Everyday is Halloween!

I always wanted to be someone other than me. Anyone other than me. Halloween is my favorite holiday because I can be anyone I want to be for one night. Well, it used to be my favorite holiday. Not anymore. I have been stuck in Halloween for so long I think my teeth are starting to rot and candy doesn't even taste good at all. But to understand we have to go back to the beginning, when I was getting ready for Halloween.
My name is Dora Jean Whitaker. I hate the name Dora Jean, it is so old fashioned. I am in 7th grade at Park Hills Middle School. I don't like to be different. I want to be the same as everybody else. I just want to fit in. I am different though. Very different. Mama says its individuality. I say it's unfair. But one night a year I do fit in. Halloween.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. This Halloween I decided to dress up like Marilyn Monroe. I had the blonde wig and the white dress and everything. I looked in the mirror in my Marilyn Monroe costume and twirled and swished my white dress. This made me smile. I know someone else is dressed the same as me right now. I went trick or treating with my little brother Max. Max and I got tons of candy and we got home and pigged out on the couch till 3 am. We could barely hold our heads up so we went to bed. I guess the sugar rush really did wear off.

I woke up the next day to go to school and looked in the mirror, expecting to see me in my pajamas. What I saw shocked me. I was dressed up again, but not as Marilyn Monroe, but as a giant zebra. Complete with a head and tail. I tried to take off the costume but it was stuck. I couldn't get the zipper to unzip. I woke Max up to see if he was still dressed up. But he wasn't! He was in his pajamas. I don't know why I was dressed up and he wasn't! This was really weird to me. I began to wonder if I was on candid camera or if someone was playing a joke on me.
Now I had to decide what to do about school. Dressing up like a zebra and going to class was really not a good option for me. I was trying to fit in, not stand out. And I don't know what you think, but I think dressing up like a giant zebra the day after Halloween will certainly not make one fit in, but stand way out! I couldn't get the zipper unzipped. Mama couldn't even get it to budge either. We tried to cut me out of it, but the scissors wouldn't work. Nothing we did was working! I was panicked. Mama was thinking skeptically that I had done something to avoid going to school. I didn't want to go, but Mama said I had to. She said I should have thought about that before the super glue. She didn't believe me when I said I didn't have anything to do with the zebra costume. Mama was mad.

I went to school and all the kids laughed at me. They stared. They pointed. They giggled with each other about me. I was so horribly embarrassed. How could this happen? What did I do to deserve this humiliation? I hid in the bathroom until the bell rang for time to go home. I ran and jumped in the backseat of the bus and tried to hide my head. When I got home, Mama asked how school was and I just cried and cried. She lectured me about the importance of being unique but not going to the extremes. She wanted to know if I was being rebellious. Daddy told her it was just a phase.

I hid in my room until Daddy called me for dinner. The whole time I was in there I was trying to get that stupid zebra costume off. It wouldn't budge. I couldn't cut it, break it, rip it, unzip it or anything. Nothing was working. I cried harder. But the strangest thing happened when I got downstairs. Daddy asked me if I was going to take Max to trick or treat. Trick or treat? I thought it was over last night. Had all this been a bad dream? Was I going crazy or losing my mind? " Of course, Daddy. I'll take Max trick or treating." I said, uneasily. So there we went to trick or treat. We did the exact same thing we had done the night before. Complete with candy, zebra costume, and 3 am.

I woke up the next morning, again expecting to find myself in pajamas. I was afraid to look in the mirror. I inched closer to the mirror and squeezed my eyes closed tight. When I opened my eyes, I was horrified. I was in another costume. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. The blue and white dress, the pigtail braids, even the ruby slippers. I was looking around for Toto when I decided I had most certainly lost my mind. I ran down the stairs screaming for my mother. Again, we went through the same ritual from the morning before.

School was horrible again. Same stares, laughs, and comments. I was so upset and confused. Was someone trying to teach me a lesson? Was I really on candid camera or some game show? What is the point in this humiliation? What did I do to deserve this? I ran and hid on the bus again, hoping somehow I would survive this mind boggle. When I got home Mama gave the same exact lecture with the same exact words.

All this happened over a month ago. A whole calendar month! I go through the same thing every day. I have been dressed up as animals, superstars, athletes, Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, Disney characters, ninjas, Barbie, so many different characters. Different costumes but the same stares, laughter, pointing, and humiliation. The same lecture everyday. Its really hard for me not to laugh or repeat the words Mama is about to say. It's now in my head as sure as my brain, or what I have left of a brain from thinking. Daddy still says everyday that its just a phase.

Every night I take Max trick or treating. I am so tired of eating candy. I don't know if I have had a real meal in a month, just butterfingers, tootsie rolls, suckers, jaw breakers and other types of candy. Candy! Candy! Candy! I ate so many jaw breakers I think my jaw really did break. I hate Halloween now. I don't want to be anyone else, I just want to be myself. I don't know if I will ever get to be me again. I just want to be plain old Dora Jane Whitaker. Just me. But I am afraid I might be stuck as someone else everyday forever.