Episode 23: The Queen

PREVIOUSLY: "THE GOOD GIRL"

Shinelle and Ricky go to the park. While they sit on a bench, Shinelle admits the entire story of the 'older boys' to Ricky. Ricky looks at her, perplexed. She turns away and feigns a smile. She says that she is done with older boys and that she is going to concentrate on her studies.

Ricky ruffles her hair and tells her that she should choose her friends more wisely. He relates an incident back in school where he fell into a group of friends that turned out to be bad company. Just after he dropped out of their clique, they shoplifted goods from a tech store and got caught.

Shinelle asks Ricky about his crush. He tells her that he has been trying to learn how to play chess, but to no avail. Shinelle says that she learnt in school. They go to one of the outdoor chess boards and she sets up the pieces.

She explains the rules of the game to him and Ricky is more than willing to learn. She explains that the main objective of the game is to capture the opponent's King. And that the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. "The King should have the Queen near him at all times," she says.

Devika shows up and overhears Shinelle talking about the chess rules. She is impressed that a little girl knows so much. She walks up to them and challenges Shinelle to a game. Ricky is speechless. He gets up and lets Devika have a seat.

The match starts. Ricky looks on.

Devika wins, but it's a close call. When they're done, Devika asks Ricky how come he wanted to learn chess. Shinelle jumps in and begins going on and on about Ricky's crush. She even describes her in physical detail, word for word from Ricky's mouth...

...not knowing who the crush actually is... until Ricky tells her...

Ricky goes to talk to Devika and apologizes for his sister's verbal diarrhoea. But Devika is not dense. She knows what is going on. She says nothing, but she knows... and can't help but feel strangely flattered. They linger silently next to each other now, nervous. They each want to ask for the other's phone number, but they don't. As they both go their separate ways, they feel a great pang of regret.

NEXT TIME: GIRLY LITTLE FOOL