The Animal Within

“Can’t you girls just pick a color already? We’re wasting a perfectly good Saturday.” Mark said as he stood in the craft section of the local Wal-mart.
“We’re almost done Dad, don’t worry.” Anya assured him without looking away from the color choices she and Zoey had decided on.
“So, pink, blue, and yellow? Or black, white, and red?” Zoey asked.
“I don’t know…pink, blue, and yellow would look more fantasy-esque, but red, black, and white would look really cool.”
“Or what about green, yellow, and purple?” Zoey offered, seeing the purple and green sand.
“Oh! That’s it, definitely!” Anya smiled.
“Yeah I thought so too.” Zoey smiled, putting the other sandbags back on their respective shelves and putting the green, purple, and yellow bags in the hand basket their dad was holding.
“We done now?” He asked.
“No Dad, we still need to get the palm trees and stuff!” Anya smiled.
Mark blew out a gusty sigh and nodded. “Alright.” He said, following the two girls down the main aisle to the pet section, where they proceeded to laugh at all the little things they had for hermit crabs and fish.
“Oh, look at this little hut! Isn’t it adorable?” Anya cooed, holding up the little figure for her sister’s inspection.
“Yeah that’s perfect!” Zoey smiled.
Anya tossed the hut into the basket, where it landed safely on the sandbags.
“Oh this is brilliant! We should get this instead!” Zoey gasped, holding up a plastic castle. Its sides were covered in fake plants to allow the crabs a way to climb up it.
“Oh yeah!” Anya agreed, putting the hut back on the shelf and taking the castle.
“Wait, they have a black one!” She gasped, pointing at the shelf.
“Yeah…should we get this black one or that gray one?” Zoey asked, holding the black castle.
Mark took the black castle and looked at the price on the sticker stuck to the bottom.
He winced. “You girls should get the hut. This thing is almost the price of a real castle. With a view.” He said, putting the castle back on the shelf.
“Aww.” The girls sighed, but Anya obediently put the castle back and took the hut from the shelf.
“Anything else we need?” Zoey asked, glancing at the hand basket.
“I don’t think so. We got the sand, the fake palm trees, the water bowl thingy, the food bowl, the fake rocks, the hut, some cool stuff to decorate…I think we’re done.” Anya said happily.
“It’s about time.” Mark sighed, turning and walking for the registers.

After they were finished paying, they walked out with their bags to the doors.
“What possessed that dude to make him put all the sandbags in the same bag?” Zoey complained.
When they walked outside, the late September chill pierced through their light coats and made them all shiver, almost in unison.
“Hey, maybe we’ll get snow!” Zoey offered optimistically.
“The mountains are supposed to get some tonight.” Mark confirmed.
“Cool, maybe it’ll last as snow until it gets to us.” Anya smiled.
“Maybe we’ll get a huge snowstorm that’ll last all the way ‘til Monday and dump so much snow school is cancelled for weeks!” Zoey smiled.
“Now that’s far-fetched, even if it was January.” Mark smiled.
“A girl can dream, can’t she?” Zoey sighed.
A raindrop spattered onto her head.
“Apparently not.” Anya laughed.
With her hands burdened with the two bags she held, Zoey was unable to wipe the raindrop from her forehead, and had to grumble irritably while the drop slid as slowly and annoyingly as possible down her nose until she could finally wipe it off when they got in the car.

Back at home, Anya and Zoey ran up to Zoey’s room, where they had left the crabs and the aquarium that morning, and began to prepare ‘crabland’.
“No, the group of three trees should go behind the hut. That way it’ll look kinda like a postcard!” Anya advised, picked up the palm trees and placing them carefully behind the hut.
“Yeah, because the crabs really want to send postcards.” Zoey snorted.
“Well it’ll look better.” Anya said matter-of-factly.
“Whatever.” Zoey grumbled, glaring at her sister.
“Now, where should we put the water dish?” Anya asked brightly.
“How about in the corner over here…” Zoey offered, beginning to flatten down a spot in the green sand for the dish.
“No, it should go in the purple sand!” Anya decided, placing the dish in the opposite corner. Zoey seethed. Anya glanced up.
“What’s your problem?” She asked as if the previous exchanges had never happened.
“Oh nothing.” Zoey growled. “Where should the food dish go?”
“In the other corner where you were putting the water dish, that way they have to travel and they won’t get lazy.” Anya smiled.
Zoey quietly put the dish down in the corner and looked for the next thing to place in the aquarium. The last thing it needed was a little sign they had bought at the store that said ‘beach: five miles’, and had a little crab on it.
Without asking Anya’s opinion, Zoey placed the sign in the middle of the tank.
“What are you doing!?” That completely ruins everything! It’s on two colors of sand!”
“Who cares?” Zoey spat.
“I do!”
“I don’t!”
Anya blinked in surprise.
“And I don’t think the crabs care either! So just get over it!” Zoey raged.
“Get over it? Get over it? You’ve completely ruined my project and you want me to get over it?” Anya gasped.
