There was a girl who was known as Little Red Riding Hood, for the fact that she wore her red hood to school. On a Monday morning near the end of the school year when the weather was hot and the skies were blue, Little Red Riding Hood was staying at her grandmother’s house. Little Red Riding Hood lived with her parents, but they were away for a business vacation. Usually, Little Red would get a ride to school and back home from her mother but with her mother being away and her grandmother not being able to drive due to her age, Little Red Riding Hood was left with one option: to walk from her grandmother’s house to the school.

She had never walked to school by herself because she was too young and unfamiliar with the path to take from her grandmother’s house. Little Red Riding Hood kept asking her grandmother to walk with her.

But Grandma said, “I used to walk to school when I was your age all the time. There’s nothing to worry about.”

This left Little Red Riding Hood with no option but to walk to school. She put on her shoes, backpack, and favourite red hood and marched out the front door.

When she started to get closer to school, the area around her looked familiar from all the days that her mother drove her to school. Suddenly, she tripped over her shoelace and tumbled on the cement sidewalk, scraping her palms. She sat there for a while holding her hands as she was in pain. Suddenly a man in a completely black outfit approached her and asked,

“Do you need any help?”

She replied with, “Could you give me a hand to let me get back up on my feet?”

The man then proceeded to give his hand out, and she grabbed it, pulling herself up. The man then looked at the damage Little Red had gotten from the fall.

He started to ask her, “Do you want to come in my car and I will drive you to the hospital?”

Little Red Riding Hood said, “No, sir. I am okay, I’m actually on my way to school and running a bit late now.”

The man offered her a ride to school, to which she responded with, “Again, sir, I am okay. My school is just around the corner and I should be fine.” She said thank you to the man for helping her out, and the man gave her a nod before they parted ways.

Little Red Riding Hood went through a long and tedious day at school. She saw her friends, played with them at the school park on their lunch break, and talked about some boys and drama until it was time to head inside. After lunch, her first block was gym class in which the students had a fitness test. Little Red Riding Hood was already tired and hurt from walking to school from her grandmother’s house, so she was not excited to do the fitness test. She completed the fitness test with sweat dripping down her face. She went to clean up and changed clothes from her P.E. strip to the regular clothes she originally came to school wearing. Then she finished her final block of the day, which was math class. When the class finished, Little Red Riding Hood was so happy and exhausted. Suddenly, she remembered that she must walk home.

“I wish my mom was here, I don’t like Grandma,” she mumbled, tightening her shoes to prepare for the long walk home.

Little Red Riding Hood started her journey home. After a few minutes she looked around the neighbourhood and said,”I don’t remember seeing this when walking to school this morning.”

Unfortunately, realized she must have made a wrong turn, so she started walking back to trace her footsteps. Suddenly, a car pulled up. She looked at the car, confused when a man hopped out of the vehicle. It was the same man who helped her in the morning when she scraped her hand after tripping over her shoelace. The man approached her and said,

“How’s your hand doing, little one?”

She responded in an exhausted manner, “My hand is fine, but I am so tired from school.”

The man responded with a smirk on his face, “How about I give you a ride home?”

Little Red Riding Hood looked at the man with joy and accepted the offer as she was lost and knew the older man was much wiser and knew how to get out of this neighbourhood. The man guided her to his car and she took a seat in the backseat. Little Red Riding Hood told the man whereabouts her grandma lived.

The man said, “Oh yes, I know where that is, it’s not far.”

She smiled and looked out the window, enjoying the sun and wind that were coming through the open window. Little Red Riding Hood started to get suspicious.

“Where are we going?” She asked the man.

The man looked at her and said, “We’re not going there anymore, we’re going somewhere else.”

Little Red Riding Hood has not been seen to this day.

Mark Cherkasov wrote this version of Little Red Riding Hood for English 150. He decided to put a modern twist on the tale and write it as a warning tale for young children and women. While this is a dark retelling of the tale, Mark hopes that it could act as a warning to vulnerable to be careful and not be too trusting of strangers.