Type: Story Challenge

Show: War of the Worlds

Category: Humor

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: War of the Worlds and its characters are property of Paramount Pictures. I'm just borrowing them for fun and pleasure of writing and reading by me, the writer, and everyone else who are the readers. So it's no use to sue me. Bret McAdams is my character and belongs to me.

Contents:

1. a pumpkin
2. A stripper
3. Jell-O
4. A rabbits foot
5. Aliens dancing
6. Paul and or main character in an embarrassing position

By Marqaisa McAdams.

Paul grinned at the site before him. Harrison grumbled as he fussed with a particular part of his clothing. The colonel tried not to burst out laughing. The astrophysicist scowled at the amused army officer

"You better be quiet, Colonel. I still have pictures of you in drag and I will use them if you don't shut up!"

This made Paul burst out laughing.

"OK, Br'er rabbit."

Harrison turned his back to Paul and adjusted the rest of his outfit. Dressed from head to toe in a fuzzy white rabbit costume with his face expertly made up to resemble a rabbit, Harrison looked at himself in a full-length mirror. He fussed with his bow tie. Paul looked down and saw that Harrison's feet were padded and fuzzy as well.

"Hey, Blackwood, can I bring one of your rabbit's feet with me for good luck?"

"Bite me!" Harrison shot back, using one of Bret's favorite sayings.

"I don't think you want that, Harrison," Suzanne said, poking her head in. She was dressed like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

Harrison looked over at Paul who was dressed like Dracula.

"Okay, I retract that comment."

Paul smiled and made a whooshing sound with his black cape, bearing his fake fangs, saying, "You lucked out, Harrison."

"Okay, whose the wise guy in charge of the costume purchasing?" a female voice came from the hallway.

Both men turned along with Suzanne to the doorway. Harrison and Paul's jaw dropped when they saw the other female member of the team standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips fuming.

Bret McAdams, the medical member of the group, stood looking down at her garb. She was dressed as a stripper. Strategically placed sheer violet fabric covered the red head's feminine form, hardly leaving anything to the imagination.

"I can't go out like this especially to Debi's school's Halloween carnival and dance. I'll be kicked out. Even Gypsy Rose Lee never wore anything this revealing. "

Harrison hid a smile behind his furry paw. Normally his good friend was laid back and didn't care if what she wore didn't please the people around her. Bret wore what she wanted when she wanted to wear it. Of course, Bret never wore anything this provocative before, even for Halloween.

Harrison watched as Paul's eyebrow raised up at the sight of the doctor's alluring dress and her outrage at being forced to wear such an outfit.

Paul spoke up, trying not to stare too much at her costume-or lack of a costume as the case may be.

"Bret's right. She can't go out like that. She'll be prone to attacks and unwanted advances."

Harrison looked from Bret to Paul in turn with a smile on his made-up face. "Well, you can be her personal bodyguard, Colonel. Warn off all lechers."

Bret scowled at the astrophysicist.

"Does that include you, Blackwood?"

Suzanne laughed along with Norton, who just joined the others with a yet-to-be carved pumpkin in his lap.

"Me?" Harrison asked innocently. "You're not my type."

"Good, glad to have that update, Blackwood. You're not my type either. Thank the Gods."

Bret looked at her friend squarely in the eye with a dead serious look on her face before she collapsed into mirth along with Harrison.

Paul looked a little uncomfortable at the closeness between Harrison and Bret, but he was glad they weren't attracted to each other. That might prove to be awkward working with them. Besides, Bret was engaged to a guy in England. She was only working with the Blackwood Project on a temporary basis as a favor to both Henry Wilson and Harrison until the Omega Squadron was assembled with a medical technician.

Pity, Paul thought, Bret would be a great permanent member of the team. Plus he felt an obligation to protect her until she moved to England. After all, that's his job to protect all the members of the project's team.

"I'm changing. I should have something to go as," Bret said as she was leaving the room.

"Hurry up, Bret. We don't have a lot of time before we have to go," Harrison warned her.

