Portia Vallon was the luckiest person that Ariana knew.
Lucky.
Or [luhk-ee], the online dictionary would tell her: having or marked by good luck; fortunate. Ariana wanted to tell the dictionary to update its definition with a selfie of Portia. It would have thousands to choose from anyway.
Perhaps lucky wasn’t the correct term to describe it.
Portia Vallon was the embodiment of luck. There were many stories and sayings about Lady Luck and what not. Ariana had an encounter with Lady Luck. Her name was Portia Vallon.
Ariana watched as said girl skipped across the quad with a disposition sunny enough that it could probably power photosynthesis. Portia was impossible to miss in her purple leggings and colourful skirt. Most afternoon classes had just let out and most people were outside, soaking up the warm rays of the sun. Who needed the sun though when you could have your own personal beam of sunshine. Portia was drop dead gorgeous. Flawless skin, perfect curls, eyes so green that you would think you were staring into a forest.
Portia was everything that Ariana was not, sociable, popular, friendly. Everywhere she went, people gravitated towards her naturally. If Portia was the sun, Ariana was the moon. Where Portia emitted her own unique, contagious joy and enthusiasm that drew people in, Ariana preferred to just hang out in the back. She liked to observe from a distance and just blend in, reflect what people around her were doing.
The sharp ring of a bicycle bell distracted her for a moment and Ariana turned to watch as a bicycle zipped down the sidewalks, startling a few pedestrians. That she had to grin at.
She remembered the first time she had met Portia. Well met wasn’t exactly the right word for it. It was more of a chance encounter.
It was the third week of class of her first year and Ariana was cutting across quad with her morning coffee in her hand, trying to find a nice place to sit and do her readings. Portia was stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, earbuds in and music blaring. Usually Ariana wouldn’t have thought much of it. Pretty girl on the quad. Her shy self would never gather the courage to go up to her so it never really mattered.
The only reason why Ariana took any real notice at all was because of the bike racing down the sidewalk. But before Ariana thought that she would have to call an ambulance, the girl stepped forwards into the grass and stooped over to pick up something. The bike whizzed past, centimetres behind her, bell ringing furiously. Ariana scowls at the asshole. Seconds later, Portia straightened up like she didn’t almost just get run over by a bicycle and held up a gleaming copper penny. Ariana
“Heads facing up! It’s a lucky penny!” The girl clapped a hand over her mouth, as if suddenly realizing how loud her voice really was with the earbuds in. She shot Ariana an apologetic grin, waving her penny triumphantly.
Ariana just shook her head and continued on her way. What were the chances.
(Apparently very good.)
Ariana had an encounter with Lady Luck. Her name was Portia Vallon.
Ariana shifted in her spot under the large oak tree in the middle of quad. The grass was making her itch, but being outside had its perks, she surmised. Typically, she’d complain that the wifi was worse on the quad and she’d have to turn on her very limited data. Also there were no outlets outside for her to charge her laptop, all very inconvenient. But people watching was definitely way better out on the quad than it was inside. People inside were usually so boring, they were always studying. Lame.
There were people who were just napping in the sun- skin cancer, oh that one girl was definitely going to need some aloe for that burn, others who were playing with a hacky sack- dude totally just fell over and missed the sack, some people just sitting around talking- Ariana wished she had super hearing so she could eavesdrop, or even being allowed to plant bugs would make this way more entertaining. Oh and there went Ms. Treville .
The MST vice president certainly looked like she was a woman on a mission, well to be more accurate, a bounty hunt. Instinctively, Ariana shrunk further into the shade, as if that would reduce the chances of being seen. She hadn’t done anything in the last while. Well, aside from replacing the sugar in the MST kitchen with salt last week… but there was no possible way that Jeanne could’ve found out right?
With a small wince, Ariana watched as Jeanne marched straight up to the group of MST sisters that were deep in conversation with Portia.
She couldn’t exactly hear what was being said, but it definitely didn’t look pretty. She toyed with the idea of going over there and seeing what was going on. But did she really want to go over there and potentially get chewed out for something she was sure she had done at one point or another. Sorry Portia, your loveable rogue in a dark leather was not coming to your rescue, damsel in distress or not.
Although it looked like Portia wasn’t the damsel in distress anyways as Jeanne walked away with three apologetic looking girls trailing behind, leaving Portia alone on the quad.
How could she forget, Portia’s luck meant that she would never get in trouble, especially not with Ms. Treville . Arianna stared at a small scar that split the pad of her right thumb straight down the middle. She remembered when she got that.
