Trick Or Treat

“Kenzie!” From next to me, my friend Lynda tapped me with her pencil, hissing at me.

I shook my head slightly and finished writing the important history notes down before glancing up at our teacher, Mrs. Knobbs. She was explaining more about how the Roman Empire fell; stuff we learned years ago but the teachers felt needed refreshing. Mrs. Knobbs was looking around the room, but she wasn’t concentrating on anybody. She was concentrating on her history lesson entirely.

I gave Lynda a side glance before ripping off a small piece of paper from my notebook and writing a note to her.

Yeah? I wrote, picking the paper slowly up and tossing it over to my friend.

Without hesitation, and without making sure that the teacher wasn’t onto her, Lynda picked up the paper and started writing back.

BEN’S HAVING A HALLOWEEN PARTY TONIGHT, she wrote back; in all capital letters. You’re going, right???? Please tell me YES!

I stared at the writing for a few seconds, unsure what to do or write back.

Ben Tramer. My crush. He’s a year older than Lynda and I. He’s a senior while we’re juniors. All the girls are always trying to get him to notice them, but Lynda thinks that he has all eyes for me.

Me. Mackenzie, or Kenzie rather. The girl with wavy dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. Average.

Lynda doesn’t realize my struggle with boys. She assumes that I can get any boy I want just the way she can. With her straight, silky blond hair and irresistible bright blue eyes, she has no problem getting whatever boy she wants. Usually she has another boyfriend as soon as she breaks up with her previous one. Lynda makes it all seem too easy, when really, it’s not.

I was about to write back when it all clicked into my brain at once. No Halloween for me, I’m babysitting tonight. As much as I loved Halloween, I also enjoyed babysitting. Usually the families would end up paying me more money than they originally told me, only because their children enjoyed having me as their sitter so much that they were begging for me to come back.

I looked up at Mrs. Knobbs one last time before writing down my thoughts. I have to babysit tonight. No party for me.

As I was handing the note over to my friend, a loud voice recited my name.

“Mackenzie?”

I froze in my action, slowly glancing up to see Mrs. Knobbs staring at me, along with the rest of the class. I was sitting in the back corner of the classroom, which meant everybody had to turn their heads to look at me. Even more embarrassing. I let the note I was holding securely in my hand slowly flutter down to my desk, immediately blending in with my papers full of notes. “Yes Mrs. Knobbs?”

“Do you mind telling the reason why the Roman Empire fell?” she challenged, watching me blissfully, as if she were enjoying how I was put on the spot. Why are teachers so evil? I swear, sometimes I feel that teachers are put on Earth not to help kids learn, but to torture them.

I paused and let my gaze fall down to my notebook paper. I frantically glanced over my notes as quickly as I could, trying to find the answer, but I realized I stopped writing before I could get down the causes. When I looked back up, the class was still gawking at me. From next to me, Lynda cleared her throat loudly, as if trying to break the awkwardness.

And then it came to me. “The Roman Empire was overthrown by a Germanic leader. After the Roman Empire fell, he became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome.”

As more seconds of silence passed, I started to feel more and more foolish; thinking I said something wrong. But I was proven wrong when the teacher finally spoke up.

“That’s correct, Mackenzie,” she nodded approvingly at me as she turned around to continue on with her lesson. She didn’t ask anything about the note passing probably because I got the answer to her question right.

Once mostly everybody turned around, my heart rate started to slow down, but was quickly kickstarted again when Ben glanced back at me from his seat directly in front of Lynda’s desk.

He nodded at me and winked. “Good going Strode,” Ben declared in a whisper, calling me by my last name.

Lynda started giggling while I shot him a playful glare. I rolled my eyes. “Shut up before Mrs. Psycho calls on you.”

Ben didn’t budge. He kept laughing and mocking me. “No can do. She can throw everything she has at me, but I’ll always get everything right.”

I took the note that Lynda and I had been writing to each other on, crumbled it up, and tossed it right at Ben’s face. “Teacher’s pet.”

Everything went still for a moment when Ben caught the paper ball right in his hand. Lynda and I’s conversation is on there. And it was about Ben. I frantically racked through my brain, trying to remember what exactly Lynda wrote about him on there. I knew it was something about his Halloween party, but I couldn’t recall if she also mentioned him liking me or me liking him — which he most definitely didn’t

“What’s this?” Ben inquired quietly, starting to open the crumbled paper. “Is this what distracted you in the first place? What were you two writing that was so interesting?”

