Amanda rolled her eyes, but put Brownie next to her before taking a bite of the hamburger. It was really good. John was a decent cook, but she hadn't taken much notice of that before now. Food had just been food, and unless it was spicy (which Amanda hated) or grossly undercooked (one of Mike's problems), she generally ate what people gave her without comment. This may have been because her parents had been poor and even though they could always afford food, meals often came from fast food places like Wendy's. She didn't have much to compare it to, and other people in her school ate the same way—or less.
"This is great," she complimented after finishing half of it.
John smiled and reached for her arm. "The trick is adding enough salt," he explained. "And not overcooking or undercooking it."
Amanda nodded, for lack of anything to say, and continued eating. Once again, John finished before her, and was well into his French fries by the time she had finished the burger.
He'll probably try to steal some of mine after he's finished, she realized, remembering the picnic and hiding a grin.
Sure enough, John was eyeing her closely as he finished his last fry. Amanda had just finished her third, and caught him looking at them and giving an occasional, overdramatic sigh.
"You could just make more for yourself," she noted, pushing her plate towards him.
"You don't like them?" John asked, helping himself to the fries by transferring half to his plate with a fork.
Kind of silly, since he'll eat them with his fingers, Amanda thought, snickering.
"I like them, but you obviously like them more." In response to John's raised eyebrows, Amanda added, "Otherwise, you wouldn't give me pouty looks when you finish yours."
"Is 'pouty' a word?" John wondered.
She shrugged. "If it's not, it should be," she replied, biting into a fry.
"If I make more for myself," he explained, smiling widely, "it doesn't seem fair to you. It's better to give you the same amount and guilt you into sharing them with me."
Amanda raised her eyebrows. "You could just make for both of us whatever you think you'll eat."
"Then I won't be hungry for yours," John protested. "They'll go to waste."
He had a point.
"Okay. I give up," she laughed. "They are really good, though. I like this kind."
"They are good," John agreed. "Less fattening, too. Half as much as the ones I used to get, and no trans fat."
"Which doesn't really matter if you eat twice as many," Amanda retorted.
John hit her gently on the hand in response. "Are you ready to play Scrabble?" he asked, noting that the rest of her fries were gone.
She, of course, did not try to convince John to share his remaining three. Three very large ones. Still, he gobbled them up quickly in case Amanda changed her mind.
Amanda handed John her empty plate and then reached for Brownie. "How do you play?"
John reached for the board and began to set it up on the bed between the two of them. The board had some sort of spinner on it and letters with plastic walls on the sides (not unlike the head rest) which would make the wooden letters easier to remain, even on the rumpled bed. Amanda had played the occasional board game, but nothing that looked like this.
It must be expensive, she thought. Not new, since it looks kind of worn.
That made her feel a little better. There was already some wear and tear to the game, so it wasn't as though she had to treat it like a priceless work of art.
Not that Amanda had ever been around a priceless work of art.
"I'm about to explain, kitten," John replied, still setting up the pieces. "Be patient."
Amanda took the time to rearrange her pillows. She loved to sleep with her back against the wall, which meant the pillows would be on that side of the bed, but this was more of a sitting up game. She moved them to the head of her bed, giving her plenty of support.
John noticed. "Would you like some more?" he asked, and before Amanda could respond, he had risen from the bed and walked over to his bed. He removed three pillows and tucked them behind Amanda's head. He swatted Amanda's head with the last one, a large light purple pillow with yellow lining near the edges, before surrendering it to her.
Part of Amanda's hair stood up, caught by the static electricity. She tried to pull it down as John collapsed into laughter.
"Thanks for the pillows…not for the hair mess up," she replied, trying to glare at him.
"Aw, you look cute like that, kitten," John insisted.
"Mraaw!" Amanda made a disgruntled cat noise and even let a small hiss escape.
"Okay, no more. I'm sorry." He reached over and kissed her on the forehead (it seemed to be his favorite spot) and smoothed down her hair. "How's that, kitty?"
Amanda jumped out of bed to look in the mirror. "Better," she replied before returning to her bed.
"Good. Now, onto Scrabble?" John asked.
Amanda nodded. "How do you play?"
