5 November 2016

Saturday

Dear diary,

Today is the day we have our school festival! There were so many stalls set up in the courtyard and there were many families and friends that crowded the area. As the festival was held over the weekend, there were more participants as most people are free over the weekend. It is a shame that daddy is busy today, he would not be able to attend this school festival. To be honest, Umi is already used to this since he almost never attended any of these festivals due to work. The day started out pretty great as many adults were very interested in our class project. Our class was the only which planned a haunted house in the entire school, so we were a prime attraction! We had plenty of people coming into our haunted house with great expectations. Some went well, some did not.

As 12-year-olds, our bodies and voices sounded rather immature. Therefore, the scary vibe of our haunted house was not that great. Many of the couples that went in were rather disappointed. They expected more of a spooky atmosphere and experience I guess. Well, the other children and parents were very accommoddating. Some of them were genuinely scared (the children), while the others pretended to be scared (the parents). Even though our haunted house may not be scary, be we spent close to a month preparing all the props and costumes, you know! Higuchi-kun even managed to find a good mixture of red paint and thickener to produce realistic mock blood!

The day moved on rather smoothly. Up until one point, where one of the young couples expressed their dissatisfaction. The experience played by children is so bad, they said. Ruri-chan and her group were the ones they berated the most. They were playing the long-tongued lady and umbrella spirits. The group could not take the insults as they argued and ended up crying up a fuss near the exit. Even though I don't really like them, I feel that the couple had gone too far. We are just 1st-graders in junior high! You cannot expect us to be all scary and stuff like high schoolers! Anyways, a huge mess was made and that ended up attracting the disciplinary master, Matsukashi-sensei. Matsukashi-sensei managed to bring the troublemaking couple away after a series of persuasions (did I spell that right?). Still, many of our customers ended up leaving our venue due to the commotion. Therefore, our attraction ended up having less visitors than expected. Everyone was rather sad about this. We had prepared very hard for this event.

Karin-chan was dressed as a witch. Kukai-kun was in a vampire outfit. Misa-chan was dressed as a zombie maid. Higuchi-kun looked like a mummy. Even Umi was also dressed as something pretty scary (cool), can you guess what it is? Fufu, I was a well spirit! My character background was of a girl who was abandoned by her boyfriend and suicided in a well in the school. I get to scare people by moaning and groaning while spitting out scary words filled with regret! The well was conveniently located at the center of the haunted house, so I had many chances to scare people. It is sad that only the grade-schoolers genuinely get spooked by me. But I had lots of fun!

The rest of the afternoon was unlike the busy morning, only a few couples and parents with their children came by. Many of us had lots of free time in between, waiting in our hiding locations for someone to come by. It was rather boring. Yet when it was evening and we were about to wrap up, two people came by. Daddy and Ao-nee actually popped by the school as they visited our haunted house! Apparently, Ao-nee scolded daddy for not attending previous festivals and asked to go together this time round for me! Anyways, looked from the peephole, I was rather surprised to see both of them. They walked past the well as I slowly stretched my hand out.

"Whooooo~goessss theeeere? Isss it yoooooou?" I spoke out in my scariest voice. This is my chance to settle revenge for scaring me at home last time! "Ohhhh, how scary~Hai-kun I am so scared~" Ao-nee said out as she hugged daddy. Her big chest actually touched daddy's shoulder...I am kind of envious, of daddy that is. Daddy just shook his head as he waved her off. "Ao, stop playing around. A-ahem, anyways t-that was a rather scary voice. I wonder where it is coming from?" He said out in stuttering words. I saw from the peephole as Ao-nee pouted and said that daddy was no fun. Daddy, I agree with her that your acting sucks. I can totally tell you know it is me and are just pretending to be scared to make me feel good. Even Ao-nee acts better than you! After looking around for a few times (even though they both know I was in the well prop), they walked away while looking scared (fake).

Well, besides that nothing else that was worth writing happened, we closed our haunted house by the end of the day. We cleaned up ourselves and left the remaining props to be cleared on Monday. In the end, some of us were disappointed as our expectations were probably greater. We did spend an entire month on this after all. Umi is going to be a bit selfish and said she had lots of fun. This is the first time daddy made time to come to the festival, and even Ao-nee came by! Well then, see you next time diary!

-Umi (I decided that we are familiar enough for you to call me Umi!)