June 5
I woke up a few times in the middle of the night to pee, 'cause of all the water that Peggy made me drink, and the first time I had to hold my wings out since I couldn't find my balance and the second time Aric woke up too and he followed me into the girl's bathroom but I guess it was okay because there wasn't anyone else in there, and when we got back to my room he took off his shoes and pants and got under the covers.
When I finally woke up in the morning, though, I felt pretty good except that I had to pee again, so maybe Peggy had been right that drinking a lot of water helped to wash out the alcohol.
Aric was awake when I got back to bed, and he had dragged his pants off the floor and put them over head which had spilled all the coins from his pockets all over the bed.
I got back in bed with him and he put his hand on my rump and when I asked him if he was awake he said yes but he wished that he wasn’t and then he said that he had to piss like a racehorse but he was afraid that his head would fall off if he got up. I helped him out by taking the covers off him and he finally slid until he was sitting up in the bed with his feet on the floor and his hands holding his head up. Then when he stood he took a step backwards and I thought he might fall over, but he made his way out the door and when he came back I had to open it for him because he didn't have a key.
He wanted to know if I had any aspirin, and I said that Peggy had some but he didn't want to go looking through her things without her permission. I said that I could and she wouldn’t be mad, but he just fell on the pillow and closed his eyes and said that he would be fine after he had a little more sleep.
After a little while I got bored with being in bed, so I got up and got one of my poetry books and started re-reading e e cummings.
When Peggy woke up she asked how I was feeling, and I said pretty good, then I asked her if she could get out some aspirin for Aric and she nodded and got a bottle out of her desk and shook three out and set them on the edge of my desk, then she said that she was going to take a shower because she felt pretty grungy after the party last night. And she asked if I would wait to go to breakfast after she was done.
That sounded good to me, so I kept on reading until she got back. She'd put on her underwear and a t-shirt underneath her robe, 'cause Aric was in our room,and then she looked through her clothes until she found a pair of pants she liked and some socks. She said that she didn't really want to do laundry today and I asked her why not.
She told me it was an American tradition to try to be wearing your last set of clean clothes when you went home for vacations so that your Mom could wash them for you.
I thought that was a silly tradition, and said that it would be fun to do laundry today once Aric got out of my bed. Surely he wouldn't sleep all day.
So we went to breakfast together, and Christine made fun of Sean for being hung over again and he said that he was fine and then laid down on the floor under the table and told her that he was just going to take a little nap.
He didn't actually fall asleep, though. He shifted around a little bit trying to find a comfortable spot, then he started to complain about the feet of the table pushing into his back, then he got quiet for a little while.
We talked about finals: Christine said it was bad luck that my math final was first thing Monday morning—Sean had been complaining about it to her—and I said that I didn't mind at all. Then I leaned under the table and asked him if he wanted to review today. I was pretty sure that I knew it all, but sometimes you'd find things you weren’t perfectly clear about when you discussed them with someone else.
He said that sounded like a good idea, and we could do it in my room after lunch unless he was dead by then. Then he rolled on his side and held onto Christine's leg and kissed her just above her socks.
It wasn't going to to be that long until 'after lunch' anyway, since we'd gone to breakfast late.
Christine poked Sean a few times with her shoe. She said she was just making sure he was still alive, and then said that he ought to eat something since he was here, so she reached down with a piece of toast for him, and after he'd eaten it she reached down with a second but she wouldn't let him have that one until he got off the floor and sat in his seat.
When we got back to our room, Aric was still asleep in my bed, but the aspirin were gone so I guess he'd woken up enough to take them.
I nuzzled his cheek while Peggy was gathering together her laundry, then I helped her carry it downstairs. I guess I'd have to wait to wash my bedding, 'cause he was on it and it would be mean to kick him off.
Once she'd put her clothes in the washing machine, Peggy sat on top of it and so I got on top of the dryer and we talked for a little while, then Brianna came down to get her clothes out of the dryer, and the three of us talked about our plans for the summer. I said that I wanted to have a housewarming party and I thought I ought to have it pretty soon, 'cause everybody would be gone and so we decided that Tuesday night was best because most finals would be over, but there would still be a lot of people.
When Peggy's clothes were in the dryer, she asked me how I felt about having a pizza with a snack, and we could share it with Aric if he was still in the room. I thought that was a good idea, so she asked if I wanted Domino's or Papa John's, and I'd liked the pizza we had last night so we got Papa John's.
We each had a slice of it before her clothes were done, then set it on top of the dryer while she folded up her clothes and put them in the basket with her blankets on top. Since she had to carry her laundry back to her room, I took the pizza, flying behind Peggy with it in my forehooves. I was glad that we hadn't opened the little bowl of butter, or else it probably would have spilled all over everything.