"Everyone—which is you and me in this case, but up to four people can play at one time—chooses seven letters, at random, from the bag." He held up the small purple bag that said "Scrabble" on it in dark, bold letters. "You use your letters to make words, but they must connect with the existing word. Obviously, whoever goes first has the advantage."
"Who decides that?"
"We'll each pick another letter from the bag—which we then return to the bag—and whoever gets the closest letter to A goes first," John explained. "Any questions so far?"
"Lots, but there's more, right?"
"Correct. Now, when it's your turn you can use your letters to form one word, but you can also create a word from another word…for example, if 'bug' was on the board, you could use an S, if you had one, to spell 'bugs' and with that S you could make another word, such as 'song'. Other than that, you can't make more than one word. Understand?"
Amanda nodded again, biting her lip as she tried to concentrate on what John was saying.
"Each letter gives you a certain amount of points. Vowels, along with a few other letters, are only worth one. K is worth 5, for instance. X, Q, and Z are both worth the most. There's only one of each of those," he added. "If you manage to use all of your letters on one turn, you get the score for the word and an additional fifty points.
"Once you use your letters, you pick others to replace them with. If you use three letters on one turn, you'll pick three more. You can also exchange a turn to change all of your letters," John recalled. "But if you do that, you won't get any points and you can't use any of your new letters until the next turn."
"What words are okay?"
"Anything in the English language. Anything that's not a name or a place. No abbreviations, or contractions." John paused. "I have a Scrabble dictionary somewhere, but it's probably with the other games, or in the basement."
"That's okay," Amanda replied, quickly.
"At the end of the game, when there are no more letters left to use, whatever letters you don't use count against you. So if you have two E's, you subtract two points from the total. Whoever has the most points wins."
"Sounds simple enough," Amanda smiled.
John laughed. "It sounds simple, but it's actually very difficult. Don't worry. I'll go easy on you the first time."
Amanda folded her arms. "And what if I win?"
"Then I let you win." John grinned widely.
"Hmph. No way. We'll each play our best and whoever wins, wins."
"Fine." John gave Amanda a sad look, which caused her to burst into giggles.
"Let's get started." Amanda dug into the bag and selected seven letters, then narrowed her eyes as she tried to think of words to use with these letters.
John went next. It was impossible to guess what he was thinking.
They picked letters to see who would go first. Amanda got a F. John got an X. Amanda bit her lip in concentration.
John had already taken out a piece of paper and written "Amanda" and "John" in his messy handwriting. He held the pen at the paper, ready to tally the scores.
Amanda finally chose "SPARK" with five of her letters. The L and the J would have to stay unused for awhile.
John used the K in "SPARK" to begin the word "KINGS".
Amanda stared at her new letters. E, I, L, T, and P were the new ones. None of them were worth a particularly large amount of points. She used the S in "KINGS" to create "SPLIT", earning a double word score.
"Good word," John complimented as he used the P in "SPLIT" to begin "PIECE". He received a double letter score on I, but since that was a vowel, he just got an extra point.
The game became increasingly difficult as more words showed up on the board. John never revealed the scores, but Amanda guessed that they were about even. At one point, however, she lucked out and was able to use all seven letters to spell "PRINCES", with the P from "SPARK", which put her in the lead because she received fifty extra points for the usage of seven letters, and then additional points for landing on a triple word score. John groaned as he added up her new score.
By the end of the game, Amanda won, but the score was fairly close, at Amanda's 320 to John's 306.
"You did very well for your first game," John complimented, taking some of the pieces off the board. "But if you hadn't used all seven letters that time, I would have won."
"Yeah right," Amanda scoffed. "It was fun though. Want to play again?"
She looked so eager that John didn't have the heart to say no. "Brush your teeth and wash your face first while I get the board ready for the next game," he replied.
Grinning, Amanda headed for the sink. She worked quickly, and her timing was perfect; John was removing the last letter from the board—a Q, which Amanda had used to spell "QUITE"—when Amanda jumped back into bed.
This time, John won by a landslide. The final score was 400 to 220, and John hadn't even been able to use his X.
"You're getting better," John encouraged, but Amanda could see that he was trying not to gloat.
"Next time…" Amanda threatened, helping John remove all of the pieces.
He laughed and attacked her head with the pillow.
