"Yuta!" Nina said, running up to her friend and putting her arms around him.
"Gerroff meh!" Yuta said, pulling back with red cheeks. Nina pulled back and said, "I haven't seen you in so long!" She saw Yuta's mom chuckle, and shuffle off to the kitchen.
"Lets play!" Nina laughed.
"Last one to the backyard is a rotten egg!" Yuta yelled, dashing off. Nina tried to keep up with him, but he had longer legs than her, so it was hard. She ended up being only a little behind him.
"You're a rotten egg!" Yuta teased.
"I almost beat you this time!" Nina said, irritatedly.
"You'll never beat me," Yuta said, cockily.
"Woah," Nina's eyes wandered onto a new playset, "You got a new playground!"
"Yup," Yuta said proudly, "It's for big kids!"
Nina and Yuta both scrambled up on the playset, sliding down the twisty slides, climbing up the stairs, swinging on the swings. The two kids were both six, very old in their opinion. They had known each other all their lives, since Nina's parents and his parents had been friends. Nina had always thought of him as her best friend, almost a brother.
"What do you wanna play?" Nina asked, trying to reach the monkey bars.
"Let's play that this is our kingdom!" Yuta burst out "I'm the king and you can be the royal servant!"
"Servant?" Nina said indignatley, "I'm the queen!"
"Fine, just don't mess up my kingdom! Everyone knows men make better rulers than girls."
"That's not true! I'll show you, I'll make up great laws so everyone can be happy, and I'll give away toys to kids, and we won't have any dying around here because we'll make a special potion that stops death!"
"That is abs'tutley crazy," Yuta said, trying to use a big word.
"Okay, okay, but I will have fair laws!"
"Let's pretend it's the end of a long hard day, and you and me are sitting down eating dinner," Yuta suggested.
"Okay, here, these weeds will be our food," Nina said, pulling a bunch of colorful leaves off of a nearby bush.
"Nina, no!" Yuta said, trying to stop her before it was too late.
"What?" Nina said, with big eyes.
"Those are the ones that make you sick!" Yuta said, sadly. It was too late.
"Oh no!" Nina said, she was breaking out in purple spots already.
"Why don't you look before you leap, Nina?" Yuta asked, exasperatedly.
"Oh, no, Yuta the spots hurt!" Nina said with a trembling lip.
"Oh, no, it's okay, Nina," Yuta said, as Nina began to cry, "I'll take you in to my mom, she can fix you up." Yuta tried to lift Nina, but fell over at the effort. Instead, he took her hand and led the now sobbing child into his house.