Chapter 7
I woke up later than usual Saturday morning when the sun shone through my window, landing perfectly on my closed eyelids. I let out a soft groan in protest and shielded my eyes with my arm, mussing up my hair in the process as my fingers slipped through my hair. Furrowing my eyebrows in confusion, I noticed my hair still had the pins in it from yesterday; I had forgotten to take them out last night.
Practically falling out of my bed, I got up and walked half-asleep to the bathroom. A short shower later, I was more awake and got dressed in my regular clothes. I folded up my clothes from last night and put them away. I figured since they were mine now that I might wear them a bit more often; after all, I really did like the outfit.
I made my way downstairs to be greeted by Granny Smith who was sitting in her chair. I smiled and asked her how she was feeling. She was doing a lot better since she got back from the hospital and was making a speedy recovery— Granny Smith may have been old, but she was resilient.
We chatted for a little bit; Granny told me Apple Bloom was with her friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and Big Mac was outside with Caramel. I raised an eyebrow at this, wondering if Mac had taken my advice and hired Caramel.
I walked outside and saw Big Mac and Caramel standing at the fence, talking to each other. I waved at them and, once I caught their attention, they waved back. I walked over and, to my surprise, Caramel pulled me into a hug.
“Good to see you, AJ!” he said with a huge smile on his face.
I chuckled. “Yeah, you too Caramel. I take it you’re helping out Big Mac with the farm?”
“Yep!” he responded cheerfully. That’s one thing I loved about Caramel; he was always in the best mood. “And the apple orchards too.”
“Great! It’s always a pleasure having you on the farm, Caramel,” I said with a smile.
Big Mac gave Caramel a friendly pat on the back. “We should probably get to work then. Need me to go over anything?”
Caramel smirked. “Nope. I may be a bit rusty, but I’ll probably pick it back up right away.”
They said goodbye to me and I leaned against the fence, staring out past the orchards. I felt my pocket buzz from a text message and pulled out my phone. To my slight surprise, it wasn’t from any of my friends but instead it was from Jack.
-Hey there :) Are you doing anything today?
I couldn’t help but smile at the text message and I typed out a response.
-Nope :)
-Do you want to hang out? I was thinking we could have lunch together.
I wondered if this was supposed to be a date or more just a simple “spend some time together” kind of thing. I guessed it was a date regardless.
-Sounds great! Bon Bon’s Café at 11:30?
-Perfect!
I went back into the house to fix myself up a little bit more, changing into a cuter outfit than my regular farm clothes. I still had a good two hours to kill before my lunch date with Jack, and I decided just to get some of my homework done until then.
After a while, I realized it was about time that I should go and grabbed the keys from the kitchen counter. As I left the house, I noticed Big Mac and Caramel working in the distance— too far away to give a quick wave goodbye.
I got in the truck and headed on my way to Bon Bon’s Café— a short little five minute drive. Upon arriving, I saw that Jack was already there at a table outside. It was slightly cloudy outside but beautiful all the same so I was glad he chose an outside table.
“Hey!” I said as I walked up to him, his back faced toward me. He turned and smiled at me, replying with a cheerful hello, and I sat down across from him
“Do you like coffee?” he asked. “The waitress came by the get drinks; I just got us two coffees.”
He shrugged innocently, and I’d be lying if I said that his shrug wasn’t completely adorable.
“Coffee’s great, thanks,” I said.
The waitress brought the coffee, to which I added two cups of cream to mine and a pack of sugar. I didn’t drink coffee very often, but I still enjoyed it on the rare occasion that I had it. While she was there, the waitress took our orders. I hadn’t much time to look at the menu but I just ordered a sandwich and some soup.
“So do you play any sports?” I asked to start conversation once the waitress left. “You hang around with Clad a lot, and I know he’s pretty into sports.”
“Yeah, that’s actually how we became friends,” he responded. “We were both on the school baseball team our freshman and sophomore year. I didn’t play my junior year, and I don’t think I will this year either, but I still participate in the occasional baseball or basketball game every so often.”
“That’s nice. I haven’t ever been on a sports team in high school, mainly because I spend a lot of my time working. I think if I had the time I would probably be in sports— volleyball or something,” I said.
Jack smiled at me. “You seem like you’d be good at volleyball. You have the body for it.”
I blushed slightly, looking down at my coffee. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feel complimented or slightly offended.
