This page is for short stories, which are like novels, but much shorter, almost always not divided into chapters.

Lexi Jacobs—10/21/24

People's characteristics always stick out to me. The way people act always sticks out to me, their aura and their features always stick out to me, it always has. That's just who I am, I'm an observant and intuitive person and when I notice things, I remember it. Not only do I acknowledge people's characteristics and auras, but I appreciate them. I really do appreciate everyone and their characteristics because I believe everyone is truly beautiful in their own special ways. Although, people's characteristics and actions have shown me that people are not always as they seem. People can be extremely deceitful, especially when you least expect it; which I have unfortunately learned the hard way. People's features, auras and actions can tell you one thing, when in reality the truth can be the total opposite. That's what we have come to in society, lying and brushing it off is seen as a normal occurrence and a part of everyday life. At this point it's like we're all heartless robots that say and do one thing, while the truth is totally another thing.

After a study done on children at the University of Waterloo, they found that on average four year olds lie every two hours and six year olds lie every hour. As a result of this study we can see that lying and deceiving others is such a normalized occurrence, even at such a young age. This is so disappointing and really makes me wonder how often I and others have been deceived without even realizing. I have seen first hand my own friends and acquaintances lie and deceive each other in secrecy, which makes me even wonder how often I am put in this situation. It puts me in this reality check to think everyone has a mind of their own and can possibly do anything if they really wanted to, both good and bad. It really does make you wonder…

An example that i’ve actually witnessed of people being deceiving behind peoples backs is that the other day I heard an old friend and now acquaintance of mine talking bad about her best friend in my science class, which seems incomprehensible to me. How can you be best friends with somebody and act as if they're like a sister to you and then turn around to your other friends and bad-mouth your best friend, it makes no sense. Not only is this illogical, but it's also extremely phony, deceptive, and insulting. How could you do that to your own best friend? This shows a lot about someone's character, that they really can’t be trusted and are extremely fake. Since, if you talk bad about someone as close to you as your own best friend like that, then imagine how they talk about others. I couldn’t even imagine doing that because I just feel such a deep affinity with all people, since I really appreciate everyone's characters and personalities. I believe everyone's personalities have a purpose and loveliness about them. So even though my now ex-friend and acquaintance did that and betrayed her best friend, I would always give her the benefit of the doubt. Although, this shows just one instance where people can be deceiving, fake, untrustworthy, and secretive. It really is hard to tell where a person is coming from, their motives, their true thoughts and feelings.

However, as I've gotten older and grown as a person, I've realized that a person's eyes never lie and deceive. A person can lie all they want, but if you really pay attention to their expression, nature, and look in their eyes, you can find out everything you really should know. The way a person's eyes can absolutely glow shows pure joy, the way there expression blanks out and the corners of their eyes pinch shows pain and anger and numbness, the way their eyes glaze over and droop shows sadness and sorrow, the way their eyes squint and dance around the room show confusion, the way they frantically jump from subject to subject and widen shows their fear and uncomfortability. People and their actions can lie for days on end, but at the end of the day their eyes are something they can’t control, it just shows everything.

Furthermore, from a person's eyes you can tell if they're lying, their uncomfortable and uneasy expressions on their eyes will give it away. You can always tell someone's true motive, feelings, and level of truth by just looking at their eyes. Everyone's true soul is represented in their eyes, so take notice of them. A person's features and actions are important and you can tell you a lot about them, but when you really want to know the truth and reality look at their eyes. True expressions are shown in places which cannot be changed, not their smile, words, actions, or body language, but their eyes. Lies are all around us, even in places we least expect, but even with all of a person's might and control, their deepest motives and emotions will all pour out when you gaze into their true soul shown by their eyes.

‘Tis an Evil McEvilpants Night

By Smajl Balaj and Caden Gerb 

At John Williams Academy, in New Hampshire, Halloween lands on a school day. When Landon wakes up after a long and boring week of school, he feels exuberant about the day ahead of him. Halloween is his favorite holiday and he always goes the extra mile to make it an enjoyable night for him and his friends. Today, he has a great idea, he wants to throw a halloween party at his house. After getting dressed and getting ready for school, he calls up his friends.

“Yo, Orlando! Are you up yet?” Landon asked.

“Yeah, how else do you think I answered? I’m just so excited for your Halloween party man!” Orlando responds.

“I can’t wait either bro. We need to invite the rest of the group, you know. Tell Jesse, Mukesh, David, and Gary and tell them to tell everyone else.” He states.

As Orlando’s bus pulls up, he tells Landon he has to get off and that he can’t wait for the insane party at night. Landon eats a hearty breakfast and drives his car to the academy. In the academy his teachers gave out 3 musketeers which is Landon’s least favorite candy. About six hours later he leaves school excited for the party. He gets to his parents house and cleans up around the house to his parents' surprise. 

Landon’s mom, astonished, says, “Landon, did you clean up around here?”

“Yes Ma’am!” Landon responds.

When Landon’s dad walks to the door, he sees his son’s great work and says, “I can’t believe you did this. All this time I thought you were a slacker.”

“Thank you so much for the encouraging words, dad!” Landon says.

