Daniel was nine. Well, eight and 363 days. That’s close enough to nine, right? As far as he was concerned, those last two days could just vanish. He was waiting very impatiently for his birthday to arrive.

This birthday was special. For one thing, he was turning nine years old. That’s only one year away from double digits! But the main reason was that he was getting a robot! It was the only thing that he had asked for. A brand new, remote controlled, voice recognizing, robot.

OH! The adventures that he had planned out for this robot. They were going to take over the world!!!

Daniel spent those last two days of being eight going over all the plans he had for his robot. As soon as he had him, he’d put batteries in (he already bought them) and they would be doing the first thing on his list: annoy his little sister Sam.

Finally the big day arrived. Daniel could barely contain himself. He didn’t sleep he was so excited. His party was a smash! He had robot themed everything there. Even the cupcakes had little robots on them. Daniel and his friends spent the afternoon playing at a place where they all got to build things out of Lego. There was another party there as well. The two groups squared off and had a building competition. Daniel’s team won. Obviously.

By the time Daniel got home, he was exhausted. He was just about to get into bed when he realized he hadn’t opened a present from his parents yet! He ran into the living room in his pajamas and there were his parents (and his sister asleep on the couch) holding a big box with a bow.

“MY ROBOT!” Daniel practically yelled loud enough to wake the dead. Not his sister, but the dead definitely heard him.

He grabbed the box and ripped off the wrappings. It was the exact robot he had asked for! He was dancing around the living room hugging the box. He opened it immediately and tried to pull the robot out. But what he was holding wasn’t a robot.

“What?! This isn’t my robot!! MOM THEY BROKE MY ROBOT!” All that was in his hands was a bag of little pieces. Someone had smashed his robot!

Mom chuckled, “You have to build it sweetie. We can start in the morning.”

“What?! But I have plans!”

“Oh you do?”

“We have to chase Sam around tomorrow morning!”

“Oh I see. Well, you better get a good sleep so you can build super fast!”

Daniel was so sad. He slumped back upstairs to his room, dragging the box and the bag of pieces behind him. How rude was it that he had to actually build his robot.

Then Daniel had a marvelous thought. If he had to build his robot, he could make it better! In his room he pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil and started to make new plans for the next day. When his parents came in to tuck him in and turn off his light, they found him asleep over his new design – a rocket pack add-on for his robot.