//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Neglected // by FreedomRiders //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer stepped off the bus to Crystal Prep Academy, wearing her school uniform. Apparently, it was adjustable and the rules stated that the uniforms in general can be modified however the wearer wished as long as it didn't break any guidelines. Looking around, she could see some variable differences in some of the students' wardrobes, like one guy who wore his blazer tied around his neck like a mini-cape, or the girl who wore an expensive bead necklace around the collar of her shirt rather than a tie like the others. Sighing, Sunset Shimmer just smiled at the fact that she didn't too seem out of the ordinary. The changes made to Sunset Shimmer's outfit consisted of leaving her blazer unbuttoned, a pair of leggings under her skirt, and the white collared shirt replaced with a standard white T-shirt that dipped just to her collarbone. She never really liked the collars, so she went with something that didn't press against her cheek every time she leaned over. Yawning, Sunset Shimmer cracked her neck and knuckles, having woken up well over an hour early to prepare for classes at Crystal Prep. As she walked inside with her bag, she saw a few students turn to look at her. A few stared in interest, but the rest moved on, going to their classes or lockers. Speaking of which, Sunset Shimmer looked to a slip of paper in her hands, which had her locker location and combination number on it. Despite how crowded the school seemed, she found it with relative ease, opening it and stuffing much of what she didn't need inside before closing it. "Yo!" Sunset Shimmer yelped and turned to see Lemon Zest standing near her, her headphones resting around her neck, a wide and mischievous grin on her face. "Jeez, I only said hi." "H-hi," Sunset Shimmer said once she got her breathing back under control. "What're you doing here?" "Comin' to make sure you don't get lost and look stupid, duh! Mess up once and the school's on you like a school of sharks," Lemon Zest said, plopping against Sunset Shimmer and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "...don't you mean a shiver of sharks?" Sunset Shimmer asked. Lemon Zest guffawed. "Hah, shiver. Dumb word. No, a school! You know, a school of fish? And sharks are fish, aren't they?" she asked. Sunset Shimmer couldn't refute that point. "And besides, school's mega big. What's your schedule?" "Well..." Sunset Shimmer said as she pulled out her schedule, folded up in her blazer pocket. She leaned it to the side so Lemon Zest could get a good peek at it. "Huh, we have the same homeroom. And...that's it. RIP," Lemon Zest remarked before sighing. "Well, let's get going, we're gonna be late!" "But we still have over a half hour-" Sunset Shimmer tried to say before Lemon Zest dragged her down the hallway, Sunset Shimmer barely able to slam her locker shut before smacking her face against another open locker door on the way down. "Ow!" They made it to homeroom class with twenty eight minutes to spare, where half the class was already sitting at their desks. After finding a desk Lemon Zest pointed out as vacant, she laid her stuff next to her seat and nursed the new small bruise on her cheek. "Ouch, looks bad," Lemon Zest as she eyed the injury. "Anyways, you're early!" "I could go with being ten minutes early, what's with the big time gap?" Sunset Shimmer groaned as she avoided touching her face. While bruises were annoying, they weren't really something that Sunset Shimmer liked to fuss over. "So I can jam out for a while before I have to put my headphones away," Lemon Zest explained. And with that, she plopped her headphones back on her ears and began blasting music, rocking her head back and forth as she made her way to her seat. Sunset Shimmer just smiled before rolling her eyes and taking out her notebook. "You're the new student?" a very flat female voice said. Sunset Shimmer turned to see a girl with white hair tied into pigtails sitting one seat behind on the next aisle. She had purple eyes and eyeglasses with orange frames, and a basic frown on her face. "How...underwhelming." "One of those rich girls, great," Sunset Shimmer thought before clearing her throat. "Yeah, well you don't really look like that much of an attention grabber either." The girl didn't appear fazed by the comment, only blinking at her before she looked back to the front, her expression remaining stagnantly unreadable. Looking around, Sunset Shimmer saw a handful of students eyeing her as well. "This is gonna be a long day..." she thought. - at the restaurant, several hours later - Coral served the last bit of fried rice to the customer, scooping it up smoothly and sliding it onto the customer's plate, earning a few claps for his flawless performance. As the last of the food was served straight off the grill, he sprayed some water onto the metal to render out anything that got stuck and burnt during the performance. It wasn't stated what Coral's job was before, but he works as a part time chef in a hibachi style restaurant, where the chefs prepare food right in front of the customers over a large grill. It served expensive food and provided a very special experience, making this a rather expensive restaurant to eat at. Despite that, the place made good business, and Coral made enough money to stay afloat relatively well in pay and tips despite only working about half as many hours as someone with a full time job. It was rather enjoyable, cooking steaks on a grill while performing what little spatula tricks he mastered. Plus he got to work with A5 Wagyu. Who doesn't like working with Wagyu? He made his way to the back to grab some water, having a few minutes for his guests to eat before coming