As always, forgive the rough draft :).
Kristen
Neiszhe began dealing the cards again. Ten to each person, Meaghan remembered. Though she still had not figured out all of the rules for the game, the basics were easy enough to grasp. The deck of cards they played with consisted of two sets each of four suits – black cats, blue dogs, red rabbits, and gold birds. Each suit had thirteen consecutive numbers. She needed to collect two pairs, and a run of five cards in the same suit. She could lay them down as she collected them, but then other people could play their cards on hers. It seemed a good strategy to hold the cards in her hand as long as she could.
Over the course of the game, she also had to ensure she
traded cards with every player once. She had to request a specific card by
name, and then trade it for one of hers. If she saw them pick up the card from
the discard pile, she could guarantee she requested the right card, but if she
did not and requested a card they did not have, she had to collect five cards
from the draw deck as penalty. Those cards could only be used once the person
to her left started laying down cards. The first player to get rid of all of
their cards won.
It seemed confusing at first, but Nick assured her it would
become clearer with practice, and that eventually she would know enough to win
games. She wondered if she would ever get the chance. Nick was not joking when
he said that Cal won every hand. She found his luck to be frustrating, and
began to wonder if people hid cards up their sleeves on this planet as they did
on Earth.
Picking up her cards, she sorted them. They looked
promising. She already had one pair of sevens and three cards, although not
consecutive, that came from the same bird suit. If she drew well, she could
connect them in a reasonable amount of time. The other cards seemed useless, so
she moved them to the front of her hand.
Nick drew from the deck first and discarded. Cal did the
same. When it was her turn, she picked up a card from the deck. It matched the
thirteen she held, so she moved the set to the back of her hand and discarded
an eight. Neiszhe picked it up, discarding a bird suit card Meaghan needed.
After Nick took it and then discarded a two, ending his turn, she made her
first request.
“The bird eleven, please,” she said, holding out her hand.
He sighed and gave it up, accepting a two in turn. He scowled when he saw it,
and then muttered something under his breath about getting even. She laughed,
noting that Cal picked up the two Nick had discarded.
The game moved more quickly after that. Cards were picked up
and discarded, grumblings and complaints were joined with laughter. Cal took
the two from Nick that Meaghan had handed to him. Meaghan stole a bird nine
from Neiszhe, and then she felt her heart jump on her next turn when Nick
discarded the last bird card she needed to complete her run. She picked it up,
but she could not lay her cards down yet. If she did, she would go out, and she
still needed to request a card from Cal.
Her heart raced with excitement, but soon plummeted when Cal
raised his hand and extended it toward her. “I’ll take that,” he told her. She
cursed and handed it over, taking a useless card from him in turn. He promptly
laid down his two sets and run of five, then applied his last card to the run
Nick had laid down two turns before, during the same round that Cal had
requested a card from Neiszhe that found its way to the discard pile shortly
after. The move had puzzled Meaghan, but now that she had been defeated because
she failed to meet the required trade rule in time, she understood. Cal did not
need to cheat at this game. He was just as good at strategy as his brother,
and Meaghan had never been able to beat James at chess either.
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