Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja (a hilarious adventure for children ages 9-12) (2 page)

I nodded my head, but was distracted by some movement out of
the corner of my eye. It was the edge of the track where the tree line was the
thickest. I stopped in place and stared for a second to see if anything moved
again, but nothing did.

“What is it?” Zoe asked.

I kept staring into the dense foliage. It was just a mess of
green leaves and heavy shadows - except for a pair of the whitest eyes I’d ever
seen. I froze in place and rubbed my eyes. Am I seeing things straight or was
it part of the “first day jitters” that Zoe and I spoke about? When I looked
again, they were gone.

“I guess I just…” I stopped talking when I looked at Zoe’s
face.

Zoe was standing behind me with her eyes peeled wide open,
staring into the same spot in the tree line that I was studying only seconds
ago. “Did you see that?” she asked.

A chill ran down my spine. “I did. Do you know what it was?”

She shook her head and started walking along the track again.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here. I think I’d rather
not
get eaten by a
creature in the woods today.”

I knew it wasn’t a monster that we had seen. I’m not that
into scary stories and watch enough with my dad to know that monsters are fake…
at least I
think
they’re fake. At that moment, I didn’t feel the need to
test that theory so I caught up with Zoe and we spent the rest of class making
jokes to distract ourselves from whatever it was that had spied on us.

Little did I know that it was the first time I’d ever seen a
ninja. I’d do anything to take that moment back and just keep walking. Of
course, that’s not how it turned out, and my curiosity got the better of me.

Tuesday. 10:30 AM. Gym class.

The next day, Mr. Cooper took attendance as he did before. I
was surprised that he remembered who I was. As he approached me, he said my
name and checked me off the list.

Zoe hadn’t left the girl’s locker room yet so I was stuck in
the gymnasium standing by myself. I pushed my hands into my pockets and watched
the other kids laugh and make jokes with each other before the class officially
started. A couple of them even glanced in my direction. I didn’t hear what they
said, but I’m pretty sure it was about me.

“Hey,
new
kid,” said a voice from behind me.

I turned around and was met by a taller student. He was very
plain looking with slicked back brown hair. It’s possible that it was greasy,
but it’s also possible he just used way too much gel. “Me?” I asked.

The brown haired boy outstretched his arms. “I don’t see any
other
new
kids around here, do you?”

I glanced around. “Uh, I guess I wouldn’t know.”

“Of course not,” he said as he held out his hand. “My name’s
Brayden
, and
you
just passed my
test
.”

I shook his cold clammy hand. It was gross and I had to very
consciously decide not to rip my hand away from his in disgust. It was my
second day of school! I didn’t want to embarrass anyone…
yet
. “My name’s
Chase. Chase Cooper. What test did I just pass?”

Brayden
shrugged his shoulders. “I
don’t know. It’s just an icebreaker.
Y’know
,
something to break… the
ice
.”

Smart one, this kid. “Nice to meet you.”

“Pleased to meet
you
, Chase. So how was your first
day of class yesterday?”

“It was alright,” I answered. As I blinked, I hoped he
couldn’t read my thoughts. Please just walk away. You’re weird and sweaty.

“Huh,”
Brayden
grunted as he
crossed his arms. He remained in place like a statue.

What did this kid want me to say? That it was an epic first
day? That it was lame? Whatever it was, I guess I didn’t care because I didn’t
try to keep the conversation going. We stood there in an awkward silence,
occasionally making eye contact, wondering who the next to speak would be.

“Chase,” Zoe called from nearby. “Come on, let’s walk the
track again.”

I glanced at
Brayden
. He still
didn’t say anything. He just stood there looking sad. Being the nice guy I am,
I couldn’t just walk away from him. “You want to join us?”

Brayden’s
face slowly cracked open a
smile. It was one of the scariest things I’d seen in my life. “Sure!” he said.

Zoe was nice about it. She seemed to know
Brayden
from previous years at this school. “Hi,
Brayden
. Find any werewolves lately?”

“No, but it’s not for lack of trying,”
Brayden
answered.

Suddenly,
Brayden
seemed a little
more interesting to me. “You look for werewolves?”

“
Hunt
werewolves,” he said sharply. “I
hunt
werewolves.”

Yeah, this kid was cool. “Ever find any?” I asked.

“Never,” he replied. “Not a one.”

“Maybe someday,” I said. It was pretty unlikely that this
dude was going to catch a werewolf, but who was I to shatter his dreams? “Just
keep trying I guess.”

As we stepped out of the gym doors, the sun poured across
the school parking lot like a hot wet blanket. It was muggy and awful outside.
Zoe immediately started flapping the bottom of her tank top to push air through
the shirt.

