//------------------------------// // Chapter 14. Perception // Story: Help // by WittyNameTFM //------------------------------// "Lemon, pay attention!" Sugarcoat hissed, catching her wrist. The musician blinked, looking back to the table in front of her. The home economics class came back to reality. "Oh, whoops!" "You're liable to lose a finger if you zone out while cutting up vegetables." Sugarcoat groaned. "First of all, you curl your fingers." She instructed. "Who taught you how to cook?" "No one!" She grinned. "Clearly." She huffed. "What were you even listening to?" "Have you ever heard a singer so beautiful you wanted to cry?" She asked simply. "Because I was riiiiiiiight there." "I'm not stopping you next time." She said flatly. "How do you know so much about cooking?" Lemon asked, glancing over at the neatly separated ingredients, finely cut and organized for the next step. "I don't know much. Just enough to get by." "C'mon, you're being modest. No one gets perfectly cut tomatoes like that without doing it tons of times." "...I take a cooking class." She admitted. "Every week or so I'll go to a class and get a new recipe to work on." Sugarcoat shrugged, returning to her task. Lemon squinted in thought. "Is that the one that Pinkie goes to?" She asked, Sugarcoat jolted, dropping the knife onto the counter. "Wh-Why would that matter?" She asked, a dusting of red on her usually composed face, a combination of anger and embarrassment bubbling forth. "Oho?" Lemon smirked. "Whatever you think it is, it isn't." She spat, turning away to check the recipe. "Very vague, but I'll let it go." "Good." Lemon was quite adept at pushing Sugarcoat's buttons. In learning her ticks, she knew that when Sugarcoat had that momentary lapse in her speech, her insecurities were on display. Abort mission for risk of losing a budding friendship. Lemon glanced over, seeing the girl take a few deep breaths. "Okay, start boiling the water…" She said, picking up the pot. Filling the silence with instructions. She was attempting to not seem upset. To continue the task and not ignore Lemon, but also firmly state to stay on topic. Don't acknowledge it. She'll only get more mad at herself. "How much longer 'til its done?" Lemon whined. "Be patient. We'll be done with enough time to eat before class ends." Sugarcoat said with a sigh, adding some seasoning. The rocker hummed a song as she moved on to helping with the sides. She didn't know the details past cutting and setting them aside, but she could still busy herself with it. The final product was wonderful. A delicious stew that was actually very easy to make. Something Sugarcoat would definitely make again. "You did well." She said as they washed the dishes. "Thanks! That was super tasty, I'll have to try it again sometime." Sugarcoat gave her the most serious look she could recall. "Please. Do not space out while cutting again." "Aww, no worries. I wouldn't do anything to endanger my hands. Couldn't drum if I did." "You still drum?" "Yeah! I've gotten so good that I can repeat beats after only hearing them once." Lemon boasted. "Wanna hear some of my stuff?" Sugarcoat paused, but nodded. Still attempting to be more open, most times she'd shut her down right away. "After the friendship games, that blue haired girl, Vinyl. She paid me to help give her some background sounds. Doubt you'd be into the techo and dubstep stuff." She giggled. "But I helped one of the Rainboom's friends with his band. They did a bunch of styles," She said, digging through her backpack. "I think I have a demo disk in here." "Demo disk? Wait, you've actually recorded in a studio?" "Yeah, a bunch of times! The studio actually calls me up if a musician needs a stand in for demos, I'm learning how to mix with Vinyl too. These headphones don't pay for themselves, y'know." She teased as she retrieved a flash drive. "Oh! I remember now." She chuckled. "The tracks are on here. It's even funnier that the band's name is "Flash Drive"." Sugarcoat took the drive with a raised eyebrow. "A couple cool dudes. Their drummer was out of town." She shrugged. "Their guitarist is close with Twilight's friends. His name was Flash." "Oh. I got the name now." She said flatly. "Wonder if they think it's clever." "I liked it." She shrugged. "They were really nice and surprisingly, none of them hit on me." "Is that...common with what you do?" "Musicians?" She scoffed. "Of course. Like ninety percent of them learn guitar to get chicks. Can't blame them, it's a valid strategy." "You seem the type to be interested in other musicians. Have you ever dated one?" "Nah. I can talk to them for hours, but in the end we'll always get to a point where we disagree on a genre. Some of them are really touchy about the things they don't like. Is it so hard to just say that while you don't like country music, for example, that it's still a genre that adds a lot to the music world?" She asked. "Some styles aren't for everyone, but to write them off is ignorant. You can learn so much by exploring the music that you don't exactly enjoy, and another thing! The banjo has a bad reputation." She crossed her arms. Sugarcoat was taken aback by the sudden influx of information. "That-, well…" She cleared her throat. "I didn't know you felt that strongly." "Everyone has their things, man." She shrugged. "Music helps me chill, focus, relax, just about anything. Guess I don't give off the vibe that I'm as invested as I am, but I like it that way." She grinned. "You know, part of a relationship is working through things you disagree about. You never gave it a chance?" Sugarcoat said as they picked up their bags, leaving one classroom for the next. "Nah. I've got my eye on someone already." "Really, who?" As they turned the corner, they spotted Indigo, she was excitedly telling Sour Sweet something. "Hey!" Lemon cheered as she waved to them, Sugarcoat watched her run ahead, throwing an arm around Sour's shoulders and joining their conversation. 