It was the weekend when things took a turn for the worse.

On Saturday morning, my mom said, "Great news! We're going to meet Hazel's family at the best place in town to buy Halloween pumpkins! They have hayrides and a corn maze and a petting zoo, too."

Cat lifted his head and said in a very unenthusiastic voice, "Wow."

But I thought it sounded pretty cool. Until she said, "It's called Full Moon Fields."

Ugh. "And Orchard," I mumbled.

My mom was all smiles. "You've heard of it!"

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Oh. My. Goodness. I admit, Full Moon Fields (and Orchard) was truly amazing.

We walked from the parking lot up a long, leaf-covered path to the farm entrance. Along the path, trees arched overhead making a sort of tunnel. A teenager took our three dollars each and handed us a map. Right when you walked in, there was a full-on pumpkin house you could go inside (not made from an actual pumpkin, of course, but very realistic). There was a wishing well and when you dropped a coin in it, a creepy voice said weird things to you like "Your money can't save my soul" and "Why are you throwing things at me?" You could take a hayride around the entire orchard and through the haunted swamp, and go in a massively huge corn maze. There were even llamas you could pet. And emus, which are very large, gray flightless birds, kind of like ostriches, that you could not pet. For an extra dollar, you could go inside a special little building where there was a display called "Creepy Crawlies." Of course we paid the extra dollar. It was like a mini-zoo with tanks holding snakes, a huge tarantula, giant cockroaches and some praying mantises. Hazel was beside herself with joy.

A lot of younger kids were wearing Halloween costumes. Turns out, if you showed up in costume, different workers around the farm would hand out candy to you. It was good candy, too, like Skittles and Hershey's. Too bad we hadn't worn costumes, but we bought snacks at the cafe instead.

We ate at a picnic table under a big tent. It was nice to hear my mom chatting about random adult stuff with Hazel's parents. She had been talking with Hazel's mom on the phone recently, and I hoped they were getting to be as good of friends as me and Hazel.

The apple pie with cinnamon ice cream on top was delicious. I got whipped cream on my apple cider and they even had apple jello. Hazel got two servings. Everything was perfect.

Then

I saw Elspeth.

Seriously?

She was with a blonde-haired man wearing khakis and a denim shirt, and a woman who was wearing too-red lipstick. Natalia was with them, too.

I elbowed Hazel.

The woman was holding up her phone to take a picture and they made Elspeth and Natalia pose in front of the fence of the emu enclosure. The emus were all standing around wearing little witch hats. I definitely wanted our picture taken with the witch-emus!

"Stand up straight, Elspeth. Don't look like an obstinate ragdoll," I could hear the man say. Elspeth looked very unhappy.

Hazel leaned closer to me. "She's scared," she said.

"Of her dad?"

"No, of the emus. One time on a first grade field trip, one of the emus leaned over the fence and yanked her hair and wouldn't let go. I guess her shampoo smelled really good."

I laughed.

Hazel didn't. "It was really traumatic. Most of us freaked out, and she was screaming and crying. Luckily, our teacher, Ms. Monroe, stayed calm. She wacked it on the beak with her umbrella and it let go!"

I could just picture it. It was pretty hilarious in my mind.

Elspeth looked relieved when the photo op was over.

Then they started walking right toward the tent where we were sitting. I slouched down, but they weren't even looking in our direction. A teenage boy dressed like a zombie was handing out Snickers to some toddlers. "Man," Elspeth said, "we should've worn costumes so we could get free candy."

"Don't be ridiculous," her father said as they passed us. "I told you, you're way too old for costumes and trick or treating." Her face fell. I saw Natalia roll her eyes.

Huh. Hazel and I were planning on going trick-or-treating, and we'd been discussing our costumes for weeks. She was going to dress up like the ghost girl from that creepy Korean horror movie everyone was talking about, since she kind of looked like her already with her long dark hair. I was thinking about being a zombie, but I hadn't made up my mind yet.

"Mom?" I said. "Me and Hazel are allowed to go trick or treating, right?"

