It had been a few days since Inspirio arrived, and already he was making waves among the students. Although the Rainbooms haven’t talked to him since lunch in the canteen a few days back, they did see him every now and then when one or the other passed him by and greeted him. It was Friday though, and Rainbow Dash had soccer practice on Fridays. Sunset decided to go with her and check on Inspirio as well while Sonata and Pinkie stayed in the music room to plan out for the coming school fair.
“You see Inspirio here on the field?” Sunset asked Rainbow Dash as they walked together towards it.
“A couple of times, I think. I heard he’s trying to apply to the boys’ soccer team”, Dash replied.
“Seems like he’s making great progress here in our school”, Sunset observed. Then, she asked Rainbow, “What’s he doing now?”
“They said there will be tryouts for the boys’ soccer team today”, she said as they neared the field. She began scanning it as soon as they arrived at its edge, noting a lot of boys had come to try their luck out and make the team. Half of the field had been taken up for the tryout, and many of the school’s boys from fourteen up had shown up, which quickly filled up a good portion of the field.
“I don’t think we’ll find him in this crowd”, Sunset said, ready to go back and fetch Sonata so they could go home but Rainbow Dash wasn’t about to give up yet.
“I think we need to get closer so we can see”, she told Sunset, and before she could reply Rainbow Dash moved ahead and stepped into the field. Sunset groaned, but she followed her anyway. They got a little bit nearer the try out area, but didn’t go straight into it so as not to disturb the proceedings there.
At least we’re nearer, Sunset wryly thought as they continued to look for him. Crazy, I’m supposed to be going home and here I am looking for a new guy in school, she continued to think to herself as they looked for him. Then Rainbow Dash pointed to a spot just to their right.
‘Told you we’d find him”, she said triumphantly to Sunset.
And so we did, Sunset thought as they trudged on to where he was. Inspirio was with a group to the right of the field, waiting for their turn on the tryout. He was talking with the group, so he didn’t notice them approaching until he turned to talk to someone, and saw them. He went over to meet them.
“Lots of people here now”, he told them as they met.
“So you haven’t started yet”, Rainbow Dash said. Inspiro shook his head.
“Looks like I’ll be here for a long while”, he observed dryly. “There are still a lot of people waiting their turn, so I guess I’m stuck here until they call me.”
“Tryouts are always like this”, informed Rainbow Dash, “but it’ll move pretty quick so you’ll still finish quite early.”
“I hope so”, Inspirio said. “Are you both then going home?”
“Yeah”, answered Sunset. “We just stopped by to see how you’re doing.”
“Pretty good, really”, he said. “Thanks for dropping by.”
“We’ll see the results tomorrow anyway”, Rainbow Dash said, “so we’ll know if you made it.” They then said farewell as he got back to the group he was talking with.
“You think he’ll really make it?” Rainbow Dash asked as they walked away. Sunset thought for a moment.
“I have a feeling he will”, she finally said as they went over to the music room to get Pinkie and Sonata.
The next day Sunset and Sonata checked the school’s announcement board to see the results of yesterday’s soccer tryout. They went over the list, which wasn’t really that long since the only ones printed were the names of those who made the team. It didn’t take long for them to find his name.
“Glad that he made it”, Sunset remarked to Sonata.
“I think he’s good if he made it to the team”, Sonata said.
“I think so”, Sunset said. The school was nearly empty, which wasn’t unusual on Saturdays. She didn’t expect any of the Rainbooms nor the Dazzlings to be at school, and she hadn’t received any text message either from any of them about meeting someplace.
Both of them decided to just leave when her eye caught someone inside Principal Celestia’s office. The announcement board was near the office since any school activity or even just a reminder from her would be posted on it—“old school” as she termed it, but nonetheless effective. Students regularly passed the place to get information on the school’s activities, though Sunset suspected some might be spying on Principal Celestia as well since similar boards had been set up at strategic spots all over the campus. Spying, or else trying to curry subtle favors from her. There were those types who hung around as well.
She could see the silhouette of a boy inside the Principal’s office. She thought it strange that someone would be there on Saturday, since normally the Principal’s office was locked for the weekends. The Principal’s window was opaque, so only the form of anyone can be seen, and not the person itself. It was hard for her to make out who it was. She motioned to Sonata to back off quietly and stay in one corner while she stealthily went towards the door.
Carefully, almost by mere millimeters, she opened the door, not wanting to make the doorknob make any noise. Even the least noise, on an almost empty place, might as well be a loud sound that could be heard anywhere. Luckily the doorknob didn’t so much as even creak, and she sighed quietly.
She peeked in to see who it was, and almost gasped when she saw Inspirio picking up some files from the filing cabinet.
“What are you doing here?” she inquired as she burst the door open. He almost dropped the clutch of papers he was holding when he heard her.
“Oh, just fixing some things”, he said in an offhand way. She looked for any sign of nervousness, any way of detecting anything unusual, but she could find none.
“This room is supposed to be locked”, she said, ignoring what he just said.
“I know”, he replied. “I’m here as Principal Celestia’s assistant since she mentioned she needed someone to help her out”, he explained further.
