//------------------------------// // New Kids // Story: A Star Pony Tale // by BlondeSky //------------------------------// Chapter 22 New Kids Astro knew that a great deal of planning would go into the murals on the walls before they were quite ready to begin construction. She also recognized the amount of time that she had been spending working over the past while. As school rolled around once more she resolved to let it be for a while to allow herself more time to spend with her friends. Towards the end of summer she again joined Sail in the sorting room, although she did remain silent for several sessions as she had to have her memory refreshed on the various ponies that were up to the tasks. She also promised herself that during the school year she would spend more time with her two friends. When she had brought up to Sail about spending a night with her friends she had responded saying, "I am doing my best, but I want to make sure that everything will work out the way that it should." Astro understood that Sail wanted to be cautious, but she desperately wanted to be able to share everything with her two friends. On the first day of school she went in with a hopeful outlook as she knew that Sail wouldn't let her down. As always when she arrived Spot had already arrived and Kara was nowhere to be found. She walked up to him and smiled and waved as she did so. He remained where he was and returned the gesture to her. "Hey!" she greeted cheerily as she reached him. "Happy first day of school." he answered smiling. "Yeah." she agreed. "Anymore new projects that I should know about?" he inquired wondering if she was about to start a whole new time consuming painting project. "What? No! I think I'm gonna take a break from that for a while. I haven't been hanging with you and Kara as much as I should." she admitted looking down at the ground and blushing in embarrassment. "Nah, it's fine. I'm not mad and I don't think Kara is either. If she was then that'd be silly. I'm glad we'll be seeing more of you though. That's nice." he promised reassuringly. "Yeah, I'm happy that I'll be you guys more too." she responded appreciating the understanding. "Of course it does look like all three of us ended up in separate classes from each other." he added in disappointment. "I know! It's terrible! But there is still recess and lunch at least." she answered. "Yeah, but it would've been way better if we could've been in the same classroom. At least it isn't just two of us with the other pony off on their own." he said trying to be optimistic. "Yeah, cause you and Kara would've driven each other crazy." she agreed with a smirk. "Yeah and you two would've gotten in trouble for talking at least five times by the end of today." he pointed out in retort. "True enough." she admitted with a shrug still smiling. At that point their missing friend rushed into view signaling that school was about to start. No sooner had she opened her mouth to greet them than the bell rung cutting off her unspoken statement. She frowned in annoyance and rolled her eyes as they were rushed inside by the crowd. Shortly after entering the three had to go their separate ways to get to their various classrooms. She entered her own classroom to find a maroon earth pony stallion sitting at the front who she knew to be her teacher. His mane was short and combed neatly as well as a lighter shade of red than his coat. He wore thin framed glasses over his dull gold eyes. He sat dutifully at the teacher's desk in front of the blackboard at the front of the room. Examining the rest of the room she found that a good number of the students had already arrived and taken their seats. She knew that she should take hers, but she didn't know anypony and was unsure where it would be wise for her to sit down. She didn't get a chance to make her decision however before the teacher looked up and noticed her entrance. "Ah, good morning." he welcomed her as she stood just inside the doorway. "Good morning sir." she replied with a respectful nod. "Could you give me your name please?" he requested warmly. "Astro, sir." she answered. "Very good." he said nodding, "Could I speak to you for a minute?" he asked gesturing for her to come up to his desk at the front. This worried her slightly, but she didn't argue and walked up. Looking at the rest of the foals in the room she was glad to find that she at least wasn't causing a scene. Everypony looked to be far too occupied talking with their friends to notice her. When she reached his desk she just stood silently as she waited to be told why she was there. "You know how new students transfer from different schools to this place every year. You were recommended by your previous teachers to help show some of these new students around. You see the orange unicorn there in the back." he told her nodding slightly in the direction of the foal. She looked over her shoulder to see who he was talking about. Her eyes landed on a little orange unicorn filly sitting towards the back and looking nervous. She had a curly turquoise mane that fell to one side of her face. "Her name is Ink and she's new here this year and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind showing her the ropes." he said. "No, not at all sir." she