Sleeping in a Pile

Penelope sat in a crowded dorm room. Someone near her, who upon closer inspection she realized was her friend Zee, looked at her and said "We're going on a field trip to the park. Come with!"

"I guess that could be fun..." was Penelope's hesitant reply. She became intensely aware now that she did not know anyone in the room apart from Zee. She regretted saying she'd go to the park because groups of strangers made her nervous, but she didn't want to look like a boring stick-in-the-mud so she decided to go along anyways.

Suddenly, everyone got up and started walking out of the room. Penelope stood up and began walking out too, but soon realized that gravity was failing her. She couldn't seem to keep her feet on the ground for more than a couple of seconds. Every step she took launched her into the air so that she was more floating than walking. How embarassing, thought Penelope, I've just met these people and the first thing they find out about me is that I can't even walk properly.

Penelope struggled to keep up with the group. She exited the building a considerable distance behind everyone else to find that they were all boarding a large school bus. She tried to run, but the lack of gravity kept her from going any faster. Then, by accidentally tripping and hurtling into a flip high in the air, she discovered that she could travel much faster by flipping than by walking.

Penelope flipped her way down the sidewalk, caught up to the group, and boarded the bus.

Later, Penelope found herself in some sort of enclosed space which was too small for the number of people crammed inside. She didn't really recognize anyone in this box-like space, either, and Zee was nowhere to be found. She felt like her own body was far too close to the others' bodies, and her face was right next to some guy's face that she didn't recognize. She was beginning to feel very uncomfortable with how close and how stuck she was with all these strangers. Wow, this must be what it was like for the Wild Things when they slept in a pile, thought Penelope.

All of a sudden, the guy whose face was far too close to her own moved his head a few centimeters toward Penelope's and kissed her on the cheek. She looked at him, about to lecture him that it's just not okay to go around kissing girls you've never met before, and realized that he did look a little bit familiar. And for some reason, though she still couldn't quite tell who he was, she felt a little bit more okay that he'd just kissed her.

But Penelope never figured out who he was.