It was when Ariana met Portia again, actually met Portia this time, when they got into MST together.
There was a celebration at the MST sorority house and well, things got a little out of hand. There may have been a lot of drinking and maybe one of the girls knocked over the weird Greek statue that stood in front entryway?
Jeanne showed up, mere seconds after the statue fell. It was like she had a sensor for any shenanigans happening within MST. So the celebrations were very quickly over and everyone was very soberly cleaning up, all after getting an earful from her.
Portia, reappeared moments after the VP had stormed away in a blaze of fury, having just made a trip to the bathroom and missed the entire thing. She seemed entirely unfazed though, by the sudden change in events.
All the other girls were blearily picking things up off the ground. Ariana, got stuck trying to repair the statue which was sitting in pieces on the floor. Portia came over, picking her way through the mess with this dorky smile on her face and knelt down next to Ariana. Ariana questioned if Portia was still drunk.
“I’m glad I was lucky enough to miss out Ms. Treville crashing the party. It looks like you got stuck with the short end of the broom though. Literally, Alex at least got a broom.” Portia gestured to Alex, who was behind them, sweeping up a pile of trash with a broom. Her eyes shined brightly in the moonlight filtering in from the front window as she began helping Ariana pick up the broken pieces.
Ariana’s breath caught somewhere between her trachea and her pharynx on its way out, if high school biology classes served correctly. She briefly wondered if those eyes were reflecting the moon or if the moon were reflecting them. Portia was beyond just pretty up close.
“Are you a broom? ‘Cause you just swept me off my feet.” Ariana mumbled, the words tumbling out of her mouth. Maybe she was drunk, she hadn’t had that much to drink though. Her usual firewall would not have let a stranger, albeit a stunning one, in so close.
Portia giggled, apparently she heard Ariana. “I’m Portia, Portia Vallon. Nice to meet you.” She offered her hand and Ariana shook it. Her hands were soft and warm, and touching it felt like taking a shot of whisky; a pleasant burning sensation.
“Ariana, Ariana Henries. I think I’m supposed to play Frankenstein with this thing.” Ariana looked down at the pile of rocky pieces that once was a person.
Portia smiles cheekily, “Well, Frankenstein’s monster is looking a little stony.”
“That was a pretty good,” Ariana had to crack up at that. “Not many people know the difference between Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster-” Ariana hissed suddenly, dropping the piece that she had just picked up.
“Ooh, Ria!” Portia squeaked, gesturing downwards.
Ariana looked down, about to interject about how that wasn’t actually her name. The sharp edge had sliced into Ariana’s thumb, leaving a sizeable gash which was oozing blood. Fantastic.
“I have just the thing, wait here,” with that, Portia was gone, navigating across the room with ease before disappearing behind a corner.
Confused, Ariana put her thumb in her mouth- what else was she gonna do, and continued to clean up. Portia reappeared at her side seconds later, some paper towel in hand. “Lemme see,” dumbly, Ariana offered her her wounded thumb, grimacing when she realized that it was covered in spit. “Do not wipe it on your sweater, you’re going to get an infection. Make sure you put neosporin on it when you get home.” Portia cleaned the thumb off with the paper towel, her touch reminiscent of that of a butterfly’s. From her one of her skirt pockets, she produced a colourful band aid and wrapped it around Ariana’s thumb.
“Perfect,” With a pleased nod to herself, Portia began to help clean up, all the while humming under her breath.
Ariana looked down at her thumb, a Pikachu beamed back at her. Maybe there was more to Portia than she thought.
When the statue reappeared in one piece in the same spot the next day, Portia winked at her from across the room.
Ariana had an encounter with Lady Luck. Her name was Portia Vallon.
And to this day, Ariana didn’t know if Portia went and found a replacement statue, or glued all the pieces together. But if anyone could do either of those things, it would be the ginger.
Speaking of gingers, said ginger disappeared into one of the many cafes that faced out onto the quad. Block 1912, Portia’s apparent favourite cafe. Ariana also really liked it there, she had discovered it during her first week on campus. It had excellent wifi connections, big comfy chairs and excellent coffee. So maybe she started liking it a lot more when she found out that Portia was also a regular there, and maybe she knew Portia’s order by heart now.
Medium strawberry cream with extra whip and chocolate sauce on top.
It was like pure sugar, Ariana had tried it once and never again, she swore her cavities got cavities.
