LETTER TO THE SCRABBLE CHAMP

Dear Scrabble Champ,

There will be no need for the usual pleasantries because I know you are doing just great. In fact, you are someone I see almost every day. I’m like a big, no I mean huge fan of your prowess with words. I used to see myself as a great Scrabble player till I had a one-on-one game with you yesterday. Mehn, I was humbled beyond words. It’s still amazing how you did that. Me? I can’t even gloat anymore. The trophy has been taken by you. What??? Why??? How???

You do remember how it all started. You came home, I was playing Scrabble on the laptop. You asked innocently ‘’Is that Scrabble I see you playing?’’ I looked at you with this wide grin on my face and I said ‘’Yes, I just beat the computer by 60 points’’ (And I’m a pro ooo). I remember this weird smile that came on your face for an instant and the words popped out from your mouth ‘’Let’s play; I love this game’’. As proud as I was, I shrugged and said ‘’Ohkay’’. In my mind I was actually saying ‘’Heehee, you are gonna get beat down’’.

The game started off pretty nice. I led by a few points. At that moment, I was ecstatic, thinking to myself ‘’Damn, I’m totally gonna win this game’’. It seemed like you were reading my thoughts because you had this look on your face saying ‘’She has no idea what is in store for her’’.  I went on to play the word ‘’Xerox’’ which increased my points by 46, was it 46? Yeah, 46. There I was singing to myself ‘’The champ is here, bim-bim-bim-bim- The champ is here’’.

I sang too soon because shortly after, you played the word ‘’Question’’ next to ‘’Able’’. I can’t remember how many points you got from that but it was enough for me to murmur to myself ‘’Well-played; Well-played’’. All the while, you kept quiet, you were really concentrating so hard. I became nauseous, I couldn’t lose to you, not now after winning so many games? I was antsy because I could see for myself that with 25 tiles left and just a few points more, you would be declared winner and I would have to do the ‘’Scrabble walk of shame’’ with my head drooping.

So, I reassured myself with the false hope that it may be ‘’initial gra-gra’’. 

 A few minutes later, I had a ''lightbulb'' moment (like 'Gru' in 'Despicable Me', hahaha, I know you don't watch cartoons) and then I play the word ‘’Zygote’’. I gave you a look of ‘’Aha’’. Omo mehn, the grin shined well on my face so much that when you played ‘’Baggy’’, I gave you a look of ‘’Yimu’’. The last set of random letters appeared and I laughed inside because there was no way you could form a word from that and get high points. Alas, I was mistaken. You shocked me when you fixed the letters on a placed tile on the screen and made the word ‘’Showcasing’’.

My laughter died into a frown, I was open-mouthed, couldn’t utter a word. I had been ‘’schooled’’. You won by a whopping 38 points (That’s big enough for me). Finally you smiled and said ‘’Next time, I will go easy on you’’. All I could think of was my scrabble crown had been taken from me. You were a good contender and I had been bested. I just want you to know I’m seriously preparing for another game, am going to learn new tactics, get more vocabularies. Haba, how can you win me like that? Noooo, I want a rematch. The game’s on.

Be prepared for our next tournament. I love you but I wanna win toooo...*sulking*

Your loving daughter,

OddNaijaChic