Flying milk, murderous neighbors, and orange ghosts was not exactly what I had in mind when I went to Samantha G.'s birthday party two years ago. And okay, I admit that all of that sounds a little crazy, but the truth is it really happened. No, no one died in her living-room, and the milk didn't sprout wings and fly away, and the ghosts? Well, we never really could explain that, but it all happened right there at her party, three screaming, giggling girls as witnesses.

We had gotten off the bus at her house—we being Megan Sylvain and I. We were both excited, because we always have a good time when we're with Sam. Her stupidity and clumsiness make up for her occasional I'm-really-tired-so-don't-make-me-any-grumpier moments. Those are always a pain. But anyway, we got off at her house, Moose barking and running around and cows mooing in the distance, and went inside to give the birthday girl her presents. Candy, cards, and pizza littered the table within five minutes.

We had a lot of time to kill before it was dark enough to start screaming at bloody dead people and the seven deadly plagues. We all decided that it was a good idea to go visit Sam's neighbor, Phyllis, the eighty-six year-old... Well I don't know exactly how to describe her. She yells a lot, she's a total grump, and she won't let you leave her house without playing at least an hour's worth of skip-bo. You absolutely cannot whisper at her house, or she'll start chanting about how “whispering is lying, and lying is a sin”, though half the time when we're “whispering” she's actually just too deaf to hear us. And did I mention she's blind? She can't see three feet in front of her, and doesn't know who we are until we start talking. But, all in all, she's a pretty cool old lady.

But I'm getting off topic. After spending all day visiting little old ladies and walking down the road singing at the top of our lungs, it was finally dark. Time to order movies. We headed inside to eat our cake before the first. It was, of course, confetti cake. The ultimate birthday party confection. And then there was the ice cream. It was strange that it was there, considering Sam hates ice cream. And pizza. And, knowing her, probably cake too. But Sam is unpredictable, and that's why we're all friends. You never know what she's gonna do or when she's gonna do it.

After bringing gigantic pieces of cake into the living-room to help calm our fears while we watched horror movies (great thing to be doing on a happy occasion, isn't it?) we searched through paper-view. We had decided on two movies: Disturbia, and The Reaping. We started Disturbia, which had already been playing for half an hour. It started off not scary at all. A kid on house arrest falling for his neighbor seemed like more of a romance than a horror. But as it progressed and the other neighbor, a serial killer (thus the “murderous neighbor” part in the beginning) began killing people, we got a little scared. Afterwards, though, we were feeling okay. Definitely not the scariest movie in the world.

So we decided to take a break from all the horror and go outside. It was dark by then, but we made sure the front light was on. No chance we were gonna be stranded out in the dark after watching that movie, no matter how much we thought it didn't scare us. Sam and I are known for screaming at the tiniest noises and, well, even movies that aren't supposed to be scary jump us from time to time. Megan of course was screaming and jumping along with the rest of us, but that didn't stop her from jumping out from under trees and coming at us from behind as soon as we were outside. I swear, Sam and I screamed at least twenty times before we went back inside. And then again, it didn't help that Sam's mother decided that it would be funny if she turned out the lights on us. Megan, being the rock that she is starting laughing as soon as we started screaming. Yeah, Sam was pretty mad at her mother. Her mother laughed and said too bad for her. It was then that Sam decided it was time to watch another scary movie. Sam would rather scream at a scary movie's expense than at Megan's.

The Reaping was definitely scarier than Disturbia. It had us jumping the entire time. Sure, you wouldn't think a movie about the seven plagues would be that scary, but when people start getting their faces eaten you get kind of creeped out.

It was at one of those isn't-this-supposed-to-be-a-scary-movie? kinda times when I went to get a drink. I went to get some chocolate milk like I always do at Sam's when I discovered there was none. I would have to deal with Strawberry, I decided. So I got out the strawberry Nesquik and started stirring. I went and sat on the couch and began watching the movie again. Still nothing particularly interesting going on. I stared down at my milk—still stirring—and sighed, waiting for something exciting to happen I guess. I looked up just in time to see something scary, scream, and—miraculously—watch my milk suddenly fly out my hands! It was a sight I'd never seen before. Who would have known that milk had the ability to fly? Well I guess all it takes is a scary movie and hands flying up to cover your mouth. Yeah, I looked like a fool in front of my friends but we all started laughing. That's why we hang out, you know. We're all idiot enough not care when one of us makes a fool of ourselves. We just laugh it off. I laughed it off too, even when—to my dismay—I discover that I would have to change clothes. I was soaked and pink. Not exactly what I would call a fashion statement.

And then finally the movie was over. We were all relieved to have all the screaming over with. Our throats were burning and we really needed to watch some spongebob or something. Megan took over the remote and we ended up watching the food channel instead. But soon she fell asleep on the mattress that we'd put out in the living-room. Sam and I were still wide awake, trying to forget the horrors we had just seen on TV. I was practically shaking as I sat in the chair by the window, the one place I did NOT want to be sitting after a movie like that. Windows were not the most secure place to be in my mind after watching horror movies like that. You never knew what was going bang on the window and eat you alive. So anyway, Sam was getting bored and decided to start taking some pictures of herself. I was watching TV when she suddenly gasped.

“Oh my God! Josie, Josie, Josie!”

“What, what, what?” I asked in response.

“Come here, come here. Look at this picture.” I walked over to where she was sitting on the couch and she showed me the screen of the camera.

“Oh. My. God,” I gasped, “What is that?” It was perhaps the strangest thing I had ever seen before—well, not counting my friends anyway—and I realized that I must have been more paranoid by the movies than I thought. I was starting to see things, I figured. But Sam's reply proved me wrong.

“I don't know...” she said in that I'm-trying-to-think voice of hers.

But I knew exactly what it was we were seeing, after I took a closer look at the photo. We were seeing two faces. Not one.

“Oh my God,” I repeated. “Is that a—is that a face?” Sam nodded. “Wow.” In the photo we had discovered a women's face. What had looked like just an orange streak across the photo at first glance was now glaring at us, mouth open as if it were screaming. Yeah, I was definitely not going to sleep by the window now.

“It's one of the dead people in the cellar,” she stated matter-of-factly.

“Oh, it is not, Sam.”

“Well it's either that or Harold's wife.” Harold was a ghost that we had both seen before. He had died in their house, along with his wife. The dead people in the cellar I'm not sure are really there, but who knows. I'm sure if I could have a guy commit suicide on my porch (which DID happen) than there can be dead people in Sam's cellar. We stared at the picture a while longer.

“We should take some more photos, and see if it's there again.” I eagerly agreed.

I am definitely up for anything having to do with the supernatural. Three or four pictures later I saw something on the screen. Something even creepier than the face. This was a spine. Not just a spine but a whole skeleton. You could see from the knees to the neck and I freaked out. I swear I almost dropped the camera. Sam rushed over to see it and we sat there totally amazed. We didn't actually think that we would get another photo. But it was all there in black and orange. By the end of the night we had one more photo of the same face, still screaming as though reliving something horrible and painful. I don't really know who she was or what happened to her, but I do know that that was one of the strangest nights of my life.

It was a great birthday party, all in all. I had a lot of fun and, even with all the strange stuff that happened, that was one of the funnest times I ever had at Sam's house.