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It was a Friday evening, just after dinner, and Odd left the cafeteria with Aelita. He was excitedly talking about going to the arcade later when Aelita said it: “I’ve never been to an arcade.”
Odd stopped. His brain froze for a moment before he remembered that Aelita had been trapped on Lyoko for years. “Oh, Princess. You’ve got to come with me! It’s a place where you play games and earn prizes! It’s lots of fun!”
Aelita immediately answered, “OK, let’s go!” Odd took her hand and they started walking together.
The arcade wasn’t far from campus, it was just a short walk. The whole way, Odd was telling her about different games and how you won tickets that were used to get prizes. Aelita absorbed the information and smiled at how excited Odd was. He’s so cute. I love seeing him like this.
When they reached the arcade, Odd flung open the door so Aelita could step inside first. “Behold, Princess! A neon castle of chaos and fun!”
Aelita took in her surroundings. It was bright and loud. There were so many machines with flashing lights, like every machine was fighting for her attention. She could hear an overlapping chorus of sound effects from the various games, along with people chattering and the constant thud of skee-balls rolling down the lanes.
Odd watched her cautiously, waiting for her to react. Is it too much? Too loud? He couldn’t take the suspense anymore, so he spoke over the noise. “What do you think, Princess?”
Aelita looked at him with a glint in her eyes. “I love it!” she shouted.
Odd’s heart swelled. “Yes! Let me show you around!”
They walked through the arcade with Odd pointing out a few games as they went. There was a row of skee-ball machines lined up against a wall. “This is skee-ball, you throw a ball down the lane and try to land it in the circles.” Then whack-a-mole machines. “Stuff pops up and you hit it with a mallet!”
Aelita stopped to look at machines that had a platform moving back and forth to push coins. Odd explained, “You put a coin in there and try to push off the other coins. I’m not good at this one honestly.”
Aelita added thoughtfully, “Looks like it takes concentration.”
Odd shrugged and led her toward a bright sign that said “Prizes” in neon script.
“And this is where they keep the prizes! You turn in your tickets to get something cool to take home! Or candy.”
Odd watched Aelita as her eyes scanned the rows of toys, gadgets, and plushies. She had a sparkle in her eyes. “Are we going to win something?” she asked, looking back at Odd.
Odd’s heart melted. He decided in that moment that he would win anything she wanted. He moved closer and leaned against the glass display case. “Of course, Princess. Pick whatever you want.”
Aelita smiled widely and looked back over all the prizes. In the middle of the wall behind the counter there was a medium-sized plush cat that caught her attention. It was pink with large embroidered eyes and a gold bow tied around its neck. Odd noticed Aelita’s eyes light up and followed her gaze as she pointed at one. “The pink cat.” The sign said 600 tickets.
Odd grinned. “OK! Let’s win that cat plushie!” He started walking toward a change machine, and Aelita followed him. She was still looking around the arcade at all the different machines.
Odd pulled out two $10 bills from his wallet and fed one into the change machine. He grabbed one of the plastic cups from the top of the machine and put the quarters in it. Aelita looked over at the sound of the coins being dispensed. Odd handed her the cup of quarters. “This is what you’ll use to play the games,” he explained with a grin.
Aelita took the cup and replied, “Thanks, Odd!”
Odd fed the other $10 bill into the change machine and dropped the coins into a pocket of his cargo pants.
Aelita looked at her cup of quarters excitedly. “So what’s the plan? How do we win the plushie?”
Odd had a thoughtful look. “Well, the plushie is 600 tickets. We should be able to win that, no problem. First, let’s see what kind of games you like!”
They walked through the arcade to the rows of skee-ball machines. They each took a lane and played side-by-side, laughing when a ball would fail to land in a ring and cheering when Odd got a ball into the 50-point ring.
After a few rounds, they moved on to whack-a-mole. Odd handed Aelita the mallet. “Just hit anything that pops up!” Aelita nodded and Odd put a quarter in the machine. The game started slow and Aelita was doing good. She had fast reflexes from fighting monsters on Lyoko. Odd was cheering her on. Then suddenly, two moles popped up at the same time! Aelita hit one but wasn’t fast enough to get the other. She heard a clack - Odd had whacked it with his hand. They both laughed.
Another mole popped up and Odd whacked it with his hand. “Don’t let your guard down, Princess!”
Aelita turned her attention back to the game, with Odd jumping in to help when there were too many moles at a time. The game ended, and a small stream of tickets pushed out of the machine. Odd took them and put them in a cargo pocket with the winnings from skee-ball.
Aelita scanned the room and pointed to a game with a net hanging from a hoop. “What’s that hoop for?” she asked. Odd grinned. “Come on, I’ll show you!”
They ran over, and Odd took two quarters from his pocket with a flourish. “Stand back, Princess, and be amazed at my skills!” Aelita chuckled and watched him put the quarters in the machine. Five basketballs slid down the slope toward Odd. He picked one up and tossed it toward the hoop. It went in! The scoreboard updated. He quickly picked up another ball and threw it. He was moving quickly, not always making it in the hoop. The basketballs kept rolling back to him and he kept throwing. Aelita cheered, “Go, Odd!” Odd seemed even more focused. After a couple of minutes, the basketballs stopped rolling back and the game was over. Tickets fed out of the machine.
“Way to go, Odd!” They laughed and celebrated.
Odd was glad that Aelita was having such a good time.
