Hmm. There's going to be more random-ness coming right up. Hope you can bear with me for this random-ness. But I think this is going to be fun, anyway. I would like to give a special thanks to Yingjiao and Hui Min, my friends, who helped me come up with the 7 games. It took a mighty long time to find all the funnest, most appropriate games for this fic and for me to familiarise myself with the rules of the games and all. A lot of effort has been put into this, so I hope you'd review. If you hate it, please have no qualms about telling me(:

Ten Fingers

"...And we put in a lot of effort in planning this. So, you're going to play the games," Atlanta announced, her hands on her hips. Theresa was standing beside her, grinning a little at the blank faces that faced them.

Everyone stared at Atlanta, looking a little edgy as though they wanted to run. But of course, Atlanta and Theresa wasn't going to let them. Not if they could help it.

Jay raised his hand a little awkwardly. "Hey, is it alright if I go back to my room? I'm - I'm uhh... Working on a plan to stop Cronus. Yeah."

Theresa gave him her best puppy-dog look, what with the pleading emerald eyes and even a little tear. "Jay, PLEASEE. We put in a lot of effort into this. You're not going to let it go all to waste, are you?"

Her pout made Jay swallow. Backing down with a sigh, he cringed and leaned back onto the plushy armchair. That puppy-dog look always got to him without fail.

"So, any objections?" Atlanta cleared her throat and looked around at the males.

All of the guys gulped audibly, not exactly daring to face off Atlanta. Silence engulfed them for a minute, and Atlanta tapped her foot, a little annoyed. They weren't being much enthusiastic, which was the least they could do. Oh well. After all, they were being forced to do this, weren't they? She would be patient with them - for now, at least.

She smiled brightly at the guys, who grimaced inwardly at that scary grin. "Let's start off with Ten Fingers."

--

A few minutes later, everyone was sitting down on the floor in a circle, awaiting instructions. It went in the order of Atlanta, Herry, Odie, Archie, Jay, Theresa and lastly, Neil.

Theresa looked around, and, seeing their confused looks, she decided to explain the game. "Alright, everyone has to raise all their ten fingers. It goes around the circle, and everyone, when it is their turn, must say something they've never done before. For example, I could say I've never bungee-jumped before. Anybody who has done that particular thing before must put down his or her finger. So that means anyone who has bungee-jumped before must put down one finger. The people who have put all ten fingers down first will be the winner."

Jay nodded, understanding. Well, at least the game didn't seem that bad. It was manageable enough. He watched as everyone lifted their hands up, and he followed suit.

Atlanta grinned again. "I'll start. I've never ate sushi before."

All but Atlanta and Herry put down one finger. Jay grinned a little. How could anyone miss out on the delights of sushi? How unfathomable. He shook his head. Maybe this game would end earlier and he'd be able to go back to his planning.

Next, Herry. "Hmm... I've never grown pineapples on the farm before."

Jay wrinkled his nose a little. He noticed no one put down any fingers. Pretty predictable. Hmm, in fact, did anyone actually grow pineapples in a farm before?

Odie grinned as he thought of something. "I've never dealt with PHP scripts before, which is surprising for a genius like me."

All of them gave him a blank look. Jay scratched the bridge of his nose. He might know a thing or two about the computer, but he wasn't a technogeek, unlike Odie.

It was Archie's turn. Jay felt a yawn coming and was about to yawn when he saw Archie shoot him a rather evil smile. He frowned a little, feeling a little worried. That ominous feeling that he was giving him... Okay, he didn't like it one bit.

"I've never liked any people with orange hair before," Archie announced triumphantly, giving Jay a smirk.

Wait, what?! Jay's jaws dropped. He felt the whole room's eyes on him, and it didn't help that Theresa was sitting beside him, grinning and looking at his fingers. He felt the blush coming on and he reluctantly put down one finger, all the while glaring at Archie. Traitor! Well, Jay could play dirty too. Two can play at the same game.

It was his turn now. He, still glaring at Archie who was smirking uncontrollably at him, declared, "I've never liked redheads before."

Now it was Archie's turn for his jaws to drop as he glared daggers at Jay. All eyes turned to Archie this time, but Atlanta remained somewhat oblivious. In this case, everyone was expecting Archie to put down that finger. It was no secret that he liked a certain redhead...