“Your project? This was supposed to be our project!” Zoey gasped.
“Says who?”
“Says…me!”
“Well the whole idea of getting the old tank was my idea!” Anya spat.
“It was not!” Zoey cried, her voice becoming high-pitched with her anger.
“Well, you might have said it first, but I thought it first!” Anya cried back.
“Well I saw the crabs first!”
“I named mine first!”
“I picked the colors for the sand first!”
“You did not, I did!”
“Uh…I was born first! So ha!” Zoey exclaimed triumphantly.
“Only by two minutes!” Anya growled.
“Two and a half minutes.” Zoey corrected.
Then there was a knock at the door. Without waiting for a response, Adelaide came in.
“Girls, what’s all the yelling going on up here?”
“Zoey’s being a jerk.” Anya growled.
“Well Anya’s being a control freak. Again.” Zoey countered.
“Maybe the two of you should take a little break. Anya, go to your room, and Zoey…go to your cave.” Adelaide said decisively, gesturing at the window seat.
“What am I supposed to do in there?” Zoey demanded.
“I don’t know, read, draw, write, anything to get you to relax. You and Anya can get back to this later after you both cool off for an hour or so, alright?”
“Alright.” Zoey sighed.
“Okay Mom.” Anya said, leaving the room.
Adelaide followed Anya and closed Zoey’s door behind her.
Zoey walked to the window seat and plopped down on the cushion.
With a sigh, she felt an unwanted tear of frustration run down her cheek.
Annoyed by her emotions, Zoey wiped it away.
She reached for her laptop, and while she waited for it to turn on, she glanced out the window, and gasped.
Outside, basically in their backyard, was a white wolf.
Zoey sat up slowly, as if moving too much, even from the distance she was at, would frighten the wolf away.
Quietly, the wolf stood beside a pile of boulders and sniffed the air in the direction of the house. Holding her breath, Zoey reached for the window and slid it open as quietly as she could.
The wolf twitched her ears and looked up at Zoey.
The girl froze where she was, watching the wolf intently.
The wolf tilted her head slightly, as if trying to figure out what the girl was trying to do with the window.
Zoey carefully tried pushing the window open just a bit more, and the wolf took a step back.
Unsure of the girl’s intentions with the window, the wolf was nervous. Should she run? Was it time to run back to her pack? Time to report again? No. Not now.
Zoey stopped moving the window, determined to keep the wolf there as long as possible.
She desperately wished she had her mother’s camera.
Then the wolf turned as if she had heard something in the distance, which she probably did. Her hearing was far better than Zoey’s.
She turned with a flick of her fluffy white tail and disappeared into the shadows of the forest like mist in a rainstorm.
In fact, it was raining.
Zoey blinked. When the wolf had been there, so close, it had been as if time had stopped. But Zoey had no idea why. She had seen wolves before, and had been fascinated by them every time. But she had never felt like that before.
When the wolf had looked up at her, it had been like the gaze of a long-lost friend or relative, not like the gaze of a curious or possibly even hostile animal.
The rain was blowing into the window and forming a small puddle on the windowsill and getting the cushions all wet, so Zoey quickly closed it.
But she kept staring out the window. She wished she could’ve followed the wolf, out in the rain.
A soft ‘bing’ alerted Zoey to the presence of her laptop beside her. She had an e-mail.
It was from her best friend, Trevor.
Hey Zoe. What’s up? Big news on the homefront, Dad’s moving back in! Cool huh? I guess Mom and Dad have worked out their supposedly ‘unsolvable’ problem. At least for now. We’ll see what happens next week.
How’s the column going? I think Bryan’s gonna have an embolism if you don’t let him know what it’s about A.S.A.P., just a heads-up. I’ve gotta go, but I was wondering if you wanted to go to the mall today? We could get pizza for lunch and people-watch. Let me know, mmkay?
-Trev
Zoey smiled. She and Trevor had been friends since they were in preschool.
Anya had decided when they turned twelve to tease Zoey about going places alone with him, like the movies or the mall, saying they were now ‘dating’. But Zoey ignored her, because it wasn’t like that.
She wasn’t from a cheesy made-for-TV musical about annoying, perfect kids in high school.
Bryan was the ‘director’ of the school paper, in charge of organizing everything for the layout of the paper. And he was generally annoying. He was incredibly uptight and even more of a control freak than Anya was in her little flashes of freak-ness. And he was a control freak all the time.
With a sigh, and another glance out the window after the long-gone wolf, Zoey hopped from the window seat, got her cell phone from her bedside table, and called Trevor.
“Hello?” Came his voice from the other end of the line.
“Hey Trev.” Zoey chirped as cheerfully as possible.
“Hey Zoe! Did you get my e-mail?”
“Yeah, pizza sounds great, but I’ll have to meet you there. Mom wants Anya and me to stay in our rooms for an hour.”
“Okay…why?”
“Because we were screaming at each other.”
“Gotcha. It must be great having a twin sister huh?” Trevor laughed.