Aelita spotted a strange-looking game in the middle of the room and walked toward it. Odd followed her. It was a machine with a glass top. There were four toy dump trucks with a ramp moving from side to side. There were coins in the truck beds, and a few on the platform around them. Odd wasn’t good at this game, but he did his best to explain it to Aelita. “For this game, you send a coin down the ramp and try to land it in a truck.” He leaned forward and tapped the glass. “You can also hit the tiny levers to dump all the coins in the truck and you’ll get lots of tickets!”
At the word tickets, Aelita’s eyes widened. “That’s right! We need to see how many tickets we have!”
Odd took out the wad of tickets in his cargo pocket. “I’ll go have them counted while you try this game.” He walked off toward the ticket counting machine.
Aelita focused on the game in front of her. She watched the movement of the ramp arm and tried to judge when it would be over a truck. She took a quarter from her cup and held it to the slot for a second before releasing it to the ramp. It moved more slowly than she expected and landed on the platform between two trucks. She frowned and studied the arm’s movement more closely. She tried to judge the amount of time it would take the coin to travel down the ramp. She carefully released another quarter, and it landed in a truck bed! The machine made exciting sound effects and a few tickets rolled out of the machine. Aelita smiled to herself. This game isn’t hard.
Odd fed the tickets into the counting machine and watched the digital numbers go up as the tickets flew into the machine. The total read 380 tickets. Odd pressed a button and a receipt printed out with the total.
He returned to Aelita and saw that she had won some tickets. “Having fun, Princess?”
Aelita smiled at him. “Odd! I like this game. I got a quarter into the truck!”
Odd stared for a moment, admiring her excitement. She was absolutely captivating. He could tell that he was getting a goofy grin on his face. Aelita was still looking at him, so he forced his brain into action. “That’s great, Princess! I’m glad you’ve found a game you like.”
Aelita looked at the paper in his hand. “What’s that?”
Odd showed her the receipt. “This shows how many tickets we have. We’ve got 380 so far.”
Aelita did the math quickly in her head. “We need 220 more.”
Odd gave her an impressed nod. “We can do that, no problem.”
Aelita stayed at the dump truck game while Odd ran off to play random games. Aelita was good at timing and predicting when she should release a quarter. Most of her coins landed in the dump truck, and she almost hit the dump lever once.
Odd played another round of the basketball toss and a few rounds of whack-a-mole. After about twenty minutes, he went to check on Aelita. As he approached, he noticed a neat stack of tickets below the machine, with tickets continuing to flow. He looked up at her, and his heart skipped a beat. She looked so determined, with a hand poised at the coin slot, watching the ramp arm. Odd held his breath as she released the coin, and a moment later, the machine chimed while more tickets spilled out.
Odd stepped forward as Aelita was reaching for another quarter. She noticed him approach and turned to face him. She excitedly motioned toward the tickets. “Odd! Look!”
Odd exclaimed, “Princess! You’re a natural! I think I’m in love!”
Aelita laughed, not realizing that he was telling the truth - he really was in love.
She tore the last ticket from the machine and picked up the tickets she had won. “I wonder if we have enough!”
Odd motioned toward the ticket counting machine. “Let’s find out!” Aelita grabbed her cup of remaining quarters and followed Odd.
Odd showed Aelita how to feed the tickets into the machine, and they watched the numbers go up. The last of the tickets disappeared and the total stopped at 160. They looked at each other excitedly as Aelita pressed the button to print the receipt.
“Wow, that’s really impressive!” Odd complimented her, as he stepped forward to count his tickets.
They both watched as the counter stopped at 75 tickets. Aelita squealed, “We have enough!”
Odd wasn’t good at mental math, so he just trusted her. “Yes! This is great!"
Aelita handed the cup of quarters to Odd. "I didn't need all of these. Thanks for letting me use them."
Odd smiled and emptied the cup into his pocket. "I'll keep them for you to use next time!" Aelita nodded and Odd added, "Let’s go get your plushie!”
Aelita nearly bounced to the prize counter, her eyes on the pink cat plushie. Odd leaned closer to her and gave her the rest of the receipts. “Just let the attendant know what you want and give them these papers.”
Aelita caught his eyes and nodded. “This is so exciting!”
A young woman behind the counter leaned toward them. “What can I get ya?”
Aelita pointed. “I’d like the pink cat plushie, please.”
The attendant nodded. “Can I see your tickets?”
Aelita handed over the three receipts. The attendant glanced down at them, then turned and picked up the plushie. Aelita quickly shot a very excited smile to Odd before turning her attention to the pink cat plushie being handed to her. She took the plushie and gave it a hug. Odd jumped in excitement and shouted, “Plushie acquired!”
The attendant spoke up, “You’ve still got 15 tickets. What else do ya want?”
They looked at the bins with lower-ticket items. There was a bin of skateboard keychains for 10 tickets, and Aelita spotted a purple one. Aelita elbowed Odd and pointed. “That’s perfect for you!”
Odd agreed and asked the attendant for a purple skateboard keychain. She handed it over and said, “5 tickets left.”
Odd shrugged. “Maybe candy?”
Aelita looked over the candy that was priced at 5 tickets. “Skittles?” she suggested. Odd nodded and Aelita asked for a pack of Skittles.
They left the arcade, Aelita hugging the plushie and Odd admiring his keychain. He dropped it in a cargo pocket as Aelita handed him the Skittles. He opened the bag and poured some in her hand and then poured some for himself. They walked back to campus, sharing a bag of candy and talking excitedly about how much fun they had at the arcade.
Aelita suggested, “Let’s come back next week!” Odd agreed, and Aelita added, “And let’s invite the others.”
Odd smiled at her. “You bet. We can’t let them miss the fun.”