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Aggravating behaviour, people used to point out, and what do you think Luke, Resus, Cleo and I were watching on this very day? That’s right, a Teletubbies episode. Its name was Wake Up, and the song featured a sequence that involved a group of children waking up a man who was asleep in his armchair. That man, being the one who sings the song. Dig and Lulu were watching too, although in pet standards they were far too busy chasing each other round the house to even listen to the beat of the song and the catchy lyrics. Okay, maybe they’re not too catchy.
Once the song ended, I switched off the TV and said to my big siblings, “And that, my friends, is why you shouldn’t wake your dad in the middle of the night.” I was right, our parents were taking a well deserved rest upstairs. Remember when Chilli had to take a break when Bandit had his fur trimmed into a mullet? This was different me time to us children. “Now, we need to play a game inspired by the song. What game shall we play, hmm?” “I know!” piped up Resus, “Let’s grab my guitar and scream out this song to the music of Brain Drain!” “No, Resus, no,” said Cleo, “This will wake up our parents. Imagine how mad they’ll be when they find out we were playing Brain Drain at full blast. Then they’ll send us to our rooms for all eternity.” “Wait - I’ve got another idea.” I said, “Why don’t we play the Wake Up game?” “What’s the Wake Up game?” asked Luke. “Well, one person lies in bed and pretends to be asleep. Other players have to creep into the room, pretending to be tigers, lions, cheetahs or panthers. When they approach the target, they pounce!” The others agreed at this new game. “Now, who shall we start with?” I said with a sinister smirk on my face. “YOU!” Luke, Resus and Cleo cried in chorus. Cleo grabbed me and held me under her arm and carried me upstairs, with Luke and Resus following.
In our bedroom, Luke, Resus and Cleo ‘tucked me into bed’. Cleo ‘kissed me goodnight’ and my siblings left the room just as I fell asleep. Luke, Resus and Cleo saw their chance. They were now ready to pretend to be lions. They crept into my bedroom, being careful not to shrink back because of my snoring. But I didn’t snore, only our parents snore. Once they approached our bed, they pounced onto me and woke me up. I was shrieking with laughter, and I just had to grab Luke, Resus and Cleo and hug them. “This is great!” I cried, “We should play this more often. Luke, would you like a go?”
Luke was ‘tucked into bed’ next by command, and Resus, Cleo and I snuck out of the room, ready to pretend to be panthers. However, as we crept into the room, Luke snored loudly and we had to shrink back until he stopped snoring. With every snore, we shrank back. When he finally was silent, we crept up slowly to him, and POUNCED!! When Luke woke up, he grabbed me and tickled me on my tummy. I pretended I was an electric eel, electrocuting him like when Bluey played the Octopus game at Chloe’s house. Luke froze on the spot, pretending to be burnt to a crisp. “My go next!” cried Resus.
Resus was tucked up in bed, and then Luke, Cleo and I snuck out of the room and were ready to be cheetahs next. Resus was snoring softly, so we had to keep a safe distance until he stopped. Lulu approached us. “Hello, Lulu, want to play too?” I asked. Lulu hissed in response, her fleshy breath floating into my nostrils. When Resus finally was silent, we stayed together and positioned ourselves. “1…2…3…CHARGE!” I cried, and we ran across the room like real cheetahs and pounced onto Resus, who laughed as we tickled him. Cleo was too late, and tripped over one of my dolls! Luke and I caught her just in time. “You should really clean that up,” said Cleo, “Don’t you know anything of cleaning your room?” “Boring!” said Luke. I picked up the doll and put it back in the toybox. “Since we caught you, I think you’ll be next, Cleo.”
Cleo snuggled into bed while Luke, Resus and I got dressed into tiger onesies, pretending to be tigers. I crept into the room and climbed onto the bed, settling myself under Cleo’s head. Cleo sighed, and I giggled. When Cleo turned over, I grabbed her bandaged nose, waking her up. Cleo screamed in joy and annoyance, and Luke and Resus ran in. She grabbed her two brothers and began using them as blankets, until they tickled her. She laughed and laughed for all she was worth. I crawled out from under Cleo’s head and bashed her with a pillow. She screamed and bashed me with another pillow. Luke and Resus started doing the same. Soon, we were all engaging in a crazy pillow fight. Our laughter and happy screams filled the air, feathers flying everywhere. Soon, our laughter turned to tired yawns, and we were feeling very tired indeed. We snuggled together in our bed and fell fast asleep.
At the time, Luke, Resus and Cleo’s parents woke from their rest and went into our room to see how we’re doing. They threw back the covers and saw us fast asleep, me snuggled in my little tiger onesie. “How sweet,” said Mrs Watson, “Little sister sleeping with big siblings.” “From what I heard they were playing some sort of game. What was its name again?” Mr Watson thought for a moment, and then said, “Ah! I know! The Wake Up game. Well, now that they’ve fallen asleep from playing it too much, let’s see if we can have a turn. Everyone outside!” The parents ran outside the room, and were ready to pretend to be not lions, not tigers, not cheetahs, not panthers, but a mix of all four! They crept into our room, and it was very easy indeed because we weren’t snoring. At last, they pounced onto us, and we woke up, laughing. The tickling and pillow fighting started all over again, and this time, our parents joined in. More feathers flew everywhere, as our laughter and shouts filled the room.
