Chapter 1: Mischief and Hash Brownies

"Hey, Luke, stop fiddling with that laptop," John Daniels shouted from the hallway. "Come on!"

"Yeah, yeah," Lukas Braun called back. "Five minutes. I'm almost there."

"What the hell are you doing anyway?"

"Leaving a little something for Halloween on the Dean's computer," Lukas chuckled.

"Tell me you're not!" John came into the room. "They almost caught you last year when you hacked Professor Parker's laptop."

"Well, almost is the operative word."

"You'll get us in a load of trouble!" John answered leaving Luke's room.

"Dean Lawrence is watching porn in his office." Luke yelled after his roommate. Realizing John was gone he kept mumbling. "Easy-peasy. He's still got Win 2000 and all the ports are open, can you believe it? And here we go. Lemme send him a little greeting now. Oops, what's that? One second."

Luke opened a drawer and found a USB thumb drive. It was a big one, a 32 MB Trek, out only for a few weeks. Luke was leery of downloading a file folder from the dean's computer onto his own hard drive. It took a few seconds to appear in the directory, but then Luke transferred three folders to the external drive.

"And done! Some light reading for tomorrow," he chuckled. Snooping on the dean's computer was a real kick.

He pulled the thumb drive from his laptop and tossed it into the old tin can that held his pens. He jumped from his chair and ripped open the wardrobe. In just five minutes, Lukas Braun transformed into a very credible Merlin the Wizard, complete with a wide wool coat and fake beard.

Soon after, he and his friend John who had dressed up as a Goth vampire hit the residential streets surrounding the campus. Many students were on the streets in varying degrees of masquerade. Grumbling to Lukas about his tardiness, John led the way to their hunting grounds.

The many people living in the single family homes in walking distance from the campus were used to the annual invasion of their front yards by more or less sober students, some of whose talents were limited to a hastily uttered "Trick or Treat?" before they collected the treats. Some were stumped when house owners boldly asked for "Trick".

John and Luke had done this before in their sophomore and junior years, and they had perfected their act. John's fake fangs looked real enough to scare young children and Luke had a few tricks up his sleeve that could impress the layman. They even found one mother opening the door and they attempted to flirt, at least until a husband showed. It was fun.

They had been about for half an hour and were turning a corner into a side street when they saw two other trick'n treaters leaving a driveway. Two girls, a medium sized slender one dressed up as witch and a tall blonde sporting a daring Elvira, Princess of the Dark, costume. The witch had red hair and a freckled face. Gorgeous! Lukas assumed his best Merlin persona.

"Greetings to you, Worthy Witch! I am Merlin, sorcerer of the Great King. Are you by chance the famed Morgaine Le Fay?"

"No, oh mighty sorcerer!" the girl returned, fighting a giggle. "Kate is my name, and my powers are but small."

"Yet, you bewitch me with nary more than the look from your green eyes," 'Merlin' answered. That was no lie. She had captivating, pale green eyes that seemed to look into his very soul.

Kate the Witch smiled back at him, obviously enjoying the banter, but also keeping her eyes locked on him. "Nay, mighty wizard. You must per chance have quaffed a love potion while experimenting."

"Cut it out, you two!" John laughed. "Good pickings here?"

He meant the house the girls had just left.

'Elvira' shrugged. "Just candy bars, but we got really good brownies from an old hippie lady down the road. Care for one?"

The two young men accepted cookies while they walked together to the next house.

"Okay, Luke. Get your trick bag ready!" the John nudged his partner.

Kate looked at Lukas. "Ooh! A trick bag! Say mighty wizard, are you fooling the poor, ignorant mortals?"

Lukas grinned back at her. "Some are not easily convinced of my powers. Those I have to dazzle. Would you like to be dazzled?"

Kate shook her head. "You may not be a wizard, but you are dangerous."

John interrupted the exchange. "Hey, will you girls join us? We can do this together. It's more fun."

"Sure," 'Elvira' gushed, eying John the Vampire with obvious interest and leaving Katie no chance to object. "I'm Linda, she's Katie."

John bowed with a flourish. "I am Count Johannes of Transylvania," he introduced himself with a horrible Eastern European accent. "I am traveling with the Mighty Merlin who was resurrected from the Ruins of Avalon."

The girls giggled while the two guys rang the bell and did their shtick. Luke performed a little magic trick for the two kids, and not three minutes later they retreated with a bag of treats.

They did the next houses together, in between munching cookies and chatting. The girls were certainly having fun, giggling and blabbing, and even though he felt a little lightheaded himself, Luke was able to connect the dots. A great big lightbulb went off in his head. This was Northern California after all.

"Shit! You know what I think?" he blurted. "I think that freakin' hippie bitch gave you hash brownies."

Somehow, Katie the Witch found that hilarious, and she doubled over in laughter. Luke could not help but laugh with her. Weak from laughter they held on to each other while John the Vampire gave Linda his most sultry look.

"That explains the munchies," he grinned. "I guess I'm gonna nibble some on you. You look tasty."

He stumbled forward and tried to reach Linda's neck. Giggling but definitely aroused she pushed him back.

"Shit, let's go back to the dorms before we get picked up by the cops."

They headed back then, but Lukas hoped that the evening wouldn't be over. He just opened his mouth to suggest they continued the evening together when Linda beat him to it.

"Let's go to our place and order pizza," she suggested, a suggestion that was met with unanimous approval.

Linda and Katie shared an apartment. A living room with a TV, a small bathroom, and two dingy bedrooms barely big enough for a bed, a wardrobe and a small desk. The sofa in the living room looked ancient but was surprisingly comfortable as Lukas soon found out. He and Katie gravitated to one corner while John sat with Linda. Stoned he was, but the attraction he felt for Katie seemed very real.

°°°

Katie felt great. There was no other word for it. She was snuggled against Luke and she felt his left hand on her upper arm as he held her tightly. The pizzas had arrived and were history. Linda and John had retired to Linda's room, while Lukas and Katie had switched on the TV. They had picked a rerun of the third Harry Potter movie, but they hardly watched it. They just talked. Katie felt like she could talk about everything, and Luke listened with a goofy smile on his face.

She was babbling, and she would have continued for the entire night but for Luke suddenly taking hold of her face and kissing her. At first she squirmed trying to get loose, but then she gave in and melted against him. He smiled at her.

"Katie?"

"Y-yes?"

"You are the sweetest girl I've met in my life."

Katie giggled. There was enough of the Mary Jane in her system to reduce her inhibitions.

"Are you trying to get into my panties with that sweet talk? You know it may just work. Let's go to my room?"

"Is that the hash brownies talking?" he asked earnestly. Being forty pounds heavier he was not as affected by the THP as Katie was.

She shook her head. "No. I'm just havin' this really nice dream where this cute guy tries to get my cherry. Just let me enjoy this dream a little more."