Chapter 2
...but it's worth it!!
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Sometimes I don’t want to go to school. I don’t ever say anything because Mommy and Daddy say it’s good that I like to go to school, and I don’t want them to be sad because I don’t want to go to school but uhm sometimes I think I don’t want to go to school. Even when I was just waking up, I was afraid of talking to Melody and Ocean, even though Mommy said it was okay to say ‘no’ I didn’t want them to be mad at me.
But I said to myself that I’m a big filly and I have to be brave, and besides, I don’t want to make Mommy and Daddy sad by not going to school, so I went anyway. I ate breakfast and Daddy said, “Flurry, what’s wrong? You’ve barely touched your breakfast?” and then I ate more to show him that nothing was wrong even though really I was scared and didn’t want to.
And then on the way to school, Flash said, “You’ve been really quiet, are you feeling okay?”
So I smiled so he would feel good and said, “I’m okay!”
And he smiled and said, “Are you just tired?”
And that sounded like a good reason to be quiet so I said, “Yes,” and he didn’t expect me to talk anymore after that.
We got to school and Ms. Prep was there and she said, “Good morning, Flurry!”
I smiled at her and said, “Good morning! I’m looking forward to school today!” because I didn’t want her to be sad either.
Flash patted me on the head. “Flurry’s been feeling a little quiet this morning.”
And then Ms. Prep kneeled down so we were face to face and said, “Oh yeah? Well I know just what to do with quiet fillies…”
I knew Ms. Prep is a really nice mare and that she wouldn’t ever be mean to me, so I giggled and said, “What?”
And then she gave me a hug and said, “Make sure they get lots of love!”
And then I laughed and that made me happy and a little bit less scared, because I love Ms. Prep and she’s the best teacher in the world.
“Why don’t you go put your lunch in your cubby?” Ms. Prep said, so I took my lunchbox and brought it over to my cubby to put it away.
But then I got scared again, because when I got to my cubby, I saw Melody Charm at her desk. She was looking at me, but then when she saw me looking, she turned away and stared at her desk instead. I didn’t know what to do, so I put my lunchbox in my cubby and then walked over to talk to her.
But before I could, Ocean Breeze landed next to me. I didn’t even see him flying above me but that must be where he was. He likes to fly and sneak up on his friends, which I usually think is really funny, but today I wish he didn’t do that.
“Oh,” I said because I was surprised. “Hi, Ocean.”
“Hi, Flurry,” he said. “I’m sorry that I was bad yesterday.”
“It’s okay,” I said, and then I gave him a hug. “You’re still my friend, but don’t do that again! I don’t like when you pull on me!”
“Okay, I won’t do that,” he said, which made me happy.
But I wasn’t happy for long, because I saw Melody put her head in her hooves. So I flew over to her, and Ocean Breeze flew behind me.
“Hi, Melody,” I said.
“Hi, Flurry,” she said, even though it sounded funny because she still had her head in her hooves.
“I’m sorry about yesterday, Melody,” Ocean said. “I didn’t mean to get mad at you.”
Melody picked her head up, but she didn’t look at us. “I’m sorry too. Are we still friends?”
“Yeah, we can still be friends,” Ocean said.
I was so happy that my friends were getting along again that I almost forgot about the other thing I wanted to talk to them about, but then Melody didn’t forget because she said, “You probably want to marry Ocean instead of me because I was a mean filly.”
And then I wanted to say that I want to marry both of them just like Mommy said I should say, but it was really hard! I didn’t know why it was so hard to say, but I looked down at my hooves and I didn’t say anything.
But then I heard Melody sniffling and I looked up and she was crying. Not a lot, just a little bit, but I didn’t like seeing her cry. It was a little weird because she was sitting at her desk and I wasn’t, but I gave her a hug anyway. “I do want to marry you, Melody!”
“You do?” Melody looked up and she smiled, she looked so happy that it made me happy too! I had a big smile on my face because of how happy Melody was and I wanted to hug her again.
