Pins and Needles

Chapter 20

My head laid on the picnic table as Dean and Simon chatted about some topic I was tuned out of. There were small pieces of wood poking out from the table that I was easily picking and breaking apart. I slid my face against the surface to get a better view of Maeve and Clark who were back to dancing and drinking. She had only talked to me as long as she needed to, checking in on the Dean situation and so on. Once I told her everything was good with him, she went right back to engaging with Clark.

I frowned and turned to pick at the table again, but was interrupted by Jess slamming her hand right next to my face. I paused for a moment, then raised my head to look at her aching expression. She held a deck of Uno cards in her fist and wore a cheeseball smirk.

"Why do you have that?" Dean was the first to ask.

"Because, Uno is fun and I always have a pack ready in my car."

Simon snickered, "She says it's an 'essential item'."

Jess smacked the back of his head and said, "It is seeing the situation right now. Who doesn't love a good card game?"

Simon raised his hand with his head still hanging from Jess's attack.

"That's because you are boring and can't appreciate anything that doesn't come on a six inch screen."

Simon squirmed, "Blech, you sound like my mom."

"I'll take that as a compliment," she cleared her throat, "now, who's ready to play?"

There were no more objections, so Jess shuffled the cards and dished seven to each of us. She then put the remaining cards in the middle of the table, took the one on the top, and flipped it over to reveal a blue nine.

"Are we playing classic or complex?" Jess asked us.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

Dean shifted to me, "Do you know how to play Uno?"

I shook my head.

Simon laid back on his hands and sighed as Jess explained it to me, "Basically, there are 4 colors that correspond to each card unless it is a Wild card which I will explain later. There are different symbols that can appear on a color card such as a number, skip, reverse, or plus 2. A skip means you skip the person who's turn is next, reverse means you switch which way you are playing, and plus 2 means the next person to go has to pick up 2 more cards and lose their turn. You can only play a card if the color or the symbol on the card matches the card that has just been played. Then, there are wild cards. There are two kinds of these cards and they are quite simple. One is played to change the color to the desired color you wish to play, and the other is the same, but it also has a plus 4 meaning the next person has to pick up 4 cards and lose their turn. The way to win is to get rid of all of your cards and once you are down to one card, you have to say Uno. If you don't have a card that is playable, you have to pick one from the deck and move on to the next person. It sounds complicated, but I promise you'll get the hang of it once we start playing."

I didn't really get it, and I think that showed on my face because Jess then said, "We can play a practice round if you want? Cards facing up so I can help you along the way."

I liked the sound of that a lot more than going in blind, so I agreed.

"Great! We'll also play classic since you're new to this and I think adding stacking would just confuse you even more," Jess added.

We started the practice round and while things got off to a shaky start, the game was actually pretty easy to pick up on and I even ended up winning.

Simon grunted, "That doesn't count, we weren't even playing for real."

"I second that," Dean proclaimed.