CHAP 3

I sat up in bed as I felt the warm sunshine tickle my face. I yawned and stretched. Beside me lay my best friend Heather. She lay there purring softly in her sleep. I chuckled to myself and stroked her long ears.

I stretched a few more times before I hopped out of bed. "Today is Saturday!" I said excitedly to no one in particular. I flopped back down on the bed soaking in the serenity. Ahhh…Saturday. My most favorite day of the week! No homework! No school! Just fun with Heather all day!

I jumped on the bed. Who needs serenity if you can create a ruckus instead? "Wake up sleepy head!" and pounced on top of Heather. She groaned and rolled off the bed onto the floor taking the covers with her.

"Whoa!" I yelped out in surprise as the covers underneath me were pulled away. "Watch it!"

Heather just giggled. I rolled my eyes. Best friends can be such a pain.

"Alright! Get up already miss comic genius!" I yelled as I stood over her stripy form.

She slit one eye open. "Make me." She said in a defiant tone of voice.

I grumbled in frustration. "Fine stay here and sleep all day! I don't care! I can have lots of fun without you!" I turned toward the door. Its not like she was my ONLY friend.

However as soon as I reached the doorway, I felt Heather pounce on my shoulders, which sent us both tumbling down the steps.

"Oof! Get. Off. Me." I panted from underneath the fury body of Heather. She sat up and helped me up as well. I dusted my self off and went to get my list of things to do.

"Well.." I said to Heather. "We can't exactly do the things we used to do since now we live some where else…"

"Why don't we dedicate this Saturday to exploring?"

I smiled. "Good idea. Then tomorrow we can make a new list of things to do!"

We headed out the door. I stopped and looked around. There sure was a lot more space here than in the city. "Well Heather, lets go!"

For the first ten minuets we ran all around our front yard. We spun around in circles till we were dizzy. Then we flopped o the ground and giggled our tears out. I looked up to the sky. It was so clear with little puffy white clouds. The city never had puffy white clouds.

"That one looks like a toaster." I heard Heather say. I tilted my head to find this "toaster" but instead saw what appeared to be a radio.

"That's not a toaster!" I said. "That's a radio."

"Well it looked like a toaster to me." Heather whined.

"To me it just looks like a bunch of suspended water and ice particles."

…wait who was that? That was NOT heather. I turned my head to the opposite side of me to discover the being who invited them selves over.

"…Calvin?"

He grinned. "The one and only!" He tilted his head to see Heather behind me. "Wow! Is that your tiger?"

"Yup! That's Heather!" I said proudly. I turned to Heather. "Heather, this is Calvin my new friend at school."

Heather got up and walked over to Calvin extending her paw. "Nice to meet you!"

Calvin shook her paw. "Nice to meet you too. Hey! I've got some one who would like to meet you too!"

I whispered in Heather's ear. "You'll like the guy he's gonna bring. Trust me."

"Stay right there I'll go get him!" and Calvin took off .

A little while later Calvin appeared with his tiger Hobbes. "Hobbes. There's someone I'd like you to meet." He pushed Hobbes towards me and Heather. "This is Carla and Heather."

Hobbes looked at me. "Hey! I know you! I saw you yesterday morning." He leaned in and whispered in my ear. "Y'know Calvin's got the BIGEST crush on you."

I stiffened. "WHAT!" I turned to Calvin who gave Hobbes a glare.

"Ok, what lies did you tell her about me now, flea bag!" he shouted.

"Its not a lie it's the truth!"

Calvin jumped on Hobbes. "By golly! What did you say! If you don't tell me what you said-"

I pulled Calvin off of Hobbes. "No! Its ok! He didn't say anything!" I turned to Hobbes. "RIGHT Hobbes?"

"Heh. Right."

Heather helped Hobbes up. "Are you Ok, handsom?" She batted her eyelashes at him.

"Uhhh.." Hobbes just stared. And if you looked closely you could see a pale pink blush form on his face

"Oh BROTHER!" I groaned.

Calvin rolled his eyes then took my hands in his. "C'mon! Lets ditch these two love birds!"

