As he put on the dark green and white kit of the U13 Eagles, Atomic realised that the last time he had attended training was before his abduction, and he had missed a lot. The team had since played their next two season fixtures, both of which they had won, placing them in second in the local league. Today’s training session preceded another weekend match that Atomic knew he wouldn’t be starting, but in today’s session, he was going to try and change that.
The team ran out onto the pitch and Helios led the warm-up and stretches, before the team split into the offensive, defensive and special units.
For the defensive unit, Coach Bouncer split the team into the front seven and secondary
groups for their first drill; practising zone coverages.
“We're not gonna have the offense with us right now, so just imagine they’re lined up in front of you. When I blow my whistle, you stop, no matter if you’re in the right place or not. Right, Cover 2!”
The defense quickly got into the formation; the defensive line crouched in their starting positions, the linebackers had spread out a few yards behind the defensive line (the middle linebacker stood alone in the middle whilst the outside linebacker stood five yards to the left and right of the middle linebacker), and the cornerbacks were on the scrimmage line at the edge of the field, fifteen yards in front of the two safeties covering the rest of the field.
“Cover 3!”
Atomic had been positioned as a cornerback for this drill, and whilst he knew some of the basic coverage formations, he struggled to get into the right position for the more complicated formations.
“Nickel!”
Atomic panicked and watched his other teammates get into position with ease, desperately trying to remember his position. He ended up colliding with a linebacker and when the whistle was blown, he found himself stuck in the middle of the pitch, with everypony staring at him.
The defensive coordinator sighed loudly. “Atomic, why are you standing there?”
“......Extra protection in the middle?”
“Can somepony tell Atomic where he’s supposed to be?”
One of the cornerbacks pointed to the far right of the field and Atomic quickly sprinted over there.
Coach Bouncer ended the first drill five minutes later and let the team have a quick break.
“Come to me at the end of training. I need to speak to you.”
Atomic nodded slowly, and sat down at the end of the bench, taking a long sip from his water bottle.
“Did Coach tell you about all of those different formations?” the light blue colt asked Helios.
“Not all of them, he told us to read up on all of the other formations.”
“Break’s over, let’s get back to work!”
“Atomic, how would you rate your performance here?”
After training, Atomic had met with Coach Bouncer and Stargaze in the head coach’s office as instructed, and the colt was feeling nervous sitting opposite the two stallions. He suddenly remembered that he had been asked a question and quickly answered.
“...Alright, I think.”
“I’d agree with that. But you’ve got a long way to go before we consider you as a starter for the team.”
Atomic sighed. “But Coach, I’m not a defender, I’m a wide receiver. I’ll never be able to start on defense because it’s not what I am good at.”
The two coaches spoke to each other for a few moments, their conversation almost inaudible. Eventually, Coach Stargaze turned back to Atomic.
“You say you’re a wide receiver?”
Atomic nodded.
“Let’s see what you can do.”
On the pitch, Alizarin stood with the ball at the twenty-five yard line. On his right was Atomic, ready to show the coaches what he could do.
“Hike!”
Atomic leapt forward and quickly got into his stride. Alizarin took a three-step drop back and waited for Atomic to reach the halfway line, before hurling the ball through the air.
Atomic made the easy catch at the forty yard line and sprinted back to the twenty-five yard line, and Alizarin picked up the next ball.
“I want you to run a post route. Do you know what that is?”
“Yes, Coach,” Atomic replied, silently thanking Thunderhoof for teaching him some of the basic running routes.
The next four passes were all caught by Atomic, and Coach Stargaze made a few notes. At the end, the head coach called the two colts over.
“Alright, Atomic. You’ve clearly got talent as a receiver. You’ll start our next match. Can you handle it?”
Atomic nodded eagerly, ecstatic that he had finally proved himself. “Yes, Coach. Thank you so much.”
“So, how was it?”
As soon as break time had begun, Atomic had dragged Amber outside onto the field. The weather had taken a turn for the worse; the temperature had gotten noticeably colder and a harsh wind blew through the air. Most of the pupils had come to school wearing their hats and scarves, and Amber groaned when Atomic tugged on her blue wool scarf again.
