When I woke up, I had a strange feeling of excitement. But no recollection of what it was for. I lay in bed for a moment, and looked at the time on the clock on my bedside-table. It was really beginning to annoy me, so I got up, opened my homework diary and looked at the date.
July 7th - Last Day.
"No. No way!" I immediately ran to my phone and double checked the date. One word filled my head.
Summer.
"Oh my god."
Today was the last day of the entire school year. No more school for two months. Two months!
"YES!" I shouted, jumping for joy.
Most people wouldn't really get why I was so very happy. I had had a stressful year - filled with Bella, exams and normal teenage problems. The fact that I had somehow managed to get through all of that and now had two whole months ahead of me to relax and have fun, and not have to get up at 5 in the morning again - it was the best feeling ever.
I ran towards my wardrobe, flinging it open. End of term meant Own Clothes Day, and I was going to make the most out of this.
I would loved to said that I threw on an amazing brony t-shirt, but the truth is at that time, I didn't own any, and I'm not going to lie. I always try to look normal - as much as I can anyway - when it comes to Own Clothes Days, mainly because I get teased enough as it is, and no one wants to start their holiday sad.
When I got downstairs, I found my mother sitting at the table, with a mug of tea in one hand, and a book in the other.
"Grace?" she said when she saw me. "What are you doing down here so early?"
"Er...I have school?" I said, stating the obvious.
She put the book down and turned around to face me properly. "But you don't have to get up this early. School doesn't start till quarter to nine."
"Yeah but-" I started.
"You know you're not walking, right?"
To be fair, I had actually totally forgotten about our deal. Basically, every few weeks, my mother always has to go to London to do businessy stuff. And whenever she does that, she has the opportunity to drop me off at school. Usually, she goes the opposite direction from my school, so can't drop me, so it's either walking or bus.
"Oh yeah," I replied.
"Grace, it's been on the calendar since last month. I keep telling you to check for things like this." She got up, taking the mug to the sink
"I'm sorry - I'll check next time," I said. I looked down at my watch - we still had like an hour before we had to leave. "Err...Mum, it is ok if I go to the Barn? Just until its time to leave?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever," my mum said, waving her hand roughly in the direction of the Barn, too engrossed in her newspaper.
I ran out into the garden, running across the grass towards it. As I opened the door, I saw Twilight lying in the corner, curled up in a ball.
Ever since she arrived here, she had been waking up later and later - probably due to the fact that she no longer had an entire library to read every single morning, or had letters to write to Celestia, or friends to see. I do get worried about her sometimes - I mean she was away from her friends, her family, her life. I would lose it if it were me. But Twilight seemed...calm. But too calm sometimes.
I walked up to her, and knelt on the floor beside her. Her eyes flickered open, and she raised her head up and smiled at me. "Good morning, Grace," she said, sleepily.
"Morning," I said, smiling back at her, and stroking her mane. "Nice sleep?"
Twilight nodded and yawned. "Why aren't you wearing your uniform?"
I looked down at the blue shirt and the brown chinos I was wearing. "It's Own Clothes Day. Last day of the year. After today...holiday," I said, grinning.
Twilight smiled. "Sounds great. So, after today, no more school? At all?"
I nodded. "For two whole months."
Twilight perked up. "Two months? That's great! We get two months together!"
I looked at her face - she was ecstatic. I hadn't actually ever seen her like this in person. Occasionally, on the show, I had seen her like this, but it was nice to see her so happy, just at the prospect of getting to spend more time with me.
It was nice to have friends.
***
"You know, I should probably tell you something," my mum said.
I turned to her. "What?"
We were in the car, about halfway to school.
"You know my business conference in Manchester? Well, considering what happened last year while I was away, I have decided that this year I'm gonna do things a little differently."
Before I carry on, I should probably explain what happened last year. Well, you know about my dad's win at failing... Yeah, he broke his leg. And I had to look after him. Because Mum was somewhere north. So, basically, she meant that she was going to make sure something like that didn't happen again.
"Ok..."
"Your dad's coming with me this year and-"
"I'm not coming," I suddenly exclaimed. "I can't come." I was panicking now. There was absolutely no way I could do that. It was a stretch leaving Twilight with Josh for a week during Lakeside. There was no way I could possibly leave her alone for most of the summer! Especially since the conference was at the end of the week! Not to mention Lydia would actually come to Manchester and kill me herself if I told her I couldn't come to Lakeside again
"I know you're not coming," was the calm reply. "If you'd let me finish, I was going to say that your father and I are going and you'll be staying here. Your grandma's coming over," she added at the end.
