//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 - A Social Confusion starts with a Gossip! // Story: The normal life of Nitpick Bittersweet // by Ryusun //------------------------------// September 8th, it’s officially the fourth week of classes. By now, a common student should be used to the routine of arriving at school, go to the locker and retrieve his materials, get to the classroom, try and listen to boring lectures for one or two hours, hear the sound of the bell marking the end of the class, get to the next classroom, rinse and repeat from this step until you finish all of your classes. But today felt different. If my first day of school was annoying because everyone wanted to befriend me, this day felt horribly suffocating. I could feel the people around me talking behind my back about something I didn't know. This reminds me of my time in Crystal Prep when I tried to get close to a girl outside of my little social caste… and I was completely rejected. One of my friends got the laugh of her life. I love her as a friend but damn her for that, four eyes. “…they were hugging each other” “I heard they went on a bus ride together” “Someone told me that they were dating since middle school” Oh Hell! I could hear their gossips even when they're whispering. Have you ever wondered why you tended to hear better when people talked about something concerning you while they tried to conceal it? Here are the answers: One is because humans have survival instincts and when you hear any sound or feel you are being hunted down, your senses are put to the limit so you could escape or try to identify the source of your anxiety better. Human social interactions are the anxiety in this case, so don’t get surprised when you hear people's word better even when they were whispering. And the second reasons it’s the most important of all: THEY SUCK AT DISSIMULATING! I arrived to my classroom and everyone was already there. Those eyes, they were overwhelming. What did I do this time? “Hi, Nitpick!” “Twilight.” At least this girl is treating me like usual. Oh, hey Spike! I can see your face in that backpack of yours. Who is a good boy? You are a good boy! As I sat in my school desk, I could feel an uncomfortable aura in my left watching me carefully, better get this over with. “Rainbow Dash, do you want something from me?” “Eh, eh? Oh no, I am cool, thanks.” She turned her attention to the board. This feels fishy. At least class started and the feeling went away for fifty-five minutes. On my way to Trigonometry, I had the same suffocating feeling as earlier. Seriously, what did I do? Someone tell me already. As the class quickly ended, my cellphone rang with a custom theme from 'The Ancient Scrolls Part III' game. -Lightbulb: Meet me in the backyard immediately! It’s an emergency concerning you! Forget about lunch, he must know something about the student’s weird behavior. I quickly arrived to the backyard of school and there he was with Dancer at his side. “Nitpick! There is a big problem!” “We need to talk to you first so we can make our next move.” “When you call me by name instead of my nicknames, it only means serious business. What’s wrong?” “Oh, you don’t know? Show him, Bulby!” She said worried. Lightbulb took out his cellphone and showed me a video. It was me helping Twilight get up. “I don’t see the emergency or what’s the big deal with it. I just helped her to get up and took her home!” “I knew you were innocent!” Said Dancer with great relief. “Innocent in helping someone in need?” I asked with confusion. “Look closely to the video again. If it weren’t you, and that was another guy, what would you think of it at the first instant?” I watched carefully the angle of the video and tried to imagine another guy instead of me. Flash will do. “That they were kissing in the end and-“ Oh my fucking odds! “That’s not all! There is another one!” He put in motion the second video. This was about Twilight and me waiting for the bus. Oh Crap! Oh Crap! OH CRAP! I knew you were so damn close to me, Twilight Sparkle! “I swear that I am not dating her or even kissed her, Honest! When did they film those videos?” “Oh, don’t worry, Beasty. We know that you are too stupid to even kiss a woman in the right moment!” That really hurt my pride, bitch! … Why I am thinking this instead of saying it? “And anybody could have filmed it during your practice. Filming videos isn’t that hard, you know?” “Wait a minute, this is just a misunderstanding. As long as I say the truth and tell them that I am not dating Twilight, nothing bad will happen, right?... Right?” “That is not how our society works, Beasty.” “They are spreading rumors about Twilight and you in this moment. The girl is popular, you know? She has a distant relative that is identical to her and won the Fall Formal last year! This is why it's big news! And before you ask, it’s a contest to see who is the most popular girl on school and besides-“ I don’t need to know why you stopped explaining, the reason it’s right here with us. What I want to know if this is related with the problem with Sunset and you, Dancer. You made the same face last week. “Rumors can involve just about anything when people are bored and often run the gamut.” She concluded dryly. “Yes, Choco. You are right as always!” What just happened? “Then I’ll stop speaking with her immediately, which will give them no ammunition to talk about this.” “That won’t work!” She quickly got back to her usual mood “Did you know that cutting contact all of the sudden, whether you are lovers or not, tends to give the people more fuel to keep the fire burning?” “And what you suggest exactly?” “Keep talking to her normally!” “Because ignoring the issue always works, sure.” “As a matter of fact, Bro, it does. They will come to the point where they'll just get so bored of trying to find something amusing between the two of you that they will drop it. As long as nothing interesting for them occurs, this rumor will quickly die out. Trust me, it happens all the time here.” “That makes sense, I guess. But I firmly believe in a direct approach!” “Whatever you decide, you should tell Twilight as soon as possible, Beasty. You can plan how to act normally and Bulby and I will debunk those rumors with our friends and acquaintances.” “Thank you guys. And sorry for making you miss out lunch!” They smiled while Lightbulb took out of his bag three pancake combos. By the looks of my package, it was the complete set so I gave him the twelve bucks without question. We enjoyed our breakfast and talked about a plan attack to make