Soft sunlight filtered through a window, sending beams of energy throughout the room.

Ninten was woken up, not by these rays, but from the tongue of Mick, his dog.

"Ack! Get off me, your breath smells like trash." Ninten sputtered as he shoved the dog off him. Mick barked in his face and leaped out of the room at the smell of bacon.

"Another day, another dollar." Ninten stretched his back and cracked his knuckles. He took a quick shower and put on an orange, black and white striped shirt with his signature Baseball cap, pointed to the right.

"Mom, Mimmie's talking about her stupid doll again!" Ninten's little sister, Minnie complained to Ninten's mom. Mimmie, Minnie's twin sister, was carrying a naked baby doll and shook it.

"I'm serious, I played a song, and it doesn't have a music box in it, I checked! And it looked at me, I swear!" Ninten rolled his eyes and sat at the table, shoveling the food his mother had laid out for him while sneaking pieces of bacon to Mick.

"Hey mom, do you think me and the team are gonna win the game today?" Ninten asked.

"Honey, don't don't talk with your mouth." his mother answered. Ninten swallowed.

"Sorry, but i'm so excited! We're playing Glimmer Primary, and they're coming all the way from Foggyland! I just hope we're able to take them on."

"You won all of the other games, why wouldn't you win this one?" Minnie asked.

"Their mascot is the Pirates, ours are the Tigers. Everybody knows Pirates always beat Tigers in a fight. All the othe teams we beat had dumb names like, weevils or betas."

"Names don't define what something is, ya' know." Mimmie piped up.

"Show's what you know, twerp."at the moment, the rumble of the bus made its way to his house.

"Crap, I gotta go. See you guys later." he waved to his family as he exited his house and boarded the bus. He headed for the back and sat down next to Harry. Harry was the most popular kid in 5th grade, and was the pitcher for the Twinkle Elementary Tigers. He patted Ninten on the back when he sat down.

"Nice to see ya buddy. Ready to smoke the next maggots today?" Harry chuckled. Ninten nodded fiercely, and then shrugged.

"I don't know. What if those Foggyland people have some intense training with steroids and monitoring like in Rocky 4."

"You actually went to see that?"

"My mom had a coupon. Did you know that Creed died?"
"Wait, what?"

The whole ride to school was filled with the bus talking about Rocky and singing the theme song. They arrived at Twinkle Elementary in a discussion.

"All i'm saying," Harry started, "is that Karate Kid is way better than Rocky."

"Yeah right," Ninten shot back, "Rocky took on dozens of world famous boxers. Daniel kicked some kid in the face."

"He kicked two kids in the face. Wait.." Ninten shook his head and trudged to first period.

Ninten groaned as he left science class. He was sure the teacher was out to get him ever since the frogs escaped dissection day. Ninten had sworn up and down that it wasn't him, just that the terrarium had tipped over when he was sharpening his pencil.

"Man, why do we even need to know if the Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell." he grumbled. He placed his books in his locker and was almost about to go to lunch before a slam next to him made him halt.

"Well, well, well. If it ain't Lloyd, the one to avoid." Harry and a group of other 5th graders were shoving Lloyd, a boy with strangely grey hair and a parted bowl cut and big round glasses. He was wearing a red jacket over a yellow T-shirt. Ninten could see the sweat dripping down his face.

"L-look, just leave me alone or-"

"Or what, faggot. C'mon, tell me what you'll do." Harry lifted the poor boy up by his feet and shook him, making his oversized bag drop before Ninten's feet.

"Yo, Nin buddy. Open up the geek's bag and see what kinda loot he's got." Ninten felt butterflies fill his stomach. He always hated whenever his friends picked on other kids, but he always went along with it, just so he wouldn't suffer the same treatment.

He hesitantly picked up the bag and began to rummage through. Books, toy pistols, a spare pair of glasses… nothing out of the ordinary. He reached deeper, intending to find a forgotten candy bar until his hands fell upon something. He pulled out some kind of plastic missile, with flames drawing on the side and a fuse.

"Ooooh, Harry likey." he dropped Lloyd uncerismounsly to the floor and snatched the thing.

"Wait, no! Not my Bottle Rocket, it's, it's-"

"Oh, shut up." He pulled out a lighter and lit the fuse. Ninten could only watch as the flames traveled along like a spider. Harry hurled the rocket down the hall just as the fuse rached it's point.

"-unstable." Lloyd finished as the Bottle Rocket turned and zoomed towards Harry. He ducked just as the principal, a large man in a purple suit, turned the corner.

" Now what's all this-" he didn't get to finish his sentence as the Bottle Rocket exploded in his face, with fire raining down. The principal stopped, dropped and rolled, putting out the flames and causing his toupee to be singed. He got up angrily.

"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!?" Ninten turned to Harry, but he was already gone. Ninten's eyes closed in on Lloyd, who was shouldering his bag. In the corner of his eye, he could see the principal walking his way, seeming more angry then before.

