5. Ghosts, Goblins, and Ghouls

5 Ghosts, Goblins, and Ghouls "Oob!" we shouted when we came to the next house. "Treat or trick!" The old lady who answered the door was wearing an apron. She held out a big basket full of candy. "You can each take one," she said. "Can I take two?" Ryan asked. "Okay, okay, you can take two," she agreed. "Can I take three?" I asked. "No." That lady was mean. We went up and down Maple Street, grabbing fistfuls of Kit Kats, M&M'S, Smarties, Warheads, Hershey's bars, Jolly

Ranchers, Life Savers, Reese's Pieces, York Peppermint Patties, Mounds, Jelly Bellies. Well, you get the idea. I wanted to start eating my candy right away, but Michael and Billy said we should get a whole bunch of candy before we started eating any of it. After we cleaned out all the houses on Maple Street, we moved on to Pine Street. "My pillowcase is getting heavy!" complained Alexia. "Mine too," agreed Neil the nude kid. "I say we should eat some of our candy now," suggested Ryan. "Then our pillowcases won't feel so heavy."

What a genius! We could eat candy and lighten our pillowcases at the same time. Ryan should get the No Bell Prize for that idea. That's a prize they give out to people who don't have bells. We stopped on the corner and took a break. I had a Laffy Taffy. Ryan had a Mars bar. Billy had a Snickers. Michael had some Tootsie Rolls. Neil had some Starburst. Yum! I still can't get over the fact that on Halloween people just hand you candy, and you don't even have to pay for it or anything. What a scam! We all agreed that Halloween is the best holiday of all the holidays, and this was the greatest day of our lives. By now the streets were filled with lots of kids out trick-or-treating. We saw some pretty scary-looking costumes. There were kids dressed like ghosts, goblins, ghouls,

zombies, and hunchbacks. I saw these two kids who were really scary. One of them didn't have a head, and the other one had two heads! That was weird.* But right after that, I saw the most hideous, horrifying creature in the history of the world. It was Andrea Young! Ugh, disgusting! She was walking toward us. And she was with her crybaby friend Emily. Just once I wish I could go someplace without bumping into those two. "I'm a witch Andrea announced as if we couldn't figure it out from the pointy hat broomstick and wart on her nose She spun around so we could see her costume in all its glory. "You look even uglier than usual," I told Andrea.

"Oh, snap!" said Ryan. "I'm a witch too," said Emily, who always does everything Andrea does. "We're good witches, not bad witches," Andrea informed us. "You should put bread on either side of you," I suggested. "Then you'd be a sandwich." "Very funny, Arlo," Andrea said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm a mutant zombie pirate," said Ryan. "Arghhhh!" "I'm the underwerewolf!" said Billy. "Grrrrrrrr!" "My mom told me that violent costumes are inappropriate for children," Andrea said. "They could lead to violent behavior." "Your mom is weird I told Andrea "Look," Michael said . "We don't have time to make chitchat with you two. There's a lot of candy out there, and we want to go get it." "Oh, I don't care about getting a lot of candy," Andrea told us. "I'm going to donate any candy I collect to the poor. There are a lot of children who can't afford candy." "They don't have to afford candy!" Alexia said. "It's free!"