The rain pattered on the decks of the Beach House, rattled against the screens of the windows, ran down the roof, and pooled on top of the saturated ground. Steven was safe and snug inside the house, digging around through mounds of junk. He fished out a box with 64 squares, half of which were black, and half of which were white. Grabbing a small clear box with his free hand, he returned to the living room of the Beach House.
On the sofa, there sat Garnet, patiently waiting. Steven halted in his tracks; an idea appeared in his mind. Smiling, he said, "Hey Garnet? Could ya wait a bit more?"
"Of course." Replied Garnet.
Steven grinned, and ran back to the pile of assorted things. Steven grabbed a checker box, put both in a sack. Hauling the sack right in front of Garnet, Steven asked excitedly, "OK! Now predict which game I'll choose!"
"Hmmm," said Garnet, pressing her thumb against her lips. "…the chessboard."
"Aww," pouted Steven falsely. The exaggeration of the gesture made it plain to all that Steven was kidding around. Steven drew out the chessboard and set it up in front of Garnet. He went opposite of Garnet, and said: "Wanna play?"
Garnet tilted her head only a bit. "Maybe you should your future vision to predict my answer."
"OK." Said Steven. He puffed his cheeks by pressing his palms against them. After a moment, his answer came, with glittering eyes: "Your answer is…yes!"
"Got it." Confirmed Garnet, pointing at Steven briefly.
Steven scratched his nose a bit, and moved his pawn forward to start the Spanish Opening. The opening moves were rather bland, following the Spanish Opening to a T, until Garnet's next move. As Garnet leaned forward and stared at the board, looming over her black pieces, Steven interjected: "So…can you predict what move I'll make after you make yours?"
Garnet straightened a little, then moved her black knight to the square c6. "I see we'll probably complete the Spanish Opening."
"Oh…" began Steven, more an emission of breath than a meaningful syllable.
"However," said Garnet, "Now that I've said this, the probability that you'll choose a move other than Bb5 has gone up."
Steven grinned, and moved his white pawn to d4. "You were right, Garnet!"
Garnet smiled a little. "You didn't have to prove me right, Steven." Her voice grew a little playful. "That was an aggressive move there."
Steven grinned. Garnet leaned forward slightly, but before she could, Steven asked again, "Shouldn't you be able to win in like, 10 seconds? You have your awesome future vision!"
Garnet gave her head a slight shake. "If I did that, then it wouldn't be as fun, Steven. Rolling up your opponents leaves them upset and unwilling to play with you again."
"I would play with you no matter how many times you'd beat me." Said Steven with a puffed up chest.
Garnet smiled. "Even you would get annoyed after a while. Besides, my future vision allows me to see multiple possible futures. Normally there are very many of these, but in chess, the possibilities are near infinite!" She extended her arms to either side of herself for emphasis.
"Whoa," said Steven.
Garnet continued, "The number of chess games possible has been estimated by some to be at least ten to the one hundred twenty-third."
"That's a lot of games…um. How big is that?" asked Steven, a little embarrassed. This was dispelled instantly; Garnet was happy to explain.
"It's a colossal number; for reference, the number of atoms in the observable universe has been put as ten to the seventy ninth or eighty first."
"That's cool! Chess rules!" crowed Steven.
Garnet then moved over a foot from her position on the sofa just in time to avoid a purple blur crashing just where she had been.
"Hey nerds!" shouted Amethyst. "Let's play SORRY!"
"What? WHAT! Hey!" yelled Steven as Amethyst tossed the chess board off the table, replacing it with a SORRY board.
The shouting attracted Pearl, who came to scold Amethyst. Steven sighed, and asked, "Wanna play SORRY instead, Garnet?"
"Of course." She replied. Steven smiled, and announced happily he'd be on Garnet's team.
Pearl and Amethyst were no match for Garnet and Steven's tag team awesomeness. Just as Steven was about to finish off Amethyst, he glanced up at Garnet (whose lap he was on) and decided to spare Amethyst.
"No way!" she shouted, declaring full-out war on Steven. With their spirits rallied, Pearl and Amethyst routed Garnet and Steven. In the end, Steven just had to say, "I can beat you next time! Let's play again!"
Which of course, they did, as the rain poured from the sky, drooling from the gutters and pooling under the foundation of the Beach House.