//------------------------------// // Chapter 18; Distractions // Story: "Just Kiss Already!" And Other Rumbaloo Tales // by Candy-Sweets_12 //------------------------------// "Scootaloo?" Scootaloo didn't reply and continued staring ahead. "Hey, Scootaloo?" the voice asked again, a yellow hoof started moving in front of her face. "Anyone there?" "Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle said, shaking her friend's shoulders until she got out of her daze. "Huh?" she asked. "We've been calling your name for the past five minutes." Sweetie Belle said. "Really? Sorry about that." Scootaloo apologized. "You must 'a been in real deep thought to not answer us like that, any longer and I would've went to go get help." Apple Bloom said. "I guess that you could say that." Scootaloo rubbed her eyes, unaware of the red on her cheeks. "What were you thinking about?" The better question was, Could she ever think about anything else?, Rumble was staying in her mind no matter what she did. "Nothing important," she shrugged. "Whatever you say Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said with a roll of her eyes. "Just finish scrubbing." she tossed Scootaloo a bucket of water, nearly soaking her with the cold stuff. "Hey, watch it!" she called back. "Ah'm not the one who volunteered to clean the outside of the clubhouse am I?" Apple Bloom said with a smirk. Scootaloo mumbled under her breath and took the sponge, scrubbing away at all of the dirt and such. She continued briskly until the entire outside was cleaned, and started sweeping all of the sticks and acorns that managed to find their ways there. Eventually, the trio had completely fixed the clubhouse. "I'll ask AppleJack to help me straighten up the flooring tomorrow. Until then, thanks for helping girls." "No problem." Sweetie Belle said. "It's always a pleasure to clean a the inside of the tree house." "You sure you don't need any help?" Scootaloo asked. "Positive, 'sides, don't you have that dress fitting tomorrow?" "Yeah, but I'm sure that-" "Go to the fitting Scootaloo, Blossom and her bridesmares lookin' their finest is way more important than fixing a little old clubhouse." Sweetie Belle said. "Okay then, suit yourself." "See ya at school tomorrow." Apple Bloom said. She waved as her friends took off for home, eventually parting ways as town came into view. "Is this too tight dearie?" Rarity asked, wrapping the dress around Blossomforth. "No, it's fine, though something's pinching my side a bit." "Well I'll get right to it." Rarity swooped to the Blossom's right and immediately started tending the problem, while the other's waited in their dresses. If they had the flowers, makeup, and accessories, they would've looked ready for any wedding. The other mares gossiped about the wedding, while Scootaloo sat with her head resting on her hoof. Rumble managed to enter her mind and she felt like she wasn't even in the boutique anymore. 'I wonder what he'll think of me in this dress,' she thought, trying to mentally think up an image of Rumble with a shocked look on his face. One look in the mirror, and Scootaloo could tell that anyone would be shocked at how she looked. With the flower theme, Rarity had to find a way to get the dresses to match everyone's personality, and Scootaloo was stuck with one of the more slender dresses of the set, it curved around her, and stopped at her hooves. A light shade of pink fabric, a curved design cut into it, almost like a heart stopping just below the neck, was holding it up. The shade lightened as it ran through to the back of the dress. The dress came with its own accessory; a pink flower with a purplish-pink middle to match her hair, much like Blossom's cutiemark to add to her hair. It lay on the table next to her, she didn't find it necessary to see how it would look. 'Rarity went all out with the matching on this one.' Scootaloo thought. She looked up to find everyone staring back at her, Blossom, who was wearing an unfinished dress stood in front of everyone with hopeful eyes. It was like everyone was waiting for something. Scootaloo then realized that someone must've said something to her, and that she didn't quite catch it. "Huh?" she asked. Every mare in the room burst into giggles, as Scootaloo felt herself turn red. "I asked if you liked the way I look." Blossom repeated, wiping a tear from her eye. "You looked like you were miles away from this place. That was probably the most hilarious thing I've seen today," Blossom said, choking back another round of giggles. 'I can see why she loves Thunderlane so much.' Scootaloo slouched over and said nothing, still blushing from the laughter. "I bet that she was thinking about Rumble." Flitter said. Scootaloo blushed harder, further proving Flitter's point. "Ha! I knew it! You do like him don't you?" Flitter said, coming closer to Scootaloo. Before Scootaloo could mutter out a response, Rarity came to her rescue. "Now, now, we're worrying about Blossom here," she began, smirking when Scootaloo threw her a grateful glance. "do you like the way it looks?" "I actually do." Scootaloo said, looking at the dress. "Just wait until this dress is finished, Thunderlane's in for the surprise of his life." Blossom said, turning to the mirror and posing to get a good look at herself. "I'm sure he'll love it." one of Blossom's friends, Silver Speed assured her. "Thanks Silv," Blossom replied. "See you girls next week." Rarity called back, Scootaloo hung her head, still blushing a small bit, she walked out quickly, but couldn't escape Rarity's watchful eye. "Scootaloo." "Horse apples." she mumbled, she knew Rarity would want to know what the big deal was. "May I talk to you for a moment?" Scootaloo tried to pretend nothing happened. "About what?" "Nice try, you know what I'm talking about." Rarity said Scootaloo sighed and walked back inside. "Okay, you caught me. I was in deep thought." "About...?" Rarity asked. "Nothing really important," Scootaloo admitted. "I'm just thinking a bit about my future." her answer became a reflex with the amount if times she had been asked that question. She was surprised at how easy it was for her to say it. "Something tells me it's more than that." Rarity said in a suspicious tone. "Trust me Rarity, its not worth thinking over." Scootaloo assured her, she had more than her fair share of that experience. "Then do me one favor, just before you leave Scootaloo," 'Here we go,' "Answer Flitter's question, do you like Rumble in the way she was letting on?" "Why do you want to know that?" "I just do." "It's no pony's business on who I like and don't like, I don't want my 'feelings' ending up on the front page of Equestria Daily." "That's not-" "Could we please not talk about it. I really don't feel comfortable with answering that." 'Considering I'm still trying to find out myself.' "Okay, I understand I must've been invading a little, I truly and deeply apologize." "Don't worry about it." "But if you ever do want to talk about something, feel free to come to me if you feel the need to. I'm sure you'd go straight for Rainbow Dash or even Blossom Forth before me, but still." "Thanks Rarity." Scootaloo replied, she knew Rarity's heart was in the right place, but she didn't want to reveal the feelings she didn't even understand openly like everyone suggested. She stepped out of the boutique, and headed home. Instead though, she found herself making a B-line for the highest cloud in the sky, and found herself laying there, Rumble invading her mind more than ever. She put a hoof to her temple and groaned. 'I may not ever get him out of my head.' She let her arm drop to her chest and looked to the blue of the sky. 'I need to stop getting so side tracked. Otherwise I'm going to end up like this every day." she told herself quietly, she played with a tuft of cloud, it wasn't until the sky began to turn red and the blues and indigos and purples of the sky began to fade in. 'I'd better get home.' she thought, she propped herself up and quickly flew to the ground. The air was cold and chilly, and she badly wished for something warm to hold or wrap around her. She squeezed her eyes shut as a cold gust of wind blew her way, making her hover in the air and wrap her arms around her chest. 'Mother of Luna, its cold out here." she muttered. She opened her eyes in time to realize she was nearly home. She quickly flew to her door and knocked, waiting for her dad to open the door. She instead, found something else in his place. "Rumble?" she asked.