"Beach bod, huh," you mutter to yourself, "Wonder if this will be any good?"
Before you can open the box, however, you hear a familiar ringtone go off. Instinctively you reach for your pocket, but then remember that your mom has confiscated your phone, and instead, the sound is coming from upstairs.
"Brian, dear!" your mom calls down, "It's David! You can talk to him briefly, but I want the phone back as soon as you're done!"
"Coming!" You sprint up the stairs and grab the smartphone from your mother's manicured fingers. "Hey, Dave. How you doing?"
"Eh, could be better," comes the sound from your friend on the phone, "I know this is kinda presumptuous, but I was really hoping I could chill at your place today? My sister has her friends over, and they're driving me insane."
"Yeah sure, man. But..." you sneak a quick glance at your mother who is waiting, arms crossed, at the top of the stairs for you to finish, "I don't think we'll be able to do any videogames or anything like that. Mom's rules."
"S'alright, dude," David says, "I'm game for whatever. Just gotta get out of the house."
"Alright, sweet. See you soon, Dave!"
"Yep, see you in five, Bri Guy!"
Five minutes later, there is a knock on your door. Springing up, you open the door to your gangly friend smiling goofily at you. For everything he lacked in width, your friend more than made up for in height. At age 14, he was already 6 feet tall, more than a little higher than your 5'6" stature. As he steps into the entryway, David embraces you in a contricting hug. Being a beanpole, Dave's hugs were more of a nusance than anything else, and you retaliate with a hug that makes his back pop. Those basketball muscles were coming in handy.
"How you been bud?" Dave grins. Dave's half-smile along with his piercing blue eyes were always enough to drive the girls in your grade wild, but he was always way too insecure to realize. Something was off about his charm though today.
"Pretty well. You got a haircut," you say, pointing at Dave's head.
"Yea," he responds, running his hand through his dirty-blonde, now buzz-cutted hair, "My mom said it was getting too long."
"Yea, I feel you," you respond, briefly flicking a bit of your dark brown hair out of your equally brown eyes, "Anyways, did you have anything you wanted to do today? I found something that might interest you."
"Didn't have anything in mind. Whatcha got?" Dave responds, following you into the livingroom.
You had already taken the game out of its box while waiting for David to arrive, and the game board sat on the glass coffee table.
"Woah, what kind of game is that?" Dave says with a hint of awe in his voice, "It looks vintage."
"No clue. You arrived right when I was about to read the rules."
"'Beach Bod', huh? Sounds interesting. Alright, read the rules aloud."
You grab the top of the box which contains 6 game pieces, a card dispenser, and a 6-sided die. Below the pieces which you scoop to the side, is a small rulebook. You clear your throat.
"Welcome to Beach Bod! The game that giveth, and the game that taketh away! Do you have what it takes to get your ideal beach bod?" You pause, and make eye contact with David quizzically before continuing. "The goal of the game is simple! Take turns rolling the die to move. First person to reach the end wins! The winner may choose to either keep their traits at the expense of everyone else, or may choose to give up their traits to the other players!"
You pause again. "The fuck does it mean by trait?"
"Dunno, man," David responds, "Keep reading."
You oblige and look back at the rules. "The board consists of several different colored spaces you can land on. Each space has a different effect!" You and Dave turn to look at the board, which looks remarkably like the CandyLand board but set on a beach background. You turn back to the rules.
RED spaces - You must choose another player to trade a trait with
ORANGE spaces - Choose another player; gain a copy of one of their traits
YELLOW spaces - Choose another player; they will gain a copy of one of your traits
GREEN spaces - Increase the size of one of your traits
BLUE spaces - Decrease the size of one of your traits
PURPLE spaces - Changes one of your traits at random
PINK spaces - Balances out your traits
BROWN spaces - Chaos space (You and David note that there are only four of these spaces)
WHITE spaces - Free space; nothing changes
"I'm still not sure I understand what a trait is in reference to this game," David says slowly, "Is it like a roleplay thing?"
"I'm not entirely sure," you respond, "But I don't think we have to worry because it says the traits that change will come from the card dispenser." You say this and tap the machine next to you. It's oddly advanced looking to belong to this game now that you look at it. It has what looks like an LED display on top and is painted a sleek red everywhere else. Honestly, it looks like a prop from Star Trek.
"Oh..kaaaay," David says, still confused, "Well regardless, I'm game if you're game."
"I'm definitely game, but there's one problem," you say, "The game says we need between 3 and 6 players; we're a player short."
As Dave opens his mouth, a solution to your problem presents itself. The kitchen door opens, and in comes...
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