Children’s laughter sang throughout the school as the last bell rang.  Winter break was finally here!  Six children, most of them friends, were laughing and playing as well as planning on what to do during the two weeks out of school.  
The gang had two girls and four boys.  
Integra, a blond and blue eyed girl, and Seras, also blond with blue eyes, were the girls, and were the best of friends.  Maxwell, Integra’s brother, had fair hair with deep brown eyes.  He was best friends with a boy named Anderson, who wore glasses. Walter, a silent boy with dark brown hair and brown eyes, was friends with everyone.  Vlad, the most wild looking of all six with his raven hair, black eyes, and pale skin, was only friends with three of the group.  He hated Maxwell and Anderson.
Anderson and Maxwell always picked on Vlad.  They called him ugly names and made fun of his odd skin, because it was as colorless as milk.  Integra, Seras, and Walter told him to ignore them, but he couldn’t.  It hurt his feelings too much.
So, Vlad came up with an evil plan to get back at the two boys.

“I have an idea!”  Vlad said, running to the front of the group while walking home.  “Why don’t we play a game, a really fun one?”
“But we have to go home Vlad.”  Both Seras and Integra said.
“Besides, who would want to play with you?”  Maxwell and Anderson laughed and gave each other a high five.
Seras and Integra thought it was mean that both boys picked on Vlad so much and both had the urge to smack them.  
Walter bonked both on the back of their heads as they continued laughing, and as two lumps appeared on their heads, they stopped laughing.
“We’ll play with you Vlad.”  Seras exclaimed, patting her best friend on the shoulder.  “Since both of the boys are too ‘CHICKEN’ to play.”
“WE’RE NOT CHICKENS!”  Both boys hollered, insulted by Integra’s words.
Now that the children all decided that they would play a game together, Vlad was almost beaming with joy.  
“OK, we’re going to play hide ‘n seek.”  Vlad announced.
“But that’s a game for little kids.”  Complained Anderson.
“Nuh-uh!  Not the way we’re going to play.”  An evil smile appeared on the boys face, almost looking like a vampire with his grin.

“We are going to play in the woods, and whoever is it must count to thirty before seeking.  The rest of us get to hide wherever we want as long as it doesn’t go out of the woods.”  Explained the raven haired boy, standing in the middle of the group, drawing a map in the dirt with a stick.
The girls, Integra and Seras, both looked scared, Walter looked excited, Maxwell looked bored, and Anderson…he was in Vlad’s face looking defiant.
“Why should we play in the woods freak?!  Why can’t we just play in the neighborhood like all the other kids do?”
“Cause I said so, and you guys agreed to play!”
“That’s stupid!”
“No your stupid!”
Both boys soon tried fighting while arguing where they would play.  Walter had to hold Vlad while Maxwell had to hold Anderson.
“You’re both stupid!  We’ll play the game in the woods because we agreed.  Now get along so we can play.”  Integra took charge and marched in the woods with a very confused looking Seras.

Once they all reached the center of the woods.  They had to decide who was going to be it first.
“Since I chose the game, I get to choose who it is first.”  Vlad mused, while looking at his three friends and two enemies.  “Seras your it first.”
The strawberry blond girl smiled and nodded, “Sure, I’ll be it first.”  She then walked up the nearest tree and started counting.
Not wanting to waste time, all of the others ran, hoping to find the perfect hiding spot and not get tagged.

Maxwell hid behind another tree, Integra was hiding inside a bush, Walter was in a tree while Vlad and Anderson stood out in the center of the woods hollering in the others face.  They both found a hiding space, but it was the same one the other wanted.
“I found it first, so I should be the one to get it.”  Shouted Anderson.
“No I found it first, so I should be the one to get it.”  Vlad shouted back.
“Nu-uh.”
“Yea-huh.”
“Nu-uh.”
“Yea-huh.”
Seras, finished counting to thirty, found them both, but didn’t know who to tag.  When the others who were hiding saw her, they all stared like deer in the headlights.
“I found you.” Seras said to both of the boys.  All the others thought she was speaking to them.  So, all of them burst from their hiding spots and ran.

Vlad and Anderson realized that the game was still on and burst through the woods running as quick as they could.  It seemed that all of the children were heading in the same direction.  The raven haired boy noticed that the direction was to the very spot that he wished to get his revenge on two very mean boys.
“Everyone follow me!”  Vlad yelled while continuing to run.
Moments later, they arrived at the very doorstep of a wary old house.  It was rotten, broken, and looked to be from a scary movie where ghost’s lived.
Integra and Walter both looked in awe at the house.  They loved old things.
Maxwell and Anderson, who both were very used to very clean things, were disgusted at the mold and dust on the house.  
Seras finally caught up with the rest of the group, gasping for breath from all the running.  Seeing Vlad first, she tapped him on the should and fell on the ground gasping for air.
“Your *gasp* it *gasp* Vlad.”
Her friend laughed and nodded.
“Alright, well since I’m it now, I think that we should take the game inside of the house.”
The girls shivered in fright, while the three boys shook their heads.
“No way.”  All of them said.

