Teams?
“Let’s do two teams,” Ava says, cutting off Zavier, who was about to speak. I’m certainshe’s made this call for my benefit. “Mom, you join Valen and me, and Dad can play with Zav and Celine.”
Linda joins us on the couch, and Celine and Zavier settle on the loveseat near Larry’s recliner.
“I’ll get the paper and pencils,” Ava announces.
I watch her go, instantly missing her warmth and comfort. Luckily, she isn’t gone long and returns with a stack of paper she’s ripped into pieces and enough pencils for everyone.
“What do I do?” I ask when she sits down again. I eye the paper she hands me like it’s poisoned.
“You write down something we can act out. All the slips will go into a bowl, and we draw from that.” She turns to Zavier. “Keep it PG, you nasty boy.” He gives her an innocent look in return, but I see the devious sparkle in his eye.
Panic wraps around my lungs, and I hold my breath at how out of place I feel right now.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help,” she assures me. Her tongue sticks out slightly between her pouty lips—something I’ve noticed she does when she’s concentrating.
“Put down driving a car,” she whispers under her breath. “Uh … showering? Brushing your teeth? Just think of things that are easy to mime.”
“Mime?” My eyes widen in panic. There’s too much going on with this that I don’t understand.
“Act out. You can’t speak, so you have to use your body.”
I only have five slips of paper, so I use the ideas Ava gave me and on my own come up with walking a dog and putting on makeup. I’ve watched Ava do that enough that it should be easy to act out.
I realize this isn’t going to be as easy as I thought when all the ideas go into the same bowl and get mixed around. Based on the gleeful look Zavier sends our way, there’s no telling what the vampire has included.
“Don’t be nervous,” Ava whispers, giving my knee a pat. “It’s just a game.” Speaking to the rest of the group, she asks, “Rock, paper, scissors for who goes first?”
I’m not sure what that means, but Zavier jumps up with exuberance to participate. Ava stands and meets him in the middle of the living room, and they battle it out with random hand gestures until Zavier throws his hands in the air and cheers.
I take it that means he won.
Ava returns to her spot beside me while Zavier chooses a slip of paper from the bowl and acts out whatever is on it for his team. I have no idea what he’s doing with his hands.
“Making coffee!” Celine shouts out, and Zav shakes his head.
“Are you a barista?” Larry asks, the question laced with confusion.
Again, Zavier shakes his head and changes up what he’s doing. “Ooh!” Celine claps her hands. “Bartender!”
“Got it,” Zav shouts and takes his place back on the loveseat while smacking his palm loudly against hers.
Ava gets up and fishes through the bowl. She reads the paper and then acts like she’s putting something in her ears. Bobbing her head along to something we can’t hear, I try to figure out what she’s doing.
“Listening to music!” Linda shouts, pointing a finger at her daughter.
“Yes, that’s it!” Ava says excitedly.
And that’s how it goes, back and forth. I get by easy on my turns, pullingreadingandpainting nails. I have a feeling those are ones Ava might’ve supplied to make it easier on me. Despite my nerves, I find myself smiling and actually having fun.
A few rounds later, Zavier strolls up for another turn. He waves his hand in the bowl, but I track him sliding a piece ofpaper out of his sleeve and pretending to pull it. Nobody else notices the sleight of hand and I straighten, afraid of what he’s about to do.
“Larry and Linda, avert your eyes,” he warns. They look confused but hesitantly turn away.
Like a troublesome toddler, Zav smirks and forms a hole with one of his hands while straightening his pointer finger on the other. Pushing his finger into the hole in quick succession, I frown, not understanding what the hell he’s doing.
“Zav, I thought we said no lewd gestures,” Celine scolds.