"Well then if I'm not ready you can go without me," Bret said sweetly.

"No way! You're going to go Breana. If I have to go dressed like this you have to go!"

McAdams snapped her fingers and said, "Damn!" before she left for her room.

Returning to her room, Bret looked through her costume wardrobe that she brought to the Cottage a week before. Her eyes it upon a particular outfit she never wore before.

"Perfect!" she said aloud as she quickly got changed.

Ten minutes later she returned to the living room and said to the assembled team and Debi, "Let's go!"

Paul smiled appreciatively at her originality.

"Great costume, Bret," Norton smiled at her.

"Thanks," Bret said, almost blushing at the attention she was getting.

Dressed in a pink and white checkered silk shirt, white pants tucked into black riding boots, with a black hat on her head and a qwert, a short handled horse whip, in her hand, Bret turned around to show off her costume.

"You make the perfect jockey," Harrison complimented her.

"Thanks," Bret said again.

Debi smiled at her and said, "I seriously doubt your costume will be duplicated. It might even a prize for originality."

The group, minus Norton, left for Debi's school's Halloween party and fair. Cardboard pumpkins decorated the gym along with black and orange crepe paper, which was shot across the ceiling and interwoven in the basketball nets. It looked like any typical junior high dance. Boys occupied one side of the gym while the girls occupied the other with one was dancing. Debi ran over to her friends to say Hi while the adults stayed not to far away.

Norton had found transmissions of alien activity around the school area so Paul decided to kill two birds with one two: investigate the school for possible alien presence and protect Debi at a big school function that she's been dying to go to.

"Let's pair off," Paul said. "Harrison, you and Suzanne scan that side of the gym," he pointed to the far side of the room, "while Bret and I cover this side. You know the signal."

Harrison and Suzanne nodded and went off to their designated area leaving Paul and Bret to theirs.

"Do you trust Harrison not to get into any mischief?" Bret asked, smiling at Paul.

"I'm not sure. I know Suzanne can usually keep him under control, but I usually want him with me so I can keep an eye on him. This time I decided to-"

"Baby sit me instead," Bret finished his sentence.

Ironhorse wasn't aware that Bret was more than capable of taking care of herself. Her dossier gave him no clue that she was a martial arts expert in several different forms and a weapons expert. And it was up to Bret to choose when she wanted to demonstrate her skills in front of Ironhorse. She was under orders not to tell him out right that she could take care of herself in a fight and she was going to abide by those orders until the time was right to show him.

Paul could hear the sadness in her voice. "No, Bret. I've never considered teaming up with you 'baby-sitting'. You're not a risk taker like Harrison so that's why I always have to keep an eye on him. Truth be told though, I don't have a Geiger counter with me so I thought..."

"That I could sense them as I have before?" Bret asked, brightening up at the idea that she could be useful on this "mission" of theirs.

Paul nodded; glad she didn't take offense.

"What makes you think that 'they' are here in the first place? I mean Norton only found them around this area, but that's not to say they're here."

"Oh, they're here. I have a feeling. Call it gut instinct."

Bret shrugged and kept walking past costumed faculty and chaperones. Glancing over at the refreshment table something caught her eye.

"Jell-O shots? At a school function?" she murmured.

Paul glanced over her shoulder.

"Let's just hope they don't have alcohol in them or we'll have a gym full of drunk kids on our hands."

Bret took the paper cup filled with Jell-O and ate it.

"Nope, no alcohol," she confirmed, looking at the empty Jell-O pill cup in disgust.

"I see you prefer alcohol filled Jell-O shots," Paul observed, wondering if he had Bret all wrong before.

"Sometimes. Depends on the Jell-O. This one is gross. It's orange!" Bret made a face like she had just tasted the most disgusting thing in the world. Paul let out a short laugh.

"These Jell-O shots were made by the 7th grade Home EC. Class," Bret read off a card behind the tray. "Well, that explains that. I wonder if Jell-O makes a black colored flavor. Licorice perhaps?"

