I remember the first time I was drawn to life. 

It was an odd day in December, the tiniest bit of sleet falling, despite the Texas heat. Abigail was in English class, free to spend time with her friends after her work was submitted for the day. Her friend was up at the whiteboard in one of the study rooms, a black dry-erase marker in her hand. She looked back at Abigail, smiling, before drawing a little stick-figure drawing, her arms raised up to the sky. Her giant speech bubble proclaimed (rather noisily) that she was Mini Abigail. That was when I entered the story.

  Let’s pause. Before we get any further, I should introduce myself. When I said that I entered the story, you were probably assuming that I was Abigail or her friend- but that wasn’t me. I was the little drawing, Mini Abigail. Now that we’ve cleared that confusion up, let’s press play on the story. 

Abigail and her friend continued to chat for the rest of the period, occasionally adding new details to my scene. By the time the bell rang, I was on an island-forest-mountain, surrounded by dragon-bunnies perched on the trees around me. Note to self: Dragon-bunnies aren’t that friendly, especially if you haven’t been drawn any treats to feed them. 

-☆-

Day slowly faded to night and back, as no one entered my room for days on end, with the silence only broken by the sound of the dragon-bunnies snoring loudly in the corner. Finally, one morning, Abigail popped back into the room. She looked around, then picked up the scrunchie she had left behind on the floor. As she stood back up, she came face to face with me. 

“Oh, you’re still here,” she said, smiling. She seemed very nice at that moment. I wanted to reply, but I was afraid. Maybe I should have spoken to her then, but she was already halfway out the door. 

-☆-

The room I was in was always left empty, which I found to be rather sad. Everything seemed perfectly fine. After all, the light worked, the door closed, and the tables stood up on their own. I would see people pass by in the window, eyeing the room before walking away. 

Then, one day, someone placed a sign on the door, covering my only window. It was backward, so I was only left to assume that it read “DANGEROUS DRAGON-BUNNIES! KEEP OUT!”. Which was an unfortunate assumption, seeing as I was friends with the dragon-bunnies now, and had even named them. As it turns out, the way to their hearts is to pet them right between the ears. It was a shame that I hadn’t been able to figure it out sooner, because now I was finally able to fly to the top of the mountain on the side of the board. 

Not that the mountain was different than anywhere else.

-☆-

It seemed as if weeks at a time had passed before I finally made my big decision: I was going to leave the room, and go and visit the actual world. I wasn’t quite sure, yet, how it would be done, but only that I would do it. I was going to see the outside, meet Abigail, and perhaps even see a real mountain. 

-☆-

So, I set about the preparations for my grand journey. I walked my dragon-bunnies, pet the dragon-bunnies, and said a tearful goodbye to my beloved dragon-bunnies. I was a scribble on a whiteboard- the concepts of eating or sleeping were beyond what I needed to do. As much as it hurt to leave them, I wasn’t sure if the world outside was safe for them- or even for me. 

The day came when I was ready to leave on my trip. I slowly walked to the edge of my board and tried dangling a leg off of the edge. I promptly fell through to the ground, because I was nothing more than a slip of paper in a three-dimensional world. At the right angle, you wouldn’t be able to see me at all. 

I looked back one last time, before hurrying towards the door. I needed to be quick- I didn’t know how people would react if they were to see a little stick figure drawing wandering around the floor. I slid underneath the door (two dimensions for the win!), and scrambled out into the hallway. It was dark, with a faint breeze curling around the corner. From a window that was finally visible, I could see the moon in the sky, branches swaying in the wind. 

Since the school was empty, there was no reason that I should stay still and lie in wait. I wanted to explore, find a mountain, visit Abigail, and see everything in the world in just one night. 

-☆-

As it turns out, the world is a pretty beautiful place. Even though my feet got stuck in gum underneath the lockers, I was able to get out and see my mountains. There was a huge poster in one of the classrooms, and I had managed to get onto a little bookshelf for a better view. It was a picture of Mount Everest, with some brave climbers upon it. It was incredible that anyone would ever be able to do that. Maybe Abigail will take me there, I thought to myself. That, of course, meant finding Abigail, which was another whole cup of markers. 

-☆-

The fluorescent light flickered on after a few hours. I could hear the low buzzing sound of the building powering on in the background, as feet and people filled the building. Suddenly, the once-quiet hallways filled with noise, the sound of stamping feet and the papers rustling. I had always seen this happen, but for the first time, I was a part of it, pressed up against the wall in a dark corner under the lockers. It was so much more overwhelming than I ever would have expected it to be. 

I had found my way to Abigail’s locker last night, and it was surprisingly neat and clean. Whoever was next to her, was definitely not as organized. The sheer amount of paper and food spilling out onto the floor was enough to warrant a caution sign. 

Eventually, she showed up. It was a quarter to nine, and she looked as though she had been having a rough morning. Her shoelaces were untied, her hair was a mess, and her first reaction upon opening her locker was that she had forgotten her homework. I wanted right then, to go and say hello, but she turned away so quickly, and the hallway was so crowded. So I stayed silent and watched her walk away. She took a turn down a hallway I hadn’t explored, which was interesting, as it was labeled as the seventh-grade hallway. I could have sworn that she was older than that. 