“Oh it’s about as fun as having an older sister.” Zoey smiled.
Trevor’s older sister Lauren was incredibly mean to him most of the time.
“Whatever Zoe. So I’ll see you at Pizza Heaven around twelve?”
“Sounds good to me. See you then.”
“’Kay, bye.”
“Bye.” Zoe hung up her phone and tossed it onto her bed.
She walked to the door and swung it open.
“Mom! I’m going to the mall with Trevor at twelve!” She yelled down the hallway.
“Okay!” Adelaide yelled back from somewhere in the kitchen.
“Trevor and Zoey, sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!” Anya sang loudly from her room.
“Shut up you doofus!” Zoey called.
“FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIGE…”
“Mooom!” Zoey complained.
“Anya Maverick, stop that RIGHT NOW!” Adelaide yelled.
Anya was quiet. Silently, Zoey stuck her tongue out at the closed door. She had no way of knowing that her sister was doing the same thing on the other side of the door.

An hour later, Zoey was walking her bike out of the garage and zipping her jacket against the cold wind.
At least it wasn’t raining anymore. It was down from the downpour it had been to a mist with occasional rogue raindrops mixing in with the wind.
“You be back here by five!” Adelaide called from the front porch, standing with her arms crossed against the cold wind.
“Yeah Mom!” Zoey called, hopping on her bike.
Due to their proximity to the mountains, the area around Zoey’s house was very hilly, resulting in her not having to pedal her bike until she was a little more than halfway to the mall.
Parking her bike outside the huge building –which seemed ridiculously out of place in the wooded area it was in-, Zoey secured it to the bike rack and went inside.
She had her black hair in a ponytail, which she promptly undid as soon as she was inside. She smoothed her hair and checked it in a metallic sign as she passed.
Trying to make it through the mall at lunchtime on a Saturday was certainly not on Zoey’s list of fun things to do, and she quickly got tired of weaving through the crowds in the store, down a walkway, down the escalator, and down another walkway to the overcrowded, noisy food court.
The only thing that made her feel any better was the fact that Trevor had already gotten the pizza and was waiting for her at a table.
Trevor had the typical look of a teenage boy, skinny despite his insatiable appetite.
He had dark skin and chocolate-brown eyes to match his dark brown mop of hair.
“I would have paid for my own.” Zoey informed him as sat down and placed her bag carefully between her feet on the floor.
Trevor took a sip of his drink. “Can’t I be a gentleman for once? Chivalry isn’t dead yet.”
“You can’t even spell ‘chivalry’. But thanks.” Zoey smiled.
“I figured you could use free pizza after yelling at Anya.” Trevor commented as he took a bite of pizza.
Zoey smirked. “That shows how much you know, I can always use free pizza.”
“Of course.” Trevor laughed after he had swallowed his bite of pizza. “So how’s the column?”
“Eh.” Zoey sighed, swallowing her own bite of pizza.
“That good?”
“Well, I haven’t actually started it yet…”
“Zoey.”
“Well I didn’t know what I was going to write about until last night! But I know now, so I’ll e-mail Bryan and get started on it tonight.”
Trevor nodded. “So what’s it about?”
“I’m going to write about the dresses and styles and stuff from past dances, and list the stores with the best prices.”
Trevor wiped pizza grease off his hands with his napkin. “Wow. Forgive me if I don’t read it in a hurry.” He said.
“Actually I would be a little concerned if you wanted to read it at all.” Zoey smiled.
The two friends ate in companionable silence for a while.
When the pizza was gone, except for one piece, Zoey was incredibly full.
“You want the last piece?” She asked, stifling a burp.
“No, that’s okay, you can take it.” Trevor said, not stifling his burp at all.
“Please I insist.” Zoey said, pushing the box to her friend.
“Alright if you say so.” Trevor smiled, quickly taking the slice and beginning to eat it in true guy fashion.
Zoey watched in disbelief as her friend managed a fifth slice of pizza.
How do guys do that? She wondered.
“So do you know who you’re going to the dance with yet?” Trevor asked.
Zoey sighed. “No. I hope someone actually asks me.”
“What are you talking about?” Trevor asked in surprise.
“It’s been three weeks since they announced the date for the dance. Some girls got asked before the dance was even announced! So far there have been fifteen days where some guy could have asked me, but nothing.” Zoey sighed.
“Hey, it takes guys a while to psych themselves up to ask a pretty girl to a dance. Be patient.” Trevor said, wiping the pizza grease of his face.
Zoey blinked at his veiled compliment, but offered him a gracious smile instead of commenting on it. She had learned not to embarrass him that way.
“Well, I can’t help being impatient. Not that I’m eager to be my Mom and Aunt’s Barbie doll.” She snorted.
“Well, if no one asks you, you can always go with me.” Trevor offered.
Zoey blinked. “Really?”
“Yeah. I’m sure my date won’t mind.”
Zoey reached across the table to shove Trevor’s shoulder playfully.
