//------------------------------// // 6. we live in black and white // Story: Two Burning Stars Chasing The Day // by FoolAmongTheStars //------------------------------// The final bell rang and Starlight walked as quickly as she could without running. Starlight would have made it to her class if she hadn’t waited for Sunburst and stayed to joked around with him, missing the warning bell, and if Mrs. Mi Amore hadn’t appeared from around the corner and stopped her. “Starlight,” Mrs. Mi Amore said, her soft voice firm. “What happened to your arm?” Oh, crap. Starlight looked down at herself, seeing the drops of blood running down her left arm. Her bandage must have slipped off, or maybe it bled through, she hadn’t had time to fix it this morning or put it on properly in her hurry to get to school on time. Trying not to groan out loud, Starlight shrugged. “I cut myself on the way to school.” Mi Amore narrowed her eyes. “How?” “I fell.” Starlight looked up at her, and she could see the challenge in her teacher’s eyes. There was only one question on her mind—one that was pertinent. Why do you care? “I have to get to class.” “You’re late anyway,” Mrs. Mi Amore said, raising an eyebrow. “Come to my office at lunch and I’ll write you a note for now.” “At lunch?” Starlight asked, skeptical. “I’d rather not.” “Right,” Mrs. Mi Amore laughed, shaking her head. “That’s time with Sunburst, isn’t it?” “What the hell is it to you?” Starlight demanded, glaring. “It’s my only break from this hellhole, so why would I give it up?” The teacher’s calm expression never faltered. Why did she care so much? Starlight couldn’t fathom the reason for her sudden interest in her when she had been perfectly fine watching her getting picked on, even if she did give her knowing looks. Like she understood. “Fine then,” Mi Amore taunted, shrugging. “Come with me right now. What do you have?” “History.” Starlight said, her face full of disbelief. “Stygian is boring anyways. I’ll talk to him later.” “You’ll…” Starlight frowned, shifting and tugging at her sleeve to try and hide the bloody bandage on her arm. Mrs. Mi Amore rolled her eyes. “Would you stop being so difficult and just let me help you?” He woke up earlier than usual that day, early enough to catch Sunset before she left for her internship. They spoke for a while before she had to go and Sunburst made breakfast, his mother walking in to greet him soon after. It would have been a peaceful, forgettable morning if his mother hadn’t asked what his plans were for the day. Now, as he sat in his first-period class, bored out of his mind, Sunburst tried his best to pay attention and take as many notes as possible, but his mind wandered no matter how hard he tried. He knew that he would have to study this unit extra hard to make up for the time lost, but this morning’s events simply wouldn’t vanish. “I’m, huh,” Sunburst murmured, trying to think. “Well, I’m not scheduled to work at the shelter today, so I was wondering if I could go out tonight.” “With who?” His mother asked, face looking a little more tight than usual. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes anymore. Starlight. “Probably with Flash and the guys, but I’d need the car. We’ll probably go to the mall or something. I’d be home after dinner.” Stellar Flare stared at her son, her gaze disbelieving and a little hard. “What about Starlight? Would she be going to?” “No,” Sunburst replied, laughing a little despite the tense air in the kitchen. “Starlight wouldn’t come within fifty feet of the mall.” His mother turned around, showing her back to him, reaching for the coffee on the counter as she mumbled something, something that he heard perfectly in the otherwise silent room. “She shouldn’t come within fifty feet of you.” Now, there were two things Sunburst could have done in this situation. He always went for option one: simply ignore his mother’s comments, fighting with his mother just wasn’t worth most of the time, especially on this subject. But that morning, he simply couldn’t do that, maybe it was too early for him to ignore the disdain in his mother’s voice, maybe it was because he had bandaged Starlight’s arm the night before and the sad, tired look on her face was still fresh in his mind. Either way, something in him snapped and he glared at his mother’s back. For the first time in a long time, he went for option two: he talked back. “Difficult?” Starlight stared at the teacher. “You’re the one that’s not letting me go to class.” “Like you actually want to go,” Mrs. Mi Amore pointed out with a knowing smile. “Come on, Stygian won’t care that you’re not there, and I’ll make sure you get all of today's notes by tomorrow, even though that’s probably more notes than you have ever taken in your entire life.” Starlight looked around the hall, wondering if this was some sort of trick. Finding no cameras or giggling students, her gaze fell on Mrs. Mi Amore, looking unsure. “I take notes,” she protested weakly. The teacher giggled and headed towards her unoccupied office, Starlight followed behind, though she did so reluctantly. The lights were on in the empty office, a cup of steaming coffee perched on the desk. Mrs. Mi Amore sat down in her chair and gestured to Starlight to take the empty one across the desk. She sat down slowly, still waiting for the principal to come bursting in and suspend her for skipping class. “Before we start, please call me Cadance,” Mrs. Mi Amore said, her gaze serious despite the light smile on her face. “Not in class or in the halls during school hours, but otherwise it’s fine. Like right now, you can relax.” Starlight sat perfectly still, her backpack on her lap, tense and ready to flee at any given moment because she simply could not believe what was going on. Cadance