I looked up as the waitress approached our table once again with our orders with her. She set them on the table, said she hoped we’d enjoy it, and then left. For a poorly planned order, mine still looked pretty good. I wasn’t surprised though; Bon Bon’s café didn’t have one bad order on their menu.
Jack had gotten a sandwich as well, a little bigger in size than mine. I watched as he took a bite of his and, smiling, I took a small bite of my own sandwich.
“So, what classes do you have this year?” he asked after swallowing his food.
“Um,” I looked up as I thought about my schedule. “I have Pre-Calc, Economics, A.P. Literature, and Psychology.” I counted with my fingers each time I named another class.
“Oh, I took Psychology last year. Do you have Mrs. Hawthorne?” he asked, a tint of excitement in his voice.
I nodded. “She’s kind of crazy…”
He laughed and nodded. “Yeah, she definitely is. Just wait until you get to psychological disorders. She goes manic on that kind of stuff.”
I laughed, bringing my cup up to my mouth to take another drink. “I didn’t know you went to our school last year?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I transferred to Shadow Creek just this year.”
“Really? Why?” I asked.
“Well, Shadow Creek’s AP and IB classes are a bit better, not to shoot down your school or anything, it was just a tougher schedule that I thought could help me get into the college I want. They also have a great baseball team so I thought joining that could help my chances too,” he explained.
“Wow,” I said. “That must have been a tough choice, having to leave your friends at this school and all.”
“Yeah, but Clad was doing the same thing as me so at least he’d be there too. And I’ve actually made a lot of new friends so far,” he said. “So, uh, how about your other teachers? Any good ones?”
“Ms. Cat for Pre-Calc. She seems fine. Mr. Novella seems crazy but I think he’ll be a good teacher. And then I have Mr. Stanton for Econ,” I said.
“I’ve heard of Ms. Cat and Mr. Novella but I haven’t heard of Stanton. Is he new?” Jack asked and took another bite of his sandwich.
“Yeah, I think so. He’s interesting. He seems like the kind of teacher who will try way too hard to get to know you,” I said and laughed.
Jack laughed a little, nodding. “Like that teacher you see in the grocery store and he starts an hour long conversation with you.”
I laughed and nodded. “That’s never actually happened to me, but it did happen to my friend Fluttershy once. She told us that the teacher talked her ear off but she was too afraid to tell her that she was going to be late for an appointment.”
Jack burst out in laughter. “And was she late?”
I nodded, joining him in his fit of laughter.
“Oh, that’s amazing…” he sighed, wiping away a tear.
“Poor girl…” I laughed, shaking my head.
Laughing and talking with Jack like that was relieving. I had been worried that the date would be awkward, that we’d have nothing to talk about and sit in an uncomfortably awkward silence for most of the time. But talking with him was actually really easy, and time flew by as we continued eating and talking together.
Once we finished eating, Jack suggested we walk around town and go into a couple of the shops. He paid for lunch— I offered to pay, of course, but he wouldn’t let me. It wasn’t until I started walking next to him as we headed toward the shops that I realized just how tall he was compared to me— he must have been at least a foot taller than me.
We walked side-by-side down the sidewalk, glancing at the stores as they passed. He turned his head to look at me after a couple moments in silence.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked.
I hated when people asked that, mainly because I could never make a decision. I glanced around and saw the little bookstore that Twilight went to pretty often. Next to it was a store called Gimmick’s. It was a fun store that sold little trinkets and knick-knacks; I had gone there once or twice before.
“Have you ever been to Gimmick’s?” I asked.
He glanced over at the store. “Oh yeah, I’ve been there once. It’s a pretty fun store.”
“Let’s go,” I said with a smile. I grabbed his hand and led him to the store.
I let out a small laugh when I noticed a slight blush on his cheeks. We went into the store and looked around for a bit. There was a small tub full of little plastic velociraptors with a knob that you could twist. I picked one up and twisted the knob, then set it down on the counter-top, watching it with amusement as it hobbled across the surface.
“Is it just me or is it hot in here?” I heard Jack’s muffled voice behind me.
I turned and burst out in laughter upon seeing possibly the ugliest horse mask I’d ever seen. I reached over and pulled it off of him, examining the mask.
“Where’d you get this?” I asked.
“There’s a big bucket full of them over there,” he answered.
“How fun would it be to prank one of our friends with this?” I snickered, turning over the mask in my hands.
