"Wild Night" by Ashley S

While watching TV one night, I suddenly heard helicopters circling my house so I looked out the window and saw searchlights going around the neighborhood. There were also police cars driving around with their lights flashing. Just as I was looking out the window, the doorbell rang and my mom opened the door. Two policemen were standing on our front porch, asking if we knew who was in our backyard. At first, we were scared that someone was trying to break into our house but then we realized that it was my brother, Bryan, and 2 friends, as they walked into the house through the patio door. Realizing it was just them, my mom explained to the police that it was only my brother coming home late, so the police left our front porch and continued searching the neighborhood.

However, the situation did not end there. After seeing the panicked expression on my brother’s face, my mom realized that there was something going on and started to question him and friends about what happened. Too scared to lie, Bryan quickly admitted the truth of his activities that night. Earlier in the day, Bryan bought creepy, white faces masks at the Dollar Tree that looked just like the ones the Jabbawockeez wear when they dance. He and his friends were planning to wear them that night as a prank to scare people in the neighborhood. They did not plan to hurt anyone but they thought it would be fun to catch people off guard in the masks. After it was dark, Bryan and 4 of his friends went outside and walked around the neighborhood with the masks on. A woman in her car saw the group wearing these creepy masks and worried that they would break into someone's home, so as a precaution, she called the police. As the police sirens approached and a helicopter appeared over the neighborhood, my brother and his friends ran, scattering in different directions to avoid being arrested. He and 2 of his friends ran through our side fence and into our backyard, which bought the police to our front door.

 Listening to his story, we realized at that moment that the police were actually looking for him and that two of his friends were still outside somewhere. He texted them to find out what happened to them but they were both separated, hiding in bushes. My mom was so upset that she started to yell at all three of them, but then she realized she had no choice but to go find his other friends. She drove around the neighborhood for a while and found them cowering in 2 separate bushes, so she spent the rest of the night driving them all home.

My brother normally does not take situations seriously and he does a lot of strange things, but this is one event that really scared him so he never did anything like this again. It was memorable to me too because we usually do not have the police coming to our house. Though no one was hurt or arrested, I learned that sometimes a small, funny prank can turn into a big deal with serious consequences.