back to check up on them. Looking at the clock, he saw that it was near the time Sunset Shimmer had completed her orientation the week before. She should be getting off classes now, so maybe... Sighing, Coral shook his head as he guzzled a bottle of water. "I shouldn't be worrying about her...especially since she can take care of herself. I'll just ask her how things went after work." Once he was thoroughly refreshed after his breather, he headed back out to his table before someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was a coworker of his, not a chef however. "I can handle your table, can you get to the next set of guests? They've been waiting for a chef for a while now," he said, pointing to a table near the corner of the restaurant. Coral followed his finger and spotted a table of several high school girls. He didn't recognize them, though he did note that one of them kept talking and referring herself in the third person. Sighing, he nodded. "I got it..." he said as he made his way to the table. The next thirty minutes were the most infuriating Coral had ever gone through. While he cooked, the girls ranted. Not at him, but right in front of him. He could tell that they were from Canterlot High since they talked about Sunset Shimmer and how horrible a person she was. He seethed as they gossiped over ways she made them all suffer, as well as how they could 'return the favor'. Coral wanted to lash out. He wanted to tell them to shut up and leave, as well as a few other 'unsavory' things due to just how rude they were being to Sunset Shimmer. What was worse was that they didn't leave out anything. Thanks to how loud the restaurant was - both business and customers in general - whatever the girls said could only be heard by themselves and Coral. In the end, all he could do was smile and pretend it wasn't happening, answering any questions and requests they had before fulfilling them. Once they paid and were getting ready to leave, Coral sighed and got to cleaning up. He could only hope that Sunset Shimmer was doing well for herself right about now. "Ew, a Preppie," the voice of the girl who kept referring to herself in the third person sneered. Preppie? What was that supposed to mean? Coral turned and spotted a familiar green haired girl in the signature Crystal Prep uniform. She ignored the looks of the other girls from Canterlot High and made a beeline straight for Coral's table with a wide grin on her face. "What's up?" Coral asked. "Ehh, just wanted to check out a place for me and the girls to hang out at. But since you’re here…” Lemon Zest said, leaning over. “Bruh, I've only known you for...five minutes tops," Coral said. "And discounts don't work like that, not here." "Pooh," Lemon Zest grumbled as the Canterlot girls haughtily left the restaurant. "You're no fun." "Eh, it's the rules. So you're just scoping hangout spots?" Coral asked as he got to cleaning up the grill for the next use. "Yep," Lemon Zest said. "Especially since Christmas break is so soon." "Oh yeah, I forgot Christmas was around the corner," Coral said. "Damn, we're gonna be real busy on Christmas." "Welp, rip," Lemon Zest remarked. "Well, see ya-" "Wait, where's Sunset Shimmer right now?" Coral asked before he could forget. "Oh, she took the bus home," Lemon Zest said. "Speaking of which, when do you get off?" "Late at night," Coral said. "Why?" "No reason," Lemon Zest said with a wink that Coral wasn't sure he liked very much, so he withheld what time that he would be getting off. She left moments later, and the part time hibachi chef got back to work on scrubbing the grill for the next customers. Work ended at closing, and Coral arrived home completely tuckered out and smelling like barbeque. When he opened the door, he was greeted with the sight of Sunset Shimmer sitting at the dining room table, on his laptop and working on homework. She was still in her school uniform, though her blazer was on the back of the chair she was sitting on. The fiery haired student looked up from her assignments in front of her and grinned. "Oh, hey!" she said. "How was work?" "Pretty alright," Coral said, wondering if he should talk about those girls from Canterlot. On one hand, she likely wanted nothing to do with her old school, and he didn't want to upset his new roommate in any way. On the other hand...she needed to be warned about what's going on without her. "Is everything alright? You look distracted," Sunset Shimmer remarked. "Something bad didn't happen, did it?" Coral sighed. Might as well tell her. "Well...some girls from your old school came over. They were eating and whatnot...and talking about all sorts of stuff involving you..." he said awkwardly. Sunset Shimmer's concerned expression slowly but surely turned into one of awkward embarrassment. "Oh..." she said as she looked away. "S-sorry you had to-" "I'm not mad. Alright, that was a lie. I am mad, but not at you. Just at those girls. Especially one...kept calling herself Trixie and using she and her instead of me and I," Coral grumbled as he tossed off his hoodie and flopped on the couch. "Ugh...I was so pissed off!" "Don't bother yourself about them," Sunset Shimmer said as she came over to where Coral was lying, holding her notebook and a pencil. "Come on, I'll make you dinner and we can both laugh about stupid stuff that happened today." "You sure you won't burn down the house again while you're at it?" Coral asked. Sunset Shimmer flung her notebook at the young man as he laughed before heading back to her seat at the table, rolling her eyes. "I'll cook, then I'll shower," Coral said once he calmed down. "Good, because I cannot cook anything other than instant noodles or cereal," Sunset Shimmer said as she went back to doing work, Coral getting up and returning the notebook to