There were a lot of kids. Too many. Griffin, Daniel, many that I couldn’t name. They were all causing trouble. Running along the drainage area. In the drainage area. Cutting trees with a knife. Writing on trees with a permanent marker. venturing into the sewer pipe. They were as loud as a bunch of monkeys chasing a banana truck. “What should we do?” My good friend Chase asked me. “Let’s just watch for now. Move up further.” We crept into the bushes about twenty feet away from the chaos, as the brisk autumn gusts rustled the branches. Unfortunately, Daniel spotted us.

That day, Chase and I were playing at our tree hideout next to the drainage area. We started hearing shouting, whooping and laughing. I pointed out the bushes halfway across the pit of tall, wheat colored grass with soda cans, sticks, glass, and other trash. We ventured out farther along the spread-out shrubs and trees. That’s where we noticed the destruction.

“Hey!” Daniel whooped. “Uh, what’s going on here?” I asked. “Oh, I found Daniel’s phone here and some metal strips, soon everybody else came and then we just called it Daniel Corporation.” Some kid responded while in the middle of collecting bark from a small, leafless tree. “So, is Daniel like, your leader?” Chase questioned. “No, Griffin is.” The kid answered. “Yes. That makes sense.” Chase said.

“Brendan! Chase! Over here!” Griffin yelled. We trotted over to where he was in the bushes. “Wanna work here?” “Uhhhhh…” I began. “Yes!” Chase exclaimed. Great. Help us find some more metal strips and your status increases.” “Status?” I questioned. “Yes. right now you are grunts.” He began. “Oh, so like Pokémon?” I asked, trying to make a connection. “Uh, sure.” He answered slowly. “Anyway,  find some metal and you could be promoted. I am the CEO.” After searching for metal for a few minutes, I said to Chase, “Hey, we should go. We could get in trouble.” Chase appeared disappointed, but after a brief pause, he replied, “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go.”

All of a sudden, Jackson appeared on top of the steep hill. He appeared out of breath, like he sprinted all the way up here from his house, and, given that he is Jackson, I don’t doubt that. “Griffin! TIme to go!” He shouted. With a few cheers and whoops, the whole group of middle-schoolers formed a large cloud and drifted up the hill and down to the Griffin and Jackson’s house.

“Brendan, we should keep the name Daniel Corporation because we always argue about what to name it. Also, we need to keep it a secret. Just ‘cause we need to get away sometimes.” Chase suggested. “Absolutely. Absolutely.” I replied. “Whenever we come here, let’s just say we are going to the playground.” I envisioned, gesturing to the small playground at the top of the hill. “What are we going to do about the damage?” Chase asked. I thought for a moment. “Nothing. We didn’t cause anything, we won’t get in trouble for it.” “You were right, we could’ve been caught in the trouble. I am glad you pulled me out of it.” Chase stated.