A Scary Story

I started out trying to get this true story down to 55 words for Kate's contest, so it's shorter than my usual rambling style (though still not short enough to qualify). It is a true tale, though maybe not worthy of socks.

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Alternative high school, oasis for teenage outcasts, heaven for me. For once to be in the center, not the margins!

One day—it was my idea—a few of us agreed: every time someone walks into the lounge, we’ll laugh on cue and not say why.

It was between classes; people kept wandering in. And hearing us laugh, and looking…anxious. Hunted. One after another, they glanced at our little gang, tensed up and moved as far away from us as possible.

We stopped after a few minutes, eyes shifting uncomfortably at each other. Because we knew. We’d all been on that side of the mirror. It was dangerous, scarily fun in an icky way, to make it happen to someone else, turn our laughter against them.

For five minutes, we turned into the people we’d hated and feared for years. And it was so, so easy.