A SHARP SERIES OF BEEPS REVERTED MARINE THE DINOSAUR BACK TO HUMAN FORM.

In fact, Marine mayn’t have been dreaming about being a dinosaur at all. Perhaps she was having a rather unpleasant dream about being a large beetle. But since beetles shared an uncanny resemblance to dinosaurs, from the perspective of an ant, it didn’t matter much if Marine were to be a dinosaur or a beetle. And, as Marine had already forgotten the details of her dream, she could have been a rare species of Dinobeetle or Beetosaur for all she cared.

Marine’s foggy brain finally came to the conclusion that whatever the dream was about, it had to have been extremely important, for she had promptly forgotten all about it. The ability to rapidly forget information is a talent Marine reserved only for extremely important tasks. Tasks such as finishing her homework she had left on the floor.

Marine scrambled to her feet. She stopped her stubborn watch from beeping, strapping it on her wrist. In half an hour, the bus would arrive. Marine flicked on the switch, using five of those precious minutes blinking her eyes and squinting to get used to the light. She thought she must look a lot like a turtle.

Fifteen more minutes were spent in the shower. She had attempted to take a cold one, like in movies, but found it was impossible to enjoy a shower cold, and twisted the knob to a temperature crafted to accommodate those who enjoyed taking long, hot, showers.

Marine flew threw her math problems while scrambling eggs, her mind constantly preoccupied with excuses for the grease on the printout. She poured the slightly overcooked eggs out on a plate, packing her backpack as she waited for the eggs to cool. Three more minutes.

Marine shoved eggs in her mouth as she pulled a sweatshirt over her head. Stuffing her feet in untied sneakers, she ran down the driveway in time for the bus.

Marine was greeted by a grunt from the driver, and she returned her gratitude with another grunt, searching for an empty seat. She filtered out the chaos in the bus easily, catching her breath as she watched the window. Despite the hurry she was in to complete her math homework, Marine felt confident that she had gotten everything correct.

Her peace was interrupted by a sudden halt, which seemed to be the only thing the bus driver excelled at.

“Hey Nick!” someone called.

Marine, or more commonly called by her middle name Nick, plastered on a smiled. “Hey,” she replied, “morning.”

Nick sighed internally, finally accepting that the dreaded obstacle course known as school had begun.

SOMEWHERE IN THE VICINITY OF EARTH A MUSTELA WAS CRUISING AT 80% LIGHT SPEED. His grand name cannot be spelled in the puny language of Earth beings, but pronunciation of the name closely resembled the jumble of consonants and vowels known as Exflibberaguil. Mustela, by sheer coincidence, is also the scientific name for animals like the weasel.

Exflibberaguil was having a strange and heated monologue, along the lines of:

“Calm dowZRITIOS.”

“trifliwerSTOP.”

“Oh, come on! You’re being immaturALFOTERAGETBEN.”

It should be noted that this is not translated from the language of Mustache.

Exflibberaguil then continued his monologue in Mandarin.

Upon closer examination, it was not a monologue after all, but an argument with his translator, who was being particularly sulky after Exflibberaguil had attempted to install a new dictionary that his translator didn’t approve of.

Exflibberaguil resigned to the debate, and as a punishment, the translator refused to translate anything he said. Therefore, for the benefit of the reader, the rest is translated from the sophisticated language of Mustache to the primitive English language.

“7730!” Exflibberaguil called out.

A ferret brought a thin device to his owner.

Exflibberaguil turned 7730 on, muttering and tapping his fingers on his knee impatiently. The device loaded, but Exflibberaguil was immediately disappointed again for her uttered a beautiful walrus cry.

“No one agreed!” he cried, sounding very much like a disappointed evil mastermind.

He set 7730 back on the ferret to put away, and leaned back on his seat (which strangely enough, was shaped like a toucan).

A little blue planet was not far away.

AT THE SAME TIME:

An archeologist cut himself with a razor while he was shaving, and the blood that dripped down on the floor would later be licked up by his dog.

A dress maker was humming a strange tune that sounded eerily like wind between tree hollows, waking up squirrels who screamed agitatedly and cursed the wind, and then getting eaten by an owl.

A meercat specialist bit into a tapeworm-infested piece of raw fish.

None of these people have any importance to this story, but it is worth noting that the doctor of the meercat specialist had taken three hours out of his sleep to extract the tapeworm, and it probably wouldn’t be a great idea to cross the man.