Chapter 2

I was skunked, 121 to 88. Xiomara cemented her victory by calling muggins on my Jack of Diamonds’ knobs. Behind me, I could hear the showers running and the terse conversations going on between the girls. No one was happy, everyone had to keep moving or something would go wrong. Suzi and Renée walked around behind Xiomara and took Marin and my first seats by the beds.

“You better give him over to us if you want to get in there,” Renée told Xiomara. I’ve always liked Renée-ish. We weren’t friends but we had been classmates at least once every semester so far. She wasn’t in any of my heavy math or science as she only took AP English but I had somehow got her in all of my elective and bullshit slots: world history, drama, art, P.E., career and life management. That and she had taken the same after school driver’s ed class as I had. She wasn’t a generic cheerleader. Definitely not the Hollywood stereotype anyways, even if she looked it. She was blonde, though it was weird not seeing her with a hairband or clip, with blue eyes. She wore her hair short, but not boyish. She liked silly t-shirts with eclectic jokes on them and loose pants, though right now she was practically poured into a pair of tight pink jeans and hugged by a white babydoll t-shirt. In school I could have picked her out of the crowd by the weird collection of dolls and tokens dangling off her backpack. She was off without her eight pieces of flair. She laughed easily and eschewed the social cockfighting ring that Connie fostered. Plus, she had really big tits.

“Alright thanks girls,” Xiomara got up and gestured to Suzi, “Come over here and keep him occupied.”

“Alright, fine,” Suzi stood up as I picked up the cards and shuffled. Renée took the seat one down from Suzi, Kia’s first seat.

“What are we playing?” Suzi asked. I noticed she wasn’t endowed like Renée but she was absolutely well built for her frame. She had picked out a thicker shirt than Renée, in the pink with a pair of blue jeans. Her hair was still a little damp from after her shower and she had swept her bangs out of her eyes but her hair was falling back across her vision. She had the shortest hair of the group, including my own. I reflexively pulled my hair back from my face and behind my ears.

“Cribbage?” I offered.

“I don’t know how to play,” Renée interjected, “Crazy 8’s OK?”

“Yeah, that’ll work.”

“What rules are we using?” Suzi asked.

“What’d you mean?” I asked as I started dealing out eight cards to each of us.

“This game is different no matter who you play it with,” Suzi sighed, “So let’s get all the rules out right now. Once we play, no changes.”

“OK, no countdown. Winner is the first one with an empty hand,” I spoke a bit snidely to Suzi. She didn’t react, “8’s change the suit you can play them any time but you can’t go out on an 8. Jack’s miss a turn. Two’s pick up two, play a two on a two and the next person picks up four, and so on. Queen of Spades is pick up five but she doesn’t stack. You can either play or draw one card. You have to follow suit or match values, heart on a heart, club on a club, four on a four, queen on a queen or whatever. You have to call your last card or if you go out the next turn you’re forced to draw back up to eight. If you draw the last card in the deck you have to shuffle up the discards. Good?”

“Alright,” Suzi agreed.

“What about threes? and Aces?” asked Renée.

“Threes?” Suzi and I asked in concert.

“Nevermind,” Renée retreated quietly. So we played, each of us having brilliantly rotten luck the first time through the deck. Renée shuffled up the deck and we kept going. Hannah and Marin sat down across the table from me but watched on quietly until Renée played the ace of clubs.

“You can keep going on an ace, play the ten and then your jack, the other jack and then drop the three and call last card.” Hannah piloted Renée over a shoulder.

“I can?” She asked reaching for the next card.

“No.” Suzi asserted, “Wasn’t called a rule when we started.”

“Oh,” Renée moaned.

“You guys play weird Crazy 8’s,” Marin said crossing her arms over herself. We went around a few more hands and the deck dropped down to two cards. I drew instead of playing, entirely because I didn’t want to get caught shuffling. I was well rewarded when Suzi had to draw and we watched her collect up the cards. I may have liked it too much when she just flipped over the cards and started rubbing them around the table instead of stacking them up and shuffling.

“What the hell are you doing?” Hannah chuckled.

“Mixing up the--”

“Pick them up and shuffle them and stop acting like a four year old,” Renée rolled her eyes.