“Come on you guys.”  Vlad pleaded.  “Just one more game and then we can all go home.  Please?”
The five huddled up, talked about it, and then agreed.

While walking to the house Anderson stuck out his foot as Vlad passed, and tripped the young boy.
“That was for taking my hiding spot.”  Anderson smiled, his glasses showed his glaring eyes.
Seras helped Vlad up as the others went to the house, and helped him pat the dirt off of him.
“Thanks.”  The boy mumbled.
“No problem.”  

Inside, the old house looked even worse than it did on the outside, and smelled even worse too.  It was the epitome of filth.  Walter even said it smelled like his grandma’s home.
“OK you guys, I’ll count to thirty while you guys hide anywhere in the house.  When you hear a ‘BOO!’ that means I found someone.  After I’ve said ‘BOO!’ two times, then the games over.  Got it?”
All five nodded.  
So Vlad walked up to the nearest wall and started the game.
“One…Two…Three…”  After thirty was reached he then yelled, “Ready or not, here I come!”
Vlad had been peaking while counting and saw that Anderson had went up the stairs while Maxwell hid in a closet down the hallway.  Vlad decided to go after Anderson first.

The first room up the stairs was an old dusty room with grey walls and a covered bed.  A sheet covered the bed that was almost the cleanest thing in the room.
Vlad saw the sheet and realized that the sheet could help him with his revenge against the boys.  By using the sheet to cover himself up with, he could trick the others into believing that he was a ghost!
He grabbed the sheet, ripped two eyeholes in it, and then covered himself.
“Ready or not,” Vlad whispered. “Here I come.”
The boy left the room in search of his first victim in the room next to the one he was in.  Both of the rooms looked the same from what the boy could tell, but a pair of black shoes from underneath a curtain proved that Anderson was upstairs hiding.

“ANDERSON!”  The ghost looking boy said softly, sounding just as spooky as his costume.  “WHERE ARE YOU ANDERSON?  I’VE COME TO FIND YOU!”
The ghost grabbed the curtains and pulled them aside.
“BOO!”  Vlad yelled.
Anderson was indeed behind the curtains, and when he saw Vlad as a ghost, his face turned just as white as Vlad’s.
No words being spoken, the boy with the glasses turned and ran from the room, stumbling on his own feet.  When he reached the bottom, Anderson finally let loose a scream as he ran out of the house, never once looking behind himself.
“One down, one to go.”
Once Vlad went down the stairs, he saw everyone else standing at the stairway all looking up at him.

“Where’s Anderson?” asked Integra.
“We heard the ‘BOO’ like you said.”  Said the other girl Seras.
The raven haired boy just shrugged his shoulders and said, “He said that he didn’t want to play anymore so he just went home.
“What about that scream we heard?”  Maxwell said, not believing a word Vlad said.
The boy couldn’t hide a smile.
“I guess he saw something scary.

The next game was on and once again, while Vlad was counting, he peaked and saw Maxwell go and head towards the kitchen while the others headed off in different directions.
Finally, Vlad would finally have his revenge against the two boys who made his life so horrible, so small and insignificant, and who made his life agonizing every day.
As soon as thirty was reached, and “Ready or not, here I come!” was shouted, the seeker went straight to his next victims hiding spot.  A cupboard.

Vlad grabbed his hidden ghost costume from behind the old couch in the sitting room and slowly walked down the hall, silent as the wind.

Darkness clouded the small room in which Vlad was seeking his prey, with only a small bulb that could be used to light the room.
Once the light was on, Vlad looked around seeing nothing out of the ordinary.  A table, a oven, refrigerator, microwave, and other things that a kitchen needed.
But, what caught the boy’s eyes was the gleam coming from a small open draw beneath the counter next to a sink.
Knives.  Many, many knives all sorted in the drawer, gleaming up at him.  Vlad picked up the largest one, and suddenly had a feeling that this could be the best prank ever.

Gathering up his speaking voice, Vlad started talking out loud, using the same voice that made Anderson shake with fear.
“MAXWELL?  OH MAXWELL, WHERE ARE YOU?”
Hearing a gasp coming from the cupboard at the far side of the kitchen Vlad continued talking while slowly nearing the hiding spot of his enemy

“I THINK ITS TIME YOU’VE BEEN TAUGHT A LESSON MAXWELL.  FOR ALWAYS PICKING ON POOR VLAD.  CALLING HIM NAMES, TRIPPING AND MAKING FUN OF HIM.”
Vlad grabbed the small little door and spoke one last time, “AND THAT LESSON STARTS NOW!”
Ripping the cupboard door almost off its hinges, Vlad yell’s ‘BOO’ and holds up the knife as if to look like he is going to hurt the young boy, only to find, not Maxwell, but his very best friend Seras, sitting in the little space shivering and shaking with tears on her face.