Paul made a face at the thought and proceeded to investigate the rest of the gym with Bret by his side.

Meeting back up with Harrison and Suzanne, Paul wanted a status report.

"Anything?" the Colonel asked.

"Nothing," Harrison answered shaking his head.

"Colonel, I seriously doubt they are here."

"I have to agree with Harrison on that, though it pain... pains me to-" Bret said, stuttering, clenching her eyes shut as her senses told her something was wrong. Her hand absently grabbed onto Paul's arm in order to stabilize her. Her senses that told her that the aliens were near were combined with one of her visions: the bone crushing, needing an ice pack in bad way visions. She saw Paul in a dangerous embrace with an alien who looked like he was about to meld with Paul. The vision stopped with a flash of white light, leaving Bret with a headache.

"What did you see?" Harrison asked, directing Bret to an empty seat, knowing that she had a vision.

"Harrison," Suzanne hissed, warning the scientist to hold his tongue.

Bret bent down to catch her breath, trying to figure out a way to tell Paul what she saw without scaring him. Not that Paul would be scared or act scared, Bret thought to herself rationally. However, she did owe it to him to warn him about his possible demise. Bret just hoped Paul would believe her and not think she's reached the same level of crazy Harrison was. Ironhorse was unfamiliar with Bret's visions though he heard she had them and they came out true if a course of action wasn't taken to prevent the vision from happening.

"They-they're here. Costumed as-themselves, but not-," she finally stammered.

Man, can I get any more vague than that? Bret asked herself bitterly.

Finally able to calm down, Bret looked up at her friends in turn.

"What does that mean?" Paul asked, confused.

Harrison and Suzanne shrugged in uncertainty. "It means that they're here as aliens, but not as we know them to be," Bret said, trying to stand up.

She felt woozy so she sat back down.

Harrison turned toward the court to scan for aliens enabling Bret to see the dance floor. She couldn't understand why they decided to have a dance during the Halloween fair in the afternoon.

Sure, it's a weekend, but still a dance at the same time of the fair? Weird! Bret thought to herself.

Something strange caught her attention along with the rest of the Halloween dance participants in the gym. A swing song started that got a few kids to start dancing along with some adults. However the adults who were dancing were the ones getting all the attention. They were doing the can-can dressed like cliché gray aliens with triangular faces. Bret glanced around and surprisingly saw no other alien costumes. She stood up and brought the "rhythmically challenged" dancing aliens to her friends' attention.

"Guys, look at the dancing 'Bobs'!" Bret said.

"Bob" was what Bret called the stereotypical looking aliens that sci-fi TV shows seemed to love to exploit. "Bob" started as a joke when a friend of Bret's sent her a card with the skinny and black eyed alien that had the inscription "Hello, my name is Bob!" Paul was only beginning to understand this "inside" joke of Bret's that she shared with the others, especially Harrison and Norton. Whenever Bret would say "Bob" the others knew what she was talking about and became a running joke between them along with starting a new collection for Bret: different "Bobs".

Paul looked at the dancing aliens critically. "Wow, even I don't dance that bad," Paul muttered, watching the aliens try to imitate the kids dancing after they became aware of all the undue attention they were getting.

"You dance?" Harrison shot back.

Paul threw him a dirty look at the retort.

"Guys, you're missing the point! Those 'Bobs' are our aliens! The longer they're near me the stronger my senses get."

The 4 members of the Blackwood Project looked intently at the aliens. Harrison subtly pulled the reader out and turned it on. The needle jumped slightly, but not enough to satisfy him to conclude that the "Bobs" were their aliens.

"I need to get closer to know for sure," Harrison said. With a sly smile, Harrison, a.k.a. the White Rabbit, grabbed Suzanne, a.k.a. Dorothy and pulled her onto the dance floor so they could get closer to the aliens.

"Damn," Bret cursed.

"What's wrong?" Paul asked, worried about her, but trying to hide it.

