Nentarli [COMPLETE]

~ Eight ~

We explained the rules and they grasped it pretty much straight away

"Wanna try against us?" Emy asked once we were done explaining.

She looked at me in a way that told me she was definitely up to something.

Blaike and Kaleb looked at each other with a nod and both said, "Yes please" in unison.

Emy smiled wider, "Okay I'll play Blaike first, Cass will play Kaleb and then we'll switch and see how you get on."

What was she up to? I kept asking myself as I sat facing Kaleb, he was a lot bigger close up and his hand almost enclosed mine.

"Hand behind your back and thumb up, ready?" I asked.

Looking into his face to see that his eyes, which were very light blue, were concentrating a bit harder than they needed to, he was taking it quite seriously.

He glanced at me then back to our hands, nodding once, "Ready."

We played for a minute or two, his thumbs were big and kind of clumsy but strong, which I found out when he nearly caught me- I slipped out at the last second. A minute later I caught him, it was a very slim win though and he smiled brightly at me.

"That was very clever of you."

He didn't seem bothered by the defeat at all, hopefully he was taking it as the game it was, I couldn't deal with sore losers.

"Thank you," I said politely.

We turned just in time to see Emy win Blaike by the skin of her teeth and they both smiled politely.

"Well played," Blaike said to her in a slightly businesslike tone.

"Thanks, same to you," Emy replied then turned to me, "How did you do?"

"I won," I smiled and peered at Kaleb, "But only just, it was a close one," I added and saw his smile widen a fraction.

"Cool, now we switch," she gave me that same look again.

Her eyes roamed to Blaike, who was now sitting in front of me. What was she hinting at?

If she liked him I'd be able to tell but that wasn't it. I decided to ignore her for now and concentrate on the game, I knew this one would be different. I could see in Blaike's eyes that he was psyched up for it. He seemed like the kind of guy who was good at a lot of things, his game with Emy might have been his idea of a warm up.

We started playing slowly at first, both testing the others' reactions and reflexes and neither giving much away. Blaike was smiling, he looked surprised at how I played and so was I, I'd never played this game so intensely before. He had been right about the game, playing against him did feel like I was making strategies to win.

The game went on for a lot longer than was normal, Emy and Kaleb had finished long before and were watching us play.

"Come on you two," Emy said after I nearly caught Blaike for a second time, he pulled out of it just before the count. "It's no fun if you take it too seriously, it is just a game."

Neither of us listened and carried on trying to catch the other out, our smiles had faded and I was frowning as deeply as he was. I had never been that competitive in the past, I didn't care about winning really but now I wanted to beat him so much and I didn't know why. I couldn't find a way to catch him and I wasn't about to let him get me either. We just kept going at each other, more aggressively as the minutes went on.

"Maybe a stalemate is in order?" Merkell's voice suddenly rang out.

Our hands broke apart immediately, we turned to see him sat up against his bag, wide awake. How long had he been like that? We had been so focused on the game that we didn't even notice him move.