Jessa turned over the page on her calendar and unthinkingly clenched her fist in excitement as the highlighted box for October 31st came into view. Since she was very young, Halloween had been Jessa’s second favourite time of year, closely following Christmas. As far as she was concerned, it was even better than collecting chocolate eggs at Easter, and even more fun than counting down to the New Year while wearing silly glasses and hats. So, in honour of their youngest daughter’s strange love for the holiday, Mr and Mrs Baxter had, every year, gone out of their way to make it an extra special occasion. Mrs Baxter, whose professional career was in events management, seemed never to tire of party planning, and this Halloween was no exception. It was to be the biggest Baxter party yet.

“Have you decided on your costume, Jessa?” Jean Baxter asked her daughter, handing her a box of Cinnamon Twist.

“Yes,” Jessa replied matter-of-factly. “I think I want to be a zombie this year.”

Audrey looked up from a large book and grimaced.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Jessa retorted.

“No...” Audrey rolled her eyes.

“Do you want a costume this year, too, Audrey?” their mother asked the oldest sister.

“No, thanks, I’ll just be a doctor. I can bring my lab coat home and wear that.”

“Again?!” Jessa exclaimed. “Doctor Bored-rey, paging Doctor Bored-rey to the operating room, stat!”

“Firstly,” Audrey placed the book onto the table with a loud plop, “I wouldn’t get paged verbally because that makes no sense. And secondly, some of us have work to do, Jessa, and we don’t have time to worry about Halloween costumes.”

“Whatever you say, Doctor Bored-rey.”

“Jessa, please,” Audrey glared at her younger sister. Jessa muttered something under her breath, but it was drowned out by the tinkling of cinnamon squares tumbling into her bowl.

“Oh, you girls,” Mrs Baxter sighed. “Thirteen years and—”

“And worlds apart,” Jessa finished. “We know.”

“Well it’s true, you two are so different, sometimes I still wonder if there was a mix—”

“A mixup at the hospital. We know. You need some new catchphrases, Mum.”

Mrs Baxter playfully swatted her youngest daughter on the back of her head, then her face showed concern as she turned to Audrey.

“Sweetheart, maybe the university is putting too much pressure on you.”

“It’s what I need to do, Mum.”

“I just worry about you.”

“There’s no need, I’m fine,” Audrey assured her.

Despite always having an intelligence level above average for her age, Audrey was also introverted, shy, and an overachiever. She’d only ever scored the highest grades possible in every exam, a fact of which Jessa had been reminded throughout her whole life.

Jessa stared into her cereal bowl, swishing the little squares around in the milk. “I got an A on my parapsych physics project,” she blurted out. Her face immediately heated up with shame at her lie. She had actually received a very respectable B- on the project, but she knew that wasn’t enough to compete with Audrey.

“That’s wonderful, Jessa!” her mother beamed proudly. “What did that entail, then?”

“Well, we’ve been learning about waves and frequency and stuff, so we’re learning how that applies to telekinesis. Some of the others aren’t very good because they’re not good telekins, but I am.”

“I’m so glad you’re doing well,” Mrs Baxter smiled. “So do you get to work on your abilities much in lessons?”

“Not really. Not yet, anyway. We have science lessons, but it’s mostly theory at the moment, like how the sciencey stuff explains the parapsychey stuff.”

“That all sounds very interesting. And do you think it’s helping with your telekinesis?”

“I mean, my psych skills aren’t strong yet, but yeah, I think I’m getting better.”

“Gosh, it’s so fascinating. Don’t you think it’s fascinating, Audrey?” Mrs Baxter asked. But before Audrey could reply, she was distracted by the sound of a loud buzz as her phone vibrated on the table. She swiped the screen up to reveal the message, and smiled cautiously to herself, before swiping away the message before her mother or Jessa could see.

“Was that you-know-who?” Mrs Baxter squeezed her hands around her mug.

“Mmhmm,” Audrey giggled. Jessa raised her eyebrows at her sister’s sudden girlishness. Audrey never giggled.

“What’s going on? Who’s the text from?” she asked.

“Audrey has a new boyfriend!” their mother jabbered.

“Mum!”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it! But it’s all right, Jessa can keep a secret. We haven’t had any Baxter girl talk in a while.”

“Fine, yes, I’m seeing someone,” Audrey said. “But I still don’t want to say too much. He’s very handsome, though, I can tell you that.”

“What’s his name?” Mrs Baxter prodded for more information.

“His name is Hugo.”

“Hugo?” Jessa mocked. “Is he another Cambridge posh boy?”

“No, he didn’t go to Cambridge,” Audrey snapped. “But even if he did, there’s nothing wrong with being well educated.”

“Does he wear tweed? Does he have a monocle? Does he wear a top hat to dinner?”

“Come on, Jessa,” Audrey rolled her eyes.

Jessa checked that their mother had turned away and then poked her tongue out at Audrey.