The Haunted Hayride Read online

  Robbie copied Josh and shoved the hot dog pieces onto his teeth. Then, in his best vampire voice, he said, “I vant to suck your blood.”

  It was hilarious! We all burst out laughing.

  “Come on, Freddy. You try it,” said Josh.

  I pushed my fangs in place and started to say, “I vant to suck—” but before I could finish, one of my fangs dropped onto the table.

  We all burst out laughing again.

  “What’s so funny?” Chloe asked as she came walking up to our table.

  Josh leaned over close to Chloe’s neck and said, “Come here, little girl. I vant to suck your blood.”

  Chloe jumped back, screaming, “Ewww! Ewww! Ewww!”

  “Ha, ha, ha!” Josh laughed.

  “You all are so gross,” said Chloe.

  “It’s only hot dogs and ketchup,” said Josh.

  “Well, my mama says you should never play with your food.”

  “Well, my mom was the one who taught me how to be a hot dog vampire,” said Josh.

  I picked up my fang that had dropped onto the table and offered it to Chloe. “Here, do you want to try being a hot dog vampire?”

  “Was that already in your mouth?” she asked.

  “Yep,” I said.

  “And it’s got his saliva all over it,” said Robbie.

  “DIS-GUS-TING!” said Chloe. “You are all pigs.”

  “No, they are all vampires,” Jessie said, grinning.

  “Ugh!” said Chloe, sticking her nose in the air. “I can’t stay here anymore and watch you play with your food.” She turned and started to walk away.

  “That’s too bad,” Josh called after her. “You’re missing out on all the fun.”

  “Later, Miss Fancypants!” Jessie shouted.

  “Is she always like that?” Josh asked.

  “Always,” the three of us answered and then laughed.

  I was having such a good time, I had almost forgotten about the hayride. That is until I heard that voice again.

  “What’s so funny?”

  I didn’t even have to turn around to know it was Max.

  “We’re pretending to be vampires,” said Josh.

  “That’s so lame,” said Max.

  “It’s not lame,” said Josh. “It’s actually pretty fun. Do you want to try it?”

  Josh always knew the right thing to say to Max. He was never intimidated by him. I wish I could be like that. I wish I could stand up to the biggest bully in the whole second grade and not be afraid of him.

  “I don’t want to play your baby games,” said Max. “I just came to see if you’ve won any other good prizes.”

  “Nope. Just my spider ring,” Josh said, shoving the ring into Max’s face.

  Max swatted Josh’s hand away. “I don’t want that, so you’d better get busy winning some cooler stuff. Why don’t you go do the Cake Walk and win that awesome Frankenstein cake, just so I can take it away from you.”

  “Oh! The Cake Walk! I almost forgot about it,” said Jessie. “Thanks for reminding us, Max. Come on, guys. Finish up your hot dogs. You don’t want to miss the Cake Walk, Josh.”

  “Yeah, you don’t want to miss it,” Max said, grinning.

  Jessie shoved the last bite of taco into her mouth and took off running.

  We gobbled up our hot dogs and sprinted after her.

  “Wow! She’s fast!” said Josh.

  “She’s one of the fastest kids in the whole school,” I said.

  “Hurry up, guys!” Jessie shouted. “It’s about to start.”

  Huffing and puffing, we finally caught up to her.

  “Whew!” said Josh, panting. “I need a minute to catch my breath.”

  “Me, too!” I said. “Jessie, you’re fast as lightning.”

  Jessie smiled. “Come over here, guys. These cakes all look so good. I don’t know which one to pick if I win.”

  “Look at this one,” said Robbie. “It looks just like a haunted house, and it has marshmallow ghosts flying out of the windows.”

  “I like this one,” I said, pointing to a big, orange jack-o’-lantern cake. “The teeth are made out of candy corn, and I love candy corn!”

  “Ooo, ooo, come over here,” said Jessie. “Look at this. It’s a witch. Her whole face is made out of green M&M’S … those are my favorite!”

