Prologue

A scream sounded from upstairs. He leaped to action. His parents never screamed, only yelled, though that had been reduced in large amounts over the last few years.

He rushed to the slightly off balanced door. Must have damaged it moving in that new desk. Or the bench press.

That didn't matter now.

Something was off.

The faces on his parents weren't all that shocked him.

"Calvin, what's...this?"

He looked around, and scanned his room quickly.

"Uh, I see Hobbes, my bench press, some textbooks, and-"

"Calvin."

His father calmly turned to face him. But his eyes cheated him.

And then he saw it: the fear, the shock. Normal for most parents, especially his.

Calvin also saw something else. Not sure what it was, he muttered.

"You find something you didn't like?"

He faced Hobbes.

"Buddy, something wrong here?"

Hobbes scratched his hair, and stretched out his back. Sitting back up, he cracked his neck. Finally, he yawned and looked up.

"What can I say other than the obvious Calvin."

Calvin sighed, exasperated at his life-long friend's at times nonchalant attitude.

"Keep it simple Hobbes, this is actually serious."

"Fine, fine. I think your parents know I'm real"