“You’re horrible.” She laughed.
“I know.” He smiled back.
“So you know who this date will be?” She asked.
“Uh…no.” Trevor mumbled, suddenly very interested in his pizza crust.
Zoey, all too aware of her friend’s ability to talk around mouthfuls of food, was not fooled. “Come on, tell me!”
“Well, I haven’t actually asked her yet.” He said.
“Well who are you going to ask?”
“You don’t like her.”
“So?”
“So it’s Karen Hawks.”
“Karen Hawks!” Zoey gasped.
“I don’t see why you hate her so much.” Trevor sighed.
“Because she’s awful!” Zoey exclaimed.
Trevor shook his head. “Well I’m going with her hopefully, not you.”
“Fine. I just hope she doesn’t turn you into a frog at the end of the night.” Zoey grumbled, crossing her arms.
“I’ll be on my guard.” Trevor sighed, standing and tossing the napkins and plates into the pizza box to throw out, and Zoey threw out the drinks while Trevor threw out the pizza box.
“Where to now?” Trevor asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
“I was planning on looking at the dresses. You know, for research.” Zoey said as they left the food court.
“Wow I so don’t want to do that. I’m going to GameStop.” Trevor sighed.
“But I want to go in there too!” Zoey protested.
“I’ll hang out and wait for you there. Don’t take too long okay?” Trevor smiled.
“Alright, I’m sure walking to the opposite side of the mall won’t take that long.” Zoey said sarcastically.
“You got something better to do?” Trevor asked as he began walking away.
“I guess not.” Zoey smirked at her friend’s back. Then she shook her head as he tried not to stare at the Victoria’s Secret window displays despite noticeably slowing down.
“Boys.” She sighed.

After taking a few pictures of dresses on her cell phone to check later, Zoey left the store to walk all the way to the opposite end to meet Trevor at GameStop.
She found him trying to look at a computer game rather then the brunette who, by the look on her face, was only in the store because her boyfriend was.
“Trev?” Zoey asked, coming up behind him. He jumped and nearly dropped the game.
“Don’t…do that…again.” He said, putting a hand to his chest and glancing once more at the other girl.
“Would you rather I just went over to that random girl’s boyfriend and told him you think his girlfriend is hot?” Zoey asked.
“No.” Trevor nearly whispered, glancing at the boy who was easily a foot taller than him.
“Then you’ll have to settle for this.” Zoey said reasonably.
So after much browsing through the shelves, wandering through other stores, including several more dress stores where Trevor looked as comfortable as an old woman in the electronics department, Zoey happened to glance casually at her phone’s clock.
5: 20
Zoey stared at it for a moment.
“Aw man!” She exclaimed.
“What?” Trevor asked.
“I was supposed to be home by five! I’ve got to go!” Zoey gasped; quickly hanging up the dress she had been taking a picture of with her phone.
“See you Monday!” She called over her shoulder as she rushed away.
“Um, okay!” Trevor called. Then he realized he was in the junior’s dress department, and quickly rushed off to find a more masculine place to stand.
Zoey weaved through crowds of people as she tried to leave. She walked up the escalator, getting up it only slightly faster then it would have taken her to simply ride it, then rushed down a walkway, through a store, and outside, where it was now raining pretty steadily.
“Congflabbit!” She snorted. ‘Congflabbit’ was a word she had come up with during a game with Anya a year or two earlier. She had meant it as a joke, but now used it quite regularly, along with its stronger counterpart, ‘Congflinging-flabbit’.
As quickly as she could, Zoey freed her bike from the rack and pedaled as quickly as she could towards home.
Of course, this time she had to walk up the same hills she had coasted down so easily before.
By the time she was walking up the driveway, it was six.
When she walked in the house, she could smell dinner, and there was an eerie absence of questions from her parents.
They were at the table, but hadn’t started eating yet when Zoey walked in.
“So glad you’ve decided to join us.” Mark commented when she sat down.
“I thought I said five o’ clock.” Adelaide said, dishing spaghetti into Anya and Mark’s plates.
“Yeah, but you see, I got carried away with looking at stuff, and when I checked the time it was five twenty and…”
“Zoey, five o’ clock means five o’ clock. No excuses.” Mark interrupted.
“But it’s not an excuse! I lost track of…”
“You knew you had to be home at a certain time, you should have paid more attention.” Adelaide told her daughter.
“I know Mom, but I just…”
“You’re grounded, except for school.” Mark said simply.
“What? Just for being a little late?”
“An hour late, Zoey. Do you know what could have happened to you in an hour?” Adelaide said. “We were getting so worried.”
Zoey sighed. “How long am I grounded for?” She asked, plopping into her chair and resting her head on her hand.
“One week.” Mark said.
“A whole week?” Zoey gasped in disbelief.
“Yes. Whine about it and we’ll make it two.” Mark told her, beginning to eat.
Zoey sighed as her mother dished a few spoonfuls of spaghetti onto her plate.

