We were doomed, and we couldn’t do anything about it!
I opened my mouth to shout a warning. But just then something hit me hard between the shoulder blades, knocking the breath right out of me.
Chapter 7
“Come on, Gruff, move!” urged Paul in a sharp whisper, nudging me again. “Miss Possum’s staring at us.”
I looked up and met the teacher’s eyes. Was she still a human or had she turned into a night creature? I couldn’t tell.
I shivered and began moving with the class.
I was glad Paul had brought me to my senses. If I had yelled, it would have accomplished nothing except to scare the other kids and get me barred from assembly. We silently filed down the hall and into the gymnasium. The fifth-grade class was already seated in the bleachers. I waved at Kim but she didn’t see me. It was weirdly quiet.
As we sat down I saw Miss Possum closing the big double doors. When she had them secured she leaned back against them, folded her arms, and nodded at someone across the gym. I quickly turned to see who it was.
The fifth-grade teacher stood in front of the emergency exit. He nodded back at Miss Possum, folded his arms, and leaned against the door, blocking the exit. My heart began to pound but no one else seemed to notice we were trapped here.
A lecture stand had been set up and as soon as we were seated, a man came up and stood behind it. He was big and his wiry gray hair was bushy, almost like fur. He held up his hand for silence even though no one was making a sound.
Then he smiled. He had very large teeth. “I am Mr. Smiley, your new principal,” he said. “I’ve called this assembly to tell you that the search party has found no trace of your former principal or your gym teacher. While this is very sad that’s no reason to frighten the younger students with ridiculous stories.”
Mr. Smiley paused and looked around, frowning so hard his bristling eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead. “We suspect that Mr. Clawson and Mr. Grunter somehow got off the path and slipped into a bog. The bogs in the swamp are very dangerous. Many are full of quicksand and can swallow a grown man in just a few minutes. We may never find their bodies.”
Behind me someone whimpered.
Mr. Smiley narrowed his eyes at the sound. “Our search party did find something, though. What we discovered was”—he paused and looked around to make sure he had our attention. “Wolves!”
“But the wolves helped us!” Kim called out, standing up. “They saved us.”
Mr. Smiley turned his terrible gaze on her. “Wolves are vicious, savage animals,” he said in a low rumbling voice. “It was the wolves who attacked you, you foolish child.”
Kim dropped back into her seat, white and shaking.
“It was clear from their tracks that a pack of wolves attacked the bus you kids were hiding in the night of the field trip. The wolves were obviously in a killing frenzy. You are all lucky to be alive. It seems clear that your principal and gym teacher were savagely attacked by this possibly rabid pack. In their struggles to escape the two men stumbled into a bog—which would explain why we found only a few shreds of their clothing.”
Mr. Smiley sighed deeply. “Yes,” he said to himself, “that’s most likely what happened. But you have nothing more to fear. We will hunt down those murdering wolves and exterminate every last one of them! Now, I want you to go back to your classes and put this behind you. IS THAT CLEAR?”
Under the force of Mr. Smiley’s thundering voice, a lot of kids mumbled promises not to speak of monsters anymore. The new principal smiled, showing lots of big yellow teeth. “And now I’ll explain some of the new rules that are going to be in force around here,” he said. But as he started to talk about hall passes and late notes and detention, my mind wandered.
I was worried about my wolf family. If Mr. Smiley had his way, the humans would be hunting them again. Blaming the real wolves for all the damage the werewolves were doing. But what could I do? How could I convince Fox Hollow about the real danger?
Suddenly, something grabbed my leg.
I squawked and jerked my foot. The thing held on, its claws sinking into my ankle.
It had uncanny strength and it was pulling me down. Down into the darkness under the bleachers.
Chapter 8
I felt myself slipping down and grabbed the edge of the bench, hanging on with all my strength. The principal was still droning on about new rules. No one had noticed what was happening to me but I was afraid to call out.
“Gruff!” somebody whispered.
It was Paul. He grabbed hold of my arm and tried to pull me back into my seat. But whatever had me from below wouldn’t let go.
“Wolf-boy!” came a whispered hiss from the dark space below. The voice sounded strangely familiar.
I peered into the darkness below the bleachers. A face appeared out of the shadows. “It’s me! Rick!”
Big Rick, the bully, and my enemy since the first day of school. He gave my ankle another tug and let go. “I have to talk to you,” he whispered urgently. “Paul, too.”
With one eye on the principal I crept down under the bleachers. Paul followed.
“What’s up, Rick?” Paul asked. “Why all the secrecy?”
Rick had had close contact with a werewolf and it seemed to have affected him a lot. His face was pale and drawn and I noticed a streak of his hair had turned completely white. A werewolf had pulled him out of a sucking bog, saving his life. Of course, he didn’t know the werewolf was me.
“I saw one of those monsters last night,” Rick explained, his voice shaking. “A werewolf with gleaming red
