The Mystery Kid

• Aiko Mason, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2019

There was a kid who was born on a cold stormy sun like morning she was beautiful, her name was Shadow. Five days past, then she lost her ears and grew wolf ears and tail. The little girl was scared, she didn't know what was happening to her. She would wear a hood everywhere she went, and a long black cape to cover her tail. Slowly, she forgot about having wolf ears and a tail.
Three years later, on the first day of school, she had to wear a school uniform. She was scared to go school without her cape and hoodie. With a lot of effort from her parents, she was pushed out of the car to the front gate of the school. Her reluctance to go school made her four hours late. This left her with 2 hours of homework and no lunch.
When she finally finished her work, she said “I deserve a cookie!’
She went up to the teacher and said, “Can I have a cookie? Please?”
To which her teacher replied “No, you can’t have a cookie, they’re mine!”
She got down on her knees and begged for the cookie. After four long seconds, her teacher finally gave in. While she was giving Shadow the cookie, she said “Why do you wear those wolf ears to school?”
This surprised Shadow, thinking “My teacher thinks it’s all a costume!” This made her very happy. Shadow took the cookie and thanked her teacher on duty and ran away screaming “Me COOKIEEEE!” She stopped in her tracks and thought “what am I doing? I should shove the whole thing in my mouth!” so she did.
Suddenly, a random student walked up to her and asked for her name. She mumbled her name trying not to spit out her cookie. Shadow swallowed the cookie and introduced herself as Ivy, turns out they were in the same class.
After school they walked home together. Going home, they passed a pet store, they walked in and all the puppies’ ears in the pet store perked up in excitement. They all started jumping, howling and barking in excitement. Shadow said “I feel like I can understand them!”
Ivy just shook her head. She said “let’s just go”
Shadow agreed. Shadow whispered to the puppies” I’ll be back, tomorrow to see you all, maybe even let you out”. They walked in silence the rest of the way home.
Ivy broke the silence by saying “Why do you think the dogs went nuts when we came in?” Shadow just shrugged and they continued in silence.
When Shadow got home, she wondered why she understood the puppies. She thought perhaps, her tail and ears had something to do with it? She heard that dinner was ready, there were Tacos, “awesome,” she said, one of my favourites. After eating she excused herself form the table. She felt tired and went off to bed. During that night something took her...To its cold cave.