There once was a stapler. His name was George. George was very stubborn. Because of that, he never, ever, ever wanted to staple a piece of paper again.
One year in George’s life, all of his staples were used by a human in a school, so he became very ill. He was sent to the hospital for staplers. The hospital was haunting to staplers because the doctors and nurses were humans. All staplers thought humans were terrible things because the leader of all staplers (the king stapler) also ran out of staples (from stapling lots of the Decision Committees’ papers together) and didn’t live through the walk to the stapler hospital. The doctor couldn’t save him. The old king’s name was King Hoxlin. He was a wonderful king, and everyone loved him. He might have lived if he had a queen. The queen would have been the one to save him.
Because there was no leader of the staplers anymore, everything became so chaotic. Tests were starting to be taken for who should be the next king of all staplers. George tried to take the test, but he couldn’t until his staples were replaced.
George took the secret tunnel from his cave to the hospital. He saw the light of the hospital at the end of the tunnel. He stepped into the light of the giant hospital. He looked up at the bright, square lights on the high ceiling. Before he knew it, he was being dragged into a room by a doctor and two nurses.
“Sit here,” said the doctor pointing to a chair. Humans knew exactly how to cure staplers because they had so much experience. George sat down. The doctor left the room. One of the nurses, named Ms. Doctor, went rummaging through a closet. The other nurse, named Ms. Patient, got out her clipboard and a pencil.
She asked George, “What’s your name?”
“George,” answered George.
“Age?”
“10.”
“Leader?”
“Well… I don’t exactly have one.”
“Huh,” said Ms. Patient, and wrote an X next to the word “leader.”
That poor pencil. And that paper, George thought. The pencil losing its tip, and the paper getting scribbled on.
“Hello, George!” said the cheery doctor, walking back into the room. “I’m Doctor Nurse! You can call me Doc.”
“Hi,” said George nervously.
“I have your new staples,” said Doc. “If you would come with me, I will bring you to them.”
“Okay,” said George. He and Doc walked down a long hall until they came to another little room. There was a table in the room, and on the table, there were some staples.
“Here they are!” said Doc.
A few minutes later, George walked out of the hospital back into the tunnel, good as new. George felt his way through the darkness until he was finally back home. George looked over at the tables where one took the test. The line was now curving around the whole cave.
I guess I’ll have to wait in this ginormous line, thought George.
He walked over to the end of the line and stood there looking into space. The line was so long that George slept in it for three nights, and finally, finally, he was at the front! He sat down at the table and looked at the test on a piece of paper.
Q: How will you improve our lives?
A: I will make sure we never get hurt with extra security, and I will make all of our lives fair.
Q: What will you change?
A: There will be a queen so that more work can be done.
Q: Do you think you are capable of being king?
A: Yes.
The next day the king was announced by the Decision Committee (George’s sister Ellie, his mom Amanda, and some other staplers) who had made the decision the night before. The decision for who was going to be king was fair because it was anonymous.
On stage, the Decision Committee was setting up the podium. George saw Ellie. She was wearing a long, blue dress over her black, metal body. Her long, blonde hair was tied into a bun. She had a pretty, blue flower next to the bun. She was wearing a long, pearl necklace with a diamond in the middle of it. There was sparkly, blue eye shadow over her eyes. Amanda wore an orange dress with white flowers. Her hair was a long and flowing gold. She was wearing a necklace of emerald.
All the staplers crowded together.
“The king is… GEORGE!!!”
A cheer went up in the crowd. Surprised, George got up on stage, smiling. His mother took the golden crown from the red, velvet pillow. She placed it on his head, acting more joyful than he had ever seen her.
“Long staple, King George!” cried his mother.
“LONG STAPLE, KING GEORGE!” repeated the crowd of staplers.