“Atomic, let go! I’m not gonna run away!”
Atomic apologised and loosened his grip on the scarf.
“What did you guys do?”
“I wanna ask those two guys, the ones you said were friends with Pablo….”
“Blaze and Mustang?”
“Yeah, I wanna ask them something.”
Instead of sitting at the back of the field as usual, the group of friends had waited at the benches next to the courts. As they sat down, Chestnut informed Atomic and Amber that their older friends were in extra Maths classes and so were unable to join them. The attention immediately shifted to Amber and before anypony could ask her how yesterday was, she looked at Pablo’s former friends.
“Blaze, Mustang, did you guys ever go to Pablo’s house?”
“No, we’ve never been. We did go past it once in the summer, but Pablo made us rush past it. I think he was trying to avoid being spotted.”
Amber nodded quietly, before realising that everypony was staring at her.
“What?”
“Aren’t you gonna tell us how-”
“Oh, that. It was alright.”
Amber quickly retold her time with Pablo, breezing over what happened inside his house.
“It was actually really good,” she concluded.
“It was?” Atomic asked, and Amber nodded.
Blaze sat quietly for a few moments, before suddenly speaking up. “There’s only one reason he would be so nice to you. I think he has a crush on you.”
“What?!” Amber exclaimed, and Mustang agreed with Blaze.
“Knew it,” Thunderhoof added, and Amber shook her head.
“There’s no way he likes me, he was just…..being friendly, that’s all.”
The bell suddenly rang and the students quickly went back into the building; Atomic and Amber split from the group to go to their Maths lesson, and on their way, they bumped into Pablo, who eagerly greeted Amber.
Atomic watched the two talk, a confused expression on his face.
Did somepony swap bodies with Pablo?!
Atomic tuned back into the conversation, waiting for the right moment to tell Amber that they were going to be late to Maths if they didn’t hurry up.
“Why don't you come and hang out with me and my friends at lunch?”
“Er...yeah, okay,” Amber replied with a nod.
“She can't, she’s gonna be with us at lunch,” Atomic replied quickly, and he dragged Amber away before she could say anything.
“Hey, what the hay-”
“We’re gonna be late, and I really don’t want to get lunchtime detention.”
Amber grumbled and ripped her foreleg out of Atomic’s grip. The conversation the rest of the way was silent and when they finally reached room 6, they found that the classroom door was locked. Atomic looked through the keyhole and was able to make out Ms Ivory writing on the blackboard.
“Brilliant, we’re late! And it’s all your fault!”
“My fault! How was I supposed to know she locks the door?!” Amber countered with a glare.
“If you weren’t flirting with Pablo of all people, then we wouldn’t be locked outside!”
Unbeknownst to Atomic and Amber, their arguments had drawn the attention of the foals inside the classroom, and Ms Ivory unlocked the door.
“Inside. Now.”
Atomic and Amber ignored each other and went to their seats, everypony’s eyes on them. Ms Ivory closed the door and resumed the lesson.
Atomic’s anger faded as he took out his books and quill, and he asked himself why Amber and Pablo’s budding friendship bothered him so much. After some deliberation, he came to two conclusions; either he was just irritated by Pablo actually being nice to somepony or...
I don't like Amber!
Do I?
Ms Ivory placed a pile of papers onto Amber’s desk. “Amber, hand out a sheet to everypony.”
As Amber went around the classroom to give out the papers, Atomic stared at her. He didn’t find her ugly; in fact he thought her short, light blue hair suited her. Now that he thought about it, Amber’s grey eyes also looked really nice and-
“Here you go.”
Atomic looked up and took the sheet of paper from Amber.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
Do I have a…….crush on Amber?
Atomic decided to worry about Amber later, and looked through the questions on the sheet, relieved that they were easy enough for him to complete. At the end of the lesson as expected, Ms Ivory told Atomic and Amber to come back for detention.
As he made his way out of the classroom, Atomic decided that he should apologise to Amber, his potential attraction to her being the driving force behind his decision.
Amber felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
Amber sighed. “Me too.”
“Leave me alone! I said I’m sorry!”
At the end of the corridor, Chestnut pushed past the ponies walking out of his classroom.
