Hunting the Fairy Tale

Chapter 106 - Action Chess

"Check," Ronja says, winking at Jake and from the shade of red creeping up the dude's neck, I think he is very close to having a stroke or something. He picks up his glass of juice and, trying to calm down, takes a sip of the bright berry and orange concoction Tanner made.

"Is little king ready to submit to sexy queen?" Ronja asks in that sassy accent of hers, causing a ripple of laughter and chaos... again. I glance at Willow and am not surprised to see her blushing. I am, however, surprised to see her gasp in shock and jump to her feet. Up until this moment, she'd been sitting quietly on a chair, watching the game, avoiding eye contact with the rest of us.

The cause of her shock is Jake, who, startled or excited (not sure) by Ronja's words, spat out a mouthful of juice, spraying the girl's top with bright colour.

"S-sorry," he gasps, grabbing a bunch of tissues from the box near the board. He is wiping his mouth and chin with some and handing a few to Ronja.

"You are painful loser, Jake Davenport!" Ronja snaps, her cheeks flushed with anger. She is really pretty right now, and the way she pronounced his name would definitely be tying Jake's guts in knots. It sounded really hot.

"It was an accident..."

Ronja is not listening; she picks up her glass and gives it a brisk shake, splashing some of her own rainbow juice at Jake. It hits him in the face and chest and splatters all over the chessboard.

"I said it was a friggin' accident!" Jake bellows, grabbing his glass and splashing her too. Jake is the calmest person I know. I've seen the guy serenely grab snacks from the air and pop them into his mouth in the middle of a food fight, not even losing his place in the book he was reading at the time. This kind of behaviour is expected of Tanner, Paisley and me, not of Jake.

"Whoa, Boyo!" Dex gasps, rolling off the couch and launching himself to his feet to stop the two chess players, who seem ready to have a full-on brawl now. Willow is also at the coffee table, trying to clean Ronja with tissues.

"Come," she says, taking the angry girl's arm. "Let's get you cleaned up." I can see that Missy is really shocked and not sure how to handle the situation, but I can also hear sweet giggles escaping from her when she fails to keep them suppressed.

I would help, but I'm too busy falling off the couch, unable to control my muscles because I'm laughing so hard. Ash was trying to get Paisley off his lap so that he could save his best friend from the blond warrior, but he'd given up now, trapped under the laughing girl.

"Come on, Jakes, let's get you a clean shirt," I chuckle, finally making it to my feet. Willow takes Ronja into her room, and I take Jake into mine, but I think the two of us are forgetting one very important thing: it's a shared bathroom.

Jake went in there to get cleaned up while I find him a shirt, and I can hear some disturbing splashing sounds coming from there now. I don't think the dude is just violently cleaning himself.

Well, at least they're in the bathroom, and their ammunition is now just water, so it's probably all good... unless they drown each other.

I pull a top from the neat stack in my wardrobe and grab some sweatpants, too, since I'm not sure of the state of Jake's jeans. I arrive at the bathroom door, ready to offer the clothes to Jake in exchange for him closing the taps and stopping splashing his chess opponent with water.

My words die on my lips when I see Willow standing at the opposite door, clutching a pretty pink knitted sweater in her hand. Her mouth is hanging open, and I follow the direction of her eyes with my own to see Jake and Ronja standing at the counter containing the two wash basins. There are water splashes against the mirror, on the counter and on the floor and probably on both of them as well.