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Camila and Luz opened the front door of the house to the living room, where Hunter, Willow, Amity and Gus were all working on a jigsaw puzzle of a wolf. “We’re back from the store!” Luz said out into the room. “And we bought pumpkins!” Luz held up three medium-sized pumpkins above her head while Camila held three similarly sized pumpkins down by her side, as well as one tiny pumpkin. Hunter and Gus both looked up at Luz while Amity and Willow remained focused on the puzzle. “...Why?” Hunter asked after a brief moment of awkward silence. “It’s human tradition to put pumpkins outside your enemy’s house and light it on fire.” Gus responded confidently. Luz and Camila both took a second to just stare at the small boy with deep concern. “I worry about you sometimes, Augustus.” Camila quietly noted under her breath. “But, no. What you actually do is carve a face- or anything really- into the pumpkin and then you put it under your house and light a candle inside the pumpkin.” Gus thought about the idea for just a minute. “I still like my version better.” He said before returning to the puzzle. Luz and Camila went to set the pumpkins on the dining room table, shoving aside the assortment of junk that was spread across the table. Luz went to the cupboard and grabbed a handful of junkmail newspapers and laid them across the table underneath the pumpkins, while Camila fetched the pumpkin carving kit from the grocery bag.
After everything had been set up, Luz entered back into the living room. “Alrighty folks.” Luz called out to the area. “Are we gonna do that pumpkin thing?” Gus asked enthusiastically. “We sure are!” Luz responded, waving for everyone to follow her to the dining table. As the five of them entered the room, Camila was finishing the placement of each pumpkin. “There you are! I got pumpkins for each one of you.” Luz and Amity sat next to each other, and Gus, Hunter, and Willow filled into the other seats. “Can one of you call Vee?” Hunter sprung up to the occasion. “Yes ma’am!” Hunter said, saluting as he walked backwards to the upstairs bedroom. “Who’s the tiny pumpkin for?” Amity asked, gesturing a sharpie to point in the tiny pumpkin’s direction. “It’s for the palisman! It’s especially thin so they can poke holes in it easily. I just thought they’d want to be a part of something.” Luz answered, barely looking away from her pumpkin as she traced an image onto it with a pen. Hearing this, Flapjack hopped off the counters nearby and next to the tiny pumpkin, examining it closely. Not long later, Hunter returned to the table with Vee.
“So what are you going to make?” Luz asked Amity, who had her pumpkin turned away from Luz. “You’ll see! It’s a surprise.” Amity answered, a familiar grin growing on her face. “I’m making a beautiful marigold flower.” Willow said calmly, already carving into the pumpkin. “Shoot.” Willow spoke as she made a mistake in her carving before drawing a circle in the air and resetting the pumpkin to its original state, good as new. “And I am making the most beautiful of all!” Gus shouted proudly, giving a pause for dramatic effect. “ME!!” He yelled, waving tiny imaginary flags around in the air. r. The energy of Gus gave the rest of the gang a quick giggle, and everyone began to really focus on their pumpkins.
Everyone carved at their pumpkins with more focus and precision than most of them had ever put in a single project. After many minutes, Hunter was the first to finish. “Look!” Hunter exclaimed, turning his pumpkin to face the rest of the table. “I made a wolf!” The pumpkin had an egg-like pattern carved into it, alongside a few triangles to act as fluff and eyes that were attached to the center of the egg shape with toothpicks. “Oooh! Muy bueno , Very nice job Hunter!” Camila said, picking up the boy’s pumpkin. “Here, I'll go get it set up outside with a candle.” Camila walked outside, and Hunter soon followed.
“I’m done!” Willow was the next to finish, and she too turned her pumpkin to the table. The pumpkin was astoundingly beautiful, as if the orange flower really was inside the pumpkin. Each petal was neatly hand-cut, and each blade of grass surrounding the flower was uniquely shaped. “Woah, Willow that is bananas.” Luz remarked as she saw Willow’s work. “Aw, thanks… I think… What's a banana again?” Willow asked politely. “Oh yeah, you guys didn't have those in the isles did you?” Willow shook her head slowly. “They’re these yellow fruit things shaped kinda like boomerangs!” Gus explained. “I’ve been reading up recently.” Gus looked back to his pumpkin with a smug grin all over his face. “And look! I’m almost done. Just one more thing…” Gus held his hand under the table and drew a thin circle in the air. A puff of blue smoke dispensed from the pumpkin, before quickly disintegrating. “And done!” Gus turned his pumpkin to reveal a perfect replica of his own face in the pumpkin. “Eh?” Gus looked at Amity, Luz, and Vee, who were the only three remaining at the table besides Gus himself. “It looks nice. I think the passing cars will appreciate your artistic talents.” Vee said, not having the heart to call out Gus for using illusion spells to enhance his pumpkin. Luz and Amity just silently nodded along with Vee.
“I’m finally done!” Amity said excitedly. “And so am I, what a coincidence!” Luz responded. “Okay, on three let’s show eachother our pumpkins.” Amity planned. “One.. Two… Three!” Amity turned around her pumpkin to reveal a rough image of Luz’s head carved into the pumpkin with hearts surrounding it. Luz revealed a similar pumpkin, but with Amity’s head instead of her own. “Aww, we both had the same idea!” Amity pointed out. “I guess great minds think alike, huh.” Luz replied, smiling at the situation. Vee silently picked up her pumpkin and began walking to the door when Amity stopped her. “Hey Vee what’d you make?” Vee stopped, and turned to face Amity and Luz. “Oh, nothing much. I just did the classic smiley face pumpkin. It really isn’t too important or special.” Vee turned back to the door, but Amity spoke up once more. “Aw, come on Vee. Every pumpkin is important and special, and on top of that you just spent over an hour carving and drawing at this thing! That’s a pretty important deal.” Vee looked down at her pumpkin. “I guess.. Thanks, Am.” Amity nodded, and Vee walked out the door with the others. A brief pause was made, but Luz quickly broke it. “Hey, how’d the palisman’s pumpkin turn out?” Luz got up from the table, and moved to the counter where they had put the palisman’s pumpkin. When she eventually found it, she discovered that the palisman had made a series of dots and holes into the thin pumpkin. Ghost hopped up from the floor to sit proudly next to a few claw marks that they had made on the pumpkin and began to purr, seeming proud of themselves. “Let’s go take our pumpkins outside- this one too.” Luz said, to which Amity gave another light nod. Luz picked up the small pumpkin the palisman had worked on, and grabbed her own pumpkin while Amity grabbed hers.