Ripping Races

Part I, Chapter II

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

"Ughhh..." Pen moaned.

"Morning already?"

"Rise and shine!" Sandra said with a cheerful tone.

"How are you so happy? Our shop is gone!"

"I know it's hard for you, but look on the bright side! Go to school, have fun with your friends, and think of something else, okay?"

"Alright."

Pen headed off to school. The school was about ten blocks away, but luckily, Pen could fly his way over. As he got to school, his friends Arlo and Halley greeted him.

"Pen! I heard your shop is closing!" Halley said sorrowfully.

"Wait, what?" Arlo said. "Swift Foods is gone!? Where am I supposed to get all my groceries now!"

"I guess we're gonna need to go to Stockwells now..." Pen shrugged.

All three of them hated the thought. "But Stockwells is a human grocery store, frankly, I don't even know why we have one in Soba." Halley remarked.

"Stockwells, yuck! I'd rather shop at 'Foods-from-the-butt!" Arlo screamed at the top of his lungs. Everyone in the courtyard stopped and stared at Arlo. "Haha, anyways..." Arlo said nervously.

"One, Arlo you're nasty, and more importantly, do your parents have a job Pen?"

"Well, my dad is trying to get a job as an architect, and my mom is going to school to become a nurse, so maybe things aren't so bad." Remembering what his mom said, Pen tried to keep an open mind.

"You know what we should do, we should destroy Stockwells!" Arlo stupidly suggested.

"What!?" Halley and Pen exclaimed.

"Arlo, we'd be thrown in prison!" Halley scolded.

"C'mon guys! It's a human grocery store! It shouldn't be in Soba anyways! I say it gets crushed!"

"Hush up Arlo!" Pen whispered.

*Bing* *Bing*

As the kids headed to class, Arlo's crazy idea stuck in Pen's head all day, and at lunch, he brought it up again.

"So, I mean it's dumb, and I hate the idea, but, and I mean I'm just thinking, how would someone even destroy a grocery store? I mean I don't want to but I'm just wondering." Pen stuttered.

"Pen, get the idea out of your head. Actually, get any idea Arlo thinks of out of your head." Halley said with a smirk.

"Hey that's not fair! I've thought of millions of good ideas!"

"Name one." Halley sassed.

"Um, well off the top of my head, my robot dog I built, that was a good idea."

"Arlo that thing bit me, your mom, Pen's mom, everyone in our school, and Principal Farkland's butt, making him have to wear a huge band-aid on it for months!" Halley screamed.

A voice from across the room suddenly interrupted. "Oh yea, that thing bit my favorite taco."

"Fern, why do you always bud in?" Pen said.

"Why do you always eat my tacos!!"

"I don't Fern! I've had this conversation with you a hundred times! I've never eaten one of your tacos!"

"LIES!"

"Okay, Fern, why don't you go buy a taco or something." Halley suggested.

"TACOS!" Fern sprinted to the lunch line, ready to buy about ten tacos.

"Does that kid get any weirder?" Arlo said.

"I don't know. But more to the point, I don't want you getting this idea in your head, okay Pen? If you destroy Stockwells, not only will you be in trouble, your family will be too!"

Halley's words stuck in Pen's head. Pen did not want to get his family in trouble, he already let his family down with the money, he didn't want to do anything else wrong. As Pen headed home from a long day of school, he saw two men, with huge clippers, approaching a middle-aged business man. They grabbed him, pinned him down, and with their clippers, ripped the man's wings right off his back. The man, being in so much pain, fainted, and they carried him off into an alley. Pen was in shock from what he had just seen. With tears in his eyes, he headed to his parents to tell them what he had just witnessed.