//------------------------------//
// ACT TWO: A Meeting 
// Story: Let The Chips Fall Where They May 
// by AliceSprings 
//------------------------------//

Aria couldn’t believe she put up with this crap for twelve measly bits an hour!  Having to put up with all the leering down her blouse and indecent offers.  

But word had somehow gotten out not to try to touch her arse.  The last guy who did, she seductively invited out back where she grabbed him by the neck with one hand and lifted his approximately 140 kilogram arse three feet off the ground while she explained she’d snap his neck like a twig if he ever tried that again.  Then still with only one hand, she tossed him in a dumpster across the alley.  
He couldn’t believe the strength of this girl.  She might look like a late teen/early 20’s girl, she still had the massive strength of the siren.  

Aria still felt the embarrassment every time she remembered how a drunk Sonata, on a bet, lifted and body slammed an elephant at a circus.   

So much for keeping a low profile.

As the evening wore on, she kept noticing a geeky looking guy sitting by himself in a back booth for most of the evening.  He was reminding her of her dream.  He’d finished his burger and chips and was on his third refill of cola.  
Except when he ordered, his nose was buried in a book and scribbling on a large pad of paper, or making entries on a tablet device.  He wasn’t much to look at; his thick glasses were the most noticeable feature.  They made it look as if his eyes took up most of the lens.  
“Another refill?” asked Aria.
“Y-yes m-ma’am,” he replied in a nervous, almost comical nasally voice.
As she returned with his drink, she noticed the title of the book opened.


Principles of Blackjack


“You a gambler?” asked Aria, not sure why she was interested.  But it was slow and she needed to past the time.
“Oh… Ah, n-no… No ma’am.  I just find advanced probability fascinating!  Did you know that the casinos can use up to eight decks when dealing blackjack?  That’s a 4.745% chance of getting a 21 on the first two cards!  But if you pay attention to the cards played, you can narrow the odds in your favor.”

Looking around, there were no tables that needed to be tended to, and she was due a break so she sat across from the guy.

“You mean counting cards?”
“Heavens no, nothing so mundane.”  Interest in what he was saying kicked him into a more confident way of talking, “I’m talking probability and the Uncertainty Principle of Chaos Theory.”
Aria was blown away, this was so far over her head, but it sounded interesting.  To look at her, no one would guess that she was well over 1,000 years old.  So she’d had her fill of pretty boys.  This guy definitely wasn’t one, but he had something that grabbed her.  He was smart, and didn’t present it in a showy way.  And to be polite was a plus.

“Have you ever tried out your ideas at the casino?” asked Aria.
“Oh, no, ma’am.  I couldn’t do that.  Crowds scare me, and going there alone would just make it worse.”
“Won’t your girlfriend go with you?”

The guy started to laugh an empty laugh.

“I’m sorry, I’ve never had a girlfriend.  Outside the chess club and science club, no girls will even talk to me.”
“What am I,” asked Aria with a smirk, “chopped liver?”
“You’re just being polite, ma’am.”
“The name’s Aria Blaze, not ma’am.”
“Sorry ma’… Ah Aria… I do remember you.”
Aria wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or bad.  But she continued.
“What’s your handle?”
“Eh?”
“Your name, Poindexter.”
“It… it’s M-Micro Chips.”
Aria smiled at how intimidated he was.  He was, in a way, acknowledging her beauty in honest admiration, and it was refreshing. 
“Nice to meet you, Micro.  I have to get back to work, but I’d love to talk about that blackjack thing again, soon.  If that’d be okay with you.”
“I’d really like that… Aria.”
Aria reached and gave his hand a little squeeze as she smiled and returned back to work.  


Micro closed his book and put it and the writing pad and tablet into a book bag.  There was no way he could continue to think.  He just had a very pretty girl talking to him and showing some interest in what he was saying.  And she even touched his hand!  He left the bits for his meal and a generous tip.

Later, Micro Chips walked home, just thinking of Aria, the girl he recognized from The Battle of the Bands.  But she wasn’t what he remembered.  
He remembered the ‘Dazzlings’ and this Aria was the most rude and bad tempered of the three.  But she wasn’t anything like he remembered, except her looks.
But just like when Sunset Shimmer ‘ruled’ CHS with terror, he never noticed how attractive she was until after Twilight Sparkle came on the scene and changed her heart with friendship.  
Now Aria wasn’t scary and threatening.  She was a nice and pretty girl that took some interest in what he was doing.  Truthfully, he never considered such a pretty girl would give the time of day to a card carrying geek like himself.

