one giant belly

 Art had a very long and tiring day of opening presents and celebrating his birthday with his large, distant and strange family. Art doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, but he has a long line of aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, and cousins removed many times over- and each one of them drove from out of the city to celebrate his 13^th birthday. Turning 13 is a very big deal in Art’s family, being the year Art turns into a man. Art was very excited in becoming a man- he felt he was ready to do man things; like shave, shower every day, get a job and pay for his own toys. All these thoughts of becoming a man made Art very tired so he snuck away from the party and went into his bedroom and fell fast asleep with all the thoughts of becoming a man on his mind. He was ready to become a man right now. 

The next morning before opening his eyes, he already felt like he was older. He didn’t want to lift his head from under his sheets and start his day. He wanted to stay a kid forever. He already felt like his bones had gotten older. He felt soar and tired. Art was ready and willing to spend the rest of his life under his sheets; until his mom shouted at him again and he jumped from the bed. 

Art walked to his dresser and with his eyes half closed- picked up the first piece of clothing he touched. He put his one leg through the hole and stepped all the way through; then he followed with the second leg repeating the same motion. Once his legs were in the pants he pulled them up holding onto the waist. Art pushed the button through the hole and looked for a shirt; once again grabbing whatever shirt he laid his hands on he slung his arms through the shirt one by one and shimmied the shirt down to his waist. He stumbled his steps on the walk to the bathroom and almost fell face first onto the bathroom rug but caught his balance and stood up to face the mirror. He brushed his teeth and washed his face and hurried downstairs to eat breakfast before his bus came.

His mom called to him from behind the door as she hurried off to work. 

He ate his regular breakfast that his mom laid out for him- Chocolate Thunder Cereal and a glass of milk. He poured half the glass of milk into the bowl and saved the rest to drink when he finishes his cereal. He put the dishes in the sink and left the house only to watch the bus drive around the corner.  Luckily Rowan, his neighbour and best friend was running late too and Rowans mom told him to get in the car. Art opened the back door only to hear Rowan shout “Are you crazy?”

“What are you talking about?” Art replied.

“Have you looked in a mirror today?”

“Well…”, but Art was cut off by Rowans mom hurrying him into the car.

He jumped in and they were at the school within 5 minutes. Rowans mom drove as fast as lightning and they passed the bus on they way school as the kids didn’t stop screaming until the car came to a screech at the school gate. 

When the kids stepped out, Art was panting in disbelief. How did he not see this earlier- he wanted to run and hide, but Rowan was there by his side and walked with him to class.

The two kids were the first ones in the classroom; getting there before the teacher and all the students, and they took two seats in the back of the classroom. Finally the bell rang and all the kids piled into the class like sardines in a can. Ms. Loveless was very different from all the other teachers. She was the youngest teacher at the school and let the students have fun in class. One time she let students take off their shirts and shorts in class and sit in their underwear because it was so hot.

The class was almost over when she asked the class for a volunteer. Art hunkered in the corner hoping to go unnoticed, but Ms. Loveless new that Art was an expert on history so she called him to the front. Art squirmed in his seat and told the teacher that he was feeling sick. Ms. Loveless didn’t accept his excuse and said that his help would be over in a minute. Art refused once again and the teacher started to pick on him. Art picked up his pen and threw it at the front board in anger-“I SAID NO”.

Then Ms. Loveless went crazy, “You could have poked my eye out. Do you know how serious this is? I can’t believe it. Get up here right now and sit in the corner”.

Well this is the exact moment Art got scared. Not about the punishment. And not even for his teacher. He was scared what his classmates would think.

She screamed at him once more to get to the front of the class- and Art new his time was up. As he inched himself from his seat as everyone’s eyes were peeled to him. He could feel his face getting red. Then the chuckles started, and by the time Art got to the front of the class his whole class was laughing; except for his best friend Rowan who was telling the kids to shut their cake holes.

Art was now standing in front of his whole class with his fat belly and t-shirt three times too small. He was so embarrassed and angry that he ran out the school and was passed the front gate as the door was still swinging.

Art ran all the way home; he ran past the bookstore; he ran past Zora’s sandwich shop; he ran past the Zeke’s Arcade; he even ran past his dad on his way to work; and finally he ran up the stairs and buried his head under his pillow. He stayed buried all night- skipping dinner and even turning away his best friend Rowan from coming over. He stayed buried until he woke up the next morning to the sound of his mothers voice “Its time for breakfast my little man… wakey, wakey eggs and bakey”. 

Art got out of bed wishing yesterday was just a bad dream and that he was back to his own plain self. But he soon realized his bad dream had turned into a nightmare. Now looking into the mirror- his belly looked almost two times bigger than the day before.

Art panicked and ran around his room throwing all his clothes like confetti at a parade.

Now he really didn’t want to go to school- but he heard his mothers’ voice yelling at him that his breakfast is getting cold.

Thinking fast, Art threw on a pair of pants and tiptoed to his parents’ room and grabbed one of his fathers’ shirts. He began his walk down the stairs once he heard his mother shut the front door and tell him to have a good day. He quickly ate his breakfast and ran next door to get a ride with Rowan.

Rowan answered the door and his eyes popped out of his head, “What did you eat?” he asked.

“I don’t know- I just woke up the same as yesterday and I am bigger. What am I gonna do?” Art cried.

“I don’t know, but today is Friday. So if you can go today without being noticed; then you have all weekend to figure out what is going on”

“All right”, Art stomped.

And the two of them squeezed in Rowans moms car and raced off to school. Once again they were the first ones there and hid in the back of Mr. Roy’s Art class. It was easy to hide in art class, because of the big paintings and sculptures hanging everywhere; so class passed without any problems. Next period was computer class, and it was just next door- so while all the other kids took their five minutes break between classes to get water or go to the bathroom Art and Rowan snuck behind two computers- Art pulling as tight as he could into his seat. This class too passed without any problems- all they had to worry about was the periods after lunch- because no way was Art going to eat in the cafeteria.

They ended up spending their whole lunch period playing Maple Story in the computer room while sneaking in snacks that Rowan would buy from the machine. They came up with an idea to have gotten food poisoning from lunch to get out of gym class because he would definitely be seen running around the soccer field with the belly fatter than the school mascots.

After the bell rang they walked to the nurses’ office and explained their story. They asked to go home because they were both very sick, but they had to call their parents first. They did, but being that no parents were available to pick them up- they had to wait in the nurses’ room until school was over and then take the bus home. They were happy they both got out of the last two classes, but had to spend those same two periods running into the bathroom one after another making fake vomit sounds into the toilet. But Rowan was happy to help his friend out.

Finally school ended and the two of them were allowed to catch the bus home. This was not their plan, they were going to walk home; because being on the bus would be worse than any classroom- for the bus had no teachers and the students could be extra evil.

So Art and Rowan waited for the bus to leave before they started their walk home. They walked past the bookstore; they walked past Zora’s sandwich shop; they walked past Adam’s Arcade; and they even walked past Arts dad sleeping in his car at a red light; and just when they were around the corner from their house, the school-bus stopped and let out a group of children.

“OH NO”

“UH...OH… It’s Angry Dave”

“Maybe they didn’t see us, quick turn around”

“Well… Well… Well… Who do we have hear?” Angry Dave shouted from across the street, “looks like Rowan and his fat friend Art”.

“How did you get so fat, Art?” teased Angry Dave, “I heard you ate a cow”.

“I heard you ate 100 hamburgers! Did you really eat 100 hamburgers fatty?” Angry Dave’s sidekick jumped in.

“Be quiet you guys” Rowan shouted.

“Stay out of this Fatty’s friend” Angry Dave yelled.

“I think Rowan has to be friends with Fatty, because he will eat him if he isn’t” another voice shouted.

All the kids laughed and stalked Art and Rowan as they walked home; shouting and throwing candy at the boys while being very wild and crazy.

Finally their house came into view and Rowan ran into Arts house with him and slammed the door shut over the bullies’ angry echoes.

As the two boys sat down at the kitchen table- they tried to forget the bullies and think about what they wanted to do for the weekend; but they could not erase the shouting and anger off their mind. They tried playing catch, but that didn’t work; they tried building a fort out of the sofa, but that didn’t work; they even played Nintendo DS, but that didn’t work; they just couldn’t stop thinking about those angry bullies. Arts mom got home with a cheese pizza from Cheesy Pete’s Perfect Pizza’s and the movie ______; and this helped the boys forget all their problems.

The boys fell asleep inside their fort snoring happily and with full bellies.

The next morning Rowan woke before Art underneath a broken fort. Rowan was upset that the fort fell down and was still trying to get the blankets from out of his face when he heard Art was awake too.

“The fort fell down”, Rowan rhetorically said.

“I don’t know what happened; we’ve built them hundreds of times”, Art spoke as he tried removing the sheets off his head.

Rowan was first up and out of the sheets, when he felt the ground shake under his feet. 

“Ahhh…an earthquake!” Rowan yelped as he dropped to the ground.

Art followed too; as they both lay screaming covering their heads on the living-room floor. They waited for what seemed like an hour, but was actually more like a minute.

Rowan was the first to get up, “I think it’s over, phew” Rowan declared.

Art started thrashing around under the sheets trying to free himself and get to his feet, when Rowan shouted once again “EARTHQUAKE!!!...get down, get down”.

Art dropped to the floor and they both covered their heads once again. This happened 7 more times until Art was completely revealed from the sheets and rowan realized where the earthquake was coming from.

“Art, you are huge!” Rowan gasped “Look at yourself”.

Art tried to look down but he couldn’t move his neck. HE WAS HIS BIGGEST EVER!

His shirt hung like a necklace and his pants now looked like socks. Each step he took the ground shook as he inched his way to a mirror that Rowan had to hold for him because he knocked it off the wall.

“What is going on with me?” Art whimpered “If this is what it’s like being a man, I want to be a kid forever! There has to be something I can do”.

