Giana woke up exactly 26 seconds before her alarm went off. “YES!” she shouted, excitedly. Today she was going to actually be on time! She grabbed her keys and hopped in the car. She started to drive and sing along to the radio. She was so happy to be on time. Left turn, right turn, stop at the stop sign, slow down at the yellow light, go forward. Giana was just mindlessly driving to the house when she caught up to some traffic. “That’s ok. I’m not going to be late!” She thought. She was wrong. The traffic was at a total standstill! Giana got out of the car along with many others going to see what all the commotion was about. Apparently, it was a turkey. Just sitting there in the middle of the road. “UGH!” Giana groaned, “Guys, it’s not that hard.”

Giana lunged forward and shouted, “BOO!” The turkey looked over nonchalantly. He didn’t even ruffle a feather. “Ahem. Maybe this’ll be a bit harder…” After about 13 minutes of attempts, Giana gave up. She decided to park her car on the side of the road, and walked to the house. 

When she finally got there, she was almost an hour late. She apologized profusely, but the parents just handed off the responsibility and jumped out the door. 

“Uh, o-ok…” Giana said. The kids all ran to her happily. Raven a little less, but still excited to see her. “So what do you wanna do today?” Giana asked. 

…She made the mistake of teaching them Boggle. They just wouldn’t stop! Giana had no idea anyone would like it as much as them. After an entire game of endless boggle games, Giana prompted them to get to bed. It was already past their bedtime! They reluctantly got ready and slipped into their beds. But they wouldn’t let Giana leave without telling them ANOTHER bedtime story! 

“I’m going to run out of ideas at this point,” Giana laughed. But she sat down on the chair and thought for a moment. She took inspiration from that brave turkey on the road that morning. 

“Once upon a time there was a young boy. His name was…” Giana started.

“KYLE!!!!” Niki shouted.

“Alright, sure. His name was Kyle. And one day, Kyle was playing in the woods with his best friend, Jeff. They had found this nice little clearing and no one else knew about it. It was their favorite spot in the whole entire forest. They were playing marbles and were having the best time. After a few rounds they started to get an… uneasy feeling. It seemed almost like someone was watching them, but how could they? Only Kyle and Jeff knew about this clearing. They brushed it off and kept playing. After another round though, Kyle couldn’t take it anymore.

‘Jeff! You feel that, right? It’s not just me, right? I mean, you feel someone or something watching us?’

‘Yeah Kyle, I feel it. What should we do though?’

‘Oh gosh. I don’t know. What do you think?’

‘Well, I guess we coul-’

Jeff froze. ‘What?’ Kyle asked.

‘Shhh.’ Jeff whispered. 

They both went quiet and heard a low growling noise. ‘What was that?” Kyle mouthed. Jeff shrugged and his eyes widened. Suddenly, a wolf leaped out in front of them, and bit off part of the shirt Jeff was wearing! ‘AHHHHHH!!!!’ Jeff screamed. Kyle’s eyes widened and he jumped up. 

‘Shoo! Go away… little ulffy wolffy.”

The wolf bared his teeth, narrowed his eyes and crouched low on the ground. ‘Okay, alright, okay.’ He whispered, ‘Jeff. Get up!’ Jeff stood up, and slowly started to back away, with Kyle just a little bit behind him. As they began backing up, the wolf sat up, lifted an ear and tilted his head to the point where he almost looked kind of… cute. He was no longer interested in the boys, and he had clearly heard something that they had not. But what could it be? Any guess’s guys?”

“Mmm. I think it was… a deer!” Niki suggested.

“Niki, he would not be so interested in a deer. I think it was a bear,” Oliver stated. 

“It was definitely a raven,” Raven whispered. 

“Nah. All y’all are wrong. But that’s okay. It was… a turkey! Kyle gasped! A turkey? His favorite animal? Here? Now? Right. Before. His. Very. Own. Eyes? No. Freaking. Way. But there it was, a turkey, gobbling loudly at the wolf. The wolf’s ears went back and he slowly started backing away. Was it actually possible the turkey scared the wolf away? When the wolf was long gone in the distance, the turkey turned to look at the boys. Kyle’s mouth was hanging on the floor, and Jeff was in complete and utter shock. 

‘Why hellooooo,’ the turkey gobbled.

‘Did you just… did… you… speak?” Jeff sputtered.

‘Why yessssss. I am the ooooolddest animal in the wooooodsss,’ he gobbled, ‘and you areeee?’

Kyle pointed to himself and then Jeff, ‘Kyle. Jeff.’

‘Ohhhh lovely… youuu guyss seeeeem like very nice peopleeee.’

‘Do you… Would you… Will you be my pet?’ Kyle asked.

The turkey looked at him. ‘Sureeeee.’

Kyle pumped his fist in the air, ‘Come on guys! We’re going home!’

And with that, they all headed off into the woods.”

“Aweeee!” Niki and Oliver echoed.

“They’re going to eat it for dinner,” Raven mumbled.

“Good night guys, sleep tight!” Giana opened the door to leave.

‘Don’t let the bedbugs bite!’ Niki called back. 

Cites: https://img.freepik.com/premium-vector/cute-turkey-vector-illustration-with-black-background_79416-13.jpg?w=2000