//------------------------------// // Chaos Theory // Story: Silent Love - Part One // by Sagami //------------------------------// “The fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-” Vinyl’s mind needed time to process. A lot of time. What the hell was going on?! Discord had just entered the bar, ordered a milk chocolate doughnut with cotton candy sprinkles, and sat next to Lyra like it was nothing. And what exactly did he just say? “Um… Hello sir, can we help you?” Lyra asked in a confused yet blasé face, her eyes expressing something closer to “Um… Hello sir, can you GTFO?” Octavia, as for her, was part scared, part confused, probably because where she was from, teachers didn’t talk to students outside of class, especially not in a café at 3 pm. She hadn't had a fantastic first impression of the chemistry teacher, and much like Vinyl, her eyes were expressing serious concern about his presence. “Oh well, actually you can Ms. Heartstrings! Could you hand me the water pitcher?” Lyra looked at Discord’s smiling face in disbelief, but then slowly proceeded to pass the jug, probably fearing for what would happen to her grades if she didn’t. Discord served himself some water, drank a whole glass in about two seconds, and looked towards the three girls. “Actually, I’m here to help you three, if you want to of course…” he offered in his strange but still as hypnotical voice. This man wasn’t doing much effort to behave differently in class: he was completely the same during his time off: same scary eyes, same large smile with one abnormally long teeth, same mismatched clothes. Whatever he was offering to do, it couldn’t be good. “To… to help us? Why would we require any help?” asked Octavia, faking not to understand what her teacher meant. “Yeah, we don’t have any kind of problem at all!” Lyra threw with the fakest smile Vinyl had ever seen. She was a crappy liar, always had been. “Oh girls, don’t lie to me, it’s not respectful. You know what I’m talking about: your lovely physical education teacher, Mr. Sombra! Now that you got the chance to meet him in person, what do you think? Isn’t he a nice fellow?!” “Listen, sir…” “You know Ms. Heartstrings, I’m technically off-duty, so you don’t have to force yourself to call me “sir” here.” “Listen, dude: We don’t know how you heard about this, but as you said, we’re not in class, and you don’t have any authority here, so we don’t have to listen to whatever you think you’re offering.” As Lyra was having her talk with Discord, Vinyl took a look at Octavia: she was certainly scared, probably because of the mint-haired girl’s behavior towards one of their teachers. What if he decided to hold a grudge against them from now on? As she pat down her friend’s shoulder, the DJ felt the gaze of the man landing on her: “And you?” he said, his head turning back in a angle way too large for a normal person, smoothing his long goatee “Ms. Scratch, what do you think about all of this?” Vinyl, still holding Octavia’s shoulder, used her remaining hand to sign Discord. Luckily (was it really luck?), he understood sign language. Only three movements: shaking her hands, pointing at him and grabbing air towards herself. Enough for him to understand. “What do I want? I told you, I want to offer my help! Kids these days really don’t listen, do they? “Ok that’s enough, we’re leaving.” Lyra uttered, standing up and grabbing her bag “Come, Octavia.” As the confused cellist was starting to move, Vinyl wiggled her fingers in an attempt to tell Lyra to wait. “No dude, whatever’s happening, it’s not his business!” “...” “What do you mean, you want to listen to what he has to say?! We can take care of ourselves!” “I would never doubt that, Ms. Heartstrings, but in this situation, it’s your word against Mr. Sombra’s, and that’s not a game you’re gonna win. Not alone, that is.” Vinyl was starting to get really intrigued about this man. What was his interest in all this? Was he always like this? And more importantly, why was she considering his offer?! “Yeah right!” Lyra laughed ironically “So we’re a special force against the evil forces of the P.E teacher? Like a grand task force? Please!” “I wouldn’t exactly call it a task force.” Discord answered “We’re closer to some kind of suicide squa-” “You’re our physics teacher!” “And chemistry.” “We’re not friends, man! Why are you even proposing to help?!” “Just for fun, of course!” “Say what?” “Just imagine: you’re joining a hunting group: you’re with people you don’t know, in an unknown territory, chasing and killing animals you won’t eat. But you still do it. Why? Because you want to! Because it’s fun!” “So you want to hunt some wild Mr. Sombra?” Lyra smiled. “I don’t like hunting.” Octavia mumbled. “...My point is,” Discord said with a stink eye thrown at the cellist “I don’t need a particular reason, especially not a good one. But if you absolutely want one, then let’s say that I’m your teacher, that you’re my responsibility, that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, blah blah blah… Satisfied?” “Nope.” “N...Not exactly sir…” “...” “Listen, I like you three. Not even one week of classes and you already seem like the inseparable team. Reminds me of these five other girls, some time ago. Believe me or not, but I care about my students, and this particular teacher has been a severe source of trouble these last years. I have two issues with that: first, trouble is my job, and then, he’s not helping the good mood of the students. I want a lively class, not schoolers who are afraid of being traumatized by their teachers.” “So you’re only doing that for the sake of your students, ‘cause you’re such a good person?” “Don’t insult me, please Lyra. Can I call you Lyra? Your name is kind of a mouthful.” “Um, no-” Lyra started, before noticing Vinyl’s look, urging her both to sit down and to relax a bit.” “...Yeah sure, go for it dude…” “Marvellous! Now Ms. Scratch… Vinyl?” “...” “Vinyl it is! Now Vinyl, what do you think?” “I’m gonna regret this, one way or another.” Vinyl looked at Octavia, as to ask what she thought of this. Her friend, despite being obviously unsure, gave the DJ a shy nod. “...” “What’s my plan? That’s easy! I’ll explain everything