Stella’s Halloween Mixup

Stella’s Halloween Mix Up Read by Jana and Written by Bertie for Storynory

Hello, and welcome to Storynory! You’re listening to Jana and I am back with a spooky story about Stella and her magic mirror.

As you may know, Grandma has given Stella a magic mirror. When Stella gazes into her mirror she catches glimpses of fascinating things –  often things that haven’t quite happened yet.

Stella was incredibly grateful to her grandmother for such an amazing gift. But she sometimes wondered why her mother didn’t seem to have much interest in it. Mum seemed to treat gran as an eccentric old lady who liked to make annoying “predictions”.

“Oh Mum, please don’t be so gloomy,” she would say when Grandma foretold that everything was going to turn out for the worst. Unfortunately Grandma’s predictions were uncannily accurate. But Mum hated it even more when Gran said, “I told you so.”

 One weekend, when Grandma came over for tea, Stella found a quiet moment to ask her about this mystery.

“Gran,” she whispered, “Why didn’t you hand the magic mirror down to Mum? She would be very different if she understood how future prediction works.”

“Well I did give it to her when she was a little girl,” replied Grandma. “She kept it on her table for years. But it never showed her anything more than her own face.”

“How come?” Stella was curious.

“How come?” repeated back Grandma. “A person needs special perception to see anything interesting in a magic mirror. It is true that perception tends to run in the family, but not every child is born with the power to see the future. Your mother takes after her father. He was a very – shall we say – normal man. He didn’t believe in magic at all.”

“That’s odd,” said Stella. “Then why did he marry you, Gran?”

“A very good question, I’ve often wondered about it myself.”

“So how many people have this, what did you call it, perception?”

“Oh, more than you might think,” replied Gran with a wink. But before gran could continue, Mum walked back into the living room with tea and cake. So the conversation stopped short.

Stella was left wondering, “Who do I know who might have perception or some other special power?

Definitely not Celeste. Celeste was her best friend, and she knew everything that was worth knowing about her. Everything that happened in Celeste’s life was orderly and planned to the last detail. Nothing happened by chance, let alone by magic.

So she thought about some other people she knew. A  girl at school called Alinde seemed odd. If you asked her a question, she had a way of peering at you, as if trying to read your thoughts.

“I wonder if Alinde is a mind-reader?” Stella asked her mirror. The mirror showed Alinde wearing thick glasses.

 “Oh I understand. She is short-sighted but doesn’t like to wear those spectacles.”

Then she thought about a boy called Ben who could run around the sports track two or three times faster than anyone else – in fact he overtook the slow joggers three times in one race. Surely he had some superpower? Cryptonite or some such thing.

The mirror however, gave a perfectly ordinary explanation. Ben belonged to a sports club and trained every night after school. It was good old sweat and hard work combined with a natural ability that made him fast.

But perhaps Stella was looking in the wrong place? Perhaps she should consider the teachers – after all, they had many more years to develop their super-powers. She thought of the teachers one by one. Almost all of them were way too boring to be anything special. But there was one who stood out. Miss La-Fay. Every day she caught at least 10 people breaking rules and put them in detention. No other teacher had a crime-detection record like Miss La-Fay’s.

“I bet Miss La-Fay dabbles in the dark-arts,” thought Stella. When she consulted her mirror she saw Miss La-Fay checking her bank account and rubbing her hands together with wicked glee. She received a nice salary bonus for catching so many people and putting them in detention.

This seemed like a promising lead! Surely the teacher was using magic to enrich herself!

But alas, there was a more ordinary explanation.

The mirror showed Miss La-Fay sitting up in bed studying the school rule book. She was memorising all the rules that dated back to the year 1855.

Again, hard work and dedication to the cause provided a better explanation than magic.

And so, next time Stella saw her grandma, she told her: “I’ve really tried to spot who else at school might have some special powers but I really can’t find anyone.”

“Dear, you know what they say, it’s always the quiet ones,” replied gran. “I guarantee that someone you know is far more interesting than you ever suspected. Just keep a look out, and you will be sure to find at least one person of interest at your school.”

For a while, Stella continued her quest to uncover a dull person who might secretly be interesting. But when she couldn’t find anyone who fitted the bill, she began to give up the search. It was almost Halloween when she heard a girl called Theresa making fun of a boy called Roddy. She called him “Pizza Face”, and then slammed a door in his face. Roddy hardly complained. But after lunch, when Theresa got locked in the girls toilets, and missed two entire lessons, and Miss La Fay put her in detention, it seemed like divine justice was at play.

It wasn’t just the kids who picked on Roddy. If anything, the teachers were worse. Some of them seemed to think it was his fault that he was always being bullied. Roddy’s mum came to speak to Mr Plus about her son, but didn’t get a very sympathetic reception. The following day, Mr Plus asked Roddy about the square on the hypotenuse, but Roddy didn’t know the answer. Mr Plus remarked, “It’s no use staring out of the window Roddy. Your mummy is not going to come and rescue you.”

There was loud sniggering in the class and some of the kids mocked Roddy about his mummy after the lesson.

And would you believe it, but the very next day, Mr Plus called in sick and did not turn up for school.

