“This was the worst idea ever!”

The anger and irritation in Aria’s voice would have been plain even to a complete novice at reading people. Her expression was a deep frown right now and, as she stood in one of the many hallways of Canterlot High, all she seemed to want to occupy her time with was standing in front of one locker and repeatedly banging her head against it. Nearby were all of the people who had been trying to help her over the last few weeks. Adagio, Sonata, Sunset, and finally, Twilight Sparkle, who was looking particularly disappointed right now, going over a lot of the notes in her hands.

“I…I just don’t get it! Everything pointed to those guys being perfect for you! How could everyone on my list have been a failure?”

Aria, still banging her head, spoke up in response, her tone one of annoyance.

“Out of curiosity, did you actually talk that much to them yourself before pushing them on me?”

Twilight considered that for a few moments, only to find herself shutting her mouth with a look of slight embarrassment. Even though Aria wasn’t looking at her right now, she could tell just from the silence what the response was going to be, and so just kept on doing what she was doing. Sunset, giving Twilight a reassuring pat on the shoulder, looked to Aria with concern.

“Aria…you know you can’t keep doing that forever, right? What do you hope to accomplish by banging your head so much?”

Frowning hard, Aria responded as she continued banging her head.

“Maybe I’m hoping I’ll give myself amnesia or something if I do it long enough. Or maybe it’ll just give me a bruise that’ll ache for weeks. I don’t know, but either option would be better than what the last week has put me through!”

Sonata, stepping forward, looked as cheery as ever as she spoke to her sister.

“Awww, come on, Ari, don’t be like that! What about that Micro Chips guy? He was pretty nice, right?”

Aria scoffed before answering.

“Yeah, sure…until I found out he already had a girlfriend.”

Realisation crossed Sonata’s face after hearing that.

“Oh…right.”

The words also had the effect of making Twilight look more embarrassed than before.

“Yeah…I guess I sort of forgot to task about that before putting my list together.”

Adagio, who had been standing quietly this whole time, shook her head at this display before taking a step forward and addressing her sister directly.

"Aria, I know I usually ask for the best myself in most cases, but you really shouldn’t be so picky with your lovers! Granted, most of them were dull…and even a little irritating, but you could have at least gotten some fun out of them.”

At long last, Aria stopped her head-based assault on the locker, turning to her sister with a disapproving scowl.

“Adagio, I told you already, I’m not looking for that. I’m looking for…for…”

After thinking about it, Aria let out another grunt of annoyance before, as she’d been doing this whole time, giving a particularly loud headbutt against the locker.

“Argh! I don’t know what I’m looking for! But…I’ll know it when it happens, alright?”

Adagio folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at that response.

“Well…it’s hardly how I'd look for some companionship…but, do as you will. Though I will say your current strategy hasn’t really been getting you anywhere, now has it?”

Needless to say, Aria was growing increasingly irritated with such comments. However, before she got the chance to say anything, Sunset walked beside Adagio, speaking to her in a softer tone.

“Adagio…maybe it’ll be better if we give her some space. It’s been a long week and she’s clearly not in the mood for this right now.”

The eldest Siren looked to the former unicorn with a degree of scepticism, staring at her and seeing the concern on her face. Looking back to her sister, Adagio noted the way she just looked tired after all of this, even without the continual head-banging. Gradually, she let out a sigh, her expression softening from what it had been this whole time. Slowly, she reached forward, giving Aria a quick pat on the shoulder, before gesturing to Sonata. The blue Siren gave Aria a concerned look before following her older sister. As for Twilight and Sunset, they stayed a few moments longer, after which they too left her to be with her thoughts. Aria herself just stayed the course, until the sounds of her banging her head were the only thing that could he beard in the hallways, like some kind of strange ticking clock. During it all, the middle Siren sister kept on grumbling under her breath.

“Stupid…annoying…never gonna find anyone…stupid…waste of time…”

However, it was here that she heard it; somebody clearing their throat. For a moment, confusion gripped her, as she knew that the other four had already left, and so, slowly, she began to turn. There standing just as few feet away from her, was a boy. Slightly shorter than her, he was clad in a bright white button shirt, his brown hair cut into a pudding-bowl style. And right now, he was poking his index fingers together, looking somewhat nervous as he looked to her. Aria, for her part, frowned slightly at seeing him.

“Um…can I help you?”

Eventually, and after a few false starts, the boy spoke.

“Well…um…it’s just that…well…I kinda need to get to my locker and…you’re banging your head against it.”

As one would expect, Aria hadn’t really given much thought to the locker she’d chosen for this, and when she turned to look at it, she found, to her slight embarrassment, that there was now a noticeable dent in it where her head had met it. After looking from the boy, to the locker and then back again, she paused for a moment, before finally stepping to one side.

