“Doug! Time to go!”

I could hear Harold yelling at me from outside my door. It had only been my third week at college and already my roommate and I were invited on the senior trip to another town. Because we were only freshmen, Harold and I had been very excited.

Then we found out that we were subject to be victims of the senior prank. A real let down. Even though we had this information, we still decided to go anyways. We just decided to avoid the seniors until the trip was over.
Who knows? It might be fun.

I had been reading the news paper; the headlines were all making announcements about weird break-ins where the criminals were able to do extraordinary things. I figured it was some exaggerative garble, so I just threw down the newspaper. I grabbed my backpack and started out the door.

“Hold on! I'm coming!” I yelled back, “I'll be right with you!”

I ran into the kitchen and grabbed my lunch. I met Harold at the door and headed out the door.

“About time,” Harold said.

"Yeah, yeah." I smiled.

Claire was waiting at the bus. She was also a freshman, so we told her of our suspicions. Secretly I had had a crush on her since the first time I saw her. Her flowing red hair, her delicate features, her astounding beauty, all brought together by her glistening emerald eyes. Yep, I was definitely under her spell.

Her hair was tied up in a pony tail and she was wearing a red shirt and blue jean shorts.

“Hi, how's it going?” She said.

Being love struck, I responded in a mature and respectable way. “Du-huh-huh!” Curse my young love.

Luckily, Claire only thought it was a joke. She giggled, “Funny,” she said, “now let’s get on the bus.”

We did.

As Harold, Claire, and I sat down in the back, the bus took off. One of the seniors walked back to us. His name was Flash. The name of all stereotypical high school bullies. But we were in college, so I decided to give him a benefit of a doubt.

Flash towered over me; his bulk also doubled that of me. He had well built biceps and triceps.

“Hello,” I said.

“Hey,” Flash said, “How’s it going?”

“Okay,” I said, “How’s about you?”

“Fine,” he said. “Me and some seniors were gonna get together and hang out. You wanna come?”

I was dumbfounded. Maybe this wasn't a prank after all. I guess giving a benefit of a doubt works.

“Sure” I said.
Flash smiled, “but be sure to leave the nerd behind.”

He pointed at Harold.

“Hey!” Harold said, “I may have bright red hair, too many freckles, and a scrawny body, but that doesn't make me a nerd!”

The bus was filled with laughter.

Flash smiled, “I'm sorry Harold, but for some strange reason, the senior chicks think that Doug is hot. Compared to you, his brown hair glistens, his blue eyes sparkle, and, uh....” Flash looked to the back of the bus, “Sissy, I forgot my line.”

Another senior, a girl, stood up. Her name was Sisera, “Your presence radiates.” she whispered.

“And your presence radiates.” Flash said. “Although when you come, we can't have you dressing like a nerd, you'll need to change when we get there.”

So much for giving him a benefit of a doubt. I looked down at my tan cargo shorts and my black shirt; I didn't think it looked that bad.

It was like Flash read my mind, “I meant that we need to have you dress cooler. We need to be able to be seen with you in public.”

“Ouch,” Claire whispered.

This little comment drew Flash's attention to her, “And you Claire,” he said, “have been declared hot by the senior guys. But from the beginning I couldn't take my eyes off of you.”

“Oh gross,” Claire said, “are you hitting on me?”

“So why am I here if I'm such a big nerd?” Harold whined.

Flash sighed, “We figured Doug wouldn't come along without his geeky friend.”

“Hey!” Harold said, “I told you I'm not geeky!”

“No, you said you’re not nerdy,” Flash smiled.

“Oh right,” Harold said, “well I'm not that either!”

“But for an offering of peace, we decided to pull our money together and give you these gifts.” Flash reached in a backpack that was next to him and pulled out three fancy water bottles, each engraved with our initials. Harold snatched his and downed the contents all at once.

“Hmm,” Harold said, it taste fruity, what was in the bottle?”

“Fruit punch,” Sisera said, “The juice of initiation.”

Next, Claire drank hers, “Yummy,” she said.

I didn’t really care for the beverage, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I pretended to drink my fruit punch while leaving the top shut.
The seniors nodded in acceptance and left to go to their seats as the bus’s engines started to purr. The bus took off at a constant speed and drove for a while. I stared out over the scenery as the bus rushed by.
An hour went by and I started to get board,

“Hey Harold,” I said, I was answered with a calm snore. He was asleep. I looked over and saw Claire asleep too. Seeing that there was no entertainment factor for me, I decided to join them. But before I could drift away, I heard chattering in the seats in front of me. Flash, Sisera, and the other seniors were talking quietly.

