let's play uno

no? fine

"The turn order is..." David drummed on the ground with his hands as he prepared his phone's list-sorting app, "John, David, Tom, and last, and least, Ethan."

"C'mon! This is like, the sixth time I've been last!" Ethan yelled.

"You're just unlucky, it's fine," reassured Tom.

"Yeah," David started, "don't be such a whiny little bitch."

"I'm not-!" Ethan said, "I'm fine, it's just luck."

"And the lack of it," David sneered.

"How about we start?" said John.

"Alright, sure," answered Tom.

All four of them drew seven cards, just like the rules - they had made themselves - said. The first card was flipped over, and it was a green three.

"Nice," John said as he put his red three on the card. David put his red five on that, and then Tom put his red zero on that.

Shit, Thought Ethan. I don't have a red card or a zero. Why does this always happen to me? I swear, Ethan turned to look at Tom, it's like he's using a trick deck!

"Say, Tom," Ethan started, lowering his voice, "this is your own deck from when you moved in, right?"

"Yeah. Straight from the store down by the old railroads."

"What kinda store was it?"

Tom looked the minimum amount of worry you can think of and answered, "Is it necessary to answer that? I mean, it's just a magi-

"I knew it!" Ethan slammed his left hand on the ground, "I knew you were joshing me!"

"Dude, Josh isn't even here," said John.

"That doesn't matter! This is a trick deck, isn't it!"

"Ethan!" yelled Tom, "Let me finish!"

"I don't need you to!" Ethan stood up and looked down at Tom, "It's pretty pathetic to use a deck you got from a magic store, you know."

Tom stood up to match Ethan in height, the two players rising to face each other. "It wasn't a magic store. It was a magisterial store."

Ethan looked at the deck, then at him, "What?"

"God, did you even pay attention in history class? Magisterial means it relates to a magistrate, which is basically a law enforcer and or judge."

"Why were you there? Why does a store like that even exist? What do they even sell-"

Tom slapped Ethan, "Shut up, I only took the deck to him to make sure it was a legit deck. He checked it as a no-trick deck."

Tom sat down, "Can we get back to the game now?"

The air changed. John was occupying himself with to avoid eye contact and David kept glancing between the two of them.

Ethan reluctantly sat down, "Fine."

The game continued.