Indigo’s father knocked on the door of her room. After being permitted to get inside, he opened the door to be greeted with a sight of his daughter sitting on the floor over a piece of paper with a pencil in her hand.
“Impossible,” he said. “You’re spending the afternoon at home.”
“Get used to it, dad,” Indigo muttered. “My friends are rather unavailable.” She tilted her head and looked at the paper. “Hmm, I’m a genius.”
Lightning Zap looked at his daughter drawing and smirked. “You mean, you were as good at drawing in the first grade as you’re now?”
Indigo smirked. “Tell me it’s not the best picture of a guy with an exploding head you have ever seen…”
“Better than your early works.” Indigo’s father chuckled. “Although I remember the school’s psychologist was a fan of those too.”
“Until she saw Sour’s pictures,” Indigo replied. “I remember I got a ban on cartoons, though. The biggest trauma of my childhood.”
“Sorry for that.” Lightning Zap smirked. “Anyway, I was going to tell you that we’re planning a fishing trip with uncle Magnum this Summer and I wondered if you and Bulk would like to tag along.”
Indigo sighed. “I’d go, but I’m not sure about Bulk. You know, we kinda got into an argument…”
Indigo’s father looked at a couple of rather large objects drawn next to the guy with an exploding head and smiled. “Is it because of your unrealistic expectations?”
“No…” Indigo blushed, covering the doodles with her hand. “We kinda need some time off, I guess, before we decide if we want to break up or not.”
“Been there.” Indigo’s father nodded. “I wonder what happened to that girl later.”
“You don’t know?” Indigo asked, turning the paper to the other side and starting to sketch a picture of Sugarcoat getting hit by a train while Principal Cinch watched it from behind the bush, twirling a pair of large moustache.
“We’ve never spoke to each other again.”
“Thanks, dad…” Indigo muttered after her father left her room. She sat on the floor, leaning against her bed, and resting her face in her hands. It seemed that Sugarcoat was the only friend she had left, and she didn’t like this fact at all. A couple of times, she tried to speak to Lemon, but Lemon became pretty good at ignoring her; Indigo already decided that the next time she’d steal Lemon’s headphones to see what’d happen.
Indigo couldn’t quite get why Lemon kept behaving that way. Sure, as Sugarcoat informed her, Lemon and Sweet Leaf were often seen visiting Sour Sweet in the hospital, but Indigo felt there was more to this.
She groaned and stood up, tossing the paper on the pile of various, half-assed doodles in the corner of her room. Sugarcoat proposed her to go and visit Suri Polomare in the hospital, just to spite, as she put it, “all those idealist morons who think Sour had a right idea”, but Indigo didn’t feel like it. Mostly because she remembered how often she wanted to punch Suri herself.
She caught herself thinking of calling Bulk. This was also out of question. Whenever they tried to talk, one of them would eventually bring the topic of either Sour, Sweet Leaf, and Suri, or anything else they could argue over, like Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle! Sometimes, Indigo wanted to do something evil to her just to have something fresh to argue about.
Suddenly, Indigo realised that her mind was preparing an insane plan on how to steal Timber Spruce from Twilight. And that he was also a lumberjack, if she recalled correctly. The thought amused her enough to grab a phone and call Twilight.
“Indigo?” Twilight asked after picking up the phone. “How are you? Haven’t heard from you for a while.”
“Yeah…” Indigo muttered. “Listen, are you still with that sexy dude whose sister runs a camp?”
“Yes,” Twilight replied. “Why… Why are you asking?”
“Does he like to experiment?”
“Well, I once let him into my lab, but he seemed rather bored,” Twilight said. “By the way, we need to meet sometime. I heard what happened to Sour…”
“All of it?” Indigo asked. “Actually, nevermind. We can meet, I guess. The school is closed for a week, they brought us a psychologist, that kinda stuff. Principal Cinch was foaming at the mouth, but Dean Cadance calmed her down. With a tranquiliser dart, I think.”
“Oh,” Twilight squealed.
Indigo groaned, remembering that Sweet Leaf had the exact same tic. “Well… See you around, I guess.” She shrugged and ended the call.
She didn’t even manage to put her phone back on her bed, when she heard the guitar riffs of her ringtone. Rolling her eyes, Indigo looked at the screen to see that she had an incoming call from “Creepy Coatie”.
“What do you want?” Indigo growled.
