Karen's Candy Read online

  Pamela and I watched as the switch was made. Then we watched the girls change into their costumes. We sat at our desks as our friends turned into goblins and witches and cats and Pippi Longstocking and a teddy bear (Paddington, maybe) and a duck and a spider and lots of other things.

  “Where is your costume?” a girl from Mr. Berger’s room asked me.

  “She can’t wear it. She is being punished,” said Jannie smugly.

  I shot Jannie a Look. But I did not say anything. I smiled secretly at Pamela, though. Pamela and I had our daring plan. But we had not told a single person about it. Not even our very best friends.

  When everyone had put on their costumes, and when their friends had helped them with their makeup and false warts and plastic scars and green rubber hands, we were ready to go to the gym. Ms. Colman and Mr. Berger led us there. They sat us on the floor behind the kindergarteners and the first-graders. Behind us were the third-graders, and so on. The oldest kids sat in the back.

  When it was time for the parade to begin, the kindergarten teachers asked their kids to stand up. I stood up, too. It was time for me to keep my promise to Leah. I ran to her and grabbed her hand.

  “Hi, Karen,” she whispered. “I am glad you are here.”

  “Me too. You are going to be great,” I told her.

  The kindergarteners made a big circle in the front of the gym. Then they walked slowly around and around, so everyone could see them. Mr. Posner said to the audience, “I would like you to know that my students made their own costumes. They are very proud of them.”

  Leah was gripping my hand. She was not looking at the audience. But she whispered to me, “Are people staring at me, Karen?”

  “They are looking at all of you guys,” I replied. “And they are smiling. They like your costumes. I can tell.”

  When we had paraded around two times, Mr. Posner told us to sit down. The awards were going to be handed out. (I stayed with Leah for a few minutes.)

  “First prize,” said Mrs. Titus, “goes to Ari Spelling, our robot.”

  Everyone clapped. Mrs. Titus gave Ari a blue ribbon. Then she said, “Second prize goes to Roger Halpern.”

  Guess who won third prize. Leah! When Mrs. Titus gave her the yellow ribbon, Leah hugged it to herself. Then she hugged me. And I hugged her back.

  The Parade

  The kindergarteners sat on the floor in the gym. They wriggled. They whispered. They leaned over to look at the prizes that Leah and Roger and Ari had won. They waited for the first-graders to start marching.

  While the kindergarteners wiggled and the first-graders marched, the second-graders checked their costumes and ran to Ms. Colman and Mr. Berger with questions. The gym was getting noisy.

  “Come on,” I whispered to Pamela. “Now is our chance.”

  Pamela and I looked around quickly. No one was paying attention to us. We sneaked to the door of the gym. Then we ran down the hall to our class.

  “Where did you put it?” I asked Pamela.

  “In my cubby.” Pamela reached into her cubby and pulled out a crumpled paper grocery bag. Inside the bag was a rumpled sheet. We threw it over our heads. We were a gigantic ghost. We knew it was not a very clever costume, but these were the good things about it: 1. It covered us from our heads to our toes. No one would know we were in it. 2. We were pretty sure we would not win a prize with it.

  “Did you cut out eye holes?” I asked Pamela.

  “Yup. They are right here.”

  “But there are only two,” I said.

  “Well, I could not make four,” Pamela replied. “Then everyone would know two people were inside.” Pamela put her eyes to the holes.

  “I cannot see at all!” I cried.

  “I will lead us,” replied Pamela.

  I stood behind Pamela and put my arms around her waist. We hustled down the hallway to the gym. “What is going on?” I asked when we stopped in the doorway.

  “Our class is standing up,” whispered Pamela. “They are walking to the front of the gym. We will just join them as they walk by.”

  And that is what we did. Soon we were marching around the front of the gym. We were in the Halloween parade!

  “Who is in front of us?” I asked Pamela.

  “Ricky,” she whispered. “Quasimodo.”

  “Who is behind us?”