“Uh,” Suzi said nervously looking around at the smirks and sneers. She collected the deck up into, well, a deck. It was probably mixed up enough after all she had done but I didn’t save her. She held the cards awkwardly and picked up half the deck and basically threw it at the other half in her other hand. They collided, rebounded and, for all intents and purposes, exploded.

We all laughed, a little meanly, and she shivered, her lip tremored and her face contorted. I stopped laughing. Not first, I followed Renée’s and Hannah’s example. Marin couldn’t stop herself and that fired up Hannah again. It was hard not to join back in.

“Suzi,” I reached for her hand but she pulled away and knuckled off a tear. She got up and knelt down to pick up the cards she had scattered. Most were on the table but some were across the floor. I bent down, turning to help her. Two hands slapped tight on the back of my head and directed my face towards Hannah.

“Nope, you only get to see the clothed girls.” Connie decreed making sure to direct my head up and down. I let myself be piloted and ogled Hannah. The goth girl had cleaned up into a very girl next door look. Her transformation was dramatic yet I’d have rathered this skinny Hannah in classic Hannah’s wardrobe. She shrunk away a moment before catching eyes with Connie or someone else behind me and sitting back up straight. She was wearing black and a pushup bra as I would have expected from her. She was pretty. She had a little almond tilt of her eyes and a wide big smile. She was angular, especially around the jaw, which made her features striking, after having been round and chubby for all the time I had known her. She was taller than me, about the same height as Connie, they’d have to go back to back for me to figure out who was tallest. She now had a tough, athletic figure, much more so than anyone else in the room. I wondered if we were all more toned, or at least more fit.

“OK, I’ve got them all,” Suzi said putting the cards back on the table. She tidied up the deck and put it next to Renée’s last play, the 4 of diamonds.

“Jack, Dean misses a turn,” Renée played as Connie tousled my hair and sat down at my side, “Last card.”

“Damn,” Suzi muttered drawing again. She couldn’t play.

“And your new champion,” Renée smugly announced as she tossed the six of diamonds onto the pile. She announced as the last shower behind me finally ended.

“That’s my Wildcat!” Connie drummed the table celebrating the victory. Yep, Beaverton North High School’s mascot was the lynx. Cause that’s what animal comes to mind when you hear the name Beaverton? “So what do you win?”

“Um,” Renée mumbled for a moment and met my eyes.

“We, didn’t really set stakes,” I admitted. My cheeks went a little red remembering Xiomara’s promise. Had I won could I have had Suzi and Renée in the shower? Probably not but that didn’t stop me from imagining it.

“You did with X, I heard you,” Connie teased.

“He’s always called me Xiomara,” She appeared at my side, Andrea and Kia walked over to the open stools on Connie’s right. Pat walked around the other way to connect with Hannah again. The little redhead wasn’t wearing sweats or jeans like all the other girls. She had on a light knee length skirt and a sleeveless top (in black and blue respectively.) Hannah just looked up at her.

“Nope,” Said the former Goth.

“What, where else am I going to sit?”

“There’s not enough room to share a stool with me, find someone with a smaller butt, like Suzi or Renée.” Hannah pulled her stool deeper under the table.

“Or you can just do what I do,” Xiomara ushered me and my stool out a foot or so and I saw her again. We smiled at each other, me quite a bit more excitedly. She was only wearing a fluffy white towel. She was the middle height of the room, a couple of inches shorter than me. She sat down on my lap and rubbed my erection with the side of her hip. I went stiff and felt her fingers gliding up and down my spine. Her body was so nice, with a bubble butt and perky tits. Had she felt this way about me back home? Had I been missing out when she came over to see Zoe? I wished I knew but right now Xiomara felt right, until I thought about it. Was that another change our abductors had made? Would it be a good experiment if they had fiddled with our personalities? Everyone else seemed to be intact and emotional. I found myself breathing a bit too hard and I tried to dial it down. I reached across Xiomara’s back. Nervousness overcame excitement and I caught the momentary pout on her lips.

“Put some clothes on, slut,” giggled Marin, and while many of the girls shared her sentiment, not all shared her levity.

“There’s nothing in my color,” Xiomara dismissed and Connie agreed. Xiomara sat up straighter and began brushing out her hair.

“That’s how it’s going to start, is it?” Pat slapped her hands on her hips, “Me and Xiomara on your lap?”

