It was Sunday night. We go to different restaurants each weekend, so it was time to get ready to go out for dinner. But that evening I was not in the mood because I had tonnes of homework to do. So we went to a fast food restaurant nearby to save time.

After gobbling up the meal quickly, I urged my family to return home. When we arrived back home, I dashed up to my room and with a heavy heart, I started doing my homework.

I knew I should have done it earlier but there were too many guests coming and going, so I just didn’t get the time. As I took a new pencil out of my pencil box, it started to glow and grow! First two eyes, then feet and hands popped out of it!

I fainted with shock. When I came to my senses after a few minutes, I saw that the pencil was doing my homework!

“Oh my gosh!” I gasped. “Am I dreaming?”

The pencil asked me, “Why are you terrified?”

I replied, “How can you talk and how can you do my homework?”

The pencil whispered, “I am your secret friend and if you want, I can do your homework for you!”

“Wow! That’s so cool!” I exclaimed.

The pencil then said to me, “If I do your homework all the time, how will you learn anything? And if you use me too much, I will finish up soon. So only use me in times of great need, like right now.”

I agreed with his advice and only used my secret pencil when I was in great hurry or doing something very difficult.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 30th, 2018