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Welcome to the handy-dandy online version of The Strange Case of the Kidnapped Kidlets: A Creative Writing Choose Your Own Adventure. This story was written by Miss Haws as an example for the BJHS creative writing kidlets. If you already know how choose your own adventure books work, click on the link to page one below.

Take me to Page 1

If you need a refresher course on Choose Your Own Adventure Stories, keep reading. If you make it to the end of this explanation, you get a short video clip as a reward!

A Choose Your Own Adventure Story is a story, which means it needs to have all of the elements of storytelling, including settings, characters, conflict, and dialogue.

Because  it is an ADVENTURE story, every page should have at least one element of adventure. So feel free to include things like police chases, alien abductions, zombie attacks, ninja battles, dragons, kidnappings, pirates, explosions, treasure hunts, daring rescues, etc. 

Most books tell one story, with one beginning, one middle, and one end. What makes a Choose Your Own Adventure Story special is that it has one beginning, a couple of middles, and several different endings. Instead of reading the pages in order, there are choices at the bottoms of the pages. Every time the reader makes a different choice, they read a different story.

The main antagonist in the majority of the plot lines in this story is Earl, the mutant badger who lives in the ceiling above Miss Haws's classroom. If you aren't familiar with Earl, you might want to read his legend before reading this story.

Take me to The Legend of Earl the Mutant Badger

In this example, some pages will have two choices at the bottom. Once you have made your choice, just click on the words ... go to page ___. There are also links to all of the pages on the right-hand-side of your screen. After you make it to an ending, you can use those links to go back and read a different story by making different choices.

When you write a Choose Your Own Adventure Story, you want to make the person reading the story feel like they are actually IN THE STORY.  There are two important things you need to do to help your reader feel like they are the main character.

First, whenever you write about the main character, you should use 2nd person pronouns (you, your, yours, you're, yourself). Writing in 2nd person point of view makes your reader part of the action. So instead of writing, "Benedict put on his bravest face and challenged the evil ninja space pirate zombie to a duel," you would write, "You put on your bravest face and challenged the evil ninja space pirate zombie to a duel." 

Second, you should use present tense verbs so it feels like the action is happening right now, in the present. Instead of writing, "You knew that this might be your last chance to escape, so you headbutted the kidnapper who was sitting closest to you, then opened the door of the speeding car and launched yourself out into the night," you should write, "Knowing that this might be your last chance to escape, you headbutt the  kidnapper sitting closest to you, open the door of the speeding car, and launch yourself out into the night."

Before you start reading, there is one more important thing that you need to know about Choose Your Own Adventure Stories: At least half of the endings are unhappy, so don't be surprised if your choices end up getting you eaten by a shark, put in prison for a crime you didn't commit, or losing your memory after getting beaten up by Chuck Norris. The unhappy endings are a big part of the fun, and it makes it a lot more fun when you finally get to a good ending.

Now you can have fun reading this example, but remember...

Now Take Me To Page 1

Page 1

You don’t have a care in the world as you walk through the front doors of the school. It feels like any other regular, semi-boring Tuesday at the junior high. Your first hour class just flies by,  but a test review in second hour just seems to drag on and on. Nothing unusual happens until the very last hour of the day.

You have your afternoon plans on your mind as you walk into room 160 – your creative writing class. You forget all about homework and cell phone shopping, however, when you look around and realize that you are all alone in the classroom.

“Maybe I am just early…” you think to yourself, but that theory is blown when the tardy bell rings three seconds later.

A quick investigation of the classroom reveals a few clues: broken ceiling tiles, a stray shoe, and a few tufts of brown fur. It doesn’t take long for you to put two and two together. 

“Earl must be behind this,” you say to yourself.

You think about running to the office for help, but then you hear a blood curdling scream echo through the ceiling ducts. “Getting help might take too long,” you think. “What should I do?

If you decide to run to the office to ask for help to rescue your class, go to page 2.

If you decide to try to rescue the class on your own, go to page 3.

Page 2

“I can’t face Earl on my own,” you say to yourself. “I had better go for help.

You run out of the creative writing room, through the lunch room, and into the hallway towards the office. But you don’t make it very far.

Before you even get to the ramp, the candy machine falls over, almost crushing you. You stop in time to avoid being squished, but not soon enough to avoid the machine all together. Your shoe slides on the slick wrappers of the spilled candy packs and you fall on top of the now-broken machine.

“How the heck did that happen?” you think to yourself. AS if answering your unspoken question, four nearly transparent forms float out from behind the milk machine. It’s the ghosts of the chickens that Miss Haws’s history class mummified years ago!

“Stop, human child!” the ghosts cluck, “We need your help!”

If you decide to take some time to find out what the ghostsof the mummified chickens want, go to page 4.

If you decide to ignore the ghosts of the mummified chickensand continue your race to the office for help, go to page 5.

Page 3

After hearing that horrible scream, you realize that your creative writing class needs help NOW.

You quickly scrawl a message on the chalkboard to let others know what has happened, then you look around the room for something… anything… that you could use as a weapon. 

Both the big orange noodle and one of the fake drama swords catch your eye. They both might come in handy, but you can’t crawl through the ceiling ducts carrying both.

Which weapon will you take?

If you decide to take the orange noodle with you as your weapon, go to page 6.

If you decide to take the fake drama sword with you as your weapon, turn to page 7.

Page 4

“What do you want?” you ask the ghosts. “The history kids mummified you years ago. You can’t still be mad about that.”

“We were at peace,” the ghosts moan, “but then we got hungry. We need someone to break into the lunch room to steal a few bagels for us.”

“I’m sorry you’re hungry,” you say as you get to your feet, “but my creative writing class has been kidnapped by an evil foot-eating mutant badger. I need to get help before it’s too late!” You try to continue down the hallway, but the ghosts of the chicken mummies float ahead and block your way.

“If you will get the bagels and bury them in the flower garden with our mummies, we will tell you the secret to defeating Earl.”

Time is running out! What will you do?

If you agree to help the chicken mummies get a snack, go to page 8.

If you run away from the hungry mummy-ghosts and continue tothe office to get help, turn to page 9.

Page 5

“I’m sorry,” you yell to the ghosts as you jump up and continue your sprint down the hallway. “I’m in a big hurry! Lives are at stake!”

You run down the hallway, but before you can make it to the office, a teacher you have never met before stops you and demands to know why you are running through the halls. Even though you are afraid that this unfamiliar teacher won’t believe you, you quickly explain the situation. To your amazement, she not only believes your outrageous story, but offers to help!

“I know a thing or two about mutant badgers,” she says. “Show me the way!”

Since you have never seen this teacher in the hallways before, you are not sure that you can truly trust her, but time is running out!

If you decide to accept the new teacher’s help, turn to page10.

If you decide to continue on to the office to ask for help,turn to page 11.

Page 6

You grab the big orange noodle and then head for the ladder that leads to the ceiling ducts. 

After several minutes of crawling through the dark, dusty ceiling vents, you see a light up ahead. As you crawl closer, you see that the vent opens up into a large attic room. In the room, you see your classmates who have been bound and gagged.

After taking a quick look around to make sure Earl isn’t close by, you hop out of the vent and run across the room towards your classmates. You barely have time to take the gag out of the first student’s mouth before the student cries out, “Look out! He’s right behind you!”

You spin around and, sure enough, the giant mutant badger is standing only five feet away. “I’m so glad that you could join us,” Earl growls. “I was wondering what I was going to have for dessert.”

If you immediately attack Earl with the big, orange noodle,go to page 12.

If you try to talk Earl into letting you and your classmatesgo free, turn to page 13.

Page 7

Although the noodle is tempting, you decide that the fake drama sword would make a better weapon. You grab it and run to the ladder in the corner of the room. You need both hands to climb the ladder, so you put the sword in your mouth and start up the rungs.

You barely stick your head through the opening at the top of the ladder when you feel rough, leathery paws close around your shoulders. Suddenly you are yanked off the ladder and into the vent. It is dark in the ceiling and it takes your eyes a while to adjust, but when they do you can see Earl’s pearly white fangs shining like sharp, pointy ipods at midnight.

As Earl begins to growl, you slowly raise a hand to take the fake drama sword out of your mouth.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Earl snarls. But you are pretty sure that the sword is your only hope.

If you keep reaching for your sword, go to page 14.

If show Earl you don’t mean him any harm by opening yourmouth and letting the sword fall to the ground, turn to page 15.

Page 8

“Ok, I’ll help you get your snack, but you had better not let me down.”

“You run back into the lunchroom and try to open the door to the kitchen, but it is locked. You knock, but the lunch ladies have already gone home.

Luckily, you spot a fork that must have fallen off someone’s tray earlier in the day. You use the for tk to pick the lock. As you are searching the kitchen for bagels, you hear more screaming from the ceiling. You need to hurry and help your classmates!

After a few minutes of frantic searching, you decide to look in the giant walk-in-freezer. As soon as you open the door, you see a pack of frozen bagels on the back shelf. As you walk in to grab them, the freezer door slams behind you. You are locked in!

You try banging on the door, but it’s no use. The lunch ladies find you the next morning, suffering from frostbite and mumbling something about chicken bagels.

After having your frozen ears amputated, you share a hospital room with some of your creative writing classmates who are recovering from having their feet eaten by Earl. Even though your ears are gone, you still fall asleep every night to the sounds of the mummified chickens laughing at you.

THE END

Page 9

“I can’t help you GET a snack because I have to save my classmates from BECOMING snacks,” you scream as you sprint towards the office. But just as you are about to open the office door, you feel a hand on your shoulder. You turn around and find the substitute principal standing behind you.

“I don’t know how your regular principal does things,” he says, “but when I am in charge, students are not allowed to run in the halls.” Then he notices the smooshed candy wrappers and chip bags that are stuck to your jeans and shoes. “It looks like running in the halls is the least of your crimes,” he shouts as he hauls you off to the office. “Breaking the candy machines will earn you a week in pass room!”

You try to explain to him about your missing class and about Earl and the chicken mummies, but he doesn’t believe you. Instead, he gives you TWO WEEKS in pass room for lying.

As you sit in the pass room, you can hear occasional screams of terror and pain from the ceiling. The real principal doesn’t return until the next day. By the time to get to tell him your side of the story and he agrees to help, it is too late. When the rescue party enters Earl’s ceiling lair, the only signs of your classmates are a few gum wrappers and a shoe lace or two.

THE END

Page 10

The teacher seems pretty confident about her knowledge of mutant badgers, and she does look really tall and strong…

“Ok,” you tell her, “follow me. I know a short cut to Earl’s ceiling lair.”

Together you climb into the dark tunnels above the school. After crawling in the dark for several minutes, the tunnel opens up into the attic room where your classmates are being held. They cheer when they see that you are come to rescue them. 

The cheering stops, however, when the mysterious teacher follows you out of the vent. When you notice the other student’s looks of terror, you tell them, “Don’t worry. This is a new teacher. She is here to help!”

“No she’s not!” screams one of your classmates. “She isn't even  a SHE! That’s Earl is disguise!”

Sure enough, as you turn around, Earl takes off the dress, wig, and mask he has been wearing and laughs. “I did say I knew a thing or two about mutant badgers,” he snickers. “What I didn’t tell you is that I know all of those things because I am a mutant badger!” 

As Earl continues talking, five more giant, hungry looking badgers crept out of the shadows. “I’m so glad I tricked you into coming up here. With all of my relatives visiting this week, we wouldn’t have had enough toes for dessert without you," he snarls.

As Earl sprinkles salt on your feet, your own happy thought is, “Without toes, at least I won’t have to run in PE any more…”

THE END

Page 11

You think about accepting the strange teacher’s offer to help, but then you remember the Stranger Danger lessons from elementary school. You ignore the teacher and run into the office. Your sprint down the hallways leaves you breathless, and it takes you a few minutes to recover before you can explain what has happened to the secretaries.

It takes you less than a minute to tell them what is going on. You expect them to panic, but they are perfectly calm. “Don’t worry about a thing,” the attendance secretary tells you. “We have tangled with Earl many times.” They pull off their BJHS sweatshirts to reveal black outfits, then reach into their desk drawers and pull out black masks.

“Wait… you are ninjas?” you ask, confused.

“Not just ninjas,” the financial secretary says as she grabs her weapon bag from under the copy machine. “We are specially trained anti-badger ninjas.”

Within fifteen minutes, the ninja secretaries have not only rescued the entire creative writing class, they also force Earl to start writing a rough draft for an apology note to send every student.

Ten minutes after that, you are sitting in creative writing thinking about the crazy afternoon events. By the time the 3:14 bell rings, you have made an important decision: instead of being a lawyer, you are going to become a badger-fighting ninja secretary, just like your new heroes.

THE END

Page 12

“I’m not dessert, Earl,” you say in a low, threatening voice. “But I am here to deliver a heaping helping of pain!” You run towards him, swinging the noodle like a giant, spongy sword.

Earl swipes at the noodle with his deadly paws, but his sharp claws only got stuck in the soft, foamy noodle. You take advantage of his momentary lack of weapons to smack him in the head with the other end of the noodle. His teeth sink in easily, buy they get stuck just like his claws.

As Earl struggles to free himself, you rush over and untie your classmates. Together, you use the ropes that had bound them to tie Earl to a wooden beam.

“Before we go back to class, I think we had better teach Earl a little lesson about kidnapping junior high kids,” you say as you and your classmates surround him. A few minutes later, Earl is clawless, toothless, and shaved completely bald, and your classmates are cheering for you – their hero!

When the 3:14 bell rings, you are just climbing back down the ladder and into the classroom. You brush a few stray badger hairs from your shirt and smile. “I guess today wasn’t too boring after all,” you say to yourself as you walk outside to catch the bus.

THE END

Page 13

“Listen Earl, I know that you don’t really want to hurt these kids. I bet that, deep down under all of that blood-stained fur, you are really a nice badger who just needs a little extra attention. That’s why you kidnap students and eat their toes, right? You just want people to notice you.”

You don’t really believe what you are saying, you are just trying to stall for time so you can think of a plan. But to your surprise, Earl starts to sniff back tears.

“It’s true!” Earl cried. “It is so lonely up here in the ceiling. Everyone ignores me all the time, unless I start munching on their toes.” His sad voice cracked a little as he continued, “I don’t even like toes. They taste like nasty rotten Cheetos. I just want the 7^th and 8^th graders to notice me!”

You take a few steps towards the blubbering badger and offer him a tissue to dry his tears. “Really Earl? You really just want our attention?”

He answers by reaching not for the tissue, but for your arm. “Nope,” Earl said with an evil laugh, “Living all alone above a drama class for all these years has made me a great actor.”

Ten seconds later, your toes are gone. Later, as the paramedics bandage your feet, you mumble to yourself, “That is the last time I trust a foot-eating badger who lives in the ceiling.”

THE END

Page 14

You ignore Earl’s growls as your hand curls around the handle of the fake drama sword. Just as you pull the weapon out from between your teeth, Earl jumps at you. The sword clatters to the ground three feet away from where you lay … the giant mutant badger’s back paws pinning your shoulders to the ground.

“I guess you would have been better off taking a creative self defense class instead of a creative writing class, eh?” Earl laughed.

You can feel his rough, slimy tongue tasting your toes. Then, just as Earl is about to sink his sharp fangs into your pink little tootsies, you hear a loud noise.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! It is your alarm clock! You were asleep! It was all just a bad dream. You look down at your feet and see an extra lump under the covers. “Good morning, Mr. Cuddles,” you say to what you assume is your sweet little puppy. “What are you doing under the covers?”

As you pull back your blankets, you see that your puppy has one of your toes in its mouth… a toe that is no longer attached to your foot!

“Don’t call me Mr. Cuddles anymore,” the puppy says. “From now on, call me Earl.”

Seconds later, instead of hearing the beeping of their alarm clocks, the rest of your family wakes up to the sounds of your terrified screams.

THE END

Page 15

You suddenly realize that, if you keep reaching for your sword, Earl will attack. You slowly open your mouth and let the sword clatter to the floor. Then you raise your empty hands to show that you don’t have any other weapons.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Earl,” you say in your least-threatening tone. “I just want my creative writing class back.”

“I have some good news and some bad news,” Earl growls. “The good news is that you are going to get to spend as much time as you want with your fellow creative writing students. The bad news is that you will be spending the time with them in the toe replacement wing of the Boise hospital.”

You think to yourself, “Uh oh. I wonder if I have time to pick up the sword?”

But as it turns out, you don’t have time. With lightning speed, Earl lunges towards you. 

Before you know it, your toes are just a delicious memory.

THE END

The Legend of Earl the Mutant Badger

(Any time you want to go back to the main story, just click your heals together three times and say "There's no place like home." If that doesn't work, just click on the page links on the right hand side of your screen.)

You have all heard the tales of terror about the mammoth monster who haunts the ceilings of Cowtown’s Junior High School. For years, his name has struck fear into the hearts of the ‘tweens who walk these halls. You know that, in this school, you are never alone, you are always being watched.  Earl is always there, waiting.

You know that Earl lives in the ceilings of the school, usually above this classroom, or near Mr. Hanks classroom. You know that he is a huge, mutated badger with a taste for human flesh…preferably the fleshy feet of 7^th and 8^th graders. But what you don’t know, is how he got that way.

Earl actually started his life as an almost normal badger cub. The only thing that set him apart from the rest of the cubs in his neighborhood was his abnormally long sharp claws.  

Earl’s family lived in a den in Budge Field, behind the old high school. He spent his early years living under the field, listening to the football players and track runners above him. He loved the smell of his sweaty tennis shoes, and the sound of their footsteps were his lullaby for his afternoon naps. That is where his love for middle school feet began. 

When Earl became a teenager, his parents sent him out into the world to build his own den and make his own life. 

Because he loved the sounds and smells of ‘tween athletes, Earl naturally wanted to make his home near a junior high. 

Eventually, he found a hole that led to the foundation of this building. 

He sneaked inside and built his first den under the locker room… the stinky foot capital of the school.

He lived there happily for a few months, drinking kidlet flavored water than came through the shower drains… like a junior high student sweat soup. 

What Earl didn’t know about that delicious concoction was that there was more than foot sweat lurking in that used shower water.

Because this was the early 1990’s, big 80’s hair styles were still extremely popular. That meant that, when the kidlets showered after PE, they were also washing gallons of toxic hair spray down the drains.

After six months of drinking the toxic hairspray sludge, Earl started to mutate. He started to grow at an alarming rate. By the start of the second semester in 1991, Earl had grown to the size of a large dog.

His huge mutated body needed extra nourishment, kidlet soup just wasn’t enough anymore. That was when Earl started going through the lockers during PE and eating the shoes that had been left in the lockers. 

The shoes had soaked up a lot of junior high foot sweat, so they tasted delicious. Unfortunately, most kids in the early 90’s wore Nikes… and Nikes in the 90’s were really big and really bright… and really toxic. Eating the shoes just made Earl bigger, meaner, and hungrier. By the end of the 1991 school year, Earl had grown to the size of a small horse.

Then, because of summer vacation, Earl’s food supply dwindled. There were a few sports camps and volley ball practices in the gym, but there was never enough shower soup or stinky shoes to fill him up. By the time August rolled around, his constant hunger had left him mentally unbalanced. 

When the football season started, Earl couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into some sweaty shoes. As soon as the players left the locker room, Earl emerged from his den under the showers and started devouring every shoe he could see. He didn’t pay much attention to what he was eating, until he ate one shoe that tasted extra good. It was like eating a chocolate covered cherry or a jelly filled doughnut. Earl was trying to figure out what had made that shoe taste so different and so good, when he heard a scream.

Earl suddenly realized that, he had been eating so quickly, he hadn’t noticed that not all of the boys had left the locker room. He had accidently eaten a shoe that was still occupied by a foot! Earl escaped just as the football coaches came running in to see why their star kicker was screaming. Earl knew that first taste of foot couldn’t be his last, he was addicted!

For the next few years, Earl continued eating the feet of the BJHS footballs teams, which explains why Burley football teams have such a reputation for being bad…it is difficult to play football with when you are missing your feet!

Eventually the school board voted to seal off Earl’s lair under the locker room. They had hoped that he would move on and maybe build a den at one of the schools across the river. Unfortunately, Earl only wanted to eat the feet of Bobcats. When he no longer had access to the school’s foundation, he moved to the ceiling above room 160. He would lurk there until half way through the class periods, when the students started to doze off. Then he would creep down from the celing and chew of the toes of the sleeping students. 

When I moved into this classroom in 2008, I had no idea that Earl lived here too (although I did wonder why the teacher who taught was footless…). Then one day during a particularly boring honors English lesson,  the half-asleep class was awakened by a blood curdling scream. 

I turned on the lights and looked around. That is when Spencer Atkins pointed to an empty desk and shouted “Taniquia is gone!” Then Cara Hansen pointed to the ceiling where a tile was missing. 

The kids climbed up into the ceiling, where they found the personal effects of students who had gone missing over the years. 

They even found a note from one of Earl’s former victims. The class formed a search party, but Taniquia was never seen again.

After that, I tried to give slightly less boring lessons so the kidelts wouldn’t be so tempted to fall asleep, because that is when Earl strikes. Every now and then, though, he sneaks down and nibbles off the toes of a few people who dare to doze. So watch your toes!