The State Files

Scare Off!!

It was officially Maize's favorite holiday.

Okay, maybe it's not her most favorite holiday. She had other holidays that were much more enjoyable to her, Fourth of July is one of them, of course. But no one celebrated Halloween quite like them.

And by them, she means the Midwest.

Now, she knew that usually, the Northeast took the crown for "Creepiest Halloween" with their foggy hills, old Victorian houses, and history of witchcraft. They were the face of it.

But Iowa liked to give herself credit. The Praire was her favorite place for a spooky night.

"Okay. We need to plan this out quickly, Halloween is only in...about 25 days!" Judy said.

"Right...We need to brainstorm..." Maize agreed and pursed her lips.

The three of them were standing in Iowa's room in their house in Michigan. Maize didn't know where exactly in Michigan. All she knew was that they weren't in Detroit due to...privacy issues.

Judith hummed. She scribbled on a piece of paper. She was sitting criss-crossed on Iowa's bed.

"We could do a corn maze as usual. It always works...." Judith reccomended.

"No! We can't; they will expect that..." Maize shot the idea down. "We need fresh meat..."

"Why did you even challenge them in the first place?" Benny asked, causing Judith to flinch.

"Benny...you scared me," Judith murmured.

Maize glanced at Bennett. "Because! I do not want to be stomped on again by those...stuck-up Northeasterners! I also don't want to be made fun of by the West again! We are older than them! They can't talk to us like that!" Iowa complained. "Im doing this for us. For the Midwest!"

"Sure..." Judy muttered and scribbled along the side of the paper.

Iowa huffed a bit. Her blonde curly hair was pushed back from her forehead by a white hair-covering bandana, two tufts of small hair peeking out. "We are better...we have corn."

"Yeah!"

"And we have wheat..." Kansas added.

"Right on!" Benny nodded.

Iowa looked over at them and then out the window. "Hmmmm...."

"Yeah...My wheat and your corn will have to beat them out of the park," Judy said.

"Knock it out of the park..." Iowa corrected. She turned to her. "And "your" wheat? It's not specific to you..."

"Yeah...I know I have corn, but I have wheat too!" Benny added.

"Corn?" Maize perked and looked over at him. "'Your" corn? She was talking about my corn."

"Excuse me?" Benny perked.

Maize huffed behind her breath and glared.

"What do you mean by that, huh?"

"Uh, guys...Let's not do this...again." Judith tried.

"No, I wanna hear it..." Benny said.

"You know it." Maize stared.

"Oh, brother..."

"So it's gonna be like that again, huh?"

"Mhm."

"...Alright...I'll get the car..."

Maize smirked. "The best one gets to plan the maze for the rest of the states."

"You're on."

Judy groaned and hopped off the bed—every year. This happened every single year.