Eager Beaver

Chapter Forty-One - Tricked

The shadowy dog was about to round the corner. I desperately reached out and grabbed the closest kid to me for support, who was Alex. She similarly held back onto me, looking just as scared. I screeched out a loud ear-piercing shrill shriek. I saw it, a huge dog, taller than even Zach! It was right on top of us, and it was on the attack!

"AWOOO!" It howled at us, barreling down the drive way somehow on just two of its four furry matted paws with its fierce gnarled front claws held up in front of its dark black chest.

"Hey! Stop it!" Zach shouted, stepping courageously in-between us and the dog. "You're scaring them!"

I was still clutching Alex, who had loosened her grip somewhat. "W-what." I fumbled, and managed to summon the courage to take a proper look down the driveway. I suddenly felt very silly. It wasn't a big dog, it was just Brad in a very realistic, very scary werewolf costume. The shadow of the horrifying toothy maw I'd seen was just a pretty high quality dog mask, which he was now pulling off to reveal his friendly familiar face.

"Sorry Coops, I didn't mean to..." Brad explained, though he couldn't suppress the delighted grin that was spreading across his face at the success of his practical joke. "Well I did a little... Maybe I overdid it." He admitted, now looking rather guiltily as he looked over the pair of us wide-eyed shaken up beaver scouts.

I felt humiliated - of course it was just another prank! That seemed to be all this holiday was about. Why couldn't we just get the candy and leave out the heart attacks? "Yeah..." I muttered to him, still shivering a little. I pawed nervously at the crotch of my costume, the dry feeling of the material and a sharp tingle in my bladder confirming that I'd just barely managed to hold on. I winced in discomfort, though I was glad I hadn't completely humiliated myself. I'd been trying to tell myself that the incident at the cabin was a one time thing, but that had been way way too close.

"Trick or Treat!" Laurie and Leo chimed in, seemingly unphased from the ordeal and just desperate for more candy.

Brad obliged, retrieving more candy from inside the house and sprinkling it into our bags. Mr and Mrs Warren were nowhere to be seen - busy with some event across town, Brad said - so after that he locked up the house and joined us for the walk along the rest of our route on the way to the Love's house. That made me feel a lot better after my close call. I'd been so worried about the party, fretting that I'd be left hanging out with the little kids, but it seemed like this party at Laurie and Zach's was actually kind of a big deal. If Brad was coming, it had to be cool. It was only when we'd got to the end of the block that I remembered I'd meant to run to the toilet, cursing myself for my daydreaming. Then, I was so worked up about that, that I didn't remember at all what Brad had said at school.

Alex kept on holding tight to my hand as we marched forward, and I saw Zach and Brad actually chatting happily with each other ahead of us. Ever since Camp, Brad had seemed to be giving Zach the cold shoulder, but slowly throughout the semester he had been warming up to him again. That made me smile. I guess it may have helped that Zach and I always hung out with Laurie, and Brad and I lived right next to each other. It only made sense that three of us would group up being the only scouts in Grade Five - even if I was a Beaver, and they were Cubs.

After stopping by many more houses, my arms were getting a little tired from lugging the pillowcase of candy around everywhere. It didn't have handles on it, so it was pretty tiring to hold, especially since I hadn't eaten any of my candy yet - unlike some of the other kids. Laurie and Leo had already given up, relinquishing their confectionery to their older brother's to carry for them.

"Want me to carry that Coops?" Brad asked, seeing me struggling. "I don't even have one."

"Oh, um no thank you." I stammered, kind of embarrassed to be lumped in with the other little kids. I had a brief moment of panic wondering how old Brad thought I was. After the magic light ceremony, I had thought it was pretty much common knowledge that I was eight, but even eight year olds could lug around their Halloween candy! Charlie was eight, and he was carrying around two bags! Could it be that he still believed Zach's silly 'baby genius' theory? Even Sarah, that girl in my class who was positively obsessed with how "cute" I was, didn't believe that anymore.