Quarreled

Once upon a time, there were two close friends named Sally and Jack. They did everything together and never had any disagreements.

However, one day they were playing a game of Scrabble and Sally accidentally played a word that wasn’t a real word. Jack pointed it out, and Sally got defensive, insisting that it was a real word.

Their argument escalated and they began to quarrel. Sally accused Jack of being too competitive and Jack accused Sally of being stubborn.

As the argument continued, Sally started to tap her fingers on the board in frustration. Suddenly, her hand slipped and she spatted the board, scattering the tiles everywhere.

Feeling embarrassed by her outburst, Sally apologized to Jack and they both agreed to let the argument go.

From that day on, whenever they played games together and found themselves on opposite sides, they would joke about spatting the board and it became their code word for settling arguments quickly and peacefully.

And that’s how the crossword clue ‘quarreled’ is connected to its answer ‘spatted’ – sometimes even the smallest disturbance can lead to a resolution.