The Valentine Manor lood ahead like a final boss castle. Which was appropriate because I was about to face whatever conspiracy Sabrina and Cassidy had cooked up during my breakdown in the parking lot.
Mrs. Tanaka opened the door before I knocked. She took one look at my face and handed a rice ball wrapped in paper.
"Eat," she commanded in that tone that didn’t allow argunts.
I ate. She nodded once and pointed toward the library.
Walking through the manor felt different now. The portraits of dead Valentines weren’t just judging for being poor anymore. Now they were judging for blocking my mother’s number, for nearly crying in a school parking lot, and for being the kind of person who sohow got tangled up with four billionaire quadruplets who seed determined to turn my life into a romantic cody light novel.
The universe had a sick sense of humor.
I pushed open the library doors.
Cassidy sat at our usual table. Sabrina occupied the window seat. Both had identical purple eyes locked directly on . Neither said anything. The silence stretched exactly long enough to feel like an interrogation room.
My survival instincts kicked in imdiately. This was an ambush.
"You’re seven minutes early," I said casually, dropping my bag onto the table. "That’s a new record. Should I be concerned?"
"We need to talk." Cassidy’s voice ca out careful. Like she was handling explosives. "About Friday."
"The test." I pulled out her practice sheets. "Yeah. You’re ready. You’ve been scoring nines out of ten consistently. The real exam on Friday will be easier because—"
"I don’t want to do tutoring today."
My brain stuttered to a complete halt.
Cassidy Valentine. The girl who threw textbooks at tutors. Who hid in locker rooms to avoid studying. Who once set soone’s briefcase on fire to get out of algebra. That Cassidy. Was sitting in the library. With all her materials organized. Seven minutes early. And was telling she didn’t want to study.
I must have looked like I’d been slapped with a frozen fish because Sabrina actually smiled from her window perch.
"You broke him, Cass."
"I didn’t break anything." Cassidy crossed her arms. Her ears were pink. "I just think we should, you know. Hang out. Or sothing. Like normal people do. Without graph paper."
"We can hang out after the test," I said slowly. "When you pass with flying colors and win the bet."
"Oh, I’m definitely passing with flying colors." She leaned back in her chair. Smug. Confident. The kind of energy that reminded why I’d nicknad her Club in my head. "That’s not in question. I’ve been practicing every night this week. Even did extra problems from your stupid website. ScholarshipSurvival, really? That’s the userna you picked?"
"It’s accurate."
"It’s depressing."
"So is my bank account."
Cassidy’s mouth twitched. Almost a smile. Then she caught herself and went back to aggressive eye contact. "Point is, I’m passing. Guaranteed. So there’s no reason to waste today doing more problems when I could be, I don’t know. Showing you the tennis courts. Or teaching you how to play video gas. Or literally anything that doesn’t involve staring at numbers."
This was a trap. Had to be. Cassidy Valentine didn’t skip studying. Not anymore. Not after she’d tasted what it felt like to score ninety percent on a quiz and have it actually an sothing.
"What’s the catch?"
"No catch." Her eyes were too innocent. Way too innocent. "I’m just tired of studying. And you look like you need a break too. You’ve been weird all day."
I glanced at Sabrina. She hadn’t moved from the window. Just sat there with her book open, watching us like we were performing a play for her entertainnt.
"Sabrina," I said carefully. "You’re being suspiciously quiet."
"I’m reading."
"No you’re not. Your book is upside down."
She glanced at the pages. Corrected the orientation without any embarrassnt whatsoever. "Now I’m reading."
This was definitely an ambush.
Cassidy stood up. Walked around the table. Stopped approximately six inches from my chair. Close enough that I had to tilt my head back to maintain eye contact.
"One day," she said. "One day where we don’t talk about quadratics or formulas or whatever. Where you’re not my tutor. Where I’m not your project. Just. Hanging out."
"That sounds suspiciously like friendship."
"Don’t make it weird."
"You’re the one standing over like a final boss."
Her face flushed. She stepped back. "Whatever. Forget it. Let’s just do the stupid problems."
"Wait." Sabrina closed her book. Actually closed it. Set it aside with both hands. "I have a better idea."
Oh no.
When Sabrina had ideas, people ended up doing things they didn’t plan to do. Like feeding her ran at midnight. Or sitting still while she fell asleep on their shoulder. Or agreeing to sleep in her room on weekends.
She drifted across the library like a ghost. Stopped at the table. Pulled a deck of cards from absolutely nowhere. Red box. Familiar design.