"I forgot my camera. This is definitely a Kodak moment. Not to mention I wanted to see you dance or dance with you. I bet you'd shock Harrison right out of his bunny suit!" Bret said smiling.

"Do you feel all right?" Paul asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" Bret answered.

That's the last thing she got out of her mouth as Paul pulled her to the dance floor and began to dance a slow dance with her that just came on. The new couple caused jaws to drop. Debi stared awestruck at Paul dancing rather closely with Bret. She pulled out her camera that she promised Norton she would bring to take candid shots of his team members.

And this was as candid as it gets so far, Debi thought. Smiling, she clicked on the button allowing the flash to go off, but Paul and Bret didn't notice. They were off in their own wor5ld. It was an interesting to see the somewhat tall yet reserved Dracula holding the shorter female jockey close to him in a rather private dance.

"Wow, Debi, who are they? Dracula is a hunk and the jockey is beautiful," Carey, a girl friend of Debi's asked her, eyeing the Colonel and the doctor smiling.

"Co-workers of my mom's..." Debi explained.

"They're married?" Carey asked.

"No," Debi replied.

The two friends started a conversation that centered around Bret and Paul. Carey was convinced that they were a couple despite Debi's protests to the contrary.

"Well, we've got to change that," Carey decided finally, setting her jaw and focusing on Bret and Paul.

Carey laid out her plan gaining a sly smile out of Debi.

It's kind of like the Parent Trap without it involving your parents, Debi thought to herself. This is going to be very interesting.

Paul and Bret were too lost in their own world to realize the aliens. Harrison, Suzanne, Debi and her friend were watching. Harrison and Suzanne smiled at each other at the sight of the impassive Colonel and the somewhat shy doctor dancing together like it was their wedding day. Harrison looked down as the Geiger counter jumped when they got close to the aliens costumed as aliens. At the same time, Bret squeezed Paul's arm as they got too close to the aliens. Bret's vision came back again.

The aliens seemed to realize that they were found out. They made a hasty departure to the nearest exit.

"Suzanne, take care of Bret. I'm going after them," Paul said when the group assembled near the door that the aliens recently vacated.

Harrison followed the costumed Colonel into the hallway the aliens just went into, forgetting he was a big white bunny. He did not like the idea of the aliens invading Debi's school-or any school for that matter. The aliens, thank God, can't meld into children, but that wouldn't stop them from melding into the teachers, parents, or staff at the school.

Paul halted and made a silent signal for Harrison to turn the Geiger on to check for aliens in one of the rooms. Harrison nodded as Paul quietly pulled the door open to a creepy and dark room with a furnace. They saw a man fiddling with something on the furnace. Harrison checked the Geiger and shook his head at Paul. The guy wasn't an alien, but he did look familiar to Harrison. Suddenly the guy turned around and growled, making Harrison almost jump into Paul's arms. The guy had a burnt up face; red and green striped sweater, brown fedora, and brown worn out gloves with steel claws in them. He looked just like-

"Freddy Krueger!" Harrison breathed as he backed up against Paul, trying to get out of the room.

Ironhorse tried not to laugh.

The man frowned then smiled.

"Sorry, Rabbit, didn't mean to scare you. I thought you were some kids. This room and I are part of the haunted house in the building," Freddy said, trying not to laugh at the thought of the tall rabbit being scared by him.

"No problem. We'll leave you to your scare tactics now, Freddy," Paul said, trying to suppress the overwhelming urge to laugh at Harrison's behavior. He pulled Harrison out of the room and shut the door.

With a straight face, Paul looked Harrison over and said in his dead pan tone, "Silly rabbit. Tricks are for kids."

"Ha ha, very funny," Harrison muttered, throwing a dark look at the back of Paul's high cape collared neck, following him down the hall.

Dracula and Rabbit checked every room surrounding the gym, but couldn't find the aliens.

"Paul, what about the-,"

"Locker room," Paul continued, nodding, and heading back into the gym.