"Grandma? Grandma Lil?"
She nodded. This was the best news ever. My mum's mum is pure awesome! Whereas my mother is really 'businessy' and can be really serious at times, my grandma is a complete laugh. Every now and then, my parents leave her in charge, and that pretty much means home alone until they come back. She's great - during the day, she'll be here, either sleeping or just sat in front of the TV, or she'll go out, but during the night, she is almost always out. I think there have been a total of 5 days where I can remember she actually sleeping in the house. Lil used to live near here, but then moved further north, but she still kept in touch with all the friends she made down here. So whenever she comes down here, she go and hangs out with them, and stays at their houses. I love it - it means I can have sleepovers to my heart's desire and even throw the odd wild party. I haven't yet but...I could. If I wanted to.
"Awesome," I said, sitting back in my seat.
"I knew how much you - and Lydia - want to go on the Lakeside trip, so I thought if Mum came over to look after you while we were gone, it would benefit everyone."
At that point, we drove into the school car park. I unbuckled my seatbelt, and threw my arms around my mum.
"Thanks!" I said, grabbing my bag, and stepping out of the car.
"Don't forget you're walking home. And I won't be back till late, so you'll have to remind your dad about dinner."
"Hey, Grace!"
I whipped around to find Josh running up to me, a guy following close behind.
"Hey Josh."
He lowered his head and waved to my mum in the car.
"Mum, this is Josh. Josh, this is my mum," I quickly introduced, putting my bag on my shoulder.
"Good morning, Mrs Blackwood," Josh said, waving.
My mum waved backed. "Please - call me Kate."
Josh laughed and nodded. My mum waved and drove off. I turned back to Josh, and smiled.
His friend came up behind him, resting his arm on Josh's shoulder. Josh took one look at him, and immediately introduced us.
"This is my friend, Jaime. Jaime, this is Grace."
"Are you...are you the Twilight girl?"
Wait. WHAT?
"What do you mean by that?" I said, my heart racing. In my head, I was just thinking, "Shit, Shit, Shit. He told him. He knows. Oh God, he knows about Twilight. He really does. Oh God." I started panicking. I had no idea what would happen if people found out about Twilight. Capture her? Persecute her? Experiment on her? Kill her? I mean, I've seen 'E.T.' The fact of the matter was that she was my friend, and I couldn't imagine anything bad happening to her.
"Aren't you the girl who likes Twilight?"
"What - the books? No way, they're shit. I would never associate with those...books. They don't even deserve to be called literature."
You do not want to get me started on Twilight. My Twilight rants have become somewhat legendary. Some people in my class do just like saying that they like it, just to see me flip out. But, I do have a point - they are awful. Its not literature. Simple as that. And the characters! Thank you, Stephanie Meyer, for the wonderful description of Bella that you gave us. Oh wait...that's right. You didn't give us one.. And don't get me started on Bella's personality. Probably the most two dimensional character I have ever had the misfortune of reading about. Yeah, I read Twilight - and only Twilight - because I felt that I couldn't say that they were terrible before I read them. It was horrible. I never want to see that book again. And Edward and Bella's relationship is not a good relationship. I'm sorry, but he is over 100. She is like 18. That's gross. So, paedophilia, necrophilia (because Edward's dead) and also just a sexist relationship, in which Bella is the defenceless woman, and Edward has to keep saving her. Bullshit. I should probably stop now, or I'll be going on for God knows how long.
Jaime laughed. "I meant Twilight Sparkle. Josh said that you were a big Twilight Sparkle fan. But totally agree with you on that point."
"Jaime's the one who made me a brony," Josh said, leaning on Jaime's shoulder. They then brohoofed each other, and I laughed.
Jaime sighed happily, then wiped his eyes. "Anyway, Josh, I gotta go. McFarland'll kill me if I'm late again. Even if it's just half a minute." He turned to me and waved. "Nice meeting you."
He walked off into the crowd, and I turned to Josh, and punched him on the arm.
"Ow!" he shouted in reply. "What did you do that for?"
"What the hell did you tell him?" I asked, trying to keep my voice down. We were still standing on the edge of the car park, and I really didn't want anyone to overhear us and start asking questions.
But it was still a serious issue. If he had been going around telling all his brony friends that he had met Twilight Sparkle, this was bad. I mean, I don't want bunches of bronies - or would it be a herd of bronies? - coming to my house, demanding to met her. She's not a circus freak - she's a person just like you or me...except she's a pony.
Then there's always the whole thing with the government. What would they do if they found out that Twilight was here? I know I mention it quite a lot, but I do worry a lot about it.
