Chapter 3

New York, New York

"Mom, may we go to the Hartwick camp this summer? Pretty please?" her younger daughter cooed sweetly across the dining table at Julie Ravenhart. Her other daughter, Sora, handed her two entry forms and she read them thoroughly.

"Well dears," began Julie. "The camp lasts for almost a month you know…" she drifted off.

It was already summer and the holidays had just started. Julie did not mind her girls going off to camps, but this one did seem a little too long a time for her girls to be away from home. But just as she expected, Misty immediately summoned up her most beseeching look. "Mom, we promise to take good care of ourselves, really we will. The camp's open for junior high schoolers only, and I'm a freshman this year already! Almost all the first years in VJH are going, I can't be the only one left out!" she pleaded, almost horror-struck at the idea of being left behind. "And besides, there'll be many teachers there."

"We could learn lots of things, mom," Sora too put in reasonably. "And there's going to be plenty of students from other schools too!"

Julie sighed in defeat. "Well, when is this camp? We're travelling to San Francisco next week you know," she scanned the two participation forms in front of her again. "And where is it? It doesn't say anything here."

"Oh, it's during the last month of summer," chirped Misty happily and handed her mother another piece of paper containing all the miscellaneous information. If their mother starts asking questions like these, it usually meant that she was about to consent. "The Hartwick Summer Camp is held on Blackwood Hill every year, it's located in the Highland County in Ohio, somewhere close to Brush Creek."

"Well, if both of you insist…" she smiled helplessly.

BINGO!

The sisters high-fived each other happily. "Don't worry mom, we promise to give you a call every week," Sora attempted to reassure her mother.

Julie Ravenhart smiled. She was sure Sora would be able to take care of herself and her sister. She was already fifteen after all.

Misty Ravenhart admired the vast stretches of moor, bursting with flashes of purple and yellow blossoms outside her window as the school bus rumbled along the freeway. They had been travelling for four hours already, and most of the students were sleeping. Some were playing, and the rest were either chatting or staring out the windows like Misty. Karen Randall, Misty's best friend, sat next to her, absorbed in a book.

Their school had hired three buses for their teachers and students, and the sophomores took a different one, so Sora was on a different bus. From her window, Misty could see Sora on the bus next to theirs. She was chatting with Nicole. Not long after, Misty felt her shoulder being shaken just as she was about to drift off.

"Misty, we're there!" It was Karen's hyped-up voice.

Misty immediately stood up from her seat. "We've arrived?" Excited, she squinted at the windscreen four seats in front. They were driving through a huge wooden arch of the main gates that said 'The Hartwick Adventure' in large yellow paint, and soon, their bus came to a stop and the students tumbled pell-mell out of it, extremely glad and restless from the long ride.

"Aaah~" Misty stretched her cramped muscles lazily and gazed at the scenery around her. "This place is cool!"

Giant forest trees surrounded them with leaves falling like snow –brown, orange, red and golden. It was windy, and the uplifting jungle breeze playfully twirled the fallen leaves round and about. It was a glorious sight.

A number of buses from other schools were arriving at the same time as well, and there were many students. Misty turned around and saw her sister coming over to her. Sora had on her favorite white cap over her shoulder-length red hair, a bright yellow polo-shirt and a white denim skirt. Misty grinned as she came up to her. "I love this place," she declared as she deftly caught two falling leaves with her hands.

Sora nodded, agreeing thoroughly, turned around and caught three leaves. Misty saw her sister copying her and grabbed a handful of leaves from the ground and threw them cheekily at Sora.

"Hey!" Sora closed her eyes and tried to fend off Misty's continuous assaults. She stumbled a few steps back in the attempt and bumped heavily into someone. A pair of hands abruptly clamped firmly on her shoulders. She drew a sharp breath in surprise and spun around quickly to apologize.