“…Sorry.”

The boy, in contrast to how she might have expected, actually smiled in response.

“No biggie.”

Aria, raising her eyebrow at this, regarded the lad as he made his way over to his locker, opening it up before slipping off his school bag and starting to offload some of his book. Aria, for her part, looked away from him, leaning against another nearby set of lockers while folding her arms. There was silence from her for a while, and during which, the boy looked to her, seeing the uncomfortable expression she wore. He looked, in all honesty, hesitant over something, mentally wrestling with a decision, before finally just speaking up.

“You, er…you okay?”

Aria looked to him, narrowing her eyes somewhat.

“Personal problem. Nothing to worry about.”

Her tone was straight and to the point, but while the boy could, like most, tell that she didn’t want to talk right now, he nevertheless did so.

“Look, I…I know it’s not really my place, but…you know, people always say it’s best to talk about stuff if it’s bothering you.”

To that, Aria let out a dry chuckle.

“Trust me, kid, I’ve been hearing that for a while now. And after all that, I’m still alone, aren’t I?”

Hearing those words, the boy gained a look of curiosity.

“Oh. You’re…you’re looking for someone?”

Aria, realising what she’d let slip out, widened her eyes, before turning away so she was no longer looking at him.

“It’s nothing! It’s just…just harder than you might think.”

Again, the boy seemed hesitant about all of this, and for a minute or two, he glanced back in the direction of his locker, taking out a particularly large book before trying to stuff it into his bag. When that was all done however, he looked back to Aria.

“Um…don’t take this the wrong way, but…I’m actually kinda surprised that you’d find it hard to find someone.”

The middle Siren sister looked down at him, an incredulous look upon her face, which prompted the boy, who was more than a little nervous at this point, to start explaining himself.

“Well…it’s just that…you know…you look…I mean…you’d be at least noticed, right?”

Raising an eyebrow, Aria, rather than getting annoyed at such remarks, started to speak to him in a somewhat playful tone.

“You’re saying you think I look good?”

Naturally, the boy started to blush at that, turning to look at his locker again.

“Well, I…I don’t want you to think I’m too forward in saying so but…yes?”

For a brief moment, Aria looked taken aback by this, but, soon afterwards, regained her slightly mocking expression.

"You do know that flattery will probably get you nowhere with me, right, kid?”

The boy, keeping his eyes away from her, continued to blush fiercely as he nodded.

“Sure, but...I mean…you look good, but, it's not just looks, you know, It’s…er…other stuff. Like the way you stand, looking all tough and stuff. And, if I'm being honest…your voice is kinda nice?”

To that, Aria seemed a little confused.

“My voice?”

Looking to her, the boy nodded again.

“Yeah. It’s like…you’ve got this sort of huskiness to it that…well…sounds kinda…attractive. To me anyway.”

At this point, Aria was looking far less uncomfortable than she had been when her day began, and started to regard the boy more intently. After a while, she placed her hands upon her hips, looking to him with a raised eyebrow.

"You don't talk to a lotta girls, do ya, kid?"

He looked away at that, embarrassment all over his face, prompting Aria to smirk once more as she continued asking questions.

“What’s your name, kid?”

At that, the boy looked somewhat nervous, darting his eyes left and right to avoid looking her in the eye.”

“Oh, it’s…erm…it’s Wiz. Wiz Kid.”

Immediately, Aria slapped a hand over her mouth, stifling a snicker on her part.

“Did…did you just say Wiz Kid?”

Lowering his head, Wiz buried his face in his hands as he responded.

“Don’t. Every joke. Every pun. Done to death. Seriously.”

Shaking her head a little after recovering from her halted laugh, Aria wiped away a tear from the moment before looking to the boy with a smile.

“I’m sorry, it’s just…did your parents hate you or something?”

Looking to her again, Wiz didn’t seem bothered by the remark in the slightest, instead shrugging his shoulder before speaking up with a somewhat deadpan tone of voice.

“Oh, no, they loved me. In fact, I often choose to believe that their choice of name for me was them being so blinded by love that they failed to take into account how silly the name might sound when other people say it.”

Hearing that, Aria laughed again. However, unlike the first laugh, this one sounded very different. A slightly higher pitch and, if anything, more feminine than how she usually sounded. The moment she realised this, and how it might have sounded to others, she slapped a hand over her mouth, looking utterly mortified, and hoping deep down that Wiz hadn’t caught it. But, sadly, he had, and now looked to her with slight shock in his expression.

“Did…did you just...giggle?”

Lowering her hand, Aria’s eyes darted about nervously.

“Um…no?”

Slowly, a smirk appeared on Wiz’s face.

