I stood there, on the platform that never seemed relevant to my life, until now.  Just a normal day, for a not so normal boy, today was not.  When time itself was out for me.
    When a long, snakelike, purple tentacle emerged from the pool of sludge that had gathered on the ground, I knew something was wrong.  For once, people would have willingly agreed with me, and I would fit in at that point of time.  I was devastated to feel my beloved science project be torn from my grasp.  Black was all I could see, though just for a moment, before I woke up.  My project was sitting innocently on my desk, and my nightmare had left me staring and sweating.
    The daily routine started, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, and so forth.  I grabbed my project, and headed out the door.  Staying alert will be important, I thought to myself, but I questioned myself back, why, there is no reason.  In hope of gaining self confidence, I relaxed.  My nightmare felt so real though, still, a mistake was made.  Time found the perfect moment to attack.
    Once again I found myself face to face with the purple tentacle, but this time it was different.  The pool expanded, I looked down, I was being encased by the sludge!  Determined to make a stand at all for myself, I shouted,
    “Not this time!”
    If there was a difference made, I didn’t notice, but a sharp and menacing voice pierced through my ears.
    “Yes, but maybe on another time,” the invisible menace voiced through the air.  As the voice finished, the sludge tentacle gathered a rich, purple sphere from thin air.  With a whirl, the sludge tentacle flung the dark ball at me.  I tried to move, but the sludge forbade it.  I blacked out…
    A bright sun forced my eyes to investigate.  What is going on?  Confusion said curiously to me.  As I opened my eyes, I found myself in my room with the sun blazing through the window.  This time I knew it was not a dream, something was out for me, as well as time.  I needed a plan, and some help.  I contacted my friend Michael; he was a faithful and loyal friend,  as well as a great friend.  I was sure he would help.  When Michael arrived at my house, I filled him in on what I knew so far, he nodded as went on and on.  Whether he believed me or not it didn’t matter, because he was going to help me.
    “Wait, Albert, so think time is targeting you?” Michael asked while staring at me like this was a staring contest to the death.  
    “Yes,” I replied flatly, I felt bad dragging him into this, but I pressed on, “and I’ve got a plan to counteract time, just listen to this.”  My plan spilled out of my mouth, I became more confident of this crazy machination.  We stuffed our backpacks with our preparatory materials  needed, and headed out the door.
    We walked to about 20 feet away from the spot the sludge tentacle was hiding, opened our bags, and pulled out… nothing!  Everything was gone, the plan was ruined.  The sludge tentacles must have gone back in time, grabbed the stuff out our bags, and went back to the present.  Panic overcome us, then chaos broke out.
    All around us everyone was frozen in time except us, this means whatever happens, never happened to any others.  We were alone.  Sludge tentacles began to emerge from the ground, surrounding us.  We were alone and trapped.  
    “We have to get out of here, this doesn’t look good!”  Michael frantically said. 
    “No matter what we do, time will rewind and then that escape we try to use will be blocked.  This means before we could ever use our plan, time would already counteract it,” I sadly said to my friend.
    “He is right… there is no escape,” the sharp voice echoed through all of the sludge tentacles.  
    There just had to be though, evil cannot prevail!  I quickly concluded to myself, if only there was something time couldn’t stop, or allowed time to bend at my will… Yes, that’s it of course!  I signalled Michael to distract time and its sludge tentacle minions.  As he began his distraction, I began mentally preparing for the commencement of my plan.  Everything seemed faint and unimportant, but the sun still shined above everything, and rays of light danced on me and Michael.  I never told Michael what I was doing; I knew he wouldn’t let me.  Still, I had to, it was the only way.
    Energy surged through me, allowing my legs to shoot me forward.  I focused in on my goal, the pool of time sludge deepest in the mass of sludge tentacles.  That would be at the one corner that had a pothole the size of a table, and somehow that deep as well.  As I neared the pool I was aiming for, Time yelled,  “NOOO!  You musn’t”  
The only effect that had on me was approving the plan by time itself.  Yeah for me, my plan was time approved.  I pushed on, I didn’t look back, but I knew Michael had been ignored and lost in the mess by now.  I felt the pool deepen under my feet, it reached my ankles, then my knees, and finally all the way up to my chest.  I needed the highest concentrate of time sludge I could get, which will be at the bottom, of course.
I dove.  Down I went.  Time sludge is much more viscous than water, which made it much harder to move through.  I felt the bottom, sucked in some of the thick, slimy sludge.  It sat in my mouth for a while, if it tasted like anything, I would say it tasted like time, or victory!  With a hard gulp, I swallowed.
For a moment, I thought it was pointless and all was lost, but the purple time sludge started disappearing.  After a minute, all of the time sludge and sludge tentacles had vanished from existence.  People were walking around again, life was normal, at least to others.  I felt overwhelmed in redemption.  Redemption of all the times I had failed.
“What just happened?”  I heard Michael wonder out loud.
“I don’t really know, but I think I just found a better science project,”  I coughed up some of the sludge into my hand, “This will allow me to control time, at least until it grows back to strength.  Also, I think the way the time sludge was able to be here, also allowing the sludge tentacles to come, is due to a rip in time into the world.”
Michael looked pretty confused, but he stared in awe as he said, “Just don’t do that again, please.”  I felt bad for doing that whole don’t tell him the plan because of the certain disapproval.  We turned and headed for the school.
When we reached school, it was time for the science project demonstrations.  I rushed in and set up my presentation, all it was was a drop of time sludge.  I told a judge to put a cup over it, when he did it wasn’t there anymore.  At that point I went back in time and changed the position of the drop.  They were amazed.  I continued to showcase my project to ordinary observers until it was time for the awards ceremony.
At the awards, I sat with Michael, and waited for the winners to be announced.  If only I could win this competition I might have a chance in being accepted into society.  So intently and hopeful I stared as the the room’s speakers released the sound I had been waiting for.  
“The overall winner of this year’s science project demonstration fair is,” the announcer read anticipatingly, “Albert Einstein!”  The crowd roared in applause, and then I found myself climbing my way up to the platform.  This platform.  In the midst of the crowd, probably Michael, someone stood.  Like a spark to a forest fire, everyone began lift out of their seats.  I couldn’t believe it, but I knew I had worked for it.  Joy of achievement and success overcame me.  I could tell this was the start of something big.  
That is where it all began.