Later that night Zoey was sitting in her room, in the window seat, looking at the dress pictures on her phone. As she thought about being late, and the matter-of-fact way her parents had dished out her punishment, a sour feeling twisted her stomach, and she felt frustrated tears in her eyes.
Just then, a soft knock came on her door.
“Who is it?” Zoey asked.
“Anya.”
“Come in if you really think you have to.”
Anya carefully opened the door, and stood in the light of the hallway.
Zoey had all the lights in her room off except for a small reading light stuck to the wall in the window seat area. She also had one of the sheer curtains drawn, leaving only her feet exposed to the outside world.
“Are you okay?” Anya asked. With the light coming from inside the little hiding spot, it was incredibly easy for her to see through the sheer curtain, and see her sister blinking back tears.
“Yeah. Why?” Zoey grumbled.
Anya walked inside the room and pushed the door closed. She walked over and pushed the curtain aside to crouch beside her sister.
“You just seemed upset.” She said.
Zoey sniffed, and a small tear rolled down her face to drip off her chin.
“It’s not fair. It wasn’t like I planned on being late. I just was. It was an accident.” She said, her voice breaking on the last word.
“Yeah. I know.” Anya said, reaching over to Zoey’s bedside table to get a tissue.
She handed it to Zoey.
“Thanks.” She mumbled, and then wiped her eyes.
“Sorry for being such a control freak earlier.”
“It’s alright, you can’t help it.”
Anya bit back a stinging retort, and looked out the window instead.
“Wanna finish crabland? You can put the food dish and the sign wherever you want.” She said after a while.
Zoey was silent for a long time. “Not right now okay? I’m…not in the mood.” She said eventually.
Anya nodded slowly. “Okay, maybe tomorrow then?” She asked.
“For sure.”
“Okay. Good night.”
Zoey didn’t respond, waiting for the door to close behind her sister.
“’night.” She whispered.

Zoey sat upstairs, writing on her laptop and thinking about her punishment. Eventually the lights in her parents’ bedroom, which she could see shining on the grass outside, went out. Zoey glanced at the time display on her laptop.
11:43
Almost midnight. She should be in bed and asleep by now.
But Zoey wasn’t thinking about sleep. She was still angry about being accidentally late, and being punished for it. It was so unfair!
Zoey shook her head. She would never get to sleep if she was so worked up. She needed to clear her head. And the most effective way to do that was to take a walk; at least it was for her. The woods had always had a very calming effect on her, like that was where she really should be, not her house or school.
As quietly as she could, Zoey pushed open her window and paused to see if there was any reaction by anyone in the house. There was nothing but peaceful silence.
Remembering that Anya hadn’t really shut the door when she left, just tugged on it so it was mostly closed, Zoey hurried over and carefully turned the handle, pushed the door closed quietly, and slowly turned the handle back so it wouldn’t make any noise.
Then she rushed back to the window and pulled it all the way open.
The rain had stopped and she heard the katydids and crickets chirping in the cool night air. She again left the window to grab her sneakers and her sweatshirt. But she didn’t put her sneakers on, thinking it was better to leave them off until she got to the ground; she’d make less noise that way.
She put on her purple sweatshirt, then tied her shoes’ laces together and hung her sneakers over the back of her neck so they hung in front of her. Then she stuck her feet out of the window and slowly slid forwards until her legs were all the way out and she was sitting on the windowsill. Here she paused again to listen. The only noise was the katydids and crickets, just like before. Carefully, she turned onto her stomach and slid back out of the window until her feet touched the wooden terrace-like arch over the bench on the back porch. She took a deep breath and set more of her weight on her feet. She had snuck out like this before, but not since she was ten or eleven. The wood creaked a bit when she put all her weight on it, but it held without bending or cracking.
Thank you old-world craftsmanship. Zoey thought to herself with a smile. The wet wood soaked her socks, but she didn’t mind. The cover over the bench was pitched, so she slid down it to stand on the edge of the big planter next to the back door.
Hopping down from that, she looked back up at her parents’ window. It was still dark, so they hadn’t heard anything. With a self-satisfied smile, Zoey sat down on the bench to put on her sneakers. After that she walked off towards the woods.

The forest, of course, was dark. The moon was still mostly covered by clouds, and what light did shine down was blocked by the trees. I should have brought a flashlight. Zoey thought angrily. But she knew the trail this way so well she didn’t really need one.
She heard rustling in the distance, but didn’t worry. She immediately wrote it off as a squirrel or maybe a raccoon or fox. Maybe even a deer, but surely not anything dangerous.
The fresh air was doing her good, she already felt much more relaxed. The crickets and katydids chirping all around her filled her with a sense of deep inner peace.
She reached the clearing she had known she would reach; the one with the big boulder in the middle. She had always loved that clearing. At night, during the full moon, the white boulder in the center seemed to glow. But on this dark night there was hardly any light to glow by, so the boulder sat dormant.
Zoey walked over and climbed up onto it, and sat cross-legged on the rough surface.
The boulder had a fairly flat top, so she could sit there without much danger of falling off.
