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“Two.”
“Nuh uh.”
“Six-”
“Try eight!”
“Does a +4 add 4?”
“Don’t tell me I’m stuck with 12 cards. That’s literally not how it works.”
Ame glared at the girl sliding a +4 onto the pile, who smiled softly without a care.
“I just want you to know I burned down a forest yesterday.”
“Why didn’t you invite me?!”
The five of them sat in a corner away from the rest of the party, tossing a rainbow of colored cards at each other—if a rainbow was only red, blue, green and yellow. Music blared from the far end of the room, and even though there were at least 10 other people lounging around across the rest of the house, they still found themselves comfy at this corner instead.
Occasionally one of the girls would walk by, flimsy paper plate in hand, just to spectate the game. But they usually didn’t stay for long. Every game lasted far longer than any spectator had the attention span for.
Fauna would not stop winning, to everyone’s chagrin. Mumei was the only one keeping track on a spare whiteboard, and the overall tally just looked embarrassing when Fauna’s score was up there.
“You are literally cheating,” Mumei snapped. “Show me the second deck in your sleeves. I know you’re wearing that for a reason.”
Fauna held up her hands with her head low. “I’m flattered you think so highly of me as to believe I’m cheating.” Unfortunately for Mumei, nothing fell out of her sleeves as Fauna pulled her hoodie off.
Gura slipped a card of hers into Fauna’s deck while she wasn’t looking, leaving Fauna with six cards and Gura with...fifteen. Sana barely held in her laugh as she watched the entire sequence unfold.
Ame didn’t hold in anything, pointing at her like a kid at the family board game night. “Gura’s cheating! She’s cheating!”
Sana burst into laughter. “I was trying to keep it quiet for you! You blew it!”
“You’d know a thing or two about blowing!” Gura blinked. “Uh, hold.”
The rest of the group followed suit in laughing, prompting a few glances and spectators from nearby. At least three girls had surrounded the couch by the time the game was nearing its end, with both Gura and Fauna managing to thin their deck to a single card.
“I feel like we lose either way,” Ame mumbled, shuffling through her red-soaked deck. “I don’t want the stupid shark to win either.”
“Stinky,” Gura mumbled, only loud enough for Ame to hear.
“Does anyone have a +2? I’ve got two,” Sana announced, practically holding up the two cards for the rest of them to see. (At least they were face down.)
“Don’t say it out loud!” Mumei hissed, before lowering her own voice to a minimum. “I have three.”
Gura and Fauna were locked in a staring contest. They’d swapped cards twice, both knowing what single piece of cardboard was in their sweaty hands.
“Ame, please put down the next card, I’m not sure I can hold her off much longer.” Gura pleaded, her face turning from a stern stare to a nervous smile.
“Can’t win a staring contest, hm?” Fauna tapped her shoulder, still refusing to break eye contact.
Ame put down her card with a sigh, watching two idiots try to hold a staring contest while definitely blinking several times. “It’s a yellow seven, if you don’t wanna look.”
Gura drew a card without looking, held it up to her eye level, and then placed it down. “Green.”
“Blue.” Fauna retorted instinctively.
“No, like, I picked green. It was a wild.”
“Blue,” she repeated, even more defiant this time.
“Fine, green.”
“It’d be so easy for me to just push you two together so you started kissing, y’know?” Sana grinned. “Mumei, should I?”
“mmfgh,,..cardboard,.,,”
Mumei was eating the wildcard.
Unfortunately, the game went on, and everyone’s decks grew thicker, and then thinner, bigger and then smaller again. Whatever lead Fauna and Gura had was eradicated, lost to the desert that was the game of Uno. That being said, there was actually one less card in the deck now, thanks to Mumei. She’d unironically, genuinely swallowed it whole, and only Sana believed it.
“She would not do that,” Fauna reassured, completely unaware of her crimes. “Right?”
Mumei nodded.
“Yeah, that’s something I’d do,” Gura smirked. “Remember chess with Kronii?”
“You ate all the pieces, Gura. All of them. I had to buy a new set because of that game.” Ame leaned forward, showing her cards just long enough for Gura to recognize what colors she had. “Do you know how much chess sets cost?”
“Aren’t you rich?” Gura snapped back, glancing at the pile before putting down a red 7.
“Not after buying a set I’m not!” Ame drew three more cards.
Fauna tilted her head, putting down her own card. “Aren’t they like, 30 bucks?”
Mumei butted in. “She might be thinking about those fancy ones that cost a hundred.”
“Why were you buying chess sets for a hundred dollars?” Sana seemed far more taken aback than the others. “Do you have any integrity?”
