//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: A surprising visit // Story: [Insert Bad Pun Relating to Change] // by 78_Percent_Eggs //------------------------------// “Hey!” Drake’s best friend, Carson Mendelsohn, ran to catch up with him in the hall. He was tall and blond and almost always wore something green. They shared a love of comic books and Star Wars, which was probably the reason they were so close in the first place. Drake turned to him and smiled. “What’s up?” “Nothing, but you were in such a hurry yesterday, where did you go? I didn’t even get a chance to talk to you, you just bolted. Was something happening?” Drake stiffened. “Ummm… My new...Star Wars...action figures were coming?” “Oh, yeah that makes sense. Who’d you get?” Carson began slightly bouncing up and down. “General Grievous and Rey?” He stopped mid-bounce. “Why are you phrasing everything as a question?” Drake shrugged, trying to find something to say so he could change the subject. Ever since he began loving MLP, he kept it secret from everyone, but keeping it from Carson was difficult. They knew everything about each other. Told all their secrets to one another. Carson had even told him about what happened to large cake that was supposed to be served at his Bar Mitzvah which to this day, nobody knows where it had gone. (Carson has the amazing ability to put down a vast amount of sugar and not get sick). The bell rang. “Okay, so I’m gonna be late for math? So..Bye?” He turned on his heel and began running moderately fast down the hall, leave a confused Carson on his own. Drake remembered something. Quickly, he turned around and yelled to his friend, still running. “Tell Jason and Alex that I can come this afternoon!!” ********** “You’re late.” “Uh...sorry? I was, y’know, busy.” Alex shrugged and motioned for him to come in, brushing his blue-dyed hair out of his face. As he walked through the hall of the one-story house, he heard voices from the living room and the sounds of high-tempo arcade music. “I got a blue shell! Dude, you are so dead.” “I’m miles ahead of you, dimwit.” “We all know Yoshi’s the fastest.” “Not true.” “I have pr- WHAT?? How…?” “Haha! Looks like someone got distracted! 1st place, baby! I win!” “Stop blowing hot air up your ass, I won the last two games!” “I know, but I won this one. Are you jealous that I’m better than you at Rainbow Road?” “Shut up.” “YOU shut up. Your such a whiner, Jason.” “Your face is a whi--Oh hey Drake! We were waiting for you. Wanna play Mario Kart 8? I can set up 4-player.” asked Jason. He was a red-headed geek who held the school record for biggest Pokémon card collection. Drake smiled. “Sure. I need a break from all this homework. We’ve been bombarded in it recently.” he took a seat on the couch, Carson on his left and Jason on his right. Alex took a seat on a broken massage chair next to the sofa, his black clothes blending in with it. Drake grabbed the Wii U remote sitting on the coffee table. Carson looked at the clock. “Is that what you were doing? We agreed to meet here at 4 and you show up around 5. You said you’d be here at school than you ran off again. It’s like you don’t want to be around me. Seriously dude, is there something you’re not telling me?” Drake’s heart beat quickened. “What? Pshh! Everything’s great and fine! And great! Couldn’t be better!” Jason leaned forward, poofy hair blocking his left eye’s line of sight as he turned to look at Drake. “That’s not what he asked.” Drake didn’t respond to this, only selected his character, Luigi, waiting for the others to do the same. The game was played in silence, not one word spoken. Even Carson was quiet, which never happened, as he always yelled in protest when he ran over a banana or was slowed down in any way. Once Princess Peach, played by Alex, crossed the finish line in first place, Carson put down the controller and turned his body so he was facing Drake. “Dude, you’ve been out of it for the last week. You hardly talk to me and become nervous around any of us. You can’t keep doing this. Seriously, tell us what’s wrong.” For some weird reason, Drake briefly imagined Carson as a psychiatrist but the vision passed as soon as it came, and he began to sweat as 3 pairs of eyes were on him. What do I say? Do I tell the truth? That I like… My Little Pony? What would they think? Would they push me out of the loop? Would they tell