Sunset Shimmer before heading to the kitchen. There, he began prepping dinner for the night - a spicy chicken salad and loaded fries. Tossing some frozen French fries into the oven, Coral decided to start chopping up some chicken to sear on the stove. As Coral prepared dinner, Sunset Shimmer finished the next assignment on her list and moved on to the next. "So, Christmas break is in two weeks," she said as she began writing her name on the top right of the page. "Any plans for then?" "Yeah, we close for the week Christmas is around," Coral said. "So I'll have a chance to relax then. Why, got any ideas?" "Well..." Sunset Shimmer said as she looked to Coral, who had just dumped the cubed chicken onto a ripping hot pan before stirring and tossing. "Wanna have a little Christmas party of our own?" Coral turned to face Sunset Shimmer. "Huh..." he said. "Sounds good. Never had a party since...well...since I still lived with my parents." "Do your parents wanna attend?" Sunset Shimmer offered. "They...don't live around here," Coral said as he readied the salad. "I moved out so I could go to college here. Haven't heard from them since. Eh, they're probably fine. What about you? Got any parents?" Sunset Shimmer was just about to ask Coral more when he brought up her family. At once, she cut herself off before she could bring the conversation further down the road of family. "Yeah...but same situation as yours, they don't really live here. Well...they're really far away, contacting them has been hard." "I'm sure they're alright," Coral said before throwing some ground beef into a pan and beginning to fry. Before the conversation could continue, the doorbell rang. "Huh? Who's here?" he asked as he lowered the heat on the stove, wiping his hands with a towel before making his way towards the living room. Sunset Shimmer wondered if it was Fluttershy, or if it was Lemon Zest who somehow followed her home, but decided to shrug it off and go back to doing her homework, admiring the smell of what Coral had been cooking earlier. Coral opened the door before frowning. "You," he said in a pretty dark tone. Sunset Shimmer peered to the door to see an unknown man. He looked older than Coral by a few years, and he looked like your typical high school bully as seen in the 90s movies. He looked buff and had a resting smirk face. "Come on, just wanted to pay my old buddy a visit," the man chuckled as he crossed his arms. "How've you been?" "I'm fine. How did you find me, Pounder?" Coral asked angrily. Sunset Shimmer winced at once, and she quickly turned back to the laptop when she heard a cocky and smarmy laugh come from the visitor. "Asked a few friends from our old school," the visitor, apparently named Pounder, said as he looked around. "Nice place you got, mind if I..." He trailed off when he spotted a head of flaming golden and red hair behind a laptop. "Well, hello there..." Sunset Shimmer turned to see Pounder strutting his way towards her, as if he were trying to look cool when in reality, it looked like he couldn't turn his torso or his waist. "And who's this gorgeous girlie?" he asked, leaning on the table, his hand smack on the homework that she was working on. Sunset Shimmer had only been flirted with once before, and that was when she first arrived in the human realm. Needless to say, she didn't like it. "I'm Sunset," she said briefly. "And you're on my homework." "Bah, homework's for losers. Like this guy," Pounder snorted as he looked down, spotting her school uniform and narrowing his eyes lecherously. "Let's ditch this place and I could show you a good time if you get what I mean." Eugh. "Hah, no thanks," Sunset Shimmer said, hiding her grimace. "Now please move, you're in the way." Pounder apparently never got rejected before, because the douche of a man turned red in anger and crumpled up the paper his hand was on. "You're coming with me," he said, as if that would make her change her mind. "Get lost before I call the cops, Pounder," Coral said as he leaned on the door. "You came in when I said you couldn't. That's trespassing. Plus, she's a high schooler. Wanna get arrested for being a predator?" Pounder turned to Coral with a nasty glare before slowly heading back to the door. But not before knocking over and shattering a vase and shoving Coral against the door, slamming it in the process. Sunset Shimmer moved immediately to help her roommate and friend up. "What the hell is his problem?" Coral rubbed his head tiredly as he sat up. "Pounder's a bully from elementary to high school. He was an asshole as a kid," he grumbled as Sunset Shimmer pulled him up to his feet. "He's the one who caused my friend to..." Sunset Shimmer's rage only grew. "He caused someone to die?!" she roared. "Oh, that's it! I'm gonna-" "Just...can we let it go?" Coral asked. Sunset Shimmer blinked at hearing his tone. Coral normally sounded casual and chipper. At times, he sounded tired and lazy. At very rare intervals was he mad. But now, he sounded...vulnerable. His voice was quaky and quiet. The anger Sunset Shimmer felt drained almost instantaneously, and she moved to hug him. "Sorry...will you be alright?" she asked. "I'll be fine. Just have to deal with him being around," Coral said quietly. "Thanks." The door knocked once again, and Coral sighed. "Who is it?!" he called towards the entrance. "..." "Hello?!" Coral repeated. "...it's Pinkie Pie. C-can I come in?" Coral turned to Sunset Shimmer, not knowing that name but knowing it sounded familiar. Sunset Shimmer leaned Coral against the couch and stepped over the shattered vase to get to the door. Opening it, she saw a completely deflated Pinkie Pie standing on the porch, hands behind her back as she rocked on her feet back and forth. "Can I talk to you?" the saddened pink haired high schooler asked.