I pictured myself pranking Rainbow Dash with this at one of our sleepovers— she’d wake up and see a freaky-as-hell horse head staring at her. That would be too good…
We wandered around the store for a little bit longer. An antique record player caught Jack’s eye, and something a little bit smaller caught mine. I don’t know why it intrigued me as much as it did; it just seemed so lonely, sitting on the shelf without any others like it.
It was a small snow globe-like trinket. Instead of the usual spherical shape of snow globes, this one was made from an old jam jar. It had a bluish Christmas tree inside with sparkling bits swirling all around. It was simple, yet beautiful, and it seemed kind of contradictory in a way. Like the tree deserved to be in a prettier jar. But it seemed content to be there, the tree. Like it belonged there.
The snow globe reminded me of her, and I couldn’t stop myself thinking about her once it had already begun. I don’t know why, but winter always reminded me of Rainbow Dash. Maybe it was because her birthday was in November. Maybe it was because Rainbow Dash used to love winter, always being the first one to throw the snowball or build the snowman or just run outside in the freezing weather like some kind of maniac.
I ran my thumb across the glass, considering buying it for her. She always appreciated gifts from me, even if they were little trinkets such as this one. She’d always find a place to put them in her room.
Suddenly, the snow globe was snatched out of my hand and I looked up in surprise to see Jack walking away with it with a smirk on his face. He walked over to the cashier and put the snow globe down. I quickly hurried over.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“You were staring at that thing for at least five minutes,” Jack said with a smirk. “I know when a girl wants something.”
I raised my eyebrow. “No, it’s not what you think. You don’t have to buy that…”
My protests fell on deaf ears as Jack bought it and the cashier put it in a little bag. Jack handed it to me with a smug smile.
“You really didn’t have to buy it for me,” I mumbled. “Now I feel bad.”
“Nonsense. Consider it a gift from me to you,” he said, handing me the bag.
“Well, thanks,” I said and breathed a small laugh.
He smiled and walked with me out of the shop. I waved the cashier goodbye and thanked him. Jack and I visited a couple more shops afterwards and stopped at a locally-run ice cream shop to have a quick bite of ice cream. We spent several hours together, and even though I’m pretty sure neither of us particularly enjoyed shopping, we both had a great time.
It was nearly four when we finally decided to head home. We had made it back to Bon Bon’s Café where our cars were parked and were standing in the parking lot.
“Are you going to the party later tonight?” I asked him.
“You bet. I’m guessing I’ll see you there?” he asked with a hopeful smile.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Awesome,” he smiled. “I’ll see you then?”
“Sure,” I said. He was about to part ways when I spoke up again. “Hey, are you doing anything tomorrow?”
“I don’t have any plans. What were you thinking?” he asked.
“Would you want to help out at the farm for a little bit? We have some things that need fixing,” I said. In truth, I kind of made that up on the spot. I mean, there was probably something he could do, but truth was I actually just wanted to spend more time with him.
So you can forget about her.
I grimaced as that haunting voice entered my mind. I tried to push it out. No, because I like him.
Sure.
“Of course,” Jack said, his voice cutting through my own thoughts.
“Awesome. I’ll see you later then. I had fun today,” I said, hoping Jack couldn’t detect the shakiness in my voice.
“Me too,” he said with a huge smile. “I’ll text you.”
With that, he turned and headed to his car and I headed to mine. For a while, after starting my car, I simply sat there, my hands shaking as I stared down at the wheel. That’s never happened before. The argument with myself. I mean, not like that.
I breathed shakily and shook my head, pulling out of the parking lot. Once I got back home, I saw that Big Mac and Caramel were still hanging out outside. I took the bag with my snow globe to my room and put the bag on my bed. Even after getting back home, however, I still couldn’t calm down. I pulled out my phone and found Rainbow Dash’s number.
A funny thought ran through my head at that moment. I realized that I’d been trying to avoid her mentally for a while, attempting to keep her out of my thoughts, as if I was on some kind of purge in the hopes of losing my feelings for her. I felt like I was cheating now as I was about text her, losing control of my willpower.
But I never signed any contract. I never made a promise to myself. I shouldn’t have felt bad at all for wanting to spend time with her. I loved her, after all.
I typed up a quick text, not giving much thought to what I wrote.
-Hey, i’m coming to your house. You better be dressed when i get there.
…
The phone buzzed.
-No promises ;)
I smiled at her text back and headed on my way to her house. I don’t know why I had been so forward, that was usually her thing. But she didn’t seem to mind, so I guess whatever.
I got to her house in about ten minutes and knocked on her door. She answered it quickly, leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on her face once she opened the door.
