//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Strained Introductions // Story: Of Hearts and Gazing Eyes // by A bag of plums //------------------------------// It took little time for Lightning Strike to find his way to the appropriate classroom. The hallways were empty as class had already started, but he figured that meeting with the principal of the school was a good enough reason for him to be late, along with it being his first day here at Canterlot High.  “Let’s see…” Lightning eyed his schedule. “First period is in room 104. History. Wonderful…” he grumbled to himself.  Following the numbered doors, he found his destination easily and stopped at the door to compose himself. Not an easy task with one arm in a cast. Then he knocked on the door’s wooden surface. “Come in,” a woman’s voice said. Lightning’s hand grasped the doorknob. He took in one last deep breath and pulled. “Hello there,” the teacher inside greeted once she saw his face. She wore a purple polo shirt, with a pink scarf, sparse jewelry and a long skirt. “Welcome to History class. I’m Mrs. Harshwhinny and you must be Lightning Strike, the new student.” “Wow, word gets around fast, huh?” Lightning stuffed his good hand in his pocket and waltzed in. “Yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you.” “Hm, yes,” Harshwhinny straightened her blouse and jacket before turning to the class. “Class, this is Lightning Strike. He will be joining us at Canterlot High from today onwards. Do make him feel welcome.” Then she pointed to a desk by the window near the middle of the classroom. “Your seat. Do you need any assistance on account of your injury?” Harshwhinny asked. “I’ll manage, thanks. My legs still work fine.” Lightning shrugged and walked to his seat.  He could feel the eyes of the class following him as he went. He used his good arm to pull out the chair and settled down in it. The chair and desk were obviously of lower quality than that of Crystal Prep’s, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. Not like he could go back there anyway. Not like he even wanted to. He wouldn’t be able to face his friends again after what happened. As he moved over to his seat, he spotted a girl with rainbow hair waving him over and gesturing at the empty table next to her. “Howdy, partner. Welcome to CHS. This is your desk,” she said. No, really? Lightning’s mind began to move his lips, but he quickly snuffed that thought out and just gave her a half-smile. “Hey, that’s my line.” Another girl behind her squawked. She had a really cool stetson atop her head. “Anyhoo, a big welcome to CHS from us to ya, Lightning Strike. You’re gonna love it here.” “Thanks, I guess.” He pulled up his chair and sat down. “Good, now that everyone is here. We can begin class. For your information, Lightning Strike…” Harshwhinny began dotting the board with a marker. “We’re covering the topic of the history of medieval Canterlot. We left off just as I was about to show this chart of the lineage of kings…” Lightning now sat there in complete boredom. He had almost forgotten how much he hated learning about history, especially that of Canterlot, but Mrs. Harshwhinny jogged his memory. Since his accident, he’d been away at the hospital and he had missed a good amount of school, plus the transfer was a little messy and left him just waiting a bunch. Ugh, this is so boring. I already learned all this at Crystal Prep. When will it end? Somehow, he managed to fight his way through the droning of Mrs. Harshwhinny’s lecture, being fortunate enough that she didn’t call on him even once. Perhaps she thought she would give him a chance on the first day, or perhaps she could see just how uninterested he was in this lesson. Either way, he was glad to just sit there and wait out the class, and he was even happier when the bell rang, signalling it was time to move to the next lesson. “Mr. Strike,” Mrs. Harshwhinny called. “Do enjoy the rest of your day.” “I’ll do my best,” Lightning Strike said as he left the room, then muttered under his breath, “But I won’t count on it…” As Lightning went down the hallway to his next class, he glanced out the window and saw the parking lot below. There was a soccer field next to it, and a PE class seemed to be warming up on it. Which reminded Lightning, he had a doctor’s note on him that would excuse him from PE until his arm was healed. Better not forget about that. The next class was supposed to be English. Lightning held back a groan and followed the throng of students as they went to class. He had probably learned all this at Crystal Prep too, but there was nothing he could do about it for now. Best to just go along with it. By the time the bell rang for lunch, Lightning Strike didn’t know if he was relieved that half the school day was finally over, or annoyed that there was still half of it left. He quickly grabbed his meal, which consisted of some mashed potatoes and sausages. He stalked his way over to a table where no one else was sitting and placed himself there. He did his best to take up as much space as he could so as to put out the image that he had no intention of anyone else coming to sit next to him.  Unfortunately, this was not meant to be. Lightning was almost done deciding whether this lunch was worth eating compared to what he had been fed at Crystal Prep when he noticed some people approaching his table. They were a full assortment of odds and ends, people who didn’t look like they would even hang out together, but here they all were, all at the same time, almost as if everything had been planned beforehand. That was probably the case… Lightning groaned internally. Giving up on lunch for now, Lightning Strike turned to face the group which was now only about three feet away from his table. They seemed to be a collection of boys his age, though Lightning only recognized one of them from earlier this day. Fittingly, this boy was the first to speak.  “Hi,” the boy with cyan skin and black hair said with a wave. “Remember me from earlier? Swift Justice.” “Yes,” Lightning Strike replied, eyeing the rest of Swift’s companions. “And you all are?” “We noticed you sitting on your own and wanted to give you some company,” a boy with gray skin and black spiky hair said, leaning against the tableside with a cocky smile. He wore a black hoodie over a t-shirt with some kind of Japanese character on it, along with  dark green pants with a chain. “Name’s Zero Gravity, the punisher of bullies and all around awesome guy!” Lightning didn’t give much of a reaction other than to raise an eyebrow a millimeter. He had heard his share of bragging at Crystal Prep, but back there it was usually about grades and test scores. Zero seemed to notice this lack of a response. He tried again, shoving his face closer to Lightning’s. “So Swift tells me your name is Lightning Strike? Cool name. Not as cool as mine, but what can you do?” “Zero, give the guy some room to breathe,” another boy pulled Zero Gravity aside. This youth wore a white shirt with a silver jacket with blue strips on each arm, accompanied with black pants with stoned color boots and a dark grey belt. He had a white, triangular beard on his chin that matched his hair. “Name’s Soul Writer. Welcome to CHS, Lightning Strike. Can’t be easy transferring here in the middle of the semester, so if you need any help, just ask anybody.”  Soul gave Lightning a warm smile. Lightning, for his part, just nodded and adjusted his left arm so that the cast was in a more comfortable place. “I’ll remember that,” Lightning said neutrally. “Was there something else you wanted, or…?” He gestured to his uneaten lunch. “I’m kind of busy, as you can see.” Soul didn’t seem to notice the brush off and kept going, which made Lightning roll his eyes.  “Anyway, this here’s Rivet,” Soul pointed to a boy with dark brown hair and tan skin, who was wearing a gray shirt with the emblem of a cog with wings on it under a jacket with green cargo pants.  “Hi,” Rivet said.  “Hello,” Lightning said back, trying not to sound too peeved at the intrusion. “Look, can I help you with something?” “Chill, dude,” Zero Gravity squirmed back to the front of the group. “We’re just here to say hi. Anyway, next up is Night Chase,” he pulled a boy with burgundy red hair and a purple complexion to the front.  Lightning Strike blinked. “Okay.” “And this is Clyde,” Zero pointed out a boy that looked a lot like him, at least in terms of skin color and hairstyle. “Seriously, that’s your name?” Lightning almost spat out water from his mouth. Clyde suddenly looked defensive. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Lightning looked between the others, hoping for some sense of understanding from one of them, but he never got the look he was looking for. “Really?” He sighed, then shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Look, I’m just trying to eat here, what do you want?” “Doesn’t look like you were eating,” the boy called Zero Gravity pointed to the uneaten meal on Lightning’s tray. “I was about to get started, okay?” Lightning said irritably.  “Okay, okay,” Soul Writer said to Zero. “Give the new guy some space. Where are you from, Lightning Strike? Out of town?” “I’m from Canterlot,” Lightning said shortly.  “Really?” Rivet asked. “I figured since you’re transferring to CHS in the middle of the year, you’d be from some other city.” “Yeah, well. I’m not.” “What happened to your arm?” Zero butted in. “Did you get in a fight or something?” “No,” Lightning was growing more and more annoyed with the interrogation. “I’ll have you know I broke it in a traffic accident.” The group of boys looked mildly impressed. “Car crash, was it?” Clyde said. “You know, I think I saw something like that on the news a couple of weeks ago. Was that you?” “I don’t know, I don’t watch the news,” Zero shrugged. He turned to Lightning Strike. “So was it you?” Lightning scowled. “I don’t have to answer that.” “Yeah, you do. Come on, we’re trying to be friendly here,” Swift pressed. “We do this to every new kid. Try to get them to feel comfortable here.” “Really? You surround every new kid at lunch time and interrogate them for answers?” Lightning just about had it with them. “While you might think you mean well, and I know you probably have good intentions here, but it doesn’t help to do this. Not on the first day, okay?” “Well, someone’s a real big boss here.” Zero rattled his fingers on the table. “Something tells me this isn’t your first rodeo.” “Wait,” Night Chase brought up his phone. “Yeah, this is you in this photo!” Lightning Strike felt a pit in his stomach. He had known that there would have been a news report about his accident, but reporters were wont to be nosy, and he didn’t feel like discussing Crystal Prep and his expulsion with anyone, least of all himself. There was only one thing he could do. “Well, nice meeting you guys, but I have to go… get ready for my next class. Bye.” Moving as quickly as he could with his broken arm, Lightning slung his bag back over his shoulder, picked up his uneaten lunch and hurried away. Back at the cafeteria, the other boys had retreated back to their table, intrigued by what Night had found.  “Look,” Night slid his phone into the center of the table. “It’s the new guy. His face is blurred, but we can still see his hair and his colors. Eighty percent sure it’s him.” “Crystal Prep Academy under investigation following a reckless motorcycle accident,” Rivet read out loud. “Could it be?” “You mean Lightning Strike used to go to Crystal Prep?” Soul said, scratching his chin-beard. “Why’s he here, then?” “Probably because he got expelled from CPA,” Zero answered. He had an intense look on his face as he read the article on Night’s phone.  “You don’t know that,” Clyde pointed out. He looked back around for Lightning, but he had already left the cafeteria. “Though he did seem to be kind of annoyed about something… maybe he did get expelled.” Night Chase looked thoughtful. “From what I know of Crystal Prep, I can’t see Cinch allowing someone to stay at her school after they tarnished its reputation. It’s probably best we find out from Lightning himself though. If it is indeed him in this picture.” “I can’t see CPA giving him a fair trial, though,” Swift mused.  The six of them continued to talk in hushed voices, unaware of the fact that a certain rainbow-haired girl was lurking behind a pillar close by. “Crystal Prep, huh…”