 
Little Bad Wolf

By

Peter Reynolds

In memory of my father who thought me to love books.

Thanks to Jon Wigmore, Susan Starling and Kevin Lossner for their invaluable help with editing this story.

Smashwords Edition

© 2013 Peter Reynolds

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

# Table of Contents

PART 1 – THE TRUE STORY OF THE BIG BAD WOLF

CHAPTER 1 DANCING WITH ELVIS

CHAPTER 2 THE FIRST DAY OF APRIL

CHAPTER 3 TOMORROW IS A LONG TIME

CHAPTER 4 NO VISITORS FOR BIG BAD WOLF

CHAPTER 5 THE COURT

CHAPTER 6 THE PLAN

CHAPTER 7 THE NOISE-BOX

CHAPTER 8 LEARNING TO SPEAK

CHAPTER 9 TROUBLE WITH A CAPITAL T

CHAPTER 10 CAUGHT

CHAPTER 11 LITTLE BAD WOLF - TV STAR

PART 2 SCHOOL DAYS

CHAPTER 12 THE WOLF MUST GO

CHAPTER 13 CHILDREN SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD

CHAPTER 14 WHO'S AFRAID OF THE LITTLE BAD WOLF?

CHAPTER 15 OVERHEARD

CHAPTER 16 NO NUDITY PLEASE

CHAPTER 17 ROCK FASHION

CHAPTER 18 ANOTHER NOTICE

CHAPTER 19 ELOCUTION TEST

CHAPTER 20 RADIO PROBLEMS

CHAPTER 21 I HAVE BEEN WATCHING YOU

CHAPTER 22 CORRECT EATING HABITS

CHAPTER 23 THE DEBATE

PART 3 KIDNAPPED

CHAPTER 24 NO SCHOOL TODAY

CHAPTER 25 THE SEARCH

CHAPTER 26 CAPTURED

CHAPTER 27 ESCAPE

CHAPTER 28 THE RETURN OF THE BIG BAD WOLF

#  Part 1 – The True Story of the Big Bad Wolf

#  Chapter 1 Dancing with Elvis

The other wolves were all of the same opinion. Big Bad Wolf and his pack were a complete mess. They did everything wrong. Some said they must have some human blood with the silly things they do. Whenever they heard music they would stop to listen to it. Whoever heard of a wolf who listens to music? One wolf said she had visited Madame, as everyone called Mrs Bad Wolf, and they were dancing. Dancing like human dance! Who would have thought that a wolf could do that? According to this witness, Madame and Big Bad Wolf and Little Bad Wolf were dancing to some awful noise. They told her it was very popular with humans. There were also those T-shirts she 'collected'. Madame had a small collection of funny human clothing. She collected T-shirts with pictures of pop stars on them. Who would have thought a wolf would want a T-shirt?

Their pack was also a mess. It was a very small pack, the two of them, Little Bad Wolf and the two aunts, Martha and Matilda. All the other packs in the forest had at least ten wolves and two had sixteen. It was rumoured that one of the aunts was as sane as any other wolf in the forest but no one knew which aunt.

In addition to the fact that the Bad Wolf pack was a mess - and not just any old mess but the biggest mess which a wolf pack could ever be - the other wolves were also agreed that you were very unlikely to meet finer company or more decent wolves in this or any other forest. They were a mess - but a glorious mess. The Bad Wolves were kind decent wolves, if a bit eccentric. Every wolf in the forest knew the first place to hide if they were being hunted by humans was the Bad Wolves' den. Many of the other wolves worried that their antics would get them into trouble.

Only last week they had seen a door of a cottage which belonged to a human called Granny Hood. It was wide open and music coming from it. "It was Elvis," said Big Bad Wolf when he was telling the story to a lot of other wolves who had never heard of Elvis and had only a vague idea what music or dancing was. "We couldn't just leave it," said Big Bad Wolf. "We had to go inside and once inside... well, we danced. It turned out that the door had been open because Granny Hood was expecting her grand-daughter and she had just gone upstairs for a snooze. A very, very deep snooze as it happened. Her grand-daughter Little Red Riding Hood heard the music and the racket of two large wolves trying to do a dance which was called 'The Twist'. Instead of going into the cottage she looked inside through the window and saw the two wolves where she expected to see her granny. She ran to find the first person she could find. It happened that this was the wood cutter.

"Come on," shouted the wood cutter. "Let's get these wolves before they kill your granny." Little Red Riding Hood had not even thought of such a thing and she was in a terrible panic. She started shouting, "Quick! Quick!" at the wood cutter. He got even more excited and was shouting about how we was going to kill those horrible wolves.

The two wolves were making a lot of noise when they danced. Wolves do not go in for graceful waltzes. However, despite the noise of their dancing and the music, they still heard the wood cutter and Little Red Riding Hood shouting as they raced towards the cottage.

The two wolves fled as soon as they realised what was happening. The wood cutter tried his best to catch them. He even threw his axe at them but they were too fast and outran him. The wood cutter was very disappointed that he did not catch them. He was even sadder when he discovered that the wolves had not caused damage. He was disappointed that he had no excuse to hunt them. How he hated these protected species! He swore to himself that he would soon get those wolves.

The only effect of the two wolves was that afternoon Granny Hood had a dream Elvis Presley was trying to kiss her, and she was telling him that he should behave himself. Even that was not unusual, as Granny Hood had been having dreams about Elvis for the last fifty years. In most of these dreams he was trying to kiss her. Everyone laughed when Big Bad Wolf told them the story. His stories were always very funny. Some of the older wolves said they knew this wood cutter, and he was bad news. They said some humans were just mean and dangerous. They liked to hunt and to kill wolves. They would say that something awful had happened, such as farm animals were attacked, and they would use this as an excuse to attack wolves. They said the woodcutter was usually one of the humans that went hunting wolves. They said he will make a tale of this event too and he will be a hero saving Little Red Riding Hood and Granny Hood, and the only way he can do that is by making Big Bad Wolf and Madame look very big, very bad and very dangerous. Big Bad Wolf did not even worry about this for a full day. He just seemed to decide that nothing was going to happen. That was two weeks ago, and he had now forgotten about it completely.

#  Chapter 2 The First Day of April

Today was the first day of April, and Little Bad Wolf was expecting it to be one of the best days of her life. It was Big Bad Wolf's birthday and they were planning to have a party. Usually Little Bad Wolf's parents got up early every morning, but on this morning they were sleeping late and planning a very relaxed start to the party day. Little Bad Wolf was too excited to stay in bed. She knew that her parents rarely got to sleep late and it was not fair to wake them. She also knew that the party would not start until they got up. She tried to resist the temptation to wake them. Each time she saw them and heard their snores she wanted to pull at them so that they would wake. She wanted to shout or jump, anything which would get them out of this sleep. She also knew that whatever she did, her parents would not be very pleased to be awoken on the one day of the year when they slept late.

In order to get away from the temptation of waking them, Little Bad Wolf decided to go outside. It was a cold but beautiful day. She noticed that it was a bit noisier than usual but this did not worry her. It was just human doing things. Humans, thought Little Bad Wolf, always seem to have to do something and would benefit from being more like wolves or dogs. It was a beautiful day, and those human were parking a lot of dark blue vans along the road near the forest where their den was.

It did seem strange there were a lot of men dressed in black, with large dogs on leads. Little Bad Wolf had never seen a gun before, but she guessed that this was what the men were carrying. She also realized that the men were policemen. At last she had a reason to wake her parents. She went back to then and almost shouted, "Mum, Dad, what are all those men dressed in black doing in our forest? There are police in big black vans. They have guns and dogs."

"What?" said Madame, very alarmed.

"Ha ha ha," said Big Bad Wolf. "This is brilliant."

"What do you mean, brilliant," said Madame.

"You fell for it," he said. "Well done, Little. Lots of vans, lots of dogs, lots of police. Very funny."

"This might be very serious," said Madame.

"What date is today?" he said.

Madame and Big Bad Wolf then starting laughing. They said it was a brilliant April Fool and wasn't Little Bad Wolf very clever to think this one up.

Little Bad Wolf looked and in a quiet but serious voice said, "This is not an April fool."

It was at this point they heard the noise outside. Immediately everyone was wide awake very alert. Little Bad Wolf's two aunts joined them with a look of panic.

"Stay here with Little Bad Wolf," said Big Bad Wolf to the aunts. "Madame and I will go outside and see what they are doing. We may have to lead them away. Look after the baby."

Little Bad Wolf usually hated it when he called her the baby (which was very often), but today she did not even notice it.

They then heard a loud voice say, "Big Bad Wolf, we know you are in there. Come out now." The voice was louder than any human could speak, so they must have been using some sort of amplifier.

"Well," said Madame. "We know who they want. Let's get them away from here."

Big Bad Wolf and Madame then raced out of the den. There were police everywhere, just as Little Bad Wolf had said. They also had dog,s and some of the dogs saw the two wolves immediately but they pretended they had not seen anything. At least two of these dogs already knew Big Bad Wolf and they were not willing to help their human masters so much on this occasion. Big Bad Wolf went to the path on the left side, while Madame went on the right.

For a moment or two the wolves listened to the main policeman shout orders at his men.

"We know this wolf, Big Bad Wolf, is a very dangerous animal. We know he is also very cunning. If possible we will capture him. However, if anyone is at risk or if he looks like getting away, you should shoot!"

Big Bad Wolf knew that the humans thought there was only one wolf. He ran a good distance from the den, Big Bad Wolf let out a huge howl.

"He's over there," shout one of the police. "Quick, get him!"

Then they heard another howl from exactly the opposite direction. Madame was calling now.

"What!" shouted another of the policemen. "I thought you said he was over there? He is not he is over here."

When the policemen went in the direction of Madame, Big Bad Wolf ran yet further away from the den, and when the policemen were getting close to Madame he let out another howl.

"What!" shouted the first policeman. "He's getting away. I told you he was on that side."

The two wolves led the police further and further away from their den. The police got more and more confused. Big Bad Wolf and Madame did not need to see each other or talk to know what the other would do. They had done this before where they led men away from their den and each time it worked out perfectly. Even though there were more men this time and they had guns and dogs, it seemed to be working again. The police were going following them but never realizing there were two wolves.

The police were shouting and pointing in a different direction every few seconds. Big Bad Wolf knew Madame would be laughing at this as she knew he would be. They kept running and howling to attract attention away from the other wolf. They did not notice that one police man with a riffle had stopped running. He took his gun and pointed in just ahead of where he had last heard a wolf. The police man then heard a wolf howling from the other direction. All his colleagues shouted and ran in the direction of the last howl. He did not. He kept his gun pointed and waited.

He then fired a single shot and walked in the direction he had just fired.

"I've got one," he shouted.

"What do you mean 'one'?" said another police man.

"There are at least two of them out there, and they were playing with us."

The policemen now looked at Madame whose dead body lay in front of them. Big Bad Wolf had also heard the shot and was scared. The shot had not been aimed at him, yet he was the last one to howl. He tried to listen to what the police were saying.

"It looks like you got him," said one of the policemen.

"I think there are more. At least two of them," said the police man who had fired the shot.

Big Bad Wolf heard this and understood what had happened. He knew that what he should do was hide or run away. He knew he had to protect Little Bad Wolf and look after her. But most of all he knew he had to walk to where Madame lay stretched out, lie at her feet and cry.

More policemen had gathered by this stage. One of them raised his gun and pointed it at Big Bad Wolf. Big Bad Wolf had a feeling that if he had ran now the man would have given him a chance to get away before trying to shot him. He did not move. He just lay there by the foot of Madame and cried. The policemen had a large net, and they threw it over him, then took him away.

#  Chapter 3 Tomorrow Is A Long Time

The police just left the body of Madame where they found it. After they left, wolves started to gather around it. They came in packs from all corners of the forest. There were joined by some of the dogs from the village. The presence of the dogs emphasised how significant this sad event was. Some of the wolves had never been in such close contact with a dog who was not running away from them.

Madame's father was a very strong, noble wolf - the leader of the largest pack in the forest and chief of all the pack leaders. A number of the younger wolves form his pack carried Madame as he walked behind them. They were followed by a long line of wolves and dogs. Some other animals stood silently and looked on with heads bowed. The processions arrived at the den where Madame had lived with Big Bad Wolf, Little Bad Wolf and the two aunts. Little Bad Wolf and the aunts had heard what had happened and were waiting in silence as the procession arrived.

Near the den they heard music coming from one of the houses. Madame's favourite singer, Elvis Presley, was singing. Not all the wolves knew how much Madame loved to listen to the voice of this man, but they understood that the music was important.

They were not just listening to Madame's favourite singer, but he was also singing her favourite song. His soft slow silky voice was singing 'Tomorrow is a long time', and all who heard this were as lonely and emotional as Elvis must have been when he sang this song.

Not all wolves can understand the language of people but some can and these were the first to cry as they heard this soft sad slow song come to them over the radio. By the second time Elvis was singing about waiting for his true love they were all crying.

After the song had stopped they heard someone from the house where the sound had come from shut the door and all was quiet. Then Madam's father spoke, "Martha, Matilda, Little Bad Wolf, today you have lost your mother and Big Bad Wolf has been taken from you. Please come and live with my pack. We are the strongest and largest in the forest and we will protect you."

All the animals present looked at the two aunts expecting them to accept this offer but it was Little Bad Wolf who replied, "Grand-dad, thank you. We love you and your pack but I want my father back and we will stay here and look after our home until he comes back."

"Little One, it will not be easy. We could protect you. The people will not let Big Bad Wolf out of prison too easily."

"From this day I will work to get my father released."

"You will need to be able to speak almost as good as a person and to write too. I know you though, Little One, if anyone can do this, you can. Please know that from this day you are also part of our pack and protected by us."

He was followed one after another by the leaders of the other packs. Each made the same promise. They told Little Bad Wolf and the aunts that from this day they were part of their packs and would be protected by them.

#  Chapter 4 No Visitors for Big Bad Wolf

The day after they buried her mother, Little Bad Wolf set out walking. She did not think about where she was going or why - she just went there. The horrible things which had happened to her family had only started to sink in. She was angry. Very, very angry. The other elder wolves had always said that humans were dangerous and all wolves should be careful of them. Only her father had a different opinion.

"How can they all be bad?" he had asked. "Elvis was a human. How can humans be so bad if Elvis was one of them? They even called him The King." Big Bad Wolf had often talked about humans and how funny they were and how most of them were very nice and how Elvis was such a good singer. Little Bad Wolf had always believed this until now. Now she felt confused and angry. They had killed her mother and had put her father in prison and she had no idea why any of this had been done. Her parents had just been dancing. Her father had told her many times that one of the great things about humans is they like to sing and dance.

Little Bad Wolf was very angry. For most of the previous night she could not sleep, but when she did she had nightmares. In one nightmare, she was a huge vicious wolf and started chasing a crowd of people. They ran in front of her, shouting and scared and fleeing in all directions. Then she got sight of one of them. It was the woodcutter and she would chase him and corner him. She was just about to attack when she woke from the nightmare. This nightmare frightened her, because she had never before thought such things.

Little Bad Wolf had all of this on her mind as she hurried on her journey. She had not decided where she was going when she set out. Only when she saw the prison in front of her did she realize that she was rushing here to try and see her father before his trail.

Little Bad Wolf had imagined the prison before she actually saw it. In her mind it was a horrible place. When she saw it for real it was even more horrible. It was a huge, dark, mean-looking building crowned with barbed wire, and everywhere there seemed to be humans with riffles. Little Bad Wolf looked at for some time. She thought of just running away, but she had come this far and wanted to see her father so much. She walked around the whole of the prison.

She eventually came back to the front gate and walked up slowly towards it. There was a bridge over a large trench and she walked over it. She got to the edge of the bridge and was just before the gate, when suddenly there was a huge noise of an alarm and loud voices shouted at her.

"Halt!" they shouted. "Who goes there?"

"Hey look," one of the guards shouted at another one. "It's a wolf!"

His friend started laughing, then started singing "Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?". It was not long before he had some of the other guards joining him in this song.

"I bet it's the rescue party for that Big Bad guy," said the second guard interrupting the singing. "Pity they couldn't send someone a bit bigger."

"Come on," said another guard. "Let's give the dogs some fun and set them on this little pup."

With that, a small gate opened in the fence and six ferocious looking dogs came out barking and leaping and looking like they were very soon going to savage Little Bad Wolf. They ran towards her with a fantastic pace, all the time snarling and barking.

Little Bad Wolf was stunned. She was not sure what she had expected to happen to her, but she did not expect to killed by some ferocious dogs. She knew she must run, she must get out of there, but she couldn't move.

Then she heard the dog in front shout in canine, "Wolf, you must run! Go run ahead and when we are out of sight we will talk. Turn now and run to your left where the forest is."

Little Bad Wolf did not have to be told this twice. She turned and she ran for all she was worth. She ran exactly to where the lead dog told her to run and eventually got to the forest. When she was well inside the forest, she heard the lead dog tell her to stop. "It's OK. They cannot see us here." He then sent two of the six dogs to the edge of the forest and told them to howl and bark like crazy. Another one of the dogs was told to find old animal skins. They intend using this to give the impression that they had killed the wolf.

"You must be something to Big Bad Wolf," said the lead dog.

"I'm his daughter," replied Little Bad Wolf.

"And crazy too," said another of the dogs. "What were you thinking going to the prison? Humans can be very nasty. They would shoot you just for practice."

The lead dog calmed everyone down by saying it was only natural she wanted to see her father. He said that the dogs in the prison say that Big Bad Wolf was very sad and very upset. "He spends most of his time just crying about your mother. I heard they will bring him to court tomorrow and will charge him with murder."

"But they did not die," said Little Bad Wolf .

"You don't think they will mind a little thing like that," said the lead dog. "Look, we have to go back or they will send out the guards to find us. We will get a message to your father that we met you and you are OK. But I don't think you should come back here. It is not safe for a wolf."

"You would need to be able to smooth talk them like a human in order to get in there," said the dog who had previously called Little Bad Wolf crazy.

She said goodbye and left them for her den, knowing that what the dog had said was true. She would have to learn to speak the humans language if she ever wanted to see her father again, let alone get him released.

