Wild Card (f)

[Blah!?]

Well this is certainly an odd turn of events.

My style as of late has been writing obnoxiously long stories that are overly complex and just go on forever. More recently, however, I felt inspired to try something short, sweet and to the point. And thus this little story was born. It's nowhere near as long as my other recent stories have been, but it was still a lot of fun, and I really hope you'll enjoy it!

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"What the heck are you doing, Layla?" Scarlette asked with a laugh as she watched her friend produce half a dozen decks of cards from her bag. Layla didn't respond, instead opting to remove each deck from its sleeve and set them all down on the table that separated her from Scarlette.

"You're not making another card house, are you?" Scarlette inquired, casually rubbing a finger under her freckled nose. Layla finally glanced up at her, raising an eyebrow.

"So what if I am?"

"Layla, we're on a train," Scarlette giggled.

"Scarlette," Layla began, putting two cards together to make a triangle with the center of the table, "there is a magazine article about me and my amazing houses of cards. I've mastered all I can when it comes to building them on solid ground. Making one on a train was the next logical step."

"Right, whatever you say, weirdo."

Layla gave Scarlette another displeased stare for a few seconds, but she quickly returned to her construction. Scarlette giggled a bit more, but eventually she began to watch intently. For the time being, Layla appeared to be building a simple, albeit large, house of cards, and Scarlette had to admit the process was at least a little interesting to observe. Then, after Layla had completed a few layers of the structure, Scarlette suddenly felt a tickle in her nose.

Scarlette sniffed, her oval-shaped nostrils narrowing to slits for half a second, but Layla didn't seem to notice. Reaching one outstretched finger up to her face, Scarlette began to rub her freckled nose back and forth slowly but firmly. Luckily, the tickle dulled to a hollow itch after a few seconds and Scarlette breathed a soft sigh of relief. This, however, did catch Layla's attention. She stared back at her friend and raised an eyebrow as if to say "do you mind?"

"Oh, don't worry about me," Scarlette laughed, waving a hand at Layla dismissively, "I'm just wahhhh... Hehhhh.... HEIISHHOOOOH!!!"

The tickle in Scarlette's nose returned in full force as she spoke, catching her off guard. She bent forward with a loud sneeze that was more than powerful enough to demolish Layla's house of cards. Layla stared irritably at her friend as the playing cards fluttered back down to the tabletop.

"Have you no shame?"

"Hey, don't look at me!" Scarlette protested, holding up her hands, "it's not my fault!"

"How is this not your fault?" Layla asked, gathering up the cards. Scarlette scrunched up her nose tightly, both out of annoyance and because she felt another itch. The two friends refrained from speaking to each other, Layla turning her attention back to her cards and Scarlette starting to rub her nose again.

"Look, that was just a practice run," Layla absolved, still not looking up from her cards, "just try not to do that again."

"Yeah, I know," Scarlette muttered, her voice sounding congested as her rubbing finger blocked her nostrils. "I have a bit of an itchy nose though."

Unable to sympathize with Scarlette's nose problems, Layla silently returned to her construction. This time, however, she skipped any pretenses of practice and began to build an extremely elaborate structure. Five lines of stacked cards formed a pentagon in the center of the table, and once again Scarlette found herself enamored with the beauty of it. She watched her friend's diligent work, but unfortunately she felt another tickle in her nose before long, this one coming on even faster than the first.

"Heh... Heh-Heh-HEH!"

Scarlette threw back her head, her shoulders tensing. She furiously rubbed a finger under her freckly nose, but no matter how much she pressed her nostrils from side to side, the tickling in her sinuses just wouldn't stop.

"Scarlette, no!" was all Layla had time to say before her house of cards was ruined once again.

"Heh-HEH! HEIIISHOOOH!!!"

The house's pentagonal foundation took to the air, cards flying to and fro. Layla let most of them fall on their own, but she scrambled to catch a few that were about to flutter out into the aisle in the center of the train car. Once Layla had her playing cards under control again, she glared up at her friend. Scarlette's watery eyes fluttered a few times, and then she scrunched up her face as tightly as she could. The smattering of freckles on her nose melded together into a big blob, but her pitiful face earned her no sympathy from Layla.

"Would you be careful?" Layla scolded as she organized her cards back into decks.

"Sorry," Scarlette whined, rubbing a finger under her nostrils. She sniffed a few times and frowned. The tickling in her nose refused to die down to anything less, but she knew better than to complain to Layla when she was in such a poor mood.

Instead of continuing to complain about Scarlette's sneezing, Layla simply shook her head and started to rebuild. Scarlette wrinkled and rubbed her nose, silently watching her friend's work. Her nose was still tickling like mad, but for some reason she didn't quite feel like she had to sneeze just yet. Turning to the window, Scarlette tried to look outside, but she simply found her reflection staring back at her. She'd been so wrapped up in Layla's card houses that she completely forgot they'd been in a tunnel for the past ten minutes.

"Whoa," Scarlette breathed as she glanced back at the table. Layla had already made an enormous amount of progress, rebuilding the pentagon base and adding several layers. Aside from the red and white patterns, it hardly looked like it was made from playing cards anymore.