At home, he climbed the stair to the ‘mother-in-law flat’ above his parent’s garage.  He’d been allowed to stay here after he graduated from CHS.  As long as he continued his college studies.  It was a bit of freedom; freedom from living directly under his parents supervision and freedom financially because he didn’t have any rent or utilities.  He made some bits by making himself available as a tutor to high school kids who needed help in math and science. 

Micro lay down his book bag and took out the blackjack book and his statistical studies that had got Aria’s notice.  The figures and equations were perfect.  They spun in his head like cogs in a well oiled machine, but the equations kept getting interrupted by the face of a certain longhaired girl who’s mulberry eyes and smile were more of a puzzle than any of the blackjack problems.

He took out his cards and put all 8 decks in the shuffler twice, then played a dealer’s hand and 6 dummy hands and his own to round out the traditional 7 spot table in casinos.  
He’d written a program for his computer that did a normal card counting routine.  This ran as he played his own system.
As each hand was played, he’d note it in his journal.  He was riding high with a 95% success rate over the card counter.  The card counter’s win rate was 1% over the house.  That didn’t sound like much, but the more hands played, the greater the accumulation of winnings.  But Micro’s system was a 25% win rate over the house.

Then Micro took out a single deck and played pitch blackjack. At the end of four hours, the card counting computer had increased its money by 150%.  
He on the other hand (no blackjack pun intended) had increased his money by 500%

He went to bed after a shower and dreamt of hands of cards.  But there was a girl with long purple hair with aquamarine stripes and beautiful mulberry coloured eyes sitting by him, urging him on.  
Apparently Aria had made an impression on him.  He never felt for any girl like this before.  But even his subconscious mind wouldn’t let him get his hopes up.  Even if there were any feelings for him, he never had any relations with girl before and he would probably make a bigger fool of him that ever before.


The next day, he was in the advanced calculus class.  It was if his hand were on autopilot.  He was accurately taking down the lecture notes.  But his mind was still trying to analyze what had happened the evening before.  How out of nowhere, Aria Blaze sat at his table and talked to him as if she was actually interested in him, or at least what he was talking about.  But no girl had ever just touched his hand in a friendly gesture before.
But a voice broke his train of thought.
“Mr. Chips?”
“Oh, yes professor?”
“Are you going to be sitting there long?  The class was over fifteen minutes ago.  Should I leave the lights on?”
Micro looked around himself.  There were no other students there.
“I’m sorry professor, my mind was elsewhere.” 
The professor smiled, he’d seen this type of look before and would’ve bet that a girl was involved.  But he didn’t expect it from this student.
“Have a good weekend Mr. Chips.  And good luck.”
“You too professor,” said Micro as he collected his things and left to go home.  He wasn’t sure what the professor meant by ‘good luck’.


About a month later, Micro Chips had been at the café almost everyday.  Aria would often sit with him at her break or lunch and she was even becoming disappointed the days he didn’t show up

Now Aria was sitting in the café.  Her shift was over and she was enjoying some coffee and a slice of apple pie.  It’d been decades if not centuries since her mind had been captured by a man or woman.  

“Micro Chips,” mused Aria out loud, “why’d I never notice him at CHS?  I guess my mind was on other things.  Other things that really didn’t mean anything.  Why’d I ever put up with such shit?”

A voice interrupted.  It was Alice, a coworker.  She sat across from Aria.  In the not to distant past, she’d have been upset or even angered to be disturbed.  But now she probably needed a friendly ear.
“Talking to yourself?” kidded Alice.
“No Alice, I‘m just trying to figure things out.”
“Your boyfriend?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” said Aria.
“Could have fooled me,” giggled Alice.  “You’ve been less up tight...”
“I’m not up tight,” interjected Aria.
“You are normally so up tight, everyone avoided you.”
“Really?”
Alice nodded her head.
“Aria,” said Alice, “you’re a very pretty girl.  But you’ve always appeared to be a very sad girl.  Until lately when that one guy started to show up a lot.  
We all here can tell these things because all of us have had some type of issues. 
I had a husband that one day just disappeared.  I came home and the place was cleaned out!  Worst of all, my 3 year old daughter was gone with him.  I haven’t seen her since.”
There were tears in Alice’s eyes.  Not knowing why, Aria reached out a hand and took Alice’s.  Alice gripped Aria’s hand tightly.
“I’m so sorry,” said Aria.  
Her inner mind didn’t understand her own actions.  Previously, she wouldn’t have cared about such feelings from another. She might have gladly absorbed the negative emotions.  Now she was feeling real compassion. 
“It’s okay,” said Alice, “my problem, not yours.”
Aria slid off the bench seat and went and sat by Alice and put an arm around her shoulder and took her hand again.
“Believe me, I understand pain and losing everything.” Said Aria, “but if I told you my story, you’d think I was lying or crazy.”
Aria handed Alice a napkin, and Alice wiped her eyes and smiled a weak smile at Aria.
“Thank you,” said Alice, getting her composure, “what I was trying to say, before I became a cry-baby is, we here are always there to listen and help the others.  We’ve wanted you to feel you could trust us, but we never could find a right time.  And you never appeared to be open to anyone approaching.”
“Thank you,” said Aria, hugging Alice, “I’ll try to keep that in mind.  And I’d really like to hear about your daughter sometime.”
Alice smiled a grateful and honest smile as Aria gave Alice a comforting hug.


