Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Draft Model #1 - Spider Shenanigans
Thanks to the help of Sylveevee, SunnyFox57, and MrGhostGamer's draft models, Ben has managed to finish his story and submit it just in time for his teacher to read.
As the bell got closer and closer to striking recess, Jimmy felt his mind wander and tried to think of a master plan to get his precious toy back. It couldn’t be that hard, right?
“It’s so high up though,” Jimmy thought meekly as his eyes looked at the awesome Spider Man toy so high up on the bookshelf. Even using the chairs, he would be too short to reach it. He’d need to find something tall in order to get it.
Just then, he heard someone giggling at him from the desk behind him. He turned around and snarled at who it was. It was Brenda. She had a cruel smile on her face.
“Are you going to cry because you had your stupid toy taken away from you?” Brenda teased him slyly.
“Shut up Brenda,” Jimmy murmured back, “You know how much that toy means to me.”
Brenda leaned back in her seat. She twirled her wavy black hair around one of her fingers.
“If you really want your toy back, maybe you can ask my big bro for help. You can’t reach your toy, right?”
“No…”
“Well my big brother can. He doesn’t like anyone mentioning it, but he was held back a year in the fourth grade because he failed his district interim. He’s pretty tall too. He can reach your precious Spider Man easily.”
“R-Really? He’d be willing to help?” Jimmy said with wonder, “Why are you helping me?”
“Because I can. And to be honest, I don’t really like that Britney girl anyway. Tattle tales are so boring,” Brenda noted. She looked over at her friend, Andrea, who was quietly working on her math assignment without paying attention to their conversation. Then she looked over at Britney, who was doing the same. She seemed tuned out.
“But I do expect a reward.”
“I’ll let you touch my Spider Man toy twice,” Jimmy suggested.
“Tsk, I don’t care about your lame toy,” Brenda scoffed. Jimmy frowned at her words. His Spider Man toy was NOT lame.
“Then what do you want?”
Brenda’s eyes darted over to Jimmy’s mechanical pencil, she nodded at that. Jimmy clutched onto it tightly and away from sight. It was a very expensive mechanical pencil and he wouldn’t let it go so easily.
“No, you can’t have that. Anything else.”
“But I want that,” Brenda grinned, “I heard it’s a good pencil. My parents won’t give me one, so I’ve had to settle with the regular ones.”
“I can just ask your big brother and I don’t have to give you anything. So choose something else.”
“And I can ask him not to help you at all,” Brenda giggled.
Mr. Hsu continued to ramble on about grammar in creative writing. Then, finally, he began to pass out some weird story prompt that they’d have to fill out. Brenda took the paper and placed it in her folder, and slowly began to put it away in her backpack.
“Last chance, Jimmy. As soon as I place this folder in my backpack… I’m calling it off.”
Brenda snickered as she lowered the folder into her backpack, and Jimmy finally took his pencil and placed it on her desk.
“Fine. Have it.”
Brenda smiled gently at Jimmy, picking the pencil up and flashing it in front of Jimmy.
“I’m glad we have a deal. My big brother Danny always hangs out near the benches.”
“Where all the benched people sit?”
“Yes. He’s friends with a lot of them. You can find him there. He’ll help you.”
RIIIIING!
“Okay everyone. Have a good recess!” Mr. Hsu announced, “I’ll be in the bathroom, so bother me when we come back. I’ll be in there for a while, since I had a pretty nasty breakfast…”
Everyone let out gags of disgust, and some laughter, and then everyone filtered out of the classroom.
~
Jimmy soon found himself wandering toward the benches, where all the troublemakers would sit. They got in trouble for a lot of things. Littering, failing to turn in homework for many consecutive days, or being unsafe on the playground. Disrespect toward teachers was another offense.
Jimmy could already feel the sweat accumulating on his forehead as he approached the gnarly benches. The blue paint was rotting, and the kids there were solemn and quiet, taking in their punishments. Some cried, while some were swearing under their breaths. Jimmy could spot a pretty big guy for elementary school chatting with some random person. This must have been Danny.
“So what are you in for?” Danny asked the random girl.
“The noon-aid got mad at me because I was running too fast during tag.”
“Pft, that’s stupid. You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know. I hate those noon-aids.”