Jay could hear Archie cursing under his breath, directing it to Jay, but he didn't care. Oh, revenge was sweet. Who said that Jay himself couldn't be evil? Jay smiled, feigning innocence as Archie put down one of his fingers. Now they were on a par. But somehow, he was pretty sure that Archie wouldn't leave it as that. But he had asked for it, anyway.

Theresa couldn't stop the grin from spreading on her face as she said, "Hmm, I've never liked purple-haired people before."

Atlanta looked up in horror, shooting a glare at her best friend. What, was she trying to turn this into a war? Yet she was confused - she didn't really know if she liked Archie. But it would be unfair for her to not put down her finger and get away with it, only to find out that she did like Archie. After all, Atlanta always fought fair. Well, most of the time anyway.

Sighing, she put down one of her fingers, earning a gasp from everyone in the entire team, including Archie, whose eyes widened noticeably. Atlanta noticed this, of course, and she snapped immediately, "Archie, don't you know there are other purple-haired people around?" This promptly wiped the wide smile on Archie's face and his shoulders drooped a little.

Neil examined his nails as he distractedly said, "Hmm, I've never had a zit before."

Everyone put one finger down. Jay realised he'd already put down three fingers, while the others haven't. Well, then again, Archie had the same number of fingers down as him. Good. He would have to win this game if he wanted to gloat over Archie.

It reached Atlanta again, and she stated, "I've never liked brown-haired people before." Jay couldn't help but let his gaze drift over to Theresa, who sat awkwardly beside him.

Theresa shrugged nonchalantly, as though she didn't bother, and she put one finger down, as did Herry and Odie. Well, so it was pretty much confirmed. She did like him. Well, at least there was enough evidence to know there was a good chance of that she liked him.

As the game went by, more fingers were put down. It came to Archie's turn again, and he grinned evilly. From that, Jay could tell that Archie meant business.

"I've never liked a girl with green eyes before."

Jay had braced himself for something like that, and his face reddening as he scowled irrately, he put down one of his fingers, looking away from Theresa's face, which was currently painted with delight.

"I've never liked a girl with brown eyes before." Jay retorted, watching with satisfaction as Archie narrowed his eyes and put one finger down. Everyone seemed to be watching this battle rage within the game.

Theresa decided not to give Atlanta a hard time, and she said something easy. "I've never... I've never had true friends until I met you guys."

There was silence for a while, and Jay looked around solemnly as he put down his finger. To his surprise, Herry, Odie, Archie and even Neil all didn't put down their fingers. Jay felt a rush of warmth in his insides as he gazed at the people he had come to know as his second family. Yeah, they were family all right.

The game made its rounds again and surprisingly, Archie didn't mention anything about Jay's crush on Theresa. So, Jay was kind as well and left that one out, stating more innocent things about himself that he had never done before. At that moment, the people leading were Jay and Atlanta, who both had nine fingers down. One more to go, and both of them would win.

It was Archie's turn again. Leaning back onto the wall, he looked up, then suddenly turned to face Jay with a wicked grin. Oh great, he's starting it again, Jay thought in annoyance and prepared himself for it.

But it was nothing that he could have prepared himself for when Archie smirked and said, "I've never liked Theresa before."

It was like the beating of his heart came to a stop when Jay heard that. He was at a loss for words and worse still, he felt everyone's eyes on him. Trust Archie to have to win at a stupid game like this by making him let his guard down then following up with a "fatal blow". Jay squeezed his eyes shut. There was no way out of this. He was going to have to put his last finger down. He was debating whether to lie his way through or not when Archie nudged him conspiratorically. Hissing, he put down his last finger when he suddenly thought of a brilliant idea to get himself out of this sticky situation.

"I think we all do like Theresa. She's our great friend. I think everyone likes her - well except for Archie, that is. Isn't it?" Jay looked imploringly at all his other friends, begging them, pleading them to go along with his plan.

After a moment's hesitation, everyone except Theresa and Archie put down one finger, and thus Jay and Atlanta had won.

Archie, his face turning purple in anger at having lost, glared at Jay and whispered under his breath, "That was really dirty, even a little too dirty for a goody-two-shoes like you."

Jay shrugged and gave him a seldom-seen award-winning smile ass he whispered back. "Don't we all have our own skeletons in our closets?"

--

Okay, that's the end of this chapter. I know it's really random and all, but I hope you liked it. Well, I know that some characters seem a little OOC here, and I'll try to work on that. Anyway, please review! Since I love writing about all these games and everything, I think I'll try to update as soon as possible. The next chapter will be on another game, but I won't tell you what for now. You just have to wait and see!