I really am." She rolled her eyes. "I just demand payment from him." she stuck her tongue out at her big brother and he rolled his eyes but chuckled. He was't normally so moody it was just because they'd spent all day moving and hadn't wanted to come to the party. Scout looked at the ruined costumes and made a face. "I don't know if it will come out or not... it probably won't help to have it sitting in there all during the party... though you could say you're a dead... whatever." She shrugged, trying to untangle her hair from her daughter's fist. That girl had one heck of a grip. She managed to get the little fist from her hair and caught the other one before it could get in there. "Baby don't rip out mommy's hair. it hurts." She said. The baby just gurgled and waved her teething ring around

Brinley looked over at her sister and nodded in agreement. "It really would I probably wouldn't have missed as much sleep as I did." She grinned, looking over at her own daughter. "Wouldn't trade it for the world though." She added, she loved her little girl even if she came at kind of a bad time. Down on the Floor Molly looked at the twins, her eyes were still wide and scared as she nodded. She wanted to play on the bouncy house. She looked back at her mom who looked thoughful. "I don't know baby... I don't really think those are suppose to be for toddlers like you. She said. Molly pouted. "I wanna." She whined. "I don't know..." She looked at Scout, then Gaby, then Ava. As if one of them had the answer. "Alright but if any big kids get on you have to get off okay?" She looked down at the girl. Molly nodded her face bright and happy.


Jude was bored, he was horribly, horribly bored. He looked around at the party and shook his head. This was not what he had been thinking when he heard a halloween party, but that was probably for the best if his neices were there. He looked over at the girl who came back and got angry about the punch all over the brunette girl... Ava or something like that. He quirked an eyebrow. He ran a hand through his hair and rolled his eyes at Brinley and her bouncey house debate. "Just let her go, she'll be fine." He said. Brinley glared at him. The angry girl... Kaci... asked if he wanted to dance. He shrugged and nodded. "Sure." He said, walking around his sisters to Kaci. "But for the record I am an adult." He added with a small smirk. "Technically anyway."