His mind went blank and his mouth spoke before he could stop.

"Lloyd did it!" Lloyd stood frozen like a deer in headlights as the principal stood in front of him.

"Do you think this is funny mister? Endangering the lives of multiple students, and mine? WELL?" Lloyd stood in fear, stammering out incomprehensible blabber. He looked to Ninten, who shot him a, 'I had to do it' look before he bolted down the hall.

"And please, God, if you're real and out there, let me win this game and I'll never say your name in vain again, and i'll go to church too. Please, oh please…" Ninten moaned in the dugout, on his knees with his hands clasped. His eyes were shrewd together tightly as he concentrated.

"Wow, I didn't know you were the religious type." Ninten jumped and whipped around to see Eileen Hartshom, the prettiest girl in all of Twinkle Elementary. With her soft brown hair and heart stomping smile, it's no wonder all the boys loved her, Ninten especially.

"Oh, hey! I didn't know you were coming here. Ha ha…"

"Of course I would, I would love to see you play." Ninten's knees quivered as Eileen placed a hand on his chest. He could feel his tongue jerk around in his mouth like a fish on a hook.

"Y-yeah! I'll be sure to knock one outta the park for you!' he grinned nervously. Eileen snickered a soft laugh that drove Ninten up the wall. As she basically glided out of the dugout. Ninten finally shook off his butterflies and slapped his face.

"I've got this." he whispered to himself, adjusting his hat and snatching his bat.

Stepping up next to the catcher, he got a good look at the Glimmer Primary Pirates. They looked like everyday kids to him, wearing a grey-blue uniform as a contrast to the yellow-pink of the Twinkle Tigers. Harry gave a thumbs up to Ninten from leftfield and he gave one back. He readid his swing as the pitcher reeled back and sent it flying. Ninten grit his teeth. It was going way faster then he anticipated. He let it get caught.

"Strike one!" the umpire called. Ninten shot him a look. 'Why did he have to announce it like nobody saw it?'

The umpire, a high schooler glanced at Ninten's look. 'God, why'd I have to get stuck here with this little league crap. I promised Christine I'd take her out but now I'm gonna be the bad guy cause i had to foster a bunch of kids.' Ninten blinked in surprise. Had none heard him say that? He hadn't moved his lips either, like some sort of ventriloquist dummy. He blinked hard and readed his bat again.

The pitcher threw the ball slower than before, which allowed Ninten to send it flying. The crowd in the bleachers cheered as Ninten made a Homerun.

"He hit a homer in the first inning! Even Ethan wasn't able to do that!" The Shortstop whispered. The Glimmer Primary Pirates all looked at Ninten like chicken to their farmer, fear but also respect. Ninten flashed a big grin.

'Maybe Mimmie was right. Just cause their name was cool, doesn't mean they were good.' he thought.

"Ugh, I can't believe I just agreed with my sister. Bleugh!"

"Another win, thanks to the great Ninten Doe!" Harry and the whole team lifted Ninten onto their shoulders as they got into the locker rooms. They had won yet again, and Ninten was loving it.

"Ok, ok. Calm yourselves, guys. Let me change out of my uniform, then we can go out for Pizza!" he cheered. They set him down and he immediately zoomed to his locker, switching his uniform to his normal clothes, while also, reaching deeper into his bag and quickly taking a hit from his inhaler. He always did this after every game. All the dust and running flared up his asthma.

He dreaded the day anybody found out he had asthma. Another kid, Jesse Williams, got caught with her inhaler and she got shoved into her locker for an entire 3 day weekend. He quickly hid it back in his bag when Harry and the rest of the team yelled for him to hurry up.

As they all left the school, Ninten couldn't help but hear something coming from the side of the school broke away from the team and slipped behind a trash can to spy what made the noise.

"Please, just leave me alone."

"Oh, I think we are quite past that, bitch." Eileen Hartshom, the girl Ninten had first, err, entertained himself to, was holding a girl up against the wall. He could hear the girl crying.

"I saw you hanging out with Michael today, what the shit was that about, huh?"

"He's just my partner in a project, that's it, I swear-" the girl was silenced as she was dropped to the ground.

"That better be true. I have every boy here around my finger, and I don't need some bitch thinking she can come onto my territory. Watch yourself." Ninten quickly slid back to the team as they boarded Harry's mom's minivan. He looked at the window to see Eileen wave and blow him a kiss. He cringed.

'Man, Eileen is hot.'

'I can't wait to kiss Eileen.'

'Eileen is sooooo-'

'Eileen-"

'She's so-'

Dozens of the boys started talking, but they were saying different things then what they were saying. Ninten gripped his head and shook it.

"I'm losing my marbles." he declared. Nobody noticed. He buried his face in his hands and awaited the sweet taste of pizza.