"So, now what?" Callie put a hand on the kitchen counter and looked at Jules questioningly.
"Well, we've got a couple hours until your clothes are done. Do you know any card games? Or I have Uno." Jules offered.
"I love card games." Callie smiled. She and Keith had played rummy for hours during his treatments and hospital stays. "Uno sounds fun, but I have to tell you I am ruthless."
"Oh really? Well, then this should be fun." Jules smirked and faked surprise when the door rang. "I thought maybe it'd be fun to have more players than just us." She said to Callie before she walked from the kitchen straight to the front door.
"Hey. Come on in."
Callie could hear Jules and two male voices in the living room. She got nervous. Her teammates? What if they didn't like her? And she looked like a bum! She thought about running out the back door until Jules called her to come to the dining room. She took a breath and walked to her left and to the dining room.
Jules was getting the cards out and had a pen and paper in front of her. At the table was the most handsome man she'd ever seen. Dark hair, dark brown eyes and when he smiled at her, her heart skipped a beat. She tore her eyes away from him and looked at the other guy, just as handsome, blond hair and caring blue eyes.
Jules saw Callie staring and stifled a chuckle. Spike caught it and looked at her. He wasn't oblivious to the way the girl had looked at him. He gave Jules a knowing smile.
"Callie, these are my teammates Spike," she put her hand out palm up towards Spike and then pointed at Sam. "And Sam. Sam and I are also dating." She added that last part for information and to discourage Callie's dreamy stare. Jules raised a brow at her and Sam gave her a knowing look. It was Spike's turn to snort.
Jules sat down to Sam's left, Callie finally broke out of her reverie and sat across from Jules and next to Spike. It was a very spirited game. Callie hadn't been kidding. Whenever she got skips, reverses, draw twos and draw fours she saved them for Jules.
"So," Callie played a draw four wild on Spike. "Green. Is Spike your real name?"
Spike picked up the cards with a glare and organized them. He'd felt lucky that Jules was getting all of the bad cards but no one had reversed the direction in awhile. He knew Callie wouldn't hold onto them forever. "No it's Michelangelo. I used to have spiky hair so my old CO gave me the nickname."
Callie frowned. "CO?"
"Commanding officer. I was a policeman before I joined the SRU." Spike explained then groaned when she played another draw four.
"Blue."
"Oh come on!" Spike looked at her cards, only two left, better not challenge her.
"So Callie, do you like other card games?" Sam asked. He was trying to stifle a laugh at the fist full of cards Spike had.
"Oh yeah." Callie couldn't help but smile as she laid another draw four down. "Uno." She hid her mouth behind her cards when Spike's head whipped around to look at her.
Sam and Jules couldn't hold it in and laughed loudly.
"I used to play rummy with my brother. Phase 10 which is just like it. 5 card stud was fun too." She watched Sam change the color to yellow and look at her in question. She put a hand to her mouth and looked at Spike. "Out." It was her third draw four in a row.
Spike threw his cards in the air and they fluttered back down around him. That was it. Callie, Jules and Sam lost it. They were laughing so hard they had tears streaming down their faces. Spike stood and picked up all twenty of the cards he had in his hand. It took him a minute to count up all the points. When he finally finished he looked at Jules. "325."
"Oh my god." Sam out a hand to his mouth and tried to control his laughter but he looked at Callie and it was all over. They were howling in laughter. After a while even Spike couldn't help but join them.
When they finally calmed down, Sam took the deck and started shuffling. "So what's your favorite subject in school?" He looked at Callie.
"Uh, recess?" Callie answered sarcastically.
"You don't like any of your classes?" Jules frowned.
"There must be one you look forward to." Spike looked at her.
"I don't know." Callie shrugged and played a draw two on Spike.
"Ugh. What have I done to you?" Spike speared her with a look.
Callie laughed. "Reverse it." She smiled conspiratorially and wiggled her eyebrows.
"Hey!" Jules laughed.
Callie sat back in her chair and concentrated on her cards. "Art class is pretty cool. I totally suck at Math."
"Well, you are in excellent company." Jules smiled. "It just so happens that Spike here is a math whiz."
Cassie looked at Spike and he nodded. "Good because I was totally lost in algebra today."
"Easy peasy lemon squeezy." Spike grinned and played a reverse.
Cassie laughed and rolled her eyes.
"What?" Spike looked at each of them. "Isn't that what the cool kids are saying nowadays?"
"No." Callie shook her head. "I wouldn't know what they say anyway." She looked at her hand.
"Well then they aren't very cool." Spike put a hand on her shoulder. "'Cause you seem pretty cool to me."
Omigod, he touched my shoulder. Her heart leapt. He thinks I'm cool. "Thanks.' She smiled easily.
"Me too." Jules smiled at her, until Callie played a draw four. "Bugger!"
"Me three." Sam winked at her and laughed at Jules' outburst.
It took a couple hours for them to finish the game which consisted of someone hitting 1,000 points. At first it seemed that Spike would get there first, but Jules ended up the victim of one of what Callie calls the 'rain of fire'. Turn after turn of all the bad cards. By the time Callie went out, Jules had 28 cards in her hand totalling 450 points.
"Man. You are ruthless!" Jules stood and walked to the dryer. She pulled out all of Callie's clothes and called her to come get them.
"Thanks Jules." Callie hugged her. She wasn't sure why she did that. It was an impulse. She took her clothes and went upstairs to change.
Jules was a little stunned, but hugged her back. "You're welcome." After Callie ran upstairs, Jules walked back into the dining room smiling.
"She's a great kid." Spike said. "Do you think she could handle hangin with everyone?"
"Mm. I think we should take it slow. That may be too much too soon." Jules shook her head. She moved to the other side of Sam, next to the wide doorway to the living room and looked up at her room. The door was still closed.
She turned back to Sam and Spike. "She's been through a lot with her brother. I think there's something going on at school, but she doesn't trust
me enough yet to say." She whispered.
"She will. This was a great idea Jules." Sam took her hand in his as she stood next to the chair.
A few minutes later Callie came back downstairs dressed in her school clothes. Her stomach still hurt, but she felt and smelled much better. She smiled at Jules as she walked to her.
Jules put her hands on Callie's shoulders. "Listen, I can understand how hard school can be. I didn't want to go to school after my mum died, but eventually I had to. I hated it. I stayed by myself and nobody talked to me. They didn't know what to say.
Until the day Sally Athers sat by me at lunch. I'd never talked to her before. She always seemed kinda nerdy and quiet. But she told me she was sorry that my mum had died and if I wanted to talk about it she was there. She didn't say anything else the rest of lunch period."
She could see this was hitting home so she continued, "for three days she did that until I finally started talking to her. I told her all about my mom, the way she looked. Her beautiful smile, how she always had a smile on her face, no matter what happened. Everything.
All she did was listen. I felt better after and she and I became best friends. Still are. So what I'm trying to say is that anytime you want to talk, about anything, I'll be here waiting."
Callie didn't know what to say. She wanted to tell them about Mitzy and Candy, but she knew they'd probably run to the school and tell. That would make it worse. If standing Mitzy up was bad, then telling on her would be much much about Keith hurt too much still. "Thanks," she finally said, "but I'm good."