10 years ago Mary was an ordinary girl, but now she is an award-winning author. How did she do it? Well let me tell you her story...

Mary hated doing homework. It was all just a pile of stuff that you didn’t need to do! It was usually solving problems or writing essays. But today, her homework was interesting. She had to write a paragraph on wolves! Wolves were Mary's favorite animal. She couldn't think of a time when she had gotten an assignment which she liked, so this was a real miracle. She told her parents about her assignment. They were so happy that Mary would finally be able to do homework and enjoy it. So, they took her to the wolf park. The wolves were caged, so no harm could come to Mary. Mary crept over to a cage to take a closer look when a forest ranger shouted, “the wolves are out, the wolves are out!” Mary looked at one of the cages, it was empty and the door was wide open! She heard her parents shouting her name, she was in shock, she couldn’t move. She scrambled towards a tree to hide. She felt a little safer. She slowly turned away from the tree but soon realized that was a bad idea because the second she did, she heard a wolf snarl. Mary jumped out in fright. As soon she saw the wolf's red eyes staring up at her she froze once again. She slowly walked backwards hoping that another tree would be right behind, but instead she tripped over a fallen branch. Suddenly, the world around Mary spun, and then everything went black.

When she got up, she saw a creature that looked like a dog bending over and looking at her. Suddenly all the blood rushed back into her brain and she remembered the wolves and how she tripped over a branch. She slowly stood up and moved back. She shoved her hands in her pocket and felt for her candy that she was going to eat after she had finished writing about the wolves. Maybe if she threw her candy away, the wolf would lose interest in her. It was her favorite candy, but she could always buy another pack. She could be selfish and keep her candy then die, or try her luck; after all, she had nothing to lose! She tossed the piece of chocolate right next to the wolf’s paw. It didn’t budge. Its eyes were fixed on Mary. Mary tried to think happy things, but the only thoughts that crossed her mind were what her parents would wonder when she didn’t come back…

Then suddenly, she remembered something she had learned in school, if you make yourself taller than the wolf, he would run away. Mary stared at the wolf, but at the same time, she reached towards the ground and picked up a big piece of bark that had fallen off of a dead tree. She held it over her head as quick as she could, right before the wolf could throw itself at her. The wolf’s eyes got small and it scampered away! Mary was very proud of herself! Luckily, her parents found her and took her home. She told them everything! Her parents told her that it would make a great wolf essay! A real life experience with wolves. She thought about it, it did make sense and everyone would be dying to hear what happened, it would probably be the best of all! Maybe she could even publish the story and make it into a book. She wrote all about what happened to her and the wolf. She titled it, “Wolf Play”!