The Shortcut

Ricky knew he shouldn’t have been there. He knew that he and his friends had no business being in the woods behind the school playground. 

But Selena dared Jared, and Jared dared Toya, and Toya dared Ricky. And you can’t turn down a dare. So the four of them ignored the sign that said “Kids Must Enter With an Adult” and walked right into the woods.

“We’ll get to the park faster that way!” Selena had said. 

With each step of crunchy snow under their boots, Ricky wanted to tell his friends to stop. They should just turn around and take the long way to the park. 

But he didn’t want to be the friend who always kept everyone else from having fun. So Ricky kept quiet as they walked. 

Ricky and his friends were heading to the park to watch people set up for the next day’s party. 

Tomorrow was Groundhog Day! Each year on Groundhog Day, their town has a festival at the park with ice-skating, games, music, food, and all the hot cocoa you could drink. 

But the most important part of Groundhog Day has to do with the town’s most famous resident, Petey the Groundhog. A resident is someone who lives somewhere for a while. 

The town veterinarian, Dr. Chee, and the mayor bring Petey on stage and hold him up for all to see. 

If Petey has a shadow, that means winter will stay for six more weeks. But if Petey doesn’t have a shadow, that means spring will come early! 

Ricky wondered which would happen. He loved winter, but he wouldn’t mind getting to play baseball again sooner.

As they walked through the woods, Jared had an idea. He thought they should play a game of hide-and-seek. 

“If this shortcut is really that short, then we can play a round of hide-and-seek and still get to the park quickly,” Jared said. 

“I don’t know . . .” Ricky said.

“You worry too much, Ricky,” Selena said.

“It’ll be fine!” Toya added.

“OK, OK,” Ricky said. 

“Good. You’re it!” Selena said.

Ricky closed his eyes. Then he started counting to 20. He heard his friends giggling as they ran off to hide. When he opened his eyes, Ricky was alone. 

The sooner I find everyone, the sooner we can get out of here, Ricky thought, as he started searching for his friends.

Ricky looked around. Instead of finding his friends one by one, he found all of them together in a little clearing in the woods. 

That was easy, he thought. They were watching something. Ricky looked where they were looking and saw a groundhog scurry out of the clearing. It moved quickly. It went into a burrow, or hole in the ground.

“Was that Petey?” Ricky asked. 

“Looks like him,” Selena said.

“But what’s he doing all the way over here?” Toya asked. 

It was well-known that Petey lived in a closed-off area inside the park. Seeing Petey in the wild was a big surprise to all of them. 

“Who knows,” Jared shrugged.

“All I know is, I found you all! So hide-and-seek is over. Let’s go to the park now,” Ricky said. 

Selena led them the rest of the way through the woods.

When the friends got to the park, everyone looked like they were playing a giant game of hide-and-seek too. But they were all seeking. Ricky saw his parents searching through the bushes for something. 

The kids went over to Toya’s mom, by the hot cocoa booth.

“Mom, what’s going on?” Toya asked.

“Petey the groundhog is missing!” said Toya’s mom. 

“We checked his area, but he wasn’t there. If we can’t find Petey, the whole Groundhog Day party will have to be canceled! It won’t happen.”

“Well, we just saw—” Ricky began, but Jared jumped in.

“—a good spot to look over there! C’mon, Ricky, let’s go.” Jared led Ricky away. Toya and Selena followed.

“You were about to tell her we saw Petey in the woods!”

“Yeah, so?” Ricky said.

Jared sighed. “If we tell her we saw him in the woods, then she’ll know we were in the woods, where we weren’t supposed to be!”

“And we’ll get in so much trouble!” Toya added.

The last thing Ricky wanted was to get in trouble for being in the woods. But if they didn’t tell everyone that they saw Petey there, no one would get
to celebrate Groundhog Day. That wouldn’t be fair. Ricky knew he had a choice to make.

Soon the mayor got on the stage and spoke to the crowd of people who had been searching for Petey. “Without Petey, we can’t have our Groundhog Day festival tomorrow, so sadly—” 

“Wait!” came a loud voice from the crowd. 

Everyone was shocked to see where the voice had come from.  It came from Ricky. “I think I know where Petey is,” he said. Ricky went up to the stage. 

He said that he had taken a shortcut through the woods, by himself, and saw Petey there. 

“I know I shouldn’t have been in the woods, but I wanted to get here faster,” Ricky said. 

Ricky glanced over at his parents. His dad shot him a look. Ricky knew that look meant he would not be allowed to play video games for the next week. 

Even though he knew he’d get in trouble for it, he had told the truth and was ready to take the punishment. But then he heard three other voices shout out:

“Ricky wasn’t alone! I was in the woods too,” Jared said.

“Me too,” followed Toya.

“Me three,” said Selena.

The friends led everyone to where Petey had been. When Dr. Chee, the veterinarian, was sure it was him, everyone cheered!

They brought him back to his closed-off area in the park. The party could go on!

The next day, when Dr. Chee lifted Petey up, everyone looked to see if he had a shadow. But Ricky looked at Selena, and Selena looked at Jared, and Jared looked at Toya. And they all smiled.