Jon woke up, groggy, but thankfully dreamless. He cracked the nook in his neck, then stumbled off of Charlotte’s bed and into the hallway.

He limped over to the living area, seeing the three other patrons of the house sitting in a ring around a small table they had pulled closer to.

Hector, Mallory, and Charlotte were each holding a hand of cards, and several sets of cards out in front of them with a deck in the center.

“You can go milk a- hey!!!” Mallory tossed his hands up in the air upon spotting Jon.

“You’re here to join us at last,” Charlotte explained. “Would you like you to play?”

“We’re in the middle of this game…” Hector muttered, focusing furiously on the cards in front of him.

“You can go milk a cow, Hector,” Mallory immediately replied.

Hector groaned from behind the hand, drawing a card.

Jon had played card games with his siblings. However, he had forgotten how to play.

“Let’s start over before Hector’s head explodes,” Mallory said.

Jon sat on the couch right next to Hector, placing himself between him and Mallory.

Mallory was already collecting the cards back into a single deck before he started dealing them facedown in front of everyone. Soon, there were seven cards in front of each person.

“Are you gonna explain to Jon how to play?” Charlotte asked her brother.

“Mallory usually… whatever…” Hector pointed down to the hand of cards in front of him. “Everybody starts with seven cards…”

Jon picked up his hand and observed the cards. He had two kings, a six, a seven, a Jack, a three, and a four.”

“Don’t show them your hand,” Hector said to Jon.

“Dude.” Mallory raised his eyebrow in Hector’s direction. “He’s not new.”

“You said explain-” Hector interrupted himself with a huff. “So, Jon, the goal of the game is to get collect as many sets of four cards in the deck as possible.”

Jon nodded. He remembered playing a version of this game with his family a long time ago. However, he couldn’t recall all of the rules, so he was happy to let Hector explain everything again.

“You have one chance to ask if someone else in the room has a type of card or not,” Hector continued. “If they have it, they have to give it to you. If not, then you have to draw a card-”

“And you tell someone to ‘go take a hike,’ or something or other,” Mallory finished. He ignored Hector’s insulted glare as he gestured for the game to take place.

“Go on, Hector, you start. It was your turn anyways.”

Hector groaned as he looked into his hand of cards. He lowered his cards to ask a question back to Mallory.

“Do you have any fives, Mallory?”

“Go kick rocks.”

Hector made an even angrier groan as he picked it up from the draw pile in the middle of the table.

“We go clockwise,” Mallory explained. “So, now it’s your turn.”

Jon looked at his hands, trying to decide what to ask. He looked up at Charlotte.

“Do you have a King?” he asked her.

“Oh, Jon, you could go cook dinner.”

Jon stood up, but Hector and Mallory quickly grabbed his arms and pulled him back down. It was Mallory’s turn next.

“Jon, do you have a King?” Mallory asked him.

Jon grimaced. He realized what mistake he had made in asking too early.

He gave up one of his Kings to Mallory, who picked it up in glee and added it to his collection.

Next was Charlotte.

“Mallory. Do you have… an eight?”

“Damn.” Mallory hadn’t really sounded like he meant it. He handed Charlotte the card, and then it was Hector’s turn.

“Jon, do you have… a five?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Jon looked at his hand. No fives.

“Go… milk a cow…” Jon responded.

Hector looked like he was more perturbed by Charlotte’s and Mallory’s laughs rather than the actual comment.

After going around several turns, the game had turned more into a conversation. Charlotte and Mallory were tied for the lead, but cards stayed collected in people’s hands as Charlotte made more and more intriguing conversation points.

“Why don’t you have Jon do one of your regular routines?” Charlotte said. “I’m sure that Jon could use a thing or two to think about.”

“No way,” Hector responded. “Jon’s way more than capable of handling himself out there. There’s not much I can do to help him. I doubt he needs it.”

“Well, did you ask?” Charlotte gestured to Jon.

Hector turned beet red. “No… I…”

He turned to Jon.

“Hey Jon, would you like me to give you an exercise routine?”

Jon was reminded of the small routine he did with Tallow when they first met. He nodded quickly.

“Yeah.”

Hector’s eyes widened. “Really? I could start right-”

“You have a mission tomorrow!” Charlotte warned. “You better let the boy rest,”

Hector mumbled under his breath in agreement.