“So that’s the plan,” one of the seniors said, “These nerdy little freshmen aren’t gonna know what hit them.”

Before they broke their circle, one of the seniors stood up, I couldn’t see his face because it was too dark. “Wait,” he said, “are you guy sure we should be doing this? I mean, they just got here, this is their first year, and pranking them just doesn’t seem right.”

Sisera shushed him, “Quiet down, they’ll wake up!” she whispered, “and we don’t need you wimping out on us now, Caleb.”

Caleb sat back down in shame.

“I don’t think we have to worry about them waking up,” Flash said, “I put enough tranquilizer juice in their drinks to keep them out the whole trip up there.”

I was astonished; Flash had been playing us from the very beginning. Never before had I been so glad that I had distaste for fruit punch. I remained diligent for the rest of the night.
…

In the morning, I was dead tired. I was so afraid of more betrayal, that I didn’t sleep a wink. We arrived at our hotel early in the morning.
Mr. Schwahnson, our teacher and chaperon, stood up and addressed the students on the bus, “Okay, students,” he said, “There is a mall right across from the hotel, so we are going to stop by there if there is anyone who wants a souvenir. I’m going to get a present for Mummy.” His eyes got wide and his face turned red, “Whoops, you weren’t supposed to hear that,” He said. He regained his composure to finished, “Anyways, we’ll all meet back here in thirty minutes.”

We evacuated the bus, and everyone scattered. Harold, Claire and I headed off to the mall. We didn’t make it too far. We walked about a meter, and then we were yelled at from behind.

“Hey, wait up!” we heard.

We turned around to see who the voice belonged to.
He jogged over to us. He was a little taller than me. He had dark spiky hair and green eyes. His ensemble consisted of a white long-sleeved shirt with purple jeans, a black watch just barely visible on his right wrist.

“Hey,” he said, “mind if I join your group? Mr. Schwahnson said we couldn’t travel without a group.”

I looked at him skeptically, “Why would you want to be in a group with a bunch of nerdy freshmen? What would you possibly have you gain?” I raised an eyebrow, not trying to be subtle.

He laughed, “Your suspicions are reasonably placed,” he smiled, “I grew up in a neighborhood where there were two categories that you were to be in, popular and outcasts, there was no in-between. The popular were able to get away with everything, and they decided to show that ability by playing pranks on the outcasts.”

“Then why does a popular like you want to help us if you guys like playing pranks?” Claire said.

Caleb laughed, “You flatter me,” he said, “but I did grow up as an outcast. One day, someone played a trick that resulted with me being seriously injured, and I couldn’t move. When I looked up for help, I saw Sisera's smiling face as she laughed and walked away. All the outcasts were too scared to stick around, so they fled. Next thing I knew, I was blacking out, when I woke up, I was in a hospital. A popular adult found me and helped me to become popular. I vowed that day to be friends with any outcasts that needed it, which, I'm afraid, are you three.”

“Alright,” I said, “I'm Doug, I'm convinced, but it's not just up to me. You gotta get their approval,” I pointed to Claire and Harold.

“I'm cool with it,” Claire said, “I’m Claire.”

“The more the merrier,” Harold agreed, “Harold.”

“Cool,” he said, “I'm Caleb.”

“Hey aren't you that guy who stood up for us last night?” I said.
Harold and Claire had no idea what I was talking about. Caleb did.
He turned bright red, “I thought you were asleep!”

“Nope,” I said “I didn't drink my tranquilizer.”

That comment only deepened Caleb's hue.

“What are you guys talking about?” Claire said.

“Never mind,” I said, “where do you guys wanna go first?”

“Well,” Harold said, “I saw this awesome little magic shop that was called Lil' shop of Gypsies.”

So off we went to the strangely named magic shop, Claire Harold, Caleb, and me. We walked in and started to browse the shelves. I found a black velvet pencil with a diamond design. I took it up to the lady at the cash register and asked about it.

“That,” she said, “is a magic pencil that will never grow dull or never run out.” she got real close to my face, “and it’s said to have special powers.” then she went back to normal, “and if you act now, we'll throw in this notebook that will never run out of clean paper. It only works, though, if you use the magic pencil on it.”

“I'll take it!” I said.

“Groovy,” she smiled.

We all finished our shopping and headed over to the hotel. Harold bought a How-2 kit called Puns-O-Steel, Claire purchased crystal ball earrings, and Caleb got some gum.

When we got to the hotel, Harold, Caleb, and I were assigned a room together, Claire was roomed with Sisera and another girl I had never met before.

