Summer time can be summed up in three letters: F, U, and N. However, that isn't always the case. Sometimes summer is nothing but trouble, and for our two heroes, Calvin and Hobbes, that's all summer had been for them. They'd been fighting evil for the past couple of months. Summer was almost over, and they were ready for some relaxation.

"I can't believe it's almost August already!" Calvin groaned one afternoon.

"Well, time flies when you're battling evil," Hobbes sighed.

"Summer is slipping through our fingers like grains of sand!" Calvin went on. "We've almost got none left! We're either on an adventure or we're recovering from one! Do you know how annoying that is? It won't be long before I enter the terror known as second grade. We need to have some more fun before September gets here. Come on! Let's hightail it!"

"Since when is fun supposed to be so much hard work?" Hobbes asked.

"It has to be! You can't have fun if you don't take it seriously." He checked his watch. "Oh, no! It's a half hour later than it was thirty minutes ago! Come on! We need to get fun with it!"

"How?"

"We'll come up with something!"

"But we've already played Calvinball, bombed Susie and eaten heart-stopping cereal. What else are we supposed to do?"

Calvin looked around and saw a rain puddle.

"Quick! Let's go swimming!"

He ran as fast as he could for the puddle. He immediately took a dive.

Hobbes bent over and looked down at him, as he floated there in the puddle.

"Um, Calvin?"

No response. Calvin was in his own little world, but there was nothing little about it.

Calvin looked around, and he saw several fish swimming around that he'd never seen before. He saw the wreck of an old naval sub, and electric eels swiveling in and out of it. There was little krill swimming past his face.

"Diving explorer Rick Wilson explores the murky depths of the Rain Puddle Ocean, an uncharted ocean near Florida. The old wreck of the Fifteen Shell Submarine sits silently in the hold near the bottom on the ocean floor. It is only five feet away from the pitch-black cave on the floor."

Suddenly, something moved on the old wreck.

"All at once, a hatch door falls off and a giant shark comes swimming rapidly up towards Rick. How will he escape? What will—?"

"CALVIN!" a voice shouted.

Calvin's head shot up and he saw a confused Hobbes looking down at him.

"If you're not careful, you're going to drown yourself."

Calvin looked back down and saw the ocean was gone and now he was looking at his reflection.

"We need some fun in here somehow," he said, shaking himself dry.

"Maybe tonight, you could join me for a night on the town," Hobbes suggested.

"You mean when you go down to the docks to get those fish heads?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun!"

"I dunno…," Calvin said uneasily. "As fun as it would be, I'm not a fish person. Besides, you're not exactly Mr. Sunshine the next day."

"CALVIN!" another voice shouted. Mom's voice.

"Uh oh," Calvin moaned.

"I'm out of here." Hobbes jumped into the brush and disappeared.

Mom stomped over. "Get in this house right now, young man. You are in huge trouble."

She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the house. It wasn't necessarily the dream home of the century.

"Calvin, look at this mess. It's terrible."

"I wouldn't say that. It's the best mess I've ever seen!" Calvin said.

"Just look at this house, young man. You managed to destroy my favorite plant, explore the contents of the wastebasket, get a whole box of cereal all over the floor and unwind an entire roll of toilet paper down the floor. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Calvin looked at the mess before him.

"I was in the zone," he concluded.

Calvin was instantly hurled into his room, and he landed on the desk, papers flying everywhere. The door was slammed shut.

"Ouch," Calvin muttered.

He jumped from the desk to the bed, and then he jumped out the window and slid down the gutter to where Hobbes was waiting for him.

"She didn't appreciate it?"

"Nope. I always figured she'd enjoy cleaning my messes."

"Some people."

"However, that is not important right now. We have a G.R.O.S.S. meeting right about now. Come on."

They ran to the backyard towards the treehouse.

Hobbes ran up the tree.

Calvin groaned. "Come on, let the rope ladder down."

"Password please."

"No way! Just let me up there this once, please?"

"Look, we play this game every day. Just say the password and be done with it. The sooner you say it, the sooner you get up here."

"You're just lucky that you don't need the ladder, or else maybe I'd get to make the password."

"Feh! You wish. Say it. Now."

Calvin slapped his forehead. You looked all around to make sure no one was watching.

"Tigers are neat. Tigers are fierce. Tigers have claws and teeth that can pierce. Tigers are nimble. Tigers are quick. Who cares about Jack and his candlestick? Tigers run fast. Tigers run swift. A tiger's great speed is a natural gift. Tigers are smart. Tigers have wit. Tigers can get down and jiggy wit' it."

"Good enough."

Hobbes let the ladder roll down.

"Thank you. I feel like an idiot."

Calvin started to climb up.

"Well, your squeaky voice kind of ruined it, so I give it eight stars."

"Why eight?"

"Well, you lost another point for not doing the dance."