She sat and looked around the clearing. It had always been her secret place.
She and Anya had named it ‘whiterock place’ when they were nine, and had decided it would be their secret place forever, and they’d never tell anyone about it.
So far they had both kept their promise, even Trevor didn’t know about it.
The moon came out from behind the clouds and shed just enough light on the forest to reflect off the smooth bits of stone, and make the boulder sparkle. Zoey smiled, feeling that all was right with the world. So what if her parents had grounded her? It was only a week, she would survive. And they always felt bad about grounding either of the girls, so the day they weren’t grounded anymore they would take them somewhere fun.
Now that her mind had settled down, Zoey began to feel very tired. She couldn’t imagine that now she had to walk all the way home and climb back up the terrace-cover into her bedroom window. She yawned and listened to the peaceful nighttime forest.
“Aroooo!” A wolf’s howl exploded from the forest not ten feet from where Zoey sat on the boulder. Shocked, she nearly fell from her seat, and then turned to face the sound, her heart hammering.
“Arooooooo!” Came another wolf’s answer from the other side of the clearing.
This was when Zoey noticed the shifting shadows in the undergrowth around the clearing. All this time she had been watched by a wolf pack, without even realizing it. Her amazement at the animals’ ability to remain unnoticed was overshadowed by her fear. Several wolves came from the shadows on the other side of the clearing, their amber eyes flashing in the dim moonlight.
Zoey’s heart was pounding in her chest, and the wolves’ low growling to each other was nearly inaudible over the roaring in her ears.
As more wolves filed from the darkness on both sides of her, ending at about twelve, adrenaline was rushing in Zoey’s veins and giving her the feeling that she could run forever. She could outrun the wolves, right? Then a bit of her sense broke through: of course she couldn’t, they would run her down, or steer her around the forest until she collapsed from exhaustion, then tear her to bits. There was no escape.
The pack ran at the boulder and Zoey stood up. The wolves behind her leapt at the boulder, snapping viciously. With a frightened little squeal, Zoey jumped down, right in the path of the other wolves. But instead of leaping at her, they broke around her like a river around a rock, and turned to join the wolves behind her, snapping, growling, and running at her. Fear overtook her and Zoey ran as fast as she could out of the clearing. She put all her strength into her legs, and ran so fast she thought her legs might fall off, but still the wolves were right behind her, snapping at her heels as if to keep her running. There were even a few wolves running beside her. Panicking, but part of her mind idly wondering why they didn’t just grab her and drag her down, Zoey hoped she would get to the house in time. But all the doors would be locked; she would have to climb onto the terrace as quickly as possible. All the commotion would certainly wake her parents, and then she’d be in even more trouble.
A wolf snapped at Zoey’s legs when she slowed, and she felt his teeth on her jeans. Another wolf beside her moved behind her a bit, and shoved her with his head. It was as if they were trying to get her to run faster. Once Zoey stumbled on a tree root and nearly fell, breaking her stride and slowing down immensely. She was sure the wolves would leap on her and that would be it, but instead they impatiently grabbed her pant legs and pulled her forwards again; one even shoved against the backs of her legs. A large gray male, who seemed to be the leader, barked at her.
She started running again, and the wolves urged her on.
As they approached the house, Zoey’s chest was burning and she felt dizzy. But she had to keep going. She was so close, just a little farther. She ran the idea through her head a few times: jump onto the planter and hope she could just jump onto the terrace, and then from there to her window. As she was preparing herself, they broke from the trees and into the yard. To Zoey’s surprise, the wolves stopped at the treeline.
Shocked, Zoey slowed to a slow jog and looked back.
The pack stood at the treeline, watching her. She stopped and looked back at them, but her bewildered gaze couldn’t match their intense stare.
“What?” Zoey asked.
The gray male bared his fangs and narrowed his eyes. Several others in the pack did the same. The rest just stood watching her.
Realizing this was her chance to get away to safety, Zoey spun around and rushed to the house. As fast as she could, but still careful to be quiet, she climbed onto the planter, then the terrace, then she pulled herself with great difficulty into her window. Her arms and legs ached as she pulled herself onto the window seat.
Once she was inside, she closed the window and blew out a sigh.
Outside the wolves had disappeared into the shadows once again.
Zoey stared after them thoughtfully. It had been like they had been chasing her out, not trying to catch her or fight her. She had never thought wolves would act like that with humans. Why hadn’t they just attacked her?
But now that the adrenaline was wearing off, Zoey felt her exhaustion crash down on her quite suddenly. With a yawn, she turned around and forced herself to stand against the protests of her leg and arm muscles. She changed into her pajamas and brushed her teeth, all the while thinking of the wolves.
It had been perhaps the most terrifying experience of her life, and she couldn’t even tell her parents.
After getting ready for bed, Zoey slid gently into the light blue sheets and pulled the quilt up to her ears. Letting out a tired sigh, Zoey closed her eyes and was asleep in moments.
