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Grade
6

 

I dreaded this night for a while now. Halloween is a stressful holiday for my family. Since I have to shop and go trick or treating with my mom, we try not to talk. We never get along, sometimes I feel like we don’t even have a connection. But this year, I get to bring my friends with us. I will just try to talk to them more to avoid having to talk to my mom.
   I heard the doorbell and ran down stairs. I yanked open the door, breathing heavily. We all decided to dress as zombies, but some of them dressed as mummies. I guess it would be cool to mix it up. I was about to call my mom to tell her that we were ready, but a delightful smell traveled through the house. I followed the scent to my kitchen, where it was really strong. I looked around and my mom came in. 


   “What are you making?” I asked her. “We never make a big meal for Halloween.” 

    “ Yeah, but since your brothers visiting I decided to make something that he will love, and he loves turkey and cranberry sauce. I know its not Thanksgiving, but it would fill you guys up. I might even make some pumpkin pie.” She said in a very cheerful voice. I almost forgot that my brother was coming, I was so excited to finally go with my friends, but now I’m even more excited.

“ Well, we’re ready when you are. We will be waiting at the door.” I ran out of the kitchen and looked out the window, hoping that my brother would magically appear. We just moved from Texas, and he stayed. He always wanted to come to Florida, so he decided to come for the weekend. Now I wanted to jump around and scream, but my friends would probably leave. I just held my excitement in.
  My mom came to the door and we darted out, assuming that she was ready. She slowly came out and locked the door, but we were already across the street banging on the neighbors door.
   

 “Trick or treat!” we all screamed. We were grinning from ear to ear. He was an old man, and he put his cane by the door and walked to another room. We didn’t really know what he was doing, so we didn’t know what to do. We just waited silently. He didn’t come back for thirty seconds, and we were about to walk away, but we heard his shoes clomp on the wood floor in his living room. He came out with a few mini candy bars, and we said thank you. Before we left he whispered in my ear. I just looked at him with an awkward smile on my face and left. I tried to catch up with my friends, who were already next door. 

 “Guys, that old man at the other house said that there’s a haunted house around here. He said something about a cornfield and a graveyard, too. I don’t know if those were directions or not.” I was out of breath. A man dressed as a vampire came to the door.

 “Trick or treat!” they screamed, but I just stood there, looking nervous.

“ I know which house he was talking about!” my friend whispered. We slyly ran away without the rest, knowing that they would tell my mom, where ever she is.
  

We ran down the streets to get to the cornfield. We were getting tired and stopped. We put our hands on our knees and a little kid dressed as a goblin came up to us and tugged on my torn zombie costume.

 “Rawr!” he yelled. I didn’t really know how to respond to that. We heard our friends voices in the distance, so we ran as fast as we could, and we accidently knocked him over. I didn’t have time to stop and apologize, but his parents walked over and helped him up. I smiled at them and mouthed the words, “sorry”, but they gave me an evil look. Now I have even more people to hide from.

We finally found the corn field and ran through. I was worried that we would get lost, but my friend that she knew her way through. After a while, I smelled a faint scent of food, it smelled delightful.

 “ I think there’s a house near by, do you smell that?” I asked her, but she didn’t respond. She looked through the corn fields and just ran. I followed her, assuming that she smelled it, too. We made our way out of the corn fields, but we didn’t see a house, all we saw was a dark graveyard, its only light was the moon.
 We walked through the grave yard filled with fake skeletons that someone put on top of the tombstones. My friend and I slowly creeped through.
   A family of owls searched for food in an oak tree that hung over us. The red and orange leaves were beautiful. There were fake bats hanging from the branches, and fake blood was splattered on the trunk. Well, I hoped it was fake. 
   

“This is going to take forever. This graveyard is huge! Im not even supposed to be here, my mom is probably looking for us.”

“Relax. She can’t be that mad at you.” She said. 

I narrowed my eyes. “Can’t be that mad, huh? We’re in a graveyard for crying out loud! I was supposed to stay on my block!” I cried. I was worried that my mom might be looking for me, or even calling the cops. Hopefully we haven’t been gone that long and she won’t even notice that I’m gone. I sat down on a bench with black roses engraved into the old, chipped wood. I looked at my shoes, trying not to cry.

   “It’s ok,” she said, “ We will hurry. And if you don’t feel comfortable, we can go.” She sat down next to me and smiled. 
   

 “It’s fine. We couldn’t of been gone that long, we still aren’t really far and we ran the whole time.” I stood up and held out my hand to help her up. Even though she smiled, I knew how badly she wanted to go, and she would do the same for me. She smiled, took my hand and we ran farther.
   We walked a little farther, and I heard music in the distance. We looked at eachother and ran towards the music. We saw an old mansion with fog on the outside.
 

 “ So…do you think that this is the place?” I asked her sarcastically. 

 “ Well that’s where the music is coming from, but its not scary music. Haunted houses don’t have upbeat music.”

She was right. Haunted houses have scary music, not music that makes you want to dance.

“ Well, they might be giving out candy. We have to hurry, though.” I told her. 

We walked up to the house and knocked on the door. The music stopped. We were just standing there, waiting for the king sized candy bars to fill our buckets. A tall woman dressed as a witch answered the door. 

“Trick or treat!”we screamed. She just looked confused.

 “Um..” I whispered. “ Maybe we should go. I don’t know what to do.” I told my friend.

I looked behind her. In her living room I could see a bunch a people in costumes, who were also staring at us with a confusedlook.

 “I think that it’s a reserved party. Lets go.” We started to walk away. I turned back around and she was still looking at me. I gave her a fake grin and she shot one back. I turned back around, heard the door close behind me, and continued walking. After we were a few feet away, the music starting blasting again. 

 “ Well, that was a waste of time.” I said in a depressed voice. “ Now I’ll get in trouble for nothing.”

“ It wasn’t for nothing. We had an adventure, and it was your first Halloween with me.” She said, smiling.

 “ Yeah, but my mom and I are going to have an argument and she’ll be mad at me. I’ll be grounded while my brothers here. I wanted to be closer, but it’s too late. I know I said that I wanted to spend Halloween with my friends, but that was before I realized that I wouldn’t of been closer with her if I had stayed. Lets go, I want to get it over with.” She opened her mouth, but no words came out. We just slowly walked home. 
 Going through the graveyard and cornfield seemed a lot quicker then the first time. We made it to my house and I saw my mom sitting on the porch. She was looking around and our eyes met. She gasp and her eyes widened. She got up and ran towards me. I was as stiff as a board. She got closer and my friend ran away. I took one step back, and she just hugged me as hard as she could. I sighed in relief and hugged her back. 

“ Where were you? No one could find you! You are so lucky that I didn’t call the police yet!” she screamed. She was staring at me waiting for an answer. I barely opened my my mouth and she just hugged me again. I explained what happened, but throughout the whole story she just kept hugging me. 

 “ Never do anything like that again. I was worried. I love you.” She whispered. I looked at her surprised and told her that I loved her too. A few seconds later, my brother pulled into the driveway and we ran over to him, side by side. We hugged him a thousand times, then went inside to eat. I was the last one in since I was holding the door open for my family, but before I entered I turned around when I thought I heard someone call my name. I saw my friend standing on the side walk giving m a thumbs up. I smiled and she smiled back, then we both walked away. 
  We all ate dinner together, and I sat next to my mom. We were talking and laughing the whole time. What I thought would be one of the worst nights of my life turned out to be one of the best. I will never forget this night, the night that everything changed.