“I have been thinking Art”, Rowan said “And every time you wake up you are fatter than the night before; which means that something is happening in your sleep. I think we should get my moms video camera and videotape your sleep”.

“That is a great idea. But can we eat first, I’m starving”

So after four bowls of Chocolate Thunder Cereal with four glasses of milk, eight scrambled eggs, seven sausages, nine pieces of toast with peanut butter and jelly, 6 stacks of pancakes with maple syrup, ten French toast squares topped with cinnamon, twelve buttery waffles and one delicious apple; the boys finally managed to sneak next door and get Rowans mother’s camera just as the sun was going down. Art ate breakfast for six whopping hours and now they had the rest of there Saturday night to work on their project.

They decided the best way to figure out what happened in Arts sleep was to mount the camera to his bike helmet and wear the helmet to sleep with the strap tucked and locked under his chin. The boys worked furiously building a contraption to hold the camera but had no luck until they found some duct tape. Good old duct tape. Rowan remembered his father saying that duct tape can fix everything. So once the helmet camera was ready they laid down forcing themselves to sleep, so they would wake up faster.

It was hard trying to force themselves to sleep and instead of counting sheep they each went back and forth listing how they would get revenge on the bullies Angry Dave and his sidekicks.

“I’m going to push him into the girl’s bathroom” Rowan laughed.

“Ha-ha… That’s good. But I’m going to pull down his pants in the lunchroom”

“Oh... That would be great. And then I’ll dump mashed potatoes on his head”

“Yeah! Don’t forget the gravy. Yum gravy!” as Art licked his lips.

“What about his sidekicks,” Asked Rowan “What should we do to those no-brain followers?”

“We should paint their whole bodies red so that you can see their prints wherever they followed Angry Dave”

The boys laughed and continued to plot revenge on the bullies until their laughs turned into snores and they fell fast asleep with smiles on their faces.

The next morning Art was the first one to wake; he tried to move his body but he was stuck. The helmet that sat on his head had fallen covering his eyes and he couldn’t move his arms to pull the cap off. Art started thrashing around and kicking his legs which were the only part of his body he could move. He began yelling for Rowan “Rowan, Rowan, Help me, I’m stuck!” but Rowan didn’t respond.

“Help, Help” Art screamed over and over and over and over; until he heard a very soft voice that sounded like someone was talking with their mouth full.”

“Hrp Hrp, etzdockneer” the sound said.

Art didn’t know where the sound was coming from so he continued shouting for Rowan “Where are you Rowan, come help me. I am stuck.” When Art had stopped shouting he heard the sound once again, but this time it said “iminyorztumak” the sound echoed over and over again “iminyorztumak, iminyorztumak, iminyorztumak.” Just then Art felt a huge kick inside his stomach and opened his mouth to let out a big scream “OUCH!!!” And with Art’s mouth wide open an even louder voice shouted “ART, I AM IN YOUR STOMACH!”

Art was so surprised that he shook, shimmied, snaked and squirmed his body until he was on his feet. Now up and out of his stuck position his arms were free but the rest of his body was still wedged between the two walls. Using his free hands he took off his helmet and saw that he was stuck in his own bedroom, and not only that; he was the size of his whole bedroom. Just then another huge kick came from inside his stomach and a muffled sound followed “obinurmows.” This time Art knew where the sound was coming from and opened his mouth so he could hear Rowans voice.

“Art! I can’t believe you ate me! How could you eat me? I’m your best friend! How am I going to get out of here? It’s so dark and slimy, and every time you move I feel something poking me. Get me out of here now!” Rowan kept screaming and kicking until he tired himself out.

Art stood there stuck in his bedroom thinking of ideas of how he could get his best friend out his stomach. He no longer cared that he was fat; Art just wanted to save his friend. And he had to think fast because he was very hungry.

So after thinking of ideas for an hour and trying to fight off his hunger; he came up with a handful of ideas to get Rowan out of his stomach. His first idea was to climb the tree in his backyard with a rope tied around his feet and bungee jump down shooting Rowan out of his mouth. But Art decided against it because rowan might hit his head on the ground and Art also thought that the tree might fall over because he was so big. His second idea was to eat and eat and eat until he vomited and hope that Rowan came up in his vomit; but he thought Rowan wouldn’t like this idea and he didn’t want Rowan swimming around in all of his food. He only had one more idea and he believed it to be his best. So Art searched his room for a piece of string that would bring Rowan to safety. The only problem was that Art could only turn around in circles moving his feet and arms a little bit while the rest of his body remained stuck. And there was no string in site.

As Art was about to give up when he spotted his saviour hanging above his head, it was a string of 100 tiny Christmas lights that hung from a string that was pinned to the ceiling with four blue tacks that ran down the wall near his bedroom door and into the plug. Art thought if he swallowed the string of lights Rowan could hold onto it and be pulled out of his mouth. It was Arts last option so began pulling the string of lights down from the ceiling as the blue tacks came popping out one by one. Art left it plugged into the wall so that Rowan could see the string coming down. Before swallowing the string he told Rowan his idea, as well as his other two. Rowan thought the string was a good idea, because he didn’t want to hurt his head or be covered in food; so he waited patiently for Art to swallow the string.

Art had never swallowed string before and was a little nervous, but he thought about his friend Rowan how horrible it must be stuck inside his dark, slimy stomach. Art thought of a trick, he would close his eyes and imagine the string was spaghetti and the tiny lights were meatballs.

He began putting the string into his mouth slowly, trying to taste spaghetti, but it tasted like something he had never tasted before and he couldn’t describe it. Slowly he began swallowing the string and lights the warm tiny light bulbs also tasted nothing light meatballs, but he had to keep swallowing.

After three minutes he had swallowed nine light bulbs and the string in between; it was getting easier for him and his motion got faster. By ten minutes he had managed to swallow a whopping 70 light bulbs. This is where he stopped and waited for Rowan to tie the string around his body and be pulled back past Arts lips to safety.

Art waited for Rowans pull of the string to let him know that he was ready; and when he did Art opened his mouth as wide as he could and pulled the string with tiny lights at an even slower pace. Each bulb that passed through his lips was covered with little bits of his gigantic breakfast of four bowls of Chocolate Thunder Cereal with four glasses of milk, eight scrambled eggs, seven sausages, nine pieces of toast with peanut butter and jelly, six stacks of pancakes with maple syrup, ten French toast squares topped with cinnamon, twelve buttery waffles and one delicious apple.

At first the string felt weird coming up his throat, but he put all thought aside. Placing hand over hand he slowly and safely as he could, pulled the string with the tiny light bulbs attached to it one by one out of his throat. He counted each bulb that came out so he would know when he was close. He could feel the tightness as Rowan crawled further and further to his lips. The weight was getting tougher now to pull, and it also became a lot scratchier on the lining of his throat, but Art pulled and he squeezed. He could feel it protruding from his mouth before he could see it, but all the legs were now hanging out of his mouth; its body a lot larger than he ever pictured Rowan to be, but he kept pulling and pulling until he heard a sucking sound followed by a POP and then a THUMP!

Art stood there, breathing heavily, his chest in and out, in and out, until he caught his breath. His jaw dropped to the floor. His eyes widened as if he saw a ghost. His heart beat faster than a train chugging up hill. He stopped and stared. Art was speechless and almost choked on his tongue when, instead of Rowan, a slimy, four legged video arcade of Pacman stood wedged between Art’s chest and the wall; still knotted with the string of tiny light bulbs.

Art was so furious, that, even though he couldn’t move, he started thrashing his body around in anger. He thrashed and thrashed and crashed and crashed his body around until he was left tired. Then in his tired state, he heard some faint sounds.

“urghhhhhh”

“oooowwwwwwwww”

“ahhhhhgaggggg”

Art tried tilting his head but he couldn’t look below his belly because the Pacman machine had made him stuck even tighter in the room, so instead he worriedly shouted “Rowan, is that you? Are you OK? Talk to me!”

More gurgles followed before words appeared.

“Yoowwwwwwwwww! What was that all about?”

“Oh my God! It’s you. I can’t believe it- you’re alive.”

“Yeah! No thanks to you! You tried to kill me!”

“Where are you? I can’t see you.”

Just then Art felt a bite on his lower leg and let out a scream.

“What was that all about?”

“To let you know where I am.”

“You could have just told me!”

“Well, now you know just the same.”

“Ahhhh… ok enough! What is a Pacman machine doing inside of me?”

“Do I have something to tell you…” Rowan anxiously implied.

Art listened in awe as Rowan told him about everything that happened. From how he woke up inside Arts slimy dark stomach to the point Art swallowed the light bulbs that lit up the fantastic wonderland that rested inside of him. Rowan told him that he didn’t want to leave, he was having too much fun, but he came up with an idea that might work to bring Art back to normal.   

When Rowan was done talking, Art just had one last question “So, how are you going to bring me back to normal?”

“There is no time to answer this question. I have to get to work” Rowan blurted with gleaming eyes.

Rowan had managed to squeeze out the bedroom door. The two of them had simultaneously counted down from three when Rowan pulled the door open and Art sucked in his stomach. Rowan ran downstairs to the kitchen. He opened up the cupboard beneath the sink and searched until he found what he was looking for. Then he went into the garage and looked through Art’s moms peach baskets filled with knick-knacks that accumulate with junk every year. Now, finding what he was looking for, he hurriedly ran back up to Art’s bedroom and simultaneously repeated the countdown only pushing the door this time to get inside the room.

Once inside the room they worked together sucking and climbing. Each time Art sucked in his stomach Rowan would grab hold of Art’s fat with his hands and use his feet to dig deep inside it as well, and he would ascend like going up a ladder; hand over hand, scurrying like a mouse before Art exhaled and Rowan was squished against the wall. They did this eight times before Rowan finally reached Art’s neck and the two made eye contact for the first time since the night prior.

