The Secret Life of School Supplies.

Well, my life is extremely boring, I'll admit it right here and right now. Life is all homework and studying and classes and naps, dotted with the occasional excellent meal. Sometimes I'll even convince myself to go to a social event, at which I will find a happy little corner to keep company. I'll stay in that corner and maybe find one person in particular that I'd like to get to know, but the truth is, all these social events are doing nothing for me. Except protecting me from developing the reputation of a hermit.

So... I have one little story, which for the most part is true. This is my desperate attempt to make life interesting.

One day I was doing homework atop my happy little bunk bed. My bunk serves a dual function. Office by day, and bed by night. Alas, somehow, I ended up with the only bedroom without a desk. So I make do, happily scribbling away at my linear algebra homework. It wasn't too difficult. Just writing a few proofs of the properties of matrix row operations and their determinants. Or something.

I feel a crick in my neck coming on, so I set down my pencil. Unaware of my pencil's relation to Houdini, I forget to keep my eye on it, and take the opportunity to have a nice happy little stretch. And a yawn. A nice one. Then a happy little sigh. I blearily blink my eyes, ready to return to the tedium that is linear algebra. At first I think that perhaps a contact lens has gone askew. But no, my eyes do not deceive!

My pencil is gone, nowhere to be seen. Well, of course I was confused. It couldn't have gone far. It was just right there. I pat all around myself, searching with my eyes and hands simultaneously. Nothing. I get up, and jump off my bed. I look back up at my bed, searching the shadows of my blankets for it. "Pencil? Where are you? Where have you gone?"

This is pencil is my favorite pencil I've ever had. It is black and it has a twisty eraser, which I must say, is of high quality. I might also add that it uses 0.5 lead. My favorite. Thus, it is absolutely imperative that I find it.

After searching my bed thoroughly, I begin to panic. My pencil is gone! Gone, I say!

Desperately, I give myself a pat down, just in case it had attached its lonely little self to a pant leg or sock. No, not stuck on Jenna. Alas! My mind begins to race. "Where are you pencil?"

Maybe I dropped it as I was yawning. I drop down onto my hands and knees in an instant. "Pencil? Are you here?" Pencil, stubborn as ever, refuses to answer me. Pencil is probably snickering under the bed somewhere, taking great pride in his cleverness. So, I counter, "Pencil. Hiding from Jenna is not a clever feat! It's really easy! And thus, it is no big deal! Reveal yourself! Answer me, Pencil!" I pause for a moment, listening for Pencil's faint answer.

I hear none such thing. Sadly, I call, "Olly olly oxen free?" Still, nothing. Oh, I get it. This is hide-and-go-seek. Pencil is running all over the place, jumping from hiding spot to hiding spot, I'll bet. So, I run downstairs and proceed to scour the living room and kitchen. I decide, by this time on the verge of tears, that Pencil is gone for good.

He had left me. We were going to be together forever and ever, but then Pencil decided to make a run for it. And, if that isn't painful enough, it was during the joys of mid-homework stretch.

I dejectedly return to my bedroom on the second floor and and grabbed a second-rate writing utensil from my backpack on the chair. And then I turned back to my office bed, and climbed up the side.

I was greeted by a shocking sight. There was Pencil, sitting and smiling rather innocently up at me, right where I had left him. "Pencil!" I exclaimed. Pencil still said nothing, but gave me the smuggest look I'd ever seen from a writing utensil. "Oh, Pencil." I said, rather relievedly. "I missed you so bad." And then, since it would have been rather awkward to try and hug such a small object, I kissed it on the head and then clutched it tightly in my hand. And then, gleefully reunited, we continued in our adventures in linear algebra. Which were a lot more boring than our hide and seek game.