answered quickly. "Thank you Astro. That will be all." he finished. The desks to either side of the filly were open and so she took the one to her right. Ink looked surprised at her choice of seat, but beamed at her as she sat down. "Hello." she greeted her brightly, "I'm Astro." she stated offering the unicorn a hoof. "Hi, I'm Ink." the filly responded in turn. While she already knew this information she just continued to smile and acted as though she hadn't. "Awesome, it's great to meet you!" she said. "It's good to meet you too." she responded. "I've never seen you around before." she commented in the hopes of instigating a conversation. "No, I just moved here from out in the country. It's a bit of an adjustment, but I like this place. It's always really busy." "Yeah, even in the middle of the night." she agreed, "So when did you move here?" "A little bit after school ended so that way I wouldn't have to change schools in the middle of the year. It was a bit of a bummer having to move during the break, but at least it gave me something to do." she answered with a shrug and a smile on the final phrase. "I'd rather be busy than have nothing to do." she said. "Boredom is the worst." "I don't know. Relaxation is good to have as well. Running around all the time would be pretty stressful and stress isn't good for anypony I don't think." she argued. "Yeah, stress is pretty awful." she replied remembering her own from years previous, "I know the feeling." "What?" she got a concerned look on her face as she thought that she might've awakened bad memories, "Oh! I didn't mean to-" "It's fine, it wasn't bad and it was a while ago too." she promised as she cut the filly off. "Good, I'd hate to remind you of something unpleasant." she replied looking relieved. "Nah, not at all." she reassured her. Their conversation was cut off by the teacher starting class. She waited to see if Ink would still try and converse despite the fact that the teacher was talking, but she didn't seem to be interested in doing so. Since her newfound acquaintance didn't look to be keen on engaging in conversation she simply sat in silence and listened as the teacher spoke. It was most of the usual introduction stuff as everypony went around and gave their name and a fact about them. The teacher went over various classroom rules. This included not talking while he was. The filly next to her paid polite attention to the teacher as he spoke. As had become a habit of hers from the sorting room she started to note simple things that she noticed about her. The filly seemed to have a permanent smile drawn across her face. She saw that she was taking notes on different things as the teacher continued to speak. She guessed the filly to be a rather attentive student, hence her lack of interest in speaking while they shouldn't be. Her mane fell in graceful curves around the side of her face and it looked to have been styled that way, the same with her tail, but she hardly thought that she had done it like that herself. She guessed that it probably would've had to have been an adult who did it for her. That was where she stopped however as she wanted to wait until she actually knew the filly before casting any judgment. The conversation had to wait until lunch as that was the first point at which they got to exit class. It looked as though their class had a later lunch time as both of her friends were already sitting at a table next to each other. There was however another colt sitting across from the two of them that she didn't recognize. He had a silver coat that was accompanied by a short and wavy golden mane and tail. It was hard to tell from that distance what his eye color was, but it looked to be a dark evergreen type hue. He was a unicorn like her own new companion as well. This confused her, but she said and did nothing to indicate this as she approached. The thought occurred to her that the fact that she had brought a new filly to the table would probably confuse them as well. "Hey!" she greeted as she took the seat next to Spot and gestured for Ink to sit down next to the new colt, "This is my new friend Ink." As she was introduced the filly smiled brightly at the ponies sitting around her. Kara returned the gesture with the same amount of energy. Spot returned the grin as well if not with as much liveliness. The new colt however just gave a nod of recognition without looking over at her or giving back a smile. She noticed Ink's grin falter for just a moment at the colt's lack of enthusiasm, but it was a very slight motion. Looking over at the new colt she noticed that he didn't look particularly interested in any of their company. "Well, uh, this is Diplo." Spot said introducing the colt to the two newcomers to the table. He nodded as his name was said, but again that was the only acknowledgement that he gave. "It's nice to meet you!" Ink offered optimistically as she put out a hoof for him to take. For the first time since they'd come to the table he looked up from his food. He looked down at her hoof and then up to her eyes as if unsure of what was happening. "Yeah." he agreed as he took her hoof and shook it. "Great!" she proclaimed happily as he gave a slight smile before returning his attention to his lunch. Ink looked to be