There are a variety of things that I don’t like about school, most of which stems from the fact that I’m not very good at anything involved with it. I’ve never been particularly bright, and I’m not what anyone would call especially creative. Then there’s the fact that, ultimately, school is kind of a social experience, and the less said about my social skills, the better.
Which is why I tend to prefer the company of plants.
I feel like there are quite a few similarities between plants and I actually; we have very simple needs and are easily overlooked, for example. We also both respond questionably to praise.
I’m still not sure I believe that talking to plants helps them, I’ve never had an issue keeping the garden that rests in a small copse of trees on the grounds of CHS alive without holding anything like a conversation with them. I’m not even sure what I would talk to a row of tulips about, honestly.
The local pH level?
The consistency of squirrel droppings?
I tip the watering can over a wide and mostly-empty row of clay-rich soil I’d laid down a while ago. I planted some Delphiniums in them which are a little top heavy, so the firmer soil helps them stay upright. They started sprouting yesterday and now I’m just waiting to see how strong the stems are. If they’re not thick enough, I’ll need to put in a wooden brace, otherwise a good breeze might snap them because they’re quite fragile.
Another thing we have in common.
A couple of soft knocks against tree bark sound from behind me, and I turn as a familiar bolt of panic runs up my spine.
The panic fades and is replaced immediately with relief as Sunset Shimmer steps out of the shade of the trees and into the garden wearing a cautious smile.
Sunset Shimmer and I are a study in opposites. Where I blend in, she stands out. Where I’m cowardly and withdrawn, she’s courageous, bold, and just so… so vivid.
She’s so real sometimes that it hurts to look at.
“Hey, Wallie.” She’s smiling, and when Sunset smiles it’s a little like the sun coming out. “How were classes?”
I shrug as she moves over and kneels next to me by the flowerbed. I go back to watering the fledgling Delphiniums. Sunset just watches quietly, which is one of my favorite things about her. There are a lot of things about Sunset that I really like, but one the best is that she never expects me to talk. She’ll occasionally say something, or ask me a question, and sometimes I’ll answer if I feel like I have an answer worth giving.
But she never makes me feel like I have to, and that’s… that’s special to me.
“How long do these ones take to grow?” She asks.
“Two to three weeks, usually,” I say softly. “It depends on the soil quality, and how healthy the bulbs are.”
I thought about asking Principal Celestia if I could keep coming back after graduation so I could continue to take care of the flower garden. It’s probably the only thing I’ve ever done that was worth doing at this school. I certainly didn’t leave any other lasting impression.
At the same time, it might be unfair to other students. There might be someone else like me in the next few years that needs the solitude offered by this lonely place.
Really, right now, the main thing I think I’m going to miss most isn’t even the flowers. It’s Sunset.
After the school year ends and we’re done with high school forever, Sunset won’t have a reason to come to the garden, even if I was still here. In fact, she’ll probably be going straight into Canterlot City University to study to be something incredible and… and have nothing else to do with me, because why would she?
After all the trouble I caused her, why would she?
I scowl at that and have to tighten my grip on the watering can because my hand is starting to shake. That’s a train of thought that I don’t like even a little bit, so I push it out of my head as far as I can.
Instead, I focus, and move from flowerbed to flowerbed, watering each of the sections carefully. No one type of flower needs the same amount of water. It’s easy to accidentally drown a flower if it’s delicate enough. Roses are infamous for that kind of thing and are a lot more fragile than people realise.
It takes me a good half-hour to finish, and Sunset sticks around the entire time. There’s not really any conversation, but she sheds her jacket and hangs it from a branch so she can get down and weed some of the beds between my waterings, and I find myself sneaking glances at her every now and again.
Sunset is surprisingly gentle with plants. I had to teach her how to pull weeds properly the first few times because she was afraid she’d damage the surrounding flowers.
Now she moves with the same sure confidence she has with everything else she does, but watching her work with plants is especially charming for some reason. Maybe because it’s the first time anyone has ever gone out of their way to do something with me.
I’ll never say that out loud, though. It sounds silly just thinking about it, after all.
“Whew.” Sunset groans quietly as she stands and cracks her back before turning to me. “I have no idea how you do that for hours, Wallie.”
I laugh quietly as I set down the watering can and start gathering up all the gardening tools I’d taken from the shed in order to return them.
“It’s just about taking time, I guess,” I say. “I like keeping the garden healthy.”
“Well you’ve got way more patience than I do,” Sunset says with a laugh.
I shake my head at that, and wrap my arms around myself, shivering a little despite my sweater. I’ve always run a little cooler than normal.
“Oh I… I don’t know,” I laugh along with her, or try to. “I mean, you dealt with me all those months, so I think you’re pretty patient.”