“Well done, King,” said Ellie, handing him an envelope. He opened it up. It said:
Dear King George,
Congratulations! I am super proud of you! I think that you will make this place amazing. I am excited for that! I read your test and I think you really are capable of doing this. I think that the idea about the queen is really smart. Because I am part of the Decision Committee, I have some ideas of who your queen could be because I think that they would help. Here they are:
Lilly
Stephanie
Abby
Danielle
Lindsay
Chloe
If you don’t want to have any of them as queen, it’s okay with me. The Decision Committee and I also decided that because you said that you wanted extra security, we will apply it. If you need help, you can always ask me.
Love,
Ellie
“Thanks Ell,” said George.
“You’re welcome, King George.”
That day, there was a dinner party set up for the new king. It was in the Dining Hall. There was a big chandelier over the table. It lit up the dark room. George was at one head of the table, and Ellie was at the other. George sat in a chair that looked more like a throne. It was wooden with dark patterns on it. There was a pillow on the seat of the chair that was red velvet like the pillow that held the crown. It had golden lace on the edges and green jewels connected to the lace. There was also silver thread that sewed the pillow together. It could’ve been the fanciest pillow in the world. For dinner, there was chicken, pasta, and meatballs. For dessert, there was a cake that said Congrats!, some cupcakes, fruit, and frozen yogurt. It was a fantastic meal.
The next day, King George joined the Decision Committee meeting.
“I would like to have Sara as my queen. I didn’t like any of the choices on the card,” he said. George had known Sara his whole life and they were always friends. “She would help with everything I wanted to do. I mean, the things I wrote about on the test. How about this: We give her a test to see if she can do the things that she would have to do as queen.”
“Alright, King George. Should we get started on making the test?” asked one stapler in the Committee.
“Yes. You should.”
Everyone in the Committee meeting walked out of the office, except George and Ellie.
“Come on, King,” she said. George got up and left the room with Ellie.
That night there was another dinner celebration for King George.
The next day, the test was ready for Sara. She was pretending to sleep, but she couldn’t get away with her trick. It was time… time for torture. Sara got out of bed and got dressed slowly. She was stalling. She went to the Decision Committee’s office, and there, sitting on the table, was the paper that had the test… the dreadful test. Sara started.
It had been an hour and twenty seven minutes. She had three minutes left.
“I need to hurry up!” said Sara, rushing more than ever. Her time was running out!
“Time’s up!” said George, entering the room.
“Here,” said Sara, handing him the test, feeling incredibly nervous.
That night, the Decision Committee looked over the test.
“She messed up,” said Amanda.
“And she didn’t finish,” added Ellie.
“B-b-but,” said George “No! She will be my queen if I want her to! I’m king, so it’s my choice! Remember, my choice! No more of your terrible decisions! The end!” He stormed out of the room. The Decision Committee and their office was silent. Completely silent. All except for the ticking of the clock on the wall.
Later that night, King George saw Ellie. ‘“Um, Ellie… Listen, I’m really sorry. Can I, well, um, still be king?”
Ellie nodded.
“Good. I mean, thanks.”
Ellie nodded again and walked away.
“Ellie… ”
In bed, George said to himself, “I can’t have Ellie mad at me, not with her on the Decision Committee. What have I done… what have I — zzzzzz.”
“Did you hear what happened yesterday, Queen Sara?” asked King George when he saw Sara the next morning.
“No, I — what?! Did you say ‘queen’?” asked Sara.
“Mmhmm,” he said.
They looked at each other down the long hall.
“You are a wonderful king,” said Sara.
“And you will be a wonderful queen,” said George.
EPILOGUE
Two months later
It was the wedding day of King George and Queen Sara. There were food and drinks. It was so much fun! There were dancing staplers and singing staplers. King George went over to Ellie.
“Um… Ellie?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you still mad at me?”
“Not really.”
“Okay, but really, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings or anything. I just thought that because I’m king, I get to choose my queen. When I said all that stuff, I didn’t really mean it. Do you forgive me? It’s okay if — ”
“Yes, of course,” she said, interrupting him in a nice way. And they both smiled.