But Portia on the other hand, Portia didn’t just have a penchant for sweet things. Strawberry things were also a big source of joy for her, if her cafe drink of choice as well as the strawberry shaped cushion on her bed was any indication. Once, Alex had the two of them over for a sleepover after all three of them got into MST, and Portia discovered that Alex owned strawberry scented shampoo. Ariana knew right then and there that Portia was going to get her hands on the bottle by the end of it all.
They were supposed have a LOTR marathon, with snacks and blankets and everything, but the power went out. Early blizzards tended to have that effect. So Alex ended up convincing them to play board games from Alex’s huge board game collection by candle light on the coffee table.
Actually it was more like, Portia agreed to play if she got to keep the strawberry scented shampoo. But of course, Alex wasn’t going down without a fight, so they settled on winner got to keep the shampoo. Ariana didn’t even want the neon pink bottle. Portia for some reason just looked smug about it all, and Alex found out why very quickly.
“How did you roll another seven?!” Alex grumbled, reluctantly offering the resource cards in her hand for Portia to pull from.
Ariana grumbled as Portia leaned forwards, they were huddled under a blanket together, Alex had the other blanket on the other side of the room. Of course the heat was linked to the power. So maybe Ariana was leeching body heat from Portia. It wasn’t her fault that Portia was practically a personal space heater. Alex had a limited amount of throws in the apartment, usually she relied on the multitude of space heaters around the apartment so she was woefully unprepared. For Ariana, curling into Portia’s side was acceptable if it meant not freezing to death.
Portia shrugged and picked the middle one. “Oooh, another sheep! They’re so cute!”
“Didja want my sheep too?” Ariana murmured sleepily, so maybe the all nighter she pulled last night playing Starcraft wasn’t the best idea. But some rude people who suggested that she do something anatomically impossible with herself were asking to just get trounced, repeatedly.
“Oooh. Just what I needed! I’ll trade all of my sheep in for an ore and build a city. Thanks babe!” Something warm pressed against her cheek very briefly and Ariana didn’t even have the energy to wonder what it was. She would vaguely recall Alex’s exclamation about breaking rules and Portia collecting more sheep the next morning, but in the moment, Ariana was blissfully unaware.
All she knew was that next morning, she was curled up on the sofa bed and the pillow next to her smelled faintly of strawberries. Her own pillow definitely had faint pink streaks on it that wasn’t there before.
Lipstick.
Oh and Alex never played board games with Portia ever again.
Ariana had an encounter with Lady Luck. Her name was Portia Vallon.
An airhorn goes off, startling her. Well more accurately, her phone goes off. The ringtone that she had set for Alex was an airhorn, much to Alex’s chagrin. Anytime Alex texted, you knew you had better pay attention. Ariana had been chewed out more than enough times for not checking her phone when Alex was trying to get a hold of her.
Momlex (4:23):Did you buy the flowers for the Charity Dating event like I asked you to?.
Ariana (4:23): Yes mom. We bought the flowers yesterday, they’re in the MST living room.
Ariana remembered Charity Dating event. Maybe even remembered it too well. MST hosted it every year to raise money for the local women’s shelter. In her first year, Ariana, of all people, was picked to be one of the dates up for auction. Every MST member had to participate in at least one event and all the frosh were assigned to things randomly. Portia got the Mu Singing Telegrams at Valentine’s Day and Alex got the Giant Beer Pong. Both were very normal and very doable things. But not Ariana.
The Charity Dating event was a complete nightmare.
It wasn’t a formal event, but it certainly wasn’t a casual one either. So Ariana goes, dressed in a nice top- Alex’s top actually, with a cardigan over top and black skinny jeans. Honestly, she wasn’t looking forward to it at all. All she wanted to do, was to be at home, in her sweats, in front of her laptop. But she had to go, especially if she wanted to stay in MST, which admittedly was growing on her.
Portia catches her right before the hacker had to go on. She was dressed in a flowing burgundy high low skirt and white blouse with a matching burgundy bow in her hair. “You look great, Ria.”
Ariana blushed, “Yeah, well Alex threatened to smash all my routers if I came dressed in sweats.”
Portia giggled and grabbed Ariana’s hand, which was tapping nervously on her jean-clad thigh. “Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine. I’ve brought a hundred dollars tonight just in case.”
“In case of what?” Ariana teases, “got your eye on someone?” Things had never been quite the same since the arcade event. But neither one of them wanted to broach the subject, so they stayed good friends. Close friends. Friends who flirted with each other.
“Maybe,” Portia’s face splitted into an even wider smile. The girl looked like the Cheshire Cat, a determined Chesire Cat. There was something about it that turned Ariana on and made her uneasy.