“You did! You giggled!”

Frowning, Aria balled her hand into a fist, raising it in a menacing manner towards him.

“Kid, if you tell anyone about this, I swear...!”

Wiz raised his hands in a defensive posture.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed. I mean...well...it actually sounded...kinda nice, hearing you laugh like that."

Despite fighting against herself in this, Aria, still taken aback by this, found a tiny blush creeping onto her cheeks. But, by way of centuries worth of self-control, she forced it back, regaining her earlier frown and shaking her fist a second time.

"Kid...one...more...word!"

But he was far from intimidated, instead leaning into the nearby locker, laughing heartily at what he’d just experienced. Now, to those who knew Aria, they might have, justifiably, expected her to just lose it right there, perhaps even hitting the guy. But, as she stood there, hearing him laugh, she stopped, her face morphing from one of anger, to one of confusion, before eventually turning to one that was a mix of shock and recognition. Wiz, when his laugh had died down, saw this look on her face, becoming just slightly concerned about it.

“Are…are you okay?”

Aria, lowering her fist, looked away from him, a slight look of nostalgia now crossing her face.

“Yeah. It’s just…when you laughed, you sounded like…”

But, she shook her head after that.

“It’s nothing. Just…just thinking about someone else.”

Wiz looked to her for a moment, curiosity upon his face, before shrugging his shoulders. He turned to his locker before closing it, picking up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. When this was all done, he looked to Aria once more, his expression a soft one.

“You know…it was kinda nice talking to you, Aria.”

Aria looked to him, and though she seemed hesitant at first, she soon gave a nod, fondling her arms as she did so and bearing a neutral expression throughout.

“Yeah…sure.”

Wiz nodded to her before starting to walk off, moving past her and no doubt heading to some other class of some sort. Aria watched him go, her expression one of uncertainty. But, before she could say or do anything, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps coming from behind her. Turning, she saw, to her surprise, that the four who had left her, Adagio, Sunset, Sonata and Twilight, were all walking back to her. The looks on their faces made it clear that they wanted to speak to her, and when they finally reached her, it was Adagio who did just that.

“We stopped hearing the sounds of you banging your head at last. Everything okay?”

Aria, looking to all of them, gave a nod.

“Yeah, I…I think I’m okay now.”

Sonata, hearing that, gave out a loud sigh.

“That's a relief! We were super worried about you, Ari!”

Sunset nodded to that.

“Yeah, we were actually wondering if you were gonna do that all day or something.”

Aria chuckled slightly.

“Well, you don’t need to worry about that. I’m fine.”

The girls all smiled, clearly happy to hear that. As for Twilight, she moved closer, her face an expectant one.

“So…you ready to get back into it? I’ve actually made a whole new list if you're interested!”

Needless to say, Aria did not seem interested by that, looking to Twilight almost with a sense of fear at having to go through more failed dates. However, as she considered that, a new thought grew in her mind, leading to her putting on a small smile.

“Actually…I think I have a different plan.”

The girls all looked to each other with confusion for a moment before looking back to Aria, who, to their surprise, turned away from them. She looked down the hall, to where Wiz was still walking, and, taking a deep breath, called out to him.

“Hey! Wiz!”

The boy stopped immediately, turning to see her before calling out himself.

“Yeah?!”

Knowing she’d got his attention, Aria called out again.

“What are you doing after school?”

The boy seemed taken aback by that question, but, after thinking about it, shouted back the answer.

“Well, I’ve got some homework and a little basketball practise, but…after that…nothing really.”

Smiling, Aria shouted once more.

“Wanna go and grab a milkshake at Sugar Cube Corner?”

Wiz, hearing that, gained a slight blush, and was momentarily lost for words. But, after regaining his composure, he gave the Siren his response.

“Um…Sure?”

Aria smiled and nodded.

“Great! I’ll see you there then!”

Wiz gave a thumbs up, but soon looked away, bearing a look that made it quite obvious that he had no idea how he’d gotten himself into this situation. As for Aria, she turned back to the others, seeing the dumbfounded looks on their faces. Folding her arms, she took a moment to enjoy them like this, bearing a smirk as she spoke to them.

“Thanks for your help, all of you. But…I think I need to go and get ready for a date.”

And with that, she was off, walking past them and heading off elsewhere, leaving many of them speechless. After a good five minutes of them staring blankly at both her and each other, it was Adagio who spoke up, breaking the silence.

“Alright…would somebody care to explain what just happened?”

Sunset, hearing that, turned to see Aria walking off, noticing the somewhat confident way in which she did so. It took a while, but eventually, the former unicorn’s expression softened, and she broke into a smile as she turned to Adagio once more.

“I think…you’re sister’s gonna be okay.”