 Welcome to Microterrorz. Scary stories for kids. Where it's always the spooky season. Full of chills. Thrills. And spine-tingling spooks. Microterrorz are family-friendly frights for those ages 8 and up. And while our stories are for younger years, we are still talking about things that go bump in the night. And some children may not be able to handle what others can. Parental consent is recommended. Now for tonight's Microterrorz. Lovebug. Every desk had one sitting on them. A tiny red box with a sparkling ribbon tied elegantly on top. They were no bigger than a necklace box, which had the girls in the classroom hopeful. However, sixth grade girls wouldn't normally receive such a gift from sixth grade boys. Not to mention every desk had them, girls and boys alike. Suspicion immediately fell on the teacher, Mr. Mavis. But he denied it as well. Those who knew Mr. Mavis well enough knew it wasn't out of character for him to surprise the class with special gifts. He'd done it in the past with other holidays. Snickers on Halloween. Candy Canes on Christmas. Why would Valentine's Day be any different? The only thing was he always admitted it up front and it was never some kind of ultimate secret. These little red boxes, however, did appear to the entire class to have come from a mysterious origin. A secret admirer, even. Well, the entire class with the exception of one. One of the ten students sitting in Mr. Mavis' sixth grade classroom was not who they seemed. A wolf in sheep's clothing with a secret agenda. A girl in the back of the classroom, Jenna, was the first to flip the small red box over in an attempt to find out who it had come from. She noticed a tag taped to the bottom of it. Love Bug, it said. She quickly nudged Bridget, a brunette girl with blue Disney princess-like eyes who sat next to her, to let her know about the tag. Upon seeing it, Bridget wondered who Bug was. He or she had to have been the one who left the gifts. She looked around the room, her thought process instinctively picking out the boys who had names which began with the letter B. Brendan Love would have been too obvious. He barely said a word to anyone in class all year long and wasn't much for one showing affection, despite the last name. Plus, he also had a red box on his desk which he appeared to be shaking and smelling in an attempt to identify its contents. Although Bridget assumed that since Mr. Mavis wasn't responsible, then the culprit, as they were, would have also supplied themselves with a false box to throw off suspicion. This is kind of thrilling, Bridget thought, trying so hard to suppress her excitement. Bridget then focused her attention on Benji Blink. He was definitely a stronger candidate for the mysterious Cupid that went undetected in the classroom. Benji was as much a ladies man as a sixth grader could be. Well, he tried, at least. He was a little blonde flirt that wouldn't go down without a fight. Fights that he always seemed to lose because of his unknowingness of when to stop. One girl ignored him, he just moved on to the next. Rinse and repeat. In the front of the classroom, Lucas Quinn had also noticed the tag at the bottom. Love bug, he read softly to himself. He immediately turned to his right and looked down at the socks the girl next to him wore. They were black with red ladybugs speckled on them. Emma Sophia was always known as the bug girl. Of course, there was a bug girl. She considered them cute, like most kids would consider puppies and kittens cute. On most days, her attire consisted of something that incorporated bugs. Today it just happened to be the ladybugs on her knee-high socks. Emma fell Lucas' gaze and flashed him an uncomfortable smile. She didn't like being looked at with such a curious eye. She didn't like not knowing what people were thinking about her. If you're thinking something, you might as well say it out loud, she thought. I'm not a mind reader. At least when Benji Blake, the legendary failure of flirts, thought something, he said it out loud. Best to be denied immediately than to drag this out any longer than it needs to be, she thought about Lucas' fanatical stare. Lucas' stare was something that also caught the eye of Jaden Burke halfway across the classroom. He had been crushing on Emma Sophia since just before Christmas, but had yet to find the courage to make his feelings known to her. Even though he was sure she would deny him just as she had Benji, he still longed for the desire to talk with her about her favorite bugs, sit on the playground with her, or even share a lunch table. Holding hands would have been the ultimate, but Jaden wanted to play it slow and cool. In time, Jaden, he would think to himself, Do you think there's candy in here? Jackson Gruber, who sat behind