Tim takes two fingers and smears a line of orange face paint on his left cheek. On his right cheek, he smears a line of white. He straps armor purchased from the superstore in town to his chest. On his knees are protective pads his mom purchased from the local supermarket. Under this gear, Tim wears a candy corn costume. He looks in the mirror, runs a comb through his messy blonde hair, and smiles.

Today he goes to war.

It’s a tradition in his family that started five years ago with an argument about which Halloween treat was better: candy corn or gummy worms. Tim, his sister Margot, and their family friend Sam are all on the side of candy corn. Their costumes are color-coordinated, and every year they save up money to buy toy guns in which they can shoot candy corn out of. Speaking of….

“Margot, do you have corn shooters!” Tim hollers out across the hall, towards his sister’s room. He can hear her and Sam giggling, though he’s unsure of what’s making them laugh.

A minute later, he finds out as the girls come out in similar outfits to his, wearing wigs that have been dyed to resemble candy corn. Tim raises an eyebrow but says nothing. Margot hands Tim a toy gun with its barrel painted orange. She and Margot hold similar ones in ironclad grips.

The time is eight o’clock in the morning. As it is the weekend, neither of their parents should be up. Margot nods, and Sam slips down the hall to the master bedroom. Tim moves to the stairs, glancing down into the living room. Empty. He looks back at the girls and shakes his head. Margot smiles and slams their parent’s door open.

     Tim and Margot sit on his bed, cross-legged. Between them, a layout of the house- hand-drawn on a sheet of paper- rests on a history book. Stationed on square boxes marked Tim’s Room and Margot’s Room are toy soldier figurines painted orange and yellow. On Tim’s nightstand, his alarm clock reads nine o’clock PM.

     “So, we need to get up before them?” Margot asks and moves the yellow soldier into the space between their rooms marked Hallway.

     “Yes,” Tim responds. “Then we get dressed- silently and wake them up to a tasteful surprise.”

     “How do you want to do this?”

     “I have a brilliant idea, Margot.”

Margot yells as loudly as she can, “The war has begun! For the candy corn!”

She rushes into the bedroom and throws candy corn onto the bed, where her startled parents jump out of the covers in shock. Sam and Tim join in on her war cry and throw their own candy corn into the room. Their parents retreat to the bathroom amid a flurry of candy corn being shot at their feet. Tim, Sam, and Margot laugh with wicked glee.

“It has begun!”

From the bathroom, their mother shouts, “Is it October already?”