“Other people go outside, we spend all our time watching kids’ movies,” Yesoh pointed out bitterly.
“What’s got your pigtails in a bunch?” Cahya questioned.
“She wants to play chess but no one’s in the mood,” Sydney explained, feigning sympathy. “You know how she gets.”
“How?”
“She kinda always loses, she’s no good but you know her, she doesn’t give it up,” Cahya explained, whispering so she didn’t hear.
“Giving up would be worse I figure.” I smiled, shaking my head and getting out of the pool, walking over to her staring disappointedly at the chessboard.
“What do you want…here to make fun of me too huh?” she asked, glancing down in disappointment.
“No,” I reassured the younger girl, sitting beside her. “I’m here to play chess.”
“What?” She scoffed in confusion. “What good are you anyway?”
“I’ll have you know I was in the intermediate chess club at my last school,” I told of all my glorious middle school achievements. “I deem myself a worthy opponent, don’t you?”
She stared at me, trying to dissect whether or not I was being just cruel and trying to make fun of her. She took a slow sip from her bottle of water, narrowing her eyes at me with the utmost suspicion.
“Fine. Let’s play,” she agreed, trying to feign nonchalance, but I could tell she was rather pleased she didn’t have to spend the rest of the afternoon sulking on her own.
At first, I figured that she couldn’t possibly be as bad as the others had made her out to be, I thought that perhaps they were just being mean. But after about ten minutes, I realized that they were beingreallynice actually and that she was no chess player. It was almost as though she was playing by rules she created in her mind. It was admirable, honestly, watching her determination to a game of her own. But I played along. I figured she was the kind of person who needed someone to do that. To justplay along for once.
“I win!” she shouts, standing up and shaking the chessboard a little.
“You what!” Sydney gasped from her place by the pool.
“No way?” Jax protested, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
“I’ll go investigate.” Cahya stood up from the pool, his curly hair dripping water as he eyed the chess board—it was evident from even the untrained eye, that she, in fact, had not won anything at all. And that this was a game with no rules. Cahya glanced up at me and then back at the chessboard and back at his sister.
His gaze softened. He understood.
“See, I won, didn’t I? Fair and square?” Yesoh spoke with hope in her voice.
“Well, would you look at that…” Cahya smiled, shaking his head at me. “She really did beat his ass fair and square, you did good, Yesoh.”
“Told you…” she grumbled as he gave her a high-five.
Everyone gathered around and celebrated her, a glimmer of happiness in her eye at being acknowledged for her efforts. I watched from the corner of my eye, knowing that I would lose all over again just to see them all this happy.
Lose again, no hesitation, checkmate.
10
Break A Leg
Iwoke up to a continuous series of knocks at my door, atourdoor. It was an early Saturday morning, and everyone woke up out of their sleep. We all wondered what on earth was going on—Remi was the kind of person who was incredibly irritable in the mornings.
“Now who the hell…” Sydney groaned, taking off her sleeping mask, her curly blonde hair in disarray.
“Maybe it’s your little boyfriend, Sydney,” Remi grumbled in disbelief.
“Nuh uh, Jax would never disrupt our beauty sleep like that!” Sydney defended then checked her cellphone. “I can see his location and he’s still at his dorm far away.”
“You have his pinned location on?” I wondered with a yawn.
