OK, so I know Ms. Fand said something about safety, but in my defense school was done,  the bell rang, and I was daydreaming about Minecraft…..again. “RINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!!!” oh, FINALLY school is over. My head was sweating from the AC not being on, and it smelt like sweat, grease. Also, it was SO muggy even though the windows were open. Then my teacher started talking about something. “ok class remem-..........” ah, tuning out my teacher after school, It's a treat for me. My mom makes me learn in class so I can have good grades, but she didn't say I couldn't listen to the homework announcements when I can upload it on my phone! “ Carla ,Carla!!! HELLO?! EARTH TO Carla?” 

a voice said “ huh?” I lifted my head from my seat. It was Rebecca, my best friend, and a little bit of a goody two shoes.  “Ok, I know you like to tune out the teacher at the end of the day, but you missed some safety rules!” Rebecca said in her squeaky voice. She looked mad, but sounded nice, sometimes however, it’s the other way around. “ What? Did Mount I-Lost-My-Patience erupt?” I said sarcastically. We’re the type of friends that can say mean things about each other and not care. “NO, but I think MY patience just erupted… Anyway the teacher said NOT TO WALK IN THE PUDDLE, ok?” she said strictly but with a smile, “Ok if you say so…. Princess safety.” 

We walked onto the parking lot to get our bikes. The fresh air felt SO AMAZING and the smell was way better than a bunch of sweaty middle school boys. The breeze was making my hair go in front of my face so I had to keep brushing it off. When we hear a voice- an annoying one too- behind us. “ HI girlie girls wanna go to Starbucks with me?” a squeaky- supposedly- girl voice said behind us. “Go away Billy we don’t need you right now” Rebecca said rolling her eyes “ oh but I thought girls support girls?” he said sarcastically in his girl voice “ No we don't and even if you were a girl we still wouldn't include you” I said giving him a glare and smirking at the same time. 

“ Ugh, fine I'll stop.. Under one circumstance” I would do literally anything to get him off my back or out of this world. “ Step in the puddle and I’ll leave” I pause and think. Ms. Fand said to not step in the puddle and I’ll probably get detention if I do but if I do people will know I exist. Oh but my mom will get mad and ground me from going over to Rebecca's house like forever and I don't want to make Rebecca sad because she has a talent show this week! “ Uh 6-7” I said quickly. Billy rolled his eyes and said “ Make a decision or I'm gonna push you in.” What should I do? Do I miss Rebecca's talent show for getting grounded from detention, or not be known? “I'll do it if you don't tell ANYONE, okay?” I raised one eyebrow. “Deal,” 

he sticks his hand out and grins. We shook hands, his hands were sweaty from holding a pencil all day. I walked to Rebecca, she did not look happy. Her face was as red as raspberries and so were her hands but smelled like sweaty raspberries instead. “Why did you do that Carla? You’re gonna get in trouble!!” she said with a worried face. “Don't worry he's not gonna tell and besides it's a puddle, what could go wrong?” I said, trying to keep her calm. I take a deep breath and I throw a rock in to see how deep it is. I don't hear a clink “Must be a deep one” I say with a worried expression. Not that I was afraid or anything.    

    I walk back to Rebecca “If I drown call the Coast Guard” I said jokingly. She glares at me but in a good way. She giggles and grabs her sticky iPhone 13 and puts it in emergency “Ok I’m ready” she laughs again. I smile and walk past her and I walk/run to the puddle and jump and then I sink. It feels like I’m going through time and space or flying in the air but falling instead. There are bright colors whooshing around me, rocks hitting my face and arms. It’s cold but it’s warm in my body. Little pieces of grass start to seep in between my fingers.  It smelled like dirt and grass and pavement. Then I backflip… Well, because I was flying through the air. Then I landed head first into some long algae-like thing. 

    I got up and wiped the seagrass thing off my face and body. It smelled like rotting fish bones and newly- cut grass “Owwwww” I held my head and got up. I looked up. “ Huh?” I said curiously. Then something hard hit my head “Owwwwww” I looked to my side and the rock I had thrown in the puddle had landed on my head “ Ok, how does that work?!” I said tilting my head, then I heard screaming. But not just any type of screaming, Rebecca screams.“ EEEEEEEECCCCKKKKKKK” she lands feet first with her hands out like she jumped off a rail “O COME O- y'know what? Never mind.” 