My mom finished off the last of her hot apple cider and gave me a puzzled look. "Yeah, why not?"

I shrugged. "No reason."

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After we'd pet the llamas, got our picture taken with the witch-emus, ridden the hayride three times, and gone through the corn maze, we saw Elspeth again. Hazel and I were in search of the bathrooms while our parents took a rest at a picnic table

Elspeth and Natalia were by themselves, too, eating candied apples by the playground, which was between the llama petting zoo area and the emu enclosure.

Some little girls were running, racing each other around the playground and to the top of the slide, where they'd slide down and all flop down in a pile laughing, then hop up and do it again. They were cute in their little black and purple dresses and pointy hats.

As the biggest one of them ran by, she accidently smacked into Natalia. Elspeth snarled, "Hey, watch it!"

"S-sorry," the girl whimpered. She was maybe six or seven.

"It's okay," Natalia said.

The little girl started to walk away. Elspeth said, very loudly, "Gah, all these stupid babies in their stupid costumes. This place is so lame."

Natalia frowned. "I love this place."

Elspeth rolled her eyes.

Ugh. I was SO SICK of her attitude. She was even mean to her supposed best friend!

Before I even knew what was happening, my skin prickled, the magic swirled like a stormcloud and... what would finally put Elspeth in her place?

I balled up the magic and threw it, right at the gate of the emu enclosure. I wasn't sure what I wanted to happen. The big metal latch popped open. Come emus, come. Follow my magic.

And they did! Five huge birds jogged out of the enclosure and went straight for Elspeth and Natalia. The emus crowded around the girls. There was no escape. People on the playground and nearby stopped and gawked.

Elspeth screamed and shrieked, which only upset the emus, who were mostly just standing around. One of the birds grabbed the candied apple right out of her hand! She covered her head with her arms. Natalia was freaked out too, and tried pushing the giant birds away.

One of the workers rushed over and started pushing and pulling the emus away. "I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. "I don't know what happened. Stay calm. They won't hurt you." Elspeth had stopped screaming and was now bawling, tears streaming down her face. "Get, get!" the worker yelled at the emus, as she herded them back toward their enclosure. "I am SO sorry."

The poor emus seemed sort of confused.

Hazel pulled me over against the trunk of a tree. "What the heck did you do?"

I had never seen her so angry. Really, I'd never seen her get angry at all.

I wanted to say I hadn't meant to send the emus after Elspeth, but... I guess I had meant to do it. Maybe somewhere deep inside, I wanted to be mean to Elspeth.

"You cannot use magic like this!"

Wait, who was Hazel to tell me what I could and couldn't do?

"Why do you get to make all the magic rules? You're just jealous because my powers are stronger than yours now!" I said.

She scowled. "Are you kidding me?"

I hadn't seen her do anything big with magic. "All you do is tame pet flies and open closet doors and throw paper balls around."

"Yeah," she almost-yelled, "'cause I'm busy trying to help you and keep your magic from going wild!"

I felt the prickle of magic on the back of my neck. "I don't need your help!" I yelled back. "You probably were just being friends with me so you could find the grimoire!" The magic feeling fizzled out. Even as I said it, I knew that it wasn't really true.

But the harm was already done.

By this time, I was hardly paying attention to the emu situation. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that they were back in their pen, and one of the workers was taking care of Elspeth and Natalia. The lady was on a cell phone, probably calling Elspeth's parents.

Our parents had seen the commotion with the emus, like a lot of other people, and came rushing over to us. "Are you girls all right?" Hazel's dad said.

"Yeah, we're fine," Hazel said. "Interestingly, the emus went straight after Elspeth." She gave me an angry look. I felt like crying. I knew that Elspeth and Natalia could've really gotten hurt.

"I just wanna go home," she said. "I'm getting a headache." She had her arms crossed over her chest and wouldn't look at me.

Her parents looked concerned and gave my mom an apologetic look. "I'll call you tonight, Anne," Hazel's mom said to my mom.

"It was about time to go home anyway," my mom said, as Hazel and her parents walked away.