-☆-

After the hallways had cleared, I ran over the empty concrete floor, and down the hallway she had disappeared down. It was, in fact, just a row of classrooms branching off of the main hall. Everyone was in class, and people would seldom be looking for a whiteboard drawing hurrying around, so I walked regularly. I was hoping to see if I could find Abigail in one of the classrooms. 

Finally, I reached the end of the hall, covered in posters of student work from the year. There she was, Abigail, sitting alone at one of the tables in the hallway, quietly working on her computer. I hurried over to her and took a deep breath. This was it, I thought, I’m finally going to get to meet her, and then she’ll be able to take me to go see the real outside.

“Hello!” I shouted, from down at her feet. “Abigail?”

She looked up for a moment, but didn’t see anyone (anyone life-size-giant, that is), and shrugged, looking back down at her paper. 

“Abigail!” I shouted again, looking around for some way to get onto the table she was working on. She continued as if she had heard nothing at all.

That was when I spotted it, my perfect onto-the-table route. I would simply climb up the string ladder hanging off of some artwork, vault onto a bookshelf, then slide down a sheet of paper, directly onto her computer. It was a perfect, foolproof plan. 

-☆-

As it turns out, whiteboard drawings don’t have much upper-body strength. Or strength at all, really. That would have been helpful to know before attempting the dangerous climb. 

I executed the ladder part perfectly, as it was an easy climb. The vault part was where things began to go wrong. I was perfectly poised to make a flawless leap when I jumped and fell straight down to the floor. Thankfully, I screamed loud enough that Abigail was able to hear me. Unfortunately, her friend did too, and I could see her look up from the classroom as I was trying to catch my breath on the floor. 

“What are you?” Abigail said, finally noticing me. 

“Mini Abigail,” I replied, sitting up.

“Mini-me?” She asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Yes.”

“What even? How are you even here?”

“I was drawn, I came to life, and I wanted to meet you.”
“Is this even real?”

“I would hope so,” I replied, “But your friend is here. So, I have to go now.”

“What do you mean?” She asked me, as I climbed up her sweater and into a pocket. It was slightly fuzzy and smelled slightly of candy. Having candy is always a good sign in a friend. I peeked out of her pocket slightly and saw her friend approach. 

“Who are you talking to?” Her friend asked, looking around.

“I was talking to… Myself.” I was a bit surprised at that moment that she hadn’t said anything about me. I would presume that she doesn’t meet a lot of talking whiteboard drawings, although you can never really be sure.

-☆-

A few hours later, after spending so much time in her pocket, school was over. Abigail had walked over to a study room and settled down to do some homework, facing the wall away from any windows. Right then, she opened her pocket and whispered:

“You can come out now. There’s no one here.” As I climbed out of her pocket, I was hit by a sudden influx of questions.

“Why are you here? What are you? How are you even alive? What do you want with me? And… I don’t know. What even.”

“Again, I’m your whiteboard drawing, so Mini Abbie. I’m here because I wanted to meet you, and I wanted to go outside. I’ve always wanted to go outside.”
“What about outside?”

“I’ve seen people talk about outside. I’ve seen pictures. I want to see the real thing. I want to see a mountain.”

“Well, I hate to break it to you, but there are no mountains here.”

“Fine,” I said, “then I want to go outside.”

“Like, just go to a park?”

“Sure!”

“And then what?” That question made me pause. After all, what was my plan? I would see outside, and then do what? Go back to my whiteboard and dragon-bunnies?

“I don’t know,” I hesitated, “I guess nothing?”

“You can do better than that. But for now, I’d be happy to help you get outside.”

“Really?” I say. I hadn’t thought that you could simply do that so quickly. And why would she help me, anyway? 

“No mountains,” she said, picking me up, “But there’s some grass and trees.”

-☆-

We had reached the outside. We were alone, so Abigail placed me on the floor. It was drizzling outside, and the ground was damp. The water was making me a little bit smudgy, but it wasn’t too bad. I’d have to ask Abigail to give me a touch-up before she left. 

The whole world seemed quiet, except for the slight sounds of rustling grass, which looked more like a forest than something anyone could walk over. I walked out a little further into the grass, pushing down a slight path beneath me. I could feel Abigail's eyes on me as I walked over to a large rock in the garden. She walked over to join me and crouched down next to me. 

“You know,” she said, “This is a mountain too.”

I smiled at that moment. I knew that she was just trying to help me feel better, but I wanted to believe it, that I was going to climb an actual mountain.

I placed one foot on the side of the cliff and slowly began pulling myself up. After a few minutes, I began to get tired, but I was determined to make it up. If humans could climb Mount Everest, why shouldn’t a whiteboard drawing be able to climb her own mountain?

-☆-

After what felt like hours of climbing (although Abigail assured me that it was only fifteen minutes), I had reached the top. It had taken a lot of work, some slips, falls, and catches by Abigail, but I had made it. I planted both of my exhausted feet on the rocky surface and stood up. Although no helicopters were documenting my journey, it felt like I had done something just as impressive. 

I was outside, I was with Abigail, and I had finally climbed my mountain. 

The End.