"Checkmate!" Alice said triumphantly, knocking down Cary's king.

"Nooo! You cheated!" Cary accused her.

"Call it whatever you want... at least I'm not the one who moves their pieces when their opponent isn't looking."

Cary glared at her. "Well, let's play poker. At least with cards I have half a chance."

"Does it matter?" Joe asked over his math homework. Originally they were going to go to the park, but Joe and Charles still had Mr. Dunn's work to finish. Alice and Cary had already finished in class, much to Joe's amazement. Mr. Dunn lectured so long that there were usually only about ten minutes left to complete their work. In the meantime, Alice and Cary were playing a number of games on the coffee table im Joe's living room.

"Yes," Cary replied matter-of-factly. "No one ever beats Cary the Awesome at poker."

"Okay, but let me warn you... I'm not very good," Alice said as Cary dealed a worn deck of cards.

"That's okay, you get better as you keep playing... Okay, so the amount to stay in is a dime for now. Alice, do you wanna call, raise, or fold?" Cary asked. Joe rolled his eyes and went back to geometry.

"Right, so I've got 206 degrees for angle C." He furrowed his brow a few minutes later. "That can't be right. Charles, what did you get?"

"Uh-" he consulted his paper- "67."

"How?"

"The Pythagorean Theorem."

"That's what I used!"

"Well, if you got the wrong answer, then you used it wrong."

"Obviously."

"Then why are you telling me this?"

"Never mind," Joe said hastily, trying to avoid a fight. "I'll just look it up." He thumbed through the book's glossary.

"Hey, Cary, do you think that Eleanor-" Charles started.

"Her name's Elle, how many times do I have to tell you?" Cary grumbled. "Raise you eight dollars," he added to Alice.

"Whatever. You think she can act?"

Cary shrugged. "Never asked."

"Well, ask tomorrow, because there's a new plot for a movie I made and we need two girls-"

"Why can't we can use Joe?"

Alice started to laugh. Charles almost did too, until he caught the mutinous look on Joe's face and quickly turned it into a hacking cough.

"Dude, Joe's worse than Martin at acting. So just ask her tomorrow, alright?"

"Alright," Cary hummed. "Heh heh, I can't wait to see what hand Alice has-"

"Royal Straight Flush," she announced, laying her cards on the table.

"What?" Cary asked in disbelief, pulling her cards towards him. Sure enough, the ten, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace were present.

"Damn," Charles commented, in awe of Alice's skill.

"Agreed," Joe said, watching Cary chase Alice around the room. "So can I see the story?" Charles dove into his bag for it.

"Check it out. Am I awesome or what?" Charles tossed the crumpled yellow notebook to Joe, who scanned the pages.

"You actually turned that firework idea into a plotline?" Joe asked, puzzled.

"Yeah. Figured we could use a romance. Haven't made one in a while," Charles shrugged. "Oh, by the way, do you know how to make people look presentable? Like, makeup-wise, I mean."

"Uh, yeah. I think. Why?"

"Amber- aka Elle- has to be really pretty. Like, really. I want people to feel for Rob- Cary- and why he loves her so much."

"Point taken. I'll probably have to go to the library and look up some methods, I'm more accustomed to zombies," Joe grinned at Charles, handing his notebook back. Joe felt his chair suddenly move. "What the-?" He looked down to see Alice squeezing herself under the table.

"Don't ask," she said. "Nyah nyah! Can't get me!" she said to Cary.

"That's alright, just make sure it's really good," Charles said, completely ignoring Alice. "Hey! Hey! Shitheads!" he looked under the table, where Cary was trying to pull Alice away. Both looked up.

"Yeah?" they said in unison.

"Are you guys doing anything Saturday?"

"No," they chorused. "Hey!" they said again to each other. "Stop doing that!"

"Hey!" Charles snapped his fingers. "Meet me at five on Lookout Hill on Saturday, okay? I want to get a shot of the sunrise in the background for my new movie-"

"Five in the morning?" Cary's mouth fell open. "Not cool, man."

"But you'll get to blow shit up..." Charles wheedled.

"Can I set off my M-80?" Cary asked excitedly.

"Whatever you want. So you're coming?"

"Mint."

"Guess I'll have to," Alice nodded assent.

"Cary, remember to ask Elle about that acting job, okay?" Charles said seriously.

"Yeah, yeah. Quit nagging." And their fight resumed.


Ahhh, poker.

OTHER GOOD CARD GAMES: Spit, Spoons, B.S., Blackjack, Slapjack, and Egyptian War.