Pre-Game Jitters
I remember having a strange dream that night. I found myself standing on a stage, as if I was in some kind of rock band. I turned around to see that I was, in fact, standing with rest of “my band.” Looking back at the crowd, I noticed a microphone on a stand that hadn’t been there before. The crowd was roaring like the crowds at any other rock concert. Of course, everything felt normal, like I knew exactly what I would do and when I would it. It felt as though I had done this a million times before and that this time would be no different.
The only strange thing was that I knew it wasn’t normal. I knew this wasn’t my normal life and I knew I wasn’t supposed to be here. But before I could do anything about it, the drummer began banging his drumsticks together to set a beat. I remember quickly glancing behind me to get a look at my band-mates. To my surprise, there were only black shadows where the people should have been. There was a drummer, a lead guitarist, a backup guitarist, and a bassist. But they were all the same: black shadowy figures. My body didn’t seem to be shocked by this fact like my mind was, so I continued on with what I knew I was supposed to do.
The guitarist began pounding on his strings. It was heavy, like one would hear in a rock song. The melody was simple and sounded rough, but I felt as though I had heard it somewhere before. It seemed so familiar, yet I knew that I had never heard it before in my life.
The backup guitar joined in, playing a more complex riff, but still simple enough to follow along. It, too, seemed familiar. I couldn’t understand how I knew the song, nor could I figure out how I knew what was coming next.
The drummer began playing an even more complex beat on his set. Again, the piece felt more familiar to me. Then I remembered the microphone in front of me. I had no idea what I was to sing or how I was to sing it. Was it a screamo song? Or was it a song of the more gentle rock genre? My mouth opened before I was able to think about what I would say.
“My nights of sin this, the cult of indignation, they always look here, I feel their lacerations!”
Where did that come from? More importantly, what does it mean? I had little time to think about it before the next line burst from my lips.
“I’ll never be enough! I’ll stumble back again, but I don’t care enough... I wish I had a friend...”
I then remember opening my mouth to sing the next verse, but being interrupted by what I thought were fire sirens. The noise grew and grew until it was unbearable and I was forced to cover my ears with the palms of my hands, as was everyone else.
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I opened my eyes and found myself back in my own bed. I reached towards my nightstand and flipped the switch on my alarm clock, turning off the annoying siren.
I stayed in bed for another minute or two, trying desperately to reverse time so I could sleep longer, but to no avail. I rose to my feet and walked into the kitchen to get something to drink. ‘What a stupid dream,’ I thought to myself.
I went about my usual morning without another thought of the dream, since it was, after all, just a dream. As I was in the shower, though, my mind wandered off to the girls I had met the day before. ‘I wonder if Rarity rides the bus in the mornings,’ I thought to myself as I stepped out of the shower and reached for the towel that hung on the wall. I hoped she did.
I dressed myself and brushed my teeth, making sure to get every little crevice as I did so. After grabbing my bag and iPad, I walked into the living room, only to drop them onto the love-seat as I sat down on the couch. I watched TV for the last half-hour before it was time for me to leave for the bus.
I made my way to the stop at the end of my road and took my usual spot to wait for the bus. I began to let my mind wander as I began to think about the girls. They seemed like great people, but I knew better than to let myself get attached too easily. I’d been betrayed too many times to let it happen again.
Every “friend” I’ve ever had has stabbed me in the back at one point or another. In second grade, I knew some kid who would lie about anything and everything for no, apparent, reason. He would also steal and get me into trouble every other day. I learned quickly to ditch him and never look back.
Then there was the time in fourth grade. I thought I had made some new friends who would be real friends, but turned out to be jerks. Since we liked the same girl, it made things complicated since we were always fighting over her. Of course, she enjoyed every bit of it. We ended up letting our jealousy get the better of us and stopped being friends. What happened to the girl? She chose to be with the other kid.
