Poker

"All in!" Adelaide shouts with excitement, shoving her entire collection of candy into the center of the circle she, Elise, and Aiden are sitting in. Adelaide had brought up the idea of poker, but since no one had enough money they were willing to part with, they'd compromised on candy instead. In Elise's opinion, the lack of risk took most of the fun out of the game, but Adelaide insisted it was still worthwhile for bragging rights.

"Fold." Elise knows Adelaide's awful at bluffing. She's a little envious, really, of how easy it is for Adelaide to wear her heart on her sleeve.

Aiden seems to have also come to that conclusion Adelaide's reaction is genuine, because he folds as well.

"Ha! I tricked you all!" Adelaide squeals, revealing her cards, which were actually pretty mediocre. "I get all the money, money," she enthuses, as she scoops all the candy in the pot, gummy worms and Hershey's kisses galore, toward her.

Elise stands corrected: Adelaide can bluff if she has enough incentive to. She groans. "You're going to be on a sugar high forever."

Adelaide shrugs. "Worth it. I'm gonna go stash away all this candy." Smirking, she rushes back to her and Elise's room a little way down the hall, arms filled with the sweets. "You know where to find me if you want some!"

Elise wonders how on earth she's alone with Aiden in his room. Again.

But then again, Adelaide's hasty exit did seem a little fishy. Could she have done it on purpose?... No. There's no way she would know. Probably. She hopes.

Elise sighs, and considers making some excuse to retire to her room as well. Yet she does want to try going back to normal with Aiden, as they promised. Besides, maybe…

She rises and walks over to Aiden's desk, trying to make it seem as casual as she can. The jumble of loose leaf sketches is still there. "Are these your drawings? Can I look at them?" she asks, hoping it doesn't sound as stupid as she feels.

"N—well, they aren't any good," Aiden says, with what would have been an unmistakable note of panic if Elise's own heart hadn't been beating too fast to notice.

"They look really good to me," Elise says. "Well, you know I'm not much of an artist so I hope that's not an insult."

"No, it's—yeah, go ahead." He sounds resigned, but Elise is still so unaware of anything but her nervousness that she doesn't notice it either.

She leafs through the pages, commenting vaguely on this or that, until she gets to the portrait of the girl. Heart pounding, she remarks. "Wow, this one's really good. Is this a classmate of yours?"