There's a Werewolf In My Tent!

by Pamela Butchart

  But when we got to the restaurant the waitress said that there were no burgers OR sausages OR steak left and that there was only the VEGETARIAN OPTION left.

  None of us were bothered because the vegetarian option was PIZZA. But Miss Moon made a BIG FUSS about there not being any MEAT left and she wouldn’t have any pizza and she just sat there looking angry and saying that everyone should have let her try ONE MORE TIME to get the barbecue working because then we could have all had sausages and burgers.

  Miss Jones didn’t say anything. She just gave Miss Moon a LOOK. It was like the look Miss Jones gave me one time when she asked me to CAREFULLY hold her handbag when I wasn’t doing swimming because of my TOENAIL ISSUE and I ACCIDENTALLY dropped it in the pool.

  Maisie whispered, “Miss Moon is a bit of a moan, isn’t she?”

  And we all agreed because she DEFINITELY WAS and the whole

  because she couldn’t have any MEAT thing was a bit ridiculous.

  We said that Zach could come into our tent before bed so that we could all tell stories and eat snacks and also because we needed his help to get Maisie’s MOSQUITO NET up.

  It took ages to get Maisie inside all of her sleeping bags because one of them had all these complicated bits that Maisie’s legs and arms had to go into and once she was all zipped up it sort of looked like a SPACE SUIT.

  Maisie said that she was too sleepy and TOO TERRIFIED to tell ghost stories so we just put her EYE MASK on and made sure she had her WAX EARPLUGS in.

  Me and Jodi and Zach sat in the living room bit with the torches. Jodi was being very quiet which was a bit weird because one time when I was at her house I actually had to put my HAND UP because she wouldn’t stop talking and I wanted to say something.

  Zach said that he was going to go back to his own tent because he was tired but he was going to check if Miss Moon was still trying to get the barbecue to work first because he was a bit hungry for barbecue. It was TOTALLY DARK outside so me and Jodi said that we would just stay in the tent and that when Zach got into his tent he should use his torch to SIGNAL to us by FLASHING THREE TIMES.

  So we waited. But Zach didn’t do ANY flashes.

  So we waited more.

  But then Jodi said that almost TEN MINUTES had passed and that something must have gone WRONG and that ZACH had probably wandered off

  I said that we needed to go out and find Zach RIGHT AWAY because I didn’t like the idea of him being lost in the scary woods by himself.

  But then Jodi said that one of us had to stay with Maisie because if she woke up on her own she would

  I knew Jodi was right but I was too scared to go out on my own so I didn’t say anything and Jodi didn’t say anything either. So we just sat there and waited for Zach to do the FLASHES.

  When I woke up I had NO IDEA where I was and everything was PITCH BLACK.

  But then I heard Maisie snoring and remembered that I was in a tent and that we were camping.

  Then I remembered that we weren’t supposed to be sleeping because we were waiting for Zach to do the FLASHES!

  I was JUST about to wake Jodi up to tell her we had fallen asleep when I remembered what had woken me up.

  I’d heard

  I froze. I was too scared to move so I just lay there and listened. But I couldn’t hear anything except Maisie snoring.

  I whispered to Jodi but she didn’t answer. I felt around with my hands to see if she was lying next to me but there was no one there.

  And THAT’S when I started to panic because Jodi must have gone out searching for Zach by HERSELF and now they were BOTH lost in the woods! I had to do something (even if there WAS a scary howling beast thing LURKING outside)!

  So that’s when I put my torch on and looked around. Jodi DEFINITELY wasn’t there.

  I was JUST about to wake up Maisie and tell her we had a BIG PROBLEM when I noticed a LUMP in the other bedroom bit.

  I shone the torch on the lump and my heart almost fell out of my body because the lump WASN’T Jodi.

  The lump was HUGE and DARK and FUZZY!

  And that’s when I realised where the howling had come from.

  I was JUST about to scream when Jodi’s SURVIVAL TRAINING kicked in and I realised that if I did, I’d probably get eaten by the wild beast. So I didn’t.

  Jodi said once that when something bad happens, people can either FIGHT or FLIGHT (means that they run away so fast that it looks like they’re flying).