But then I heard Ocean say, “Oh,” and then I didn’t want to smile anymore. I turned to look at him and he was sad, but he wasn’t crying. I thought maybe it was because he was a boy, but I saw him cry before so maybe that wasn’t why.
I still didn’t know if they would want to, but I knew I had to say what Mommy told me to say because if I didn’t one of them would be sad. “I, uhm, I think I should marry both of you,” I said. I kept my eyes on them, and I was a little bit scared of what they would say.
While I was watching, Melody’s mouth fell open, and then I knew what she was going to say before she even said it. “What? You can’t marry him if you marry me!”
“Yeah, that’s not how it works, Flurry!” Ocean said. His mouth didn’t fall open but instead he turned his head to the side. “You have to marry one of us!”
That made me a little angry so I frowned and stomped my hoof. “I don’t have to marry either of you!”
Ocean and Melody both looked at each other, then back at me. “But you gotta marry somepony,” Ocean said. “Everypony does.”
“You don’t want to marry somepony else, do you?” Melody asked.
“No, I don’t have to marry anypony because my mommy said so! And if I don’t marry both of you, then I’m not going to marry anypony!”
“Flurry, if we all get married, then ponies are going to think that’s weird…” Melody said. “I don’t think we can do that.”
“My aunts are all married and even if one of them was a boy they would still be married. Even if, uhm, even if they didn’t all want to be married, they still could be.” That didn’t sound right, but I knew Mommy had said something like that. It all made so much more sense when she had said it, but now I couldn’t think of how it went.
“But your aunts are all princesses!” Ocean said, then he poked me with his hoof. “You’re a princess, so you can marry as many ponies as you want, but me and Melody aren’t princesses so we can’t do that, so you have to only marry one pony or marry other princesses!”
Melody laughed a little. “Princess Ocean Breeze would be a pretty filly.”
Ocean’s face went a little red and he said, “Well, I’m not a princess so there!”
“But I don’t want to marry a princess,” I said. “And anyway, Mommy said we could all get married and she knows lots and lots of stuff, so she’s right! Besides, Ms. Prep says sharing is important!”
“Flurry…” Melody said.
“Why are girls so weird!?” Ocean threw a hoof up in the air. “Just pick one of us!”
“What’s going on over there?” Ms. Prep called from the doorway.
“Nothing!” Ocean called back. I guess that Ms. Prep believed him because she didn’t come check on us, but we all knew that we had to be quiet.
And that made me think that being quiet might be a good idea. “Fine, I know what I’m picking.”
“Yeah?” Ocean said, and Melody leaned in closer to hear better.
“I’m picking that you two have to decide if you both want to marry me, or else I’m not marrying anyone.”
“But –”
“No!” I said before Melody could say anything else. “You have to figure it out, and until you do, I’m not talking to either one of you! I’m just going to be a quiet filly all day long and, uhm, you can just play games without me forever and ever if you don’t tell me.”
Then I ran away, but it was really because I wanted to cry again. I didn’t want them to play without me forever and ever. I didn’t even want them to play without me for today only, I wanted things to be good between all three of us and to always play together forever! Love was stupid…
I ran all the way to the door, where I stopped at Ms. Prep’s legs. “What’s wrong, Flurry?” she asked.
“Can I sit somewhere else today?” I asked.
“You don’t want to sit with Ocean and Melody?”
I shook my head. “No, I want to sit with, uhm, with someone else.”
Ms. Prep looked at my friends and then back at me. “I see. Are you three having a fight?”
I wanted to say no because we’re really good friends and I didn’t want us to be having a fight, but instead I said, “I don’t know…”
And then Ms. Prep put her hoof on my shoulder and then pointed to a desk. “Why don’t you take the desk by mine? Then if you want to tell me about it, I’ll be right there.”
“Okay,” I said, and then I walked over to my new desk. When I walked past my friends I didn’t look at them one little bit.
