Applejack was awoken by the sound of her family making a cacophony in the kitchen. She squinted as she tried to focus on her alarm clock to see what the time was – 6:30am. Applejack closed her eyes again and tried to forget the day ahead, but she was interrupted by her sister calling up the stairs.
“Applejack! Granny wants you to get up.”
“I’m coming.” Except she wasn’t. She was still in bed. She didn’t want to move and she certainly didn’t want to be going to school.
Applejack stayed in bed for as long as she could before eventually getting up and sitting on the edge of her bed. She picked up her clothes that she had thrown on the floor the night before and started to get dressed. She stayed sitting down the whole time because she had barely any energy to get up. She got dressed incredibly slowly, stopping to have a break after each item of clothing.
Applejack finished getting ready and headed downstairs. She sat at the table with her family and just stared blankly at the bowl in front of her.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Apple Bloom asked, sounding concerned.
"I'm not really hungry." She wasn't. She had no energy to eat anything, nor did she have the energy to make conversation with her family.
"Ya need to eat breakfast, it's the most important meal of the day," Granny Smith said
"I know. This does look good, but I'm not hungry. I ain't feeling that good," Applejack hated nothing more than lying, but she had to do all she could to cover this whole thing from her family. "I think I'm just going to head to school early." Really, she just wanted to have a walk before school started in hopes that it would clear her head a bit to help her focus on the day ahead.
Applejack left her family in the kitchen and finished getting herself ready. Once she was, she made her way to school. As she left the house she could feel herself start to tear up as she thought about the way she was feeling and how she could possibly tell, at least one of, her friends what was going on.
Applejack arrived at the park where she always met Rainbow Dash before school; she decided to walk around for a while as she was early. The sound of the light wind rustling the leaves on the trees with the birds chirping, relaxed Applejack. She stood still and let the cool morning breeze dry up the few tears that had made their way out. Applejack always felt at peace in the park. It helped her to calm down and reassured her that she was going to get through the day, but it didn't seem to be working as much as it used to. The quietness used to be what Applejack needed to escape and unwind, but now it just reminded her of how alone she was.
As the tears started to fall once more, Applejack heard a familiar voice call out her name. She quickly wiped her face with her sleeve and turned around
“Oh hey Dash,” Applejack smiled, hoping that her friend wouldn’t notice that she had been crying.
“You okay?”
Applejack started to panic. Had Dash noticed? Had she let her painful secret slip? No, she’s just asking how I am, ain’t nothing more to it.
“Er, yeah, you?”
"Yeah, I’m good,”
The girls started walking in the direction of school. Applejack wished she could get the words “I need to talk to you,” out, but she couldn’t. Every time she went to say them, it’s like she had forgotten how to speak. She didn’t want to worry Dash, nor did she want to break down in front of her friend – and she really didn’t want to go into school with the ‘I’ve Just Got Done Crying’ look.
Applejack could hear Rainbow talking, but all she could respond with were “yes’s” and “uh-huhs”. Her mind was elsewhere, not only thinking of ways she could let everything out, but also on how she could find better methods to cover up how she was feeling so no one would suspect anything.
"AJ, you sure you’re okay? You seem…distant.” Rainbow Dash sounded concerned for her friend. She had known Applejack for a long time and she could usually tell when something was wrong.
“Huh? …Yeah. I just ain’t feeling 100 percent.” Applejack knew she was going to have to Rainbow sooner rather than later. She was getting worse at hiding it and Dash was starting to notice it.
***
They soon arrived at school and went to their first class of the day. Applejack was hoping that Dash would be too busy concentrating on the lesson that she wouldn’t notice that anything was wrong with her friend. She also hoped that she would be able to focus on what the teacher was saying so she could have a break from the thoughts that took control of her mind for most of the time. Unfortunately for Applejack, it was Chemistry, her worst subject. She tried to comprehend what her teacher was explaining, but none of it was going in. She tried to write notes, but she couldn’t keep up with what was being said. Applejack started to get overwhelmed and gave up on what she was doing. At this point she didn’t care anymore, she wanted to figure out a way to tell Dash what was going on. It was the only thing that mattered to her.
She was completely zoned out from the room until she felt Dash tapping her. “What answer did you get for number 4?”
“I ain’t got nothing,”
Rainbow Dash looked down at Applejack’s worksheet and noticed that she hadn’t written anything at all.
“I know you find this difficult, but you usually try. What’s wrong with you?”
“I told you, I’m sick.” She wasn’t completely lying. She was sick. She was really sick, but just not in the way she had meant it.
“Well, I, er, hope you feel better soon…” She wasn’t convinced. There had been times where Applejack had been like this before, saying she wasn’t well, but Rainbow knew she was okay; she was rarely ill. This time was different, she knew Applejack wasn’t sick, but she did know something was wrong and she was going to try and find out.