Jensen sat down beside Jenna on the bench as he helped her with her hair.
After a minute or two, he was done. He carried the towel and hung them on the door of her locker.
"Shall we go?" He asked her.
she was silent for a while. It was as though she was thinking about something.
"Is something wrong?" He asked.
She still remained silent rubbing her hands on her temples.
"I'm trying to remember something." She said.
Then it hit her. It was the day of the 'House of Cards' game.
"Shit!" She cursed slapping her head. "I completely forgot to tell you about 'House of Cards'."
Jensen gave her a confused look. "What are you talking about?"
"Let's be on our way to class first." She said as she pulled him out of the room.
"Sweetheart do you care to explain to your oblivious boyfriend what 'House of Cards', is?" He asked as they got on the empty hallway.
"Oh, right." She said. " 'Hous of Cards' is a game of hierarchy. No one really knows how the game originated. It started as a small game of upper class men. Then it spread to us middle men and lower class men. The upper class men quickly forgot about the game but it was still popular and played a lot by us middle men and lower class men.
At first it was very simple. With the ranking system like that of a deck of cards except that the JACK is the lowest rank and the JOKER being the highest then the ACE. Then all player are split between the four kingdoms. From heart to clover. Usually the JOKER, ACE, KING and QUEEN are kept a secret from other people including in their own kingdom because all the Kingdoms are trying to be top of the deck and exposing those roles is really bad.
The JACK usually had no privileges in the beginning but as time went on, the JACK became the target of bullies from all Kingdoms. It's allowed and they can fight back if they can.
Each Kingdom have a set of REFEREEs and and the head referee which is slightly lower than the JOKER. He knows all the identity of the ROYALS. They don't necessary participate in the game, but those who aren't referees and don't participate become NAMELESS CARDS, which are worse than the JACK. They aren't allowed to fight back.
The game always hold every last day of the month after break and from then onwards it's free periods till end of class. No one up until now knows why the game digressed so much and who the House of Cards is." Jenna said.
All the time Jensen was just listening to her trying to make some sense of everything.
"And, if you get a numbered card you still go through some ranking system again, but his time you use an app on your phone. Higher ranks can stop lower ranks from bullying the JACK, and higher ranks can also stop the JACK of their kingdom from being bullied by equal or lower ranks of other Kingdoms.
The referees can stop bullying in any Kingdom since their like neutral parties that help maintain order on the kingdoms." Jenna added.
"So in summary, it's a shitty game but no one really knows how or wants to get to the root." Jensen said.
"Yes." Jenna said as they stopped in front of their class.
Jenna grabbed the door handle but stopped. She looked back at Jensen and hugged him.
"For my sake, please don't be NAMELESS CARD. I know you don't like thing like this but please." She said looking up at him.
"Fine. I won't." Jensen said. "How did you even know that's what I was thinking?"
"We might have only spent like three days together but you tell me a lot of things. So I can guess." She said smiling and shrugging her shoulders. "Plus, I'm your girlfriend." She added and placed a kiss on his cheek.
She withdrew from the hug and opened the class door.
Everyone was already seated at their desks. Four people stood at the front. Three girls and a boy which was Andrea.
"Good we're complete." One of the girls said looking at Jenna and Jensen. She was smallish with her black hair tied up to a bun and glasses on her face.
"Please take a seat." Another said. She was Red haired.
'I'm guessing these are the referees.' Jensen said to himself.
"I assume you already explained the game to him, Jenna." Andrea said.
She nodded as they both went to their seats and sat down.
"Now, everyone take out your cards." Andrea said.
Everyone began to take out a deck of cards from where they had kept it— except Jensen.
The referees walked round each table and shuffled the cards after inspection for any marked cards. After that they dealt the cards.
The glasses girl walked up to Jensen and saw no cards on the table.
"Andrea." The girl called.
"Yes, Mary." Andrea replied after looking up from dealing some cards to a player.
"Please come." Mary said.
Andrea walked to where she was. He looked at Jensen's table which was empty.
"We have a new player. Do you mind taking over for me." She said politely.
"So she's not rude." Jensen said under his breath.
She turned to look at Jensen with a smile. "Sorry Jensen. I really wanted to help you, bit Andrea is in charge of the new players." Mary said. "I hope you land in my kingdom, but I hope I get to see you later and be friends."
She walked away from them to shuffle for Jenna.
"What's up with her?" Jensen asked.
"Oh nothing. She's just a jolly person and took a large interest in you after what you did for Jenna." Andrea said. "She likes guys like that."
Jensen nodded as Andrea finished. He looked at Mary as she went to her next candidate.
"Now, which kingdom do you want to be in?" Andrea asked.
"Whatever kingdom Jenna's in." He said.
"Nice." Andrea said bring out a deck of cards from his pocket and showed him the king of hearts. "Welcome to The Heart Kingdom, Jensen."
Andrea shuffled the cards like a pro before laying them in front of Jensen. Seven up seven down.
"Why are there only fourteen?" Jensen asked.
"It's because you only need to compete in the Heart kingdom . No need to have the full deck." Andrea said before walking to the front.
All the other referees made their way to the front.
"Now that everyone has their set in front of them, let the House of Cards game begin." All the referees said at once.
Everyone immediately began to open to up their Cards. Some rejoiced seeing their high rank while others had sad face about their lower rank.
Jensen looked at Jenna and waited for her to open her card.
She did the sign of the cross and looked at Jensen. He flashed her a small comforting smile. She smiled back and exhaled.
She reached out and picked out the third card in the bottom row. She opened and smiled.
"Don't tell me yet. Just complete the process." Jensen said.
She nodded and brought out her phone. She tapped on the House of Cards app icon— four deck of cards on a green carpet with the Joker Ace, King and Queen above each deck.
She opened the QR scanner and placed the the card in the frame.
As the scanning was complete she was shown a list of all the people with the same card in her kingdom.
She was to vote which she did quickly and the results came out almost immediately.
Seeing her position she smiled even more. Jensen who was looking at her smiled before looking at his deck.
He gazed at the second card in the top row. As he began to slide it out he caught a glance of the King of Hearts.
He immediately put it back and swapped the position with the second in the lower row without anyone noticing.
He pulled that one out and saw the Jack of Hearts. He smiled as though he had just achieved the first step to a plan.
Andrea caught his movements but refused to say anything.
"Everyone declare your rank to the referees as they come to you." Andrea said.
The referees began too move round just as Andrea had said.
Mary walked up to Jenna and asked for her rank politely.
"Knight 5 rank 6 of the heart kingdom." Jenna said.
Mary smiled at her. "Congrats little knight." She said.
Mary moved over to Jensen. "So what did you get?"
"Jack of Hearts." Jensen said plainly.
Andrea looked at him with a similar plane expression while Jenna and Mary where both surprised.
"Jack of Hearts." They both said together.