to you three, and if you agree, we can start next week!” “Whatever.” Lyra sighed. “I’m not in favor of plotting with a teacher, but if that is what’s required to make Mr. Sombra face his actions, I… I guess we can give the idea a try…” “Here we go.” “Now girls, we’ll start by doing this…” }--oO0Oo--{ When the three girls said their goodbyes to their teacher, they were in a much better mood than when they said hello. Despite his obnoxious sense of humour and personality, the man was smart. Very smart, it seemed. Now they’ll just have to wait until the next P.E class. Discord also taught them about the relation between CHS and Mr. Sombra: he wasn’t known to be a pleasant teacher, but he offered really good results every year, and sadly the two principals cared a tad more about that. Incidents like today’s had happened, and the teacher got a few suspensions over the years, but there weren’t that many available sport teachers around, and the incidents had never been too severe. According to Discord though, the main issue Sombra was causing were more of the relational ones: the “weak” students he enjoyed to mock became scared of the teachers in general, and the “strong” ones became overconfident and egotistical. “What a mess…” Vinyl thought, looking at Octavia eating a chocolate pastry, smiling, her cheeks made pink by a cold breeze. Discord had bought them cakes to compensate for his intrusion, but also probably to earn their trusts. “Thith dude’s not buyingh ush with pashtries!” Lyra muffled, chewing her mint ice cream. She loved ice cream, even in September. Vinyl gave her friend a large smug, moving her hands to judge Lyra’s morals. “Yeah I’m shtill eating it! Won’t let ith go to washte!” “My bus stop is over there” Octavia pointed “We still have got ten minutes before the end of the classes. I wouldn’t want to arrive home early and turn all your and the principal’s efforts to ashes…” “Don’t worry, Tavi!” the cellist read on her phone “Your folks will never know! A masterplan like this, produced by the two greatest brains of a generation (me and Lyra!), is 100% flaw-proof!” “...” “You ok Octavia?” Lyra asked, moving her head back and forth to an imaginary music. “I… I just guess I want to thank you again… For all of what you did today: making me discover your music, Vinyl helping me in the locker room, looking after me in the infirmary, making me have a truly wonderful time with your brother, and searching for a solution, even if it is with Mr. Discord… We… We’ve known each others for barely two days, but you act like I have been with you since when you were in middle school. I… might still have a lot to learn about, well… everything, because I’ve never truly experienced life before, but I feel like if you are with me, I can overcome ever-” “Well, well, well, what do we have here? An emotion sequence?” The three girls turned around rapidly, only to see the three other people facing them. Vinyl immediately recognized them: it was this girl she had briefly seen at the principal’s speech, on the first day of school. Following her were the same two 9th graders, one of them small, chubby, with sky blue skin and orange hair, the other slim, tall, with yellowish skin and green hair. An interesting combo. The girl in the middle was most likely Sunset Shimmer, the girl Lyra told her about on the phone. “Nice to meet you three, let me introduce myself, my name is Sunset Shimmer.” There. This girl certainly was mean-looking. Her yellow skin reflecting the pale sunlight, and her red-and-gold hair flowing on her shoulders like fire (Or bacon… It kinda looked like bacon). She was wearing a black leather jacket, as well as dark purple shirt and short skirt, and some black long boots. Her green eyes were adding to this “cartoon villain” style. Beautiful. “Looks like a bitch, but in the mean way or the meanest way? Can’t tell.” “I’ve never seen you girls around before, you must be new! You probably have heard of me, right? Oh, what am I saying? You live cut off from the world, you are deaf and you are probably too busy hitting on girls. Let me explain it to you as simply as I can: here in CHS, I’m in charge: I get everyone to do what I want, and it’s not going to change any time soon, so yeah, just to let you girls know.” As Sunset Shimmer smiled, proud of her little introduction, she felt a pat on her arm, and saw Vinyl, handing her a piece of paper. She looked down and read: “I’m not deaf, bitch.” When she looked back up, it was already too late. Vinyl’s fist went right in her stomach, cutting any possibility of breathing. The bully didn’t get any time to think about what was happening: her feet almost took off the ground, as the punch sent her a good feet away from Vinyl. She fell on the ground, before the confused eyes of her two “bodyguards”, as Vinyl got closer to her, followed by Lyra. The blue-haired girl made a few signs, and her friend crouched near Sunset, her right foot crushing the girl’s hand. As the teenager shouted in pain, Lyra translated calmly: “She said that first, all mutes aren’t deaf ; second, that you’re lucky we’re in a hurry, and third, that if you ever insulted or bullied one of our friends again, bitch, she’d personally come to kick your ass. I added the “bitch”, by the way.” Lyra got up, exchanged a few smiles and laughs with Vinyl, and the two girls each grabbed an arm of Octavia, before leaving towards the next street, leaving behind Sunset Shimmer, moaning in pain and shame. “Was all of this really necessary, Vinyl?” Octavia asked “I know this girl wasn’t very friendly, but was there a need to hit her like that?! I sure hope she’s alright…” Vinyl laughed, and gave a paper to Octavia: “Don’t worry Tavi, I can guarantee things like this won’t ever happen to you anymore. Now run, girl! Your bus is just around the corner!” Octavia accelerated to reach the bus stop, and waved at her two friends as she got in, holding her gigantic cello case. As Vinyl watched the bus drift away, she looked at Lyra, and the two girls bursted into laughter. “There will be other times like this, and you know it girl ; she’s too much of a doll to stay outta trouble.” “Maybe” Vinyl texted “But we’ll be here for her. Always.”