My Neighbor Is A Werewolf

---

My Neighbor Is A Werewolf - book excerpt

I Hate School

Miller was walking the football field, cleaning up the equipment left behind, when a football hit him on the back of the head.

“Don’t forget to pick that up too.”

Miller looked up to see Stanley Watts laughing at him. He was the star quarterback, but he was mostly known for being the school jerk.

Miller ignored Stanley and continued with the job that had been assigned to him. The principal had decided that Miller needed punishing after the comment he had made earlier that day, but why in the world did it have to be becoming the ball boy of the football team? Dodgeball, basketball, anything in the world would have been better than where he found himself now.

“Hey nerd,” Stanley said. “I told you to pick that up.”

“Do it yourself,” Miller muttered.

“What did you just say?” Stanly hissed.

“Nothing,” Miller replied.

Stanley picked up another football and threw it, hitting Miller right between the eyes and knocking his glasses off. Miller was angry now but couldn’t show it. He knew he had no chance of winning a fight against the football team, and he really didn’t want to take a beating either. Miller bent over and picked up his glasses without looking up at Stanley.

“Leave him alone, Stanley,” the football coach demanded, as his star player looked as though he was about to do something stupid.

“We have a big game coming up tomorrow night, and I don’t need my best player hurt or suspended.”

“Yes sir,” Stanley replied. He turned and looked over at Miller. “Today is your lucky day, nerd, but we have all year to get to know each other better.” Stanley was laughing as he walked away, his buddies tagging along beside him.

Miller finished the job assigned to him and asked the coach if he could leave. He was given the okay, so he grabbed his stuff from his locker and hit the ground running. It didn’t take long before he found himself at home. His Mom was quick to stop him in his tracks before he headed for his treehouse.

“You have chores to do, young man,” she said. “Your little friend can come over when you’re done.”

“But, Mom, we have things we need to get done,” he frowned.

She held up her finger, “First, chores,” she insisted. “Any homework?”

“Nope,” he answered.

“Then I suggest you get your chores done.”

“Yes, Mom.” Miller lowered his head as he tried his hand at pouting. When he noticed his Mom didn’t care, he gave up and went to do as she had told him. It took him a couple of hours, but he got the chores done. Now, all he had to do was wait for Smith to come over.

While Miller waited, he hung up more photos on the wall of the treehouse and went through the unsolved case files of monster sightings in the town. Although he was still happy that Smith and himself had solved their first case and that Bryan still called them from time to time to talk, he let out a sigh; there were still so many kids that needed their help.

There was a quick knock at the door before Smith let herself inside. She took a seat on her side of the room at her small round desk and began checking the files that she always checked before talking with Miller. While he tried to prove the town was haunted, she tried to prove that the occurrences were down to younger kids who were making them up for attention.

Though their first case was an exception, it had proved that witches existed, but Smith believed in them because they were mentioned throughout history. She didn’t believe in much else; to Smith, if you can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist. She had proved that half the cases were mostly make-believe. The other half, she hadn’t figured out, but she wouldn’t stop until she solved all the cases with the truth.

“Hey, Smith. How’s it going?” Miller said with a smile.

“Same as always,” Smith replied. “How has your day been?”

“Not good,” he sighed.

“Did something happen today at school?” she asked.

“I may have said something mean to a teacher. The principal punished me by making me the football team's equipment manager,” he explained.

“That’s it?” Smith giggled.

“Stanley hit me in the face with a football. It almost broke my glasses. Not sure what else would have happened if the coach wasn’t around,” Miller added.

“What a jerk,” she snarled. “Someday he will get his.”

“Sure he will.” Miller rolled his eyes and huffed. “Kids like that always seem to win.”

“Perhaps you can put a curse on him,” she laughed, but it was clear by the look on his face he was thinking hard about it. “I was joking,” she added.

“It’s fun to think about,” he smirked.

“Anyways. What are we doing today?” Smith was quick to change the subject or Miller might just attempt it.

“Let’s take a look at the photos on the wall,” he responded. “See if we can figure out which part of town they were taken in.”

Smith pointed, “What about this giant alligator? Looks like it's out by the river.”

“It’s a lizard, not an alligator,” Miller smugly replied. “Don’t you know the difference?”

“Sorry,” Smith responded. “This giant lizard looks like it might have been by the river.”

“Hmm…that’s true,” he replied. “Not sure I believe this photo is real.”

“What?” Smith gasped. “You think this is fake?” she jokingly added.

Miller shot her a look, “I don’t believe in all of them,” he spat.

“Then tell me why you think this one isn’t real,” she said.

Miller pointed at different parts of the lizard’s body when he spoke. “If you look here, here, and here, you can see that this lizard is made out of paper and poorly painted at that,” he explained.