UNO

UNO is a short, student-made novel. The author of this novel is Marcus Tovar, a 7th grade student. 

Prologue

In a futuristic universe, there was a kid named Mitch Raymond who loved playing games that were with cards. He would play Poker, Solitaire, Crazy Eights, and Rummy. But the game that he loved to play every day was UNO. He loved that the game was so unique, unlike all the other games where it involved gambling and money. This game was colorful, you had to take risks, get to the last card, and shout UNO! “I love this game; I wish I could play it every day.” He spoke. Then his father came into the room. “Hey, stop playing that dumb game and get back to building the cyber cars for the rich people.” Mitch replied, “Yes Father,” and he went back to work. That is the thing about the future, even though it has better gadgets and new cars, it gets harder. Everything gets more expensive because of inflation. Now it costs 50 dollars to shop, people have started to get lazy because of machines, and some citizens lose their jobs and homes and must build expensive cars for people. But for Mitch, luck was on his side as he would go on to be one of the best UNO players in history. That is why I am going to tell you the whole story of how he came to be. In the mansion of master UNO player Sir Parker Steinfeld, “I need an opponent, an opponent that I can compete with, an opponent that could beat me and then become the best UNO player the world has ever seen. Servant!”  “Yes sir?” “Host a tournament that will prove that somebody will beat me and throw in, let's say a million dollars while you're at it. Do it now!” “Yes sir!”  

Chapter 1

Mitch is now in college and is at the top of his classes and still plays for UNO. When he was a kid, he heard about the UNO challenge that Sir Steinfeld hosted but his dad did not let him go because he thought he was bad at it since he was a little kid. That is why he is going to go after school so that he can prove that he is worthy of beating him. He just needs to figure out how to sneak past the guards first. In class, Mitch is watching a UNO match on his computer. “Mr. Raymond, MR. RAYMOND!!!” “Yes, Ms. Nottingham.” “What is the answer to problem 695” “Is it 967 to the eleventh power?”  “Yes, my apologies but I thought that you would have gotten it wrong Mr. Raymond.” “It's alright I get that a lot for some reason.” At night, “Ok, I gotta find out how to get past them, or else I could end up in detention.” The exit was at the end of the hallway on the other side of the school. He puts on his stealth clothes and goes past the chemistry lab, writing class, the auditorium, and the library. “Ok, they always take a one-minute break at midnight to use the bathroom. Beep Beep, the alarm rings for their break. “Nice, right on schedule.” “Alright time to take a leak” “Me too” After that, Mitch left the school not knowing that this would be the beginning of his awesome career. You have arrived at your destination, the UNO arena. Thanks computer, put a reminder that I need to put my stealth suit back on, so the guards do not see me. I will surely remind you, sir. Mitch was walking into the stadium. “WHO DARES TO CHALLENGE ME!” “I do” The crowd gasped! "You dare challenge the almighty FIREBLASTER?”  “Yeah, also what kind of name is Fire Blaster?” “Who cares, it's totally tubular.” “Anyway, let's battle wimp.” “They signed the contract that if they lose, they die a horrible and gruesome death. “Are you worried wimp?” “Nah, I ain’t too worried about it.” The FireBlaster was starting to suspect that this was no ordinary kid. Well yeah duh, what kind of 18-year-old kid would want to sacrifice his life for a game of uno?  

They get ready and the game begins. The first card is a yellow eight. Marty places a yellow seven and then the FireBlaster goes all out on the first game and places a plus four cards on the deck, but Mitch places a plus four on the deck too so he dodges the cards and fireblaster ends up getting eight more cards. You know what I do not want to keep narrating this battle, so I am just going to forward the whole match so that this does not get as boring as when I was trapped on the island and that tiger was going to kill me. So, Mitch ended up winning and he won the prize money of 1000 dollars! Fireblaster fell into the pit of lava and melted. Sevant called the boss, “Sir we found him” Fireblaster’s team was mad that their leader was defeated by an 18-year-old kid. So, they threatened to kill him for what he had done. “Hey guys, come on we can talk about this.” “No thanks, we don't like to use our words” They chased after him. “Computer, set guns to stun” Mitch blasted them but missed. “Computer check all possibilities to try and slow them down” “I only see 1 possibility for your problem” “There are some barrels held by a rope.” If you shoot it, then I believe you will be able not just slow them down but also stop them” “Thanks computer” He shot the rope, and the barrels came running down. The goons were knocked out and then he went back to the college. He went back through the door, and he was almost there but then his alarm rang. It was the computer. “Sorry sir, I forgot to remind you that you need your stealth suit before you go back in.” “Now is not the time computer” “Hey you, freeze” “Dispatch there is a child out of bed” “Look I know what it looks like, but I was just going to get a drink of water.” “With your backpack?” “Yeah, I like to work out my back every single day” “I am not buying it.” He takes out a piece of paper and prints his name. “I’m giving you detention so you can think about what you have done.” “Yes sir” 

