//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: The Dean and I 
// Story: Burned Passion 
// by worldwide339 
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	It was hard work to help Zone Blitz, but it will pay off. Tomorrow is Tuesday, one more day before the test and winter break, and no time for things to go wrong. Zone Blitz had come back late because he was weightlifting. Zone looked buffer and more muscular. When he came in, he walked up to me and kissed me. I decided to ask him about his plans for winter break. "So, Do you got any plans for winter break?" I asked.

"Just back home to my small home town." He said.

"I never did ask you where you're from. So where are you from?"

"Stableton. Southern town, not really known, and extremely friendly. Unless you are a coltcuddler." He went over to his dresser and pulled out the Manehattan Manticores jersey. "I should be asking you the same thing. Where are you from World Wide?"
The second I heard that question, my heart dropped. I didn't feel comfortable telling him. You see I don't know or remember anything about my family or where I came from because it was a long time ago."





I was born in a bad neighborhood and I don't remember much except that my family were out of place there. They tried to raise me, but on an unfortunate day, my parents died trying to protect me. I survived, however. I was just a little colt so I really don't remember my time when I was there. The last thing I remember of that place was that I was on the streets begging for bits and that's when dean Purple Heart found me. He asked me if I had a home and I responded no. So he took me to the CGA and told me that once I am old enough I can enroll here. He took me in and in a sort of way he adopted me as his own child.





"Well...I usually just stay here." I said.

"Really?" He said as he was getting his jersey on. "Why?"

"Um...Well, you see, I am basically an orphan."

"Wait, you're an orphan?" I nodded. "Now I feel bad for you."

I was tearing up. "Oh, it's fine, the staff felt like family when the dean took me in."

"The dean took you in. Does that mean that he's your step-father?"

"Well, no. He never signed any papers to adopt me, but was allowing me to stay with him and paid for me to attend here. So in a way, he's like my unofficial step-father." 

"Weird. So I guess you can get away with things then?"

"Oh, no. He gets even more mad at me when I do something wrong."

"Too bad. So I guess you have plans for Hearth's Warming Eve then, right?"

"No not really. The dean and April just give me gifts eat some fruitcake and other things like that."

"Well if it's alright with the dean and you, I would like to invite you to come over my family's house for Hearth's Warming Eve and winter break."

I was shocked to hear him say that. I was happy but at the same time I was a little embarrassed. "Huh... I'll talk to the dean about it, but I don't really know if he will."

"Okay. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that I will be going to Coin Toss's dorm to watch the Manehattan Manticores take down the Baltimare Minotaur. I made a bet with Coin that the Manticores will win it."

"Have fun." I said. Zone Blitz was getting his room key trying to find it under his mess. Once he found it, he strolled out the door. I was alone on a Monday night, like usual. So I decided to do my homework. There is just one problem, there was none except to study. Then I thought, about what I said to Zone Blitz. 'I'll talk to the dean about it, but I don't really know if he will.' There was only one way to find out.






The dean was going through his desk, looking for some paperwork. His office wasn't anything new. Turquoise walls, a hard blue carpet, an old bookshelf, a desk, and a filing cabinet of all the student's profiles. He had found what he was looking for and was ready to leave when I knocked on his door. "Come in." He said. I opened the door with squeaky hinges. "Oh, hello World Wide, you just caught me, I was just about to leave. So what did you come here for? Advice? Bullying problems? Asking me to adopt you again?"

"Um...no. I was wondering if it was alright with you if I could go over to Zone Blitz's house for the holiday's?"

He hesitated for a moment I could see it in his baggy-eyes. "Why? Don't you like spending the holiday's hear?"

"Yes, it's just I feel like I should go. It feels wrong of me to not accept his invitation. I'm not trying to get away from you, I just want to be with my friend who offered me to stay with him and his family."

I could tell he was going to say no. He probably just wants me to be safe and not allow me to go. "Hmmm... alright you can go, on one condition, you see me and April before you go."

I nodded and hugged him so tightly that he was gasping for air. "Thank you." I said.





I walked out with the dean and help him with his things outside to where he stayed. He isn't old, more like middle-aged, but a war wound makes it hard for him to lift heavy objects like his brief-case. As we got to his part where he slept, he said "I can handle it from here." He waved his hoof to me and was off to his quarters. 

I was on my way back to the dorm. The air was brisk and the night sky was clear. The leaves on the trees however seemed so eerie and out of place at the beginning of winter. It felt like Nightmare-night. I was in the square of the campus when I felt like I was being watched. I thought it was nothing and kept on walking, and that's when the hoof steps started up. I started trotting, but the hooves were catching up to me. I started to trot a little faster, but the hoof steps were catching up closely. That is when I started to run as fast as I could. The hoof steps started after me again and I felt like I was in trouble. I was almost at my dorm. I close my eyes for one minute and I hit my head on something. I wonder who it was chasing after me. Just then I was picked up by somepony. All that was going through my head was 'What was this pony going to do to me?'