  “Josh, which one do you like?” Robbie asked.

  “This Frankenstein one is really cool.”

  Just then Max walked up. “Told you so,” he said, grinning. “But you’re never going to win it because I am.”

  “We’ll see about that,” said Josh.

  “Okay, everybody, come over here,” said the lady at the Cake Walk booth. “I’m going to tell you the rules.”

  “Good,” said Josh, “because I’ve never done a Cake Walk before.”

  “You haven’t?” I said. “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope. Never.”

  “Well, it’s really fun, and if you win, you get a whole cake!”

  “Okay, listen up,” said the lady.

  Just then Chloe came skipping over to us, waving her hands in the air and screaming, “Wait! Wait for me! You can’t start without me!”

  “Yes we can!” said Max.

  “No you can’t!”

  “Oh yes we can!”

  “Oh no you can’t!”

  The lady interrupted them. “Are the two of you done arguing yet? Can I go over the rules now?”

  “Yes,” said Chloe, fluffing up her red curls. “I’m ready now.”

  “Okay. Rule number one: no running or skipping. You have to walk the whole time.”

  “But I love to skip,” Chloe whined.

  “Well, you’ll have to do it some other time,” said the lady. “Rule number two: no pushing. If you push someone out of a seat, then you will be disqualified.”

  “Did you hear that, Max?” Josh yelled. “No pushing.”

  Max scowled at Josh.

  The lady continued, “When the music starts, you walk around the circle of chairs. When the music stops, sit down in the closest chair. If that chair has a picture of a cake taped to the bottom, then you get to choose one of these delicious cakes to take home.”

  Josh turned to me. “That’s it? That’s all I have to do?”

  “That’s it,” I said, smiling.

  “I just have to sit my butt down on a chair with a cake picture taped on the bottom?”

  “Easy, right?”

  “Easy peasy lemon squeezy,” said Josh.

  “Is there only one winner?” Jessie asked.

  “No, we’ll keep going until we get three winners,” said the lady.

  “I will definitely be one of them,” said Max.

  “In your dreams,” said Josh. “In your dreams.”

  Max glared at Josh.

  “Is everybody ready?” said the lady.

  “Ready!” we all said.

  The music started, and we all began moving in a circle around the chairs. We walked around about three times, and I was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to turn off the music, when all of a sudden, the music stopped.

  I dropped down into the closest chair.

  “Okay, everybody, look under your chair and see if there’s a picture of a cake.”

  “I won! I won!” Chloe shouted. She pulled the picture of the cake off the bottom of her chair, and then she stood on the chair and yelled, “Look, everybody! Look! I’m a winner!”

  “Look, everybody! Look! I’m a winner!” Max said in a squeaky voice, imitating Chloe.

  Chloe put her hands on her hips. “Stop copying me.”

  Max put his hands on his hips. “Stop copying me.”

  “Those two are crazy,” said Josh, circling his finger next to his ear to make the cuckoo sign.

  “Would you please come down off that chair,” said the lady. “I don’t want you to fall.”

  Chloe carefully stepped down off the chair.

  “Which cake would you like, hone
y?”

  “I want this beautiful princess one,” said Chloe, “because I am a beautiful princess.”

  “Oh brother,” Jessie whispered to me and rolled her eyes.

  The music started again, and once again, we all started moving around the circle. This time I think we went around only once when the music stopped.

  “Check your chairs!” shouted the lady.

  We all bent down to look.

  Jessie started jumping up and down. “Look, guys! Look! I got a lucky chair! I win a cake!”

  “You’re so lucky,” I said, smiling.

  “Which one would you like?” asked the lady.

  “Heh, heh, heh,” Jessie cackled. “I’d like the witch, please.”

  The lady handed her the cake. Jessie licked her lips. “I can’t wait to eat a big piece of this later.”

  “All right, this is your last chance,” said the lady.

  “I know I’m going to win this time,” said Max.

  “How do you know?” said Josh.

  “I just know,” Max said, grinning.