'She makes it look effortless.' She mused as she joined. "Hey girls." Indigo said. "Check this out!" She showed her phone to Sugarcoat first. "A schedule?" "My schedule." "For..?" "I got a part time job! I can't believe they took the chance on a high schooler." She grinned. "Well congratulations. What will you be doing?" "I'm gonna be working at the gym in town. I've been going there more lately and saw the ad. Seemed like a no-brainer." "That's pretty cool." Lemon said cheerfully. "Yeah, maybe you girls can help me convince Sunny about that." "Why? Is there a problem?" "I don't get it, I figured she wouldn't mind. She just got real quiet and left quickly." Indigo crossed her arms with a frown. "Think she's mad? Sour asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Man, I can't understand that girl sometimes." She shrugged. "I'm just tired of her family paying for everything for me, y'know?" "Did you explain that to her?" Sugarcoat asked. "I did, and she just told me not to worry about it like that, I just feel, I dunno, guilty?" "For actually having a safe place to be? For having people looking out for you? Or is it purely because you feel like you don't deserve it?" "Wha? I-I just-" "You need to understand that you aren't a burden to any of us and whatever crap your father put into your head is just that. It was just shit that would help him control you." Sour said with a frown "This isn't about that-" "Are you sure?" Indigo looked away for a moment. "I hate feeling like this, okay? I can't just stop." She sighed. "I need something that I can do. Something I don't need to rely on others for." "Wait, then what was all that junk about us not being alone anymore? We're not letting you shut us out anymore." Sugarcoat said. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that. I meant more like…" She groaned. "I'm making a mess out of this." She mussed her hair as she spoke. "It's like, I gotta do something for me, y'know, and this is my first attempt. I still like sports and stuff, I refuse to let him take that from me." She sighed again. "Am I making sense?" "You are." Lemon smiled. "You took a roundabout path to say it though. I bet if you were to tell Sunny that this is helping you to feel like you have control of your life again, that would be enough." She explained. "The way things are, she's frustrated that you seem to be pulling away again." "How do I stop doing that..?" She asked with a small frown, looking down. "I don't want to push her away every time I need space. Well, any of you for that matter…" She clarified. "One, get better at explaining things." Sugarcoat said. "Two. Trust her, and us, to understand that you're still recovering,-"  "And three-" Sour cut in. "You need to listen to yourself sometimes. What was it you told me in the principal's office?" "Well-" "'We're here to help you'. So why don't you give us the same fuckin' courtesy?" She huffed, reaching out to grab her collar. "You. Matter. To. Us." She shook her gently as she spoke, before letting go with a frustrated sigh. "Sorry! Sorry!" She sighed. "I've been pretty dumb. You're right." Indigo took out her phone, "Should I call her, or like, wait 'til she's ready to talk to me again?" "Give her some time first. It's a misunderstanding, but confronting her now, while she's not ready to listen, will make her feel even more guilty when you do explain it." Lemon said wisely. "When she's ready to talk to you, explain it as clearly as you can. It's simple, it just takes some patience." "How do you know that'll work?" She asked. "Because I'm nowhere near as understanding as Sunny and Lemon does that same thing whenever I get pissy." Sour admitted. "Lemon, you're surprising me more and more with your understanding of people's habits. It's almost frightening." Sugarcoat said. "I just pay attention to people that I care about." She shrugged. "That's certainly one way to put it." She adjusted her glasses. "Eerily perceptive is another." "My stats are well balanced, thank you very much." She crossed her arms with a pout. "Always having headphones on, you likely had to pay attention to other people so you could tell if they were trying to get your attention." "You're ruining the magic!" Lemon whined. "Y'know, that makes sense. Like why you're always aware of the people around you too. Whoa. That just explained so much." Indigo said with a look of understanding. "Noooooo!" "Crap, I gotta get my stuff for math class!" Indigo jolted, the bell ringing a moment after. "Whoops. We're late anyway." Lemon shrugged. "Might as well go get your stuff. Not gonna change the punishment." "She has a point." Sugarcoat said, turning to walk. "We're likely going to get a scolding at least." "Oh, whatever…" Indigo sighed as she followed her. She took another glance at her phone, the conversation with Sunny still on the screen. She bit back the urge to message her, turning off the screen.