Ok - I really need to stop talking about it. It's freaking me out. Back to the story.
Josh put his hands on my shoulders and crouched down slightly so his face was directly in front of mine. "I swear I didn't tell him about Twilight. I told him you were a fan of her, just in case he ever overheard us talking about her - he would just think we were talking about a toy or just about the character, rather than the real Twilight Sparkle."
To tell the truth, I wasn't entirely sure that plan would ever work. But it was nice to know that Josh was actually thinking about things like this, so we were prepared in case something happened.
It was touching.
"Oh," was my reply. "Well, in that case, thanks. And sorry."
Josh grinned. "Don't worry about it. You're protective over her - it's understandable."
I started smiling at him, which made him laugh, which then made me laugh.
"Grace?" we heard behind us. We turned around to find Lydia staring at us, her mouth hung open in disbelief, which she quickly exchanged for a raised eyebrow.
"Hi Lydia." I turned to Josh. "This is my best friend, Lydia Smith.
Josh turned to Lydia. "You're the one who designed last year's Panto's costumes, didn't you?"
Lydia looked slightly shocked, then smiled at him. "Yes, I was. I'm surprised anyone remembers that."
"The costumes were the best part of it. By far."
That sounded like a compliment, but really, it wasn't. Our school Year 7 Pantomimes have a reputation for being...for lack of a better word, shit. But last year's was the worst we have ever seen. The acting was terrible, the script was a pitiful excuse for a script (the drama teacher in charge couldn't decide on which panto to do, so put them all together) and Aladdin and Father Christmas got into an argument half-way through, and basically started a fist fight on stage, which lead to Peter Pan and Cinderella falling off the stage, and breaking an arm each. At the time, all the teachers went completely mad, sending all the Year 7s and Year 8s to their form room, and recruiting the Sixth Form and my year to help clean up the mess.
But Lydia designed and made all these amazing costumes for the 'actors' (they shouldn't really be called that, but they were Year 7s after all) to wear, and they were, in short, stunning. She is a textiles genius after all. But they were the best I had ever seen her do. Her GCSE textiles work was amazing as well - I would probably say that it was just better, but it's close. She made the costumes fit not just the description of the character, but also the personality of the character. Whenever a character walked on, the audience would be in awe at the costume, and not really pay attention to what they were saying. Obviously, when the fight started, no one was concentrating on the costumes. They were concentrating on jolly Saint Nick beating the crap out of the Prince of Thieves. Well, I suppose that's one way to let them know they're not on the good list...
But while it was still calm and peaceful, it was Lydia's proudest moment. It really reminded me of when Rarity got her cutie mark - I told Lydia this, but she told me to shut up. Mainly because I told her after the performance and the scars were still fresh. When the fight broke out, Lydia was running out on stage, doing her best to keep her costumes in perfect condition. But in vain - Aladdin had a nose bleed and stained his white pantaloons.
"Thank you," Lydia said, smiling politely. She turned to me. "Ready, Grace? Nearly time for registration."
"Oh yeah." I made sure my bag was properly on my shoulder and waved to Josh, who then gave me a hug and walked off towards his classroom.
I turned to Lydia, and immediately she said, "You bitch."
"What the hell did I do?" I asked, my mouth open in shock, running after her as she start walking towards the main building.
"You said you would tell me if something happened between you two!"
"What?" I said, dropping my bag in shock. "Lydia, are you serious? You really think me and Josh...no. No. No!" I picked up my bag and ran in front of her, grabbing her shoulders so she couldn't just walk away from me. "Lydia, you are my best friend. There is no way I would ever keep a secret from you." I then realised what I had just said, and quickly added. "Like this."
"Then how do you explain all that?"
I sighed. "Lydia, do you know how many people actually like me? As a person? One. You. You are my friend - my only friend. Because every other person I meet thinks I'm weird or crazy or childish, and ultimately makes fun of me, some even bullying me, just because I watch a 'little girls' show'. Josh is a brony. A brony. He knows exactly what it's like for most of the world to be against you. He understands."
Lydia stood there, silent. I had never been like that to her before. I had never been like that before full stop. Usually, I'm silent about the way others treat me, except here obviously. I've never had the need to go on about it, and no one has ever really cared, so why bother? Lydia's known how I felt about the bullying, but not how I feel about everything else.
"You hang out with him, because he knows how you feel?" she finally asked, after a few good minutes.
"Yes. Exactly."
"So, it's just because you guys are bronies? Nothing else."
"Nothing else. I assure you. And if there was, you'd be the first to know," I added, smiling at her. "I promise."