“Cherise, I …”

“Archie, do not even try to tell me that you needed 17 di … something!”

“Dilithium,” he couldn’t help but repeat, the Star Trek nerd in him forcing him to inform her what it was called. But she was right, he hadn’t really needed that much dilithium. But Snow and needed some of the resources he had, and, he couldn’t help but trade with her. Which was why he was losing miserably, and why either David or Snow was most likely going to win the game of Star Trek Catan. Yes, Archie was nerdy enough to own the Star Trek version to an already complicated game. Unfortunately, he was also compassionate enough to loose in it as well, even though he understood the rules and strategies better than anyone else playing.

“Archibald Hopper, if you die, I am going to kill you.” Archie decided that informing her you couldn’t technically die while playing Catan would be an argument that fell on deaf ears. Besides, that wasn’t really her point.

“How about we make a deal,” Archie suggested, making sure David and Snow were still busy whispering about their strategies. “I can lose, so long as I make sure you win.” Recovering right now would be next to impossible, but Cherise was in a pretty good position. What she had, combined with the resources he could trade her, would make it much easier for her to win. Especially if he stopped trading with Snow. “What do you say?”

“Those Charmings are about to figure out just why they had such good strategies when they were ruling in the Enchanted Forest,” she exclaimed, loudly enough for them to hear. She wanted them to hear, and it was only an added bonus that Archie was turning red. The thing was, it was part of the truth; he had helped come up with most of the battle plans and tactics.“Oh really?” David countered. “He can’t help you now; I know for a fact you don’t need dilithium. You’re both going to lose.”

“Really David?” Archie asked calmly, already putting the resource cards into stacks of four. “You do know you can trade with the bank, right? What resources do you need, honey?”

Snow grabbed the rules, which really they should have read before now, and Cherise grinned wickedly. “Say that again, David? We’re both going to lose, right?”