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“Come on, play with us.”

“No thanks.” I gestured for the kid to go back to his family. He was seriously putting a damper on my depressing walk. I had aimed to walk the lake in self-pity. This kid was distracting me.

“I’ll cry.”

My eyes widened and I stared down at the cute little boy with shock. “That’s blackmail.”

The child grinned evilly up at me. “It gets me what I want.”

“I’m not playing ball with you.” I said firmly and crossed my arms. “Now go back to your family.”

“It’s not ball. It’s soccer.”

“I suck at soccer. Now go annoy another stranger.”

The kid didn’t seem to get the point as he grinned up at me. “I can teach you.”

“I don’t want to be taught. Go away.”

“Why are you so mean?”

I looked guiltily down at the child who was frowning sadly up at me. I sighed.

“Fine. Five minutes,” I grumbled.

“YES!” The kid screamed with too much excitement and that’s when it clicked.

“You did that one purpose, didn’t you?” I accused him as he walked beside me with a jump in his step. “What are you, like an evil genius?”

The child shrugged his shoulders, all sadness now gone. “I got you to play.”

I kicked a few rocks out of my way as we approached his family.

“Mom, this is Choc. I found her on the ground and she’s playing with us now.”

Stunned I looked down at the kid. “My name’s not Choc.”

“It is now. I renamed you.” The kid dropped the ball to the ground. “Me and Choc against you two.”

I glanced at the women who stood in front of me. She had a large grin on her face. “Sorry about this. My name’s Emily, by the way.”

“Chloe.” I glanced at the two boys who looked exactly alike and were bickering about me. “Do they do this a lot?” I asked her. Surely her kids don’t just randomly blackmail people into playing with them.

She laughed lightly. “Only when my husband and I aren’t watching. Though usually he only brings back other kids.”

I frowned. “They know about stranger danger, right?” Humans were usually blind when it came to danger.

The women laughed again and I noticed that, for a human, she was extremely pretty. “My husband keeps a close eye on them when we’re out.”

I nodded my head. “So what are their names?”

“My name is Charlie and that’s my brother Nathan.” The child who blackmailed me into playing spoke up. “Ready to play, Choc?”

“My name’s Chloe.” I pointed out, watching the kid smile evilly at his little brother.

“Choc and I are going to beat you,” he taunted. His little brother Nathan crossed his arms.

“This isn’t fair. I get stuck with Mom.” He pouted his lip and crossed his arms. “I want Choc.”