The purple shadow is back but JimJim still does not notice it. He takes another deep breath. He does not like this even one little bit. He shakes PosterGuy's hand. He looks him right in the eye. He asks, "Who says you get to be my new best friend? Who made you PosterGuy? At least you are right about one thing. I will definitely get way more than nine timeouts before this week is over. I timeout more than anyone else in the whole world. I'm the world champion timeouter. What do you think about that?"
PosterGuy says, "You are definitely not the world champion timeouter yet. You are getting very close. You still have a few timeouts to go. You will have to get some timeouts every day for a couple more days before you are world champion. You still have a couple of days before it's too late. You are not world champion timeouter, not yet."
JimJim still does not notice the strange purple shadow but It's definitely there. It's starting to cover JimJim.
JimJim says, "Maybe I want to be world champion. I will be world champion timeouter if I want to be. You can't stop me. Just who do you think you are? You are definitely not the boss around here. This is my room. I'm the boss in my room."
The purple shadow just hangs there for another second or two and then it disappears. It's like it was never there.
PosterGuy smiles. He says, "That is the way it was until right now. You were the boss. There is a new boss now. That is me, yours truly, PosterGuy."
The purple shadow is back. It's covering JimJim. This is very strange.
JimJim says, "I don't like you being the boss. You can't come into my room and tell me what to do. If you want to be the boss, you will have to go somewhere else. Just get back in your poster. Go back to wherever you came from. Get out of my room."
JimJim shivers big time. It's his imagination, He thinks. He is only imagining it. It can't be real. It sounds to JimJim like kids cheering. It's like a huge crowd cheering. They are cheering for him. "Way to go JimJim. Don't let PosterGuy boss you around. You are the greatest, JimJim."
JimJim just shakes his head. It was only his imagination. It had to be his imagination. It could not have been anything else. There isn't a crowd in his room. No one is cheering. It's only his imagination.
PosterGuy frowns and says, "It's too late. You only have a couple of days to go. After that, you are the world's champion timeouter!
"You are nearly there. You've only got a few more timeouts to go. You get your own trophy. You do your timeouting in the Champion's trophy.
"There is a little window in the trophy so kids can see you in there doing timeout. Maybe they will put you in the trophy case at school. Other kids can point and say, 'There is JimJim, what a guy. Way to go, Champ.'"
The shadow is a much darker purple than it was before. JimJim nearly disappears into it this time. The purple shadow is definitely there but JimJim still does not notice it. For him, it's like the purple shadow isn't even there.
JimJim is getting really angry. He says, "No way. I like being right here where I am. I won't be put into any trophy. I don't want to be world timeout champion. I won't do it."
As JimJim talks, the purple shadow gets lighter and smaller. It floats up to the ceiling and over to the wall. It slides down the wall and lands on one of JimJim's shelves. It hides in a corner behind an old ball cap. His friend TerryTerry left the cap there the other day. Everyone calls him TT. He is always leaving his stuff laying around. Now it's like the purple shadow was never there. It's way too weird.
JimJim is calming down. He says, "I don't want to do timeout in a trophy. I won't do it, no way. You can't make me do it."
PosterGuy smiles. He says, "What happens is not up to me. It's up to you. It's all up to you. You will figure it out for yourself. You can figure out stuff like that because you are soooo smart."
PosterGuy suddenly pops back into his poster. It rolls up and slides down to the floor. The poster rolls across the floor to the door, slides under, and disappears. Zip Zap, PosterGuy is gone.
JimJim sits on his bed. He thinks about his choices.