It was a beautiful summer day in Beach City, a young, curly-haired boy named Steven Universe (a rather odd name) sat in the living room of the Temple that he called home. Beside him sat a short chubby gem with long, wild light purple hair named Amethyst, named for the dark purple piece of said quartz in her chest. The other was a tall gem whose hair was peach coloured, stuck up at the end and framed a large pearl in her forehead, her name was, well, Pearl. Across from them on the floor sat a very tall and mysterious fusion named Garnet. In the palms of her hands were two dark red gems; though you wouldn't be able to tell due to her reflective sunglasses, her three eyes were intensely studying the chess board in front of her.

"C'mon Steven, you got this!" Amethyst cheered, she put her hand on his shoulder in support, she turned to look over to the other side of the room, "He can still turn this around, right guys?!" she asked.

Sitting on the couch were two other gems, one of them was very small with triangle shaped hair, her name was Peridot, a small green gem was in her forehead behind a tinted visor. She was smiling at the gem beside her, her eyes wide with affection. Beside her was a slightly taller blue gem, she had light skin with darker fluffy (or messy if you asked Pearl) hair, she had a teardrop-shaped lapis lazuli in her back, which was what gave her her name, however most just called her Lapis for short.

Lapis lifted her head from staring at the tablet "What are you guys doing?" she asked, and noticed the green gems gaze "C'mere silly." she grinned and pulled Peridot into a hug.

Steven glanced at them and smiled "I'm playing chess with Garnet, and I think I'm getting close to winning this time!" he said happily before moving a pawn forward.

"Go Steven!" Peridot's muffled voice cried out, as her face was buried into Lapis's side.

The Ocean gem laughed and gave the half-gem a thumbs up.

"Could you people be any louder?" A much deeper (but still feminine) voice snarled from above. A huge, formerly monstrous Quartz gem named Jasper stood up from where she had been laying down on the long carpet in the upstairs floor of the Temple, instead of using the stairs to get down however she simply jumped down to the bottom floor with a loud bang. She brushed her off-white bangs out of her face while walking over to where the others were playing and leaned against the wall, crossing her muscular arms over the (fairly new) dark pink star on her chest.

Garnet picked up a rook piece and moved it across the board. "Checkmate." she said, not bothering to pay Jasper any attention, the two could at least tolerate each others presence now but most of the time chose not to speak to each other. Honestly, they were the only two who didn't get along anymore, as even Lapis had come around after the quartz had saved her and Peridot from being maimed by 'the Kindergarten kid' as the green gem had named it, after it had its bubble popped.

"Wow! That's 5 in a row Garnet, you're so good at this... Wait, were you using Future Vision this time?" Asked Steven as he leaned over the table, looking up at the red gem with wide eyes.

The peaceful fusion smiled sweetly, "Not the whole time, I really almost lost this time." she explained, pointing out a bishop piece that was getting dangerously close to her king.

Pearl nudged Steven gently "I forgot to ask, Steven, how did you learn to play chess? I don't remember showing you, Amethyst doesn't know, well didn't know," she corrected her self before continuing, "and you taught Garnet a few weeks ago."

Lapis got up from her spot and joined the others "Yeah buddy, how'd you get so good?"

He turned around with a goofy grin plastered on his face "Connie showed me, she's really good at this stuff, maybe she could even win." the gems around him nodded and laughed, well all except Jasper, who just rolled her eyes.

There was a soft knock at the door, Peridot jumped up from where she had been watching the others, "Oh! Oh! I'll get it, you guys wait there!" her little feet pattered across the floor as she ran through the room. The green gem opened up the door, on the other side was Steven's best friend, Connie, who looked mildly surprised.

"Hi Peridot, I didn't expect to see you here... Um, is Steven home?" The girl waved at the short gem as she looked around as much of the room as she could see.

"Why yes! He's been waiting for you while showing us his 'chess' skills." Said Peridot while moving out of the way so Connie could get through.

"Hey Connie! I've been getting really good at it too, I nearly beat Garnet!" Steven ran up to Connie while pointing at the board, the girl's eyebrows rose.

"Wait, doesn't Garnet have the ability to see the future? Doesn't that make winning kind of impossible?" Asked the young girl, raising an eyebrow at the red-gemed fusion, who chuckled.

"I can close my third eye, which 'turns it off' so to speak... But I may have used it a little." Garnet admitted and adjusted her visor to sit better on her face.

"Oh, that's pretty cool. So Steven! You ready to train?" Connie replied to Garnet's answer before turning to her best friend.

Steven slammed his fist into his other hand and gave her a look of pure determination "I was born ready."

Amethyst piped up from the couch "Actually you were born makin' these weird 'WAH' noises." She had an PAC-man like expression on her face. Steven blushed from embarrassment and Connie started to laugh. Peridot crawled like a cat across the couch over to Amethyst.

"Why did he make those noises? Was there something wrong with him?" The little gem asked curiously, Amethyst's dark blue eyes lit up with mischief.

"Haha, yeah he was infected with nerd! Kinda like you actually." Her expression changed to look like she was studying her friend carefully. Peridot looked extremely concerned.

It seemed like Lapis had caught up with what Amethyst was doing, she cupped Peridot's face in her hands to make the younger gem look at her. "Yeah, she looks like she has it... You feel sick at all Peri? You're looking... A little Green." Lapis gave a cheese-eating grin and the little gem screeched.

"Your jokes are awful! That wasn't funny you guys!" Peridot shrieked, Jasper started to laugh.

"Sounded pretty funny to me." She muttered and sat down on the floor. Connie looked over at Steven hopefully.

"Do you wanna go now?" His best friend asked and he nodded vigorously.

"Yeah, let's show those boulders who's boss!" The young hybrid cheered and the two children dashed out the door, blissfully unaware of the glowing eyes from underneath the porch.

"Hello, new world, it's showtime."