Spades

t w o : the game plan

|  TWO |
THE GAME PLAN

"...And then I said, "Do you finally understand why gender is a social construct, Mum?""

"Then what'd she say?" Shiro asked obediently, examining his paint-stained fingers.

River sighed, her voice taking on a note of sadness that was rarely heard from her.

"She didn't understand. She's West African, Shiro." She rolled her un-mischievous brown eyes, as if that fact alone was self-explanatory. "It's conservative central over there, unfortunately. She understood what I was trying to say, but she didn't understand."

River (known off the streets as Fleuve Paulhan) had an Ivorian mother and a French father. Her skin was the signature telltale hue of a biracial union of opposite spectrums, her hair was pastel pink and in somewhat tight ringlets, and she had a thing for ripped articles of clothing. And bringing down patriarchy, of course.

"What's conservative central?" The deep, new voice enquired, casting a shadow over the getting-ready-to-set sun. Shiro and River glanced up at the new addition to the conversation from their positions on the hood of his car.

"West Africa, Isaiah." River paused, rethinking. "Maybe most of Africa. Africa."

"Don't I know it." Karim mumbled in agreement, shoving his robotics textbooks into his backpack. "My dad is still wondering why I do robotics and basketball. I just think he wants an NBA player for a son." Karim concluded, absentmindedly playing with the small, black, kinky gravity-defying twists at the top of his head.

With the two sides of his hair faded and a look on his face that almost always conveyed either boredom or impassivity, unfortunately, he looked like that last person to be staying after school because of robotics club.

"That's probably why our parents are such good friends." River suggested, smiling sadly at him.

Desperate to clear the melancholic air, Isaiah tried to lighten the mood.

"You know," Isaiah started, opening the driver's door while the rest of them piled into the black BMW. "I gave you my keys. You could've easily sit inside and not bake yourselves on the hood of my car, like you insist on doing."

"I just like looking at the clouds." Shiro admitted, and resting on his elbows.

"And it's so nice sitting here. I get to appreciate the wonders God created." River added, brown eyes locked onto a girl with dark brown skin and long, thin box braids.

The girl absentmindedly dangled her football boots in one hand as she spoke to one of Isaiah's teammates. Her brown eyes crinkled in the corners as she laughed loudly at whatever Ryan was saying.

Isaiah could practically see River's eyes become heart-shaped as she murmured, "The beautiful, beautiful wonders..."

"You know Nora doesn't bite, right?" Isaiah asked River as he pulled out of the school car park.

The sun was getting ready to set, bathing the world in an orangey glow. The trees and buildings passed the four of them by, but their attentions were on each other, in the little bubble empathised by the confinement of the car. The way it tended to be like when four very close friends were around each other.