Millicent grinned at the people around her, four of her friends. Jack, a member of the school football team, was directly to her left, sitting on the couch and clearly eyeing her cleavage. Nick, a short nerd with his head buried in a book, was next to him on the couch. Across from him, in a plastic chair, Trixie, an intellectual girl the same age as her that she had met in the library, was calmly awaiting the reveal of the game.
The game in question was being set up by Kasey, a thin-waisted girl with long blonde hair. Millicent was supervising her, as she set up the five game pieces in the middle. Simple coloured pieces of plastic that were reminiscent of chess pieces. Millicent had claimed black, Kasey was yellow, Trixie had chosen blue, Jack was red and, to his chagrin, Nick had been left with yellow, a colour he disliked.
Interestingly, there was also a variety of plastic pieces to add to the board, which were seemingly held in place by magnetic clamps. The five pieces were on a red starting space in the centre of the board, which had colourful paths spiralling around the board at random, even taking advantage of some of the three-dimensional accessories to go over each other at times. It was a rather unusual set-up, especially given the size of the board, which almost covered the entire table. "I think I'm done!" Kasey smiled.
"About time," Nick rolled his eyes, evidently still irritated by the fact that he was stuck with yellow. Kasey retrieved the two dice from the bottom of the box - only to have them snatched off her by Millicent. "I bought it, I go first. We go clockwise from me," she decided. "But then I'm last," Kasey frowned. "That's a good thing. You'll be able to learn from everyone else's mistakes," the raven-haired girl smoothly smiled. "Oh, okay!"
"I found the instructional!" Trixie called. "Okay, you were right about the clockwise thing, Millicent. Apparently the goal is to move around the board, collecting points for actions. We pick up cards from the piles in the box based on the colour of the square we land on, which are apparently self-explanatory in what they make you have to do. The game ends when someone finds and deposes the Dark King Anglord, who apparently could be hiding anywhere on the board. Once that has happened, the winner is determined by total points scored? Not by who beats the King guy? Weird,"
"Who cares? Sounds fun," Jack smirked.
"Sounds good," Millicent nodded, rolling the dice.
Instantly the windows and doors to the entire room slammed shut,mans the lights went off for a second. Nick and Trixie looked around in shock, but Millicent was discerning the total her dice had rolled.
"Welcome to the Game of Change. The dice has been rolled, and -"
"Quiet! Can't you see I'm busy!" Millicent snapped. The voice was taken aback, never before had someone spoken so brashly to it.
In the back room of his shop, the old man blinked in surprise, before smiling. This Millicent girl was feisty, unusually so. He would have fun with her.
"Okay, my roll is six. Continue," Millicent commanded. "Fine. Be happy that I'm impressed by your attitude, and not insulted, young girl, or the consequences would be dire,"
"I know you don't like authority, Millicent, but I really don't think this is a good time to stick it to the man," Trixie suggested, shivering in her seat. Millicent sighed, but grudgingly nodded.
"As I was saying. This is the Game or Change. Every time you roll the dice, you will take a card, and you will either be transformed, or complete a small challenge. None of you are allowed to leave this room until the game is complete," the voice boomed.
"Wait, what?" Jack demanded in shock. "You heard me. Now, I believe you rolled,"