I'm Seeing Double

“It’s cold out, so put this on,” the short brunette tells her new friend when he comes out of his new room.
“I have my own jacket,” he tries to say, but she interrupts him.
“This is warmer, and it should fit you. It’s my mom’s and baggy on her. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who the band is because they’re cool. Anyway, just put this on before we go outside.”
“Alright.” He takes it and then follows her as she heads downstairs and into the living room.
James doesn’t really know what to talk about, and Rory isn’t saying nothing as she sits down on the loveseat. The only thing that he can think to do is sit down next to her and glance over at her as she pulls her phone out. Rory looks at something at the screen for a second before starting to type. It’s probably a message to someone, but James doesn’t know any of Rory’s other friends. He knows that she has two other ones for sure, but Rory didn’t really talk about them. She didn’t even say what their names are. That is something that he could bring up, but instead he just watches her from the corner of his eye as her face turns into a smile and she chuckles. Rory looks over at him and notices that he’s looking at her which causes James to look forward and for his cheeks to warm up. A giggle escapes her mouth from witnessing the site.
“I’m talking to my friend, Lea, by the way.”
“Huh?” He turns back to her. “Oh, alright.”
“You don’t have to get all embarrassed just because you were looking at me.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine. I think it’s cute.” This causes the younger to blush more which she notices but doesn’t mention. “Anyway, I was talking to my friend, Lea. She’s going to a concert tonight, and I’m jelly. Concerts are fucking epic. Maybe the next time a good band comes around, you can come with me.”
“That sounds fine.”
“Coolio.” Rory glances back at her phone. “Mom is almost done with the walk, so she should be here soon. We’ll just have to wait for her to get ready. It probably won’t take too long. I wonder what we should do while we wait... Hmm.”
“You mentioned a card game before?”
“Magic: The Gathering. I love it. Like, when I get to play it with my friends, it’s literally the highlight of the week.” She laughs. “I feel so lame, but I love it so much. Do you want to learn to play?”
“Sure, it sounds like fun.”
“Epic. I’m going to turn you into a master. Well, I’ll make you as good as me at least. I swear if you, like, beat Oscar right off the bat I will laugh so much.”
“Oscar?”
“He’s one of my friends. The other two that play Magic are Viola and Brend. If you end up liking the game, you should definitely come and hang out with us on Thursday. That’s when we always play.”
“Alright.”
“Awesome. Anyway, go ahead and sit down in front of the coffee table. I’m going to go up and grab my decks. I’ll be right back.”
Rory rushes up the stairs as fast as she comes. James could tell that she liked the game, but it appears that she likes it even more than what he originally thought. He’s hoping that he’ll end up liking it. It would give them more to talk about. Plus, it might help him befriend her friends and have another reason to hang out with her more. The thought makes his cheeks warm up. Although he doesn’t know why he keeps getting this feeling, he figures that it isn’t going to go away that quickly. He sighs and mentally prays that this card game will be something that he likes and also that he can get ahold of himself, so he isn’t blushing all the time around her. With a bag on her shoulder and another in hand, Rory comes back down the stairs and over to him.
“I brought my better decks down. We won’t be playing ‘til we get back, but I just brought them down for explaining and stuff. Meow.” She sits down across from him and takes out one of the boxes which has the art of one of the cards on it. When she takes some of the cards out, James sees that the sleeves are matching. This might be one of her favorite decks. “This is my favorite deck.” Or favorite. “It’s a green/white populate deck. You don’t know what that means yet, but I’ll explain. Alright. You are a planeswalker, the most powerful kind of person in the Multiverse. You’re, like, a powerful mage that can move through the planes. Basically, you’re a badass, but you’re not the only badass. There are other planeswalkers, and when you run into them, you guys battle a battle of epic proportions by casting spells that you have learned in your travels.”
“Is this really what the game is about?”
