The trash incident with Sarah occurred on Thursday and the three friends endured the rest of the day in extremely dirty, smelly clothes. Sabrina and Monica were used to this type of treatment and took it in stride. Marcia's brain kept repeating the incident and found it happened completely on purpose to harass them. She thought it is now time to get even, but how? As she thought, a complete plan developed in her mind.

An opportunity loomed that could not be ignored by the trio of friends. Guess, who would crash a certain Halloween party on Friday night? Now they had to plan it well. Friday at lunch, Sarah's group buzzed about the big party that night. Anyone from Sarah's group razzed Marcia, Monica and Sabrina, as they walked by their table. These interruptions seemed not to bother the three girls. They sat animatedly laughing and gesturing about their sleepover. As the plans fell into place, they created a way to crash Sarah's party do some major pranks and escape detection. They laid it all out and pinky-promised not to fail. This was one of the best plans and promised to be the greatest sleepover ever.

As the trio left the lunchroom, they continued the chatter down the halls, laughing and pushing each other around in jest. The rest of the kids in the hall joined in the fun. The school reverberated with the sound of happy students going to and from classes, something very new for a change. Even some of the teachers laughed and felt good about the day. Marcia, Monica and Sabrina walked along giggling and went to their classes. The rest of the day dragged on until the last bell when the students gushed out the doors ready to face Halloween night.

Monica left Marcia and Sabrina to get a ride from her mom. They had to get her brother at the all boys' school. They waved goodbye and promised to meet up later. Marcia and Sabrina turned down the street that led to Sabrina's house. They grew quiet and secretive as they approached the woods. They took off their backpacks, laid them under some leaves, after taking out several clean baby food jars.

Slowly and stealthily, they entered the woods. Marcia led the way through to the area, where the crickets chirped loudest and were most plentiful. They were careful not to make any loud noises to scare away the crickets. As they entered, Marcia opened a jar and literally scooped up crickets. In her first swipe, ten crickets ended up in the jar. She closed it quickly, opened another and scooped up fifteen more. She thought, this is too easy, but we need about seventy-five crickets for this to be a good prank. Marcia looked over at Sabrina, watching her scoop just as many crickets as Marcia. They captured over one hundred crickets in ten minutes. They put the closed jars in a sack and quickly ran out of the woods grabbing their backpacks on the way. When they hit the sidewalk, they slowed their pace and giggled loudly about their cricket gathering antics.

"That was fun. I love the sound crickets make. It is so relaxing to me." Marcia exclaimed.

"It really was fun. I never knew there were that many crickets in the woods. I stayed away from there because of the stories." Sabrina replied breathlessly.

"We need to call Monica and tell her the plan has started now." Marcia said.

They quickened their pace to get to Sabrina's house. As they approached the house, their excitement level increased, their smiles broadened and time seemed to move faster. Sabrina opened the backdoor, ran to her bedroom, dropping her backpack on the floor, flopped on her bed and buried her head in her pillow laughing and giggling loudly. Marcia dropped her backpack next to Sabrina's, carefully put the crickets down and flopped on the bed hugging Sabrina laughing loudly too.

Five minutes later, after wearing out from the laughter the girls sat up on the bed and picked up the sack of crickets. They carefully removed each jar from the sack, placed them on the table near the bed and admired the fruits of their labor. They hugged and the giggling began again. Ten jars sat on the table, each containing at least fifteen crickets. It was a wonderful haul and was more than adequate for the night's work. Marcia perked up as the chirping of the crickets filled the room. It reminded her to relax and focus on the upcoming night. It was get serious time. A quiet demeanor descended on Marcia caused by the loud chirping.

Marcia stood, turned to Sabrina, looked her in the eye and coldly said, "We need to call Monica. The costumes must be ready for tonight. I want them perfect so we look exactly the same."

Sabrina looked at Marcia, opened her eyes widely in surprise at the person she saw. Gone was the happy, bubbly funny girl. The girl, who stood in her place, was cold and calculating acting with very deliberate motions. A quiet deliberate calm overtook the atmosphere of the bedroom. Sabrina led the way to the kitchen for some juice and the telephone. Marcia followed quietly introspective and sat next to the phone waiting for Sabrina to bring the juice. Sabrina put the glasses down and dialed the phone to Monica. Monica answered on the first ring giggling.

Monica sensed the quiet calm on the other end of the phone. She asked, "What is going on?"

"Marcia has become very serious about this prank. It is scary, but I think she is nervous and scared." Sabrina squeaked into the phone.

"Let me talk to her." Monica softly spoke.

Sabrina handed the phone to Marcia, who mumbled, "Hello."

"Marcia, what is wrong?" Monica asked.

