‘Yes!’

That was the only thought that came to mind as I sat in Mrs. Rivers’ classroom. 

Usually, she’d be teaching us Algebra but for some reason she was absent that day.

That meant we had a substitute instead.

But by the grace of God, Mrs. Rivers didn’t assign anything to us, so we had a free period.

On top of that, it was Thursday. And to my surprise and excitement, our entire friend group was in the same math period.

“This is great, isn’t it?” I said to Tristan who was in the seat next to me.

“Yeah I guess,” he replied, not sharing my enthusiasm.

“Ignore him, this is awesome,” Aurora said.

‘Of course you think that, you’re the laziest person I know.’

Aurora was actually in the seat in front of me, so she had to turn her body around to speak to us. 

‘There’s no way that’s comfortable.’

“How about you? Aren’t you happy too, Nishimoya?” I asked.

Nishimoya, who was sitting at the desk next to me, smiled.

“Definitely,” she answered.

I stood up and I made my way over to Soriel, who was sitting away from us, and gestured to her to sit near us.

She looked confused for a moment, but eventually got the memo and sat down next to Aurora.

“Alright, so what should we do?” I asked eagerly.

After I asked, everyone began to take on thoughtful expressions.

For a few moments no one could think of anything.

Considering how rigorous this school’s academics were, it may have been the first time and the last we’d ever have a free period. 

So we had to make it count.

Fortunately, Soriel spoke up.

“Let’s play Uno!” She suggested with a grin.

“Where are we gonna find Uno? No one in this school brings a pack of uno cards,” Aurora replied, refuting the idea.

Just then, Soriel began to look through her bag before finding a pack of Uno cards.

“I do,” Soriel said.

Aurora made an extremely confused expression and honestly, so did I.

“Why did you bring Uno to school?” I asked.

She smiled smugly and puffed out her chest proudly.

“I’m always prepared to play games!” she said.

‘Ok…?’

“Alright, settled then. We’ll play uno. But Aurora, don’t cheat this time,” 

Aurora’s body tensed up and her eyebrow twitched.

“I didn’t cheat! Not peeking at other’s cards isn’t actually a rule. I bet you cheated instead. You’re probably just projecting,” Aurora retorted abruptly.

I rolled my eyes at her obvious lie.

“Oh yeah, and let’s be careful. We don’t want a repeat of last time,” I said.

Soriel tilted her head slightly in confusion.

“What happened last time?” Soriel asked.

This time, Tristan decided to speak up.

“Did anyone tell you that our group used to have someone else in middle school?” Tristan asked.

“Oh that’s cool, I didn’t know that. What happened to them?” Soriel responded.

“We all played a game of uno together. Afterwards, we were the only ones that remained.”

Soriel’s face took on a very concerned expression.

That wasn’t for long though because soon an unsettling smile appeared.

“That’s even more reason to play it! More stakes! More fun!” Soriel exclaimed.

Tristan raised his eyebrow while the rest of us looked at Soriel with concern.

‘Oh, she’s possessed. We’re all gonna die, aren’t we?’

After that, we hesitatingly took out the uno cards and had Tristan shuffle and distribute them.

‘Not bad.’

My seven cards weren’t bad at all. I had a few regular ones, one reverse card, and one +2.

I tried looking at the others to gauge how good their cards were based on their faces, but their expressions didn’t change.

Especially Soriel’s expression which stayed eerily creepy.

“I’ll go first,” Tristan said, as he placed a 

red five card on top of the yellow five card that we started with.

From there, we all placed down one card from the deck without any issue.

However, the second rotation wasn’t so easy.

This time, Tristan played a reverse card which made it Soriel’s turn next.

Next, Soriel played a reverse card of her own, making it Tristan’s turn once again.

For his second turn, Tristan decided to play a +2 card he had.

As you already know, I had a +2 as well so I placed it down.

