Gifted Connections 2

“He would have been a sexy gladiator,” Rachel said as she walked into the room. “Have you seen how defined his muscles are getting with all these extra work outs?!”

Rachel was the perfect Harley Quin with her red and white vintage baseball tee that had “Daddy’s Lil Monster” plastered across it. A shiny red and blue jacket accompanied it. She had elected to wear the short spandex red and blue shorts over fish net stockings. We had spent the late afternoon dying her hair to a platinum blond shade, and I had to admit it looked fabulous on her. We had sprayed temporary blue hair spray in one of her pony tails and reddish-pink in the other.

“Just remember he’s mine,” Jemmy joked good naturedly. “All of his sexy, tall, ruggedness.”

Rachel groaned. “You don’t have to remind me. Can we make it our mission to find me a boyfriend?” she looked over at me mischievously. “You have a boyfriend, and Blake has six. I feel left out.”

I groaned as Jemmy hooted with laughter. “That’s our mission tonight.”

“Really guys,” I said good naturedly rolling my eyes. “You think it’s easy juggling six relationships. It isn’t.”

Rachel frowned. “Jemmy can you help me with my makeup.” Then she looked over at me with that crap eating grin again. “I never said I wanted six men adoring me, protecting me, sexing me up, but I would settle with…four.”

I threw my brush at her retreating back. “Laugh it up,” I grumbled at her as I applied my bright red lipstick.

Ella came bursting in my room, through the bathroom. She stopped short as she appraised me. “You look really pretty, Blake,” she smiled up at me.

“Thank you,” I smiled. “Are you guys ready to get dressed so we can go trick or treating?”

“Yes,” she squealed happily before yelling through the bathroom. “Nadia, they’re ready to get us dressed!”

The guys had volunteered to get the boys and themselves ready, while we got ourselves and the girls ready. I could hear the boys hooting and hollering up and down the stairs. It was no surprise that they were finished first. We had to do our hair and makeup and that added at least an hour to our time. They had even given us a head start and they still beat us.

Oh well, I thought. I was a fairly low maintenance girl. I deserved a little extra time to get ready, every now and then.

After the boys yelled at us for the third time to hurry up, we decided to make our entrance. We were going to light their jack-o-lanterns before we headed out to Nadia’s development. Jemmy, Gavin, Rachel, and Drake were heading to We 7. While Troy, Jaxson, Jace, and Noah were accompanying me to take the kids trick or treating. The party was starting at eight, so we would be late, but we were okay with that.

I walked down the steps and saw Gavin, Jace, Troy, Noah, and Jaxson dressed and waiting for us. I looked at Jemmy in exasperation. “Whatever happened to keeping it a secret?”

“Jemmy can’t keep secrets, you should know that by now,” Will laughed good-naturedly. “That’s why I had her spy on the boys for me, when they were growing up.”

I smiled, imagining them as teenagers. I could see the boys trying to hide their escapades and

antics from Jemmy. I could see her being the bratty little sister trailing after them and then telling on them.

Every flippin’ one of the guys were dressed as a comic book character. I had to admit they made damn good comic book characters. They certainly didn’t need those costumes with the fake muscles built into them, that’s for sure. It was no surprise that Troy was Captain America. How befitting that the man that obsessed over war movies, chose the superhero that served in the military.

Jaxson was dressed as Spiderman. His face fell as he looked at Jemmy accusingly. “You told me she was going as Mary Jane.”

“And you believed me,” she pointed at him as she doubled over in laughter. “Who wants to go as Mary Jane?”

It was mean of Jemmy to lie to him, but I had to admit that it was hilarious. Honestly, if he had remembered their love/ hate relationship, he should have realized she was setting him up.

“She told me Blake was going as Harley Quin,” Noah said dryly in his Joker costume.

That had everyone laughing once again as Noah ran a hand through his green hair. Rachel strutted up to him in her outrageously high heels and circled around him. “I guess you’re stuck with me tonight, unless,” she grinned wickedly. “I find my four or six connections.”

“You need more than one man to handle you so they can give each other breaks,” Noah joked good naturedly.

Rachel sighed dramatically. “Oh Noah, we all know if Blake weren’t around, you would be chasing me.”

“You know it,” he joked with a wink at me.

“You look beautiful, sweet heart,” Jace kissed me on the top of my head. He was dressed as Flash. I knew instinctively he wouldn’t have asked Jemmy what I was in hopes of being my ‘pair,’ but that didn’t bother me. If all six of them constantly tried to please me and be yes men, I would get bored. To tears.

“Thank you,” I murmured, feeling slightly self-conscious in my miniscule outfit.

“The lanterns are lit,” Drake said triumphantly as he came into the room. He stopped short when he saw me. A slow smile spreading across his face. He was dressed as Superman. I was surprised to see him without his glasses, outside of the pool or shower.