There's a Werewolf In My Tent!

by Pamela Butchart

Then she said, “You’re LATE for breakfast. HURRY UP!” and stormed off.

  But we all knew that this was NO TIME for breakfast. We needed to start the Full Moon Mission RIGHT AWAY because Miss Moon was now SO HAIRY that we knew the full moon must be REALLY SOON.

  And we all knew that if the full moon happened while we were camping we would be in GRAVE DANGER.

  So we quickly grabbed some SUPPLIES and sneaked off into the woods to our den.

  It wasn’t long before we had to admit that we were a hundred per cent LOST.

  Jodi tried to say that we WEREN’T lost and that her SHORT CUT had WORKED but I said I didn’t think ending up COMPLETELY LOST meant that a short cut had worked.

  But then Jodi started getting really ANGRY at me and saying that she had a COMPASS and also that she knew EXACTLY what she was doing.

  So I got angry back and said that watching

  didn’t make her an

  Jodi got SO ANGRY when I said that that her face went RED and she stormed off into the woods by herself.

  So Zach ran after her because he said that the LAST thing we should do was split up.

  I sat down on the ground with Maisie and she gave me a snack from the bag.

  When Jodi and Zack came back Jodi said that her compass was OBVIOUSLY BROKEN because North should stay in the same place and that the dial shouldn’t spin around all over the place when you are actually standing still.

  That’s when Zach said that it was a bit SPOOKY how much the COMPASS DIAL was SPINNING and that maybe it had something to do with the FULL MOON and

  And Maisie gulped and started measuring the length of her ARM HAIRS again with a ruler because she was still scared about catching the WEREWOLF AFFLICTION.

  Jodi put the compass back in her bag and took a deep breath and said, “OK. I have a confession.”

  We all STARED at Jodi.

  And Jodi said,

  Maisie started to shake a bit when Jodi said that because it’s a bit scary when the only

  in your group actually says that you’re lost.

  Maisie took her phone out but she didn’t have any signal so we knew we couldn’t phone the army or anything like that.

  So we all sat quietly because Jodi said that she needed SILENCE so she could THINK and get CONNECTED TO NATURE.

  Then all of a sudden Jodi’s eyes

  and she said, “Right. I can DO THIS!”

  And that’s when we all thought Jodi had gone a bit MAD because she started digging up mud and SMEARING it all over her FACE.

  We sat STARING at Jodi with our mouths WIDE OPEN. But then Jodi said, “CAMOUFLAGE!”

  Jodi said that we had NO IDEA what might be LURKING in the woods and that we had to use CAMOUFLAGE to protect ourselves from PREDATORS. And before Jodi had even finished her sentence Maisie had COVERED herself in mud.

  Jodi gave Maisie a SALUTE and said that our NUMBER ONE PRIORITY was SHELTER because WHO KNEW how long we’d be lost in the woods before someone found us or we managed to find our way out.

  I started to get REALLY SCARED because I DEFINITELY didn’t want to spend the night in the woods so I said that maybe we should just try to get out and if we couldn’t we could make a shelter then.

  But Jodi said that that was the NUMBER ONE mistake that people made in Season One of “EXTREME SURVIVAL” because by the time it gets dark it’s TOO LATE to find the materials you need to build your shelter and then you lose.

  Then Jodi’s eyes went REALLY WIDE and she looked TOTALLY SCARY because of all the mud on her face.

  And she said, “And this is not a GAME. This is REAL LIFE. So if you don’t have a shelter by nightfall you don’t lose out here, you…”

  But Jodi didn’t finish her sentence because Maisie was SHAKING.

  But we all knew what the last word was and none of us wanted to die OR get eaten by werewolves so we started looking for things to build a shelter with.

  We collected all the branches and leaves we could find and tried to make a roof thing over the two big branches that were sticking out from an old tree and it actually looked quite good by the time we were finished.

  We lay down under the roof and looked up to see if there were any holes in case it rained. And then we poked our fingers through the holes so Jodi knew where to put the leaves and twigs to make it as WATERTIGHT as possible.

