A Year In Review
Chapter One
September – 'Changes', part one
A/N: This fanfic is going to have twelve 'stories' in it (one for each month of the year), but each of those stories will be divided into parts. Just so you know.
"I'm not leaving." Calvin resolved soundly, and pulled his red wagon out of the garage. Hobbes was following him.
"Do I want to know what you're doing?" the tiger asked.
"I don't have to stand for this move. I don't HAVE to move away with my family." Calvin said. The wheels squeaked as Calvin dragged the wagon towards the woods out back. Hobbes cringed at the sound.
"You're still upset about moving?" Hobbes asked.
"Oh, you don't know the half of it." Calvin said to his best friend.
"So what gives?"
"It's everything. My whole life is changing." Calvin said, sitting down on a fallen tree log in the forest.
"Not everything is changing." Hobbes said. Calvin glared at him.
"I have a new grade, a new teacher, the seasons are changing, I'm seven years old now, and on top of all that I have a new baby sister." Calvin said, spilling his guts out.
"Oh yeah, how's that working out by the way?" Hobbes asked.
"You're just trying to make conversation." Calvin sighed, staring at the orange-painted forest before him. A single leaf fell from a tree and touched the earthy ground.
"Oh, c'mon. You were excited about having a new sibling a few months ago." Hobbes said.
"Yeah, but that's when I was going to have a little brother. Now I have a girl in my family." Calvin said.
"Uh…" Hobbes replied, wondering if Calvin would eventually understand his mom was a girl too or if that fact would not dawn on him.
"But the worst part of it all is that she--" Calvin began to speak.
"By 'she' you mean Mariana, your baby sister, correct?" Hobbes asked.
"What other girl would I mean, fuzzball?!" Calvin cried.
"Your mom?"
"What?"
"Nevermind."
"Anyway, Mariana cries all night long. You've heard it, you know." Calvin said, turning to Hobbes. Hobbes nodded as Calvin continued on. "I have no idea how someone so little can make so much noise."
"Words fail me," Hobbes said, and then left, heading back for the house.
Calvin just watched the autumn landscape before him and knew that this would be his last time here, probably. Then he realized…
"HEY!" Calvin yelled, and chased after Hobbes angrily.
Hobbes chuckled and took off running for inside the house. Calvin had caught up with Hobbes and they tumbled through the door, fighting. Though to the movers inside it just looked like an odd little boy fighting with a stuffed tiger.
The brawling friends then collapsed at the feet of Calvin's mom and dad, who were among the last people to leave the house. Calvin's mom carried Mariana.
"Calvin, you have everything?" his dad asked.
"I have checked four times at your request. It is safe to say that whatever there was that could have feasibly been left behind has been discovered." Calvin said.
"Well, check it again." His dad said. "I don't want a panic in the car because the movers forgot something silly that you were supposed to pack."
"But what's the point of my checking it again if I have already checked it several bazillion times?" Calvin asked.
"Doing things repetitiously builds--" his dad started.
"Builds character, I know." Calvin said, moping up the stairs. He turned to Hobbes. "Yeesh! Mr. Character strikes again."
Calvin was slightly surprised by the sight of his empty room, as he usually was, until he remembered, like he usually did, that he was moving. As Calvin guessed, there was nothing in the room. He opened his closet, and it too was empty.
"Hobbes, everything is changing. Nothing will ever be the same anymore." Calvin lamented.
"Well, you still have me." Hobbes responded.
"That's true, but it's still just not the same." Calvin said.
Calvin flopped backwards where his bed should have been only to hit his head on the hardwood floor.
"Ow."
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