"Hey! Nerd-out! What'cha gonna do for Halloween this year!? Plan to run around with textbooks?" I sauntered to the patch of grass where Phoebe Damaris, the class know-it-all, was sitting. She was an easy target, always trying to be the class pet, and abominable at anything athletic. My friends, the ‘jock group', found those kinds of traits important for somebody to pick on. "You'd be stupefied, actually," she said. I was kind of confused by the vocabulary, but my best friend swooped in to help. "Guess we won't get the chance to find out," he said, cracking his knuckles. Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of recess. "You are lucky enough to get saved by the bell this time. See you trick-or-treating, Nerd-out." I jeered.

I had decided to go in my normal outfit for Halloween. It was composed of wrapping myself in toilet paper and calling myself a mummy. I'd first had the idea when I was 5, and I had been wearing it for six years since then. I stood outside of my best friend's house, Murphy McCallow. His name sounds geeky and he looks that way, but he's pretty cool. Murphy is fast, intimidating, and strong... perfect best friend traits. He walked out in a grim reaper outfit, his large scythe held high above his head. "So, where do you want to go?" he asked. The neighborhood tenants association had created a map of all the houses, plus their scare levels, and passed them out door to door. I took out my copy and pointed to the only one marked 5/5.

The house's exterior was pretty creepy, not too bad. It was well decorated with a camera integrated to look like the eye of a monster whose head was hanging from the ceiling. A screen door marked the entrance.The camera-eye blinked and, after a split-second, the door swung open and I walked in. Murphy walked up and the eye blinked again but the door didn't open. "Sucks to be you," I said with a smirk.

As I entered, a book hanging from a thick rope swung down on me. Its title read: "Science 101." I'll admit it, I screamed. Two more came down. I was getting serious ‘Home Alone' vibes. The scary thing was, however, that they hit exactly where my face was before I ducked. Just a trick, I thought. Just a trick. I continued walking and nearly tripped on a small black wire. "Gaaaaa!-oh" I screamed as the lights went out. I really hoped that I wasn't being recorded.

The farther I ventured through the house, the more scared I was. Some traps seemed familiar, but I didn't know why. One trap had a button at the bottom of a cup and I had to stick my hand in it for the door to open. Some weird white smoke came out and nearly gave me blisters. Every trap had this warm and humid air that reminded me of Nana Boo Boo's house in Florida. By now I would've ran, but 2 things kept me going: pride and candy. Murphy was standing outside and I knew he'd laugh at me if I ran away screaming. Also, a house like this definitely had good candy.

I was persistent, entering each stage and passing. Finally, I reached the last door. It had a passcode lock hanging on it. A hint scribbled on the door in drippy red ink read:

Krypton
Yttrium
Platinum
Oxygen
Nitrogen
This was easy. I entered the word ‘KrYPtON' into the padlock. It buzzed open. Ok, let me explain myself. My science teacher wears this awesome shirt that has a picture of Lex Luther fighting Superman... and winning. At the bottom it says ‘KrYPtON'. Not a magical extraterrestrial element used to kill overpowered superheroes. Just science. See what I mean? Awesome.

I walked into the dark room. All the lights went on in an instant. I was blinded and scared. Was I gonna die? When I opened my eyes, I saw the stupid grin of Phoebe Damaris. My jaw dropped, although it shouldn't have. She was an obvious suspect. "You didn't know it was me?" she scoffed. "You're always picking on me! Of course I had to get revenge! C'mon! As a mercy I tipped you off this morning!" she made a mocking, high pitched voice. "‘Whatcha doing, Nerd-out?" She kept on ranting about her tricks. "The hanging books were just me dropping them and using an algebraic formula to figure out where you'd be at a given moment. The test tube was dry ice, the demonstration that Ms. Sercia showed us last year. It was all so simple!" I nodded, pretending I understood. "Sure. Where's my candy?" I asked. Phoebe hauled out a big fat book. "Here's a souvenir." she said with a devilish smile. The title read ‘Science 101'.