I prepare for my first day of school in over a week, dressing myself and racing to the shower, which I am fortunate enough to find empty. I briefly thought a moment that the others might have simply let me take the first shower, as a way to start the day off on the right foot, but brushed the thought from my mind.
As I dress and return to the hallway, I find Applejack rubbing her sleep-filled eyes. “Mornin’, Sky...” she barely says, through a yawn. “Ready for your first day back?”
I nod quickly, the shower having filled my body with energy. “Yeah, I am. I think it’ll be… interesting, at least.”
Applejack smiled. “Good to hear,” she mumbled before brushing past me on the way into the bathroom.
I passed a barely-conscious Apple Bloom and Big Mac, who seemed no different from his usual self, on the way down the stairs towards the kitchen, where Granny Smith had already prepared breakfast. “Mornin’, Sky! My, don’t you look chipper this mornin’?”
I felt a bit of blood rush into my cheeks as I smiled. “Yeah, I guess I’m just a little anxious to go back to school,” I took a seat at the kitchen table, happily helping myself to the stack of pancakes that still steamed.
I slept better than I ever had the night before. No tossing or turning, or any strange dreams kept me from my peaceful slumber. It was a bit unusual for me to feel so awake and refreshed in the mornings, especially after getting up as early as the Apples did on a regular basis. I almost felt excited to be returning to school after such a long hiatus.
“I think it’ll be good for ya’ to get back to school after all this time,” Granny Smith stated from her spot in front of the stove. “It ain’t good for a young fella like yourself to stay cooped up in a house all day.”
I blushed again. “Yeah, sitting around most days gets old, fast,” I returned to my pancakes, which were already in the process of absorbing the fresh cinnamon apple syrup. ‘It’ll be nice to see the girls again too,’ I thought to myself as I picked through the sticky syrup. It hadn’t been terribly long since the last time I’d seen them, but over the past day I began realizing how much I missed spending time with each of them. I didn’t realize how much of my everyday life was spent with at least one of them at any given time. Applejack was there most of the time, but she always had a lot of work to do on the farm, and was always exhausted after the long day’s work. It made “hanging out” almost impossible, not that I could blame her.
It wasn’t long before Applejack made her way into the kitchen and helped herself to a stack of pancakes. “Well now, Sky, you must’a been starvin’! Barely left any for the rest of us!” I looked down at my empty plate for glancing a sheepish grin in her direction. She just laughed. “That’s alright, there’s always plenty more where that came from, right Granny?”
Granny Smith simply raised her spatula in the air. “That’s right, Dearie! You kids eat as much as you like!”
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The four of us filled up on pancakes before continuing on with our days, with Big Mac immediately heading out into the farm, and the rest of us piling into Applejack’s car. As always, Apple Bloom was full of life for the entire ride. After letting her out at her stop, I turned towards Applejack. “I don’t see how you get through that every day.”
She chuckled. “I guess you’ll just have to figure that one out for yourself, seein’ that you’re part of the ride now.”
My response was caught in my throat as we drove towards the school. My heart dropped almost at the sight of the building. The reason for my absence had entirely slipped my mind, and I still wasn’t prepared for the responses of the other students when they saw me. Would there be questions? Would they surround me and start asking me who did it? Would they want to see it? I was afraid of anything they might want to say to me.
“You alright, Sky?” I almost jumped at Applejack’s voice, who was just putting the car in park as I came to my senses. “You’re lookin’ a little pale. Are you sure you’re ready to be back here?”
I swallowed to clear the sudden dryness that had taken over my throat. “Y-yeah. I’ll be fine,” I turned back towards the school as I left the vehicle, almost instantly being hit with another wave of anxiety.
Fortunately, my fears proved to be very different from reality. Upon entering the school, a few students glanced my way, but did little in the way of asking any questions or even acknowledging my return. I had a quick sigh of relief. ‘I guess it makes sense,’ I thought to myself as Applejack and I rounded the corner. ‘It’s not like my absence made much of a difference in any of their lives.’
Suddenly the thought left a bitter taste in my mouth. ‘It’s not like I made much of a difference in any of their lives.’
The pair of us continued towards the table, and my eyes widened as I turned back to face the spot. I was met with the smiles of all of my friends. Well, all of them except Twilight’s, who seemed to be nowhere in sight. “Oh, hey you guys. What’s up?” I poorly tried to hide my excitement at seeing all of their faces again after what seemed like forever.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? ‘What’s up?’ You’ve been gone for a whole week! All we had to go on was Applejack saying, ‘He’s doin’ just fine. He’s helpin’ get some work done around the farm,’ every day.”
“Well,” Applejack took a seat next to the girl, “that’s really all that was goin’ on. Nothin’ too excitin’,” I almost interjected, but realized she was right. Nothing too exciting happened while I was away from school. I hadn’t even heard from the police who were supposedly investigating everything that happened that day.
“Oh, none of that matters now anyway, girls,” Rarity spoke towards the pair.
“Yeah!” Pinkie jumped in. “We’re just happy to finally see you back on your feet!” She beamed from ear to ear.
“Oh, yes,” Fluttershy squeaked. “We were all so worried about you.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow turned back towards me. “We knew you’d be coming back today, but we still didn’t know if you were feeling any better.”