She made her bed and put away her clothes and then decided to change into her lounging clothes for the rest of the afternoon since they were clean anyway, and then I poked at Aric with my hoof until he finally got up.
Peggy had told me on the way up the stairs that I shouldn't let him have any pizza until he'd carried my bedding downstairs and put it in the washing machine, so I didn't. Then when he'd left the room with my sheets, she laughed and said that she didn't think I actually would.
I said that since she'd bought the pizza, it was only fair she decided who got to eat it.
He had a couple of slices when he came back to the room and then he said that he had to go home and practice for his acting final because he was supposed to give a monologue and he couldn't remember all of it.
He said it was called Cowboy Salvation, and Peggy crossed her arms and said was it because he liked riding horses, and then I said that I thought it would be fun to ride a horse, and then both of them started laughing.
Aric asked if I was going to come over tonight, and I said that I shouldn't because of my math test in the morning, and he nodded and said that he'd miss me. Then I told him that I was going to have a housewarming party on Tuesday. I said that he could come and so could everyone who lived in the house with him, even Sara (although I don't think she would, because I don't think she likes me any more).
He said that Sara had moved out, and I asked him why. He said that she was kind of religious, and that there were things going on that she disagreed with. Which he said was kind of funny, because a lot of the stuff that he and David had done which she knew all about hadn't bothered her at all, but all of a sudden me being a pony was a big problem.
Well, I felt bad about that, even though I couldn't help being a pony, and he said it was okay, he didn't want to live in a house with a close-minded person anyway, and he said that he'd come and I stood up on my hind legs and kissed him and Peggy pretended to ignore us.
Sean came over not too long after and Peggy loaned us her comforter because my sheets were still in the washing machine and the mattress was plastic and not at all nice to sit on when it didn't have a cover. And the two of us spent all afternoon going over his notes and my notes until we both knew nondynamical systems backwards and forwards and could recite all the theorems and equations we'd learned in the class, and we only took breaks when I had to get my laundry.
He thought it was pretty funny that I wanted to make sure I knew how to spell Lyapunov correctly (it was a very strange name) but I said it might be on the test, and he told me that he would give me five dollars if that was on the test—he said that the exponent might be, but the actual name wouldn't matter, and I said that if it was important enough to have a name, the name might matter and accepted the bet.
We went to dinner together, and Sean and I kept on quizzing each other on math. And I also made sure to tell Christine and Joe about my party, too, 'cause I hoped that they would come to it. Plus when I was taking my tray back to the kitchen, I stopped in the dark room and told all my Durak-friends, too. Keith and Malcolm both said that they would be there.
I decided after dinner that I was going to go flying: I hadn't done it all day, and I knew it would relax me. So I put on all my gear and eventually got permission from the airplane directors—they had trouble figuring it out, 'cause I so rarely go flying in the evening.
So it wouldn't be too difficult for them, I went in my normal wedge, and this time I followed the railroad tracks all the way out, dropping down to fly under the big bridge on the 131 Highway (it was fun to fly under) and then picking it up on the other side.
I flew around on that side of Kalamazoo, not going anywhere in particular. When I got to the end of my assigned airspace, I called the airplane directors back and they still seemed a bit confused, but I knew that if I flew low it was okay, so I told them that I was going under five hundred feet, and zipped down so that I would be out of the way of airplanes.
I got a bit lost on my way back, and I wasn't high enough to easily pick out landmarks, but I knew that the 94 highway ran south of everything and if I found it, I could find everything else, so I went south until I saw it, then flew parallel to it until I came to the 131 highway, and followed that north until I came to Stadium Drive, and then I knew where I was.
Rather than take a direct line, I decided to keep to the road, and I'm glad I did. I had just flown over Drake road when I started to smell baked goods, and went down even lower to investigate and saw a plain-looking building called Sweetwater's Donut Mill, and I was a little bit hungry plus I thought that since Peggy had bought pizza I could do something nice for her, so I landed and went inside, even though I was a bit worried people might yell at me, but it smelled so good I thought it was worth the risk.
Nobody yelled, and the woman at the counter was really nice and let me take my time deciding what to get, and I left with a bag full of cinnamon rolls which were the size of the plates at the dining hall.
I gave one to Peggy when I got back, and ate my own, too, and then I took the last one with me to Meghan's, and she was really happy to get it, too. She said that Sweetwater's donuts were the best studying food, and offered to share it with me but I told her that I'd already had one.
I sat on her bed until she'd finished it and her studying, then after she'd gone to the bathroom and changed into her sleeping clothes, curled up with her in bed.