//------------------------------//
// Ch. 5 - One Rainy Monday 
// Story: Since You Came Along 
// by Sky Scraper 
//------------------------------//

It was a quiet Sunday night in Canterlot. Sky was sitting in the armchair at the end of his bed, with Duke squeezed in between his legs. He was massaging Duke's fuzzy chest, which Duke was enjoying immensely, when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. He got up to answer it. "Yes?"
Both of Sky's parents were standing outside his room. Evening was holding Sky's cell phone, while Air was holding Sky's laptop. "Would you like your devices back?" Evening asked.
"Of course!" said Sky. "Does this mean I'm not grounded anymore?"
"It's been a month now, so yes," Evening replied with a smile. "We're glad you're doing well at your new school."
"It seems like you've been much more relaxed since you transferred," said Air.
"Honestly, I have been a lot more relaxed," Sky agreed. He had been going to Canterlot High for two weeks now, and had settled into his new school very nicely. "The atmosphere at CHS is just better all around. Thanks for not giving up on me."
Evening smiled. "Since when have we ever given up on you, Sky? We know you've got a good head on your shoulders. You just have to make an effort."
"It's good that you learned from what happened last month," said Air. "It's better you learn now than when you're an adult."
Sky nodded in agreement. "Definitely."
"Just so you remember, the first day of track practice is tomorrow," said Evening. "Make sure you pack everything you need."
"Oh, right!" said Sky. "I'd better do that now before I forget."
"Good idea," said Evening.
Sky grabbed his gym bag from his closet, and took a light T-shirt and a pair of polyester shorts from his dresser. He stuffed them into the bag, then left his bedroom and went downstairs. He found his running sneakers in the linen closet, and put them in the bag as well. Lastly, he filled up a plastic water bottle and slid it into one of the side pockets. Now Sky was ready to go for tomorrow. He hoped that Monday's weather would be nice.





Unfortunately, that was not the case. When Sky woke up the next morning, it was raining hard outside, and water drops were slamming against the windows. "Oh, fuck..." Sky muttered to himself. "Please tell me this is just a passing shower..." He reluctantly rolled out of bed and got dressed, then headed downstairs for breakfast.
"How long is this rain supposed to last?" he asked Evening.
"Pretty much the whole day," Evening replied. "Sorry, dude. Looks like your first day of practice will be in the rain."
"Great..." Sky said sarcastically.
About half an hour later, Sky was trudging along the walkway toward CHS, with his raincoat on and the hood pulled over his head. He walked as quickly as he could, and was relieved when he made it to the front doors. As he entered the school, he spotted Lyra and Bon Bon sitting on a bench in the atrium. "Hey, girls!" he said as he sat down next to Lyra. "Good to see you!"
"Hi, Sky!" said Lyra. "Same to you, but I wish I could have stayed home today. This weather sucks."
Sky nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's awful out there. It's even worse for me because I have track practice this afternoon, and it's going to be raining all day."
"Oof!" Lyra chuckled. "I wish it was below freezing. That way, we could have had a snow day."
"That would have been ideal," Sky agreed. "I would be much happier if I was still asleep right now."
"Same!" said Lyra. "This is what I call stay-at-home-in-my-pajamas-all-day weather."
Sky laughed. "That's a good way to describe it! Say, do you have a group study session with the Friendship Games team this afternoon?"
Lyra nodded. "Yep! We have those on Mondays and Thursdays."
"Fortunately, those are always indoors," added Bon Bon.
"That's good!" said Sky. "At least you get to stay dry."
Bon Bon nodded, then looked at the clock on the wall. "Well, class starts in a minute, so we'd better get going."
"See you later, Sky!" Lyra said with a smile.
"See you!" Sky replied. Lyra and Bon Bon got up and headed to their first class of the day, and then Sky headed to his.