"It was humiliating enough as it was."

They immediately put on their newspaper hats and began.

"Okay, this meeting of the Get Rid of Slimy girlS club will now come to order, Dictator-for-Life Calvin residing."

"Hear, hear!" added Hobbes.

"First order of business: Hobbes? Attendance report?"

"All present and accounted for," Hobbes said, saluting.

"Excellent! Now Secretary Hobbes will review the minutes."

"It's 6:32."

"Thank you. Now Secretary Hobbes will review the minutes of the previous meeting."

"Thank you."

Hobbes pulled out a notepad.

"10:30: Meeting called to order. 10:31: Debated so-called 'editorial slant' of minutes. Much drivel and uproar from Dictator-for-Life."

"Excuse me?" Calvin interrupted.

"10:32: President and First Tiger offers rational solution, but Dictator-of-Life takes unnecessary exemption"

"RATIONAL SOLUTION?" Calvin shouted. "You told me to go jump in a lake!"

"10:33: Blows exchanged. Dictator-for-Life accepts retribution."

"HA! I beat you justly! These minutes are nothing but lies!"

"Call me a fraud, will you?"

"By golly, I'll call you worse than that!"

Calvin jumped Hobbes and they tumbled down to the ground. They rolled around on the ground, biting and punching.

"Chowderhead!"

"Moron!"

"Tyrant!"

"Fleabag!"

They finally smashed into wall of the house.

"Pant. Pant. Truce?" Hobbes coughed.

"Pant. Truce. Wheeze."

Dusting themselves off, they got up and got back into the tree house.

"Well, another prolific gathering," Calvin sighed. "What a grand club."

"Now what do we do?"

"We move on to discussing our objectives for today."

"What's that?"

"To annoy our enemy nonstop."

"Sounds risky."

"Indeed. Today, we take it to the next level."

"How so?"

"Let's just say it'll involve helmets."

"Huh boy."

"No, no, I'm serious. I've got the plans written up right here."

Calvin pulled a bent and tattered piece of paper from his pocket.

"Just trust me on this."

Hobbes looked the plans over. His eyes went wide.

"Impressive, I must say."

"Thanks. It came to me in my dream last night."

"It's nice, but where are we going to get a pound of piranha?"

"Well—"

Calvin was interrupted by a low rumbling sound.

"Do you hear what I hear?" he asked.

"No, what?"

The rumble grew louder. The treehouse began to shake.

"That. What is that?"

"I'm not sure. It sounds like an airplane."

Just then, something big, shiny and loud flew overhead! The tree practically was bent over. Calvin and Hobbes lost their newspaper hats.

"WHOA!" Calvin shouted.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" shouted Hobbes.

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"MAN, WAS IT EVER FAST!"

"YEAH, I CAN BARELY SEE IT NOW!"

"I THINK I LOST MY HAT!"

"ME TOO!"

"WHAT SHOULD WE DO?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"HEY, WHY ARE WE YELLING?"

"BECAUSE, WE—" Calvin paused to think about this, and in normal tone he said, "I dunno."

They looked around. They saw that a crowd had just gathered outside, looking around.

"Let's go check it out," Calvin said.

They climbed down and looked around.

"Look, everyone, calm down!" Dad was shouting. "It was probably just a low-flying airplane! See, this is why people should ride their bikes more often, so that these things won't happen. We all should do that more often."

Everyone looked at him for a minute as if he was some strange life-form, and some people actually were thinking it.

Calvin rolled his eyes. "Thanks for that, Dad. We'll log that away."

"That couldn't have been an airplane," said a neighbor. "It was way too loud to be an airplane. Airplanes don't make that kind of noise. It was more of a whining noise I heard."

"That's because you have a three year old kid," Calvin piped up.

"No, I mean under all that rumbling, I heard a whining noise. No airplane makes a high-pitched noise. I should know. I'm a pilot. I know these things. I do!"

Calvin pondered. "What if it was a flying saucer?" he shouted, a bit louder than he had meant.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"No, I'm serious! What if aliens are coming? I was in my treehouse when it flew over! It looked kind of flat! It's a sign, people! Buggy-eyed aliens from the planet Qualsmire are coming to invade the planet!"

People started to leave.

"Calvin, you're embarrassing us," Mom whispered.

"No, I'm embarrassing myself!"

He paused, rethinking his sentence.

"No, wait a minute…"

It was at that minute that Calvin realized that he was alone in the street with Hobbes and his parents.

"Come on, Calvin, it's time for dinner."

His parents walked inside, leaving Calvin and Hobbes standing there.

"Aliens, Calvin?" Hobbes asked.

"Hobbes, you know as well as I do that aliens exist. It's possible."

"I believe you, but I don't think that—"

"CALVIN, GET IN HERE!" Dad shouted.

Calvin sighed and followed his parents.