A few minutes later, Dr F and Six entered our house. “Hello? We have come for a visit!” called Dr F. There was no response. “I wonder where my cousin is?” asked Six. “I don’t know where they are.” Dr F responded. “Maybe they’re upstairs playing,” Six said. “If they’re playing, then we’re totally in for it.” Dr F and Six went upstairs into our bedroom. They threw back the covers and saw us and our parents asleep together in the softness of our bed. “What a shame,” said Dr F, “It’s never that they refuse an offer to go swimming with us.” “Or go to the park,” said Six, “It’s my favourite place. Anyway, can’t be bothered.” Six put on her headphones and listened to the ‘Wake Up’ song on her phone, while Dr F began dancing. Oh well, that’s the effect of a song about waking up to you!
THE END.
Luke, Resus, Cleo and I wandered through the fog in a grassy meadow. We had not a single layer of clothing on ourselves, and butterflies were climbing up dew-laden blades of grass. It was very quiet, save for the occasional bird call. We touched the grass with the tips of our fingers. It was all wet, but it still splashed in little tiny tips against our skin. In the fog, you’re sure to get lost, so we stayed together the whole time. We sat in the grass sometimes and quietly watched more butterflies flutter beside us. We were at one with nature, caressed by the mysterious meadow. We were mysteriously gentle children, cradled in the cool serenity of nature.
Through the fog, we could see a huge lake with a flock of flamingos squawking and cleaning their feathers. We didn’t care if the weather was really cold, we just had to run into the lake and play together, because this was what friends like us do. We raced into the lake screaming and shouting and laughing, our feet squelching and splashing in the shallows as the flock began to scatter and turned into bewildering shadows before they disappeared into the fog. We were splashing each other in the cold water, kicking water at each other with our bare feet and showering each other with water in our cupped hands. It was as freeing and as delightful as the warm wind in the forest. The fog blinded the countryside far off, so we couldn’t see dry land far off. It was just us, splashing and squealing in our beautiful watery bath out in nature. We lay in the water and sighed, gazing up at the blurred sky which had been covered by thick fog. We felt at one with the freezing currant, and we were warm in the icy lake.
By this time, we were shivering from playing in the lake, and looking further into the fog, we saw a huge rock. We climbed out of the water and looked up at the rock. It was so grand and majestic. We just had to climb it. With our strong hands we climbed up every inch of the rock, until the ground and the lake was far away from us. Luke was a very strong climber, because he was a werewolf. He hadn’t the need to get angry, because he was in a place where he can practise mindfulness anytime, anywhere. We felt patience and balance as we climbed up the rock, which seemed to get taller and taller with every inch we climbed. Once, I fell, but Luke took me onto his shoulders and helped me climb up the rock. Once we reached the top of the rock, it led to a cliff leading high above the world, above the fog, where we finally felt warm surrounded by the sunset sky, all pink and orange and yellow, with a shade of tangerine. We looked further over the edge of the cliff and saw what we couldn’t believe.
It was a whole jungle! We had never seen anything like it before. It was deep green and thick as a duvet, and a flock of birds flew out of the trees. We had to carefully climb down the cliff because one of us might fall, and when we got into the jungle, it was blocked by vines and leaves. We vowed we could stay together, and so we walked arm-in-arm across the density of it all. We saw monkeys scuttling across the trees, jaguars prowling in the shadows and parrots balancing on vines, squawking. We thought large insects might come and bite us, but not one insect came, not even blood-sucking ones like leeches. By that time, we were getting a bit tired, but we approached a huge cliff with a waterfall beside it. A big one in fact. We climbed up the cliff for the second time that day, and saw a river leading downstream into the lake far below. We felt…freedom. We were soon yelling in excitement, exhilarated and full of joy.
I yelled really loud. I can yell as loud as a chimpanzee, although we just passed a troop of these animals on the way to the waterfall. In fact, I yelled so loud that cockatoos began to fly out of the trees and right over us. Laughing, we ran across the water and tried to follow them. Running onto the other side, we felt such joy running in the cold air, until we collided into each other and tripped over a stone, sending us rolling down the cliff and into the river far below. I emerged, and looked around for Luke and the others as I was swept down the currant. I saw Luke, struggling for air and splashing in the water. Resus and Cleo were doing the same. I grabbed each of them, and we held onto each other, reassuring each other as we coughed up water. On both sides of the river, some kangaroos were bouncing along beside us. We thought they were going to follow us, as if they were robotic spy kangaroos, but they weren’t. They were just normal, regular kangaroos.
Suddenly, we saw that the river lead to another waterfall. We screamed and held on tight to each other as we floated nearer and nearer to the waterfall, until we started to fall. Down, down, down we went, until we disappeared under the water far below. A moment later, we woke up in the dense thickness of the jungle, and felt soft hands stroke our skin and bandages (at least, that’s what Cleo does). I slowly opened my groggy eyes and looked up at who touched us. It was Luke’s mum, a kindly and loving figure. She carried me in her arms and took me across the jungle, with Luke, Resus and Cleo following. They were glad to have someone in their company, as was me. I was so tired, and we’ve travelled a long way.
When we approached the jungle clearing, there was a whole tribe waiting for us - Luke’s dad, Alston, Bella and Niles, plus our wild dog and leech pets Dig and Lulu, all waiting for us. Luke, Resus and Cleo were getting tired, so their parents lead them to a soft, comfortable bed in our hut, just big enough for all four of us. Luke, Resus and Cleo got into bed, and Luke’s mum tucked me in beside her son and Cleo, kissing me a tender kiss goodnight. We were so tired, we fell asleep straight away, as the fog cleared and the dense sky turned a dark black, with beautiful stars peppering the sky. It was the home which was best for our natural instincts to be unleashed.
THE END.