Excerpt:

Harvey slowed his pace a bit as he neared the swing set, and made a right turn at the curly cue slide. He ducked under the curvy ladder and entered the hideout.

"Hey Phi--" He stopped dead in his tracks, grabbing one of the tic tac toe cylindars to catch his balance.

There before his very eyes was the new girl he saw with Gretchen in the cafeteria. To make things worse, she was sitting in the left hand corner, which also happened to be the exact spot he has sat in since he and Philip found the hide out in 1st grade She looked at him and smiled hopefully. Harvey shot a look of Philip that demanded an explination. Not only was there someone new in the hide out, she was a girl and even worse she was in his spot. A nervous smile appeared on Phillip's face.

"Harvey, hey," Philip said with some hesitation, "This is Jemma, she's the new girl in our class."

"Hi," she said, waving.

"Is that your real name?" Harvey asked suspicuiously. He sounded like a detective interrogating a suspect for a horrendous crime. Jemma sounded pretty fake to him. He had never heard of the name before. Also, he wasn't so sure about the big pink bow that was on her head band either.

"What?" she asked, confused and slightly offended. Harvey sat down in the gravel and suddenly felt very strange. The gravel by the tic tac toe board did not feel as comfortable as that of his corner.

"What do you mean is that my real name?" Jemma asked again, "What am I some sort of spy?"

"Well you are in our hide out and I've never seen you before," Harvey responded, "How am I supposed to know that you're not here to get some sort of information from us to end the world? How do I know that you're really a 4th grader, or even that you're a girl? For all I know you could be a full grown man in a really good disguise."

What Jemma and Philip didn't know was that Harvey really did know what would end the world. It wasn't an explosion, or an asteroid. It wasn't a hurricane, or even disease. Harvey had it all figured out. The end of the world would be caused by something so unsuspecting, so well-loved that no one would even know what was going on until it was too late. The world is going to end by way of flamingoes. Sure they were all cute and pink and long legged, but when they stood in flocks, it meant they were plotting. They were going to make the entire human population their slaves, and make them do nothing but make them fish for shrimp. It's the shrimp that gives them their power. The more shrimp a flamingo eats, the pinker it gets. The pinker the flamingo, the more power it had. Harvey imagined the pharoh of all the flamingoes to be so pink that it immediately blinded any human who looked at it.

Jemma giggled. She was now more amused than anything.

"So what if I am?" Jemma challenged, "What if Jemma really isn't my name? What if my name is really Ron?"

"Then I'll call you Ron, Ron" Harvey said with a smug smile. He crossed his arms triumphantly.

Phillip was wearing his favorite Mega Man T-shirt that he wore at least once a week, and was completely confused about what was going on. Was her name Jemma or was she really a full grown man named Ron? He secretly hoped she wasn't a full grown man. That would be pretty creepy. Before he could get some sort of clarification, one of the teachers blew a whistle signaling the end of recess for the day. They all emerged from the hide out and ran towards to the lines that were forming in front of their teachers.

Philip got in line behind Jemma aka Ron. After a few seconds of hesitation, he decided he had to know the truth. He tapped her shoulder.

"Um excuse me, Jemma, I mean, Ron, I mean whatever your real name is," Philip said, more confused in this moment than he had ever been before, "Are you girl? I mean you look like a girl, but are you really a spy named Ron who is really good at disguising himself?" He fidgeted with his fingers since there was nothing else to fidget with.

Jemma aka Ron smiled.

"Maybe," she replied. Her voice was as deep as it could go.