The Tiger

I find an exotic animal in the bushes

   I groaned under the weight of the dang math homework in my backpack, killing my shoulders. My little brother, Jay Russel, skips lightly next to me.

   "Why won't you keep up, Nia?" He asks.

   "Because unlike yourself, I have tons of homework and I'm old!" I chuckle, gently pushing him in the shoulder. We laughed together. Sure him and I fought like cats and dogs sometimes, but he was still my little bro, and I loved him. Suddenly, I see something from the woods we were walking next to. Wait a sec, either that was a furry black and orange snake, or a tail. A tail of an animal I'm vaugly familiar with. I've unprofessionally studied them ever since the second grade. I shook the thought, there was no way those animals lived wild up here in Canada. Maybe it was my imagination, but still....

   "Hey Jay, meet you back at the house, I gotta check on something." I tossed him my house keys. He shrugged and shoved the keychain in the pocket of his jeans.

   "All right, see you back at the house, Nia" and trudged away, eager to pick up his stuff and go his buddy's place for a sleepover for the night. 

   "All right buddy! Have fun!" I call

   "Whatever!" He answers back. I felt bad about ditching him like that, but I need to take a closer look. 

I creep closer to the tail in the forest. It whipped back and fourth slowly, like whatever was at the end of that thing was hunting. I slowly brush back the leaves and.... I help and sit down hard on the ground. The tail turned away from me, and I saw two small yellow lights, like someone was shining two tiny flashlights from the other side. The lights came toward me, twigs were snapping, yet I couldn't hear any footsteps. As the lights came closer, I realized they had slits in them. Oh gods, the lights weren't lights at all. They were eyes. I figured I should've run by now, but I was too curious. I needed to know what that thing in the bushes was. Again, my earlier explanation popped back into my head, but I knew it was impossible. These cats didn't even live in either Africa nor Europe, much less one of the coldest countrys in the world. I heard a low growling, and finally, the creature emerged from the shadowy depths. I gasp, how is this even possible. It wasn't, yet I was staring right at it. I was looking at the small, round, furry, orange, white, and black-striped head of a tiger cub.