//------------------------------// // Euphoria // Story: Amor Fati // by BRyeMC //------------------------------// Once Clyde returned home after cleaning out the back seat of his car, which proved more arduous than he first thought, he crashed on his couch and turned on the TV. After looking at his phone, he realized he never actually replied to Rarity’s text she first sent him. Feeling brave, he opened up the conversation and stared at his phone. The major problem that stood before him was what to even say to her. He couldn’t understand why, or even how, she put her number into his phone. He knew by now Rarity at least recognized the truth about his blushes. He hoped this would help them grow a relationship, maybe not serious now, but down the road. He also thought of the most dreadful thing possible for a guy; the friend zone. He nervously thought over their “non-date” from earlier to see if he made a crucial mistake somewhere. From what he believed, he thought he played his cards right. Feeling bold, he got his fingers ready. “So, I cleaned my car,” he typed. He hit “Send” and waited. To much of his surprise, he saw she read it once she received it and began typing something back to him. Within a few seconds, her response flashed on the screen. “That’s good! I thought you said you were going to wait until tomorrow?” Clyde stared at the screen again, confused on what to type. Normally he was good at texting people quickly back, but this time it was different. Maybe it was the fact that a girl Clyde was attracted to since the first day he saw her was actually paying attention, and literally trying to talk to him. He typed away again. “I was, but since I had some time tonight, might as well get it done.” He sent it, but quickly began typing another message. “I have a question for you.” Clyde saw her begin typing, stop, and resume. After a minute, her message came through. “If you’re asking about how you have my number, I can answer that. While you were buying food, I took your phone and added my number in it while I added yours to mine. Don’t worry, I didn’t check through your messages with your friends or anything.” Clyde stared at his phone again to think of a reply. There was only question left. “So, why did you do it?” Rarity took a bit longer to reply this time, but she was still rapid with it. “So I can talk to you more! The only time I see you during the day is in gym, but you hang out with your friend and I don’t want to interrupt anything.” After Clyde read the first message, a second one popped up. “Besides, I know you would want my number eventually anyways. ;)” Even though it was an emoticon, Clyde still blushed at the wink. “I guess I’m that obvious, huh?” “Please don’t take it as a bad thing, Clyde. It just means you show that you truly care about certain people and feel embarrassed whenever they talk to you.” Clyde saw her typing another message before he could respond. “I think your blushes towards me are cute.” Clyde dropped his phone and silently stared at the wall, unable to comprehend what was going on. He clearly wasn’t dreaming as it was only a quarter to eleven. He never went to sleep before eleven, unless it was a quick nap. He looked down at the phone and saw she wrote another message saying she had to go to sleep since she had to be up early in the morning. Clyde didn’t ask what it was, but he replied with an “Ok” and that was that. ~ ~ ~ Monday morning came and Clyde struggled out of his house due to it simply being Monday morning. He spent the whole day yesterday afternoon replying to Rarity’s many texts she sent him. He learned she was forced to attend one of her mother’s cooking classes all day long. Instead of actually cooking herself, Rarity sat there watching her mother and texting people, one of which was Clyde. As he drove to school, he kept thinking about the past weekend and realized he had never seen any of his “brothers” all weekend. Since meeting them during that one detention, he at least saw one or two of them everyday. After parking in the school parking lot, he quickly made his way inside the school and headed towards his homeroom. Once he walked up the stairs he was stopped by Poncho. “Clyde! Man, you’re never going to believe what happened on Saturday!” Clyde laughed. “Let me guess, you met up with Pinkie Pie instead of Rarity?” Poncho looked at him aghast. “How did you know?” “I knew because when I went to that cafe, Rarity was there instead of Pinkie. We must have switched location papers when we ran into Coach the other day.” Clyde looked at Poncho who was smiling. “Really? That’s awesome man. Saturday was pretty great even though I didn’t say a lot. She kept talking and talking, but I just sat there awkwardly like I always do. Every time she asked me a question, before I could answer, she would ask more and more. I tell you what man, I think I need a girl like her.” Poncho kept rambling on about Pinkie’s features he enjoyed most while Clyde tried to listen. After a few more minutes, Poncho stopped and looked at him. “You know, I’m really glad I had Pinkie anyways. I didn’t even want Rarity. I heard from some others she can be, you know, a bitch.” Clyde angrily looked at Poncho as soon as he heard the word. “You don’t even know her,” he spat. “Don’t judge people like that. I could insult Pinkie or you just as easily.” Poncho stared at him in confusion as Clyde kept the deadly and serious glare. “Why are you so defensive all of a sudden?” asked Poncho. “You have no right to judge people, so don’t do it.” Clyde walked past him and walked into