Red Herring ✔️

3. Ghouls and Goblins

20 Days to Halloween

"Goooood morning, Colonel Holden High Students! We are officially twenty days out from Halloween!" Mindy Bradley's chipper voice greeted Mazie as soon as she walked in the doors of her high school just on time before the first tardy bell.

"This Friday is a home game for the Holden High Eagles and we expect to see you all there in your best vampire costumes!" Mindy practically giggled into the microphone at the prospect of donning her fangs. "That's right...this weekend's theme for the football game is vampires! Time to air out your capes!"

There truly was no other school like Colonel Holden High School - named after the great and honorable Colonel Holden who fought the Japanese in WWI not WWII long before the attack on Pearl Harbor and before the Japanese were the Japanese, whom the president, in the most racist way possible, rallied one of 'the greatest threats' to American society in camps (and no one said anything about it.) Colonel Holden sounded a little racist towards the Japanese if you asked her but that certainly didn't stop people from praising him like most other men in history.

But Holden High was more special for a lot of other reasons. Besides being one of the only schools in Oregon to offer hockey and tennis - which her mother begged her to play because she was obsessed with Serena Williams - they also celebrated every single holiday with equal parts style and cheese.

"Let's also show our support for the boys' hockey team on Thursday! It's an away game but the school will be providing transportation for those interested. There's a sign up sheet in the office. Today is the last day to sign up so don't forget."

Mazie meandered through the halls, ripping the hat off of her head and ruffing her fingers through her hair. She tossed her hands up in congenial wave to a few students on the yearbook committee that she was friends with. The walls and lockers were decorated with handmade Halloween signs. Each student was permitted to decorate they own locker for the holiday as long as it wasn't devil chants or something like that.

"In honor of Halloween, the varsity cheerleaders are hosting a Candy-and-Canned goods food drive to donate to local shelters. So bring a bag of candy and some canned goods before the end of the month!" Mindy explained.

Salacious laughter followed Mazie down the hall to her locker and she avoided glancing over her shoulder to see who it was. Most of the halls cleared as students made their way to class.

"Lastly, a reminder to the graduating class of 2019: according to Principal Andrews, senior class pranks are completely prohibited and anyone who engages in any pranking activity is subject to extensive punishments and serious consequences," Mindy informed everyone in her most motherly voice, meant to ward off pranking harm.

Mazie rolled her eyes as she hurriedly yanked open her locker.

"That's all for today, ghouls and goblins! Stay spooky!" A fake automated witch laugh echoed through the halls as Mindy signed off for her morning announcements.

When Mazie reached into her locker to pull out her Spanish book, a piece of paper folded into a square fell out and fluttered to the ground beside her books. Confusion muddled her brain, but she bent over to pick it up, dropping her black backpack at her feet. Mazie glanced back and forth down the hallway expecting the perpetrator who left the note in her locker to be lurking in the shadows.

Lightning flickered overhead, shining through the skylights above her. Thunder clapped shortly afterward, signaling that the incoming storm hovered close by.

Eerily, Mazie unfolded the note. She read it quickly before crumpling it up and tossing it into the back of her locker.

500 Hemingway Lane, Hollywood, Oregon 97061.