I let go of his shirt causing it to wrinkle. I pushed him to the ground. He looked like a stone. He was frozen. I hurried to pull out the tape and rope out of my pocket. I taped his mouth and tied his hands behind him. I dragged him to the girls’ base. I looked at him as he sat in the chair. He began to struggle. I laughed at him. He was mad, I could tell. I waved to him as I walked to the door. “Bye!” I called out towards him. He began to struggle again. I laughed him again as I watched him struggle. “You will never get out of that. I tied your hands really tight,” I said. And as soon as I said that he gave up with the struggle. I just smiled as he bent his head down and looked at the floor.

I walked out of the door. There was no sign of anyone. So I left our base. I saw Lauren after walking for awhile. She walked into the guy’s dressing room to hide, so I followed her. I hid in the stall next to her and waited. I was still out of gumballs so I sat in silence. I waited. I heard footsteps coming from the door. I was hoping that he wouldn’t find me. They were getting closer, and then they were coming to a sprint. I hoped on a chair so he wouldn’t see my feet under the curtain. I was sure that he would find me so I stayed quiet. He stood right in front of my stall. I got so scared. I saw his feet as he turned towards my curtain. He walked back and hid in Lauren’s spot. I sighed and began to laugh. I hoped up on the chair and looked over the wall.

“No one will find me in here,” he whispered to himself. I laughed as Lauren was quiet. He kept looking out the curtain so he did not happen to see Lauren sitting on the chair behind him. His slingshot was in his back pocket. He was out of gumballs too. I was sure of it that he was Exzavier because he was short and had black hair. He was tan too. He fell out into the isle and crawled backwards into the stall again. I hid down so he wouldn’t see me. I sighed. I looked back over the wall and he was just about to turn around. I ducked down. I heard a loud scream and heard footsteps running out of the stall. I laughed so hard that I could of died laughing. Lauren was laughing too. I was in disbelief. We both left the dressing room together. She gave me a hug and ran off. I ran off in the other way. I looked back and saw her climbing a ladder to the balcony where the birds usually sit in a market. She sat on it quietly. I was confused. I had no idea what she was doing.

Then out of nowhere she yelled, “Macaw!” she was screaming like a bird. I wrinkled my face with laughter. Exzavier was right next to me aiming his gumball at me. I looked at him. I started to back up. I knew I had nowhere to run, but I couldn’t help but to stay still for now. Lauren who was acting like a bird ended up falling off the balcony. My heart started to pound really fast. I wasn’t sure if I could save her. If I moved Exzavier was going to shoot me with a gumball. Lauren fell quicker and quicker. She landed on a manikin and the manikin broke into many pieces. The head went flying at me. I quickly ducked and the head hit Exzavier causing him to be thrown on to the floor. He hit his head on the floor. He was knocked out. I ran towards Lauren.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“I think I’m okay,” Lauren replied. She sat up. I stood up and looked at her. I held out my hand and helped her up. She was going to have a bruise because you could already see it forming. I didn’t want to make her worry though so I didn’t say anything about it. She looked at me again, but with a disappointing face. “I can’t move my leg.”

I looked at her arm. She was right she couldn’t move her leg. It was twisted in the way it wasn’t supposed to be. I got worried. I bit my lip. I bent down and picked up her leg. She left out a deep scream. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I’ll carry you to the base. Hold on tight,” I ordered her. I bent down and she put her long arm around me and I put my arm under her legs and her back. She started to cry from the pain. I told her to shut up before she attracts attention. I hurried to base. But before I got there I heard one of the guys and hid behind the clothes rack. I peaked around the rack and saw the boys dragging Exzavier to their base. I felt bad for him as well, but I wanted to win. I sneaked past them and into our base. I dropped Lauren on the floor and she began to scream. I looked in astonishment at Alen who was swinging the rope that I tied him in.

“How did you,” I paused still surprised. I was in girl scouts and won my knot badge. I tied the hardest knot to get out of so all I did was wonder how he got out.

“Are you surprised by my unique talents?” he asked in a cocky attitude.

Of course I was, but I didn’t want to admit it. I had to cover it up with everything I had. I had to lie, but how. “No, I am surprised you still stayed in our base.”