  I counted to five really slowly in my head and made a FLIGHT PLAN.

  I was going to grab Maisie and RUN. But then I realised that I wouldn’t be able to get past Maisie’s mosquito net and get her out of her SPACE SUIT SLEEPING BAG without making a lot of noise and waking up

  So I made a FIGHT PLAN instead.

  I was going to TRAP THE BEAST and THEN get Maisie out safely.

  I crawled REALLY slowly and REALLY quietly across the tent towards Jodi’s backpack.

  I could feel my heart beating in my throat as I searched inside for the mini-padlock.

  I kept my eyes on

  at all times. Which made it hard to search the rucksack, but Jodi had said to MAINTAIN EYE CONTACT AT ALL TIMES when faced with a wild animal.

  I almost cried out with happiness when I felt the cold metal of the mini suitcase padlock with my fingers.

  But then Maisie did a louder snorty thing and

  moved a bit so that’s when I LEAPT across the tent and zipped up the door to the BEAST’S bedroom bit and put the little padlock through the zips and snapped it shut.

  Then I LEAPT into the other bedroom bit and started pulling Maisie out of the tent by her feet because that was going to be quicker than trying to get her out of the SPACE SUIT SLEEPING BAG.

  But then Maisie started SCREAMING because she had NO IDEA what was going on as she still had her eye mask and earplugs in.

  And that’s when

  woke up and started trying to get out of the bedroom bit. So I got Maisie out of the tent and into the long grass before unzipping her and shouting for Miss Jones at the TOP OF MY VOICE!

  The next morning, Miss Jones and Miss Moon looked really tired and annoyed.

  And I knew that it was because we had woken up THE WHOLE CAMP in the middle of the night.

  Miss Jones had NOT been pleased about the screaming coming from Maisie OR the fact that Zach was almost crying because he had been zipped up in the bedroom bit of the tent. She ALSO wasn’t pleased that Jodi and Zach had switched tents without permission and neither was I because if Jodi had just WOKEN ME UP AND TOLD ME that Zach had come to our tent to tell us that his torch had run out of batteries so he couldn’t do the flashing, and that he was too scared to sleep in the SURVIVAL TENT by himself and that Jodi had then switched tents with him because she was NOT scared then I DEFINITELY WOULDN’T have thought that Zach with his big hairy blanket thing was a

  and I wouldn’t have given myself and Maisie and Miss Jones such a fright.

  Jodi thought the whole thing was hilarious. But I didn’t because even though the hairy lump had just turned out to be Zach that still didn’t explain the HOWLING I had heard that had woken me up in the first place.

  Jodi said I had probably just DREAMT IT ALL and that really ANNOYED me because, like I said, I think I know the difference between hearing something in REAL LIFE and DREAMING IT.

  But then Jodi said that she hadn’t heard a thing and neither had Maisie but I knew that Maisie had been wearing earplugs made from real beeswax so she wouldn’t have heard even if

  had howled RIGHT in her ear.

  Then Jodi asked Zach and he said that he hadn’t heard any howling in the night but that he had heard a SNUFFLING sound outside the tent but that he just thought it had been a dog.

  I STARED at Zach because he had OBVIOUSLY forgotten that we were on a CAMPSITE and that we were the

  and that we hadn’t brought a dog with us.

  That’s when Jodi said that maybe there were people in the CARAVAN bit who had a dog. And I
knew that made sense but I still had a WEIRD feeling about the HOWLING. Plus, Jodi had been acting a bit weirdly since we got on the bus so I knew that she wasn’t really paying attention to the EVIDENCE properly.

  Then when we were all having our cereal together Maisie said, “Miss Jones. Are there WOLVES in those woods?”

  Miss Moon STOOD UP really SLOWLY and got a WEIRD LOOK on her face and, “Are you asking about WOLVES?”

  We all looked up at Miss Moon (which took a few seconds because of how tall Miss Moon is, especially when you are sitting down). Maisie’s spoon started hitting the side of her cereal bowl and we all knew it was because she was shaking because she was scared of Miss Moon and how tall she was.

  So then I put my hand on Maisie’s hand to stop the shaking and I said, “Maisie was just asking if you get wolves here, because, um, I heard something last night.”