A few hours later, Sky was having lunch at his usual table. "Man, it must be nice not being grounded anymore," Thunderlane chuckled.
"Oh, definitely," Sky replied. "I've got my phone and computer back now, and I can actually go places again."
Flitter pulled out her phone and opened up her messages. "Since you have your phone back, do you want to join our group chat? It's just us and a few other people from the track teams."
"Sure!" said Sky.
"Great!" Flitter handed Sky her phone. "Just put your number in and send a text so I know it's you."
"Will do." Sky added his number to the group, then pulled out his own phone and found the group at the top of his messages list. He then typed a message with his name and hit Send.
"Got it!" said Flitter.
"There's also a group chat with the entire girls' track team, but we prefer using this one," Cloudchaser explained. "The main one eats up way too much battery."
"That's a good idea," said Sky. "The boys' team has a group chat too, but I'm considering leaving it. I literally had about two hundred unread messages from it when I got my phone back. There's no way I'm scrolling through all of that."
Thunderlane laughed. "Yeah, the main group chat isn't worth it. The team captains barely use it, so most of the time it's just freshmen posting dumb memes and shit. I already left it a while ago."
"I think I'll do the same right now," said Sky. He highlighted the boys' track group chat, then hit the "Leave Chat" button. "Done."
"By the way, did you hear about what Snips and Snails did on Friday?" Cloudchaser asked. "I swear, those two are the biggest idiots in the whole school."
"I don't know who you're talking about," Sky replied. "What did they do?"
"You didn't hear about it?" Thunderlane laughed. "Oh, man!"
Cloudchaser snickered. "Principal Celestia sent an email about it on Saturday. Just read it." She opened her school email account and showed it to Sky.





Principal Celestia
Saturday, March 9 at 2:47 PM

The Importance of Checking One's Emails

Dear students of Canterlot High,
At the beginning of last week, I sent out an email letting you know that the school building would be fumigated at 3 PM on Friday afternoon (3/8), and that all indoor extracurricular activities for Friday would therefore be canceled. Unfortunately, two students did not seem to get the message, and stayed after school regardless. These two students had to be taken to the hospital as a result, and I sincerely hope that they will both recover from the incident. This is a sincere reminder to always read the emails that either I or my sister send out to you, as they may contain very important information that you do not want to miss.

Warmest regards,
Principal Celestia





Sky could hardly contain his laughter. "What the hell?!" he exclaimed. "I didn't have any access to my emails last week, and even I knew the school was being fumigated. How stupid do you have to be to miss something like that?"
"Very!" said Cloudchaser.
"How did you find out who it was, though?" Sky asked.
"Well, who else would it be?" Thunderlane laughed. "Trust me - you'll probably come across them at some point, and then you'll know what I mean."
"Also, Snails posted about it on SnapGab yesterday," added Flitter, "bragging about how he didn't pass out whereas Snips did. Apparently that's a big achievement for him."
"Jeez..." Sky chuckled. "They must be freshmen."
Thunderlane shook his head. "No, they're in our grade. But they look like they should still be in middle school. Like, I don't think they ever hit puberty."
"Oh, then that makes it even worse!" Sky laughed. "I don't even know them, but they already sound hopeless to me."
"They absolutely are," Cloudchaser agreed. "As I said, biggest idiots in the whole school."
Flitter looked out the window and saw that it was still raining outside. "I don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to track practice this afternoon..." she sighed.
"Me neither," Sky agreed. "I was hoping for good weather today, but that obviously didn't happen."
"Honestly, I'm wondering how many people are actually going to show up," said Cloudchaser. "The cross-country team had some freshmen who just skipped all the rainy days."
