//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Those Beautiful Magenta Eyes // by Upatree502 //------------------------------// Chapter 4 No. As I woke up, that was very first word that entered my mind. My eyes were heavy and my body urged me to go back to sleep but I knew that wasn’t a possibility. I got up at dawn every day, but for some reason the fact that I knew I needed to go to school made me want to sleep for eternity. Yeah, that’s pretty much how it worked. But I guess I was pretty excited to go back. I loved working at the farm, but sometimes just hanging out with my friends at school was a nice change from the long, sweaty summer days at the apple orchard. I was pretty much dead the entire time I got ready. After staring at my zombie face in the mirror for a couple seconds, I couldn’t help but giggle at how ghastly I looked. I tried being quiet while getting ready since everybody else was still asleep, and pretty soon I was heading out the door after having breakfast. Our house, naturally, was pretty far away from the school— and most of the city for that matter— so I took the truck. It was an old thing, brown in color, and we only used it when it was really necessary. Personally, I liked walking but the school was just too far away for that. I started the truck and felt my pocket buzz. Taking out my phone, I saw Rainbow Dash’s name show up with a new text message alert. With a quick tap of a button, I opened the message and read the single word that was in the message. -UGH. I giggled, picturing Rainbow Dash’s exhausted face all-too-well. I typed a quick reply back to her. -I hear ya, sister. It took a little less than ten minutes to drive to school and I found a spot in the parking lot without any trouble. I noticed Fluttershy’s truck— white, and nicer than mine— a little ways down. I also noticed Fluttershy was still in it, staring at her steering wheel. I walked over and tapped on her window. She jumped in fright and I swore I could hear a muffled squeak. She opened the door and smiled at me, her hair covering half her face like it usually does. “Oh, hello Applejack. I didn’t see you there,” she said quietly. “You okay there? You looked like you were lost in thought,” I asked her. “Yes, I’m fine. It’s strange being back at school, isn’t it?” It seemed like something was bothering her but I didn’t persist. “Yeah,” I chuckled. “Can’t believe we survived this long.” She giggled softly, barely more than a whisper in the thin morning air. We walked together, trying to find the others where they texted us they’d be. We found them soon enough, with everyone but Pinkie Pie there. “Heya,” I said as we approached. Twilight looked tired as hell, to which I felt kind of bad laughing about. Rainbow Dash, surprisingly, didn’t look tired at all— just a bit subdued— and Rarity looked gorgeous as always. From behind the others I saw our last friend happily skipping toward us, eyes closed and smile wide as always. She approached the group, greeting us with a hello a little more high-pitched than any of us would have preferred at this moment. Still, her exuberance— learned that one from Twilight— brought a small smile to my face. “We should go get our schedules,” Twilight said. “They’re handing them out on the tables over there.” We walked as a group, collecting our schedules from the teachers that were handing them out. With excitement, we all compared ours. Just as we had planned, we all had math together first hour. Twilight had decided to give up the higher A.P. Calculus class to be with us. We encouraged her not to at first, but she said that she would rather have been in a class with us her senior year than in another class where she knew all the material anyway. She had a good point, so we didn’t argue with her. I looked at my own schedule. Pre-Calculus first hour, then Economics—I figured I would have Government next semester—, Advanced Placement Literature, and Psychology. I was a little nervous about taking A.P. Literature but, unbeknownst to my friends, I was actually a pretty good writer. Twilight was in that class with me too so in case I ever needed her help with something I’m sure she’d be more than willing to help. I had Psychology with Rainbow Dash and Rarity, which I could already tell was going to be interesting, especially since I knew Rarity didn’t give a flying feather about that class. I also had Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in my Economics class. I was glad to see that I had a friend in every one of my classes, since I hadn’t been so lucky in previous years. Having a half-day was also a relief, and would be very useful on the weekdays that Big Mac needed extra help on the farm. Everyone seemed pretty happy about their schedules, seeming to share the same relief as me at having half day schedules. Even Twilight figured relaxing and having a good time her senior year was better than stressing herself out and spending every hour of the day working on homework. Although, I guess “relaxing” probably isn’t the best use of vocabulary. We knew we would still have to work hard in each of our classes. After a short time of chatting with everyone, the first bell rang right on time and we headed off to our first class. It was great having all of them in my first hour— maybe now I could actually get through first period without wanting to fall asleep or tune out everything my teacher has to say. The class was set up in groups of four, two rows of two desks side-by-side. Seeing no seating chart, we sat in the back of the room and to the left a ways. Pinkie Pie sat next to Rainbow Dash in a row, and Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy all sat