“All of my platinum cards are wet because of you, get back here!”
Pablo came out of the classroom after Chestnut and grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to turn around.
“Don’t ever touch my things again!” Pablo proceeded to shove Chestnut so hard, that the smaller colt fell onto the carpet and skidded a few yards before stopping. The top of his hind legs were red from carpet burn and ponies passing by Chestnut desperately tried to blink away his tears. The pupils that had been walking past all stopped and watched Pablo walk up to Chestnut in a menacing manner, nopony trying to stop him.
“Leave him alone!”
Atomic barged past ponies walking the other way and came flying through the corridor and charged into Pablo, sending the two tumbling into the ground. Ponies started cheering as they exchanged blows, and Amber ran to Chestnut.
“Hey, are you okay?” she asked, helping me up. Chestnut nodded and a few tears rolled down his face.
Atomic and Pablo were still fighting each other as teachers came rushing out of their classrooms to break up the fight, and it took five teachers to separate the colts. As they were pulled up off the carpet, both colts glared at each other and continued shouting insults.
Miss Bellflower eventually arrived and took both colts with her to the principal’s office, instructing everypony to go their lessons immediately or they would face after-school detention. The teachers that had separated Atomic and Pablo checked on Chestnut, and one of them gave him a tissue to wipe away his tears.
“I accidentally spilled some water onto his cards and I said sorry! I don’t know why he did that to me!”
“We'll take him to medical. Take this note and show your teacher.”
Amber picked up her saddlebag and headed back the way she came. She was still in shock that Pablo had pushed Chestnut; he was a completely different pony to the one that had paid for her food and talked to her politely yesterday. Atomic’s warnings about Pablo came flooding back to her, and Amber decided there and then that she would not speak to Pablo again.
“He started it, it was him that charged into me!”
“Because you pushed Chestnut!”
Principal Autumn Forest sighed and lay back into his seat, waiting for the arguing colts to take the hint and be quiet.
“Who the hay told you to get involved, anyway? It had nothing to do with you!”
“I had every right to get involved, Chestnut’s my friend!”
BANG!
Atomic and Pablo fell silent as the principal lifted his hoof off the table. Principal Forest cleared his throat and began to speak.
“I would try and get the both of you to sort out your differences and come to an understanding, but that’s clearly not going to happen. Both of you will be in isolation for the rest of term and I will be sending letters home to your parents.”
Atomic opened his mouth to protest, but immediately caved under the principal’s harsh glare and remained silent. Pablo on the other hand, acted as if the punishment didn’t mean anything to him.
Principal Forest also decided that both colts would be taken out of lessons for the rest of the week, and Miss Bellflower came to the office to collect the both of them.
“I’m very disappointed with both of you,” she said with a frown.
Atomic and Pablo continued glaring at each other as they were escorted to their head of grade’s office, each colt blaming the other for the situation they found themselves in.
Miss Bellflower’s office was on the first floor; it was a small room at the end of the English department’s corridor and had pictures of the fifth-grade over the last few years on the office’s walls. Miss Bellflower had left her office unlocked and pushed it open to let the colts inside. The two seats opposite the desk had piles of papers stacked on top of them, and the teacher quickly moved the papers onto her desk for Atomic and Pablo to sit down.
“Take out your books and revise,” Miss Bellflower instructed and Atomic flicked through his History textbook absentmindedly, glancing over at Pablo every few seconds, who was reading a book. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Miss Bellflower said without looking up.
“We’re here to speak to Atomic Tangerine.”
Atomic immediately recognised the two police officers- they were the ones who had taken him to the police station after he escaped the foal’s home with Amber, and they were also the same officers that had escorted him with his mother to the police station.
“Er, yeah, he’s right here,” Miss Bellflower eventually said, gesturing to Atomic.
Atomic quickly packed up his belongings and the officers stepped aside to let the colt walk out of the office.
“We'll be taking him out of school, so he won’t be coming back,” one of the officers said, before closing the door gently.
“Where am I going?”
“To the station. Your mom’s already waiting for you there.”
“Could you explain that again please?”
In Interview Room 1, the officer sitting opposite Atomic and Tea Rose explained what was going to happen within the next few weeks.