Pulling the items out of his pocket he set to work. Art tried asking him what he was doing; but Rowan told him to sit still and trust him. Since Art couldn’t see what Rowan was doing, thoughts ran though his mind as he felt the things rub against his body. Is it a snake Art thought? No, it can’t be a snake. Rowan would never make me swallow a snake. Well, I did eat him. He might be trying to get revenge on me. It’s a snake. Ahhh! He’s going to make me eat a snake. Some friend he is. If it’s a snake I am going to be so angry. I’m going to make him eat a spider. No, I’m going to make him eat ten spiders. I’m going to sit on him and put long legged, prickly spider after prickly spider down his throat. And then I’m going to laugh at him. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.

“If you make me eat this snake I will get revenge. And I have a much bigger surprise for you” Art bursted out.

“What the heck are you talking about Art? Have you gone crazy? Just sit still I am almost finished” Rowan said unassuringly.

Art still felt nervous.

While Art kept squirming around rowan had finished tying together his contraption. But he didn’t know how to get Art to eat it. So Rowan told him that he grabbed a handful of his favourite cereal Chocolate Thunder and to open his mouth.

“I don’t believe you. It’s a snake.” Art bellowed.

“No it isn’t. And if you don’t trust me I will leave and you will be stuck forever”

“Promise me it’s not a snake.”

“It’s not a snake.” Rowan said laughing.

“IT’S A SNAKE! I knew it.” screamed Art.

  

“I’m joking. I was trying to get you scared. Just open your mouth. I am your friend trust me. I am trying to help you.”

Art finally listened and nervously opened his mouth. In doing so, he closed his eyes and waited as Rowan took his creation and placed it deep in the back of Arts mouth trying not to fall back in to where he had just come from. Now reaching into his other pocket he grabbed a hand full of Chocolate Thunder Cereal and placed them in his mouth so that he could swallow easier.

“Alright, now all you have to do is swallow and hope it all works out” said Rowan who was now resting uneasy at the chance of his creation working.

Art tasted the chocolate cereal on his tongue and slowly began chewing and swallowing everything in his mouth. Down and down it went.

“It’s working! It’s working!” Art shouted as he got yanked by the string that was tied around his body, “I guess it reached the bottom.”

“Nahkanyudellmeewutsup” Art slurred as a long string ran past his lips down his throat and into his stomach.

Now that he had swallowed it Rowan could now tell him about his plan.

“Well, I don’t know if it’s going to work, but every time my mom’s in the kitchen she uses a sponge to soak up all the water and stuff on the counter and I thought that if I tied a few sponges together with a string and made you swallow them, that everything inside your stomach would soak up into the sponge and then I could pull it out with the string, and I tied it around my waist so that I wouldn’t lose the string and I could use the strength to pull if the sponges became heavy.” Rowan blurted out in one quick breathe and finished the exact second the room began to shake.

There was a loud rumble followed by a long drawn out sucking noise that sounded like the last little bit of water going down the drain in the bathtub. The sound matched the motions of the shaking going on in Art’s body until it was so loud that they couldn’t even hear themselves thinking.

As the floor was shaking beneath their feet, the room started to get bigger. The walls got bigger. The door got bigger. The bed got bigger. The windows got bigger and the ceiling got bigger. Everything was getting bigger. Then all of a sudden the Pacman machine dropped to the ground and made a loud BOOM as it came crashing down. At the same time, the string that was tied at one end to the sponge inside Art’s stomach and the other around Rowans waist got wrenched with such force that it was like a single boy playing tug-of-war with a jumbo jet lifting him off the ground and flying into Art’s face.

Everything was happening so fast that Art had just enough time to grab a hold of Rowan before he got sucked back into his body. Now with both hands pulling on Rowans body, he realized that it wasn’t the room that was getting bigger it was he that was getting smaller. Not having time to celebrate he pulled and pulled on his body until Rowan was lying on the floor and he was standing over him still pulling on the string hand over hand. He could feel the sponge coming up his throat. It was tight. It was poking his throat a little but he decided to give it one last pull the way you pull off a bandage with one quick motion to get the pain over with. He counted to three in his head and yanked on the string as hard as he could till the sponge pushed past his teeth and flew into the wall with a smack!

The two boys lay side by side on the rug breathing heavier than an elephant after a marathon. Soon the heavy breathing turned to small giggles then it got harder and louder and soon they began roaring and their bellies started to ache because of laughter. They began pounding the floor, rolling and laughing, screaming “It worked! It worked!” This went on until a shout came from downstairs “Will you two boys stop making so much noise!” So the boys put their hands over their mouths and laughed through their fingers feeling the bursts of air against their skin, still flopping around on the rug like fish out of water, trying to be as quiet as possible. Until Art spoke through broken chuckles

“Rowan, you did it. You ARE a genius. I can’t believe I’m back to normal. You are the best friend ever. And I thought you were going to put a snake down my throat. I’m sorry Rowan; I will never doubt you again. Ahhh, I am back to normal. I’m a small boy again- no longer the size of a whale. I can’t wait to go back to school and see the looks on those bullies’ faces. They aren’t going to believe what they see.”

Art was stuck in his own little fantasy, dreaming about going back to school and seeing everyone in amazement and wondering what their reaction would be; when Rowan spoke up.

“Art, now that everything’s out of your stomach and stuck in the sponge, how do we get everything out of the sponge?”

“Wha… What were you saying?”

“You weren’t even listening. Art this is serious”

“Sorry. I was thinking about those bullies. Muahaha!! OK, tell me what you were saying.”

“I was saying that since everything that was in your stomach is now stuck in the sponge; how do we get everything out of the sponge? And don’t forget WHAT was in your stomach!”

“I know! I’m so excited to get it out, but I have no clue. How does your mom get stuff out of her sponge?”

So Art and Rowan picked their brains for ideas of how to get everything out of the sponge since Rowan only knew how his mom got stuff in the sponge. They went through all the possibilities; squeezing and twisting it, hitting and throwing it, jumping on and kicking it (something that Rowan never saw him mom do, but the idea came to him in frustration), they even climbed a mountain and threw it off the top. Something they very much regretted once it got stuck in the branches of a towering maple tree. So they took turns throwing rocks, pinecones, sticks and anything that they could find within their reach, until a lucky gust of wind released it from the grip of its woody limbs.   

They exhausted their brains. So they walked to Zora’s sub shop and Art took a much needed break to eat a foot-long submarine sandwich filled meat and every vegetable on the planet topped with a sea of honey mustard dressing. He was back to looking his old self again, but he still had the appetite of his new self.

So after eating the two boys walked home, Art with the sponge in his pocket, after finally giving up on ways to get everything out of it for the day, they started to brainstorm why Art had gotten fat in the first place.

Walking beside Art, Rowan asked “Okay, so when was the first day you noticed a change?”

“The day after my birthday” Art said, “Thursday morning.”

“So what did you do differently Wednesday that would make you get fatter Thursday?

“Well I had a lot of cake. My mom made ice cream cake and you know how that’s my favourite. Other than that I did nothing different. It was the same as any other birthday. sitting around opening presents, eating and talking. Actually I did turn 13 and that’s a big year with my family, so all my relatives came from all over and drove from hours away. You know, my family is pretty crazy but they are great I felt bad I went to bed so early. They tired me out, I remember looking at my new watch my aunt just gave me before bed, because I set the alarm to wake up in the morning and it wasn’t even seven o’clock. I haven’t gone to bed before twelve since I was ten.”

“Well it couldn’t have been the cake” Rowan said “I’ve eaten your mom’s ice cream cake a million times and it has not done anything to me. Besides the watch what other gifts did you get? ”

“Well… a little bit of money, but my mom said I can’t touch it; a few games, some clothes and a couple movies.”

“MOVIE!!!” the two boys screamed together.

“I can’t believe we forgot about the movie.”Art shook his head with his eyes closed and a dumbfounded look upon his face.

So the two boys ran the rest of the way home and ended up at Art’s house out of breath, just as his moms car turned around the corner and went out of sight.

Art thought “perhaps she is going to pick up dinner, maybe she is getting lasagne and garlic bread from my favourite Italian restaurant The Old Spaghetti House; or maybe she is going to Pablo’s Monster Burgers where they sell hamburgers that are the size of your head; or maybe she going to…”

Just then Rowan hit Art on the back of his head because he had not answered him after saying his name four times. Finally Art woke up out of his daydreaming about food and opened the door and the two boys walked up the stairs to Art’s bedroom where the helmet camera had been tossed in the corner.

Art grabbed the camera and found the cord with the yellow and red ends and put the same colors into the matching color plugs in his television. The screen flickered and then the ceiling above Art’s head appeared on the TV. The room was dark and spooky, and you could only hear the faint sounds of Art snoring in his sleep. Art and Rowan sat there watching for 30 minutes waiting to see something but nothing happened- so they decided to fast forward the video.

Art pushed the fast forward button and minutes now went by in seconds, and hours in just minutes; until they Art rose from his bed and quickly waddled like a duck down the stairs. The boys jumped from their seats, and dove to hit the stop button at the same time with their hands ending up on top of each other.

They slowly rewound the video looking for clues. Art with the remote in hand and eyes on the TV slammed his hand down on the remote hitting the pause button just before the scene where he rises from bed. Art and Rowan look over at each other and they could hear each other’s heart beating. They read each other minds and count down from three with their eyes not moving from the TV. Three… two… Gulp! The two boys choked nervous at what awaited their eyes. One- Click! Art pushed the play button and sat shaking like a rattlesnake before it attacks, but still with his eyes glued to the screen looking and listening for any clues.

On TV Art slowly rose from bed and walked to his door. He was a very big boy and struggled to get out his bedroom door and he shook from side to side inching himself until he broke free to the other side. Once through he walked down the stairs and fought to get through the front door, shaking side to side like before.