in the group of desks next to them. I decided to sit in the seat in front of Rainbow Dash, for the obvious reasons. The class filled up quickly, and the seats next to me and Rarity remained empty since it wasn’t a full class. Our teacher was female and she looked pretty young. She had really dark brown hair and wore red glasses. She looked like the kind of teacher who was sarcastic and could have fun with the class, but could also be pretty strict if you got on her bad side. “Morning, class,” she began. “My name is Ms. Catenaria, but please call me Ms. Cat.” Pretty name, I thought. She started with the repetitive overview of the class. To the entire class’s disappointment, she changed the seating arrangements before anything else. I was moved to the right and up a seat, just diagonal of Rainbow Dash’s seat— which was where she ended up staying— behind Pinkie Pie and with two other students I didn’t know very well. Twilight was in the group to the right of mine, and Rarity sat behind me. Fluttershy was in the back right, surrounded by a group of large, loud boys while she cowered in her seat. I felt terrible for the poor girl, but thankfully Ms. Cat seemed to notice how terrified Fluttershy was as well, and moved her to a spot that was closer to me and Rarity. The rest of the class period was taken up by all of the usual motions, handing out papers, explanations, introductions, and so on. As I slouched in my seat, my fist solely holding up the weight of my head, I almost began to fall asleep again. Probably just as bored as I was, Rarity began to play with my hair. Normally I would have shooed her away but I didn’t really care at this point, and— although I would never admit it to my friends— it actually felt kind of good when she played with my hair. After a while, I turned around to see how Rainbow and Pinkie Pie were doing. Pinkie was sitting upright in her seat, smiling and bouncing to a nonexistent tune. Behind her, Rainbow had her head on her desk, staring with bored, half-lidded eyes toward the front of the class. Her eyes flickered over to me when I turned around. She waggled her eyebrows, and I tried stifling a tiny giggle. I turned back around to check the clock. Good, we only had seven minutes left of class. Ms. Cat let us socialize the rest of the time and the group and I all got back together. We didn’t really talk about anything in particular. I sat next to Rainbow on top of the desks, trying to get as close as possible to her. Of course, being her best friend, I really could be as close to her as I wanted without it being weird. I guess that’s one benefit of being in love with your best friend. The bell soon rang and we headed to our second hour class. We split halfway there and I walked with Pinkie and Fluttershy the rest of the way to our class. Fluttershy walked alongside of me calmly while Pinkie skipped alongside of us, humming a random tune. Upon entering our Economics class we saw that we had a young, male teacher, and we were allowed to sit wherever we wanted according to him. The desks weren’t really set up in any order, which gave the classroom a carefree yet slightly disarrayed appearance, so the three of us just sat together in a random spot. “Morning, class. My name is Mr. Stanton; please find a seat wherever you’d like,” the teacher said as more students piled into the classroom. Mr. Stanton was a tall and lean guy, with dark curly hair and a bright face— his enthusiasm kind of reminded me of Pinkie Pie in some ways. Once everyone was seated, and the final bell rang, Mr. Stanton spoke again. “Hello everyone! Once again, I’m Mr. Stanton and this is Economics, the best class you’ll be taking all year! Or at least for this semester,” he said, giving the class a big, goofy smile. No one laughed. My eye twitched slightly. Oh God, please don’t let this guy be one of those teachers who tells cheesy jokes all the time and thinks he’s hilarious when really he’s not. “Listen, this class is a breeze if you just do your work and listen. It’s not a challenging class so I expect all of you to at least try your best,” Stanton explained. “I’m a pretty laid back teacher; if I see a cell phone I’ll ask you to put it away. I usually don’t take them away, but that doesn’t mean I want to see them out. “I would allow eating but thanks to the new rules they’ve enforced, they’re getting pretty strict about wrappers and crumbs everywhere. So, no eating. Or if you do, don’t let me notice,” he said and smiled. A couple people chuckled to that. He passed out a syllabus and went over it quickly, instructing the class to sign it once we had read all of it. “Alright, guys. I’m going to pass around some index cards and on them I want you to write all of these things down,” Mr. Stanton said, gesturing towards a list he’d written on the white board. The list was numbered from one to seven: 1. Name 2. Current job (if you have one) 3. Desired college 4. Desired career 5. What you know about economics 6. What you hope to get out of this class 7. One goal you hope to achieve by the end of the semester I didn’t know if my allowance I got on the farm counted as a current job, so I just put it down anyway. I struggled with numbers three and four. I hadn’t given much thought to what I was going to be doing after high school, whether I’d be staying at the farm like Big Mac did or going off to college. I mean, apples were kind of my thing— my passion. I loved working at the farm but… did I really want to be working there my entire life? I decided to skip the two and moved on to number five. What I knew about economics. Um… nothing? I wrote down, ‘It has to do with money’, and moved on to number six. These were stupid questions. I wrote down, ‘I hope to learn how to learn money.’ Oh God, that didn’t even make sense. You know what? Whatever. I doubted Mr. Stanton would even look at my answers. And finally, one goal I hoped to achieve. I thought a little longer about this one, feeling this one had a bit more meaning than the others. I wanted it to be an important goal, something I could seriously work towards… but I honestly couldn’t think of anything that important. I mean, except maybe getting Rainbow Dash to fall in love with me. Ha. Ha. Yeah… like that would happen. I sighed and wrote down, ‘To figure out what I want to do in life’, and set the index card aside. Kind of a crappy goal, but I didn’t feel like stressing myself out at the moment over a stupid index card. Mr. Stanton came by to pick everyone’s cards up. He took a glance at mine while picking it up and, after he squinted in amusement and gave me a slightly humorous smile, I figured he’d read what I put down for number five or six. I expected some kind of witty comment, but he said nothing and went to pick up Pinkie’s and Fluttershy’s cards. I looked at Fluttershy and she returned the look, giving me a small smile. “You know what you want to do for a career?” I asked. “Wait, no, don’t tell me. Let me guess… veterinarian?” She nodded enthusiastically. She opened her mouth to respond but was cut off when Pinkie practically dove in front of her. “I wrote that I want to be a Laughter Therapist! Wouldn’t that just be the funnest job ever? I mean, I LOVE making people laugh. Imagine doing it for your job!” she exclaimed, practically screaming. Seeing as how the rest of the class was at a low murmur, practically everyone was now looking at her. “Laughter Therapist?” I said incredulously. “I didn’t even know a job like that existed…” “Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed again. “But if that doesn’t work out, then I think I’d like to be a baker! Like those people you see on TV making really cool cakes and cupcakes and they look so yummy and—“ I shoved my hand on Pinkie’s mouth to shut her up. The teacher was now looking at us in amusement and walked a couple steps toward us. He looked down at the index cards. “Well, Miss Pinkamena—“ “You can call me Pinkie!” Fluttershy glanced at her. “You put your full name on your card?” she whispered. “Now that we all know what you want to be when you grow up, would you care to share what goal you wrote down?” Mr. Stanton asked. “Okey dokey lokey! My goal is to be able to run the bakery myself a couple times! The extra practice would be great and I think it’d be a really great way for the Cakes— they’re my bosses— to see how responsible I am,” Pinkie responded. I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. I was honestly expecting some kind of crazy goal, like eating twenty cupcakes in one sitting or breaking the land speed record. Her goal was better than mine. At least she had an idea of what she wanted to accomplish. “Oh? You work there?” Mr. Stanton asked. “Yep! Sugarcube Corner.” “Oh, I’ve been to that place a couple times. The cupcakes there are to die for,” Mr. Stanton smiled. “Thanks! It’s a small bakery so technically I’m the only person who works there besides Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Ever since they had their twin babies I’ve been doing most of the baking,” Pinkie said. “Well,” Stanton said, seeming pretty impressed. “I’ll be sure to stop by there more often.” He turned around, scanning the classroom with raised eyebrows. “Is there anyone else who would like to share their goal?” A couple people shared theirs. They were all pretty much the same, like get accepted into a certain college or maybe save up money to buy a certain car. I side-glanced at Fluttershy and Pinkie, wondering where they were considering going to college. Sighing quietly, I rested my head on my hand and looked up at the clock. We would be leaving soon. After a bit of talking, Mr. Stanton concluded the class, telling us a little bit of what we’d be learning this semester. He seemed like he’d be a cool teacher and the class seemed fine so I left the class happy, ready to take on my hardest class of the day. I knew we wouldn’t be doing anything on the first day, but I was still a little nervous about what this class would be like. I said goodbye to Fluttershy and walked with Pinkie upstairs where she had her next class as well. Halfway down the hallway she waved goodbye to me and we headed our separate ways. Glancing at my schedule again to check which room it was in, I headed down the correct hallway and eventually found my way into the classroom. Twilight was already inside, along with about half of the class, and she waved at me as I walked in. I smiled and went to sit down beside her. “Hi, Applejack! How was Economics?” she asked. “Fine. Our teacher seems pretty cool and it definitely helps to have Fluttershy and Pinkie in it with me,” I answered. “How was, uh, whatever class you had last hour?” I felt kind of bad for not remembering, but she didn’t seem to mind. “Good. Our teacher’s kind of a snob but Rarity was in it with me and we made fun of the teacher practically the whole time,” she giggled. I breathed a small laugh. “The Twilight Sparkle? Making fun of a teacher? I never expected that,” I teased her. She waved it off. “Eh. You know normally I wouldn’t but she’s one of those really snotty teachers who act as if their students are scum and she’s the Queen of England or something.” “Ugh, good luck with that one,” I said, making a disgusted face. Yeah, I’d had my fair share of those kinds of teachers. Speaking of teachers, our current teacher for this class walked inside the