"I just want everything to be perfect tonight. How are the costumes? We need to look exactly alike to confuse everyone by being in three places at once. That is very important." Marcia spoke softly, as if it was a secret and others might hear it.

"The costumes are ready with three matching masks, wigs and hats. Standing together, we are identical. It is going to be extremely difficult to tell us apart." Monica assured her.

"OK, don't forget all the pieces when you come to my house tonight. See you in a little while." Marcia perked up.

Marcia turned after putting the phone down and smiled at Sabrina. She raised her glass in salute. The glasses clinked and the girls laughed again. When they finished their juice, they cleaned the table, walked into the bedroom and put the crickets back in the sack.

Sabrina went to her closet got her sleeping bag and unrolled it on her bed. She got her pajamas, a clean set of underwear, a sweatshirt and her pillow, rolled them in her sleeping bag and tied it up tightly. Sabrina changed out of her school clothes and hung them up. She put on some pants and a top to spend the night at Marcia's in the sleepover.

As she finished dressing, Marcia's mom pulled up and walked to the house. Marcia grabbed both backpacks and the sack of crickets and took them to the car. Sabrina wrote a note to her mom and left it on the table for her. She walked through the house checking things were in order. She grabbed a jacket and her sleeping bag, brought them to the car, ran back and locked the door. Marcia and Sabrina giggled as the car moved away from the house. The adventure and revenge started for real now.

"Mom, we have a party to attend for a little while tonight. Will that be OK?" Marcia sweetly asked her mom.

"What kind of party sweetie?"

"It is a Halloween party at a school friend's summer house on the river." Marcia oozed sweetness now.

"OK, I will take you. What about costumes?"

"Monica has them for us. We are going as three identical witches." Marcia quietly spoke trying to suppress an evil giggle.

Her mom kept driving and the girls smiled, as they got closer to Marcia's home. Monica arrived shortly after the other two girls and brought in her stuff and the costumes. The girls rushed to Marcia's room with all the clothes and sleepover material. They laid the costumes out on the bed and looked at them carefully. They were identical right down to the pockets and collars. They were three simple dark brown robes with deep pockets. The masks covered their faces with wigs that covered their hair. The hats had wide brims and held the wigs in place. Monica even had three pair of matching rubber boots to wear. Marcia jumped up on the bed bouncing around gleefully chortling with her friends.

"This is going to be the best night ever!" She exclaimed.

The girls quickly ate supper, cleared the table and disappeared back inside Marcia's room. They spent the next hour planning the party time at Sarah's place. If things went according to plan, the prank would take less than ten minutes and they would be on their way back home. They dressed in their costumes making sure everything was perfect. They stood together, looked in the mirror and giggled or cackled. They went to Marcia's mom and she did not know who was who, so far, so good. They went back to the room and gathered the crickets. Marcia took all the jars in her pockets. She wanted the chance to get back at Sarah more than the others did. When the crickets were in her pocket, Marcia led the other two witches out to her mom and announced they were ready to go to the party.

The girls piled into the car and mom took them to the party. When they got to the party, Marcia said to her mom, "Please stay here while we go inside. I think we may not like this party tonight." The girls flew out of the car and up the sidewalk into the house. Once inside they split up to create chaos and confusion.

Sabrina went to the entertainment area and walked around. She had one jar of crickets and slowly dropped them as she moved among the partiers. No one noticed the crickets crawling on the chairs and floor. When the jar was empty, she closed it and put it away. She stood quietly near the door and watched as the crickets spread around the room and over the partygoers' costumes. Suddenly, one girl screamed when a cricket crawled across her neck. This brought howls of laughter from the others, but soon more screams erupted as the bugs spread wider. Soon the whole room ran around in a panic as people found crickets everywhere. The prank worked its magic too well. Sabrina stood watching and laughing at all the panic in the room.

Monica went to the backyard and played with the other guests. She took her jar of crickets and did much the same as Sabrina. Being outside, made spreading the bugs more difficult, as they ran in the grass and hid. Monica sprinkled a few crickets on people's costumes and watched as they crawled around. After a while, people found the crickets a nuisance but just brushed them off. A few fell in the drinks, but the drinks fell to the grass and the bugs ran off. Monica gave up and went into the house to find Sabrina or Marcia.

Marcia headed for the food area. No one was there eating yet, so the coast was clear to exact her revenge on Sarah. At one end of the table was a huge punch bowl with orange punch. Marcia took one jar and dumped it in the punch. Next were the chips and popcorn. The crickets looked really nice crawling in the salty snacks. The pickles and olives were immune from the bugs. The crickets covered the platters of cookies and the tiny sandwiches. Marcia had two jars left and there was a huge frosted cake at the other end of the table. She poured both jars on the cake and pressed some of them into it so they stuck there. She turned, looked at the table and laughed her cackling laugh.

