"Catch me if you can, Carson!"

When you're eight years old, things start to change. Well, at least it did for me.

"Gotcha!"

At eight years old, people saw me as an energetic kid with adventurous tendencies. I was extremely athletic for my age, and this little exchange happened because I had tagged a girl while hanging upside down from the monkey bars. "That's not fair, Carson! You're supposed to be running around with the rest of us!"

"Ah ah ah. I got you fair and square Jenny. Just cause I can hang upside down doesn't mean that it's unfair."

Jenny Karuso... so young and yet, so mature. Or immature at that time and place.

"She's right, Carson. I don't think it's fair."

"Like when you kicked me in the leg with the soccer ball, Marcus?"

Marcus Scott... trying so hard to be on my level. He was my best friend, and pretty much wanted to emulate me. As with the soccer ball, he saw me juggling a soccer ball and then kicking it, and well... long story short, I went crying into my house, but didn't want to get Marcus in trouble, so I told them that someone else did it, and I didn't know who it was. We're cool like that.

"Fine then, TAG! You're it, Jenny!" And then, another argument ensued about how there were no tagbacks, which eventually led right back to hanging upside down. By the time we could reach an agreement...

"Jenny! Time to come in! Marcus, your mom called and wants you home too!"

"Okay, Mom! We gotta go, Carson. Maybe sometime we'll try again without all the arguing. Bye!"

"Bye Jenny! Bye Marcus."

Thank god they got away.

When I started to walk away, I heard this huge crash a couple miles away. Then about three seconds later, some giant metal structure came down and crushed the playground! Luckily, I got away just in time. I looked up, and as far as I could see, it was a giant robot!

"Hey kid! Get out of the way!" I heard someone call out to me. Looking behind me, I saw a bunch of kids with some weird looking toys signaling for me to move.

"Uh... okay." I glanced again at the kids and then at the robot, and ran behind a tree, not too close, but just far enough where I wouldn't be in danger of getting hurt. At that point, I had no choice to do anything, but glance at what happened after I moved... something that would change my life forever.