Chapter 44

The rest of the week was more of the same. Kiana spent most of her time with her family, trying to have as much fun as possible with Olivia before her return to Australia. Like Michael had proposed, they went shopping and he bought Olivia some stuff so she could convert the guest bedroom into her own. Kiana helped her pick out some new drapes and a bunch of sheets and blankets for her bed, plus a new desk and dresser, and it was great fun. It took them over an hour to put the dresser together since it had a million different parts but it was fun nonetheless. And then later in the week they had dinner with Holley again, and that was kind of strange since Christine was there so Michael had his current and prior girlfriends both sitting at the table with him, but even so everyone was cordial and it was another good night.

But one of the best nights, at least as far as Kiana was concerned, was the night before Olivia’s departure to Sydney. Jacen invited them over to hang out with his friends, which Kiana thought was a great idea since it would give her and Olivia a little change of pace since they had spent most of the week hanging out with adults, and as any sixteen or nineteen year old girl will tell you, that gets old after a while. So they went over to John’s house, which was the same place Jacen had taken Kiana on their first date. Kiana could still see every detail of that night vividly in her mind, especially the moment when they had been playing Ultra 7 and Jacen had kissed her.

As far as she was concerned, they definitely needed to play that game again.

Like the first time, there were a bunch of people there, mostly the same crowd as the first time, including Jamal, John, Francis, and Rochelle, but also a couple of new people including a girl named Janice James who was a freshman at Jackson and also two boys named Hugh Fredrickson and Grant Tucker who were sophomores at Glacier Peak. Kiana introduced everyone to Olivia, and of course all of the boys went gaga over her the minute they saw her, and at one point a little later in the night Kiana overheard John tell Francis, “I didn’t think it could get any better than Kiana. But an older sister? She’s so hot.” The boys basically started drooling all over themselves every time Olivia looked at them, and whenever she said she was thirsty, they made a mad dash (usually several at once) to the kitchen to get her something.

But there was one part of the night that got a little uncomfortable and actually caught Kiana totally by surprise. The weather was nice so they were all sitting on the patio in the back yard, talking, when John asked Olivia if she was like Kiana and knew any taekwondo.

“I’ve been known to throw a few kicks on occasion,” Olivia said.

“Do the two of you ever fight one another?”

“No. But I guess we could sometime.”

“I’ve got to see it,” Jamal said. “I’ve got to see the two of you spar. If you’re even half as good as Kiana it will be quite a show.”

At first, Kiana and Olivia were both against it but the boys were adamant (and persistent) and John actually got down on his knees and begged so finally they both agreed and decided to give it a try. They hopped up, removed their shoes, and took places across from one another on the patio, directly across from everyone else. Kiana really just planned to do a couple of simple moves, at half speed, then call it good (she didn’t think it would take much more than that to impress the boys and she didn’t want to risk hurting Olivia). But that didn’t happen at all. Olivia threw a couple of quick punches, which were much faster than Kiana had anticipated, and Kiana was barely able to block them in time. Kiana then countered with a couple of punches of her own but Olivia knocked them to the side easily.

Wow, Kiana thought. She’s much better than I anticipated.

Kiana thought she’d be a beginner or maybe even slightly advanced, but at the same time nowhere near Kiana’s level (after all, few people were). But Olivia was. She was lightning quick, had perfect form, and, other than Master Gwon, was the best fighter Kiana had ever faced. In an attempt to ascertain exactly how good she was, Kiana turned up the intensity a little and sent a wicked snap kick her way, but Olivia blocked it effortlessly and retaliated by trying to sweep Kiana’s feet out from under her. Kiana jumped over the sweep, then tried to counter with a jab to Olivia’s stomach, but Olivia blocked the jab and tried to hit Kiana with a roundhouse. Kiana ducked the roundhouse and followed with an uppercut. From there, they battled one another from one side of the patio to the other, exchanging blow after blow, and the boys sat there in complete awe. They had never seen anything like it and to them the girls were little more than a blur of fast and furious action.

Finally, Jacen had to step forward and put an end to it.

“Ladies. That was great but I think we’ve seen enough.”

At that, the fight came to an abrupt end and they all laughed as John wiped his brow with a napkin and said, “That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m gonna go take a shower. A really cold one.”

Kiana turned to Olivia. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean for it to get so intense but I didn’t expect you to be so good.”

Olivia smiled at her. “No worries. You’re pretty good yourself, little sister. I’m impressed.”

Kiana was about to say something more when John interrupted them. “Would the two of you ever consider doing that again, but maybe this time in bikinis? Or spandex? I’d really like to see that.”

Everyone laughed and Jacen chased him away.

Kiana had only met John a couple of times but already she had figured out that he was the group’s wild one. In her experience, every group of guys had one. He was the guy who made the funniest comments and did the goofiest things.

