by Arsene Mayura 4th August 2014, 2:12 am
There was clearly something bothering her, and if Eli had to wager on it, he'd say something happened to something she cared for. She seemed to listen when he suggested thinking of something happy, but when her reaction suddenly changed he made a mental note of it. It was none of his business, but Eli always made sure to know as much as he could about people; it often lead to an advantage later on one way or another. As she covered the book, Eli stood up and returned to his seat, sitting down gently and returning his hands to the fanned out cards.
He gave her a small smile. "If you want to, I'm more than willing. I'm gonna teach you a simple game, one that's played almost everywhere across the world; Blackjack." He decided to leave out that it was a gambling game, what the nun didn't know couldn't hurt her. "The point of the game is simple; you play against the dealer to try and get cards that add up closest to 21. You count the King, Queen, and Jack as 10, and an Ace can be 1 or 11, your choice." Stacking the deck together, he shuffled it methodically and nicely. He was gonna teach her a simpler version, it should be easy. "I'll play the dealer. I deal you a card, then myself one." Doing this, he placed a one in front of Kiersa, the Seven of Hearts, and one in front of himself, the Nine of Spades. "Next, I deal you one more face up, and one face down for me." He then dealt the 3 of Spades to her and one face down to himself.
"Right now, your hand is 10, while you only know that mine is 9. What happens next is this; you have the choice to either take a "hit", which is where I deal you another card, or "Stand", where I don't deal you anything. You can take as many hits as you want to try and get to 21, but if you go over you "bust" and lose. After you finish your turn, I go. I flip my face down card face up. If it puts me under 17, I have to deal myself until I hit 17 or higher, including if I bust." He explained it all thuoughly and slowly, trying to make it easy for her to understand. "Now, it's your turn, do you wish to hit or stand?" He wondered what action the girl would take first; was she going to aggressively hit or play safe?