When it was time to go to our rooms, we sat on our beds and shared the treasures that we bought.

“I got gum that never loses its flavor.” Caleb said, “What did you guys get?”

“I got Puns-O-Steel.” Harold said, “It’s a self-help kit that teaches puns.”

“That sounds awesome!” I smiled.

Harold smiled and picked up some corn, “I EAR that!”

“Wow,” Caleb said, “that pun was CORNY.”

“Touché'” Harold said, “What did you get, Doug?”

“I got a magic pencil,” I said, “It never runs out and has 'special powers'.” I gestured air quotes when I said “special powers,” “I also got this nifty notepad that never runs out of paper.”

“Why don't you try it out?” Caleb said, “I wanna see this for myself.”

I faked being offended, “What?” I said, making my voice go high, “how can you not believe me?”

“It's not that I don't believe you, it's just that I think you're playing us.”

“Fine,” I said, “I'll prove it.”

I grabbed my pencil and pad and started to work. I imagined a dog on the paper and drew it,

“Look,” I said, “I know my art isn't that good but –”

“No,” Harold said, “This is the most beautiful piece of artwork that I have ever seen.”

“You’re kidding,” Caleb said, “let me see tha –”

Caleb's eyes went wide when he saw my drawing, “Oh my gawsh!” he gasped, “this is the most beautiful piece of artistic mastery that I have ever laid eyes on!”

“Ha ha,” I said, rolling my eyes, “very funny, you guys.”

Caleb turned my pad around so that I could see it.

I had drawn a scrawny little stick-dog with too big of a head, and no paws.
Though now my picture was gone and what was in its place was a gray-scale photograph of a golden retriever.

No, it wasn't a photograph because it was made of graphite.
The shadowing was perfect, the curves were just right, and the texture was amazing.

“Well,” I said, “I know what else my pencil does, it makes me an artist.”
I was beaming so much that I turned around, as not to seem full of myself.

“Wow,” I heard Harold say behind me, “your drawing is really jumping off the page.”

“So it's that good, huh?” I could barely keep the pride out of my voice.

“No, really,” Caleb said, “it's really jumping off the page!”

That last comment sounded a bit frantic, so I whipped around in time to
see my drawing go from 2D to 3D while gaining color.

The dog came over and rubbed its head against my legs.

“I know what else your pencil does!” Caleb said
…
By the morning, we had already created a plethora of things. After I had discovered that whatever the pencil drew came to life, I drew whatever I could think of. The weirdest thing was that all my drawings, other than the dog, disappeared after a while.

And to top it off, I found out that the only reason that the notebook always had clean paper was because the drawings always jumped off the page then disappeared. What a rip-off.

After all that good stuff was over, Harold, Caleb, and I had a meeting about the dog. “Well,” Caleb said, “It's obvious that Doug should keep the dog since he created it.”

“Agreed,” we replied.

“But we still need to figure out what to name him.” Caleb said.

“Drew,” I said.

“Drew?” they replied.

I smiled, “Because I drew him.”

Harold rolled his eyes, “and I thought that the Puns-O-Steel kit was bad.”

“So it’s settled,” Caleb confirmed.

“Not yet,” I said, “we have to check with him first.”

I kneeled down to him and asked, “How's that sound?”

“Perfect.” Drew said.

I nearly fell over.

“You can talk?” I was shocked.

“Of course,” Drew said, “you drew me that way.”

He had a British accent.

“Well,” I said, “It might be a good idea to pretend you can't talk when we get around the seniors.”

“Deal,” Drew responded coolly.

“This is gonna be a weird trip,” Harold said.
…
When we got to the bus, we were greeted by Claire as she ran up to us.

“Hey!” she said, “how's it going?”

She looked down and noticed Drew by my leg.

“Who’s this?” she said, she bent down and started playing with him.

“That’s Drew,” I said, “He can talk.”

Claire looked Drew in the face and made that voice that people make when they are belittling dogs. “I bet he can,” she said.

Just as I stepped on the bus, Sisera stuck her head out of the bus.
“Hey!” she yelled over the running bus engine, “are you sure you’re not forgetting anything, Claire?”

I noticed a look of annoyance flash across Claire’s face, but it was gone as soon as it came.

“I will check if it makes you feel better!” she yelled back. She started rummaging through her backpack.

“Whoa,” She said “my necklace is gone.”

“What?” I said.

“My necklace,” she repeated, “it was a gift my mother gave me before she passed away.”

“Maybe it’s in your room?” I suggested.

“I’ll go look,” she said.

