With all the students back, school was significantly louder, yet still despite the daily chaos it still felt uneventful. Hope and Sombra sat in form talking between themselves, there was nothing special to talk about, mostly just what lessons they had that day. The other two-year sevens in the room where much more talkative with the older kids, although two looked alike so Sombra just assumed the talking was due to them being siblings.
Opal was enjoying himself, he was getting plenty of attention from some of the older filly’s (who were most likely mares at this point) who were continuously petting him and giving him some of their biscuits. There was nothing for Mrs Morning to tell them so the form just got on with talking. However there was a light nock on the door, which turned out to be the head teacher. There was a quick exchange of words between him and Mrs Morning, she then walked over to Sombra.
“He wants to speak with you”
“Ok” Sombra left the room without fuss and met the head teacher in the corridor. He seemed jolly enough, but his face was a little stern.
“Don’t come in tomorrow” he told Sombra plainly.
“Why not?”
“The princess is coming in to meet the new year sevens, just don’t come in and it will be easier to pretend you’re not here”
“But what about the kids already talking about me?”
“I have a plan to convince her, but dispelling rumours would be easier if you’re not here”
“Ok”
“Go to your teachers for tomorrow at break and lunch and grab tomorrows work alright”
“Ok” he was dismissed back to form just as the bell rung.
“So it’s dangerous for you to be around the princess?” Fleur asked after Sombra explained to her, having already told Hope in lessons.
“She doesn’t like me” Hope returned to the bench they were sitting at having refilled her bottle, the three of them sat at their usual bench for break, talking between mouthfuls.
“You still haven’t said why though, have you even met her?” Hope asked.
(“Now is definitely not the place”) Opal told him from above.
(“When do I tell them?”)
(“At home”)
“At least you get a day off” Hope seemed already fed up with school, Sombra was sure she only liked Biology and art, in which she only liked art because they could mess around easily.
“I still have to grab tomorrows work” he muttered as he picked at his rabbit. Even if it was cooked and skinned he still got the odd, terrified look as if he had just caught it, it was putting him off eating if anything.
“Why would you willingly give yourself work to do at home?” Fleur asked him.
“They might check”
“just take the risk, it’s what my brother did, it got him expelled but he did it like a thousand times so once shouldn’t hurt”
“I’ll just get it at lunch” they went quiet before they headed off to maths, preparing for an hour of chaos as they were yet to hire a new teacher, and they were simply going off supplies. These supplies however didn’t once look like they understood what they were doing, so everything derailed.
Sombra’s tactic was to just try and have a nap. It mostly worked, he just had to zone out his ears so he couldn’t hear the nonsensical screaming and the sounds of the supply loosing hope. His nap was coming on well, until he felt something hit him in the neck. Turning just his head he saw the kid behind him quickly pull his hoof away from his hair.
“I just noticed your hair floats” he said, a mix of an apology was in there.
“Isn’t that like an alicorn thing?” the filly next to him questioned.
“Dude, are you secretly an alicorn or somethin’?” Sombra just sat confused before trying to return to his nap.
“What do you recon his the…prince of?”
“I thought it was impossible to have a male alicorn?”
“I don’t know…” he zoned out for the last time of the lesson. Fleur had to wake him up by the end and they headed to their next lesson, which was far more tame considering they actually had a teacher. After they went to get his work during lunch, what they realised was the lessons they had tomorrow didn’t quite work with talking stuff home.
“You can’t do P.E or music, and you can’t take the oven home for cooking” Hope listed off.
“We have one at home”
“Why are you so determined to do the work?” Fleur asked still shocked by his want to do his classes.
“You might need something from Ponish and History” Hope told him, which he nodded and started making their way to the two classes.
“Oh, well tomorrow were just making notes on act one, so if you just do that, I’ll give you a copy” they stood in the door and watched as the teacher grabbed his work. After they went to history, which played out around the same.
“I assume this is what the head was talking to you about” Mrs morning said as she too went and got his work, which consisted of him reading over a textbook page and also making notes on it.
“Sorry it’s not too interesting”
“Its fine”
“Have a nice day off then” the rest of the day was as normal as always, they went to their last lesson and then went home.
“How’s school?” Cloud asked almost the moment they walked through the door, he looked a little dishevelled.
“Sombra doesn’t have to go in tomorrow” Hope mumbled as she trundled up the stairs to her room.
“Why? has something happened already?” Miss Chestnut asked. Sombra quickly explained what he’s been told.
“Oh ok, that’s fine then, you have work to do don’t you?” she asked him.
“Sort off, I can’t do P.E, art or cooking so I just have Ponish and History to do”
“How about you do some cooking with him tomorrow, instead of sitting at that desk all day” she told Cloud through gritted teeth and a sarcastic face.
