Best of Me

Chapter Seventeen

Hello! Here's the next update, it's finally game time with the family, so we'll see what disaster unfolds this time.

There's some Quinn/Theo fluff and conversation later in the chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter Seventeen:

I should have been expecting this, to be honest. No part of my dad's idea seemed like a good one; I mean we all know that anything that remotely put the culprits from Monopoly Gate at the same game table will not end well. But we're hopeful.

Okay, I'm not hopeful, but it appears that everyone else in my family is giving them the benefit of the doubt. When Quinn and I reached the living room, my whole family is standing in a large circle around my dad who's holding a baseball cap with all of our names in it. He picks four at random to be team captains, so to speak.

He pulls out the first four names, "Grant, Theodora, Jasper, and CeCe; congratulations, you're the captains." He grins happily and holds out his hat to the four of us that step up to him. "Take turns pulling a name from the hat until we run out, then decide who's playing what game. There might be a few doubles from teams, but that's okay."

"What games are there, love?" My mom asks.

"Not Monopoly, I hope," CoCo says which garners a round of laughs. My dad sticks his tongue out at her.

"We haven't replaced Monopoly," my dad mixes the names in the hat while he speaks. "Anyway, we have Sorry at the round table, Clue at the dining room table, Scrutineyes at the kitchen island, and The Game of Life here in the living room. Now, captains, pick your teammates."

Uncle Grant, Mac, Asa, Natasha, and Grandma Priscilla end up on a team. My mom, Elliot, Christopher, and Grandpa Allaric are on another team. Jasper, CoCo, Michael, Izzy, and Granny Flora are on the third team. Which leave myself, Aunt Hazel, Julia, my dad, and Quinn on the last time. We spend the next five minutes in teams discussing which player wants to go where. It quickly turns into a yelling match across teams because we can't neatly organize everyone into the games without having too many players at one game and not enough at another.

"Quiet!" I yell immediately silencing my arguing family. "Raise your hand if you want to play Clue." The first six hands to go up-Grandma Priscilla, Christopher, CoCo, Julia, Mac, and Michael-are sent to the dining room to set up. "Raise your hand for Life," I say next, and send my mom, Izzy, Aunt Hazel, and Uncle Grant to the couches in the living room. "Now, Sorry?" My dad, Granny Flora, Grandpa Allaric, and Asa raise their hands; I immediately know this won't end well, but I send them to the round table anyway. "The rest of us will be playing Scrutineyes." I share a smile with Quinn before leading us, Elliot, Jasper, and Natasha to the kitchen island.

There's some chatter around the house as everyone is setting up their perspective games and going over the rules with people who may not understand the game. Mostly, it's my table explaining to Quinn how to play Scrutineyes since she's never heard of it.

"All we do is roll the dice, cover up whatever side of the picture it tells us to, and search that remaining section for objects that start with the letter it denotes on the picture," Natasha says, pointing to all the objects on the table. "We have two minutes to find things, and then we go one by one naming what we have on our lists, whoever has the most items that no one else has, wins."

"Oh, god, okay," Quinn rubs her forehead. "I think I can do this."

"Of course, you can!" I say incredulously. "You're basically a walking dictionary; I have no doubt that you're going to crush this." She blushes profusely, ducking her head.