Summer was already half over, and I came downstairs to a very familiar sight. The three girls were spread out on our semicircle sofa. Sara, my sister, was slipping a new deck of cards out of the box. To her right was our cousin, Lily. We’ve lived next door all our lives, and she spent much more time in our house than in hers. And then there was Katy, Sara and Lily’s best friend. She was a year older than my sister and cousin, and had moved to our neighborhood when they were all still in primary school.
The weather had been hot enough that the three teens had largely abandoned their outdoorsy plans, and spent most of the summer in our house. Watching television, playing games, be it electronic or card or board, I got used to the trio always being around.
When Sara saw me, she gave me a look that I couldn’t quite place, then held up the cards and said, “Hey, David, we have a new game. Wanna play?”
It wasn’t that unusual a request, but I was still a little surprised. Most of the time when I joined in on their activities, it was because they needed a fourth, or the use of my car, or because they knew it was something I would like.
“Sure, what’s the game?” I asked, sitting on Sara’s other side.
“We don’t have a good name for it yet,” said Katy, smiling, “but I doubt it’s a game you’ve played before.”
Could be interesting, I thought, as Sara started shuffling the deck.
“I haven’t played it either,” Lily said, to me more than Sara or Katy, “They came up with it when I was in cram school.”
“I think you’ll like it,” Sara said to our cousin, then eyed me again, as if to say whether I would like it or not was much more in question. In the center of the table, next to the deck, was a stack of blank notecards. “The idea is simple, but we’ve come up with a few extra rules to make things easier. It’s poker...but instead of betting money, we bet challenges.”
“Just call them dares, we bet dares,” Katy chimed in, “Like in Truth or Dare.”
I could see it in Sara's face, she hated that game. “Yeah, basically. So, for example, Lily picks a challenge, writes it down and puts it in the pot,” she gestured at the notecards, “Then Katy can either raise with a new challenge–”
“Dare,” said Katy.
“Whatever, or she can call. Once everyone calls we show our hands, and the losers have to do every challenge in the pile. Or she can fold, which means she has to do everything except the last one in the pot.”
“No repeats,” Katy added. “That’s always the dumbest part of Truth or Dare, everyone always repeats the same good ones. Here, you have to get creative if you want everyone else to fold. Also, Truth or Dare, it’s like, why’s there even a ‘Truth’, if you wanted to, you could just dare someone to answer a question truthfully.”
I smiled at that, Katy looking my way as I did.
Sara finished dealing, four piles of five, “So, should we get started?”