“Oh gross,” she said. “Great. Everyone’s
gonna
sweat and stink for the rest of the day. That’s
so nasty.”

I laughed. When she said it like that, it
did
seem
nasty. Zoe was always the cleanest one at family events, always washing her
hands and wiping her face.

As we walked the path to the track,
Brayden
was talking about his love of werewolves. At first it was great, but it got boring
really fast. He just kept repeating the same things over and over about how
real werewolves live in Wisconsin or something. This boy would
not
shut
his mouth.

Zoe was good at pretending to care though I know she
actually didn’t. Seeing her
smile
and nod, I realized
how obvious it actually was and wondered if she had ever done that to me.
Didn’t matter – we hardly talked outside of school.

“So that’s why a lot of people think werewolves actually
come from
Wisconsin
,”
Brayden
said, breathing
heavily.

“That’s
neat
!” Zoe said, almost convincingly.

“What happens if you ever find one?” I asked.

Brayden
paused. “Of course I want to
find one someday, but at the same time, I hope I never do. If I ever get close
enough to one, I’ll probably snap a picture with my camera. That is, if I have
my camera on me.”

Zoe started glancing at the tree line again as soon as we
arrived to the track. There were several other students in front of us with
even more trailing behind. I knew she was looking for those eyes from yesterday.
What could they have possible been? And then I glanced at
Brayden
…

“Hey,” I said to him. “Have you ever heard any stories of
anything living in
these
woods?”

Zoe’s attention snapped at me. Her brow was furrowed and if
she could stare daggers into my soul, she totally would have.

“In
these
woods?”
Brayden
asked as he looked at the trees. “I’ve never heard anything strange about them.
Why? Did you see something?”

Zoe’s glare warned me not to mention anything, but she’s
family – she’ll forgive me. “I saw a set of eyes watching me yesterday.
Zoe saw them too.”

“
Why
would you say anything?” Zoe asked. She looked
at
Brayden
. “If you tell
anyone
about this,
just say it was
Chase
that saw something, okay? I don’t need this kind
of paranoid delusion following me into middle school next year.”

Brayden
scratched his head. “You two
saw someone watching you from the trees? What color were the eyes?”

“Blue,” I answered. At least I
remembered
them being
blue.

Brayden
scratched at his rough chin. “
Y’know
… I’ve heard stories… no. There’s no way.”

Suddenly Zoe was interested. All this “cool girl” talk
disappears when you put a real mystery in front of her face. “There’s no way,
what? What were you
going
to say?”

Brayden
stepped closer to the tree
line. Naturally, Zoe and I followed. As he leaned into the shadows, he mumbled
some stuff to himself, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. It was
strange… it sounded as if he said…
ninjas
.

And then he reached his hand into the woods. I knew what was
about to happen next because it happens in movies all the time. The innocent
doofus
reaches his hand into a dark area and loses it.

“Wait!” I shouted, but it was too late.

Brayden
was suddenly yanked into the
trees. In a rush of activity, he disappeared. It looked as if shadows came to
life and swallowed him up. I just met this kid and I already regretted it.

Zoe cupped her hand over her mouth, muffling a scream I knew
would come out sooner or later. Without thinking (I seem to be guilty of this a
lot), I jumped into the woods to chase after
Brayden
.

“No!” I could hear Zoe yell.

As soon as I planted my feet into the ground beyond the
border of the woods, I kept my eyes clenched tight, afraid of what kind of
monsters I would be face to face with. Was
Brayden’s
theory of werewolves correct? Was one going to be standing there with a half
eaten boy in its jaws? I forced my eyes open.

Nothing.

The area was empty. There were no monsters, no people, and
no
Brayden
. I scanned farther through the trees,
focusing on seeing any kind of movement against the still areas, but there was
nothing.

In that moment, the branches shook from behind me. I thought
my heart was going to explode as I flipped around to face my attacker. In all
the chaos, I forgot that Zoe was even with me. Weird too because less than ten
seconds had passed since I jumped into the woods.

“Where’s
Brayden
?” Zoe whispered.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “And I can’t even tell where
they took him!”

“Who’s ‘
they’
?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Werewolves, I guess? Maybe they’ve
finally gotten fed up with his terrible hunting skills and have taken action
into their own paws. Get it? Paws?” It was a terrible joke, but hopefully it
helped Zoe feel better.

She laughed. “Human hunters,” she sneered. “Too bad they
picked the strangest kid to kidnap and study, right? Look at the ground.”

I did, but couldn’t see what she was talking about. It was
just moist dirt, or
mud
as a scientist would
probably call it. “What about it?”