"What's the password?"
"Come on Hobbes, I thought we dropped that years ago!"
"Well you were wrong."
"Aw man could you just let down the-"
"No."
Calvin grumbled something to himself on the subject of tigers having oversized egos, and took a breath.
"Tigers are mean, tigers are fierce! Tigers have teeth and claws that pierce!"
He sighed.
"Do I really need to keep going?" Calvin asked, staring pleadingly up at Hobbes, who was sitting in the treehouse (tree box?) with a folded newspaper hat on his head.
Hobbes waved his hand as if to say "keep going"
Calvin grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Tigers are great…" Calvin continued, "...They can't be beat! If I was a tiger, that would be neat!"
He looked back up at Hobbes once again.
"Please don't make me say the third verse," he pleaded.
"I find that request acceptable!" Hobbes exclaimed with a smug grin.
Calvin sighed with relief as the tiger began to drop the rope ladder from the treehouse.
"Y'know," Calvin said as he grasped the rope and began to climb. "Once I'm 17, I won't need to keep obeying all your crazy terms."
"If you don't stop with the threats, I'll shake you off the ladder," Hobbes said, a mischievous grin taking over his lips.
"All right, all right!" Calvin exclaimed. as he continued to climb.
"Besides," Hobbes said. "Your 17th birthday is a long way off. You only turned 12 like a week ago!"
"Yeah yeah," Calvin grumbled as he climbed into the treehouse. "I'll still get there eventually."
"Not if you keep talking like you do," Hobbes chuckled, retracting and un-retracting his claws in a menacing way.
"What happened to no more threats?" Calvin asked, glaring at the tiger.
"That only applied to you."
"Oh you just wait until I get free reign over my wand-"
"Calvin?" a voice came from the ground below.
Calvin whirled around, and made his way to the edge of the treehouse, peering over it.
"Oh," Calvin sighed once he saw who it was. "Hey Susie."
"Who are you talking to up there?" Susie called from the ground below. "I hear some commotion."
"Same person I'm always talking to," Calvin said, rolling his eyes.
"Right…" Susie said cautiously. "I still think you're getting a little too old to be carrying around that stuffed tiger with you all the time."
"So you've said," Calvin mumbled.
"Rude!" Hobbes huffed from behind him.
"Where were you all last school year, anyway?" Susie asked inquisitively. "The teachers said you weren't registered as a student for our middle school."
"Um…" Calvin began, trying to think of an excuse. He knew he couldn't truthfully tell her where he had been, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school for children with magical powers located in some unknown location of Scotland. On top of this, the school building also happened to be a massive castle.
After some thinking, Calvin finally settled on an acceptable answer and spoke.
"Boarding school," he said nervously, hoping this explanation would work, as it wasn't exactly wrong.
"Boarding school?" Susie asked, dumbfounded.
Calvin nodded.
"Some place in the UK," he shrugged. "Better suited for um… people like me."
"People like you?" Susie asked, raising her eyebrows. "So what, people who are really bad at regular school?"
"I resent that statement," Calvin grumbled.
"Well, what do you do there?" Susie asked, crossing her arms.
"Oh y'know," Calvin said, scratching the back of his neck. "Learning how to curse people, riding broomsticks, that sort of thing."
He said this in a joking tone, hoping it would throw her off, despite it being the truth.
"Oh sure," Susie grumbled, rolling her eyes. "Well, if you're not going to tell me what you were actually doing at this 'boarding school,' then I guess I'll leave!"
And with that, Susie shot Calvin a quick glare and stomped off.
"Real smooth, bozo," Hobbes snickered from behind him.
"Y'know Hobbes," Calvin said as he watched Susie disappear around the side of his house. "I don't know what I ever saw in her."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Calvin stared into the full body mirror that sat at the side of his room, messing with his hair.
He had let his hair grow long over the summer, and it now fell down to his shoulders. He had it parted down the middle, over a black bandanna that he had wrapped around his head. He was wearing a white tank top that read 'Bad Religion,' and around his neck was a metal chain. He wore skin tight black jeans with holes in the knees, and on his feet were a pair of worn looking white high top converse.
"Now all you need is some eyeliner," Hobbes said jokingly from the bed as 'Battery' by Metallica blared in the background. "You'd look like you belong in Mötley Crüe!"
"Har har," Calvin grumbled as he blew his hair out of his face and stepped back from the mirror, admiring his outfit. "Only a few more days until we go to the Weasley's."
"Thank goodness," Hobbes chuckled. "After that last year, it feels like nothing ever happens around here anymore."
"You said it," Calvin said, snorting.
"Also," Hobbes said, sitting up. "I'm hungry."
"Shocker," Calvin responded, rolling his eyes.
"Dinner!" called Calvin's mom's distant voice from downstairs.
"Speak of the devil," Calvin muttered. "Come on."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"What's for dinner?" Calvin asked as he and Hobbes walked into the kitchen. "Hobbes has been complaining about it."
"I have not!" Hobbes exclaimed. "I mentioned I was hungry once!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever," Calvin grumbled, waving the tiger off.
"Right…" Calvin's mom said nervously, still getting used to the fact that Hobbes was in fact, real, despite the fact that she couldn't see him. "We're having tortellini."
Calvin chuckled as a memory emerged in his mind having to do with his mom making tortellini back when he was six and him complaining viciously about it despite not even knowing what it meant. He and Hobbes sat down at the table next to Calvin's dad, who was reading a newspaper and looking rather awkward.
"So Calvin," he began. "About going to the Weasley's…"
At that moment, the whole neighborhood was startled as Calvin's voice carried loudly throughout it.
"WHADDAYA MEAN I CAN'T GO?"
A/N: So here we are, the first chapter of the next "book" in the series. I meant for this chapter to be longer and I'm sorry for it being shorter than usual, but my brain has suddenly decided to be more interested in the song I'm writing today than working on this story, so I'm having trouble writing haha. But I promised to release a chapter by today and I want to make good on the deadlines I set for myself. As always, leave a review if you have any ideas/suggestions/critiques of the story, and thanks for reading!
Playlist- Calvin and Hobbes Go to Hogwarts on Spotify. User should be J3400 or something along those lines
