Let The Good Times Roll!

Honest To A Fault

Charlie didn't really like violence, especially killing, but she understood why they felt they had to sometimes after seeing how their Family worked from the inside... And knowing that Luck was doing it because he cared about his brothers and the other members of the Family, Charlie couldn't really hate that part of him.

Truth be told, they were all real men.

That's right, real men—just like the guys that are contemptuous of the law, who often appear in movies. That's the main reason why Charlie felt that these three guys aren't like the Mafia. Isn't this like telling a story? That's because this place isn't like New Orleans, where almost every story seemed to be a fairytale with a happy ending. This was a place of harsh reality—a place where only the fittest survive—New York.

"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about it, Miss Charlie. We're not actually keeping score since this game is just for you to learn the rules. None of the mistakes you make now will count against you," Luck reassured her, smirking slightly in amusement.

It turned out that Charlie was also a fairly quick learner, and already had most of the rules down. She just seemed to be having a little trouble remembering the names of certain hands.

"In that case... I have a straight?" Charlie asked, unsure if she had said it right as she revealed her hand to the table.

She was holding a nine, a ten, a jack, a queen, and a king... all of them were spades, the same suit.

"..." Keith said as he stared at her hand.

That wasn't just any old straight. It was a straight flush, and a ridiculously high one at that. It was practically one card away from being a royal flush!

"Argh! Dammit, Charlie! What the hell is this? Your 'beginner's luck' just keeps getting stronger and stronger!" Berga exclaimed incredulously as he resisted the urge to bang his head against the table.

"Haha, that's not just a straight, Miss Charlie," Luck said, smiling wryly. "When they're all the same suit, it's called a straight flush," he explained.

"Ohhh," Charlie said thoughtfully, nodding in understanding, as she filed that away for future reference. "And, judging by Mr. Berga's reaction, my hand is higher than his, huh?"

"Yes. You've beaten me this round too, but it seems Keith's hand is still higher than yours, so he wins this time," Luck explained as he and Keith showed their hands too.

"..." Charlie stared at Keith's cards, confused. "That's weird. I could've sworn that queen of hearts wouldn't be popping up until three hands later..." she thought out loud.

"... Wait, what did you just say?" Berga asked her, furrowing his brow slightly. "Are you accusing Keith of cheating?"

"No. I was just trying to figure out where I lost count of the cards," Charlie said frankly.

"Miss Charlie, that's not something you should say out loud. You shouldn't tell the people you're playing against that you can count the cards like that, because it'll make them more wary of you," Luck chided her.

Keith nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, hearing a beginner say that they're able to do something as difficult as that kinda pisses me off," Berga grumbled, chagrined.

He could never keep track of where all the cards were, and he had been playing poker for years.

"I might be new at poker, but I've been playing other card games since I was little. The men who came to the sporting house would sometimes play games with me while they were waiting for their turns," Charlie explained, a little miffed that she was being underestimated so much.