AN: I recently saw a story online depicting how Harry Potter could've ended if Hogwarts had been a dream, and I wanted to apply it to MSB. I hope this story is okay, considering a) I never write oneshots, b) I'm sick, and c) I didn't spend as much time on it as I would've wanted to. The excerpt at the beginning is the end of the final MSB episode, to anyone interested. Besides that, enjoy!

"…it's an M.S.G."

"A what?"

"A Magic Spanish Galleon. I told you Redbeard was no ordinary pirate…"

Opening his eyes, Arnold winced in the bright sunlight cascading through his dormer window. For a few minutes, he sat on his bed, silent, blinking, reflecting on the dream he just had. Had he really been dreaming of magic? Arnold prided himself on being a logical, rational human being. Magic and lizards and frizzy-haired teachers were the last things on his mind.

'I suppose that's what I get for studying the night before,' Arnold thought to himself with a chuckle. Without another thought, Arnold pulled himself out of bed, threw on the first clothes he found- jeans and a yellow polo- and bounded out the door, pausing only to pick up an apple for breakfast on the go.

Outside, Arnold found his best friend, Carlos, waiting for him as per usual. Without a word, the two boys began walking towards school together. It wasn't until they reached the large, brick building that Carlos started making small talk.

"You ready for this test?"

"Mm-hmm."

"It's supposed to be the hardest all year."

"Yup."

"You okay?" Carlos questioned, turning to the redhead. "You seem off."

Arnold paused for a second. "Ya, I think I'm fine." He looked to the sky. "Just had the weirdest dream last night is all."
"Weird how?"

"Well, we were in third grade, to begin with."
"Third grade?"

"Mm-hmm."

"That was like…" Carlos paused to count for a second. "8 years ago!"

"Hence my usage of the phrase 'weirdest dream.'"

Carlos rolled his eyes, then looked back to Arnold. "So, who else was there?"

"Noisy girl from English, quite guy from Computer Literacy, that one girl you've been trying to hook up with-"

"Library chick?"

"That's her."
"Niiice. And?"

"There were a couple others- baseball guy, new girl down the hall, that girl named after a food-"
"Quiche-face?"

"Yup. And our teacher was this lunatic with frizzy hair and a pet lizard, and she took us on all these crazy field trips in a bus with magic powers."

Carlos stared at his friend for a few minutes, the confusion evident across his face. Finally, Carlos spoke; "Dude, you've got to stop cramming the night before."

Arnold sighed. "I guess. See you in class."

"See ya."

Watching Carlos run off down the hall- probably to bother library chick- Arnold couldn't help but feel lost. This dream nonsense was really throwing him for a loop. Strolling down the hall and into his first class, Arnold tried to make it mean something. But what could be the message behind an anthropomorphic lizard?

'No. This has to end. I have a test; I need to focus. That dream just meant that I need to stop stressing.'

Content with this conclusion, Arnold turned his attention to the door and started watching the students file in. It occurred to him how little he knew about them; he saw these faces every day, yet he knew nothing of their owners, not even their names. Maybe he would start to learn the names of these faces that had been in his life for so long. Maybe.

Beside him, Arnold heard a faint cough. Turning in his chair, he saw new girl standing beside his desk awkwardly.

"Is this desk free?" She asked shyly, twisting her auburn hair around her finger. Wordlessly, Arnold nodded his head, and the girl gave a small smile and took a seat.

A few moments passed before Arnold looked back at the girl. She looked uncomfortable, wearing a slight deer-in-the-headlights look. 'Now's your chance, Perlstein.'

"I'm Arnold." Arnold stuck his hand out to the girl, and surprised, the girl obliged and shook his hand.

"Phoebe."

And then life carried on. Days passed by, and Arnold continued in the same monotonous routine- wake up, grab breakfast, drift through school, get home, do homework, then back to bed.

Soon enough, high school was over. Then college. Arnold grew up, got a job, eventually married and had a family of his own. He forgot about the dream, and the faces, and even the frizzy red hair. He rarely spoke to Carlos, or Phoebe, or library chick, or anyone else these days. Nothing unusual ever happened, and he never ran into any magical buses or almost-human lizards. He lived a completely normal life with a normal wife and normal kids. He worked at a normal job until a normal age, and then retired and lived normally until he died at a completely normal age from completely normal causes. No thoughts of magic ever haunted his dreams again.

And maybe it was for the best. A normal man with a normal life and a normal wife and normal kids and a normal job and a normal death has no room for absurdity; not even in the form of a lunatic teacher with frizzy red hair, an anthropomorphic lizard, and a magic school bus.