#  Chapter 5 The Court

The courtroom had a special cage for Big Bad Wolf. It was a very large cage with thick iron bars. It was meant to make Big Bad Wolf look more dangerous and meaner, but it did not. He was lying there ignoring what was happening, thinking of Madame, looking sad and sometimes crying. None of the wolves had been allowed near the court. Big Bad Wolf had been assigned a lawyer who had just finished his studies, and this was his first case. The lawyer who was prosecuting was one of the most experienced and successful lawyers in the country. Big Bad Wolf was happy with this. He knew that if he was convicted that he would be killed. He thought that this would let him be with Madame again. He was so sad, this was all he wanted.

The buzz of noise stopped when a clerk banged the desk and told the court to rise for the Judge. Everyone stood up and a small pleasant man with curly hair, round glasses and black robes entered the room and sat in a chair at the head of the room.

"This is the case of the state versus Big Bad Wolf, Judge Jones presiding," said the clerk.

The Judge looked at some papers in front of him for a while, then looked all around the room. He did not stare at Big Bad Wolf for long but the wolf knew that the Judge was looking at him carefully.

"Would the prosecutor please outline the charges," said the Judge.

"Thank you, Your Honour," said the prosecutor. "This wolf that we see before us, this Big Bad Wolf, is a dangerous and vicious animal who has killed. Big Bad Wolf is accused of viciously killing the woodcutter, the Granny Hood and Little Red Riding hood in a horrific attack on them and their property."

"Big Bad Wolf," began the Judge but he was looking at the defence lawyer and not the wolf. "How do you plead?"

The defence lawyer stood up and looked even more nervous and inexperienced then when he was sitting. "Your Honour," he began. "My client has instructed me to plead guilty on all counts."

"Does your client know that conviction of these charges will mean that he will be executed?" asked the Judge.

"My client understands this," answered the lawyer.

"Let me get this straight", said the Judge. "This wolf is accused of breaking into the house of Little Red Riding Hood's granny, and when he was there he killed Little Red Riding Hood, her granny and the woodcutter and did so in a vicious and horrible manner. Is this correct?"

Both the prosecutor and defence lawyers nodded their heads in agreement.

The Judge was then silent for a few minutes. He looked around the room. He seemed to be looking for someone and when he found the person he pointed in their direction.

"Excuse me, but would you please stand up."

A tall lady in a green dress stood up.

"I am sorry - I meant the girl to your left," said the Judge.

The lady in the green dress sat down, and a teenage girl with a red cape and a wicker basket stood up.

"Can you please tell the court what your name is," said the judge.

"I am Little Red Hiding Hood," said the girl.

There was a gasp in the court and the prosecutor looked down at his shoes.

"Can the two people sitting to your left also stand up and tell the court what their names are," asked the judge.

An old lady and a bearded man in work clothes stood up.

"I am Little Red Riding Hood's granny," said the old lady.

"I am the woodcutter," said the man.

"I think we may have a problem," said the Judge. "None of these people look very dead to me, but this wolf has admitted to the charges of killing these people."

"He certainly did kill me," said Little Red Riding Hood.

"Excuse me, but are you dead?" asked the Judge.

"No," answered Little Red Riding Hood.

"Then, how could this wolf have killed you?"

"I can assure you, Mr Judge, this wolf wanted to kill me," said Little Red Riding Hood.

"So what did the wolf do?"

"Well he was in my Granny Hood's house with another wolf. They were both huge big dangerous wolves and they were moving about like they were dancing."

"Dancing?"

"Yes, Mr Judge. There was some Elvis Presley song on the radio and they were dancing to it."

"So how exactly did the wolf threaten you?"

"Well! I wanted to get into the house and the wolves were just looking dangerous."

"And you, madam?" said the Judge looking at Granny Hood. "May I ask whether the wolf killed you and what exactly he did?"

"Mr Judge," said Granny Hood. "I am very surprised that you are questioning an old lady in this manner. You are almost saying that I am lying."

"Did this wolf kill you?" asked the Judge.

"Yes he did!"

"In that case, I am calling you a liar. Now can you please tell me exactly what happened?"

"I was upstairs having a nap and I heard this dangerous noise from downstairs."

"Dangerous noise?"

"Well it was the radio, playing Elvis Presley and I could hear the sound of two terrifying creatures jumping about as if they were dancing. The next thing I heard the woodcutter and my grandchild. The woodcutter had fired his gun and the wolves ran off. I then went downstairs, and the woodcutter explained to me that unless something serious had happened, the wolves would get away with this. He said that if we phoned up the police and said that the wolves had killed us all, then we would see justice."

"I don't understand. You were upstairs sleeping and when you came down the wolves had already gone. So what exactly did you see?"

"Mr Judge, the woodcutter told me everything."

"Ah!" the Judge said and looked at the woodcutter. "So it is you who can tell me everything."

"I certainly can," said the woodcutter smiling at the Judge and then looking all around the courtroom to show he meant business. "There were two of them, Your Honour. Huge, mean, vicious wolves. They had broken into granny's house and were destroying the place."

"Excuse me, but I have heard no reports that they damaged anything," said the Judge. "Can you tell me what they destroyed?"

"I certainly can. They had the radio on full blast and were gyrating and shaking and moving to the music. It was Elvis Presley singing that 'Hound Dog' song, and those wolves were even trying to sing along to it in their mean vicious wolf voices."

The Judge managed not to smile at the image of wolves singing along to the radio, but others in the court did not.

The woodcutter continued, "Those wolves were clearly dangerous. When I got there they were already planning to kill both Little Red Riding Hood and her granny."

This changed the mood in the courtroom, making the smiles disappear.

"I was going to deal with these wolves," continued the woodcutter. "I took my shotgun and went inside the house. However, something went wrong. Granny's house had one of those springs and when I pushed it open and stood in the doorway it came back and hit me. I was totally knocked out and when I woke up they were gone. I knew the only way the police would get these wolves was if they thought they had done something really, really bad. The wolves may not have actually hurt us yet, but they wanted to. That mean, vicious wolf over there was planning to kill Little Red Riding Hood, her granny and me. I knew it. They had to be stopped, but I knew the police would not do anything if they just thought that these wolves were dancing to rock and roll records."

"Excuse me," said the Judge. "From what I have heard so far that is exactly what they were doing."

"Mr Judge," said the woodcutter. "I am a good citizen and Little Red Riding Hood and Granny Hood are good citizens. We help our fellow citizens. We told the police that we had been killed, and they caught these dangerous animals."

The Judge looked at him. "You have not been killed, and neither has Little Red Riding Hood or Granny Hood. It appears that the wolves did not break into the house, as the door was open. It also appears that no damage was done unless you damaged the door hitting it with your head. It appears that no crime was committed. This case is dismissed."

At this point the prosecutor stood up and said, "Excuse me, Your Honour, but you have forgotten that this wolf has also been charged with being an extremely dangerous animal and as such should be dealt with. I submit that his behaviour is dangerous enough for him to be put down."

The Judge then asked Big Bad Wolf's lawyer, "How does your client plead to this charge?"

Big Bad Wolf had not been paying much attention to what was happening in the court until the Judge had dismissed the case. He felt very sad. He knew that the aunts would take care of Little Bad Wolf and he wanted with all his heart to be with Madame. The prospect that they might kill him was a very welcome release for Big Bad Wolf. That was why he had pleaded guilty to charges which he knew were false. He now told his lawyer to plead guilty to the new charge. He hoped this would still lead the Judge to sentence him to death.

The Judge frowned after hearing this. "Big Bad Wolf has admitted to being a dangerous animal. I have no choice in finding him guilty of this. I sentence Big Bad Wolf to prison until such a time when a court is convinced he is no longer dangerous."

He banged his hammer on the table and at the same time the prosecutor was standing up and shouting that the sentence is the death penalty. The Judge ignored him and walked out of the court. That day was the first day of Big Bad Wolf's life in prison. It was also the day that Little Bad Wolf promised herself that one day she would get her daddy out of prison.

# Chapter 6 The Plan

The plan was simple. Little Bad Wolf would learn the language of humans. She would go to school, learn to write as well as speak their language better. When she learnt this she would be able to write to the court and speak to a Judge and get her dad out of prison. In her mind she had this vision that as soon as she could speak to humans in their own language they would understand her father was not dangerous. They would know what the Judge seemed to know - that no crime was actually committed. She would just have to explain and everything would be OK.

She was explaining all this to her corgi friends, ET and Rosie, when a problem was spotted.

"But can you speak the way humans speak?" asked ET.

"I am not sure, I have not tried," answered Little Bad Wolf.

"I can speak like a human," said Rosie. "They love it when I do it. Watch!"

Rosie then moved almost like a cat and positioned herself so she could sing to the sky. She howled! "Hoooww looww".

ET and Little Bad Wolf laughed but this little demonstration also showed how hard it was for a dog or a wolf to speak like a human. When Little Bad Wolf tried she could not even say a word like 'hello' in a way a human would understand it.

The plan was simple, but putting it to work would not be. Little Bad Wolf went home to her den feeling very dejected and lonely. She didn't answer when her aunts asked her what she had been up to. She just rolled up in a ball in her corner of the den and felt helpless.

The next day she decided she would give up. It was just impossible for a wolf to learn to speak, and if she could not do that she could not go to school and be able to learn how to speak to the Judge to get her dad out of prison. She had decided it was just a dream and a wolf could never take on the human and put wrongs right. She wandered towards the town feeling dejected and lost.

Then she heard a song. A woman was snoozing in their garden and she had the radio on loud enough for most human and all wolves within 100 metres to hear it clearly. The voice on the radio said "I am never sure which version I prefer but this is Ryan singing Wonderwall".

The song started very softly but determined. The first lines made Little Bad Wolf think she would have to fight to get her dad out of prison and get him back home.

The singer sang about knowing what you've got to do. Little Bad Wolf thought she did and did not do what it was she had do. She knew what she had to do. She just didn't know how to do it.

Little Bad Wolf knew that the task ahead of her would not be the easy. The road would be winding. The song seemed to describe the difficulties which were ahead, the confusion, the difficulty of finding the right path but more than anything the song was saying she had to do this because she loved her dad. She knew as she was listening to this song that she was not going to give up. She was going to learn the language of the people. She was going to get her daddy released. She also had an idea how she was going to do it and who was going to teach her. She knew her idea was completely crazy and most definitely impossible, but she was going to do it and it was going to work. She had decided that she would listen to songs to learn the language of the people. She loved music, and her mum and dad loved music, and it was only right that music could help her get her dad out of prison. She was going to learn how to speak like a person by listening to music.

As soon as Little Bad Wolf was feeling pleased with herself that she had come up with a plan to solve her problem, she realized she had another big problem. She knew in order to be able to get her dad out of prison she would have to be able to read and write as well as speak. Right now she could not say anything the way a human would understand it. The plan was good. She knew it could work. She just did not know how to get past the first step. All morning she went around with a heavy heart. She had decided what to do, but she now realized it would not work.

"You need a radio," said ET after this horrendous problem was explained to her.

"Yeah, I should just go into a shop and buy one," replied Little Bad Wolf.

"I've not seen you being sarcastic before," said ET. "You must be really upset with this."

"I'm sorry, but how am I going to get a radio? You are right. That would be perfect. But I cannot speak so that a person could understand me and I could go into a shop and ask for one. Even if I could do that, I don't have any money, and even if I could speak and had money, there are very few shops that would be happy to see a wolf stroll in."

While ET and Little Bad Wolf had been talking, Rosie had gone. Little Bad Wolf and ET were silent because they knew all this was true. There was no way that Little Bad Wolf could buy a radio. Every so often ET would think she should say something to cheer up her friend but she could not think of anything. Not until Rosie came darting out of the house with a very big box-like thing in her mouth.

"I don't think they will miss this," said Rosie pointing to the radio she had just dropped from her mouth. "They have TVs and Boxes with music blaring all over the house. Just in case they do miss it I think you should take this and run back to your den as fast as you can. It would not be very good if they came out and saw me giving you a loan of their radio."

Little Bad Wolf did not have to be told twice. She bit the handle of the radio and ran as fast as she could to her den.

# Chapter 7 The Noise-Box

Little Bad Wolf and her two aunts had been staring at the box for a whole hour.

"It does not seem to do anything," said Aunt Matilda.

"It does something all right," said Aunt Martha. "It takes up space and we have not got enough room for a big ugly box to sit there doing nothing."

Little Bad Wolf ignored them. She knew this was a mistake because whenever she did this they would just talk more until she gave in and agreed with them. She was busy though. She could not figure out how to get this thing to make music and she knew that was possible. Rosie had told her the radio worked.

"Your idea is plain daft," said Matilda. "How will you be able to learn to speak like a human from an ugly box that does not even work?"

"For once I agree with my sister," said Martha. This was true. They always seemed to take exactly the opposite point of view on any subject. If Martha said something, Matilda would disagree, and if Matilda said the exact same thing the following day, Martha would disagree.

"It is ugly, it's big and we should get rid of it," said Matilda.

"I agree," said Martha. Matilda had to look at her to see that it really was her sister who had agreed with her twice in a very short time.

Little Bad Wolf continued to ignore them. She was staring at the box. She knew that it worked and that somehow this box could teach her to speak like a person. She knew also that being able to speak and write in human was essential to getting her dad out of prison. She only had to figure out how it worked and this she could not do. There were knobs and buttons everywhere, but which knob, what button and what would happen if she pressed the wrong button?

"This thing is absolutely useless," said Aunt Matilda with Aunt Martha nodding in agreement. To prove her point she hit one of the buttons.

"You ain't nothing but a hound dog," blared the radio, giving the three wolves quite a shock. It had been a very peaceful day on the outskirts of the forest, and now loud rock and roll music had invaded. The three wolves looked at each other, were silent for a moment and then started to laugh. Soon they could not help themselves - they were dancing to Elvis Presley.

"Well, I guess it works," said Aunt Matilda still laughing at the strange device.

Little Bad Wolf was delighted they had figured out how work the radio. She was even more pleased that the first song from the radio was sung by Elvis Presley, her parents' favourite.

# Chapter 8 Learning to Speak

Learning to understand the language of humans was easy. Little Bad Wolf already understood a lot before she acquired the radio, but this really helped. What was difficult was learning how to say the words, how to pronounce them in a way a human would understand. It was very, very difficult to learn to speak. She found it was best if she did not just listen to very simple pop songs. Rock music helped her language skills a lot. They often told stories in their songs, some of which were really wonderful. The stories were sometimes a problem as some were so good that Little Bad Wolf would forget she was supposed to be learning to speak and would just listen. At first she would avoid listening to the news and discussion programmes, but she found this was an even better way of learning how human actually talked.

To Little Bad Wolf it seemed like a very long time before she could even say one word which sounded like it was spoken like a human. It was actually only one month, but it was one month of very hard work. Sometimes she found it physically painful to try to say the words. Her mouth was not the right shape or so it seemed to her. Each day she would listen and practise every spare minute she had. Each day she would be frustrated at not being able to speak. She thought she was letting her father down. He was in prison, and as far as she could see, the only way he would ever get out would be for her to learn to speak and to go to school and be able to ask for his release in a way humans would understand.

Little Bad Wolf thought the discussion programmes were strange. They talked about anything. Sometimes they would be talking about what the President of Russia said to the President of the United States. Other times they would be talking about the local hairdresser who was retiring. She found it much more interesting and easier to understand when they were talking about something which was happening in the village.

One day she was listening to the radio. There was an interview with the new mayor, Mr Hurray-Bill and we talking about the plans he had for the village. He went on to talk about his wife Mrs Hurray-Bill and was telling everyone how wonderful she was. She had just become principal of the local school. At this point Little Bad Wolf listened even more intently. She thought that she might find out how to get into the school and that this lady might be able to help her get an education. It was at this point that the radio started to go silent and then make a buzzing noise followed by more silence and then briefly return to the interview. In the end she could not listen to it.

"I think it's the batteries," said Rosie when Little Bad Wolf explained her problem. For Little Bad Wolf, Rosie and ET were her experts on radios and she had gone to them seeking help with her problem.

"So what do I do?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

"You need new batteries," said Rosie.

"Well how do I get them and when I do get them, what do I do with them?"

This problem had the three animals thinking for some time. A wolf could not just go into a shop and ask for batteries. Even if it was ok for her to go into the shop she had no money, and if she did get the batteries she would not be able to do anything with them. They eventually decided they would have to think about this for longer and went to sniff some trees and see who was walking about in the woods.

From this point on Little Bad Wolf used the radio far less. She thought it would make the batteries last longer if she only used it occasionally. Every day for about 10 minutes she would listen to something. That Friday she was listening to it and heard a song followed by radio adverts. She was about to turn the radio off when the announcer said that today they have the manager from the company who are going to develop the land beside the forest.

"So where is the land you are going to build the new shopping centre," asked the announcer.

The manager had started to talk but Little Bad Wolf could not hear it as the battery started having problems. The radio was either silent or crackled. It started working again for a few minutes and she heard "... so that's the land beside the forest?" she could not hear whether the answer was yes or no, but she was clear that they were talking about her home.

She found the idea that they might be building a shopping centre on her home startling, but then the announcer asked, "What are you going to do with all the wolves that live there?"

"Well, I know they are a protected species, but we have got special permission."

There was then silence.

"Anyone can join. A rare opportunity to kill yourself a wolf. And we will pay for the bullets. What could be more exciting?"

This time Little Bad Wolf did not notice the silence as she came to the only conclusion possible. They were planning to clear this land and send some farmers to shoot the wolves first.

# Chapter 9 Trouble with a Capital T

Aunt Matilda wanted to go to the leader of the pack immediately and tell him what Little Bad Wolf had heard. Aunt Martha thought that Little Bad Wolf was mistaken and they could not possibly be planning to build shops in the forest. However, she must have not been so convinced by her arguments, as her sister quickly persuaded her to go with them to the pack leader.

"That can't possibly be true," he said. "Our families have lived in this part of the forest for generations. I am sure you heard wrong. They have lots of supermarkets in the village. They have all sorts of shops selling all sorts of things. Why would they want another one here?"

