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“Alright! We’ve got about an hour before Teacher realizes leaving us home alone was a mistake,” Joshua slammed his hands down on the table the children were surrounding, “so I say it's game night !” Allen stared at him, not quite processing his statement.
“Joshua, you're the reason game night was banned.” Stella said flatly, and everyone grimaced at the reminder of the incident. Joshua gave her an impish grin and Allen couldn't help but shudder at the pure mischief in his eyes.
“Ah ah, ah, Stella! I'm the reason that video game nights were banned! No one banned board games. Besides, the Mario Kart Incident was completely not my fault!”
“I-I think we could give it a chance? I mean, nothing could be worse than the Mario Kart Incident.” Chelsy said, and Letty nodded with clear enthusiasm. Stella sighed, and Allen supposed that was as close to an affirmative as they would get out of her. Joshua laughed and motioned Letty to follow him, the both of them stumbling out of the room.
“This is going to end in flames.” Stella stated, and Allen couldn't help but agree. There was a reason game nights weren’t common in their household.
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Joshua and Letty dropped a stack of board games rather ungracefully on the table, and everyone gathered around. There were many games on the table, half of which Allen has never even heard of.
“We can’t spend too much time choosing! Everyone grab one, and we’ll choose from our choices!” Joshua barely finished his statement before lunging for a box, prompting a free-for-all mainly between him and Letty. Allen picked up a box of Uno cards, and settled on the floor.
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“Me first!” Joshua held up a bright blue box and it took them a minute to process the name of the game. The answer to his choice was (almost) unanimous.
“No, Joshua!” Stella.
“I don’t…. t-think that's a good idea.” Chelsy.
“Neat!” Letty.
“... Monopoly is the worst idea.” Allen.
Joshua pouted. “Spoilsports,” he muttered.
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“Stella, Yahtzee is the most boring choice. Ever.”
“At least this won't cause bloodshed. Probably.”
---
“I thought maybe….. Sorry would be a good idea?” Chelsy said and fidgeted with the edge of the box. Letty and Joshua inspected the box cover, although Allen doubted they were actually reading anything. In fact, he wasn't quite sure Joshua could read. His books from Teacher usually ended up in the fireplace or ammo in a one-sided spitball war with Teacher.
“Sorry, Chels, it's a four player game. We've got five people.” Joshua set it aside to Chelsy’s disappointment.
“Besides, I’m decidedly not sorry for anything I do, ever.”
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“Uno could work, I suppose.” Letty mused, and Stella gave a slight nod. Allen smiled and Joshua let out a whoop.
“Finally, it's been, like, two hours!”
“Joshua, it's been ten minutes.” Allen rolled his eyes and Stella took the deck of cards, dealing out seven to each player. Joshua smirked and grabbed at his cards, pushing them up to his face so that only his eyes were peaking over them.
“Let the games begin!”
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“Allen you evil jerk, I had the perfect card! ” Joshua wailed as Allen smugly laid down a card with the stop icon on it. Letty laughed as she placed her own card down.
“You’re getting too comfortable. I have to keep you on your toes somehow, don’t I?” Allen said, and Joshua groaned dramatically. Stella held up her hand for a high-five, and Allen accepted graciously.
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“I haven’t had a turn in five minutes.” Joshua said with clear fascination and Allen nodded as another reverse card was placed by Letty. She and Stella were glaring at each other, each turn placing different colored reverse cards, thus creating a never-ending loop.
“Are we sure the deck even has this many reverse cards?” Allen shrugged.
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“Ha, I was the first to get Uno, and now I’m gonna win!~” Letty sing-songed while Joshua stared balefully at her lone card. He wasn’t in the position to hit her with an add two card, and Allen could almost see the stages of grief pass through his expression.
“A-actually.”
Letty gaped at the add four wild card Chelsy placed down and directed a betrayed look at the girl on her right. Joshua barked out a laugh, and Stella whistled. Chelsy smiled in a way that Allen could only describe as pure evil.
“It’s always the nice ones that you have to watch out for.” Joshua nodded sagely to Allen’s statement, and Chelsy giggled.
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“....I suppose it could’ve gone worse.”
“Allen, Letty and Joshua are fist-fighting right in front of us. And I’m still not sure why, since Chelsy is the one who actually won .”
Allen shrugged (he seemed to be doing that a lot tonight) and beheld the mess that was the dining room with Stella. Chelsy was humming happily while piling up the cards, and Joshua & Letty were-
“Letty put that bat down where did you even get that- ”