After completing one more layer, Layla smiled at her work and reached into her bag. She drew out a camera and removed the lens cap, draping the strap around her neck just out of habit. Scarlette smiled at her friend, but she wrinkled her nose again as the tickling in her nostrils flared up a bit.

"Don't you want to finish it first?" Scarlette asked, tilting her head to the side. She rubbed her nose gently as Layla turned her camera on.

"I do, but I've kind of made a habit of documenting my progress," Layla explained, trying to line up a good shot. Scarlette nodded in understanding, but her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared as she took in a little gasp.

"Hhheh...!"

"Scarlette?" Layla grumbled without even looking up from her camera, "don't even think about it."

"I'm trehhh... Trying... Heh-Heh!"

"Don't you know how to stifle, or something?"

"Nuh... No... Layla, I'm... I'm going to..."

"Just let me get a picture first!"

"I c-can't... S-stahhh... Heh-Heh-HEH!"

"No, Scarlette! Don't!"

"HHEEEHHH...!"

"Don't sneeze! Just a few more seconds!"

"HEEIIISHHOOOOOH!!!"

Layla snapped a picture just a split second after Scarlette let loose. Unfortunately, she didn't manage to photograph her partially-completed house of cards. She did, however, get a perfect image of Scarlette's destructive sneeze.

The freckle-faced young woman vigorously rubbed her nose, trying in vain to rid herself of the tickling. Eventually, she managed to get the irritation down to a bearable level and she looked back up at her friend. Layla had put her camera away and she was lying back in her seat, her eyes gently closed. Scarlette felt a bit guilty, but she knew it would be better to leave Layla alone for now. Rubbing her nose one more time, she decided a nap of her own wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Scarlette managed to sleep surprisingly soundly. The sunlight flooding into the train as it emerged from the tunnel failed to wake her, and she remained peacefully asleep until the station was only a few minutes away. Groggily opening her eyes, Scarlette was greeted by a magnificent house of cards on the table between her and her friend. Glancing up and down, she realized she couldn't even see Layla through it anymore, aside from her hands holding the last two cards at the very top.

"Hey! You did it!" Scarlette exclaimed, clapping lightly. Layla giggled triumphantly, and then she carefully lowered her hands to place the final cards. Then, as fate would have it, the train gave a light jolt as it came to a stop in the station. The house of cards collapsed, destroying the wall between the two friends. Scarlette cringed, wrinkling her freckly nose, but she was surprised to see Layla's expression was completely blank. After holding the last two cards for a few seconds, Layla simply dropped them on the table and began to gather everything up in defeated silence.

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And that's all for now. I most likely won't be continuing this story, but I do have a few more ideas lined up for the future that you may see sometime soon-ish. I also totally haven't given up on The Adventure Club yet, but I just need to find my way back onto that motivation train when the time is right.

Thanks for reading!

[SneezeLover5]

Ooh, I really like this!

[MoonDuck]

This is a really cool idea for a story

[Stimuli]

Such a cute story! I really liked how you implemented the 'destructive' yet inevitable sneezes

[Chiguy]

All your stories are great Blah ... long or short!

[GroundIntoDust]

Very unique plot, and very well written. I really enjoyed this!

[zneeze]

I love how you wrote your characters' dialogue in this one, Blah! And "The house's pentagonal foundation took to the air, cards flying to and fro" is a wonderfully creative sentence. And there was sneezing and freckled noses and I'm always all for that!

[a red nine]

It's definitely unusual for you to go the drabble route, but I'm impressed with the final product! This is really light, cute and condensed. It sets up a problem and, for added fun, doesn't solve it, or at least not in the way Layla wanted it to be. Also I found it amusing that Layla is an extremely minor celebrity for a pretty much useless skill, it's a nice character trait. Maybe we'll see more drabbly things from you in the future? At the very least they could count as exercises, they still make for enjoyable reads for the rest of us.

[count tiszula]

Excellent as ever. Freckles somehow enhance the simplest sneeze, don't they. And all that nose-rubbing and nostrilwork! Heavenly!

[Animeeze]

"I do, but I've kind of made a habit of documenting my progress," Layla explained, trying to line up a good shot. Scarlette nodded in understanding, but her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared as she took in a little gasp.

"Hhheh...!"

"Scarlette?" Layla grumbled without even looking up from her camera, "don't even think about it."

"I'm trehhh... Trying... Heh-Heh!"

"Don't you know how to stifle, or something?"

"Nuh... No... Layla, I'm... I'm going to..."

"Just let me get a picture first!"

"I c-can't... S-stahhh... Heh-Heh-HEH!"

"No, Scarlette! Don't!"

"HHEEEHHH...!"

"Don't sneeze! Just a few more seconds!"

"HEEIIISHHOOOOOH!!!"

Awesome story blah! I liked this bit of dialogue, the talking through the buildup was so awesome and your descriptions are so good as always. Great job dude!

[SmokeyGhost]

Very well written!