Little Bad Wolf told him that she was certain of what she heard but she had not heard enough to know if they were building a supermarket here, though she thought they were. The pack leader was very worried. He did not know what to do, but more worryingly he did not know how fast he needed to do it.

They didn't have to wait long. The first farmer with a gun was spotted the next day. Thankfully this was Farmer McGoo who was known to all the local animals he hunted for his bad eyesight. He could have shot the family of wolves who were sleeping almost in his path but he walked right past, waking them up with his heavy footstep. Confirmation of a farmer with a shotgun changed the pack leader's opinion.

New rules were immediately implemented about what you could and could not do. The Pack Leader introduced a system where two wolves guarded the wolves' area, and everyone knew the drill and how they should raise the alarm when a farmer with a gun was spotted. All wolves had to be in pairs or groups of three when they were walking around the land. The Pack Leader said that there should be no lone wolves or groups bigger than three on the land

The Pack Leader called a meeting of all the wolf packs near the area where the supermarket was planned. This was something which never happened before. They did all get together on special occasions. When Madame had died every wolf in the forest had turned up to pay respect, but never before had a meeting being called when they were under such a threat.

The meeting had been planned for the night after the farmer was spotted.

"What will happen?" Little Bad Wolf asked her aunts.

"We don't know yet," said Aunt Matilda. She had the sort of voice which suggested that she had a pretty good idea and it was not going to be good.

"In one way it's simple," said Aunt Martha. "If the humans want to build a supermarket, we will have to move. If we do not move they will catch us and maybe shoot some of us."

Little Bad Wolf had also guessed that this might happen. She had hoped that she would be able to go to school in the village and be able to learn enough to get her father out of prison, but if they were now planning to destroy their homes to make way for some new supermarket, it was very likely that they will never let her go to the school. She was beginning to be able to speak the language of the humans, but what use would it be if they had to move further away? How was she going to go to school? How was she going to get her dad out of jail?

# Chapter 10 Caught

Little Bad Wolf was starting to feel good about her progress learning to speak the humans' language. She had discovered something recently which she thought would cause her endless problems but turned out to be no trouble at all.

"You mean to say they speak a completely different language from one country to another?" she asked.

"Yes," said Rosie. "This is exactly what they do."

"Our folks brought us to Italy once," said ET. "We travelled through three different countries and they all spoke different languages. They also smelt differently from one country to another."

The three animals thought that humans smelling differently between one country and another made perfect sense, but humans having more than one language was the silliest thing ever.

"How will I learn more than one language?" said Little Bad Wolf. "Speaking one is nearly impossible."

"You will have no problem," said Rosie. "You are much brighter than a human and some of them can even speak three languages."

This had ET and Little Bad Wolf laughing.

"I think most humans get by with just learning one language," said ET.

"Yes," answered Rosie. "Unlike me who can speak Dog, Wolf and Human languages."

She then started howling her 'hello' and again had the other two animals laughing. Rosie then added, "I can also communicate to any creature that I am thinking about biting them in their bottom without even speaking."

The following day Little Bad Wolf was in the forest with Aunt Matilda. Her aunt was silent at first. Something was clearly on her mind. She was worried that Little Bad Wolf had impossible dreams which were never going to happen. They were never going to let a wolf go to school or let Big Bad Wolf out of prison.

Eventually she started talking. "You know that no wolf has ever been allowed to go to a school with human. It will be a very difficult. Even then you might not get what you want."

"Are you saying I should study more?" said Little Bad Wolf.

"Well no. Not exactly."

"I am saying it may not matter how much you study." Aunt Matilda had a very serious, I have to break bad news look. "I am saying that no matter how much you study, they still might not accept you. Even if they let you, they will not all be happy with this and will make things very difficult. They also will not allow a wolf to show they were wrong to put your father in prison."

Little Bad Wolf felt very sad. She knew her aunt was right. Why would humans accept a wolf into their school? However, she wanted to answer her and win the argument by saying something clever to her aunt. They had come to a corner of the field and were facing two large walls. Both wolves realised they would have to turn around and go back the way they had come in. They had been so busy thinking about their discussion that neither wolf had paid much attention to where they were going.

There was something else they had not noticed. The first time the two wolves saw the farmers was when they turned around and found themselves face to face with two men pointing guns at them.

"The boss will be pleased," said the smaller of the two men. Despite being fat as well as small, he and his tall thin companion had managed to sneak up on the two wolves.

"Let's shoot them and get home."

"Ple-ase don't sho-ot," said Little Bad Wolf. It was more of a stutter than talking but for the first time in her life she had managed to say something to a human. Little Bad Wolf was not particularly happy as the look of the men and the fact they had guns made her think it might be the last thing she ever said.

"Did you hear what I heard?" said the taller man.

"Did you speak wolf?" said the smaller man.

"Do not hurr-it us," said Little Bad Wolf.

"Well isn't this amazing? A talking wolf! Can you get the van and bring it near here." With that, the smaller man threw the keys at the taller man. When the taller man was out of hearing distance he took his phone out of his pocket.

"You are not going to believe this," he said into the phone and then told the person that he had a captured a talking wolf.

"For one thousand I will bring her into your TV studio."

There was then some discussion between the man and the person he was talking to before he said, "OK, seven hundred and fifty. See you soon."

They were not waiting much longer before they heard the sound of a car and the saw the taller man get out.

"I have some good news," said the smaller man. "You know my brother who works in the TV station. He will give us each fifty quid if we bring this wolf in and it talks to him."

"Wow," said the taller man. "Fifty quid."

"Right," said the smaller man. "I've done the hard work, negotiating the deal. So you have to look after getting the wolves into the back of the van.

"Will they bite?"

"I don't know but if you ask the wolf maybe it will answer you."

"Good point," said the taller man. "Excuse me, wolf." He coughed when he said this so as to make sure the wolves knew that he would like to talk to them.

"Yes," said Little Bad Wolf.

"Do you mind me asking you? Do you bite?"

The two wolves talked to each other. The men did not understand what was going on but the smaller man thought the two wolves were laughing.

"My aunt say-is you would not be tay-sty"

"Just put them in the van," said the smaller man. He was looking very pleased with himself.

# Chapter 11 Little Bad Wolf - TV Star

It was not just the case that Little Bad Wolf had never been in a television studio; she had never been in a building of any type. Neither had her aunt, and both wolves were very frightened as they were brought into the lobby of the building by the two odd-sized farmers. The taller of the two insisted on keeping his shotgun pointed at them, but the smaller one told him to put it away.

Another small man came into the room and discreetly handed something to the smaller man, who quickly headed out of door. He had to come back to tell the taller man they were going. Soon after that the two wolves heard the van they came in leave. Another man, a very well dressed and handsome man, came into the room.

"Perfect, just perfect," he said. "They look great. Do they both talk?"

"I don't know," said the small man.

"What do you mean, you don't know? Who does?"

"My brother found them but he did not say whether they both talked or not."

"He wanted a thousand quid. For that I expect them both to talk."

"Seven fifee-tea," said Little Bad Wolf.

"Who said that?" said the tall man. Then grinned broadly as he realized it was one of the wolves who had spoken. He didn't seem to notice the implications of her comments that the farmers who brought them here had not got one thousand. He then turned and was about to address the small man, when he found he had already gone.

"Oh well," he said and looked at the two wolves. The man had obviously done some thinking and decided that the best way would be to talk to the wolves as if they were children or a foreigner who did not know the language. He spoke very slowly and loudly and pronounced each word as if it was a sentence in itself.

"My name is Tom. I will be interviewing you." Tom took almost two minutes to say this single sentence.

"OK," said Little Bad Wolf.

"Have you any questions?" he asked. This time he did not speak as loudly but he was still speaking like he would to a foreigner.

"I do not kno-a what you mee-in," said Little Bad Wolf.

"I see," said Tom. "Which part do you not understand?"

"All," said Little Bad Wolf.

"OK," said Tom. "Do you have a television?"

The two wolves shook their heads. Despite the fact that he had been treating them as little children, Tom had hoped they would know who he was and would have seen him on TV. Most humans he met saw him on TV before he met them. He then remembered. They were not most humans. They were wolves. So Tom started explaining about his television programme and the interview which would happen in 30 minutes. He had already told the director who wanted him in the studio that she would have to wait a minute. As he went on with his explanations he realised the wolves were very smart and understood what he was saying. It took him a while longer to realise that only one of them was speaking and she was the only one who could talk. The other could clearly understand but only Little Bad Wolf could talk.

He brought them up to the studio as he was still explaining. Tom was getting more and excited about this. He had seen animals who were supposed to be able to talk on TV before, but they were parrots or dogs who knew tricks. This would be different. This was an animal which could actually talk and have a conversation.

Tom's programme lasts for one hour and when they had some big item they usually kept it until last. They told Little Bad Wolf that they would do this with her. She and her aunt were brought into a room with a lot of televisions and a big desk with lots of knobs. The woman who had tried to hurry Tom was there. She had headphones and microphone and was giving instructions. Tom went into the other room and sat on a very comfortable looking chair. They then saw and heard Tom from the TV set. The programme was live and the first thing he said was tonight they were going to have the first live interview with a wolf, or any other animal, live on TV.

Neither wolf could understand what was going on but they were aware that every so often Tom would say, "Stay tuned for the interview with the wolf". The woman who seemed to be in charge was also getting more excited. She kept telling Little Bad Wolf how many minutes to the interview. She would also point to a computer screen which told her that other television stations would tune in for the interview. She explained that when one station had got something interesting some other stations would rebroadcast it and they would pay for this. They already had a good number of stations who were intending to show this part of the show live. With five minutes to go the woman told Little Bad Wolf what the questions would be. It turned out she was completely wrong on every single question.

According to the woman, Tom would start by asking her about her life and what the life of a wolf was like. He didn't. His first question was, "How many languages do you speak?"

This question seems simple but it confused Little Bad Wolf. She spoke the Dog/ Wolf language but she was sure this was not what he meant. She answered "One" and then added, "One hoo-man lang-ich".

"Yes," said Tom. "I had not thought of that. This wolf here speaks one human language but probably lots of animal languages. Do you want to be an interpreter between Man and Animals?"

Little Bad Wolf replied that she did not know what he meant. After Tom explained that he was asking her would she become an animal who explains what animals were thinking to human, she said no. She laughed at this idea of a small wolf like herself speaking on behalf of some very big animals.

"So why did you decide to come into the studio to talk to us today?" asked Tom.

"We wuz capatured," said Little Bad Wolf.

"Did you say captured?" asked Tom.

"Yes. Two faramers. They had guns. They mayade us come to here."

At this point, the woman in charge on the other side of the glass was getting frantic. Little Bad Wolf could see her mouth "Change the subject!" and Tom looked like he had just realized that it might be a good idea to talk about something else.

"So, how did you learn our language?" asked Tom. He was hoping that the wolf would not want to continue her description of how she had been taken from near her home by two men with guns.

Luckily for Tom Little Bad Wolf was perfectly happy to answer his question. "The ray a dio," she answered.

"The Radio! So you don't like television then." Tom made a silly face and laughed at his own joke.

"I like the ray a dio," said Little Bad Wolf.

"So tell me, How did the radio help you?" asked Tom.

"I listen to mew sic," answered Little Bad Wolf.

"So you learnt the language of people by listening to music on the radio?" he asked.

Little Bad Wolf nodded and said "yes".

"So which music do you listen to?" asked Tom.

"Mew-sic on the ray a dio," answered Little Bad Wolf. She was thinking that this was a silly question since she had already answered it.

"I know that," said Tom. "What I meant to ask was: Is there any singers or groups you particularly like?"

"I liy-ick all sorts," said Little Bad Wolf. "Rich-mound fun-tan, ahh-bah, Elvis, Rian ahh-dams"

"That's typical," said Tom. "It happens every time I talk to a young person, and now animal, I have only ever heard of half of the music they like. It's time to end our interview. I am wondering could you give the viewers out there a good old fashioned wolf howl to say goodbye."

Little Bad Wolf said "no".

Tom laughed. "Not even a small wolf howl."

"No."

Tom laughed again and said good night to his viewers.

Little Bad Wolf and her aunt left the television studio in a very different way they had come. A big car with a driver who opened the door for them brought them to their field. There was even someone there from the local newspaper who wanted to take a picture of the talking wolf. He had a lot of trouble trying to tell Little Bad Wolf and her aunt apart, and it was a picture of the aunt which appeared in the paper the following day.

Television seemed to change everything and do it very quickly, The wolves heard the day after Little Bad Wolf had been on television that the plan to build a new supermarket on their land had been suspended and the land was now known as 'The Wolves' Forest'. A few days after this, Little Bad Wolf was accepted into school for the next term. She was very excited. She was very happy. She was very hopeful. It did not take long after she started school for everything to go wrong again.

#  Part 2 School Days

#  Chapter 12 The Wolf Must Go

Most people know of two types of school noises. There is the sound of a few hundred pupils learning. A sort of hum that gets louder as you near a classroom door. Then there is the break noise. Those same few hundred pupils have all got something to say and are going to say it whether anyone can possibly hear them or not. This is the sort of noise that only the most experienced teacher can switch off. It is noise which comes from the near complete silence as the pupils anticipate the break to them filling up every little bit of ear-space. However, there are many more types of noises than these two. There is also the peaceful sound when the school has said goodbye for the day to all those pupils and the teachers can sit and chat before going home.

Today, at the time when the school should have had that peaceful noise, there was a very different noise coming from the head teacher's Office. The sound of fear. The teachers inside the room did not look scared but they were. They had never seen the head teacher, Mrs Hurray-Bill, so angry. Each one of them had seen her lose her temper and heard her shout at them before, but this was different. She had already spilt her coffee, fallen from the chair, tried to hit the table and missed. Mrs Hurray-Bill had not even noticed that her glasses had fallen on the floor and the long heel of her shoe was very close to breaking them.

"Who had the great idea of bringing a wolf into this school," she yelled, banging the table again and this time hitting her knuckles against its side.

Nobody mentioned that she had told the newspaper it was her idea. Actually she said that she and her husband, the Mayor, had decided on this. "Promoting better inter-species relationships," "Promoting the rights of oppressed animals," "Challenging stereotypes." These were all phrases she had used in the interview with the Village Tribune. This was just after Little Bad Wolf had appeared on television and everyone wanted to be friends with the talking wolf.

Despite the fact her hand was hurt and she had a bad track record in saving it from injury, she tried to bang it against the table again. This time she missed and hit her knee. Some of the teachers had to bite their lips to stop them smiling as Mrs Hurray-Bill looked at her sore knee.

"It was not just any wolf we invited to join our school. Was not the name a bit of a giveaway? Before Little Bad Wolf came to this school how many wolves' names did we know? One! And guess what, it is the same name. Who had the crazy idea of letting a Bad Wolf into this school? A relative and, not just any relative, the daughter of Mr Big Bad Wolf himself."

The protesters always looked and sounded as if there were more of them. Sometimes up to fifteen parents protested outside the school at times but usually there were only eight or nine. There were six who were always there and the others came once or twice a week. They would walk up and down outside the school gates with placards saying things like 'School for Children, not Wolves', 'Sheep are not the only ones frightened' and the most common one 'Who's afraid of the Little Bad Wolf? – I am!' This was also the song they chanted as they walked up and down. Although most of the time they did not sing or do anything other than stand around talking.

Everyone else in the room expected her to continue shouting for the next ten minutes but she had finished. She was looking at the room. Glaring angrily at them waiting for an answer.

"Well?"

Ms Potterer, the science teacher, burped. She did not mean to do it but for some reason she did this when she was nervous. It was not even a real burp. More like a gentle throat clearance.

"Well, Ms Potterer, What wisdom do you want to give us?" said Mrs Hurray-Bill.

Ms Potterer had not got anything to say but felt she had to say something.

"In my class, Little Bad Wolf is a very good student. She has difficulty in doing some of the experiments. Paws, you know. Very difficult for her to lift test tubes. She sometimes gets Matt or Louise to help her a bit with this."

Ms Potterer was feeling much more comfortable now and was about to tell how she was the best pupil at memorizing the periodic table of elements when the head teacher interrupted.

"Potterer! What nonsense are you talking?" Mrs Hurray-Bill then mimicked her with the voice of a little girl "She's such a good little pupil" before starting to shout again. "I'm not interested in her ability to blow up the science lab in the interest of knowledge."

Ms Potterer decided that she would not correct her by pointing out that Patrick had blown up the science lab. While she was thinking about this, she was reminded of the wonderful way her pupils managed to create a fantastic firework display from very simple ingredients. She didn't notice that the head teacher was also thinking about something.

Mrs Hurray-Bill eventually broke the silence. "Tell me about it, Potterer."

"Excuse me, Mrs Hurray-Bill but what should I tell you about."

"Good grief. You complain all day that your pupils don't pay attention and then you do the same thing.

Ms Potterer did not correct her that she had never complained of this. Indeed in her class, they were usually very alert.

"The day she tried to blow up the school," shouted the head teacher.

Ms Potterer knew what she was talking about and also knew that the Little Bad Wolf had an alibi but she decided to risk fate.

"I am sorry, but I do not know what you mean."

"What?" said Mrs Hurray-Bill. "The science lab goes boom and you don't remember. Your favourite little pupils lighting up a few sticks of dynamite or something similar. You don't know what I mean."

"Oh you mean two weeks ago when I and several of the pupils had gone to the science exhibition. Yes, I do remember it now. I left my class in the capable hands of Mr Clogs."

The assistant headmaster, Mr Clogs, blushed. Ms Potterer was about to continue but looked at Mr Clogs and decided not to embarrass him further. Mrs Hurray-Bill was not as sensitive.

"It does not matter who was teaching the class. The point is that Little Bad Wolf was clearly one of the ring-leaders and no-one, not even Clogs, who did a good job of controlling an uncontrollable class, reported her to me. If they did everything would have been settled. She would be gone. No more wolves amongst our lambs."

Ms Potterer cleared her throat but before she started to speak Mrs Hurray-Bill was again shouting at her. "I don't want you saying anything in defence of her. This wolf must go. I am going to investigate the attempted destruction of our school laboratory and these trouble makers can go make trouble elsewhere."