She looked up and saw a kid in a sleeveless green turtle-neck and blue jeans. Sora couldn't help noticing his stylish spiked-up blonde hair and well-toned arms. Deep navy blue eyes were narrowed at her, and Sora frowned. She felt she had forgotten something, something that she was about to do…

Then, Misty abruptly appeared next to her and whispered in her ear. "Um, I think it's about time you apologized?"

Oops.

"Uh, sorry, we were playing and I didn't see you," Sora tried to explain.

They saw the boy's eyebrows rose slightly. In the end, he said curtly, "Just watch out next time." And walked off.

They watched him strode away. When she was sure he was out of earshot, Sora said, "Is it just me, or do you think that guy has some sort of attitude problem?"

Misty laughed. "Maybe you should've apologized immediately and not gawk for such a long time," she gave her a mischievous wink, and Sora made a face.

"Well, excuse me for being a girl," and both of them laughed and ran off to the bus to grab their bags.

Matthew Hunter heaved his rucksack over his shoulders and reached out a hand to pull out his other bag from underneath a huge dump of baggage. He stood up straight and looked around, trying again to remember how he'd come to land himself in such a situation.

Benjamin Hanks, one of his close soccer teammates, had dragged him over to his house one fine and random day and shoved the enrolment form for the Hartwick Summer Camp into his hands. Having nothing to do during the holidays himself, Matt had decided that it couldn't hurt to get away from Chicago for a month, especially since his family wouldn't really care anyway.

He smiled thinly to himself, and as he prepared to go report his attendance to his coach up front, he noticed two girls fooling around not far away. They were throwing leaves at each other and squealing loudly. Matt rolled his eyes.

Okay, so he guessed there were drawbacks. Camps had never really been his thing, but it was probably because Matt had never been good at meeting new people, especially ones who acted like a bunch of kiddies. He didn't mean to be sexist, but the pair over there was really acting like a couple of bimbos.

It all happened quite suddenly. Matt felt a rough impact against his chest as something collided into his arms. Slightly winded, he regained his breath in two seconds and looked down reproachfully at his 'offender'. The girl with the white cap jumped violently and spun around to face him, backing two feet away.

There was a moment of silence after that, with Matt waiting patiently for the girl to apologize. Till this day, he still didn't know why he'd even bothered to wait, as if an apology from her was that important. Then, gradually feeling her eyes all over him, a slight frown of uneasiness formed at the corners of his mouth, and he shifted slightly.

Okay… maybe no one had ever bothered to tell this girl that staring was rude.

He was just about to say something when the other girl bounded up to them and whispered something in her ear. As if electrified, the first girl jumped and hurriedly expressed her apologies. Finally satisfied, he had muttered a short something and strode off without another word.

As he weaved his way in and out through all the teachers and students towards Benjamin, he heaved a mental sigh. Matt looked around at all the female students in the compound, most of them chattering, giggling and gamboling about, and already, he knew it'd be wise to keep out of trouble's way. And trouble meaning f-e-m-a-l-e-s, with a capital 'F'.

So? At least I admit I'm not very good around them, Matt thought crossly to himself. Maybe that was from studying in an all boys' school…

"Mist, come give me a hand with this."

Misty put down the bag she'd just pulled out and went over to her sister who was struggling with one of their bags that was stuck underneath a gigantic pile of baggage. Both girls heaved hard for about ten minutes, but alas to no avail.

"Now what should we do?" Misty asked in exasperation, but Sora only gave her a defeated shrug.

Tai Ryans scanned the crowded area with his bag slung over his shoulders, looking for Jennifer Andrews.

Now where'd that girl gone to? He thought irritably. Then, he noticed by chance, two girls nearby who were having difficulty with their luggage. The familiar urge to help overcame him and Tai made his way toward them.

"Here, let me help you," he offered. The girls glanced up at him gratefully with sweaty foreheads and stood aside. With a good strong jerk, he yanked the green bag out from beneath the pile and handed it to them.

"Thank you so much," they thanked him warmly.

"Welcome," Tai had returned their smiles and was just about to leave when a familiar voice rang out somewhere behind them.

