Laurie Cider

October 25, 2007 5:07 PM

Treats for the Trickers! *On Halloween Day* by Laurie Cider

Laurie settled herself, cross legged, on one of the free sofas. At her feet rested a large cardboard box, decorated with dry milk goods descriptions. Beside her was another box, filled to the brim with bags of candy: Reese's, Milky Ways, M&M's, Almond Joys, Hershey Kisses, Butterfingers, Milk Duds- a whole litany of chocolates, plus the token 500 piece bag of less name brand goodies. In her lap was a wholesale package of orange and black goodie bags, brandishing pictures of jack-o-laterns, bats, stereotypical witches, and black cats. Her parents had sent her more than enough to make Halloween treat bags for her friends and housemates, and Laurie had been looking forward to this night for nearly two weeks.

She adored the Holidays.

They started with Halloween, lingered into Thanksgiving, climaxed at Christmas, and waved a gentle good-bye with promises of more to come on Valentine's Day. Laurie celebrated each with an over-abundance of good cheer and generosity. She loved the project making the holidays endeared. She and her mom normally started working on her Halloween costume in the middle of September. A week before Halloween, she would start working on sugar cookies and candy apples to give to her friends, and then treat bags for the trick-or-treaters. Her best friend Heidi would join her, along with their tried and true pillow cases for candy, and they would hit up all the best spots in the neighborhood for candy. This would be Laurie's first year without trick-or-treating, and while she knew she would have to stop at some point, she was still disappointed.

Her mom had concocted a plan to ensure though, that Laurie wouldn't be too sad. Her father wrote her, telling her of the amazing Halloweens spent when he was in school. A week later, she received the candy, the goodie bags, and a card explaining that the sugar was for sharing. She had grinned impishly at the directive; as if she could manage to down almost ten pounds of chocolate and candy all by herself. Then, just yesterday, she had received another package, this time containing a small note from her dad, and a parcel of black fabric beneath it. The note only contained one line: Make sure to set it out under a light for at least an hour. Love Dad. When she stretch out the black body suit, she had to hide her giggles for fear of waking her roommates who had all been long asleep.

She was wearing the skeleton-glow suit that very moment, as she continued to load each goodie bag with various bits of candy. Her sandy hair was tucked behind her ears which showcased her dangling skeleton earrings. There was a mask that went with the suit, but she had set it aside for now. She methodically selected five of the chocolates, and then a handful from the miscellaneous candy bag, before tying off the the goodie bag and dropping it into the box below. She repeated the process without interruption, until she felt the sudden fall of a body on the sofa next to her. She looked up, and her eyes lit up in excitement.

She held out a goodie bag, brown eyes dancing. "Happy Halloween!"
0 Laurie Cider Treats for the Trickers! *On Halloween Day* 0 Laurie Cider 1 5


Talitha

October 30, 2007 11:24 PM

Trick or Treat! Tag: Any other sugar addicts by Talitha

She’d sent her owl out a little over an hour ago on its maiden message delivery flight. It wouldn’t be back until early dawn at the earliest, but Talitha couldn’t help but worry. She should have been to bed an hour ago but she just couldn’t sleep. She realized it did no good to stare out the window for a sign for her friend and it only made her worry more. Deciding that perhaps sitting by the common room fire with a good book would be relaxing, she grabbed her novel and tiptoed out of her room and down the stairs.

She thought the common room would be deserted at that time of the night, but there was one other occupant this time. A very strange occupant indeed! It was a girl in a muggle Halloween costume sitting on a couch among bags and bags of assorted candy. Talitha’s eye danced. It looked as if she was having a lot more fun than reading. Perhaps a little holiday cheer was what Talitha needed at the moment. Her mother, being a Healer, didn’t allow a lot of sugary treats in the house. Like many kids, chocolate was a favorite treat of Talitha’s. Healthy or not, she had an insatiable appetite when it came to chocolate of all kinds.

Joining the skeleton girl on the couch, she was delighted when a bag was offered to her with a cheery, “Happy Halloween!”

“Thank you!” Talitha said grinning broadly. She happily accepted the bag of treats. “Where did you get all this stuff?”
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0 Talitha Trick or Treat! Tag: Any other sugar addicts 0 Talitha 0 5


Laurie Cider

November 03, 2007 11:23 AM

Yep, no tricks up my . . . er, bone. by Laurie Cider

Laurie recognized the older girl from her History of Magic class. She had been surprised and then impressed by the vehemence of Talitha's words then, but as the girl received her offered bag of candy, Laurie realized that Talitha Cumni was a regular girl like any other. "My parents," she gave in explanation. "They sent me a huge box filled with all of this. I think they're still worried that I'm homesick."

She gestured to the two boxes. "I can't imagine what's going to happen around Christmas. Even though they'll see me for winter holidays, I think I can expect an insane amount of decorations and cookies."

Laurie could already picture her dad hard at work in his kitchen, thinking of new ways to add Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jellybeans to the traditional Gingerbread House, or make goblin, centaur, witch, and elf cookie cutter cutouts. Her family normally began prepping for Christmas about mid-November, buying their Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. They were going to wait for her this year, though, a consideration that left Laurie with a warm glow of happiness in her chest. She really did love her family, hijinks and all.

"I'm Laurie," she introduced, unwrapping a Reese's Peanut-Butter Cup in her lap. "I remember you from History of Magic- you're Talitha, right?" She took a generous bite from the chocolate disk, and basked in the taste. "Whoever thought of peanut-butter and chocolate deserves sainthood."

She noticed the novel in Talitha's hand, and her brown eyes widened. She had worked her way through five books since school's start, not being a terribly fast reader despite her fondness for it. She had purposely stayed away from her usual Muggle repertoire, and focused on exploring the wizarding fictional authors. She had stumbled upon a great mystery series that focused on a brother-sister team who went to a prestigious wizarding school, and where they were constantly being flung into conspiracies and plots from all levels. She had stayed up too late on more than one occasion due to a particularly harrowing chapter. Her puffy eyes and bleary expression the next morning were always testimony to those late hours.

She pointed a skeleton gloved hand at the book. "Can I ask what you're reading? I'm always looking for new authors."
0 Laurie Cider Yep, no tricks up my . . . er, bone. 0 Laurie Cider 0 5