Here’s the seventh Flash Fiction, Button Style.  It’s a little coming of age story for Halloween.  Many thanks to Celia B. for the puppy button.   

October, Ninth Grade

“Trick or treating in high school?” Cassidy picked at her cafeteria fries.  She was wearing skinny jeans, a tight gray tee, and ankle boots.  “That’s pretty lame.”

“But a lot of kids do, even some seniors,” Paige said.  She pulled her hand-knit cardigan on and noticed—again—the button with the dog on it, a terrier like Moxy.  The button had given her the idea in the first place.

“I thought it’d be fun to be characters from The Wizard of Oz,” she tried to explain. “I could be Dorothy.  Moxy could be Toto.  You could be Glenda.”

Cassidy shot her a look.

“Or anybody you want,” Paige added.

“If I go—which I won’t—I wouldn’t do that theme thing.   Geez….”

Paige thought about last year when they’d blown up dozens of purple balloons to be two bunches of grapes.  It had taken longer than they thought, but a lot of the time they were laughing because they kept popping balloons.  “Happy Halloween!”  they yelled each time one burst.

The year before, they’d been Mickey and Minnie, and before that, a witch and a cat . . . . and on and on all the way back to third grade when Paige had moved here.

“I had fun last year,” Paige said.

“So go without me.” Cassidy stood up and returned her tray.

Paige sat alone.

She looked across the cafeteria at Cassidy.  She looked at the dog on the button.

“So, Toto,” she whispered.  “Now which way do we go?”

~~~

Do you have a button with a story waiting to be told?  Email an image of it to ej@elizabethjennings.com and I’ll do the rest.  Click here for details and don’t forget to check out my book, The Button Collector.