I put the sugar cookies in the oven as the wind howled.

I looked over at Blaine, who stared out the window. He couldn't have been able to see much since there was a shit ton of snow being blown around by the wind.

"You know, I was just about to say how much I missed this place, but blizzards are kinda bullshit," he said.

I nodded. "That's a fair point."

"But," he continued, "as long as you're here, I don't really care. You're the only storm I'll ever be slightly afraid of."

"Thanks."

He smiled.

"What about me?" Arti asked.

"You're about half my height. You don't scare me." Blaine laughed. "You're too cute to be scary."

"That's kind of offensive."

Blaine rolled his eyes. "First, I said Pikachu was a boy, and now I said that you're adorable. I'll try to cool it with my comments."

I smiled.

Arti smiled too. "You better. I don't have any problem with physical violence. Amanda's thrown one punch in her entire life."

"Three," I corrected.

"Three?" Blaine asked.

I nodded. "There was Jimmy in preschool, wait, no, I stabbed him with a colored pencil. So I've punched two people."

"Lukas and who?"

"Matt. I was ten, he was eleven. He made fun of me for getting a D in Spanish. I was already pissed enough at myself, and I didn't need his commentary that was funny, accurate, but kinda mean."

"Isn't fourth grade Spanish just colors and numbers and shit?" Blaine asked.

I looked over at Leah and Melissa. "Is it?"

"Uh, sometimes we learn other words, like clothes and stuff," Leah said.

Melissa nodded in assent.

"See? It's more difficult than the stuff you learn from Dora the Explorer. I had a valid reason to not do well," I said.

Blaine smiled. "Of course."

The way he smiled made me want to either stab my eyes out or cuddle up right next to him. Plus, it didn't help that it must have been a gazillion degrees below freezing and I was cold.

So I stabbed my eyes out, or at least I would have if I wasn't a weak ass bitch.

He stood in the middle of the room, and I picked his arm up, placed it around my waist, then gave it a little pat to make sure he knew to not move it unless there was a fire.

"Oh my god, you are just as awkward as you've always been when it comes to this kind of stuff," Blaine said with a laugh.

"I'm not awkward. You're awkward," I said.

What a comeback, Amanda, I thought.

Why, thank you. You should really see me when I get going, I thought back.

Jesus, we're fucking crazy, I thought.

I nodded.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way, I just meant that you're just so violently you, and honestly, it's the weirdest thing. But I like weird," Blaine said.

"I'm about eight-five percent sure that was a compliment, so thank you," I said.

The room got dark, and when I looked over at the oven, the timer had disappeared.

"Hey, look. The power's out," Leah said.

No shit.

"Wait, the cookies!" Leah cried.

No shit, part two.

"Don't open the door. Keep the heat trapped in there," I said. "Maybe they'll finish baking. I doubt it, but maybe."

"Great, now what are we supposed to do without electricity?" Leah mumbled.

"Back when we were your age, electricity wasn't invented yet," Arti said.

"Yes, it was," Melissa said.

Blaine laughed.

"I have an idea. Why don't we play a game?" I asked.

"You're not gonna pull a Matt on us, are you? His favorite game is called 'everyone shuts up and cleans their room,'" Leah said.

Parenting by Matthew Jayne had four and a half stars on Amazon. I was the top reviewer. "Excellent piece on keeping children from turning into entitled pieces of trash. Five stars!"

I laughed. "Nope. I don't need to play dirty like him. Let's play Monopoly."

"That sounds like fun. I'll go get Matt, Natalie, and Viktor," Leah said.

She grabbed Melissa by the hand, then skipped up the stairs to go find our victims.

"Why am I not surprised that you like Monopoly?" Blaine asked.

"Oh, just wait until Matt goes over the 'modified rules.' It's truly a testament to my ability to kick the shit out of anyone who crosses me," I said.

"This is going to be interesting," Arti said.

Melissa and Leah gathered the other three, and I set up the board as Arti lit some candles, so we could actually see what we were doing.

Blaine wasn't allowed to play with fire, and that was both his mother's rule and mine.

Matt dealt out the money (thanks to Modified Rule Number One), then looked at the rest of us. "Okay, so let's go over a few extra rules, which are all based off of previous ways Amanda has tried to cheat."