“The ponies that kidnapped you are going to be on trial in a few weeks, and we need you Atomic, to testify against them.”
“So I have to stand up in front of everypony and talk about what happened to me?”
“Yes.”
Atomic sat back and contemplated what it would be like to come face-to-face with the ponies that had foalnapped him, and the police officer sensed his nervousness.
“You’ll be perfectly safe Atomic, don’t worry. We’ll help you with your testimony.”
The officer opened the folder in front of her and took out the statement Atomic had provided to the police after his foalnapping ordeal. She also took out pictures of the scene that had been taken after the arrests and asked Atomic to identify them.
Atomic looked down at the pictures, which had been printed onto laminated paper. “That's the hospital they took me to, and that's the foal’s home I woke up in.”
For the next hour, Atomic, Tea Rose and the officer worked together on Atomic’s testimony, making sure that everything that happened to Atomic was written concisely and in chronological order. Half an hour after the sun had set, the three had finished working on the testimony, and Atomic and Tea Rose were informed that they would be contacted before the trial, which was set to take place after Hearth’s Warming. The mother and son were escorted out of the police station and crossed the road to wait for a carriage at the small carriage station.
Atomic suddenly pointed at a mare on the other side of the road. “Isn't that Aunt Pumpkin over there?”
Tea Rose squinted her eyes and recognised her younger sister. As Pumpkin spoke to a few other ponies, Tea Rose watched her carefully. Pumpkin’s overnight stay in jail for drug use whilst Atomic was missing had soured the sisters’ relationship, and Pumpkin had spent most nights out with friends since. A carriage parked in front of Atomic and Tea Rose and the two got in, Tea Rose watching her sister out of the window she sat next to. The group had split up, with only Pumpkin and another stallion left standing on the pavement. The two appeared to be speaking about something that they didn’t want anypony knowing about- Pumpkin would look up every few seconds to make sure nopony could hear them.
“Where can I take you, ma’am?”
“Oh, 27 Mayfield Avenue please.”
The driver turned on the carriage’s engines and performed a U-turn. As they drove the other way back home, Tea Rose saw Pumpkin give a bundle of notes to the stallio, and she was given a white package in exchange. Tea Rose made a note to ask Pumpkin what she had bought when she came back home. A voice in the back of her mind told her that Pumpkin had bought something she did not want anypony knowing about.
“I’m surprised you guys didn’t fight sooner.”
“Yeah, well, he was asking for it.”
Atomic and Thunderhoof were on their way to school together, and Atomic was eager to spend time with his best friend before he was put in isolation for the rest of the day. As they crossed the road and headed straight towards Sycamore’s entrance, Atomic told Thunderhoof about the upcoming trial he was going to testify in.
“So you have to tell everypony what happened to you?”
Atomic nodded. “Yep.”
At the school’s main reception, Atomic and Thunderhoof said goodbye to each other and Atomic waited next to the desk for Miss Bellflower to come and collect him. Atomic quickly checked his saddlebag to make sure he had brought his reading book, and he moved it to the front so that it would be easier for him to take out.
“Good, you’re on time.”
Miss Bellflower came to Atomic holding a pile of papers, and she gave it to him, telling him that it was his classwork from the lessons he would be missing today. Together, they stood at the desk and waited for Pablo to arrive.
Just as the late bell began to ring, Pablo stumbled inside. “I’m not late Miss, I’m on time.”
Luckily for Pablo, Miss Bellflower decided that he had come on time, and she escorted them behind the receptionist’s desk and through a small corridor, stopping in front of the last door.
“You guys are going to be in here today.”
Miss Bellflower unlocked the door and let the two colts enter. The isolation room was a small space with desks and chairs packed tightly against the walls. Between each desk was a wooden barrier that Atomic assumed prevented ponies from talking to each other without being noticed. Atomic and Pablo were instructed to sit on opposite sides of the room and Miss Bellflower left the room briefly, coming back two minutes later with another teacher.
“Pablo, I’m going to go to my office and get your work. Behave yourselves whilst I’m gone.”
