SpongeBob's Midnight Jellyfish Adventure

SpongeBob SquarePants was so excited about jellyfishing the next morning that he could barely sleep. He tossed and turned in his bed, thinking about all the beautiful jellyfish he would catch at sunrise.

"Gary," he whispered to his snail, "tomorrow's going to be the best jellyfishing day ever! I want to get up extra early to catch the jellyfish when they're having their morning dance!"

Gary meowed sleepily from his food bowl.

SpongeBob hopped out of bed and carefully set his alarm clock. But in his excitement, he accidentally set it for 2:00 AM instead of 6:00 AM. The little numbers looked the same to his tired eyes, and he was too excited to double-check.

"Perfect!" SpongeBob said, patting his alarm clock. "Now I'll wake up bright and early!"

A few hours later, the alarm clock went off with a loud "RING-A-LING-A-LING!"

SpongeBob's eyes popped open, but they weren't really open. He was still fast asleep, moving around like he was awake but actually sleepwalking.

"Good morning, Gary!" SpongeBob said cheerfully to his snail, even though it was pitch black outside. "Time for our jellyfishing adventure!"

Gary opened one eye, saw that it was still the middle of the night, and went back to sleep.

Still sleepwalking, SpongeBob put on his jellyfishing outfit, grabbed his net, and headed outside into the dark ocean. To his sleeping brain, everything looked bright and sunny.

"What a beautiful morning!" SpongeBob said happily, even though the only light came from a few glowing plankton and the distant street lamps of Bikini Bottom.

He began wandering around his yard, swinging his jellyfishing net at absolutely nothing.

"Here, jellyfish! Come to SpongeBob!" he called out, swinging his net in wide circles.

But since he was sleepwalking and couldn't see properly, SpongeBob kept accidentally hitting himself with his own net.

BONK! "Ow!" he said, rubbing his head but continuing to swing the net.

WHACK! "Ow!" The net smacked him in the shoulder.

THWAP! "Ow!" Right in the face.

"These jellyfish are very aggressive today," SpongeBob said to himself, still completely asleep. "But I won't give up!"

He wandered into Patrick's yard, still swinging his net wildly.

BONK! "Ow!"

SMACK! "Ow!"

"They must be playing hard to get," SpongeBob mumbled.

Patrick, who was also sound asleep under his rock, heard the commotion and sleepily poked his head out.

"SpongeBob?" Patrick yawned. "Why are you hitting yourself with a net?"

"I'm not hitting myself, Patrick! I'm jellyfishing! Want to join me?"

But Patrick had already fallen back asleep and didn't answer.

SpongeBob continued his midnight jellyfishing expedition, wandering all around the neighborhood. He walked past Squidward's house, where Squidward was peacefully sleeping and dreaming about playing clarinet for a sophisticated audience.

BONK! "Ow!" SpongeBob's net hit him again.

"Got one!" he said triumphantly, even though his net was completely empty.

He wandered past the Krusty Krab, past Sandy's treedome, and even past the Chum Bucket, swinging his net and bonking himself repeatedly.

WHAP! "Ow!"

THUNK! "Ow!"

BOING! "Ow!"

"This is the most challenging jellyfishing session ever!" SpongeBob declared, rubbing a new bump on his head.

Meanwhile, high above the ocean floor, a late-night ice cream vendor named Captain Fudge was delivering frozen treats to a submarine full of night-shift workers. But Captain Fudge was also very sleepy, and as he leaned over the side of his boat to hand down a triple-scoop strawberry cone, he accidentally dropped it.

The ice cream cone tumbled down through the dark water, past schools of sleeping fish, past a very confused octopus, and past three jellyfish who were actually awake and wondering why some yellow sponge kept swinging a net at nothing.

Down, down, down the ice cream cone fell, until...

SPLAT!

It landed directly on top of SpongeBob's head, covering him in cold, sticky strawberry ice cream.

"AHHH!" SpongeBob yelped, suddenly wide awake. "What? Where? How?"

He looked around and realized he was standing in the middle of the street in his pajamas, holding his jellyfishing net, covered in ice cream, and it was still completely dark outside.

"Gary?" he called out, confused. "What time is it?"

He looked at his wrist watch and saw the glowing numbers: 3:47 AM.

"Oh my Neptune's beard!" SpongeBob gasped. "I've been sleepwalking! That's why I couldn't catch any jellyfish! That's why they kept hitting me back!"

He looked down at his net, then at all the bumps on his arms and head, and started giggling.

"Well," he said, licking some ice cream off his nose, "at least I got a free midnight snack!"

SpongeBob trudged back home, sticky and tired but oddly satisfied. As he tucked himself back into bed, he made sure to double-check his alarm clock.

"6:00 AM," he said firmly. "That's morning time, not night time."

Gary meowed approvingly.

"And Gary?" SpongeBob yawned as he drifted off to sleep. "Remind me to never go jellyfishing in my dreams again. Dream jellyfish are way too good at dodgeball."

As SpongeBob fell back asleep, Captain Fudge's voice drifted down from the surface: "Sorry about the ice cream! Five-second rule!"

But SpongeBob was already snoring peacefully, dreaming of proper daytime jellyfishing adventures, and wondering why his pillow tasted like strawberries.

The End.