The helmet camera only gave you a view of what Art saw and not of his face and if he was awake. Since Art didn’t remember any of this, they assumed he was sleepwalking. But still, the two boys watched in awe as Art started walking the streets of their neighbourhood. He walked to the end of his walkway that led to his house then made a left and walked passed Rowans. He kept walking, passing Mr. Jordan the town barber just getting home from work. He must have had a long day cutting hair Art thought while watching the video, because he was falling all over the his front lawn trying to get to his house. Art walked past the barber and turned around the corner to the main street of his town.

Art was very lucky growing up, because he lived very close to everything exciting in the town, not that there was many exciting things, but Art was too young to notice so even the small things excited him. The arcade was where he spent a lot of his time, so when he began walking to it in his sleep he wasn’t that surprised that he would have gone there.

Art stood outside of the Arcade walking back and forth and while he was doing this Art and Rowan watched similar unknown looks upon their faces until they both looked over at each other and shrugged their shoulders as if they were saying “what is going to happen?”  

As Art walked back and forth for about a minute, he then walked to the back of the building and went to the door. Next thing they saw on the screen was a shiny key, which Art had taken from his pocket. He raised his hand and placed it in the keyhole and it fit. Art and Rowan jumped out of their seats and screamed. Not any words just a bunch of noises; they were both scared and excited at the same time. Art, who was now standing walked to the corner where his enormous clothes laid and searched through the pockets for the same key.

Though it was his whole arm that was fishing through his pockets and it looked as if he was swimming in his pants. He tried pocket after pocket until he walked with the pants back to where he was sitting infront of the TV and continued watching.

The arcade was black and you couldn’t see much movement, then all of a sudden the sounds of a hundred machines sirened in the background and little lights began to flicker as if it were Christmas. The room which was minutes ago black and silent, was now filled with life of cartoon characters running, jumping, twirling, and dancing on screen to the sound of one hundred different songs.

As their eyes stayed glued to the screen they watched as Art walked up to the Mrs. Pacman machine. Art picked up a quarter that he must have found in his pocket or somewhere in the arcade and placed it into the machine and they saw it come to life.

As the front screen opened all the characters ran around the screen chasing each other.

Pinky, _______, and ______ chasing Pacman. Then Pacman changed colors and was now chasing the bad guys. This was only the loading screen until his quarter kicked in and Art began playing. He started running furiously eating all the balls in his site and running away from the bad guys, until he ate the special ball which turned him into a different color and was allowed to eat the bad guys.

Art laughed as he watched; knowing that not only had this game been in his stomach, but it was now in his own bedroom. He watched as he got passed the first level, then the second, and then died on the third when he was corned by three bad guys. The words game over flashed on the screen and it sang the song for losers of the game. As the song was playing Art lowered his head and raised it again after a minute and a half; the machine was no longer standing there.

Even though the boys knew what was going to happen, it still surprised them at nonetheless. They shouted with shock and put their hands to their stomachs as if to feel the machine now inside them. Art felt relieved that the machine was out now and could laugh about it.

Art continued walking around the arcade playing machines and then they would miraculously disappear.  They began watching this in fast forward until he left the arcade, which is when pushed the play button once again.

This time he walked back to the front and went walked down the street to Zora’s submarine shop and repeated his same movements; looking in the window while walking back and forth until he walked around to the back of the store. This time he pulled out another key and entered just as easily as he into the restaurant he had been just earlier today.

Walking in he turned on the lights and quickly walked to the counter where he reached for a baguette. He picked up a knife and cut the bread in half and then spent the next few minutes making a sandwich with every kind of meat; bacon, ham, turkey and bologna. Then he started putting on vegetables; lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green peppers and carrots. By the time he was finished it was one huge sandwich and he picked it up with both hands and walked to the microwave. 

He opened the microwave door and put in the sandwich. After closing the door, he reached over to push the button but before he got to it, the boys heard a fast beeping that seemed to grow louder.

Instead of heating his sandwich he reached over and pulled the cord from the wall and put the microwave into his mouth and left Zora’s in a hurry. He squeezed out the back door; luckily they were bigger than his house door and he began his retreat back down the street and back to his house where he fought through the front door. This time taking much longer than last, because he had just eaten a few arcade machines and a microwave, and everything he had eaten the previous nights.

Art and Rowan kept watching shaking their heads at disbelief and wondering what that beep was and why Art started to head home.

As Art started up the stairs the ground shook with each step. You could hear the sound of his feet thudding against the wooden steps until it came to a stop at his bedroom door. He gave the handle a jiggle and a turn to the right and started to enter his room, but quickly got stuck in the door. He shook from side to side and was making a lot of noise, which you hear in the rustling of his helmet camera against the top of the door and the sounds he made breathing heavily. Just then Rowans comes into view. He must have been woken from his sleep from Art making such a noise. He grabs Art’s hand and pulls with all of his might. Each pull he gives a long drawn out heaving noise “Uhhhhhhhhhh!”

The two boys struggle back and forth until they hear a big popping sound and Art goes flying through the door and gets tangled up with Rowan on the bed. Soon the commotion is over and Art is fast asleep snoring the night away.

Art presses stop on the remote and looks over at Rowan who has just realized how Art had eaten him. It had all been a big accident and the two boys could finally laugh at the whole matter of eating a friend. Art had never meant to do it and they could finally come to the end of one conclusion, but they were still unaware of what was making Art fat in the middle of the night.

So Art and Rowan sat at the edge his bed while their video ended silent and thinking until Rowan began to talk.

“Remember that beeping sound- What do you think it was?

“I don’t know. Did you hear it any other time in the video?” asked Art.

“I don’t think so” Rowan answered.

The two boys sat there scratching their heads when Art said “Let’s rewind the movie back to the beginning and listen one more time to hear if there was a sound before I got up out of bed.” So Art began rewinding the movie as they sat there as quiet as a mouse.

They reached the part in the movie where Art rose from bed and then rewound it a little past that just to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Art walked to the TV and turned up the volume all the way, because the button on the remote was not working and they wanted to make sure they heard everything.

It was black as before on the screen and without motion, everything was still in the room and all you could hear was the faint sound of Art breathing with a little snore in between breaths. The boys had their ears tuned to the speaker and listened to every little creak of the night, when a small beeping noise soon grew from the dark. The boy’s eyes lit up and got wider as the sound from the TV got louder as well. Now the beeping echoed in the room and it’s the only the boys could concentrate on.

Art had never heard the beeping before, and then it hit him, it must be the new watch that his aunt just gave him. This watch he thought, this is the reason for everything that had just happened. I don’t understand. As Art began unbuckling the watch from his wrist it began to beep. He stopped unbuckling his watch and put the clasp back on and got a look in his eyes that looked as if he was in a trance. He sat up and started for the door when Rowan who was watching everything, grabbed Art by the hand and knocked the watch off his wrist with one quick motion. All this happened in the matter of a second and Art was now back to his old self but wondered why he was standing by the door.

Rowan looked at him in disbelief and told him that his watch started beeping and he got up from the bed and started walking out the door, but he had hit the watch from his wrist. Art couldn’t remember anything and was amazed at what Rowan had just told him.

With the watch on the floor the two boys walked over to it and looked at the time- it was 12:01; meaning that the beep started at twelve o’clock.

“Its twelve o’clock already” Rowan tiredly said “We have to get up for school tomorrow and I am tired. We have solved enough for today and I need to get to bed. My mom must be wondering where I am anyways- we have been gone all day.  Let’s meet outside tomorrow at seven o’clock and we can figure everything else out. But you must promise

me one thing”

“What’s that?” Art said.

“Do NOT put that watch back on. I think we can use it to get back at the bullies” Rowan said with a big smile on his face.

“You are always thinking. Good night Rowan.”

“Good night” Rowan said as he left the room and walked out the front door to his house next door.

The next morning Art woke up before his alarm clock out of anticipation, on top of that he could barely sleep all night because all he could think about was the watch. He made sure that he wouldn’t wake up in the middle of the night and put on the watch by putting the watch in the pockets of a pair of pants and then wrapped that pair of pants in a shirt and then wrapped the shirt in a jacket and threw the jacket in the top corner his closet. And you wouldn’t believe how messy his closet was- he had toys and clothes in the closet from when he was only one year old and everything had been piling up on top of the other.   

If you were to cut into his closet with a knife if it were a cake, you would see the layers of all the years of his life; baby toys and pacifiers, his first grade school books, the one month when he spent all of his money on stuffed animals, and even the time when he wanted to be a robot and got his mom and dad to buy everything to make him look like a robot, mixed in with all of his old Halloween costumes. His closet was a crazy mess which is why he chose it to hide the watch, because he knew he wouldn’t be able to get to it easily.

So Art who just woke after having a sleep where he kept waking every hour or two throughout the night, finally pulled the covers off his body and screamed with joy when he could see all the way to his toys. That watch he thought “What kind of watch is it that can make you eat a Pacman machine and your friend.”

Anyway he was back to normal and excited to start the day as his old self. He dressed in his old clothes and kept touching his arms and legs in amazement that he really was good old Art.

That morning he woke before his parents and went downstairs to eat a bowl of Chocolate Thunder Cereal and a glass of milk. After pouring the milk into his bowl he sat down to eat, remembering the day before where he ate a meal one hundred times bigger than today’s breakfast. He finished eating and ran to the front door to put on his shoes, the same time his mom shouted to him “Wake up its time for school.”

Art yelled back to her “I’ve already got my shoes on mom. I’m meeting Rowan now. Have a good day.”   

“Bye bye baby” were the last words Art heard from his mom as he ran out the front door and met Rowan who was sitting on his front porch.

“It worked! It worked!” Shouted Rowan as he ran and jumped at Art on his front lawn.

