//------------------------------// // School's Out // Story: Two in the Space // by Josh Crapo //------------------------------// June 8th, 2159 Mom told me to take the day off today, although it’s the last day of school for me. It started as I woke up about my normal time, on the living room floor. Apparently, I had carpet dust across the left side of my body. It was probably from when I fell asleep in my old house. Now, it’s been an hour since. I look to my left, where I see Queen Shell’s map and the watch. Then I look to my right, where I see my Smarty Pants doll. At first I thought I was flown home, but then I realized I sleep levitated. Then I ask myself, can I still levitate? I think of floating the map, but it doesn’t float. Why isn’t it working? Why isn’t the magic Queen Shell gave me working? I try harder and harder to float the map, but it’s in vain. I realize I’m normally supposed to leave by now. So, I ask Mom why I can’t just go to school and that I feel just fine, if not for still being a little tired. But hey, I’m almost always a little tired at school. “I had a doctor look at you at midnight. He said that your blood vessels were too far expanded to keep you awake, and that they wouldn’t return to normal until the next day.” Okay, that does worry me a little. I guess that watch came too much in- wait a minute, where’s Mom going? Oh no, it’s the area I woke up. “Air Vent, what are these?” I show Mom the map first, then the watch, then the Smarty Pants doll. “Okay. I could almost understand how you found your old Smarty Pants doll, but a whitewatch?!?” A what? Is that was this watch is called? No wonder I’ve never seen it before. “Handling a whitewatch is no walk in the park, Air Vent. You have to be careful what you do with it. Did you use it yet?” I nod, which scares Mom. I tell her I needed an inhaler to stop my huge coughing spell and the whitewatch, as she calls it, was the quickest way I could stop it. “I have to get you to the Emergency Room.” What?!? So, Mom gets me to the Emergency Room all because I used a whitewatch only ONCE. Yeah, I don’t really see what the big problem is. So, a bunch of nurses attempt to take my pulse, as they call it, and they all succeed after ten seconds each. The average heart rate they come to is apparently thirty four beats a minute. I hope it explains why I’m still a little tired. Suddenly I get moved to another room where I get my (I hope I say this right) blood pressure. Once taken, they find out that it’s apparently way too low, at least for a changeling. I think I might know what I might want to have. Speaking of, I sure could go for a drink of water right now. What the nurses come up with up is that my readings would only be this low if I had a “depressant”. So, I’m given some medicine to take and- finally, a cup of water. So I take the pill and drink the water. Suddenly, I can’t get enough water. So afterwards, taking the medicine home with me, I get to bed and read a book called “Field Sign”. It’s a comedy book, where one half is about the Fields and their misadventures and the second is just the title character making me roll off the bed on the floor. However, when I read it today, I just smile. That’s all I can do. Smile. I dash off to get a reusable water bottle and come back to continue reading. This time, I look through my little bookshelf and find a book named “Cobble and Mile”. I remember this. I haven’t read this book in five years. I haven’t touched it since because it was so beautiful. It was about these two sisters named Cobblestone and MIlestone. Cobblestone got accused of something she didn’t do, was found guilty and had to spend the rest of her life in jail. But Milestone stayed by her side the whole time, going as far as to defend her in court. After one read of this, I have to go to the bathroom to get some tissue because I was crying all the way through the beauty. Then I grab the rest of the roll and walk back to bed. So, I start to wonder why I cry when reading Cobble and Mile, what it is about that book that makes it stick out in my mind. After several minutes, I try to forget about it, taking out a book of truly old work, this one hundred and fifty year old book named “Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone”. My getaway fails as I can’t concentrate on the part where Daring Do is getting chased by cats or something like that and has broken her wing, hoof, I don’t know. I come back to Cobble and Mile, trying to see what’s so special about this that I come back to it. Milestone wraps her hoof around her sister. “If she’s going, I’m going with her.” The crowd gasps. “But you haven’t done anything,” the judge says. “Not yet. I want to be there for her if she goes to jail, so I’m going with her. It doesn’t matter if she done wrong or not; she’s my sister, and nothing could ever change that.” “While the defense has some dedication, I’m afraid you can’t be there for her unless you were convicted of a similar-” “Oh I can’t take it anymore!” I grab another piece of tissue and wipe my tears. Suddenly, I think back to when I moved out. I wanted to keep living in the house, but Changico City wanted to keep the entire street abandoned. It’s so much of a random thought, I go to a previous page of the book. “Everypony may think you’re guilty, but I don’t.” I fast forward back to the where I just was. “Don’t worry. I’ll find a way stay with you. I know I will.” My... god... that was me when I was four, when Mom and I had to move out. No wonder I kept crying. Not counting yesterday, I hadn’t visited the old house once. And the fact Milestone kept her word made me all the more depressed. How did my school not ever do this book for a unit? It would be absolutely amazing! Finishing my water, I get back to the kitchen to refill the bottle until I hear a knock on the door. Mom zooms over to get it.