Fiction

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Chapter 2 Out of the Ordinary

            “It was all a dream,” the girl moaned inwardly. “At least it was a good dream.” The girl slowly sat up. She found herself on a bench in a strange park. She heard the sound of water spraying up from an unknown source. She frowned as she turned to her left and found a large fountain spraying water high up in the air.

            “Where am I?” the girl asked as she glanced around her surroundings. All around her she could see students, college-aged mostly, walking around and talking. The girl watched them in utter confusion.

            “She finally woke up!” a voice beside her exclaimed.

            “Well, I guess that means she’s okay…I got a little worried about her, I mean…what is she doing here anyway?” another voice asked. The girl turned instantly to where the voices had come from. Instantly, she froze there she recognized three figures, T1745, Z6980, and T2390.

            “Gosh! Are you…” her voice trailed off and she giggled. “The dream isn’t over…or is it?” she asked. She frowned. “Are you…real?”

            “Yeah, duh,” the taller blond-haired kid replied as he turned to what appeared to be his friends.

            “Tristan!” the other blond-haired kid exclaimed. “Be nice!” The one who had just been called ‘Tristan’ rolled his eyes.

            “I-I’m sorry…just…I thought I just dreamed about you guys…I wonder if I’m going insane…something doesn’t make sense…” the girl said as she stared down at the green bench she sat on.

            “Are you…okay?” the other blond-haired kid asked.

            “I…thought so, but I’m not sure…”

            “Do you…remember anything?” the Asian asked her quietly. She turned toward him quietly. His brown eyes stared at her intently and conveyed his concern for her.

            “Honestly, it was probably just a dream. I better get home…I’m-“

            “You’re weird,” Tristan commented as he gazed at the fountain shooting up gusts of cool water in front of him.

            “Tristan Cascade!” his two friends exclaimed at the same time and broke off into short fits of laughter. The girl smiled slightly, feeling more at ease with the three.

            “Just stating my opinion on the matter,” Tristan muttered, placing his chin in his hand, and continuing to stare out at the fountain.

            “You wanna play cards?” the other blond-haired kid asked.

            “Sure…I guess…I don’t know many games, but I can learn,” the girl said as she turned to the teenager. A large, friendly smile slid over his face.

            “Name’s Zecky Davis, at your service. I would shake your hand, but it’s a little awkward to reach over my pals, and…well…I’m too comfortable to stand up. Anyway, this is Tristan,” the blond-haired kid  said giving Tristan a hard glare. “And this…is my other pal, Tenatashi. Tashi for short,” Zecky added with a wink.  “Know crazy eights?”

            “Yeah, but it’s been a little while,” the girl replied quietly.

            “Totally okay!” Zecky said as he reached down underneath the bench. He pulled out his backpack and unzipped it pulling out a card set.

            “Are you from here?” Tenatashi suddenly asked as he turned toward the girl. He still wore the concerned expression of before.

            “Have got no idea…Everything’s…so strange.”

            “She’ll be fine…remember, how…gosh…I…I seem to be forgetting an incident that happened between the two of us…something at that restaurant that Zecky used to work at…”

            “Tristan?” Tenatashi asked, giving a questioning stare. He frowned and narrowed his eyes at his friend’s unusual statement. “We haven’t been there in a week, and nothing unusual happened then except…” Tenatashi’s voice trailed off.

            “Don’t mention that!” Tristan threatened. Tenatashi laughed softly. Tristan rolled his eyes.  “The other thing that drives me crazy about you,” he muttered under his breath.

            “You know, you never did explain that to me,” Zecky said a little bitterly. The girl watched the three, trying to catch on to what they were discussing.

            “You probably don’t really want to know about that,” Tenatashi reasoned. Zecky shrugged.

            “Suppose so,” he said as he pulled out the cards from a card case. The girl noted that none of the cards matched. Each was from another set.

            “Is that actually a full set?” the girl asked doubtfully.

            “Nope!” Tristan declared before Zecky could speak up. Zecky gave him a glare. Tenatashi jabbed Tristan in the side and gave him a warning glare which Tristan promptly rolled his eyes at.

            “It actually is. See, the thing I did, was I asked all my friends to swap cards with me. They wrote their names on one of their cards. I wrote my name on their card, and we switched. Well…I got a lot of friends, so this is a full set of mix-match cards. I’m starting my second pack.” The girl’s eyebrows shot up as she watched Zecky messily shovel the cards.

            “Give that to me,” Tristan said and snatched the cards from Zecky and began to shuffle them the proper way.  Zecky shook his head as he watched Tristan.

            “How…how do you do that?” Zecky asked.

            “You learn to do it,” Tristan explained, as he gave Zecky a sharp glare before beginning to deal out the cards. When each player had eight cards, the girl picked up her assortment of cards, and read the names on the face of the cards. “Jordon Clemmels, Timmy Dodges, Kwena Lilac, Cedar Jackson, Aspen Jackson,  Christy Melbrooke, Jasper Westler,” and “Finley Droden.” The girl’s eyes lifted. She glanced at the other two.

            “You got a card from Ross?!?” Tenatashi suddenly exclaimed. His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “How?”

            “Ha, ha, I know you have the five of clubs!” Zecky exclaimed. “Yeah, some time ago, when you didn’t have so much trouble with him…that’s when I got it. Oh, so that we aren’t unfair, since everybody knows you have that card, you go first with that card.” Tenatashi hesitated, but dropped the card. Zecky placed a seven of clubs on top of it and nudged Tristan in the arm. Tristan gave him a glance and set his phone down on the bench between Zecky and himself and glanced at the top card.

            “Who has the draw pile?” Tristan asked with disgust. Zecky laughed easily.

            “I do!”

            Tristan held his hand out for Zecky to place a card in. He shook his head. On the third time, Tristan finally got a card and laid it down. The girl lifted her cards, gave Tristan, who had just lifted his phone to his face again, a glance, and passed Zecky a queen of hearts.

            The game continued until only three cards remained in the girl’s hands, a joker, bearing the name of Zecky Davis, a jack of diamonds bearing the name of Tristan Cascade, and a king of hearts bearing Tentashi’s name.

            The girl glanced up in time to see the three figures vanish. The cards they held remained in the air for a moment, and then slowly dropped to the deserted bench.

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