Wayward Creatures: Chapters 7–13

by Dayna Lorentz
Seventh grader Gabriel Meyer wanted to impress his friends, while a coyote named Rill wanted to be free from the responsibilities of her pack, but both end up dealing with the consequences of a destructive fire in a Vermont park.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–13, Chapters 14–22, Chapters 23–34
40 words 6 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ebb
    fall away or decline
    My heart slows; the panic begins to ebb.
  2. warble
    sing or play with trills
    It warbles as it reaches out one of its long limbs.
  3. spite
    feeling a need to see others suffer
    Has the fire gotten them? Or have they escaped? Or do they not answer me out of spite.
  4. gully
    a deep ditch cut by running water
    I tumble into a gully between the rocks.
  5. pore
    any small opening in the skin or outer surface of an animal
    Sweat pricks out of every pore.
  6. confidential
    given in secret
    “Everything we do here is confidential, Gabe,” she says to me. “Anything we talk about stays right in this room.”
  7. practically
    almost; nearly
    I dig my toes deeper into the soles, practically into the rug.
  8. raw
    hurting
    My paw pads are raw and red and hurt like teeth scraping across my tongue.
  9. wisp
    a thin tuft, piece, or amount of something
    The air is just smoke and steam and wisps of half-burned leaves.
  10. hearty
    providing abundant nourishment
    So much for a hearty breakfast. That could be it for the day: three licks of dew and a beetle.
  11. panel
    a group of people gathered for a special purpose
    She told me yesterday to have a proposed list of participants by our meeting so she can begin calling people for my panel.
  12. scrawl
    write carelessly
    What did you do? I scrawl in, Started a fire on accident.
  13. delinquent
    a young offender
    Is this place always a ghost town, or do they clear it out whenever one of their delinquents is going to show up so the regular people don’t have to mingle with the bad guys?
  14. trudge
    walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud
    I stretch, then trudge downstairs making as much noise stomping as possible.
  15. cunning
    marked by skill in deception
    Digging in my pockets, the only thing I find is another copy of the stupid pamphlet. Mom is cunning.
  16. etiquette
    rules governing socially acceptable behavior
    She’s one of those older teachers who wear cardigans and clunky shoes and are big into “classroom etiquette.”
  17. informal
    having or fostering a warm or friendly atmosphere
    We’ll begin with some informal introductions, and then, Gabe, we’ll let you tell your story.
  18. accountability
    responsibility to someone or for some activity
    Our goals today are to deepen our understanding of what happened last Friday, to encourage accountability, to provide an opportunity to heal the community, and to come up with a plan to continue the healing process.
  19. char
    burn slightly and superficially so as to affect color
    “I moved to that neighborhood to be near Rockledge, but now it’s just this horrible charred mess.” Charred mess? Are we talking about the same fire?
  20. understatement
    something said in a restrained way for ironic contrast
    “Well, we’ve been having a pretty rough year already without this. Joe lost his job in the spring, and I was the first one of us to find full-time work—Joe’s been picking up some shifts, but the changes have been hard on the whole family.”
    That’s an understatement.
  21. concrete
    capable of being perceived by the senses
    In the end, Santa sculpts the group’s freewheeling ideas into a few concrete requirements: I have to repay Mr. Davis for the fireworks I stole. And I have to do forty hours of community service repairing the park.
  22. restitution
    a sum of money paid in compensation for loss or injury
    I have to get a cashier’s check for paying off my restitution.
  23. bay
    bark with prolonged noises, of dogs
    My only chance is that my family survived, that somehow they escaped, that they’ve returned to the forest—I open my jowls to bay, “Father! Mother!” but the howl gets caught in my dry throat and barely echoes around this crevice.
  24. speculate
    talk over conjecturally, or review in an idle or casual way
    They think hundreds of animals might have died—maybe deer, but certainly birds, rodents, skunks, opossums. Maybe even that coyote who bit the kid, one game warden speculated.
  25. meme
    an amusing image that spreads rapidly through social media
    Apparently, Mom has forgotten that school is like an information superhighway. You can’t tell someone a secret in homeroom and not expect that it won’t be an internet meme by lunchtime.
  26. rut
    a groove or furrow
    The sign is unburned, though the grass all around is trampled and the tracks of large wheels have left ruts in the dirt.
  27. warden
    an official who is responsible for enforcing certain regulations or laws
    A man and a woman in green uniforms with game warden badges walk out of the park.
  28. carabiner
    an oblong metal ring with a spring clip
    He’s carrying a rake, wears a work belt that looks like armor, it’s got so many carabiners and tools hanging off it, and shoulders a backpack full of stuff studded with even more carabiners.
  29. loafer
    a low leather shoe with no laces
    My sneakers are not in great shape, but it’s this or some black dress loafers my mom got me for my class service at Hebrew school last year.
  30. fumble
    handle clumsily
    I fumble them but manage to hug the boots to me.
  31. erosion
    condition in which the earth's surface is worn away
    “You can already see that the little sprinkle we got yesterday has caused erosion. We’re going to need to put in containment measures, try to keep some of that thin soil up here or we’re going to have no trees and problems with lake water quality.”
  32. topography
    the configuration of a surface and its features
    He points out north on the map, that north on the compass and north on the map are the same. That the squiggly lines represent the “topography” of the park, or the ups and downs of the ground.
  33. morsel
    a small amount of solid food; a mouthful
    I find a little stick and shove the morsel closer to her nose.
  34. depression
    a sunken or lowered geological formation
    I pull out my water bottle and pour a little into this depression in the rock near her nose.
  35. beady
    small, round, and shiny
    Opening my eyes, I see my stinky visitor—an opossum, all spiny white fur and beady eyes and black ears like mushrooms sticking up from its head.
  36. bristle
    rise up as in fear
    Instead of running away, the thing freezes, eyes wide, fur bristling.
  37. contemplate
    reflect deeply on a subject
    Just as I begin to contemplate how much worse the smell has to get before I attempt to drag my broken body out of this hole, the opossum’s ear moves.
  38. bulbous
    rounded and bulging
    The opossum closes its jaw, tilts its head, and considers me with its bulbous black eyes.
  39. casually
    in an unconcerned manner
    He says it so casually—Dead. The word freezes my heart.
  40. overshadow
    cause to appear small by comparison
    But then the pain in my body is overshadowed by the pain that blossoms inside, knowing now that the forest is dead and my family with it.
Created on Mon Dec 04 14:39:59 EST 2023 (updated Wed Dec 06 10:33:50 EST 2023)

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