Halloween

Sophia usually loved school, but after five years in elementary she knew that October, November, and December could be rough for someone who didn't celebrate holidays. So when she opened the classroom door on October 1st and saw the skeleton in the back corner, the Jack-o-lantern on Ms. Martin's desk, and the "Witches' Welcome" sign on the wall, she couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh.
"Don't you just love Halloween?" asked her friend Emma with a big smile on her face.
"No," said Sophia, "You know I don't celebrate. Remember?"
"I know. I know," said Emma. "I'm sorry. I just get so excited about costumes and haunted houses and ghost stories and trick-or-treating and candy!" she gushed.
"I know," said Sophia. "But it's not really a good holiday. It's about evil spirits and demons and stuff."
"But it's just for fun! I'm not trying to worship the devil or anything," argued Emma. They had the same conversation every year, so she already knew that Sophia didn't like Halloween, but that wasn't going to make her like it any less. After all, there was a whole bucket of candy involved.
Sophia had never had any problem with not celebrating holidays. She didn't feel like she was missing out on anything, and she didn't just not celebrate because that's what her parents told her. Even though she was only 10, she understood what she had learned from the Bible, and she knew that Jehovah God didn't want people to participate in any sort of false worship, even if it was "just for fun." She had started turning down holiday candy and cards all on her own when she was just 3 years old. She could still remember the bag of candy with the hearts and the red ribbons that her dance teacher, Miss Evaline, had offered her for Valentine's Day years ago. "No, thanks," she had said," I don't celebrate Valentine's Day." Her mom had been so impressed. She'd told her that it was even hard for adults not to accept holiday treats sometimes.
Sophia's stream of thought was interrupted by the morning bell and Ms. Martin's request for them to please stand for the pledge to the flag. Everybody stood, faced the flag, and put their hands over their hearts. Sophia stood and faced the flag, but she kept her hands by her side and kept quiet while everyone else said the words. The pledge to the flag was something else she didn't participate in, and every year she had to explain to her teachers that Jehovah's Witnesses didn't get involved in patriotism or politics, and that her allegiance belonged only to God and his Kingdom. In first grade, a substitute teacher had made her cry because she told her to put her hand over her heart and say the pledge with everybody else. The substitute felt bad when Sophia was finally able to explain through her tears that she was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. The substitute thought she was just being disrespectful, but Sophia never wanted to be disrespectful. She was a people-pleaser, so that made it especially tough sometimes because she wanted to please Jehovah, too.
"Please take out your Writer's Notebooks and write about the prompt on the board," said Ms. Martin. "Please be sure to use proper punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and spelling. Today I would like you to write a scary story. There are ten words on the board. Please use at least seven of them in your story."
Sophia looked up at the board. The list of words included: apparition, creature, frightened, ghoul, haunted, horrifying, invisible, magic, netherworld, and supernatural. It seemed like Halloween came earlier every year. She sat and tried to think of a way to write a scary story using seven of Ms. Martin's ten words without it being a Halloween story or a ghost story or something about the supernatural (even though supernatural was one of the ten words). Just then she saw Emma raise her hand.
"Yes, Emma," said Ms. Martin.
"Ms. Martin, Sophia's not supposed to write about ghosts and Halloween and stuff," said Emma, looking over at her friend.
"Yes, thank you for the reminder, Emma," said Ms. Martin. "Sophia, if you're not comfortable using these words, feel free to choose seven of your own," she said, "But that goes for Sophia only. The rest of you need to use at least 7 of the ten words listed on the board." Some of the students in the class groaned. Sophia blushed and stared intently at her Writer's Notebook. Sometimes it was embarrassing to be singled out in front of the whole class, but teachers never thought about stuff like that. She started writing about a trip to the dentist. That was the scariest thing she could think of, especially if there was a