“What’s up?” Sugarcoat asked. “Still saucing the taco all alone?”
“Actually, I’m just planning a threesome with Twilight and Timber,” Indigo replied, picking up the paper with the drawing of Sugarcoat getting hit by a train. This one was definitely worthy of finishing.
‘My girl…” Sugarcoat chuckled. “Anyway, before you do something you’re gonna regret later…”
“If you want me and Bulk to get together, stop right now.” Indigo sighed. “Or the school will be closed for another week, but this time you’ll be Suri.”
“See?” Sugarcoat asked. “We’re already making references to it. In ten years, we’ll laugh at this whole situation. Anyway, I just wanted to ask you if you’d play some soccer with me. The school may be closed, but the team needs to train.”
“No one’s gonna let us in,” Indigo said. “Besides, the pitch looks like a swamp.”
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of getting dirty,” Sugarcoat muttered. “Just take your worst clothes. Besides, we already passed the hat around for whisky for the janitor.”
Indigo shook her head and smirked. “Okay then…”
When Indigo arrived to school—the janitor only waved at her—it turned out that quite a few of the members of school’s soccer team already gathered at the car park. She spotted Frosty Orange and Melon Mint, as well as Ginger Owlseye and her friend Cold Forecast, a thin reserve defender with perpetually frowny expression whom Indigo always thought to be a guy in disguise. Sugarcoat was also there, talking with a tall, lanky girl with glasses and long, curly hair.
“This is Varsity Trim,” Sugarcoat said when Indigo joined them. “She’ll be Sour’s replacement.”
“Can she play?” Indigo looked up. Varsity Trim was more or less as tall as Sour Sweet, although she was slightly hunched over and, looking at the way she moved, Indigo worried about her coordination.
“Well...” Varsity Trim smiled. “I have quite a few ideas on how to organise the team. For starters–”
“Frankly, I just thought we’d aim balls at her head and hope they bounce in your direction,” Sugarcoat muttered.
Indigo sighed. “How about replacements for Suri and Sunny?”
“No idea.” Sugarcoat shrugged, looking at the group. Several team members were missing; most notably Fleur and Lemon Zest. However, Indigo noticed some girls that weren’t in the team, like Garden Grove and Alizarin Bubblegum.
Indigo chuckled when she saw her – if Varsity Trim was a huge dork, Alizarin was a small one. Indigo immediately imagined her in Suri’s position. “Okay, we’ll see how it turns out…” she said.
“Do I get to pick first?” Frosty Orange asked.
Sugarcoat looked at Frosty and winced. “Why would we even let you pick?”
“Because I’m this team’s fourth best scorer and I’m usually a substitute,” Frosty replied. “Especially since Lemon didn’t bother to show up and Sour is in the nuthouse, so I’m, like, second best. Also, I wasn’t a close friend with her, so the school staff doesn’t give me funny looks.”
Before Sugarcoat could say something, Indigo smirked at Frosty. “Okay. I’ll let you pick first.”
“Sugarcoat,” Frosty said, sending Sugarcoat a nasty glare.
“Really?” Sugarcoat muttered, standing by Frosty’s side.
“Diwata.” Indigo didn’t waste any time to ponder. She already was a good striker herself, so choosing a goalkeeper seemed a natural thing to do.
“Orange Sherbette,” Frosty said.
“Melon Mint,” Indigo replied.
Frosty looked at the remaining girls. “Upper Crust.”
Indigo shrugged and pointed at Ginger Owlseye. “You.”
“Whatever your name is.” Frosty turned to a tall, blue girl with purple hair.
“Crystal Lullaby,” the girl replied, joining Frosty’s team.
Ginger Owlseye leaned to Indigo and whispered something into her ear.
“Yeah, sure,” Indigo muttered. “Cold Forecast.”
“Garden Grove.”
Indigo looked at the remaining players: Varsity Trim, Alizarin Bubblegum, and some short girl with dark hair who seemed more interested in the state of her fingernails than what was going on around her.
“Hey, you!” Indigo exclaimed. “What’s your name?”
“Zephyr,” the girl replied in a tone that at first seemed ethereal, but still having some sharp, unpleasant note in it.
“That’s a male name.”
“So is ‘Indigo’.” Zephyr flipped her hair.
“You’re in,” Indigo muttered. “Your choice, Frosty.”