I smiled as I ran in to the woods holding hands with my new best friend.

Calvin pulled me along, dragging me through weeds, roots and so many other plants I had never even knew existed. It was like a jungle out here. I allowed my self to lift my gaze towards the trees trusting Calvin wouldn't release his death grip on my arm and leave me to daydream and eventually get myself lost. I saw the rays of the sun peeking through the branches casting a magical "childhoodsy Whinnie the Pooh never wanting to grow up" type atmosphere. Is this what I had been missing? Is this what it's like to be a kid? To really be a kid? The city was never like this. I had always felt so trapped there, so out of place. They had tried to make me conform to the image of what society had expected of me. But you can't stifle someone as esoteric as myself for very long. I felt so free here. So free to release what had been suppressed for so long. I just wanted to let myself go. To let it all go.

I shifted my gaze to the back of Calvin's head. His hand still in mine, dragging me along to some unknown destination. My city feet stumbled as I was pulled over the many stones and sticks that decorated the forest floor. And him… he's different too. …Just like you Carla… just like you… A voice whispered in my head.

Suddenly time had seemed as if it had slowed (or maybe it was going really fast?). All the nature that surrounded us seemed to all blur together and Calvin's form was the only thing that was clear, so that's where I focused my attention. Everything was so silent. I couldn't even hear the crunching of the leaves as we trampled over them. Calvin stopped running.

"We're here." He said, gasping for breath. I looked around. We had come to a small clearing. The slight sound of flowing water tingled in my ears. It was a small creek. I had never seen one before. I skipped over to the water's edge excitedly and dipped my finger in the water.

"Ah!" I drew my finger back. "It's FREEZING!"

"Ha!" Calvin laughed, a small smirk on his face. "Just try swimming in it."

I eyed him warily. "I don't swim."

Calvin walked closer to me, a mischievous smile played across his lips. "Well then," He grabbed my shoulders. "It's about time you learned." And before I could say anything I was pushed into the water.

Thank Neptune it was shallow.

Calvin and I lay on the soft moss for a while resting. I closed my eyes and took in my surroundings trying to imprint every second in my memory fearing that this moment would not last for long. The soft hushing of the breeze as it touched my cheek, so light and warm like a baby's breath. The rays of light that shone through the tees rested on my closed eyelids heavily. Calvin's slow and steady breathing could be heard near by. He was so near in fact that I could feel the heat from his body but just far enough not to touch. Birds were chirping somewhere in the distance.

This moment was so perfect. So perfect it was almost artificial. This seemed like something someone would read right out of a storybook. It felt so wonderful. Is this how Calvin felt all the time?

Then it struck me. I had to preserve this. I had to freeze this moment in time and make it last forever. Because if I didn't it would surely fade into the anxiety of another day filled with work and school and humanity's ugly nature. Why was I thinking this way? Why did I sound so smart all of a sudden?

His voice broke my thoughts. "The saddest part of life is knowing that the most perfect moments will never last. No matter how hard you pray or beg for a forever change always wins out." He turned his head to meet his shoulder. I could see his baby blue eyes. They were so deep almost infinite, like the sky.

"That's the weirdest thing…" I began.

"What is?" He looked at me, slight confusion in his eyes.

"I was thinking the exact same thing."

He smiled, relaxing his features and turned his head back to the sky. "I start thinking that way whenever I come out here." I was later to learn from Hobbes that being out in nature brought out Calvin's philosophical side. "That's so weird that you seem to react he same way. It's like…" He trailed off.

"It's like our mental state of mind exists on the same level." I finished for him.

He blinked at me, his eyebrows raised slightly. "Yeah… exactly." He then eyed me warily. "…You're not an alien bent on world domination… are you?"

I laughed. "If I was an alien why would I ever want to come to this planet? I mean we humans have destroyed it so much. Where's the value?" I gestured with my arms.

Calvin let out a deep sigh and smiled. "Sometimes I think the biggest sign of intelligent is that none of it has tried to contact us."

END CHAP 3

Aww! wasn't that cute? Read and Review people! And I'll give you candy.