I woke up quite abruptly at 5, not really knowing where I was. After a few moments of blind panic, I realised that I was in the Barn. Then I remembered everything - Twilight, the knocking out, the redecoration of the Barn.
And then I remembered that I shouldn't be in the Barn, or even asleep right now. I immediately got up, and made my way to the door, as quickly and as quietly as I could. I ran through the garden, completely soaking my pyjama bottoms with the dew on the grass.
As soon as I got inside, I took my shoes off, insuring I didn't leave them by the back door, and crept up the stairs.
I'm not really what you would call a rebel, but I have done my fair share of 'rebellious' things - snuck down to the kitchen at night, had friends over while my parents were at work (maximum two), told my parents I was meeting one friend when I was actually meeting another. Little things like that.
What?! I'm a terrible teenager; get over it.
Anyway, even though I wouldn't be described as 'rebellious', I still know how to get away with stuff like this. Basically, you do it quickly, and you clean up afterwards. Then clean up little details - twice the number of plates in the sink, cake crumbs in the kitchen, a bit of mud on the floor. Little stuff that no one else thinks of, but can arouse suspicion.
And that is why I think I should be a spy. I would be an awesome spy. Just saying.
Anyway, to remove any suspicion, I crept into my room, messed up my duvet ,and left the door partly open, as I usually do. And then I started getting ready for the wonderful day that I had ahead of me.
Leaving the house, I suddenly remembered Twilight. I didn't really want her waking up, and freaking out because she had no idea where she was. Nor did I want her to calmly wake up and come into the house looking for me.
I grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper, and scribbled a quick note explaining where I was, and where she was, just in case she was panicking. I grabbed my bag and coat, and went out into the garden, hoping to drop the note off on a table and then take off for school.
But of course, nothing happens the way I want it to. Instead of quickly and quietly sneaking into the Barn, so I didn't wake Twilight up, I tiptoed in, only to be scared out of my skin.
"Morning Grace."
"ARGHHHH!" I immediately put my hand in my mouth, praying to God that I didn't wake my parents up. I turned around to find Twilight sitting on a bean bag, smiling at me.
"Sleep well?"
"How the fuck are you up at this time?" I exclaimed, quietly.
Twilight frowned. "Language, Grace. I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that word in front of me."
Great. I got told off for swearing. By a pony. A goddamn magical purple pony. What is my life coming to?
"How...are you up at this time?" I repeated.
"The early bird catches the worm," she replied. I've never liked that saying - it was just too cliched for me. "I'm used to waking up at this time. There's no point ruining a good day with a lie-in."
It was official - Twilight and I were from completely different worlds. I mean that's obvious, considering that she's an animated pony and I'm...not, but even more so now.
"Err...ok. I have school now, so I'm leaving. I'll be back some time after 5. Actually," I suddenly remembered. "I have a detention, given by an unfair, biased teacher to seems to hate my very essence and doesn't want me to have an iota of happiness!"
Twilight seems taken aback by all this. "Are you okay, Grace?"
I sighed. "I'll be fine. I just need to get through the rest of the day." I picked up my bag, and walked towards the door.
"Grace?"
I turned around.
"Have a nice day," Twilight said, giving me a sympathetic smile.
"Thanks." I opened the door and walked out. As I walked down the road, away from my house, I smiled to myself thinking about today, and how it couldn't possibly be worse than yesterday.
***
"Grace!"
This was not the usual welcome I have to school. Usually its whispers as I walk in, or sarcastic 'hi Grace's.
I turned around to find Miss Winchester running after me.
Miss Winchester has to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. And probably ever will meet. She was my English teacher in year seven, not to mention my Form Tutor for seven and eight. She is so unbelievably nice - a real contrast to the bitch of a history teacher I had around the same time.
Sorry - I'm still bitter.
But anyway, Miss Winchester ran down the corridor, shouting my name, causing others to stop and wonder why. Which was exactly what I did.
"Hi Miss Winchester?" I said, once she had finally gotten to me.
"Grace," she said, breathing heavily. "Lydia...told me...about...Mrs McFarland..."
"Oh."
"Don't worry. I had a chat with Mr Johnson - you don't have...to go to that detention. She had no right...to punish you for something she had no evidence you...did."
I was stunned. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Bella tormented me during the final years of primary school, and imagine my joy when I discovered she was also coming to my secondary school! She and her 'friends' bullied me for 3 years, and whenever I told someone, it was "Grace, they were only playing. They didn't know that what they were doing was upsetting you" or "It was a harmless joke. Everything's been straightened out". I had 3 years of that. 3! The teachers didn't seem to pick up on the fact that I was being bullied by a pack of stupid bitches, who honestly asked, "Is Hitler alive?" They only stopped because eventually they could see that nothing they could do could really upset me anymore - they had already done it all.