“I made it sound cooler, but yes, it is, young grasshopper. Now, there are five different colors of magic. Black. White. Green. Red. Blue. That’s what I was talking about when I said that this was a green/white deck. When you go to cast your spells, you have to draw magic of these colors from lands, and there are five basic ones. Swamps are for black. Plains are for white. Forests for green. Mountains for red. Islands for blue. Now that you know that, I’m going to show you how that is represented in the game.” Rory pulls out two cards. “This is a plains, and this is a forest. As you can see from the print right here, these are basic land cards. Of course, the title of them are a give away anyway. Every turn you can play one of these cards, and you really should try to every turn. They are how everything happens. In Magic, you draw the mana from these places in order to cast your spells. When you do this, you tap them. Tapping cards means that you turn them sideways like this. That means that you used them. How do you know how much you need to tap? That’s the next thing I’m going to show you.” Another card comes out of the box. “This is a creature card. Champion of Lambholt is her name, and being a badass is her game. I love her. Look at the top right of the card. See the number and two green symbols? That’s the mana cost. It means that this requires two green mana and one of any color, so you would need to tap two forests and any color. It could even be another forest. Note: Not all lands are basic. I’m just talking about basic for now, so your head doesn’t explode. Is any of this making sense so far?”
“I think I’m getting it.”
“Alright.”
“What are you two doing?” They both turn to find Marie standing there with Chubbs next to her. “You’re teaching him Magic?”
“Of course I am. This game is beauty.”
“Well, I’m going to get ready. I shouldn’t be too long, so just teach him the basics.”
“I know.” Marie goes up the stairs.
“Does your mom know how to play?”
“She knows the basics because I wanted someone to play when I wasn’t with my dad. At the time, I didn’t have my Nerd Friends.”
“What about your sister?”
“She doesn’t like card games.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, I’m going to go ahead and teach you about power and toughness. Power is basically like the creatures attack in other card games, and toughness can be seen as it’s health if that helps. A creature does this much damage, and it can only take this much damage. Champion is a 1/1, so she does one damage and can only take one.”
“She doesn’t sound that good.”
“Yeah, but her abilities are good. She gets a +1/+1 counter for whenever another creature enters the battlefield on your side, and creatures you control can’t be blocked by creatures that have power less than her, so if you get her really high, your creatures basically can’t be blocked. I’ll explain that when we get to the combat and actually playing the game, so you don’t have to know any of that right now. Just know that this teach is about building an army of tokens, and she can get really high in not that much time.”
“Do I need to know what a ‘token’ is right now?”
“Tokens are basically creatures that aren’t actually cards. Like, Gather the Townsfolk let’s you get two human tokens. You basically get two 1/1 human creatures. The thing different about them is that if they get put into your hand, they don’t exist anymore. Same goes for being put into the library, which is your deck, the graveyard, or exiled. I mentioned that this deck is a populate deck. Populate means that you make a copy of a token, so I end up making an army of tokens over the turns. I like having my own little army. Of course you don’t have to know any of that right now. I keep getting ahead of myself.”
“It’s alright. I’ll probably get it more when we sit down and actually play a game.”
“Probably. Now there are other kinds of spells besides creatures. There are instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts... Yeah.”
As they wait for Marie to finish getting ready, Rory goes ahead and explains how each of them works. It’s a lot to take in, and James isn’t sure if he’s going to be able to get the hang of it. Luckily, the elder reassures him that she would lead him through it until he doesn’t need her help anymore. He’s hoping that he’ll be able to get it before Thursday, so he doesn’t embarrass himself in front of her friends. Then a question enters his head.
“What kind of deck are you going to have me use? I assume that you’re not going to have me use this since it’s your favorite.”
“Um, well, I haven’t thought about that yet. I’d say Abzan, but that is a three color deck. Three colors is a bit to take on for your first deck. It is a good deck though... Maybe. If I can’t think of anything, I could teach you how to use this deck.”
“But it’s your favorite.”
“Yeah, and I never let anyone besides me play it, but you’re pretty cool, and I don’t know why, but I’d let ya use this deck. Of course I could always buy you a deck when we go out. A trial deck would be nice to start out with. Then if I have any cards that could help it, I could give them to you.”
“You don’t have to do that. I don’t even know if I’m going to like the game.”
“And if you don’t, I can just keep them. It’s not that much for a Intro Deck. Oh, and I could also get you a Deckbuilder’s Toolkit.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. Mom, are you ready yet?!”
Marie reaches the last step. “Yes.”
“Alright! Let’s go shopping! Meow! Bananas!”
James can’t help but smile at her excitement.

Notes

Sorry for basically falling off the face of the internet for so long. I took a break to get ready for college, and it never ended.
Anyway, this is important.
I rewrote the old chapters. Like, I took some characters out and changed parts, so you'll have to go back and read it. Sorry 'bout that, but I kind of had to.
I hope ya liked how I changed things and this chapter. I know I did because I can just picture James learning how to play Magic in my head. Adorable.