  Then Jodi said that our next PRIORITY was WARMTH and then she started unpacking her backpack and I saw that she had brought ALL of her clothes!

  I didn’t know why Jodi had done that but I was glad that she had because I definitely didn’t want to freeze to death if someone didn’t find us before nightfall.

  So we all put Jodi’s clothes on top of what we were already wearing and Zach didn’t even complain when Jodi gave him a pink jumper with a KOALA on it because he knew that this was about

  Then Jodi said that when night came it was going to get colder and colder and she was going to build a FIRE.

  Zach said that he didn’t think rubbing two sticks together was going to help and that we needed some FUEL. But then Jodi said that she had SEEN IT ON TV WITH HER OWN EYES and Zach couldn’t really say anything after that because we all knew that Jodi had been a hundred per cent right about everything so far. And we also knew that if Jodi hadn’t watched “EXTREME SURVIVAL” that we’d all probably be

  So we all sat and ate the snacks Maisie had packed and watched as Jodi rubbed two sticks together for AGES. But nothing happened.

  So that’s when Jodi said that FIRE was no longer the next priority and that WATER was the next priority instead.

  Then Jodi got a BIG SMILE on her face and went into her bag and brought out a SURVIVAL STRAW. Jodi said that she’d bought it on eBay and that you could drink water from ANYWHERE using it, even a PUDDLE, and that the straw made it taste just like normal water from the tap and kept all the BACTERIA and INSECTS and DISEASES out.

  I was just about to say there was NO WAY I was drinking from a PUDDLE when Maisie’s backpack BEEPED.

  We all SCREAMED because we knew that it meant that Maisie had a PHONE SIGNAL and that meant we could call for HELP!

  Maisie THREW her phone at Zach because she was PANICKING a bit and because the phone only had ONE BAR of reception. Zack looked at the phone and said that there was a new message from Amy. And then he stopped smiling.

  We all rushed over to look at the message. It said:

  And we all gasped.

  Because TODAY was FRIDAY!!

  Zach said that Amy must have sent the text the day before but that we didn’t get it because we didn’t have a phone signal until now.

  The Maisie said, “Amy was trying to warn us. And now we’re stuck in the WOODS on a FULL MOON!”

  Then Jodi jumped up and yelled, “QUICK! CALL FOR HELP WHILE WE CAN!”

  So Zach tried to phone his mum but then he said, “NO!!” because we lost the signal again.

  Then Maisie yelled, “999!” and we all looked at her and she said that even if you had NO SIGNAL you could still dial the EMERGENCY SERVICES and you might get through!

  So Jodi grabbed the phone from Zach and started to dial 999 and that’s when the battery died and Jodi SCREAMED,

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

  After the PHONE DISASTER Maisie started writing a letter to her mum telling her how much she loved her and how she wanted to donate all her belongings to

  That’s when Zach said we should use the SHERBET DIPS to send up a SMOKE SIGNAL.

  So we emptied the sherbet on to our hands and started THROWING it into the air. But it didn’t reach very high and then Jodi said to STOP because we were wasting VALUABLE FOOD RESOURCES and WHO KNEW how long we were going to be

  Even though it was only one o’clock in the afternoon, Jodi said that we should all get some rest so that we had the ENERGY to find our way out of the woods the next morning and that she would take the FIRST WATCH while we slept.

  So me, Zach and Maisie all lay down on the ground and put more of Jodi’s clothes f
rom her bag over us like a blanket while Jodi kept an eye out for PREDATORS (which we all knew meant WEREWOLVES).

  I wasn’t sleepy AT ALL but I must have fallen asleep at one point because when I woke up I heard WHIMPERING and a little bit of HOWLING!

  Maisie was fast asleep and so was Zach so I sat up SLOWLY and very QUIETLY and peeked outside.

  That’s when I saw Jodi sitting in the woods on a rock.

  The noise stopped and Jodi started to turn her head so I lay back down as fast as I could and shut my eyes and stayed COMPLETELY STILL.

