-Flashback #2-

I sat in the middle of the blue carpet. Tom sat across from me, trying to explain the game for the catillionth time.

“So,” he said; his voice the pleasant nasally soprano only boys under the age of ten can muster. “Look at your card.” I looked at the glossy piece of cardboard in my small, seven-year-old hands. It had a shiny picture of a yellow creature on it. The cute little thing had zigzag ears and giant anime eyes. It had scary-looking lightning bolts surrounding its body in a godly halo of terror.

“What’s this one called?” I asked the wise guru of Pokémon.

“That one’s Pikachu.”

“Why is it getting hit with lightning?” I was terrified of lightning. To my horror, Tom started laughing. “What’s so funny?”

“You don’t know anything about Pokémon, do you?”

“Hey!” I was suddenly mad at Tom for know-ing more than I did; mad at my parents for not letting me watch Pokémon; mad at Pokémon for even existing. It wasn’t fair. I started crying.

When my mom came to pick me up, I didn’t talk to her.