"Suzanne, I'm fine. I have to find Paul and Harrison. Paul's in danger," Bret pleaded with her friend.

The microbiologist could see the fear in Bret's eye and knew she wasn't kidding. Looking up, Suzanne saw Paul and Harrison re-enter the gym and heading for the locker rooms.

"There they are," she said, nodding toward the two men who were trying to subtly get into the boys' locker room without anyone noticing.

Bret jumped up out of her seat and said, "I'll have Harrison come back here."

With that Bret left and walked quickly to the boys' locker room that Paul and Harrison recently entered. No one looked at her as she silently entered the locker room after her friends.

She heard the distinct, but incomprehensible voices of the aliens. Steam impaired her vision like fog would do to a morning driver in London. This impairment caused Bret to trip over a white furry foot that she would've normally avoided had she been able to see two feet in front of her. She followed the leg up to find Harrison slumped down, unconscious, against the side of a row of lockers. Bret touched his face and instantly he was revived.

"Bret, they have Paul!" Harrison signed in horror, not wanting to give away Bret's presence to the aliens.

"Go back and protect Suzanne and Debi. I'll get Paul back," Dr. McAdams signed back.

Blackwood scurried out of the room while Bret began to look for the Army officer. The alien voices got louder as she approached what seemed to be the showers. Suddenly Bret could see the aliens and Paul without them seeing her. They were in the showers-all 4 of them, three aliens and Paul. One was holding Paul by the neck against the slippery tile wall between the community showers. They were arguing about what to do with Paul.

Amateurs, Bret thought to herself with a mixture of disgust and relief.

Paul tried to get some air, but the aliens grip was too tight. He started to think that he was seeing things. He saw Bret staring at him from an unseen spot beyond the aliens' line of sight. He was afraid for her. Paul prayed to the Great Spirit to not let her die in this endeavor.

"Hold on," he heard Bret's voice calling to him in his mind.

What the hell? Paul thought as he watched Bret.

Closing her eyes, Bret used her powers to turn on all the hot water in the shower commune. The aliens screamed in pain and released Paul from their chokehold on him. Ironhorse did not want to get scalded so he stayed in his spot until the water shut off, taking the opportunity to gain his breathing pattern back again though the thick steam made it hard for him. Bret shut off the water and gave Paul's knife back to him through telekinesis. The alien who had a death grip on Paul's throat lunged for him again in a vain effort to reclaim what he had lost. Ironhorse stuck his knife into the alien and watched him dissolve and slowly go down the drain.

The other two aliens ran for Bret. With one wave of her hand the aliens flew back against the far wall of the showers. She pulled out a small but lethal knife out from her right boot and hurled it at one of the aliens while Paul attacked the other before he could get up. The two remaining aliens dissolved and left the disgusting green plasma on the tile floor. Bret pulled Paul out of the showers and turned the showers back on to clean up the mess. When she was satisfied with the clean up, Bret turned to Paul who stared at her in awe.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you... I was under orders not to," she said quietly.

"You mean Wilson knows about you? What you can do?" Paul asked, not sure what to make of this whole new side of Bret.

"Yes," came her reply.

"Let me guess, I'm the only one out of the loop in the team?" Paul spat out.

"Among the 5 of us? Yes. Including Mrs. Pennyworth? No. She knows a little about me...my abilities, but not a lot in terms of what you have just seen."

Paul nodded. "We're you ever going to tell me?"

"Voluntarily? No. I couldn't until you saw what I can do. I was under orders. Now that you know and you wish to know more I'll tell you. But later at the Cottage. It would be nice for Debi to enjoy the rest of this day with us."

Paul nodded again silently. Looking around, he asked, "Where's Harrison?"

Bret closed her eyes and said, "With Suzanne and Debi," Bret answered.

"I see," Paul said as he turned to walk out of the locker room, but Bret stopped him.

"Paul, I'm sorry if I hurt you or lost your trust. That was not my intention. But you have to realize that I had no choice in the matter. Henry felt it better that I withhold certain information from you until you were ready."