In the distance, muffled from Zoey’s hearing by sleep and the closed window, a wolf’s howl echoed across the mountains, carrying with it the pain of loss, and the love of a mother.

The next morning, Zoey’s alarm woke her to the perfect day to turn over and go back to sleep.
Wind howled outside, making the house creak, and rain pounded against the window.
Under the covers though, it was warm and soft, quiet, but not so quiet that Zoey couldn’t hear the rain and wind and appreciate her bed even more.
The air in her room was cool; she had felt it when she hit the snooze button on her alarm. She had no intentions of waking up anytime soon, preferring to hit the snooze button as many times as she could before her mom knocked on the door to see if she was alive.
Snuggling down further into her fortress of fluff, warmth, and quiet, Zoey felt her stomach gurgle. Then the hunger hit her.
“No…” She groaned to herself. She had been trying to stay sleeping enough to keep her early-morning hunger away until she was ready to go eat breakfast. But her stomach would not be ignored. It loudly protested the delay in getting food, and finally Zoey decided she couldn’t put up with it anymore, and slid out of bed.
Shivering, she put on her bathrobe and opened her door.
Her stomach growled again when she took a deep breath of the chocolate-chip pancakes her dad always made on Sundays. It was almost enough to make her want to get up.
Her stomach kept grumbling all the way down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“I guess you’re hungry.” Anya commented when her sister walked into the kitchen.
Zoey gave a non-committal grumble and leaned against the counter beside the stove, where Mark was humming to himself and flipping a pancake.
“Get a plate.” He told her.
Obediently, Zoey grabbed a plate from the cupboard and came back over.
“Now stand over there.”
Puzzled, Zoey stood a few steps back from her dad and waited.
“Hold out your plate.” He smiled.
“Dad, it didn’t work before and it won’t work now.” Anya grumbled from the dining room. She was very negative most mornings.
“Oh ye of little faith.” Mark snorted, and then tossed the pancake over his shoulder in Zoey’s direction.
The pancake made a little ‘thump’ sound as it flopped onto the tile floor.
Zoey and Mark stared at it for a moment. Then Zoey looked up at her father.
“Well that didn’t work out.” Mark said.
“Can I have a couple non-floor pancakes?” Zoey asked wryly.
“Yeah.” Mark sighed, turning back to the stove. No one made a move to pick up the pancake.
Zoey left her plate on the counter and walked into the dining room to sit at the table across from Anya. Zoey rubbed her eyes and then, in a rush so unexpected it nearly knocked her over, Zoey remembered the night before.
She looked up at Anya with a panicked look. Then a thought hit her: She couldn’t tell her parents…but she could tell her sister.
“What?” Anya asked, glancing over her book.
“N-nothing…” Zoey mumbled. “Just a dream I had last night.”
“About what?” Anya asked.
Just then, Zoey heard her Mom walk into the kitchen and demand to know why there was a pancake lying on the ground.
“I’ll tell you later.” Zoey said. That seemed to satisfy Anya, and she went back to reading.
I’ll tell you later… But what would she tell her? Where would she begin? Her sister knew she had snuck out a few times when they were little, but not recently. Would Anya tell their parents? She wouldn’t unless she thought there was an actual danger posed to Zoey, like she was going out to buy beer or drugs or something, or meet some random dude. Did being chased by wolves count as a danger? Zoey wasn’t sure, and glanced at Anya again. This time her blue-gray gaze went unnoticed by her sister.
“Zoey! Come get your pancakes, this is not a restaurant!” Mark called.
When Zoey stumbled into the kitchen, her legs still wobbly from sleep, she glanced at the spot on the floor where the pancake had been. It was gone. And there were two pancakes on her plate. Glancing questioningly at her father, Zoey took the plate. Then she noticed her mother tossing a pancake in the garbage.
“What’s that?” She asked innocently.
“Your father thought it was a good idea to practice flipping the pancakes over his shoulder.” Adelaide growled.
“What would you do that for?” Zoey asked, blinking her wide eyes at Mark.
Mark cleared his throat. “I don’t know,” He said, turning to Adelaide. “How could I have been so foolish? Please have mercy on me, oh great goddess of beauty.”
“Oh hush.” Adelaide smiled, playfully shoving his shoulder.
Zoey shook her head and took the strawberry jelly out of the refrigerator, and then walked back into the dining room.
“What’s going on out there?” Anya asked, raising an eyebrow.
“They’re being gross again.” Zoey sighed, sitting down at the table and spreading the jelly on her pancakes.
Anya made a disgusted face. “How can you put jelly on your pancakes?”
“How can you put honey on yours?” Zoey asked.
“Hey, honey is awesome on pancakes.” Anya said.
“So’s jelly.” Zoey smiled, and set to work cutting her food.
While Zoey was still busy eating, Anya finished and stood to go get dressed upstairs.
“Anya!” Zoey hissed.
Surprised, Anya stopped and looked back at her sister. “What?” She asked.
