Dad pointed his marker at us. “This is exactly what I was talking about. Psychic bullshit.”
“It’s not psychic,” I argued, but I was laughing. “It’s years of practice.”
The game kept going. Faye and Cammie were a force to be reckoned with. Faye guessed “airplane,” “cafeteria,” and “anklet” from drawings that mainly looked like blobs. Dad and Chase rallied once Chase stopped drawing vegetables and started sticking to basic shapes.
Through it all, Jase and I stayed on the same wavelength. Half the time, he didn’t even finish a picture before I spit out the answer. Sometimes he’d look at my mess of a drawing andsomehow pull the right word out of thin air. Each time, there was a small spark between us.
By the time the last round hit, the score was tied between us and the girls.
“Final showdown,” Chase announced. “Losers on cleaning duty, winners get bragging rights.”
Cammie stood and cracked her knuckles. “You’re going down.”
Faye looked determined and a little flushed from laughing.
She started drawing. A rounded shape. A long line. Some squiggles.
“Uh … a balloon?” Faye guessed.
Cammie kept drawing.
“A whale? A bicycle.”
She added two stick-like things to the bottom.
“An elephant!”
The timer buzzed.
Cammie spun around. “It was Florida.”
“That was Florida?” Jase couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Honey, you gave it legs.” Chase’s shoulders shook.
“That’s the panhandle!” She pointed at the drawing. “And that’s the peninsula.”
“At least we tried,” Faye offered. “Besides, the guys have to get theirs right in order to win.”
“No problem.” I got up for my turn, but swallowed hard when I read the word.
Dad flipped the hourglass.
I drew a square with a triangular roof. Then, because my brain didn’t know how to stop, I added three stick figures in front of it. Three little dots above their heads, like the stars Jase had put on Faye’s bracelet.
Jase stared for half a second. His eyes moved to Faye and back, and something flickered in them.
“Home,” he guessed quietly.
My chest squeezed. “Yeah.”
Cammie groaned. “This game is rigged.”
Chase clapped his hands together. “All right, all right. Dylan and Jase win.”
Cammie shrugged. “Good game, partner. We’ll win next time.”
Faye laughed. “We definitely need a rematch.”
