Written in Pen

Earning Trust

On an isolated planet, a race of sea-monkey-like beings thrived. They were a little more advanced than Earth, but not enough to have discovered alien life, nor did they even have the concept of extraterrestrials. Because their planet had a set of rings, they built cannons on the surface to defend against rogue debris.

On one tragic day, they spotted unknown objects of massive size approaching their planet from beyond the rings. This was none other than the advanced race, who had been following the path of their biological weapon to retrieve it. A quick scan of the planet revealed that this was not the crash site and they were about to depart. However, mistaking them for meteors, the natives fired their cannons at the fleet.

The natives were in shock and fear as the ships dodged the projectiles from the cannons. Seeing the planet as a threat, the advanced race summoned a massive object that uncloaked itself and blocked the planet's sun. The massive object was in fact the homeworld of the advanced race, who converted the planet into a colossal starship several millennia ago. The entire planet of the sea-monkey-like race was panicking in fear as the massive object fired up an enormous cannon, which struck the planet's surface. The natives and all the wildlife on the planet were paralyzed and started to feel agonizing pain as they and their planet started to slowly dissolve. The pain was unbearable, as it only intensified after every second.

Meanwhile, it has been a week since Pen first arrived at Rocky's house. Pen has been trying his best to befriend the cats, but they still hiss at him. He gets puzzled when they show affection towards Rocky. Realizing that Pen is curious, Rocky claims that friendship isn't something that happens instantly. Friendship needed time and sometimes even effort to be gained. He admits that he himself had trouble being friends with Pen when he was only eating his art supplies, but was glad to find sweets as a substitute. Pen gets a little upset, thinking Rocky only liked him because he stopped eating his art supplies. Rocky picked up Pen and told him that he didn't mean it that way.

A knock is heard on the front door. Rocky worries about Pen's safety and tries to find a place to hide him. He quickly puts Pen in his dresser and heads to see who's at the front door. When Rocky opened the door, it was his good friend Mark Johnson. Rocky welcomed Mark into his house, saying it was good to see him again. They sat and talked about how long it has been since they've seen each other and called back on how they became friends.

Rocky and Mark's history date back to middle school. The school noticed that Mark had a disability, so he was put in special ed. classes and had aids follow him everywhere. Marks disability involved him being sensitive to a certain sound, which was evident even during elementary. His teachers and special aids failed to realize that a cult of students formed over the years just to bully Mark with that sound.

Mark himself was the only one disciplined due to his reaction to the sound, being roars and grunts. He got detention every day just because the bullies wouldn't stop. Since Rocky passed the detention room every day he left school, he took note of this and eventually asked the supervisor about this. The supervisor just told Rocky that Mark was a bad kid that scared other students for fun. Mark overheard what the supervisor said and felt betrayed. He got up from his seat and was about to attack the supervisor, only to be restrained by the aid that was with him.

After that day, Rocky started to investigate Mark's side of the story out of concern. He saw Mark in the hallway and noticed a guy sneaking by Mark to make the triggering sound in his ear, which causes him to scream. The guy who made the sound goes to Rocky and tells him that he should try making that sound at Mark, claiming it to be funny. Rocky questioned how sending a victim to detention everyday is funny and said he was going to report this. The guy lied about his name and tricked Rocky into reporting a girl that Mark had a crush on.