The two of them walked to school and each of them told the same story of how they could not sleep last night because all they could think about was waking up in the morning and finding out if the watch was the problem. Before they got to school Art pulled the sponge out of his pocket and showed Rowan. He told him that he had been thinking of ideas all night of how to get it out, but he could think of nothing, so he was going to walk around with it everywhere in case he got an idea.

The boys were some of the first ones at school and got there as the first bus was pulling into the front entrance. Art was nervous about being back at school and didn’t know what people would say or if they would even recognize him anymore. He was also worried about the bullies and what they would do once they noticed that he was not the size of a whale anymore.

So they sat on the front bench of the school and said hello to their friends as they walked past each one of them stopped and stared as if they saw a ghost. They asked

questions like “Is that really you Art?” “What happened to you?” and “Where is the rest of you?” and gave statements like “I thought you were going to blow up!” “You are looking good Art!” and “I heard you got so big that you turned into a ball and rolled all the way to China.”

Art and Rowan just sat there laughing and rolling their eyes at the funny explanations they heard from all the friends and students. The boys sat there until the last bus came and every student had walked past Art and either made a comment or were left whispering to their friends. Almost every student walked past them, but they had still not seen the bullies and it was getting about time for class so Art and Rowan stood up and started walking towards the door. They walked up the steps and entered the school and the halls opened up for Art like Moses parting the Red Sea.

At first it was very quiet and all the eyes were on him, but all the students eventually went back to their business and closed their lockers to head to class. Art left Rowan and told him he would meet him in class, because he had to go to the bathroom first.

So Art went to the bathroom and after finishing, he looked in the mirror one more time in happiness that he was looking like his old self. He was about to leave when he heard the door swing open and the sound of a voice he would be happy never to hear again the rest of his life.

“Well… Well… Well… Look who we have here! Looks like you are back to your old self again. No more fatty Art! Don’t think this is going to stop me from picking on you, because it’s not. You think you’re cool now since everyone started talking about you. Well I run this school and no one is going to be more popular than me. Be scared Art, and if you ever want me to stop bothering you than you better give me your lunch money for the rest of the year, and… how about you throw in that Pacman machine of yours. I know all about it! You’re little friend Rowan told me all about it. If not… well, let’s just say Adam from Adams Arcade will find out about your little problem. Have a good day Art. I expect the machine by tomorrow.”

The door swung open and Angry Dave left. Art stood there blank faced staring into the mirror. He couldn’t believe that Rowan had told Dave about the Pacman machine. What kind of friend was he? He washed his hands and slowly made his way to class dragging his feet behind him with a big frown on his face sadder than ever.

As he walked he stopped at the fountain to get some water to splash on his face to wash away the tears that had just started rolling down his face. He turned on the fountain by pushing a button and caught the water with one hand before putting the two together and throwing at his face. He did this three times with the most of the water falling back into the fountain and some of it running down his neck and the collar of his shirt. He reached down for one more cup of water when the bell from the school rang and it startled him throwing water up into the air. Art watched it in slow motion as the water splashed over his shirt and shorts.

He took one step when a rumbling started in his shorts followed by the sound of paper ripping- just then he shorts pocket went flying off and a microwave popped into thin air and landed on the ground with a big crash.

Arts eyes popped open in disbelief. It was the same microwave from Dora’s sandwich shop. He wondered if the sandwich he made was still inside and bent down to pick it up when his teacher burst open the door of her classroom.

“Art! What are you doing in the hall? You are late for class and what are you doing with a microwave?” Mrs. Loveless shouted all in one breathe.

Art had to think quickly and came up with a lie “Umm, my mom told me to bring the microwave to school to heat up my lunch.”

“Well, put it in your locker and get into the classroom.” She yelled as she walked back into the classroom and slammed the door.

“Phewww!”Art breathed not believing what had just happened and that his excuse worked on his teacher.

He opened his locker and put the microwave inside, opening it just a little bit to see the sandwich still inside but no longer in the shape of sandwich with the vegetables stuck against the walls of the microwave and the bread lying at the back with nothing inside.

He closed his locker and ran to class before his teacher got even angrier.

Once inside the classroom there was a hush over the students as they whispered to each other and he found his chair which was two seats away from his friend Rowan. Art wanted to tell Rowan what had just happened at the water fountain and how he now knew how to get everything out of the sponges, but he was angry at Rowan for telling Angry Dave about the Pacman machine.

All class Art couldn’t concentrate as he kept thinking about everything that would come out of the sponges. Then he thought about what would happen if Angry Dave told Adam from Adams Arcade about the machines. Then he thought about Rowan and why he would have told Angry Dave about the Pacman machine. He thought and he thought and then he thought some more, until he heard his teachers voice ask him to read number question number two in his book.

Art had not been paying attention and searched for question number two on his page but there were three question number two’s on the page infront of him. Instead of telling the teacher he didn’t know he thought he would take a guess and began reading the first question two “ What are the three R’s” Art read aloud to the class. The class chuckled in response and Art instantly knew that he had read the wrong question.

The teacher told the students to be quiet, and they did. “Alright Art” Mrs. Loveless said “What are the three R’s?”

“Uhhh… Recycle” Art stuttered.

“Yes… and?” his teacher asked.

“Uhhh… Reduce” Art said half knowing the answer.

“Yes… and the third” she asked once again.

“Uhhh… Robots” Art said not knowing what else to say.

The class burst into laughter and the teacher quieted them once more.

“Art you are staying after class!” Mrs. Loveless said strongly.

“Class what is the third R?”

The class shouted out together in unison “Reuse!”

“Ahhh” Art shook his head and looked over at Rowan who was also shaking his head.

Class ended and Art stayed in his chair as the rest of the class left. Rowan was the last one to leave and managed to tell Art that Angry Dave had came up to him and told him he knew everything about Art. Which is when, Rowan said that he didn’t know about the Pacman machine Art had at his house.

“So that’s how he knew about it” Art said “It’s alright but let’s talk after class I have something I have to tell you and you won’t believe it.”

That’s when the teacher shouted at Rowan to leave, and as he did he told Art that he would wait for him outside of the school.

So Art sat there at his desk with a piece of paper and a pencil and the instructions to write I will never forget that the three R’s are; Recycle Reduce and Reuse one hundred times in his notebook.

As he sat there writing, a call came over the loud speaker “Mrs. Loveless please come to the office. Mrs. Loveless please come to the office.” Without looking at Art, she got up from her desk and left the room. As soon as she left the classroom Art heard a tap on the window and saw Rowan standing outside on the lawn. Art looked around and quickly ran over to the window and opened it.

“Hey Art!  So what did you have to tell me before that was so important?”

“Uhh… I can’t really talk right now Mrs. Loveless is going to be back any second now and she will make me stay even longer if she catches me here.”

“It’s OK Art. I told the principle that I was meeting Mrs. Loveless after school so she could help me with homework, but she wasn’t in her classroom. So this will have to buy a little bit of time.”

“Hahaha! I can’t believe you” Art laughed.

“It’s true. So tell me quickly.”

Art began to tell him about what happened when he splashed water on himself at the fountain and a microwave popped out of his shorts. He even showed Rowan where his pocket ripped. But just then he heard the voice of steps coming down the hall. He quickly closed the window and quietly ran and sat back down in his seat.

Mrs. Loveless entered the classroom talking to herself with an angry look on her face and didn’t bother looking at Art to see if he was doing his work. She just sat down and started back up with her work. It wasn’t even another five minutes before another call rang over the intercom “Mrs. Loveless please come to the office. Mrs. Loveless please come to the office.”  She threw her chair back and got out of seat with a big huff and stormed out of the room. Once again Art heard a tap on the window and knowing who it was ran over quickly to open it.

“What did you say this time?” Art asked.

“Just that it is very important for me to meet with her. I am working on a project and she hasn’t assigned me a partner yet.”

“Rowan, you are going to get in so much trouble! You better quit this. Anyways I am almost finished and I will be out in less than twenty minutes.”

“No, no, no! You have to show me now! I can’t wait any longer Art. Please! Please! I am begging you!”

“What do you want me to do? I am in class right now” Art shouted but in a whispered voice.

Suddenly a cup of water which was in Rowans hand went flying through the air and as Art saw it last second managed to jump out of the way, but not before a big splash landed on his shorts. “Nooooo!” Shouted Art, but it was too late. The rumbling had already started and out of his other pocket came flying a large refrigerator. Art thought this must have come from Zora’s as well, though he didn’t remember seeing it or eating it in the video.

Then once again he heard the angry steps of a teacher that had been called out of her seat twice for something that was made up. The only thing he could do was throw the curtain over the fridge and run back to his seat, leaving just seconds for him to get back to writing in his notebook.

Art shifted his eyes to look at Mrs. Loveless as she barged into the room, but she did not even set eyes on him. Lucky, he thought. He couldn’t believe that Rowan almost got him in trouble. What was he thinking throwing a cup of water on me? Some friend he is! Anyways, she didn’t see it and maybe I can get out the class in one piece. Art had just finished writing I will never forget that the three R’s are; Recycle Reduce and Reuse one hundred times in his notebook when she got a call on her cell phone and left the classroom to speak in the hall.

He knew that Mrs. Loveless had seen him with the microwave in the hall, and maybe if she saw the fridge in her classroom she would put the picture together and ask Art about what was going on, so he came up with an idea to help him stay out of trouble.

He took a piece of paper from his bag and a black marker and started writing a note in the neatest hand writing possible. It read;

                         Dear Mrs. Loveless, You have been such an incredible

teacher that we want you to have this refrigerator in your

 classroom. Perhaps you can fill it with soda and popsicles

                        and give it to the children when they have been good.

Still hearing his teacher talk in the hall, he snuck out of his chair and staying close to the ground ran over to fridge stuck it underneath a magnet that was hanging from the door and then ran back to his seat. Mrs. Loveless walked into the classroom and picked up her bag and told Art to get his belongings and that he could leave.