“Oh, sweetie, just remember to feed the dog. We’re going out for a little vacation and when we come back, this house better be spotless.” Landon’s mom demands.

Landon nods his head in response, “Don’t worry about me guys. Have fun on your vacation!” 

As Landon’s parents leave the driveway, he sees that the time is 3 pm. He immediately starts getting the drinks, decorations, and food ready. It doesn’t take him too long and it’s still only 3:50 pm. He gives a call up to his buddies to start coming now and soon, the entire street is full with bikes, cars, and more. One by one his friends start to enter his house. Orlando is the first to arrive since they are best friends and they start talking about what their plan is for the party. 

“So what is going to happen tonight? questioned Orlando. 

“First off, we are going to be playing some music, then we’ll hook up my ps5, and finally we will go outside after the party and egg some houses.“ Landon replied.

“Also, Orlando!” Landon exclaimed.

He looks back from the inside of the doorway, “Yea?”

“No one is allowed in my room!”

Now, with it starting to get dark, with a beautiful horizon, the party starts off at around late 5 pm in the afternoon. At the party, the large living room is outfitted with a disco ball and everyone is starting to have a good time. The kitchen is very messy since everyone is trying to get fruit punch, candy, brownies, and cookies. And with the bathrooms looking a mess, it is starting to get really wild. People start to disobey Landon’s rules about going in his room and get kicked out of the party. Landon starts to get really frustrated at everyone since people won’t stop entering his room. Eventually, after 5 hours of the party, he tells everyone to leave. They thought of Landon as “ lame “ and started leaving in big masses. 

Now, with only the friend group, they start to chill out. Mukesh and Gary are downstairs, still getting some snacks, and the place is an entire mess. Landon, with Orlando, Jesse, and David right next to him. They are in shock when they see the dirty floors filled with snacks, fake blood, and glitter from people’s costumes. Landon sits down in his luxury recliner and the group without Mukesh and Gary sits down on the couch next to him. 

“So are you ready for the after party?“ Landon says.

“What after party?” David scoffs. “It’s 10 at night!”

“Only the best after party on Halloween!“ exclaimed Landon. 

“You have to be exaggerating.” Jesse says. 

Mukesh and Gary both come back from the kitchen and sit at the table with their snacks. At the table is Gary, a bigger guy with dark straight hair. David is tall with blonde, straight hair and has a lanky build. Jesse is a small white kid who’s the funniest from the group. Mukesh is Indian and is average height for a junior. And lastly, Orlando is just a bit taller than Landon and has a juicebox style haircut. 

Gary, sipping on his orange juice, says, “Aren’t we gonna do something fun for Halloween, maybe go out and do some cliche high school stuff?”

Jesse quickly responds saying, “Yeah, didn’t you say we would egg a house or something Landon?”

‘Yeah, yeah I did! You know what, come on, let's get something scary on and go mess around, egg a house!” Landon says with conviction.

“Let’s go! Don’t worry guys, I got the eggs!” Gary says happily.

Orlando turns to him and says, “Of course you do, Gary.” The group starts laughing and makes it down to Landon’s basement to get their outfits ready. They end up searching for a couple of minutes until Landon finds a box of costumes that he stole from when he was working at Spirit Halloween. They open it up and evenly distribute the ghost, ghoul, and grim reaper costumes amongst each other. Landon, now in a ghost face costume, leads the group outside to where all of their bikes are and they start pedaling through the neighborhood. They pass by house after house, looking for the scariest, oldest one to egg. By the time they pass the third street in their block, they notice a raggedy shack of a house with boarded up windows, creaky doors and boards, and one 1950s car in the driveway. 

Mukesh stops his bike and the others stop with him on the sidewalk. “Guys, I think we found our target.” Mukesh looks over to Landon and says, “What do you think man?”

“I don’t know, let's check to see if anyone’s still there.” Landon declares. They split up into three groups of two people and each went separate ways. Landon and Orlando search the perimeter, David and Jesse Look at the back and front, and Gary and Mukesh are designated to look out. The groups look around and it seems like the coast is clear. They put on their masks, Gary gets out the eggs, and they let loose on the house. One egg after another just pelting the house until they finish the carton and they all knock as loud as they can at the door, just for disturbance. They all run and start getting their bikes going when suddenly their hearts drop. 

An old, grumpy man with a crossbow and axe opens the door and yells out to the empty sky above him. “I see y’all tryna’ run! Just wait until I catch you!”

Gary still hasn’t gotten on his bike and as the others are leaving, Gary yells, “Wait up! Please wait for me!” At this time, the mysterious man starts running towards Gary as the others turn the corner, getting out of eye sight of the man. When they make the turn, they hear a bow go off and a wretched screech. A very high pitched scream from who they can only presume is Gary. When Landon looks back, he sees nothing and they keep on pedaling. Landon feels that something is off, so he looks back again and the man is right behind them, standing menacingly with red all over him. 

Landon screams in true terror and says, “Guys, go, just go!” The rest of the guys are pedaling for their lives and the guy starts gaining on them. Orlando, who is at the front, makes a sharp turn and they all lose him and manage to make it to the house. Landon locks everything and turns on all of his security technology that the house comes equipped with. Him and the friend group are absolutely mortified. 

