Rosa lay in her bed, perfectly still and pretending to be asleep. It wasn't difficult, especially since the other girls in her room were breathing deeply and one of them, probably Felicity, was snoring softly. The night guard poked her head in for a few seconds, then decided everything was in order. It was Alice this time, which meant she would check all the dorms at the start of her shift, then spend her night sitting in the office and watching soap operas. Maybe that was why Paolo and his roommates had picked that day to have their little party. Rosa didn't know how they had found out when Alice was going to be on guard, but it wouldn't be the first time those colts surprised her with their ingenuity.
The most impressive trick had been that time they somehow managed to smuggle in a pizza. It took Rosa days to wheedle out how they had done it from Paolo. Yes, it had been a stupid idea, but it had worked. One of the colts - they never admitted who - stole the keys for the balcony from the night guard and Paolo flew down to a payphone and ordered it. Once the poor delivery human came, they talked him into giving the pizza to a pony. Paolo said later that part had been easy. If the boy came back without the money, he would have to pay for the delivery from his own salary.
Foolish, but ingenious. Rosa still remembered the smell which had lingered in their room the next morning. It had been mouth-watering. They offered pizza sometimes in the mess hall, but there was something different about an illicit pizza. It smelled way more delicious than the one on the menu.
Well, it was beer this time. Rosa wondered what the colts would think of next, and also how red their rumps would be once they were found out. They would undoubtedly be discovered, sooner or later. One of their pranks would prove to be too ambitious and the Instructors would hear of it.
She hoped the colts wouldn't be in too much trouble. They weren't bad ponies, just too mischievous by half. Not that she was any better, though. Yes, Rosa had decided to go and have a taste of that beer. A small sip wouldn't hurt and she really wanted to sample it. Some of the older ponies talked about apple cider back in Equestria and Rosa wished she could have tried that, too.
Maybe someday, although it was incredibly unlikely.
She lifted her head up and listened to Alice's footsteps out in the hall. By the sound of it, she was done with the girls' dorms on this floor and was heading over to the other side, where the colts were housed. Ten more minutes to check on them, Rosa reckoned, then about another hour for the top two floors.
Luckily, there was no chance of her falling asleep. Her heart was hammering wildly and the young mare could hardly stay still. She hadn't even told her roommates where she was going! There was still a chance to change her mind. All she had to do was simply fall asleep and wake up in the morning. Whatever trouble the colts' room might get into, at least she wouldn't be a part of it.
Yet, Rosa had pretty much decided she would go and check it out. A brief visit, a sip of beer and a bit of chatting with the colts. She hadn't spent much time with them since she had started her Assistant Pony training. Other than Martin, Rosa kinda liked the guys.
She heaved a sigh and settled down for the wait. Out in the hallway, a door closed gently and the guard began to walk up the stairs. Then there was the muffled sound of traffic from the street under the dorm window. Felicity snorted, mumbled something in her sleep, then turned over. After a moment her quiet snoring was back. Rosa couldn't help smiling to herself. The five of them had spent most of the evening cuddling on Amethyst's bed and talking in whispers about Maribelle.
Each of them had told a story and they all giggled at the good memories. The consensus was that Maribelle would be alright - maybe she'd even find a way to write to them from wherever the humans were keeping her now. It was probably just a formality, one that took a while as they checked what her cutie mark was and that it wasn't dangerous.
Maybe the reason no one ever heard back from a pony getting their cutie mark was that whatever checks the humans did took a long while and their friends had left the School before it was all done. Rosa chose to believe that friends got back in touch through the Instructors, at least eventually. She just had to think of it as Maribelle going to a different school, where she would develop her talent and learn a different profession. Of course she would be busy and by the time she could write, her friends would all probably be employed elsewhere.
Rosa made a mental note to ask Martha to send her Maribelle's letters when they arrived.
The chat had done wonders to put all of the girls at their ease and they were in a good mood when they went to sleep.
Lifting her head a little, Rosa strained her ears to try and hear Alice walking around upstairs. She thought she heard footsteps, but it was hard to be sure. The School dormitories were in a big, old building with very thick walls and it was hard to hear things even from the room next to theirs, let alone the upper floor. Rosa considered turning a light back on and reading for a bit, but she didn't want the others to wake up. None of her roommates had been invited by the colts and she didn't want to get them in trouble too. If the party should go awry, then her friends didn't deserve to be punished.