“Stay upstairs until I get up there, I want to tell you something important.” Zoey said around her mouthful of jelly-covered pancakes.
Anya nodded, and then turned and walked out of the dining room.

Later, after breakfast, Zoey knocked on Anya’s door.
“Who is it?” Anya asked unnecessarily loudly.
She must be listening to her iPod. Zoey decided, blowing a stray strand of hair from her face.
“It’s the pizza man.” Zoey answered. She rarely answered that question with her real name. She didn’t remember a time when she had.
“Come in!” Anya called.
When Zoey walked in, her suspicions regarding her sister’s iPod were confirmed.
She walked in to see Anya sitting on her bed, typing on her laptop, with her blue iPod Nano sitting on her bed beside her. She was bobbing her head along with some song, and mumbling the lyrics to herself.
“What’s up?” She asked, glancing up at her sister.
“Can you turn off the music for a sec?” Zoey asked, pushing the door closed behind her.
Anya reached over and pressed ‘pause’ on her iPod.
“Remember when I told you earlier that I wanted to tell you something important?” Zoey began. Anya nodded.
“Well, last night, I snuck out.” Zoey began, sitting down on Anya’s bed.
That got Anya’s attention. She looked up at her sister with wide eyes. “You did what?” She gasped softly.
“Don’t act like I’ve never done it before.” Zoey snorted, shaking her head.
“Well, you haven’t since…I don’t even remember the last time you did it!” Anya said.
“I know. But that’s not the important part. I went out to ‘whiterock place’, and I saw wolves.”
“Wolves? Really? Whoa.” Anya gasped.
“And they chased me.”
“…Oh really?” Anya asked, her voice slipping into disbelief.
“I’m serious. They did. They chased me, but only to the edge of the trees. Then they let me go, and I climbed back into my room.” Zoey finished.
“Right.” Anya nodded, looking back down at her laptop.
Now it was Zoey’s turn to widen her eyes. “You believe me don’t you?” She asked.
“Of course.” Anya said, not sounding at all convincing.
“No you don’t!” Zoey accused.
“Well it does sound a little crazy…” Anya said, looking back up at her sister.
“I know, but I’m your sister! Don’t you think I deserve to be believed?” Zoey spat.
“Zoe, are you sure you didn’t just fall asleep and dream it?” Anya asked carefully.
“Yes. More sure than I’ve ever been. I was chased by wolves last night.”
Anya nodded. “Then I guess I have to believe you.” She said simply. “So why did they chase you?”
“I don’t know. I thought maybe because I was in their territory or something, but that doesn’t explain why they didn’t chase me all the way to the house.” Zoey sighed.
“It is weird…” Anya mumbled. Then she began to type on her laptop again.
“What are you doing? This is important!” Zoey demanded.
“I know. I’m looking up wolves online. Maybe it says something about their territory.” Anya mumbled, focusing on the search results.
Zoey crawled over to sit next to her sister, leaning against the headboard, and leaned over to see the laptop screen.
“Well, they’re territorial, so why wouldn’t they chase you all the way to the house?” Anya mumbled, scrolling through the computer article.
“That’s what’s confusing me!” Zoey sighed. “It’s so weird.”
Anya shrugged and closed the article. “It is. Maybe they’re just weird wolves?”
Zoey leaned her head against the headboard and sighed again. “I guess so.”
“Don’t worry about it. Unless they can turn into people and pick our locks, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.” Anya smiled.
“I don’t know if I’d put it past them. They were weird wolves.” Zoey pointed out with only a hint of humor in her voice.
Anya blinked at her. “You’re crazy.” She concluded.
“Maybe.” Zoey sighed.
Anya took the earphones from her iPod out of her ear and put them on the bed beside the iPod. “This is really bothering you isn’t it?”
“Well duh.” Zoey snorted, although there was no bite in her words.
“Well maybe the wolves just weren’t that mad because you aren’t another wolf. They just wanted you to leave; and so when they saw you running for the house they stopped and let you go.” Anya said reasonably.
Zoey took a deep breath and looked back at her sister. She could always count on her to be reasonable about everything...at least most of the time.
“You’re probably right. I should just forget about it.” Zoey agreed.
“Yeah.” Anya agreed. “And maybe later we can go hang out at the mall?”
Zoey smiled slightly. “I’m grounded remember? I doubt Mom and Dad will ever let me go to the mall again.”
Anya winced. “Oh yeah, right, I forgot, sorry.”
“We can still finish crabland.” Zoey pointed out.
Anya smiled “Right.”

When they had finished, the sisters sat back to admire their work.
“Anonymous seems to really like the food dish.” Zoey commented.
“Of course he does, it’s full of food.” Anya laughed, elbowing her sister’s arm.
Zoey laughed. “Well Right seems to be admiring the sign, even though it’s over two colors.” She pointed out.
“Can crabs see in color?” Anya asked after a moment.
“...I really don’t know.” Zoey admitted after watching the crabs for a while.
The sisters laughed for a while.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Seriously awesome.

Continue.

Yo.