the word is 'game' with the oc of your choice GO FORTH.
Charlotte raised a brow. “With who?”
“With, uh…” Victoria immediately shrank back. “Um…”
The woman sighed. “The only thing I do for fun is hunt, girl,” she said, though the ‘petname’ she used carried no irritation this time. “And maybe read from time to time. And, well… I guess dancing is fun.”
The girl smiled half-heartedly at the additions, a little happy to find something optimistic about the woman.
“Why do you ask about games, anyways?”
“Well, they’re fun,” she said. “They help pass the time, and they can tell stories, and you can also make money off ‘em, too.”
Charlotte made a face at the last part.
“What? You never see the game tournaments? The gambling casinos?” The girl’s face suddenly lit up. “Oh man, I bet you’d be real good at poker! I mean, like, you’d have an amazing poker face!”
“Poker face… I’ve heard that term before…”
“Like how you can not react to things? Like, you can get a good card or a bad card and nobody would know ‘cause they can’t read your face. You’re so good at that.”
“Do you play a lot of poker?”
Victoria opened her mouth, but paused. “No, but… my dad really liked it. He loved card games. Told me lots about how they’d show the tournaments on TV, even.”
The girl deflated after that. As she looked over at her, Charlotte’s expression evened out, losing its hint of a smile.
“Then what did you play?” Charlotte asked.
“It wasn’t much, but I had a few video games back home,” she replied. Her voice was soft. It was obvious she was trying to pretend nothing was wrong. “I think my favorite thing was when the neighborhood kids would get together to play kickball, though. And some of us would play, like, cops and robbers, too.”
Victoria’s shoulders dropped and her head lowered a fraction, just enough for Charlotte to notice.
“You’ll learn to forget them,” Charlotte said. “You’ll meet new people, find new things to enjoy. Or pretend to enjoy, at least. But you certainly have the drive for it.”
“Hm.” The sound was short, but thoughtful.
“How about we make a new game out of your ‘cops and robbers’?” Charlotte offered, a devilishly amused smile back on her face.
“Really?” Victoria made a face back at her.
But the woman chuckled in response. “You people really hate how much I enjoy myself.”
The girl just groaned and shook her head as she covered her face with her palm.