After a minute of intense listening, Rosa flopped back down to her pillow and heaved a sigh.
"You can't sleep either?" a voice whispered.
"Iskra?" Rosa asked tentatively. Her heart was trying to burst from her chest. She had thought she was the only one awake!
"Yes," the pegasus filly confirmed. "I can't stop thinking about Maribelle."
"Y-Yeah... same," Rosa lied.
"You think she's okay?"
Rosa tried to make her voice as convincing as possible. "Sure. She's probably just busy, you know? Moving to a new school, new classes. She probably has so much to catch up on!"
It was dark, but she could swear Iskra was smiling. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I just wish we heard from her, you know?"
"I'm going to ask Martha to send us her letters, or call us if- when she hears from Maribelle."
The pegasus was smart and quickly reached the same conclusion as Rosa. "Oh! You think the others tried to get in touch but their friends weren't in the School anymore?!"
Having it repeated made them both believe it all the more.
"Yes!" Rosa said and nodded happily.
There was a quiet groan from the other bed. "Ugh, mind keeping it down you two? Some of us have classes in the morning!"
Despite the words, the speaker didn't sound annoyed.
"Sorry, Amethyst!"
Iskra echoed the sentiment: "Yeah, sorry Amethyst!"
Rosa needed the girls to be asleep, so she fell silent and sternly resisted the urge to talk about Maribelle some more. Not for the first time she wished they had one of those digital clocks in the room, so she could see how much time had passed. At the very least, Rosa thought, the hands on the wall clock should glow in the dark!
Settling back down, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. If she drifted off, then that was what would happen, she decided.
Rosa hesitated as she stood in front of the colts' room. She could definitely hear conversation inside, but the words were muffled by the thick door. Eventually she reached up and knocked on the old wood. The chatter inside the dorm stopped instantly. A few seconds later came the sound of hooves on hardwood and she took a step back. She was very nervous. After all, she would be alone with these colts, at least one of whom used to bully her.
The door opened before she could change her mind and scurry away, and a white colt with startlingly blue eyes peered out into the hallways suspiciously. It took Rosa a moment to remember the name.
"O-Oh. Jon. Um-" she stuttered.
Luckily, Paolo, the closest thing she had to a friend among those ponies, heard her voice and piped up: "It's cool, I invited her."
Jon pushed the door open and stepped aside to let her enter. Rosa did so, if a little hesitantly, giving him a nervous little smile.
The room was much like hers, except a lot messier. There was a pillow in the corner, saddlebags against the wall and two distinct games of cards on the floor, both apparently in progress. The table was piled high with books and there were papers strewn about in apparently random places. It was dark, because the light was off, but the window was facing the street and letting in some faint illumination from the streetlamps. It wasn't much, but Rosa could see quite clearly by it. She saw that the young stallions had pushed two of the beds together so they'd have someplace soft to sit in a circle. Rosa could clearly tell where one of the beds used to be, because the floor was covered with dust. Her nose wrinkled before she could control it. They could have at least swept the hardwood!
She could see a glint of white in the middle of the bed, between pony bodies, but it was quickly hidden from view as Martin blocked her sight. "What is she doing here?" the oldest stallion asked angrily.
Paolo slid from the bed and came to stand protectively beside her. It helped make her a bit less nervous. Behind her, Jon stuck his head out in the hallway to look around, then closed the door. "She's alone," he announced at last, then sat on his haunches and pushed hair out of his eyes. For some reason, his mane had always reminded Rosa of a wet, used mop.
Some of the colts relaxed a little, but not Martin.
"See?" Paolo said with only a tiniest bit of relief in his voice. "I told you she can be trusted!" The colt nudged Rosa's hind leg with his hoof and she managed a weak smile.
"Y-Yes, of c-course! I won't give you away, I promise!"
Their leader scrunched up his nose in thought, then shrugged. "If you do, we'll beat you up. Even if you are a girl! Understand?" He sounded so calm and sure of himself that Rosa gulped in fear, but no one was paying her any attention anymore.