"There is one thing you should take into account," said Ms Potterer.

"The one thing I should take into account is how quickly I can get rid of this trouble maker," yelled Mrs Hurray-Bill.

"Headmistress," said Ms Potterer. "Little Bad Wolf was not in school that day. She was with me at the science exhibition." I also think that you might not want to expel the pupils who caused this explosion."

"She's right, Headmistress." Mr Clogs spoke with a very sheepish voice which was unusual for him. "Patrick and Claire were the kids who caused this problem."

At the mention of the two children Mrs Hurray-Bill went pale. Another teacher might have thought for a moment that she would have to punish these two students. Mrs Hurray-Bill did not. Their parents were very kind to school. Only yesterday she had met Claire's father and he once again had promised to help them decorate some of the older classes with a very large donation. Claire's father was also one of the parents protesting outside the school gate. She went pale because she wanted something, anything, which would help her get rid of Little Bad Wolf. She thought she had found a way to get rid of her but now found she had not.

"I have an idea," said Mr Clogs. He was normally cautious and knew his headmistress well enough to know that she would not easily be persuaded unless his plan had some hope of success. But taking a risk would at least deflect attention from an investigation into the science laboratory incident.

"Elocution." He looked at Mrs Hurray-Bill expecting her to clap but she just repeated "Elocution" followed by "What on earth do you mean?"

"An elocution exam," explained Mr Clogs. "I think it is only right that pupils should be able to speak well and clearly before coming here. If for example a pupil could not pronounce certain words it would be best for her, or indeed him, to go to another more suitable school or even the infant schools for an extra year."

Ms Potterer had had enough. She walked out to the sound of a very happy Mrs Hurray-Bill. "Yes brilliant! We will have an exam and if a pupil can't pronounce certain words then they can't stay here. Sorry, I mean if they can't pronounce certain words it would be better for them to go a more suitable school."

# Chapter 13 Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard

No one ever knew who started the rows. Maybe both Aunts Martha and Matilda started at exactly the same time. Most rows start with one person saying something which the other person does not like and boom, boom, boom, pretty quickly you have a full-blown row. I guess that one of the aunts had started this particular row but it was difficult to say which one. Martha had been the one who had been in favour of Little Bad Wolf going to school. She had said it would be a great achievement. She spoke of it in the same way as older people speak about Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Matilda had warned them what could happen. They will never accept a wolf. They will find out about her father. Wolves are not made to go to people's schools. Now they were both arguing but taking completely different sides.

"We should just give up on this," said Martha. "People will never accept a wolf at the children's school."

"We can't give up now," said Matilda.

"Why not? Should we be pushing the child through this," said Martha. "You have seen those people shout at her. Who's afraid of the Little Bad Wolf? Have you ever heard such nonsense?"

"Now you mention it, no I have not."

In the corner was Little Bad Wolf. She was crouched up, listening to this. Little Bad Wolf was thinking that the one thing worse than when you are being talked about behind your back is when you are being talked about in front of you. She made a small bark to let them know she wanted to say something.

They did not hear and Martha continued, "We need to do what is best for Little Bad Wolf."

"I suppose you are right," said Matilda.

Little Bad Wolf barked again, this time slightly louder.

"So we are agreed. Little Bad Wolf should leave the school," said Martha.

It is said that children should be seen and not heard. When it comes to people this is clearly ridiculous. All you need to bring noise to a room is put a child in there. However, this saying is true for wolves. Young wolves do not speak in front of the elders unless they are asked. Little Bad Wolf had never before interrupted an adult wolf so her two aunts were very surprised when she started to talk.

"I would like to stay."

The two aunts continued their argument. Actually the argument had stopped and they had come to an agreement that Little Bad Wolf would leave the school. They were in the process of agreeing that this would happen as soon as possible when Little Bad Wolf interrupted again.

"I would like to stay."

They had heard her say this the last time as well but had not paid enough attention. Now the two aunts stopped talking and started staring at her.

"I am sorry," said Aunt Martha. "What did you say?"

"I said that I would like to stay at school."

"You can't. We have already reached an agreement," said Matilda.

"Do I not have a ..," started Little Bad Wolf who then started stuttering as she tried to pronounce "say".

"Yes you have a say." Matilda was impatiently finishing off her sentences for her. "It is just that we do not think it fair for you to have to go through this. You have heard what they are saying outside the school gates. It's horrible."

"I do not like the people outside school," said Little Bad Wolf. "But I have some friends. I am learning a lot and I think it is a good thing to do. I think I can learn to speak like a human and if I ever want to get my father out of prison I need to be able to speak to the judge. I will need to read and write too."

The two aunts looked at each other and then at Little Bad Wolf. They had that 'adults know best' look which all children find so frustrating when they are completely certain that they are right but whatever it is will not be allowed. Little Bad Wolf felt sad, stopped herself from crying and looked at them.

"We will think about it," said Aunt Matilda.

"Yes. Let's think this over," agreed Martha.

Little Bad Wolf really liked the route she took to school. She was never one for going the same route every day and always liked to search new paths. Since going to school she had a route which she had to go every day and she discovered that there were some unexpected treats. While walking to school she would meet her friends, ET and Rosie the corgis. They would tease her as she went past. "Oh look it's Little Miss Brainbox" or call her "Wolfie Shakespeare."

Little Bad Wolf decided that she would go in search of ET and Rosie and get away from the den. She also wanted to let her aunts talk together for a while. The two corgis were not in the garden of their house. This meant they were either inside or had gone wandering. She tried to look inside of the window but could only see people. She also did not hear any barking which probably meant that the dogs had gone wandering in the forest. Rosie, in particular, felt it was her duty to bark like mad when anyone was outside the house and would almost surely have noticed Little Bad Wolf trying to look through the window.

She headed towards the forest and saw the two dogs were busy smelling something at the side of a tree. They looked as if they were very intent on this smelling and analysing but when she got there completely forgot about what they had just been doing so seriously.

"Hey Wolfie," said Rose. "What's up?"

"You look a bit sad," said ET.

They walked through the forest as Little Bad Wolf told them about what was happening at school and that her aunts thought it best if they gave up.

"Never give up," barked Rosie. "Give them a good bite on the bottom."

ET laughed a little. This was Rosie's solution to the problems in the world. A good bite on the bottom would sort most things according to her. Rosie never actually bit anyone on the bottom despite her constantly proposing this as the most effective therapy possible. Listening to her you would think she was some sort of retired General who was used to giving orders and sorting things out. However, the reality was that she was a little dog who everyone thought charming even when she was barking. Rosie also always did as ET told her.

"A good bite on the bottom might just do the trick," laughed Little Bad Wolf. "Mrs Hurray-Bill has a very big bottom so it would be just right for biting."

"That's settled, then," said Rosie. "Bites on the bottom all round."

They all laughed at this and forgot their problems for an hour as they played in the forest.

When Little Bad Wolf went back to the den her aunts came to talk to her.

"Hiya," said Aunt Martha. "We have talked about what you said and you are right. We know it is not nice at the moment but let's not give in. Let's try and see if we can stick with school."

Little Bad Wolf said nothing but smiled and hugged her aunts.

#  Chapter 14 Who's Afraid Of The Little Bad Wolf?

The first protest had happened one month after Little Bad Wolf had started in the school. There was an incident near the school when a German Shepherd had barked rather viciously at a child and her mother. As she was telling another mother about this Little Bad Wolf walked happily past them and into school. As they watched the young wolf both mothers were thinking the same thoughts about how dangerous this creature could be. They then saw Mr Silliman, the head of the parents' council, go to his car after leaving his daughter Samantha in school and called him over.

"Well Mrs Bennett," he said after listening to her story. "I am in total agreement with you. A school is a place where children should be nurtured and educated. Not threatened by wild animals."

The two ladies had been calm and wondered whether they were worrying too much before talking to Mr Silliman. After talking to him they were sure that their children were in mortal danger of this animal who should be caged in a zoo and not walking into the same classroom as their own children.

"Of course you know who the father is?" asked Mr Silliman. They did not and said so. "It is the murdering Big Bad Wolf."

"But did he actually kill them?"

"You mean Little Red Riding Hood, her granny or the woodcutter? Well it appears they were lucky. But there were others. I am sure. This is why those pink hearted wishy-washy liberal judges only gave him life in prison. There is no justice."

The two ladies agreed with this and allowed him to continue. "We do not want history to repeat itself, in our village, in our school with our children. The headmistress tells me her hands are tied. I think we need to untie her hands for her."

"How could we do that?" asked Mrs Bennett.

"Well we could just remove our children from the school," answered Mr Silliman.

"That is a good idea," said Mrs Jones. "But I can see one problem."

"What?" asked Mrs Bennett and Mr Silliman.

"Well," answered Mrs Jones. "I know we all love our children dearly and want them to be around us as much of the time as possible."

Her two listeners nodded their head in agreement.

"However, they may not resolve this quickly and we would be stuck with the little mites for too many hours a day."

Again her two listeners nodded their head in agreement.

"A good point," said Mr Silliman.

"Yes. We would not want our children's education to suffer," said Mrs Jones thinking of how her regular lunches in town might also suffer.

"Why don't we tell Mrs Hurray-Bill that we will protest outside her school until this wolf is kicked out," said Mr Silliman.

Mrs Bennett and Mrs Joyce thought that this was an excellent idea. In their mind it was simple: they would talk to Mrs Hurray-Bill, she would see sense, kick the wolf out and everyone would be happy.

Mr Silliman was expecting Mrs Hurray-Bill not to agree easily when he met her.

"I have discussed this with some very wise and helpful people," said Mrs Hurray-Bill. Mr Silliman understood this to mean she had talked to her husband the Mayor.

"It is very important that correct procedure is followed," said Mrs Hurray-Bill. "The school has procedures for discipline and other matters. The public expect us to act in a fair and proper manner." Mr Silliman understood this to mean that her husband, the Mayor, was afraid that this would create bad publicity for him.

"We also understand that parents are concerned. We welcome input from all the parents who are interested in us resolving this quickly and to the benefit of the people involved." Mr Silliman understood that the headmistress was happy they were protesting and would welcome their ideas on getting rid of the wolf.

Mr Silliman did ask why they don't just kick out the wolf, and got an answer that they could not just do that.

That day was now one month ago but every day since then Little Bad Wolf had dreaded going to school. The first day she didn't know what all the fuss was about. She was still in the phase where she thought that school was the greatest thing which had happened to her and that everyone connected to it, even the children who did not like her, were wonderful. She strode up wondering what all these nice people were doing carrying their weird and wonderful signs. But she was mistaken; there were no nice people there but an angry mob. Although nine parents with badly made placards hardly make a mob, this is what it seemed like to Little Bad Wolf when they saw her and turned on her.

Since then she had been figuring out ways to get to school without passing through the protest. For a wolf this is relatively easy. There were many ways where she could go under the fence, through the hole beside the back gate and if needed just jump over from the wall adjacent to the school. The protesters had been delighted at the look of fear on Little Bad Wolf's face on the first day but were then disappointed that they never got to meet her the second or third morning or any other morning after that. They would be happy to know that they were still terrifying her. She had always known that it was possible that people might not want her to go to the school but she never thought that they would spend their time trying to stop her going and shout abuse at her or anyone they thought supported her.

"Mr Silliman," said Matt's father to Samantha's father when he was leaving Matt at school. "I believe you are responsible for this daft bunch of agitators."

"I am not responsible for a group of concerned parents expressing their worries for their children's safety," said Mr Silliman.

"Aha! So you have met this creature who is putting your child's safety at risk?"

"You do not have to shake hands with a wolf to know it is dangerous."

"And what exact danger is that?"

"A wolf is a wolf."

"And she is not just any old wolf," said another of the protesting parents. "You know how her father is."

"This is a new criteria for expulsion. Are you saying children should be expelled because of who their parents are?" said Matt's dad.

Mr Silliman was now getting angry. He had this urge to end this argument with a punch. Two things stopped him. Fighting with another parent would not be good for their protest and Matt's dad was much bigger than him. Punching him might not be a good idea.

"You know why we are here," said Mr Silliman very loudly. "Please now go about your business as we are busy."

Mr Silliman then took his placard and started walking up and down, ignoring Matt's dad who got in his car and drove away.

# Chapter 15 Overheard

Claire was telling Samantha and Jo how the protesters had almost stopped Little Bad Wolf from getting to school that morning. "She had to sneak through a fence at the back of the school yesterday," she said. "I think she came to school an hour earlier today. What an idiot. Why doesn't she hunt rabbits or something?"

"There's no need to be quite so loud," said Samantha.

"I want to let her hear me," said Claire.

"Claire," said Samantha in a quiet but firm manner. "You are also making sure that the teachers hear you. At present the little bitch is still a pupil here and they will have to do something about you talking about her."

Jo, the third girl in the company, had started laughing, "That's very good, very good."

"What?" said both Samantha and Claire.

"Well you know. She's a wolf which is kind of like a dog." Jo stopped and laughed again. "Well calling her a bitch. That's very good. Very funny"

Samantha looked at her. She was very pleased with her joke being appreciated but wanted to show that this sort of talk was normal for her.

"If we can I would like to get to the point," said Samantha.

"OK" said Jo still chuckling.

"The point is she can hear us even if we talk very quietly," said Samantha. "And the teachers cannot."

"So like if I whisper 'you little bitch' or something, she can hear me?" asked Jo.

"I think so," said Samantha and looked at Little Bad Wolf whose look confirmed what she had just said.

"Hey, its break time," said Jo. "Why don't you go fetch a bone or maybe dig a hole in the garden? You little bitch." She could not contain herself after this and started very loudly laughing at her own joke.

"Anyway where was I?" Samantha's conspiratorial tone gave the others the signal to pay attention.

"My dad has figured out how to get other woolly liberal parents to support the protest. He just asks them have they seen the adverts in the Estate Agent's. He tells them that house prices near the school have reduced by five per cent since the wolf came to school. Some parents change completely when they hear this. One minute they are talking about the rights of all creatures. My dad tells them that if they try and sell their house, it will be worth a lot less than it was a few months ago. Hey presto they are then talking about how their little baby needs to be protected. Next day you see their child being told to make sure they don't have anything to do with the wolf. He's very clever, my dad."

"Anyway." Again Samantha nodded towards Little Bad Wolf as if to say this is the important part if you want to listen. "My dad invited the head teacher and Mrs Hurray-Bill to dinner in our house yesterday. They thought I was in bed but I listened."

Her two friends showing the intensity of their listening with dropped jaws. Little Bad Wolf who was across the school yard was also listening intently.

"My dad he told Mrs Hurray-Bill exactly what to do. Do you know what she said to him?"

They didn't.

"She said thank you very much. This is good advice."

"So what did he say?" asked Jo.

"I heard most of it but not all. I was on the stairs just outside my room and I had to be ready to hide if anyone came out so I did not hear it all but I did hear enough."

She paused again to allow her friends to realize that it is her dad who tells Mrs Hurray-Bill what to do and she thanks him for it.

"Well. They know they have made an awful mistake. As well as it being dangerous having such a wild animal in school..."

Jo interrupted "They are going to let wild animals into school now."

Samantha rolled her eyes towards the sky. "Please they already have. I meant the wolf."

Jo said "Oh" and "sorry" but Samantha was continuing without waiting to acknowledge this interruption.

"They have a plan to get her out. I am not sure of the exact details but there are things which all pupils should do and which the wolf does not. My dad told Mrs Hurray-Bill that she has to stand up for civilisation."

"What sort of things does she not do?" asked Claire.

"Well, have you ever seen her wear clothes?" asked Samantha. Claire wanted to answer this but Samantha was continuing. "Well what if they enforced some decency. If you or I came into school naked we would be very quickly asked to leave. I think they should bring in the same rules for everyone."

With that Claire, Jo and Samantha went back to the classroom. Little Bad Wolf had already told Matt and Louise what Samantha had been saying.

"They literally can't do that," said Matt. "A wolf's coat is the same as peoples' clothes. It's as simple as that. This is not fair."

Louise and Little Bad Wolf looked at him. There was no point in their asking what has fair got to do with it or pointing out that Samantha was right. If they started getting technical on school rules they might be able to expel Little Bad Wolf very quickly.

Matt and Louise were surprised when Little Bad Wolf started to laugh as they walked back into their classroom.

"What's up?" asked Matt.

"I had for agot ten tha-at I have a T-shirt," answered Little Bad Wolf. "Act-ooo-ually I have a few. My mo-ther used to col-lect T-shirts from rock bands."

"What?" said Louise.

"It's true. She act-oo-ually stole some of them, I suppose. Her fav-our-ite was one of Elvis on a motor-bike. I was just way-it-ing for an occ-as-ion to wear them."

"Wow," said Matt.

"Wow," said Louise.

The three of them took their seats in the classroom laughing at this. All three also noticed Samantha staring at them with a look of puzzled annoyance. She had been looking forward to seeing Little Bad Wolf worry about having to wear clothes and did not expect to see her laughing.

# Chapter 16 No Nudity Please

Everyone knew what the rules were at school. You were not allowed to talk with your friends, run down the corridor or fight. The worst thing ever was to be caught "making a total idiot of yourself, once again" in Mr Clogs' class. He would stare and shout at you in a very frightening way and then after he had made you really scared would do something to punish you. It seemed that some children were let off while others were given extra home work. The worst punishment from Mr Clogs was detention. He would demand that you be kept in school after everyone else had gone home. However, while everyone knew the rules of the school no-one had ever seen them written down.

The day after Little Bad Wolf had heard Samantha tell her friends about the new rule Mr Clogs made them aware of this notice on the school noticeboard. Matt, Louise and Little Bad Wolf were sitting in his class listening to him explain something very complicated which could possibly be interesting only if someone else was explaining it. At the end of the lesson Mr Clogs said "I would appreciate if everyone would start adhering to the new school rule."

"Excuse me, Mr Clogs," said Matt. "But what new school rule is this?"

"Matt. I am disappointed," said Mr Clogs. "I suspected that you could read. It appears I am wrong. The notice about the new rule has been on the notice board all day."

Mr Clogs then said goodbye and left the class. He was followed out the door by almost the entire class. Samantha was the sole pupil who stayed behind.

