In Fair Verona

VIII

"I'm so excited," Phoebe says as she nails the girls tent to the ground.

"You're excited to sleep on the ground and freeze during the night?" I groan. I do the same to the tent I'll be stuck in.

"What can I say," she laughs holding up the water bottle she's using as a hammer. "Snuggle up."

I hear Addi and Amber giggle.

I finally stand up and crack my back. It took forever to set up the tent and only Isaac helped.

"Want to play cards?" Addi asks.

"No," I say.

"Great now come sit down."

I shrug, Phoebe took everyone's phones so I got nothing better to do. Isaac and I go sit down at the bench. Addi who'd been shuffling for a while deals.

"Uh. What are we playing?"

"Bhabhi."

"What?" I ask.

"I don't know the English name for it."

"How do you play?" I ask.

"I deal all the cards. Whoever has the ace of spades goes first. And then goes second because they have the highest card. Whoever has the highest card places their card next and everyone has to place a card from the same suit and whoever has the highest starts the next round. You want to get rid of all your cards. Near the end of the game if someone places uh let's say a spade and you don't have a spade you can place any other suit and whoever has the highest card picks them all up. You're trying to get rid of all your cards. You will see as we play it's a very strategic game."

"You missed explaining like half of the game."

"They'll pick it up as we go. A big part of the game is strategy."

Auguste returns to the campsite from where ever the hell he was and climbs into the tent.

"You were good help y'know," I say.

"Yeah I know," he says.

We play cards for an hour and slowly Isaac and I pick up the idea of the game and strategies and become very competitive.

Amber helps Phoebe cook hot dogs on the fire and Addi had to speak on the phone as I started dealing so she said she'd sit out in this round. The sun is starting to set and I can hear the girls arguing over if the hot dogs are done and Addi speaking Punjabi to someone on the phone.

Auguste is napping in the tent and we don't bother waking up to teach him how to play for another hour. So Isaac and I just play.

"You go," he says as he finishes organizing his cards.

"What do you- oh right I have the ace of spades."

The only problem of playing one on one is you know all the other persons cards. Everything I don't have, Isaac does because we're playing with the whole deck.

I've got barely any diamonds but a lot of clubs so I know he's the opposite and later in the game I don't want to be placing my clubs because he won't have a lot.

I play all my high cards now so I get rid of them and won't be starting the rounds later on.

"Boys, your stupid hot dogs are ready," Amber says clearly annoyed. "Hope you like them burnt."

"Amber, any less time they would be basically raw. These are far from burnt," Phoebe says frustratedly. "Except that one." She points into the fire. "You definitely burnt that one."