"Stop it!" Peanut yelled as she swatted her friend's hand away and continued reading what appeared to be a textbook.

Polly rubbed her hurt appendage, but didn't cry out in pain. Instead, Polly began to stare intently at her friend, hoping that the power of her mind would tear Peanut's attention away from the book.

"It's not going to work so stop it," Peanut said calmly as she turned the page in said textbook.

"Stop what?" Polly asked innocently as she repositioned herself on the couch.

"Stop trying to use mind powers," Peanut answered. "You look at me any harder and your head's going to explode. Go find yourself something to do... that doesn't involve me."
Polly's shoulders sagged. "But... I'm bored. Don't you want to come out and play?"

"Polly, I can't play right now. I have to finish reading this chapter and then I have to write that paper. I told you all this when you called me from my parking lot and told me that you were coming over."

"You're acting like a person who is responsible," Polly pouted and crossed her arms in front of her. "You're studying on the weekend. On a Saturday of a weekend, no less. I don't like it."

Peanut sighed heavily. "I'm sorry you don't like it, but I have a lot of work to get done. Today, I have to be responsible. We both knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. Now, let me study."

"Fine," Polly spit out. "I'll just go over to one of my many other friends' place and have tons of fun with them and then I'm going to call you while I'm having all that fun and tell you all about it and then tell you that you can't join us."

"Polly, sweetie, I don't want to join you. I want to get my work done." Peanut focused her attention back on her book and began reading in earnest once again.

"You're being serious." Polly said in absolute shock.

Peanut nodded not tearing her eyes away from her book.

Polly slowly moved off of the couch. "Something is very wrong with you."

"Nothing's wrong with me. I've just been really busy this past week. I've been working and I've got class... now just really isn't a good time for me to be jerking off."

Polly gasped, and then coughed from sucking in too much air. "You dare call," she managed out through her coughs, "our first Saturday of the month Eat All You Can Eat Pancakes festival jerking off!"

Peanut dropped her head into her right hand and began rubbing it. "Polly," she sighed, "I take the Eat All You Can Eat Pancakes festival very seriously. It's important to me, but if I go out with you and eat all those pancakes I won't be in good enough health to study. If I leave right now, then the chances of me returning within the next ten hours is very slim. Please understand that I just can't take that chance."

"But what if I promised to bring you back right after we're done with the pancakes?"

"You can't promise that," Peanut shook her head. "I don't know if you have that power."

"I have that power," Polly responded forcefully. "I have the power to get you back. Nothing will stand in my way."

"Are you telling me there won't be distractions by shiny objects and plans to destroy the evil squirrels? Because you know we work on our counter-attack every Pancake Saturday."

"Trust me," Polly walked up to her friend and bent down on one knee in front of her. "I will bring you back. There will be no stopping me. The squirrels can't even get in my way."

Peanut was silent for a long moment. Her mouth was pierced and her eyes looked distant. She was making a decision that would affect the rest of her Saturday. Finally, she nodded. "Okay, I'll go. But I'm trusting you to bring me back. You can't let me fall into the sugar rush like I did last month. I don't have time to drive out to the park and swim with the ducks, almost get arrested, and fight with the fish for the bread."

"I understand," Polly said solemnly. "There will be no trips to the park. You'll come right back here, refreshed and ready to study."

"I'm going to trust you."

"I won't betray it."

"Then let's go."

Eleven Hours and Forty Pancakes Later

"Keep running Polly, we're almost to the car!" Peanut called over her shoulder as she jumped over a stack of fire logs.

"I'm running as fast as I can!" Polly shouted back as she attempted her jump over the fire logs and stumbled on the landing.

"You need to run faster," Peanut yelled as she pumped her arms vigorously as she ran. "We have to make it to the car it's our only chance! Stretch your legs out further or something!"

"Are you calling me short?" Polly asked as she dodged a tree branch.

"No!" Peanut responded. "I'm calling you slow!"

"How dare you! None of this is even my fault!"

A faint barking in the distance could be heard getting closer.

"It's not my fault either!" Peanut called back. "I'm not the one that found the hidden gate!"

"And I'm not the one that discovered the key and used it!"

"I'm not the one that actually opened the gate!"

"I'm not the one that went in first and decided to get closer to the nice doggies!"

Peanut turned a sharp corner and continued running towards her Saturn, which was parked only two-hundred feet away. "This is not the time to be discussing this matter."

"You just know that I'm right and you're wrong!" Polly accused as the barking got closer.

"We will discuss this later," Peanut enunciated carefully as she ran into the side of her car and frantically reached in her pocket to get out her keys.

Polly kept her silence as she dove over the hood of the car and to the passenger seat, waiting not too patiently for Peanut to open the door. "Why the hell did you insist of locking your car? We're in the middle of nowhere!"

"I've been conditioned!" Peanut yelled back as she finally got her door open and dove into the driver's seat quickly closing the door behind her. She reached over and opened the passenger side door, just in time for Polly to jump in before her foot was grabbed into the mouth of one very angry Pit Bull.

"Drive!" Polly yelled as she locked her door and reached over to put on her seatbelt. "I'm sure the owner of those dogs is going to be coming pretty soon."

Peanut did, for once, as she was told and peeled out of the parking lot of their favorite park. She sped onto the main road then to the onramp to the freeway. Once a safe distant away she started hollering out her excitement. "Woo hoo! I'm damn fast!"

"You almost got us killed!" Polly screamed. "My foot was almost eaten off by Mr. Mean Dog. He got a piece of my jeans," she pointed to the ripped portion of her left jean cuff, "and I think I'm having a heart attack as we speak."

"That doesn't really matter. We got away, and besides this is all your fault anyway."

"And how?" Polly asked outraged. "None of this was my idea! I tired taking you home. I tried getting you back to be a responsible adult! I freakin' tried!"

Peanut sighed. "I just guess you didn't try hard enough, and that's a real pity."

"And you maintain that I'm the insaner one, right?"

"Of course." Peanut smiled brightly.

Polly stared at her friend for a long moment then began laughing hysterically. "I really thought I was going to die," she managed to say through her laughter. "I thought that thing was going to eat me."

Peanut joined in on the laughter. "Yeah. And when I tripped over that log and he jumped for me, I thought he was going to bite my head off."

"Damn," Polly moaned. "We're going to get in serious trouble one of these days."

Peanut shrugged. "Probably."

"We can never repeat this story to either one of our girlfriends, you know? They already threatened us with supervised visitations only."

Peanut nodded. "I understand."

"Good," Polly ran her hand through her hair. After an extended moment of silence she added, "We've got to lay off those pancakes."

The End