Adrian was starting school in a few weeks, and no matter how many places he went to, they were sold out of school supplies. Apparently, everything was on backorder. Except for Walmart. No one was going to Walmart. Everyone kept saying that Walmart school supplies were bad news. They always got lost, they broke, and they disappeared, as if by magic. But Adrian wasn’t afraid (and he really needed supplies) so he went to Walmart and found the school supplies section. The supplies were cheap and were the same brand as all the others at other stores. He didn’t see what was wrong. He glanced at his list and selected all of his supplies, and then some other necessities (candy, candy, and more candy) and paid for it all. He jumped into the car.

“Got all you need?” His mom asked from the seat next to him.

“Yep.” Adrian nodded. As they headed home, he heard the plastic bag rubbing against itself, but he figured it was just because of the bumpy road. 

They arrived at home, and Adrian jumped out of the car, grabbing his bag of supplies and walking into his room.

“Adrian! Dinner’s ready!” His mom called up the stairs. 

“‘Kay!” He yelled back, closing his book and running down to dinner. He ate quickly, and then helped his mom clean up the kitchen. He ran back upstairs to get ready for bed, said goodnight to his mom, and went to sleep. 

He sat up, wide awake, panting. What happened? Something…spoke. He looked around his room wildly, searching for the voice. He clicked his lamp on and padded across the floor. “Hello?” He asked.

“Hey. I’m Aidan. And this isn’t a horror movie, stop being so freaked out. I’m just a pencil”

“Wait-hold on. Where are you?” Adrian turned in circles, looking for the voice.

“Down here you…human!” Something poked him in the foot.

“Hey!” He bent down and grabbed the pencil.

“Sorry ‘bout this pal.” he said, and the world twisted and spun and Adrian didn’t know which way was up or down. 

“Where-where am I?” He asked. There were trees that looked like those pens with the pompoms on the ends, and the rocks looked like crumpled paper. And for some reason, there were mountains made of mismatched socks. 

“You are in the land of lost things,” Aiden said, floating in the air. 

“Wow! It’s so cool here!” Adrian exclaimed, running over to one of the trees. He knocked on it, and found that it was hollow.

“I’ll show you around!” Aiden said, flying over to where Adrian was. Adrian looked up at the pencil, and followed him around to a river made of what looked to be ink. They jumped over the river, and continued on towards the sock mountains. They saw villages made out of playing cards, and people that were lost game pieces that had come to life. When they finally reached the sock mountains, Adrian was in awe of the entire land of lost things. 

“Well, we’re at the end of our journey,” Aiden said, and Adrian frowned.

“Why?” He asked, pouting. 

“Because you have school tomorrow, and you need some sleep,”  Aiden replied, flying closer. Adrian grabbed the floating pencil, and got spun back around in all different directions.

Adrian shot up out of bed, gasping. What a weird dream… he thought. He rolled out of bed, and switched on a lamp. He opened the bag of school supplies and gasped. There was only one pencil left.