sighed. “Alright, you’re about as relaxed as a spooked horse. Seriously, chill out.” The teacher said with a sigh, wrapping her hands around her mug of coffee and taking a sip. Starlight blinked. “…I really hope you didn’t just tell me to chill out. What time period did you crawl out from?” Laughing, Cadance shrugged. “I’m not that much older than you, just old enough to…know more about things.” Her purple eyes darted down to Starlight’s arm. “You don’t have to tell me anything, I know you probably won’t anyway, but I want to tell you just one thing: you’re not completely as alone as you think you are. There are…options for you, if you want them.” Starlight raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms defensively over her backpack, hugging her bag closer to her. “You’re right about one thing: I'm not telling you anything.” Not about the broken bottles being thrown at my face, or the fact that my foster father likes to use me for target practice. The cuts on her face had been minor, but the cut on her arm had been the deepest one by far. Thankfully, the broken bottle hadn’t cut anything vital in her arm, but it definitely needed some stitches. Not that she would tell Cadance that. No one could help. “Starlight isn’t what you think she is,” Sunburst said, and although his voice was weak, he had spoken without hesitation. “Excuse me?” Stellar Flare said. “That girl is nothing but trouble, I talked to—” The lid he kept on his emotions finally popped. He had had it with the hatefulness of this town. “That’s the problem!” He screamed, slamming a hand on the kitchen table. “You talk to everyone except her, and I know you’d understand if you just—!” “Don’t speak to me like that, Sunburst.” Stellar Flare yelled back, pointing an accusing finger at him. “I am your mother and Starlight is some girl that’s awfully messed up! As long as you live under my roof you will not see her again!” Her words felt like a slap to the face and Sunburst sat there in stunned silence, staring at his mother’s angry gaze—and for the life of him, he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen her so livid—wondering how things escalated to this point. “You’re forbidding me from seeing her?” He uttered the words in a daze, unbelieving, and like a dam the words tumbled out, uncaring of forming any kind of resolution. “N-No, you can’t do that!” He snapped. “I’m Starlight’s friend and you can’t end our friendship no matter what you do or say!” And I love her, you can’t change that. Stellar Flare took a deep breath and went back to the counter, getting a bowl and preparing her own breakfast. She was silent, moving almost mechanically. “What I’m saying,” Stellar said softly as if she were whispering a secret rather than an order, “is that you will not be spending any time outside of this house besides school and the pet shelter. You may not like it and you may be mad at me, but I can’t have you ruining your life for a girl who will take everything you’ve built and leave you in the dust.” “So you’re going to regulate my life now?” Sunburst shook his head, standing up from his chair and grabbing his bag. “You know what, never mind…I won’t go out tonight, I’ll be back after class.” “I’m driving you to school,” Stellar Flare said, her voice still soft. “I’ll be driving you everywhere from now on.” Sunburst stood frozen in the hallway, staring at the wall where the keys usually hang, noticing that his set was missing. “Mom—” “I’m doing this to protect you,” his mother said firmly, leaving no room for discussion. “Figures you’d still be difficult,” Cadance murmured, turning around to one of the drawers in her desk. She pulled out a first aid kit and handed it over. “At least patch yourself up.” Starlight took the white box, staring at it like it was about to explode. She couldn’t help the burst of emotion that surged inside her, the curiosity, the distrust, the confusion. Her hands shook a little as she flipped the lock, opening the kit and taking out some ointment and bandages. “Why?” She rolled the sleeve of her shirt, not looking at the teacher in the eye, no wanting to see what the teacher thought of her. “Why what? Why I don’t want you running around with blood gushing down your arm? One, it’s a health and sanity issue, and two, you might get into another fight over nothing…Then again, I don’t really have to say anything either, do I?” Starlight looked up, surprised. “You’re mocking me?” “With age doesn’t come the loss of sarcasm,” Cadance said dryly. “If anything, it gets worse.” “Good to know.” Starlight got back to work, realizing that she had come to a certain…understanding with her teacher, she was the only adult so far that had even tried to get to know her. “I have a question.” Cadance nodded. “Go on.” “As a teacher, aren’t you required to report…you know…?” Starlight let the sentence hang, knowing the answer to her own question, but wanting to see what Cadance would say. “We are state-mandated reporters,” Cadance said. Starlight heard the blood rushing to her ears, even as she applied the last of the ointment and wiped her hands. “So then…” she prompted. “As far as I’m concerned, you fell,” Cadance kept her eyes focused on Starlight, and the girl couldn’t even look away if she tried. “I don’t know much about you, but I hear the talk. I know you’re a foster kid and believe it or not, I know what it’s like to be one.” Starlight listened; she understood her words but her mind couldn’t wrap itself around them. She stared at the teacher’s pretty face, her nice makeup, her perfectly curled hair, her professional outfit, and the diamond ring on her finger. It was mind-boggling to think she had once been in her shoes and made it through to the other side, but it also made a crazy amount of sense in a way Starlight hadn’t been