Chapter 1: Trick-or-Treating with Captain America

This Halloween is going to be the worst ever.

My mom is making me take my little brother trick-or-treating, which I'm not looking forward to. I have other plans.

After two years, I'm finally going to meet my pen pal from England, Liam. He's in the U.S. with his friends for some event and had agreed to meet me at 11 o'clock that night at the park down the street from my house.

I know, I know. Agreeing to meet some stranger I've never seen before, late at night, alone. I think I'm safe, though.

We started writing to each other three years ago, when I was 13 and he was 15. Our schools started this email pen pal program to "broaden our horizons." So, I was matched up with Liam, and we've been pen pals since. I think I'm safe because we met through school. Right?

I'm 16 now, and Liam's 18. He's very into music, even tried out for some singing contest over in Britain. He won't tell me how it went. He thinks it's funny to tease me, especially when I talk about how much I love One Direction.

I don't know his last name or where he lives because the school says that's against the rules. So, I can't even look him up online to see if he's cute. He claims he is.

Anyways, I'm supposed to meet him tonight, and I hope I still can. An 6 year old boy will be done trick-or-treating by 11 PM, right?

Ethan and I left the house at 7 o'clock, him dressed as Captain America, and me dressed in my favorite One Direction hoodie and jeans. I was planning to change into my costume later.

Ethan dragged me around the neighborhood for 2 ½ hours, making me feel like a total dork. The worst part was that he was too afraid to go up to the door by himself. He'd make me go up to the door with him, and then he'd ring the doorbell and hide behind me until the people would go back inside.

As 9:30 rolled around, I tried to convince Ethan to go back home.

"Wait," he said, in his whiniest voice. "We have to go to that house first." I followed his tiny pointing finger to the big house, with the long driveway, across the highway from us.

With a sigh, I followed him to the crossing spot. Holding his hand, which he hated, I led him across. On the other side of the highway, he shook me off and raced ahead of me up the driveway. In his excitement, Ethan forgot to be afraid at the door, and I got to wait in the driveway.

After receiving 2 huge candy bars from the rich people who lived in the house, Ethan ran ahead of me, whooping excitedly. As I followed him, I realized he was running straight at the highway, and he didn't intend to stop.

"Ethan, stop!" I yelled.

He did, right after stepping into the middle of the road, with a car heading straight for him.