Taming the Wild Card

A short story in the Plot Twister and Thought Sifter homeschooling series by Beverley Paine

How this works: New stories designed to be read aloud and shared with your children are emailed to your inbox or within the Substack app every week or so. Each story comes with a link to a set of Plot Twister and Thought Sifter Conversation Cards you can use as part of your homeschool English curriculum.

I write stories about ordinary homeschooled children living ordinary lives playing games, exploring outdoors, solving problems, making mistakes, asking questions and learning together: stories designed to spark conversation, encouraging children to think, wonder, create and connect.

About the author: I home educating my three children between 1986-2004, and they’re now homeschooling theirs! Stories about everyday children living life without school are hard to find, and I firmly believe that homeschooled kids need to see themselves and their lives represented in children’s fiction, so that’s what I write!
Find my other homeschool resources at Always Learning Books.

I hope you enjoy Taming the Wild Card, a story about Theo, an eleven-year-old neurodivergent PDA homeschooler, who, with the help of his friends, is learning to play Uno Flip for the first time.

To listen to an AI narration of this story, click the "Play" icon (triangle ▶️) in the top-right corner of your screen.

Download the Plot Twisters and Thought Sifters Homeschool Short Story Conversation Starter Cards and Guide.

Taming the Wild Card

by Beverley Paine

“Let’s play cards!” Maya suggested.

They’d spent the last hour climbing trees and chasing each other outside. Now everyone was ready for something quieter. Yesterday Maya found Uno Flip at the op shop, a game she’d played before with her friend Zara. She was keen to share it with the others.

Charlie grabbed the box and took out the instructions.

“Okay, seven cards each. First rule is you can only play one card per turn. No exceptions.”

The phrase no exceptions made Theo’s chest tighten. His heart raced. He tossed his cards down. “This game looks boring,” he said.

“Give it a go,” coaxed his mum gently, who was sitting in on the first round of the new game. “For a few minutes. If you don’t like it after that you can quit.”

Theo grunted but relented and picked them up again. “Okay, but the rules are stupid.”

Maya noticed Theo’s shoulders stiffen. She’d seen that look before when Theo was in a bit of a mood. Sometimes he got like that.

She dealt out thirty-five cards, seven for each of them. Charlie picked up his hand and spread the cards.

“You’re holding them backwards!” said Tom.

“No, he isn’t,” Maya said. “It’s Uno Flip. One of special cards flips the whole game over, and we play with the reverse side instead.”

Theo’s mum glanced at him, wondering if he understood. But he was busy sorting his hand, probably in colour order like they did with ordinary Uno.

The game started and Theo laughed with the others when Charlie played a plus-two card against his mum. She in turn played a plus-four against Tom, who groaned dramatically.

“That’s not fair!” said Tom. “Now I’m behind everyone!”

Theo felt sorry for him and played a reverse card. “Your turn again,” he said. Tom grinned and played a skip card, which meant Theo’s mum missed a turn. Everyone laughed.

The game progressed for a few minutes and then Maya played a flip card and deftly turned the draw and discard piles over.

“What are you doing?” said a clearly startled Theo, who’s turn was next. He had two cards to go and was getting ready to call Uno. Turning the pile over put his strategy in jeopardy!

Maya started to explain, but everything suddenly felt wrong. Theo shouted, “That’s stupid!”

The cards all looked wrong. And when he turned the cards over in his hand, he saw he didn’t have anything to play and would have to draw another card from the pile.

He felt his face turning red, and swallowed hard, his bottom lip started to quiver.

“I’m sorry,” Maya said, “I should have told everyone that at the beginning.”

Theo screwed up his toes in his shoes and squeezed them together hard. Sometimes that helped.

Maya handed him the next card saying, “Remember, if it’s the same colour or number you can play it straight away.”

And, as it happened, Theo could. They continued playing.

Charlie got close to calling Uno but sadly had to pick up additional cards. Everyone laughed, including Theo.

Theo loudly called Uno on his next turn.

Tom groaned. Maya’s eyes narrowed. She played him a plus two. “That’s not fair!” said Tom.

Theo grinned. He was going to win. He was sure of it. But the game play reversed. Twice! Eventually he was able to place down his wild card, a sure winner.

“Uno!” he called triumphantly.

Charlie threw his hands – and his cards – into the air. “Oh, come on!”

“Play again?” Maya asked.

“I’m not sure,” Theo said automatically. He wanted to, but he didn’t. Games were hard for him. Too much excitement and tension. He enjoyed them but they twisted his stomach in a knot.

“One more round to get used to it,” his mum suggested.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“How about you watch this time?” said Maya. Sometimes she’d noticed that Theo was much happier watching his friends play rather than joining in. He seemed to have as much fun as a spectator as they did.

“Sure,” said Theo. He suddenly felt a lot more comfortable and had an idea. “Can I deal though, and still just watch?”

Maya handed him the pack. Theo shuffled the cards carefully and dealt the next round. He had a sneaking suspicion he was eventually going to like this new game.

All illustrations in the Plot Twisters & Thought Sifters series are original AI-assisted pencil sketches created with ChatGPT from scene descriptions written by Beverley Paine.

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That’s all for now! Until next time, Beverley