senses awake.
Heâs right behind me now. Heâs stopped. Next he will raise the tree trunk and knock me over the cliff. I hear the âwhooshâ of the trunk swinging up.
I dive out of the way. The tree trunk crashes into the ground sending dirt, leaves, and rocks flying. I slip behind him and take a deep breath. With all my strength I shove! Heâs caught off guard. He manages to spin around, eyes flashing. And thatâs how I see his face as he realizes heâs going over the side of the cliff.
I hear trees crash and crunch as he falls down. But he doesnât make a noise. Not until he hits the bottom with a boom that sounds supersonic. All his breath comes out in a deep, horrible, hellish moan.
I cringe and cover my ears.
Then the moan stops. Itâs silent. I tremble and realize Iâm covered in sweat. I turn and run as fast as I can the whole way home. I donât stop to rest. I donât stop to breathe. I donât stop to wipe the tears that stream down my cheeks.
And when I get home, I sneak inside and never mention what happened. When my parents find me, I take my grounding for cutting class and just let everyone believe I was having a moody teen day.
The cafeteria guy is the last of the disappearances. The police find the remains of a bear at the bottom of the cliff, but that was really the ogre. There are no bears here.
No one knows what I did to save Tanner and the school, but since then, I walk around at my full heightâ6â8ââwith no slouching. Every day, I sit with Kelsey and the twins. Theyâre actually really funny and cool, and it still drives Tanner crazy, so thatâs a bonus.
I make the basketball team. Iâm still veggie, and a new boy whoâs also veggie just started school. Heâs 7â0â with a greenish hue to his skin. So I think I might have found someone to ask to homecoming. And if heâs smart, heâll say yes.
Justine Cogan Gunn writes for children as young as three in her preschool podcast
Weird World of Work
and for teenagers with stories like âWhat Verity Knew.â Sheâs co-written a Lifetime movie, edited a magazine in Spain and is always writing fiction to be read, listened to or watched. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
Larger Than Life
Hope Erica Schultz
Even monsters have birthdays.
For mine, my friends brought me a variety of surprisesânot easy, given that we all live on the Cloud together, and everything we get from the outside world comes to us from the Stalk right in the middle. I had only been here a month, though, and the others had had far longer to figure out small deceptions.
I sat on the enormous chair they had built for me, trying not to giggle. I giggle when I get nervous, and it makes the furniture shake. Ella handed up the first present to me, hefting it high with her slender arms. I took it gingerly, carefully tearing the paper away.
It was a hand mirror, my size. Ella must have welded on the enormous handle to a full size wall mirror, and she beamed as I admired myself in it, her whole body thrumming. For just a moment, I felt like an ordinary teenage girl surrounded by friends.
The face in the mirror looked human, ordinary, maybe even slightly pretty with pink cheeks, blue eyesand blond hair. Ella, below me, was human sized, but curved and slender as a harp, her brown hair chiming with her movements, her body humming. Beside her, Jared hefted up his own present, his squat gray form resembling a rough-hewn statue.
âI hope you like it,â he grated and smiled.
Of course I liked it. I would have liked a garland of paper chains, but heâd made me a massive necklace of gold. It looked delicate around my neck.
âAnd mine for last, Vivian!â Cyn caroled. She was the most human of us with only her wings, and the fact that she didnât age normally, locking her up here with us. She flew up beside me now, holding out a tiny
Heâs right behind me now. Heâs stopped. Next he will raise the tree trunk and knock me over the cliff. I hear the âwhooshâ of the trunk swinging up.
I dive out of the way. The tree trunk crashes into the ground sending dirt, leaves, and rocks flying. I slip behind him and take a deep breath. With all my strength I shove! Heâs caught off guard. He manages to spin around, eyes flashing. And thatâs how I see his face as he realizes heâs going over the side of the cliff.
I hear trees crash and crunch as he falls down. But he doesnât make a noise. Not until he hits the bottom with a boom that sounds supersonic. All his breath comes out in a deep, horrible, hellish moan.
I cringe and cover my ears.
Then the moan stops. Itâs silent. I tremble and realize Iâm covered in sweat. I turn and run as fast as I can the whole way home. I donât stop to rest. I donât stop to breathe. I donât stop to wipe the tears that stream down my cheeks.
And when I get home, I sneak inside and never mention what happened. When my parents find me, I take my grounding for cutting class and just let everyone believe I was having a moody teen day.
The cafeteria guy is the last of the disappearances. The police find the remains of a bear at the bottom of the cliff, but that was really the ogre. There are no bears here.
No one knows what I did to save Tanner and the school, but since then, I walk around at my full heightâ6â8ââwith no slouching. Every day, I sit with Kelsey and the twins. Theyâre actually really funny and cool, and it still drives Tanner crazy, so thatâs a bonus.
I make the basketball team. Iâm still veggie, and a new boy whoâs also veggie just started school. Heâs 7â0â with a greenish hue to his skin. So I think I might have found someone to ask to homecoming. And if heâs smart, heâll say yes.
Justine Cogan Gunn writes for children as young as three in her preschool podcast
Weird World of Work
and for teenagers with stories like âWhat Verity Knew.â Sheâs co-written a Lifetime movie, edited a magazine in Spain and is always writing fiction to be read, listened to or watched. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
Larger Than Life
Hope Erica Schultz
Even monsters have birthdays.
For mine, my friends brought me a variety of surprisesânot easy, given that we all live on the Cloud together, and everything we get from the outside world comes to us from the Stalk right in the middle. I had only been here a month, though, and the others had had far longer to figure out small deceptions.
I sat on the enormous chair they had built for me, trying not to giggle. I giggle when I get nervous, and it makes the furniture shake. Ella handed up the first present to me, hefting it high with her slender arms. I took it gingerly, carefully tearing the paper away.
It was a hand mirror, my size. Ella must have welded on the enormous handle to a full size wall mirror, and she beamed as I admired myself in it, her whole body thrumming. For just a moment, I felt like an ordinary teenage girl surrounded by friends.
The face in the mirror looked human, ordinary, maybe even slightly pretty with pink cheeks, blue eyesand blond hair. Ella, below me, was human sized, but curved and slender as a harp, her brown hair chiming with her movements, her body humming. Beside her, Jared hefted up his own present, his squat gray form resembling a rough-hewn statue.
âI hope you like it,â he grated and smiled.
Of course I liked it. I would have liked a garland of paper chains, but heâd made me a massive necklace of gold. It looked delicate around my neck.
âAnd mine for last, Vivian!â Cyn caroled. She was the most human of us with only her wings, and the fact that she didnât age normally, locking her up here with us. She flew up beside me now, holding out a tiny
Similar Books