Unfortunately for Nishimoya, she didn’t have a +2 so she had to pick up 4 cards.

Normally, I would’ve felt bad due to her saddened expression, but this was Uno.

And I was very competitive.

For Aurora’s turn, she didn’t have a playable card so she picked up one.

Then, it was Soriel’s turn.

“Heh, heh, heh,” she chuckled.

“Why is she laughing like that? I’m scared. Tristan help me,” I said.

“What do you want me to do about it?” Tristan responded.

Soriel then placed down a card, still laughing as she did.

It was a wild card.

“The color is yellow,” she said.

Tristan furrowed his brows but eventually just picked up a card.

That meant it was my turn.

‘Damn, I don’t have a card either.”

So naturally I picked up a card too.

But fortunately for Nishimoya, she had a yellow card which just happened to be a reverse card.

Meaning I had to pick up yet another card.

‘This isn’t good. I need to win. I have to figure out some sort of plan.’

Tristan placed down the card he just pulled for his turn which made it Soriel’s turn once again.

Looking directly at me, Soriel placed down a +4.

‘A +4?! Crap. No, this is okay. It’s not like someone else will have one.’

Unfortunately, my hopes were utterly crushed.

With a smirk, Aurora stacked on a +4 card which made it Nishimoya’s turn.

And for Nishimoya’s turn, she stacked on a +2 card.

“Can she even do that?!” I asked, with worry and curiosity.

Tristan shrugged.

“We never discussed the rules beforehand, so it's a free game,” he explained.

‘No…’

It was now my turn.

And I had no +2 or +4 cards, meaning I had to draw 10.

“Oh wow, Elliot. That’s a lot of cards! I wonder how you’ll get rid of them?” Aurora asked mockingly.

“Sorry,” Nishimoya whispered.

Now that I had 10 extra cards, a deep despair invaded my heart.

My life was over.

I had lost everything and everyone I cared about.

There was no possible way for me to win this game of uno.

As I wallowed in misery, I could hear the small devious chuckle that left Soriel’s mouth.

“Heh, heh.”

I had no idea what could have brought upon her inhumane state, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

After all, I had lost the only thing I cared about.

I had lost my chance of winning this game.

‘Wait.’

As I looked through the cards in my hands, my eyes widened ever so slightly.

I noticed a certain card in my deck.

The card was known as the wild swap hands card.

When I realized this fact, I had to resist a laugh from escaping from my lips.

‘No, I can’t laugh yet. I’ve gotta hold it in.’

Once that moment passed, the game resumed as usual.

As the game progressed, Soriel began to have fewer and fewer cards.

On the other hand, I made it look like I was trying to get rid of all my cards as quickly as possible.

In reality though, I was attempting to keep my card number around the same.

Eventually, I heard the beautiful sound of my new favorite word being spoken.

“Uno!” Soriel exclaimed.

Once she said that, I knew it was my time to shine.

When it finally became my turn, I placed down my card.

“The color is red. And I would like to switch cards with Soriel,” I said, fighting the urge to smirk.

At that exact moment, everyone’s eyes widened in surprise. Especially Aurora.

Realizing what card I put down, Soriel slowly and mechanically turned her head towards me.

Then, she just stared.

With unfathomable hatred.

“Oopsie daisy. Sorry Soriel,” I apologized with a mocking tone.

After Soriel and I switched cards, I took a look to see what my new final card was.

‘A wild card?! How’d she even end up with this?’

Regardless of how Soriel got it, that card was my savior.

And after a bunch of failed attempts to change the color in order to stop me, I finally got to use it.

It was finally my turn again, and the color was green.

A rarer color so perhaps the others thought I wouldn’t be able to place my card.

Soriel, on the other hand, knew what was going to happen.

As I was placing down my card, I felt an indescribable emotion come about.

‘It’s my perfect victory…’

BAM!

My hand that held the card, hit the table.

And I was filled with joy.

‘…I win.’