It was hard to not talk to my friends, but Ms. Prep said I did the right thing and that made it a tiny bit easier. I still really wanted to talk to them, but whenever I thought I should talk to them, I would look at Ms. Prep and she would smile and I wouldn’t talk to them.
It wasn’t too bad when Ms. Prep was teaching us about numbers in the morning. I wasn’t sitting near them, and I had something else to think about. But then after that we had snack time, and it was hard then because we always eat our snacks together.
Melody Charm came up to me when I was eating. “Do you want to share my apple slices?” she asked, which I thought wasn’t very fair because she knows apples are my favorite!
But even though I really wanted some of those apple slices, I just turned away. Besides, my Mommy packed me pear slices and a banana for snack time, and those are good too.
“Flurry… Just talk to me.”
I tried to close my ears by folding them back against my head, but it didn’t help because I could still hear Melody when she talked to me.
“Come on! You don’t really want to marry Ocean do you? He always wants to do things his way and play the games he wants to play. You know I’ll do things you want to do, and play games you want to play, and, and… and, uhm… well, you should just marry me instead!”
I wanted to say ‘Melody, I’m not talking to you’ but then I would be talking to her so I decided I wouldn’t say that. Instead I folded my forelegs and kept looking away.
“Please, at least talk to me…” Melody didn’t say anything for a second or two, then she said, “Fine! I don’t want to marry you anymore anyway! You’re… you’re mean!”
And then I heard her hoofsteps as she ran away, so I turned to look and I saw her running back to her desk. That made me really sad and feel all bad inside, and I thought maybe I am being mean and maybe I should marry Melody.
But then I thought maybe Melody is the one being mean because she wants me to marry her even when I said I didn’t want to if I couldn’t also marry Ocean! Mommy said I’m allowed to say no, so she has to let me say no! Even though I really didn’t want to say no because Melody is a really good friend and marrying her would be a lot of fun, but not if it hurt Ocean.
My tummy felt all funny and I decided I didn’t want to eat my snack after all.
I was really hungry by the time lunch came, so I ate even though my tummy still felt all squirmy inside. I told Ms. Prep afterwards and she asked if I wanted to go home and I said no, and she said it’s called butterflies in my tummy, and I thought that was silly because I think I would know if I ate a butterfly but then I thought oh well I did eat daffodils at lunch and butterflies like those but Ms. Prep laughed and said it was just an expression and that there weren’t really butterflies in there that’s just what ponies call it.
Well, I like butterflies, but only when they’re not in my tummy! But after lunch time was nap time, so I hoped the butterflies would quiet down and go to sleep with me. But before I could sleep, I heard somepony talking.
“Psst,” a voice said quietly. “Flurry, it’s me.”
And I knew who me was, it was Ocean Breeze, he just didn’t say that this time but I knew it anyway. I didn’t say anything to him.
“Flurry, if you marry me, I’ll give you half of my lunch for the rest of the year!”
I didn’t really want Ocean’s lunch because I wasn’t hungry anymore, but I didn’t say that because I wasn’t talking to him today.
“Think about it, Melody doesn’t like when we go out and play in the grass ‘cause it makes her all itchy. You love playing in the grass, so you don’t want to marry someone who won’t play in the grass with you!”
I rolled onto my side away from him and covered up with my blankie. Then even though I could still hear him, I pretended I couldn’t.
“Flurry, just say something! You know you’re too nice to keep not talking to me!”
“Ocean, is that you I hear?” Ms. Prep said. “I think Flurry would like it if you moved your mat somewhere else for today. Besides, you know there’s no talking during nap time.”
Even though I wasn’t looking, I could hear Ocean sigh. “Yes, Ms. Prep…” And then he moved his mat away and I squeezed my eyes shut tight and didn’t cry at all!
…okay maybe I cried just a little bit…
The day was hard, and I thought maybe I should have gone home early after all. Sometimes the butterflies would be there and sometimes they wouldn’t, and when they were there I would look down at my tummy and say, “Please go away, butterflies,” but they didn’t usually.
