It was a bright and sunny day at Canterlot High, but the grounds were silent. There were no students milling around and chatting, no announcements being made or impromptu games being played, not even Vice Principal Luna’s perennial warning of ‘no student parking in the faculty lot’.
It was summer vacation, and every student was taking full advantage of this by being anywhere but at school.
Well, almost every student.
Wallflower Blush made her way down the path to the school’s garden. As she ducked between the bushes, she saw two others already here.
“Hey, Wallflower,” Rose said brightly, looking up from her watering.
Muffins waved.
Wallflower cracked a smile and waved back. It was still weird to her, being noticed at all, and now she was running her own little gardening club. “Hey, girls,” she said. She glanced around, realizing there was one more person she was expecting to see. “Is Sunset around?”
“Not that I’ve seen,” Rose said. Her smile turned playful. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” Wallflower said a bit too quickly.
Rose smirked.
Wallflower lived up to her last name as she sat down and began weeding, facing away from the others to avoid any incidental eye contact. Apparently, her little crush on Sunset Shimmer wasn’t quite as hidden as she would have liked, something Wallflower found profoundly mortifying. Were she to be completely honest, she would have used the Memory Stone, if she’d still had it, to keep it a secret.
In her defense, Sunset was really cool.
Wallflower wasn’t sure when it had started. Honestly, it may have been part of the reason she was so upset with Sunset after she’d changed. She really didn’t know.
And once she’d figured this out, she had no idea how to progress further. That was one of the other things that bugged her about losing the Memory Stone: she had no redos. If she botched any of this (which was very likely, knowing her), then it would be game over—permanently.
She lifted one of the flower petals and pursed her lips. Plants didn’t have this problem. Plants just had to look pretty and some passing bee or moth or hummingbird would come by and pollinate them.
That wouldn’t have worked. Before, Sunset barely noticed her, let alone wanted to pollinate her.
Her ears burned at that thought, and she quickly refocused on her work and tried to put it out of her mind.
Wallflower waved goodbye and then shoved her hands into her pockets, trying to not feel dejected.
Sunset hadn’t come.
It’s not like she’d expected her to come. But she usually would, which was really nice, especially since it seemed everyone else in their group had a camp or a retreat to go to already.
Ok, Wallflower had expected her to come.
Maybe she should text her? She pulled her phone out (she really should put a lock on it, now that she actually had numbers in her Contacts list) and got to the Messages app before pausing.
This could be a bad idea. What if it came across as too needy? That could push her away.
Or what if it didn’t? What if Sunset actually wanted to hear from her?
Frustrated with her internal arguing, she put her hands on her forehead—and unintentionally hit herself in the head with the corner of her phone. “Ouch,” she grumbled, rubbing it. Smooth. The only way that could have been worse is if-
“Hey, Wallflower!”
-if Sunset had seen it.
Startled, she dropped her phone, and quickly scrambled to pick it up, well aware of how silly she must have looked.
“Sorry about that,” Sunset said, her eyes wider than usual in concern. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No problem,” Wallflower said, trying to find something not-awkward to do with her arms. She went from folding her arms then putting them down then grabbing her own wrist before giving up and just sticking her hands in her pockets. “We missed you today.”
“Ah, I know,” Sunset said, reaching up to scratch at her neck. “I should have told you. I’ve actually got something new I’m doing this summer.”
“Oh, yeah?” Wallflower asked. Her first instinct was to feel left out, but she knew that wasn’t fair. Sunset had her own life, and it wasn’t like she knew about her feelings.
Maybe she does and just doesn’t care
Wallflower shook her head to clear that intrusive thought. “Sorry, pollen,” she lied, rubbing at her nose. “Go on.”
In response, Sunset turned, gesturing behind her. Wallflower looked to see a younger girl, wearing a pink dress with frills and her blue hair done in ringlets, framed by a white bow.
“Wallflower, this is Cozy Glow.”
“Hi, Cozy,” Wallflower said uncertainly.
“Hey, Wallflower!” Cozy said with a big smile, bouncing once neatly in place. “Golly, it sure is swell meeting you!”
Wallflower gave her a shaky smile, hoping it would pass as genuine. Cozy was certainly energetic. She already felt a little tired just looking at her.
“I’ve joined this mentoring program for kids on their own who need a little extra help,” Sunset explained, “and Cozy’s going to be my mentee for the summer.”
“Oh,” Wallflower said, still a little confused about all this but not wanting to come across as ignorant.
Thankfully, Sunset clarified. “It sounds fancier than it is. It’s mostly just an excuse for them to get out of the group home, spend time with an older sister-figure, and just have fun on the town.”
“Oh,” Wallflower said again. She looked between them, suddenly wishing she had something cool to suggest they all do together. She almost suggested a visit to the garden, but not in that dress, she couldn’t. “That sounds fun,” she said, hoping she sounded convincing.
“It sure does!” Cozy squeed. “We’re gonna have a blast together.”
So less time to spend with Sunset. Maybe she could third-wheel. She didn’t take up much space.
But then again, she wasn’t sure she wanted to share Sunset; and for an introvert like her, the excitable Cozy might as well have been a patch of poison ivy.
Wallflower shook her head rapidly to clear it. “So what kind of things are you going to do?”
“Still kinda figuring that out,” Sunset admitted. “But I figured having her meet all my friends was a start and we’d just go on from there. You know, all the ones not at camp, anyway.”
Wallflower cracked a half-smile.
“We’d better get going, actually,” Sunset continued. “We’re going to meet up for lunch with some other pairs. But we’ll see you around?”
“Yeah, sure,” Wallflower said, waving goodbye.
It must have been just a trick of the light, but it looked like Cozy had almost… smirked at her?
Wallflower shook her head.