He stepped closer. Within every step my heart was beating faster. With every step my breathe began deeper. I didn’t move. He looked at me with his eyes and I almost began to smile, but then I looked away. I grabbed the broom in the back of the room and broke it with my leg. You could hear every crunch that it made. I grabbed duck tape and I tapped Laurens leg up the old fashion way for curing a broken leg. Alen didn’t say one word. He leaned against the wall and pulled out his slingshot. I looked at him and walked out of the base signaling him to follow me. I was curious, not knowing he had his plans to take me down, along with my team. I stepped out and walked with him.

He looked at me and smiled a crooked smile.

“That was nice, what you did,” Alen spoke in a soft tone, “For Lauren anyways.”

I was still curious why he wanted me to follow him. “What do you want?” I asked. I kind of sounded like a brat so I said, “I mean you wanted me to follow you, right? Why is that?”

He frowned, “Because I wanted to talk to you and I wanted to get out of here. It was boring.”

“I see.”

“Yep, so do you think you guys are going to win?” he asked. He put his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t know. I hope so, but I wish you luck also,” I smiled a crooked smile.

They found us! They all ran after us. The boy’s team was anyways. Alen ran into the isles. I ran faster and faster. They shot their gumballs at me. I tripped over one of them and fell. I hit the wall. They all crowded around me. I had nowhere to go. I bit my lip. They got out the duck tape and taped my hands together. I smiled as they dragged me. I had no plan. I looked at them. Alen looked at me through the clothes. I could see him mouth sorry as they dragged me by him. I nodded as quickly as I could so they wouldn’t think I was up to something. They dragged me to their base and there is where they threw me into the chair and tied me as tight as I could to the chair so I wouldn’t get away. They looked at me. Alen came in through the door. He was trying to be quiet, but he couldn’t. As soon as he closed the door they all looked at him. I shook my head. Then I rubbed my hands together trying to get free. I was stuck. I guess that’s why Jake was president of the boy scouts. He could tie knots really well. I knew that there was going to be bruises on my hands by the way that they felt.

“How did you get away?” asked Jake.

I could tell that Jake was suspicious of Alen’s whereabouts. Alen lied, “I took all the girls down.”

“Did you really? No way!” said Chris.

“Yeah, they left and then Renee came back. Luckily I got my hands untied and I wrestled her to the ground,” explained Alen.

There was a big crash. We all heard it. Then all the boys ran out of their base, Alen looked at me and shook his head. He pulled out his pocket knife and cut the rope. I rubbed my hands. They hurt with rope burn.

“There now we are even,” Alen said. He ran out and left me in the base. I smiled a crooked smile. I hurried to get out of there. I hurried to get back to my base, or so I thought. I wanted to win. That the only thing that mattered. To me anyways. I hurried to find Lauren, but I couldn’t breathe. I fell on the floor. I couldn’t breathe. I forgot my inhaler, I thought to myself. I looked around my shoulder and I saw a dark figure. I had no idea who it was. I wanted to think to myself that I was going to be okay, but I knew that I wasn’t okay. The dark figure pulled me across the floor. I heard my wheezing voice clearly. The figure put a paper bag over my mouth. I started to breathe in it. I started to see again. Chris was right next to me. I looked at him.

“Can you hear me? Are you okay?” he asked. It was all a bunch of words. I couldn’t understand any of them. I was dragged to the middle of the store. I remember like it was yesterday. In fact it was yesterday. I remember everyone standing around me. I remember how everyone was scared. I remember the old man’s face as he stared at me. His black hat, his long cane, He wrinkled face, and it was all coming back to me now.

“Are you okay?” the man asked. I could smell his breathe. It smelled like a nursing home.





I woke up….

The next thing I remembered was that I was lying on the floor in my room. I looked around and I was home. I was home; I was not at the store? I was confused. My mom came into my room looking at me.

“What are you doing?” my mom asked. “Why are you on the floor?”

“I guess I had a bad dream, or maybe a good one. I’m not sure yet,” I said.

She laughed and walked out of the room. Maybe it was a dream, I thought. If so it was one weird dream that I want to have over and over again.