As I sit down in a wooden chair beside Cecily, I hear the rattle of game pieces inside a cardboard box.
I shouldn’t be here. What a disaster waiting to happen. If only I’d gone back home before Cecily saw me outside!
As if she somehow knows how I’m feeling, Cecily grabs my hand and gives it a quick squeeze.
“Will and I will be on a team together,” she says.
I tense up. I’m torn between my bad memories of the last time I relied on another player and the cold hard truth that I can’t actually play at all if I don’t have help.
“Good, because I don’t have the expansion pack,” says Whitford. “We can only have four players.”
Well, then. My hand has been forced. I guess I’m on a team.
Whitford says, “Cecily and Will, you guys want some snacks? I’ve got cookies, Doritos, Skittles—”
“Sweet! Skittles, definitely,” I say.
Whitford pours some Skittles into a bowl and sets it in front of me. I eat them one at a time, smelling each candy first to guess the flavor before I put it in my mouth. I’m usually right. Skittles are my favorite. Always have been, since I was little.
“It’s my week to set up the map, right?” asks Ion.
“Indeed,” says Nick.
“In that case, I’ll take the terrain hexes and harbor pieces, please.”
“You got it,” says Nick.
“I’ll teach you to play as we go along,” Cecily says softly to me.
“If I ever invent a board game,” Nick says, shuffling through the box, “I’ll make sure the title starts with the same first letter as a day of the week. I think that’s the key to success: an alliterative title so people naturally have a weekly standing game night.”
“That’s probably why Settlers has blown up,” says Ion. “They’ve got the whole weekend on lockdown. Settlers Sunday or Settlers Saturday.”
“Ditto for Scrabble, Snakes and Ladders, and Sorry,” says Whitford.
Nick adds, “It continues with Monopoly Monday, Trivial Pursuit Tuesday, et cetera.”
“What about checkers?” asks Whitford. “Isn’t that the most popular board game of all time?”
“So glad you brought that up,” says Nick. “Checkers was actually invented in ancient Egypt to amuse King Ramses, the pharaoh. Homer references the game in his writings, as does Plato. But for most of history, checkers has been referred to as ‘draughts,’ and while I can’t attest to all languages where the game has flourished, in English we can see that following our alliterative formula, every single day can be named a Draught Day. Thus it can be played daily, explaining its position as the king of all board games.”
There’s a stunned silence after Nick finishes his speech.
“Drops microphone, walks away,” says Ion.
“How do you know stuff like that?” asks Whitford.
“I’m on the quiz team, bitches,” says Nick.
“So am I… but seriously… the entire history of checkers?” says Whitford.
“Okay, fine. I just read about it the other day,” admits Nick. “I basically brought up that whole thing about the board games on certain days hoping someone would ask about checkers. But you have to admit… it sounded impressive.”
“If you’re done showing off now, I’ll take the number tokens and robber, please,” says Ion.
Nick’s fingers return to rummaging the box for the requested items.
“So, are you guys going to homecoming?” I ask, trying to sound casual.
“Stand around with a bunch of awkward adolescents trying to dance while listening to sellout pop music under the Orwellian eyes of a hundred chaperones? Count me out,” says Nick.
“Whitford and I are going,” says Ion. “Cecily, are you?”
“I don’t think it’s really my scene,” says Cecily.
The game begins, and Cecily narrates what’s happening and explains each decision we have to make in our turns. The game has something to do with a map. The object is to build roads and establish settlements in order to accumulate something called victory points. Cecily consults with me about whether to build a road or a settlement depending on the resource cards we have. I touch the little rod piece that represents a road and the house-shaped one that represents a settlement. Apparently settlements can be turned into cities, which are represented by the most complex-feeling piece of all.
Cecily takes a bunch of photos while we play. She’s testing a macro lens she just got off Craigslist. The lens, she explains, is designed to focus up close on tiny objects like game pieces. Gathering around the screen on her camera, the others agree that it does create a cool effect as Cecily tries to describe it to me.
Ion ends up winning the game, but if there were victory points for trash talking, Nick would have had it in the bag.
As my friends slide the game pieces across the table and drop them back into the box, I mention the meeting with Dr. Bianchi.
The packing of the game comes to an abrupt halt. The group is riveted.
“That’s way cool,” says Nick.