    I walked to Rebecca. She looked like she saw her dreams get crushed right before her eyes. “R-Rebecca  what happened?” I said with a calming voice and I stroked her hair. “He-He’s a-a” “He’s what Rebecca? He’s what!?” “A-an imposter” We paused. “ H-how?” I said with a questioned look on my face. Rebecca sighs “Ok let me tell you the whole story.” She sighed. We sat in the grass and Rebecca started talking. “So when you disappeared into the puddle I started panicking and trying to dial 9-1-1, but I dropped my phone into the puddle. Then I looked into the puddle. In the reflection, Billy came behind me and he had kraken tentacles coming out of his back and he pushed me into the puddle!” 

She told me with a disgusted-frightened look on her face. “Well we can get out of here, but we’re gonna need a little help.” I looked up and the puddle/portal was gone. I looked at Rebecca and I lied “ Ok it’s still there, let’s go look for help. But where do we look?” I asked. I looked at Rebecca . She was pointing at something. “Maybe we can look there!” she said, pointing to a city floating in mid-air just close enough for us to see.  “Brilliant!” I said with delight. As I walked over there I trip on something. “Ooof, you ok Carla?” Rebecca said grimacing.

    “Yes, because I think I found our way to the city,” I said grinning, I got up and pointed to something. It was a big sleek red button covered in this grassy/seaweedy thing. I pressed my fingers on it and I heard a big zap and I looked behind me and a bridge appeared right before my eyes. “ Well? Go on!” Rebecca said, squealing happily. I walked on it afraid I would fall through, I stepped onto the teal glowing sidewalk and my foot landed on a smooth surface. I sighed in relief. I turned and smiled at Rebecca and gestured to her to come with me. She walks over and we take steady steps to get across the bridge and then we jump onto the land like we had fallen off a cliff. 

We stand up and brush ourselves off and we look up “ OOOOOO” me and Rebecca said in unison. The city was bright and colorful but had roots hanging down from the ceilings and roofs because we were underground I suppose. There were blobby creatures and winged creatures and aliens with big feathery necks. As we walk into the city we look all around us and not in front of us and that's when I ran into a tiny-giant blue blob with a little hat on its head. “ Oh I’m SO sorry” I said apologizing 

" oh it's ok it happens all the time, I just somehow seem to blend into the floor" The slime blob said happily. How is he happy when I just stepped on him? I was going to ask but now that just seemed rude. " Say you're the first humans iv'e seen down here, What brings you here to this glorious city!" The alien said spinning gleefuly. I put my hand behind my head " I don't acully know yet?" I said, Trying not to think about Rebecca still ooooing and aweing " What do you mean you don't know?" he asked I was shoked and slightly embaressed

 - I just assumed there were humans here because we can be magical sometimes….. Sometimes. “ Oh say I never picked up your names. I’m Bob the Blob Jr” he said puffing up his chest even though he didn't have one “ Ok I’m Carla and that’s Rebecca ” I pointed back to Rebecca who was still looking around in awe. “ Well it was nice to meet you Carla and Rebecca ” He said grinning and turning around. But before he could leave I put my hand on his shoulder and asked him if he knew how to get home.

 “ Well, I do but I heard it’s a long process. We have to get a key to even get out the gate and we have to walk through the floofawoofa forest and go through the Dessert Desert!" He said, looking at the ground. Then Rebecca comes over and puts her hand on my shoulder “ Well where do we get that key!?" Rebecca said courageously. We looked at each other and smiled. “Ok, so the key is a magical tile kept in a safe in Mayor Xyna’s office. But it’s harder than that.

    There's guards at the door who only let in people who have an appointment with the Mayor. So does anybody have any ideas?” he said. We huddle up “ What if we get a shovel and dig until we get into her office?!” Rebecca said. We all look at her “ What? I've seen it in movies!” we look at her then I say “ Nooooooooo” slowly. “ What if we just book an appointment?” I said “ About what though?” Bob questioned “ Well, what if we need to see the Mayor and tell her we need to get home because we are stranded?!” I answered “ That might just work” Bob said, But of course Rebecca gave me a glare and said “ Fine, do it your way” under her breath. 

    So we make an appointment to see the mayor, then we call a taxi- or what they call bubble wheels- to take us to the other side of town which I learned is called the Ground Under. Then we talked about our game plan “ Ok, so the mayor isn't gonna give us the key right away, but I learned that she keeps the safe right next to the bathrooms. So somebody's gonna have to ask to go to the bathroom and get the key while I keep her busy.” Bob informed us “ But what's the safe number?” Rebecca asked.

