There's a Yeti in the Playground! Read online

  and started to run.

  So me and Zach ran after her. But Jodi kept running along the bottom corridor rather than going up the stairs towards our classroom which is the way we SHOULD have been going. So I shouted, “JODI!” but she couldn’t hear me because she was too far ahead and she was weaving in and out of people because everyone was in the bottom corridor trying to get to their classes and nobody was lining up outside like normal and taking TURNS to come in because of the snow.

  That’s when Zach said, “She’s leading us back to The Den!”

  But then before we could get much further I heard a little voice shout, “HELP!” and I turned and saw that Maisie had climbed on to one of the window sills to get away from all the people, and she looked TERRIFIED.

  So I pushed my way through the crowd and stood underneath her and bent over a bit and shouted, “JUMP!” And she did because it is not the first time I have had to rescue Maisie by giving her a piggy back. And then we ran all the way to The Den.

  When we got there Jodi was sitting on the ground with the door WIDE OPEN and she was looking MEGA WEIRD.

  So we rushed inside and shut the door and sat down.

  And Zach said, “Jodi. PLEASE tell me where the bag of RATIONS is!”

  Because he was freaking out a bit and wanted a biscuit to calm himself down.

  Jodi just ignored him and said, “Did you hear it?”

  But then Zach started asking about the biscuits again so I said, “SSSHHHHHH!” because I REALLY wanted to know what Jodi had heard in the staffroom.

  And I said, “No. What did you hear, Jodi?”

  And Jodi looked up at me and said,

  And we all GASPED.

  Once we’d managed to get Maisie to stop screaming I said, “Jodi. Me and Zach were in there with you and we didn’t hear anything about a beast.”

  And then Zach said, “Is this like the time you saw the goat?”

  But then I gave Zach a LOOK and he stopped talking right away because, like I said, Jodi does not like to be reminded of that.

  And that’s when Jodi said, “It was on the TV.”

  And that made a bit more sense.

  And Zach said, “What type of beast?”

  And Jodi shrugged and said, “I don’t know. It didn’t say. I just heard the man on the TV say a BEAST is coming. And it’s coming HERE.”

  And then Jodi looked at me and her eyes were HUGE. Usually Jodi does not look scared of ANYTHING but she looked scared of this.

  I had

  what was going on because I’d been SURE the TV man had been talking about the WEATHER and the SNOW. And Zach said he’d thought that too.

  Maisie was nodding her head and agreeing with us loads because she was desperate for Jodi to be wrong about the BEAST.

  That’s when I remembered that Maisie hadn’t been in the staffroom with us because she’d run away and she definitely hadn’t seen Mr Beattie SOBBING in the corner.

  So we told Maisie what had happened in the staffroom and she didn’t say anything because she was too busy taking DEEP BREATHS so she didn’t faint again.

  That’s when Zach said that he heard the newsman say something about the SNOW STORM and a RED WARNING. And that he thought the teachers were in such a state because we were snowed in and the doors were probably frozen shut and there was a SUPER STORM headed RIGHT for our school.

  Zach told us that he’d watched a documentary about SUPER STORMS. And then he went a bit quiet and looked at Maisie. But Maisie took a deep breath and nodded to him that it was fine to keep speaking and she made her BRAVE FACE.

  So that’s when Zach said that he was sorry to be the one to have to tell us that our lives were in DANGER and that was probably why the teachers were so upset.

  Then he started saying loads of stuff like TORNADO OF SNOW and TWISTER and

  and Maisie’s BRAVE FACE turned into her FAINTING face because she had.

  So we got the FAINTING BLANKET that we keep in the corner of The Den and wrapped her up tight so she would be warm while she had a little nap. Because there’s not really much else you can do when Maisie faints of SHOCK so we just kept doing the SECRET MEETING.

  Jodi said, “Should we not be EVACUATING?”

  And Zach said, “Not if we’re already TRAPPED.”

  I was really worried that the storm was headed directly for our school with us all trapped inside it. But I was also really worried that we were going to get into

  for being so late to class!

  So I said that we should get to class but Jodi said, “No. We need to find out if this is true. And how much time we have to try to ESCAPE!”