“Why, hello there Applejack,” she said in a slightly seductive tone.
“Sweatpants, huh?” I said, looking at the dark grey sweatpants she was wearing. She had on a light blue tank top that didn’t fully reach her pants, so a little bit of her skin was showing. Damn, that was hot.
“Hey, I like being comfy,” she shrugged and twirled around. I followed her into her house, closing the door behind me. She jumped on her couch, lying across pretty much the entire thing. I smirked and shoved her legs out of the way and sat down next to her. The TV was already on, the volume turned low.
“Why exactly did you come here again?” she asked, repositioning herself as she brought her legs closer to her.
I shrugged. “I dunno. I was bored.”
I heard muffled footsteps behind me and looked to see Dash’s uncle, Nick, coming down their stairs, drying his wet hair with a towel. Thank God he had clothes on. I doubted Rainbow Dash would have told him that I was coming over.
He noticed me and waved at me. “Hey there Applejack! Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Hi, Nick,” I smiled. “Yeah, it’s been a while. How’ve you been?”
“Great! I’m actually just heading out right now, sorry about that. Going on a date,” he said, clicking his tongue.
“Ooh, nice,” I said and laughed. “Have fun, Nick.”
Rainbow Dash waved as he left. “Have fun, Nick,” she echoed me, not bothering to lift up her head from the couch.
He waved goodbye to both of us and left. I caught a whiff of his cologne after he left and I turned to Rainbow Dash.
“This must be his first date with this girl, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Yeah, I actually kind of forgot her name,” Rainbow Dash said. “He met her last week.”
“Aw, well I hope it goes well,” I said.
Nick was still relatively pretty young— in his early-30’s— and was definitely a good-looking guy. He was pretty fit, and he had black hair and blue eyes. Rainbow Dash had told us that he was once in a pretty serious relationship with a girl, that they were engaged and everything. But I guessed they realized they had very different dreams, and it just ended up not working out.
Nick was a great guy, and he and Rainbow Dash had a strong relationship. But I couldn’t help but wonder if Rainbow Dash should have had a mother figure in her life as well. She had been very close to her mom, and Nick wasn’t exactly a “motherly figure”.
“Yo, Earth to Applejack. You okay?” Rainbow Dash’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. I found myself staring into her eyes. Just how long had I been staring at her?
I smiled. “Sorry. I get kind of lost in my thoughts.”
“Come on, let’s chill in my room,” Dash said, suddenly getting up from the couch.
I followed her up the stairs and she opened the door to her room. It sounded like it hit something hard— that same thing must have slid and hit the opposite wall, as another thump sounded.
“Shit, I think that was Tank,” Rainbow Dash said, bending down to look for her turtle. Or tortoise. Whatever the hell that thing was.
I found him on the other side of the room emerging from his shell and smiling up at me. I picked him up with a smile, petting him gently with a finger under his chin while Rainbow Dash searched for something in her messy room. I don’t think I’d ever seen her room clean before.
She eventually gave up on her search and jumped on her bed. I sat down on it, slouching a bit to get comfortable. Things were pretty lazy at RD’s house and we spent the entire time just hanging out in her room, casually chatting about nothing in particular.
Eventually, when the time came, we left together to go to the party. Rainbow Dash drove and pretty soon we were arriving at a crowded house with muffled music coming from the inside. From the beat alone I could tell it was Vinyl’s music.
“Pinkie’s already here, of course,” Rainbow Dash muttered and smiled slightly. I followed her gaze and saw Pinkie’s car parked in the road.
“So it can get pretty loud in there but you can stick by me if you want,” Rainbow Dash said. “I don’t think the others are here yet, but they’ll probably be here soon.”
“Is this the only party around?” I asked.
“I doubt it, but it’s definitely the biggest. Vinyl and Pinkie always plan a party like this at the beginning of the year, and most people know not to miss it.”
She parked after eventually finding a space— I was surprised at how many cars were actually here. How many people were at this party?
I soon got my answer. Upon walking inside the house, I nearly dropped my jaw. The place was packed! And the house was huge too; I wondered if it was just as crowded upstairs as well. I recognized only a couple people out of the socializing crowd, and over half the people there were holding some kind of drink— I wondered just how many of those drinks had alcohol in them.
Rainbow Dash grabbed my hand and I followed her like an obedient dog as she led me through the crowd. The music was getting louder as I realized we were getting closer to the DJ stand with a certain electric-blue-haired DJ just behind it, accompanied by a certain pink-haired girl with that crazy smile.