Part 2: In Detention

“Hello kids, welcome to detention. If you are here, then you have been a very bad student. Your job is to think about what you have done, and my job is to not care. Now please be quiet so that I can go to sleep.” With Mitch sad and nothing to do, he just sat there and waited for it to be over. “Pssst, pssst, PSSSST.” “What do you want?” “What are you in for” “snuck out to go and play UNO. I even won a thousand dollars, but they disposed of it. They probably used it to add stuff to the school. How about you.” “I’m the one who started that cyber fight yesterday at school.” “Huh, you’re a pretty good fighter the way you smacked him down in only three hits.” “It was only two hits” Two FBI agents who look like characters from Men In Black enter the room. “Are you Mitch Ray Raymond from the UNO contest last night?” “What?” “I said are you Mitch Ray Raymond from the UNO contest last night!?” “Yes, yes, I am and also who are you?” “I’m James, James Wilder. This is my assistant, and I don’t even know his name because he doesn't even talk. That’s why I call him Agent Silent but Deadly.” “Cool name” “Thanks, wait a second, you're distracting me from my mission, you need to come with us, Mitch. “Why?” “The boss wants you for some card game called UNO, never heard of it.” “Fine just because you said that there would be UNO involved.” 


Part 3: In Steinfeld Mansion

Mitch arrives at the mansion and James knocks at the door, The servant answers the door. “Why hello there young Mitch. Master has been expecting you” “You can go now James.” “Alright bye kid, see you around.” The servant closes the door. “Master will be right with you young one.” “Ok,” Servant leaves the room. “WHY HELLO THERE MY YOUNG AQUAINTENCE!!!” “It is a pleasure to meet my possible successor. “Thanks, I'm Mitch” “Well then hello Mitch.” “Why did you bring me here? “To test you and see if you are worthy of playing with the best UNO player in the world.” “Alright then, bring it on.” Steinfeld's tournament was going to begin in a week, so he had to prepare. He was going to face some of the best players of all time in UNO history. So, he trained. This was his schedule. 

6:00 Wake up 

6:30 Eat breakfast 

7:00 Start with a one-hour UNO match 

8:00 Practice placing cards 

9:00 Study every card in the game 

10:00 play every type of UNO 

11:00 play with the computer 

12:00 play UNO by myself 

1:00 lunch 

2:00 say UNO for an hour 

He did that every day for a whole week. After that, it was the day of the games. Mitch wasn’t even that nervous because he had trained and without training, he beat FireBlaster and everybody else said that he would struggle with him. So, he had nothing to worry about, or so he thought.  

Part 4: The Games Begin

The tournament began and the first person, Carlos Miramontez, was defeated in only five minutes. The second person, Zuzu was defeated in fifteen minutes. The third person, Carlos Alvarez was defeated in fifty minutes and gave Mitch a challenge. The last person Parker Steinfeld was the hardest he had ever faced. The match lasted forever. It even started to rain even though nobody showed up. “Wow kid nobody had the guts to go this far in a UNO contest.” “Then I guess I’m your first real challenge.” They went on longer than anybody else had ever had. Then Steinfeld had one card left and shouted UNO! Wait, that was not him, it was Mitch who said it right before him. MITCH WONNNNN!!!! The hatch to the pit of lava fell and Steinfeld fell maybe we can have a rematch in the afterlife kid. Mitch had finally done what he had wanted to do ever since he was building those cyber cars.  


Part 5: A Couple of Days Later

Mitch is now a trillionaire and gave some of his fortune to his family and has now banned killing people if they lose the UNO matches. He is living a good life now and still practices UNO every day so that he doesn’t get rusty at it. Meanwhile, at Mitch’s dad’s house, “You have mail.”  

“Yeah, I know computer.” He checks the mail. From Mitch to Dad. He opens the envelope and sees a note that says, “I told you it would pay off.” and sees one million dollars in the envelope. “Thanks, son.”