Notes Of Time:
Chapter 1: First Day of School (continued)-
As Octave nervously turns back to face the school building, she notices the double doors swing open.
“Well hello there little one, what’s your…oh…well where could your mother be? Do you have a daddy?” The sight of a pretty lavender colored Earth Pony made her way out to greet her. Her mane similar in color was well groomed and kept up as it shined a bit from the sunlight splitting at the school’s flag post.
“Daddy is at work, and mommy just left around um…” Octave then turned around pointing to an intersection of the street where she vanished around the corner of a café.
“Over there…mommy said she would pick me up after school.” She added.
“But of course little one…what is your name by the way?” the pony asked.
“Um…my name is Octave.” She replied in a fairly shy tone. Looking down towards the stairs leading up to the entrance.
“Well what a splendid name you have! I’m sure we will get along fantastic today! We have all kinds of fun things to do. Is this your first day of school ever, Octave? You’re new here aren’t you?”
“Yes ma’am.” Octave smiled.
“Oh my, what good manners you have! Well then your mother or whoever has raised you has raised you well indeed within a refined household.”
“What’s refined mean?” Octave titled her head slightly.
“Oh never mind that dear.” The pony giggled with delight. Octave at her young age using her manners is certainly uncommon in Canterlot. Most fillies her age would not really mind on that kind of stuff. Octave however was raised to use her manners in front of other ponies she met. Of course Octavia wanted her to just be the fun-loving filly her age was mostly known for as well.
“Well my name is Mrs. Jewel, or my full name is Pristine Jewel.” The pony added.
“Um…it’s uh, nice to meet you Mrs. um…”
“Jewel dear, you can just call me that if that makes it easier on you.”
“Oh…okay then.” Octave nodded a bit before following behind her teacher.
The double doors then closed behind Octave as her and her very first teacher made their way down a hallway. Octave was amazed at the sheer size of how it looked inside. Everything was shined and the floors were waxed t perfection.
“Ah, here we are.” Said the teacher, as they finally arrived to the classroom shortly thereafter walking a short distance in the hallway. Mrs. Jewel then opened the door leading into the classroom, as they made their way down as aisle of desks.
The school building Octave was in was much, much bigger than the one in Ponyville, and actually had about two dozen other classrooms throughout the building, as it was a public school of course. It was recently built, and plans for its construction were brought up after the war and reconstruction began. There were several old buildings damaged beyond repair, so they tore them down and flattened the land in that area to make way for a much-needed school in Canterlot. It was the only fully public school in Canterlot, unlike the School for Gifted Unicorns, founded by Princess Celestia herself.
Many colts and fillies sitting at their desks patiently all turned and faced themselves to Octave. It made her feel awfully nervous, and she was feeling too weird to speak a word for the time being.
“Welcome class! It looks like we have a new student to the school body, and our class! Go on Octave…say hello to the classroom dear.” Stated Jewel, as her and Octave stood facing the entire classroom. The slate blackboard behind them clean entirely, and not a mark of chalk on it.
“Um…hel-lo everyp-pony.” Octave spoke up to the classroom, the shakiness in her voice was distinct to everyone, and could easily be made out by Mrs. Jewel.
“Hi Octave!” the class replied in off-track unison, several of them saying her name a second or so shortly after some others pronounced her name first.
“You can sit wherever you want okay?”
“Okay…” Octave replied, slowly making her way down an aisle with her backpack on still. Her backpack had music notes all around it, and with single full notes for the zipper tabs.
“Sit with me!”
“No, she wants to sit with me…over here Octave!”
A few ponies from every direction she heard were calling out her name. This sort of began to make her feel a tiny bit frightened, and more shy than she normally was.
“Um…uhh…I…um…” Octave felt so confused as for where to sit, so she simply found a seat in the back nopony was using, and nopony was behind or beside her.
She made her way to the empty, and set her backpack down next to it, and got into the seat. Some of the classmates who asked her to sit next to them looked back at her with an almost like “why would she sit back there” sort of expression.
“Are you sure you’re okay back there Octave?” Mrs. Jewel called out to her suddenly, as it startled Octave for a brief moment.
“Oh, um…I don’t know.” She shrugged.
“Well, would you like to sit close to me then? There’s an empty desk up here close to mine if you’d like to?”
“Uh…okay Mrs. Um…Mrs. Jewel.” Octave replied, as she grabbed her backpack once again, and made her way up to the front row of the classroom.