homeroom. He sat down in anger and looked out the window, waiting for the bell to ring so he can start the school week. ~ ~ ~ At lunch, Clyde finished paying for his meal and began walking to the back of the cafeteria where his table was located. He passed Rarity’s table, but only Applejack and that pink haired girl, which Clyde assumed being Fluttershy, were there. When Clyde came closer to his table, he heard Tyrone talking about something to Wahlburn. “-That’s why I told that guy, don’t steal my shit. That’s the price you’re gonna pay!” Tyrone glanced up as he saw Clyde sit down. “C! My dawg! Where were you this weekend?” “What do you mean?” asked Clyde opening up a milk carton, “I was home all weekend.” “I figured that much. I meant why didn’t you talk in our chat, dawg?” Clyde shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I was sleeping and always forgot when I woke up.” Tyrone laughed and looked at Wahlburn. “Can you believe this guy?” He turned back towards Clyde. “I know for a fact dawg that you don’t sleep unless it’s time to sleep. You had to been ignoring us on purpose.” Clyde looked away from the table and watched some freshmen at another table argue to each other while the other kids were egging them on. They wanted some kid to drink some milk that was mixed with the school lunch. “I wasn’t ignoring you. I had nothing to add to your conversations.” Tyrone frowned at him. “That’s a load of bull and you know it.” Clyde sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell you later then if you care so badly.” * * * * * “Hello girls,” said Rarity as she sat down at the lunch table. She hummed a tune and began untwisting the lid on her bottle of water as she glanced over at her friends. They were looking at her with curious eyes. “What’s the problem? Is there something on me?” “Problem?” asked Rainbow Dash looking at her with her head tilted up, “there isn’t a problem. You’re just...” “I’m just what?” “You seem very peppy today. More than usual.” Rarity blinked. “What?” Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak, but Applejack cut her off. “What’s she’s tryin’ to say to ya, is that normally on Mondays you are very ‘down in the dumps’. Today is different. Especially since Friday you were complainin’ about this whole hangout thing.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oh, that. Well, I realized over the weekend how wrong it was for me to complain. It actually was very enjoyable.” She began to slowly eat her lunch. “Easy for you to say,” said Applejack with distaste. “Ah had to deal with Trenderfoot. Ah’m just glad ah left after an hour because ah couldn’t ever deal with that again.” “So it was that bad, huh?” asked Rainbow Dash who looked over at the enraged girl. “Bad? It was terrible! He kept starin’ at me like he was madly in love with me! He just stood there admirin’ me while I tried to talk to him! Ah just couldn’t handle it no more!” Rainbow Dash laughed and stretched out her arms. “At least you had someone to hangout with this weekend. Nobody won my name because Pinkie had more than enough money so she called off the balloon pop! I bet everyone was dying to hangout with me too! Why would you not want to?” Applejack sighed and shook her head. “Ah dunno Rainbow.” She looked over at Fluttershy who was reading some magazine. “How was yer day on Saturday, Fluttershy?” Fluttershy quickly closed the magazine at the mention of her name and looked up. “Oh! It was alright,” she replied in her quiet tone. “I did learn that Bulk Biceps is really kind and caring when he helped me at the animal shelter. He only acts all tough when he’s playing sports.” Applejack smiled. “Well, ah’m happy for ya. At least one of us had a good time.” She looked back over at Rarity who was busy looking at her lunch. “So you’re saying you had a good time?” Rarity looked up and nodded. “It was wonderful actually.” “Who did ya have again?” “Well–” “You stole my man!” yelled Pinkie as she sat down, glaring at Rarity. Rarity and the girls looked at her confused. “Pinkie, dear, whatever are you talking about?” asked Rarity. She already knew what she was talking about, but she wanted to play it off like she wasn’t aware. “My Saturday hangout buddy!” said Pinkie looking at her. “I ended up with yours!” “You’re mad at me for that? It wasn’t my fault at all.” Pinkie stared at her seriously before returning her eyes to a normal state and laughed. “No, I’m not really mad. I just wanted to yell that at you since I had the chance.” She laughed again while Rarity rolled her eyes. “Hey Fluttershy, I need a snack, let’s go to the snack bar!” Fluttershy was quickly taken by Pinkie and they left the table without any consent from Fluttershy. “Wait, what happened exactly between you and Pinkie?” asked Applejack looking at Rarity after the two other girls left. “Y’all switched winners?” “No,” said Rarity, “the papers were switched around and Clyde picked up mine instead of Pinkie’s.” Rainbow Dash stared at her confused. “Who?” “Clyde.” “Who’s that?” “Isn’t that the boy who pushed the ball away from yer face during gym class a few weeks ago?” asked Applejack. Rarity smiled and nodded while Rainbow Dash kept looking at them back and forth. “Who is that!” “He just moved here before the school year started,” said Rarity while taking a sip of water. “Does he play sports or anything? Is he as cool as me?” Rarity laughed. “Well, he might not be as ‘cool’ as you, but I certainly think he’s ‘cool’. When I texted him a lot over the weekend, he said he was going to tryout for the basketball team. I’m not much