Crossing Borders

Longest Plane Ride... EVER!

"Hey, no cheating!" Derek says.

"It isn't cheating if it can be reasoned out with." Jared says.

"And what is your reason?" Derek asks.

"Derek, this is bluff," Jared says, "There is no cheating in bluff."

Derek rolled his eyes, "Jared, we are only using four decks, that means we only have 16 pieces of cards with the same number, so to say that you have all sixteen cards out of seven players is just impossible."

"And can you prove that?" Jared asks, smugly, Derek reached for the cards on the table but Jared put a hand over it, "Without looking at the cards I just set down." Derek gave him a look, "I thought so," Jared leaned back proud of himself. "I'll go get us drinks, you ladies want anything?"

"Water please." Allana says. Then she turned back to Tenshi, "So as I was saying, that's pretty much what we do whenever we're at school."

"Play bluff?" Tenshi grins, "I think I can use to that easily."

Astrid smiles and continues to read.

"Bet it was easy as pie for Astrid when she came back." She added and I heard a laugh from the boys' side. I gave them all a look. "What is it?"

"Let's just say that Astrid didn't actually have a good first week at NSA." Derek says.

"That's an understatement." Dimitri says, "When I got there she was bruised all over."

"Well, that was a choice," Astrid says, "my choice."

"And who am I to question that." Dimitri says with a sarcastic smile and tone.

"Glad to have that talk." Astrid says under her breath without looking up from her book.

"Wait, you prefer to be punched and slapped than fight?" Kale asks, "I don't get that. You were always kick ass even as a kid."'

"Yeah, well, I have principles." she says, flipping to the next page. "I'm not fighting with killers, am I? They aren't that much of a harm to me, why waste time?"

"So you'd rather waste them on getting healed and stuff?" Kale asks, amused, "I don't think that was wise, remember what I told you? No matter how weak your opponent look-"

"Each hit may be deadly in its own way." Astrid whines and rolled her eyes, "I know, I just didn't see them as danger then."

"Then?" Tenshi asks.

"Yes," Astrid frowns remembering the boys who was man handling Allana, "then."

Allana, seeing her cousin's sudden mood change, gave her shoulder a squeeze.

"It's all good now Tenshi, don't worry." Allana says, "She showed those kids who's the boss."

Tenshi giggles, "I'm sure they did, I remember how she fought Kale when I first arrived at Russia and he refused to help her." Astrid and Dimitri stifle a laugh. "I've never seen Kale wimp out on a fight since then."

Kale gave her a look, "We promised not to talk about that."

Tenshi laughs this time and shook her head, "Ok, ok, chill down grouch."

"You know what, I still can't believe how good your English is." Collin says, "You really fooled me earlier."

"Yeah, well, I promise Astrid that I'll keep it a secret, even from Mikael." She shrugs. "Though, he did try to have me learn English, but when I found out that I'll be doing drug transactions for him if I did, I acted stupid instead."