It was a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon as Will and Zoe were stuck inside the house. "I'm so bored" Zoe  moaned. "Did you do all of your chores?" "Yes Mom" Will responded. "Are you caught up on all of your homework?" "Yes Mom" Will replied. "Why don't you do something constructive like read a book?" "Boring! Guess we'll just have to go play more XBox" Will suggested. "Hold on kids. I came across some of these old board games of mine. I used to play these all the time when I was your age. I think you'll really enjoy them." "Fine" Zoe sighed as the kids headed upstairs.

MONOPOLY

CLUE

"Here you are kids, some of the games I played as a child. Hope you have fun. I'll call you when supper is ready." "These games look so lame. What's a mono poly?" "It's called Monopoly Zoe. It's a boring money game. Oh well, we're stuck inside this afternoon so we might as well try these out." "Boy, they sure are covered in a lot of dust." "I don't have a rag so I guess we'll have to blow the dust off ourselves" Will said. The kids took deep breaths and blew the dust off of the vintage board games. The little bit of dust had turned into a lot of dust and soon the room was engulfed by a giant cloud. Both kids coughed and wheezed as their eyes watered.

"Where are we Will?" "I think we're on the deck of a ship." "Not just any ship. You're on Admiral Akbar's Battleship." "B-5!" a voice shouted out. "Miss! I don't appreciate having stowaways on my ship. C-10!" "Hit!" "BOOM!" "You have two choices, you can swab the deck or you can try to swim to shore in these shark-infested waters." "But we did our chores already." "Quiet Zoe. We'll swab the deck sir." "D-4!" "Hit!" "Boom!" Suddenly the whole ship began to shake. "What was that?" Zoe cried out. "E-8!" "Miss!" "F-9!" "Oh oh! You sank my battleship! Abandon ship!" the Admiral shouted. 

"I'm scared Will." "Hold onto me while I tread water. Hopefully somebody will rescue us." "What just happened back there?" "I don't know but it seemed as though we were part of a game called BATTLESHIP." "How did we get here Will?" "I have no idea. Let's try to stay calm and hope for a miracle." "But what about the sharks?" "Try not to think about them. Maybe they're full from devouring the crew from the battleship." After trying to keep himself and his sister afloat, Will grew weary as the pair began to sink into the deep water below.

Just as it looked as though the kids were in for a watery demise, something swam underneath them, carrying the siblings off to safety. "Now where are we?" Zoe wondered. "I'm not sure, but I think that hippo saved us." "He did. But why did he bring us here? And why are there marbles everywhere?" "There is definitely something strange going on here. It's as if we're taking part in real-life board games. First BATTLESHIP and now whatever this is." The pair soon felt the ground beneath them starting to rumble. "What's that noise?" "I don't know Zoe but I'm not going to stick around to find out. Run!"

A couple of very hungry hippos began gobbling up the marbles that had been strewn about the ground.  They started getting closer and closer to Zoe and Will. "We're going to get crushed! Take my hand Zoe. We gotta keep going!" "Ow!" "Zoe! What happened?" "I tripped on one of those marbles and twisted my ankle." "I'm coming for you Zoe!" Before Will could rescue his sister the pair found themselves floating out of harm's way. They were now inside a hot air balloon where they were greeted by a very odd-looking gentleman. "That certainly was a close call. You're safe now kids."

"Who are you?" a dazed Will asked. "Hi there kids. I'm Ferguson P. Fogbottom. I'm the one who brought you into these board games." "Why us?" "Your Mother didn't tell you about me? Pity. I was her imaginary friend when she was a little girl. As an only child your Mom often had to play games by herself. She was so lonely that she decided to create me. We played all sorts of games until she started high school. That's when I disappeared. But now I'm back for more zany adventures!" "Can you take us home please?" Zoe asked. Ferguson frowned and looked so sad. The kids looked at each other and nodded. "Alright, we'll stick around for a couple more games."

"It is so nice to have made new friends. I promise you won't be disappointed." "We're not familiar with these old fashioned board games our Mom played. Where do you plan on dropping us off next?" "Right here!" Ferguson exclaimed as the bottom of the hot air balloon gave way. The kids began to rapidly plummet to the ground below. "Ahhhhh!!!" "Oh, and I hope you're not afraid of snakes!" Ferguson cried out. "Snakes? We're terrified!" "Wonderful!" The kids landed safely on a giant game board where they found themselves surrounded by numbers and ladders. Thankfully there were no snakes..........yet.

"Look out Zoe! Somebody's rolling dice!" "What's that hissing noise? Oh no! Snakes!" "Climb up the ladder! I'll be okay. I think I've played this game before." "But what about the snakes?" "They're all part of the game. I need to avoid them if we want to get out of here." Will handed his sister a torch. "Wave this at anything that slithers!" "I hope you know what you're doing!" The last time Will played SNAKES AND LADDERS was during a camping trip with his family a couple of years ago. The object of the game is to climb the ladders and slide on the snakes until you've reached the final square.

"Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes?" After slipping a couple of times, Will was able to use the ladders to make it to the final square. He had remembered all the little tricks his Mom had taught him during their camping trip. A pair of confused snakes had been tied up in knots following Will's brilliant gamesmanship. "Super smart scamp swindles snakes!" Will laughed. He climbed up the ladder and met his sister. "Will! You made it!" "Where is Fogbottom? I'm afraid to see where he's taking us to next?" Suddenly Zoe had left Will's sight. "Zoe! Get back here!" "Look Will! Over there! It's CandyLand!"