"Tai Ryans! Where were you? Stop flirting with cute girls and come help me with this," Jennifer called reproachfully.

"I was just–" Tai cut himself off, for Jennifer had already stalked off huffily. Sighing, he threw them a sheepish smile and made after the girl.

The Ravenhart sisters exchanged a glance.

"I didn't know our society still condones slavery," Misty commented, clearly amused and sounding almost sympathetic.

Sora laughed and rolled her eyes. "Sadist, aren't you?"

Misty stuck out her tongue at her and they ran off to Miss Brown –their teacher who was marking attendances. They would soon find out to which cabin they have been assigned and would grab their cabin keys.

Almost more than halfway up on the other side of Blackwood Hill, stood a large and quaint old cottage in the deeper parts of the woods, surrounded by a pretty garden of flowers, shrubs, herbs and even a vegetable patch

"Grandmama, Grandmama," a girl in about her early teens, leaped over the low picket fence with ease, ran up the little winding path towards the verandah and burst into a cozy living room. With long burgundy hair flowing down her back and tied up in a high ponytail with a white ribbon, she wore a plain sleeveless pink dress and had a little pink violet in her hair just above her left ear. A woman, her hair graying with age, was sitting in an old rocking chair in the living room, knitting away with a ball of blue and green yarn.

"Grandmama, the campers have arrived this summer. I saw them," the girl jabbered excitedly. The old lady placed the knitting in her lap and took the girl's soft hands in her shriveled ones. Through her glasses shone a pair of kind emerald eyes.

"It will be different this year, love," she said, stroking the girl's hand affectionately. This made the girl look at her in slight puzzlement.

"Why? How–" she began, and then cut herself off when she suddenly seemed to remember something. "You mean they're here? Already? Grandmama, how come you did not tell me?" she stopped, and saw the lady nod slowly.

"Yes, all of them, in fact –right here at this camp."

"Really?" The girl's sapphire-like blue green eyes shone with anticipation. "Grandmama, I don't understand. Why do we have to wait? Why can't we get all of them here right now?"

The old woman shook her heavy head. "It is not time yet, Kate. Be patient. Tell you what, you could go down to the camp tomorrow and ask Ms. Jones if you could join in some of the student activities."

"Oh thank you, Grandmama!" A smile lit up the girl's radiant face. "Do you want mushroom soup for dinner tonight?" Seeing the old lady give a nod, the girl turned and capered out of the cottage bare-footed. The old woman shifted her gaze from the lean figure of the child and looked out through the window into the cloudless blue sky.

It was almost time. The Magidestined shall soon be brought together as one.

"This is our cabin! See? 109," said Misty, pointing at the black number plate on the wooden oak door. She turned to her cabin mates who were her sister, Nicole Crane and Karen Randall, all who had earlier on made requests in their application forms to be assigned to the same cabin.

"In case you didn't notice, we have eyes," said Sora and took out the cabin key to unlock the door. Misty was the first to rush in, and bounded here and there, poking around everywhere, checking everything out.

The door of the little wooden cabin opened straight into a plainly-furnished room with four single bunks attached to the walls on each side, two on top of two others. Two writing desks were placed under a window that opened to a view of the woods and a few other student cabins, and a chest of drawers stood near the door to the attached bathroom.

"Ahah, this bunk's mine!" Misty rolled around happily on one of the bottom bunks that had a window right next to it.

Sora, who was panting underneath the weight of one of their huge bags, flared at her sister. "Hey you jerk, come help with the bags!"

Misty jumped off her bed, saluting. "Yes ma'am!"

They spent a happy half an hour unpacking and exploring the inside and outside of their cabin. Nicole opened one of the huge windows beside their bunks and looked out, breathing in a lungful of air that smelt delightfully of fresh pine.

"Hey girls, c'mover here," she called. "Look! Our window faces the lake. Isn't it beautiful?"

