Endocrine Kingdom

1. Davy

Davy sat at his desk. Rather, Davy continued sitting at the desk he had been sitting at for the past several hours. Davy was a law student. You would think he was currently in law school, because he wanted to become a lawyer, but that would make too much sense. Davy was really in law school, because he didn't know what else to do. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy his studies at all; he just felt that if he never went to law school, he wouldn't have missed out on much.

Davy was sitting in his school's library, holding down the current page of his textbook in his right hand, and writing notes with his left. Though the building was typically filled to the brim with other students, the pervading silence would lead you to think the entire building was completely devoid of life. This would still make sense, however, because this was a library. Even so, Davy had managed to seek out a desk hidden in a remote corner of the building. No one else was around. It wasn't that Davy disliked other people. Davy just felt unreasonably uncomfortable around them. Besides, Davy had assignments to read and reading is difficult when you're unreasonably uncomfortable.

As he continued to read a case all about the validity of a contract term that computes royalties after the expiration of a patent's term-a case that can only be described as a wild, roller coaster of emotions, but only if you like using the wrong words to describe things-Davy thought about some of the other things he could be doing. Davy was a guy who had a lot of ideas, but had none of the drive to actually pursue any of them. Resigned to the belief that any of his own ideas would inevitably fail, Davy figured he was best suited towards going through the motions until some perfect opportunity happened to appear right in front of him.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a door appeared right in front of him. At least, that's how it looked to Davy. He didn't actually see the door appear. He just looked up from his work and saw a door that he knew had not existed before. Maybe if he had been looking at the wall in front of him, he would have seen the door fade into place, or maybe the door swooped in from above him and settled down in its spot. Or maybe it could have star-wiped itself into existence. It didn't really matter much, because when you see a door suddenly spring into existence from previous non-existence, it's not like the minor details are really necessary to grab your attention.

Davy looked more closely at the door. His desk in the library was a few feet away from the wall and the door was situated right in front of him. It looked like any other door in the library. It was wooden, painted black, and had a handle. Davy wasn't great at picking out descriptive details, but he did notice that there was a sheet of paper on the door. He looked around; nobody else was anywhere near his corner of the building. Slowly, he got up from his desk and tried to casually walk towards the door. He knew no one else was around, but his desire to remain perpetually inconspicuous still forced him to mask his interest in this door. Getting closer, he saw the sheet of paper was taped to the door. More importantly, he saw that written on the sheet of paper, and with the handwriting reminiscent of a second-grader trying to write in his non-dominant hand while also probably on fire, was his name.

"Davy"

Also, below his name, and in the same handwriting, there was a doodle of a smiley-face.

": )"

Davy was curious about where this door came from and why it had his name on it. He was more concerned that in spite of all his efforts to go unnoticed at his school, someone actually took out the time to defy the natural laws of the universe and create a door out of nowhere that specifically targeted him. Davy thought that he could ignore the door and get back to his work. He had a good momentum going with his current assignment, after all. If he stopped now to check out this door, he might lose it and it would take forever to get it back.

On the other hand, if he ignored the door, what would happen next? What if whatever power that sent the door decided to escalate and other people noticed him? Davy didn't want to take that chance. Reluctantly, he reached for the handle, turned it, and opened the door. The other side was pitch black. He stuck one foot forward, checked to make sure there was actually a floor on the other side-and not some open space he would fall into and die, because those were the kinds of things Davy felt the need to check for-and stepped through.