He packed up his bags and ran out the door as fast as he could before she had a chance to even look back in the classroom. After running down the hall and out the front door he saw Rowan sitting in the same chair they were in this very morning before school started.

“My friend, sorry about throwing water on you, I wasn’t thinking. I was just excited and wanted to see it for myself and I couldn’t wait any longer.” Rowan apologized.

“It’s alright! Luckily I didn’t get caught or I wouldn’t be so happy right now.” Art laughed back.

“It really works though. I can’t believe it.”

“Well, yes it might work, but we have a big problem.” Art said “After you told Angry Dave about the Pacman machine, he came up to me in the bathroom and told me that if I don’t give it to him and my lunch money every day for the rest of the year that he will go to Adam from Adams Arcade and tell them that I stole it. I didn’t steal it. It was all a big mistake. I love the game, but I have to give it back.”

“Art. Art. Art. Everything is working perfectly into my plan. I told him all that stuff on purpose so that he would approach you and say exactly what he said.” Rowan stated with a smirk on his face “we are going to get some revenge on Angry Dave and maybe he will learn to stop picking on people.”

“Really, what kind of plan is this?”

“What we have to do is tell Adam everything that happened about eating the machines and about the magic watch that made you walk in your sleep, and if we have to show him the video for him to believe us then that is what we do. But what were are going to tell Adam is that it was Angry Dave who ate everything and not you”

“Interesting, but I don’t want to lose the machines Rowan”, Art said sadly.

“Well what I am thinking is that if we are nice enough and can get him all the machines back, maybe he will let you keep the Pacman machine. Anyways all these games have been in your stomach and smell really bad.”

“Well, I don’t really want to lose any of the machines, but I do want to get revenge on Angry Dave. What are you thinking?” Art questioned.

“Well I know for a fact that Adam hates Angry Dave because he bullies all of his customers and steals all the kids quarters and goes there for hours  being loud and rude. No one likes him at the arcade and it isn’t getting any business anymore because none of the kids have any money to play with.”

“Continue” Art says with growing smile on his face.

“We have to tell Adam that Angry Dave is threatening you at school and you want to help him by getting revenge on him. And in return you want to want to have the Pacman machine.”

“This is a great plan Rowan, but how do we get the Pacman machine over to Dave’s house by tomorrow?” asks Art.

“Well Art, you are going to have to put on the watch one more time and hope that everything works out for the best.”

So on the way home from school the two boys walked over to Adams Arcade and told Adam about the missing machines and that they know who has them and how they can get them back for him. Adam is very interested and is even more so when he hears who has been stealing his machines. And in return Adam promises that Art can keep the Pacman machine, he would do just about anything to get his hands on Angry Dave.

So the boys left Adam with a hand shake and a promise to meet at the park behind the school the next day at 4:45 when they would be sure all the teachers were gone.

Art and Rowan were so excited that they walked past their houses on the walk home from school. After turning around entered Art’s house and went straight to the kitchen to get what they were looking for. After they found it, they went upstairs to Art’s bedroom that was home to the Pacman machine.

The two boys entered the closet and searched for the hidden watch that was wrapped in the pockets of a pair of pants that was then wrapped in a shirt and wrapped once again in a jacket. After struggling for thirty minutes climbing and falling while toys kept toppling over Art managed to reach the ball of clothes with the tips of his fingers. Getting down and out of the closet was easy as they slid down the pile of toys and old clothes as if it were a slide.

Art began to unravel the clothes as Rowan was preparing the magic weapon, and the two of them finished at the same time with Art holding the watch and Rowan holding the string of lights tied to a new sponge.

Rowan thought that there must be some way to change the beeping on the watch so he took it in his hands and began searching through all of its options. It is a very cool watch Rowan thought, and it’s going to trick Angry Dave perfectly. Still playing with the watch Rowan found the alarm setting and noticed that the times were set to twelve and six.”PERFECT” Rowan shouted “I’ve got it.”

Rowan then asked Art for the exact time so that he could set the alarm.

“It is 4:07pm” Art said after looking at the clock beside his bed.

“OK, I am going to set the alarm for 4:10 and then again for 4:40. This should give you enough time to play the game and eat the machine. Are you ready?” Rowan said excitedly, hoping that his idea works.

“I am more ready than I will ever be” Art said back.

So Rowan handed Art the watch and he slowly put it on his wrist and locked it in place. The boys kept their eyes glued to the watch and began to sweat as the seconds ticked down to four- thirty. Just before the clock started beeping Rowan ran over and locked the door and turned off the lights so Art would see the Pacman machine come to life and hopefully walk towards it.

The beeping started quietly and grew louder and louder when Art snapped into a trance, it was like it wasn’t him. He rose quickly and began walking to the door, but he found that it was locked. Rowan who was standing in a corner, hoping not to get eaten again, gave Art a little push in the direction of the Pacman machine and put a quarter in his hand from today’s lunch money. Art took the money and sure enough put the quarter in the machine and watched blankly as it came to life. The game began singing its song and Rowan was soon eating the balls and being chased by Pinky and the bad guys. Twenty minutes had gone by and Art had not lost one life. Rowan was getting nervous that maybe it was too short of a time, but just as he was thinking, he heard the sound that the game makes when Pacman gets eaten.

Now with two lives left and the clock ticking down Rowan had to make a move, so he reached in trying not to be seen and hit the joystick from Arts hand giving room for the bad guys to eat him once more. With less than five minutes left, he could not wait any longer to make his next move so he reached in once again and batted the joystick from his hand and ran back out of the view.  After about thirty seconds of waiting without breath he finally heard the sounds of a game over, and sat nervously waiting for Rowan to eat the Pacman machine.

Art began to growl at the machine like a dog and banged his hands on the side in anger, than in one quick motion he jumped up onto the game board and ate the entire Pacman machine in one bite. This was truly an amazing site for Rowan to witness first hand and sat there in awe. Stunned and shocked at what he just saw he sat there frozen as Art had turned around and began walking directly towards him. Rowan without time to move sat there still like a deer caught in the headlights as Art had grabbed him by both of his arms and lifted him to the air. Now Rowan was pleading with him “Art! Art! It’s me Rowan your best friend. You don’t want to do this. Please stop! Art! Nooooooo!”, but Art kept bringing him closer to his mouth.

Rowan tried to use his hands to hit the watch off his wrist like before, but he was stuck in Art’s strong grip. It was like Art was no longer human; he had the strength of an adult maybe even a bear. Nothing could stop him from being eaten as Art brought him closer to his mouth it began to open up and Rowans head was now inside of it. Rowans screams could have woken up people sleeping on the other side of the earth, but unfortunately no one would ever know where they were coming from now that he was in the bottom of Art’s stomach once again. And just as soon as he swallowed him Art’s watch began to beep and he snapped out of his trance.

Art walked over to his bathroom mirror and was shocked and amazed to see himself the size of a bear again, but this time he did it at his own will. The Pacman machine was missing from his room so he knew that it was now sitting in his stomach, but Rowan was missing as well. He gave a little shout “Rowan where are you?” and what he felt next was a kick in his stomach.

“Oh my… I did it again” he said with a little grin on his face. “Well that’s what he gets for trying to make me get rid of all my arcade games. Now, I can finally use my plan all on my own!” Before he could finish his sentence he had bursted out in laughter, it was an evil laugh; a laugh that had no bad feeling towards his good friend.

What Art didn’t know at the time was that this feeling he had was greed. A thing that grown-ups sometimes had when they got something they liked and wanted more and more of it without caring about other people’s feelings or friendships or who they hurt. This new feeling of greed had taken over Art and it was going destroy his friendship with his best friend Rowan.

Knowing how to get everything out his stomach with the string attached to a sponge Art set right to work and swallowed it quickly. First he felt the shakes and rumbling, then he heard the sucking sound, which is when he pulled the string up and out of his mouth. The sponge fell to the floor with the sound of a little yelp, the same time his ripped clothes that hung to his body fell from being ripped when he grew five times bigger. Art ignored the yelp and picked up the sponge and put it with the collection of his other two sponges.

Art looked his old self again but his mind had changed a great deal, and was only thinking about meeting Angry Dave and Adam from Adam’s Arcade tomorrow after school and hoping that his plan would work.

He ran the plan over and over in his head while lying in bed, and he just so happened to fall asleep. That night he dreamt that he was the owner of Art’s Arcade and his store was filled with customers dropping shiny quarters into his gaming machines. As he walked past the machines, he saw the faces of children; some with bright smiles from advancing to the next level; some that were biting into their lips, nervously twitching and shaking the joystick aggressively, grunting and sweating; some that had been watching their friends play and were waiting in lines fidgeting and anxious to drop their own quarters into the machine and watch it come to life. There was a great bustle in the arcade and all of it brought happiness to Art.

After making his usual rounds making sure all the machines were running smoothly and keeping an eye on customers from shaking machines and stealing balls from the pinball machines, he sat back down in his chair behind the counter and listened to the enjoyment that his arcade brought to everyone.

Beside his desk sat a machine that changed dollar bills into quarters. Sitting in this chair with his feet now on the desk he paid little attention to the child that came up to change a bill. But out of the corner of his eye he could see a boy place a bill into the slot and have it shoot back out after being rejected. The boy tried at least a four times when Art thought he better investigate. “Having trouble there partner. Let me have a look at that.” Art sincerely said to the boy. The boy handed Art the five dollar bill which he brought to his eyes where he noticed that the bill had been crumbled to many times to be able to slide through the slot smoothly. So Art told the kid to come back to the desk and he would give him a new five dollar bill from the cash register. Art turned around and the boy followed behind him- the whole conversation was in a raised voice having to talk over the excitement of the arcade.

Art put his key into the register and took a quick step back as it popped open. He picked up this small stack of about ten five-dollars bills and placed the crumbled five at the bottom, then looked for the nicest looking five to give the boy.

“Here you go” Art said to the boy as he bent down to hand him the five dollar bill. Art jumped back in shock after finally getting his first real glance at the boys face.