  And then she said that there was only ONE WAY to know for sure.

  I gasped and Zach gulped because we both knew what Jodi meant. She meant we should sneak into the school office and SPY on the mega-scary OFFICE LADIES! Because the mega-scary OFFICE LADIES knew EVERYTHING!

  Then before we could even discuss it, Jodi picked Maisie up in the blanket and threw her over her shoulder and said, “Let’s go!”

  Jodi managed to carry Maisie all the way to the school reception without needing one of us to help her because Maisie is really small and also because Jodi said she’d had a RUSH OF ADRENALIN (which is a chemical your brain gives your body to make it strong when you are in a LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION).

  When we got to the school office we saw that the door was WIDE OPEN and it is NEVER open. Not even a tiny crack!

  Jodi said that the office ladies must have gone for their lunch and left the door open by mistake and that if the office was empty then this was the PERFECT OPPORTUNITY to sneak inside and hide.

  I was NOT happy about that plan AT ALL because when we thought there were BABY ALIENS at our school I got stuck under one of the office-ladies’ desks and she didn’t know I was there and she kicked off her shoes and started wriggling her feet around and THAT’S when I saw her WEIRD ALIEN PINKY TOE that wasn’t even really a toe and it didn’t look like it had a nail on it.

  But Jodi said that it was our ONLY CHANCE FOR SURVIVAL and then she ran into the office with Maisie and Zach. So I just took a deep breath and ran in too.

  It was

  in the office because it was COMPLETELY QUIET and EMPTY. And any time I have ever peeked in through the little glass window, it’s always been full of office ladies, typing away at their computers and saying things loudly on the phone like “UNACCEPTABLE” and “THAT IS NOT OUR PROBLEM” and “WHAT DID YOUR LAST SLAVE DIE OF?”

  Jodi tried to pull Maisie under one of the desks but Maisie woke up and saw where she was. And I saw her open her mouth and I knew she was about to SCREAM THE WHOLE SCHOOL DOWN so I rushed forward and put my hand over her mouth. And even though she still screamed for ages you couldn’t hear it as much because of my hand. And then she eventually stopped screaming and POINTED.

  THAT’S when we saw that someone was coming!

  Jodi hissed, “HIDE!” and we all crawled under the desks.

  Maisie GRIPPED my hand as we listened to the clip-clop footsteps getting CLOSER and CLOSER. Then the clip-clopping stopped because the person was INSIDE THE OFFICE and was standing on the carpet.

  I held my breath and watched as the high heels walked past us.

  And then we heard a SIGH and Maisie and I GASPED because we recognised that sigh.

  It was Mrs Seith, the SCARY DEPUTY HEAD!

  Then I saw that Jodi had started waving her arms about under the desk opposite and I realised that she was using a sign language called MAKATON that we’d learned in school (both Maisie and Jodi were really good at it and Maisie even went home and learned how to do more online).

  Then Maisie turned to me and whispered, “Jodi says Mrs Seith is looking out of the window at something behind us.” And then all of a sudden legs RACED past us and out the door and we heard really fast clip-clopping because Mrs Seith had RUN AWAY.

  Jodi got out from under the desk and ran over to see what Mrs Seith had been looking at.

  An
d then she said, “It’s safe. You can come out. The office ladies won’t be coming back.”

  So we got out and I said, “How do you know that?”

  And Jodi pointed to a note on the wall next to the photocopier that said

  I had NO IDEA what that meant so I looked at Maisie but she just shrugged so I knew that she didn’t understand it either.

  And then Jodi said, “Not THAT note. THAT note.” And then she pointed to another note and it said,

  And Jodi said, “I KNEW THAT MAN SAID BEAST!”

  And Zach said, “I can’t believe there’s a BEAST!”

  And Maisie screamed the loudest I have ever heard a human scream.

  And I didn’t even try to stop her.

  Because the

  was coming to OUR SCHOOL!

  As soon as we got back to The Den we sat down and forced ourselves to drink a cup of cold tea because Zach said that his mum and gran ALWAYS have a cup of tea when they get bad news and that it helps.