That was the wrong thing to say, and I know it the moment the words leave my mouth by the way Sunset’s face falls just slightly. It’s not exactly a frown, but it is something very close.
“Wallie…” Sunset steps closer but I draw back.
“I’m sorry,” I say, looking down and stepping back a few more feet. “That was dumb, I… just… I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be sorry.” Sunset closes the distance, then opens her arms. “It’s fine, I promise, okay?”
Another thing I like about Sunset is that she never touches me without asking first, even just silently. If she puts a hand out, she always does this kind of hovering thing first, like she’s asking permission, or giving me a chance to move. Or if she’s going to hug me, she’ll open her arms like she’s doing now.
I never knew how much I would like being asked until she started doing it, and I wish I knew how to tell her that I really appreciate it without sounding like a complete weirdo.
I step into her arms, though. Sunset is the only one who’s hugged me in a long time, and I’m not sure I’d be okay with it if it were anyone else.
It helps that Sunset gives really good hugs.
Sunset wraps her arms around me and pulls me close, and I settle against the crook of her neck.
“Still settling in okay?” Sunset asks as we stand quietly in the garden. “Is the apartment alright?”
I won’t tell her that I kind of hate it. That’s so stupidly ungrateful. Plus, it’s definitely better than the homeless shelters I’d been going between before Sunset had gone so far out of her way to help me get onto a housing program. So I don’t say anything about the loud neighbors, or how sometimes I’ll just leave and go walk around the Commons for a few hours in the middle of the night, and hope that by the time I’m back everyone has shut up.
Instead, what I say is: “It’s alright.”
“Need any help decorating?”
I shake my head against her shoulder. I’d had so few personal effects to bring with me that I’d been able to stow them all in the first couple of nights, even with how unmotivated I can be. It’s probably for the best honestly. If I had more belongings I probably would have just ended up leaving them in boxes for months on end.
Sunset makes a small hum of acknowledgment and rests her chin on my head. She always does that when she hugs me, and it always makes me want to stay a little longer, but then I start wondering about how long I can stay before it starts to get weird, which is immediately followed by the assumption that it’s already weird and Sunset is just too polite to say anything, and—
I step back from Sunset, shuffling my feet a little as I try to rub the redness from my cheeks. Part of me wants to apologise, but I know if I do she’ll have to acknowledge that it was weird, so I don’t. That’s something else I like about Sunset… she doesn’t make a big deal about how awkward I am.
It doesn’t make me less awkward, but I think it’s sweet of her.
“So uhm… got any plans for the weekend?” Sunset asks as she takes my cue and steps back, turning to retrieve her jacket.
“No,” I reply, kicking at a stray clod of dirt and frowning as it just smears mud on my shoe. “You?”
“Uh, kind of?” Sunset says, and there’s a quaver to her voice as she turns while she’s fitting her arms into her jacket sleeves. “Kind of depends.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“On what?”
Sunset clams up then, and her cheeks colour faintly as she starts fidgeting in a very un-Sunset kind of way. Actually, it looks familiar… she looks almost like me right now.
Nervous and awkward.
“W-Well…” Sunset takes a deep breath. “It uh… it kind of depends on you?”
A weird, buzzy, noisy confusion takes up in my brain as I try to parse out what Sunset is saying. I blink a few times, trying to clear up the static, and shake my head, but nothing about that sentence really made sense.
She felt bad enough for me to spend so much of her Senior year just getting me into that little apartment, and now she was wanting to… what? I couldn’t think of anything else she was doing for me and I feel bad enough about being such a chore with the housing thing in the first place!
Panic crawls up my gut and settles into my heart.
Was she doing something else for me and I didn’t even notice? I mean, that kind of sounds like something I would do, but I can’t figure it out! I dig my fingers into my hair as I wrack my brain for an answer but come up dry.
What was she doing?
What did I miss?!
“Wallie?!” Sunset’s voice cuts through my panic and I jerk my head up at the sound of my name.
Pain sparks across my crown and I stagger back, and Sunset lets out a sharp cry as the top of my head collides with her jaw.
“SUNSET!” I reach out and cradle her jaw, running my fingers across her lips and checking for any bleeding.
“M’fine!” Sunset waves me off with a muffled laugh. “It’s fine, Wallie, I promise!’
“Open your mouth, please!” I plead. “I just… I need to make sure you’re not hurt!”
Sunset chuckles but obliges, opening her mouth, and I sigh in quiet relief that she didn’t bite her tongue or cheek or crack any teeth because I’m so clumsy.
“I told you, I’m fine,” Sunset says, laughing as she steps back. “Are you okay? You looked like you were having a panic attack or something.”
