After church, and he had done some of the time in his room, Calvin left, Hobbes following behind him. "We need to see what the big mystery is," Calvin whispered to Hobbes.

"And how will we do that, Calvin?" asked Hobbes, "and anyway, you're still supposed to be in your room."

"Hobbes!" whispered Tracer, "Call me Tracer! Tracer Bullet! And investigators have to break the laws sometimes to get justice!"

"Oh," Hobbes said, "You're in the 'imaginary zone'."

Calvin's brain went into overdrive.

Tracer Bullet and his not-so-trusty assistant, Tiger Eye, are listing at the door of the police commissioner's living room, after having escaped from jail. The Commissioner, Tracer is pretty sure, is in on the mysterious whisperings going around town. He also, Tracer heard while in jail, had a pretty big part in putter Tracer and Tiger Eye in the slammer. Tracer hears the commissioner's meticulous wife's voice.

Out of Calvin's imagination, and on the other side of the door, Mom and Dad were having a conversation. "I don't know, honey," asked Mom, "Should we tell him?"

"i think we should," Dad responded, "otherwise he's going to continue snooping around until he finds out, or gets grounded for life."

"True," Mom chuckled, "he might be if he keeps investigating."

I heard them talking about a surprise, evil no doubt, and how if they found me, I'd be going to jail for good. I heard a noise behind me, turned like a flash, and drew my pistol all in one swift movement. I thought one of the commissioner's goons was onto me, but, thank the stars, it was only Tiger Eye. He asked me, "what's going on in there?"

"Something about a surprise. And they said if they found me, they'd put me in the slammer for good. The commissioner's wife seemed to find it funny."

"Who's the commissioner? and who's his wife?" my feline friend asked, "oh wait, you mean your parents."

Back on the other side of the door, Mom was crying a little bit. "I have to go now," she pointed out to her husband, while looking at her watch, "I'll be back around six. Order pizza again, will you. And please make it Canadian Bacon, I'm sick of pepperoni."

"Sure, dear," Dad responded, "But when you get back, tell me, and we'll tell him at dinner."

Tracer hears the footsteps coming toward the door, he jumps out of the way and races out the door, he is back in the jail cell. He jumps on the heap of junk they call a bed. He's safe.

"C'mon, Hobbes, let's go over the evidence we collect on our little "bathroom break"."

Calvin who, while not wanting to get in trouble, wanted to go over the evidence had named their breakout the "bathroom break" so that he wouldn't get caught.

"Alright," said Hobbes, who really did want to know what was going on, "Here's the list of facts:

1. Your mother has gone to see the doctor a lot lately.

2. It's extremely important, as she was called back later that day.

3. Your parents are considering telling you about it, so it must concern you.

and finally, 4. We're having Canadian Bacon pizza tonight."

Hobbes looked at Calvin. Calvin looked at Hobbes.

"I have an idea!" Hobbes exclaimed, "Either your mom has a very serious disease because of you, and the cure is Canadian Bacon, or that without the Canadian Bacon, or she's pregnant and is going to learn the gender of her new child now. If it's the last one, I'd have thought that she'd have learned from you not to have any more, but I guess not."

"I'm hoping that it's none of the above, Hobbes," Calvin stated, "I don't want a sister or brother, but I don't want my mom to be sick because of me either. I don't want her to be sick, period."

"Now," Hobbes began, "lets party because, remember, you only have two more days of school left before summer."

Calvin had just started dancing around on his bed, when he heard the motor of a car coming up the street. He looked out his window, but it was only the Derkins returning from a family trip to a lake house that weekend. He started dancing around again when he heard the telephone ring. He opened his door a crack and put he ear to the keyhole and his eye on a mirror aimed out the door.

He heard his dad pick up the phone and say, "Yes, speaking... uh huh... sure... I'm glad... it its?... It is!... okay... yep, the pizza is on it's way. It'll be here a little bit after you... Sure, we can tell him over dinner... Love you, bye!"

Calvin saw his dad pump his fist and started doing the conga down the stairs, but he had changed the words to: "Not another one, hey!"

Calvin briefly thought his father had gone completely crazy.

Hobbes, who had been looking out the door without a mirror, remarked, "He's really happy you guys aren't getting another pepperoni pizza."

Half an hour later that night, Calvin's mom got home from the doctor, she was smiling and whistling while she walked in. Calvin again briefly thought one of his parents had gone temporarily crazy, but figured she must have been give some kind of drug at the doctor's office for whatever thy had been doing and this had made her tipsy.

About ten minutes after that, the pizza boy came up to the driveway and dropped off the pizza at the door. Calvin couldn't hear what he was saying, but assumed he was just asking for his payment. A minute after the pizza boy left, Calvin heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He quickly jumped to his desk, where he started writing on his not completed homework.

When his dad got upstairs, Calvin had already written all the three pages of his essay. "Good Job, Calvin!" his father exclaimed, "This is pretty good. I'm glad that you did your homework while you were in your room. After dinner, we'll play Monopoly together, okay?"

"Fine," Calvin murmured, "what's for dinner?"

"Canadian Bacon Pizza. I know you like pepperoni, Calvin, but your mother and I are getting a little tired of it."

"Fine," Calvin murmured again, he was getting into character.

"WHAT!" Calvin yelled at the to of his voice, "Wadda ya mean next school year you hafta check my homework!?"

They had just opened the T.J.'s pizza box and Mom was getting out slices. "We mean," she said, "that your grades have been going down lately. We need to make sure they are at least a C to an A plus."

Calvin considered this, "Alright, but one condition," his parents groaned, "I don't hafta get an A or anything with and A."

His parents looked at each other. "Alright, Calvin," Dad responded, "but if you get an A or higher, I'll take you out for a scoop of ice cream."

Calvin's eyes bugged open, "Alright."

"Now, honey," Mom started, looking a little scared, "we have a surprise for you. It's really special and we want you to take really good care of her."

"Her? Wait! You mean I'm having a baby sister!"

Calvin's mom nodded and held up four fingers.

Calvin understood. He had only four more months until he wasn't the only child. And [\probably the last month would be focused on his mother and his new sister, not him.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Calvin stood up on his chair and shouted to the sky.