//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Marking // by SugarHoneyIceTea123 //------------------------------// Gallus wondered if today was a lipstick day? He hadn’t seen Smolder yet that day, so he wasn’t sure. And he wasn’t sure how he’d react if it was. He couldn’t, for the life of him, get a read on what Smolder was trying to accomplish. Was she just screwing with him? Just trying to get a rise? Did kissing mean something completely different for dragons that he and his friends just never picked up on? Gallus normally didn’t particularly care for Chemistry as a subject, but right now, he was completely engulfed in his measurements and calculations in an attempt to distract himself from any more thoughts of the matter. He was so distracted, he didn’t notice Smolder walk up behind him. “Whatcha cookin’, Doc?” Smolder asked, poking her head out from behind him. “Gah!” Gallus exclaimed, very nearly accidentally dumping the contents of the phial in his hands into the beaker he had been mixing his compounds in. If he had done his calculations right, too much of this compound would have resulted in a much more volatile reaction. And Gallus had just about enough volatile reactions caused by Smolder. “S-Smolder! What are you doing here! You don’t have this class!” Gallus hissed, trying not to raise his voice too much over the ambient chatter of his classmates. Both so he wouldn’t cause someone else to make the same mistake he nearly did, and also to make sure not to draw too much attention to the two of the- Oh, Grover, now she’s wearing purple lipstick. Why did she look so good in purple lipstick!? Gallus thought. “I had a free period.” Smolder said, shrugging. “But I’m not staying, I just wanna grab Ocellus’ history notes from you. Remember, she let you borrow them? She needs them back and she sent me to grab ‘em.” Gallus sighed, happy that she wasn’t sticking around to do whatever horrible things she no doubt had planned with those striking purple lips. Did he just think the word striking when describing a pair of lips? What was this girl doing to him!? Putting the phial on a rack for now, he rummaged in his book bag for a bit before producing the particular set of notes she asked for. “Thanks, G. Catch ya later.” Smolder said, grabbing the papers and giving Gallus a two finger salute as she walked off. Letting out a sigh of relief he didn’t even realize he was holding in, Gallus picked the phial back up and tilted it ever-so-slightly, making sure not to put in a single drop more than the recommended amount. “Oh, hey! I almost forgot!” Smolder’s voice behind him caused him to turn around, only to turn directly into a pair of purple, puckered lips diving straight for his face. Smolder stood on her tip-toes as her lips pressed against the clear plastic of Gallus’ safety goggles, giving Gallus a very clear view of her lips staining the plastic as Smolder pulled away, leaving a perfect mark of her lips coloring half of Gallus’ vision purple. “Mwah!” With that, and a very self-satisfied grin on her face, Smolder turned and left without another word. Gallus could barely see her leave as the mark she left practically half-blinded him. He certainly didn’t see himself absent-mindedly dumping the entire phial in his hand into the beaker. He didn’t even see his beaker explode into a flood of pink goo and foam until the student sitting at the station next to him started screaming about her textbooks getting stained by Gallus’ project. “Mr. Gallus!” Professor Time Turner shouted, though Gallus barely registered his reprimand. “I am not so prudish as to be against public displays of affection, but please try to keep such frivolities on your own time!” --- Dodgeball. Dodgeball would give him the release he needed. Dodgeball was always a great stress relief for him. Active without being too taxing, and fun to boot. The school didn’t exactly have a professional dodgeball team, at least not in the sense that they played against other schools like their Buckball team, but he and his fellow players still had enough athletic pride to take their in-house games seriously enough to work up a good sweat. “So, before we get started with today’s game,” Coach Rainbow Dash said, gathering up the players, Gallus among them. “I got a special treat. Since we’re in a bit of a dry spell in the Buckball season, our Cheerleading squad is feeling a bit out of practice. So we’re gonna kill two birds with one stone today and have the squad come cheer you guys on while you play. Should get you nice and pumped up and be a good refresher course for their routine.” Well, that’s a nice idea, Gallus thought. How responsible of Coach Dash to try and further as much of their physical education regiment as much as she- Oh, Grover, Smolder’s on the cheerleading squad. Dread and woe creeping down his spine, Gallus turned to the gymnasium doors as they opened, the School of Friendship’s official cheerleading squad walking through, talking amicably among themselves. Gallus wasn’t all that familiar with the two ponies on the squad, but