“Gary, we just left him. I can’t believe what just happened!” Jesse says with a stern white face almost as if he saw a ghost. 

David, after hyperventilating, says, “We should think about what we do now! We need to know who that axe wielding, evil guy is.”

Mukesh slightly laughs and says, “We can call him Evil McEvilpants!”

The whole group, except for Gary, looks at him and just starts yelling at him in disappointment. It was no time for jokes. 

Landon says, “Anyways, what should we do now? I think he’s gonna come back soon!” 

When Landon says this, Orlando has an epiphany. “I have an idea! Landon, you’re rich, do you have a drone?

“Yeah, why?” Landon asks.

Orlando responds, “Well, we can send out the drone and look to see what happened to Gary and then plot out what we are going to do next.” 

David and Jesse agree saying, “Yea, that's a good idea!”

All in agreement, they start to act out their plan. Landon gets his drone from his closet and turns on both the controller and drone. David opens up the huge window and Mukesh lets the drone go after a countdown from the group. The drone is off and they all start staring at the control panel’s camera footage. They let it go high until they reached the street that Evil McEvilpants’ house was on. They all see, waiting in suspense to see what happened to Gary and when they get over the house, they zoom in. Very pixelated, they see that Gary is laid out and not making a sound. When they see this, they all disperse around the room and feel mass melancholy. Landon quickly flew the drone home, but before they could do that, they heard the security app notification sound.

Mukesh quickly dives over and checks the app to see that there is movement in the back of the house, near the breaker on the outside. He yells out, “Guys, I think that that evil guy is here! There’s movement in the back!”

“Really? We need to get our defenses ready.” Jesse says. While Landon controls the drone to fly it back to the house, David and Jesse scavenge to get some stuff so that they could defend themselves. They each get various items like broomsticks and bricks, and moments after, they see the power go out. When it does, the drone falls straight down into his neighbor's backyard and they hear quick punches at their door. Jesse goes to hold down the door and Landon quickly goes hysterical, trying to find out what to do. 

Makesh slaps him and snaps Landon out of it. He says calmly, “Landon, calm down, do you have anything we can use to stop him?”

“Yeah, yeah I think I have a taser in my closet. It’s in one of the drawers!” Landon says.

Downstairs, at the doorway, Orlando is staying on the side of the door with a broomstick just in case he gets in. Jesse and David are both holding down the door so he can’t get in. Evil McEvilpants starts to get restless and makes quick, strong attempts at the door. Again and Again, he runs at the door, and it starts to overpower the both of them. 

David yells out in agony, “Orlando, can’t you help us!”

Orlando shakes his head and says shaking, “I can’t, I’m the only thing keeping him from getting all of us if he manages to get in.”

Jesse responds angrily, “You have got to be kidding me Orlando! What are those two morons even doing up there?”

“They are trying to find a laser so that we can finally stop this guy!” Orlando yells in frustration. “We have to buy him some time so that he can find it.”

David sternly tells him, “Come and help us now or else!”

Orlando is caught back by that and says, “I would never help you if you say it like that.” David has had enough and decides to leap onto Orlando and they start fighting each other. When they are fighting and arguing, they all get too caught up in the situation and Evil McEvilpants finally gets in. 

With his raspy voice, he says, “I’m back.” Jesse is knocked out by the door falling right upon him. Orlando and David get up and look at him in fear. The old man’s tattered clothes and scarred face become more horrifying as he comes in closer and closer, with axe in hand. Starting to get cornered, the two of them have to think of something soon, but they don’t think of anything in time because of them being paralyzed by fear. As Evil McEvilpants swung, they closed their eyes, but miraculously, Orlando was able to kick the axe out of his hand and send him back. They open their eyes and get to work fast while the guy is on the floor. David runs up to him, but the evil guy sweeps his leg and it sends him to the ground. He gets back up, but then quickly gets close lined by Orlando. As it seems like he’s out cold, Orlando gets too caught up in his accomplishment and boasting that he didn’t even notice when Evil McEvilpants came back up. He grabbed the broomstick that Orlando was going to use and tapped him on the shoulder, coldly. Orlando is stunned and turns around slowly in fear to see Evil McEvilpants hovering over him with the stick. McEvilpants swings and Orlando is quickly knocked down. 

The evil man, now exhausted, makes his way up the stairs, with even more nasty clothes than before. He makes his way up slowly, step by step, and is on the last step when he hears a creek behind him. 

Mukesh whispers to himself, “Oh no.” Evil McEvilpants looks back and jumps down the stairs to survey the area. He turns slowly like a security camera and sees nothing. He shrugs it off, but as he turns around, he sees Landon face to face with him, with a taser pointed at him. 

Landon smirks at him and says to him, “I hope you like dirt, Evilpants!” Before the guy can pull out his crossbow, Landon tases him and he quickly goes down.

Landon feels instant relief drop onto him and he yells out, “Mukesh, it’s over!” They both get up and give each other a handshake and they look at the damage caused to the house

Mukesh lets out a chuckle and says, “I guess you were right. This was a big afterparty after all!”