So this was a shock to me. And as I stood there, standing in the middle of a school corridor, staring at the one teacher who finally believed my side, I could feel the tears coming.
"Grace. Are you ok?" Miss Winchester said, with a serious look on her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, wiping the tears. "Hayfever, that's all. Thank you, Miss Winchester. This means a lot to me."
She smiled and put her hand on my shoulder. "You are very welcome, Grace. Enjoy your day." With that, she turned around and walked off.
"I know I will."
***
"Seriously, Lydia, how can I thank you enough?" I said.
"Grace. You are my friend. This is what friends do for each other. You don't need to thank me," was the reply.
Lydia and I were sitting at the back of the classroom, sitting with our backs against the cupboards, away from the crowd that was the rest of my class, talking about what Lydia did.
"But seriously, how did you even do it? All the teachers I've spoken to about Bella and Mrs McFarland have just said that I was over-reacting, being over-sensitive or just misunderstanding."
"That's because you've always gone to the wrong teachers. The ones who are already wrapped around Bella's little finger, or under the control of Mrs McFarland. I mean, she is Head of History, Head of Sixth Form, and in charge of all the other Head of Years. Not many teachers who aren't under her. It was either Mr Johnson, head of the school or Miss Winchester, English teacher and former form tutor when Mrs McFarland wasn't in charge of every single tutor. Miss Winchester just seemed like the right person to go to, especially since she adores you."
"She doesn't 'adore'-"
"Yes she does!" Lydia exclaimed, turning towards me. "You don't see it, because you never see it, but you are by far her favourite student. She would always ask how you were, and if you were ok whenever she bumped into you in the corridors. She would ask me how you were whenever she bumped into me in the corridors! Don't you remember? Year seven, your best subject was English. She adored you, because you were amazing at her subject."
I sat there in silence for a bit. Year seven wasn't a great year for me, so as usual, I had tried very hard to forget the entire thing. But what Lydia said had rung a bell - Miss Winchester did always give me amazing marks. Out of all my teachers, she was the one who stood out as the one I really remembered. I had never really forgotten any of the things she taught us - Shakespeare, essay writing, narrative writing. All of it was still in my memory. History, on the other hand, is just a blur of me glaring at Mrs McFarland and her shouting at me.
"I suppose you're right."
Lydia looked over to me, smiled and said, "As always."
***
During my next lesson, I had a bit of a revelation. Long story short, I didn't know much about Twilight, but there was a place that could provide all the information I needed, and perhaps a bit more.
The Internet.
Now, I knew about the real dangers of the Internet. Forget about weirdos stalking kids' chat rooms - I was talking about the fandom sites, the fanfictions, and the fanart - mainly the Weird Part of the Internet. I had made the mistake of searching 'Derpy Hooves and Doctor Whooves' on Google, as well as things like 'Applejack and Rainbow Dash'. Although, nothing can compare to when I discovered 'Cupcakes' - I couldn't eat cake for a week. My parents had no idea what was going on.
I hoped that just searching for Twilight wouldn't bring up too much from the Weird Part, as long as I didn't stay too long, or go on images. Because it is so easy to accidentally stumble into it, but once you're in the Weird Part of the Internet, it is incredibly hard to get out.
As soon as the lunch bell rang, I ran up to the computer room, found myself a computer in the corner, and logged on. I may be quite open about being a nerd, but being caught searching background information on a character from My Little Pony was something I wanted to avoid. Especially because of the way people found out I was a brony.
It was last year, November time, when I decided to watch the programme from the very beginning - something I had been planning to do ever since I watched half an episode with my 3 year old cousin. I watched 3 or 4 episodes, and fell in love. The next day, I was telling Lydia all about it, and telling her about the brony community. Of course, she was a bit 'WTF?' at first, but she got used to it. She never watched it though. To this day, even after everything that happened, she still has not watched a single episode. I'm moving away from the topic again - I always do that. As I was telling Lydia all this, Bella overheard the entire thing. By lunchtime it was everywhere - I was no better than 'paedophiles' and 'gay people' (because that's all bronies are, apparently). The number of people who came up to me and asked if I was a paedophile - it was one of the worst days of my life. I kept trying to explain that bronies are not a bunch of paedophiles, and they are not a bunch of gay guys in denial - they are normal people who just so happen to like a certain children's show - but it was no use. Bella's influence covers pretty much everyone associated with our school - teachers and students alike. The damage had already been done, and there was nothing I could do.