It was still too early for bed, so John asked Amanda if she wanted to see what was on TV. He lay next to her with an arm wrapped around her shoulders and the other arm holding the black and white remote. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything good on. After channel surfing a few times, John sighed. He turned off the TV just as the news program started talking about "the jigsaw killer". If Amanda noticed the show's content, she didn't give any indication of this to John.
"Looks like we're not going to find anything tonight." John sighed. "Want to play a last game of Scrabble?"
He asked this unwillingly; having put the board and the pieces away, John didn't feel like setting everything up again.
Fortunately, Amanda shook her head. "I'm getting sleepy," she replied, hiding a yawn.
John sat up when he heard this. Perhaps he could get some work on his latest trap in before he, too, turned in for the night. The head device needed to close at exactly the right angle or it wouldn't kill the victim, just flatten his face a little.
"Could you stay?" Amanda asked quietly, hopefully, reaching for his arm.
John sighed. "Are you afraid of having another nightmare?"
It certainly wouldn't be the first. Amanda had troubling dreams almost every day, though less recently over the past few days. He had hoped that the fresh air would help her, even make her too tired to dream, but she was still scared.
Amanda nodded, but it was easy for John to see it was more than that. He sighed again.
"Let me get changed, first," he requested, planting another cheek on her forehead.
Perhaps she'll be asleep by the time I get back, he thought hopefully.
It was certainly possible. He'd have to be slow about changing into his night shirt.
Amanda made a noise of consent and closed her eyes, holding Brownie up to her chest.
After brushing his teeth and washing his own face, John changed into his softest (and oldest) night shirt. Amanda still had one of them, and he wondered if she would wear it now that she had a drawer's worth of nightgowns. He probably shouldn't say anything right away, in case she misinterpreted his question.
Amanda was still awake. He gently moved her aside, moving towards the wall side of the bed. He'd hold her tightly to prevent Amanda from falling out of the bed, but he needed the support of the wall to ensure that he didn't fall out. The bed was only a twin…fairly small for two people.
Once John was settled in, he pulled Amanda towards him, wrapping his arms around her body. One touched her waist while the other one stayed over her shoulder. She settled against him, so close John could hear her heart beating.
It was nicer than John had expected. He hadn't cuddled with anyone in such a long time…he had forgotten how wonderful it felt. Amanda laid her head against his shoulder, and her long hair fell into his face, tickling his nose. His grip was tight, warming the child—as he still saw her—as well as securing her. He tried to find the most comfortable position for both of them, and when he did find it, Amanda sighed with pleasure.
"You're so comfy," she whispered, turning her head to face him. A chunk of her dark hair touched his face as she moved, and John had to struggle against the urge to sneeze.
"You are, too," he replied. He smiled. "I'm glad you asked me to do this."
"Really?" Her face turned into a wide smile. With the hand that had been previously holding Amanda's head, but was now free since she found his chest a better pillow, he stroked her hair for what felt like the millionth time since she had arrived. As he did this, her smile widened and her eyes began to close, slowly.
"Yes," he replied, more to himself than to her.
Amanda lay in his arms, half asleep, feeling happier and safer than she had in years. She was so comfortable that she didn't want to fall asleep right away. She just wanted to enjoy the feeling of being held so tightly, in the arms of someone who clearly cared about her.
The only thing that worried her was that John might not want to do this again, and would isolate himself from her. Men were like that, she knew.
As though reading her mind, John spoke to this concern in his soft, gentle voice. "We can do this again," he promised, still caressing her hair. He heard her make a contented noise. "Good night, my little kitten. I love you." John said the last part so softly that he was sure she couldn't hear it.
Then again, he hadn't really intended her to.
"Night, John," she whispered, snuggling under the blankets and enjoying the feeling of his soft shirt against her cheek. She could feel sleep take over as she let herself surrender to the warmth and softness around her.
Moments later, John followed her into a deep and very restful sleep.
A/N: Sorry for the delay. Part of it was due to my computer basically crashing (fortunately I had sent a copy to Kim here) and another part was due to ffn's problem over the last few days with uploading documents. I'm pretty confident you won't have to wait nearly as long for the next chapter. Please review...as usual, I need five to post. :)