“Alright then” He grumbled and Sombra looked at them confused, he hadn’t seen them so tense between each other before and it was odd to look at. Cloud huffed and walked upstairs.
“Don’t…” she groaned in defeat. Sombra nudged and nuzzled her cheek.
“I’m fine…when your home tomorrow, make sure he doesn’t spend the whole day writing okay, I worry he’s going to hurt his neck or eyes”
“Okay” Sombra nuzzled her again and trotted up the stairs and up to his room. He sets up his homework and tomorrow’s work on his desk, he sat down and waited for Hope to come up to his room as she always does.
“Hey” extra work was dumped next to his, before plopping down next to him. The pair started to do their homework, but the silence lasted about a minute before they started talking.
“what do you think is wrong with mom and dad?” Hope asked him.
“I think they may have had an argument? She said she’s worried he spends to long writing”
“Well isn’t that his job? He’s probably writing a book or something” they continued to work, Sombra finding the maths significantly easier, whereas Hope blitzed the biology. Then they both hauled themselves through the old Ponish, in which their form of revision for a test that was already coming up, was just writing out the words over and over, not actually knowing what they were writing. They both got bored pretty quickly, and Hope started drifting her eyes around the room, before settling on his bedside table.
“Do you not wear the bracelet anymore?” Sombra sat confused for a moment, before he remembered about the friendship bracelet she had made for him a while ago.
“I didn’t want to get it dirty when I go out”
“How would it get dirty”
“Err…”
(“Mud”)
“Mud”
“Oh, okay, does Opal where his?” Hope asked, Opal dug into his plumage with his beak and pulled out his smaller necklace. She smiled briefly.
“Oh” Hope scampered off and returned moments later, with the scrap book and a box.
“You know that powder…I may have used it all…sorry” she put down the empty pot which Sombra could only see a couple particles of the powder left. Sombra grabbed the box which he found all sorts in. There was that first leaf which was still as green as the day it was picked, along with different flowers.
“Don’t tell mom that I took one of the roses from the front” each petal was still silky. He turned to the book which he noticed seemed much fuller.
“I’ve added quite a bit” Hope said as Sombra flipped through the pages. There were a few pictures on each page, and she had written little notes next to them. Sombra didn’t even know most of the pictures where taken.
“Moms good at taken pictures of us without us noticing” Sombra found one picture, one of Opal sitting in a wall cabinet in the kitchen, looking alarmed at the camara. Hopes note was simply an exclamation mark.
(“I distinctly do not appreciate this”)
(“You nick food out the cupboards?”)
(“Who doesn’t”)
(“Is that why your rounder than normal?”)
(“Hey”) Sombra gabbed Opal between his hooves.
(“Definitely a little round”)
(“One day…I will not restrain my self and you may cry…or become as bad as me and if that happens I am sincerely sorry”)
“Why do you look at each other weirdly all the time?” Hope questioned.
“Because we can talk to each other?”
“Wait what”
“Did I never tell you?”
“Don’t think so”
“That…explains a lot”
“A lot of what?”
“That you stare into each other’s souls on a daily basis…hey did you know your eyes are changing colours” Sombra blinked as couple times in surprise, before heading over to his mirror. His eyes were defiantly still green, except they seemed to be browner in areas.
(“What colours were you parents eyes?”)
(“Red and blue”)
(“Are yours going brown or grey?”)
(“Brown”)
(“Most likely red then, your hooves should shift colour soon, then you claws should start along with your horn”)
“Opal said that my eyes are turning red” Sombra told Hope, she had moved to sit in front of the mirror with him. She sat quite close to him, which she shifted awkwardly so she wasn’t siting on his legs.
“Is that like…a thing for…”
“Umbrum?”
“Yeah”
“I think so” Hope leaned into him, before again, awkwardly moving off him. She picked up a pot, which held his sires hair rings.
“What are these for?”
“My sire wore them in his hair”
“Sire is your dad isn’t it?”
“Mhm” Hope lifted a ring up and threaded his hair through it, experimenting with different loops.
“I always wondered how you did your hair, I noticed a lot of you had really long hair”
“I think…I remember my sire had, like small braids with the rings looped in” the image of his sire was blurry now, he could just remember his hair style, what remained in his memory was the dead frozen version. Hope began to tie his hair into a braid, slipping rings onto the strands.
“Like this?” she showed him the half a braid she had weaved, every few twists, there was a ring.
“That looks about right, he left a lot of it loose…what are you doing”
“The rest of it” Sombra sat and watched as Hope braided a whole bunch into his mane, she did it with a very slight smile. The only thing that stopped her was the call for tea.
The vague image of the cave returned, his sire and dam took up most of the picture. He was lying against his sires chest, watching him say something to his dam, who was braiding his hair. Some braids were neat, other messy and having fly aways.
The memory came from nowhere, it stopped him in the middle of the hallway. He shook his head and continued down to tea.