Paul didn't' look at her. He needed to come to terms with this new found knowledge on Bret and when he did-if he did, Bret might be gone from the team forever.

"If it makes you feel any better the others found out by accident like you did."

"But that was before you join the team," Paul said, wondering if his suspicions were correct.

"Yes Paul, it was," she confirmed.

"Great," he said before he opened the door and went back into the gym.

Bret shook her head in despair and followed him. They found Harrison and Suzanne waiting for them anxiously. Debi was allowed to rejoin her friends once Harrison did a quick Geiger check on Bret and Paul and found them to be clean of radioactivity. He saw that Bret and Paul didn't look at each other. A barrier had rose up between the two and Harrison had an idea why that was.

He pulled Paul aside.

"What's wrong, Paul?" Ironhorse glared at his friend and said, "Why didn't you tell me about Bret?"

Harrison gulped and said, "Bret swore us to secrecy once she told us. It was nothing personal against you, Paul. It was just something Bret asked us not to divulge to anyone. I didn't tell Clayton and I told Clayton practically everything."

The Cherokee shook his head. "I guess the reason I didn't find out 'till now was because Bret wasn't going to be here long so she didn't bother to let me in on this big secret of hers." Paul looked sad to his friend.

Harrison tried to hide a smile.

"Well, we didn't know you'd get so attached to her that you'd care what you found out about what she was when she left."

Paul gave Harrison a sour look. "Bret's not a dog or cat, Blackwood."

"True," the astrophysicist confessed. "She's a woman. We just didn't think you'd get as close to her as you did personally. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but you did pull Bret onto the dance floor and you two were getting rather comfy with each other in a slow dance, were you not?"

Paul avoided Harrison's gaze. He suddenly felt a little embarrassed about his "Public Display of Affection" toward Bret. She was practically a married woman and not to him. He'd miss her when she left, that much was clear to Paul. Still, Paul was confused about his feelings for the doctor. Did he want her to stay for personal reasons or professional or both? Paul wasn't sure.

"Come on, Drac, 'ol buddy. Let's go see the booths outside. The girls are already heading out that way," Harrison said, clapping his hand on Paul's caped shoulder.

Paul nodded and followed Harrison outside the building where the booths were set up.

Bret and Suzanne walked through the crowd looking at the various "fun booths": Dunking, pie throwing, kissing, they were all there.

"Blow on a peel and find out the first letter of your true love," a man in 17^th century clothing said to the two women.

"Miss, do you want to know the first letter of your true love's name?" he said to Bret.

"No, thanks," Bret said quietly as she held up her left hand to show him her engagement ring. "I already know."

She felt funny saying it. Was her fiancé, Turney, her true love? Or was she just settling because all the rest of her family was with their true mates? Bret didn't know.

"Why don't you just test it? Have you done it before?" the guy asked, pulling out his charm.

"Yeah, I have," Bret replied, remembering a time centuries ago when she did it. "I don't think it worked. It's been so long ago." A long time ago, Bret thought to herself.

"Come on, Bret for fun," Suzanne urged her.

"Okay, but only if you do it too," Bret stipulated. Suzanne nodded to both her friend and the guy.

The guy smiled and peeled a long piece of skin off the red apple in his hand. He placed it in front of Bret's mouth and asked her to blow on it. Bret obliged and then looked away. The peel blew into the barrel of water in front of the man and Bret.

Looking down, the man smiled as he read the peel. "The letter 'P'."

"What?" Bret exclaimed as her eyes widened and dropped down to the barrel.

The peel, indeed, had turned into the letter P. A rosy flush colored Bret's fair face causing Suzanne to grin and stifle a laugh. Bret waved the results away and made room for Suzanne.

The man took Bret's peel out of his barrel and peeled a long piece for Suzanne and asked her to do what Bret had previously done.

With a strong puff of air from Suzanne's lungs, the peel fell where Bret's one was before.

"An H," the man said, reading the peel.

