This entire day was starting out fine. Normal. Wake up at six, get dressed, eat, then run to the bus stop like my butt was on fire. Josh was waiting there, and no one else was here yet. Yay, I’m not late.

“Quite the entrance, Laurel. Why were you running?” Josh said. Standing at 5’ 7”, he was like a giant. Bending over, I panted and made a mental note to set my clock back a few minutes.

“Well, Jafar, looks like someone ate your eyes,” I said, pointing to a snake headed staff that was supposed to be his prop for the school play. The drama club had put that on months ago, yet he still had it. The staff was nearly as tall as me, with eyes made of Hershey kisses. Now they were red licorice.

“To be fair, some random kid unwrapped them. Then they fell and said kid ate them.” I tried to hide my giggles. Failed. “What are you laughing at?” Josh frowned. “It’s not my staff?” That only made me laugh harder as the bus rolled in. Late. Again. I ran to get on first and sit near the back with a friend. She wasn’t here, so I looked out the window as the bus went on. 

The other kids were just laughing, yelling, or watching videos and in no time at all we were halfway to school. A screech went up from the cars around us, not the crazy eighth and ninth graders. Fog was rolling in and all I could think was Fog was not in the forecast today. Suddenly everything malfunctioned. Lights shut down. The bus doors went open with a slow creak. Phones shut off, and no matter how hard or much the others tried, they couldn’t turn their phones back on (bless their hearts). I could sense some... creatures through the fog before they emerged.

Wolves. Bigger than any other wolf I had ever seen and strangely human like. Their wolfish lips were drawn back in a scowl. Their fur was spiking up like they were exasperated. Yes, the frown and the fur, I thought. These are like Fenris. But there was something wrong. The old books said that Fenris wolf could spark a fight just by speaking a word. These wolves radiated a calming aura, despite the frown and fur. 

Ok, for the record, I’m not normally an idiot, but I also don’t get the brightest ideas. I can talk to these guys, I thought. So before I even knew what I was doing I was flying down the bus steps to meet them. As soon as they saw me, their expressions relaxed, like, oh good we found our lunch. Only then I wondered wether or not this was a good idea.

“You are Laurel?” I jumped as a voice drifted through my head. “We have something we want to show you.” Well then, I thought. Why not take a stroll with a half dozen wolves? It’ll be fun! A boom sounded off in the distance, followed by a mushroom cloud. “Hurry.” Wordlessly, I nodded. The fog gathered around me while I transformed into a grey wolf and bounded away with the pack.