I kind of was, but I don’t say that. I don’t want her to feel bad because she’d said something completely innocuous that sent me spiraling. That’s not her fault, my brain is just… just bad sometimes.
“It’s uhm, it’s okay.” I wrap my arms around myself again and shrug. “I guess I just didn’t know what you meant. You already got me a place to live and I didn’t realise you were doing something else for me too and—”
“Wait, wait, hold up,” Sunset raises a forestalling hand. “I’m… okay, I’m not doing something else, I didn’t mean that I meant—” she takes a step back and begins to pace and fidget with her hair. “I only meant that— no, okay, that’s not how I wanted to start this… I just— no, that’s no good either…”
She’s mumbling now and I can’t really tell what she’s saying anymore, but I can tell it’s bugging her. With what little willpower I can summon up, I take a deep breath step forward and reach out to take one of Sunset’s hands.
Sunset jerks then goes stock, her eyes widening for a moment like a startled bunny. It’s actually kind of cute.
“Sunset? Are you okay?” I ask.
“Doyouwantogotothepromwithme?!”
I lurch back as Sunset blurts out an unintelligible string of words, and for a moment we both just stare at each other while Sunset slowly goes pale, and then immediately starts going red.
“Wh… What?” I say, completely baffled by this point.
Sunset doesn’t answer, instead, she closes her eyes, straightens out her posture, and takes a deep breath, in and out.
When she finally does open her eyes there’s this almost mechanical look to her as she wrenches her face into a painful-looking smile.
“Would you uh… excuse me for a second?” She asks in a strained voice.
I nod, and Sunset bobs her head in a tiny bow before turning on her heel, picking up her backpack, then marching out of the little copse before vanishing behind a tree. A moment later I hear what sounds like someone screaming into a pillow for a solid four seconds.
When Sunset comes back to the garden a moment later she looks exhausted but determined as she drags her backpack along the ground before coming to stop in front of me.
“O~kay, let’s try this dance again,” Sunset mutters, and her next words come out halting like she’s forcing herself to slow down. “Wallflower… I… I would really like—” She clams up again, closes her eyes, and forces out— “Wallflower Blush, will you go to prom with me?”
For some people, when their mind goes blank, it literally goes blank. Those people are lucky in my opinion. When my mind goes blank, it’s more like my brain gives off the sound of an old dial-up modem going live, which means my head is briefly filled with the sound of a thousand screeching robots.
“Wallie?”
“Why?”
The word falls out before I can stop it, and I clap my hands across my mouth a second later as if I could capture it and shove it back behind my teeth where it should have stayed.
Sunset raises an eyebrow.
“Why?” She repeats, then a look of quiet hurt crosses her face. “Why… why would you… want to?”
More panic jolts me into action.
“N-NO!” I raise shaking hands as sweat beads across my brow and back. “I just… Why…? Why would you want to go with… I mean…”
The hurt vanishes and Sunset laughs nervously.
“Because I like you?” Sunset says. “Like uhm… like, I really like you? And I wanted to maybe dance with you? And take you somewhere nice, like a date?”
Now we’re both sweating. It’s almost comforting that she looks almost as nervous as I am terrified. She wants to go to prom.
With me.
Sunset Shimmer wants to take me to Senior Prom.
As in she wants me to wear a dress, and dance with her, around about better than a hundred other people?
“It’s… It’s at the Canterlot Botanical Gardens, this year,” Sunset continues hesitantly. “I thought maybe you’d like it there? And we could go walk around the gardens and stuff?”
Well… well that doesn’t sound so bad. Especially not doing it with Sunset.
“I…” I start, then choke, and have to swallow a few times before trying again. “I don’t… y-you could go with anyone.”
Anyone but me. I can’t keep looking at her.
Those blue eyes are too bright. Too clear.
A pair of warm, amber hands appear in my vision, held out and beckoning, and I look up to see Sunset smiling at me. It’s funny… she’s always so confident and so sure of herself, but now she looks like she’s doing everything she can not to just fall over.
I look down at her hands, then up at her, and she offers her hands again.
Silently asking.
I put my hands in hers.
“I don’t want to go with anyone,” Sunset says gently. “I want to go with you.”
In other words, if I don’t go with her, she might not go at all. That’s not even saying I don’t want to. It’s just… I don’t get it. No matter how much she says it I don’t get it. But she wants to go with me, and I know Sunset well enough by now to know that wouldn’t be messing with me like some other people might. If she’s telling me she wants to go to prom with me, then…
Then she wants to go to prom with me.
“Okay,” I mumble, and her nervous smile vanishes into a bloom of warmth and happiness that lights up my heart. “But I… I don’t have a dress.”
“Don’t worry about that, Wallie,” Sunset says, a touch of her old confidence and swagger now back in place. “I know a gal.”