Jon hurried past her to take his spot in the circle again and the colts all bent their heads down. She was really curious what they had, but Paolo placed himself in her line of sight. His grin could only be called 'smarmy'. Come to think of it, this was the first time Rosa had ever been able to use the word. She whispered it to herself in wonder.
"So..." he began, but didn't know immediately what to say.
"So."
"How's PT working out for you?"
Rosa remembered the special day she would have tomorrow and began to smile. "I love it! I'm happy I can help, you know? Martha says it's a real gift!"
For a moment she thought the pegasus wasn't even paying attention, despite the way he was staring at her, but then he replied: "That's cool! What gift?"
Rosa knew she was blushing, but she said it anyway. "She says I have k-kind eyes..."
That made one of the other colts bark a laugh and Paolo glared at the lot, before turning his smile back on Rosa. "She's right, you know?" he whispered, making her blush deepen.
She didn't know what to say from there, since she never had much experience with colts, aside from a few chance meetings in the halls. As to what happened between mares and stallions, all Rosa had to go on were those few embarrassing classes with Mr. Greiner in Biology. That had been entirely the wrong thing to think about, and now Rosa was blushing even more and could hardly meet Paolo's eyes!
"Here, would you like some beer?" he offered. It was, after all, the main reason he had invited you.
Again Martin piped up: "Hey! That bottle's mine!"
Paolo flattened his ears and turned around to face his friends. "I'll pay you back for it, okay?"
The other colt considered this. "Headphones. You can have it if you get me headphones."
Rosa had absolutely no idea where Paolo might find headphones, nor why Martin would want them, but the pegasus colt agreed quickly: "Yeah, okay. Deal." Then he flashed her an embarrassed grin. "Wait here!"
It wasn't as if she was planning on going anywhere, at least not yet, but now Rosa sat down on the floor and watched the colts. They were all staring at the bed in front of them. Surely they weren't-
The thought made her blush even more. Iskra had once told her that colts liked to compare how long their... tools were.
Surely not?!
Despite herself, Rosa craned her head to get a better look and then her breath caught in her throat. "Is that a TV?!"
The bit of white plastic she'd seen earlier turned out to be a thin device with a screen. Rosa couldn't see what was on it, but the image was certainly moving.
"iPad," Paolo explained and placed a green bottle on the floor before her.
"How did you guys get an iPad?!"
Other than the strictly-controlled school computers, human gadgets were absolutely forbidden. No pony was allowed to have something like that in their room! Martin gave her an appraising stare and it didn't look like she'd get an answer, but one of the other colts blurted it out, almost proudly.
"We stole it!"
Rosa put her hooves on her muzzle in shock.
Martin heaved a sigh. "Idiot!" he muttered.
"It wasn't like that," Paolo went to explain hurriedly. "Some human kid threw it in the bin and a janitor pony gave it to Martin. It's not a big deal! Besides, the speaker is busted. No sound."
Well, at least that explained why Martin wanted headphones.
"Where are you going to get headphones?!"
"Don't worry about it. I'll figure something out," the colt said, his smile creeping back as he pushed the bottle closer to her.
"For that matter, where did you get a charger for it?"
This time it's Martin who answered her directly: "Traded for it with a guard."
Another insidious question loomed up in her thoughts. "D-Do you have Internet?!"
"No Wi-Fi in the school," Paolo answered. "We tried."
That was a shame. Rosa would have loved to browse the Internet without the filters. The school computers couldn't answer most of her questions about the human world and ponies on Earth. Questions she didn't quite dare ask her teachers.
At long last she focused her attention on the bottle. It really was beer. Rosa almost hadn't believed it when Paolo had told her in the hallway.
He glanced at it uncertainly. "Um, hold on. I'll open it." The colt tried to put his teeth around the cap, but the bottle slid across the floor until he gripped it with his hooves. Grunting, he jerked his head to twist the cap off, but only managed to pull the bottle away from his forelegs. He ended up whimpering in pain. "Ow! Ow ow ow! My feef!" he whined, unwilling to close his muzzle.