classroom, greeting everyone with a loud “Hello”. He was a short, old man with pure white hair and a belly that stuck out from his belt a little too much. His eyes were widened with excitement; he looked like one of those teachers who were absolutely ecstatic about the subject he taught. “Good morning, good morning!” he said once everyone was seated. “Welcome to Advanced Placement Literature,” he said, drawling out the last syllable of “literature” a bit too much. “I’m Mr. Novella. Many of you know me already from previous years but I also see a lot of new faces which is always great to see! I’m very glad you all chose to take this class. I promise you it will be a good class. We will work hard but it will pay off in the end.” I sure hoped he was right. I’d heard from previous students that the class really wasn’t that bad as long as you read the books you were assigned and did your best in class. But I guess that was the guide for every class, wasn’t it? Mr. Novella spent the whole hour telling us about himself, the class and what to expect, and the different books we’d be covering. He told us we were going to have assigned seats tomorrow, to which I was a little disappointed about, but I figured that if I ever needed Twilight’s help she’d be happy to study with me after school. The hour passed by slowly but surely and soon we were all putting our bags on and waiting for the bell to ring. Twilight and I passed the last couple minutes chatting and after the bell rang we headed our separate ways to our last class of the day. I had Psychology, an elective simply taken to fulfill the required credit hours to graduate. Once inside, I saw that Rainbow Dash and Rarity were already inside, talking quietly. Rainbow Dash gave a slight wave when she saw me and I sat down next to them. “Yo,” Rainbow Dash said. “Morning, Applejack! How have your classes been?” Rarity asked. “Pretty good, I guess,” I answered. “How ‘bout you guys?” “Most of them have been fine. My second hour teacher is a witch,” Rarity said, rolling her eyes. “Twilight told me about that,” I said with a small chuckle. I looked at Rainbow Dash. “How have your classes been?” “Awesome, except I’ve got that jerk-off Dumb-Bell in my Government class,” Dash said with a look of disgust. “Oh God,” I said, returning the look. “I freaking hate that guy.” “I know,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. “Whatever. I’m just going to try and ignore him.” “Good plan,” Rarity commented. “That guy’s been harassing you since grade school. You’d think he would have grown up by now.” Rainbow Dash’s response was simply to roll her eyes. The teacher, who I’d failed to notice until now, had walked up to the front of the class and introduced herself. She was a slightly older woman, maybe sixty years of age, with curly brown hair and small round glasses. She had a warm smile on her face and was slightly hunched over but she looked really sweet. Her name was Mrs. Hawthorne. She had a vibrant personality, bouncing around the classroom with every step. She spoke with gusto and made emphatic hand motions— it was actually pretty uplifting to see a teacher so excited about her class and her new students. Rainbow Dash seemed to enjoy Mrs. Hawthorne’s personality as well, as she sat there with a faint smile on her lips. I was really glad to be able to see Dash at the end of the day— or, at least, end of the school day. I had a feeling it would be a relief from the stresses of my previous classes and a good way to relax and just enjoy her company. I idly played with Rainbow’s hair while the teacher spoke. Mrs. Hawthorne actually spent most of the hour telling us about her kids and her husband, but I didn’t mind. She had funny stories, and a very eccentric way of telling them. It was actually a nice break from the repetition of first day syllabi and class introductions. By the end of class, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and I were already making plans for the rest of the day. We decided on our favorite café, a favorite spot of ours that we visit so often the employees actually know all of our names, preferred orders, and greet us as if we were old friends. There really weren’t many places like that for us to hang out. Our city was pretty small, several miles away from the big city. We had small streets, rarely any traffic jams, the taxis weren’t in as much of a hurry, and our streets were lined with small and homely self-owned businesses— like this café, Sugarcube Corner, and that little library Twilight spends so much of her time at. The other side of the street, as if it were a completely different place, was lined with trees, leading into a small forest itself. They called it a park, but there was just a small dirt pathway somewhere in it with a couple benches. A tourist site, not somewhere we residents usually went. Except for Rainbow Dash. As strange as that girl was, that forest was one of her favorite spots. She doesn’t usually tell us about it, since I think it’s kind of personal to her, but she started going there a lot more often after her parents died. Oh, yeah. That. Well, that’s a story for a different time. Dash, Rarity and I all headed outside together after the class ended and we texted Twilight and the others to meet us. After meeting back up, we all were fine with hanging out at the café. We decided to carpool there, finding it unnecessary to take all of our cars individually. It was a nice afternoon and I really appreciated the time I was able to spend with all of my friends. I don’t know why, but I just felt really… good. Like today was a new start. I don’t know how long it had been since I felt so carefree. It was nice.