"What?" Suzanne echoed Bret's previous exclamation.

"An 'H'," the man said again, wondering if the mysterious Mr. H and P were here with the women at the fair.

"Let's make a deal," Bret said, turning to Suzanne, "You don't tell Dracula and I don't tell the White Rabbit."

Suzanne nodded her cheeks rosier from what the peel told her. "Deal, Bret," she murmurred and hurried off after thanking the man.

"I'm just saying give her a chance to explain," Harrison told Paul as they walked past the "Apple peel booth".

"Gentlemen, care to know the name of your soul mate? Their first letter anyway," the vendor asked.

Dracula and White Rabbit turned to their right and looked at the man. Paul gave him a strange look.

Finding out who your soul mate's first name is with an apple? Give me a break! Paul thought skeptically.

"How?" Harrison asked, intrigued.

Figures, Paul said to himself at Harrison's interest.

The man explained the procedure, which made Harrison grin further.

"I'm game and so is he," Harrison said wickedly, pointing a furry thumb at Paul.

"Blackwood," Paul growled.
"He'll go first as well," the astrophysicist added, which earned him yet another dark glare from the Colonel.

The 17^th century man smiled secretly and began to peel a long piece of apple skin for Paul.

"Blow on it, Count," the man instructed.

With a heavy sigh and roll of his eyes, Paul did as the man asked. The peel floated down and landed in the barrel of water. The vendor couldn't help, but grin.

"Your soul mate's first name starts with a 'B'."

"What?" both men asked at the same time.

The man repeated the answer and pointed to the barrel. Sure enough the peel turned into a "B". Harrison started laughing as Paul's cheeks became warmer. The vendor looked amused at the two men before him.

Finally Paul calmed down and said, "White Rabbit's next. You might want to hurry. He's late for a very important date." A smirk tugged on Paul's mouth.

"Okay, enough with the rabbit jokes or I'm going to tell you-know-who about the results of your peel," Harrison threatened.

Paul held up his hands in surrender and waited for his friend to blow on his peel.

Harrison, smug at gaining the advantage over Paul, blew on the peel and waited.

"An 'S'," the vendor confirmed.

Now it was Paul's turn to laugh. "Holding back on me, Doctor?"

Harrison stared down at the peel intently. Great, Harrison thought, now we have a stalemate.

"Let's go," Harrison said as he thanked the man.

Paul walked on, intent on finding the two women in their party, as the vendor stopped Harrison.

"Excuse me, but you and your friend don't happen to be in the company of two lovely women? A jockey and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz?"

"Yes, why?" Harrison asked, wondering what this man was up to.

The man whispered the results of Bret's peel in Harrison's ear, causing him to break out into a smile.

"But how did you know that we were with the jockey and Dorothy?" Harrison asked.

"The jockey mentioned you two-White Rabbit and Dracula. And I haven't seen a pair like you two all day."

Harrison smiled and asked, "What did Dorothy get?"

"I don't remember," the man lied.

Harrison thanked him again and left to find Paul, but what he found instead was something better.

Bret had been snared into participating in the kissing booth.

Now I hold the advantage over both Bret and Paul, Harrison thought to himself smiling. And the best part is that neither of them knew it.

Harrison looked around and finally located Suzanne. He found her watching Bret from a safe distance. He caught her attention and asked her to aid him in a matchmaking trick. Suzanne, doubtful it would work, helped anyway. She handed him the minimum tickets required for a kiss.

Harrison observed the men in line to kiss Bret: nice looking by any woman's standard, but Bret wasn't interested.

She was nice and pleasant to them, but that's where her "eagerness" ended, Suzanne observed. She commented such to Harrison only to find him gone from her side.

Finally, she spotted him dragging Paul to the kissing booth as the line thinned. Harrison walked over to the booth with Paul being drug behind him and plopped down the required tickets for a kiss.

Raising an eyebrow, Bret sighed and waited for Harrison to kiss her. She fervently hoped her "shift" at the booth would be over soon.