Jimmy slowly approached Danny, and just stood there staring at him. Danny turned around.
“What are you looking at?” Danny asked, clenching his fists.
“N-Nothing. I just wanted your help,” Jimmy finally uttered his words. Danny didn’t look like a 5th grader. He looked like he should have been in middle school.
“If you want help with math or some stupid stuff like that, you can go ask some nerd. I’m not the guy to look for,” Danny said.
“No, I need your help with something else,” Jimmy explained, “Britney the tattle tale got my toy confiscated and now I need it back. But Mr. Hsu put it on a bookshelf and I can’t reach it, even with a chair. You’re the only one tall enough to reach it.”
“Mr. Hsu? He’s nice, usually he doesn’t confiscate anything. And if he does, he returns it at the end of the day.”
“He said I’d get it next week,” Jimmy grumbled.
Danny smirked, and got up from the bench.
“Well that must mean you’re a bad kid,” Danny said, “I like your type. I hate the rules. I’ve seen it all the time. It’s the reason why people like Patricia here must suffer. Rules are stupid.”
“Am I a bad kid?” Jimmy thought. He shook his head, thinking, “No, I’m not a bad kid. It’s Britney’s fault. She got me in trouble.”
“So will you help me?”
Danny smirked.
“Yeah, but you said a tattle tail ratted you out? Britney was her name?”
“Yes. I just wanted to check on my toy, but she told on me. I hate her,” Jimmy admitted. A smile grew on Danny’s face.
“If that’s the case, then I’ll help you. But you’re going to have to embrace the bad,” Danny ordered Jimmy, “You go beat up Britney, and I’ll get the toy for you.”
“B-beat up Britney?”
“Yeah. To teach her a lesson for telling on you,” Danny reasoned, “So she learns her lesson and doesn’t do it again. You hate her guts, right?”
“I hate her.”
“Then it shouldn’t be hard. Just beat her up. If you don’t get it, I won’t get that toy for you.”
“But why? Why can’t I just… I don’t know, threaten her?”
“Because that’s not enough. And you’re BAD, so you need to embrace BAD. Sometimes doing bad things is right,” Danny added on, “You’ll get it one day. Now. Are you ready? Because we don’t have much time until recess ends.”
Jimmy took a deep breath in, and then a deep breath out. He nodded.
“Yeah. I am.”
~
Jimmy slowly crept up behind Britney, who was eating a bag of chips alone near the buildings. Jimmy quickly looked around his surroundings. There was no one watching.
Jimmy leaned his fist back, preparing himself to pummel it into Britney’s back, but as he prepared to take the first hit, he felt himself freeze up. Was he really going to do this?
“I don’t want to do this,” Jimmy thought, “I just wanted my toy back.”
Jimmy lowered his fist, and quickly ran away from the scene. Recess would end soon, and Danny would have Jimmy’s toy as promised.
As Jimmy looked back at Britney one last time, he accidentally bumped into someone. Jimmy looked in front of him to see that it was Brenda. Brenda brushed her shoulder and looked at Jimmy with a slick smile.
“What were you just about to do?” Brenda asked.
“Nothing,” Jimmy replied quickly. Brenda laughed.
“Danny asked you to do it, right? Why didn’t you just beat her up? She deserves it.”
Jimmy shoved past Brenda.
“Just leave me alone. It wasn’t right.”
Jimmy stormed off, and Brenda snickered, turning around and looking at Britney.
“You scaredy cat! Did you decide to leave her alone out of the goodness of your heart, or because you were scared of the consequences?”
Jimmy refused to respond, but he thought about it hard.
Why?
~
The recess bell had rung, and it was time to go back to class. Everyone was lining up to get escorted by their teachers back to the classroom. Jimmy spotted Danny in the other line for the other 5th grade class, and as he spotted Jimmy, Danny grinned.
“Yo! I did it as you’ve asked. Now, did you do as I said?” Danny asked, walking up to Jimmy. Jimmy began to sweat. He looked over at Britney, who was standing at the front of the line as she usually did, with not even a scratch on her body.
“Yeah, I did.”
“And did it feel good?”
“O-of course it did,” Jimmy replied.
