Halloween Decoration

The Competition Begins!

“Hey Tay, can you pass me that pencil?”

I turned to my best friend Nathan and handed him the pencil from beside me on the floor. Then I looked at our other friend Meadow, who was working on the floor beside us. “Are we almost done?”

She nodded. “I just need to finish tracing a few more letters.”

I sat up and looked around the room. Today was the day of our school door decorating contest for Halloween. Each grade was working hard to design and decorate their door. The winning class got to have a pizza party lunch on Halloween. We were working on tracing and cutting out the letters, and the other kids in the class were working on cutting other decorations for the door out of black construction paper. I could see some kids cutting out bats and haunted houses, and other kids were even cutting out ghosts.

I sat up and looked around the room. Today was the day of our school door decorating contest for Halloween. Each grade was working hard to design and decorate their door. The winning class got to have a pizza party lunch on Halloween. We were working on tracing and cutting out the letters, and the other kids in the class were working on cutting other decorations for the door out of black construction paper. I could see some kids cutting out bats and haunted houses, and other kids were even cutting out ghosts.

I stood up. “I’ll go find us some scissors so we can start cutting out the letters.”

Hallooween Craft

I looked around the room and saw that only Eliot was the one not using his scissors. He was drawing on a piece of white paper. It looked like a whale.

“Hey Eliot, can I borrow your scissors?”

Eliot nodded and handed them to me. His one hand was covered in blue.

“What happened?” I asked.

He looked at his hand. “Oh. My pen exploded. It got all over my picture too. Made me mad.”

“What are you drawing? Is it for the door?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t want to do the door. I don’t really like Halloween.”

Drawing of Whale - Halloween Mystery

Nathan called me so I said goodbye and went back. I handed Nathan the scissors.

“What about you?” he asked. “I’m not doing this all by myself!”

“Fine, fine,” I said. Even though Nathan was my best friend, he could bug me sometimes. “I’ll go find another pair of scissors.”

“I asked our teacher, Mrs. Winzack, if I could borrow another pair of scissors. There was none left in our class, but she said I could go next door to the older kids class and see if they had any. I went into the hallway and saw Amber and Cole sitting outside their classroom. They were in the middle of painting some decorations for their classroom door. Amber was mixing some blue and red paint to colour her witch and Cole was painting an orange pumpkin.

“Hey Tay,” said Cole, “Are you coming to spy on us so you can get ideas for your door?”

“No,” I said, “I just came to borrow some scissors.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Amber, “We’re probably going to win anyway.”

I watched her mix the red and blue paint for a moment. Then I went in and asked the teacher for a pair of scissors. As I came back into the hallway Cole said, “Are you going to play soccer next recess?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “Are you?”

“Maybe,” he said, “Or maybe I’ll just hang out on The Stairs instead.”

The Stairs was where the older kids hung out and just basically talked. It was really boring.

“Cool,” I said, “I’ll see you later then.” I waved goodbye to both Amber and Cole and went back to my classroom. Meadow had finished tracing the letters and Nathan had already cut out three letters.

I rolled my eyes and sat down on the floor. Using the scissors I just got, I started cutting out letters.

It didn’t take us long. After we finished cutting out all the letters, we put tape on the back of them and stuck them on our door. It spelled “Have a Happy Halloween!” It looked really good.

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A Race to Recess!

“All right everyone,” I heard Mrs. Winzack say, “Time to tidy up and get ready for recess.”

Nathan, Meadow, and I tidied up our leftover paper and put away the scissors while the other kids cleaned up their own stuff. Then we went to get our coats on.

Sissors Halloween Mystery

“Hey Nathan,” Eliot said while he was putting on his coat, “You should line up first. We need to get out to the field before the bigger kids do.” This was a rule at our school. If you were the first person to the soccer field, then that meant your grade could use it for the whole recess. And this recess, it was our turn to have a chance.

Nathan shook his head at Eliot. “Tay is faster than me.”

Eliot looked at me. “Can you get it for us?”

I nodded. “Sure, I can try.”

The other kids heard this and let me line up at the door first. Mrs. Winzack gave me a look and I knew what it meant -- I still had to walk in the halls.

The bell rang and I started walking. It wasn’t a run but it wasn’t a slow walk either. I heard all of the other kids from the other classes walking behind me. I didn’t turn around.

Little kids from the smaller classes came out of their rooms in front of me, and I moved in and out of them carefully. Finally, I made it to the door.

The second my shoe hit the pavement, I ran. I knew there were other kids running behind me, but I just kept going. I could see the field. I pumped my arms and wished my legs would go faster. Finally, I reached the field. I turned around.

I was the first one there. My class would get to have the field for soccer this recess.

Soccer Ball Halloween

Nathan and Eliot both gave me a pat on the back and Meadow gave me a high five. Alexis brought the ball and the rest of our class who wanted to play joined us on the field. It wasn’t long before we had broken up into two teams and started playing soccer.

Recess went by fast. I scored two goals for our team and Meadow scored one for her team. Finally the bell rang for us to line up and go back inside.

As we were lining up, I noticed Nathan looking around. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

Nathan shook his head. “I don’t know. Recess just seems quieter. Almost like someone is missing.”

I looked around the yard. There was our class on the soccer field, the younger kids on the playground equipment, and the older kids on The Stairs. Was he right? Was someone missing?

I didn’t get the chance to ask him. Our class had already started to follow Mrs. Winzack back into the school. Nathan and I followed our class inside.

A Not-So-Happy Halloween

As we came down the hall, we noticed a crowd of kids standing around our classroom door. Mrs. Winzack waved her arms and told everyone to head back to class. Everyone listened and when the students had gone, we could see what had happened.

Someone had messed around with our door and moved all of the letters that we had worked so hard to cut out. Now, instead of the door saying “Have a Happy Halloween”, it said “Help we have no hay”, with the other leftover letters laying on the floor.

Mrs. Winzack asked everyone to come inside and take out a silent reading book. That only meant one thing. She wanted to keep us busy while she tried to figure out who damaged our door.

I pulled out my book and pretended to read. After a few minutes, I noticed the principal show up. He and Mrs. Winzack talked at the door for a minute before I heard Nathan’s name being called.

Nathan looked scared as he got up from his seat and went to the door. After a few minutes, he came back to his seat. The principal called Eliot next.

I kept my head down but turned to look at Nathan in the seat next to me. “What did he want?”

Nathan took a quick look over his shoulder to make sure the adults weren’t looking. “They wanted to know if I did it.” I wasn’t really surprised. Nathan was a bit of a joker. “I told them no. I was out playing soccer with you all recess.”

“That’s right, you were.”

Nathan shook his head and I asked him what was wrong. He said, “I’m just mad that we worked so hard and now we’ll never win the contest. It’s not just because they moved the letters around. But they’re a mess. There’s paint on some of them now.”

“Paint?” I asked. “There’s paint on the letters?”

“Yeah.”

“What colour?”

“Purple,” Nathan said.

That was when I realized that what Nathan said earlier was right. There was someone missing at recess. And that was the same person who damaged our door.

I raised my hand. “Mrs. Winzack?”

She and the principal looked at me. “Yes, Tay? What is it?” she asked.

I put my hand down. “I know who damaged our door,” I said.

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