Chapter 1
The First Snow
Annie looked around herself.
"Ugh," she said. "The summer went by too quickly."
All she could see was white. For most 9-year-old girls, seeing a foot of snow is the best part of winter. They yell, "Yay!" But not Annie. For her, snow was the second worst thing about winter. The first worst thing was food. It was very scarce in the winter because she lives in "Who Knows Where," a.k.a. a big forest in Maine. Her parents had suddenly died about a year ago leaving her to fend for herself at age 8! She could have gone to the orphanage 3 blocks away from her house. She started to go there, but she took a wrong turn, and ended up in a big forest. She walked for three minutes, then noticed she was lost. She built herself a lean-to. Then she took her father's gun, which she had found under her parents' bed, and killed a snake for dinner. When she got back to the lean-to, she made stewed snake.
*
Now back to the present. Annie needed to get some food. It was essential to eat if she wanted to survive this winter. Plus, she needed to rebuild her fire, melt snow for water, and find the warmest spot in her lean-to.
"Jeez," she thought. "I have a lot of work to do. And I need to get it done before sunset!"
She needed to get done before sunset because she went to bed an hour after sunset. She would have to hurry, because it was noon. She ran over to the lean-to, and added Repair lean-to to her list of things to do. Then she noticed why it needed repairs. There were footprints all around the lean-to. She checked her Footprints Guide Book and it showed bear footprints and raccoon footprints, labeling both of them. Then she matched them with the ones on the ground.
"BEAR FOOTPRINTS!" she yelled. Then, she noticed a big, brutal bear standing a foot from camp! Annie screamed, and jumped a mile. Then she scampered up a nearby sycamore tree. Frightened, she peeked out from behind a branch, and saw a big, brown stump.
"Oh," she said. "That is not a bear, that is not a bear, that is NOT A BEAR!"
No matter how may times she said it, she was still scared. All day, she kept saying "It is not a bear" over and over and over and over and over AND OVER! She got so busy saying it that she forgot to do her chores. That evening, she finally stopped having to say "It is not a bear." It was then that she remembered her chores. She looked at the sky. By the place that the sun was in the sky, she could tell what time it was. And right then, it was about 5 o'clock. Annie did the math in her head.
"OK," she said. "The sun sets at 6, so I have 1 HOUR TO DO EVERYTHING!"
She yelled the last part.
I like the story. -Liz Genie
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