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A chill ran through the cold October air as red and orange leaves fell through the trees onto the land of Haddonfield's most beloved Pumpkin patch.
There were pumpkins as far as the eye could see.
Small pumpkins, big pumpkins. Thing pumpkins, wide pumpkins. Plump Pumpkins.
There were pumpkins of every shape and size, all in varying shades of orange.
"John! John! Look at that one!" Jamie exclaimed, gesturing animatedly from where she sat on her big brother's shoulders. Big brown eyes wider than most would think was possible.
"I'm looking, I'm looking—which one am I supposed to be looking at?" John squinted, tilting his head to the side slightly while making sure to keep a strong grip on the six year old so that she wouldn't fall.
His mom would kill him if he found out he'd dropped her. He'd been lucky enough that she and Jimmy had even agreed to let him take Jamie with his friends to the Pumpkin Patch.
They always got so antsy around Halloween.
"The orange one!"
The leaves crunched under John's feet as he moved along slowly, his friends all walking at a leisurely pace around him.
Linda and Molly were talking about the grade Molly got on their latest biology test: Amy walked beside them, chewing gum—smacking her lips loudly as she talked with her boyfriend, Eddie, about his job at Freeman's Ma and Pop Shop.
On John's other side, Shane and Jimmy were regaling Sarah and Chris with the latest tale of mischief the two had found themselves in.
"That doesn't really narrow it down, Jaybird." John was trying to pay attention to his friend's story but he was only able to make out the words 'Mannequin', 'Prank', 'Historical Inaccuracy', and 'Michael Myers' before he decided that he really didn't want to know. "Shane. Jimmy."
The sharpness in his voice caused them to fall silent immediately as they turned to look at him. "Don't talk about HIM around Jamie, you're gonna give her nightmares."
His friends gave him a sheepish look.
"The one by the barn, Johnny! Look!" Jamie pointed again, leaning so far forward that she nearly fell.
Would have, if John wasn't paying attention. "Careful Jamie—"
"Look! It's big and a pretty orange and has a birdie on it! Can we get that one? Can we?"Her clown doll slipped from her grasp as she gestured to the great big pumpkin, but luckily Molly caught it before it hit the ground.
"Course we can. But you'll have to carry it all the way back home cause I'm not gonna" The fifteen year old fibbed.
He had no such intentions of making her carry it. He was just teasin'.
"But Johnny!" the brunette whined. "It's too big! It's bigger than I am!"