There was indeed a poster. Twenty seven children were staring at it and reading and wondering.

New School Rule

"It has been noticed that some pupils were coming to school dressed improperly or not wearing clothes at all. This is a school and not a nudist camp. All pupils must now wear proper clothes at all times while in school. No exceptions!!"

Most of the children had no idea what this was about. Even Jo and Claire who had been talking about this as a clever way of getting rid of Little Bad Wolf did not figure it out immediately. Louise, Matt and Little Bad Wolf knew exactly why this rule had appeared. There was only one pupil in this school who did not wear clothes and that was Little Bad Wolf. The school was going to give in to the parents who were protesting about having a wolf as a student.

The bell rang for the next class. Samantha, the one student who had not gone to look at the notice board was talking loudly in a way to ensure that she would irritate at least three students.

"Of course, I knew about it before hand," she was saying, almost shouting. "My daddy told Mrs Hurray-Bill to do this. He is very happy with this. He thinks the school is copping on at last and doing something about this mess they have got themselves into."

One of her friends asked her which mess. She rolled her eyes and looked over at Little Bad Wolf. Her friend just said "Oh! I see."

There was no time given for the new rule to be implemented but most students had guessed that if Little Bad Wolf did not find some clothes before tomorrow that she would very soon have to leave the school.

Everyone told her this. Her friends said "Do not be afraid we will think of something." Others asked her what she thought of the new school rule. Several times Samantha walked past Little Bad Wolf with one or other of her friends discussing loudly what they should wear tomorrow.

Louise and Matt went home that day very worried about the new rule. Little Bad Wolf had told them they need not worry as she had her T-shirts.

"Do you want to come with me and find clothes for school?" asked Louise.

"My baby brother would literally be about the same size as you," said Matt. "You could come home with me and borrow them."

"No tha-ank you," said Little Bad Wolf.

Little Bad Wolf went off in search of Rosie and ET. She knew that if she had explained to Matt and Louise that she wanted to get away from people for a while they would not have understood why.

Little Bad Wolf found ET and Rosie sniffing a tree very intently

"Oh Wolfie," said Rosie. "Have a sniff. There's an unusual one here."

Little Bad Wolf smelt the foot of the tree as suggested. "It looks like there's a new dog walking in the woods."

"It smells like an older dog to me," said ET.

"I know. I meant new to the woods," said Little Bad Wolf.

She felt so comfortable walking through the woods with her friends, investigating the smells and talking about things which dogs and wolves understood. It was a feeling that she belonged. Despite Matt and Louise and all the friendship she got from them, it was a feeling she never got at school.

Rosie was telling them how she had had to go to the vet's yesterday.

"I was going to bite his bottom," she barked as ET and Little Bad Wolf exchanged knowing looks.

"I am an important dog and not just anyone can put me on a table and start poking around. It's our crazy owners. Always worrying. I did not eat breakfast as I was not feeling well and they make me feel worse by dragging me to the vet. And all so he can tell them that I am in good health. Waste of my time. I would be perfectly within my rights to bite all their bottoms."

Little Bad Wolf went home to the den feeling much happier after having been with Rosie and ET.

# Chapter 17 Rock Fashion

Neither of her aunts understood why she had to wear clothes.

"It is as if they are trying to figure out some way to find an excuse to expel you," said Aunt Martha.

"You have got it in one," replied Little Bad Wolf.

"Very strange," said Aunt Matilda. "If they wanted to expel you, why don't they just ask you to leave the school and stop these silly games?"

"I think this is the way people do things," said Little Bad Wolf. "They have allowed me to come to school and they do not want to admit that they have made a mistake so they invent some reason to expel me."

"Very strange," said Aunt Martha.

"Very strange, indeed," said Aunt Matilda. "Let's just leave the school. You have two of the cleverest wolves as aunts and we can teach you."

"You would learn far more about the ways of the forest from us, I might add," said Aunt Martha, "I think this school has many things lacking in what they teach. At the very least they should have a class on identifying smells."

"I know this," said Little Bad Wolf. "It's funny but now they are trying to get rid of me, it has become more important. It is sometimes very frightening to go to school past those people with the banners who protest outside. Usually they are quiet when I go past but I hear them before they see me. They say these horrible things about wolves and not just me. They also say stuff about my dad."

Neither Aunt wanted to talk much more once she had mentioned her father and they got back to packing her school books as Little Bad Wolf for the first time put on clothes before she went to school. They knew that Little Bad Wolf's main reason for going to school was to learn the language of the people. Little Bad Wolf thought that if she could speak and read and write, she would convince the judge to let her dad out of prison. Her aunts were not so sure.

"So who is this Lady Pank?" said Louise. She and Matt could not stop laughing when they saw Little Bad Wolf with a T-shirt with a picture of five very strange, hairy men. They all wore leathers, dark sun glasses and looked like desperados. On top was the text 'Lady Pank' and below the picture was the text, 'Little Lady Punk'.

"They are a ro-ock band" said Little Bad Wolf.

"I kinda guessed that much but I've never heard of them," said Louise.

"I don't know mu-och about them," said Little Bad Wolf. "It was my mo-ther's T-shirt. I thought pe-ople knew about the-ese sorts of th-ings.

Matt phoned his dad on his mobile phone and was again laughing as he talked with him. "He says they're a rock band from Germany or Poland or somewhere. He says they have been around for ages and should have been locked up years ago."

"Are they crim-in-als?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

"That's just an expression my dad has for people who he thinks are pretty cool. He always says that they should be locked up. I don't know why. Oh, and apparently this (he pointed at the text 'Little Lady Punk') was one of their early songs. "

Ms Potterer was their first class of the day. She had looked nervous until she saw Little Bad Wolf and then seemed to find it very hard to stop herself laughing. Ms Potterer was usually very nice to Little Bad Wolf and would ask her questions and involve her a lot in the class. Most of the other teachers now ignored Little Bad Wolf. Whenever hers was the only hand (or paw) up to answer a question they would go on. Mr Clogs was the only other teacher who would regularly ask her questions but his were usually questions that were difficult to answer. Mr Clogs asked all of his pupils questions which were difficult to answer.

Today though, Ms Potterer was trying not to notice Little Bad Wolf. There were several times where she could have asked the class a question but did not because she knew Little Bad Wolf would want to answer it. She got Claire and Tommy to read as these were the two pupils who sat farthest away from Little Bad Wolf. When the lesson was over, she looked at Little Bad Wolf, said "Nice T-shirt" and winked.

Mr Clogs did not share Ms Potterer's appreciation of the T-shirt. He was teaching the class immediately after the morning break. He walked in looking his usual confident self and was about to bellow instructions to the class when he saw Little Bad Wolf in her T-shirt. He went a bright shade of red but instead of exploding in a fit of temper went outside the door. He was there for at least three minutes and the class could hear him huffing and puffing outside.

He was still fuming when he walked back into the class room.

"There is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law," he bellowed. "Can one of you fine pupils tell me what is the difference."

Only Samantha's hand shot up.

"Miss Silliman, thank you but please wait. I would like to ask some others first," said Mr Clogs.

"Perhaps, Miss Wolf would like to answer. Tell me Miss Wolf what is the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law?"

"Mr Clogs Sir, I think this is an expression used by people which I have never heard before. I do not know."

"It certainly looks like you do not know. Maybe one of your friends would like to help you. Louise can you answer this?"

"Well Sir, it's like when everyone knows a law means one thing and the purpose of it is that one thing but it can be misinterpreted because technically the words do not actually say what they want to achieve."

"I think I understand your meaning and you are very close. However can you think of an example? I would be particularly interested in examples close to the school."

Louise did not say anything so Mr Clogs asked her again and this time she just said no.

"Well Samantha, It seems you have to rescue me. Can you give an example?"

"Thanks you Mr Clogs. I think if a new rule appeared in school and the pupils instead of following it as intended started doing something which was not at all the intention of the rule. In that case you could say the student followed the letter of the law but not the spirit."

"Very good. Could you be more specific?"

"Well sir, if I came in some T-shirt with a picture of some degenerate rock band on it I might be obeying the letter of the law but this is certainly not what was intended so I would not be obeying the spirit of the law."

"Very good, may I now ask you to go over to Miss Wolf and explain this to her."

Samantha had a look which suggested she would be delighted to do just that but Mr Clogs stopped her as she was getting out of her seat.

"It's OK please sit down," he said. "But Miss Wolf do you understand that T-shirts with pictures of some degenerates is not what we mean when we put a notice up about how our pupils should be suitably dressed for school."

He sighed and then raised his voice again. "Do you understand? Does everybody understand?"

The class said they did. Mr Clogs at last started teaching.

Little Bad Wolf left the schools feeling very angry. This rule about clothes was intended just to kick her out of the school and now that she found a way to obey the rule Mr Clogs was giving out to her for not obeying the spirit of the law. The spirit of this rule was very mean indeed and had only one purpose. She left school angry and determined. She hoped that there would be some T-shirt at the den that would be even less acceptable to Mr Clogs. She was also determined that she would not leave school without a fight.

This time Matt's father had no idea what the T-shirt was about. Matt had phoned his father again and described it to him. "It's black with yellow writing. In very big letters there is the word 'Radiators' and in smaller letter below that are the words 'from space'. Oh and the text is slanted going from bottom left hand corner to the top right."

"No strange pictures of rock stars?" His father asked him.

"Not this time"

"Well we can look it up when you get home."

Matt, Louise and Little Bad Wolf would have liked to know more about what this T-shirt meant but seemed happy when no-one else knew what it was about either. That way Little Bad Wolf could not be blamed for having a T-shirt of some offensive rock band.

"Are you trying to be funny, Miss Wolf?" screamed Mr Clogs. He was teaching the last class of the day. None of the other teachers had made any comments about clothes or anything and the day had gone very well. At least Little Bad Wolf thought the day had gone well. Then Mr Clogs came into the classroom.

"Please take out your books and open page..." Mr Clogs did not finish his sentence. He stared at Little Bad Wolf and went redder and redder. Every other child in the room was reminded of a cartoon when someone is getting angrier and angrier and smoke starts rising from the top of her head. Little Bad Wolf had no television and had seen very few cartoons. She was more concerned with what Mr Clogs would do.

He stormed out of the classroom. They all heard him storm up and down the corridor. He then came back in, stared at Little Bad Wolf and asked whether she was trying to be funny.

"I am obey-ing a rule that is stup-id," said Little Bad Wolf. "Al-most half this class have worn T-shirts with ro-ock bands and no-one has ever got into tro-uble.

"We try to accommodate all students in this school. Even when we get attacked and ridiculed for it." Mr Clogs was almost but quite shouting. "And this is how we get repaid. Miss Wolf will you please go home and think about what you wear to school."

Samantha could see that the class were all full of sympathy for Little Bad Wolf as she packed her bags and started to leave. She had to do something to stop this wave of sympathy. Very quietly she said, "Well done sir."

Mr Clogs looked around at her. He was about to smile but instead simply got his composure back and said in a voice that strong but not too loud, "Page seventeen."

"Excuse me Sir. Page seventeen?" said Tommy who was only expressing the surprise at being brought back to the lesson which the rest of the class was feeling.

"You seem surprised that I am asking you to open your book," said Mr Clogs. "I hope this does not mean I have another pupil who has to be reminded they are at school and not some rock concert." Mr Clogs said 'rock concert' as if it was something very horrible. His voice then lost all of its tension as he asked Samantha to read.

Little Bad Wolf did not want to go home straight away as if she did she would have to explain to her aunts why she had left the school early so she wondered in the forest. Pretty quickly she came across her two corgi friends who were investigating a tree.

"Hey Wolfie," said Rosie. "Good job you came along. There's a lot of funny smells here and we can't figure out who they belong to."

Little Bad Wolf said she did not really feel like investigating smells and told them what had happened at school.

"I was wondering why you were wearing a T-shirt," said ET. Rosie just offered to bite Mr Clogs' bottom. As always this cheered up Little Bad Wolf.

"We have had a lot of music in our house recently," said ET.

"ET is putting this nicely," said Rosie. "Marcus has decided that what the world needs now is for him to be singing and playing a guitar. He is even thinking of playing in public but I think he will need me to threaten to bite the bottom of anyone who does not appreciate it."

"I am sure they will like it," said ET.

"Maybe," said Rosie. "But the songs are a bit miserable. One starts with 'Hello darkness my old friend'."

"Rosie is right. It seems the more miserable the words the more they like it," said ET.

"People are very strange," said Little Bad Wolf.

#  Chapter 18 Another Notice

There are many things in a school which everyone knows a school needs but which are always ignored. The school notice board was one of these things. Until Mr Clogs had pointed out that there was a new school rule on it, none of the pupils could ever remember reading a single word of any notice which had been put on this board. The notice board was situated strategically close to the door the pupils used from the school yard and there was no excuse for any of them ignoring it. The notice informing the pupils that it was not acceptable for them to come to school in the nude had been in the centre of the board but today it was moved to the left. The centre position was now occupied by a notice with the title 'Elocution tests'. Louise, Matt and Little Bad Wolf had just entered the school and saw Tommy already staring at the poster.

"Oh great." said Tommy. "I love tests."

"You're not serious," said Louise, her voice showing her annoyance with this new challenge.

"What could be better," said Tommy. "An elocution test. I love elocution. I love tests."

"Have you seen the small print?" said Matt.

"What do you mean?" said Tommy.

"Well, it says here that unfortunately any student who cannot pass this test will be transferred to a more appropriate school."

"I suppose that makes sense," said Tommy. "If a pupil cannot pass this test then maybe another school would be better."

"There's more small print," said Louise. "It says they will be transferred to another school if that school accepts them, If not they will have to leave school and apply to come here again."

"It's unusual to have so many extra rules in a test," said Tommy.

"It most certainly is," said Louise. When she looked at this poster for the elocution tests she realised that there was a lot about it that was unusual. Tests were usually done one class at a time and this was the first time that a test for the whole school was announced like this. The poster also went into detail about how the test would be carried out. Each pupil would do the test on their own with a teacher. The other thing which was unusual was what Matt had called 'the small print'. None of them had ever heard of a test where if you failed you would be expelled.

Little Bad Wolf had not said anything. She knew what was supposed to happen. The test would have lots of long words with 'S's and 'T's and 'X's. There would be one pupil who would not be able to pronounce these words. There would be one pupil who would not pass this test. That one pupil would be her. They would pretend to be very sorry as they explained that the school has a high standard to keep and they were not in the least bit prejudiced but maybe their heroic experiment in letting a wolf into the school was too early. She looked up at the sign again and sighed and turned away towards the door.

#  Chapter 19 Elocution Test

The plan seemed simple. Little Bad Wolf would put the micro radio in her ear and attach a tiny microphone to her fur. Matt's dad would hear what she was being asked to pronounce and would slowly pronounce the word in a way she could copy. They had practised it and it had worked well. Louise and Matt thought this was a very clever and wonderful idea. Only Little Bad Wolf had any problems with it. She thought it cheating and descending to their level.

"Will they not notice this?" she said.

"They may," said Matt's dad. "But I don't think so. They are literally doing all they can to kick you out of the school and we are just trying to tip the scales so that it is fairer."

"It's not go-ing to sto-op," said Little Bad Wolf. "At least it will not sto-op un-til they get rid of me. This is wor-se than hav-ing to wear clo-othes and the next one will be wor-se than that."

"What do you mean next one?" asked Matt.

"She's right," said his dad. "There will be another one and probably another after that and maybe they won't stop until they have got rid of you. They will be kicking you out of the school but making it look like their noble effort to integrate you did not work. They will say that they tried very hard and are very good people but ultimately the wolf was just not up to it. The question you have to answer is when do you just get sick of it and leave."

Little Bad Wolf had known that she is likely to have to leave the school in the end. However, she did not want to give in so easily to their cheating and bullying. She also felt that as she had made some friends who supported her. It was not just about her.

"I know this," she said. "Let's hope for the best and get through this test with a little help."

Of the three of them Louise was first to go for the Elocution test. The school had not said in what order they would be doing the tests but it was obvious that they were doing it in alphabetical order. Each day 24 students would complete the test. After the first day, Matt was able to draw up a chart of when he thought they would be examined. By his calculations, Louise would have her test at 10 AM on Tuesday, his own would be on 9.20 AM on Wednesday and Little Bad Wolf would be at 2 PM on Thursday. At exactly 10 AM on Tuesday Louise was called into the test. It lasted 15 minutes and Mr Clogs who was carrying out all the tests showed her a series of cards and then several texts from books. Louise, as you may expect, got a perfect score.

There was a break after Louise had completed the test and she and Matt spent the time trying to write down exactly what had been asked. The cards had included words like 'democracy', 'philosophy' and 'sanctuary'. In total there were fifteen words. The first section she had to read was from "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" where Tom and Huckleberry Finn were in the haunted house and Injun Joe and another criminal came in. The second was the start of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

The other children knew that Matt or Louise would have no problem with an Elocution test. Together with Samantha they were the top three pupils in the class for English. Because of this no-one had much of a problem talking to them about the test. They even had a long chat with Samantha's friend, Claire, who was showing off about how easy the test was and how she had no problems with it.

"Daffodils," she said. "Can you believe that. Clogs asked me to recite Daffodils by William Wordsworth. What could be easier?"

"I don't know," said Matt. "When we started looking at this poem I had no idea what 'jocund' was and did not know how to pronounce it."

"Well I had no problem. It means serious. Doesn't it? I would have preferred something harder. I heard they have also asked some kids to recite a speech from Shakespeare. That would have been more my style."

By Wednesday morning Matt's calculations were proving to be very accurate. He even found out that Mr Clogs had a system where he would ask the same ten words and then five random words from a set of about twenty. There were four different texts to read and he simply rotated. Matt felt during his own test that he knew the procedure so well that he could tell what Mr Clogs would say next and was always right.

On Wednesday evening Matt, Louise and Little Bad Wolf went to Matt's house to practise. When his father came home from work they did a live run of the test as it was going to be given at 2 PM on Thursday. Matt was very proud of his impersonation of Mr Clogs, even down to the 'do not mess with me little schoolchild, unless of course you do not want a long and healthy life' look. The test took exactly one minute more than average and three minutes more than the test which Matt and Louise had got. Matt explained that Little Bad Wolf's test would be longer and will be as hard as any that has been asked. He claimed Mr Clogs would take longer with her as he will have been told by Mrs Hurray-Bill to try and get rid of the wolf.

