Just a few notes from the authoress...the ages of the characters are as follows:

Ashli—19

Christopher—18

Jesse—17

Susannah—16

Christy Ann—11

Little Ben—9 (that's his nickname-his full name is Benjamin but everyone just calls him Little Ben)

The other note is at the end so please read it when you're finished.

Just Desserts

The day began normally for Susannah Smith. After she woke up, had gotten dressed, and eaten her breakfast, she went to the cemetery so that she could visit her family's grave sites as she had for the last year. One thing set today apart from all the rest; today was the anniversary of her family's death. When she reached her family's graves she noticed that she wasn't the only one to come to pay their respects to the Smith family. It turned out to be Jesse, one of her life-long friends, who had happened to remember that today was the anniversary of the Smith's deaths.

"Hey, Jesse," Susannah said.

"Hello, Suze," Jesse replied, using the nickname she hadn't heard in over a year. "How have you been?"

"Amazingly good, considering all I've been through," she answered.

"What do you mean? What have you been through, besides this?" he gestured toward the graves of her family members.

"Don't you know?" she asked.

"Obviously not. So what happened?"

"Didn't you ever wonder what happened to the rest of my family and why only I didn't die?"

"Well, yes. But I always know you would tell me when you were ready."

"Well, it started like this..."

"It was August of 1997 when it happened. The day seemed normal, my brothers and sisters had all gotten up before me and Mother had sent them out to collect some of the herbs and wild vegetables that grew in the forest that was just a short walk from out house. After I had eaten and gotten dressed Mother sent me out too. When I got to the forest I quickly found my brothers and sisters, I was just about to call out to them when I heard part of their conversation...

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"She thinks she's better than the rest of us just because she's Mother's favorite," Christopher whined.

"Yeah, I know," Christy Ann agreed. "Like she's the oldest or something, even though she isn't."

"What about the oldest?" Ashli asked, who was the oldest. It seemed like it was the first time today that Ashli was actually paying attention to what the other's were saying.

"Oh, nothing, just that Susannah thinks she's better than everyone else, even you, Ashli," Little Ben replied.

"Oh, is that all?" Ashli asked.

While they had been talking they had been slowly walking farther and farther away from where Susannah was hiding. Now they were almost out of hearing distance so Susannah slowly crept forward so that she could continue to listen to what they were saying about her. When she got closer she accidentally stepped on a twig and it snapped. She froze instantly and silently cursed herself.

"Shh!" Ashli whispered. "Someone's here."

"Who's there?" Christopher called, then put his hands up defensively when he saw the look that Ashli was giving him.

"Why did you have to go and do that for?" Ashli whispered to him.

"Sorry, but who knows? Whoever it is might answer," he whispered back.

"Yeah, if only they were that stupid."

"Who are you calling stupid?" Susannah called out, while standing up. "Me? 'Cause if you were I'd have to tell Mother and since I'm her favorite and all she'll listen to me before any of you."

"How much did you hear?" Christopher asked angrily.

"Enough," Susannah replied.

"Enough?" Ashli asked.

"Yeah, enough. Enough to know what you really think of me. All of you think I'm Mother's favorite but she told me herself who her real favorite is."

Everything fell silent until Little Ben spoke up.

"So...Who is it?" Little Ben asked.

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone," Susannah said.

"Please tell us," everyone but Ashli cried.

"You know, I don't think I will. You can all figure it out on your own," Susannah said as she turned around and started home, taking a longer route so her mother wouldn't get suspicious. By taking that route it took her deeper into the woods where it wasn't as bright.

All of a sudden she spotted an orange glow in front her. Curious, she walked to where the glow seemed to be coming from.

"Strange," she thought. The glow was coming from a pumpkin. She looked around to see if she could find any others. She couldn't so she picked up the pumpkin and when she got home no one was in the kitchen so she made a pumpkin pie, with the pumpkin she found, for dessert.

At dinner she noticed her siblings were strangely quiet as if thinking about something.

After Susannah brought her pumpkin pie out, she excused herself from the table and went to bed early, without dessert. The next morning she woke up to find the rest of her family dead, still sitting at the table.

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"Now you know what I've been through, Jesse," Susannah said.

"Thank you for telling me. I know it must have been hard for you."

"Yeah, it has been. You know what? That's the most I've ever told anybody."

"I still have two questions. First, why did your family die?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess I forgot to say that. Well, as far as I know the pumpkin was poisonous. That's what the cops said anyway."

"Okay, that makes sense."

"That was only one question, unless you forgot how to count since I last saw you," Susannah laughed.

"No, I haven't forgotten how to count. My second question is this: If you weren't your mother's favorite, who was?"

"I've been wondering when you would ask. Mother's favorite was always Ashli. I don't really know why though. I mean she didn't listen to anyone unless they were talking about her and she wasn't all that nice either. So don't ask me why, 'cause I don't get it."

"I don't get it either. Oh well, I guess we'll never know."

I wrote this several years ago and I haven't been able to make any major changes to the story line or anything (I just made minor changes...like ages and spelling errors), so if you find any major errors please inform me so I can fix them. Please and thank you.

Shika-chane