Later the door flung open as an excited voice shouted: “I did it!”

I looked away from my phone to offer a congratulatory smile. “Congrats.”

Kristen walked over to me, eyes beaming. “My Professor graded it for me ahead of time and I got a 90! I aced it!”

“Of course you did. I taught you.”

She ignored my lack of modesty and nodded vigorously in agreement. “Yeah you did! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!” Taken aback by her energetic appreciation, I didn’t even notice til I was airborne that she picked me up.

“Chill girl. It was just a test.”

“That was a third of my grade. Thank you!” She nodded again and next thing I knew her lips were over in an appreciative thank you kiss. She made exaggerated smooching sounds as she pulled await, a large grin on her face. I on the other hand was bright red and stunned. It didn’t take long before Kristen realized what she’d just done and act the same.

I decided to try and end the silence sooner rather than later. “Glad I could help with the test.”

“….Yeah. Sorry about that. I got a little excited.” She was still blushing.

“Hard not to around me.” I gave her a hearty laugh with a cocky grin. “You do that every time you get an A?”

“Of course not!” Her voice said no but her flushed cheeks made me want to keep pushing anyway.

“Can’t say I’ve ever been so excited about a good grade I kissed someone. Kinda sad really.”

“Shut up you ass.”

“Make me.” I stuck my tongue out.

She promptly took her phone away and gave me a sly look.

“Shit, she made me.”

“Thought so.” Her blushing died down as she regained a confident, victorious look over me. “Really though, thanks. I owe you.” Her phone came close by again so could respond.

I shrugged, laying down in her palm and staring upwards into her looming face. “No you don’t. You let me stay here. I help you with a test. It’s only fair.”

“Nope.”

“Goddammit.” I sighed, losing another debate to a giant girl. Kristen gave me a smirk as she placed me back on the table. “I’ll figure out something I can do for you later. For now…” She trailed off. “…You wanna do anything?”

“I dunno.” Came my immediate, apathetic reply. “Games maybe?”

“At your size?” Kristen raised an eyebrow. “Can you…push buttons like that?”

“Oh yeah. It’s actually really good exercise. I gotta run between all the buttons and jump with my full weight on them. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at it.”

“Really?”

“No you idiot!” I burst into laughter. “You see me? I’m lucky if I can push one.”

“Then what do you suggest?” She tried to hide her embarrassment but the tinge in her cheeks was a dead giveaway. I let it slide.

“I dunno. Board games? Word games? Mind games?”

“I think you play enough mind and word games.” She scratched the back of her head. “I don’t own any board games either. Just chess.”

“That’ll work.”

She looked surprised. “You know how to play chess?”

“Of course. I mean, it’s been a while but a relative taught me when I was a kid.”

“I gotta see this.” She snickered, leaving only to return minutes later with a smooth marble chessboard. It was really well kept I must say; shiny enough I could see my reflection in the white and black tiles. “I’ll set up all the pieces.” Kristen mumbled as her fingers quickly went to work placing everything. Not being an idiot I quickly got off the board and left her to it.

“You want to be white or black?”

“I’m white you racist.”

“Shut up.” She rolled her eyes with a sigh and started to set my side with white pieces. Before long all the pieces were set and it was game on. Kristen leaned on the table with her chin resting on her palm, eyeing me expectantly. “Your move.”

I stepped onto the board, move already thought out, just one rather obvious problem. All these pieces were taller than me. Even the pawns, the shortest of all chess pieces towered over me like a decent-sized house. Me attempting to move it went about as well as trying to move a house too. I pushed against the base of the pawn with all my strength but all it got me was a number of amused giggles from Kristen. That and I fell on my butt a couple times whenever my feet slid.

“Need a hand?” Kristen smirked down at me after a few more minutes.

My manly pride made me want to do this on my own but logically it was not happening. “Don’t make me say it…”

“All you need to do is ask.”

She was not going to let me walk away from this one. I sighed, “Can you please help me move this?”

“Sure.” She nodded, grabbing the pawn in front of me and moving it with zero effort. “One space or two?”

“…Two.” I should’ve been used to it by now but my pride took a bit of a hit there. She was going to pay for this. I was going to crush her for embarrassing me.

She moved the pawn and quickly reached for one of her own and moved it in the next moment. “Your turn again.”

“Uh…can you help me move that one too…?”

“Of course.”

The details of the game escape me but it was pretty close. For every piece one of us took the other took one as well. I was probably at a disadvantage not being able to look over the board like Kristen was but I dealt with it as best I could. My big break came when she didn’t notice her Queen was in danger. You better believe I took that thing the instant I could. After that the game leaned in my favor and I began to slowly capture each and every piece I could. Her resistance was slowly vanishing as I rode my momentum towards victory. After several more turns I had her. I just needed to place my Rook at the right spot and it was checkmate.

“Okay Kris, can you put my Rook over there?” I pointed to my desired spot. Wordlessly and even a little glumly she pulled it up and placed it across the board…In the wrong spot. “No, over there.” I pointed to it again. The place she moved it to was going to cost me my Rook if I left it there.

She paused for a moment, not reaching for the piece like I asked. Her face turned and showed me a mischievous glint in her eyes. “But if I put it there I’ll lose.”

“That’s the point!”

“Why would I let myself lose?”

“Cause it’s cheating?”

“All’s fair in love and war.” She giggled as she took my Rook. “Your move.”

As you might guess. The rest of the game did not bode well for me. Kristen only moved my pieces like I asked about half the time. The other half she moved them right to the slaughter. I quickly started losing, and she was not nice about it. She could’ve checkmated me early on but she took her time, slowly taking out each of my pieces until finally my King was all that remained. I should’ve admitted defeat since I wasn’t even really playing anymore but stubbornness made me keep trying nonetheless.

“Checkmate.” Kristen smiled innocently. “You did well.”

“Yeah yeah.” I grumbled, taking out my frustrations by walking onto the board and kicking her King piece. “I would’ve won if you didn’t cheat.”

She grabbed her King and slid it to the side, pushing me flat onto my back. She hovered the bottom of it over me like it was going to stamp me down, still smiling playfully. “Don’t be a sore loser.”

“You’re one to talk.” I brushed myself off and walked back off the board before she got any ideas.

“Want a rematch?”

“Nah, I get the feeling it’d go as well as the first one.”

“You never know til you try.”

“Trust me. I know.” I sighed. “Still, thanks for the good game.”

“Anytime! It was fun.”

Crabby as I was acting I did have to agree. Even if she did cheat in the second half of the game it was really fun. “Yeah, it was. Anyway. What now?”

Kristen gave me a shrug, “TV maybe?”

I groaned. “I have had enough TV to last a lifetime…Any other games you can think of?”

“Uh…” She made thinking noises while cleaning off all the chess stuff from the table. “Hmm….Truth…or Dare…?”

“What are you, five?”

The moment I said that Kristen’s eyes widened. “I think I know what we can do. Be right back. Gotta check on something…” She hurried away as I watched her with a curious look. Something gave me a bad feeling about this.

Sure enough my feelings were confirmed once Kristen came back ten minutes later.

With a dollhouse.