//------------------------------// // Mean Curls // Story: Equestria Girls: Just the Tip // by Whirlybird //------------------------------// I still don't know who you're talking ab- Keep going? Alright... Well like I said earlier, Sunset Shimmer was just another student at first. There was another Queen that ruled the school... Queens? Well, it was one group that was in charge. Not a specific clique, but in a funny way that harmony and school spirit is what united everyone against Sunset Shimmer, the former girls in charge all worked together to stay on top, even if they were from different cliques. I've learned that Canterlot High has never had a shortage of bitch queens over the years, but big difference with Sunset Shimmer is that she ended up ruling alone. I couldn't help but wonder about Sunset Shimmer as I found her sitting alone, pouring over a history book with surprising intensity. At the very least the school library looked a lot nicer than I had expected, and there were even computers to use. Soon enough I was sitting next to her and recounting the incident during my second period science class. For some reason it had slipped my mind in English to tell her about all of the drama and the apparent first blood of the school year. "Does... this happen often in the schools here?" Sunset asked with a raised brow, her lips curled upward in a small smirk, head resting in her hand with her elbow propped up on the table. "I, uh... I wouldn't know. I'm kind of new to this stuff." Thinking back on the incident, I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. The blood pouring down the boy's face brought back an all-too unpleasant memory that was the reason for my inexperience. "New? To School?" Sunset blinked, eyes narrowing as she stood up straight, looking be over skeptically. "Explain." It wasn't a request, it was a command. Sunset's tone had changed and her tone was harder, she seemed suspicious for some reason. I could only take the intense eye contact for a few seconds before I look down at the algebra workbook in front of me. "... Well?" I winced as dared to glance up at her, the girls arms now folded across her chest and glaring at me expectantly. "I... uhm..." I swallow hard, looking back down to fidget with the book in my hands. "I... used to be home-schooled, for the last three years. My mom taught me everything... I haven't been in an actual school since I was a kid." I admitted, not looking up at her. "Your... mom?" Sunset Voice's sounded surprised. "Uh-huh... in between work. Giving assignments to do before leaving, taking her days off to teach me more closely. The state provided textbooks and stuff..." "... Huh." I wasn't sure what to make sure of the sound that came from the rocker girl. I let out a small sigh of relief when I saw Sunset softened. The silence seemed to stretch on for a long time while I fidgeted with my book, my nail dragging a long the pages of the now closed book, my nail and the fanning sound from the pages being the only sound between the two of us. "... Yeah, me too." My eyes widened as I turned my gaze up to Sunset, who was now the one avoiding her gaze. "My mom taught me everything I knew." Oh... "And... well she's not exactly around anymore..." Oh shit! "I, uh... I'm sorry Sunset..." I felt increasingly awkward about the situation, even though Sunset was the one that had forced this subject in the first place. Her expression was difficult to read, her eyes narrowing and keeping her head low. She looked more... angry than sad, but the last thing I wanted to do was pry after that bombshell, even if I was super curious. "It's fine." The other girl focuses on her textbook now and let's the silence continue until the bell rang and we could go to lunch. Again I tried to analyze this girl, before she was just the first person I had spoken to at school and that we sat together, but the odds that both of us were home-schooled? I wanted to know more about her, but now things seemed awkward between the two of us... or maybe she just wanted to get back to reading? I just take a deep breath and continued doing problems our algebra teacher had assigned to us. I preferred to do my homework when I could while I was at school, leaving me with nothing to get in the way of enjoying the rest of the afternoon and evening. I had finished my math and was halfway through our Science assignment when the bell rang, and my books were back in my backpack while Sunset put away the history book. I watched her head towards the exit as the others who spent their free period here were already heading off to their next classes. She walks away with them and I grip the straps of my backpack tighter, a heavy weight settling in the pit of my stomach. Right. We're still basically strangers to each other, it hasn't even been one day. "... Well?" that familiar tone called out. Sunset paused, looking back at me with a questioning look. "Lunch, right?" "Uh... R-Right." The weight in stomach lifted somewhat and I give an awkward smile before I follow after her. The lunchroom looked the same as when I arrived before first period, and even now most kids stuck to their same groups, but this time I spied two or three small groups of students sitting together that didn't look like they belonged with any real cliques that I could guess. I felt a little more at east that I again wasn't the only girl around in simple jeans and a sweater... and after the fashion disaster that was Rainbow Dash with her rolled up jeans and suspenders over a tucked in shirt, I figured I didn't look too bad. My gaze look focuses on all the tables, noticing a good amount of them had were still vacant on one half of the long tables while students lined up for their lunch. I reposition myself to Sunset's side instead of following behind her, jerking my thumb at the tables. "I'll get us a spot to sit, you go on and your lunch." I said while starting to walk off, not looking back at her. I do make a detour to quickly nab my own lunch, but not from the the lunch cafeteria, I noticed the vending machines when I first walked into the school lunch room. Sure the school lunches looked okay, but I were a little more than apprehensive about them, and with what was in the bending machines she just had to go with the option I knew. With a grin I approach the vending machine. "So... Pop-Tarts, Tippy dear?" We had found Rarity, or more