  The music started, and we walked around and around and around. It seemed like forever. Then the music stopped. Max and Josh had stopped right next to each other.

  Josh was about to sit in a chair when Max yelled, “That’s my chair!” and shoved Josh so hard that he fell to the ground.

  The lady came running over. “Are you all right?” she asked Josh.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “You, young man, are disqualified,” she said, pointing to Max.

  “That’s not fair,” Max whined.

  “Oh yes it is,” said the lady. “You broke the rules. You pushed.”

  Josh got up off the ground and sat in the chair.

  “Now you may all check your chairs,” said the lady.

  Josh slowly peeked under his chair. “No way! No way!” he shouted. “I won! I won!”

  “Congratulations,” said the lady. “Which cake would you like?”

  Josh looked right at Max. “I’ll take the Frankenstein cake, please.”

  “That’s so not fair!” said Max. “That cake should be mine!”

  “Maybe it would have been if you played by the rules,” said the lady.

  “Too bad. So sad,” Josh said to Max.

  “You’re going to be the sad one in about an hour when the Haunted Hayride is over, and you’ve lost the bet,” said Max. “Because I am going to take that cake away from you.”

  “I think the hayride starts in about ten minutes,” said Jessie. “We’d better leave our cakes here for now and get over there so we don’t miss it!”

  “We definitely don’t want to miss it!” said Josh.

  Oh no! The Haunted Hayride. I had forgotten all about it.

  They all took off running. Everyone except me. I couldn’t move. I felt like my feet were cemented to the ground.

  “Hey, Freddy!” Josh called over his shoulder. “Are you coming or what?”

  “Uh, yeah! Coming!” I yelled. That is, if I could get my feet to move and I didn’t throw up.

  I wondered if the bet would be off if I didn’t make it to the hayride in time. I could pretend that I had to go to the bathroom really badly and stay in there just long enough so that by the time I got back, the ride had already left. Yes, that’s a great plan, I thought. No one would ever know that I was too afraid to go.

  I started to run toward the bathroom, but then Josh appeared out of nowhere and grabbed me by the arm. “There you are, Freddy!” he said, and started pulling me in the direction of the woods. “Come on!”

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” I said. “I just have to go to the bathroom first.”

  “There’s no time for that!” Josh yelled, dragging me closer to the woods. “You’ll just have to hold it.”

  Oh no! My bathroom plan was ruined. What was I going to do now?

  We were getting closer and closer to the ride, and my heart was beating faster and faster. “I can’t do it,” I mumbled to myself.

  “Did you say something?” asked Josh.

  I stopped running. “I have something to tell you,” I said.

  “Can it wait until after the ride?” asked Josh. “I don’t want to miss it.”

  “Uh, not really,” I said. “I have to tell you now.”

  “Okay,” said Josh. “What is it?”

  “I don’t think I can go on the Haunted Hayride.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because … because …”

  “Because why?”

  “You promise you won’t laugh at me?”

  “I promise,” said Josh.

  “Because I’m too afraid to go,” I whispered. There, I said it.

  “Well, why didn’t you just say so?” said Josh.

  “Because I wanted you to be my friend. I didn’t want you to think I was a baby.”

  “I don’t think you’re a baby,” said Josh. “I think you’re a really cool kid.”

  “Really?”

  “Really,” said Josh.

  “Well, Max thinks I’m a baby, and if I don’t go on the ride, then he’s going to tell everyone I’m a fraidy-cat and a baby.”

  “I have an idea,” said Josh.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah. What if I let you borrow my good luck charm? Would that make you feel less scared?”

  “You have a good look charm?” I said, surprised. “I have one, too!”

  Josh reached into his pocket and pulled out a shark’s tooth. “Here’s my good luck charm.”

  My mouth dropped open. “No way!” I was shocked. “My lucky charm is also a shark’s tooth!”

  We both laughed.

  “I guess we were meant to be friends,” said Josh.

  “I guess so,” I said, smiling.

  “Well, with two shark teeth in your pocket, there’s no way you’ll get scared,” said Josh, handing me his tooth.