"More rules? I barely understand what you can and can't do in this game anyway," Viktor said.

"You barely understand breathing, so that doesn't mean much," Blaine muttered.

I nudged his shoulder. "Hey, be nice."

"I'm always nice," Blaine said.

Matt lowered his glare on Blaine. "Anyway, if we're all done being mean, and by 'we,' I mean Blaine and not Amanda for once, modified rule number one is that Amanda's embezzling ass isn't allowed to touch any money that isn't hers."

"Stealing from the bank. Nice," Arti said.

"Modified rule number two is that you can't do reverse mortgages, because I don't even think that's a real thing. I'm pretty sure it's a scam they try to pull on old people," Matt continued.

"Candy Cane's an old person," Viktor said.

"Oh my god, I'm not an old person," I said.

Viktor smiled. "You talk like a grumpy old man most of the time."

Matt nodded. "That's a thousand percent true. Modified rule number three, no charging extra rent for your made-up 'luxury Vegas hotels.' That's bullshit."

"Look, my Bellagio Hotel should absolutely bring in more money than your garbage Cozy Cone Motel," I said.

"And my personal favorite, modified rule number four is no prostitution," Matt said.

"What's prostitution?" Leah asked.

"Just for clarity's sake, I've never actually resorted to prostitution. The other three are completely legit, though," I said.

"Oh my god. I was kinda freaking out there for a second," Blaine said.

"I'm sure that you would do it, though, Blaine," Arti said.

Blaine laughed. "Me? As good-looking as I am, I'm a good Christian boy. Sex outside of marriage is a sin. I would never engage in something like that."

"You know what else is a sin? Lying," I said.

Leah covered her mouth, and Arti laughed.

Matt let out a loud sigh. "Moving on from your childish conversation, since apparently, I'm the only one with any sense of maturity—"

"You were the one that called me out on fake prostitution," I interrupted.

"Do you ever shut up? Ever?" Matt asked.

"Nope."

"I can't wait for you to go back to college. This house is so much quieter without you."

"Aw, thanks, but I doubt that. I keep everyone in their rightful places," I said.

We started the game (much to Leah's dismay, she was forced to work with Natalie on a team), and sweet, poor Viktor ended up with a property that I desperately needed.

I always collected all the orange properties, built hotels, and singlehandedly caused the downfall of everyone else in the game, but a small dent was put in my plan with Viktor snatching St. James Place.

Taking it from him would be like taking candy from a baby that didn't even cry or bite you in revenge.

While I had a conscience, I was smart enough to know that in the business world, I had to turn it off for just a moment.

When my turn rolled around, I decided to make a fool out of him. "Hey, Viktor. I noticed that you have St. James Place. I'll give you a free get out of jail free card for it."

"Then it's not free," Viktor said.

He saw right through my strategy. Dammit.

"Okay, then how about I don't give it to you for free, since you're giving me St. James Place. Sound good?" I held out my hand with the card.

"Oh my god, don't do that, you idiot," Matt said to Viktor. "Don't even think about trading with Amanda. She'll make you look stupid in ways you didn't think possible."

"Hey peanut gallery, shut the hell up," I said. "I'm in the middle of a deal."

Matt smiled. "You've killed Viktor enough. He doesn't need to you to kill him at Monopoly too."

"I've killed exactly zero people. I don't know why everyone thinks of me as a murderer."

"Maybe it's your resting bitch face," Arti said. "Or your homicidal commentary when you're pissed off."

"Definitely the resting bitch face," Blaine said.

I frowned. "You all kind of suck. Now, Viktor, since you're not being mean to me right now, I'll give you a damn good deal. St. James Place and a hundred dollars for Park Place."

"Park Place? Is that the dark blue one you have?" Viktor asked.

I nodded. "You bet it is."

"Deal," Viktor said, then held out the money and property to me.

"Oh my god, you're so stupid," Matt said. "Now she's got a monopoly."

"But I have a dark blue one, so who cares?" Viktor said.

Matt shook his head. "I swear, the triplets have better strategy than you. Thank god you can play hockey."

"Speaking of hockey," Viktor said as I moved my piece (the money bag, of course) ten spaces. Park Place. Dammit.