The huge emerald lake stood placidly in the protection of its rich surrounding overgrowth. Tall trees blocked part of the lake from view, but slowly in the sunset, the surface of the lake, reflecting the setting sun, turned a deep mesmerizing orange, its ripples, raised by the gentle breeze, reflecting every ray of golden sunlight that landed on it.

"Very," agreed Sora.

The girls enjoyed their spare time a bit longer. Nicole and Karen both claimed the upper bunks as the two Ravenhart sisters were both afraid of falling. Then, a bell rang shrilly in the distance.

"That's the dinner bell," said Sora. "We'd better get our butts down to the food court."

"Yea, I'm starving," said Misty as she leapt off three cabin steps onto the ground outside. "Hurry up! We don't want all the good food taken."

Sora shook her head. "The way she acts, you'd think we starve her at home."

Sure enough, the food court was already half-crowded with people by the time they got there. The four girls found a table to themselves by the glass window. Meals here were served buffet-style, so students were already forming longish queues for the food.

Ash Ketchum scanned the various types of food lined neatly in front of him, an empty tray in his hands. Cold turkey, sandwiches, lasagna, hotdogs and onions, pies… Ash looked around a bit more and finally decided on spaghetti, a slice of meat pie, salad and a glass of juice.

Having had no special plans for the holidays this year, he had given in to his basketball buddies' constant peer pressure to sign up for the youth camp that St. George's enrolled in yearly. Clyde Wayne, his best friend on the basketball team, had been at his throat ever since the holidays started, and in the end, he had figured why the hell not and finally signed up for it. It'd be a new experience anyway, and he knew that Tai's school in Washington participated in this camp as well. The camp would be another good chance to spend some fun times with his cousin.

Misty carried her tray of food slowly, taking extra care so as not to unbalance her precious dinner. After a whole 15 minutes in the line, piled high on her tray now were a plate of juicy looking steak, baked potatoes, bread and cream cheese. Misty smiled at her food contentedly. All her favorites! Now, for ice-cream~ she thought gleefully to herself and headed for the ice-stand.

Ash placed the vanilla sundae on his tray and turned around. Then–

WHAM!

Before anything else could happen, he had bumped violently into a girl behind him and his plate of spaghetti had slid off his tray and emptied its contents all over the girl's blouse! Everyone in the hall gaped at the horrible mess.

Misty, with her food safe and tray held high over her head, looked down in dismay at her favorite white blouse, now with an angry splotch of red in the center because of the Napolitano sauce from the spaghetti. She distinctly felt her temper rise up and up…

The place was quiet now as all eyes fixed upon them. Everyone was waiting with bated breath to see what would happen.

Sora had her hand on her forehead. Oh no…

"Listen, I–" Ash began, but it was too late. Before he knew what was happening, the plate of black-pepper steak in Misty's hand had been slammed into his red shirt! Everyone present gawped wordlessly as Misty raised her eyebrows indignantly.

"A main course for a main course," she said with a smirk, then turned and began to walk away. Ash recovered from his shock as he finally realized what had happened.

This girl… #$%*!

"So, it's like that, is it?" Ash retorted, now feeling his temper rising, too. "Two can play that game!" And as he spoke, he sent his bowl of salad sailing through the air straight toward Misty.

But Misty, her reflexes far too good, took an easy step to her right, and the salad flew harmlessly past her, but hit Sora Ravenhart instead.

Both Ash and Misty's jaw dropped. Uh-oh… an innocent bystander.

Of course, who could stand being splattered on the face for no reason? And if Sora were to give in gracefully in a situation like this, then she wouldn't be Sora Ravenhart. She and Karen both stood up in unison and hurled their apple pies right at Ash. But he had seen it coming and ducked swiftly, causing both pies to hit another two innocent onlookers behind him.

Instantaneously, food started flying across the room at opposite tables as everyone joined in. And soon, the little row developed into a full-fledged food fight. It was worse than a pandemonium –yells and shrieks sounded and resounded across the room, and food of all kinds could be seen soaring through the air every few seconds. It was a total mess.