Ariana didn’t get to hear whatever else Portia was going to say as Jeanne emerged from the crowd and practically hauled Ariana to the stage.
“ And next up, we have our own computer extraordinaire, Ariana Henries!” Jeanne ushered her to centre stage. “And with the lovely Miss Henries, there's a lovely dinner to be had at the popular High Level Diner. I heard that the escargot there at this time of year is to die for.”
Ariana grimaced, that sounded very unpleasant. Literally to die for, Ariana would much rather die than eat snails . She really hoped that she wouldn't get stuck with someone terrible. She caught Portia’s eye in the crowd, Portia looked amused at the expression on Ariana’s face.
“Bidding starts at $20 dollars. Do I have any takers?” There was an awkward pause and Ariana really wished that she could sink into the ground and disappear. She knew this was gonna happen. The tops of her boots were suddenly super interesting. Did she always tie her shoelaces like that?
“Twenty dollars!”
Ariana looked up, relieved. That relief quickly faded when she located the owner of the voice. Dustin Connor. The douchebag with two first names, or dcman73, the asshole that Ariana had trounced in every online game possible.
This was not going to go well. The look on his smug face said it all.
Ariana looked at Portia desperately, trying to communicate telepathically to the other girl to save her. Portia seemed to understand though and her hand shot up. “Forty!”
“Fifty!”
And suddenly it was back and forth between Portia and Dylan Carson . Neither one of them were willing to back down. Ariana was worried, she knew that Portia only had a hundred dollars on her. She didn’t know how much Daniel Casey had.
“Ninety-nine!” That was Portia. By the look on his face, there was no way that (what were some other first names…) Dinkleberg Calculus III had enough. He started scrounging around in his pockets for any loose change. Ariana sighed, this nightmare was finally over.
“Wait, Ninety-nine dollars and two quarters, three dimes, two nickels and a bus token? If that’s worth anything?”
There was a pause as Jeanne mulled over the bus token. “I’ll give it to you for ten cents.”
“One hundred dollars! You are mine, baby!” Dirtbag Colonoscopy whooped, clearly excited.
Ariana looked over at Portia who looked back at her helplessly.Portia only had enough to match his bid, which didn’t matter, because you had to beat him. There was no minimal increment, just as long as you were above his bid, it was fine.
“Do we have any other bids? Anyone? Going once…”
Ariana watched Dickbutt CannedLobster’s friends crowded around him, clapping him on the back and cheering. She watched as Portia’s eyes widened, as if she realized something and then reached down pull her boot off. What was she doing? Was she going crazy?
“I got it! One hundred dollars and one cent!” Portia was holding a gleaming copper penny in her outstretched hand.
“You can’t take a penny! It's one cent!” Derivatives Chlamydia was yelling, his friends voicing their agreement.
“Quiet! I took your bus token. I can sure as hell take a penny. It's actual currency.” Never had Ariana been more pleased with how intimidating Jeanne was. “Anyone else? Going once. Going twice. Going three times? And sold!”
Impossible. This girl. What were the chances.
Ariana had an encounter with Lady Luck. Her name was Portia Vallon.
With a sigh, Ariana refocused her attention on the papers before her. She had just gotten her english essay back from her prof and no, she hadn’t looked at her mark yet. She was not looking forwards to seeing the red on the next page which could potentially change her future. She only needed two English classes for her degree. The first one she had taken in her first year, and it was as terrible as she thought it would be.
In fact Ariana failed her first assignment in that class Sure, it was English- so not her forte. And it was also Shakespeare. But she had never failed before and that shook her to her core. Her? Girl genius? Failing? Unheard of. So she ran, and she hid, because what else can she do? Certainly not school, it seemed.
Portia had found her, crying in her dorm room. Ariana swears she locked the door when she came in but here Portia stood, in all her glory, repinning her curls with some bobby pins. Ariana hastily wiped her eyes on her sleeve and sat up in her bed. She was a mess but Portia didn't seem to notice.
“I know exactly what will help. Come on, let’s go.”
Of course Portia would come looking for her. They hung out every Wednesday, Ariana would never understand why Portia would pick her, the solitary, standoffish hermit, over all of the other people that clamoured for her attention. Portia would always be waiting outside of Ariana’s last class, ready for their next so-called grand adventure, whether it be a trip to that little bakery two blocks away or a trip to the park. Plus Ariana practically sprinted out of the English class, which she shared with Alex. Alex probably sent Portia after her too.
