1 Chapter One

A rumbling came up the stairs and Sara appeared at our usual library table. She looked really excited about something. Mell glanced at me.

"What? A new Basil Rathebone movie?"

"Ha, ha. I just wanted to show you this. Check this out."

She stuck her wrist out and showed us…a watch.

"It's…a watch," Mell stared blankly at it.

"Not just any watch. It runs on deoxyribonucleaicacid."

"Sara, that's bio gibberish again," I arched my eyebrows.

"Sara…?" Mell asked.

"You guys don't wanna know. Anyway, all you have to do is put your finger on it and I punch in a few buttons and we go to our fantasies!"

"But where else are we gonna go? We all had our choices already and Ann had two," Mell explained.

"Mike didn't get a choice yet," I shrugged.

"Oh yeah, Ann, where do you think he'll want to go? The ESPN headquarters?" Sara asked sarcastically, "I say we go somewhere exciting, yet mature and adult-like. I say Shrek!"

I giggled, "Ok."

"Fine with me," Mell grinned, "but I'm bringing my discman this time."

"Hey, there's Mike, Ann."

"Ha, very funny, Sara, Mike's never stepped foot in a library…EVER!"

"Well, there he is."

"Hey, Mike! We're going to see Shrek, wanna come?" I yelled. He looked weird at us. He looked around to see if anyone was watching and crept over to us.

"Be quiet. I don't want my friends seein' me here."

I gave him a look.

"Come on let's go!" Sara cut in and put all our fingers on the strange watch and dramatically began to push buttons. Nothing happened.

"Oh well, we tried."

"Wait, Mike, don't leave. Let her try one more time."

All of a sudden, the high school library faded from view. I squeezed my eyes shut; and somehow my finger managed to stay connected to the watch. There was a loud whistling that lasted about five seconds and then everything was quiet.

For only a moment. Everything got still and in the background I could hear voices, talking laughing and…crying. Slowly, I opened my eyes and gasped.

I was in a steel bar cage. Sara and Mell were crouching next to me, looking around confusedly.

"Sara? What did you do?" Mell asked faintly.

"N-nothing. I didn't do anything. It was a joke."

"Well, then how did we get here?" Mell threw up an arm, hitting the cage top. She held her arm up, gasping.

"AHHH! LOOK AT MY SKIN!!!" Sara screamed. I held up my hand in front of my face and gasped.

"What the…?" I turned my hand around. It didn't look solid, yet when I gripped my wrist hard, it stayed in tact.

"Whoa, cool!" Mell spoke after a while, "We're cartoon!"

"W-we are?" I asked.

"Yeah! Even my discman!"

"AHHH!" Sara was still staring at her arms.

"Calm down, Sara."

I looked around remembering we were in a cage. I looked through the bars and saw a bunch of other strange cartoon creatures.

"Guys?" I turned to them. They were looking out the other side. Mike was in the cage behind us and he seemed bigger.

"This cage is too small!" he wailed, pulling his cartoon arm out from behind his back.

All of a sudden, the cage began to tip and I was squeezed under Sara and Mell as they toppled over. The cage hit the ground with a loud thud. A voice spoke up.

"These are some fairy tale creatures I found off the road, sir."

Rubbing my head, I looked up and saw the wooden table with three knights sitting behind it; one holding a long scroll.

"Well, that'll be worth four shillings each, ma'am. They don't seem to do anything."

"Hey!" Sara gripped the bars. The knight looked up.

"They can speak."

"Yeah, we can!" Sara went on. Mell and I glanced at each other from behind her and I heard Mike cough.

"You let us out right now!"

"Whatever for?" the knight with the scroll chuckled. Sara scowled.

"I'll have you know, we're four important members of the…CGI!"

"Excuse me?" the knight looked confused.

"I can report you!" Sara screamed. The knight looked affronted.

"Fine, fine, let them out, ma'am," the knight waved his arm impatiently. The old lady that was trying to sell us as fairy tale creatures, took a key out of a side pocket of her apron and unlocked our door and then Mike's.

"Thank you," Sara said frowning over her. Mike was stretching.

"Let them go," the knight frowned back at Sara.

"Why?" the old lady protested.

"They are banished into the forest. They're worse than the talking donkey. Let them be killed by the ogre."

One of the knights came to escort us, but Mell snatched away her arm.

"We'll escort ourselves, thank you!" Mell marched towards the edge of the clearing towards the trees. I stuck my tongue out at the knight. He bowed stiffly and returned to his post.

We walked a little ways silently into the woods. I looked at Sara and Mell and they were scowling and stomping through the brush.

"What did CGI stand for?" I asked timidly. Sara giggled at this.

"Computer Generated Images."

"Clever!" I said laughing. Mike was stumbling behind us.

"Wait up!" he ran over next to me. "It was your fault I came with you weirdoes in the first place."

"Hey, we didn't know it would work!" Mell said over her shoulder.

"Now to find the swamp," Sara said and marched off grandly, with us following behind.