All of us had completely forgotten about the haunted maze, until a loud voice caught our attention. It
had come from the main stage, and we now focused our attention to Bea, our classmate who was the
person speaking. The two speakers made her voice really easy to hear.
“The haunted maze will close in thirty minutes! So, if you want to go, now’s your chance!” she shouts
through the microphone.
Elae gasps loudly, then turns to face Jenna and I. She starts tugging both our hands while leading us
towards the maze.
I stop her for a second.
Before I can say anything, Elae begs, “Come on, Maya, the maze is going to close in half an hour!”
"Yes, I know, but we --”
“Maya,” she cuts me off. "I know you're going to say that thirty minutes is enough time - if not, more for just one little maze, but you have to consider the other things." She says it matter-of-factly.
"Other things like what?" My eyebrow furrows while my nose slightly crinkles.
Elae starts to pull us again in the direction of the line. It’s already beginning to form. "I'll tell you guys
once we get there. And by 'there', I mean 'to the line." She then gives a pleading face to both Jenna and
I.
Jenna looks over at me. I don't get a chance to agree or not, because two seconds later, Elae
proceeds to whisk us away.
I consider stopping her again, but I just quickly say to Jenna "let's just go," and we go. We claim our
place in line, and right after we do, Elae whirls around to face us. She does a quick, relieved sigh before
talking.
"Okay. So the reason I wanted us to hurry was because I knew the line was going to form quickly,
and obviously, it did," gesturing pointedly to the people ahead of us. There were about twenty or thirty
people in front.
"And I didn't want us to miss out on the maze because I know we all love Halloween," she adds.
I catch Jenna's eye, and we both form big smiles. We burst out a little laugh.
“Okay, okay. I’m glad we’ll get to go to the maze. I really am - we both really are. I just didn’t want to
have to wait too long in this line, and spend that time waiting, that we could’ve used to play some
games.” I put on my most serious face while explaining this, but it’s mostly difficult, since Elae is staring
me down like a hawk. She’s trying to make sure I’m not lying.
Jenna nods to us in agreement. “Exactly. Anyway we’re here now, Elae, so don’t go crazy.” Jenna
just can’t seem to suppress laughter; her eyes scrunch up, and so do mine.
I have this really weird laugh. Well, laughs. My laugh always changes, so of course, Elae and
Jenna laughed even harder when they heard mine.
The three of us stood in line, laughing together. We only momentarily paused when we had to
advance in line. I counted eight people ahead of us. As we were waiting for our turn, quietly giggling at
what was soon to come, we heard one of the school staff members.
Matt - a boy at our school - was waiting in line with his friends.
Mr. Peterson asked them if they had four in their group. Matt and his friends all replied ‘yes’, and he
let them enter through the dark passageway.