Back at the flat, Aria was starting to realize she really had been less grumpy, as Alice had said.  She was even singing in the shower.  It was kind of funny, when she finished there would be several of her neighbors outside the WC listening to her.  In the past she might have been irked that there were people hanging outside the bathroom, just to hear her.  But now, she was happy that there were people that appreciated her.  She’d even stop and talk with them.  Yes, she still wouldn’t completely cover herself, but the others didn’t mind or were doing the same.
She’d never even cared who lived on the same floor as herself.  Now she found that there were several other girls who had almost as hard of a time as herself (at least without being banished from a magical world 1000 years ago).  
Like with the girls at work, Aria was discovering that she, Adagio and Sonata weren’t the only hurting girls around. 
It made her feel less lonely.  And she even opened up enough to talk, laugh and have coffee with her neighbors.


Micro was sitting in the family room of his parent’s house.  They were talking but Micro could tell they wanted to ask questions.
“What’s wrong?” Micro finally asked.
“Well honey,” said Mrs. Chips, “you haven’t been home for dinner much lately.  And if you’re tutoring that hard, we don’t want you to wear yourself out.”
“It’s okay mum, I’ve been eating down at the café by the university.”
“But son,” said the father, “isn’t that expensive?”
“No dad,” said Micro, “most of the time I don’t have to pay.”
“Don’t have to pay!” Exclaimed the parents.
Micro blushed.
“I’ve been meeting my friend there.  Well, she actually works there and giving me the food is her idea.” Said Micro, “But I mostly go there to talk and visit with her.  She’s interested in my Blackjack theory.  Well, at first she was, but we haven’t talked about that for weeks.”
“Micro,” said the mother with some surprise, “you have a girlfriend?”

The parents looked at him expectantly.

“No,” said Micro, “she’s a girl and she’s a friend, but not a girlfriend.  I doubt a pretty girl like her would want me as a boyfriend.  
She’s probably just being nice, but that’s okay.”
“Pretty girl?” asked the father with an upswept eyebrow.
“Do you have a picture?” asked the mother obviously excited.

Micro blushed even more.  He took out his phone and showed it to his parents.  His ‘wallpaper’ was a picture that Aria allowed him to take while sitting across from himself.  She had an honest smile and her eyes had a look that Micro missed but the parents did not.
“Micro!” said the mother, “she’s beautiful!  What’s her name?”
“Aria Blaze.”
“Isn’t that the name of one of the girls that caused all that trouble back in high school?” asked the father.
“Yes dad, she’s one of them.” Said Micro, “or at least, she was one of them.  She left the others because she didn’t like how her sister was running things.  I think she needed to get away to find herself.
And I don’t ever remember her ever smiling like she does now.”

The parents smiled at each other because the son was missing an obvious sign.

“Honey,” said the mother, “just be careful.”
“Of what?”
“Micro,” said the father, “girls are sensitive about feelings and relationships…”
“What relationship?”
“Exactly,” continued the father, “you’ve never had a girlfriend or even a girl that was a close friend.  You have to be careful of how you say things so you don’t give any false expectations.”
“But you also have to be aware of what signals she’s sending.” Said the mother, “the most important thing is to be open and honest.  
And I don’t think you could ever be deceitful or manipulative.  Just be yourself and everything will workout.”
“Okay,” said Micro, thinking that his parents were making more out of this than there was. “I’ll remember what you have said.”