this problem disappear quicker until break was over. We parted ways with an idea of what to do next. As I walked through the corridors without paying attention to my surroundings, I bumped with someone by accident. “Be more careful.” “Forgive me, I wasn’t paying attention.” “Well, don’t worry, at least we are fine. Hey, I recognize you! Nitpick, right? One of Dancer's friends!” What a deep but sweetly voice you have there. Who are you again? “Ah...” “My name is Bon Bon, in case you have forgotten. Well, gotta go, we are going to be late if we don't hurry. See you around!” “Alright, take care” That was… surprisingly nice. She didn’t have that piercing gaze that most of the students have on this day. And so, Physics class started and for obvious reasons I couldn't establish a conversation with Twilight. Everyone were still paying attention to us. It seems that she isn’t aware of what’s happening in our surrounding. Have their friends not told her about our situation yet? How irresponsible of them. “Pssst! Over here!” A pink girl whispered… again. Pinkamena was trying to make eye contact with me for a while now but I tried to focus on the board as hard as I could. I still can’t believe that you share six classes with me. I assumed that you were in the other groups because I didn’t see you on Monday all day. I learned later that you were preparing the welcoming party for us. Thanks for that but can you stop trying to get my attention? Why are you using carrots as vampire teeth? The class was over earlier than expected and Literature was next. Considering that Cranky Doodle doesn’t take that seriously his work and there were few people in it, I can safely chat with Twilight in my phone and discuss our little social problem. I decided to arrive earlier to the classroom and wait for her. “Hello, Nitpick! You came here earlier!” I always arrive earlier. “Hi, Twilight.” Act casually, Nitpick Bittersweet. Remember what Lightbulb and Dancer said and you will achieve victory sooner than expected. “Hey, let’s talk for a bit until the teacher arrives. We got here a little earlier than usual.” Perfect. She started the exchange. “What a coincidence because I wanted to talk with you.” “Really? Great, what do you want to talk about?” “Ladies first, and take a seat, they are part of the school services, you know?” She obediently took her seat and faced at my direction. Why are your eyes so full of spirit? “Did you have a good weekend?” “Yes… and you?” What a lame answer from my part. “It was great! Remember that I told you on Saturday that I was working on a research of mine? I decided to leave it on hiatus because I found out in a scientific report on the web that what I was going to do need a special modular physics card that my computer lacks. Then I spent all weekend studying for mock test of different subjects. It was so fun, even though I felt sore most of the time because all of that training.” I'm glad you had fun but we need to talk about something else. “That sounds great Twilight, I'm glad you had a worthwhile weekend.” “Thank you, Nitpick. So tell me about what do you want to talk with me.” “Something about what is going on with us.” Did I just hear gasps of surprise outside the classroom? I quickly turned my sight to the entrances and there they are. All of you suck at hiding! But this was perfect, I can talk to her about what happened on Saturday and all of them will hear it. With that, the false rumor will die sooner and everything is going to be back to normal. I am such a genius. “About us?” “Yes, about what happened on Saturday.” More obnoxious gasping’s were heard. Annoying bastards. No! I must keep calm and talk as usual. “Oh Nitpick! Thank you so much for what you did for me that day, I appreciate it.” “I am glad that I could help you after that insane training we had. Seriously, that was so irresponsible of the class committee.” I’m about to walk in unknown sands so I must tread carefully. “I know that you consider her a friend and I will say this with no intention to insult her whatsoever but Rainbow Dash was kind of a jerk to everyone during training, especially Spitfire and the soccer team. I mean, winning for them may be important but they should take in account the physical condition of the rest of us. You were this close to pass out, what I am saying? You were suffocating for fuck sake. I was really worried about you!” What did I just said in the last part? “Please stop using that kind of language, Nitpick.” She said this tenderly. …sigh. “I'll try for you, but no promises.” “Thank you… “ A brief moment of silence emerged. I must speak my mind and- “You know, we are getting closer each day! I know it’s crazy to say this but in this short time we have spent together, I feel at peace talking with you at everything. If I knew I could get this close with someone at Crystal Prep, things could have ended different for me. But now that we are here, it’s a fresh start. Even with your bad language, talking with you feels exactly as if I was talking to the girls I have as friends now!” Did Twilight Sparkle just friend-zoned me without even falling for her whatsoever? “Even Spike took a liking to you! There is a connection between you and me!” Aren’t you hearing the commotion out there because of what you said, Twilight? Do you have auditive problems as well? “We are swiftly building a harmonious understanding.” We are swiftly building a social misunderstanding. “I feel incredibly comfortable talking with you.” I feel incredibly troubled talking with you. “This is a brew for a lovely relationship.” This is a brew for a terrible catastrophe. “So I must ask you the big question!“ And I must stop you immediately! “Will you-“ I closed the gap between us and quickly shut her mouth with my hand. “Listen, Twilight! People in the school think that we are a lovey-dovey couple, understand?” Silence. I went and checked the corridors and there wasn’t a single fucking soul at sight. My sixth sense tingled ferociously and I immediately received a text form Lightbulb. I checked its contents with great fear. -Lightbulb: All people in class suddenly started to talk about Twilight confessing to you and saying you started dating right now! The text traffic is a nightmare! What the hell happened in your end? …Crap. “What do you mean that people are thinking we are a couple, Nitpick? That’s just simple ridiculous! We just recently started to be-“ I gently shut her up with my index finger and showed her the message. I didn’t need to ask what she was thinking right now; her shocked expression was more than enough.