UNO.
"You’re joking," I said.
"I don’t joke." Sabrina set the deck on the table between Cassidy’s textbooks. "I’m proposing a wager."
Cassidy’s eyes went wide. Then narrow. "What kind of wager?"
"Simple. We play one round. Isaiah versus both of us. If he wins, Cassidy studies for two hours like originally planned. No complaints. No distractions. Full focus."
"And if we win?"
Sabrina’s smile was the kind that probably preceded empires falling. "Then we spend the rest of the day hanging out. No studying. No work. Just. Existing. Together."
I looked between them. Cassidy was biting her lower lip. Sabrina looked completely relaxed. Like she’d already calculated every possible outco and knew exactly how this was going to end.
"This is ridiculous," I said.
"Scared?" Cassidy’s smirk returned. "What happened to being competitive? You made bet rabbit ears and now you’re too chicken to play a simple card ga?"
"UNO isn’t simple. It’s warfare disguised as family entertainnt."
"Then you should win easily." Sabrina started shuffling. Her hands moved like she’d done this a thousand tis. Cards flowing between her fingers like water. "Unless you’re worried about losing."
I was absolutely worried about losing. Because if I lost, I’d spend the entire day with Cassidy and Sabrina doing god knows what instead of preparing Cassidy for a test that determined whether I kept my job.
Also because Sabrina was shuffling like a Vegas dealer and that suggested she was very, very good at card gas.
"Fine." I sat down. "One round. Standard rules. First person to zero cards wins."
"Standard rules are boring." Sabrina dealt seven cards to each of us with inhuman speed. "We’re playing with house rules."
"What house rules?"
"If you draw a plus four, the next person draws four unless they also have a plus four. Then it stacks."
Cassidy grinned. "And skips stack. Two skips in a row ans the person after you loses their entire turn."
"Also we’re playing partners." Sabrina gestured between herself and Cassidy. "Two against one. Since you’re supposedly the smart scholarship genius, that should balance things."
This was getting worse by the second.
"I don’t rember agreeing to house rules."
"You didn’t. But you agreed to play. And this is how we play." Sabrina flipped the top card. Red seven. "Your turn, Isaiah."
I looked at my hand. Two blues, three greens, one yellow, and a wild card. The kind of hand that looked okay until you realized you were about to get absolutely destroyed by people who’d been playing together since they were five.
I played a blue seven.
Cassidy imdiately slamd down a blue skip. "Sabrina’s turn."
Sabrina played a blue two.
Back to . I played a blue one.
The ga progressed. Cards flying. Colors changing. The comfortable rhythm of a card ga that had probably been played in this library a thousand tis when Richard Valentine was alive.
Then Cassidy dropped a draw two.
Sabrina stacked another draw two on top.
I stared at the pile. Four cards. I didn’t have a draw two to counter.
"You’re supposed to draw," Cassidy said sweetly. Too sweetly. "Four cards. House rules."
I drew four. My hand went from six cards to ten. This was a disaster.
Sabrina played a green five. Normal. Safe.
I played a green nine. Cassidy played a green skip.
Back to Sabrina. She played a green reverse.
The card hit the table and suddenly the turn order flipped. Now it went from to Cassidy instead of Cassidy to .
"That’s evil," I said.
"That’s strategy." Sabrina’s purple eyes glead. "Your turn."
I had ten cards. They probably had five each. This was mathematical proof that the universe hated specifically.
I played a wild card. Changed it to red because I had three reds left.
Cassidy played a red skip. Back to Sabrina imdiately.
Sabrina played a draw four.
Cassidy didn’t have a draw four. Her smug expression died instantly. "What the hell, Sabrina?"
"I’m playing to win." Sabrina looked at . "Just like Isaiah taught you. No rcy."
"I’m on your team!"
"Temporary alliance. The real opponent is him." She pointed at with her remaining three cards. "Nothing personal."
Cassidy muttered sothing that sounded like creative profanity.
My turn. I played a red six.
Cassidy groaned. Played a red three.
Sabrina dropped a red reverse. Turn order flipped again.
We were back to going to Sabrina instead of Cassidy.
This was psychological warfare disguised as a children’s card ga.
The next five minutes blurred. Cards flying. Colors shifting. My hand went from ten to eight to twelve to nine as draw cards kept cascading. Cassidy was down to four cards sohow. Sabrina had two.
I had nine.
This was not going well.
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