Chapter One

Imaginary Friends 101

When you were a kid did you ever have an imaginary friend? For a kid named Calvin, imaginary friends were his only friends. Calvin was a kid who, like many, realized what the world was really like too early. He knew that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were only stories before he was nine; he knew that people couldn't become anything that they wanted to be. That there were no dragons to slay, no princesses to rescue and no magic.

It was quite unfortunate for Calvin that he found this out. But the ironic part was that he had imaginary friends, I mean the word 'imaginary' is in the name. Calvin however, rationalized that imaginary friends were a coping tool for many of lives problems and so he had them.

Sometimes imaginary friends become so powerful that they become real. Meaning that people could interact with them in the real world. This was the case of Hobbes. Now, you might think that a rational child like Calvin wouldn't have an imaginary friend; you might think that a tiger is an odd thing to have for an imaginary friend. You need to put thoughts behind you right now, because it's only going to get worse.

Hobbes lived a place known as Wackadoo Land, of which he was the mailman. Wackadoo Land is the place where all imaginary friends, creatures etc. reside. The thing about Wackadoo Land was that it is different for each individual child. There are four different variations: underwater city, amusement park town, garden, and medieval castle.

Calvin's Wackadoo Land was a combination of all of these themes. Specifically, it was an underwater city with a medieval castle in the center, on the surface was an island which had the amusement park and the garden. It was the ultimate dream land.

Calvin's mother left his father after the last of a series of several drunken episodes. Calvin's mother decided that it would be best if they got away from the city and moved to the countryside of Kansas.

At Kansas, Calvin had lots of free time, for he was homeschooled, and only had classes for about three hours every day. Calvin's mother, Kathy, always tried to do the best for her son, if that meant teaching him herself, that's what she would do.

When class started Calvin would sit in his desk and wait for his mother, who he had to call Mrs. Tweed to make it realistic. Calvin's favorite subject was history, so naturally this was the subject that Calvin's mother taught the least. She wanted to strengthen her son's other struggling areas of math and science before moving on to something that he actually enjoyed. This was almost too much for Calvin to bear, so he repeatedly asked his mother if he could learn more about history. After all, it was in the curriculum of the year and she had to reach it at some point.

After several protests, Calvin's mother gave up and taught history. The trouble was, Calvin's mother didn't know a single thing about history. This became problematic for Calvin's mother. You see, Calvin's mother was a control freak, always having to be right about everything.

"Calvin," She said one afternoon during class, "Name the most distinguished African American fighter pilots during World War II." She choose this question for one reason, Calvin was in the seventh grade- as a result the curriculum did not cover African American history, so it would be impossible for him to answer the question correctly. Calvin, with his head held high answered, "The Tuskegee Airmen. Never lost a plane in any battle against the Japanese forces. They were one of the first groups to be recognized among others, helping to break the racial barriers in the military."

Calvin's mother looked at the answer booklet again and again, making sure not to miss anything that he might have missed. He got the answer 100% correct. It seemed impossible, but he had done it.

Back to Hobbes. When it came to school, Hobbes was a master at almost every subject. Everything from art to history, to math and science and all things in between, he knew about. The only thing that Hobbes didn't know was if he was real or not.

The structure of imaginary friends is actually more complex than it seems. Normally, the imaginary friend or friends are bound by The Six Rules Of Imagination, a system created by a committee of children and all things imaginary.

The Six Rules are very simple. Rule One: an imaginary friend cannot be created for the purpose of revenge. Rule Two: The imaginary friend must serve the creator's requests, as long as the request is not illegal or harmful to any living thing. Rule Three: The creator and the imaginary friend must be compatible. Rule Four: An imaginary friend, in regards to Wackadoo Land, can choose not to reside in Wackadoo Land, provided that the creator agrees to the living arrangements. Rule Five: If an imaginary friend's existence becomes evident to outside parties, the new party must agree to total secrecy. Rule Six: If the new party, in relation to Rule Five, does reveal the existence of the imaginary friend to the outside world, the imaginary friend and the creator will taken to reside in Wackadoo Land and the new parties' memory will be erased.

Hobbes was different. Calvin believed that every person should be allowed to make his/her own decisions, as long as it complied with Rule One and Two, so he gave Hobbes free will. It is this because of this free will that Hobbes is as smart as he is, for Hobbes wanted to be smart enough to help Calvin with virtually every situation thrown at him. This free will, unfortunately, was taken with such aggression that The Council of Imagination, the committee who originally created The Six Rules of Imagination, decreed that no other imaginary friend like Hobbes could ever be created.

Wackadoo Land didn't always exist. Imaginary Friends have been on Earth for centuries, there were no alternate dimensions, no portals to other worlds-it was just Earth. Wackadoo Land was built for a reason, to protect imaginary friends' existence.

There are two kinds of people: those who believe and those who do not. The Believers who are children and those who have the heart of a child and the Non-Believers, known as The Killjoys, are the politicians, the lawyers, the strict adults and those who had no childhood experiences at all. These Killjoys, after many years of digging, discovered that Council of Imagination through hidden cameras, polls and long hours of surveillance. But since they do not believe, all they saw was a bunch of children, having one sided conversations with random chairs around a large round table about a seemingly unimportant issue. The Killjoys became concerned and question the children, "Why were you talking to a chair?" and "What were you doing in that strange room?" to these the children simply replied, "I wasn't talking to chair" and "What strange room?" and the Killjoys believed it.

This was the first step in the realization that they had to create a more secure way to hide the friends; after all they were just inside a large warehouse. So the brainstorming began, and eventually Wackadoo Land was born.