of a fan of sporty boys, but Clyde is different.” “That’s cool,” said Rainbow Dash with a nod. After a few moments of silence, she jolted up. “Wait, what did you just say?” She and Applejack looked at Rarity who was giving a sly smile. “It’s nothing.” “Nothin’?” asked Applejack, “tell us!” Rarity sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell you later then since you care so badly.” * * * * * As the bell in the lunchroom rang, Clyde and Tyrone rushed out of the cafeteria and headed towards the gymnasium. Once they got dressed in the locker room, they ran out and waited in the line for Coach Iron Will to come out and take attendance. “So C,” said Tyrone while doing some fake crossovers and jump shots to get ready for gym, “you going to tell me now?” Clyde sighed and looked at him, but was stopped by a certain boy walking towards him. “My friend,” said Trenderfoot as he wrapped an arm around Clyde’s shoulder. “How was your weekend?” Clyde looked at Tyrone, confused on what was going on. Tyrone glared at Trenderfoot who turned himself and Clyde around to ignore him. “Uhh, it was good.” “Really? That’s great!” “So, can I help you with something?” Trenderfoot laughed. “Always one to jump to conclusions, huh? I like that.” He let go of Clyde and walked a few paces away from him. “I just wanted to tell you both that I no longer have any quarrels with you.” “What?” asked Clyde and Tyrone in unison. Trenderfoot looked at the ceiling of the gymnasium. “There was no reason to. I should have just let it go and moved on, but I tried to make you feel miserable.” “Are we being punked or something?” asked Tyrone as he looked around for a hidden camera. “Yeah, what is this all about?” asked Clyde. “This is really, really, random.” Trenderfoot laughed. “I just needed to clear my bad slate with you. We are good now, no troubles between us.” He looked at them and clasped his hands together. “I just hope Applejack likes me now since I have no troubles with anyone.” “Wait, what?” “Ever since Saturday, I realized Applejack is the girl of my dreams.” He looked off in space, fantasizing about her while Clyde and Tyrone looked at each other confused even more. “Uh, I hope that works out for you,” said Clyde. He and Tyrone walked away from Trenderfoot who was still dazed and thinking about Applejack. Once they got back to the line, the girls came out of the locker room and lined up at the other end of the line. Iron Will and the other boys slowly walked out of the boys’ locker room. Trenderfoot gasped once he saw Applejack and began walking over to her. Iron Will saw him, yelled, and pointed back to the line. Trenderfoot quickly followed the order. Iron Will quickly took attendance down the boys’ line, but stopped in front of Tyrone. “You’re going out for the basketball team, right?” Tyrone laughed at him. “Am I going out for the team? Come on dawg! I’m going to make it with my eyes closed!” Iron Will smirked. “Is that so? Well, Iron Will has some news for you!” “Oh yeah? Like what?” “Starting today, Iron Will is the new coach for the school basketball team!” He gave a chuckle and grinned while the students just rolled their eyes. “No offense, Coach,” began Tyrone, “but I’m not trying to play for someone who can’t win a single football game this year.” Iron Will snorted and put his head to Tyrone’s. “What did you just say to Iron Will?!” “You heard me dawg,” said Tyrone with a smirk. “I called you out for being a bad coach.” Iron Will twitched his eyes and began doing push ups. “I tell you what punk! You don’t ever defile Iron Will’s name in his own throne room!” He quickly did ten more push ups and jumped back up. “Due to your cockiness, Iron Will is making tryouts on the third Monday in October! That way, we can practice for a full month and a half before the season starts so we don’t lose!” Iron Will snorted one last time at Tyrone before heading to the girls’ side of the gym. Clyde quickly counted the days in his head and suddenly became nervous. “That’s three weeks away!” “Don’t worry, C,” said Tyrone, “it shouldn’t be that hard to make the team if our school can’t even win one football game. There should be no competition.” “I don’t know if I’m even that good,” said Clyde, troubled. “I’m used to street ball with my brother and you. I never was in an actual game before.” Tyrone stood beside him and put his hands on his hips, looking at the hoop at the opposite end of the gymnasium. “I got you, dawg. We still have time. Tell you what, for the next three weeks, we are going to train everyday after school at the park.” Tyrone smacked Clyde’s shoulder and Iron Will’s whistle blew to signal them to begin running. Tyrone kept talking about something to Clyde, but his mind became blank as he looked across the room. He saw Rarity talking to Applejack and felt his face get warm just by seeing her. Even though he texted her many times during the span of the weekend, he got nervous and excited to see her in person again. He wasn’t used to this euphoria. It was an incredible and indescribable feeling, but his romantic dreams seemed like they would never happen. He felt like the feelings due to this crush were plummeting him into a false hope and he couldn’t handle it anymore. He had to explain to someone how he really felt about her so he could focus on other things instead of constantly daydream about her. He needed help to understand the meanings between a crush and true love. “Yo, Clyde,” said Tyrone. “Are we going to run yet? Coach is staring us down.” “T, when gym is over, I really need to tell you something.”