  My mind was RACING because I knew that the WHIMPERING and HOWLING sounds had been coming from Jodi! And that they were the SAME SOUNDS I’d heard that night in my tent!

  And that’s when I remembered Amy’s text about how a SCRATCH from a WEREWOLF can give you WEREWOLFISM.

  I reached over and gently took the ruler out of Maisie’s hand because I knew Maisie didn’t need to worry about measuring her arm hairs.

  But Jodi did!

  I had NO IDEA IN THE WORLD what I was supposed to do next. I mean, my BEST FRIEND was turning into a

  I lay there trying not to panic and I kept thinking over and over about how Miss Moon had SCRATCHED JODI’S HAND by accident when we were putting our tent up. And how Jodi had been acting a bit WEIRD lately, like when she went to bed EARLY even though she had

  of marshmallows left and when she disappeared off to the shower block with ALL of her clothes.

  That’s when I knew. She was going through

  And that was why she wanted to sleep on her own in Zach’s tent last night. In case she woke up all hairy!

  I was just about to wake the others and tell them we had to find a spoon when I heard the sound of BRANCHES SNAPPING outside.

  I sat up just a TINY bit so I could peek out of the shelter and that’s when I saw her.

  It was Miss Moon!

  Before I could even SCREAM, Miss Moon told us to come with her “RIGHT AWAY” and also to “WIPE THAT MUD OFF YOUR FACES!”

  So we grabbed our bags and followed Miss Moon into the woods because even though she was a werewolf she was still a teacher when she was in HUMAN FORM so we didn’t really have a choice.

  Miss Moon moved REALLY QUICKLY through the woods so we had to run a bit to keep up with her.

  I looked over at Jodi and she looked

  I wanted to tell her it was OK and that she would ALWAYS be my BEST FRIEND even if we couldn’t cure her but I didn’t want to say anything in front of Miss Moon. So I just linked my arm through Jodi’s and held her really close as we followed Miss Moon back to camp and when Jodi wasn’t looking I took the ruler out of my pocket and tried to measure her arm hairs.

  But then Jodi CAUGHT ME with the ruler and she pulled her arm away and said, “What are you DOING?”

  So I said, “Nothing!” but it came out all high and squeaky because it is really hard to make your voice sound normal when you’ve just found out that your best friend is a werewolf!

  And that’s when I spotted something.

  Jodi wasn’t wearing her locket.

  The locket that she ALWAYS wears that has a picture of her mum in it.

  Her SILVER locket!

  As soon as we got back to camp, Miss Moon took Jodi away somewhere and that was my CHANCE.

  I pulled Zach and Maisie into the Big Tent and told them about Jodi being a

  Maisie and Zach were SHOCKED and Zach even had to lie down a bit because he said his head was SPINNING.

  Zach said that explained why Jodi hadn’t wanted to do the WEREWOLF INVESTIGATION in the first place and why she kept saying that I had just IMAGINED the howling, because she didn’t want us to know that the howling had come from HER.

  Maisie said that Jodi must have been trying to RUN AWAY that morning when we caught her with her backpack and that was why she had all her clothes with her.

  Then I told Zach and Maisie about the SILVER LOCKET and how Jodi wasn’t wearing it, even though she ALWAYS wears it, and one time she even said that she would probably DIE if she ever lost it because she loved it so much and that it used to be her GREAT-GRAN’S.

  Maisie started crying and saying “POOR JODI” over and over again and saying that Jodi must be worried that we wouldn’t want to be her friends any more and that she must be TOO SCARED to tell us.

  And that made me cry a bit too because I didn’t want Jodi to think that we didn’t want to be her friends because we would ALWAYS be her friends, no matter ANYTHING EVER!

  But then Zach said that we needed to

  and make a plan, because that’s what Jodi would want us to do if she were here.

  But Zach got tears in his eyes when he said it and that nearly made me start crying again but I managed to be STRONG because we had to help our Werewolf Friend.

  So we made a plan. And this is what we came up with:

  Then just as we were about to go looking for Jodi, Maisie’s backpack started BEEPING.

