Amazing Gracie

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Kylie sighed and rolled her eyes in boredom as her father contemplated his next move.

"Hmm...if I move my pawn, her knight will oust my bishop. But if I move my Queen, her rook will squash my knight. And we can't forget I need to defend the King. What do you think Kyles?"

What do I think? What do I think? Me thinketh you should just move a stupid piece and let us all go on with our lives! You've been staring at the board for the past fifteen minutes!

Of course, she didn't say that out loud.

"I think you should move the pawn Daddy," she said sweetly. "Even if Mom's knight gets your bishop, her King will be susceptible to attack. And I doubt she'll notice."

He ruffled my hair.

"That's my intelligent little girl, he said, pride emanating from his voice as he turned back to face his opponent.

He may not be proud for too long, a sing song voice in her head reminded her.

Go away, she thought bitterly, and she turned her mind back to the match at hand. Her mother, Sheila was frowning at the chessboard. Fred, her dad, was grinning widely as the thought of winning the chess game filled his mind. He hadn't won anything in a long time, at least, not when it came to his wife.

"Come on, come on, come on!" he muttered as he stared at the board, willing it to somehow do his bidding and make him win. Sheila finally sighed and made a move which left her King wide open, causing Fred to shout as he delivered the final blow.

"Check and mate!" he cried, as he danced around the room in sheer ecstasy.

"I finally won, and you lost!" he sang. "In your face, losers! Yeah I'm talking to you punks!"

He pointed at Sheila and Kayla, Kylie's elder sister, who was home for a few days.

"He does know we let him win, right?" Kayla whispered into her mother's ear.

"Ah, let him have this one. It's his first victory- and probably his last one."

"Get up and let us celebrate our victory, Kyles!"

He picked Kylie up and twirled her to the point of nausea. She swallowed back the vomit as he finally put her back on solid ground. His glasses lay askew on the bridge of his nose, and he grinned widely, showing his perfect naturally white teeth. This was a change from the Fred that existed any other time of the year.

It was eight o'clock on a Friday night, and the whole family was home, which could only mean one thing-Family Game Night. This was a night Sheila had organised when Kylie was seven and Kayla ten. She had insisted that the family come together once a week to play games and generally reconnect as a family.

Reluctantly, each member of the Jackson family had co-operated week after week until they'd finally begun to enjoy it. Kylie had, at least until Kayla left for college. All of a sudden, the spotlight had been cast onto her. At fifteen, every move she made was carefully observed by her parents, who were never short of criticism to give her. Family Game Night soon became torture as her mother constantly picked fault with whatever she did, and although her father tentatively tried to defend her at first, he resorted to agreeing with Sheila, making it painfully clear who the real head of the household was.

After a while, the tradition had been discontinued, simply because no one was interested anymore, but whenever Kayla came home-which was once in a pink moon (because let's face it, blue moons are so overrated) her mother forced everyone to participate for old times' sake. Now, two years later, little had changed.