"Oh no, not me, Bret," Blackwood said wickedly and proceeded to pull Paul into Bret's line of sight.

Her aqua colored eyes got bigger as Harrison push Paul closer to the booth, placing him only a few inches from Bret.

Ironhorse looked at her skeptically. "All right, what do I have to do?" he asked.

Bret pointed up to indicate the sign above her in front of the booth. Taking a short step back, Paul read the sign three times before believing it. He blanched, throwing his darkest scowl at Harrison, debating on whether or not to just leave. But he didn't want to embarrass Bret. She had nothing to do with him being dragged to the booth, he could tell. The rosy flush of embarrassment clearly registered on her face, showing her innocence.

Deciding to shock the hell out of Blackwood, Paul smiled secretly to himself as he leaned over and kissed the surprised Bret fully on the mouth.

Harrison and Suzanne's mouths gaped open at their liplocked friends. Bret closed her eyes immediately when Paul's lips made contact with hers. The pair didn't see Debi taking a few candid shots of them kissing.

Norton's going to love this, Debi thought to herself with a smile.

When Paul pulled back, he saw Bret's cheeks colored in a deeper red than before the kiss. She tried to cover her visible emotions by avoiding eye contact with him. Without a word, Paul left, embarrassed by the intensity of their kiss. He didn't mean to like it so much or to kiss her like that for everyone to see.

Harrison's never going to let me live this down, Paul said bitterly as he stalked off to the parking lot. He had enough of the fair and Halloween and jokes for one day.

Norton scanned the pictures Debi took of everyone at the school function. His mouth broke into a 100-watt smile when he got to the picture of Bret and Paul kissing.

"Now that's a Kodak moment," Norton commented. "Does the Colonel and Bret have one of these?"

"They will when they go through their mail. I didn't tell them I took a picture of them during these candid events. The Colonel would probably confiscate my film if he found out before I..." Debi stopped.

"Before you what?"

"Sent it to Uncle Hank," Debi answered with a small sly smile on her face.

"Why did you do that?" Norton asked, laughing at the situation.

"He told me to. When I told him what happened at the fair and the pictures I took of the Colonel in un-Colonel-ish behavior, Uncle Hank asked me to send him copies. It was all I could do to keep Mom from looking at the pictures after they came back."

Norton looked disappointed. "You mean you didn't get me any copies? I wanted those for blackmail purposes and just for enjoyment. Imagine the Colonel acting like a man and not a soldier. I need proof of this rare phenomenon."

Debi laughed and handed him an envelope she had been hiding behind her back.

"Do you think I'd forget about you, Norton?"

Norton saw copies of the pictures of Paul and Bret inside the envelope and said, "I owe you big time for this, Debi."

Debi shrugged and said, "Just buy me dessert next time we're all at the mall and we'll call it even. I wonder if Mom and Harrison opened theirs yet."

"You gave them copies, too?" Norton asked.

"Sure, I knew Harrison would want proof like you would so I made extra copies," Debi said before she left.

Paul shuffled through his mail when he got to an envelope with Debi's handwriting on it.

What's this? Paul asked himself about to open the envelope when his private line rang.

"Ironhorse," he answered.

"Colonel Ironhorse," came his c.o.'s, Henry Wilson, voice.

"Yes, sir?" Paul asked, wondering if the general had any questions about his report about the alien presence at Debi's school.

"Colonel, do you mind telling me why I am looking at a picture of you kissing Dr. McAdams, who happens to be engaged to an English lord of high standing? And why you allowed yourself to be photographed in the first place by my grand niece?" Henry inquired, trying to keep from laughing.

Paul tore open the envelope he held in his hand from Debi and saw the telltale pictures of him kissing Bret in broad daylight.

"Excuse me, sir," Paul said hastily as he pushed the "Hold" button.

"Debi!" Paul's voice broke though his office door loud enough for all the first floor to hear him.

"Uh-oh!" Debi squeaked as she heard the Colonel's voice from where she was in the living room.