” Well, the safe doesn't have a code. It opens with handprints and luckily I am one of the weirdest slime here in the Ground Under that I keep a book of everyone's hand print, so Rebecca, since you’re so innocent-  looking, here’s the photo of Mayor Xyna’s handprint. All you have to do is press it on the black rectangle and it will open. Then grab the key, ok?” Bob said. We looked at each other and nodded. I was gonna ask how he got all the handprints, but then the taxi driver yelled at us to get out, but we still had to pay him anyway. We walk up to the guards. One was a big cyborg and the other was what looked like a big pug. They put a big hand in front of us “ Halt tiny creatures, where are your appointment cards?” the big pug said. 

    But before I could panic and walk around and scream, Bob pulled out an appointment card and handed it to the guards. They let us through. As we walked into Mayor Xyna’s office the mayor was sitting in her chair sipping a drink that looked like lava. “ Hello, you must be here for your appointment. What is it that we need” Mayor Xyna said with a peaceful voice. “ Before we talk about stuff, can I use your bathroom please?” Rebecca said. She was following the plan this time. “ Of course” Mayor Xyna showed her the bathroom “ Thank you” Rebecca said then she ran to the bathroom. “ So what is it that you need me for?” She said with a calm voice. “ Well,” Bob started, 

    “ I was walking through the market this morning and I came across these two humans sitting in a corner all covered in dirt.  They looked stranded and poor so I took them to my house to clean them up and give them food. And they said that they were lost and needed to go home.” Bob said “ So I’m wondering if you could give us the key out of the city-” “ IT’S EMPTY!” Rebecca interrupted, “ Ah yes the key,I gave it to a young traveler this morning,” Mayor Xyna turned around in her chair. And then I realized something. “ Wait, that wasn't a young traveler oh no it was a criminal who trades items for valuable materials like dlog and revlis. 

I’m sorry but you're gonna have to get it yourself ,but here is the map to the secret trading spots. My guards found it this morning so here take your gonna need it and good luck” she said with her calm voice. She hands us the crumpled brown piece of paper with ripped edges and a little hole in the middle. The guards guide us out. We walk out disappointed. We walk a while  past buildings and past houses until we find ourselves above the secret trading spot. We walk down the stairs and we get to the entrance. There were shops that sold pirate maps, beads, bones, and other materials, in fact Rebecca almost went to a shop that was selling alien fruits. But then I had to grab her arm and drag her back to us.

     Then we realize we don’t have anything valuable “ Maybe some human items would work there very rarely found here. “ Bob told us. We nodded. We start digging through our backpacks and pockets. I had a pencil, an eraser, a paper clip and a stapler and Rebecca had scissors, a sharpener and earbuds. We show Bob, he nods and leads us to the marketer. The market smelled like pig and grease. The marketers booths were stalls made of sticks and huge bones, with a shattered rag roof. We walk over.  “Well hello there is anything you're interested in?” The trader said with a raspy voice. 

The trader was a big stick monster with long boney fingers and was covered in a rag with stains and ripped holes on them. “ Yes, we would like that key you got from the mayor today.” Bob replied in a gruff voice “ Certainly and what will you trade for?” he asked. He put his hands together and smiled. “These human trinkets “ Bob answered. He pointed to the items in our hands “ mmmmmm ok we have a deal” he confirmed.he grabbed the items from our hands with his boney fingers. He looks at them in awe as He hands us the key. It was a tile with pictures of our world and the ground under there were words but I didn't know what they said. .

“I don't know what it says” Rebecca takes it from me and examines it like a priceless gem. She turns it around and side to side brushing it with her fingers and she blows on it. She hands it back to me “Well should we get going” I said looking at the tile covered in dirt. We walked out the market and we walked to the gate and I stuck the tile in the slot it fitted in, and then the wall started glowing and it opened a pathway out of the city with a big rumble. It looked like nobody had been out of the city for years! I take a deep breath and I walk onto the pathway into the floofawoofa forest

    The trees are like big mangrove trees with colorful stripes and the ferns were big purple hand shaped leaves. The birds chirped as sunlight peeked through the trees, beautiful butterflies with 4 wings passed us as we walked,vines hung down from the trees and little monkey creatures were swinging from them. As we walked around the forest Bob looked sad about something. “ Bob, are you ok? You look sad” Rebecca said, putting her hand on Bob who was looking at the ground. “ Well there’s something I should tell you guys…” Bob said, looking at me with a sad face. He then looked at the ground again “It’s a long story, I mean a well-timed story” He said.

