Must Love Halloween

By Kelly McClymer

In this short story, Philippa Munson, the heroine from MUST LOVE BLACK, must help twins Triste and Rienne turn the tables on a bully during a big Halloween party at Chrysalis Cliff.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kelly McClymer
• Release date: Oct 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452492445

Kelly McClymer

Kelly McClymer was born in South Carolina, but crossed the Mason-Dixon line to live in Delaware at age six. After one short stint living in South Carolina during junior high, she has remained above the line, and now lives in Maine with her husband and three children. Writing has been Kelly's passion since her sixth grade essay on how to not bake bread earned her an A plus. After cleaning up the bread dough that oozed on to the floor, she gave up bread making for good and turned to writing as a creative outlet. A graduate of the University of Delaware (English major, of course) she spends her days writing and teaching writing. Look for her next book, The Salem Witch Tryouts, from Simon Pulse in Fall 2006.

Book preview

Must Love Halloween

A Short Story

By

Kelly McClymer

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Smashwords Edition

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Dedication

To Annie: a far better writer, artist, and cheerleader, than I.

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Must Love Halloween

One must not be so rude as to decline a summons to join a celebration, Addie. Arrive fashionably late, greet your hostess politely, and then depart promptly after the first guest takes his or her leave. Thus, you will never be considered a poor guest, nor will you lack invitations.

--Lady Margaret to Miss Adelaide Putnam, Manor of Dark Dreams, p. 12.

I read the passage my finger had landed on three times, but there was no escaping the facts. My mom's advice -- or rather, since she’s no longer around, the advice I gleaned from reading her one published novel, Manor of Dark Dreams -- told me what to do. Smile and attend my stepmother Krystal's Halloween bash.

Problem was, I didn't want to go and Lady Margaret was silent on how to force yourself to do what you’d really rather not do. Poor Addie simply did as she was told. At least, she did at the beginning of the novel. Later, on page 250, she grows quite a spine. But I've read the book so many times the cover is about to fall off, and I've already grown my spine. I will do anything to avoid Krystal’s big extravaganza. Anything short of murder or risking my college worthy grade average, of course.

My dad says I'm just being stubborn and childish. Sometimes I wonder if he forgets that we used to carve our pumpkins with Mom. That she could never get her jack-o-lantern’s smile to look menacing -- only goofy. I wonder if he likes Krystal's Type-A perfect Halloween better than my mom's more homemade version. Not that I would ask him. TMI to the max.

Thing is, Halloween should be one of my favorite holidays, since the official colors are orange and black, and black is my favorite color. Plus, it makes me think of my mom and smile. I tried to carve a goofy pumpkin in her honor, but Krystal fixed it. Perfect. Scary. Just like Krystal, who has overdosed our house on orange. Pumpkins line the driveway, the walkway, the porch, and the steps. Some carved in the traditional evil grin, some left alone until it is time for them to be sacrificed to the gods of Thanksgiving Day pies. The biggest one had my dad's favorite Sox cap on, the next one had the hat Krystal had bought to watch the royal wedding, a slightly smaller one had my ratty old black wool cap. And a really teeny one had a baby bonnet on it. And that was just the outside of the house.

Inside, orange crepe ribbon hangs from the doorways inside and out. Spiderwebs of cotton thread feature huge spiders -- black, but with huge orange eyes and fangs.

This onslaught of orange is why Geoff had to drive over to the public library to talk to me. I was happy to get his text, and even happier when he said he was nearby and would be there in two minutes.

I'd been trying to ignore the nerds playing Wii in the library game room while texting my best friend Sarah to beg her to convince her parents to have a two-person