“Rowan, is that you?” Art stuttered.

“Who’s Rowan?” the voice shouted back, taking the five dollar and walking back to the change machine.

That was weird Art thought that boy looked just like Rowan. Now, puzzled and confused he stood up straight and scratched his head looking out amongst his arcade. This was only the beginning of the weirdness. As he gazed out amongst all the customers he started to recognize their features and one by one they came into view. Each one had the same face; it was Rowan. Art screamed “I must be going crazy!” as he ran around the arcade grabbing the Rowan look-a-likes by the shoulders and turning them to face him. As each one turned around they gave Art a smile and said “Hey Art! How is my best friend?”

“Nooooooooooo… This is not happening!” screamed Art as he ran around the room wildly punching the arcade games before dropping to his knees and smashing his fists against the sticky floor.

This is when they all began to crowd around him, grapping and snatching at anything they could touch; his hair, shirt, shorts, and face were all targets for their little hands. Their voices grew together as they began chanting “I thought we were friends. I thought we were friends. I thought we were friends.”

“We are friends” Art pleaded with the room full of Rowans grabbing and clawing at him. “We are friends. We are friends. We are friends.” And as Art rose wildly from sleep his arms were flying in the air, as if he was fighting off all the boys, he was repeating his chant “We are friends” over and over. With his eyes now wide open and sweat running down his forehead he turned his head and stared over at the sponges. His heart started beating heavily thump, thump, thump; “Rowan, I’m coming” he shouted.

He threw the sheets off his body and ran to the lights. Turning them on, he reached for the sponge, he knew which one it was because it was yellow and the last two sponges were blue. Still talking to Rowan stuck in the sponge he repeated “I’m going to get you out of there. Just sit tight. You will be free in no time. I’m so sorry. Everything is going to be all better. I can’t believe it. I am the worst friend ever. Rowan, I hope you can hear me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry times one million. I don’t even want the machines, I want my friend back.”

He continued talking as he walked to the bathroom to get a cup of water and continued talking when he returned back to the room “ Rowan, don’t be mad. I made a mistake. You are my best friend. Just sit still and be ready I am going to put some water on the sponge.”

Art remembered when he splashed just a little water the microwave came out, but when Rowan threw the water at him he was hit with a bigger splash and the fridge came out. So Art would just put a little drop of water and hopefully it would be Rowan and not the Pacman machine that came shooting out of the sponge.

He placed the sponge on the bed so Rowan wouldn’t fall on the ground when he came out. He stood over the sponge with the cup of water in his hand and he began to count down from three.

“Three. Almost out Rowan just wait.”

“Two. I’m so sorry.”

“Rowan, please don’t be mad. Here goes nothing ONE.” and Art turned the cup slightly to the side letting a small drop of water drip on the sponge.

He jumped back and watched as… nothing happened.

Art’s eyes grew twice the size and face turned as red as a fire truck while his heart started beating as fast as a jackhammer. Art first began thinking of the worst What if he is stuck in the sponge forever? I am going to be a murderer. His family will tell the police and I will go to jail forever. I don’t want to go to jail. I am just a kid; they can’t send me to jail. But, what if they think I am a man. Being a man is not good. I want to be a kid. Kids get to play and go to school and have fun. My life has been nothing but trouble ever since I wanted to be a man. From this day forth I am going to be a kid. I want it to be like before I was thirteen when Rowan and I would play all day climbing mountains, watching movies, playing video games and eating my mom’s cookies ten at a time. 

What Art didn’t know was that while he was talking to himself the small drop of water had finally soaked through the sponge and reached Rowan. The sponge on the bed started shaking and bouncing up and down until Rowan popped out of the sponge rolled to the end of the bed. Rowan sat there for a second stretching his body after being stuck inside a sponge for the past two hours and finally reached out and put a hand on Art shoulder.

Art jumped up and almost hit his head on the ceiling. He screamed as if he had seen a ghost, but his screams of horror changed to screams of excitement when he saw that it was Rowan.

“It worked. It worked. Rowan you are alive. I am so sorry I left you in there. You are my best friend and I can’t believe I let you stay in the sponge” Art began crying as he rambled on apologies to Rowan.

“Art! Art! It’s OK. I had a fun time. I played Pacman for two hours and I got the high score on the machine. I didn’t want to leave.”

“Really” Art questioned.

“Yeah! I got to the 12^th level and it was getting so fast and the lighting wasn’t so good inside the sponge, but I was eating all cherries, strawberries and oranges while running away from the bad guys. I got over 135,495 points and I signed the high score A- R-T. It stands for Art and Rowan’s Team. Pretty good name isn’t it.”

“Yeah, it’s great” Art said holding back the tears. Here Rowan was stuck inside of a sponge and was still thinking about Art the whole time. Art felt more ashamed than ever.

“Well Art, I have to get going. My mom is going to start wondering where I am. I will see you tomorrow outside and my house at eight. Don’t forget to bring the watch and sponges. It is about time for us to get revenge. Have a good night Art.” and Rowan left the house just like that.

Art didn’t even have time to say good bye. Instead he took of his cursed watch and put it in his backpack with the three sponges, and went to lie in his bed and think about everything that happened today. It wasn’t long before his eyes shut and was left snoring through the night happy to have his best friend in the world back.

The next morning Art woke up to the sound of his bed side alarm and rose from bed excited about getting revenge on Angry Dave. Art left his bedroom to take a shower after grabbing a towel from the hall closet. After the shower he wiped his hand on the mirror to clear a circle where it was all foggy. He looked at himself in the mirror and had to do a double take- is that a hair above my lip? Art thought to himself. Am I growing a moustache? I am too young for a moustache. He moved in to get a closer look at his face, but it turned out to be just a hair from his towel. Art was relieved.

He dressed and grabbed his backpack and ran downstairs to eat cereal and meet Rowan outside. Rowan was waiting for Art as usual and the two met on the side walk at the end of their two houses.

“Hey Art! Are you ready for revenge?” Rowan said.

“I can’t wait. It’s been on my mind all night. I dreamed everyone was laughing at him and we became school heroes.” Art said with a smile.

“No way, I had the same dream, but in mine he was begging for us to help him. Like I would help him after what he has said and done to us, never.” Rowan stamped his foot with force.

So the two boys began their journey to school walking to the end of their street and turning to walk through the downtown area where Adam’s Arcade and Zora’s sandwich shop still sat closed, because it is early in the morning.

When they arrive at school the first bus is pulling up to the entrance and soon their classmates are emptying out of the bus. Some of the students play outside throwing balls around and some wait for their friends on other buses, while some of them walk up the steps and enter the school.

Art and Rowan began their walk across the green grass when they heard a shout come from behind them “Oh Ahh-Art! Today’s the day and I don’t see my Pacman machine. You wouldn’t want me to have to go to the arcade and have a talk with Adam, would you?” the boys didn’t need to turn around they knew who the voice was coming from, their school enemy Angry Dave.

“I didn’t forget Dave” Art said politely without turning around and keeping stride “let’s meet at 4:00 behind the school, alright! I’m running late for class.”

“Uhhh! OK 4:00 behind the school. See you there fatty.” Angry Dave now shouted because Art and Rowan were now at the front steps of the school.

“Ha-ha, Art you are hilarious. You didn’t even turn around to talk to him. He didn’t even know what to say. I can’t wait till after school.”

That day school went by especially slow, because all they could think about was getting revenge on Angry Dave. Each class dragged on for what seemed like hours and in each class Art and Rowan were caught not paying attention and were given extra homework to finish for tomorrow. Neither of them cared about the extra homework. Homework would be nothing as long as they showed Angry Dave who was boss.

When the bell rang the boys took their time leaving school and spent a great deal of time at their lockers going over what they would say and timing all their actions. When the majority of the school had let out, aside from the after school activities of the likes of basketball, music and the artists hurrying around the class slapping the last slabs of clay to their sculptures. The school was finally empty.

“Alright Rowan its 3:50 let’s wait a couple minutes after then leave so we can get there just after 4:00 and Angry Dave will be even angrier.” Art said mischievously.

“When did you get so evil Art? Don’t stop I like it, but do you think our plan is going to work? Rowan questioned.

“Well there’s only one way to find out!”

So the two boys took their time and began to walk to the park behind the school. The park was surrounded by trees and had a large water tower at the one end and a large soccer field that had been worn down from everyone’s feet running and kicking at the earth. There was a long path that led in two directions; each one ending at a different side of the park. The boys decided to walk the long path and end up near the water tower. Along the water tower sat a road that came to a dead end and that is where Adam was planning on meeting the boys.

The boys finally came to the end of the path and walked up a little dirt hill to enter the park, where they say Angry Dave and his gang waiting.

“Oh No!” Art and Rowan said simultaneously totally forgetting that his gang would be by Dave’s side.

“Well, it’s too late now” Art said as he took the first step into the field towards the gang waiting near the water tower with Rowan walking right by his side.

The time was now 4:05 and Angry Dave shouted to them “I thought you were going to chicken out. You two are late. But today is your lucky day, because I am in a good mood.”

Art and Rowan didn’t say a word but continued to make their way over to Dave and his gang until the two groups stood facing each other only feet away.

“So where’s my machine, boys? That’s why we are here aren’t we. And on top of that, I was so nice today not to take your lunch money. But tomorrow, I want your lunch money in quarters, so it makes it easier for me to play my game.” Angry Dave laughed with his gang soon following suit.

“We couldn’t get your game today Dave” Art said apologetically “but, I want to give you my watch to say I am sorry, and we can get you the game tomorrow, I promise.”

The laughing quickly stopped and the boy’s smiles turned to snarls, matching that of angry dogs. Art and Rowan began to look like big juicy steaks the boy’s were about to eat for a little after school snack.

“What did you just say?” Dave said knowing what he just heard, but couldn’t believe his ears.