It was at that point she realized Jamal had the Ultra 7 game in one hand and he was just about to set it up on the dining room table. She turned to Olivia.

“You’ve got to try this game. It’s so fun.”

Olivia followed her into the dining room and they got seats at the table right next to one another. Jamal shuffled the cards and dealt them as everyone explained the rules to Olivia, who had never heard of Ultra 7 before.

“I don’t think we have this game in Australia.”

“It’s great,” Kiana said. “It’s really exciting and you never know what’s going to happen next.”

Play started from there and like always it was great fun. Everyone (except John) cheered as Jamal played a ROLL card and John was forced to draw six cards. But then they cheered even louder when John played a TRADE card and was able to switch hands with Grant. It was an especially good move since John had fifteen cards and Grant only had two. But like always, the biggest laughs happened whenever someone played a GRAB card. Without exception, spoons and cards went flying and bodies ended up on the floor. But the funniest part of all was when, right at the conclusion of one of the scrambles, John looked over at Kiana and Olivia.

“No way!” he said.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Kiana had two spoons in her hand (just like she had done the first time they had played), and Olivia had two spoons, too.

At that, they made a new ‘house’ rule. Neither Kiana nor Olivia was allowed to grab more than one spoon per round. Otherwise, no one else had a chance. Kiana and Olivia laughed but they quickly acquiesced since all they wanted to do was have a good time.

But after a while, Kiana noticed something was wrong. So far, no one had played a single DARE card.

“Where are the DARE cards? They’re my favorite.”

No one had to ask her why. They all knew.

In response to her question, Jamal added the DARE cards to the play deck and just like the first time Kiana had played, the game got even better than before. Everyone groaned and Kiana’s stomach got a little queasy as Hugh played a DARE card and said, “I dare Grant to smell John’s armpit.” Without hesitation Grant did it and it was extremely gross since John’s armpit was really sweaty, which was undoubtedly the result of an earlier tug-of-war he had had with Jamal over one of the spoons.

Shortly after that, Jamal played a DARE card and said, “I dare John to fart, right here, right now. And it’s got to be a firecracker.”

“A firecracker?” Kiana asked. She had never heard that term before.

“He knows what it is. He’ll show you.”

Without further ado, John let loose. And it was really nasty. It wasn’t just one fart, it was a series of them, each short and quick, and some louder than the others. And every time Kiana thought it was over, another one would go off. Just like firecrackers.

They laughed hysterically when he finally finished but unfortunately they had to stop the game and leave the room for several minutes to give it time to air out properly. In the meantime, John had to go to the bathroom to wipe his butt.

“You Yanks are hilarious,” Olivia said. “I’ve never played a game like this before. It’s great.” She looked down and saw her glass was empty, then looked up at the boys. “Darn. Looks like I’m dry again.”

There was an instant scramble as Grant and Hugh rushed to the kitchen to get her something.

Olivia turned to Kiana. There was a big smile on her face.

“I love it when they do that.”

Ten minutes later the game resumed and finally it got to the point Kiana had been waiting for all night. Rochelle played a DARE card, then shot a quick glance at Kiana, then one at Jacen.

Please, Kiana thought. Do what you did last time. Dare Jacen to kiss me.

Unfortunately, however, Rochelle did something significantly different.

“I dare Jacen to kiss Olivia.”

Kiana’s heart stopped. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Jacen wouldn’t actually do it, would he? There was no way he would kiss Kiana’s own sister.

Jacen smiled at Rochelle, then turned to Olivia. “No offense, Olivia, because you’re really pretty and I imagine a lot of guys would kill to kiss you, but I can’t do it.”

Kiana’s heart raced. It was exactly the answer she had been hoping for.

But, much to her surprise, it wasn’t quite over.

“Would you do it,” Rochelle asked, “if Kiana allowed it? And if she promised she wouldn’t get upset in any way?”

All heads, including Kiana’s, turned to Jacen.

This is getting really interesting, Kiana thought. What will he say?

“No. I wouldn’t. It’s not my style.”

“You suck,” John said. He turned to Rochelle. “I’ll do it. Dare me. I’ll kiss Olivia right now. Several times if you want.”

Rochelle shook her head and the round was officially over. Jacen was forced to draw two cards as a penalty since he didn’t complete the dare but it was clear he didn’t care at all. A few minutes later, when he went to the kitchen to refill his drink, Olivia leaned over and whispered in Kiana’s ear, “He’s a keeper.”

The rest of the night was more of the same and at one point John even got on his knees and begged Rochelle to dare him to kiss Olivia, but as far as Kiana was concerned, nothing quite topped that moment. Kiana had always known Jacen was special, but with each passing day, he got even more so.