I decided to jump in, seeing as I was the topic of conversation. “I’m fine. I can hardly feel it anymore, honestly,” I placed a hand over my wound and glanced towards it. “It almost feels like it never happened, but…” I looked back up to meet everyone’s gaze. “Thanks for worrying.”
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The rest of the morning was spent talking; not so much about what had happened to me, but about normal things: what life was like, how things were going, classes we were in, and everything in between. It was admittedly pleasant to go back to the way things were, almost as if nothing had ever happened in the first place.
All of my classes were as normal as ever, save for one where a particular girl was absent. Nobody seemed to make a big deal over my absence. I began questioning if anybody even knew what had happened, but pushed away the thought. ‘That’s ridiculous,’ I told myself, ‘How could they not know about it?’
Jingle was the only one outside of the girls that even seemed to question me. He darted towards me as soon as he took a single look in my direction. “Sky! I heard about what happened! Are you alright?”
I deadpanned, “Not really, but I’m better now.”
He let out a sigh. “That’s a relief,” A smirk spread across is face, and a glare met my eyes in return. “After all, you’re my only competition with you-know-who,” he said, nodding towards Rainbow Dash, who had just walked into the gym.
“Wait,” I turned back towards Jingle, brow furrowed in thought, “Why is that a relief, then? Wouldn’t that make things easier for you? Not that you have any chance, but I’ll humor you this time.”
He let out a mocking laugh in my direction before turning back towards his crush. “You should know by now that winning by default isn’t my style. But,” He glanced towards my stomach, searching for the bandages still covering my wound, “I guess it won’t be too hard beating you now,” A toothy grin emerged from his lips.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I nodded. “I’m sure Rainbow will take one look at me, laugh at how pathetic I am, and fall straight into your arms,” A chuckle escaped my mouth.
“You’re probably right,” Jingle agreed. By his stoic expression, I wasn’t entirely sure if he understood my sarcasm.
But Rainbow decided to take the moment to jump into the conversation. “Hey, Sky,” She turned towards Jingle. “Hey, Creep.”
Jingle’s face dropped instantly. “That’s not fair! I’m just over here checking on my best buddy, Sky, and you’re coming to take cheap shots at me!”
Rainbow opened her mouth in response, but was sharply cut off by a whistle. “Alright, start your warm ups!”
I glanced towards Rainbow. “I guess you’ll have to find a new jogging partner, huh?”
She shrugged. “No big deal,” She rose to her feet and pushed Jingle ahead of her towards the court before leaning closer to my ear. “Jingle’s not so bad once you get to know him,” I was suddenly hit with the realization that Rainbow and Jingle had probably been pairing up for the past week. I smiled a bit at the thought.
The rest of class was as boring as the rest of the day. All I could do was watch Jingle and Rainbow smack a birdie back and forth over a net. In the entire hour-and-a-half of watching, I never figured out how anybody could find badminton to be so interesting.
After packing up and waiting for everyone else to finish changing, we all said our goodbyes and parted ways. I began my way towards the car parking lot, but quickly found myself coming to a stop after seeing a familiar face. “Hey, Jenna,” I was sure to only speak loud enough to catch her attention. I noted that she was walking alone, which was something that I’m certain nobody was accustomed to seeing.
She quickly turned at the sound of my voice, and I suddenly saw the surprise disappear from her face as she realized who it was. “Oh, hey, Sky.”
I wanted to be upset that she wasn’t excited to see me up and well again, but I was able to push any thought of it aside in light of the circumstances. “Do you think we could talk for a second?”
Her eyes glanced towards mine, and her brow furrowed a bit in question. “Uh, sure.”
I motioned for her to follow as I led the way towards a secluded hallway. It wasn’t very busy, since it only led to a fire exit. “So, is everything okay?”
She shrugged. “I mean, I guess they’re as okay as they’ll ever be, right?” She looked up towards me and made an attempt at a chuckle.
“Alright,” I said as I pulled off my backpack and reached inside, finding a random sheet of paper along with a pencil. I scribbled down my phone number as neatly as I could manage and handed it to her. “Well, things can only get better from here, right? At least, that’s how I’m trying to see things.”
She eyed the sheet for a few moments before looking back up at me. “Sky, I don’t think I can ever forget what I did to you.”
I kept her gaze. “You didn’t do anything to me. You had no idea what he was planning. I completely believe you when you say that. But either way,” I put a hand on her arm, “I forgive you. It’s okay. You don’t have to forget, and I won’t ever forget it either. But I’m trying to move past it and let things go back to the way they were before,” I motioned towards the paper, tapping it lightly. “Just let me know if you want things to go back to the way they were before everything.”
She glanced down, then back towards me, tears welling up in her eyes. “Sky...” I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. I felt her arms slowly do the same.
“It’s okay,” I breathed softly into her ear. “You don’t have to say anything,” I let her go and looked into her eyes. “Just think about it and let me know when you’ve decided,” Her lip quivered ever so slightly, but she nodded, tucking the sheet of paper into her pocket before turning back towards the crowd and disappearing into the madness.
After a moment, I headed back towards the car lot, where I found Applejack waiting for me. She tilted her head towards me, a grin across her lips. “Sky, don’t you know better than to keep a lady waitin’?”
I let out a laugh before muttering an apology. We both packed up our things in the car and were off towards the farm. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and pulled it out to be met with a single text message from an unknown number. I opened it to read, “That’s all I want, Sky,” Suddenly the number wasn’t unknown to me anymore.