“Maybe you should go with her,” Sisera said, “You’re supposed to go in a group anyways,” she grinned, “Mr. Schwahnson is asleep, so I’ll tell the bus driver to wait when he gets here.”

Caleb looked at her suspiciously, “now why doesn’t that reassure me?” he asked. He shrugged her off and ran after me.

I ran inside after Claire and Harold. We headed to her room to find her necklace.

We got upstairs and checked the place out. Claire checked the dressers, Harold checked the bathroom, Caleb checked the couch, and I went to the front desk.

We got our cell phones so we could alert each other if we found it.
I asked the front desk clerk to check lost and found for Claire's necklace.

The lady looked at me all funny, “I'll go check,” she said.

She went through a few drawers and pulled out a lost and found box and started rummaging through it.

She stopped searching and looked up at me, “Who does the necklace belong to?” she asked.

“Claire?” I answered reluctantly. She handed me a purple drawstring bag. It had a note pinned to it. I plucked it off and read it.

It said:
Dear Claire,
Ha, you are now officially a victim of a senior prank! Congrats!
So long, sucker!
Sisera
P.S. You can keep the bag.

I dropped the note, shoved the bag in my pocket, and ran outside just in time to see the bus disappear over the highway.

“Crap” I said.

I dialed Harold on my cell phone.

“Hello?” he said.

I sighed, “I found the necklace. You guys need to come here now.”

I stressed the word “now.”
…
“Crap, Crap, Crap!” Claire wasn't taking it well. She responded to the situation by having a mental breakdown.

Meanwhile, Harold Caleb, and I were trying to figure something out.

“So,” I said, “everything we could use for an easy way out is on the bus. We don't have our phone chargers, our money, and even my signal flares are still on the bus.”

“Signal flares?” Caleb said, raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged, “I like to be prepared.” I said.

Caleb smiled, “For a shipwreck?”

I punched him on the shoulder, “Who knows?” I smiled.

Harold sighed, “Now's not the time for this,” he said, he took out a pickle and ate it, “We're in a pickle.”

I couldn't help but smile at that.

“Please don't say that,” Caleb said.

“Fine,” Harold said, he took out some jam and ate it, “We're in a jam.”

“You're despicable,” Caleb said.

“Uh-oh,” Harold said. He ate a raisin “The tension is raisin!”

“Where are you even getting all that pun food?” Caleb said.

“It came with the Puns-O-Steel kit,” Harold smiled.

“Amazing,” Caleb said.

By the time Harold and Caleb were done bantering, Claire finally settled down.

“Okay,” Claire said, “are you guys sure you can't use your phones?

“Sorry,” Caleb said, “something in the atmosphere is messing with our batteries. That call Doug made to Harold sucked their phones dry.”

“Why can't you call someone?” Claire snapped.

“Sorry,” Caleb said, “My phone is designed where it takes battery power to call a distance. My battery's almost out, so I can't call further than two feet.”

I sighed, “I hope Drew's alright,” I said.

As soon as I said that, I heard a bark then some bushes rustling. Drew hopped out right next to me.

“Drew!” I said, “Where have you been?”

Drew looked up at me, “I jumped off the bus when they started to leave and you guys weren't there.”Claire almost fell over.

I looked back at her, “I told you he could talk,” I said.

Claire was flustered, “I thought you meant spiritually,” she said, “how'd you teach him to talk?” she said.

“Magic pencil,” I grinned. Then I realized how we could get out of this mess. I grabbed my pencil and pad and drew a car. It came out perfectly. The car, then, popped out and became a real working automobile.
I ran back in, returned the room key then ran back out and the car was gone.

“What happened?” I said, bewildered.

“It disappeared,” Caleb said.

“Let's try again,” I said. I drew another car, and it manifested. I waited a few minutes, and it disappeared. I drew another, and it disappeared sooner. I drew another, it disappeared sooner. I did it over and over until it disappeared 10 seconds after I drew it.

“Gee,” I said, “I wonder what happens when there is no time left for the drawing to exist.”

“Time to find out!” Harold said.

I was just about to draw again, when I noticed Caleb. He had a worried expression on his face.

“What's up?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Caleb said, he gave me a reassuring smile, but somehow, that didn't reassure me.

When the final drawing jumped off the paper and disappeared, the pencil started glowing.

“Ooo,” I said, “maybe it's gonna reset and let me draw a permanent car.”

The pencil let off a glorious light that enveloped us all. I could see Caleb and Harold next to me. They were slowly dissolving into the light. I looked at my hand and I could also see my hand disappearing

The last thing I thought before disappearing completely was biggrin idn't see that coming.