A/N: The tone of this chapter is a little different. Hope you enjoy anyway. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Indy stood in front of the bedroom mirror, surveying his attire: black boots he hadn't worn in ages, royal-blue pants, a puffy white shirt, a royal-blue vest with matching cape that were both elaborately embroidered with gold and silver thread, and to top it off, a blue hat with a large white feather sticking out of it. He also had a plastic dimestore sword belted to his waist. Marion, wearing a royal-blue Renaissance-style gown, smiled at him.

"You look dashing," she complimented.

"Marion, I feel like an absolute fool," he groaned.

The couple turned around upon hearing a smothered snort of laughter. They saw Mutt leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed.

"Mom was right," Mutt observed, trying and failing to conceal his smirk. "You do make a good Musketeer."

Indy groaned again. "Do we really have to go?" he asked.

"Yes," replied Marion as she fixed a tiara to her hair.

"Why?" He sounded like a kid who didn't want to go shopping.

Marion turned to face him, hands on her hips. "First of all, I spent hours, no, weeks sewing our costumes, buster. Secondly, you're the associate dean now. How would look if you missed the masquerade ball?"

"Call and tell them I got some tropical disease while I was in Peru," Indy suggested.

Marion frowned dangerously. "We are going to the ball if I have to drag you kicking and screaming."

'Probably would, too,' thought Indy. He sighed loudly to signal he had resigned himself to his situation.

Marion turned her attention to their son. "Do you remember where the big bowl of candy bars is?" she asked.

"Can't I just leave it on the porch?" Mutt wanted to know.

"We already discussed this," said Marion. "You agreed to stay here and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters."

"But, Mom, it's Halloween," Mutt protested. "Arnie's is having a sock hop and everyone's gonna be there."

"If you wanna jump around in your socks, you can do that in the kitchen. But I'd be careful if I were you; your mom just waxed the floor," Indy warned.

Mutt rolled his eyes; his old man was so clueless.

Marion checked the clock. "We really have to get going, sweetheart," she said. "There's leftover chicken in the fridge if you want to make a sandwich. Don't eat all the candy; it's for the trick-or-treaters." She kissed her son on the cheek.

"And no parties either, kid," added Indy, tilting his hat to what he felt was a more rakish angle.

Mutt watched his parents walk out the front door, then went into the kitchen to look for the bowl of candy. He dug through the bowl until he found a Milky Way bar, his favorite. He unwrapped it and began munching it. He'd just grabbed a notepad, a pencil, and some tape from Indy's office when the doorbell rang.

"Damn it," Mutt swore under his breath.

He walked over to the front door and opened it.

"Trick or treat!" chanted a group of kids on the doorstep. There was a little boy dressed as Superman, a little girl dressed as a witch, and another little boy dressed as a pirate.

Mutt dipped his hand into the bowl and dropped about three candy bars into each kid's pillowcase.

"Thank you!" the kids squealed happily.

They were under the impression that Mutt had given them extra candy because he liked their costumes so much. No, Mutt just wanted to get the night over with as soon as possible so he could get to Arnie's. He hastily scribbled a note that read: "Take as many as you want. Happy Halloween." He taped it to the bowl and extracted his motorcycle keys from his jacket. The doorbell rang again. This time there was a lone trick-or-treater, a little blond girl in a Tinkerbell costume.

"Hey, what kind of candy---"

The rest of Mutt's words were drowned out by a piercing scream from the little girl. She ran down the front walk, screaming, "Mommy! There's a hood at Dr. Jones' house!"

Mutt resented being called a hood, but he wasn't gonna let some six-year-old kid upset him. He left the bowl of candy on the front step and headed for his bike in the driveway. About ten minutes later, he reached Arnie's. He parked on the side of the building and approached the diner. Through the window, he saw the interior had been decorated with orange and black balloons and streamers.

Mutt stepped inside. A jack-o-lantern grinned eeriely from the lunch counter. Tables near the jukebox had been pushed out of the way to make room for the large crowd of dancing teens. Mutt saw a number of people he recognized from Rydell, namely a group of girls who called themselves the Pink Ladies and a gang of greaser guys named the T-Birds. Waitresses were wading through the crowd, bringing shakes and burgers to the few kids who weren't dancing.

Mutt looked around to see if his favorite waitress (and friend) Johanna was among them. She wasn't, which he thought was odd. She'd been at school that day, so it was unlikely she was sick. He scanned the room again and realized why he hadn't spotted her right away. Johanna had traded her school dress for saddle shoes, bobby socks, a fluffy black poodle skirt, white blouse, and her Pink Ladies jacket; a scarf that matched her jacket was tied around her ponytail. She was even wearing a little makeup. Currently, Johanna was chatting up one of the T-Birds, a strong, tall blond named Kenickie. He had quite a few female admirers due to his resemblance to the late actor James Dean.

The music suddenly stopped, so someone walked over to the jukebox and fed a few more coins into it. A fast, upbeat tune blasted through the restaurant, starting up a fresh flurry of dancing. Mutt's eyes traveled back to Kenickie and Johanna. He was too far away to hear what they were saying, but he could clearly see Johanna standing on her tiptoes, tugging lightly on the sleeve of Kenickie's black leather jacket. She seemed to be pleading with him about something. Kenickie nodded, placed a hand on the small of her back, and guided her toward the crowd of dancers. Once they were among the crowd, he held Johanna in a cross-body lead.

"You can't be serious," Mutt said quietly to himself. He'd been waiting months for the right time to make a move on Johanna.

He stood and watched them. Johanna and Kenickie were stepping, twirling, and dipping as one; they clearly knew their way around the dance floor. It wasn't long before they were warmed up and Johanna was dancing with Kenickie in a slightly suggestive manner.

"What does she see in that clown?" Mutt said bitterly.

A girl with ginger hair, also in a Pink Ladies jacket, waded through the crowd toward him. "Hi, Mutt," she said in her high-pitched voice, offering a toothy grin.

"Hey, Frenchie," Mutt greeted dully.

"Awww, why the long face, honey?" she asked concernedly.

"It's nothing," said Mutt. He didn't want anyone else to learn about his feelings for Johanna, but a question came tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop it. "Since when are Johanna and Kenickie going together?"

Frenchie bit her lip. "I don't know if I'm supposed to tell you this, but..."

"But what?"

"Well, ya see, Johanna wanted to go to the hop with somebody else. Only that somebody else never asked her." Frenchie began. "She called me up cryin' so hard I thought she was havin' hysterics or something. So I talked to a few people and Danny Zuko, you know him, right? Well, he talked to Kenickie, who talked to Johanna and asked her out to the movies last week. They had such a good time he asked her to the hop before the movie was even over." She sighed. "Isn't that romantic?"

"Yeah, sure," said Mutt, not even trying to sound like he meant it. "But who was he? I mean, the one she wanted to go with?"

Frenchie bit her lip again and averted her eyes.

"Me?" Mutt pointed to himself.

Frenchie made sure Johanna wasn't looking their way before saying, "Yes."

"Why didn't she ever say anything?" Mutt wanted to know.

"She did. She asked if you were going to the Halloween hop and you acted like you would go with anybody in the world but her."

"But that's not true." Mutt protested.

"I didn't think it was either, but there's nothing we can do about it now. I'm sorry, Mutt."

"I better go," said Mutt. He felt like such a heel. Why hadn't he realized Johanna's reason for bringing up the hop? He certainly would've taken her if he'd known.

He headed for the door, intending to drown his sorrows in chocolate when he got home.

THE END