About three minutes later, an adult in charge barged in from the back door and immediately got hit by a cup of chocolate sundae. He wiped the icy brown gob off his chubby red face and blew on his whistle sharply.

"STOP! Stop immediately!" he hollered thunderously over the mayhem, almost shaking the ground. The whole place fell silent.

Everyone was in a fine state. Misty was hit by strawberry custard at the back of her head; Sora's shirt was stained with what looked suspiciously like the remains of a piece of blueberry pie; Matt's face was covered with whipped cream; Tai was soaked through with orange juice; there were blobs of pink jelly on Jennifer's face, dribbling down her top, and someone had slammed a whole chunk of chocolate cake into Clyde's face!

"Look at this mess!" The kitchen lady came out and cried in horror, wringing her hands.

Mr. Williams, the chubby man who was the camp staff in charge of the food, glanced at Ash and Misty, who were one of the filthiest.

"Look at all of you!" he boomed in his deep voice. "All of you will now tidy up this mess immediately! Then go back to your cabins and get clean! Return here in half an hour's time for dinner, and you will have yourselves to thank for getting only bread, cheese and milk for dinner tonight! I expect better discipline from all of you from now on or I shall not hesitate to bring drastic punishments into action!"

Soon, everyone was working hard. Girls scrubbed the floor, tables and chairs, and most of the boys worked on the windows and climbed up ladders to clean food that was stuck on the walls, fans and ceiling.

"Thanks for losing your temper," said Sora as she passed Misty while going through the wooden floor underneath the tables with a piece of rag. Her sister stopped what she was doing and made a half-guilty face. "Nyah, same to you, sis."

Sora continued moving around the dirty floorboard on all fours, focusing on the filth on the floor and not really looking in front. Suddenly, with a bump, her head collided with something hard.

"Ow…" Sora sat back on the floor, rubbing her forehead.

Matt rubbed his head painfully and glanced up to see which careless idiot–

He stopped when he saw it was the same girl who had bumped into him just this morning. He frowned slightly. What's with this kid?

"This is the second time–"

"I have bumped into you today," Sora hastily finished for him. Determined not to stare at him again this time and embarrass herself. She then continued immediately, "I'm sorry."

"Good." Was the short answer before he turned and went on with his work. Sora stared disbelievingly at his back.

This guy seriously has a major attitude problem.

Ash sat on his bunk in cabin 120, drying his hair vigorously with a towel. "Ugh," he grumbled. "That girl is simply impossible."

"Hey, chill man," Clyde Wayne gave him a thump on the back as he sat down on the edge of Ash's bunk.

"That girl had better be careful," Ash growled as Tai Ryans emerged from the bathroom, toweling his wet hair.

"Aww come on, don't be so harsh," he said. "The food fight was fun."

"So, getting the hots for a firebrand now, are we?" Ash jeered. "Wait till Miss Andrews hears about this."

"Shut up!" said Tai and threw his towel at him.

Shortly, all the students went back to the food court and had dinner, under the supervision of two adults this time. And when Ash and Misty saw each other, each gave the other a resentful "hmph!" and turned to walk the other way.

Later that same evening, Misty, Sora, Nicole and Karen were all spending some relaxing time in their cabin.

Sora was sitting on her bunk, busily writing in her hardcover diary. Karen was reading on her bunk above Sora. Nicole was sitting on the wooden floor, leaning against the side of Sora's bed and doing a sketch while Misty sat on the floor as well, drinking a can of soda. Suddenly, a loud noise broke the silence–

BUUURP!

"Gross, Misty!" complained Karen. Misty pretended not to hear and took a few more sips. Another series of smaller burps followed. It was clear that Misty had drunk carbonated drink on purpose. She grinned mischievously and started burping in a certain rhythm, apparently trying to burp a song.

"Misty Ravenhart! Would you stop that ridiculous and moronic activity this instant?!" Sora raved and threw a pillow across the room at her sister's face. "You really are too gross for words!"