Frosty’s gaze shifted from Varsity Trim to Alizarin Bubblegum and back. “Alizarin.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Indigo muttered, mostly to reassure Varsity Trim who was blushing and trying to become invisible, which was quite hard due to her impressive height.
They walked to the pitch. It was soaked with water, pooling in a few large puddles, including one right in front of the goal. Indigo noticed that quite a few of her teammates wore old tracksuits or t-shirts and boots with long studs. Zephyr was trembling slightly in her fancy football kit, probably belonging to some former student but still fairly new. The only problem was Varsity Trim, wearing old sneakers that’d offer no grip on the soggy pitch.
“Wait a minute,” Indigo muttered and rushed to the changing room. She came back after a while, bringing two pairs of boots.
“Hope you’re not superstitious,” she muttered when Varsity tried the bigger ones. “Their previous owner is currently in the nuthouse.”
“Cursed cleats, making the wearer insane,” Sugarcoat muttered. “Are you trying to write a horror story, Indigo? I’d be more afraid of getting athlete’s foot.”
“They fit,” Varsity said, tying the shoelaces. “More or less.”
“Okay.” Indigo looked at the other pair of shoes. “Sunny won’t need those anyway…” She tied the laces together and threw Sunny’s boots on the tall net at the end of the pitch, used to stop the ball after a missed shot. They hung from the top of it, swinging slightly in the breeze.
“If Sunny ever comes back, she’s gonna be pissed.” Sugarcoat shrugged. “We’ll worry about it later, though. Now it’s time for Crystal Prep’s first illegal game of seven-a-side soccer.”
Both teams took their positions in the field, trying not to slip. Diwata Aino cursed loudly when she realised that there was a large puddle right in her penalty area. It was still better than in the other team; they just started to argue on who should be a goalkeeper. Sugarcoat eventually resolved the argument by reminding everyone that Crystal Lullaby technically was the main team’s third goalkeeper, even though no one really cared about it as long as Fleur and Diwata were fine. Interestingly, Crystal was the one who protested the loudest.
Finally, the game started. Indigo took a position slightly behind Varsity Trim, wondering how the cooperation would go.
It soon turned out that whatever tactics they had, it soon went out the window. Smaller teams on a large pitch meant bigger gaps between formations and the muddy field didn’t make things easier. The game quickly devolved into chaos. Indigo tackled Upper Crust and tried to dribble it past Orange Sherbette, but she only managed to slip and almost fall. Before Orange could steal the ball, Indigo chipped it to Zephyr, who quickly passed it to Varsity Trim.
Just as Indigo expected, Varsity had lost her grace and agility back when the growth spurt had hit her. She managed to touch the ball with her foot, but it went past her, landing at Sugarcoat’s feet. However, Indigo couldn’t say that Varsity wasn’t ambitious – she immediately attacked Sugarcoat with a sliding tackle, throwing them both into a particularly large puddle of mud.
“What the hell?” Sugarcoat muttered, trying to get rid of the blades of grass stuck to her face. The front of her clothes was covered in mud; it was also in Varsity Trim’s curly hair and on the glasses she hadn’t taken off before the match.
“A free throw,” Frosty Orange said.
“From that place?” Indigo asked, looking at the swamp in front of her.
Frosty took the ball. “From the nearest dry place… Well, drier than the rest.”
Indigo nodded. Before her team could reorganise their ranks, Frosty kicked the ball towards Diwata’s goal. It went past the defenders, but before it reached the goal, it landed in the puddle, stopping in front of Diwata, who grabbed it and threw it to Melon Mint, despite Frosty’s protests. Melon passed it to Cold Forecast, who ran past Alizarin Bubblegum and lobbed the ball to Varsity Trim.
Varsity didn’t even have to jump to pass the ball with her head to Indigo, completely ignoring Garden Grove who tried to win the ball from her. Indigo rushed towards the goal, but suddenly she bounced off of someone, tripped, and fell face-first into the puddle.
“Missed me?” Sugarcoat asked, standing over Indigo. A second later, she was lying in the mud again after Indigo grabbed her legs.
“I’m pretty sure trying to drown a defender is a foul,” Frosty Orange muttered.
“She fouled me first.” Indigo stood up. “That’d be a penalty.”
“Are you sure the penalty area is here?” Upper Crust asked. “It’s not like the lines are visible.”