It was a tiny bit funny, even while Rosa winced in sympathy. On the bed, Martin heaved another sigh. "Give it here," he ordered in an exasperated tone.
Paolo passed the bottle up wordlessly, then the older colt hugged it to his belly with his hind legs and snagged the cap with a forehoof. Rosa tried to see exactly how he would do it, but all it took was a quick jerk and the silvery bit of metal flew off to smack Jon on the muzzle. Then Martin lifted the bottle up and took a swig.
"Hey! We had a deal!" Paolo complained, but the older colt just took a few swallows before pulling the bottle away and holding it out. It was nearly half empty.
As Paolo carefully took it with his forelegs, his friend burped hugely. The other colts laughed at the vulgar display, even as Rosa shook her head in disdain. Colts would be colts.
"Sorry about that," the pegasus murmured and pushed the prized beer closer to you. "You go first."
Now that it was time, Rosa was curious. The smell of beer was already wafting in the room and she found it... intriguing. She didn't need to be asked twice. Gripping the bottle by its neck in her wrist, as she had seen Martin do, Rosa lifted it up to her muzzle and tipped it. The glass almost slipped, but she steadied it with her other hoof. The fizzy drink hit her tongue and Rosa hurriedly lowered the beer again.
It was bitter. She kinda liked it!
Paolo was studying her face intently, but when he saw her expression he started to smile. He nudged the bottle back up with his hoof. "Try some more!" he urged.
Rosa obeyed and took another sip. There was a certain something beside the bitter taste, an aroma she couldn't quite place. Maybe that was the alcohol? It also tasted a lot like grain and Rosa found that part very pleasant.
"I like it!" she admitted. A second later she realized she was being rude and held the bottle out to Paolo.
He took it and lifted it up. "Yeah, it's not bad," he agreed once he had swallowed a mouthful. Rosa guessed he had drunk beer before. "Here, you can finish it if you'd like!" the colt offered generously.
Again, he didn't have to beg. She plucked the bottle from him and took another swig. This time she knew what to expect, but she still swirled it around her mouth to appreciate it fully. She wondered how she would know if she was drunk, but then Rosa got worried. Maybe doing this was a bad idea. Until now, she had always been the model student and a good pony. Today, right before her big class with the children, she was in the colts' room, getting drunk.
Paolo saw her expression and smiled at the poor mare. "Don't worry, you won't get drunk from half a bottle! You probably won't even feel it much!"
The certainty in his voice calmed her down. "Oh. Thanks."
There was a bit left in the bottle and she lifted it back up to her lips. This time she had to raise it almost vertically to get everything out. Rosa did her best to savour the bitter liquid as it splashed on her tongue. She even licked her lips a little to catch every stray droplet. As she was putting the bottle down, her elbows pressed lightly against her barrel and she felt her stomach swell. Before she could react, the mare let out an embarrassingly loud burp.
It made all the colts giggle like crazy even as she blushed.
"Good one!" Paolo whispered proudly.
Rosa shook her head at his childishness, but couldn't help feeling just a tiny bit proud of herself. She felt like she was a part of the group now. As if she had passed some kind of a trial.
The bottle finished, Paolo got up to his hooves and Rosa guessed was time to leave. After all, he had invited her for a beer and that was now gone. She stoop up, too.
"Come on! There's plenty of room!" The pegasus was trying to get her up on the bed with the others!
Maybe it was sheer shock, but Rosa didn't say no. Instead, she let herself be pulled up on the covers. That have her a better perspective to see the screen.
"Come on guys, make some room," Paolo demanded even as he nudged Jon aside. The other colt reluctantly moved a little, which left almost enough space for the two newcomers. Paolo took his seat and patted the bed beside him.
Blushing some more, Rosa squeezed in between Paolo and Jon. It was a curious feeling. She had hugged Iskra many times before, even cuddled with her during cold nights. She had come to enjoy the warmth of her feathers around them both. For that matter, a few times Rosa had even napped squeezed between two of her friends.
It was different when it was colts. Paolo's feathers seemed stiffer and sharper than Iskra's. Come to think of it, Jon's fur felt different from a mare's too! Despite the little wonder of technology in front of her and the undoubtedly interesting movie it was playing, all Rosa was aware of were the two boys pressing against her sides. They were quite warm and she couldn't help feeling their tiny movements as they breathed. She wondered if they were also aware of her body in the same way.
