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“Alright kid, got all that?” Sevika began splitting the deck.
Isha nodded enthusiastically. For the last half hour since Jinx had left Sevika had been explain the art of poker, or as Sevika said, ‘baby poker’. It seemed Isha had figured it out fairly easily. It was now time for their first real game. Sevika began dealing the cards while Isha balanced on her knees atop the chair. The game didn’t seem too hard, and seemed mostly luck dependent, which was Isha’s specialty. She literally fell onto the best thing to ever happen to her! Talk about luck!
“Alright kid, here are your chips; remember how to use them?” Isha nodded again.
Isha took a long look at her cards. She wasn’t exactly sure, but her cards looked.... bad. That was okay though, she would just not bet any of her ‘chips’
Predictable Isha’s hand lost to Sevika’s, but the second round was different. “Fold.” Sevika laid her cards down, as Isha pulled the large pile of chips toward her side of the table. There were so many! And they were all for her! Jinx would be so proud of her.
“Alright kid, it's about time you head to bed, so how about we wrap this up next game.” Bed? But Jinx wasn’t back? Isha couldn’t go to bed without Jinx. They always went to bed at the same time- Ok maybe Jinx sat and tinkered at her desk most nights, but she was always within eyesight.
Sevika finished dealing the next hand and Isha looked at her deck. It was alright, but she could make do with it as long as she-
“Ump.” Sevika let out a breath through her teeth, her right eye slightly twitching.
Aha! Her hand was bad! This was Isha’s chance to win all of the chips for herself! Isha’s lips turned upward in a smug grin. Isha pushed all her chips to the middle.
Sevika raised her eyebrow at Isha. “You sure you're all in? If you lose this round, I’ll get all your chips.”
Silly Sevika, thinking she could convince Isha to let her win. Isha would have to show Jinx when she got home all the chips she had.
“All in.” Sevika pushed all her chips into the pile. Hmm, that was weird. Why was Sevika putting more than Isha did? Didn’t Sevika know that Isha had a better hand?
Sevika placed her cards on the table. “Royal Flush kid. Better luck next time.” That, that wasn’t- Isha looked at her cards again. Sevika beat her! But Isha had seen the disappointment on her face when she looked at-
“Ah!” Sevika had fooled her! That crippled ogre had tricked her!
Sevika began pulling in all the chips to her side. All of ISHA CHIPS!
“Kid, you lose chips, that just how the game works, hand them over.” Isha wasn’t listening, instead grabbing as many chips as possible and stuffing them into her pockets.
“Isha, it's just a game, there no money on those chips, now hand them over.
NO! They were Isha’s now-
-Sevika had already taken them all! Man, she was fast.
That wasn’t fair! Why did Sevika get to take all her chips away?
“Don’t be childish Isha.”
Oh, Isha was being childish now, was she? She’d show Sevika what being childish looked like!
“ISHA!” Sevika’s good arm was painstakingly extracting the deck of cards currently in Isha’s mouth. “Let go!” Isha refused. They felt nice to chew on.
“Let go brat!” No. If Sevika stole her chips, then Isha was taking her cards.
“I’ll tell Jinx!”
Isha’s teeth unclenched; the soggy bite marked cards landing on the table. Isha looked down in shame. She didn’t want Jinx to be mad at her.
“Isha... Go get ready for bed. I’ll wake you when Jinx gets here. Ah- no buts.”
Isha pointed to the deck of cards.
“If you go to bed right now, I won't tell Jinx about your infant behavior.”
Isha didn’t have a change of clothes, but Jinx made sure Isha always cleaned her teeth every night. Said it was her best weapon, and that she needed to take care of them. Jinx had told Isha where her old stuff was at the Last Drop, so Isha could probably find a brush there.
Hopefully Jinx would be back any minute know.
It was hard to fall asleep without here noise.
Jinx wasn’t back when Isha returned.