Presently, there came a knock on their cabin door.

"Get the door, Misty," Sora commanded without looking up.

"Get the door, Misty," said Karen, her eyes back on her book.

"Get the door, Misty," muttered Nicole, still focused on her drawing.

"Alright! Alright!" Misty got up, and Sora heard her mumble something that sounded suspiciously like "slave-drivers" as she opened their cabin door. Very soon, she came back, the look of boredom on her face wiped clean. "Hey, they're playing cards down at the food court, wanna join?"

The girls were still too hyped-up on their first night here for an early retreat, so they finished up what they were doing and headed out of their cabin once again. The food court was almost empty now, and as they approached it, they saw a group of students gathered at the long table out on the verandah, which was lit with a few oil lamps. Some of them, they noticed, were from Victoria Junior High, but most of them weren't.

The students were clearly absorbed in a game as they did not notice the girls approaching. When they reached the little group, Misty's eyes widened with thrill as she spotted something even more interesting –her sister's arch nemesis, dear Jessica Fleetwood and co. Having already been in the same school for a year, Misty already knew what these girls were like, and she had absolutely zero tolerance for trash such as these. Sora saw them too, and was just about to turn and leave when she felt her sister's hand holding onto the sleeve of her baby-T.

"Not so fast, sister dear~" cooed Misty softly. "They're the ones who should be running away." And with that, she squeezed her way past a couple of students and showed herself to the girls sitting in the center of the circle.

"Why hey there, Jessica! How really weird to see you here," Misty chirped, injecting a little too much sweetness in her voice. Jessica Fleetwood, Marilyn Slater and Denni Charles looked up, eyes immediately narrowing as they saw who it was.

"Get out of here, freak," Jessica said, screwing up her nose in disgust.

Misty clicked disapprovingly, shaking her head. "Such poor manners, you'll give VJH a bad name." She took a seat opposite the girls, signaling for the others to join her. She felt Sora giving her a slight nudge under the table, warning her not to overdo it. Starting fights was not something Misty wouldn't dare to do.

"We'd like to play," Misty said simply, leaning forwards on the table, cupping her chin in her hands. "How about we go, if you win?"

Probably not wanting to look bad, Jessica reluctantly signaled for Marilyn to begin shuffling the cards.

Being much bolder than Jessica, Marilyn cast them a sidelong grin as she started shuffling smoothly. "Tell you what, instead of a money bet, let's do a dare –overall loser of the night will have to run around the assembly field three times, in their underwear, first thing tomorrow morning."

Nicole and Karen were starting to look worried, but it was now Sora's turn to smile. If it was card games, the others were as good as dead. This was because Misty had shown extraordinary talent in card games since she was like, ten? She was good at all sorts of card games –Black Jack, Fishing, Pairs, Jin Rummy –you name it, she nails it. Very few people that Sora had seen had been able to beat Misty at card games. She won so constantly that sometimes it was scary.

"Excellent," she heard Misty agree, leaning backwards in her chair.

"Black Jack?" Marilyn asked.

Misty shrugged indifferently. "Your call."

It was between Jessica, Marilyn and Misty, so Marilyn distributed three pairs of cards to each player. Everyone was silent for awhile, and Sora squinted at Misty's cards. They were good, very good. In fact, they were a Black Jack! –an Ace of Hearts and a King of Diamonds. Jessica had been about to draw a card when Misty laid out her cards on the wooden table.

"Black Jack," she smiled victoriously. "Looks like you lost the first round, girls. Not a good start."

The first round was pure luck, but before the next few rounds were over, both girls' faces grew darker and darker. This was no wonder, because Misty had been able to win every round with almost unbelievable ease. They went through Black Jack, Fishing and Poker, and Misty was good at every one of them. Soon, other people began coming up to challenge her, even some boys from other schools, and Misty gladly took up every challenge that came her way.