Mumei burst into laughter at the absurdity of her comment, before putting down her own reverse card. Fauna ended up drawing several more, and the game continued for far, far too long.
“Guys, I said I’d eat after we were done, but it’s been...” She looked at the clock. “I don’t know! It’s been way too long since anyone hit uno!”
“We could roll a die to see who wins,” Ame grinned. “Fair for everyone, if you ignore the sixth side.”
“Or we could decide based on who has the fewest cards.” Fauna held up a finger. “Which, erm, ackshually-”
Sana held out her deck of twenty seven cards. “What about biggest deck? Who has the biggest deck around here?”
“Uh-” Mumei choked.
“Me! Me!” Ame held out her own deck of 18 cards. “Well, not biggest, but second biggest counts, right?”
“It’s not about size, it’s about how you use it,” Gura deadpanned, like she was forced to say it. “Yeah, yeah, just flip a coin or something, I’m with Ame here.”
“Flip a coin to decide if it’s the biggest or smallest!” Sana suggested.
Mumei grabbed everyone’s cards in a heartbeat and tossed them on the ground, spilling a myriad of colors all over the carpeted floor. Everyone stared at her as she got up from her spot on the ground, not looking at any of them.
“Whoever cleans that up first wins.”
They all got to it immediately.
...
The rest of the party, Mumei found, had moved onto its own thing. A crowd of girls huddled around the couch, watching a tense Mario Kart game play out. Mumei only took a single glance at it before deciding it wasn’t worth the social battery to join them.
There was a bunch of food, but, for some reason, it didn’t really feel appealing to her in the moment. Maybe her appetite was ruined by the wildcard she ate earlier. Or maybe she wasn’t really hungry and just needed the moment to breathe.
It was probably that, in all honesty.
Gura passed by her as she leaned against the kitchen sink, looking at the dishes spread across the island table. Mumei blinked for a few seconds before responding.
“What happened to cleaning up?”
She shrugged. “Never was that competitive anyway,” she lied.
“...actually I gotta go to the bathroom-” She darted away before Mumei could say anything else.
In a minute, she was back, and Mumei still hadn’t decided on anything to eat. It wasn’t meant to be an insult to the cooks, she just really couldn’t decide. And she felt bad for being so indecisive about it, especially when it was her friends who all helped to cook-
“Hey.” Gura was beside her, with her hands in her pockets. “You alright?”
“...to be honest, I think I just needed a break. I’m not...that hungry, really.” Mumei picked at her nails, not making eye contact. “Uno’s a bit much sometimes.”
“I get it.” Gura snatched a muffin from the table. “Want one, by the way?”
Reluctantly, Mumei took half, and the two of them shared the muffin in silence. The kitchen had most of its lights off, since no one was in it but them two, and everyone had gotten their share of dinner at this point. For once, her ears weren’t overwhelmed by the sound of a bunch of girls complaining about their day to day lives, or about what random nuisance they’d come across that day. For once, it was nice to have silence with someone else.
“Thinkin’ of leaving soon.” Gura said between bites. “It’s, what, 10pm now?”
“You too?” Mumei blinked, tilting her head. “Didn’t you come here with Ame? Are both of you going?”
“Yeah, but she’s totally fine with that. Plus, she can probably just get someone else to drive if she really wants to stay.” She picked an extra bit of muffin from her lip. “ We worked it out, don’t worry about it.”
“What time are you going?”
“Oh, not for another hour. Still got time.” Gura turned to her. “You?”
Mumei glanced at the clock. “...I think I’ve still got a little more in me, too.”
“What’re we waiting for then? We’ve still got time to have fun!” Gura pushed herself off the counter. “You and me both, get to cleaning. You gotta make up for permanently removing a wildcard from the deck, y’know.”
She froze. “W...what do you mean?”
“What? I’m an expert at eating game pieces when no one’s looking, you think I didn’t notice?” Gura rounded the table with her hands still in her pockets. “You ever wonder where that ace of spades went? Ever thought that you were missing a connect four piece? Oh, and try finding the thimble in Kronii’s Monopoly box. It ain’t there, partner.”
Mumei blinked, dumbfounded. “So is that where...”
“That’s where the chip payout went last poker game, yep.”
“That’s not-” Mumei jumped ahead to meet her pace.
“Oh, you mean the rules for Clue, is that it?”
“No-” Mumei groaned. “Where did my Charizard go, Gura.”
Gura stopped midway through the hallway to the game room. “Oh hell no, I’d never eat that card, that’s expensive!”
“I did eat the chubby Pikachu though.”
//