Frank couldn’t wait for Halloween to be over. Even though he had not been a target of any of the pranks, he was tired of the stunts. He didn’t think they were funny, but mean.

As he watched a skeleton swing out of a classmates locker making several people scream, he thought back to the incident that had given him a strong dislike for Halloween jokes and pranks in general.

He was in his second year of middle school, grade 7 and Joe was in his first and the school had a haunted house for the students and families. He and Joe and been looking forward to it for days.

Arriving at the school, they had to make their way through the haunted house to reach the party in the gym. Frank insisted he was big enough to go through without his parents and agreed to at least let Joe come along. Their parents were going to follow them. Joe led the way.

Entering the darkened pathway, they had only gotten a few feet when Frank had been grabbed from behind and pulled into a dark room. Joe was nowhere to be seen. Frank struggled to break away from whoever grabbed him. He was turned around so many times, he didn’t know which direction to go when he was released.

"You won’t be getting out of here soon," a voice said.

A moment later, a door was slammed shut.

Frank stood still trying to get his bearings. He knew he had to get out of there. He wandered in several directions and kept running into things. He couldn’t find his way out. He took a couple steps, tripped over something and fell to the floor.

He was not sure what happened after that, because he only remembered his mother holding something cool to his forehead and there were lights on all around him. Both his parents’ faces were pale along with Joe‘s, who was staring at him intently.

"Frank, are you all right?" a voice asked interrupting his memories.

Turning, he saw Joe standing by him staring at him intently as in his memory. Frank said, "I think so."

Joe took Frank by the arm, led him over to some stairs and forced him to sit down. "Are you sure? You seemed to have zoned out for a moment and your face is white."

"I’m fine. Just thinking."

"You know," Joe said switching subjects realizing Frank wasn’t going to admit anything. "I can’t believe the principal is allowing these stunts to continue."

"You do recall he tried to stop it two years ago and he ended up being the victim of one of the pranks."

Joe laughed. "I sure do. It was amazing that his car fit perfectly in his office."

"It was, but he was never able to catch those responsible and I guess he realized he could live with the small pranks as long as he wasn’t the target."

Joe lowered his voice. "Have you been the target of any pranks?"

Frank shook his head as he stood up. "I’ve been left alone. I think that after the altercation with Derek Richards for the powder bomb in my locker two years ago, that everyone has realized I’m not someone to be messed with."

"I’m still amazed at how quickly you figured out who was responsible."

"It wasn’t difficult since he had powder marks on his jeans."

"I’d have to say you really showed him who was boss. You tried to avoid fighting, but when you do get involved, it doesn’t take long for you to take out the other party."

"I think he learned a lesson with that."

Joe turned to face his brother. "Frank, are you okay with the Halloween party? I mean, I know you try to down play it every year since you really don’t like it, but..."

"Will I be able to handle it?" Frank finished. "I don’t think it’ll be a problem. It’s like I said the other night. I can’t be scared but that incident from years ago is still fresh on my mind when I got turned around in one of the rooms and knocked myself out. I guess it made me realize Halloween isn’t what it used to be for me. As for now, I’m just tired of seeing people being targets for these gags. It’s just not funny and I think we’re too old for it."

"All right," Joe said.

The bell rang at that moment. "We better get to class, Joe."

"I’ll see you at lunch."