The door closed and Atomic and Pablo sat under the watchful eyes of the teacher monitoring them. Deciding that he could get started on his work later, Atomic opened his saddlebag and took out his book, opening it to where he had last left off. To stop his mom from lecturing him about his lack of reading, Atomic had decided to consult Thunderhoof for book recommendations. Despite his dislike of fantasy novels, Atomic was thoroughly enjoying ‘To The End of the World’, and he was close to reaching the story’s climax (in which the hero and villain would face off for the last time).
“Atomic, you’re supposed to finish your work before the end of the day, so if I were you, I’d get started now,” Miss Bellflower said as she gave Pablo his work for the day.
Atomic sighed and moved his bookmark to the page he was on, before putting his book back into his saddlebag and looking over his work, deciding which tasks were the easiest and hardest.
This is gonna be a long day.
Now’s my chance.
In 27 Mayfield Avenue, Tea Rose was brushing her hair when Pumpkin came to tell her that she was going shopping with a few friends. As soon as she heard the front door being opened and closed, Tea Rose tied up her hair into a bun and went upstairs, heading straight for the room next to Atomic’s. She had dropped off Butterscotch at the playgroup she had recently joined, using the free hours she had to look for a job, but currently she was focused on finding something else.
When was the last time she opened a window in here?!
Tea Rose coughed and covered her nose as the strong smell of Pumpkin’s favourite perfume hit her. She staggered over to the window and opened it, sticking her head out o fit for a few seconds to get some fresh air.
Okay, if I wanted to hide something from my older sister, where would I put it?
The wardrobe was the first place that was searched- clothes flew off their hangers and several scarves were thrown backwards, and soon there was a large pile of clothes behind Tea Rose as she reached the bottom of the wardrobe. She looked behind her and quickly threw the clothes back into the wardrobe, trying her best to put her sister’s belongings back the way she had found them. Tea Rose peeked under the bed and wasn’t surprised to see nothing under there. She stood quietly in the room, wondering whether it was right of her to be going behind Pumpkin’s back like this.
If there’s nothing in here, then I’m just going to leave it.
As a last resort, Tea Rose suddenly lifted up the mattress. There she found Equestrian notes held together with rubber bands. Tea Rose quickly counted the money and the total came to nearly 2000 crowns.
Where the hay did she get all this money from?
Suddenly, Tea Rose heard a key being put into the front door’s lock. Panicking, she quickly pushed the mattress back down and left the room in a hurry.
“It's me!”
Upon hearing her husband’s voice, Tea Rose breathed a huge sigh of relief and came down the stairs.
“How come you’re back early?”
Syracuse came out of his study holding up his saddlebag. “Forgot this. I have to go, I told my boss I’d be back as soon as possible and there’s a carriage waiting for me outside.”
Syracuse quickly kissed his wife’s lips and said goodbye as he left in a hurry. The front door slammed shut and Tea Rose was all alone again.
“We’ve been walking for ages! You said this place was nearby!”
“Stop complaining, we’re literally only a few seconds away now!”
Pumpkin had met up with her friends at the shopping mall to help find one of their friends a dress for her brother’s wedding. Once they had found the perfect dress, the group headed straight for the exit and Pumpkin led them down the high street, making several turns until they reached the entrance of an alleyway.
“Come on, it's just through here!”
At the end of the alleyway was a single, rusty brown door without a doorknob, and Pumpkin’s friends nervously waited behind her as she tried to push it open.
“Are you sure this is safe?” one of them asked.
Pumpkin finally opened the door and grinned. It was just like she had been told. The room had six chairs (more than enough for the group) and a small wooden table in the middle. Behind the chairs, the wallpaper was peeling off the walls in the far right corner and a stale smell hung heavily in the room’s airspace. The mares piled into the room and Pumpkin closed the door, taking a seat in the chair next to the chair. She picked up a block of wood and placed it against the door so that they wouldn’t be disturbed.
“Where’s the stuff then?”
Pumpkin opened her purse and took out a few white packages, putting them down one by one onto the small table in front of her. The other mares immediately tried to grab a package for themselves, but Pumpkin swept them back towards her before they could.
“Money first.”
The mares took out notes from their purses and handed them over to Pumpkin, who counted the money and gave out the packages. One of the mares took out some rolling paper and a lighter to share between all four of them, and soon the room stank of narcotics.