Little Bad Wolf felt very good leaving Matt's house. They were her friends. She did not worry about what people said about her. They had never talked about her father when they first met. They still did not talk about him but now they mentioned wolves not getting justice, and people presuming things about them without any evidence. It was nice to have friends like this.

When Little Bad Wolf was walking to school she was feeling confident and happy but also nervous. Her good spirits were not even damped when she had to walk past the protesters who were shouting "Not much longer" and "How is your pronunciation?" at her.

Matt explained to her that when the bell rang at 9AM, Samantha would be called and as she is very good her test will last 17 minutes and 30 seconds. He told her that he thought Louise will come first in these tests but Samantha could come as high as number 3. He did not mention that he thought he would be number 2. Matt was not the only one who had figured out the pattern; they overheard Claire wishing Samantha 'good luck' a few minutes before the bell was about to ring.

Immediately before the 9 AM bell Matt put the radio and microphone on Little Bad Wolf.

"Now we literally just need to wait for the test," said Matt.

"Can we te-est this at lu-unch-time?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

"That is an excellent idea," said Matt. He then tried to phone his dad but did not get an answer. "Oh that's right! He is at some meeting until 11 AM. I will send him a text message saying we will have a test at lunch-time." He said all this while staring not at Little Bad Wolf but at the keypad on his phone and his fingers were busy typing a message to his father. Again he got no reply.

The bell rang for the start of school. They were to be taught by Ms Potterer who walked into the class with Mr Clogs. Samantha was getting ready to follow Mr Clogs to his office for the test when Mr Clogs cleared his throat and said, "Miss Wolf, will you please come with me."

For a moment Samantha looked indignant but then she thought 'how clever' and grinned. Matt looked at his papers and his phone which still showed no response from his dad. Louise cried and then looked around the class-room and cried some more. Mr Clogs spotted everything and was very pleased with himself. He did not say 'At last' out loud but he came very close to doing just that.

Little Bad Wolf simply followed Mr Clogs into the office he was using for these tests.

"And how are you today, Miss Wolf," asked Mr Clogs.

When she was first asked "How she was," Little Bad Wolf had given a long explanation as how she felt. She quickly realised that she was not supposed to do this and that being asked how you were was almost the same as someone saying "hello." You were expected to respond that you are very well thank you and ask how the other person is.

Little Bad Wolf did not do this today. "I am not very happy, Mr Clogs."

"And why is that?" he asked.

"I am not looking forward to your test," she answered.

Mr Clogs smiled and it was not his usual sneer, he smiled because he was uncomfortable. He knew that Little Bad Wolf knew that this was pretence and the purpose was simply to find some excuse to get rid of her from the school.

"None of the other students have had any problem with the test," he said.

"Yes, but you kno-ow I can-not pro-no-unce some wo-ords and you also know the test is desi-gned so that I will fail," said Little Bad Wolf.

"How do I know how you will do until you have taken the test."

It was now Little Bad Wolf's turn to smile. She gave him a look as if to say that you are not fooling anyone. Mr Clogs looked away and said they should start the test now.

Matt had explained to her that for every test so far the first ten words had been the same and all had been very easy. Matt said that they were giving you easy words at first to relax you. Little Bad Wolf reckoned that as they had already changed the order in which they asked pupils to take the test that they might also change this part of the text but they did not. She found pronouncing some of the first ten words difficult but she had practised them with Matt, Louise and Matt's dad and had no great problem with them.

For the eleventh word, Mr Clogs showed a card with 'PSYCHOLOGY' written on it. Little Bad Wolf looked at it and felt slightly sick. She then took a deep breath. This was one of the words she had practised using the micro-radio with Matt's dad. She shut her eyes and could almost hear his voice breaking this word down and teaching her how to say it. As she imagined the voice she said it out loud "Si – Kol – Ogee."

"Very good," said Mr Clogs and he showed a card with the word 'SENSIBLE' written on it. Little Bad Wolf had not practised this word and was unsure what it would sound like. Her voice let Mr Clogs now that she was having difficulty, was a little bit afraid but was also defiant. When they were teaching her to say words they would always the break the word down into smaller parts and say each part. She started doing this out loud. "Sense – E – Bill"

"Very good," said Mr Clogs and produced another equally hard word and then another and another. By breaking them into their component parts she was managing to pronounce them. This part of the test had consisted of fifteen words for the other students. She had already done thirty words when Mrs Hurray-Bill walked into the office.

"And How is Miss Wolf doing, Mr Clogs?" asked Mrs Hurray-Bill. "I have already contacted some of the other schools to see if they have a place for her if she fails."

"She is doing very well," said Mrs Clogs.

The smile on Mrs Hurray-Bill's face disappeared,

"I am sorry?" she said.

"She is doing very well," said Mr Clogs. "I have given her thirty words and she has got them all right so far."

Mrs Hurray-Bill did not answer this. She did not look very happy.

Mr Clogs continued with the test.

"Have you heard of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain?" he asked.

"No Sir, we have not do-ne this yet and we do not have ma-any bo-oks at home," said Little Bad Wolf.

"Can I interrupt a minute," said Mrs Hurray-Bill. "Is this the normal text for the exam?"

"I have not asked any child to read from this book," answered Mr Clogs. "The texts I have used so far have been, I think, a bit easier."

Mrs Hurray-Bill said "Continue" and smiled.

Little Bad Wolf looked at the text she was supposed to read. She had decided at the beginning of this test to just do her best and see what happens. She scanned the text. Mr Clogs explained it was from the beginning of Chapter 4 where Huck has been living with the Widow Douglas and was going to school for the first time in his life.

Little Bad Wolf cleared her throat. "Well," she then paused and looked at Mr Clogs and Mrs Hurray-Bill.

"Well, thr-ee or fo-ur months run al-ong, and it was well into the win-ter now." That part went reasonably smoothly. She took another breath. "I had been to scho-ol most all the ti-ime and could spell and re-ad and wri-ite just a lit-tle, and could say..."

She stopped looked at the next words and broke them down into syllables. "..the mult-ip-lic-ation table up to six ti-imes sev-en is thirty-five, and I don't rey kon I could ever get any fur-ther than that if I was to live for-ever. I don't take no stock in mat-a-matics, any- way."

She looked at Mr Clogs wondering if would tell her to stop but he just nodded for her to continue.

"At fi-irst I hate-ed the scho-ol, but by and by I got so I could sta-and it." She liked this line. "When-ever I got un-com-mon tired I play-ed hookey, and the hid-ing I got next day done me go-od and che-ered me up. So the long-er I we-ent to scho-ol the easi-er it got to be. I was get-ing sort of used to the wid-ow's ways, too, and they warn't so ras-py on me."

"OK, I think we have heard enough," interrupted Mrs Hurray-Bill. "Never before have I have heard such a bad reading."

Little Bad Wolf was horrified. She did not know what she had done wrong and she felt kind of proud at the way she had managed to pronounce the words from the book. It seemed now all was lost. Then Mr Clogs said, "I am afraid I don't follow you."

"Oh come on," said Mrs Hurray-Bill. "This is a book for children and she has made at least three mistakes and each of these mistakes should mean automatic failure."

"I am sorry," said Mr Clogs. "You must be far more alert than me today. Which three mistakes?"

Mrs Hurray-Bill was not expecting a challenge from that quarter and grew very flustered.

"Well I will ignore the fact that it took her so long to say simple words like 'multipla..'." Mrs Hurray-Bill had to cough to cover up the slight stutter. "'kation' and 'mathematics'. I will ignore this. But 'six times seven is thirty-five'- that clearly is not in the book. Then there's this phrase 'played hookey' – again it's not in the book. As a matter of fact it's not even a word. The third one is 'raspy'. I think I heard her say 'they warn't so raspy on me'. This is a great book which we all know and love and this wolf cannot go making up her own words and putting it in there."

Mr Clogs did not know what to say. He took the book from Little Bad Wolf and passed it to Mrs Hurray-Bill and showed her the section which was being read.

"I think she has passed the test," he said. "Miss Wolf, please ask Samantha to come in next."

Before a relieved Little Bad Wolf could open the door and walk back to her classroom, an angry Mrs, Hurray-Bill stormed out of the office.

#  Chapter 20 Radio Problems

Little Bad Wolf heard Mr Clogs whisper "Well done" as she had left the room. She was so surprised that she had got through and without the help of Matt's dad that she did not even smile at Samantha to show she had won. However, her expression caused Samantha more problems as she was incredibly curious and did not know whether they had succeeded or not in finding a reason to expel Little Bad Wolf.

Little Bad Wolf still had the little earphone in her ear and the microphone attached to her fur. They had thought that her test would be in the afternoon and at lunch-time when Little Bad Wolf, Matt and Louise were in the school yard during their lunch break, she heard a voice in her ear.

"Hello, testing 123," said the voice.

Little Bad Wolf looked up shocked she had completely forgotten about this device.

"Someone is talking in my ear," she said to Matt and Louise.

"I can hear you. Can you hear me?" said the voice in her ear.

"I know," said Matt. "It's dad. He thinks the test will be literally in the afternoon.

"Hello, Hello," said the voice in her ear.

"Oh hel-lo," said Little Bad Wolf not sure how she was supposed to talk with these devices.

"Hi dad," said Matt. "Can you hear me? Let Little Bad Wolf know if you can hear me."

Matt's dad told Little Bad Wolf that he could hear her and she told Matt.

"It's OK. They gave Little Bad Wolf the test earlier and you know what, she passed."

"That's great," said the voice in her ear.

"Ple-ase ask him how to get rid of this thi-ing in my ear," said Little Bad Wolf.

Matt was about to ask the question again when the voice in her ear told her that he had heard the question. She told this to Matt who felt a bit silly for not realising that his father would hear Little Bad Wolf's question.

"I am afraid you are going to have to wait until after school and we can take it out then," said the voice. This was not the news Little Bad Wolf wanted to hear. The only problem however was when Matt's dad was listening to the radio in the afternoon he had left the radio transmitter on. This happened during Ms Potterer's class which was the last of the afternoon. Suddenly music could be heard coming from Little Bad Wolf's right ear. Neither she nor Louise knew how they could deal with this. Ms Potterer might be a friendly teacher but if she caught Little Bad Wolf cheating she would have to tell Mrs Hurray-Bill and that would be that. Matt however was sitting just behind Little Bad Wolf.

"Excuse me," he said very loudly and very close to where he knew the microphone was. "I am very sorry I forgot to turn my phone off. I need to turn it off now." He almost shouted the last bit but it had the effect he wanted as Little Bad Wolf heard a voice in her ear saying, "Sorry. I forgot all about this. I'm turning it off now."

Matt was told that he had the write a 5-page essay on problems caused by irresponsible use of mobile phones. Matt thanked Ms Potterer far too much for what was a punishment.

The three friends went to Matt's house after school. They had passed some very disappointed protesters on the way out of school. The protesters had been told by Mr Silliman that today would be victory day. It was, but for Little Bad Wolf.

Matt's father was very amused when he heard that Little Bad Wolf had been listening to his radio programmes in the afternoon. It took him very little time to take out the ear piece and microphone and Little Bad Wolf decided that she would prefer to go home after that.

"It does seem that you did rather well," said Aunt Martha. Little Bad Wolf had just told her aunts what had happened today with the test and the faulty ear piece which was supposed to help her.

"You did not even need the nice man to help you," agreed Matilda. "The problem is that they will try something else."

"Yes," said Martha. "They will view this as a defeat and will not want to let you get away with it."

"What can they do?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

"You are still very naïve," said Martha. "After this they will come up with something which they know you cannot do."

"Maybe a bicycle test," said Martha. The three wolves laughed remembering the time when Little Bad Wolf had said she wanted to ride a bicycle. They had borrowed one to show her how difficult this would be for a wolf and she has spent a whole morning trying to figure out how she could ride this thing.

"Anyway," said Martha, "the good news is that you have won this round. Let us celebrate this and wait and see what will happen."

#  Chapter 21 I Have Been Watching You

One whole year before these events Mrs Hurray-Bill had called Mr Clogs into her office.

"I have been watching you, Mr Clogs," she said. Mr Clogs stiffened not sure what was going to be said next but his experience of the phrase 'I have been watching you' came from television and it generally meant trouble for the person being spoken to.

Mrs Hurray-Bill continued, "And you are quite simply one of the best teachers I have come across."

Mr Clogs did not show his relief. He did not even listen very carefully to what the headmistress was saying. He left her office understanding that she had a lot of faith in him. However, if she had asked him to do anything specific he had not heard. He had been so relieved that the 'I have been watching you' was not the start of her saying something very bad.

Six months later Mrs Hurray-Bill had again called Mr Clogs into office and again started with the phrase 'I have been watching you'. This time Mr Clogs was able to keep his wits about him and left with a very clear understanding of what was said. Mrs Hurray-Bill had told him that she will be retiring in four or five years and will do everything in her power to make him headmaster when she retires. Mr Clogs was and is very ambitious. Although he knew things could change between this time and when Mrs Hurray-Bill left, he was happy to think he was being thought of as the new headmaster.

Three weeks ago, Mr Clogs had again been called in to the headmistress' office. I am not sure whether she said 'I have been watching you' on this occasion but Mrs Hurray-Bill did ask Mr Clogs for his help.

"You were the only one who said that allowing a wolf to enrol might not be in the school's best interest," said Mrs Hurray-Bill.

Mr Clogs was not the sort of person who liked to say 'I told you so'. He just nodded to acknowledge that what she said was true.

"It seems you were right and everyone else was wrong," said Mrs Hurray-Bill. "There are parents who are very annoyed with the school allowing this wolf in. They are influential parents. Friends of my husband, the Mayor. We need to figure out some way we can get rid of this wolf."

Mr Clogs said the fairest and quickest thing would be to admit that we have made a mistake and ask her to leave but Mrs Hurray-Bill said they could not do that. It would look like they had made a mistake."

"We have made a mistake," said Mr Clogs.

"I have talked this over with my husband, the Mayor," said Mrs Hurray-Bill. "He says we should not admit to making a mistake but we should figure out some other way to get rid of the wolf."

Mr Clogs asked "Why?", but Mrs Hurray-Bill ignored the question. It was during this discussion that Mr Clogs pointed out there were certain things which Little Bad Wolf had difficulties with. It was Mr Clogs who suggested that it would be reasonable for a school such as theirs to ensure that all pupils could do certain basic things. For example it is reasonable to expect all pupils to wear clothes to school. It is also reasonable to expect that they have basic elocution skills. If a child did not have these skills then perhaps they should attend a junior school. Mrs Hurray-Bill darted back to her room very excited and pleased with herself. She had a problem and now had a way out. The wolf may survive the rule about wearing clothes but there is no way she can pronounce certain words so it will be easy to fail her. He had also ended that meeting with a joke, "If she survives this you can always demand that all pupils use a knife and fork. She would never get through that."

Mrs Hurray-Bill had been looking forward to the elocution test. She had even told Mr Silliman that their problem would soon be resolved. He was very impressed when she told him the details of how they would get rid of the wolf. "Most impressive," he said. "I think you may be a genius, Mrs Hurray-Bill."

The day after the elocution test Mr Clogs was again told to go to the headmistress' office.

"I have been watching you," said Mrs Hurray-Bill in an angry voice. "I saw what you did yesterday. You have let us all down."

Mr Clogs knew that Mrs Hurray-Bill expected yesterday to be the end of Little Bad Wolf. He also knew she would have been very happy if he had somehow cheated and figured out a way to make Little Bad Wolf fail. However, something else had happened yesterday. He had seen the effort which Little Bad Wolf was making. Mr Clogs had been a teacher for over twenty years. He worked very hard and although he tried his best, he rarely came across a pupil who he believed really tried, a pupil who tried their best and did this all of the time. It was because of this that he became so impressed with how hard Little Bad Wolf was finding the test and how hard she was trying. Something inside of him changed when he saw this. He still believed it was best for the school if Little Bad Wolf left. He still saw the tests as being fair but had been very impressed with how hard she was trying to stay at the school. Now as he sat in Mrs Hurray-Bill's office he knew that she was very disappointed.

"I had high hopes for you," said Mrs Hurray-Bill. "When the rest of us thought it may be possible to educate an animal, not just any animal, a wolf and not just any wolf but the daughter of The Big Bad Wolf, you had a different opinion. I remember what you said. You told us that this was stupid and unfair. You said that in the name of equality we would be very unfair to our other students. The wolf, you told us, would need us to accommodate her and this would lower our standards. We would not be as rigorous in our pursuit of learning as other schools. You also told us that you believed a wolf could not learn and we would ultimately waste our time.

"Have you now changed your opinion, Mr Clogs?"

"I am not sure, headmistress."

"What do you mean, 'You are not sure'?"

"I still believe that the wolf should never have been admitted. I said it was unfair and I believe what is happening is unfair. However, it is not unfair for the reason I thought. There has not been a lowering of standards in the education we offer."

"Mr Clogs, I am glad you still believe that the wolf should not have been admitted but please tell me what is unfair?"

"All the pupils know that there is a problem with the wolf. They have to go past the protests every day. They know these tests we are giving are designed for us to come up with a way to expel the wolf."

"Do they say that. I don't see how they can presume this."

"They do not say it but it is obvious. They see what we are doing. Some of them even agree with us."

"And, Mr Clogs, do you agree with 'us'?"

"I still believe that it is better for everyone if the wolf is no longer a pupil at our school but..."

"What do you mean, 'But'?" demanded Mrs Hurray-Bill.

"You have to admit that the child is trying. Sorry I mean, the wolf is trying. She is trying very hard and I did not expect this. I have been a teacher for a long time and it is rare that you see a pupil who puts in a lot of effort and almost all the time. But she pays attention, does her work and really seems to try her best."

"I am disappointed at your lack of objectivity, Mr Clogs. This is the problem with some teachers. They get caught up with what happens in the classroom. Some positive feedback from a pupil and all objectivity goes out the window."