It took a long time for people to forget the whole affair, and during that time, I got countless emails saying that I should be ashamed of myself for 'groping innocent kids', 'being gay', and for 'watching a show meant for children half my age'. My school isn't really full of the brightest of bulbs. Half of them think being gay is 'bad' (I completely disagree, but nothing I can say can change their view) and all of them seem to think that just because I was associated with so called paedophiles, it automatically makes me one. I spent hours explaining that bronies are not all paedophiles, and that it is an unfair stereotype that it somehow associated with them (actually it is quite easy to see how it is associated with us), and that most bronies were probably pleasant people, filled with happiness, considering that they watch a show called friendship is magic, but it was no use.
And that is one of the reasons why I hate - no, despise - her. Because she makes my life a living hell.
Anyway, I found a page on Twilight that seemed safe to view during school hours, so quickly sent it to print, logged off, and ran to the printer to pick it up. I checked that I had all of it, and quickly left the computer suite, making my way down to the lunch room to meet Lydia.
Or at least, that was the plan. But instead, someone decided to pop out of nowhere, bumping into me, sending everything I was holding flying everywhere, myself included.
"Watch where you're going!" I heard from the person lying on the floor opposite you. I froze when I recognised the voice, and pushing my hair from face, it was confirmed.
"For God's sake, Grace," Bella said, pushing herself off the floor. "It's not my fault you got into trouble and now have a 2 hour detention."
I stood up, brushed myself off and smiled. "Oh. Didn't you hear? I don't have a detention. Not since this morning anyway. Miss Winchester and Mr Johnson both agreed that the detention was completely unfair, as there was no evidence to prove me guilty, so they said I didn't have to go."
I'm not really one to brag, but her face! I have never seen the look of complete horror mixed in with confusion on her face before, but I was so glad that I caused it. It was classic! Priceless! It honestly made my day.
"What?" she said, extremely quietly.
"Your plan didn't work. I'm off the hook." I spun around and began picking up my stuff from the floor.
And that was when I saw her walk over towards me, bend down and pick up a page just outside my reach. A page with Twilight's picture on it.
I immediately stood up. "Give me that."
"Why?" she asked, putting her sing-song voice on and putting the page out of my reach. "What could this page have on it that is so utterly important?"
"Bella, give it back. Now."
She smirked, cleared her throat and began reading...very loudly. "Twilight Sparkle is the main character from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. She is a purple unicorn from the city of Canterlot, who is sent to Ponyville by her teacher, Princess Celestia, in order to learn all about friendship. It is there she learns of her representation of the magical items called 'The Elements of Harmony' and meets her first friends - Applejack, the Element of Honesty; Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness; Rarity, the Element of Generosity; Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter; and Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. Twilight is the Element of Magic."
She looked up at me. I looked around. A small crowd of people had began to form, all whispering to each other and some giggling. I turn back towards Bella.
"No friends, huh? Reminds me a bit of you, Gracey." She looked around the crowd. "Let's read a bit more of this then. See what being a brony is really about."
"OI!" a voice shouted out from behind me. "Leave her alone!"
A guy pushed his way through the crowd, rushing to get to the front. I didn't really recognise the voice, but as I saw him emerge from the crowd, I could recognise his face. I had seen him around the school, but never really spoken to him. All I knew was that he was in the year above me, and his name was something like Jimmy, Jacob, something like that.
He walked straight past me, towards Bella, and held his hand out. "Give."
Bella looked reluctant at first, but then handed it over to him. She then picked up her bag and walked away, not without bumping into me first.
"Oops. See ya, Gracey." And with that, she walked back into the dispersing crowd.
I turned to the guy. "Thanks. Thank you. A lot."
"No sweat. I live for saving damsels in distress," he replied, winking.
He handed me the page, which I quickly put in my bag with the rest of my work.
"But seriously though, I don't know what she would have done if you hadn't have come when you did. You really saved my neck out there."
"Oh please," he said, pushing his bag on his shoulder. "I was doing it for all us bronies. That girl's a right bitch. She gives us all a bad name."
I froze. "You're...you're a brony?"
"Well, it is 20% cooler than anything else."
Really, I didn't quite hear what he said after '20% cooler' - I was too busy squeeing.
"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!"
He laughed at that and then offered his hand. "I'm Josh. Josh Campbell."
"Grace. Grace Blackwood," I said, shaking it.
"Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Grace Blackwood, but I fear I must leave you now." He bend down and picked up a page that I had missed, and handed it me. He then put his fist in front of him and said, "Brohoof?"
I brohoofed him, and he walked down the corridor out of sight.
"Wow," I said rooted to the spot. "My first brony."
This day just got cooler. Dare I say it...20% cooler.