  So we all sat there drinking our tea but it didn’t really help me because it tasted horrible and Zach had burst the tea bag so I had loads of BITS floating in mine.

  Then Jodi got up and turned over the bucket she had been sitting on and took out the FOOD RATION BAG and started eating a granola bar really quickly.

  Zach said, “HEY! I thought we weren’t allowed to do that!”

  So Jodi just passed him the bag and didn’t say anything and Zach didn’t argue with that. He just grabbed a Mars Bar and ate it in two bites.

  So I knew that meant we weren’t doing the food rationing any more and that it was probably because food was the LEAST of our problems now!

  Zach said that the BEAST FROM THE EAST explained the teachers and the weeping and why it wasn’t safe for us to go outside and why the school was open INDEFINITELY.

  Then Maisie said, “What kind of BEAST do you think it is?”

  And that’s when Zach said he knew EXACTLY what type of beast it was.

  Then he told us all to sit down and to hold hands for SUPPORT because what he was about to say was going to be HARD TO HEAR.

  And it WAS hard to hear because as SOON as Zach opened his mouth someone shouted, “HELLO? HELLO?!” And it came from RIGHT outside The Den door!

  Jodi’s eyes almost POPPED out of her head because NO ONE is supposed to know about The Den! And the only other person in the whole entire school who knows is annoying Gary Petrie because he followed us one time. But we knew that it wasn’t him because Jodi had WARNED HIM not to come to The Den OR ELSE and also because the voice sounded like a woman’s.

  So we all froze. But then we heard, “HELLOOOOO? Can you hear me? Ted?”

  And we all looked at each other because we had no idea who TED was.

  And then the voice said, “Good. This is the only place I can get reception in this whole building.”

  We all sat in silence listening to whoever was on their mobile phone outside The Den talking to Ted.

  And that’s when we heard the voice say, “I’ll never make it, Ted. Hello? Can you hear me? TED? I said THE BEAST FROM THE EAST HAS ARRIVED. I’LL NEVER MAKE IT. I’M SORRY.”

  Then we heard footsteps walk away so we knew that we were alone again.

  And also that THE BEAST FROM THE EAST HAD ARRIVED!

  Then Zach gulped and said, “Are you ready for this?”

  And Jodi said, “YES.” And I nodded. But Maisie didn’t do anything because she had wrapped her scarf around her WHOLE FACE because that is what she does sometimes when she can’t handle what’s going on.

  And that’s when Zach took a deep breath and said, “It’s a

  I was VERY glad that Maisie had been wearing the face scarf when Zach told us about the YETI because she screamed SO LOUD that I STILL had to cover my ears!

  Jodi looked at me and I looked at her because even though almost TWO WHOLE MINUTES had passed since Zach told us about the YETI we were still both in a bit of SHOCK.

  Because having a YETI loose in your school is TERRIFYING and I didn’t know what YETIS liked to eat but I had a HORRIBLE feeling it might be US!

  Maisie made a little gap in her face scarf for her mouth and she whimpered, “Not a YETI! Please. ANYTHING but a YETI!”

  And I didn’t know much about YETIS but I did NOT like how upset Maisie was getting about it because even though Maisie has had to deal with baby aliens, vampire rats and demon dinner ladies before, THIS was the most scared I’d ever seen her!

  Jodi GRABBED the whiteboard and pen and looked at Zach with her SERIOUS FACE and said, “We don’t have much time. Tell me EVERYTHING you know about YETIS. Go!”

  But Zach said that all he knew was that YETIS were HUGE BEASTS that live in the COLDEST PLACES ON EARTH because they have to live in SNOW to survive.

  So Jodi said, “But how do we STOP ONE?!”

  And Zach just sort of looked down at his shoes and didn’t say anything. And Jodi said, “Oh,” and then she looked down at her shoes too and I wasn’t sure why everyone was looking down at their shoes and not speaking so I said, “Zach! How do you stop a YETI?”

  And that’s when Maisie said, “You don’t.”