  Miss Jones said that there were

  here and that it was probably just the WIND I had heard the night before.

  Zach asked Miss Jones if she was SURE because he thought this would be the PERFECT PLACE for wolves because of how THICK the forest was and that wolves would probably love roaming and hiding here.

  Then Miss Moon said, “Miss Jones is quite right that there are no wolves here. But there USED to be. The last wolf in Scotland was seen in these actual woods. And someone wants to release wolves back into the Scottish countryside. Isn’t that a GREAT IDEA? I think wolves are WONDERFUL CREATURES!” And she smiled a REALLY WEIRD smile.

  I was just about to say that it WASN’T a good idea at ALL and that it was TERRIFYING instead when I noticed that Maisie was going a bit SWIRLY in the eyes so I changed the subject and asked what we were doing after breakfast.

  That’s when Miss Moon got really excited and she told us about the SCAVENGER HUNT.

  Miss Moon said that she’d woken up at 5am and laid a scavenger hunt around the WHOLE campsite and that the team that completed the scavenger hunt first would win a PRIZE!

  Miss Jones said that we had to get into teams of four and decide a LEADER and before we could even say ONE WORD Jodi shouted,

  Jodi DRAGGED us into the woods to look for the first items on the SCAVENGER-HUNT LIST because she LOVES games and competitions like that.

  I wasn’t sure if Maisie was going to be OK because she kept saying that this was the VERY FIRST TIME she had ever been in

  and also because she wouldn’t open her eyes so she kept bumping into everything.

  It was easy to find the first couple of things on the scavenger-hunt list because the first item was a LEAF and the second item was an ACORN.

  But then Maisie said, “What are THOSE?!”

  And I looked up and saw that Maisie was pointing to a tree covered in SCRATCHES.

  Me and Zach went over to investigate and that’s when we saw how DEEP the scratches were.

  I looked at Zach and he looked at me and I just KNEW that he was thinking the same thing as me. And that the thing he was thinking was

  But then Jodi shouted that we had to PAY ATTENTION to the scavenger hunt because Jodi is VERY COMPETITIVE and one time when she didn’t win the class Christmas Quiz her mum had to come and collect her because she got so mad she broke every single rubber in the Rubber Tray and Maisie said that she was lucky she didn’t get EXPELLED.

  So anyway, Jodi told us all to stop staring at the trees and help her to find a blueberry

  But when we were looking in the BUSH BIT for a blueberry Maisie SCREAMED and pointed to something and I thought it was going to be more TREE SCRATCHES. But it wasn’t. It was MUCH WORSE. Because it was a GIANT POO!

  We all STARED at the giant poo because it was probably the biggest poo in the world. And even though it was COMPLETELY DISGUSTING we all couldn’t stop looking at it and it was probably because we were in SHOCK.

  Zach said that something REALLY BIG must have made it. And then he looked at me and gulped and I knew that it was because he was remembering the

  But then Jodi picked up a broken branch covered with leaves and threw it over the giant poo so we couldn’t see it any more and told us to FOCUS and also that it was probably just a really big dog that had done it or maybe even a horse.

  So we all went to a different bit of the woods to look for a blueberry because no one wanted to look for blueberries in the Poo Bit.

  After the blueberry, the Scavenger Hunt got harder because you had to solve a RIDDLE and the riddle said:

  You’ll find me standing tall,

  Ready to take your call.

  I had no idea what the riddle meant. But Maisie is very good at riddles and she said that it was definitely a PHONE BOX.

  Jodi almost

  with excitement when Maisie said that and then she shouted, “THERE’S A PHONE BOX ON CAMP!!” and then she GRABBED the map from my hand and pointed down towards the river.

  I was surprised that Jodi was so excited about the PHONE BOX because she definitely hadn’t been screaming about the LEAF or the ACORN!

  Then Jodi said, “You know what, people? WIN THIS THING!” We might actually and then she grabbed our hands and we all ran towards the phone box.

  When we got to the phone box Jodi went inside for AGES and it looked like she was trying to actually USE the phone so I banged on the glass to see if she’d found any clues but she shook her head to say she hadn’t but she stayed in there anyway.

