//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 - Friendly bickering! And you are annoying her, Flash. // Story: The normal life of Nitpick Bittersweet // by Ryusun //------------------------------// The flow of time was so tender with us that school was over without any problems. Before I went my way home, Twilight asked my number so we could stay in contact in case we needed to meet up for some group homework. She was happy while adding a new entry to her list of contacts while I was annoyed, trying to conceal my uneasiness behind a small smile. I always gave my number to my closest of friends, which were only six in that moment. But now there was an anomaly in my contact list of family and friends. An acquaintance was in there now. Simply unacceptable. “We can be in contact from now on, Nitpick. Well see each other tomorrow, bye!” She was enthusiastic and cheerful as she left the scene, but I just turned around and walked straight home. I didn’t want to cook today so I just bought an extra sized baguette and some juice on the way home. Once there, I ate my meal, took a shower and slept. ... I was suddenly awoken by a noise; a custom encore tune from my phone was loudly filling the once silent room. It was them. I grabbed my phone and looked upon the hour; it was eight with twenty-three minutes in the night. I slept around six hours then. I joined my old chat group of five people that includeded me, which was inactive for some time now. ?????: I finally have my phone back. Grandpops gave me freedom once again, so its gym time for me, baby ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ ????: What you did was seriously wrong. Your Grandfather did the right thing at grounding you at home. If I was there in that moment, I definitely would have stopped you. ?????: Hey, it wasn't my fault! She asked for it! And besides, you must be supporting me, not antagonizing me (¬_¬) ?????????: This time I agree with her, she was being a royal pain during summer classes and she had it coming. Besides, it was hilarious ≧◡≦ ????: Dean Cadence told me what happened during a phone conversation. Three broken ribs is not something to be proud of. Poor Lighting Dust must have felt so much pain. ?????????: Pain in our brains is what we feel every single time she starts to open her mouth. She should consider throwing herself from the bridge and free us of her stupidity. ????: You are being cruel and unfair. ?????????: I am being honest. ?????: She is right. Nitpick: No complaints with that logic, it was a great, last blast from summer school for me. ????: My beloved friend! {(>_<)} Nitpick: What? We hate her! ?????????: Agreed. ?????: Same here. ?????????: She is so uncivilized. ????: You are not helping ?????: Forget about her! I wanna know how is your new school treating you, my friend. ????: Beg you pardon? ?????????: Bittersweet had a problem with Cinch and the outcome was a transfer to that school of losers CHS. ????: I didn’t know that. Nitpick: Not your fault, you are so busy with those peace conferences around the world and stuff. The perks of being rich, huh? ????: You can rely on me with anything, you know? Nitpick: And wasting your time with trivial things? Never. ????: (∩︵∩) Nitpick: I will treat you something when you arrive and tell you what happened in detail, I promise. ????: (｡◕‿◕｡) ?????????: Just don’t take her to a lowly commoner pub, please. ?????????: For you, everything in the city is made for commoners, your royal bastard. ?????????: HMPH! It's the harsh reality for most places in the world. Nitpick: Well, answering the question, all students are friend-ho bastards! Every single one of them is trying to get close to me like if I was screaming ‘I am lonely, be friendly with me’ all the time. ????: That sounds nice. Do you feel the hipocresy dwelling within them? Nitpick: Yes. It is unbereable. ?????: Sounds like a pain. ?????????: And there are weird students with wings in that place. Nitpick: Wings? ?????????: Some weird things happened during the games. I will talk about it with all of you next time we hang out. Nitpick: Speaking of the games, Twilight is in CHS with me. She is awfully different from her usual self during the academy. She seems more friendly and fuzzy! She even managed to get my phone number from me. ?????: No fucking way! ?????????: Stay away from Twilight Sparkle, Bittersweet! Mentally speaken, she's a very unstable individual. Nitpick: Point taken. ????: Nonsense, be friendly with her. She must feel very lonely. If she needs help, give her a hand like if you were treating any of us. Nitpick: NO! ?????: You ask the impossible. ?????????: Have you lost your mind? ?????????: Miss Sparkle is better to be left alone if our friends say so. ????: Do not be so negative! She seemed like a nice girl to me! Afraid of being herself because the ruthless environment of the academy. If I were in the same classes with her back then, I could have befriended her, saved her, but I did not tried hard enough. I won’t make excuses. But now in this new school, you can make her shine like the star she was meant to be! Succeed where I failed. Nitpick: Usually I agree with you in everything crazy but this time I won’t change my answer. The idea is too bothersome. I have her number so I can give it to you so you can help her yourself, you are the more the people person in the group. Besides, it seems she made friends already so the task you ask of me is pointless. ????: Even so, be friendly to her, please do it for me. Nitpick: Okay, fine. Damn it, even in chat I can feel your unmatchable charisma. ?????????: Oh, thank you, I have this effect in people. Nitpick: I wasn’t praising you, asshole ☉▵☉凸 ?????: （︶︿︶）╭∩╮ ?????????: (╹◡╹)凸 ?????????: How rude and uncivilized of you. ????: I agree, apologize to him now. He may be an imbecile but he does not deserve this! ?????????: HEY! We continued our friendly bickering for a while. I could express myself unrestricted with them just as much they can express themselves with me. It's a camaraderie that nobody asked for to be made, but causality made it possible. They were anomalies, nobody builds a relationship this fast but they are so... fun. I was having so much enjoyment and the idea of hanging out with them soon was making me wish that time flows faster. I mentioned that I met my old friends from middle school. They wanted to meet them and I think they will enjoy their personalities. I managed to finish homework even with this lively chat group distracting me and soon the hour of sleep arrived, marking the the time to say goodbye to this day. Next morning, classes were going quickly, except for the first class of Ethics. Rainbow Dash gave a painful presentation of the meaning of ethics and morals. This was her punishment for sleeping during last class after all. But I felt that the real punishment was hearing her speech butchering my ears with such horrible choice of words. Mrs. Harshwhinny was not amused with the results, and no one could blame her. Dash was being somewhat a jerk explaining her work, but nevertheless the point was made and our teacher gave her a passing mark. Rainbow was happy with the result. I noticed that Twilight was looking around too much, though. I wonder what is in your brilliant mind in this moment right now. Once in break time, I managed to get a seat in the cafeteria. It seems that Fruits and Salads Wednesday wasn't that popular. At least there was an abundance of bread and honey to disguise the nonexistent flavor from my combo of today. I spent a nice time with Lightbulb and Dancer during that time; she seems to be back to her usual goody moody self now and that was a relief for us. The rest of the day transcurred quicker as well and it was time for the Informatics class. The dreaded hour was at hand, I was going to team up with Twilight Sparkle for a long term project for the second time in my life. What kind of horror I was going to be put this time? Last time in Physics during our time in the academy, her mockup needed to pass an standardization made by her. The planets needed to be made with pinpoint accuracy in the measures she demanded. The distances between them was the most outrageous part. The moons for each planet were handcrafted at least five times until they were good for her. The luminaries that represented the stars and the asteroids were incredible difficult to position the way she wanted it. And I haven’t even touched the part of making the synopsis of why we chose this as a project or the calculations of what she wanted to prove in theory. What kind of horrible and laborious goal she had prepared in mind this time? I thought about making a simple application to teach basic math and numbers to kids, easy. Let’s see what the Truth of the universe has bestowed upon me. As I arrived to the lab after making a small detour to my - soon to be favorite - dispenser, I noticed an anomaly in my seat. “You are in my seat, Twilight.” “Oh, I am so sorry. Would you kindly make this my seat from now on, please? This is the perfect place for Spike to be out of my pack during classes!” The little dog's head was outside the bag, clearly enjoying freedom from his imprisonment. This face of her, combined with the favor my friend asked