First Dates

Of all the girls Flash Sentry had ever spent time with, this one right here was probably the hardest to read. Maud Pie had always been known for being far more reserved than her bubbly younger sister, Pinkie, and yet, sitting opposite from her now, Flash truly came to grips with just how reserved she was.

"So...um...are you having fun, Maud?"

The girl didn't even blink as she gave her answer.

"I am. The milkshakes are nice and you're being very polite to me so far."

Flash cleared his throat.

"Yes...well...I certainly try to be."

He glanced around, desperately trying to think of something to say to her. Then, realising that there was one thing he knew about her for certain, he looked back to her with a smile.

"So, I imagine living with Pinkie must be quiet something."

Maud gave the barest of nods.

"She's an incredibly excitable girl who always strives to be as happy as possible. Living with her is delightful."

The expression she wore as she'd said that was, as usual, utterly emotionless, and for a brief moment Flash actually wondered if she'd meant what she'd said. But he dismissed the thought, instead leaning onto his side of the table between them, continuing to smile at her.

"I'm sure you've got a lot of interesting stories from when you two were growing up. I mean...is Pinkie as happy at home as she is at school?"

Maud paused as she considered that, then gave her date his answer.

"No."

Flash seemed surprised.

"No?"

Maud shook her head a little bit.

"...She's even happier."

Flash said nothing for a moment, then gave a dry laugh.

"Yeah...guess I sort of set myself up for that one."

Then, inspiration came to him, and he again smiled at her, speaking with a more upbeat tone than before.

"You know, I saw your geology tour at the museum the other day. It was pretty interesting."

Maud, for just a short while, didn't answer, instead taking her own milkshake and giving it a quick slurp. When she did finally speak, it was with the same monotone as always.

"Thanks. I'm sure having Pinkie and her friend add their little flourishes certainly helped you watch it."

But surprisingly, Flash shook his head.

"No, I wasn't talking about that one. I'm talking about your other tours, when Pinkie and the other girls aren't there."

If Maud was taken aback by that, she didn't show it.

"Most people found my explanations of the rock displays to be...less than thrilling."

Flash laughed.

"Maybe...but I found it all pretty interesting. I mean, even if you don't speak with the same energy as Pinkie might, stuff like how some rocks came out of volcanoes is pretty neat."

As before, Maud gave another micro-nod.

"I appreciate your kind words. I know I'm not exactly the most interesting of girls, so it's nice to have someone say that to me."

Flash's smile faded a little.

"Who says you're not interesting?"

Slowly, Maud glanced out of the nearby window.

"Some of the other people who come to the museum."

Her date frowned.

"Well they shouldn't. You are interesting, Maud."

Maud looked back to him.

"You're nice...but you don't have to say things like that just to try and make me feel better."

Flash shook his head.

"I meant it! Maud, I know you're not like other girls, I know you know that, but you have a lot to offer! Your love of geology is just as big as Pinkie's love of parties, or Rainbow's love of sports, or even my love of music!"

He regained his smile.

"So what if you don't have a lot of emotion in your voice or expression? You still feel it! Other people might think that about you, but you're not some robot or something!"

Maud gave another slow blink.

"...Thank you. Your words make me feel a deep sense of appreciation. I am utterly overjoyed to know there's someone besides my sisters who is able to see the deep passion I have in my soul."

Flash gave a slow blink to that, rather taken aback by her sudden use of words. Then, after a while, he cracked a smile.

"Wow, you could write a few poems with stuff like that."

Maud took a second slurp of her milkshake before answering.

"Thanks, but I prefer my stand-up stuff personally."

The boy was surprised at that.

"Oh? You do comedy stuff?"

His date nodded.

"Not very often, but yes. Every few Saturdays I like to come to places like this café and tell some jokes."

Now looking interested, Flash's smile widened, and he leaned back into his chair.

"Neat. Got any right now?"

Maud took a brief look down at her now-empty milkshake cup, thinking on some joke to give to her companion for the day. Then, after about a minute of waiting, Flash watched as she looked up to him again.

"There is one. You might need to take hold of yourself though, just in case your sides split from laughter."

Flash chuckled.

"Now I'm really excited to hear it. Go on."

Balling her hand into a fist, Maud raised it to her mouth and cleared her throat, before finally unleashing her great joke to her lone audience.

"Alright...two geologists are working at the museum together. They've had a long day analysing lots of metamorphic rock samples. When the day ends, they get their coats and head on outside. When they shake hands at the end and part ways, one of them says..."

She paused, no doubt for dramatic effect.

"...it was gneiss to work with you today."

Flash watched her, seeing that the joke had now ended, but his expression made it very clear that he just hadn't got it. Maud, for her part, recognised this ignorance straight away, and so started to explain herself.

"Gneiss. G, N, E, I, S, S. It's a common form of metamorphic rock, and it's pronounced the exact same was as the word nice."

Now understanding, Flash let out a hearty laugh.

"Oh, yeah, that was pretty funny."

Maud again looked to her empty cup.

"You don't have to pretend to find my jokes funny if you don't want to."

But again, Flash shook his head.

"No, I did find it funny! I just, you know, needed to understand it first. If I'd have known about gneiss stuff before, then trust me, I'd be bawling with laughter right now!"

It took a while, but Maud eventually nodded.

"...Thank you."

Flash smiled.

"And hey, at least your love of rocks is something we have in common."

Maud gave a tiny tilt of her head, leading to Flash elaborating.

"Well, I am a...rock musician after all. Huh?...Huh?"

Maud blinked.

"...That was funny."

Flash sighed.

"Thanks. I kinda worried I'd be digging my own grave with that one."

The girl shook her head.

"You weren't...I'm not the kind of girl to be so...coal-blooded about it."

Flash snickered.

"After we finish our time here, we should head over to the local grocery store. I hear their vegetables are...on shale."

"I doubt our date is in any risk of...eroding," Maud added.

"It's a good thing we got to this café early. You know their policy...be there ore be square!" Flash continued.

They carried on this this for some time, until finally, one of the nearby patrons leapt out of his chair, screaming his head off and running out of the café.

"GAH!!! I can't take it! Make them stop!"

Flash and Maud watched him go, and once everything had gone quiet, they looked again to one another.

"What bug crawled up his butt?" Flash asked.

Maud paused, then gave her thoughts on the matter.

"It's sedimentary, my dear Flash...some people have no sense of humour."