“No,” Xiomara waved her away, “Dean’s mine you can have someone else.”

“What!” Growled Pat even grumpier than before. Marin pulled her seat out.

“Just sit down, Pat.” She brought Pat in front of herself and sat the scowling imp down on her lap. Marin’s arms encircled Pat’s waist and Marin tilted a little to look over Pat’s shoulder.

“Alright, we’re all cleaned and dressed, now,” Connie announced.

“Mostly,” grumbled Kia looking at Xiomara and me.

“And we’re stuck in here for an unspecified amount of time. We’ve been given board games,” Though I swear she was dismissing them as ‘bored games’, “and shit to keep us calm and distracted.”

“We should probably be calm though,” Renée suggested, “We’re all scared, right? So we can empathize with a bit of how we’re feeling but it won’t help to panic or break down.”

“Are you talking about me?” Andrea moaned. She was way outside her comfort zone. She grimaced, upsetting her look. I couldn’t say I liked Andrea. She was a little bit of a loner amongst the girls and word was she had been making her way through the hockey team, one month long relationship at a time. She was always studying but never participating in the classes we shared. The boring clothes we had been provided seemed most familiar on her. She was wearing a blue t-shirt and black jeans.

“No, that’s going to happen to all of us sooner or later,” Marin rubbed Andrea’s arm.

“Right, even Dean,” Xiomara declared. I felt the need to retort but Connie stopped me with a touch to my leg. This was about Andrea, not my imagined ego.

“OK,” Andrea falsified a smile for a few heartbeats, “I’ll try.”

“We all have each other,” Connie proposed as an ultimatum, “Because we can’t quite get away from each other.”

“OK, so what do we do now?” Asked Kia.

“I’m hungry,” Xiomara announced, “What did you find Suzi?”

“There’s a bunch of dry stuff and two refrigerator cabinets,” She gestured, “And a pop fountain at the end. Dishes are up top.”

“There’s no stove or oven?”

“Nor a microwave or toaster,” Suzi shook her head.

“Cereal and milk?” I posited.

“Pretty much,” she shrugged.

“K, I’ll get us some food,” Xiomara got off my lap and stretched. I couldn’t will her towel to come undone, “You can wait here.”

A few of us, Marin, Renée, Andrea and I, remained at the table while the other girls plucked through the cupboards. Pat came back and slid bowls and spoons out to all the stools. Connie was right behind her sliding out two jugs of unlabeled milk. I hoped it wasn’t too thick. No homo.

“We’ve got flakes and o’s,” Announced Suzi as she held up two large boxes of cereal. There was no labels. Everything came in white boxes with sheer panels of plastic revealing the contents inside.

“Flakes please,” I smiled and was tossed the box in her left hand. The boxes circumnavigated the table. Everyone filling up their bowl as Xiomara gave everyone spoons and Hannah slid a bowl of fresh fruit: apples, peaches, lemons and bananas, onto the table. Kia and Pat were handing out glasses of juice or water.

“What is there?” Asked Renée.

“Looks like water, OJ, fruit punch, tomato, or the milk,” called out Connie.

“No pop then?” I sighed.

“No whiskey either,” Connie sounded considerably more disappointed.

“I don’t drink,” Marin claimed.

“Neither do any of us, apparently,” Remarked Xiomara as she put a glass of OJ in front of me. I slid out for her but she headed back to the counter.

We ate, mostly in silence. Xiomara and Pat ate on their feet, leaning against the counter. The food was fine. The flakes were like corn flakes but a little more sugary. There were clusters of nutty tasting things in there too. I finished my bowl first and reached for a banana. Xiomara came by and collected my dishes and the peel. There was a garbage bin on rails in one of the bottom cabinets and a sink in the counter. Pat, who had finished eating first started washing immediately, Suzi sooned joined her with a dishtowel from the locker. I was finished next but I couldn’t see a place to jump in next to them. Connie then got up and started running the uneaten food back to the cupboards. The oh’s were emptied but there was still a half box of flakes. I sighed, almost standing up to help but Kia swooped in and grabbed the rest of the stuff. I felt a bit better when Marin just yawned as Connie took her bowl to Suzi. However, Andrea finished a little after that and the pair of them, with Renée and Xiomara following quickly, walked over and made the beds. I felt like a complete ass. The chores were finished quite quickly.