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He stood up and approached the other table, then leaned in. [color=#568203]“Mind if I join? It’s been a long time since I’ve played.”[/color]

Everyone looked at him. Even Morgan glanced up from where his head was pressed against the table. Jackson shuffled to the side of his chair. [color=FFCFC0]“Sure, sit down!”[/color]

[color=FFCFC0]“You dolt, there’s a chair right here,”[/color] Larissa hissed, pulling out a seat to her left. [color=FFCFC0]“Come on, sit down.”[/color]

[color=#568203]“Thanks! Deal me in, please.”[/color] James sat and accepted a hand of seven. 

The table was oddly tense. There was very little conversation, except for the odd argument about rules and people calling out “Uno!”. Which James forgot to do on several occasions. Jackson seemed to be quite the stickler for rules - but only when it was advantageous for him. The silence broke when Jackson finally won, letting out a loud whoop.

[color=FFCFC0]“Ha! I won! I am the Uno [i]master[/i],”[/color] he declared, standing up. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a few cardboard shapes and passing them around. Ah, they were the letter ‘L’.

[color=#568203]“Ah, I’ll take that L,”[/color] James said. [color=#568203]“Do you do this every time you win?”[/color]

[color=FFCFC0]“He does,”[/color] Larissa said, before Jackson could continue. [color=FFCFC0]“Unfortunately, he always wins. Sometimes it feels like he practices.” [/color]

[color=FFCFC0]“You could practice too, if you had Uno on Xbox,”[/color] Jackson said. 

Larissa stared blankly at him.

[color=FFCFC0]“...It’s a joke,”[/color] Jackson said after a moment of silence.

[color=#568203]“That was fun!”[/color] James said. [color=#568203]“Even if I got destroyed. You play a lot of games, Jackson?”[/color]

[color=FFCFC0]“Yeah! But no one else ever plays with me. I’m too good, y’know?”

“That’s because you don’t have any other hobbies,”[/color] Ella said.

[color=#568203]“Hey, I mean, we all have what we’re good at. Some of us just gotta focus on that one thing, you know? Thinking of making it big in esports?”[/color] James asked, half-jokingly.

[color=FFCFC0]“I thought you wanted to go into engineering?”[/color] Larissa said. Jackson slapped her on the shoulder.

[color=FFCFC0]“She just doesn’t understand the hustle. I have a thousand hours in [i]Fortnite.[/i] I’ll be damned if I don’t enter at least one competition.”[/color]

[color=#568203]“Ah. I don’t play many games myself- just some more chill ones from Nintendont that don’t need much investment,”[/color] James said.

[color=FFCFC0]“Oh, [i]Fifteen Apartments[/i] came out recently, didn’t it?”[/color] Ella said. [color=FFCFC0]“I thought you’d be playing that right now. We were gonna get you it for your birthday, but you’ve probably bought it already.”[/color]

[color=FFCFC0]“Damn right. I’m gonna stay off tomorrow to play,”[/color] Jackson said.

[color=FFCFC0]“Don’t do that,” [/color]Larissa said.

[color=FFCFC0]“Make me!”[/color]

[color=#568203]“If you stay home and focus all of your energy, you might make it big on the internet,”[/color] James said rather unhelpfully. [color=#568203]“Streaming is apparently growing a lot.”[/color]

[color=FFCFC0]“See, Larissa! J- j...“[/color] he trailed off. [color=FFCFC0]“[i]This guy[/i] gets it.”[/color]

[color=#568203]“James León. It’s Jackson, Ella, Larissa, Morgan, right?”[/color] James pointed at each.

[color=FFCFC0]“Now you look like an idiot,” [/color]Ella muttered, elbowing Jackson.

[color=FFCFC0]“Sorry, sorry. I’m too busy being an Uno god to learn names.”[/color]

[color=#568203]“Hey, it’s fine. See, I got a trick to learn names. I look at the person, see if they’re like a book character I know, then build an association! See, for Ella, she reminds me of this one murder mystery I read, and there’s a character in there named Ella. Simple.”[/color]

[color=FFCFC0]“I don’t read nearly enough for that. Oh, but there are a lot of game characters and stuff, right? That could work,”[/color] Jackson mused.

Larissa cleared her throat. [color=FFCFC0]“You really ought to-”[/color]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tv6gQgj0VQ

The entire group groaned. Even Morgan lifted his head to make a pained noise.

[color=FFCFC0]“To class, then,” [/color]Larissa finished, quickly picking up her bags and standing. Jackson slumped further into his chair while Ella patted his back. Hard. [color=FFCFC0]“Get up, you idiots.” [/color]Larissa pulled on Morgan’s collar. [color=FFCFC0]“You too.”[/color]

James grabbed his bag and stood. [color=#568203]“Back to class!”[/color]