Check out the third-place winner of our summer fiction contest below. (Note: This selection has been given a title and edited for clarity and conciseness.)
An Unlikely Friendship
By Shika Acolatse, 15
His piercing green eyes stared at her menacingly from under his tattered baseball cap. Kit stood in the middle of the forest clearing shocked by what she had just witnessed: a werewolf who had just transformed into a boy, who was now giving her a look that could kill.
“Come out of the tree, mutt,” she commanded with fake exasperation. “I am not going to kill you.”
With extreme suspicion and caution, the boy stepped into the clearing, still keeping his distance, his eyes turning from hostile to helpless. A million thoughts were racing through Kit’s mind. Her entire family is a group of professional werewolf hunters. Their whole goal is to eradicate all werewolves. But when she looked at this one, all the pent-up adrenaline and desire to be the first of her cousins to kill a werewolf vanished.
“Hey, Ms. Scary-wolf-hunter lady, I know that you are sparing my life and all — and super grateful, by the way — but like, you reek of wolfsbane,” said the boy. “Again, you know, super grateful. Just needed to get that off my mind because you are like, really pretty and intimidating.”
“Okay wow, someone has extreme word vomit,” Kit said. “Can we both sit down and talk? I have never met a werewolf, and by your nervousness, I am guessing that you have never met a wolf hunter.”
They sat down in the clearing and stared at one another.
“Wow for a supposed evil beast you look so … human,” Kit continued.
“Weird. For a supposed vicious, overly aggressive werewolf hunter you seem so … human,” the boy replied.
“Okay valid, sorry. What is your name?”
“Noah, you?”
“Kit. Age?”
“Sixteen.”
“Same. School?”
“Yes and no. First off, it’s summer, and I don’t know if I want to go back because I can learn more on the internet, and it’s getting harder to pretend I have parents.”
“Y-y-your parents are dead?”
“Yeah, about two years ago.”
“Hey, Noah, I am really sorry.”
“It’s okay, I can talk about it now.”
“Are there more of you?”
“Not in this area anymore. The pack I used to be in left after my parents, you know,” Noah said. “Okay Kit, the werewolf slayer, are there more of you?”
“Haha. Um, yeah there are actually. My family is quite big.”
“Oh great … ha.”
“Let’s talk about something else. You like music?”
“Oh my god, of course!”
The two talked for hours in the comfortable space in the clearing, surrounded by lush, green forest for miles around.
“I should probably get back home before my mom or dad comes looking for me,” Kit said after a while.
“Okay, yeah totally. Don’t want to get you in any more trouble than I probably already am.”
“Can we see each other again?”
“Yeah, of course! I mean, sure if you want.”
“Tomorrow at twelve?”
“So soon? Well, if you insist.”
“Haha, shut up,” Kit joked, lightly shoving him.
The conversation had an awkward moment of silence. Kit held out her arms slowly.
“Wolf-boy, are you going to hug me or not?”
“Well, I guess so Ms. professional wolf-slayer.”
As they embraced, someone walked into the clearing.
“Kit?” a voice asked.
Kit escaped the hug quickly to see that the person who had entered their space was her father.