About the Author
Steve Behling is passionate about telling stories for kids. He has written books, comics, articles, puzzles, games, and more for a diverse clientele (including Disney, Marvel, Hasbro, Mattel, and DreamWorks, to name a few). As associate creative director for Marvel Entertainment and Comics Director/Executive Editor for Disney Publishing Worldwide, he has worked with incredible brands like Spider-Man, The Avengers, Phineas and Ferb, and Disney/Pixar properties too numerous to name. Steve lives in a top-secret subterranean lair with his wife, two human children, and three-legged wonder beagle, Loomis.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
“This is going to be the best day ever!” Pencilmate shouted as loud as he possibly could. He had just woken up and was still in bed. He couldn’t wait to get up and find something completely awesome to do.
Pencilmate glanced over at his bedroom window and saw the Sun just peeking out over the horizon.
“Good morning, Sun!” Pencilmate hollered at the top of his voice. “You’re looking extra sunny today!”
There came a low rumbling noise from the sky, and a booming voice said, “You’re too loud, Pencilmate!” That was the Sun, and it covered
its ears.
“Sorry, Sun!” Pencilmate apologized. “I’ll try to be quiet. I mean, as quiet as a guy can be who’s about to have the best day ever!”
“Good luck with that,” the Sun replied.
Suddenly, Pencilmate heard his stomach rumble loudly.
GURRRRRRRRGLE!
“Boy, am I hungry!” he said. “I’ll just jump out of bed and fix myself the world’s largest stack of pancakes for breakfast!”
And so Pencilmate hopped out of bed, ready to face the day, when there was a big SPLASH!
“What the—something’s not right!” Pencilmate exclaimed as he found himself bobbing up and down. He looked around and saw that his bedroom was completely flooded with water!
Well, this is definitely not normal, he thought as he tried to keep afloat. Did I leave a faucet running overnight?
That seemed kind of silly, but sillier stuff had a way of happening to Pencilmate all the time.
So he was only a little surprised when he felt something move past his legs.
“Uh-oh,” Pencilmate said.
A second later, a big, green, lizard-like head poked out from the water. It was a sea monster! The creature spewed a mouthful of water right in Pencilmate’s face.
“Ack!” Pencilmate said. “Go away, I’m not thirsty! Also, I’m not sea monster food!”
The sea monster ducked back under the water and then reappeared a short distance away. It started to come for Pencilmate, so he swam as fast as he could back to the safety of his bed. Scrambling on top of the blankets, he watched as the sea monster stopped short and sunk back below the water’s surface.
“Seriously, how did that thing get in my room?” Pencilmate asked. “My landlord has a strict ‘no pets’ policy!”
And then, he realized that there was only one possible explanation.
No, it wasn’t because the Sun was so angry at him for being loud that it decided to flood Pencilmate’s room and put a sea monster in there to spit in his face.
It was . . .
“Pencil!!!” Pencilmate thundered.
His eyes shot up toward the ceiling, and then Pencilmate saw it.
A big yellow pencil was just hanging there above him! For whatever reason, Pencil always wanted to mess with Pencilmate. With a few quick strokes, Pencil could turn any situation into a complete nightmare. Or, in this case, turn Pencilmate’s bedroom into an ocean with one big, annoying sea monster.
“Pencil, Pencil, PENCIL!” Pencilmate said, shaking an angry fist. “It’s always you, isn’t it?”
Pencil nodded up and down as if it were agreeing with him. See, the thing about Pencil was that it never said a word. Pencil just did stuff that drove Pencilmate up a wall.
“You’re always causing trouble! Well, I’ve had enough of your . . . of your . . . ,” Pencilmate said, struggling to find the right word.
Suddenly, Pencil wrote the word “SHENANIGANS” on the wall.
“No, not ‘shenanigans,’ ” Pencilmate said.
Then Pencil wrote, “HIJINKS?”
“Yes!” Pencilmate hollered. “Hijinks! I’ve had enough of your hijinks! And this time, I’m gonna do something about it!”
Pencilmate reached for his phone sitting on the night table floating next to his bed. But just as he was about to grab it, the sea monster popped up from the water and ate it.
BUUUUUURP!
“Oh, come on,” Pencilmate said. “That was a new phone!”
Thinking fast, Pencilmate opened the night- table drawer and pulled out a pen, several sheets of paper, some envelopes, and postage stamps. Then he quickly wrote some letters, stuffed them inside the envelopes, addressed them, and slapped on the stamps.
Reaching inside the drawer again, Pencilmate pulled out a long wooden oar and began paddling his bed out of the room to the front yard, which was also flooded.
Pencilmate rowed the bed over to his mailbox and put the letters inside. He raised the flag to let the mail person know that there was mail ready to be picked up.
Almost instantly, the mail person showed up in a motorboat, opened the mailbox, and took the letters with a tip of their cap.
Pencilmate sat there on his bed and rolled his eyes up at the sky, whistling for a minute. He saw the Sun and noticed that it was wearing earplugs. At least Pencilmate wouldn’t have to worry about making so much noise now.
Not even a minute passed before an even BIGGER motorboat arrived at Pencilmate’s house, and out jumped his friends Pencilmiss, Big Guy, and Mini-Pencilmate!
“What took you so long?” Pencilmate said.
“Sorry,” Pencilmiss replied. “We had to build the motorboat, or we would have been here sooner.”
“So, you need our help?” Big Guy asked.
“Do I ever!” Pencilmate said. “And I’ll tell you all about it, just as soon as the person reading this book turns the page.”
(Pssst . . . This would be a good time to turn the page.)