Ariana tried in vain to tell Portia that she wasn't feeling up to it, that Portia should go hang out with Alex or one of her many other friends but Portia was not having it.
Which was how Ariana ended up at an arcade with an excited Portia. Her enthusiasm was contagious, it was hard not to crack a smile. “I know you love games,” Portia tugs at her hand, leading her to the token machine. Ariana wasn’t about to tell the bubbly girl who was holding a plastic bucket of freshly deposited tokens that the games she played were very different from the arcade games. But Portia was trying, and Ariana played an embarrassing amount of Street Fighter as a child before she got her first Gameboy.
So she lets herself be taken from one machine to the next, failure forgotten. The bucket of tokens jangles quieter as their mountain of tickets grow. She never thought she could feel more at home.
They spend their last few tokens playing co-op on a few of the shooting games. Portia was actually not such a bad shot. She giggled and pretends to blow the smoke off the end of her gun.
“You’ve been holding out on me,” Ariana complained, wagging her gun at Portia- who to her credit only giggled more.
“And I could say the same for you. Someone’s a secret DDR master.” Portia teased as she returned their neon orange guns to their holsters on the console.
“What can I say, I have to woo the ladies somehow,” Ariana shot back and followed Portia away from the machines.
“I have to go to the bathroom. Why don't you go redeem these tickets and we can make the streetcar back to campus.” Portia handed their overflowing bucket that once held tokens over to Ariana who almost dropped it. She was not expecting them to be that heavy. How had Portia been carrying this all night. How many tickets were in here?
“What? Portia, you paid for everything. You should get to pick the prize! I don’t know what you want!” Ariana trailed off as she realized that Portia wasn’t listening at all. And so Portia skipped off, leaving Ariana to wander over to the prize section by herself. She let the teenager behind the counter feed the tickets into the electronic counter. “You have 8054 tickets. What do you want?”
Eight thousand? How in the world- well Portia had broken the record on the skeeball machines. Maybe even broken them, Ariana surmised, remembering how the machines seemed to empty out all of their tickets into Portia’s waiting hands.
Eight thousand was a lot. What did she want? She scanned the wall of prizes for a moment and then grinned. She knew exactly what she wanted.
Portia returned to find the hacker leaning on the counter, the attendant nowhere to be seen. “So,” she chirped, “what did you get?”
“The guy is still getting it. But here,” Ariana held out a lollipop. It was strawberry flavoured. A matching green one was already clenched between her own teeth.
“Oooh, strawberry. My favourite. How did you know?” Portia accepted the candy eagerly, ripping the wrapper off and popping it into her mouth.
“No idea, just a lucky guess,” Ariana smirked, watching as the teenager return from the back room.
“Your prize miss.”
Ariana grinned and nodded at Portia. “He’s all yours.”
“Ohmygosh, babe. You did not. I told you to get yourself something.” Portia stood, gaping at the giant brown bear with a bow tie that sat on the counter.
Ariana shrugged, awkwardly stuffing her hands in her pocket, “Well there was nothing else that I wanted.”
Portia frowned, “I knew I should've taken you to the other arcade. Why didn't I think to check the prizes first.”
“No, no, no. It's cool. I had a really good time. Everything was awesome. But I saw the way you looked at the bear before and we had just enough tickets. And you didn't have to do this for me-” Ariana’s rambling was cut off by Portia leaning forwards to wrap her up in a hug.
“I love it. Thanks Ria.” They stay like that for a moment more until the buzzing of Ariana’s phone interrupts them. Quickly, they break apart. Flustered, Ariana pats her pockets, trying to locate her phone.
“Oh, it’s Momlex She wants to know when we’ll be back. She made lasagna.” Ariana looks up and had to stifle her laughter at Portia carrying the brown bear that was over half her size.
“Right! The streetcar’s coming soon, we should make it.” And Portia was off, one hand clutching the bear, the other tugging at Ariana’s hand.
They just make it out the door when Ariana catches a glimpse of a Gacha-Pon machine hiding next to a mailbox. “Babe, wait.”
Portia turns on her heel and follows unquestioningly as Ariana leads her to the bright yellow machine.
“They have it! The Sailor Moon Sailor Scout bow necklaces! I'm missing just Sailor Neptune’s bow.” Ariana rummages in her pocket and comes up a few coins. No quarters though. She sighs, it wasn't meant to be. “Let’s go back, I never get the one I want.”
But Portia was looking at her with determined eyes. Ariana didn't know what to make of it. She had never seen Portia like this, it was slightly terrifying.