"That's... pretty lazy," Sky remarked. "I get that running in crappy weather sucks, but at least show some commitment."
"Pretty much," Cloudchaser chuckled. "My advice, don't ever skip practice if you can help it."
"That's good advice," said Sky. "At least we'll all be out there together this afternoon."
"Yup!" said Cloudchaser. "You gotta push through the crappy days to get to the good ones."
Eventually, Sky and his friends finished their lunches and left the cafeteria. As usual, Sky went to the library to do homework. When he entered, he spotted Lyra and Bon Bon sitting at a table next to the stairs. However, they seemed to have fallen asleep while studying. Well, I guess that can happen on a Monday, Sky thought to himself. He decided not to disturb them, and sat down at another table to quietly do his algebra homework.
A few minutes later, the doors to the library were flung open and a pair of very ugly, immature-looking boys strutted in. They immediately noticed Lyra and Bon Bon, who were still asleep. "Well, would you look at this!" screeched the shorter, fatter one with brown hair. "Lyra and Bon Bon fell asleep on the job!"
"And they want to be on the Friendship Games team," snickered the taller, skinnier one with green hair. "What do you say we wake 'em up?" He held up a brown paper bag.
"Oh, this is gonna be awesome!" the shorter one wheezed. "I gotta film this!" He pulled a very dirty and battered cell phone out of his pocket. Meanwhile, his friend held the paper bag above Lyra's head and got ready to pop it.
Sky saw all of this unfold, and decided to spring into action. He got up from his table and ran over. "What the hell are you doing?" he hissed.
"We're about to pull off an epic prank!" the fat boy laughed. "You wanna watch?"
"No, I do not!" Sky said firmly. "And this is hardly an 'epic' prank anyway." He pointed to the skinny boy. "Put that bag down. Now."
"Make me!" the skinny boy said smugly.
"Yeah, what gives you the right to boss us around?" sneered the fat boy. "We don't even know who you are!"
"My name's Sky Scraper," Sky retorted. "I'm a good friend of Lyra and Bon Bon here, and I know they wouldn't appreciate you popping a paper bag above their heads. Let me guess, you're the two idiots who stayed at the school while it was being fumigated on Friday."
"Hey, we're not idiots!" Snips shot back. "We're just two guys trying to have some fun, that's all."
Sky rolled his eyes. "Oh, sure, that's a good excuse. Now get lost, both of you. I've got better things to do than argue with Dumb and Dumber."
"Oh, now you've done it!" Snips growled. He ran toward Sky, who saw him coming from a mile away. Sky stuck out his leg to trip Snips, and the fat boy was sent sprawling across the floor. Snails put down the paper bag and tried to follow, but Sky tripped him too.
Snips slowly dragged himself off the floor. His face and arms were scuffed up from sliding across the carpet. "You're a big bully!" he whined, glaring at Sky.
"Hey, you're the ones who wanted to troll my friends and then tried to attack me," Sky said nonchalantly. "Don't blame me for this." He sat down next to Lyra.
Snips was unable to think of a response. "Come on, let's go," he said to Snails. "It's no fun hanging around with a meanie face like him."
Snails gradually got up. "Ow..." he muttered. The two idiots trudged out of the library together.
Sky smirked as he watched them leave. "Well, that's that."
At that moment, Lyra and Bon Bon woke up and noticed Sky sitting next to them. "Hey, Sky!" said Lyra. "When did you get here?"
"A few minutes ago," Sky replied. "I'm surprised you managed to sleep through all the noise that Snips and Snails made."
"What noise?" Bon Bon asked.
Sky explained how he prevented Snips and Snails from giving them a rude awakening. When he finished, Lyra giggled and put her hand on his shoulder. "Sky, you are brilliant! You sure showed them who's boss!"
Sky blushed and smiled. "Ah, it was nothing. I dealt with the idiots, and that was that. How'd you sleep?"
"Very well!" Lyra replied. "Sometimes you just need a quick nap, especially on a Monday."
Sky nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Mind if I sit here while I finish my algebra homework?"
"Not at all!" Lyra said with a smile. "You can sit with us any time you want."