I decided to let him keep talking so I wouldn't have to pay him rent. "I have a home game on Thursday, and I want all of you to be there. I'm gonna be centering the second line," he said.

He was pretty dedicated (I would know, since he had to ignore me for hockey, plus almost every day, he went back to Winterview for practice), and the jump from the third line to the second line would give him more ice time, and hopefully, more points.

NHL teams liked it when a player had a lot of points.

This was good. Really, really fucking good.

"Sorry, I have to water my pet cactus," Blaine said.

"And my grandmother just died, so I'll be at her funeral," Arti said.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Viktor said.

I shook my head. "Wow, guys. Wow."

"What? I haven't watered my cactus since I left. I'll be lucky if it's even alive," Blaine said.

"It's a cactus," I said.

"This is going to sound stupid, but what's a cactus?" Viktor asked.

I thought for a moment. They probably wouldn't have many of them in Sweden.

"That's not a stupid question. It's a desert plant with needles that hurt like hell when you get poked by them. It also doesn't need a lot of water. Like, at all," I said.

"Of course," Viktor said, looking at Blaine.

Blaine smiled at him.

"And this is also the eighth time Arti's grandma has died," Matt added.

"That's a lot of unnecessary times," Viktor said, then turned to look at Arti.

"Ah, fuck you, Matt," Arti muttered, then spoke louder. "Whoops."

"I'll go," Natalie said. "Don't worry, even though Amanda's friends don't like you anymore, I still do."

"Thank you, Natalie." Viktor looked over at me.

"Me too. I'll go," I said.

Viktor smiled. "Thank you, Candy Cane."

Blaine let out a sigh. "Really?"

"Really. Get up. I need to talk to you," I said as I stood up.

"Say please," Blaine said.

"Please get your ass up, because we need to have a chat."

"Oh shit, you're in trouble," Arti said.

Blaine shrugged. "I usually am, so what else is new?"

I grabbed his wrist and took him into the kitchen.

"Dude," I said. "What the fuck is your issue?"

"Do you want the long story or the summary?" Blaine asked.

"Either one is fine, as long as you get to the point. You and Viktor were supposedly friends, and now you can't go two seconds without being mean."

"You should be proud. I'm taking a page out of your play book."

"Get to the fucking point."

Blaine took a deep breath. "There's not much to say. He wanted to put you in a shitty position, and I didn't want that. Sue me."

"And what was that?"

Sometimes getting Blaine to talk was as easy as taking St. James Place from Viktor. Other times, not so much. And we were certainly in the not-so-much range.

"So you know how for spring break I want us all to go to Wisconsin? He asked if he could bring Caroline, and to make a long story short, I decided that was a bad idea for your mental health, based on the fact that I got at least one text rant per week about this girl," he said.

"Oh. That's a stupid reason to be pissed at him, though," I said.

"It wouldn't have been a big deal if he would have just let it go, but he didn't, and—"

"You're talking fast again. Chill out," I said.

"Sorry, but I just get worked up when he tries to decide what's best for you. You spent the last few months of your life fucking miserable, and I don't like it. If that makes me a shitty person, I don't really care."

"I don't think it makes you a shitty person, but just play nice. Okay? If I could do it, then you can. Weren't you the one who convinced me Viktor wasn't the spawn of Satan?"

"I was, like, one third of that. Your mom was the other two thirds."

"Exactly. I need my one third to get his shit together, because I don't have my other two thirds anymore," I said.

"Fine. You're probably right," he said.

"I'm always right. There's nothing probable about it."

He smiled, then kissed me above my eyebrow.

"I'm not going to that fucking hockey game," he said.

"You don't have to."

Blaine, as much as I loved him, sometimes couldn't figure out that I analyzed every piece of information I was ever given.

Caroline, Caroline, Caroline. What the fuck was Viktor's deal with this girl?

Unless he suddenly dropped all feelings for me (which I didn't think he did, but what the fuck did I know?), he must have wanted something else from her.

He could play the exchange game better than anyone else I knew, and I was going to find out if it killed me.

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Hey everyone! Thank you for reading!

Is Amanda's ego getting in the way of her seeing that maybe Viktor has moved on, or is she on to something?