//------------------------------// // Thursday // Story: Equestria Girl. Wait, What's Equestria? // by Bysen //------------------------------// Twilight had left for school a full half hour earlier than she had yesterday. And yesterday she had left half an hour earlier than she had the day before. Fortunately, or unfortunately, which ever way you look at it, from leaving at that time she managed to completely avoid the major early morning traffic jams that had slowed her down yesterday. Sounds good in theory but she had arrived at school more than an hour early and had to wait around. She parked her car in the middle of the lot, not able to decide whether she wanted to be closer to the front or the back of the school since she had no idea which she would come out of this afternoon. She got out and headed for the school’s front entrance. She then realized her Form class which she would finally be on time for was not only at the back of the school, but it was outside the back of the school… She was opening the front entrance when she realised this, but instead of going inside that maze that was this school, she just walked all the way around the outside. Once Twilight found her class… she remembered her locker was right smack dab in the middle of the school anyway. She let out a sigh and headed for the rear entrance. It was still locked for the night. Now she had to walk ALL the way back around to the front. Well, at least she knew now that the back door to the school was still locked this early. Finally, after she’d walked back past her car, into the front of the school, to her locker, got her books for the day, back out the front and all the way around the building again, she hadn’t even filled in half an hour, and still had forty minutes until school started. It was going to be one of those days, wasn’t it? Out front of her Form class, she just lent her back against the wall and slowly began to slide down it. She landed about half a minute later with her feet inches away from her butt on the ground and her legs pressed against her chest. She fit into the position but only just. She had to physically grab her legs and lift her feet off the ground. They were jammed at that angle. She grunted as her legs sprang forwards with the pressure removed from her body being in the position. “Wow!...” came a voice from the side slightly. She hadn’t thought about it, but sitting like this while wearing a skirt wasn’t such a good idea. She quickly pushed her skirt down as far over her legs as it would go. She hadn’t been spread but the back of her shirt hadn't been covering much and the front not much more. Keeping her hands pressed over her skirt on her legs, she looked up and saw… “Brad?” what was he doing here?! Right, probably parking…”H-hi there…” Twilight stuttered, and blushed slightly. From what he’d said, he’d clearly seen something. It would’ve been awkward for anyone to have seen her like that, male or female. But why did it have to be him? “What are you doing here so early?” she asked, trying to avoid what had just happened. “I just… get here this early everyday.” he said as he continued to walk in her direction. Twilight watched him all the way over until he was standing right next to her. He then took his backpack off, spun around, put his back against the wall and slid down it much like she had. Only he somehow avoided getting his legs jammed by leaving one straight out. Twilight would’ve been a bit worried by this but he was gracious enough to leave a good bit of space between them. “Uhh…” Twilight began but couldn’t quite think what to say. She hadn’t stopped staring at him since he’d shown up and her slight blush hadn’t dissipated yet either. “Is there… something I can help you with?” she asked, wondering why he was hanging around her as he began to rummage through his bag. “Not really, I’m fine.” he replied as he found his iPud and begin to put a headphone in. He stopped and turned to Twilight and asked “Actually, mind if I ask what you’re doing here so early?” “Oh, well, I have my own car and, I guess you knew that already… but anyway, I haven’t quite figured out the right time to leave to get here on time. I was late the last two days. My mom always complained about morning traffic but I never thought it was THAT bad…” she finished with a chuckle. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I drive too and it’s a real hassle if you miss the sweet spot. I live out Ponyville way. If I leave at 8:05 it gets me here at about 8:30. I still have to wait around half an hour but if I leave sooner I get here to early and if I leave later I get stuck in traffic.” Twilight heard it, and flinched as he mentioned his neighbourhood: Ponyville. That’s where she lived. Ok, not neighbourhood: suburb. And it was a pretty big suburb at that, but it was a little eerie nonetheless. “Oh, I live out that way too…” ‘WHY DID I TELL HIM THAT?!?!?!’ she yelled in her mind. “Thank you for the advice.” she said, before mumbling “Not that I’ll need it very long.” “What was that?” “Nothing.” Brad didn’t ask anything more, instead just put in his headphones and listened to his music. A few more minutes passed in awkward silence. Well, awkward to Twilight at least. Brad was completely content with just listening to his jams. Twilight could just hear his music playing but it was slowly starting to be drowned out by the sounds of the school coming to life as more students began to arrive. She looked at her watch to see there was still another twenty minutes until the bell rang at 9 o’clock before she then turned to Brad. Of course that was when he looked her way as well and caught her staring at him. He didn’t turn away though as he smiled and took out an ear plug. “You wanna listen too?” he asked, handing the cord towards her. “Uh… sure.” she said. Twilight grabbed the piece and moved it towards her ear. The line went slack for a second as she realised she’d accidently pulled the other end out of Flash’s ear. “Hehe, sorry about that.” “No problem.” he replied. And before Twilight could react he had shifted over closer to her. She panicked for a fillysecond before she figured out he was just making it so they could both reach the cable. He also moved the plug from his far ear to the one closest Twilight. There was still a small bit of room between them but it was bordering on ‘close’ close now. Twilight put in the ear plug and listened along with his music. A moment passed as she listen to the song before Brad spoke up “Do you like it? My band wrote it.” he said. “Really?” she asked. “What instrument do you play.” noting that it clearly wasn’t his voice singing it. “Bass.” “Oh.” she stated bluntly. She preferred drummers. She then mentally shook her head. ‘Don’t think about him like that! Remember how Shining picked up Cadence? He sang that song to her.’ she thought. “That’s cool.” she said, trying to cover her tracks. Brad just laughed though. “Heh, no one ever appreciates bass.” he said as he looked down, shook his head and smirked. Twilight just thought it was weird he was laughing at what was essentially an insult. But she slowly began to find it amusing too and just continued to listen to the music. Another song or two passed and the oval out in front of them became busier as the start of school drew nearer. “Well, I guess you better head off to your Form class. It’s been nice hanging out with you Twilight.” Twilight looked at him with a raised eyebrow before replying “Oh, no this is my Form class.” she paused for a moment before releasing “And it’s yours too, isn’t it Brad?” he nodded and Twilight sighed. “I should’ve guessed you’d be in one of my classes as well…” then looked up at him slightly wide eyed “I mean, not that that’s a bad thing. Just that…” she trailed off. “Relax, I get it. We had a bad first impression.” he reassured her that he wasn’t insulted in any way. He just stood up and offered her a hand up too. A few others he knew were in their class were heading towards them and more would likely be joining them soon. He did have one small grievance though. “Hey Twilight. You know my name’s not ‘Brad’ right?” he said tilting his head slightly. “Oh, right. It’s… Flush Teepy?” Twilight answered as she grabbed his hand. “Close enough. It’s Flash Sentry.” he said as she got to her feet and threw her bag over a shoulder. “Tell you what, you can call me Brad if I can call you Twi. Deal?” “Deal. It’ll be my pet name for you.” she said with a smile that quickly disappeared. “I don’t mean pet name as in… I mean… like a nickname. Like a…” Brad just laughed. Because men totally don’t giggle and that’s defiantly not what he did. “Yeah, don’t worry. I get it. I give my friends nicknames all the time. A few of them even called me ‘Thief’.” he said. “Why’s that?” “Well, it’s because I stole their waif…” he was cut off as the bell rang. Right above their heads... that hurt. The two of them both covered their ears and scrunched their eyes until it ended. Together they opened their eyes slightly and caught the ridiculous look on each other’s faces. It helped lighten the mood as they both chuckled and laughed lightly once more. Not a few seconds later Twilight heard the door to the closed room opening behind her and turned to see her teacher walk inside. Brad stepped up beside her as she and him began towards the door. “So you wrote those song right?” “Yeah. Me or one of the other guys in the band.” he answered and held back adding ‘Why?’ to the end of it. Twilight turned to him and with a smirk of her own, knowing that he would be the uncomfortable one now instead of her, asked “Who’s Button’s Mom” She was wrong however as he answered and pointed inside. “Our teacher.”