When I was younger all the kids in my neighborhood would always come out at night in the summer and play. The group would start with five people, my two older sisters Tina, and Susan and my next door neighbor Christina, and Cynthia. As it got darker more would join, making it 10 or more people. My neighborhood is separated into six units, we call them circles. We were only allowed to stay in the first circle because that's where I lived. If we used all six circles the area would've been massive to find anyone. The houses are all connected to each other. There are two vertical rows of houses that are parallel to each other and one horizontal at the far end, somewhat shaped of a square. Each row has six houses attached to one another, and in the center of the circle is the parking lot.

The game would start once everyone was done with dinner, which was roughly around seven-thirty. We never fully introduce each other, they would just ask "Can I play too?" and that was it. We gathered in front of my house and decide which game to play. Most of the time it was hide and go seek tag. No one dared to volunteered to go first, so we would call out "Not it!" and put a finger on our noises. The last person would have to seek, the seeker had to face a wall and count out loud to twenty seconds. As the person counted, everyone ran all over the place. They hid behind houses, trees, and underneath cars. Sometimes the kids that lived in the circle would cheat and hide in their house.

I stayed with Tina and Christina and we hid behind a black Toyota truck. They were always ahead of me wherever we ran, my legs weren't as fast as theirs. I ran with a huge smirk on my face and sprinted as fast at a could, like there was no tomorrow. Hearing the seeker yell "Ready or not here I come!", made chills run down my spine. I crouched down as low as I could and screamed from the top of my lungs whenever he or she spotted me. Every time we restarted the game I always hid behind the truck. I hid there so many times that everyone knew exactly where I was and would come after me. I always got tagged, but my sister Susan would always volunteer to take my place. After the countless amounts of times I got tagged, I still hid behind that truck.

After a while no one chased me. I was hot and could feel water drip down my face. Even though I wasn't running at that moment it was extremely humid. As I was alone, I could hear the other kids run by the truck and laugh. Some argued about how others were unfair. After a few minutes of being alone, I sat and thought to myself while looking at my surroundings the possibility of someone coming out from behind and kidnap me or worse murder me. I crammed the idea in my head to the point that I convinced myself it was true. I startled myself and automatically looked for Tina, and from then on I never left her side.

Tina hated it when I followed her all night long, but I didn't care. As we hopped from car to car, trying to slowly make our way to a large maple tree, I constantly looked in all directions to make sure no one was creeping up on me. We settled ourselves behind the maple and I could feel the grass rub against my ankles making me itchy, and the thirsty mosquitoes flying above my head. We sat there with our chins placed on our knees and arms wrapped around our legs. Our bodies were squished together, leaving not the tiniest gap between us.

At this point I didn't find any pleasure in this game. Every time a person ran pass the maple, I didn't have that thrilled and excited reaction. I was scared and anxious, but with my sister by my side I knew she was going to perfect me, but turns out I was wrong. Tina didn't want anything to do with me. She gave me a nudged telling to go away. With every other nudge she'd say "I don't want you here." Eventually she became furious. Instead of arguing with each other like most siblings do, she decided to bite me my left shoulder as hard as she could. I covered my mouth to keep myself from screaming and held back my tears. My shoulder was throbbing, screaming. I kept sniffing and wiping my nose to keep it from running. As I cried, I tried very hard not to make any noise, but that didn't work. The seeker found us. At first he was going to tag me, but he noticed that I was sobbing. He chased Tina around the tree and all over the parking lot. Right when I heard "Tag you're it!" I knew exactly what Tina's facial expression was. She turned around facing me with her hands on her hips. She was tired, annoyed, and dip down inside she was enraged.

After a few more rounds of hide and to seek tag, my mom called my sisters and me to come inside. It was already past ten o'clock and I was exhausted. We walked as slow as possible to the door, trying to stay outside for as long as we can, and waving to everyone good-bye. Once we got inside my sisters and I tried to convince my mom to let us stay outside a little longer, but she raised her right hand, giving us a sign to stop and pointed at the stairs. I whined and forced myself to cry, hoping that she would agree with her little angle, but she shook her head from left to right. As I laid in bed I could hear the kids still playing. Tina walked up to the window and said "Let's play again tomorrow." And in response I said "Yeah, I like this game!"