of me yesterday… Damn, no escape. “Fine, all for Spikes sake.” Spike saw me with approval, what a charismatic little fellow. Professor Gizmo arrived and greeted us, we responded in kind. He taught us new programing instructions to work with and it was time to start our project. “Twilight, I was thinking in making an application to teach basic math and vocabulary to kids, what do you have in mind?” “I was thinking in making a classification system of our library, the one they have here is completely obsolete and needs updating in their entries with the books they have available! It’s a complete mess the way it is now!” That doesn’t sound too hard. As a matter of fact, it was better than my idea. Making a structured program for kids could be easy to translate to exercises. The problem was to accurately transfer the knowledge to the kids in a way they understand so the obvious course of actions was mini games and such. But the classification processes of her idea only consisted of arranging names, genres, subjects, authors and such to a database. And given the status of the library, there weren’t as much books as the academy here so in the long run it’s less work for me. Perfect, Twilight. “Proper education for our peers is important as well, so a system for the library looks to be the best course of action! What good are the contents of quality in a library if you can’t find what you need with ease? Let’s do your idea then, Twilight!” I sounded so professional. Praise me. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. I knew you would understand where I stand with my idea. With our efforts combined, we can make the ultimate research system for all school to enjoy!” I don’t like where this is going, the fact that she was trembling with excitement made me feel I made a terrible mistake. “Why be in the comfort zone of just arranging names, genres, subjects, authors and such to a boring database when we can make reference searches, book edition differences, and most importantly, the ability to make a proper system to track down the books that were taken to a student's home! In this way we can make a scheduled ‘Take-Bring' system so all books are returned at the proper time, and if the student doesn't bring the books at the appointed day; BANISHMENT!” I must stop this madness. “Twilight-“ My phone rang a short opera tune. It was her. “Excuse me for a moment, an important text arrived” I checked the contents of the message. ????: Remember to always nurture the trust, hopes and dreams of the people who shares them with you. And a reminder for you to help Miss Twilight in whatever she needs. (~￣▽￣)~ I hope we can be in contact soon, take care. …shit. “Let’s start with the foundation of our ‘Il Rinascimento Bibliotecario' project, then.” “YAY!” I curse your childlike attitude. We started to advance what we could in our remaining time, the limited hours that this class has in the week made me realize that this project is to be made even after school, ugh. This is going to be a long semester. “Urgh!” “What happened, Twilight?” “Nothing.” “You are making a face that tells me that something is making you mad. Tell me what’s wrong.” “It’s the guy over there.” She made a gesture of lowering my head while whispering to me and pointing out the source of her problems. “What, Flash Sentry?” I whispered as well. “Whats wrong with the guy?” “Well, today before classes started, he approached me while I was rearranging my locker and started to ask me tips to improve his algorithms in the music application he is making for a project. I didn’t see any harm in it so we started talking for a bit and we exchanged numbers in the end. He sent me messages about our subjects during classes and I texted him back to give him more tips, everything was going fine until… uh...” That explains why you were acting a bit weird and stealthy in classes. “Let me guess, he started making you stupid questions out of context during classes while you were checking your phone constantly to see if it was something important only to find out it was a trivial thing and you are starting to feel he is a bit annoying, I am right?” “A bit annoying? He is INSUFFERABLE!” Wow… that was unexpected, even in whisper that sounded pretty extreme. She took a short, deep breath and made a gesture with her arm that tells the viewer that she was letting go whatever worrisome thing she was thinking right now. “Feeling better?” “Yes, Dean Cadence's relaxing techniques always helps me to keep myself cool in mind.” Ah, Dean Cadence. The only educator besides the Captain that wasn't an asshole. She and the Captain were a beacon