"Ugh, hold on," Paolo grunted and freed his wing from Rosa's side. She hadn't even realized she had been pressing against him that hard.
"Sorry!"
"It's fine," the colt assured her. He stretched the feathery appendage out and then wrapped it around her back. It was... not unpleasant, even while Rosa was hyper-aware of each feather as it brushed against her shoulders, and of the incredibly warm patch of his fur where Paolo's wing used to be.
The colt shuffled again and she wondered if his other wing was also trapped between Martin and himself. He wasn't hugging the other pony, though - just her. Maybe she should have complained?
Before Rosa could open her muzzle, Martin spoke up: "Smooth."
She didn't understand what he'd meant by it, but it made Paolo blush a little and his wing pulled her closer.
It was not bad.
Rosa tried to focus on the small screen before her thoughts could stray and embarrass her even further.
It was a movie about people fighting. That was about as much as Rosa could gather after about thirty minutes. Not terribly interesting, especially since she couldn't hear any dialogue, but the colts were enjoying themselves immensely.
"Oh! Oh!" one of them right opposite Rosa exclaimed, bouncing up a little and flapping his wings excitedly, "I like this part. He's gonna kick him right in the balls!"
The other ponies rolled their eyes. "Yeah, thanks Adonai," Martin commented dryly. "We know."
Next to Rosa's ear, Paolo whispered: "We've seen it before. There's only two movies on that thing and the other one is some romantic drama."
Rosa couldn't hold back a small gasp. "Ooooh! I'd like to see that, please!" she trilled.
"Well, you ain't," the colt leader told her firmly. Paolo opened his muzzle to argue, but Rosa beat him to it, giving Martin her best, most disarming smile.
"Do you think me and the girls could borrow the iPad for a night so we can watch it?"
The colt peered at her with deep distrust. "You stupid girls will just break it. Or worse - a guard will catch you and take it away! Then we'll all be in trouble!"
"We won't! I promise!"
He seems doubtful, so she tried to think up something more enticing. "I can get more movies on it!" she lied.
Martin didn't quite believe her, but the prospect was tempting. The other colts murmured excitedly.
"How?" the lead colt demanded.
"I... know a guard. We've been talking in the mess hall. I'm sure he'd put some movies on it if I asked nicely..." Rosa made her tone confident, oozing certainty from every syllable.
Martin bought it. "Hmm. Maybe," he grudgingly agreed. "I'll think about it."
She almost clapped her hooves together in excitement. A romantic movie - the girls would love that. Not to mention, she herself would love that!
"What kind of movies are you going to get?" Adonai asked, quite excited for something new, even if it was a long shot. "Can we get something with airplanes and-" He froze up and his ears moved around. His muzzle scrunched up in worry. "Guard!" he hissed.
Rosa was astonished at how coordinated these colts were in a crisis. Paolo and Jon jumped to either side of the bed and quickly slid it back to its place, even with ponies still on it, while Martin scooped up the iPad and shoved it in the closet. Rosa looked around for the beer bottle, but Adonai had beaten her to it and already hid it under a pillow.
Her heart was hammering out of fear and shock. If the guard caught her in the colts' room she would be in deep trouble. She could even be expelled! A small whimper escaped the young mare and she looked for a place to hide.
Luckily Paolo noticed her plight. "Come on," he whispered urgently, then jumped back up on the bed beside him. Rosa was sure it wasn't his bed, but no one seemed to mind. The others were already pulling the covers over themselves and Adonai drew the curtains together, plunging the room into darkness. She heard his hoofsteps and then the squeaking of a mattress as the pegasus climbed into another bed.
"Come on, come on!" Paolo urged, pulling the covers while Rosa stood on them. His hoof found her flank and nudged quite hard to wake her up. It probably wouldn't work, but Rosa had nothing else to try! She shuffled off the blanket and Paolo guided her down against himself.
