The Year in Review
A Calvin and Hobbes Story
Calvin tapped his pencil on his desk. The tapping sound echoed off the wood and through his ears while he stared at the piece of lined paper in front of him. It was empty with the exception of the words "My Year in Review" written on the top line.
"Hobbes!" Calvin cried.
A faint sound in the background reminded Calvin that his tiger buddy was currently in the washing machine, and then he'd have to go to the dryer.
"Da--" Calvin started, before he stopped himself. No WAY he would call his dad if it were about school, unless he wanted to do the work extra hard with his dad watching his every move over his shoulder. All while lecturing about how hard work builds 'character'.
No thanks, Calvin thought, and turned back to the sheet of paper. It taunted him mercilessly. His first school assignment of the new year, and his mom was going to check the assignment once he was done in order to make sure it was good. If not, he'd have to rewrite it. And then probably rewrite it again after that to take care of grammatical and punctuation mistakes.
So let's review…
Calvin had to write a two-page essay about the last year, from September to August. The grade would count as a quarter of the semester grade for Language Arts.
"What did I do last September?" Calvin pondered aloud, to nobody in particular. All he needed was something. Some little spark to make the creative juices flow.
"Hobbes, are you done yet?!" Calvin yelled. The mechanical sounds of the washing machine answered his question better than a verbal reply ever could have.
Calvin realized that he would need to do this by himself, and set his pencil to the paper. It didn't move, but it was there. The first step.
Calvin started to write.
My year in review. Well, what more can I say than that?
"What more CAN I say than that?" Calvin wondered, then got an idea and kept writing.
Nothing, actually, because I was sworn to secrecy by government agents and the President himself.
"Hmmm…" Calvin looked at the answer on the paper. Barely two lines. Not even close to two pages. "I guess I could try writing it REALLY big."
Calvin sighed and let his head fall face-first onto the piece of paper. This was impossible.
"But not impossible for Stupendous Man!" Calvin cried. "Mild-mannered Calvin races to his closet to transform into his super alter ego--"
Calvin tore through his drawers, tossing clothes everywhere, when he suddenly remembered. "—when he realizes that his mom took away his costume after he hit Susie with a rock."
Calvin flopped backwards on his bed, dismayed. This was NOT a job for Stupendous Man after all.
Suddenly, something caught his eye from behind his head. He spun around on the bed, sitting up, and looked out the window toward the large tree out back, leaves turning a crisp orange.
"Oh!" Calvin finally found his spark and raced to his desk and started jotting down words on the page, erasing his previous answer.
It all started one September morning, when everything changed for me…
A/N: So that's the prologue of my new story. I have a tendency to be neglectful of my stories and go awhile without updating them, but I will try my best not to let this happen to THIS story. Read and review, please, but remember: no flames.