that she found us, and was thankful that I was sitting with someone that seemed to have some degree of fashion-sense, and so she joined our little group at the end of one of the tables. "Mmph! S'moorsh!" I answered happily, holding up one of the two s'more flavored pop-tart I had gotten from the vending machines, enjoying the taste of chocolate and marshmallow in a graham cracker pastry. Rarity across from me had some kind of salad on her lunch tray while Sunset beside me had a rectangular cheese pizza with a few big pepperonis on it and some classic lunchroom crinkle-cut french fries. "I see. It just seems rather like a... breakfast food?" Rarity said, though she was making that face again like she was holding back from saying something. "...'Breakfast food'?" Sunset eyed at the S'more toaster-pastry skeptically while I swallow my last bite. "Ah. Um... yeah. I also had them for breakfast too! They're really great!" I respond, attempting to defend delicious, if unchanging, choice in food. I go to take a bite from my pop-tart but an orange hand grips my wrist and Sunset leans in way too close for comfort. "Let me taste it." It wasn't a request, a firm grip on my hand that didn't hurt, but kept it there as she took a bite from my s'more treat, and then another. She didn't even bother to bit an the untouched corner of the pop-tart... I just stare blankly while Rarity watched with her mouth hanging open. Sunset just chews and pulls back when she was done, releasing her grip on my wrist and acts like what she did nothing out of the ordinary. "She's right, they're pretty good. And convenient." And that was all she said on the matter. Rarity covered her now closed mouth with a hand, looking from Sunset and me now with a gaze that felt uncomfortable in its intensity. My face flushes as I avoid her gaze and try not to think about what Sunset just did as I start eating the rest of the poptart while I try to figure out the rocker girl beside me and desperately hoping Rarity wouldn't turn the topic towards whatever that just was. We were similar in our upbringing but we couldn't be more different; Sunset was confident, shameless, demanding, and a little pushy, when she saw something she took it without regard. I on the other hand was... the opposite of all of those things. Fortunately Rarity decided not to comment on that bit of weirdness. Unfortunately, she went back to the topic of my eating habits instead with a hesitant little titter. "Well... regardless, it seems a bit... I mean, you could eat something a bit more substantial than pop-tarts, Tippy." She gives a gesture to Sunset's own meal. It was true, a pepperoni pizza with french fries was definitely more than two pop-tarts, but something was nagging at me as I looked to the ivory girl's own lunch. "But... you're just eating a salad." I point out with the quarter of my pop-tart that was left. The fashionable girl puts a hand over her chest and lets out a more confident laugh that last time. "Well of course! I'm on a diet, Tippy darling. You obviously aren't." She dismissively waves a hand in my direction. ... Oh. There was a familiar, lingering silence at our table as Rarity realized her own words. "... Wow, Rarity." I could hear Sunset's voice, but her voice sounded distant as Rarity's words sunk in. I just put down the pop-tart on top of the wrapper and keep my head low. I don't make eye contact with other of them, my jaw clenching. "W-Well, what I meant to say darling, is that.. .er... it's not a bad thing really, I mean, all body types have their own... unique appeal. Even the... heavier ones." "Rarity..." My face turns red again and my eyes start to get watery. I try to hold it in, speaking or doing anything would just make it worse. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry don't cry don't cry don- "There's nothing wrong with being plus-sized if you wear it w-" "Rarity!" "Oh! Shutting up now!" I grip my bag and stand up from the table, wiping my face as the hot streaks start flowing down my cheeks. I move away from table and hurry to leave the cafeteria. I needed to find a nice, quiet place like an empty stairwell or a bathroom where noone could see me! I wasn't running for long before I ended up slamming into someone bigger than me, and I'm on my ass on the floor next thing I know, hearing my bag hit the cafeteria floor with a heavy THUD beside me "Oof! Hey, watch it freshman!" An older girl's voice spoke up while I tried to clear me vision. The cafeteria was quiet again, uncomfortably so. Once my gaze has lifted I notice four girls looking down at my like I was something they had to scrape off their expensive shoes. No, wait, they'd probably have people to do that for them. That or maybe just throw out the shoes entirely and buy new pairs. Instead, I ran headfirst into the girls I never wanted to run into. The one I had smacked into looked like the two girls behind her had caught her from falling and she was brushing the invisible dust off of her shoulders, while the smaller of the four hung in the back. Now Rarity was pretty, but this girl who was obviously a senior had the fabulous girl beat on several points. Two of them being what I ran into. She was tall and curvy, with pale lilac skin with long curtains of silky curtains of red hair, even if it was slightly tousled now it made my own redhead look like a rats nest in comparison. Her hair didn't stay that way when a shorter pink girl with golden hair in braided pigtails fixed her up, a similar figure but just a little more top-heavy than the first, and in a dangerously short and pleated little miniskirt. At the redhead's other side was a girl of similar height, but while the other two were curvy, this tan-skinned girl had a smaller chest and a more fit build, and the only one not wearing a skirt. Blue jeans and and a black shirt under a denim vest with torn sleeves. I try to make myself smaller as she glares down at me. The last of the girls was far less threatening, only a little bigger than me and far more slender in comparison, blue hair that had a curl to it apparently given the strand bangs that had escaped from the tight bun on top of her head. But as I thought that a grin started to spread across her face while she adjusted the sleek black glasses on the bridge of her nose. The redhead was Prima Donna current queen of the school. And the other three were her entourage.