I took a few steps forward, fingering the ruby-encrusted sword. "Now I, Bartholomew the Great, shall slay you, evil dragon!" I screamed as I plunged the sword downward…

Then I woke up. Or rather, I was woken up by a rather unhappy Mrs. Mosner, smacking my head with a ruler. "C'mon, Barty, you know the rules. No sleeping in class! I just don't understand why anyone would want to sleep in my Geometry class! Pythagoras is just so… riveting! Oh what am I saying? Barty! Detention-- after school, room 120."

The rest of the class snickered as I sighed and took the pink sheet that Mosner handed me. Detention. Again. Oh well, at least I could get some homework done, right? Just kidding.

The rest of Geometry was spent marveling at the true ingeniousness of a-squared plus b-squared equals c-squared. I wanted to puke.

When the bell rang, I obediently packed my things and walked out to the hallway, where my buddy Rick was waiting for me. "Hey Bart. You got detention too?" he gasped, eyeing my pink sleep. "What for? Sleeping?" I nodded. "Me too. See you after school, then, I guess." And we went our separate ways.

English dragged on as usual, it being the last class of the day. Our class poured over Romeo and Juliet-- I for one wasn't very interested in a suicidal love story, but I read along anyway. What I wanted more than anything was to be in the medieval period, with knights and castles and dragons. And princesses. You can never go wrong with a beautiful damsel in distress. I looked over to the other side of the room, where my friend Liz was sitting, lost in Shakespeare's writing. She was very pretty, but I had never told her what my true feelings were. I quickly looked away, feeling my face turn scarlet.

I tried to concentrate on my reading, but the more I stared into the pages the more I daydreamed and the less work I got done. Naturally I was relieved when the bell finally rang and I could be free. Finally, free!

That feeling lasted until I got to the door and remembered the pink slip. I stopped, put on my best sulking face, and walked down to room 120 for detention.

There were not many people in the room today besides Rick and myself. I got busy staring at the cracks in the wall in front of my desk. Believe it or not, even that was more exciting than my homework. I was about halfway to the ceiling when there was a knock on the door, jolting me back to my senses.

A young lady who I recognized as the secretary in the main office entered, holding two small boxes. "Is there a Richard in here?" she asked, staring at the parcels. "And a Bartholomew?" Rick and I looked at each other, perplexed, then raised our hands. The secretary delivered to us our packages and then left, shutting the door behind her.

I opened my box and found what looked to be a small ruby ring. It was silver with a glowing red stone, and flowing black inscriptions in what seemed to be Gaelic. I was overcome by the magnificence of the ancient ring. Glancing over to Rick's desk, I noticed that he had received a similar emerald ring. He had picked it up and was marveling at the green shine it gave off as light hit it.

As I looked back to the ruby ring, I couldn't help but feel a great urge to put it on. I know, I know-- a mysterious old ring in an unmarked package, but what's the harm in trying it on, right? I slipped the ring on my fourth finger and realized that it fit me perfectly.

Unfortunately, that was all I had time to realize, because the next thing I knew I was being sucked out of my seat and into the ring-- into the ruby stone itself. I suppressed a yell as I felt my body warping and moving at high speeds in an unknown direction. There was a flash of red light-- and then I was out cold.