everyone at school? What If I get teased so much I have to leave the school? What if Dad finds out? Will he disown me? Will I end up in an orphanage? No, I shouldn’t tell. Maybe I can tell them that something urgent is happening instead? Maybe like- “Drake?” “My dad is sick!!!” The words left his mouth before he even processed them. Jason and Carson looked at one another in shock. Alex raised an eyebrow in surprise. (That’s about the most emotion anyone has ever seen him portray.) “...What?” “My...um, dad is sick. So I run home to, um, check on him and stuff. And I’m nervous cause I didn’t want you to worry cause...yeah?” Silence. Jason spoke up. “Dude! You should have said something! What does he have? Common Cold? Cancer? Rabies? Ebola? Zika? Herpes?” “Whoa whoa whoa, slow down. He’s fine, he just needs… a couple….months of rest?” “This isn’t like, fatal or anything, right?” Carson asked warily. “No no no! He just...went to the doctor! Yeah. And the doctor said he just needed rest? So yeah. That’s why I was late today. I was tending...to my dad.” Drake's stomach twisted into a knot. He was lying to his friends! They trusted him! What was he doing?!? “Well in that case, I understand. But I don't understand why you were hiding it from us. You know we’ll always be there for you, we're like the...uh...” Carson paused and tried to think of the right words. “Justice league? Suicide Squad? Avengers? Nah, whatever. But we always got your back, Kay?” Drake swallowed the lump in his throat and words came out in a shaky breath. “Kay” Drake kicked a rock as he walked home from Alex’s house. Every time he thought about what he did, he felt a pang of nausea send unpleasant chills through his body. He just needed to unwind. With some YouTube. And FIMfiction. And Equestria Daily. Yeah. He opened the door to his house and heard talking. He figured it must be his dad and Lena, doing homework or something. But as he listened to the conversation progress, he was able to identify the voices. One of them was definitely his dad, but the other… Oh no. Oh God no. Not HER!! Drake flung his backpack off his shoulder and it landed with on the living room couch, the books and papers rattling around inside. He ran towards the kitchen and screeched to a halt in the archway. There on the sofa in front of the TV, was his dad. And next to him was the 60 pounds of lipstick, fake blonde hair and valley girl attitude that Drake despised. Debbie. Debbie turned to look at him, showing all of her probably bleached teeth. “Why hello there, Drake! So nice of you to stop by!” “...I live here, so…” “Yes, yes whatever. Now tell me Drake, did you really wear those…” She paused trying to find the right word. “...ratty old jeans to school?” Drake rounded on his dad. “What’s she doing here??” “Well, she is my girlfriend Drake. You shouldn’t be surprised if you see her here often. After all, there be a chance she might move in…” His father said with an eyebrow waggle towards his lover. Debbie turned to him and made some weird noise from the back of her throat, which Drake could only guess was something of affection, but it sounded more like a dying cat to him. Peering over his dad’s shoulder, he saw Lena sitting at the kitchen table making moronic faces at Drake, batting her eyelashes and puffing out her lips; a pretty accurate impression of Debbie. Drake sniggered. The caveman-like grunts from the couple stopped. “I’m sorry Drake,” Debbie said haughtily, “Is there something funny?” Her nose was in the air, making her look like in Drake’s opinion, Spoiled Rich. He could almost see the two of them together hitting it off and being snotty brats together. “No.” “Then why are you still here? I have things to attend to with your father.” Like moaning like idiots and making goo-goo eyes at each other. Lena produced an audible thunk! as her head smacked against the wooden table. A thought popped in Drake’s head. “Uh, dad?” His dad turned around with a sigh and faced him, clearly impatient. “What?” “If Debbie’s here then does that mean...uh…” Debbie cut in. “Arbor’s upstairs if you wish to see her. Just try not to touch the new sweater she’s wearing. I had to import it all the way from UK for her.” she said matter-of-factly. Drake nodded then bolted out of the room and towards the stairs, leaving the family room behind. Oh God she’s in my room she’s in my rooooooom. Drake flung open his bedroom door to reveal a 16 year old girl. Sitting in his office chair. On his computer. On FIMFICTION ON HIS ACOUNT. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!???!!!” He screeched. As fast as he could possibly muster, he snatched the computer and shut it off, stuffing it hastily in his closet and turning towards the intruder with fire in his eyes. No matter how angry he was, he still couldn’t fail to notice her blonde wavy hair and how it draped over her shoulders perfectly and no matter what she did, it was never tangled and always light, like strands of stray sunshine tied to her--- “Well, that was rude.” The girl, Arbor, shook Drake out of his trance. “What are you...why… wha??...” She crossed her arms. “I was in the middle of reading the story you wrote, about Darth Vader. It was cool.” Drake felt his face heat up, but quickly tried to think of cover story. Of all people, I can’t let her know!! Thinkthinkthinkthink… “Uh, well, y’know, that’s not mine...that’s umm….a, uh, uh, uh a friends! Yeah, one of my friends is like, a serious brony n’ stuff and he likes to, uh, check his account on my computer, y’know. Though My Little Pony is a stupid show. For babies n’ stuff. I told him it was stupid. He’s really….Cukoo!!” He made a twirling motion with his finger next to his ear and slowly felt a bead of sweat fall down his cheek. Arbor looked at him with one eyebrow raised. “Okay…” she said, obviously not buying his crappy excuse. “You know, My Little Pony is not a show watched only by girls. True, that was it’s original intended audience, but it has grown tremendously in quality since the third generation. I personally love it. I was going to check my account on FIMfiction when I saw that someone else was already logged in. This I take it was...your friend?” She stressed the last two words in a sarcastic tone. “Yeahyeahyeahyeah…” “Give it up.” “OKAY OKAY OKAY I may or may not like the show just stop judging me!!!!” She smiled a coy smile. “Knew it. Now, why are you so nervous about it? Lots of people like it…” Drake ran up and got nose to nose with her. “Never. Tell. Anyone. Do you hear me? NEVER!” He hissed through gritted teeth. She didn’t so much as flinch. Exhaling loudly, she put one hand one Drake’s face and shoved him away, causing him to stumble a couple steps backwards. “Fine,” she said. “I won’t tell anyone. But don’t think I won’t remember how much of a coward you are.” One of Drake’s eyes twitched. She got up out of his office chair and made for the door, when Drake stopped her. “Arbor?” She stood in the doorway with one hand on the frame. “What?” “Please.” She sighed and turned around. “Listen Drake, you’re a good guy. I like you. After all, there’s a chance we might be brother and sister one day. But I don’t like seeing you holed up in the corner of your closet, watching MLP and constantly stressed out. And before you say anything, don’t think I don’t know that that’s what you do. Last time I was here, I found your iPad and a small Applejack figurine hidden behind your shoe rack.” “...Why were you even in my closet...?” She waved a hand impatiently. “That doesn’t matter. You’re gonna have to come out eventually.” “You make it sound like confessing would be like saying that I’m gay…” “I guess it’s kinda like that. Yeah.” A lump formed in Drakes throat. It had now dawned on him that the life he was leading was going to be a lot more difficult than he thought. Arbor threw her hands up in the air impatiently. “Alright, I’ve had enough.” Her honey-blonde hair whipped from over her shoulder to straight down her back as she turned to leave. “Wait!” She paused again. “What??” she snapped. He grabbed a lump of fabric from his messy bed and handed it to her. “I...um, think this is yours?” She looked it over then took it from him. “Thanks.” “Isn’t that the super expensive sweater that your mother prizes a lot and she didn’t want anyone to…” “I don’t care what my mother thinks. She can’t tell her ass from a hole in the ground.” “Mmm…” Awkward silence. “One more thing.” Drake said, rubbing his forearms together, ashamed that he was even about to ask this. “Hmm?” He looked at the ground and closed his eyes, waiting for his crush’s reaction to the question he was about to ask. “Who’s your favorite pony?” She smiled and gave a slight chuckle. “Fluttershy. What about you?” He rubbed the back of his head. “Same.”