  Pamela and I tried to march and turn around together at the same time. (This was not easy.) “It is Hannie!” exclaimed Pamela.

  “Does she know we are in here?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Pamela and I followed our classmates around and around the front of the gym. Finally Pamela said, “Okay, we are going to stop now. It is time for the prizes. Sit down, Karen.”

  We sat while Mrs. Titus found the three prize ribbons.

  “Thank you, second-graders,” I heard her say a few moments later. “Your costumes are all wonderful. I am happy to award first prize to Tracy Bannon. Second prize goes to Bobby Gianelli. And third prize goes to Hank Reubens. Congratulations!”

  “Okay,” I said to Pamela then. “We better get out of here.”

  Our classmates were returning to their places in the gym. The third-graders were standing up. We had to get rid of our ghost costume fast. Before we did, though, I said, “Pamela, let’s just show our friends what we did.”

  So Pamela grabbed Hannie, Nancy, Leslie, and Jannie as they filed by.

  “Come here,” she hissed. Pamela and I threw off our sheet.

  “Hey!” cried Nancy. “It’s you!”

  Our friends were impressed. And Pamela and I were impressed with ourselves. We shook hands. Then we ditched our sheet. Nobody else ever found out what we had done.

  Trick-or-treat!

  “Oof! Karen, help me,” said Andrew.

  Andrew was standing in the living room. A cardboard box was stuck on his head. It was part of his train costume. But he did not look much like the Little Engine That Could just then.

  I ran to my brother. I pulled the box down. I settled it around his middle. “Where is the rest of the train?” I asked.

  Andrew pointed. “Over there. But let’s wait until Kristy comes. She will help me put it on. And my makeup, too.”

  That was fine with me. I needed time to put on my own costume.

  Ding-dong!

  “There’s Kristy!” I shrieked. I raced for the front door. I let my big stepsister inside.

  Kristy bustled around. She attached the rest of Andrew’s train to the box on his middle. She put on his makeup. Then she helped me with my makeup. Then she handed us our trick-or-treat buckets.

  “Let’s go get Nancy,” she said.

  “Wait a minute!” called Mommy. She rushed into the room with her camera. “Smile!” she said. Mommy snapped about a roll of pictures. Then she said, “Okay, go have fun. I will be here handing out candy. Seth will probably be home by the time you come back. He will want to see your costumes.”

  “And our full buckets,” I added.

  Kristy led Andrew and me next door to the Daweses’ house. Nancy was waiting for us in her apple costume. That was what she had decided to be. An apple. With a worm crawling toward the stem. She had made the worm by stuffing a green sock with paper towels.

  “Hello, Apple!” I called to Nancy.

  “Hello, Wild Thing!” she replied. “Hi, Little Engine. Hi, Kristy.”

  “Hi,” said Kristy. “Okay, trick-or-treaters. Let’s get started.”

  We went to Kathryn and Willie’s house first. I had forgotten that the Three Musketeers had sold candy to their father. Now I saw the bowl of little candy bars. Nancy and Andrew and I each chose one. We dropped them into our buckets. Thunk, thunk, thunk.

  “Thank you!” we called.

  We rang the bell at the house next door. “Trick-or-treat!”

  Guess what. We had also sold candy there. Mr. Drucker held out a box full of the tiny candy bars. This time I chose a different kind.

  We rang the bells at every hou
se between mine and Bobby Gianelli’s.

  “Gosh,” said Kristy at the fourth house. “This is so weird. Everyone has the exact same kind of candy.”

  I giggled. “Kristy,” I said. “This is the candy my dad and your mom are giving out, too. The Three Musketeers sold it to them, remember?”

  “Oh! This is the stuff you were selling! I forgot about that.” Kristy paused. “I hope you like it,” she added.

  “I guess I do,” I said. “Candy is candy.”

  “Anyway, this means we helped earn a lot of money for the library,” Nancy pointed out. She tugged at her costume.