Jaden, said to him, tapping him on the shoulder and holding up the little red box. Jaden shrugged. I hope it's candy, Jackson said, a glimmer of hope in his eye for a sweet treat. I don't know what else it could be. Jackson sat back in his seat and studied the box. He wanted to pull the ribbon and unveil a surprise, but no one else had yet. He didn't want to be the first one. Or did he? I could get this party started right now, he thought. Of course you wanted to be candy, the boy behind Jackson laughed. The boy kicked his foot on the back of Jackson's chair, immediately souring the mood. Rowan Davis was a bully, always picking on the others in class. He made fun of Emma Sophia for her love of bugs. He picked on Benji Blake for never landing a girlfriend despite his endless attempts. He scoffed at Lucas Quinn for being a hopeless romantic. Jackson Gruber was his favorite target, even though there was no real reason for it. That was just the raw nature of a bully. Jackson closed his eyes and wished Rowan away. Jaden could tell that once again Jackson was bothered by this bully the same way most of the class always was. He was a terror. Lastly, sitting by the window that looked out onto the playground was Mia Hart. She was one of the more quiet ones in class, although very attentive. From the moment they all entered the classroom and were greeted by the little red boxes, her inner accusations were ping-ponging off each and every student as she tried to narrow down the mysterious Cupid. And it didn't take her long to figure it out, either. To her, it was obvious within seconds who the culprit was. The only thing she now wondered, what could have possibly been in the boxes? The students were growing impatient. All but one of them had thoughts about the box's contents and who could have left them. Mr. Mavis could see how antsy everyone was becoming. Okay, Mr. Mavis said, before we jump back into the lesson, go ahead and open the gifts. I don't need these little things to be a distraction all day. Mr. Mavis had barely finished his sentence before the entire class minus one tore into their boxes. Candy, jewelry, the anticipation was killing them. Mia Hart, however, was slow to open hers. The student that she suspected of leaving the boxes was the only one not opening theirs. Theirs was nothing more than a prop. Mia was now concerned that there wasn't a lovey-dovey reason behind the gifts, but more of a malicious one. Mia stopped opening her gift and pushed it aside. That's when the screams of the children ripped through the room, demonic bugs with dozens of legs, fiery red eyes and jagged fangs burst out of the boxes, screeching and skittering like an unstoppable torrent of terror. Each box contained the endless flood of the demon bugs. They gushed out in continuous streams, covering each of the children from head to toe. Their screams eventually went silent as their bodies were encrusted with a thick husk of bugs. Mia was the only one still screaming. She had stopped opening her gift box, but the insanity that unfurled in the classroom was enough to entice her box of infernal insects to burst out as well. She was completely covered within seconds. Mr. Mavis, frozen in fear, remained in front of the classroom. He watched nearly all of his students be consumed by the wicked, creepy-crawling evil. The only students that remained sat as still as a statue, almost as if it weren't really him to begin with, but instead a copy of him, a malevolent imposter. At his home, Benji Blake, the real Benji Blake, lay in bed, quote-unquote, sick for the day and not even once regretting his decision to summon the vengeful spirit that he did. Every girl denied him. Every boy laughed at him for it. He couldn't be a failure or a laughing stock if those girls and boys weren't around anymore. A person could only take so much. Soon, the vengeful spirit's real-world manifestation that sat in the classroom would be back, confirm the deed is done and collect its payment. However, the spirit didn't know yet that Benji would not be able to pay up. He refused to. He couldn't bring himself to the level of sinfulness required by the spirit as payment. But none of that mattered to him. Just knowing the laughter and constant denial was gone forever? That was all Benji Blake wanted. Whether he could afford it or not. You can find us on www.microterrors.com where we will also have spooky games you can print out and play, like wicked word searches, mysterious mazes, and more. Microterrors.com is also where you can find us on your favorite social media and even send in your own scary story for us to tell. Plus, you'll learn more about our author, Microterrors for both young and old. I hope you'll join me again soon from Microterrors. Scary stories for kids.