Shala caught up with Melvin as he was walking into the classroom. “I hope you finished your half of the report. I’m not really in the mood to fail this.” Melvin stopped and turned to Shala.

“Of course I finished. What kind of partner do you take me for? I immediately got to work on it when I got home last night. My report is going blow your report away,” Melvin bragged then made a face and stuck his tongue out at Shala.

“It better. I watched you play with your silly stuffed bear most of the evening so you better have gotten it done.”

“Whatever,” Melvin said and rolled his eyes. He sat down at his desk and pulled out a couple pieces of paper and began writing: Uranus: A Planet by Melvin.

“Man, this stinks,” Melvin said as he threw his jacket and backpack on the floor. “Since I didn’t do that book report and got a failing grade for both me and Shala I’m grounded. I’m not responsible for getting us a failing grade. It was an equal opportunity report so it’s partly Shala’s fault too.”

“Sounds like good logic to me,” said Helu, a stuffed bear who was laying on the bed and reading a comic book.

“Well, I’m tired of it. I’m tired of being bossed around by everyone. I’m leaving. I’m gonna go to Alaska and…and…and become a lumberjack,” Melvin announced.

“A lumberjack?” Helu questioned. “You don’t know anything about being a lumberjack.”

“I’m sure there’s a training course or vocational school up there,” Melvin said.

“How are you going to get there?” Helu asked, putting down the comic book.

Melvin grabbed his globe and sat it down on the floor. “See? Look at this, we’re here and Alaska’s here. It’s looks like maybe a day’s walking.”

“I don’t think that’s how a globe works,” Helu said.

“Come on, let’s go downstairs and make some sandwiches to eat on the way,” Melvin said. “In case we can’t spear any fish.”

Melvin went downstairs and into the kitchen. His mother was making something for dinner. Melvin grabbed the bread and a knife out of the drawer. “What are you doing, Melvin? Dinner will be ready soon.”

“I’m making some sandwiches for Helu and I. We’re tired of being bossed around so we’re moving to Alaska to become lumberjacks.”

“Really? How are you going to get to Alaska?” Melvin’s mom asked, not really concerned.

“We’re gonna walk. We looked at the globe and it’s maybe a day away,” Melvin said as he began to slather mayonnaise on a piece of bread.

“I don’t think that’s how a globe works,” his mom said.

“We may have to spend the night in British Columbia or the Yukon but by tomorrow evening, we should be in Alaska,” Melvin said. He finished up the sandwiches, wrapped them up in sandwich bags and took the four of them upstairs. Helu had taken Melvin’s school stuff out of the backpack and was repacking it with comic books and two rubber tipped dart guns for protection. Melvin stuffed the sandwiches into the backpack. “There I think we’re all packed.”

“Does your mom know your leaving?”

“Yeah, I told her. She didn’t really seem to notice but she knows I’m not gonna change my mind so why get all upset over something you can’t change?” Melvin said. “Well, we’re ready to go.”

Melvin and Helu went downstairs. “So long, Mom! We’re off to Alaska. Maybe we’ll be back around Christmas!” Melvin said.

“Melvin! Wait a minute,” his mom shouted.

“Leave it to a mom to drag out a goodbye,” Melvin sighed.

“You’re headed southwest, north is that way,” she pointed behind her and off toward a grove a trees on the next block.

“Oh, yeah. I knew that,” Melvin said.

It was past dinnertime and the sun was setting in the west as Melvin and Helu trekked their way through the woods near their house. They had currently only walked half of a quarter mile and Helu was starting to get tired.

“I want to take a break,” Helu said.

“We’ve only been walking for twenty minutes. We should at least try to get to the Canadian border first,” Melvin said.

“It’s dinnertime. I’m hungry.”

“We only have four sandwiches and we should probably save those for when we get to the Rockies,” Melvin explained.

“You can save yours. I’m resting and eating one,” Helu sat down on a rock and began digging through the backpack on Melvin’s shoulders.

“All right. But only eat one. Do you want a comic book?” Melvin asked.

“No thanks. Just the sandwich,” Helu said and bit into one of the sandwiches.

“I’m gonna record this in our journal,” Melvin said, taking out a spiral notebook and a pencil. “’Journey To Alaska: Day One. Have travelled twenty minutes so far. No snow or sign of any Eskimos.’”

“’Food supplies low’,” Helu added.

“’Morale remains high as we continue north’.”

“My morale would be higher if I could have another sandwich,” Helu said.

“We need to save them for the mountains and when we get into northern Canada,” Melvin said. “Now don’t argue with me, I’m the leader of this expedition.”

“Since when do we have a leader? If we’re suddenly doling out leadership responsibilities then I think it’s my turn to be leader!” Helu argued.

“So it’s a mutiny you want is it?” Melvin shouted. “You can be leader over my dead body!”

“With pleasure,” Helu stormed over to Melvin and the two began to wrestle. With the cloud of dust settled, Helu was standing on top of Melvin who was covered in dirt. “And now my first decree is leaders get double rations!”

“No!” Melvin tried speaking but his face was nearly pressed into the ground. “Those two sandwiches are mine!”

Helu finally stepped off of Melvin while he was eating his second sandwich. “If you’re gonna be leader then I don’t want to go to Alaska. You can go by yourself!” Melvin shouted and stormed off back through where they came from.

“Fine! You’re fired anyway!” Helu shouted back. “Hope your parents haven’t rented out your room!”

Melvin and Helu returned home. Melvin stuck his head in through the back kitchen door. “I’m back, Mom. I want to live here again,” he said.

His mom picked him up and hugged. “I’m glad you changed your mind.”

“Well, Helu was being idiotic so I decided I didn’t want to go with him to Alaska. Besides, he’d make friends with the bears up there and sit around all day making fun of humans anyway.”

“Well, why don’t you hop in the bathtub and I’ll warm up some dinner for you,” his mom said.

Melvin carried Helu upstairs and got in the tub. “Just so you know,” began Helu, “I wouldn’t need to make fun of humans with the other bears, you humans do a pretty good job of that yourself.”

“Oh, shut up,” Melvin said angrily.