satisfied with this reception and turned back to the other two ponies that she had yet to meet. The both of them introduced themselves to her, but Astro found herself paying more attention to the quiet colt sitting across the table. He continued to look at his food, but every now and again he'd take a quick look up at the ponies that surrounded him. His expression looked more bored than annoyed. At one point he looked over towards her and they made eye contact. They held each other's gazes for a moment before he broke it and looked back towards his food. "So you got enlisted into the welcome thing too?" Spot asked her interrupting her train of thought. "Yeah." she answered simply, but then remembered that there was only one new pony before she arrived, "Did Kara not?" "Apparently not, she was pretty upset when she found out that it was a thing and she wasn't a part of it." he informed her. "I hope she isn't upset because I got it too." she commented nervously. "I think she'll get over it if she is." he replied nonchalantly. "I suppose, but I don't want her to be mad at all." she argued looking over at her friend, who was at that point in the middle of an energetic conversation with Ink, nervously. "I really don't think she will. She seems to be pretty happy with the pony you brought with you." he reassured looking over at the two of them talking excitedly. It didn't take her long to do the math for their current situation. There were five of them sitting there with two groups of two talking which left only the single one. She looked away from their conversation to see Diplo eating in silence. "So you're new here right?" she asked wanting to include him. "Hm?" he said looking up, "Yeah, I just moved here." The question hadn't gotten her as far as she had though it would. She looked over at Spot for help. "It was probably hard to leave behind the friends that you had there." he offered up awkwardly. "Not really. I didn't have all that many friends." he answered simply. "Oh, well, it's never too late to change that right?" she tried. "I'm not there anymore so it is a little late to try and make friends with them." he argued. "I kind of meant just make friends period." she answered as she rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. "I suppose." he agreed with a nonchalant shrug. She smiled warmly, but was unable to tell whether they were getting somewhere or not. An awkward silence fell for a moment, but it was cut off as one of the classes started to leave the lunch room noisily. "That's our class. C'mon Diplo, we'd better go. See you later." he finished as the two took off for class. She waved as the two left and was glad to find that both ponies of the pair returned it with light smiles. She found herself contemplating the meeting for the rest of lunch, and as she returned to her classroom once more she found herself with nothing but time to think as Ink would rather not speak during lessons. She looked forward at the teacher and listened vaguely to the usual beginning of year lectures, but for the most part she devoted her attention to other things. She pulled out a paper and a pencil and began to draw under her desk. She tried to appear as though she was simply taking notes. It helped to pass the monotonous minutes. It was really recess that she was waiting for as at that point she could see her friends again. She was also hoping for a chance to speak to the unicorn colt again. He intrigued her and she was curious to know if he actually considered her a friend. She hoped that he did, but she didn't know for sure. When the time did finally come however it didn't present itself the way she'd hoped. They were all kept far too busy running around for her to get a word in edgewise to him. She walked back into the classroom disappointed in her lack of conversation with him. There is always tomorrow, she reasoned as she took her seat next to Ink. The teacher continued to speak and she continued to not pay attention to what was being said. Nothing particularly interesting happens on the first day anyways, she thought to herself as she pulled the page full of doodles back out and continued to work on out. This was how she spent the majority of the rest of the day. She only looked up from it every now and again to make sure that she had at least a vague idea of what was going on around her so that if asked to she could join in the conversation. The bell didn't ring until what felt like an eternity later and she quickly fled from the room. She was excited to return back to the sorting room with Sail. Despite this she did make sure to wait for all of her friends to come out so that she could bid them farewell. For the majority it was just a quick exchange of goodbyes and see you tomorrows, but much to her surprise and joy Diplo waited behind. "You know what," he said holding a straight face, "I think that you might've been right about that whole friends thing you said earlier." Her eyes widened in surprise at the comment. "Maybe." he added with a shrug, "See you tomorrow." he finished before trotting off to a pure white unicorn mare who stood waiting. "You too!" she called as he trotted off. He waved in response and she returned it. Smiling to herself she turned to find Sail and walked over to her.