  Ding-dong. Kristy rang the bell at the house next to Bobby’s. A woman answered the door. “My!” she exclaimed. “Look at you three. An apple,” she said to Nancy. “A Wild Thing,” she said to me. “And … are you a train?”

  Andrew beamed. “I am the Little Engine That Could. And I made the costume myself.” He looked very proud.

  “Wonderful,” said the woman. And guess what she gave us. Big bags of Reese’s Pieces. Finally — something different!

  “Thank you!” called Nancy and Andrew and I as we ran toward Bobby’s.

  Three Thousand Dollars

  Trick-or-treating was over. The Wild Thing costume and the Little Engine costume had been put away in the attic. Mommy was starting to talk about Thanksgiving. But Halloween was not quite over yet. That was because the winner of the candy contest had not been announced yet.

  “Today is the day!” I said to Nancy and Hannie one morning at school.

  “Do you think we will win?” asked Nancy.

  Hannie and I shrugged. Who knew? But we would find out that afternoon. After school Mrs. Dawes was going to drive us to Polly’s Fine Candy. And Polly would tell us about the contest.

  That day I wiggled my way through school. Hannie and Nancy whispered their way. And Pamela, Jannie, and Leslie squirmed their way.

  “Goodness, what is going on?” said Ms. Colman.

  We settled down. At least for awhile. But when the bell rang, the six of us leaped out of our seats. We grabbed our things from our cubbies and raced outside.

  “See you at Polly’s!” I called to Pamela as we ran to our buses.

  A little while later, Nancy and Hannie and I were crowding into Polly’s Fine Candy. Mrs. Dawes was with us, carrying Danny. The Milky Ways were right behind us. An awful lot of people had come to Polly’s to find out about the contest. The store was very noisy.

  “Excuse me! Excuse me! May I have your attention, please?”

  Polly was standing on a chair at the front of the crowd. She waved her arms to get our attention. Finally, the crowd quieted down.

  “Thank you,” said Polly. “And now, I have happy news for you. You and the other people who sold candy last month raised — are you ready for this? — over three thousand dollars for the library. Congratulations!”

  I turned to my friends. “Three thousand dollars,” I whispered. I could not believe it. Neither could Hannie and Nancy. They just looked at me, wide-eyed.

  Behind us, I heard Pamela and Jannie and Leslie saying things like, “That much?” and “No way!” and “Three thousand?”

  “You all worked very hard,” said Polly, “and I want to thank you. I wish I could give gift certificates to each of you, but there is only one prize. And it goes to …” (I clutched at Hannie and Nancy) “Peggy Marino.”

  Someone near Polly let out a shriek. Then she made her way to Polly’s chair, and Polly handed her an envelope.

  “Now,” continued Polly, “if you would like to see how many bags of candy each of you sold, I have posted a tally sheet next to the door. Feel free to look at it. And thank you again for your work.”

  Polly stepped off her chair. Nancy and Hannie and I turned around. “Come on,” I said. “Let’s look at the sheet. We did not win the prize. But we still might have beaten the Milky Ways.”

  The Three Musketeers looked at the chart. I guess we could have kept track of how much candy we had sold. But we had not bothered. We had been too busy with Halloween. We found our names on the chart. Then I found Pamela’s name. Guess what. Pamela had sold one more bag than I had.

  “Beat you,” I heard Pamela say from behind me. But when I turned around, she was smiling. It was a friendly smile.

  “Okay, let’s figure out who sold more — the Three Musketeers or the Milky Ways,” said Hannie. So we added up the numbers. And … we had tied.

  “I don’t believe it!” I cried.

  “Neither do I!” said Pamela.

  Then we smiled at each other again. I knew we were both thinking about sneaking into the Halloween parade. We would never forget it. It would always be our secret.

  “Time to go,” said Mrs. Dawes then.

  My friends and I left Polly’s Fine Candy. Halloween was over.

  About the Author

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.

  Copyright © 1994 by Ann M. Martin

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, 1994

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-05718-8