8 is too many Part 1

[Monday, Afternoon]

Easter break. A time to relax and forget about the worrying exams that await you when you return to school. I don't remember much about last Easter, but I do remember sleeping through most of it. It was a fun time for me to be able to sleep that much. I wanted to do it again this time, but it wasn't that easy. The first day of break started and I received several text messages forcing me out of my house. At first, I ignored them as I always would, but if you've followed along for a while, you'll probably know a theme. As soon as I put my phone back down and was about to fall asleep the doorbell rang. Outside stood everyone, our increasing cast, Ruby, Ethan, Sean, Kaylee, Lily, Simon and Claire. All of them waiting for me to get ready. They didn't tell me until a few minutes ago that I would be going out. What they also didn't tell me is that It was going to be at my house.

"So what are we doing again?" I asked as everyone made themselves comfortable.

"What a nice house," Claire said doing the normal thing of looking at all the hanging pictures on the wall of me when I was a kid. "Thanks for hosting!"

"No problem," I said as I was too shy to argue back with her. Not only do I not know her she seems kinda scary to me. Perhaps this will be the time to test the water and see how far I can go with my insults.

"So, Owen." Kaylee said "You dating Ruby?"

I don't know what she was planning. She seemed to have something planned by how she suddenly mentioned it. She could have mentioned it at school but decided to keep it until this moment. She was the person who knew most about what happened with Ruby's stepdad but it seems as if she wanted to know more.

"We are not dating," I said placing a bowl of sweets into the centre of the table.

"Y-yeah, we aren't dating," Ruby said as her skin became a tomato.

"Oh-ho?" Kaylee said getting interested. "That's a shame."

"What about you, Kaylee?" I asked getting my own back, knowing that she was the one who would suffer most from a conversation like this. "Are you and Ethan going out? What about you and Simon? Anyone else?"

"I'm sorry." She said sitting back down. "Forget I asked."

It was harsh to talk about people's love lives but she mentioned it first so It was self-defence on my part. This group will always be like a distance family on Christmas that has decided to gather for once and catch up on all the drama they missed. All it takes is one person to say something they shouldn't and then everyone else to unleash the gates of hell and not hold back.

"U-um, Excuse me? please can I have a drink?" Lily asked politely.

"Oh!" Sean exclaimed. "Can I also have something?"

"Me too." Simon joined in.

"And me," "Me as well," They all said piling their orders on.

"What kind of host doesn't get his guests drinks?" Ruby said.

"Shut it," I said going into the kitchen trying to remember whatever the hell everyone wanted. I wasn't even sure if I had half of the things they asked for.

# # #

"So, What are we doing here?" I asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

"We are on break," Kaylee said as she was clearly the organiser of such an event. "We should hang out in our time off. We don't have to worry about exams or anything like that."

"Right," I said not fully pleased with the answer I was given. I felt like a teacher who was marking a kids exam only to see he had the right answer but since I don't like the kid I feel annoyed with giving him full marks.

"Why don't we play a game?" Ruby suggested.

"We can do old maid," Lily said to herself.

"NO THANKS!" Ethan and Kaylee said as they were reminded of separate times.

"Huh? Why do you not want to play?" Kaylee asked Ethan.

"N-no reason." For the reason, please refer to chapter 95. "What about you?"

"I'm terrible at card games. I always end up losing and have never won a single game."

"Ah." Ethan said "What a coincidence… same here." For more evidence, please refer to chapter 27.

"Why don't we all decide on what we want to play?" Simon suggested.

Despite his smart suggestion, we were a room of indecisive people. None of us knew what we should play. I personally didn't care but no one wanted to suggest a game as they were worried others wouldn't want to play it.

"I've got an idea," Kaylee said going to her bag and pulled out what appeared to be a bunch of chopsticks in a cup. "We should play the kings game!"

She said it with a smile. It was a game none of us was really familiar with as it was something we never really played that much, but we were about to find out that not all games seem fun when first described.