Halloween Night

By: Jocelyn Olson

    I was stuck at home all by myself. It was Halloween Night, but mom had said I was too old for trick-or treating. Part of me agreed with her, but the other part wanted to put on my costume, and go knock on the neighbors' doors anyway. My mom told me she would be back in 45 minutes because she had to run a few errands. In the meantime, I decided to turn all of the lights off so trick-or-treaters would think I wasn’t home. The plan was great! Everyone stopped coming, but that was when I started hearing soft thumps. I wasn't scared at all at first. I assumed it was my cat, Fluffbutt who was always falling off of my bed. But the sounds continued and seemed to be getting louder. Someone was probably pulling a prank on me to make me look like a wuss. I wasn't going to let that happen, so I tip toed over to my room to inspect, and all I found was my cat sleeping on my bed. Wierd! I thought she was the one making the sounds in the first place!

     Something was going on that I didn’t know about. I was starting to get a little worried when I realized that it had been over an hour since my mom had left to run errands. What was going on and why was she taking so long? There was one final THUMP before the sound stopped completely. I continued my inspection and when I crept into the kitchen to see if there was anything in there making the noise (but mostly to get a snack), lots of people in Halloween costumes popped out of the shadows and yelled "BOO!". I was so startled that I yelped and scrambled back. That was followed by a lot of laughing. I realized that I knew these people, they were all people from my school. I immediately saw my best friends Rachel and Jenny dressed in their Halloween costumes. That’s when I realized what was happening. There were red, orange, black and purple streamers hanging from the ceiling, bowls of candy were covering the counter, and Halloween music was playing softly in the background. They were having a party! But, why at my house? My friend Jenny helped me off of the floor. “Surprise! We knew that Halloween was one of your favorite holidays, and that you weren’t allowed to go trick-or-treating this year so we decided to throw a party for you! Your mom helped us set it up!” She beamed. “Really?” I couldn’t believe it. “No. This is probably just a big prank.” I told her. “No!” Rachel jumped in, “You know we’re not the type to pull pranks on our best friend! And, why else would there be so many people be here if it was a prank?” she asked. “Plus, why else would everyone be in your house?” Jenny asked. They made a good point. But, could this many people really have thrown  a party just for me? I didn’t know this many people cared about me, but I decided to believe them anyway.

They told me to go get my costume on, so I hurried up to my room and got my costume out of my closet (I had stashed it there since I figured I would never need it again) and slipped it on. I was going to be a hippie this year. I had all of the things ready to go. That was why I was so upset when my parents told me I wasn’t allowed to go trick-or-treating this year. When I joined everyone downstairs again, they had the Halloween music blasting as loud as it would go, and were singing along. It made me happy to see everyone enjoying themselves. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad Halloween after all.