Then, a figure appeared in front of them, and a hand slapped down on the wooden tabletop –it was the boy called Ash Ketchum, and in the company of a few more boys Misty didn't know. He leaned forwards across the table. "Dare to take my challenge?" he asked in a tone as if daring her to say no. Misty looked slightly taken aback at first, but soon hitched her confident smile back on.

"Why not take a seat?" she gestured towards a vacant space. "Okay with Fishing?" she asked, shuffling the deck deftly, and when Ash nodded, she glanced over at Sora, and her sister immediately took the hint and claimed the seat next to her.

"Partner Fishing," Sora added. "There'll be two players on each side, if a player or his partner loses, then the team loses the round." Sora was better at Fishing, so the girls had better chances of winning if they worked as a team.

"I'll be his partner," Matt Hunter stepped up front and offered his hand to Ash. "Matt Hunter."

"I'm Ash Ketchum, from St. George's," he replied, taking Matt's hand.

Misty looked slightly perplexed. "You're partnering someone you don't know?" This was weird as people usually partnered someone they were familiar with.

"Is there a problem?"

Misty shrugged and continued shuffling. "Nope, whatever pleases you, I suppose." She started distributing the cards to the four of them, and everyone watched in silence as each player rearranged and analyzed their hands.

Sora started the game with a double of Threes, and they went on until Misty's double of Queens was beaten by Matt's Ace double. After all of them had passed, Matt calmly laid out his next set of cards, which was a triple of Sevens and double of Tens. He was on his last two cards, and Misty wondered if he had the Two of Spades with him.

This round was ended by Misty with a set of four Jacks and a Five of Clubs. Everyone saw that Matt now had the least cards on hand. It would be risky to deal a double now, Misty thought. But she didn't have a set of five that she could deal… Probably an Ace of Clubs would be the more secure choice.

She dealt the Ace, and it was Matt's turn. And the boy smiled and dealt his last two cards, which were the Two of Spades and a simple Nine of Diamonds. He had won.

"You're good," Misty said approvingly, and they started the next game. This time, Sora won gracefully. But for the following three games, Ash shone and won all three consecutively. Even Sora was surprised. No one had thought he was that good.

"I think," began Ash, flashing them his most dashing smile. "Why not change the game to Poker?"

Misty was frowning. How could she, especially Sora, have been beaten? She saw Jessica and her gang giggling behind the boys, and it pissed her off even more. Well, Poker would be right up her alley!

She returned Ash's smile. "Gladly!"

And this time, Ash wasn't so lucky. Misty won the first game with a Flush of Hearts, and the second with a straight of Five to Nine! Sora looked at her sister, Misty was back to her confident self. And just when Misty had won for the third time in a row, another voice spoke.

It was Tai Ryans.

"May I have a try?" he said politely, taking Matt's seat next to Ash. The sisters said nothing and continued with the game. But mysteriously, after Tai had taken Matt's place, both he and Ash continued to win all the following rounds consecutively. It was astounding to see them win game after game. And finally, even Misty had to surrender.

Ash leaned back against his chair. Ash 2 : Misty 1, that'd show the little firebrand.

"You lost," he smiled at Misty's scowl.

"Sue me," the girl retorted. Call her a sore loser, but Misty hated losing!

"Temper, temper," Ash clicked aggravatingly and shook his index finger. Then, he leaned forwards on the table and spoke. "Tell you something interesting. Tai here has a father who's a magician."

At this, their eyes opened wide. "You… cheated?" the Ravenhart sisters stared at Tai in disbelief, and Tai shrugged.

"All part of gambling, isn't it?" he said offhandedly, and got up. It was clear who had won, and instantly, everyone began chatting at once, crowding around the boys. Misty and her girls got up, ready to head off.

"Well, at least we got our consolation prize," she grinned mischievously, then turned around and called out to Jessica, who was busy flirting with Ash, her "lifesaver". "Oh and Jessie dear, don't forget your dare, first thing tomorrow morning!"

~~ Magidestined ~~