“Good. That’s how you should feel. I’m glad you understand now,” Danny smiled. He reached into his pocket and pulled out something red and black in color. Jimmy’s eyes began to sparkle. His Spider Man toy… at last.
But as Danny pulled it out, Jimmy noticed something was very, very, wrong. It was Spider Man, alright, but his arm…
His arm was missing!
Danny placed the Spider Man toy in Jimmy’s hand, and Jimmy began to tremble.
“W-what happened to his arm?”
“Oh yeah, the arm,” Danny said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his arm, which had seemingly popped right off the figure. He put it on Jimmy’s hand, and Jimmy put all his effort not to cry right then and there.
“Sorry about the messy work. When I tried getting it off the bookshelf, it tumbled off and hit the ground pretty hard. Honestly you can’t blame me, the bookshelf’s high even for me…” Danny turned around and noticed his 5th grade teacher coming out. He turned away and began to walk off.
“Well I gotta bounce. It was nice meetin’ ya!”
Danny walked away, and Jimmy looked ahead to see Mr. Hsu approaching. He quickly stuffed the Spider Man toy away in his pockets, and gulped to himself, knowing that he had just made things even worse than they were before.
The rest of the day, Jimmy stared blankly at his desk, unsure of how to feel, and unsure of how to react.
~
As the day approached its end, everyone was beginning to pack up and leave. Mr. Hsu was wiping the whiteboard clean of all of its diagrams, and everyone was chatting away at what they were going to do when they got home.
“Alright class, we have 20 minutes of the school day left. And since Jimmy doesn’t have a toy, we’re just going to have recess until school ends,” Mr. Hsu announced.
“Woo hoo, awesome! Let’s go!” everyone cheered as they began to filter out the classroom. Jimmy got up to leave with them, when Mr. Hsu stopped him.
“Hold on just a moment, Jimmy.”
Jimmy turned white, and gulped. How could have Mr. Hsu caught him?
“Wait a minute… Dag nab it, of course he would notice the toy missing from the top of the bookshelf!” Jimmy realized to himself. Jimmy turned around, wiping the sweat from his face and standing upright.
“Y-yes Mr. Hsu?” Jimmy asked.
“Nothing important. I was just going to give you your toy back,” Mr. Hsu said.
“Oh. Really?” Jimmy asked, flabbergasted.
“Of course. You didn’t actually think I’d keep it until next week did you? It’s more of a school policy, actually. But I don’t listen to the rules all the time.”
“Well that’s great…”
Mr. Hsu smirked.
“You already have it don’t you?”
Jimmy finally burst down into tears.
“Yes, yes I did Mr. Hsu! I know what I did was wrong, I should have just waited until next week and gotten my toy back and I didn’t need to go through stealing my toy back just to touch it again and now it’s broken because I messed up!” Jimmy blabbered, tears running down his face. A frown grew on Mr. Hsu’s face.
“Jimmy, I’m not going to punish you,” Mr. Hsu said, getting down on one knee, “It’s our nature to get back what’s ours. I was like you once too. But sometimes you need to suffer the consequences and take accountability for your actions. Everyone does.”
“I get it, I get it,” Jimmy said.
“Now. May I see the toy?” Mr. Hsu requested, putting his palm out. Jimmy reluctantly reached into his pocket, feeling the grasp of the action figure in his hand. Then he pulled it out, his missing arm rested on his chest. He placed it on Mr. Hsu’s palm, and almost instantly, Mr. Hsu took the arm and popped it right back where it belonged.
POP!
“That easy?”
“Yeah. That easy,” Mr. Hsu responded, giving the toy back to Jimmy, “Now here’s your THE DELUXE SPECIAL EDITION SPIDERMAN WITH DUAL WEB SLINGING WRIST LAUNCHERS.”
Jimmy smiled to himself at Mr. Hsu’s last comment. So he did know what the toy was.
“Thank you Mr. Hsu!”
“You’re welcome Jimmy. And bring him tomorrow, okay? You’ll still have your turn with Show and Tell. Just don’t let me see it tomorrow until then, okay?”
“You got it Mr. Hsu! I promise!”
So Jimmy left the building, and went to the playground to play with the other kids for the rest of the day until school ended. Despite everything that happened, things were… alright.