  Maisie looked a bit surprised and then she said, “My phone ran out of battery when Jodi was trying to dial 999. But now it says it’s got 75% battery left!”

  Then Zach gasped and explained that Jodi must have just PRETENDED that the phone battery had died because she didn’t want us to call 999 in case the police found out she was a werewolf and took her away to be experimented on because werewolves are very RARE.

  But then Zach stopped talking.

  The zip on our tent started to SLOWLY move up and Maisie actually LEAPT on to my knee so I couldn’t even MOVE to do something because Maisie was pinning me down!

  Zach rushed forward and pulled the zip back down and put the little suitcase lock on.

  But then the voice said, “It is I. The River King!”

  Zach looked at me and I didn’t know what else to do so I just nodded at him and he let Gary Petrie in.

  Gary came in and looked around at our living room bit and then he sat down and said, “Nice tent. It’s not soundproofed, though.”

  That’s when we realised that Gary Petrie had been LISTENING outside and that he had probably heard EVERYTHING.

  Gary took a Twix and started eating it.

  Then he said, “It sounds like you need help.”

  So I said, “NO THANK YOU” and then I took the second half of the Twix out of his hand because it wasn’t his and he hadn’t even ASKED if he could have it!

  But Gary just smiled and said, “I know about JODI.”

  I was just about to tell Gary Petrie to GO AWAY when Maisie said, “Go on.”

  And that’s when Gary said that he KNEW something was up because when he had been checking that everything was in order at the River Garry sign this morning and giving it a polish he had noticed Jodi in the phone box making WEIRD NOISES.

  And that’s when Maisie said, “We’re worried that Jodi might be, um, well, a

  Do you have the power to help with that, Gary?”

  And Gary stood up and put his hands on his hips and said, “I HAVE THE POWER!”

  Me and Zach both GASPED and said, “MAISIE!” because we didn’t think we should tell people about Jodi when it was up to us to

  But Maisie said that it was OK and that Gary wouldn’t tell anyone and that she TRUSTED HIM.

  Gary smiled LOADS when Maisie said that and I could see that he had obviously just eaten a whole bag of cheese puffs before he came to see us.

  I was a bit in SHOCK because I had NO IDEA that Maisie TRUSTED GARY PETRIE but then I remembered about how he had saved her from the FAKE HOT CHOCOLATE RIVER and realised that THAT must have been when she started trusting him.

  Gary Petrie pointed his pinky finger at Maisie, but Gary Petrie usually has BOGEY FINGERS so I didn’t think Maisie would do the Pinky Promise, but she did. And then Maisie and Gary both said “PROMISE!” at exactly the same time and started giggling.

  Then Gary said that he was very sorry Jodi was a werewolf and Maisie said thank you. Then before we could stop her, Maisie told Gary Petrie all about Miss Moon, too!
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br />   And after Gary had heard everything about the CLAWS and the MEAT OBSESSION and the SO-CALLED MONOBROW he said that it sounded like Miss Moon had turned Jodi into a werewolf on PURPOSE and that she was the ALPHA WEREWOLF.

  And even though we had

  what that meant we knew that it was going to be BAD.

  As soon as Gary Petrie told us what an ALPHA WEREWOLF was we all RUSHED OUT of the tent to find Jodi. Because Gary Petrie said that an ALPHA WEREWOLF is the werewolf that CONTROLS other werewolves and that he’d seen it on TV so it was definitely true. And that Miss Moon was probably using her ALPHA WEREWOLF POWERS to

  Jodi into eating us alive!

  But we couldn’t find Jodi OR Miss Moon ANYWHERE!

  That’s when Maisie said that this was TOO SERIOUS and that we needed to tell Miss Jones what was going on RIGHT NOW and we all agreed.

  So we all went over to where Miss Jones was getting stuff ready for dinner and told her that we had a SERIOUS PROBLEM and that it was about JODI.

  That’s when Miss Jones put down the barbecue tongs and said that she knew all about Jodi and her PROBLEM and that Jodi was having a nap in Miss Jones’s tent and that we shouldn’t disturb her because she was EXHAUSTED.