“I said I am sorry I can’t get you the Pacman Machine today, all I have is this watch to give you, so you don’t hurt us, and I promise to give you the machine tomorrow” Art lied, holding back his laughs and nervousness that his plan would really work.

“Give me that watch” Dave snapped. He grabbed it from Art and held it in his hand and went back to yelling at Art. The boys couldn’t make out a word Angry Dave was saying, their eyes were glued to the watch and were both counting down the seconds before the watch would start beeping and desperately hoping that Dave would put the watch on first. If not they knew they would be dog food for these angry dogs that Dave called his gang.

He brought the watch to his face and looked at the time. The boys knew it had to be close so they had to act quickly, so Art shouted out “I was wrong. I want my watch back! You can’t have it.”

Art’s words worked perfectly as Dave laughed and put the watch around his wrist, laughing at Art while his locked the watch in place with a clasp. “It fits perfectly!” Dave declared “Say goodbye to your watch fatty.” Art couldn’t have been happier with himself, he knew that his trick would work and Dave would fall right into his trap.

Seconds after Angry Dave put the watch on his wrist the beeping began. Now it was time for Art and Rowan to spring to action, but first they had to look to see if Dave had gone into a trance.

“Are you hungry Dave? Because, I have some food if you…” Rowan asked, but before he could finish his sentence Dave had bursted out “FOOOOOOOD!”

The boys looked at each other and went into their bags while the gang was looking around for the beeping. Rowan pulled out a bottle of water while Art pulled out two sponges. Art held one sponge out infront of him and then threw it on the ground infront of them. Rowan then opened the bottle and turned the bottle upside down spilling half the whole bottle of water onto it soaking the sponge.

The boys took a big step back and felt the ground begin to shake. The gang did as well, as they stopped searching for the beep and all started to hop around like popcorn. Then all of a sudden the sponge came to life and roared like a rocket about to shoot into space, as everyone ran to hide, it exploded and blasted into the air creating a rain-shower of freezers, ovens, tables, chairs, cupboards, countertops, forks, knives, spoons, Zora’s menus, napkin holders and even a toilet bowl.

All the boys had cleared out of the way, except for one; Dave. As the appliances began to rain Dave chased them around the park and once he found one he picked it up, put it in his mouth, which opened up like a whale, and he swallowed it whole. First he went for the tables and chairs and all the big things that stood out amongst the park, but then he went around again grabbing all the small stuff and threw those into the back of his throat like it were a piece of candy.

The boys looked at their watch and saw that it had been just about twenty five minutes and Dave had eaten everything in the park, he even almost ate one of his gang members but the rest of the gang ran to the rescue and pulled him from Dave’s strong grip. They five more minutes before the watch would beep for a second time and Dave would pop out of his trance and the boys could begin level two of their plan.

What the boys didn’t take into account was that in those five minutes they might be eaten and as the clock ran down, they too had to run for their life. Dave had eaten everything and now he had his eyes set on Art and Rowan. He broke out in a run, as much as someone can run being the size of a helicopter, but he gave chase to the two boys. The park was empty except for trees and the water tower, but the water tower was now on the other side of the park.

As the boys ran they yelled at each other to climb to the top a tree and wait out the rest of the time, and as they ran the broke up so that Dave could only chase one of them. Of course Dave stayed on the course of Art and followed him only a few feet behind him when Art jumped into the tree and hurriedly pulled himself up from the lowest branch and began climbing his way to the top. Rowan was only a few trees over and matched Art’s actions and the two of them were now both at the top of the tree.

Checking his watch Art saw that two minutes and thirty seconds remained till 4:40 and he could come down safely, but Art didn’t know what he had in store for him. Angry Dave began shaking the tree, but could only move it a little and nothing really much at the top shook. So Dave retreated about fifty steps and began a full out run and came crashing against the tree. Art lost his grip and began to fall, he was like a ball bouncing in between two walls, but he finally managed to grab hold of a branch and swung his legs around to gain balance.

As Dave ran another fifty steps back to make another running charge, Art wrapped his arms and legs around the tree ready to embrace the big hit. This time Dave was like a train huffing, puffing and chugging and chugging. He ran straight into the tree with a big crash, the tree suffered a huge crack. He had managed to break the tree so it now tilted on one side. Art luckily held on for his life, but had to wait one more minute of this horror before he could come down safely. Rowan watched everything from the tree beside covering his eyes and praying for the watch to start beeping.

Angry Dave had a new approach and he grabbed the tree by the trunk and began shaking it from side to side with all his might; each time the sound of snaps and cracks grew louder until the whole tree had been ripped from the earth. Art grew scared and screamed for his life, but could do nothing but wait for the beep. He was now swaying back and forth as Dave held the tree in both his hands. Dave brought the tree to his mouth and opened it wider than Art had ever seen before; it looked as though his mouth was a black hole and could swallow anything.

Dave put the tree trunk into his mouth and began swallowing it with great speed and with each piece of the tree he swallowed he got that much bigger. He was only a few feet from being eaten, and he could see right into Dave’s eyes. They looked cold and hungry and as Dave had finally swallowed his way up the tree to Art, Art was forced to the top of the tree top. He closed his eyes and waited and waited for a beep that never came. Then it suddenly came, he felt a cold breeze and a shaking. He couldn’t open his eyes he was too scared.

He finally heard the beeping and began to cry. I was one second away Art thought just one second, but then a voice spoke to him “Art, we made it!” It was Rowans voice. Was this a dream Art though, and he began to open his eyes. When he did he became dizzy within seconds as he was now swinging from a vine hanging from a tree in the arms of Rowan.

“Grab that branch when we get close to it” Rowan shouted.

Art reached out and managed to grab it with one hand and then pulled the two of them in with his other. They didn’t have much time before Adam from Adam’s Arcade showed up, so Art didn’t have time to thank Rowan for saving his life just yet.

The two of them climbed down the tree and walked to the centre of the soccer field, staying out of the way of Angry Dave who was now reunited with his gang who were now laughing at how enormous he was.

“He’s as big as a tree.” One of them shouted.

“He is a tree.” Another laughed back.

“He’s bigger than a tree. He’s a whole forest.” A third boy said and the whole gang fell to the ground laughing at their once leader.

Seeing this Art and Rowan would have thought to be happier and joining in on the jokes but they began to feel sorry for Dave as he sat there literally the size of forest with tears rolling down his face that were the size of swimming pools. They didn’t have time for this though they had to finish plan and threw the last of the sponges into the pool sized tear and ran for retreat like they had before.

The sponge began to shake and rumble until it roared and shot up in the sky like a rocket, this time arcade machines came raining down from the sky; racing games with steering wheels attached, fighting and dancing games, shooting games with long guns and short, boating and skiing games, and all sorts of prizes fell to the ground each one making a louder thud than the last. When the arcade rain had stopped everyone stood around in amazement of what they had just witnessed, but they didn’t have much time to enjoy it because Adams truck pulled up just moments after.

He got out of the truck and walked up to Art and Rowan.

“Well you boys kept your word. How the heck did you get all the games here, you know what, I don’t even want to know, but it’s going to take me hours to move them all. So that’s him over there, the big guy. He’s the one behind all of this.” Adam said now staring at Dave.

The boys looked over at Dave and saw him sitting all by himself sad, now wiping the tears from his eyes. Art and Rowan had waited so long to get revenge on Angry Dave and now that they had it in their grips; they began to feel horrible.

“Mr. Adam. Dave wasn’t the one who stole your machines; it was me. He has bullied us for so long we wanted to get revenge, so we told you it was him. I am sorry I lied to you.”

Art confessed.

Dave’s eyes lit up in a strange way- something the boys had never seen before, it was a look of sorrow.

“You mean you turned him into the size of an airplane as revenge.” Adam laughed “I wouldn’t want to get on your bad side. You know what boys, if you help me get all the machines in my truck, let’s just say none of this ever happened.”   

“Really?” the two boys exclaimed.

“You got it.” Adam replied.

“Well, there’s one more machine you’re still missing. It’s the Pacman machine. I have it here in this sponge. All you have to do it water it.” Art said handing Adam the sponge.

“I’ll tell you what. If you can get the machines in my truck in the next hour, the Pacman machine is yours. This has just been about as much of a crazy day as I can handle.” Adam declared.

“I don’t know how much help we can be Mr. Adam, you better just take the Pacman back.”

Just then the ground began to shake and the boys and Mr. Adams looked up to see Dave making his way over to them. Each step he took the ground shook as if it were an earthquake happening right infront of them, but he stopped once he reached the boys.

Dave, who was still teary eyed, looked at them all for the first time as people and not as someone that he could bully and he began to talk “Maybe, I can help you with the machines.”

“Really, you would do that for us.” The two boys said.

“I guess it’s the least I can do for giving you such a hard time at school. In a way I guess I deserved everything I got.” Dave said, but without any anger.

So the Dave, Art, Rowan and Mr. Adam set to work picking up and moving all the machines back onto the truck, and they finished cleaning the whole pack of arcades in only forty eight minutes.

As Adam got back in his truck, he thanked the boys for all their help in the recovery and welcomed the boys any time to play in the arcade, as long as they came when they weren’t hungry. As his truck drove away, the three boys stood their waving until the truck disappeared around the corner.

Art, Rowan and Dave began their walk across the park and finally shared their first laugh together about the evening.

“Rowan, I want you to have the Pacman game.” Art said “You have always been my best friend, and anyways you are much better than me. It’s only fair that you have it.”

“I have a better idea Art,” Rowan spoke out “How about we switch houses every month? We still have the watch, remember?”

“Speaking of the switching, is there any chance you can switch me back to my normal self?” Dave pleaded.

“We’ll see, but it depends if you can beat Rowan in a game of Pacman.” Art joked.

As the three boys walked home together laughing, they had already forgotten why they fought in the first place; because after all, they were just kids.