“How did you get in then?” she investigated further. He went for his pocket and took out a key. She recognized it as the key Principal Celestia used for the room.
“Principal Celestia gave me her spare key to use”, he explained. “I’m here to sort out her files and arrange them. She said that she didn’t anyone assist her do this.”
“Why didn’t you mention this when we talked?” she said, still unsure what to make of it, although by then she was inclined to believe as she saw the key in his hand, and she knew Principal Celestia never just gave the key out to anyone. He merely shrugged.
“I don’t think it’s any big deal to tell anyone about it”, here just replied.
“Well, just as long as nothing gets lost here”, she finally decided to drop it. Whatever he was doing there, she couldn’t do much to either stop it or tell anyone since no one else was there, and he did show her the key to the room. Even though she wanted to stay to watch over him, she decided she’d only look like a fool if she hovered over him, and that would make her look bad. Reluctantly she retreated and went to get Sonata.
“Let’s go home”, she said to her. Sonata looked at her strangely, but Sunset didn’t say another word to her, and she didn’t push the issue any further.
As they walked home though, Sunset spoke to her.
“Strange that he was there”, she mused. Then she looked at Sonata. “Sorry, I was just thinking aloud. I just saw Inspirio there in Principal Celestia’s office, and he said he has been asked to be her assistant.”
“Isn’t he too new to assist her?” Sonata wondered.
“I thought of that”, Sunset admitted, “but then again no one else exactly volunteer’s to help her out.” She grimly thought though that even she herself never thought of it.
“So we’ll just leave him?” she asked further, her voice pitch going up a bit as she asked.
“Don’t think we could have done much anyway, and he does have the key, so we don’t have much anything going on unless something goes missing there”, reflected Sunset. “Guess we’ll just see”, she added further, and they continued on towards their home in silence after that.
Monday though Sunset voiced her concern with the others. The rest of the weekend didn’t help since she was still concerned about what happened, and she’d rather tell them personally than send a group text message.
“Maybe he was just helping out like he said”, Rainbow Dash said after she finished her story. It was early morning before classes started, and they met inside the music room.
“Dear, I’m sure Principal Celestia can explain this more”, Rarity offered.
“Maybe she can”, Sunset said thoughtfully, “but for now I will have to keep an eye out on him.”
“We’ll help out”, Applejack said.
“I know you will”, Sunset smiled as she took her books. “Now classes will start. We’ll just talk about this later.” As they were heading out Aria and Crescenda came, both of them looking tired.
“Sorry we’re late”, Aria said as both of them were catching their breath.
“That’s okay”, Sunset said as they got out of the room. “We’ll talk more later at lunch.”
“Hey, nice to see you around!” Sonata greeted them both when she saw them.
“Hi, Sonata”, Crescenda greeted back. They all walked together towards class. Sunset looked around, though she told herself that she shouldn’t be too concerned about it; after all, the others might be right that Principal Celestia asked for his help even though Inspirio was still new to the school. Still, she wondered why he would take such a big responsibility when he wasn’t even there for a month.
Before going to the canteen at lunch time, Sunset decided to drop by Principal Celestia’s office and inquire about Inspirio, hoping to get some clarification on him being her student assistant.
At least I can move on once it’s clear, she thought as she made her way to the office. Principal Celestia’s office was always open on weekdays, and she would welcome any student who went to her without any hesitation.
When she got there, she saw that there wasn’t any other student around. The Principal’s office had a waiting room before going directly into the office itself. She sat down first on one of the chairs in the waiting room, then with a deep breath went in, knocking on the door first. Principal Celestia looked up from her paperwork when she saw her enter.
“My faithful student, Sunset”, she greeted as Sunset came in. “What brings you here today?”
“I just would like to know”, Sunset began as she took her seat before the Principal’s desk, “did you get someone as a student assistant?”
“Yes, I was about to inform you of that, but wasn’t able to get the chance to do so last Friday”, Principal Celestia said to her. “He seems to be a promising student, even if he’s new.”
“Aren’t we being too hasty in getting him as assistant?” persisted Sunset. “We do have a lot of students here who would be able to do the same thing he’s doing.”
“Only no one volunteers to do so”, she reminded her. “But yes, I did take him in partly because he volunteered to assist.”
Now that’s odd, Sunset thought, but she didn’t let Principal Celestia know her thoughts, so she kept a straight face while talking to her.
“I was just asking because I saw him here last Saturday”, she told Principal Celestia. She just nodded when Sunset said that.
“I asked him to arrange the files I have in the drawer at the waiting room”, she stated. Sunset was just quiet after that, then spoke up.
“I was just wondering why he was here, that’s why I came over to ask”, she finally said, then stood up to leave.
“I know it sounds strange, but please”, Principal Celestia said to her as she stood up, “give him a chance. I know he is new, but I think he will be a fine addition to our school.” Sunset was silent for a second.
“I will try”, she simply said, then turned to exit the office. Although that did clarify some things for her, she still couldn’t shake off the feeling that somehow something was amiss, though she still couldn’t figure out what that could be.