Blazing a Trail to the Past.

by Daylight_Dreamer


25- Being called to the teachers office.

I checked the time. I only had one thing I wanted to do before seeing Twilight. It was 11. I had time.

I went to the kitchen and found a small paper bag. I made a cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich and wrapped it up to put in the bag with an orange. Gilda just kinda looked at me funny.

"I want to be at the school house by noon," I said, "I gotta get going."

"Oh," Gilda said, "I was hoping we could hang out a bit longer."

"My Jeep has a passenger seat," I pointed out, "You're welcome to tag along. I don't think Twilight would even mind."

"Alright," she said, "but if it goes on too long I bail. I paid Gabby to cover my deliveries today and I want to make the most of it."

"Whatever you wanna do," I said, "I'm heading out, but before I forget. You may want this if you ever show up early when I locked the door." I reached in my junk drawer and grabbed a spare key I'd had Slag make. I held it up for her to see.

"Really?" she asked.

"No," I joked, "I just wanted to show you how shiny it is." I threw her the key and she caught it, "Why not? Now I gotta go."

"Nobody has ever trusted me this much before," she eyed the key, "thank you." I don't think I ever heard her so sincere.
---
I wasn't surprised when Gilda followed me to the jeep. I didn't even have to explain the door handle. She just reached out and opened the door without taking her eyes off the key.

I got to the school just as the colts and fillies were going outside for lunch. I immediately spotted the Crusaders in a corner of the yard. They saw my Jeep and came running. They seemed to slow down when they noticed I wasn't alone, but they didn't stop.

"Jerry!" they all said at once.

"What are you doing here?" Sweetie asked, "You've never visited us at school before."

"I just thought I'd drop by on my way to see Twilight," I answered. "How is school going?"

"Alright," Apple Bloom said, "We had a surprise test, but I'm pretty sure I aced it."

"Me too," Sweetie chimed in. Scootaloo just looked depressed.

"I'm sure you all did fine," I said.

"By the way," Scootaloo said, "You should really stop and see Pinkie. The last time we were at Sugarcube Corner, she was hiding in the back ranting something about the biggest party of her life and she isn't allowed to plan it yet."

"Is that what you stopped by to tell me this morning?" I asked.

"Actually," Scootaloo looked at her front hooves, "I was hoping you would walk with me to school. Apple Bloom is staying with Sweetie while Granny is gone and I didn't want to walk alone."

"Have you eaten yet today?" I asked.

She looked at the ground again. "I had an apple," she said.

"I thought that would be the case," I said, "Better take this before recess is over." I handed her the bag I packed at the house. She slowly leaned in and grabbed it with her teeth, then ran behind a tree.

All four of us still by the jeep just looked at each other.

"Hello," a voice that I still only knew from the show came from the direction of the schoolhouse, "You must be Jerry, I'm Cheerilee. Is there any chance I could talk to you in private."

I was confused but felt obliged to go along. She was the town teacher, she must have a reason.

"You mind?" I asked Gilda.

"You'll know by the time you come back out," she said, flapping her wings, "not like I'm stuck with you."

"You have a point," I said, "see ya when I see ya then."

I followed Cheerilee into the schoolhouse. Rather than sitting behind her desk she pushed a stack of papers to the end and moved her chair to sit next to it.

"Would you mind grabbing the chair from next to the door?" she asked, "I have a feeling you would have an easier time moving it."

"You're not wrong," I said hooking my fingers in the backrest of a wooden chair on my way in, "So what do you want to talk to me about?"

"It's Scootaloo," Cheerilee said, "she got a C+ on the pop-quiz today."

"So you're saying her grades are slipping since she met me?" I asked confused.

"No, I'm not saying that at all," her eyes were wide, "She failed the last few tests, I was starting to fear I'd have to flunk her altogether, but in just this last week she has been paying more attention in class, and she actually did the last assignment. It was a solo project, I can only ever count on her when her friends are helping."

"I see," I didn't know what to say.

Cheerilee took a deep breath, "I don't know how you're doing it, but you've been pulling that filly out of a year-long depression."

"So what happened a year ago?" I asked, "If you don't mind me asking."

Cheerilee looked down, I think she was blushing, "She had her first heat."

"And?" I asked.

"Well, when a filly or colt hit puberty, they are considered old enough to live on their own." She said, "Most stay with their parents until they graduate and find a job, but..."

"Scootaloo doesn't have any parents," I finished for her, "So who took care of her until then?"

"I'd rather not say," She said, "Just know she was welcome to stay with them, it was Scootaloo's choice to move out. She wasn't treated badly. She just said she wanted to be independent, but it hasn't done her any good. Now she's on her own and either too depressed or stubborn to accept any more help than she needs to survive. The only ponies that can reason with her are her friends, but now you..."

"How can you be so sure I'm what's doing it?" I asked.

"She doodles," Cheerilee pointed to the papers on her desk, "take a look. These are just the ones she threw away before leaving."

I picked the stack up, they were all creased and a couple had clearly been crumpled. They all had three doodles on them. One of a wing, one of a checkered flag, and the third...

"Shes been doodling my cutie mark?" I asked.

"Right next to those of her parents," Cheerilee pointed out, "She hasn't even done that with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark."

"So," I was a little confused, not only by Scootaloo being 10 times the artist I could even dream to be, "These are her parent's cutie marks?"

"Yea," Cheerilee confirmed, "They were both flyers. They even tried out for the Wonderbolts. That's where they met."

"But Scootaloo can't even fly," I said.

Cheerilee let out a sigh, "Her wings were crippled in the accident."

"The one that took her parents?" I asked, but just then the children started filing in.

Cheerilee just nodded before saying, "Thank you so much for your time Jerry, let me walk you out. Class, I will be back to start math in just a moment. Please go over lesson forty-two while you wait." I set the papers on the desk, but she rolled them up and grabbed them herself."

Once outside she gestured for me to take the papers from her.

"You should take those," she said, "I'm not going to lie to Scootaloo about talking to you, I just didn't want to announce it to the class. I don't know what you're doing, I just wanted to say keep it up. I better get the class started. Have a nice day."

"Yea," I said, "later."

I looked to the Jeep and I have to admit my heart sank a little when I noticed Gilda was no longer next to it. She must have gotten bored and flown off. I wondered when I would see her again. For a gruff grumbling griffin, she was really growing on me.

I shook myself out of my thoughts. Maybe I would just go see Sawdust after Twilight. I liked how down to earth he was. Could be an earth pony thing, but that would make Pinkie Pie hard to explain. She was out on Pluto.

At any rate, I needed to talk to a friend. Cheerilee just dropped a bombshell and my ADD rattled brain was going crazy.

I can't say I wasn't hoping to be a mentor to the filly, but I never expected her to become attached so fast. Nor did I expect to be put on the same page as her parents. Literally.

The thoughts filled my head. Everywhere from greeting her after school, to what Rainbow would have to say about it. Both good and bad, every angle played in my head at once.

I really wanted to get high, but I knew this thought had to run its course.