  “Thanks,” I said, sticking his tooth deep into my pocket.

  “We’d better get going,” said Josh. “We don’t want to miss the ride.”

  “No, we don’t,” I said.

  The two of us took off running and made it to the ride just in time.

  “Well, look who’s here,” said Max. “What took you so long? Were you trying to convince the little baby to go?”

  “No way!” said Josh. “Freddy didn’t need any convincing.”

  “Just remember,” said Max. “He has to make it through the whole ride for you to win the bet.”

  “No problem,” said Josh. “Right, Freddy?”

  I nodded.

  Max frowned.

  Josh and I jumped onto the wagon and sat down next to Robbie and Jessie.

  “Are you going to be able to do this?” Robbie asked.

  “I think so,” I said, sticking my hand in my pocket and rubbing the two lucky shark teeth.

  “It’s really dark out here,” said Jessie. “Good thing you wore that glow-in-the-dark necklace, Freddy.”

  It was definitely worth giving up six pieces of Halloween candy, I thought to myself.

  “Is everybody ready?” said a spooky voice.

  I looked up and saw that the guy driving the hay cart had on a really scary mask. I shivered.

  Josh leaned over and whispered, “It’s just a guy in a mask.”

  “It’s just a guy in a mask,” I muttered to myself. “It’s just a guy in a mask.”

  The ride started, and that spooky, ghostly music began floating through the air. “OOOOOEEEEEEOOOOO.”

  We entered the woods, and it was pitch-black. You couldn’t see a thing. I wrapped my arms around my body and squeezed myself tight.

  “Oh, look at baby Freddy,” said Max. “I think he needs his mommy.”

  “Leave him alone,” said Josh. “He’s fine.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to get off?” said Max.

  I ignored him.

  All of a sudden, a zombie jumped out of the woods and grabbed Josh’s leg.

&nbs
p; My heart skipped a few beats, and I wanted to scream, but Josh just started laughing.

  “Ha, ha, ha! That was awesome!” he said. Then he leaned over to me and whispered, “See, Freddy. There’s nothing to be scared of.”

  Next a monster popped out from behind a tree and growled in Jessie’s ear, “GRRRRRR!”

  Jessie clapped her hands and yelled, “More! More!”

  Then out of nowhere a werewolf pretended to eat me and howled, “OW-OW-OW-OWOOOOO!”

  Instead of screaming, I started to laugh … and then I couldn’t stop laughing.

  “You’re not supposed to be laughing,” said Max. “You’re supposed to be crying.”

  “Looks like someone is going to lose a bet,” said Josh.

  Max crossed his arms and stuck out his lower lip.

  We continued riding through the woods for a while, being attacked by ghosts and zombies, mummies and werewolves, vampires and monsters.

  “Is it over already?” I asked when the ride finally came to a stop.

  “Way to go!” Josh said, giving me a high five. “You did it!”

  “Thanks,” I whispered.

  “No problem,” said Josh. “That’s what friends are for.”

  We all jumped down off the ride.

  Max started to walk away.

  “Hold on there, dude,” said Josh. “Hand over that goldfish.”

  Max just stood there with the goldfish in his hand.

  “If I won, you had to give me one of your carnival prizes,” said Josh. “Freddy went on the hayride, so I won. Now give me that fish.”

  Max grunted, handed over the fish, and stomped away.

  “Better luck next time,” Josh called after him.

  We all laughed.

  “Well, Freddy,” said Josh. “You were awesome, and because you were so brave, I now have a new ocean friend to remind me of California. You’ll have to come over to my house sometime soon and visit him.”

  “I’d like that,” I said. “I’d really like that.”

  “Now let’s all go eat some cake!” said Jessie, and we all took off chanting, “Cake, cake, cake!”

  Ingredients:

  1 teaspoon of Borax powder

  1 ½ cups of water, divided

  4 ounces (or ½ cup) Elmer’s glue—you can use clear or white (ask an adult to help with this part!)