Eventually it got to be the end of the day though, and we were allowed to play until it was time to go. All of the kids played with their best friends, except for me. I asked Ms. Prep to help me get stuff to draw another picture, and I was all alone by myself.
I sighed and looked down at my paper and my crayons. I knew what to draw, but it made me sad because I thought maybe I’ll only get to play with my friends in my drawings for the rest of forever.
Before I started drawing, I looked up and saw Ocean and Melody. They were together, and they looked at me, but then they kept talking.
And that was when I learned that something worse than butterflies can live in my tummy too. I thought maybe these were tummy snakes because they wrapped around my inside bits and made me feel really bad and made it hard to breathe. I turned back to my paper, and wondered what they were talking about.
Maybe they were deciding that they didn’t want to be my friend because I had been mean to them all day long. Mommy said I was allowed to say no, but maybe she was wrong. Mommy’s never wrong, but maybe this time she was.
Or maybe they would decide they didn’t want to marry me anymore, and I didn’t like that either. Maybe they would marry each other and I would be the one who didn’t get to marry either of them. They’re really good friends and I love them both a lot, and I didn’t like that idea either.
I picked up a crayon in my mouth and tried to start drawing the me pony on the paper, but I bit down too hard and the crayon broke in my mouth. It didn’t taste very good and I had spit it out and I licked my hoof to get the taste of wax off my tongue, and then I looked down at the page.
There was a bad line going up from where my body was supposed to be going to my head. I frowned, not happy that I had messed up my drawing and I thought maybe I was just only going to mess everything up forever!
“I can fix it,” Melody said quietly. I didn’t even know she was behind me, but when I looked back there she was. Ocean was with her too, but he just looked down at the ground.
I didn’t say anything, but she picked up the crayon and drew my wing where the line was. It didn’t even look like I had messed up at all, because Melody is really good at drawing.
I wanted to say thank you, but I was supposed to not be talking to them, so I didn’t. Then Melody did something funny, she looked down and said she was sorry to me!
“I’m sorry,” she said, and then she looked up. “I’m a bad friend.”
“Me too,” Ocean said, and he sat down on the other side of me. “We’ve been really mean to you.”
“It’s okay,” I said before I remembered I’m not supposed to talk to them.
“We talked about it,” Ocean said, then he looked at Melody.
“And we don’t want to stop being your friends.” Melody smiled a little bit. “That’s the most important thing.”
“I’ll still be your friend if we don’t get married,” I said. I rolled around one of the crayons and didn’t look at either of them. “I didn’t really want to not talk to you today, it was really hard.”
“We know,” Melody said. “No matter what, we’ll stay friends.”
I smiled, happy that at least I got to keep that.
But even though it would be good enough to just be friends with the two of them, something even better happened! Ocean looked at me and said, “We decided you can marry both of us if you want.”
Then my eyes got really big because they were full of surprise! I said, “Really?” and they both nodded.
“You’re really smart, Flurry,” Ocean said. “If you think it’s okay, then it must be okay.”
“And Ocean has a lot of fun game ideas,” Melody said. “I see why you want to marry him.”
“And Melody is really nice, and she always looks after us,” Ocean said. “So that’s why you want to marry her.”
“And neither of you is sad that I’m marrying both of you?” I asked.
Melody smiled. “No, we’re not sad. And… if other ponies think it’s weird we’ll just take care of each other, so it doesn’t matter.”
Then I hugged Melody, and she hugged me back. And even though he doesn’t like hugging as much, I hugged Ocean next, and he hugged me too! And I was so happy, I couldn’t stop smiling!
“You’re good friends,” I said.
“You too,” Ocean said.
“Best friends,” Melody said.
I smiled more, and I looked down at my drawing. “Do you two want to help me finish this drawing? It’s gonna be us!”
“Okay,” they both said, and they got crayons and helped color. I never stopped smiling, even though Ocean always colors outside the lines.