1
Mischief Night
My name is A.J. and I hate school.
Well, I have to tell the truth. There is one thing about school that I really love .
Dismissal! Thatâs when we get to go home!
âDonât forget to wear your Halloween costumes tomorrow,â Mrs. Patty cackledover the loudspeaker just before the three oâclock bell rang. âHalloween is my favorite holiday!â
Sheâs not kidding. Mrs. Patty celebrates Halloween all year long. There are always cobwebs and spiders covering her desk. She wears earrings that look like little skeletons. And she always has candy in her office. Lots of candy.
I like Mrs. Patty. Sheâs the secretary at Ella Mentry School. That means she sits in the front office all day and makes announcements over the loudspeaker. âFriday is pizza day!â she will say. Or âMiss Lazar, please mop up the throw up in the vomitorium.â Or âWill the childrenwho left their jackets in the playground please remove their clothes.â
Being a school secretary is like being a DJ. That is a cool job.
I grabbed a piece of candy and ran out the front door of Ella Mentry School with my friends Ryan and Michael. Free at last!
âWhat should we do for mischief night tonight?â asked Ryan, who once ate a piece of the seat cushion on the school bus.
âLetâs T.P. somebodyâs house,â said Michael, who never ties his shoes.
âYeah!â
I donât know if you know this or not, but the night before Halloween is mischiefnight. Thatâs the night you go out and do mischief, so it has the perfect name. And T.P. stands for toilet paper. On mischief night you go out and throw toilet paper all over peopleâs trees. Thatâs the first rule of being a kid.
âWhose house should we T.P.?â I asked.
âHow about Miss Daisyâs house?â Ryan suggested. (Miss Daisy is our teacher.)
âNah,â Michael said, âweâd get in big trouble.â
âHow about Mr. Klutzâs ho
use?â Ryan suggested. (Mr. Klutz is our principal.)
âNah,â Michael said, âweâd get in even bigger trouble.â
Speaking of trouble, guess who ran byus at that very moment? It was the most annoying person in the history of the world, little Miss Perfect Andrea Young. She is in our class and has curly brown hair. She thinks she is so smart.
âWhatâs the rush, Andrea?â asked Ryan.
âI have to finish my homework before ballet class,â Andrea said.
âWhy donât you do your homework after ballet class?â Michael asked.
âAfter ballet class I have soccer and my cooking class.â
Andrea takes classes in everything. If they gave a class in going to the bathroom, she would take that class so she could get better at it. I hate her.
But seeing Andrea gave me the greatest idea in the history of the world.
âLetâs T.P. Andreaâs house!â I told the guys.
âA.J., youâre a genius!â said Ryan.
2
The T.P.ing of Andreaâs House
After dinner I told my parents I was going down the street to Ryanâs house. Ryan told his parents he was going down the street to my house. But me and Ryan didnât go over to each otherâs houses at all. We both went to Andreaâs house. Our parents didnât have to know we weregoing out for mischief night. But Michael couldnât come. He was grounded for pulling the arms off his sisterâs doll.
Me and Ryan each brought a roll of toilet paper in our backpacks.
âThis is gonna be great!â Ryan whispered as we hid behind a car across the street from Andreaâs house. âAndreaâs gonna wake up in the morning and find the trees in her yard are covered in toilet paper!â
I couldnât stop giggling.
âIt will be the greatest day in the history of the world,â I said.
It was starting to get dark out, but we still had to be careful because we didnât want to
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley