My Dog Ate My Homework

 

            With a final flourish, Brent finished off his map of South America. He was pleased with the final product. All the major rivers and landmarks were labeled and each country was filled in with a different color. It had taken him quite a while to finish it, but he was done.

            He pushed his chair back from the kitchen table and stretched. Seeing this, Panther leaped onto his lap. “Silly cat,” Brent said fondly as he scratched behind Panther’s ears. Before Panther could fully make himself comfortable, Brent gently picked him up and set him on the floor while he got up for a snack.

            “The Cheez-Its are almost gone, Mom!” Brent yelled as he took a handful. Spying the bag of M&Ms, he took some of those as well. He put his snacks in a bowl and went downstairs to watch TV until it was bedtime.

            Panther followed him and waited until Brent was situated on the couch before settling himself into Brent’s lap. He watched Brent with his green eyes as Brent slowly ate his Cheez-Its and M&Ms.

            “Looks like Panther wants some, son,” Dad said from beside him on the couch.

            Grudgingly, Brent fed Panther a few of his precious snacks. “Good thing Panther isn’t like normal cats,” he said conversationally. “Normal cats would die from eating chocolate.”

            “Yeah, well Panther is definitely not a normal cat.”

            To demonstrate this, Panther let out a loud belch. He then let out a plaintive, “Meow,” but the snacks were gone.

            “Sorry, buddy,” Brent said as Panther walked off, disgusted.

            “Maybe you should go get a few more for Panther,” Dad said, watching the cat leave the room.

            “Oh, he’ll be fine,” Brent said, unconcerned.

            “Okay, but watch out. You never know what could happen if Panther doesn’t get his way.”

            “I gave him half!” Brent said defensively. “He doesn’t need anymore.”

            “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

            They finished watching “Is It Cake?” and Brent headed upstairs to bed. On his way, he noticed his finished homework still on the table. He should probably put it away, but he was too tired. “I’ll get it in the morning,” he mumbled.

            The next morning, Brent woke up late. He hurriedly got dressed and ran downstairs for a quick breakfast. When he went to sit down at the table, he saw the pained expression on Mom’s face. “What’s wrong?” he asked worriedly.

            To answer him, Mom held up his homework from the night before. “I’m sorry, but I think Panther got to your homework last night.”

            Brent gasped when he saw what had happened to his map. It used to be a map of South America. It was technically still a map, but it wasn’t South America. There was a big blob of land that was separated into countries, and was fully colored and labeled with rivers and mountains. But as Brent looked closer, he saw that all of the labels said things like “Boo to Brent” and “I need more snacks.”

            Brent groaned as he realized that he couldn’t possibly turn in this map. “What am I going to do?” he moaned.

            “You should have put your homework away last night,” Mom told him.

            “I’ll have to make another one, and I’ll only get half credit.”

            “Just explain the circumstances to your teacher. Maybe she’ll understand.”

            “You think she will understand that Panther changed my map into another continent that looks like it hates me?”

            “Yeah, that’s not going to work.” Mom looked thoughtful and then said, “Just say that your dog ate your homework.”

            “But Panther’s a cat! And he didn’t eat it!”

            “Right now, maybe, but you never know what he might be this afternoon.”

            At that moment, Panther jumped down from his perch on the windowsill. He yawned and stretched, and then he transformed into a dog. Brent and Mom watched as he gently picked up Brent’s map in his mouth, and then ate it.

            “Well, there you go,” Mom said. “Now when you say that your dog ate your homework, it will be true.” She went to pat Panther’s head in thanks. Panther wagged his tail in pleasure.

            Brent let out a disgusted sigh. “I can’t believe that I’m going to use ‘the dog ate my homework’ excuse.”

            “Don’t worry,” Mom said as she put her arm around Brent in a hug. “Have your teacher call me, and I’ll confirm that our dog did indeed eat your homework.”

            Brent rolled his eyes as he grabbed some Pop Tarts from the cupboard to eat on his way to school. There were some perks to having a pet shapeshifter, but this wasn’t exactly one of them. As a wizard-in-training, Brent couldn’t tell any of his friends about Panther’s many forms. Only fellow wizards knew about the existence of true shapeshifters. Instead, Brent had to use excuses like “My dog ate my homework.”

            As he passed Panther with his wagging tail, Brent murmured, “Thanks a lot, Panther.”

            Panther let out a bark that Brent swore was actually a laugh.

            Brent hurried out the door, wanting to escape more of Panther’s retaliation. You could never tell what Panther was planning when he watched you with those glowing green eyes.