When Saturn Returns | Jerrie

Chapter 8

JADE

Dinner is a quiet and simple affair as everyone quickly eats their portion. No one complains because they know that Jade and Mary would've had to sleep in the cave for another night if Shaun hadn't traded in their dinners.

When everyone is done, Ben starts to speak. "Alright, I wanted to play this game I always used to play in school. It's called Games, but maybe you know it under another name. It's quite simple really. We play in teams of two and the goal is to get four cards with the same number in your hand. Once you have that, you have to give your partner a sign without anyone noticing, so you might want to agree on one beforehand. If your partner catches your sign, they call 'Games' and you get a point if you have four cards with the same number on them. If both of you have four equal cards, you get two points. If think you see someone else signing to their partner, you can call 'Games stop' and if you are correct, they lose a point and you get one."

"How do you get four of the same cards?" Rose asks.

"You get four cards to start with and there are four cards in the middle. Everyone can swap cards for as long as they like. When everyone is done, the four cards in the middle are replaced with four new ones," Ben explains.

"Alright, let's try it," Darren says and everyone starts paring up and thinking of signs to give each other. Naturally, Jade and Perrie are a team. No one even tries to come between them.

"Okay, I'll cross my fingers if I've got four of the same cards," Perrie whispers in Jade's ear and Jade nods, ignoring the goosebumps Perrie's action causes. That seems like a subtle enough sign.

Once everyone has agreed on their signs, they sit around one of their cots, so they can have a table-like surface to put their cards on. Ben deals everyone four cards and lays out four cards on the table, face down.

"Okay, everyone ready?" he asks and looks around the group before turning the cards in the middle over. At once, it's a chaos of people swapping out cards, trying to get four of the same. Jade lets the chaos happen around her, already happy with the cards she's holding. She got two fours in her first hand and managed to swap one of her other cards out for a third four very early on, so all she has to do now is look out for that last four.

She quickly checks whether Perrie is signing her anything, but she's frowning down at her cards. She then lets her eyes go around the rest of the group, trying to spot if anyone else is signing anything to their partner. Shaun is tapping the top of his cards, but he also has a deep frown on his face, so Jade thinks he's just deep in thought. Tony is scratching the back of his head, but that also doesn't necessarily have to be a sign. She spots some other suspicious movements here and there, but she can't be sure if they're signs or if she's just hyperaware of other people's movements.

Once everyone has stopped swapping out cards with the cards on the mattress, Ben deals four new cards into the middle. Again, when he turns them over, chaos ensues with people desperately swapping cards. Jade observes Perrie, who is being just as competitive as always, trying to get four of the same cards.

From the corner of her eye, Jade suddenly sees that Mary has put down a four in exchange for a six and she's quick to snatch her last four up. She decides not to immediately send Perrie their sign, so it's not too obvious that she's got four of the same cards already, but keeps an eye on the others, still trying to spot anyone signing their partner.

After a minute or so, she tries to subtly cross her fingers on the hand that's holding her cards and she watches Perrie to see if she's paying attention. She's not. She's so focused on the cards in the middle that she seems to have forgotten the point of the game.

"GAMES!" Geoff suddenly yells, pointing at his partner Nicole. Nicole grins and shows everyone her four cards.

Jade's confused, she never saw Nicole sign Geoff anything.