“I still can't believe you managed to get this much! What did you have to do?”
“Just used my charm, and he was all ears,” Pumpkin replied with a smirk, before taking a deep draw from her rollie.
Despite spending a night in a police cell for using drugs, there was little that could stop Pumpkin from purchasing drugs soon after she had returned home. One fateful night out partying on the other side of the city six months ago introduced Pumpkin to the illegal substance, and regular use of the drug had become a part of her life. She did not class her as addicted, but could only go at most three days before she gave up and went out to buy. The mares smoking with her were ponies Pumpkin had met whilst getting used to the town’s nightlife, and she quickly became close friends with them. Pumpin knew that her older sister would probably kick her out of the house if she was ever caught using again, but with every puff she took, Pumpkin’s doubts and worries slipped further and further to the back of her mind.
Pumpkin took one last puff and leaned back, feeling the drug take effect. She suddenly laughed out loud, prompting the other to look up at her.
“You know if my sister caught me here, she’d put me in hospital.”
“My mom would do the same to me,” one mare said, and the others nodded in agreement.
“Hey, anypony in here?!”
Suddenly, there was a long knock at the door.
“Hide the stuff!”
The mares quickly cleared the table and hid behind the chairs.
“Pumpkin, answer the door!”
Pumpkin, still under the influence, slowly moved the wood away from the door and banged the door.
“Hey! I’m using the, the…...toilet! Yeah, so leave me alone!”
“It don't sound like it from out here!”
“Er….”
Pumpkin’s friends helped her out by making noises, and Pumpkin crouched next to the door.
“I’m tryna do my business in peace, leave me alone!” she yelled, and a few moments later, she heard hoofsteps moving away from the door. She slowly got up and suddenly fell back against the door, losing her balance for a brief moment before chuckling.
“You can come out, we’re clear!”
The mares sighed in relief and came out of their hiding places, taking their seats back.
“Yeah, there’s a weird smell coming from here. When I knocked on the door, a mare replied and said that she was using the toilet, and there were….worrying noises coming from inside.”
“Alright, I’ll check inside.”
Pumpkin looked up at the ceiling and saw that the smoke was escaping the room through a small air vent, which explained why the mares hadn’t suffocated in the room. She then heard the voices and hoofsteps coming closer and closer, and the mares panicked again.
Outside in the alleyway, the police officer knocked on the door loudly. “West Fillydelphia Police, open up!”
“Use your magic and get us out of here!” Pumpkin hissed, directing her demand at the only unicorn in the group. The said unicorn closed her group and a purple aura surrounded her horn. The mares packed tightly together, and waited to be teleported from the room.
“It's not working! The spell’s not working!”
“Do it again, quickly!”
The unicorn closed her eyes and after the magical aura covered her horn, the group were pushed even closer together by the unicorn’s magic. Pumpkin opened her eyes and the room appeared blurry. A few seconds later, the police officer kicked the door open. The room was empty.
“Was this your idea of a joke?!”
The pony that had reported the noises he heard stepped inside the room and shook his head.
“Can't you smell that?! That proves somepony was in the room!”
Despite having a bad cold, the police officer sniffed deeply and was finally able to catch the scent of a substance that he was very familiar with.
“Somepony’s been using in here!”
The officer moved the chairs aside and tucked in the right corner of the room, was a large bag. The officer read the name on the front and recognised the shop.
“Whoever was in here left their shopping behind,” he declared. He told the pony with him to step out and once they were outside, the police officer took out his walkie-talkie and requested a search team to come as quickly as they could. He took the shopping bag out and looked for the receipt, planning to go to the mall and find out who had left the bag behind.
“So how was shopping with your friends?”
“It was alright. Took us a while, but we found the perfect dress for Petal.”
Tea Rose watched her younger sister go upstairs to the guest room, wondering if she was adding to the stash of money under her mattress.
In the guest room, Pumpkin closed the door behind her and fell back onto her bed. The teleportation spell had dropped them in the middle of the road where they were nearly hit by carriages driving by. Once they had safely gotten off the road, the ponies went their separate ways, and Pumpkin came back just after three o’clock.