he of course recognized his friends Ocellus, Yona… And Smolder. And today was a lipstick day. Specifically, she decided to color coordinate her lipstick with her cheerleading uniform as it was the same seafoam green as the trim of her outfit. Smolder was discussing something or other with Ocellus as she walked through the doors, but she stopped as her eyes met Gallus from across the gymnasium. She smirked, shot Gallus a wink, then went right back to talking with Ocellus. Gallus gulped. --- So far, the game proceeded as it normally did. The cheers and chants from his friends (and those two ponies he didn’t know) actually did manage to give him a good rhythm to move his body to. He was, without bragging too much, crushing it. He idly wondered if Smolder was impressed? Shaking those thoughts out for now, Gallus took a headcount of both his team and the opponent’s. They were down 3-to-2, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t turn around. He managed to get one of his opponents out with a ball caught in midair, using his wings to flip to the side before landing on his hind paws. Yes, he was absolutely showing off. He was a show-off. He cocked his arm back, ready to return fire and bring his team back into the majority… when the corner of his eye caught Smolder again, swaying her pom-poms and swinging her hips. She puckered her seafoam lips and kissed the air once, twice, and thrice. A salvo of smooches aimed directly at him. Gallus whiffed the shot as the ball went flying directly into the air. He took an enemy shot directly to the head, bouncing off his cranium with a comical ‘Doink!’ which he barely reacted to as he fell to the ground. At least his teammate clinched the win since the opponent team was too busy laughing at him. Go team. --- Wanting to put his utter failure and humiliation behind him, Gallus had shed his gym clothes and was two steps from entering the boy’s locker room to hit the shower, when… “Gotcha!” A rush of orange and purple suddenly erupted from behind a laundry cart just outside the locker room, latching it’s scaly arms around Gallus’ neck. Before Gallus could even register what was happening, Smolder leaned her face in closer to his trembling beak. She was still in her cheerleading outfit which Gallus couldn’t help but admit to himself looked better up close. “Good game, G. Here’s your reward…” She said, and a sea of seafoam green puckered up and closed the distance. Gallus couldn’t even muster the frame of mind to struggle out of her grip, much less audibly protest as Smolder planted a wet one right on the edge of where his beak was attached to his face. “Mwah!” Dazed by the smooch, both this and compounded with all the ones that came before, Gallus barely resisted as Smolder gave him a hearty slap on the back, causing him to stumble into the locker room. Where every single student therein got a real close look at the seafoam green mark on his cheek. Gallus couldn’t tell what made him redder. The steam or the comments. --- It was strange. Gallus wasn’t sure what was happening today. He knew it was a good day. Scratch that, it was an important day. Possibly the most important day of Gallus’ life. But he didn’t really know why? He didn’t even remember how he got here. He was sure he was supposed to be up here, because all of his friends were up here with him. And they all looked so happy. So, clearly, whatever was happening was a good thing, right? There was someone else, standing right in front of Gallus. Someone wearing a white dress. One of the poofiest, frilliest white dresses Gallus had ever seen. Their face was obscured by a white, gossamer veil, so Gallus couldn’t tell who this was in front of him. This day was important. This person was important. Gallus had to see who it was, so he lifted the veil. Oh, it was Smolder. And she was wearing lipstick. Smolder was smiling, stepping forward towards Gallus. Gallus instinctively took a step back, but he didn’t seem to go anywhere. Smolder puckered her lips, red lipstick shining and glossy. She kissed the air in anticipation. “Mwah!” She took another step forward and the puckering lips only got closer and closer. “Mwah!” Until, finally, all Gallus could see was red lips, waiting for a kiss. “Mwah!” --- Gallus woke up in a cold sweat. He was too terrified of going back to sleep. --- The next day was a weekend, so Gallus didn’t have any classes. Which meant Gallus didn’t have to leave his dorm-room for the day. Which meant Gallus wasn’t going to leave his dorm-room for the day. Because if he left his dorm-room, he’d run into Smolder. And today would be a lipstick day. Sandbar, bless his soul, gave Gallus silent company as he curled up in his bunk, content to read his comic book in companionable taciturnity. Gallus merely gazed out their dorm-room’s window to the outside world, marveling at how nature continued on, completely unaware of the absolute insanity broiling in the depths of the young griffon’s mind. Sandbar turned the page of his comic. “So are you and Smolder, like, dating?” “I DON’T KNOW!!!!”