Charlotte left the three boys to begin cooking dinner. Mallory and Hector began talking about what they were packing before Charlotte came back, and the conversation shifted to a light recounting of their most recent adventure. Jon listened mostly because he felt that Hector and Mallory did most of the heavy lifting.

“And so like, we made this giant tornado,” Mallory explained, “like, like, it covers the whole building and everything, and, it’s made out of mana and stuff. And this girl, right, she claims she doesn’t do much mana stuff. But, either she did, or she’s really quick at picking stuff up.”

“I think she’s quick at picking stuff up,” Hector said. “Sabez seems to be really good at that stuff, and he probably taught her-”

“Whose to say that Sabez doesn’t know any spells,” Mallory said. “He probably can, he just doesn’t need to do any at the moment.”

“Damn.” Hector put his hand to his chin and looked down deep in thought. “You might be right.”

“You were in the middle of telling me about this giant tornado,” Charlotte said, trying to bring attention back to the conversation. “Don’t leave a gal hangin'.”

“Oh, right.” Mallory raised his hands up. “So, like, there’s this big tornado, right Jon?”

“Right,” Jon said with a sure nod.

“And then-”

The loud noise of the front door swinging on its hinges interrupted Mallory and caused him to stand up and turn around to the source of the noise.

Everyone else had turned from their seat to see Macy having pushed the front doors wide open with a large bag behind her.

She dragged her bag into the house, letting the door slowly close behind her.

“Macy!” Mallory exclaimed. “You’re… uh… here! Alive!”

“Yeah.” She said simply. “I’m alive.”

Jon didn't know why he was so surprised to see her. She lived here after all. He was more concerned about how everyone else would react to her presence.

“Are you okay?” Hector slowly stood up from the chair, clearly unaware of which direction he should go.

“Yes. I’m fine! Why does everyone keep asking me?”

“‘Cause you were sitting half-dead in a bed talking the biggest nonsense in your life!” Hector’s tone had become angry. “And you-”

“Wait, Hector.” Macy held up her finger. Hector was so surprised by Macy’s request he immediately stopped talking.

“Is that a cow I’ve spotted in the room?” Macy cocked her head. “Must have returned for the spring season.”

Jon was confused. He was trying to figure out how he was supposed to be a cow before he realized that attention was all on Charlotte.

“It’s nice to see you again, Macy,” Charlotte said, standing up slowly. “Daddy’s told me-”

“Daddy doesn’t get to tell you what isn’t his business,” Macy responded, slowly taking steps up to the ring. “And besides, I don’t want to hear any of your bullshit right now.”

“Macy, why would you talk to her like-” Hector didn't finish his question, as he saw that Macy had started running towards them.

His body flinched, but instead, Macy found herself within Mallory’s arms, holding him.

“You’re leaving me,” she said quietly.

“Not forever,” Mallory responded, either hesitantly or out of breath.

He held her and they stayed quietly in the center of the room. Hector looked away awkwardly but didn’t comment. Charlotte seemed as if she was thinking heavily about something. Jon was still trying to figure out his place in the conversation. He was wondering if he should leave when Macy finally pulled away from Mallory.

“Hi, Jon,” she said nicely.

Jon gave a half-smile. "Hi, Macy.”

“I really want to catch up with you,” she said, actually sounding sorry, “but, I’m afraid that I have to spend some time away from everyone else for now."

Jon nodded with a grimace.

She then grabbed Mallory’s hand.

“Let’s go,” she said. She walked and pulled Mallory away from them.

“Wait! But Macy!”

“We can talk in here!” Mallory followed, awkwardly being dragged behind her until she pulled him into the hallway, turned into one of the doors, and pulled it shut behind them.

“I don’t think we’re gonna hear anything from him for the rest of the night,” Charlotte said. “Aw well.”

“Aw, well?” Hector put his hands out in protest. “She’s not the only one that’s gonna miss him. You-”

“It’s fine, Hector.” Charlotte folded her hands together. “She’s hurt. In both body and spirit.”

“You can tell?” Hector asked curiously.

“Of course. She’s trying to hide it. Why do you think she ran into her room and dragged Mallory with her?”

“I… guess…” Charlotte left Hector with that though as she went to set what would be dinner at the large table.

Jon and Hector caught each other’s glances.

“I guess we eat,” Hector said, which was probably the only thing he could be sure about.