Mr Clogs wanted to interrupt and put his side of this but Mrs Hurray-Bill did not let him. She continued, "Well Mr Clogs, Your idea for tests were a good idea. We need to hurry up and solve this problem. My husband, the Mayor, thinks the situation is beginning to make him look bad. Everyday parents from the school go to his office to complain about us teaching a wolf. We are going to implement the new rule which was your idea. If I remember correctly you said, 'No wolf could use a knife and fork and if we insist on proper table manners from all our pupils she will have to go'."

"This is unfair," said Mr Clogs who was surprised that they would use this test as a way to expel her. "She cannot possibly get through a test like that."

"Do not bother me with your sentimentality, Mr Clogs. I have a busy day so please go back to your classroom and teach the children."

#  Chapter 22 Correct Eating Habits

For the rest of the week there were no more tests or notices on the notice boards. Matt thought that they may have run out of ideas but he was assured by Louise and Little Bad Wolf that they would not give up so easily and there would be some new idea for getting rid of Little Bad Wolf by the time they went back to school on Monday.

And there was.

Little Bad Wolf had arrived in school early on Monday morning and was walking towards her classroom when she saw Mrs Hurray-Bill. The headmistress was putting up a new poster on the notice board. Little Bad Wolf only had to look at the phrase 'Correct Eating Habits' at the top of the notice to know that this was directed at her and her alone.

Mrs Hurray-Bill looked at her poster and thought admiringly about how clever her plan was. It was only then that she realised she was not the only one looking at the poster.

"Oh hello," she said and appeared to be only slightly embarrassed at having being discovered launching the school's latest attempt to get rid of Little Bad Wolf.

"Go-od morn-ing Mrs Hurray-Bill," said Little Bad Wolf.

"Congratulations on passing the elocution test," said Mrs Hurray-Bill.

"I see the-re is an-oth-er no-tice today," said Little Bad Wolf. "All pup-ils have to e-at in the can-teen us-ing a knife and fork prop-er-ly. Is that the main prov-is-ion?"

"Yes, it is," replied Mrs Hurray-Bill.

"You kno-ow that I will not be able to use a kni-ife and fork with my paws," asked Little Bad Wolf.

"You have managed to show so much ability," replied Mrs Hurray-Bill managing to hide her sarcasm. "I am sure you will be able to learn this too."

"I thi-ink you know that it will not be poss-ible for me to use a kni-ife and fork," said Little Bad Wolf. "How-ev-er, this does not app-ly to me."

"Excuse me," said Mrs Hurray-Bill sounding more concerned than she had done. "But why does this not apply to you?"

"The new ru-ules is: All pup-ils must be able to use a kni-ife and fork prop-er-ly when eat-ing their lunch in the can-teen," said Little Bad Wolf.

"And?" asked Mrs Hurray-Bill, her tone rising again.

"I do not e-at in the can-teen," answered Little Bad Wolf.

With this Mrs Hurray-Bill said she had to go and hurried off.

When Little Bad Wolf, Matt and Louise looked at the poster during the break, it looked the same as the one which Little Bad Wolf had read earlier. However, there was a new sentence in the poster which stated that this rule applied to all pupils whether they usually used the canteen or not.

# Chapter 23 The Debate

The debates were designed to show how you could put together an argument in favour or against some topic. Mr Clogs had said that it is possible to do this even if you did not agree with what you were arguing. Every single pupil in his class found this hard to believe. There had already been three debates before the one with Samantha and Little Bad Wolf. There were supposed to be four pupils involved in this debate as with the first but when Jane and Frank found out who the other debaters were they went to Mr Clogs to demand that they be excused from this debate.

Even Ms Potterer had reservations about the debate. She went to Mr Clogs in the class room as the children played during the break. One of the windows was slightly open and this allowed Little Bad Wolf to hear what was being said.

"Mr Clogs, I think it not wise to have this debate," said Ms Potterer. "Samantha is a very clever child and she has been relishing this opportunity. I overheard her talking with her friends about this being the final opportunity to sort this wolf out and get away with it."

"What does she mean 'final opportunity'?" asked Mr Clogs.

"I guess our dear head teacher has been telling Samantha's daddy of her latest plans to expel Little Bad Wolf."

At this point Mr Clogs went to the window and closed it.

It took a while before Mr Clogs could get the class to become quiet for the debate.

"Which is more important the ingredients or the Chef?" said Mr Clogs in a loud voice designed to tell everyone that the debate was about to start. "That is the title of our fourth debate. Instead of having two teams of two we have just two pupils to debate this issue. Samantha will be arguing the case the ingredients are more important than the Chef..."

There was a cheer from three or four of her friends when Mr Clogs mentioned Samantha's name.

Mr Clogs continued, "and Little Bad Wolf will argue the case the Chef is more important than the ingredients."

There were boos from the same pupils who had just cheered Samantha.

Mr Clogs stopped this quickly by asking Little Bad Wolf to start the debate.

Little Bad Wolf was nervous but as usual the other students could not tell this. She found this strange that they never knew some things about her which she thought obvious. She could smell when humans were excited or nervous. If there were a number of people she knew in a room she could even tell who was nervous and who was not. Today there was a lot of excitement. Samantha was nervous but so too were friends of both Samantha and her.

Little Bad Wolf cleared her throat and started to speak, "fel-low stu-dents I be-lie-ve that if you have a bad chef it does not mat-ter how good the in-gred-ients you will not get a good me-al."

She was about to say something more but in front of her Samantha's friends starting taking out knives and forks and were pretending that they had paws rather than hands and could not use them. This reference to the new rule about having to have good table manners upset Little Bad Wolf. She stared at them for a while and then tried to continue.

"We have all e-at-en pot-at-oes which have been tur-ined into many diff-er-ent me-als. Bo-iled, roast, Shep-herd's pie. It is the sk-ill of the chef which turns this into some-thing which could be very pla-in or very el-ab-or-ate."

Little Bad Wolf then stopped again. She was the only one to hear what Clare had said to Samantha, "We have all eaten potatoes but some of us have used a knife and fork." They were both sniggering at this and then Little Bad Wolf's eyes met Samantha who realised they had been overheard. Samantha realised but did not care.

Little Bad Wolf had other things to say but could not find her voice and sat down.

"Have you finished?" asked Mr Clogs.

For a while Little Bad Wolf did not notice that she was being asked a question. Mr Clogs was about to repeat himself when she realised this and said "yes."

"I would like to thank my opponent in this debate," began Samantha. "It's not that she has said anything remarkable in this debate. This proves my point that a good Chef cannot create a wonderful pie from a rotten apple."

"Excuse me, Samantha," interrupted Mr Clogs. "I am not sure where you are going with this, but you are not allowed to insult your fellow pupils in this debate."

"Of course, I would not dream of doing that," Samantha answered. She then continued with her discussion about apples and how most Chefs do not want to cook with rotten ones. Most of the class had been expecting something shocking from Samantha and they were getting bored. They had been expecting a shouting match and were only getting cookery lessons and lessons they already knew at that.

"I have one more final point to make," said Samantha. "One of my heroes is Little Red Riding Hood. I was impressed with her story and how she showed such bravery when under attack from a cruel and vicious creature. Little Red Riding Hood was still going to school when that horrible incident happened. Imagine if she came to school one day and found the Big Bad Wolf sitting beside her."

Samantha then started singing "Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? I am! I am!"

The class looked around for Little Bad Wolf to see what he reaction to this would be. Some hoped she would be crying with shame while others that she would now fight back. Little Bad Wolf was not there. She had already snuck out of the classroom guessing what comes next. She was not going to give Samantha the satisfaction of seeing her cry and she was not going to allow the school to humiliate her as well as expel her. She was leaving.

# Part 3 Kidnapped
# Chapter 24 No School Today

The next day Little Bad Wolf left her home at the time she usually went to school. Her aunts kissed her good bye as they saw her walking away with her school bag. She had not told them that she had given up and had left. That day she spent in the forest. She thought she would meet ET and Rosie. They would cheer her up. Rosie would offer to bite everyone's bottoms The two corgis were nowhere to be seen so she spent a miserable day just hiding in the forest. A day spent being miserable.

At the end of the day she went home and told her aunts that she had a nice day at school. Little Bad Wolf even did some homework. Well, she took out some copy books and scribbled in them. She did not want a conversation with either of her aunts. She knew if she talked to them they would figure out what had happened so she said she wasn't feeling too well and went to bed early.

The next day she did the same as the day before. This time her time in the forest was more interesting. ET and Rosie were there. They had been getting animal passports the day before and were very excited with this.

"Who knows where we can go now," said ET.

"I guess everywhere except England," said Rosie. ET and Little Bad Wolf laughed. They knew she was talking about the conspiracy. They knew Rosie believed that the reason it was difficult for dogs to get into England was the Queen wanted to prevent ET from entering the country and winning all their corgi dog shows just like she had won everywhere else.

"What happened to your school?" asked ET. Little Bad Wolf started explaining why she had left and how she would have been kicked out very soon anyway. As she was talking tears were forming. She tried to stop it but that just made it worse and she started to cry harder. The dogs looked at her not quite sure what to do. ET stroked her and rubbed her nose while Rosie said, "You know I could always bite their bottoms."

The idea of Rosie biting the bottoms of everyone she did not like at school cheered up Little Bad Wolf no end. The three of them then went for a run around the forest and forgot or tried to forget all that had gone on at the school.

Little Bad Wolf went back home at the time the school usually ended. She decided that she would tell her aunts what had happened. However it turned out she did not need to do this. When she got back her aunts were waiting.

"Where have you been today?" asked Martha.

"What do you mean?" asked Little Bad Wolf. "Today was just a normal day."

"Except you were not at school," said Matilda. "Your friend Matt was here looking for you and he seems to think that you left school two days ago for ever."

For the second time that day, Little Bad Wolf was crying. This time it was also because she was ashamed that she had not been brave enough to tell her aunts that she had left school. Her aunts sensed how much she was ashamed and did not want her to dwell on this for too long.

"Do not worry," said Martha. "You were going to be expelled soon anyway."

"That boy, Matt," said Matilda. "He asked that you call to his house when you get back. He wants to talk about something."

"Do you know what he wants," asked Little Bad Wolf.

"No. Only, it seemed important," answered Matilda.

Little Bad Wolf did not feel like eating dinner but she did not want to go before dinner and show any disrespect to her aunts. They saw her waiting and saw also that she wanted to leave and find out what it was that Matt wanted.

"You can go on if you like and we will keep some dinner for you," said Martha. The two aunts were very amused by how quickly Little Bad Wolf was gone and off to see what had happened.

Louise was at Matt's house when Little Bad Wolf got there.

"It really is very strange," said Matt.

"Yeah! I have not heard of anything like this," said Louise.

Little Bad Wolf had expected them to be asking about her. She was the one who had just walked out of the school and who would have been kicked out on very dubious grounds if she had not. She was the one who put so much effort into just being a pupil to see it all stolen away from her. Now though, her two friends were completely ignoring this as if her leaving school was similar to a light rain shower in the afternoon. They were talking about some storm alright but it was not the one involving Little Bad Wolf. They had barely said "hello" they were so caught up in this latest event.

"Ex-cuse me, what is go-ing on?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

"Who knows!" said Matt. "Some people think she is just playing some stupid game."

"And you heard what the head was supposed to have said to her father," said Louise.

"I heard it was the father who said that to the head," said Matt.

"Sa-id wha-at?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

"Yeah. It's all hearsay," said Matt. He then looked at Little Bad Wolf. "You know some people are saying this is all your fault."

"I sti-ill do not know what you are talk-ing ab-out," said Little Bad Wolf.

"Samantha," said Louise.

"What abo-ut Sam-an-tha?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

"She literally just disappeared," said Matt.

"What do you me-an just dis-app-eared?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

It was only at this point that her two friends realised that Little Bad Wolf had not been in school today and could not know anything of Samantha's disappearance. They started telling what they knew and by doing this realised how much was rumour and guess work. There was one fact. Yesterday Samantha was in school. She left at the normal time and headed home but no-one has seen her since. The rest was all guesswork. None of the adults were saying publicly that this was some sort of attention seeking prank but this seemed to be most widely believed. The other possibilities were that she had some accident and was lying unconscious somewhere. Matt's father and both of Louise's parents had joined the search party which had been very quickly organised and were there now. Matt had heard the rumour that some of those at school believed that Little Bad Wolf had taken her revenge and she was responsible for Samantha's disappearance.

The other possibility was that someone had kidnapped Samantha. Samantha's family was very rich and this could be a reason why she might have been kidnapped. Louise's mother was born in the village and she knew Samantha's mother since they were at school together. Louise's mother thought she might have been kidnapped. She said the money came from Samantha's mother. Apparently Mr Silliman and his wonderful business ideas took from this money rather than contributed anything to it. Louise's had heard her mother tell her father this and her father replied that he was not surprised.

#  Chapter 25 The Search

Some people very quickly decided who was responsible for Samantha's disappearance. Some people always decide things very quickly. When talking about it the following morning they even corrected those they were talking to.

"Not who, what!"

"What do you mean, what?"

"It's obvious, is it not."

"Not to me."

"Well on Tuesday what had to leave the school? On Wednesday Samantha goes missing."

If the listener did not agree that Little Bad Wolf was responsible they were reminded of who her father was.

By mid-morning of the second day of the disappearance everyone had heard that Little Bad Wolf was the prime suspect in the case of Samantha Silliman. Everyone except Little Bad Wolf. She was spending the morning searching for her former schoolmate. Schoolmate is perhaps the wrong word here as Samantha was never a 'mate' of Little Bad Wolf.

After hearing of the disappearance Little Bad Wolf had had a very restless night. She knew that Samantha was not the sort of child to do a prank which would require the effort of running away and staying outside all night. Others had suggested that this might be attention seeking but Little Bad Wolf knew from the very beginning that it was something serious. Either she was hurt somewhere or she had been kidnapped.

She was very glad when the sun started to rise and she could start her search. There were people around who were helping in the official search. Neither Mr Silliman nor any of the people sipping coffee from paper cups outside the police station saw Little Bad Wolf as she headed towards the forest. Little Bad Wolf had come to the conclusion that if Samantha had injured herself she would not be very far from the village. Samantha usually went straight home after school and if something had happened to her on her way home or near there the official search led by her father and the Police Chief would already have found her. Little Bad Wolf also reasoned that there were not many places where kidnappers could hide Samantha. She also knew she would be able to smell the areas where the human search party had already covered and they were unlikely to have missed her.

Little Bad Wolf's sense of smell was very good but she knew of one dog who also knew Samantha and who had an even better sense of smell. She decided to firstly go and seek the help of that dog, Boubou. He was not at home. Boubou was a dog who loved to wander and he used to regularly climb over the fence which his family hoped would keep him safe in the garden. Last year they realized that part of the reason why Boubou went on his wanders was to search for friends and they got him a pet. This dog who was supposed to stop BouBou from escaping and wandering was called Roamer but everyone whether human or animal knew him as Boubou's pet. He did a good job of keeping Boubou contented and in his own garden but occasionally the need to wander overcame the dog and he jumped over the fence. This was one of those times.

"Do you have any idea where he is?" asked Little Bad Wolf.

"He just disappeared," said Boubou's pet. "I think he was thinking of it for a few days. He spent a lot of time looking at the fence."

"It's important. I need his help in tracking." Little Bad was almost crying.

"I am sorry but I can't help. He would have loved to have gone tracking with you but he just went. Last time he did this he was away for three days."

She continued on her journey looking for clues as to where Samantha could be. She knew that the people would have already searched the town and were starting on the forest. She also knew that some of them would be searching for her, thinking she was responsible for Samantha's disappearance. Little Bad Wolf knew the smells of all the pupils in her class very well. Because of this when she went anywhere she would be able to tell if one of them had been there recently. It was also because of this that she knew that Samantha often went to a spot on the river bank. Sometimes Little Bad Wolf could also make out the smells of some of Samantha's friends but usually Samantha would go there alone.

There were several ways Little Bad Wolf could get to the river. The fastest and most direct way was likely to be searched by the official search party so she avoided the forest paths, finding ways through the undergrowth and paths that were used by deer and other animals. More than once she got the smell of some person but it was not Samantha and she ignored it. On reaching the edge of the river she had to walk by its shore to get to the place where Samantha used to visit. When she got there was no trace indicating that anyone other than wild animals had visited there recently. Little Bad Wolf was not sure what to do next. The people in the official search party seemed to be covering most of the places where Samantha usually went.

It was while she was thinking about what to do next that Little Bad Wolf heard a sharp noise and felt something whizz past her before it exploded in the tree behind her. Although Little Bad Wolf did have much experience of guns, she did not have to be told twice that it was a bullet and it had been aimed at her.

She was already running towards the hill when she heard a voice shout, "I almost got that wolf!! Come on, She's getting away!!" It was one of search party shouting and he started leading the others in her direction. However, they were slower than Little Bad Wolf.

About halfway up the hill there was a cave. Little Bad Wolf headed for it as she knew it was difficult to find unless you knew where it was. She would stay there until they went away and then resume her search. The main reason why the cave was difficult to reach is that the entrance was very small and you did not notice it until you were beside it. Little Bad Wolf was running towards this very fast. She ignored the smells of people which she thought were from those chasing her. She just kept running.

In the midst of this chase she heard someone whisper. For some reason she did not understand she thought the whisper was meant for her. It was coming from further up the hill and as she headed towards this voice she realised someone was whispering her name.

"Little Bad Wolf, Little Bad Wolf." She heard it distinctly this time. It was coming from further up the hill, possibly near the cave.

Little Bad Wolf moved quickly but every so often had to stop to check that she was not being followed by the crowd chasing her. She realised that she was now well away from the search party and there was no hope of them finding her. She sat down and rested for a short while catching her breadth and tried to get her bearings as to where exactly she was.

"Little Bad Wolf." This time she knew who was whispering. It was Samantha. She was in the cave or very near it and for some reason was whispering her name. Little Bad Wolf believed that Samantha must have been hurt and was conserving her energy and that was why she was not shouting. She knew Samantha was near and Little Bad Wolf barked and shouted so that she would know help was on the way and quickly she raced up towards the cave.

