Now for our carnival competition. I enjoyed planning this one.

Play It Cress-cendo: Part Six

Since Kai was on a quest to become a master at carnival games to win prizes for Skylar and Quinn, he had to practise now. Winning now meant prizes to bring to them when he came back home later tonight. His friends, because they were friends, wanted to help him win some stuffed animals since that's all the twins really wanted. But since they were friends, they decided to make it a competition on who could win the most.

Any game, any stuffed animal. The couple (because that's how they divided themselves. Winter was more than okay going solo because she had a plan to win) who wins the most prizes obviously wins. Their only catch was that the bigger animals were worth more than smaller ones, which was Scarlet and Wolf's strategy since they didn't have endless money on their side. Winter's strategy was similar since she was solo but she has a Blackburn bank account.

So they split up and decided to meet at the exit at midnight with their prizes.

Kai and Cinder headed to one of the many indoor arcades. A dimly lit room with many buzzing and automated noises varying from battles to clinking cash, kids running around, and animations popping everywhere. Neon lights fill the room as people cheer victoriously at the tickets pouring out of their game consoles.

Cinder runs over to a vacant claw machine, seeing a variety of giant stuffed animals to choose from. She and Kai bought a lifetime's worth of game tokens so they plan to win every prize they could. She inserts a token in the machine and takes the control in her hand, eyeing the claw and trying to control it as if it were a prosthetic hand. Oddly looks like one with the neon lights.

"We have to win this," Kai says, standing beside her and looking up at the claw. "I'm their brother."

Cinder glances at him for a second. He said he's their brother. He literally said earlier not to call him that and now he's claiming the title and wanting to wear it with pride once he wins.

"So, Big Brother Kai," Cinder says, liking the sound of that. She even catches Kai looking at her through her peripheral vision as she moves the claw around the box. "Which animal would the girls like?"

-o-

"The less we have, the more we have to be careful with what we got," Wolf says.

"Relax, babe, I got this," Scarlet responds.

They quickly kiss for good luck as Scarlet arms up with two Nerf guns. Wolf takes a seat in the vacant spot next to her as she prefers to stand. Once the bell goes off, she's firing at wooden thaumaturges that pop up in a fake field on the other side of the booth. Scarlet isn't the scariest. She just looks the scariest, even when she isn't with Wolf and even with the Nerf gun. She's biting on her bottom lip as she fires, barely blinking because she doesn't want to miss one.

And she doesn't.

Once time is up and the final thaumaturge is down, Scarlet blows on her guns for show while cheering at her victory. The booth's attendance gets up on a step stool to take down their prize of a giant stuffed thaumaturge. They'll have a thaumaturge army by the end of the night. Wolf pulls her into his lap but the belt loops on her shorts and hugs her around the waist, kissing her cheek repeatedly.

"Now I'm glad you didn't shoot me in your garden," he whispers.

"Night's still young," Scarlet says, dangling a Nerf gun in front of his face.

-o-

Thorne and Cress sit in adjacent pilot seats at a different indoor arcade. They're glued to their screens as they focus on their in-space mission. Right now, they're not trying to win tickets to claim some stuffed animals at the prize booth. They're rogue space pilots being chased by the evil queen's thaumaturges while avoiding comets, speeding through the stars at top speed.

"People as small as me shouldn't have this much power," Cress mutters as she fires at a thaumaturge ship aiming at her. Her screen explodes in her green blasts as she passes a nebula.

It feels so real to her when she ignores the outside arcade noise. All she hears is her screen and Thorne next to her. They could fly through space together.

"How are you doing, Captain Thorne?" Cress asks, a smile tickling her lips.

Thorne laughs a little, his eyes not leaving the screen. "I've been hit but I got enough XP to make repairs."

They stopped playing once the thaumaturges took over their ships and rendered them hostage, their screens both flashing a blinding red GAME OVER. At least they both had piles of tickets at their feet. It didn't matter who won more but they scooped it in their arms and walked over to the prize booth, making sure they didn't drop any on their way.

"Why are all these people in front of us?" Thorne asks as they stand at the back of the long line.

"Because they got here before us," Cress says.

Thorne scoffs as they look at the wall of prizes to choose from. There weren't any stuffed unicorns but Cress has her eyes on a giant round full moon with cartoon eyes and a smile. From far away, it looks incredibly squishy and soft. Cress imagines melting in it, taking a full nap. Forget the twins, she's keeping that one for herself.

And her dream is interrupted when the person at the front of the line claims the stuffed moon.

And that person is Winter.

"Come on!" Cress exclaims, nearly dropping her tickets.

Cress and Thorne were so engrossed in their space pilot game that they didn't notice Winter playing a retro dance game. She danced back to back to any song, following the arrows on the screen to the pads on her mini dance floor, acing it. The screen lit up like a meteor shower as a crowd formed and cheered around her. She had so many tickets by the end that she could make her afro. She even had to ask for help to carry all her tickets over to the prize booth.

She even bought an additional prize scratcher, like a lottery ticket, that Winter won from getting the new high score. Cress and Thorne watch Winter scratch it with her gel nail and her beaming smile and small clap tell enough. She looks back up at the prize wall, pointing at many stuffed animals as the booth workers take them off the wall to give to her.

"Aces…" Cress says as her mouth dries.

"Oh, stars," Thorne mutters. He glances at Cress and, judging by her furrowed brows, wants to say she's thinking of the same thing. "Back to space."

"Lead the way, Captain."

-o-

At midnight, everyone met in the parking lot with so many stuffed animals in different sizes that it wasn't worth the debate. At the end of the night, the twins won because they will now have more than enough stuffed toys to last them for the rest of their childhood. It filled up their cars, leaking into the backseats.

They had to divide the stuffed toys into groups of five since Kai had to unlock the front door and turn on the lights to lead the way. Kai wasn't sure where to put them but he figures the twins' room was the best place. He could picture them waking up in the morning screaming for the stars, waking up their poor parents.

"Shh!" Kai says to his friends as they walk down the hallway. "Torin and Mallory are definitely awake now."

The others ignore him since they could barely see above their armload of stuffed toys. Kai's happy nobody tripped over a dropped toy or else the fall would've woken the entire house.

Kai slowly opens the twin's door. He doesn't turn on the light or else they'll wake up, but with the flashlight on his phone, they dump all the toys on the floor. Kai quickly closes the door and they hold back laughter, saving it for outside before they go their separate ways for the night.

"Torin and Mallory are definitely giving me spades for this in the morning … or in a few hours," Kai whispers as he turns off the hallway light. As the others headed outside first, he and Cinder stayed in the house for a moment longer.

"You're such a big brother," Cinder finally says, kissing Kai's cheek.

"Am not," Kai argues. "I'm working ahead for when I have to go back with them. No need for games and prizes, just rides."

Cinder smiles and Kai is shaking his head stubbornly.

"Don't say it," Kai mutters.

"Such a Big Brother," she says before kissing him.

I promise you that you won't be able to guess the adventure for the remaining four chapters. I did tell you at the start that it will be a surprise.