“Remember, ‘penalty area is here and I can punch you if you don’t agree’ is not an argument,” Zephyr said, grabbing Indigo’s hand before she could run towards Upper Crust. “Besides, it’s a free throw. I see a bit of the line here.”
“And I picked you to my team…” Indigo placed the ball in front of the wall consisting of Alizarin Bubblegum, Orange Sherbette and Frosty Orange.
“May I?” Zephyr asked.
“Don’t test my patience.” Indigo ran towards the ball and kicked it, curling it around the wall. It landed in Crystal Lullaby’s hands, but slipped from them, ending up in the goal.
“Slippery when wet,” Indigo muttered, getting back to her half of the pitch.
The game became even more chaotic. Indigo could swear she once got tackled by Ginger Owlseye. Ginger couldn’t be blamed, though; when everyone was wet and covered in earth and grass, it was hard to tell who was from her team and who wasn’t. Everyone looked like Swamp Thing, giving Indigo quite unsolicited memories. Meanwhile, Alizarin Bubblegum, despite being a scrawny, short-sighted nerd, somehow managed to kick the ball in Cold Forecast’s face, bringing her down.
“I guess she’s knocked out… cold,” Sugarcoat muttered.
“You get a yellow card for crappy puns,” Indigo replied, grabbing Cold Forecast and helping her up. “Hey, you’re not a guy, after all…”
“What?” Cold Forecast raised her eyebrows.
“She means you have boobs,” Sugarcoat said innocently.
“What?!”
Indigo blushed. “Long story…”
“She thinks you’re so ugly you must be a dude.” Sugarcoat shrugged and walked to her team.
Several minutes later, after all the fighting parties got tired of trying to murder each other violently and the game was resumed, it turned out that Sour Sweet’s shoes were, after all, too small for Varsity Trim. The others found out only when Varsity started to complain about water in her shoes and took one of them off, revealing that some of it was her blood.
“One thing is sure,” Zephyr said when Crystal Lullaby fainted upon seeing that. “She’s not Cinderella…”
“What is the score?” Indigo asked, watching as Garden Grove and Orange Sherbette rushed to help their goalkeeper.
“4:3, but I’m not sure, who is winning,” Sugarcoat replied. “Also, there were seven fights of various intensity, two red cards for people who are still playing, two black eyes, one sprained ankle, and everyone probably caught cold at this point.” She looked at the dark sky. It was just starting to rain.
“Who got a sprained ankle?” Indigo asked.
“Me,” Garden Grove muttered, limping towards Indigo. “And you should know that, given that you tried to break my foot.”
“I’m sorry.” Indigo smiled sheepishly. “Thought you were Cold Forecast…”
“Keep digging yourself deeper,” Sugarcoat muttered. “Also, we’d better go to the showers before Varsity gets an infection.”
They walked to the school, still arguing over who actually won the match and leaving large spots of mud on the floor in the corridor leading to the showers. Despite being cold, tired, and bruised, Indigo had a smile on her face. It was great to finally stop worrying over everyone and everything and just run in the mud with the others for a while.
“We’d better clean that later.” Alizarin Bubblegum looked at the floor. “Or the janitor won’t let us in again, no matter how much whisky we give him.”
“Indeed,” Indigo muttered.
After they took a shower and changed their clothes, Sugarcoat opened the broom closet with a hairclip and they grabbed the cleaning equipment from it.
“Whose idea it was to cover the floor and walls with crystal?” Indigo asked, shaking her head. She never really looked at the floor and only now noticed how cracked and scratched it was. “There must’ve been millions of people here…”
“I guess they had more money than reason,” Sugarcoat replied, wiping the mud with a mop. “Besides, it wasn’t always here. Not with the founders being Puritans.”
“I’ve heard it was commissioned by one of the principals in late nineteenth century,” Zephyr said. “My ancestor, apparently. He was at the Miskatonic University and thought crystals would protect us against evil forces.”
“Ah, that explains why all the magical accidents happen in Canterlot High.” Indigo chuckled.
“He went crazy and blew himself up in the chemistry lab.” Zephyr shrugged. “Guess it didn’t exactly help.”
Indigo nodded. “That probably required more cleaning…”
Sugarcoat sighed. “Indigo…”
“What? It’s been a hundred years ago.” Indigo shrugged and swung the mop around. “Also, to think about it… A guy blew himself up in our chemistry lab. I’ve heard some student hanged herself in the gym fifty years ago. Sour Sweet will probably go down in history, but she wouldn’t be first to do such a thing. And maybe those cracks and scratches in the floor were made by someone famous? Like, a president or–”
“We never had a president,” Sugarcoat said. “Just a couple of senators and one serial killer.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a disgrace to mention senators and serial killers in one sentence.” Varsity Trim limped towards them. “For serial killers, that is.”