Poor Seras had tears streaming down her face when Vlad looked inside holding the knife above his head.
A silent scream was across her face when she saw the knife in the pale person’s hands.  She had no idea that the ghost looking figure was in fact her best friend Vlad, and indeed thought that it was a ghost coming to hurt her.

The raven haired boy was confused.  He knew that he saw Maxwell come inside of the kitchen and hide in a cupboard.  Then, the boy realized, that Maxwell did hide in a cupboard, but so had Seras.  He got their blond heads confusion.
“P-please don’t hurt me!”  Seras cried.
The boy felt so bad.  He had been so obsessed with getting back at Anderson and Maxwell that he ended up hurting his best friend in the process.  The only one who had stood by him whenever those two hurt him the most.
“Seras…its me.”  Vlad said dropping the knife and pulling off the white sheet.  They boy too had tears streaming down his face.  He couldn’t even look his friend in the face he felt so bad.
Once the sheet came off of Vlad, Seras jumped up and hugged the boy as tight as she could.  Both twelve year olds crying.

Feeling the shaking come from Seras, Vlad felt the breath ripped from his lungs at the guilt the boy felt.
All of the others came from their hiding spots once more from hearing the ‘BOO’ being shouted.
Vlad even saw Maxwell come climbing out of a cupboard from across the room.  His face showed anger, but when he saw the knife beside Vlad on the ground, the boy wouldn’t go any closer to him.
“What are you trying to do?  Scare us to death!  Or were you trying to just get rid of me instead?”
Integra took Seras, trying to comfort her.  Walter kneeled down by Vlad, laying a comforting hand on his shoulders.  Never once had Walter talked in the group, but seeing his friend like that Walter asked Vlad if he was alright.  But the boy shook his head, anger showing on his face.

“You deserve it!”  Vlad yelled, rising to his feet.  “All year I had to deal with you and Anderson always picking on me and calling me names, making fun of my skin and eyes.  I’ve had enough!  Somehow, I got the idea to get back at you for once but I guess I can’t act as cruel as you guys do.”
Vlad was in Maxwell’s face.
“You did the same thing to Anderson, didn’t you?”  Maxwell questioned.  “That’s why he went home.”
The raven haired boy managed a smirk.
“Well I hope your happy then, because by trying to scare me and my best friend, you ended hurting yours.  We may have been mean, but we never used knives.  Now if you excuse me, I’m going home.”
Maxwell stomped his way out of the kitchen and as he reached the front door, a shriek rang out.


All the remaining four looked at one another in confusion and ran to the front door.
A spider hung from the ceiling, blocking the path out of the door, and a very pale Maxwell stood in fright in front of the eight legged creature.  His sister sighed and swatted the spider away and started calming her brother down.
Seras couldn’t hold back a giggle and even Walter managed a laugh before going to help Integra with her brother.
Both Vlad and Seras stood in the hallway alone not knowing what to say.

“Seras,” Vlad said, mumbling.  “I really am sorry about scaring you in the kitchen.  I thought that you were Maxwell…and I was trying to…well.”  The boy couldn’t continue.
His best friend looked up at him with her blue eyes, and smiled at him.
“It’s alright Vlad.  I know why you did it.  Plus, I’m sure if Maxwell got scared by you instead of me, I’m pretty sure that he would have wet himself seeing as how he acted around that spider.”
The two friends laughed while Integra and Walter were still trying to tell Maxwell that the spider was gone and that everything was alright.


The group headed back to their safe and warm homes, walking through the woods in the dark.  All of them knew that by now their parents would be scolding them and asking where they were at, but somehow it didn’t seem to affect them that much.  After all, the break just started and they were all looking forward to their plans.
Integra walked with her brother the whole way, although she kept looking back at the three walking behind her, wishing she was with them, but instead she walked with her brother.  Walter was back to being his usual quiet self while Seras kept trying to ask him what he was doing for break.  
Vlad on the other hand…
Ever since the boy found out that Maxwell was afraid of things like spiders, the boy was taking every chance he got to scare him.  
His favorite was tapping Maxwell on the shoulder with a stick so lightly that it almost made it seem that something was crawling on him.


One by one the group headed off to their houses, not wanting to pressure their parents any more with fear of where their children had been.
Integra and her brother were the first to leave at their house.  The dear sister gave her friends all hugs while her brother merely waved to Seras and Walter while giving Vlad a death glare.  
Walter was the next one to go home, waving to his friends from his door step and then going inside the still lit house.
Seras and Vlad were left and as they walked to their homes (which happened to be right besides each other) they talked about anything they could think about.

Finally they reached their homes, promising to see each other by the lake like they promised, and went inside only to meet the questions fire at them by their loving, yet sometimes scary, parents.