Pumpkin took out the second rollie she had prepared from her purse and stared at it, wondering if she could risk smoking it without getting caught.
Nah, Rose would be able to smell it. I’ll do it later.
Pumpkin wrapped the rollie up inside a tissue and tossed into her wardrobe. She went downstairs to find her sister, who was in the kitchen cleaning the tables.
“How’s Butterscotch finding the play group?”
“She really likes it, it’s a good place. At first I thought I was going to have to stay with her the whole time, but she’s fine by herself. Besides, none of the other parents were staying.”
Pumpkin took some tissues and began drying the tables that her older sister had just cleaned.
“So how’s life?”
Pumpkin turned around. “Huh?”
“Are you happy here?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Just asking.”
Pumpkin went back to drying, and Tea Rose suddenly hugged her from behind.
“You know you can tell me anything, right?”
Pumpkin nodded slowly, confused as to what had brought in the change in her older sister. “Why, what’s up?”
“Just wanted to tell you that.”
“You can go home now. Make sure you’re not late tomorrow.”
Half an hour after school had ended at three-twenty, Atomic and Pablo we’re finally free to go home. The two had managed to complete all of their work before the end of the day and they were eager to get out of school and away from each other as soon as possible.
“Atomic, wait up!”
Thunderhoof and Amber galloped to Atomic as he turned around, and he greeted them eagerly.
“What are you guys still doing in school?”
“I was helping Amber with maths, and we figured we’d wait for you as well.”
As the three of them chatted, Pablo had almost passed the main reception when he stopped and watched Amber talk to Atomic eagerly. He took a step forward and was about to go and say hello to Amber, when he remembered what he had done to Chestnut yesterday. Amber had paid no attention to him since the incident, and Pablo realised that she probably wouldn’t want to talk to him right now.
Brilliant, I’ve ruined my chance with her.
As they left school to go home, Atomic’s potential crush on Amber suddenly resurfaced, and he decided to stay quiet and not take part in the conversation.
“My ride’s here guys. See you tomorrow.”
Atomic suddenly felt forelegs wrap around his body, and he realised that Amber was hugging him. As she broke the hug and said goodbye to Thunderhoof in the same way, Atomic felt his cheeks redden and he tried to cover them before they were seen.
Amber got into the carriage waiting outside the school (which also held Amber’s housemates that attended other schools in the area), and she waved as the carriage drove away.
“Atomic, why are you blushing?”
“Huh?! I’m not blushing, it’s just….I feel really hot right now, that’s all!”
“Okay, if you say so,” Thunderhoof replied, a knowing smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
“I’m home Mom!”
Atomic dumped his saddlebag at the bottom of the stairs and went into the living room to sit on the sofa.
“Pumpkin, could you collect Butterscotch for me? I need to start dinner.”
“Alright, I’ll get ready now.”
Ten minutes later, Pumpkin left the house and headed towards the high street to call a carriage.
“Mom, somepony’s knocking at the door.”
“Atomic, can you open it and tell them I’ll be out in a sec?”
Atomic sighed and got off the sofa. He opened the door.
“Is Pumpkin Spice here? We really need to talk to her?”
“She just left to collect my little sister.”
Tea Rose came out of the kitchen and was surprised to see two police officers on her doorstep.
“D’you need us to go to the station?”
“No, we need to speak to your sister.”
“Pumpkin?”
Tea Rose invited the police officers inside, desperately trying to hide her growing panic. Did the money stashed under Pumpkin’s mattress have something to do with the police’s visit?
The officers politely declined Tea Rose’s offer of coffee or tea, and the four of them sat silently in the living room.
“Come on, Butterscotch, your mom’s waiting for you.”
Pumpkin turned the pushchair right onto Mayfield Avenue and pushed it down the pavement.
“Rose, we’re home!”
Pumpkin was taken aback by the glare Tea Rose was giving her.
“Miss Pumpkin Spice?”
Pumpkin’s eyes widened upon seeing the police, and she gulped loudly.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Could you step outside with us for a moment, please?”
Pumpkin nervously nodded and stepped aside to let the police pass.
It’s probably nothing, don’t let them see you stress.