“C’mon Louie!  It’s really fun up here,”David calls.
           

“Yeah, don’t be a baby!  Just come up here before anyone sees,” says Nick, climbing up the school jungle gym.
           

“I can’t, you guys.  You know that Mrs. Gore says that we’re not allowed up there.”  I look up at the top of the jungle gym and in my eyes it looks like the top of the Empire State Building towering over Manhattan, or in this case, the playground.  I imagine being up there, the wind flowing through my luscious hair. Then I imagine the look on Mrs. Gore’s face if she caught me up there.  “I’m sorry guys, but I can’t.  Mrs. Gore might give me a check instead of a check plus.  If she’s in a really bad mood, she might even give me a frowny face,” I tell them.
      

“Why are you such a teacher’s pet Louie?” says Nick.  I hear their painful jeers and insults fade away as I walk towards the basketball courts .  They cut through my normally impenetrable facade “You never do anything bad,” still rings in my mind.
         

   Back in the classroom, I hear my friends talking about recess.  When they get to the part about the jungle gym, my arms get goose bumps and I wish that I had climbed to the top.  When my friends notice me, they say, ”Oh look!  Here comes the goodie goodie.”  Even though it’s not a big insult now, when they called me a goodie goodie, my knuckles turned white as I clenched my fists.  
          

  “I’m not a goodie goodie,” I tell them, but they ignore me and continue their conversations.
        

    This was the case too many times.  But that all changed when I got my new Pokémon cards.  In the second grade, I was obsessed with those magnificent things.  And because of them, I was going to break the rules for the first time.           

Even though I don’t know how to play the game, I still like collecting the cards.  One weekend, I trade my entire Transformer collection to my friend Billy for his Pokémon card collection.  I am thinking of bringing them to school when Mrs. Gore’s voice echoes in my head, ”Louie, if I catch you with those Pokémon cards again I’ll take them away.”
           I mope around for an hour or so then I get a sudden feeling of rebelliousness. "There’s no way anyone is going to catch me," I think.  I take some of my cards and I’m putting them in my backpack when I stop to admire them.  Their golden outline nicely highlights the inner colors.  I stare at the perplexing symbols and stats, and I assume that they have to do with playing the game.  Weakness, resistance, and retreat cost.  None of these things make any sense.
          

At school the next day, I take the cards out of my backpack and bring them to recess.  “Alex, come here I have something to show you,” I whisper to my friend Alex.  He comes over.  “Don’t freak out,” I say as I show him the cards.
          

He gasps.  “Those are against the rules,” he tells me.
         

  “I know,” I say with a grin.  He calls some other people over.  I tell them to form a circle so that no one can see.  I show them my favorite card, Mightyena.  They admire it in its glory.  Mightyena’s dark fur shines in the moonlight and its razor sharp fangs look menacing.  Its devilish smirk gives me chills and its satanic red eyes scare me.  In the card it’s posing like it is howling at the moon.  The sunlight glistens on the card and it glows, for only a moment.  But in that moment, it is the most beautiful thing in the world.

The large group attracts the attention of a lunch supervisor named Mr. Powers.  Mr. Powers and I are good friends.  Someone leaves the circle and the already suspicious Mr. Powers catches a glance of my cards.  He and I make eye contact and he begins to meander to where my friends and I are.

I bolt from the scene, and sprint down the hill that leads back to school.  I can’t believe that Mr. Powers would bust me!   After I stop feeling cheated, my fight or flight instinct kicks in and I run into the school.  “Gotta hide, gotta hide.”  I duck into a bathroom then I go into a stall and shut the door.  I think about flushing my stash down the toilet but then I think better.  I realize that I have no choice but to wait it out.  I start thinking that maybe Mr. Powers didn’t see me and that the coast is clear.  Then I hear, “Louie Klaus to the office. Louie Klaus to the office,” over the announcements.  I know that it’s only a matter of time before they start searching for me.  I put my feet up on the seat so that anyone walking by won’t see me.  After what feels like hours, I hear the door open.  It’s Mr. Powers and he asks if anyone is in here.  I don’t respond.  He opens up the stall two down from mine.  Beads of sweat start flowing down my face.  Then, he opens up the stall next to mine.  I can hear my heart beating in my chest.  I hear my toilet seat squeak.  He stops, and then he opens up my stall and finds me.
          

He takes me by the arm and finds my stockpile.  He starts walking me down the hallway.  I hear some kindergarteners whisper “Is that Louie from the announcements?” “I wonder what he did?” “He usually never gets in trouble.”  Everything seems to be in slow motion as I smoothly nod my head at one of them. It feels like I’m in a movie, Mr. Powers being the bounty hunter and I the hardcore criminal.   I walk past Mrs. Gore’s classroom, and she looks surprised and disappointed.  Some teachers stick their heads out in the hallway.  When they see me, their faces cringe in a mixture of anguish and surprise. As a goodie goodie, those eyes would have burned into my skin, branding me. But now, they were more like rays of glory.  As I walk down that hallway, everyone knows that I am the Pokémon gangster.