"Try to look small!" he ordered and pulled the cover over her head. Almost without realizing it, Rosa grasped the colt around his waist, buried her muzzle in his back and tried to tuck her legs as close to her body as she could manage. Maybe, with luck, Alice wouldn't notice that the bulge in Paolo's bed was slightly too large. Hopefully she wouldn't hear Rosa's thundering heartbeat, either! She felt certain it should have been rattling the windows!
She clung to the warm body as the steps came up to the door. There was no knock, but the hinges squeaked a tiny bit when the guard looked in. Rosa didn't see anything in the dark under the cover, but she could imagine light spilling around Alice from the lamps in the hallway. 'Please don't turn on the light!' she begged silently.
There was a shuffle from the bed nearest the door. "Mrs. Alice?" Martin asked, voice bleary and slurred with sleep.
Rosa was quite impressed with the acting, despite the danger.
Paolo shifted a little in her grasp and she squeezed him harder to keep him still. The one thing she didn't want the colt to do was draw attention to himself.
"It's okay, go back to sleep. I'm just checking up on you," the guard murmured softly.
"Oh," Martin replied, but was apparently interrupted by a huge yawn. "-thanks, Mrs. Alice."
Rosa nearly applauded his acting.
The woman didn't reply, but Rosa heard the door shut softly and then footsteps going away.
One of the colts giggled nervously, but Martin shushed him up. "Quiet! Quiet until we count to a thousand!"
Rosa tried to do it herself, too, but kept losing track of the numbers. The danger seemed to be over, but her heart was still speeding along. Paolo shuffled again and this time she relaxed her grip and allowed him to turn to his belly.
After a moment he lifted the blanket a little. "I think you can come out now," he told her.
Just to be on the safe side, Rosa stayed under the cover with her hooves firmly around the colt's rump for a while longer. Her muzzle was pressing right into his flank, right where his cutie mark would have been, she thought. That reminded her of Maribelle and she sighed deeply.
After the first time, the colt didn't ask her to come up. Rosa kept listening for Alice, but heard nothing further. She guessed she must have gone back to her post and the young mare finally managed to relax a little.
"One thousand," Martin intoned with some relief in his voice. "Okay everyone, the coast is clear."
There were more squeaks from the springs as the ponies stood up and shrugged their blankets off. Rosa took it as a good sign and crawled forward until her head poked out next to Paolo's.
"Thanks," she whispered to him and gave him a brief, grateful nuzzle.
"Y-Yeah," the colt muttered back.
Now that the danger had passed, Rosa felt a little dizzy from all the excitement and adrenaline. She let out a quiet giggle. "You boys do this sort of thing often?"
Jon went to the curtain and twitched it aside a fraction, letting streetlight into the room once more. It didn't make the room as bright as before, but Rosa could see the colts and their expressions. Martin looked smug, most of all. Rather than answering her, he went to Adonai and hoofed him on the shoulder. "Nice job!" the leader praised and his pegasus friend grinned widely.
"We'd be busted so many times if it weren't for your ears," Jon agreed.
Finally, Martin turned to the young mare. "Nice job hiding," he complimented and her heart swelled with pride. Maybe he wasn't such a bad sort, she thought. A bit of a bully, but that was just his way, right?
"Thanks!"
"I think you should go back to your room - just in case Alice decides to check out the girls' dorms, too," Martin went on.
Rosa agreed wholeheartedly and nodded at him. "Yeah! Um- thanks for the beer!"
He inclined his head, just once. "We'll talk about the iPad tomorrow," he promised.
The thought made her smile wider. She leaned down and threw her hooves around the colt. "Thanks for inviting me!" she whispered to him.
"Y-Yeah, no problem. Y-You can come any-anytime," he stuttered.
Rosa briefly wondered what was wrong. The pegasus hadn't moved an inch since she had let him go. "You okay?"
"Fine!" he squeaked hurriedly. "I'll see you around!"
She shrugged to herself a little and stood up to go to the door. She paused there and leaned her ear on the wood, trying to catch any sign of the night guard walking about. Meanwhile the other colts had come up to Paolo.
"Move," Martin commanded. "That's my bed!"
"In- uh, in a minute," Paolo managed in a faint voice.
Rosa glanced back in surprise. His behaviour was very strange and she couldn't make heads or tails of it. Whatever had gotten into him?