Later that afternoon, Sky, Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting in the art room together. Last week, Vermilion had introduced the class to two-point perspective, and had assigned a two-point perspective drawing of a city as the next project. Since Sky had such a strong interest in architecture, this project was right up his alley, and he was making very quick progress on it. Vermilion was very impressed. "Wow, you're moving right along, Sky!" she remarked. "Very nice!"
Sky smiled. "Thanks! I'm having fun with this project. I really like architecture, as you know."
"Yeah, I figured you'd enjoy this one a lot," said Vermilion. "Are you drawing a waterfront?"
"Yep!" Sky replied. "It's turning out really well so far. I'm looking forward to coloring it in."
"I'm sure it'll look great!" Vermilion agreed. "Speaking of which... this just reminded me of when my brother fell out of a boat last summer. Now that's a good one!"
Sky chuckled. "Oof! How did that happen?"
"My older brother Crimson and I went on a historic boat ride in Turquoise Cove. It's a seaside town about thirty miles south of here."
"Oh yeah, I know where that is. I've actually gone on one of those boat rides before. It's a nice place."
"It is a nice little town! Anyway, our boat was sailing along the Turquoise River when this really brightly-colored bird flew overhead. I'm not sure what kind of bird it was, but Crimson and I both leaned over the boat's railing to catch a glimpse of it. The next thing I knew, Crimson had lost his balance and toppled overboard!"
"Oh, no!" Sky laughed.
"Was he okay?" Lyra asked.
Vermilion nodded. "Yeah, he was fine. The two deckhands just had to toss him a lifebuoy and pull him back up. But he had to go into the tiny bathroom below the deck and wring all the water out of his clothes. And he still had some water in his ears the next day!"
Sky, Lyra and Bon Bon all laughed. "I bet you never let him live that one down!" Lyra chortled.
"Oh, of course not!" said Vermilion. "We rib each other over all sorts of things. We get along really well, though."
Just then, there was a loud crash on the other side of the room. Vermilion whipped around to see what it had come from. "What the hell happened there?" she exclaimed. "Flash, are you all right?"
Flash Sentry got off the floor and turned his chair the right way up. "Yep, I'm fine," he replied. "I just fell out of my chair because Thunderbass here kicked it for no reason."
"Hey, that's not true!" Thunderbass retorted. "You kicked my chair first, so I kicked yours in return!"
"Oh, so that's what this was about?" Vermilion laughed. "How about you both get back to work! I swear, you guys have fallen behind on almost every project this year."
"Well, that's not my fault!" Flash argued. "Thunderbass keeps distracting me!"
Vermilion playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh, please! You're garbage and you know it!"
"Roasted!" Lyra and Bon Bon giggled. Sky snickered too. Hearing Vermilion roast her students was always entertaining.
The class quieted down after that, and almost everyone got back to drawing. But with only ten minutes left in the school day, the fire alarm suddenly started going off, and the red lights on the walls began to flash. "Attention, everyone," Principal Celestia said over the intercom. "There has been a fire alarm reported in the building. All students and staff, please make your way to the nearest exit."
Vermilion held the door open as all of her students began to file out. "Turn left to go down the stairs, then exit through the door next to the cafeteria," she ordered.
"I wonder who pulled the fire alarm this time?" Sky whispered to Lyra.
The rain was lighter than it had been that morning, but it was still very wet outside. "I hope we're not stuck out here for too long..." Sky muttered.
"There's a tree over there," said Lyra. "Let's go stand under it."
"Great idea!" said Sky. He followed Lyra under the tree, and Bon Bon and two other girls joined as well.
Just as Vermilion finished taking attendance, she received word from another teacher that it had been a false alarm. "All right, it wasn't actually a fire," she told her students. "We can head back in now. Since it's the end of the day, you can just clean up, grab your stuff and head out."
"In that case, I'd like to know who decided to pull the fire alarm on a day like today," Sky muttered. Lyra nodded in agreement.
When Sky got back to the art room, he put his drawing back in the cabinet and returned the art supplies he'd been using. He was about to grab his backpack off the floor when Lyra came up to him. "Hey, Sky... before we go, do you want to exchange numbers?" she asked. "I mean, now that you have your phone back..."
Sky blushed at first, then grinned. "Oh, yes! That would be great!"
Lyra simply smiled. The pair of them exchanged phones and put in their numbers. "Thank you so much, Lyra!" Sky said when he handed Lyra's phone back to her. "I'll be sure to text you sometime soon."
"Sounds good to me!" Lyra replied. With that, she and Sky picked up their backpacks and left the art room. Lyra went to the library for her Friendship Games study session, while Sky headed downstairs and across the school to the gym. On his way there, Sky stopped at his locker to grab his running bag. He met up with Thunderlane near the gym's entrance.
"What's up, Sky?" said Thunderlane. "You ready for practice?"
"Not really..." Sky chuckled. "The weather is still shit."
"Yeah, this wasn't a good day for a fire alarm," Thunderlane agreed. "Anyway, let's go to the locker room."
Sky and Thunderlane entered the gym, then went into the boys' locker room and quickly found the section of lockers reserved for the track team. A tall, lean man with light cyan skin and spiky navy blue hair was standing nearby. "Good to see you again, Thunderlane!" he said, giving Thunderlane a high five. "Just pick a locker, get changed if you need to, and then head out to the track." He turned to Sky. "What's your name?"
"Sky Scraper," Sky replied. "I just transferred to CHS last month."
"Welcome to CHS, Sky Scraper! I'm Coach Soarin. Nice to meet you!" Soarin extended his arm, and he and Sky shook hands. Soarin then checked off Sky's name on his roster. "You're good to go now. Pick a locker, get changed, and then you can head out."
Sky nodded and went over to join Thunderlane. A box of combination locks, a roll of foil tape and several Sharpies were lined up on a bench. "Just pick any locker and write your name on a piece of tape above it," Thunderlane explained.
"All right," said Sky. He grabbed a lock from the box and tore off a strip of tape. He spotted a row of several unclaimed lockers, and selected a locker in the middle of the row to give himself some space. Once he'd written his name above the locker, gotten changed and secured his belongings, he jogged out of the locker room.
As Sky made his way out of the gym, he thought over the day's events. Despite the poor weather, it had actually been a pretty fun day for him. Best of all, he now had Lyra's number, and she had his. That was something to be very happy about.