“No!” I yelled a little too loudly. I slowly glanced up to notice that the teacher didn’t notice. “Give it back!” I hissed aggressively at Ben.

“Ben, if you don’t give that back to Kenzie, she won’t go to your party tonight,” Lynda chimed in, totally bribing Ben. Though I knew I wouldn’t be able to go either way, I didn’t care about lying to him. I knew he couldn’t possibly like me, and I really wanted that note back just in case it had any secrets on it.

That bribe won’t work, I told myself. I felt my face getting hot. He probably doesn’t care whether I go to his party or not. But Lynda was a whole different story. Whenever I said, Lynda always insisted that Ben was in fact into me.

I almost gasped when Ben gave Lynda a long stare before letting the crumbled up paper go on top of my desk. “I don’t want you missing this party.” Brady smirked at me.

Calm down, I told myself as I scooped up the paper and shoved it into the pocket of my skirt, not wanting to take any chances. That doesn’t mean anything.

I never wanted to get my hopes up about boys like Ben. Especially since I was such a nobody at school; I didn’t want to get heartbroken when I see him making out with another girl or something.

“Lynda…” I whispered, giving her a glance. “Before Mrs. Knobbs called on me, I was going to tell you that I’m babysitting tonight.”

Lynda made a confused face at me. “You’re having a baby tonight?”

I stared at Lynda. Sometimes she can be so stupid. She is blonde after all. Overall, I liked babysitting. Even though kids could get on my nerves sometimes, babysitting was a completely different experience. Especially if I got to babysit my favorite kid, Tommy. “No! What are you talking about?” I whispered back. “I’m-”

I was cut off by the loud sound of the bell ringing, signaling the end of the day. Everybody started talking and getting up, throwing their stuff into their bags.

“Quiet down!” Mrs. Knobbs urged, placing her papers onto her desk. In response, everybody grew quiet. If we didn’t, she’d just keep us in for longer. “First of all, I want to wish everybody a happy Halloween tonight.” she glanced from one student to the next. “Make sure to stay safe.” Mrs. Knobbs’ eyes oddly landed right onto me when she says that; as if I was a bad teenager that went out and about to parties to drink — almost like Lynda. But Lynda isn’t exactly bad. The teacher broke eye contact with me. “And make sure to have fun. Also, make sure not to go to sleep too late because tomorrow is Friday, which means we have class tomorrow.”

Everybody knows that won’t happen, I told myself. Usually, I even go to sleep late on Halloween, and that’s me we’re talking about. Plain old Mackenzie Strode.

As soon as the teacher stopped talking, everybody started chattering again and shuffling out of the classroom. Though I was still struck with an uneasy feeling by Mrs. Knobbs’ strong gaze when she was telling everybody to stay safe.

However it was quickly forgotten about when Lynda and Ben started talking. They had gotten up, so I mimicked their action, picking up my school bag and swinging it around my shoulder and closing my notebook and holding it in my arms along with my two textbooks.

“Now what on Earth were you saying?” Lynda asked me promptly, making a face at me. “That you were-”

“No, Lynda, I didn’t say what you thought,” I corrected, rolling my eyes playfully. “I said before the teacher called on me, I was about to answer your question. I can’t go to any party because I’m babysitting.”

In response, Lynda and Ben stayed quiet until Ben finally broke the silence. “But…”

“Who are you babysitting?” Lynda interrupted as if there was still hope. “Tommy?”

I nodded slowly.

In response, Lynda exchanged a smile with Ben. “Well… Ben lives a few houses down from him. Once Tommy goes to sleep, you can sneak over for a few. It won’t hurt anybody.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And if his parents come home?”

“Then pretend you were investigating a weird noise outside.” Lynda had a reply for everything. “I mean, it’s Halloween. Why wouldn’t there be a weird noise outside?”

Why would there be? “I think you mean why would there be.” I argued, shaking my head.

“But Annie is even-” Lynda started, but was cut off by Mrs. Knobbs from the front of the room.

“Kids, I think you should be discussing your Halloween plans outside. What makes you want to stay in here?” she inquired, pushing her glasses further up on her nose.

I looked from Ben to Lynda. They were silent. I sighed to myself as I turned back to the teacher. “We’re sorry.” I apologized for all three of us, starting to walk forward toward the door. Ben and Lynda tagged along behind me.

“Have a happy Halloween guys,” Mrs. Knobbs reminded. “Stay safe and have fun.”

“Thank you,” well all replied in unison this time.

“You too.” I said kindly, giving her a small smile before opening the door and disappearing into the hallway with my two friends behind me.