Chapter 3: A wink of a time forgotten

*** Calvin's POV ***

As I walked into my house to drop off the excess books at my house, Mom was waiting by the door. She had an evil grin like one I would have after setting up a prank.

"So, how was school today? Did you get to meet up with any of your friends from last year, or maybe from before then?" She asked in an innocent voice.

"Shut it, we have a science project together and we have no choice," I replied automatically. Jeez, she needs to back off over every little detail.

"Well, I have to go now to work on the project, just let me grab Hobbes first."

"Susie and your best friend in the whole wide world? I totally don't see this ending in a relationship," Mom said sarcastically.

"Who said anything about a relationship. We've never had a relationship. Anyway the subject is tigers, got to go now." I said as I went to grab Hobbes from the closet where I could hear his breathing, and forgot about the pouncing habit. Mom had her eyes closed from laughing about the irony and missed her son almost dying for the 3650th time. As I fell back with a tiger mauling my chest, I fell out the front door and was halfway to Susie's when I got pinned. For some reason, I could never beat that giant mongrel, even though I had him by a foot in height now. That's not even to mention the 80 pounds I've got on him.

Just then we heard a thump from down the block and Hobbes turned and shifted his weight to look for the sound. Just then, I pulled loose of his hold and we were back to tussling. We didn't care if anyone saw us battling. There were just old farts here and half of them these days couldn't see an arms length away. We were right at the driveway when I almost got pinned again. We were there for five minutes when I realized I was almost late for meeting Susie. If I was late once, God help me on the lecture that I would get then. Not to mention what would happen if I ruined this specimen like the frog I was supposed to dissect "accidentally" ended up down the back of Julie's shirt back in third grade. I went up the driveway and knocked on the door like I used to when I couldn't reach the doorbell. It was kind of a sign for a while that Calvin was here until… it hit the fan.

Mrs. Derkins answered the door and looked me up and down. Smiling, he said, "Did you and Hobbes have another disagreement. Man, this seems like old times like until Calvin went to eighth grade, eh Hobbes." She winked, then cackled. She loved to joke about Hobbes being real. Oddly enough I thought I saw Hobbes winking back, but that was actually just my imagination. "I'll go and work on the project with Susie now." "Okay, just do better if she comes on to you. She definitely was beaming when she came home earlier. Ya, didn't even noteece ze pigs en blankets. Could you take them up to her please." I ignored the first part. took them up and thanked her for them.

As I walked up the stairs, I could hear cramming. I knocked on the door, worried she was looking for clothes after a shower. She immediately came to the door and opened it.

She said with sarcasm, "Calvin! What brings you here, did you come just to visit lil' old me?"

"I'd rather the lil' young you, but that works too." Amazingly her room was spotless and oddly emptier than it usually was.

"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Hobbes asked as he jumped into Susie's arms. "Its been too long since I got a hug from you. You should visit more often."

"Talk to Calvin on that one." Susie replied, slightly annoyed by Hobbes seeming to blame her, with every right to. She looked at me. "Sorry if I can't get you to apologize, but I do get that tensions are great between us. With that, no homework/ sports until next week, and that we have two weeks to do this, I propose we use the first hour to ease tensions between us before we start on the project."

Hobbes added, "Can I join in and make it a two-and-a-tiger-some?" We all ended up on the floor laughing our butts off, until Hobbes said, "Do behave kids."

Who knows, maybe this project won't be so bad after all.

A/N: Thank you for reading and keeping up with the story. Sorry that it took so long to create, but between college finals, fast food holiday hours, an ASVAB, and MEPS, I have been super busy. Luckily with no more college and people having new year's diets I'll be not that busy until the beginning of February, when its too far from summer or new years for anyone to care about dieting.