Bobby dug through his pocket, then his other pocket, then the first pocket again. He couldn't believe it, the
rings had gone missing! He started hyperventilating, what was he going to do? Why did he put the rings in his
pocket in the first place? It was obvious they were going to go missing. He was stuck in his wimpy 10 year old
body from 6 years back. He forgot just how small and vulnerable he used to be. He slumped onto the floor and
started to cry, any sense of logical thinking such as heading back to the park, or going to Jennifer's place
for help, currently lost in this wave of emotion.
Meanwhile at Jennifer's, Jimmy and his friends arrive back home from the park. Jimmy's little sister came
running in, only to be disappointed to see that it was him. She was expecting Bobby to be back be now, ready
to turn her into a adult again so they could have some more fun. She sulked back into the living room to
continue watching TV while the 10 year olds went upstairs to his bedroom. He closed the door and dug his hands
into his pocket. "Hey guys, look at what I took off that kid". He pulled out the missing rings. Unbeknownst to
Bobby and Jennifer, he walked in on them changing ages earlier in the day. He couldn't believe his eyes and
fled the room, not wanting to draw attention to himself. When he saw the boy in the park, he recognized him as
the one in his house from earlier. He tricked him into joining them in the park as a friend, and when he
wasn't looking, Jimmy managed to take the rings out of his pocket. He didn't know exactly what they did, but
he was going to have some fun with them.
"Dude, why would you do that? It's stealing! What if we're caught?" berated Sam, his short and lightly chubby
friend.
"Yeah, I don't wanna go to jail" Conner, his taller, fair-haired friend added.
Jimmy just shook his head and laughed. "No, you don't understand. These rings are special. They can do things
to people. I saw the kid in my house earlier playing with my sister, and something weird was happening to
them. They were getting younger and older and stuff."
Sam and Conner were sceptical. Jimmy had a pretty active imagination at times and often told tall tales to
them, like the time he totally saw a dragon making a nest in the woods one day, or the time he swore that
their PE teacher was a werewolf/vampire hybrid. "I dunno Jim, that sounds pretty crazy. You're going to have
to show us that these 'magical' rings of yours really work".
"Easy. What do you want me to do? Make myself an adult or a baby or something?" Jimmy asked them as he pulled
the rings onto his fingers, the aging one on his left hand and the youthening one on his right. Or at least
that's what he guessed given how one had a + symbol and the other had a - symbol.
"Oh, oh! Make me older! I want to be a grown up!" Sam called out, his enthusiasm for maturity overtaking his
scepticism of it even working.
"Or you can make me younger, you know, if you can" Conner said, not believing his friend's words for a second.
Jimmy thought it over until he finally said "OK, to make you believe that these rings are really magical, I'm
going to -"