“Cool parties?” I frowned as I set my bag down. “You’re only thirteen, what do you know about cool parties?”
Margaret giggled and put a hand over her mouth to hide her braces. “Oh, I know a lot more than you think I do, sis.”
I sighed and nodded. Yeah, kids did grow up faster these days.
“Well, let’s not make that the focus of your learning,” I told her.
“Amen to that!” my dad exclaimed, coming out of his study with his arms out for a hug. “There’s my little girl. How are you?!”
I may have been a college freshman, but I wasn’t bashful about hugs from dad. I threw my arms up and jumped at him a little more civilized than the way Margaret had jumped at me. He caught me and hugged me in a way that made me realize just how much I’d missed being home.
“Taking your little sister out tonight?” he asked. I turned to Margie who looked ready to burst with excitement.
“Isn’t thirteen about the cutoff age for trick or treating?” I teased her.
“Yup!” she nodded. “And that’s why we’re going big tonight!”
“We?” I asked. “Oh, I’m not getting dressed up—”
“Yes, you are!” she said firmly. “I have it all planned and you aren’t going to pull any of that college girl crap on me!”
“College girl crap?”
“You know—where you guys just wear like lingerie or whatever and put cat ears on your head and say you’re a cat?”
I snorted. She was absolutely right. That was exactly what Halloween had amounted to at school. The frat boys were even calling it Slutoween and had been partying all week in anticipation of the 31st. In fact, that was one of the reasons I’d come home for the weekend.
My school was great, but it had a big party culture surrounding the Greek life, and I just wasn’t into it. My roommate was chill, thankfully, but the dorm was pure chaos and I spent most of my time with noise-canceling headphones on or hiding in the stacks doing my homew
ork.
“Okay, Margie,” I gave in. “What did you have in mind?”
“We are both going to be witches,” she said firmly. “I have everything all picked out. Come on. I’ll show you.”
“I haven’t said hi to mom yet!” I laughed as she took my hand and began to lead me upstairs.
“She can wait! This is important!”
I had to go with her; she was my sister and she was excited to see me. It smelled like mom was cooking—something that she rarely did—and I made a note to go down and say hi to her after I examined whatever Margie had for us. She led me into her room where two of the exact same witch costumes were laid out on her bed, mine with a blue wig and hers with a red one.
“See!? How awesome is that?” she asked. She picked up one of the two pumpkin candy baskets and a simple wand that looked like it had come from a Harry Potter costume. “And matching wands and baskets!”
“Um, Margie?” I asked, looking at the two witch’s robes laid out beside each other. “Where’s my robe?”
“Right there!” she pointed.
“Yeah…you know you’re like five inches shorter than me, right?” I asked. Margie started to say something but stopped when she realized what I was getting at.
“Oh…”
“Yeah,” I replied as I picked up the one that was mine and held it up against my body. The hem of the “dress” barely reached my mid-thigh. “We’re gonna need to go get a me-sized one.”
“We can’t,” Margie groaned. “These were the last two at the store…”
I sighed and let out a laugh. “So much for your attempts at desluttifying my Halloween costume, sis. God, I hope I have some black leggings with me.”
As it turned out, I didn’t, but Margie did have a pair of stockings of a questionable level of sexuality that I would discuss with her later. I slid them on, and after much debate, we both decided that they made me look less slutty rather than more. With our wigs on, we stood and examined ourselves in the mirror.