Until Today Little Bad Wolf had rarely seen a gun. This was about to change. When she got inside the cave a large dark haired man who did not spend his money on shaving cream or new clothes was pointing a gun at her.

"Well, Well, What have we got here?" he said with a grin and a mocking welcome. "If it is not the famous Wolf. Cedric, come here and tie her up."

The second man made the first look well groomed and pretty. Quickly and roughly he tied the two front paws then the two back ones. He then dragged Little Bad Wolf further into the cave and put her beside Samantha who was also tied up.

The two men then went outside the cave and were using a mobile phone to talk to someone. Little Bad Wolf had problems hearing all they had said as Samantha started talking as soon as they walked outside.

"I never thought it would be you who would try and come here and rescue me," said Samantha.

"Shh!, I am try-ing to he-ar what they are say-ing."

"You can hear them?"

"Yeah, th-ey are on the pho-ne."

"You can hear the person they are talking to?" asked Samantha.

"Do-n't be sill-y. Please stop talk-ing though as I will not be ab-le to he-ar."

It was at this point that Samantha understood she was supposed to stop asking questions and doing this might just help her.

After about five minutes Little Bad Wolf turned to Samantha. "They are smok-ing cig-ar-ettes now and not talk-ing."

"How do you know that?"

"I can sme-ell them and cig-ar-ette smo-oke is a pret-ty aw-ful smell."

"So what did they say? When they were on the phone," asked Samantha.

"They were talk-ing to some-one who was call-ed 'Boss'. He se-em-ed to thi-ink it was very go-od that they ca-ught me. I did he-ar the one call-ed Ced-ric tell the other that the Boss says I did not come to resc-ue you as we ha-ate each oth-er."

"How would the Boss know that?" asked Samantha.

"I had not tho-ught of that but I gu-ess it me-ans that the Boss is some-one who kno-ows us."

Little Bad Wolf did not tell Samantha all of the conversation she had heard. While they were outside the men had been saying how smart the Boss was. One of them had said that he had told him if anything goes wrong and they have to do something to the girl it will be easy to blame the wolf.

# Chapter 26 Captured

For Little Bad Wolf it was going to be a very uncomfortable night. She was tied up, tired and hungry. The men had untied Samantha yesterday evening and given her some food. She realized that they were not planning to feed Little Bad Wolf and tried to leave some food for her. She had a slice of meat left over on the side of her plate and was intending to hide it and give it to her companion. However, the man they called Cedric spotted the food. "Well if you don't want this piece, I'll have it," he said as he picked the slice from her plate and ate it before Samantha could object.

Little Bad Wolf was amused that Samantha was so embarrassed at not being able to sneak her some food.

"We ha-ve big-ger prob-lems," she laughed.

"I know," said Samantha. "It's just that I got you into this. I called and you came to help. I never thought you would hear me but you did and you came running to help me. Now look what I have got you into."

"You did not get me into any-thing," said Little Bad Wolf. "I knew what might hap-pen. I came be-cause I want-ed to help."

Samantha just said "Thank you" and the captives laid them down side by side. Samantha had not slept the first night of her capture but tonight she was so tired she could not even talk with her new friend for very long.

Samantha was still asleep when Little Bad Wolf heard their captors talking to someone. She wondered if they had been found as the voice and the smell was very familiar. It took a lot of concentrating to figure out what they were saying and then she knew this person had not come to rescue them.

"The mother has got the note," said the new man. "She wanted to go to the police but I said that could be dangerous."

"How much?" said one of the men.

"We agreed a long time ago what to ask for," said the new man. "Have you forgotten what we agreed, Cedric. Maybe Martin and I could give you 5,000 and say that's your share."

"I just wanted to make sure. That's all."

"Don't trust me? I am the one here with most to lose."

"I didn't say that," said Cedric.

Little Bad Wolf heard the man called Martin ask the other two to calm themselves.

"Look, I have to go," said the new man. "I have to lead the search party for my daughter.

The man called Martin started to laugh at this but the new man must have given him a nasty look as he soon stopped and apologised.

"Look, one thing before you go," said Cedric. "What if things go wrong?"

"We stick to plan with one change. Make it look like the wolf got to her. Everybody thinks that animal hates her anyway."

"OK, see you later."

When the man had gone Martin said to Cedric, "Ed is some bastard, isn't he? Fancy, being willing to do that to your own daughter."

"I know," said Cedric. "And if he is willing to do that to her, I bet he's cheating us with the ransom."

"Maybe, but I just want my 25 and I'm out of here. I don't like this child kidnapping lark."

They stopped talking and started working. They avoided the cave and spent the next hour or so outside. Little Bad Wolf was unsure of the time when Martin came in with some breakfast for Samantha. She was still asleep until he woke her.

"What time is it," she asked.

"After nine, he replied. "Here, I have got you some breakfast."

Samantha seemed to be in a better mood and almost thanked him but remembered who he was and why she here.

"Have you got something for the wolf?" she asked.

"You are worried about the wolf's breakfast," he asked with a very surprised look on his face. "I heard you two don't get on." He then went outside. For a minute or two Samantha thought he had gone outside to get some breakfast for Little Bad Wolf. That hope was dashed by his non-appearance. This time she managed to give some of her food to Little Bad Wolf.

Little Bad Wolf wondered for most of the morning whether to tell Samantha that the man behind her kidnapping was her own father. She had decided that she probably would not do this until Samantha herself brought up her father.

Samantha brought up her father at their next conversation. "He will be looking for me," she said. "He will leave no stone unturned in his efforts to find me."

Little Bad Wolf looked at her paws.

"OK, I know you don't like him but it will be different. He will rescue us and then you will see."

"I thi-ink you may be wro-ong," said Little Bad Wolf in a very quiet but deliberate voice.

"I know it will be hard for him to find us but he is looking for us now. I know it."

"I thi-ink he kno-ows where you are," said Little Bad Wolf.

"What! Come again! What do you mean?" asked Samantha.

"He was he-ere earl-y this mor-ning and I hear-d him," said Little Bad Wolf. She felt that if Samantha had not been tied up she may have hit her at that point. She even shouted, "You're wrong!" Luckily the men had gone off somewhere and no-one heard them.

"I'm sorr-y but he was he-ere and he wants to get mon-ey from your mum."

"That's crazy! He can just ask her. I know his business is losing money but this is crazy."

They stopped arguing when Little Bad Wolf said she heard the men coming back. For the rest of the morning they sat there not talking. As the morning stretched on, Samantha was more and more mulling over the most shocking thing she had ever heard. Her father was behind the kidnapping.

Little Bad Wolf on the other hand was not one for thinking things over at great length or brooding all morning. Her thoughts were about how they could get out of here. The problem she had is that she had no idea how to escape. Actually, that is not quite true. She did have ideas and they could be partially successful. The problem was that from the entrance to the cave it would be very easy for the men to see them and shoot them. In the best scenario which Little Bad Wolf could think up only one of them would escape and she knew the men would shoot her without even thinking about it. She was a wolf after all. If they shot Samantha they would have to shoot her also and tell everyone they were trying to protect Samantha.

With these problems the two captives just sat in the cave for the whole morning until the men came with food. This time the men brought food for Little Bad Wolf as well as Samantha. They were very wary with how they fed her. After they had given Samantha her food, they untied the rope which tied Little Bad Wolf's collar to her paws. One of the men was pointing his gun at Little Bad Wolf when the other kicked the plate which contained the food over to where she was. Little Bad Wolf would usually have been more suspicious of food from these men but she had not eaten much for a day and a half. She just gulped down the food and pushed the plate back when asked. They then tied her collar to her paws again. This time tying it much tighter than before.

It was only after they had gone that Little Bad Wolf noticed the man had also kicked a small stone near her when he was pushing the plate to her. It looked like a sharp stone which could come in useful. However it was too far away for her to get at it. Samantha had not spoken to her since earlier that morning.

Samantha gave a small smile, "Have you a plan?"

"I do not yet but I ha-ave to lo-ok at the sto-ne first," said Little Bad Wolf.

She started trying to move nearer to the stone. Twice she was able to touch it with her foot. The first time this moved the stone closer but the second she could not control it. It moved, but further away from them. Both of them looked at this stone which could possibly help them but was now beyond reach.

The man called Martin came into the cave just then.

"Excuse me," said Samantha.

The man stared at her, "Would you ever shut up. I'm busy."

He looked anything but busy as he sat down for a rest at the other side of the cave.

"I am sorry to disturb you," said Samantha. "This wolf you have stuck me beside smells. Could you move me away from this animal."

"Great," said the man. "So you don't like the wolf?"

"Of course I don't," said Samantha.

The man went outside and came back in with Cedric. "Tell him what you just told me," he said.

"I told you that I would like to be moved," said Samantha.

"I don't mean that," said Martin. "I mean what you said about the Wolf."

"She smells," said Samantha.

"He's not asking about that either," said Cedric. "What do you think of this wolf?"

"I detest her," said Samantha, "and I want to move away from her."

"It looks like I won the bet," said Martin grinning at Cedric. "Pay up!"

Cedric was muttering something about thinking the wolf was trying to help her escape. He took some money from his pocket and passed it to Martin.

The two men looked at them as though settling their bet was the end of the matter.

"Well," said Samantha.

"Well what?" asked Martin.

"Are you not going to move me away from this wolf," asked Samantha.

"I suppose I will have to have to do it," said Cedric looking at Martin. "You're still sore about losing the money." He then looked at Samantha and said, "We can't move you far."

Although he only moved Samantha a metre away, it was perfect placing. The stone which Little Bad Wolf had been trying to get was between her feet. She had to wait another ten minutes before the two men went outside again. When they had done this she whispered to Little Bad Wolf, "Are they near?" She told them they were just outside the cave but a few minutes later was able to report that they had walked away a few hundred yards. Samantha's hands were tied behind her back and her legs were tied just above her knees. She moved her feet in a way where she could pick up the stone and then swivel around so that she could place the stone very close to Little Bad Wolf.

# Chapter 27 Escape

It took Little Bad Wolf at least two hours to cut through the rope tying Samantha's arms together. Twice she had to stop cutting and pretend to be lying there as one of the kidnappers came in to check them. Thanks to Little Bad Wolf's excellent hearing she knew when the kidnappers were coming back into the cave and when she could talk with Samantha. After Samantha's hands were freed she untied Little Bad Wolf's paws and her own legs but they arranged the rope so it appeared that they were still tied.

Little Bad Wolf had told Samantha of her plan and Samantha had agreed completely. She just said "Thank you" and "Good luck" realising that Little Bad Wolf's role in the escape would be more difficult than hers.

They rested through the night but neither slept. When it was almost dawn, Little Bad Wolf knew the kidnappers would be at their least alert.

The two escapees went to the front of the cave. They saw the men in front of them. One was looking towards the river and the other was sleeping. Samantha silently tiptoed to a path to the left of the cave. She then sat still and whispered "OK". Little Bad Wolf then ran down a path to the right of the cave. When she was sure the men could still see her, she started making a lot of noise and shouted "Qu-ick, Sam, Qu-ick."

Martin pushed Cedric awake. Cedric's first reaction was to push Martin back.

"They've escaped!"

"Who has what?" shouted Cedric.

Little Bad Wolf waited just long enough to allow their confusion to settle and then made some more noise and again shouted, "Sam, Qu-ick! Qu-ick!"

She had expected the men to immediately run after her but they did not do that until after they had tried to shoot at Little Bad Wolf. The bullet sped very close to Little Bad Wolf's ear knocking a twig from the tree she was running by. This bullet would probably have hit Samantha if she had been with Little Bad Wolf.

She ran down the hill and the men came after her. Little Bad Wolf was surprised at how quickly they were catching up on her. She had thought out the escape plans in some detail. The problem which she now faced was that she could be caught before Samantha had time to get away. There was a need for quick thinking. Little Bad Wolf ran further to the right towards the river. She used a path which deer had made but would be difficult for men to follow her.

"Can you see them?" She heard one of the men shout from the point she had turned into the deer path. They were too close to her. If they saw her now and fired they would probably kill her. The only thing Little Bad Wolf could do was sneak further down the path and hope they did not hear her.

The plan was beginning to work. Little Bad Wolf was getting further away from the men who were still making noise and looking to see what direction the escapees had headed. It was then Little Bad Wolf came across a pheasant which started making a great noise and jumping about in the air. Little Bad Wolf started running away as fast as she could. The men shot in her direction and hit the pheasant who had been still jumping up and down. The pheasant now lay on the ground, dead.

Little Bad Wolf did not need confirmation that the men had seen her and were chasing her. They were loud, very loud. They were also very close. Little Bad Wolf knew now that the men had chosen the cave because of their skills in the wild. She was managing to get ahead of them but as she did that she was in greater risk. She could only move at her fastest by making herself very visible and she could not do that.

The river was normally used by animals to get away from other animals who would not be able to track or chase them as fast through the river. In the case of the men the river would not slow them in any way. Little Bad Wolf came close to the river wondering whether she had made a mistake in changing the path she had intended using. There would be a space of about 200 metres where there would be no cover. Little Bad Wolf knew she had to run through this as fast as she could.

She ran. She heard the men behind her. Silence. Then, a shot. Little Bad Wolf felt a pain in her back leg. She had no idea what had happened. All she knew was she had to keep going. When she got to the forest she was able to go through the trees. She kept close enough to the path so that the men would follow her.

She sensed a difference in the men's approach. They had seen that she had been hit and probably seen that she was bleeding. Little Bad Wolf kept onwards towards the town.

The two men kept running after her. They did not notice that they were running into a group of people who had been searching for Samantha. Without noticing these people they ran into the middle of them. Mr Silliman was the leader of this search party. He looked both frightened and angry but seemed to quickly regain his composure.

"Have you seen the wolf?" he shouted at the men.

Cedric had no idea why he was asking this in front of these people but Martin figured what he was doing and replied, "I think we got her. We have been chasing her for the last hour and she was running in this direction. Cedric here took a shot a while ago and I think he winged her. My guess is she can't be far."

"You heard that everyone?" said Mr Silliman not shouting this time but still speaking loudly. "The wolf which attacked my daughter is somewhere close. Let's find her and bring her to justice."

With that the search party starting looking in all directions for Little Bad Wolf. She was hiding very close to them. The pain in her leg had got a lot worse. She was not moving. She was trying not to even breathe in case they heard her.

Then they found her. "Over here!" shouted a woman. She had a gun and she pointed it at Little Bad Wolf. The entire search party and Martin and Cedric then stood around her in a circle. Four of them had shotguns and they were all pointed at Little Bad Wolf.

"What shall we do?" asked one of them. The question was directed at Mr Silliman.

He kicked Little Bad Wolf in the same leg which was already wounded. "I think we all know what we should do," he said.

"Should we not wait for the police?" asked another of search party.

"Are you joking," replied Mr Silliman. "We don't want her to get the same justice as her father got." He had made quote marks with his fingers when saying the word 'justice'. With that he borrowed Cedric's gun and raised it to his shoulder.

"Not so fast," said a voice behind them. They all look around to see three police officers and Samantha.

Samantha noticed the glare her father gave Martin and Cedric when he saw her.

The search party was very surprised to see that the police were not treating them like heroes for capturing the wolf but were actually aiming their guns at them. Two hours later when they had been released from the police station they were told that Little Bad Wolf was in fact the hero and it was Mr Silliman, Martin and Cedric who had kidnapped Samantha.

# Chapter 28 The Return of the Big Bad Wolf

Mrs Silliman had invited Little Bad Wolf, Matt and Louise to join them for the afternoon a week or so after the escape. Little Bad Wolf's injury was still noticeable but the bullet had grazed her and she was getting better.

"You seem to be recovering well," said Mrs Silliman to Little Bad Wolf.

"I thi-ink I am," she replied. "You have also had a ha-ard ti-ime."

"It is not easy to discover that the man I had been married to for fifteen years would do something like this to my daughter and to me. I guess there were signs all along that he was less than honest and selfish and greedy. I wanted the best and I ignored all this and look where it got me."

"I don't thi-ink any-one could have se-en what he was plan-ing," said Little Bad Wolf.

"That's very kind of you," said Mrs Silliman. "Given the way he treated you, I thought you may have been suspicious."

"No. I bel-ieved him," said Little Bad Wolf. "I tho-ught he want-ed me kick-ed out of scho-ol be-cause it was the be-est thing for his daugh-ter."

They both laughed at this. The others looked at them wondering why they were laughing. When they asked them they couldn't explain.

Samantha joined them and Mrs Silliman asked Little Bad Wolf, "I have one question for you why on earth did you ever want to go to school. They treated you awfully."

Little Bad Wolf told Samantha and her mother about her parents. It was a story of two crazy wolves who loved music and particularly rock and roll and even more particularly liked Elvis Presley.

When she finished listening to this tale Mrs Silliman said, "I like Elvis Presley too. I also think I may be able to help you. Come to our house tomorrow afternoon."

The following afternoon Little Bad Wolf learnt that Mrs Silliman had contacted her lawyer who even now was going to court to have Big Bad Wolf released.

Things started happening very quickly. The aunts and Little Bad Wolf were told he would be released on Saturday. A big welcome party was planned with wolves, people and at least two corgi dogs. It was planned as a surprise. Everybody would be in the field near the forest and ready to have the party on Saturday afternoon before Big Bad Wolf got home and they would surprise him. However, Big Bad Wolf was released on Friday and turned up in very good form wanting to help organise the party.

"This is good," he said. "Who has picked the music for this party? I think I will want to decide on the music myself."

This is how Little Bad Wolf and her father had their first ever row. He wanted just Elvis. Eventually conceding that one or two Johnny Cash songs might not be so bad. She wanted Ryan Adams. Her father told her his name was Bryan and he would not allow him played at his welcome home party. She said it was Ryan and he sang a song called 'Wonderwall'. Her father said that was OASIS. Little Bad Wolf then told her father he was very old fashioned and they should play a song called 'Wagon wheel' by Old Crow Medicine show and a Gillian Welch song called 'Elvis Presley Blues'. Her father thought that sounded like a good idea.

They had a great welcome party with great music and great friends.

The end.
