Dissent Amongst the Pencil Cup

When pens and markers go awry and start plotting mischievousness.

“You’d better not! I tell ya, you’re going to get yourselves into big trouble if you do it.” Blue Bic puffed himself up to his full length and tried to make himself seem more prominent than his usual slim self.

“Oh, Blue Bic, you’re such a stick in the mud,” Red Marker retorted.

Blue Bic huffed and puffed, as much as a pen could. “Hey! Watch it! Don’t be calling me names.”

“I didn’t call you a name.” Red Marker stuck her tongue out.

“Did too. You called me a stick. Just cuz I’m the skinniest guy around doesn’t mean you can call me names. How’d you like it if I called you a big red hussie?” Bic asked.

Flames about shot out of the top of Red Marker’s top cap. “Hey, buddie, watch your mouth!”

“Well, you are. You’re the fieriest one in the whole bunch here. Hot tempered and ready to fight over anything. Not calm and easy going like me and my Blue Bic buds here.”

“All right you two. Cut it out!” Queenie the Purple Pen butted in. “Enough is enough. We were on a mission here and you two are squabbling like little children.”

Blue Bic and his two blue buddies and Red Marker all swiveled and turned to Queenie the Purple Pen sequestered right in the middle of the pencil cup perched on the human’s desk.

Red Marker piped up first before Blue Bic could say anything. “So, who died and made you boss? Besides, why do you think that you can be in charge here? And why do you call yourself ‘Queenie’? Like you’re any better than the rest of us.”

“But I am better than the rest of you,” Queenie the Purple Pen replied. “That’s how I got my name. I’m purple. I write in purple. Purple is the color of royalty. And besides. I’m covered with pretty flowers while the rest of you are just plain, plain, plain. Plain and boring.” She arched up, trying to make herself appear more regal in front of the others that she thought of as mere commoners.

As Queenie the Purple Pen opened her mouth to speak again, Topper the Yellow Highlighter yawned and stretched, bumping Queenie to the other side of the pencil cup. She yawned again and blinked. “What’s going on here? Why won’t y’all let a gal get her sleep?”

“Ha!” Red Marker spurted drops of red ink over the side of the pencil cup. “You would have gotten some good sleep … if you didn’t come strolling in at the break of dawn. Where were you all night anyway? And don’t you think the Human is going to catch you sneaking out one night? What if she needs you for her writing project and comes to get you and you’re not here? What ‘cha goin’ do then?”

Topper the Yellow Highlighter turned her nose up in the air. “You’re just jealous. You’re jealous cuz you think you the hot stuff in this here cup, while I’m the one gettin’ to go out on the town with Da’Man.”

Hearing his name, Da’Man, the Black Sharpie, roused and blinked his eyes open. “Someone call my name?”

“Go back to sleep,” Topper the Yellow Highlighter said, giving him a gentle nudge. “They’re all just yappin’ cuz we went out and had a little nightlife last night while they all stayed here bein’ Goody Two Shoes.”

Blue Bic started hopping up and down from his spot. “They are not. They are not! They’re not being good. In fact, they’re trying to start trouble. They want to do something, and they’ll get us all kicked out of here and thrown in the trash. They’re planning to — ”

“Shut. Up. Now.” Queenie the Purple Pen commanded with all the regal air she could muster. “They weren’t even here for our plotting; they don’t need to be involved. We don’t need them anyway. We can do it without them.”

A soft melodic voice called from the back side of the cup. “You can do it without themmmmmm, but you can’t do it without meeeeee.”

“Oh, Sparkles,” Red Marker moaned. “Who went and woke you up? And we could do it without you.”

“Noooooo you can’t,” Sparkles said, her eyes all aglitter. “You need me and my silver sparkly writing. If you want your message to have bling, then you’ve got to have me. I’ll be the one adding the shiny. None of you are shiny and sparkly like I am.”

“What? What dat you all talkin’ bout?” Da’Man asked. “What did Topper and I miss last night while we were dancing the night away?”

A prim voice answered from the far back of the cup. “What you missed was your friends plotting. A secret message they planned — ”

“Knit One Purl One, we do not need your opinion on this matter,” Queenie the Purple Pen said. “You’re not even part of this crowd. What a knitting needle is doing in here with the rest of us is a mystery anyway. You’re not even one of us. You can’t draw. You can’t write. You can’t mark. You’re just a stupid wooden stick.”

“I’ll have you know dearie,” Knit One Purl One said, “that you’re right. I can’t draw. But I can knit circles around your pathetic little squiggles. In fact, one day, you’re going to dry up and run out of ink, and I’ll still be here, knitting and purling away, making scarves and blankets and hats, while you’re dried up and tossed in the trash. Harumpph!”

“Shhhhh! Here Sheeeeee comes,” Sparkles piped in.

They all shut up and closed their eyes. Except for a few that squinted and peeked as the Human approached the desk, waiting to see who the Human would choose. As she picked up Blue Bic, he opened his eyes and stuck out his tongue at the rest of them.

They could hear his faint voice as the two moved away from the desk. “She chose meeeeeeeee!” His laughter drifted away as Blue Bic left the room in the Human’s hand.

“That’s alright. We don’t need him anyway,” Queenie the Purple Pen declared. “He’d be horrible at writing on the walls.”

“What? You’re going to write on the walls?” Da’Man asked, his eyeballs opening up as wide as a black Sharpie can open their eyes. “Well, if you’re going to be writing on the walls — then you most definitely need me. That I can do! Why I’ve been practicing that for like….forever.”

It never even occurred to him to ask what they were going to write. He didn’t care. He was a man on a mission now. Writing on walls was something he knew. Why he’d been doing that for as long as he could remember, until the Human found out and took him away from the young son that had been using him.

Knit One Purl One spoke up. “Yes, that was their plans. They all want to join together and write a giant ‘Merry Christmas’ on the wall, to surprise the Human in the morning. Which actually is fine with me. Because then the Human will get mad and throw you all in the trash leaving just me, me-myself-and I, alone in this pencil cup with no one else to annoy me.”

Da’Man looked confused. “But…why do you want to do that? Christmas is over. That was yesterday. Why do you think Topper and I went out celebrating?”

“Christmas is over?” Red Marker asked.

“Yep. Over and done with. For a whole year now,” Topper confirmed.

“Well, I guess that changes our plans then,” Queenie the Purple Pen said. “There wouldn’t be any reason to write Merry Christmas on the wall then.”

“I guess I might as well go back to sleep then,” Sparkles said. “If you aren’t going to need my bling, then I’m off to go take a beauty nap.”

“Well…you know…there always is a Plan B,” Red Marker mused. “What holiday is coming up next?”

One of our Medium friends Deb Palmer wrote a fun story about what Medium has done to our world. In a good way. Go take a look and see what she has to say about “It’s a Small World…..after all….”

Let me know if you’re singing along with her by the end of the story.

Thanks for reading my fictional tale about some pens and markers in a pencil cup. It was inspired by a prompt from Witchy. Here’s the link to where the challenge originated. I hope you had some fun reading it. And go take a look, there’s been a lot more fun stories submitted for this challenge.

Here’s Witchy’s question:

On your desk, there is a container for your pens, pencils, scissors and other such items. What kinds of conversations are happening amongst them?