It all started when Cassandra Wolfheart killed a pumpkin sprout.

I didn't know Cassandra personally, but I knew of her.

She was friends with Tom's sister and Tom's friends with me.

All that I know about Cassandra, I've learned against my will, in passing comments from adults

or other kids at school.

That Wolfheart girl now, that's a picky eater if I've ever seen one.

One thing that everyone in town knew was that Cassandra hated.

She literally could not stand the sight of them.

I once watched her start screaming at the top of her lungs when a barista at the point

pine cafe offered her a pumpkin spice latte.

That girl was weird.

And her hatred of pumpkins was the weird cherry on top of the weird Sunday that was Cassandra

Wolfheart.

Tom said that any time Cassandra came over during the fall season, she would avoid looking

into her backyard.

Apparently, the first time she went over, she saw their pumpkin patch and went white

as a ghost before she passed out on her kitchen floor.

He showed me a dent that he swears was made by her head hitting the wooden floorboards,

but Tom's kind of a liar sometimes, right?

I just go along with most of what he says.

I knew about the other girls at school who liked to play pranks on Cassandra.

One time they filled her locker with pumpkin guts and when she opened it, she threw up

...