Marcia went throughout the house looking for her friends. Everywhere she went the crickets caused confusion and chaos. Costumed children ran screaming from room to room. Sarah stood in the middle of it watching as it all unfolded in front of her. She screamed and cried as her friends ran in fear of the bugs. One of the witches who had a few crickets left brushed against Sarah depositing the last of her crickets. Sarah stopped her and discovered it was Marcia. Marcia ran quickly away before Sarah realized she had crickets on her too. One of the crickets crawled on her hair next to her ear and chirped.

"Why is this happening to me?" Sarah screamed, as no one paid her any mind. "What did I do to deserve this?" She grabbed a person running by and asked, "Where is everybody going?"

"They are running from the crickets, but this is the best part of the party so far." Sarah let her go and smiled with the smug satisfaction of having a good party now.

Marcia found one witch in the entertainment area and grabbed her. They found the last just coming in the house, grabbed each other, ran to the front of the house and back to the car. They piled back in the car and started to giggle uncontrollably. Mom drove them home and helped them get ready for the sleepover.

Sarah turned, climbed the stairs to the sleeping loft and looked down on the scene below. The party was in chaos. People ran over the whole downstairs screaming and yelling about crickets everywhere, but no one left the building. Laughter was everywhere. She watched as small groups met, chatted and ran on to find other friends. The party was a big hit. Sarah hugged herself and felt good. She had to find the person who brought the crickets and thank them. Being the target of a prank was a bad thing that turned out good.

As things quieted down, Sarah moved among the guests seeing to their needs. There was a small group of her closest friends staring at a cricket stuck in the frosting of the cake. Sarah grabbed a plastic fork and a napkin, deftly removed the struggling cricket and threw it away.

Sarah turned to her friends and asked, "Do you remember who was here that may have played this cruel prank?"

"There was an evil looking witch, who spent a good amount of time at the table here."

"But I saw her in the entertainment area with us."

"No, she was outside with us chasing around."

"Wait a minute. She was here, outside and the entertainment area?" Sarah questioned. "How could that be?"

Sarah shook her head and looked at her friends. "Something is wrong here. No one can be in three places at the same time. Crickets showed up in the three places too. It must have been her."

The food on the table disappeared as the party went on because people ate it. No one seemed to care that crickets walked on it or were still in it. It was part of the mystique of the party. The noise level remained high as everyone talked and chased crickets around. Sarah's clique friends circulated asking about any unusual people at the party. Everyone saw a witch, but did not know who she was. They agreed the costume was original and unique and hid the person well. A person crashed the party and played a big prank on the group hoping to ruin the party. Now Sarah wondered who wanted to ruin one of her parties. The trio pulled off the prank with only creating a mild panic, but the result was one of Sarah's best parties ever.

Marcia's bedroom buzzed with noise and chatter about the party. Each girl told the story of her piece of the prank, as it unfolded and the resulting panic and chaos. With each story, the level of giggling and laughter rose until Marcia's mom came, knocked on the door and told the girls to keep it down. About two hours later, they quietly ate a large plain pizza with sodas, a bowl of popcorn, some chocolate and strings of red licorice. They watched a videotape of the Disney classic movie Bambi and cried at the end. At 11:30, they crawled into the sleeping bags on the floor and lay there telling spooky stories, trying to scare each other. Within twenty minutes, they fell asleep for the night, happy with the events of the day.

Saturday dawned quietly in Marcia's bedroom, as the girls slept in past 10:00. The adventures of the night before drained their energy and left them satisfied with their deed. Marcia's mom knocked softly on the door quietly waking the sleeping girls. They sat up, rubbed the sleep from their eyes and started giggling all over again. Marcia's mom looked at the three girls, shaking her head in wonder. The girls stood up and went into the kitchen to eat the breakfast mom made for them. They quietly sat, ate pancakes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, toast and orange juice. When the girls finished, they went to Marcia's room, dragged the sleeping bags into the living room and lay down to watch the Saturday morning cartoons. Everything in their little world was good and they were still happy from the night.

Sarah and her friends woke in her loft, happy with the party the night before. They still did not know who the witch was. It remained a mystery that had to wait until Monday at school. Whoever ran the prank turned out to be the hero of the party. Sarah was not sure if she wanted to praise her or condemn her. The one thing she knew was the party crasher would get invitations to all her upcoming parties forever. She wanted a friend like her that could change a party with a simple prank. Sarah and her friends dressed and got into the family van for a ride to Denney's for a breakfast party. They had their breakfast, returned to the summer home and lay on the floor in front of the TV watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Marcia, Monica, Sabrina, Sarah and her clique looked forward to Monday morning for reports of the Friday night party.