of hope to problematic or apathetic students like me. I hope she is doing fine, especially after the academy tied with CHS during the games. Principal Cinch had a volatile character, especially with me, always asking me to do impossible things, what was her problem? “What exactly did he tell you in those messages that made you angry, if I am allowed to know, Twilight?” I am going to find out what exactly bothered her, maybe help Flash in the process to getting close to her, or at least sparing him from a full force rejection. I feel empathy for the guy, if I was in his shoes, most probably I would be making the same fool thing with Sunset right now. “Here, take a look.” “Thank you for the vote of confidence, but next time do this kind of stuff with someone you trust. I hope it never happens to you but you could end sharing an important subject or gossip to the wrong person and he or she could make a ruckus, so be more careful with this kind of actions.” I felt like a total hypocrite after finishing what I said. I was going to see what Flash wrote to her and maybe help him and that totally destroys the purpose of my lecture. “Oh, I know, but you are no stranger to me. And besides, I feel I can trust you. I dont think you are a bad person. But I admit you are a bit colorful with your language. Maybe you should try to not express yourself like you did with Rarity and Pinkie Pie yesterday.” Your sincerity and misguided trust made me feel cozy and warm inside. Let’s see what he wrote you, for your sake only. I need to repay you for my transgression of trust in the best way I can. -Flash Sentry: Hi! The teacher brought an interesting topic about morality issues in youth in this moment, what do you think about it?” -Twilight: I think that kids today are starting to be disrespectful with the elderly, they should be taught properly- I won’t read the whole speech, so I’ll skip to the next entries. -Flash Sentry: Trigonometry is so hard, I wish I had Mr. Bridge as my teacher (;_;) -Twilight: What don’t you understand of the class? Maybe I can help. -Flash Sentry: when to use the Cos, Tan, Sen properly. Twilight sent him a picture with an example of what he asked. -Twilight: If you look closely at- Next entries. -Flash Sentry: Do you want to eat lunch together? I can treat you something from the cafeteria. -Twilight: How kind of you but I'm going to eat with my friends. -Flash Sentry: Okay, enjoy your breakfast. (°3°) Okay… -Flash Sentry: Say, do you have free time in the afternoon? We can go to the cinema and see the new Rising Moon movie. -Twilight: Sorry, but I can't, I need to study for some mock test this week and I am going to help some friends in a chore. -Flash Sentry: Maybe I can go and help you out. -Twilight: Thanks but no, girls only. Good answer, Twilight. Short and cutting. -Flash Sentry: So what do you like to watch on TV? -Twilight: International Atlas and educative shows. -Flash Sentry: Sounds cool! I like to watch sitcoms. There is a new reboot of an old comedy show called Candle the Ugly which consist of- Stop, this is painful! I thank the Truth that rules the existence for distancing me from Sunset. This could be me in this moment. No, wait, he is actually lamer than me. “I feel real sorry for you in this moment...” I said, hissing with pity to my partner. “What do you think I should do?” Twilight asked seriously. Block his number and send him to oblivion is something I would do. But I don’t want to damage her new reputation. I needed to think real hard about my response…what should you do? “For now, tell him that you need to concentrate and you are really busy to talk right now, and it would be better to talk another day. You can buy some time, relax and talk with the girls about this. Not trying to sound sexist but we men are really insensitive sometimes, so they can give you a better answer than me in this kind of subjects!” “You are right. I am no good with talking to new people yet, so I better ask more experienced members of society about it. Maybe Sunset Shimmer can give me tips in how to deal with this!” Yeah, Twilight, because asking the ex-girlfriend of your current admirer is the solution. Duh, how I didn’t think about it? “Thanks, Nitpick, I'll try your plan right away!” Few minutes passed and the bell rang. Classes for today were over at last, as I got out of the classroom, I saw a solitary figure emanating depression. Flash, you are the cool guy type so, how can you look so lame in this moment? Whatever it is, my little partner has something to do with it. What kind of response she made to him it’s something that probably I shouldn’t know.