“Mad!” she squealed.

“Gracie” I replied.

“I can’t believe you are here! You stayed!”

“I did”

“Ellie said you went home.”

 

“Hide, Hide” Ellie whispered running to the corner. “Go hide on the stairs.”

The door swung open. I was picking at the worn out white carpet lining the stairs trying not to make any noise.

“Hi mom, Hi Elle” Gracie said.

“Hi Gracie, how was school?” my aunt asked.

Great, everyone liked my show and tell”

Guess what Gracie, Maddy got to play with me today but she went home!” Ellie bragged.

“NOT FAIR, I NEVER GET TO SEE MADDY!” she yelled.

“Why don’t you go change,” my aunt suggested as Gracie stomped across the room and threw off her socks.

She turned the corner and let out the biggest sequel ever.

“My goodness thanks for blowing out my eardrum,” I said sarcastically.

“I am so happy you stayed, now we can get ready for trunk-or-treat together and you can watch me at gymnastics and paint our nails and do our makeup and STAY UP ALL NIGHT and mommy is making cookies!”

“Wow, slow down” I said.

“I’m just so happy you are here” she replied.

It was getting was getting late and the sky was turning to dark shades of blue and purple and the sun was setting behind the clouds lighting them up making them look like puffy marshmallows.

“Can we watch a movie?” Gracie asked after shoving a whole cookie into her mouth.

“How about The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” I asked.

“What’s that?” Ellie asked.

My mouth dropped open.

“Are you serious?” I asked searching for it on the TV.

“Yes” Gracie answered.

“Just watch it” I said pressing play.

It was finally over and Ellie was all sprawled out silently sleeping on the couch.

“Come on Gracie I think we should go up to bed, you don’t want to be tired at gymnastics tomorrow,” I yawned.

“Fine!” she said.

We brushed our teeth and got our pj’s on and hopped into bed. She was still wide awake and kept talking to me. I was trying to stay up and when she would ask me a question I would try to answer but I really only got through half a sentence then fell asleep.

“Mad, Mad” I heard someone whisper. “You up?”

“What” I said half asleep.

“Can I play on your phone?” she asked.

“Ya, what time is it?”

“7:19, how much longer until trunk or treat?”

“I don’t know 11 hours”

“Can we start getting ready?”

“It’s at 6:30 tonight and you have to go gymnastics”

“Ok, let’s go eat breakfast” she said dragging me out of bed.

“Ugghh I’m coming” I said crawling out of bed.

I smelled breakfast cooking down stairs. I scarfed down an English muffin and Gracie and Ellie ate their bacon, egg, and cheese’s.

“Elle I put your clothes on your bed, once you are done eating go get ready” my aunt said stirring something in a pan.

“K mom” she replied chewing her breakfast.

After breakfast we went up stairs to get ready we still had a lot to do before trunk-or-treat but it seemed like the day flew by. I sat in the viewing room watching the two of them flip and swing on the bars and jump around on the trampoline. Then after we had to pick-up some makeup for Gracie’s costume (she was Evie from Descendents).

We pulled into the Walgreens parking lot and my aunt got out of the car. In less than 10 minutes she was back with bright blue sparkly eye shadow.

When we got home I gave Ellie two long Dorothy braids and tied the end with shiny sky blue ribbon. It made her blue eyes pop. Then we had to color Gracie’s hair with blue hair spray color and put some blue eye shadow on her. After they were all ready and had their costume on I got ready. I put some black makeup around and on my eyelids and some on my lips too. I tried to look as dead as possible then got my costume on and we left.

As I stepped outside into the cool night the wind blew against my cheeks making my eyes water. I jumped into the car and buckled my seat belt.

“Are we almost there?” Gracie asked.

“Gracie you know where we” my uncle said turning the car into the parking lot.

“ We’re here” Ellie screamed.

We parked the car and all jumped out eager to get some candy. I was so happy to spend the night with my family and grateful for the fun sleepover we had. I will never forget this night.