"Minerva, you're here. Are you ready to be beaten at chess?" Artemis smirked.
"Why so smug, Artemis? I could easily defeat you, I'm sure," Minerva laughed.
"Oh really? Well, why don't you put your chess pieces where your mouth is and let's begin our chess match. Butler, is the board set up?" called Artemis. Butler slid the board onto the table between the young genii without knocking a single piece from its careful arrangement. He knew better than to say anything when they were both so determined. I just hope they remember to stop before one of them passes out from lack of water like last time, he thought. Butler quietly left so as not to distract them.
"I will play black," Artemis volunteered. Minerva smirked. "Do you find my choice humorous?" Artemis asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, actually, I find it quite hilarious," she snickered.
"I'm sure. Well, let's begin."
While sparring in the dojo, Butler suddenly remembered Artemis and Minerva. Checking his watch while he ran to them, he swore loudly. It was more than seven hours since they'd started playing. "Artemis?" he asked as he burst through the door.
The scene before him wasn't all that much different from the last time he'd been in there. Artemis and Minerva were leaning over the chessboard, staring at the positions of the pieces intently. The positions of the chessmen were different, and that was about it.
Slowly and deliberately, Artemis moved a bishop. Minerva gasped quietly and began to study the board all the more intensely to see what he was trying to do.
"OK, I think it's time you two stopped for today," Butler said slowly.
"No!" Artemis snapped. "Butler, I order you not to stop us! I am THIS CLOSE to winning this!"
Minerva scoffed. "And you call yourself a genius!" She moved a piece quickly. "Ha! I have you now! Checkmate!"
"No..." Artemis gasped, sounding as if he was being strangled. Glaring at the board he searched for some way he could save himself from this humiliation. Luckily, he found one. "It is not so, for if I do this I can easily take out your piece!" A simple pawn moved diagonally one space forward quickly took care of Minerva's piece.
"What? I had you!" Minerva cried.
"ARTEMIS FOWL AND MINERVA PARADIZO!" yelled Angeline. That was where Butler had disappeared to earlier; Artemis could not order his mother not to stop him. "How long have you been playing?" Angeline asked suspiciously.
"Mother, we've been playing for ten minutes at the most!" sighed Artemis.
"Plus I am sooo close to annihilating him!" protested Minerva.
"Well, I have it on good faith from Butler you've been playing for over seven hours," Angeline said sharply. "It's time to stop." While the two were distracted, Butler slyly slid the chessboard out from between, smoothly putting everything away and back on the shelf where it belonged. Noticing this, Angeline smiled. "OK, I'm going to leave now. Why don't you actually talk a while like regular teenagers?" She and Butler left.
"Oh, it's a good thing for you they left! They saved you the shame of being totally destroyed by a girl," Minerva sneered.
"Being a girl does not make any difference in how embarrassing it would be if I lost. But that is irrelevant, as I was nowhere near losing. You, however, were very near to losing quite painfully."
"Excusez-moi? Who had just checkmated whom?"
"You had not checkmated me; I got rid of your piece. Besides, I enjoy being able to easily pull victory from what would seem like the jaws of defeat, but is merely me, trying not to hurt the other player's feelings."
"You were NOT trying not to hurt my feelings! I could see the desperation on your face!" Minerva practically snarled.
"Why Minerva, have you lost your temper?" snickered Artemis.
Minerva took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Normally I would have a better grip on my temper; you just have an amazing ability to get under my skin easier than anyone else I know."
He smirked. "It's just one of my talents."
"Someday, I'm going to prove that I'm smarter than you," Minerva said with a look of steel in her eyes.
Clicking his tongue, Artemis smiled very condescendingly. "Now, now, Minerva. The issue is not to be smarter than other people. Must you still hold on to those childish beliefs of superiority?"
Suddenly, Angeline called from outside. "Artemis, are you harassing Minerva?"
The genius in question froze. "No, Moth- Mum! No, of course not, Mum."
Angeline slipped inside. "Arty, you only call me 'Mum' when you're trying to convince me of something."
"Now why would I need to do that? My arguments alone should convince you, let alone the coddling."
"I don't know..." Angeline trailed off. "Perhaps it's time Minerva went home."
"But Mo- Mum! We're having a good time!" protested Artemis, desperate for his victim not to escape.
Save me, Minerva mouthed at Angeline from behind Artemis's back. Apparently she had realized that, sadly, she could not beat Artemis in an argument. She would just never admit it to his face.
"Sorry, Arty," sighed Angeline with mock grief.
Artemis arched an eyebrow, probably knowing how Minerva was trying to escape and his mother was simply an accomplice. Luckily for Minerva, he didn't act on his knowledge. He gracefully got to his feet and extended a hand to help Minerva up. She looked at the hand as if it would bite her and batted it away, getting up on her own.
"Why so distrusting?" clucked Artemis in a theatrically worried tone.
Minerva just looked at him and shook her head. "So long, Artemis. I will beat you at chess next time!"
Laughing, Artemis smirked. "Just go on, believe in your silly fantasies. Next time we play, you are definitely going to lose."
Angeline smoothly slid in between the two before the argument could escalate and led Minerva out.
"Farewell, Minerva," Artemis said, still chuckling gently over her naive belief that she would win the chess match.