Chapter Text
While good ol’ MS of U had been fun, Madeline couldn’t help but miss the charms of her small town life outside Detroit. She’d made her fair share of compatriots, helping one of her close friends introduce Mary Jane to the other academic failures. Despite being in her last year, Madeline decided this “higher learning” wasn’t going to cut it anymore. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with her anxiety, or how much she struggled making sense of anything that took longer than five minutes to read, or how terrified she was of having to move to an even bigger city after all this to go work at a “real” job with her degree she’d barely earned.
No, her hometown needed someone of her skills to provide them a modicum of relief from their dreary, small town lives. Their calm, simple, county-fair-is-the-biggest-event-of-the-year ways…She couldn’t wait.
Loading up her Ford F-100 Explorer, Madeline said her last goodbyes to her friends before driving home for winter break. She didn’t have the heart to tell them she wouldn’t be back, other than her business partner that is.
The two of them struck up a deal, Madeline would sell in Podunk towns back home while her friend would handle business at the college and keep a solid supply chain running. Any excuse to hang out rather than get a legitimate job.
On to face her parents, now as a fresh-faced failure. All grown up, selling the devil’s lettuce, and dropped out of school. She really was the dream daughter.
~
It’d been four years now since Madeline got kicked out of her parent’s home and moved a few cities over to Elk Grove. Scary as it was to uproot her whole life again, Elk Grove proved an ideal spot. Plenty of customers and a cheap house with great roommates, what more could she want?
That said, Madeline didn’t have quite the reputation she had hoped for amongst the locals. Her shyness was often interpreted as brusque indifference or as outright cold. Her choice in fashion didn’t help much either, rough old farming clothes and a tough leather jacket and boots from her brief stint of driving a motorcycle, clothes too expensive to just chuck. While flannels and work pants aren’t uncommon for women in these parts, it seemed the combo of her unwillingness to say much or smile landed her with the dreaded nickname of “Mad Lin.” At the least, she found comfort in knowing it kept folks from hassling her too much. The only people she cared about were her roommates anyway. As long as they were a family, she was content to roam the streets as Mad Lin.
Madeline and her roommates live a bit outside of town; where she has all the space she could ever need to run her growing operation without any nosy neighbors calling the cops. Plus her roommates throw the best parties, especially now that she lived with them. Everyone wanted to get fucked up directly at the source. As far as Madeline was concerned, she was the most successful 25-year-old in all of Michigan.
And tonight was the biggest event of their year, The Monster Mash. Every year on Halloween, Madeline and her roommates would go balls-to-the-wall planning the biggest party in town. To get invited, or crash, was the best way to prove if you were hip or not. If Madeline learned anything at college, it was how to throw a party. And she relished in sharing that knowledge, even if she didn’t much care for the event itself.
This was only the fourth year of The Monster Mash, but word spread fast in small communities. Everyone was dying to get in. This would be their toughest gig yet. But Madeline was ready for a challenge.
~
“We need a theme this year,” Greta sighs.
The youngest of the roommates at 17, Greta, prides herself on drawing in the high school crowd. Even though she is traumatized by her parents kicking her out a year ago when they found out she was dating another cheerleader, Greta has managed to pick up the pieces of her life pretty well. Thanks to the support of her new found family in this rundown old farmhouse.
“The theme is Halloween,” Madeline says.
“You know what I mean, Mads” Greta playfully punches Madeline’s arm.
“What do you have in mind?” Regina asks, not looking up from trying to get the beat-up T.V. to play.
Regina, the next closest to Madeline in age at 23, brought Greta under her wing last year. Working at the town’s number one hot spot, Dairy Queen, kept her up to date on all the latest gossip.
“Thank you for asking. I say we go for ‘haunted cabin in the woods,’” Greta says, eyes shining at all the possibilities.
“Nice, now we won’t have to decorate,” Robin laughs.
Only a year younger at 22, Robin moved from Detroit to get away from her “dead-end family and dead-end boyfriend.” Madeline never could understand how Robin would consider Elk Grove the answer to that problem, but she didn’t push it.
“No way! There’s tons to do! Candles, spider webs, ghosts, skeletons, blood!” Greta jumps out of her seat, ecstatic.
“So all our usual stuff?” Madeline raises an eyebrow.
“Maybe we could add an outdoor part, like a graveyard?” Greta asks.
“Now that could be fun,” Regina perks up.
“I’m so in,” Robin says.
They all look toward Madeline expectantly. The eldest must approve, after all.
“Just don’t mess up my plants,” she concedes, “And keep the bedrooms off limits.”
“Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mads!” Greta throws her arms around her.
“Don’t thank me yet. You guys still have to get everything ready and it’s already noon.”
“We’ll invite some friends over to help, it’ll be fine. We promise Mama Mads,” Regina jokes.
Madeline chuckles, shaking her head. She grabs her keys and waves good-bye, off to run errands and conduct some last minute business before the night’s festivities.