able to justify before. “Now, my case was undoubtedly better than yours,” she continued. “But I know how these things work, and if I were to report the results of your ‘fall’, you’d most likely be taken away fairly quickly to a place that’s nowhere near here.” Cadance sighed. “And you only have five months left. I’m not asking or telling, but it’s up to you. You have a choice and my support.” For the first time in her life, Starlight was given the luxury of choice. Maybe…maybe she wasn’t as alone as she thought, trapped in a little world of her own design—a world that consisted of her and Sunburst, and maybe Phyllis and Fluttershy back at the shelter. Still, Starlight hadn’t earned anything in her life without a fight, so she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “So, I have a choice,” she said, slowly, “and you might…understand.” Cadance looked a little amused, even though the situation was anything but. “I might,” she replied after a while, taking a sip of her coffee. Starlight let out a breath, relaxing in her chair for the first time. “Mr. Zenith, do you think you could pay attention?” The teacher said, standing only a few feet away from Sunburst’s desk with a stern look. He nearly jumped out of his seat, snapping out of his daydreaming and memories of this morning. Trying his hardest to look apologetic, he watched as the teacher finally turned away and went back to the lesson. Sunburst paid attention this time, actively listening even though he was lost. When the bell rang and the class was over, he booked it out of there, avoiding the teacher’s worried gaze as he jogged out of the classroom. Sunburst knew that he was viewed as the model student; his attitude had probably made warning bells go off in the teacher’s head for no good reason. The whole day seemed to go like that, he simply couldn’t find the will to care for his classes. His only relief was lunchtime when he met Starlight and they sat inside the cafeteria because it was too cold to sit comfortably outside. She seemed to be in a better mood than him, smiling more than he had seen her do at school in all the time he’d known her. He didn’t question it, merely soaked it up like a sponge and tried his best to keep his own dark mood from ruining it. Even if things with his mom were rough, he still had Starlight. The bad girl needed him more than anyone else. His mother didn’t understand, didn’t see what he saw when he looked at Starlight. She didn’t see the way Starlight’s small smiles could light up a room, or how her dark eyes were too expressive for her own good. Sunburst knew, deep down, that no matter what happened at home, he would always have this. Starlight would be there for him, even when he went to school, or let her down, or didn’t give her as much as she deserved. But he couldn’t leave his home. Sunburst couldn’t say goodbye to his mother with the promise of never coming back. He didn’t want to do that, to remove himself from his otherwise loving family…at least not yet. Starlight wasn’t the only one looking forward to graduation, once he was settled, once he could stand on his own two feet, they could be together—if Starlight wanted to, of course. He prayed for that to be the case, anyway. When school was over, he waited for Starlight at their usual bench outside. The wind was cold, and the forecast predicted the possibility of frost later tonight, but otherwise, it was a normal day. Sunburst tugged his scarf closer to his neck, spotting the girl he knew so well walking up to him with a bright smile on her face. He felt guilty when it dampened once she saw him, she must have figured out that something was wrong. “What’s the matter?” She asked, trying to be subtle and failing at it. Tactfulness had never been her strong suit. “Nothing…that’s bad,” Sunburst answered, deciding that being truthful was the best he could do. “I just have a situation at home, so things aren’t going well.” “What happened?” Starlight looked slightly horrified, the calm she had held on to the whole day disappearing entirely, looking around the lot as if Stellar would come marching down any minute. “Did she find out I was there?” Sunburst shook his head quickly, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her from doing something stupid. “No, no, she just…put her foot down on a number of things I don’t agree with. She’s driving me everywhere as punishment from now on.” Starlight glanced at the parking lot for a moment before she turned back to him. “Then…why are you still here?” She said carefully as if something would break if she pushed too hard. Sunburst didn’t understand why she did that at all. “What do you mean why I’m still here?” He scoffed at her. “I always meet you here.” “To drive me over to your place,” Starlight insisted, giving him another look. “But that obviously can’t happen.” “I couldn’t just leave without telling you. Look, this is only temporary, sooner or later my mom won’t have the time to drive me around like this and things can go back to normal.” Sunburst said. “Besides, you remember the shortcut we used to take after school? You can get there faster than I can. The window's open.” Starlight hesitated, licking her lips against the cold. “I don’t want to get you in any more trouble.” “I got myself in trouble,” Sunburst argued, shaking his head. “Starlight, I want you there, please?” For a moment, it looked like she would say no. Sunburst wasn’t sure what he would do if she said no. She was the only rock he had right now, the only person he could turn to about this. He would keep his mouth shut around his mom for now on if that’s what it took. Once this blew over, he’d figure out a way to make things better with Starlight. “Fine, I’ll see you there,” Starlight whispered and Sunburst couldn’t help but smile.