The "Never Ending Story" is a short story that Kara, Troy, Colleen, and Joel used to write for fun. They each would write a piece of the story, and pass it along for the next person to continue. -- and that's just what they did for this edition of PawPrints. Notice that the author changes when text color changes. Stay tuned for future editions of PawPrints to see what happens next!
Once upon a time, in a place far, far away, in a town very much like your own, was Floversville High School. Floversville High School was located in the outskirts of the small city of Floversville, at the top of a hill. Now, this was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill high school. It was very strange. However, there was no way that Penelope could ever guess how strange the school really was.
Penelope had just moved to Floversville. She didn't have any friends in this new, strange, city. The next day was Penelope's first day of school. She was very anxious and didn't know what to expect. She had heard many rumors about the eccentricity of the students and teachers. Penelope wasn't too worried though, because the rumors of the oddities that occurred at FHS were ridiculous, preposterous, and could never in a million years be true. Boy, was she dead wrong.
The minute Penelope stepped through the threshold of the school the next day, she realized that the rumors must all be true. This school was so crazy! The students were all skater kids taller than she was. They all had holes in their clothes and Twizzlers in their pockets. They had just emerged from the cafeteria and when the door had opened smoke filled the hallway from the burning "food" cooked by the lunch ladies. They scared Penelope so much she turned around and almost left the school.
Then, she had to find where they handed out the class schedules. She asked every teacher she saw, and each one said something different. She finally realized they were in the gym. However, the gym was a mess. 800 kids all wanted to know what their classes were. Penelope finally got in the line with the 'P's', however, once she reached the front she learned it was by last name. She then went to stand in another long line and finally got her schedule.
Her first class was... Global, with Mr. Goddison. Mr. Goddison was a very eccentric man who seemed to love his job and to wear crazy ties. Penelope loved all forms of History, so she went straight to room 403(was it room 403? No it was 405!) and took a seat in the middle. Soon others entered the room and sat all around her. Mr. Goddison walked in and started class. Unfortunately, her view was obstructed by the six foot kid in front of her, and she could hardly breath due to the left-over food smell. There were only two other people in her whole History class that had normal hair styles and didn't reek. They were Thomas and Seilfrettub (Butterflies spelled backwards.) They befriended Penelope, and luckily, had all of the same classes.
Throughout the day...she went to each class, each being worse than the one before but by far the worst was English class. Penelope was in Honors and all the students were supposed to read over the summer. The problem was Penelope was new and never got the list of books. Once she discovered this, Penelope went up to her teacher Miss Bobbie Jo (Yes…this is what she told her students to call her.) She was one of those people who really shouldn't be a teacher but somehow she passed the personality test. She was evil. Anyway, Penelope told Miss Bobbie Jo that she didn’t read and she could notice the teacher’s face becoming severely red and her head getting bigger. She sort of looked like a deformed tomato. Miss Bobbie Jo was noticeably angry but decided to be generous and let Penelope have a week to read. Penelope was thankful that the teacher didn’t pull out a rifle and kill her, because she looked like she might.
Penelope’s first day was overall terrible. She couldn’t wait until she got home…
When Penelope got home, she couldn't believe that she had anticipated coming home in the first place. Penelope lived in the most horrible apartment complex in Floversville. Her parents had not yet found a house to buy, so they had to live in the apartment complex for a while. Penelope doubted whether they would ever move out of this dump that she had to call home. It was, quite literally, a dump. When they moved in, there was garbage all over the floor. Penelope's parents practically had to bring in a Haz-Mat team to clean up the mess. On their move-in day, Penelope dressed in her worst clothes in order to not get any of her good clothes covered in filth. Within an hour, Penelope was covered in muck. Penelope was in the process of taking a banana peel off of her head as a tall, handsome boy and his father walked in the apartment. They explained that they were neighbors across the street and were glad to see that someone was cleaning up the apartment. The man introduced himself as Mr. Jingleheimer-Schmidt. His son was (you guessed it) named John Jacob. Penelope tried to say hello, but suddenly found herself mute. She found herself lost for words. Eventually, she said a very awkward "Hi." Penelope was in love.?
However, soon after Penelope learned that Johnny went to Floversville, and was now 14 (like Penelope) he told her he was moving, to Constown, the arch rivals or Floversville. She was so crushed, there was no way she could have a relationship with the enemy. When he moved Penelope thought that she'd die. When they finally got the apartment clean, after 5 years, it wasn't too bad- it was just every other apartment in the building was filthy. She could never have friends over because of how embarrassed she was. But then somebody new moved into John Jacob's house, and it was old farmer McDonald, with his cats, dogs, horses, pigs and even his one cow. The house was so noisy now, with a 'moo moo' here and a 'meow meow' there.
One day, Penelope heard someone singing the words to a Kelly Clarkson song, and they were doing it horribly. Not only was he not hitting any of the notes, but the tempo was off as well. Apparently the singer was waiting for someone in the apartment building, because he sat down right underneath Penelope's window. Finally the person stopped singing, but only because he started sneezing out of control. For three minutes straight he sneezed. When he was able to stop, Penelope thanked her lucky stars, and yelled "Bless You" out the window.
For a minute, everything was quiet, then she heard the sneezy singer ask, "God? Is that you?" Penelope stuck her head out of the window, and nearly fell out of it. The singer/sneezer wasn't just an annoying person who liked to expel his noisiness underneath her window. It was John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt!!
Penelope couldn’t believe it, he was back! Her love! Everything in the world would be right again. She found herself running down the stairs to get to him. She finally got to the alley he was in and ran over and hugged him like she would never be able to again. Something was wrong though. John Jacob wasn’t acting like himself. He was cold and didn’t even seem glad to see her. He barely spoke until Penelope said, “What is wrong with you? Don’t you love me anymore?”
He paused and then responded, “Penelope, I’ve been away for a long time, things have changed…”
“What’s changed? Is there someone else?” Penelope interjected.
“Well, being in Constown, so far away, I never saw or heard you and then I met Cheryl…”
“Cheryl! WHO’S THAT? How could you! I thought about you every day, I wanted to see you so badly and all the while you had someone else! I am so glad I didn’t waste my birthday money on taxi fare to go see you! I hate you with every fiber of my being!” said poor Penelope.
John Jacob replied, “I’m sorry but I love Cheryl now, I can’t break up with her. My dad already showed her my baby pictures. How can we go back from there? Can you ever forgive me?”
“DROP DEAD!” Penelope yelled.
“Well, I guess we’ll never be friends…Bye…” John Jacob’s voice trailed off as he left the alley.
Penelope watched him walk away through the tears in her eyes. She knew she would never see him again. He walked across the street as a car sped up and hit John. Penelope ran as fast as she could to him. She held him in her arms as he murmured something. She couldn’t figure out what he was saying. Penelope leaned in close to him and she heard him whisper, “Cheryl.”
Penelope was furious. She slapped John Jacob across the face as she got up and left him lying there in the street. The paramedics came but they were too late. He was dead. Penelope couldn’t help but smile as they put his cold, lifeless form into a body bag. TO BE CONTINUED...
STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EDITION OF PAWPRINTS TO READ MORE ABOUT PENELOPE'S CRAZY ADVENTURES IN FLOVERSVILLE!