  Then Maisie said that YETIS are

  And that’s when Jodi got up and put her coat on and said that we had to TRY and that there must be SOME WAY to stop a YETI and that we needed to find out MORE.

  But Zach said that we didn’t stand a CHANCE against a YETI and that it was TOO DANGEROUS to go outside and that we should just eat our RATIONS and LOCK ourselves inside The Den until the army came and CAPTURED the YETI.

  And Maisie nodded her head LOADS. Or at least it looked like that was what she was doing because it was hard to tell with the scarf still wrapped around her head.

  But then Jodi said that OBVIOUSLY the army weren’t coming because everyone was SNOWED IN and that it was UP TO US and that there was NO TIME TO PANIC.

  And then she unwrapped Maisie’s head and said, “Maisie. You know about YETIS, don’t you?”

  And Maisie nodded really slowly.

  And Jodi said, “Did you read about them in the library?”

  And Maisie nodded that she had and Jodi said that we needed to get to the library

  to find out more about YETIS.

  But then Zach said that whoever had been outside the door had said that THE BEAST FROM THE EAST was HERE and that we couldn’t be sure it hadn’t SMASHED DOWN the school gates and wasn’t loose in the playground by now.

  So I said that that didn’t matter because we were only going to the library and we weren’t going outside. And AS SOON as I said it I remembered that the library isn’t actually IN the school just now because the library is being REFURBISHED which means that we are getting an even BIGGER and BETTER library and Mrs Bottery has set up a TEMPORARY library in a PORTACABIN in the playground.

  Then Jodi said, “We need to get our hands on that book. It’s our only chance of

  And then she stood up and started wrapping her scarf around her face, just like Maisie had and I knew Jodi wasn’t making a face scarf because she was scared. She was making it because she was about to go out in a BLIZZARD.

  And I knew that she was going to make us ALL go.

  Even though there was a YETI loose in the playground!

  Jodi said that she was “PREPARED TO GO ALONE.” And then she put her hands on her hips to show us that she MEANT IT.

  But there was NO WAY I was going to let Jodi go by herself. So I wrapped my scarf around my face too, to show her I was coming with her.

  Then I looked at Zach and he looked up at the ceiling and tried to pretend that he didn’t know I was looking at him. So I just KEPT ON LOOKING AT HIM and I made my eyes WIDER and WIDER and I didn’t blink at ALL and then eventually he gave in and said, “FINE. I’ll go.”

  So we made a PLAN and Jodi drew a MAP of the playground on the little whiteboard and said loads of stuff like,

  And that’s when a little voice said, “I’m coming too.”

  We all S
TARED at Maisie because we were SHOCKED.

  Then Maisie said, “I know which book we need and where to find it.”

  Zach said, “Are you sure?”

  And Maisie took a deep breath and said, “Affirmative,” and that made Jodi smile because that’s what Jodi says you should say instead of YES when you are on a MISSION. And we WERE on a mission. A DANGEROUS mission. Because “A” (the school) and “B” (the portacabin) are actually REALLY FAR away from each other and we all knew that there weren’t any trees or bushes or Year 6s to hide behind on our way across.

  Jodi kept on pointing to the whiteboard and saying that we were VULNERABLE TO ATTACK, which meant that what we were doing was MEGA RISKY. And she looked at Maisie when she said it and Maisie didn’t faint or ANYTHING.

  Jodi said that as soon as we went through the Big Doors that there was NO GOING BACK and that we had to HOLD HANDS and FORM A HUMAN CHAIN so that we didn’t lose anyone. And we all nodded.

  Zach said that the temperature outside was BELOW FREEZING and that we should wear WHATEVER WE COULD FIND on our way from here to the Big Doors and Jodi said that that was an EXCELLENT IDEA.

  And then she said, “It’s TIME!”

  So we left The Den and started to make our way along the bottom corridor towards the Big Doors. And on the way we passed the Year 6 classroom and all of their coats and scarves were on the hanging rail in the corridor outside and Zach looked at Jodi and Jodi said, “DEFINITELY!”

  So Zach started taking LOADS of scarfs and coats off the rail and then we all RAN towards the Big Doors before anyone could spot us.