Stella wondered if he had caught the plague as punishment for being mean to Roddy. But the truth was far more interesting. In fact, Mr Plus had secretly bunked off to go to the horse races. By a remarkable coincidence, the headteacher accidentally turned on the TV in her study. It was just before the 3.15 from Newmarket, and there sitting in a private box was Mr Plus, drinking champagne with his girlfriend and her father.

Mr Plus was soon minus a job.

The story went all around the school, and even Celeste exclaimed, “The curse of Roddy strikes again! Have you noticed? If anyone crosses him, bad things happen to them right away!”

Of course Celeste was joking. But Stella was certain she had finally found the person you might least expect of having special powers. But she shuddered, because Roddy’s powers seemed to be on the dark side.

That evening, she asked her mirror, “Mirror, show me Roddy’s true character.”

And when the mirror showed her the answer, she could not help letting out a little scream, which she quickly muffled with her hand so that her mum would not hear. Roddy’s face wore the most ghoulish grin in the form of a scar from ear to ear. But there was something more sinister about his eyebrows, they were thick and bushy like a wolf’s. His ears were hairy too, and pointy. If that was his true character, Roddy was truly evil! She even felt sorry for Mr Plus for being the victim of his black magic.

So you can imagine, when Roddy invited the whole class (except Theresa) to his Halloween house party, Stella politely declined, with the excuse that she was already invited to a family pumpkin supper. 

Roddy looked really disappointed.

And Stella thought that must be because he had some evil plan to turn her into a frog or a spider. And with that in mind, she urged Celeste not to go to Roddy’s party either.

“Celeste, Roddy is a bad omen, you were the one who said disaster always strikes his enemies.”

“Oh silly Honey Boo, you’re such a scaredy cat. I was only joking. Everyone is so mean to him, but he’s a harmless sweetheart.”

But wild horses could not drag Stella to Roddy’s Halloween Party. So she stayed at home and drank her mum’s pumpkin soup, which actually came out of a cardboard packet from the supermarket.

Soon after supper the doorbell rang. Mum called, “Stella, it’s for you.”

She wondered who it could be. But of course when she went to the door there stood a group of kids in masks and fancy costumes and calling out ‘Trick or Treat’. She didn’t recognise them as their faces were covered up. While Mum went to find a tin of sweets she was saving up for Christmas, a boy suddenly jumped out of the bushes in front of Stella. He bared his teeth and growled with a menacing ferocity:

“ARRRRRRRRRRRRR!”

Stella screamed, nearly jumping out of her skin. It was Roddy, which made the fright ten times worse. And his face was wearing that scary scar-grin. Only of course it was Halloween make-up his sister had done for him. He had the same hairy eyebrows on his forehead, as the mirror showed. And he was wearing plastic wolf ears. The other kids were in fits of laughter.

Celeste was there too and didn’t want to see her friend in distress so she took off her mask and gave Stella a friendly smile.

“Come and join us, party-pooper,” she invited.

“It’s alright thank you,” said Stella trying to calm herself. “I think I need to get over the shock.”

She went to her room and asked the mirror to show her what she had missed. Her friends had been invited in by Roddy’s mum. Their dining room table was full of Halloween themed food. The mirror showed her friends tucking into monster burger sliders, vampire chicken skewers, and cheesy spider bites. They had glass fulls of a green liquid from a cauldron at the centre of the table. It was full of eyeballs and jelly worms with smoke coming out of it. And a giant Jack O Lantern Pumpkin cake. Then the mirror showed the kids walking into the living room where Roddy began playing the piano. They all seemed to be singing and laughing. Stella realised she missed a great party. And they all had amazing costumes, but Roddy’s was clearly the best.  

“Oh, mirror,” sighed Stella. “You tricked me. Roddy’s true character isn’t evil. He just wants to have fun. And i missed it.”

And in a way, being able to make people laugh, is a kind of superpower.

And that was Stella’s Halloween Mix-Up, read by me, Jana, your storyteller, here at Storynory!

Now a little rhyme to get  in the mood, For spooky fun and yummy food!

Will you dress as a witch, Or a ghost in the night? Give someone a giggle, Or a terrible fright?

A Halloween rhyme, Shiver down your spine:

Witches cackle, black cats creep, while a scary ghoul whispers in your sleep. Pumpkins grin with glowing light, and bats go swooping through the night. A werewolf lurking,  hiding nearby, Jumps out at Stella with a shuddering cry.

She gasps and trembles, fear at the sight, But it was just a boy with a mask at night.

I love to share enchanting tales— of magic, myths, and fairy trails; of bedtime dreams, both soft and sweet, and nursery rhymes with dancing feet.

Storynory fans, both near and far, Thank you for listening, wherever you are.

From country to country, across every sea, Your love and support mean the world you see. I love telling stories, bringing magic to you, And Bertie loves writing each tale fresh and new.

So share your treats and spread good cheer. Be kind to everyone you meet this year.

With magical tales, delightful cheer, We bring you wonder year after year.

And remember, dear listeners, keep your imagination in gear, and never stop listening..

We are always here!

Happy Halloween!