They sat staring at each other waiting to be dealt their hands. Each offering up their most prized possession. This was an invitation only and Reese has just been welcomed into the fold, which has been a boys only club until today. She reveled at the idea that she was the first to join. Maybe they had been told that they could no longer exclude her, or maybe they realized that she had what they wanted and instead of taking it, they would win it and humiliate her into remembering why she wasn’t allowed to join their game.

“Each of you will get the same number of cards.” Mikey spat as he talked. He was large and imposing, which made him the perfect candidate to run these games. No one would dare try to go up against him.

“What are the rules?” Reese asked. She had played many times with her friends, but she knew that Mikey may have made up his own rules, as this was his game.

“This is why we don’t let her play!” Tommy sneered.

“Yea! She doesn’t know the rules.” Billy pointed at her with his chubby little finger.

“That’s okay. It just means she will lose and we get her stuff.” Mikey ran his fingers over the cards, giving off the satisfying sound ripple of sound. He started to deal out the cards to everyone. Reese watched as he gave her the last card. She reached for them, but Tommy slapped her hand.

“We put everything in the middle before we look. It’s the rule.” He smiled at Mikey and Billy who both agreed with him. They threw their items into the middle.

“Fine.” Reese reached beside her and put her pouch on the table. They watched as she unzipped it to reveal what they had been waiting to see.

“Wow.” Billy reached his hand out for a touch, but Mikey slapped it down.

“I guess you do have something worth taking.” Mikey drooled over the prize like a dog with a bone. They all admired it, as though it was worth their weight in gold.

“Are we to play or what?” Reese looked at her cards-two kings, a pair of queens, a good start she thought.

“Before we start, you have to swear you will never tell another person about this.” Billy’s eyes glared at her. Who would she tell. It wasn’t like she was looking to make friends in the town.

“Let’s just play.” She looked back at the empty pouch sitting next to her, knowing if she lost there would be no way to explain where the item had gone.

“Fine.” Mikey stared at the signed baseball one more time. “Go Fish.”