Work Text:
Sam stared at Danny as he bit into his third caramel apple that night. They were at school’s Halloween Bash and after playing a few of the games they had moved to the snack table. Sam had only nibbled on a few of the vegan options, and Tucker had stuck to the variety of sweets that were provided. But Danny… Danny had eaten one of the caramel covered apples and then promptly grabbed another one, and then another.
Sam glanced at the tray of caramel apples, the caramel had been colored green and the little label in front of it read ‘poisoned caramel apples.’
She glanced back at Danny. “You good, Danny?”
“Yean, these apples are delicious! You have no idea what you’re missing out on Sam!” he answered, grinning at her before taking the last bite of his apple and reaching to grab another.
She narrowed her eyes at him, and slapped his hand away from the tray. She stepped forward and grabbed his chin, turning him to face her. She squinted. His pupils were blown. Even with the low lighting in the room, his pupils shouldn’t be that big.
She pulled out her phone and shined her flashlight in his face.
“Ack! Sam what’s that for?” he cringed away, but she held on to his chin. Even with the light directly in his eyes his pupils were still dilated.
“I think you’ve had enough apples.” Sam said.
“But, Sam—”
“Nope.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him toward Tucker.
“Hey, Danny,” Tucker said, “have you tried these chocolate pumpkin squares? They’re delicious.” Tucker said, shoving one in his mouth. Sam grabbed his other hand. “Sam? What—”
“Take care of him.” she said, jerking her head in Danny’s direction while having Tucker grab Danny’s hand.
“What—”
“I’ll explain later.” She glared at him, “Watch him and don’t let him eat any more caramel apples.”
“But—” Tucker and Danny both started, but she was already moving to one of the students who’d helped put the event together.
As soon as she stopped in front of him, she asked “Who was in charge of the food?”
“What?”
Sam rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. “Who was in charge of the food? Or better yet, who made the caramel apples?”
“That was me!” he said, grinning. “Didn’t they turn out really cool?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “And how did you get them to look so green?”
“Oh, yeah, that was really difficult. I wanted them to be bright ghost green, but regular food dye wasn't cutting it. So, I went to the Fentons—”
“What?!” Sam asked incredulously.
“Yeah, I went to the Fentons to see if they had anything to dye food ectoplasmic green with because I remembered that they brought in those bright green fudge bars to that one bake sale that one time. And Mrs. Fenton was super nice about it and gave me this plant that they’d grown and said that I just needed to mix some of the leaves into whatever I wanted to dye and, voila!, bright green caramel! Doesn’t it look super cool?” he rambled excitedly.
Sam gritted her teeth to keep from throttling him. Who was stupid enough to trust the Fentons when it came to things that were supposed to be edible! Instead she took a deep breath and asked, “Do you remember what the plant was called?”
He frowned, “I think it was like nip? Or like cat nip? But, like, not cat nip because that’s something different. My mom actually grows cat nip and there’s always a bunch of loopy cats in our yard. It annoys the neighbors, but I think my mom does it on purpose? At least whenever I ask her about it, she just smiles at me and doesn't answer.”
“Thanks.” Sam said, interrupting his ramblings. She turned away quickly, afraid that if she stood here much longer she might try to shake some common sense into the upperclassman.
She made her way over to the snack table to find Tucker trying to keep Danny from sticking his hand in the punch bowl.
“Come on, man. You can’t just stick your hand in there.” Tucker said, grimacing and trying to grab Danny’s other hand.
“But I want some of the cute ghost ice cubes!”
“You can just get one with the ladle!”
“No. They'll just go intangentable.” Danny said, slurring over the last word.
Tucker looked at her desperately. “What’s wrong with him?” he hissed.
“There’s ghost nip in the caramel apples! And he’s had three!” she said, holding up three fingers for emphasis.
“Ah.” Tucker said, with a wince. “So… we’re on babysitting duty till it wears off?”
Sam glanced at Danny who was now staring at a cupcake that was floating. Sam slapped his raised hand. “No telekinesis!” she hissed. She turned to Tucker, sighing. “It certainly looks like it.”