Sugarcoat finished cleaning a particularly big puddle of mud and threw the mop on the floor. “What is wrong with you today? Everybody seems to be an expert on serial killers and guys who blew themselves up…”
“I guess it’s the weather,” Indigo replied. “Hmm, to think about it, all that talk makes me hungry. Anyone’s up for tacos?”
Even though it was getting late, the mall was still full of people. Indigo was sitting at the table in the restaurant at the top floor with Varsity Trim, Zephyr, Frosty Orange, and Melon Mint, eating tacos and looking at Sugarcoat, who was at the pool table with Diwata Aino and Ginger Owlseye. The rest of girls decided that Mexican cuisine wasn’t for them and went home.
“I can play with my right hand, okay.” Sugarcoat shrugged and set the balls back on the table. “If you two think that gives you any chance of defeating me…”
“I’ve seen her playing snooker,” Indigo shouted to Diwata. “She could be playing with her legs and she’d still be better.”
Melon Mint took a bite of a burrito and looked at Frosty Orange. “So, when are we going to meet your boyfriend?”
“Never,” Frosty replied. “Or after we all finish school, maybe. I don’t know. I don’t want to bring it up now that Cinch got mad at everyone.” She looked at Sugarcoat and Indigo.
“You keep texting him.” Melon Mint looked at the phone lying on the table in front of Frosty. “He must be madly in love.”
“Yeah, until shit hits the fan and it’s all over,” Indigo muttered. She noticed that Frosty shuddered slightly when she said that. “I much preferred when we talked about exploding guys and stuff. I, for example, can draw guys with exploding heads really well.”
“Can you make the guy similar to Zephyr?” Varsity Trim asked. “We could say he’s that famous principal.”
Indigo smirked. “If someone has a pencil…”
“I think I have one somewhere…” Varsity Trim muttered, grabbing her purse.
“Wait a minute…” Indigo looked outside the restaurant, eyeing a girl wearing a hoodie and walking slowly near the glass barrier, looking at the ground floor There was nothing unusual about her at first, but then Indigo noticed that she was standing there for at least twenty minutes, resting herself against the barrier, her eyes focused on the floor below her. When she turned, Indigo caught a glimpse of familiar headphones hanging from her neck. Without a second thought, Indigo stood up and rushed to her, placing a hand on her arm.
“What?” The girl turned towards Indigo; she dropped her hood, revealing long, green hair.
“Hi, Lemon,” Indigo said. “Are you okay?”
“Why do you keep asking me that whenever you meet me?” Lemon asked.
“I’d say you have a plenty of reasons not to be okay,” Indigo replied.
Lemon shrugged. “Then why are you asking if you know?”
Indigo gulped, trying to find the right words before blurting out, “Well, we called you to ask if you wanted to play soccer with us… And maybe because you looked like you were about to jump, dunno.”
“What?” Lemon groaned. “I was just looking at the fountain. You really don’t need to try to help me or worry that I’d do something stupid. I’m not like that. Seriously, I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine…” Indigo muttered.
“Okay, I’m not!” Lemon rolled her eyes. “But that doesn’t mean you need to keep pushing me around, trying to cheer me up, get me to play with you, or whatever else you have in store for me! After Sunny, Sour, and Sweet Leaf, I’m done with you all! Done! You only make it worse!” She turned away, putting her headphones on. "You're horrible!"
“No!” Indigo stood in Lemon’s way. She was much shorter than her friend, but there was no way she’d let her pass. “Take off those headphones and listen to me. If you keep avoiding everyone, it won’t get better. You know it well.” She smiled softly. “Come with me. We have tacos and I was just about to draw Zephyr’s ancestor blowing his brain up.”
“Who is Zephyr?” Lemon asked.
“The only goth in the world that plays soccer,” Indigo replied.
Lemon sighed, before making a tearful smile. “Fine. Just this one time…”
“Chill out.” Indigo embraced Lemon and walked to the table with her. “We’ll talk about guys and random shit. It’s gonna be fine.”
“Sure…” Lemon muttered with another sigh.