6 Ch6-Giant Bananas and Two-headed Astronauts

Chapter 6 Giant Bananas and Two-headed Astronauts This was the first Halloween that me and Michael and Ryan were allowed to go trick-or-treating without our parents. We went home to drop off our backpacks and get pillowcases to hold all the candy. Then we met up again at Michael's house. "Let's go!" Ryan said. "If I don't eat a

Twizzler in about five minutes, I'm gonna die." "Not so fast," Michael said, opening up a big map he had drawn. "I worked it all out so we'll have the maximum candy accumulation." Wow! Big words. Michael should be in the gifted and talented program. Me and Ryan looked at Michael's map. Michael doesn't like to just walk up and down the street collecting candy like a normal kid. He always plans a careful route so he can go to all the houses that have good candy and not waste any time at the houses where people turn off their lights and pretend they're not home. Michael is weird.

"We'll save Mrs. Patty's house for last," Michael said. "She says she has more candy than anybody in town. Let's go!" I was thinking about what Mrs. Patty said earlier at school. "Do you think there really is a Halloween Monster?" I asked the guys as we headed up the street. "Of course not," Michael said. "Mrs.

Patty was just yanking our chain." "We'd better be careful just in case," Ryan said. We set off on our candy quest. There were lots of kids in weird costumes walk- ing up and down the street. Giraffes! Darth Vaders! Two-headed astronauts! Princesses! Cowboys! Ghosts! Four kids dressed up as a bunch of giant bananas! What a freak show! We saw teenagers dressed up like bums. Teenagers always dress up like bums on Halloween. That must be an easy cos- tume to make, because teenagers dress like bums even when it isn't Halloween. "Trick or treat!" we shouted when we

got to the first house on Michael's map. A lady opened the door. "Ooh, you boys are scary!" she said, even though she totally didn't look scared at all. "What are you supposed to be?" "We're a zombie football player, a zombie hockey player, and a killer zombie penguin," Michael said. "From outer space," I added. "You can each have a piece of candy," the lady said, holding a bucket out for us. "Can we take two?" I asked, grabbing a Milky Way. "Well, okay..." "Can we take four?" I asked, grabbing a Butterfinger.

"No," the lady said, pulling back the bucket. That lady was mean. We went to the next house and got candy there. Then we went to the house around the corner and got candy there. Before we went to the next house, each of us took a piece of candy out of our pillowcase and ate it. There's no reason you have to wait until the end of trick-or-treating to start eating your candy. You need to start eating your candy right away, so you'll have enough energy to get more candy. That's the first rule of being a kid. Michael led us a few blocks away to the