“Good job Octave, you remembered my name!” Mrs. Jewel smiled delightfully.
As Octave takes her seat in the front row, she hears what sounded like a voice of a filly right next to her.
“Hi, my name’s Stardust!”
Octave then turned her head to the sight of a filly Pegasus smiling big back at her. The Pegasus’s tiny wings flapped rapidly as she remained in her seat, from the excitement of hopefully making a friend. She seemed like an awfully nice pony, but Octave had never had any friends in her life before, since she liked to just stick around her mommy and daddy all the time.
“I’m-” Octave then suddenly interrupted by Stardust’s quick mind.
“You’re Octave, I know that silly!” Stardust smiled at her.
Stardust immediately then turned her head forward, seeing as Mrs. Jewel got up from her desk after sitting down for just a few moments.
“Okay class, I think it’s time for a little something fun to do for all of you.”
“Yaaaay!” the class in partial unison for the second time today.
“We are all going to be doing a drawing of family or a family member who you like to be with or help.” Said Mrs. Jewel.
A few hours passed, as Stardust and Octave ended up being partners while they were doing their little projects. Their little hooves moving in all directions on their paper, seeing who could finish there picture the quickest. Stardust took some of Octave’s crayons to joke around, but Octave took it seriously.
“Give my crayons back!” Octave whined to her, as she stretched out her hooves across Stardust’s desk in efforts to reclaim them. Stardust however quickly reacted, and put them to where Octave couldn’t get them from where she was.
Octave’s face started to tear up, and she began to nearly cry now.
“Give them back now! Or I’m telling mommy!”
“What?” Stardust turned to face Octave feeling confused by her remark. She didn’t quite understand why she said that, perhaps she still didn’t know yet to call on the teacher, and not her own mother.
“Y-your mommy is Mrs. Jewel?!” Stardust asked surprised.
“No! My mommy is the best, and she’ll get you in trouble!” Octave stated firmly.
“Your mommy’s gone though?”
“B-but…mommy said she will pick me up after school is over?”
“But um…that doesn’t mean she can get me in trouble.” Said Stardust.
“Yes it does!” Octave replied.
“Nuh-uh!” Stardust shook her head no.
“Yeah-huh!”
“Nuh-uh!”
Back and forth they went for about a minute or so, until they both just gave up after that, and they both didn’t even care anymore.
“Okay class, it looks like all of you are just about done!” Jewel walked along the desks and tables some of the students sat at, as they worked on their works of art.
“Wow, good drawing, Sketch!”
“Thanks Mrs. Jewel!”
“And ooh, so much color, Starburst!”
“Thank you Mrs. Jewel! I made it all by myself too!”
Jewel then walked over to the two little fillies that were working on their pictures…or well…one of them was anyways. She looked over the two of them, and saw that Stardust had nearly finished, and it looked great! But Octave however, she hadn’t put a single streak of color on that plain white sheet of paper in front of her.
“Octave sweetie?”
“Um…yeah?” Octave looked back above her.
“Where’s your drawing, or picture that you’ve been working on, hm?”
“Uhh…” Octave had the look of guilt written all over her face, and she felt too afraid to tell her the truth.
“You haven’t started on it, have you?” Jewel summed up.
Octave said nothing, and merely gave a light shake of her head, concluding her teacher was right.
“Well would you like me to help you with an idea?”
“But I have an idea though.”
“Well then why didn’t you put that idea of yours down on this piece of paper then?” Mrs. Jewel wondered.
“Um…because I like watching Stardust draw and color her picture.” Octave confessed.
There was one thing Octave didn’t do much at all, and that was lie. She was a bad liar anyways, and she knew that her mother couldn’t stand liars.
A loud noise of a bell then gave off a ringing sound to Octave that made her cover her ears completely. Even though she didn’t have to worry about the bell hurting her ears, she did it instinctively at first.
“Okay everypony, time for lunch! Get in a single file line, and follow whoever the leader is okay?”
In just a matter of moments, the class quickly formed a line, and they were all anxious to go on to enjoy a nutritious lunch.
“Do you wanna sit with me?” Stardust poked Octave.
“Yeah.” Octave replied with a smile.
“Wait…what are we eating?” she added.
“Pizza!” Stardust smiled with delight, knowing Wednesday was everypony’s favorite day of the week for that reason.