A second before she went back to check, Martin started chuckling. "Ooooh!" the colt said knowingly, pulling the cover off the prone Paolo. "I get it!"
There was a whimper from the pegasus and Rosa wondered what was wrong with him. It didn't sound serious, not with the way his friends were laughing. "Is he okay?" she asked anyway.
"Apparently," Martin said, with a big smirk on his muzzle, "Paolo has a thing for fillies grabbing him around the waist. Don't you, Paolo? Or is it just Rosa?"
The prone colt had his ears as flat as they would go and threw Rosa a pleading look. He didn't speak, aside from a slight eep at the accusation.
"What does that mean?!"
Martin quickly put his hooves on Paolo and pushed him to his side. Rosa got a glimpse of something large and floppy before the pegasus covered himself with his wings. "No!" he squeaked alarmingly.
The others just burst out laughing and Martin left the poor colt alone. "He got a boner because he had a girl in his bed for five minutes!" he explained.
Realization hit her and Rosa almost squeaked as well. She was unable to meet any of their gazes. "I'm s-sorry," she managed to force out, then she quickly opened the door and fled the room, trying to get out of their leering sights as soon as she could.
"Wait!" Paolo whimpered and Rosa paused, glancing back. "I'm sorry- I didn't mean to... it just happened!" he tried to explain. He had been very nice to her the whole night, Rosa remembered. She couldn't hold this against him, not when it was an entirely involuntary reaction. After all, she had been in real danger of creaming herself as well when Paolo had put his wings around her.
It had been only the fear of getting caught that had kept Rosa from thinking about it again when she was in bed with him, otherwise she wouldn't have been much better off than the colt.
"It's okay! I'll talk to you tomorrow!" she promised. With that she pushed the door closed and scurried back to her dorm.
The last thing she heard was Martin chuckling some more and Jon intoning: "Paolo and Rosa, sitting in a tree..."
Rosa knew how the rest of it went and it made her muzzle nice and pink. It was a good thing the hallways were empty this late.
Back at her own room, Rosa paused for a moment to catch her breath, then opened the door with extreme care. It wouldn't do to wake up her friends. She shut it after herself, then slowly moved hoof over hoof towards her bed.
Almost...
Just as she was climbing up, one of the young mares shuffled and Rosa heard a yawn. It made her freeze in terror.
"Rosa?" Felicity's voice came from the nearest bed. "What are you doing?"
Her mind raced for an excuse. "Um, I had to use the toilet!"
Either she was too sleepy to wonder why she hadn't heard the flush, or Felicity assumed she had slept through it, but the filly sighed and answered: "Oh. Good night."
"Yeah, good night."
Rosa slipped back between her covers and tried to slow down her racing heart.
Paolo. She had never even suspected he might have a crush on her. He had always just been a nice colt from the dorm.
Tonight he had invited her, and no other filly to visit the colts' room for beer. Come to think of it, he hadn't always been that nice, but he had been pleasant compared with Martin's bullying and the others' teasing.
Did she like him?
The question made Rosa gulp in fear.
Affairs such as this were very much discouraged in the school. She remembered a couple seeing each other like that a few years ago. They both got a whipping when they were found out in a broom closet one night and then the colt had been sent to another school. Rosa didn't want to get Paolo in trouble. More than that, she couldn't risk her future, even if she did kinda like that colt.
A sad sigh escaped her. She would have to find him someplace alone the next day and have a talk with him. Make it clear nothing could happen between them two. Of course she would be his friend, if the pegasus could settle for that, but absolutely nothing more.
Rosa closed her eyes and let out another sigh. Nothing had happened. She hadn't even known about his feelings until about five minutes ago. Why did it feel that bad? Why did she feel like the worst pony ever for deciding her and Paolo couldn't have anything between them? The feelings were very confusing and Rosa wished she could talk to Maribelle about it. She would have known what to do.
As it was, she would just have to muddle through it. Somehow. Her future was too important, even for a nice colt like Paolo.
He did have very cute flanks, though. Soft and firm and warm, Rosa remembered. Nice yellow mane, too. Lovely violet eyes. Shame, really, that she couldn't explore these emotions at least a little...