A huge thank you to all who took the time to enter the 2024 Solano County Library Teen Writing Contest!

We were honored to read your work, and encourage each of you to continue writing.

Please enjoy the winning entry below!

SHORT STORY WINNER

The Last Treat

by Simran Kaur

     Autumn leaves fall, the wind thickens, and the sun starts disappearing earlier than usual. In front of various houses, candy corn fences, and inflatable pumpkins are propped up bragging rights and for little kids to point and giggle at. That little kid being Maya’s younger sister, Tiya. The three-year-old jumping up and down tugged on her mom’s wooly sweater. “Mama! Pumpkin!,” she yelled.

     Everybody fell into a routine by the middle of October. Tiya and her mom going on walks everyday. Tiya at preschool, coming home with several handmade crafts every Friday. And Maya, a freshman, continuously forgetting her lunch number. As the days got colder, and more people started to put up their festive decor, Maya felt under the weather. Maybe it was just the flu going around, or midterms, or anything that mattered even the slightest to Maya. But it was just Halloween. The holiday full of witches, ghosts, and minions. 

     Since 6th grade, right around the time her kid sister was born, Maya stopped dressing up and going trick or treating. Not that she didn’t like to. She loved it. Like every other kid, she loved dumping candy out of her pillowcase with her friends, sorting and counting how much she had received. But one day, Ms. Brownie, her teacher, made her students go around and tell the class what they did for Halloween. When it was Maya’s turn, some girls that Maya had been friends with snickered and made fun of her, saying that Halloween was for kids and that she should grow up. Sure, maybe Maya did need to grow out of her Percy Jackson phase, but Halloween can be enjoyed by anyone. But her friend’s words stuck with Maya. During the next years of middle school, Maya didn’t go out for Halloween and occasionally snuck some of her mom’s makeup to use.

     However, this year wouldn’t be any different. Now, for even more reason, she didn’t have time to play dress up. 

***

     Burrowed in her room, like usual, Maya tunes into her headphones while she highlights almost everything in her English textbook. From the crack of her door, she could see her sister, Tiya, stomping around in her bumblebee socks holding her orange pumpkin basket. She could also hear her mom telling Tiya it wasn’t time to go. Maya diverted her attention back to her textbook and the sticky note with a long list of uncompleted assignments. 

     It was only 3 months into high school and Maya had been swamped with assignments, quizzes, midterms, and not to mention, club meetings every day at lunch. Well, one could argue that it was Maya’s fault for signing up for every club under the sun. “Maya came here and helped Tiya put away her art,” Maya’s mom says. 

     “Coming,” Maya whines from her room. In the living room, a purple folder spilled out several papers. Tiya was holding an orange piece of paper that painted her two tiny hand prints, creating a spider. The spider was dangling off its spider web and its eyes were made of different sizes of googly eyes. Maya took the stack of art, with the spider on top, and opened the drawer to her coffee table. 

     All of Maya’s life, her parents had stored all of their stuff in the worn-down coffee table. She opened the drawer and compressed the papers, crafts, and assignments down to make room for Tiya’s stuff. “Why are there two?” Tiya asked, pulling out another sheet of orange paper. Scribbled in tiny cursive letters read Maya October 27th, 2014. Maya took the paper out of Tiya’s hands and flipped it over. It was another one of those spider handprints, this time covered with silver glitter, only it was Maya’s from over 10 years ago. Maya looked over hers and Tiya’s handprints, apart from the color choices she couldn’t spot many differences. She turned the paper and looked over the early stages of her and Tiya’s handwriting, they had even written their ‘a’s the same. As a loss in interest Tiya whined and turned towards her mom “When are we going trick or treating, I wanna go!” 

     “Okay, okay. Let’s put on your costume” Maya’s mom replied, taking Tiya’s hand in hers. Maya also headed to her room, she sat down on her desk to open her textbook. After a minute she rolled off her chair and sprawled across the floor, she threw a white sheet, scissors, and some Sharpies on the floor. Maya traced three ovals on the sheet, one for her mouth, and the others for her eyes. Once cut, she outlined the outsides of the hole with a Black sharpie. She positioned the sheet on herself until she could see and stick her tongue through the fabric. “Maya, take a look at Tiya’s costume!” Her mother’s voice drifted through the halls. Maya turned toward her kid sister who was a cow, wearing a onesie. “Maya,” her mom says.

     “What? I’m obviously a ghost,” Maya replied.

     “Yes, but, wow.” She paused. “Let’s get out of the house.”

     Together Maya and Tiya knocked at the first house. Then, Maya left the two, promising her mom to return by 10. Maya went from door to door to every house where the lights were on. She took a handful at the houses where only a bowl was left with a sign that stated “Take one please.” She waved to little kids with costumes and threw empty wrappers of chocolate into her pillowcase along with the rest of her candy. She received the occasional toothbrush, raisins, and twizzlers. She tripped over her own costume at least twice, and someone else’s at least once. She walked by the decorated houses, and the try-hard neighbors with huge inflatable pumpkins and large bars. She saw teenagers of her own age, also dressed up in last-minute costumes. Maya watched Tiya and her mom walk by, seeing herself in Tiya, when it was just her and her mom roaming through the streets, knocking on doors. 

     As promised, Maya returned to her house and dumped her candy on the floor. Maya counted her candy and sorted hers and Tiyas. She placed the good stuff; Twiz, Smarties, and Hershey’s on one pile. And the Almond Joys and Twizzlers in another. Maya tried convincing Tiya to keep the not-so-good candy, but the girl wouldn’t fall for it. 

     The night of Halloween, Maya lay on her bed, looking up at her ceiling. Her candy stash is stored next to her backpack, in her closet. She wasn’t sure when she would complete her assignments, or study for another quiz. But she knew that she had to start living in the moment. In all of the seriousness that a new environment had brought, she needed to be a kid again. Maya closed her eyes. As she drifted off, she was reminded of her adventures from when she was younger. She thought about her sister Tiya, and how much she wished Tiya would live out her childhood, unlike Maya. But for now, she knew everything would turn out okay if she stayed true to herself.