“I'll get it for you.” Portia declared and shoved her bear into Ariana’s arms. “I have enough quarters left.”
“What? Portia. It’s okay. There's only-” Ariana peered into the machine, “one left. And I can see something red inside. Sailor Neptune isn't red. It’s fine. And I can hear the streetcar, come on we’re gonna miss it.”
Portia grinned at her, “I'll get it for you,” she repeated. The coin slid easily into the slot and Portia turns the knob. Something in the machine turns and the two of them watch as the little plastic ball clatters down to the flap. Portia pulled out the ball without any hesitation and offered it up to the other girl.
Ariana traded the bear for the ball and cracked it open with experienced ease. She almost didn’t want to look because Portia was so excited that Ariana didn’t want to disappoint her.
It was blue. It was Sailor Neptune. It was the one she wanted. What were the odds. She could probably calculate those in her sleep but right now she didn’t even care. “Portia, you did it!” Ariana pumped her fist in the air, her prize clenched tightly between her fingers.
She grabbed Portia by the waist, and in the excitement of things, kissed her. She didn’t even realize what she had done until after she had done it. Portia didn’t say anything, but she was buzzing with excitement, she was jumping up and down.
They missed the streetcar home.
Ariana had an encounter with Lady Luck. Her name was Portia Vallon.
“Ria? Earth to Ria?”
Ariana blinked, a hand was waving in front of her face. “Oh, Portia. I didn’t see you there.”
“Did someone not go to their optometry appointment?” Portia teased. She handed Ariana her drink so that she could sit down, carefully folding her skirt underneath her as she did.
Ariana took a sip of the drink absentmindedly, prepared for sugar to just assault her mouth. It wasn’t very sweet at all, still strawberry flavoured, but not nearly as sweet, or creamy. She liked it. Confused, she looked at Portia. “What is this? They run out of your favourite drink?”
“It’s just a strawberry green tea lemonade. I saved up enough points for a free drink on my points card and I knew that my brilliant girlfriend was going to be getting her essay back and might need a little pick me up.” Portia looked pointedly at the pile of ignored papers on Ariana’s lap.
Oh yeah, they were dating. They had been dating for a year now? A year. Ariana never got tired of hearing Portia refer to her as girlfriend. There was just something about those words that made her insides warm and tingly.
“Uhm, I haven’t looked at it yet.”
Portia sighed. “Ria.”
“I’ll look, I’ll look. Turn around.” Arianna waved her hand at Portia, who huffed and got up instead.
“I’m not going to play this game with you, Ria. Not this time. You look whenever you want to look and you can text me when you’re done being dramatic. But preferably in this century.” Portia leaned over and gave Ariana what was supposed to be a brief kiss.
Ariana, expecting the kiss, reached up for the back of Portia’s neck and deepened it, fully intending to hopefully distract the ginger. Kissing Portia was as exciting and great as the first time they had kissed. It like taking a shot of adrenaline mixed with liquid electricity and sunshine and sugar. It was Ariana’s favourite shot. Forget alcohol. Portia was her vice.
Portia pulled away first, squinting suspiciously at Ariana. “I know what you’re trying to do. It’s not going to work, Ria. Look at your essay.” And with that, Portia skipped off.
“Babe! You can't leave me here with this essay all by myself! That’s inhumane! That's cruel and unnecessary torture!” Ariana called out after Portia’s retreating form. But it was no use. Portia was gone.
With a sigh, Ariana steeled herself and picked up her essay. The prof always put the mark on the second page instead of the title page. For privacy reasons.
Okay. On the count of three.
One.
Two.
Three.
She almost ripped the title page clean off in her nervousness. She blinked at the page. A.
She got an A.
Impossible.
But there it was. A big red A.
“Yes! Yes! I did it! Portia, I did it!”
Portia was nowhere to be seen.
Ariana’s phone buzzes.
Babe (3:42): I knew you could do it. <3 Don’t forget. Reservation at 7 pm tonight.
Ria (3:42): Uhmm… Right!
Babe (3:42): Ria!
Ria (3:43): I’m kidding! I can’t believe you thought that. My memory isn’t that bad! It’s our one year anniversary. How could I ever forget.
Ariana smiled to herself. It was still unbelievable that they were dating, that Portia was her girlfriend, and Ariana was Portia's, that Portia would be willing to give this relationship a try with her.
Ariana had an encounter with Lady Luck. Her name was Portia Vallon.
Ariana Henries was the luckiest girl because of it.