    We walked to a patch of grass that wasn't the wet sea algae kind, it was more dry and thin. Bob gave a big sigh and began talking with a sad-disappointed tone “ Sigh.. So my dad Bob the Blob Sr. Maybe I don’t know, may be  evil.” Bob pauses and so do we. Rebecca and I put our hands on Bob's shoulder and he continued talking” He likes to trap humans who get lured into the portal and get trapped here. He has somebody in the human world who dares people to jump into the puddle” Rebecca and I look at each other and whisper" Billy!” We turn back to him, He continues talking “and every time he sends my dad a signal and my dad turns the humans  into aliens then turns them into slaves. And he knows you're here.

He sends me a letter when he sees the signal on his "Find My New Slaves" device. So he set traps all around the forest and the desert. And I was supposed to capture you in the city but then when I saw how kind and nice you were to me I-I guess I wanted you as my friends ” He  looks at us and he starts crying. Rebecca and I hug him “ Awe don’t worry we ARE your friends” Rebecca said in a sweet voice. “ Really?” Bob sniffed. We take our hands off Bob  I grab his hand “ Yes you are our friend, Heck all the kids in my class would be SO jealous that I’m friends with a slime“ I replied, He smiles. 

    We all hug again.” Well, we're gonna need to be on high alert I guess” I alerted  as we let go of Bob and Rebecca and I looked around for any traps. “ Well the traps can be very dumb so no need to worry” Bob sniffed. We laughed. And Rebecca stole Bobs hat and we laughed some more ( don't worry she returned it after). I put my hand on my chest and sighed in relief. He’s not like those very good villains who set very good traps, whew. We get up and brush ourselves off. We started walking again but of course Rebecca and I were still worried about all the traps so we didn't step on any rocks or twigs in our way. 

As we walked through the forest it started to get dark, And all the birds and animal noises had stopped making their noise. 

 “ What’s going on, why is everything silent all of the sudden?” Bob hesitated. “Pssssst over here” a raspy voice said. We looked around and I couldn't find the voice. “Over here… behind you” the voice said very creakily. We look behind us hesitantly and we find big purple eyes behind us in the bushes and he pulls us into the bushes “ AAAAAHHHH please don’t hurt me I’ll give you all my money!” Rebecca screamed frightfully. “ Hurt you? No way I would never hurt no one and what's Moo-ney?” the raspy cold voice replied.

 I look up and see a human but not a human more like the missing link between monkey and human but got abducted by aliens and turned into one. He was dirty and smelled like an alien monkey whatever it’s supposed to smell like, which is DISGUSTING! 

    Then I look around. Inside all those bushes was a very well put together alien bamboo hut/base/house/treehouse thing. It had a bed, a couch and a fireplace. All the essentials. He let go of us and walked to the fireplace and grabbed what looked like a coconut and handed them to us. “ Here drink this” He rasped. “ what were you guys doing here in floofawoofa at night?! It’s very dangerous for kids like you.  

Do you know what happens here at night?” He asked. We all look at each other and shake our heads. “ No, no we do not, “ Bob replied. The creature rolled his eyes and got up and grabbed a knife and cut open our coconut things. Bob immediately started drinking while me and Rebecca sloshed around our drink and set it down besides us. The creature gave us a look. We picked up our drinks and pretended to take a sip. He smiled at us and nodded. “ The forest at night is extremely dangerous; there are paguars, bizzly bears, and wipers. So all the animals go silent so they don’t get hunted” He warned us as he sloshed his drink around. 

    “oh we never got your name!” Bob remembered as he looked up from his drink. The creature looked at us then looked back at his drink. He opened his mouth then cleared his throat. “ It’s Gronkolius nagoya bartholomew alberttesty snoria Jr the 3.” He paused and so did we. 

     “ But you can call me Gronk,” Gronk answered.  We paused for a while and then the sun peeked through the bushes into the little hut. We got up, “ Well we best get going “ I groaned as I got off the bushy floor. “ Leaving? Who said anything about leaving?” Gronk said he tilted his head and smiled “ No you're staying with me forever” Gronk announced. “ OUT OUT NOW NOW NOW” I yelled.