  Then we heard someone SHOUTING and we saw Gary Petrie sitting on a sign at the entrance to the forest and shouting something at the rest of his group.

  Jodi started walking towards Gary Petrie so I said, “Where are you GOING?” And Jodi said that she thought someone had TAKEN the PHONE-BOX CLUE so no one else could win. And that is EXACTLY what Gary Petrie is LIKE so we all marched over to where Gary’s group was. When we got there we saw that the sign that Gary was sitting on said, “This Way to the River Garry” and he was doing loads of POSES on the sign and getting someone in his group to take pictures of him showing off.

  Then he spotted us and said, “Thou cannot pass into MY forest.”

  So I said, “It’s not YOUR forest!”

  But Gary Petrie just pointed to the sign and said,

  I was JUST about to tell Gary Petrie that he was more annoying than EVERYTHING when Jodi said, “ACTUALLY it’s the RIVER that’s called Garry. Not the forest.”

  Gary looked at the sign for a bit and then he said, “Well, thou cannot go into my RIVER, then.”

  And Jodi said, “That’s fine by us because YOUR horrible river will obviously be pure freezing!”

  But Gary said that it WASN’T and that it was probably as warm as a JACUZZI and that Miss Moon would probably let him go for a SWIM in his own river later.

  That’s when Jodi BURST out laughing and said that Gary obviously had NO IDEA about BODIES OF WATER.

  Then Jodi went on for AGES about the AVERAGE TEMPERATURES of rivers in Scotland and RAPIDS and DANGER and Gary Petrie looked SO CONFUSED that he didn’t say anything back.

  So that’s when we asked about the Phone-Box Clue and Gary Petrie smiled a bit and said that he had NO IDEA what we were talking about which meant that he DEFINITELY DID know!

  So Jodi stepped forward and gave him one of her LOOKS and Gary gulped because he’s a bit scared of Jodi.

  And then he said, “Um. The clue just said to look here, at this sign.”

  So Jodi stepped even closer to Gary Petrie and said, “OK. So show us what you found.”

  Gary Petrie got a weird look on his face and said, “Um … well…” and we all realised that they hadn’t actually FOUND the next item yet! And all of a sudden, Jodi dropped to the ground and crawled THROUGH Gary Petrie’s legs and GRABBED something from under the sign and I saw that it was a RED GLOVE.

  Maisie yelled, “The FINAL SCAVENGER ITEM!”

  And Jodi ran.

  Gary Petrie’s group ran after Jodi because THEY wanted the RED GLOVE so THEY could win the scavenger hunt. But we knew that there was NO WAY they were going to catc
h Jodi because last year she actually won EVERY SINGLE PRIZE at Sports Day.

  When we got back to camp, Miss Moon said we’d won the scavenger hunt and Gary Petrie was SO ANNOYED that he said he was going to his tent and that no one should disturb him

  So we said that we wouldn’t let him know when lunch was ready and that’s when he said that he’d changed his mind and that it was fine to disturb him if it was about food or more games or anything good.

  Then Miss Moon said that it was time to play HOT CHOCOLATE RIVER and Gary shouted,

  Miss Moon said that two long ropes marked either side of the HOT CHOCOLATE RIVER and that we had to get from one side to the other using only MARSHMALLOWS.

  Miss Jones handed everyone a PAPER PLATE and said we had to pretend they were marshmallows. She told us to use the paper plates to pass safely from one side of the hot chocolate river to the other. And she said that we had to keep a FOOT on the paper plates AT ALL TIMES or they would float away.

  I just KNEW that we were going to lose the game because we were in a group with Gary Petrie and one of his annoying friends who’d just secretly stuffed about twenty cheese puffs into his mouth.

  As soon as Miss Jones shouted, “GO!” all of the groups started using their paper plates to cross. That’s when Cheese Puff Geoff shouted, “COME ON!” RIGHT in my ear and I screamed because he spat cheese dust ALL OVER ME and Maisie toppled off her paper plate and landed in the river. And even though it was only a PRETEND river Maisie screamed SO LOUD that it echoed through the forest and EVERYONE had to cover their ears.