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card.
    “You know Asher, I think you’re really going to like The Doctor.” I pick up the next card on the pile, and it’s a 5. I decide to take a risk and trade it for my upper left hand card. Crap! It was a 3! I really hope I didn’t just screw myself over.
    “I don’t think we’re going to find out. I can’t wait to eat some of your awesome cooking on Monday night!” Of course, Asher grabs my 3 right up, trading it for his top right, which is revealed to be a 9. This does not bode well for me. I take the next card on the draw pile. It’s a 10, and I immediately discard it, blowing out a heavy sigh.
    Asher leans forward across the table. “Getting a little worried there, Rebecca?” That smile is back on his face, the one he had after checking his bottom two cards.
    “Of course not,” I snap back at him. I probably shouldn’t be getting so worked up over this, especially considering what we’re playing for isn’t really a big deal. But I am.
    Asher draws his next card, and trades it for his top left card. When he flips it onto the discard pile, his smile gets a little smaller. It’s a three! So my mistake earlier can be fixed, right now. I pick that lovely little 3 up, and trade it for the 5 that’s on my bottom left. I decide to take a risk, and knock on the table, hoping my upper right card isn’t too big.
    Asher’s eyes go wide. “Did you actually just knock? Like this is my last chance to draw?”
    “That’s right, my friend. Pony up.” The words come out much stronger than I’m feeling.
    “Okie dokie.” He picks up his last card from the draw pile, and frowns, tossing it onto the discard pile. It was a queen. Please, Lord, let me not have made a mistake knocking so early! “Alright, Becca. I say we reveal one card at a time. I’ll go first.” He flips over his bottom left card, which is a 5. Then I reveal my 3. Next is his bottom right, which is a king. Well, that’s why he was smiling so big when we started. I reveal my 2. When he flips over his upper left, which is a 4, I start to panic. I know I have a 5 in my upper left, but no clue what is in my upper right. I show my 5, and anxiously await him flipping over his last card.
    It’s a 4, and I’m about ready to cry. There is no way my last card is small enough to beat him. He only has thirteen points, and he was already ahead by one. “I’m trying to decide for sure what I’d like to eat on Monday.”
    “Ha, ha,” I say, not-so-enthusiastically. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and slowly flip over my last card. “Is it awful?”
    Asher doesn’t answer. I peek open my left eye, looking straight at him, not my cards. He looks dumbfounded. “What? What is it?”
    Without lifting his eyes from my cards, he says, “Maybe you should look for yourself.”
    I open both my eyes, then slowly move them from Asher’s face to my cards. It’s an ace. That’s…three plus two is five, plus five is ten…eleven. Eleven! “Did I seriously just win by one point?”
    “Yes, unfortunately.” Asher sighs. “Looks like we’ll be watching Doctor Who this evening.”
    “ After we sing during our campfire,” I remind him.
    He smiles. “Yes. After we sing.”
    “It will be a performance worthy of the religious festival in The Rings of Akhaten.”
    “Huh?”
    I grin. “You’ll understand when you get to season seven.”

Chapter Five
     
     
    Becca
     
    I love campfires. The smell of burning wood, the warmth it gives off, the crackling noises it makes. Mmm, and s'mores. Delicious.
    I especially love them with Asher’s family and mine together. Between my mom, Robert, Asher and I, there are three guitars and a banjo around our fire. You’ll never believe this, but the banjo is what I’m playing this evening. Call me corny, weird, strange, whatever. I don’t care. My grandpa taught me how to play it before he died. I had let it sit by the wayside for a while, during the six months or so that I dated Trip. He didn’t like it, and