“Rainbow Dash! Applejack! You’re here!” Pinkie squealed when she saw us and ran down to pull us into a tight, awkward hug.
Vinyl Scratch waved at Rainbow Dash and we walked up there to greet her as well.
“Glad you guys could come,” the DJ said. “Your other friends coming too?”
“Yeah, they’ll probably been here in a minute,” Rainbow said.
I felt out of place here. Vinyl was a friend of mine as well, but I only talked to her on occasions like these when the only thing that brought us together were Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. And parties like this… they weren’t me. I convinced myself that I’d try to have fun; after all, there was nothing wrong with socializing.
I suddenly saw Twilight and the others walk through the door. Twilight looked a little surprised, Fluttershy meekly cowered behind her, and Rarity had already separated from the two and began talking with a group of people she apparently was best friends with.
“Dang, it sure is crowded in here,” Twilight said to me as she walked up to us, holding Fluttershy’s hand as she guided her behind her.
“Hey guys, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine,” Vinyl said suddenly. There was a tall guy with spiked black hair approaching us; he had a cocky smile on his face and similar glasses to the ones Vinyl wore.
“This is Neon Lights,” Vinyl introduced him. “We’ve been friends since we were kids. He DJ’s like me, so we have some friendly competition from time to time.”
Vinyl smiled wryly at Neon Lights, who returned the smile. “Call me Neon,” he said. “I’m actually just here to kick Vinyl off the stage. She’s doing a terrible job…”
“Shut up, asshole,” Vinyl chuckled, pushing him away.
I turned my head when I recognized a familiar face making his way through the crowd: Jack. I would have waved at him or something but his head wasn’t turned my way; I figured maybe I’d talk to him in a minute.
“Clad’s here,” Rainbow Dash said, already beginning to make her way towards him. “Come on, your boyfriend’s with him.”
I blushed angrily. “He’s not my boyfriend!”
Rainbow Dash smiled and rolled her eyes and we walked over to them. Vinyl started screaming something at the crowd and turned up the music even louder, getting a cheer from most of the audience.
“Hey babe!” Clad said to Rainbow Dash when we approached them and he slung his arm around her shoulders. Ugh.
I made eye contact with Jack and smiled slightly. “Hey, long time no see,” he said with a small chuckle.
We ended up talking— or rather, trying to yell over the music— for a pretty good amount of time, and we all danced for a little bit. From what I could see, Rainbow Dash wasn’t having anything to drink, but Clad and Jack both helped themselves to a couple of drinks. Rainbow must not have been drinking anything because we were here, and she probably didn’t want to make us uncomfortable.
I didn’t see the others for a while and felt kind of bad that we weren’t all one big group, but I figured they were getting along fine anyway. Except Pinkie. Even from here, I could see her dancing around like mad and had no doubt that she’d had a couple drinks at least.
Time flew by and I didn’t even know how long we’d been there but I was having a ton of fun. But eventually the time came that we had to leave. We entrusted Vinyl in getting Pinkie home safely, since apparently they’d driven here together anyway and Vinyl never got drunk at a party she was DJ’ing at.
Rainbow Dash drove me back to her house where my truck would be waiting for me. Most of the way there I was still trying to get adjusted to the quietness, although I’m pretty sure I’d gone deaf by then.
“That was fun,” Rainbow said as she pulled up to her house and parked.
I looked over at her and smiled. “Yeah, it really was. I don’t think I’d be able to go to those as much as you and Pinkie do, but it’d be fun to go to another party sometime.”
“Definitely,” she smiled. “Even Fluttershy and Twilight opened up after a while and started having fun.”
I was glad Fluttershy had fun. I had been worried about her, but it was a huge relief to look over at some point during the party to see her smiling and talking with other people.
“Alright, I’ll see you later then AJ,” she said. “Thanks for coming tonight. Be safe driving home.”
She smiled at me and I returned it. “Thanks, bye RD.”
I drove home in silence. The silence was strange but it was calming. Once I got home, I realized just how late it was and knew that the rest of my family were most likely all asleep. I went into the house as quietly as I could. I felt my eyes drooping with exhaustion as I made my way upstairs, not realizing how tired I was until now.
The bag was still on my bed and I took it off, taking out the snow globe inside and putting it on my windowsill. I changed into my pajamas and slid into bed, utterly exhausted. The beat of Vinyl’s music thumped in the back of my mind, lulling me to an aching and ever-so-inviting sleep.