Then there’s Henry. There’s a bit of information that I haven’t mentioned about Henry. He lies like the kid in second grade, but Henry’s is so much worse. One time, I was visiting him at his mom’s house and we were playing some snow-boarding game. His mom called us out into the living room so she could talk with us, specifically me. She sat us down and looked at me and simply said that she knew what I did and that if it happened again, I wouldn’t be welcome at her house anymore.
I, of course, had no idea what she was talking about. Luckily, Henry decided to speak up and said that it wasn’t me who he had done it with. They then began arguing about who said “this” and “that” and how she almost punished me for something I didn’t even know about. Eventually, she let us go back into the room, where Henry told me what happened.
Somehow, Henry and his mom got onto the topic of what Henry did a few days before he went got to his mom’s house. Apparently, he went to some party full of beer, drugs, and slutty girls with his cousin and, not only tried to keep his cousin out of trouble, but tried to put me into the picture in his cousin’s place. So, I told him the same thing his mom told me: if anything like that happens again, we couldn’t be friends.
I should’ve knocked him out right there, but I’m too calm a person for that. I didn’t react the way most people would have because, honestly, it takes a lot more than that to make me angry. Most people think it’s great to be able to control your anger like that, but I think it’s worse than losing control of it. It makes me feel inhuman, like I have no emotion. I didn’t freak out, yell, hit him, or anything. I just kept playing the game and calmly told him that we wouldn’t be friends if he ever did that again. To this day, I regret not knocking him down then and there.
I heard the bus off in the distance, just around the corner. I had known the girl who got on there. She and her cousin would get on and we would usually talk to each other on the bus, but not really anywhere else. So when she got a car, we stopped talking completely. I still saw her around school, so I knew she was still here, but she never spoke to me and, in return, I never spoke to her.
I checked my watch and saw that it was already seven-fifteen. ‘She must have gotten another new bus,’ I thought as I looked back up to see the bus pulling around the corner. Whenever one of the other buses broke down, they would take our bus and give us the old, crappy ones. For what reason, no one knew, but once our bus driver almost quit because of it.
I reached into my pocket to feel the space of nothingness that was where my iPod usually was. ‘Great,’ I thought to myself as the bus came to a stop just in front of me, ‘she’s late and I don’t get to listen to any music.’
I boarded the bus to be greeted by dozens of filled seats. I sighed. Normally, the bus didn’t have this many people on it, but sometimes people ride the bus instead of taking a car, or whatever else they usually do to get to school. I thought that they should just choose one or the other, but that’s just my opinion.
I searched the seats for an empty spot, to no avail. I then saw Henry at the back of the bus, waving at me and pointing to his own seat. I rolled my eyes, since I was too far away for him to see, and began walking towards him. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of purple. I looked at the being that intruded my vision and was happy to see none other than Rarity, sitting in her own seat. I immediately dismissed Henry and approached her seat.
“Mind if I sit here?” I said when I saw that she didn’t have her ear buds in.
She turned to me and delightfully smiled, as if she was happy to see me. “Not at all!” I smiled back and sat down after she had moved her bag to her lap.
I pressed my forehead against the back of the seat in front of us. “Thanks, there weren’t really any other places to sit,” I tried to situate my bag in my lap so that it was more comfortable to sit with.
She turned to look around the bus, then back at me. “Is it always like this?”
I picked up my head and looked around the bus, as if I hadn’t already noticed the massive amount of people. “Not usually. A lot of these people have other ways to school, but I guess they didn’t today.”
“Oh, I see,” She turned back to look out the window. I wondered if she had already gotten a chance to look around town. For a split second, I thought about asking her if she wanted to do anything that weekend. But the reality of having nothing close enough to do hit me and I dismissed the thought. “May I ask a question?” She turned back to face me.
I was a little shocked that she wanted to ask me something, more than a little, actually. “Uh, sure,” I said, not knowing what to expect.
“Why did you sit with me? I saw that boy in the back waving at you and he looked like he could be your friend,” She looked genuinely confused as to why I chose to sit with her instead of Henry.
I turned back around to see that Henry had already found something else to busy himself. “Well, you looked a little lonely.”
She tilted her head a little to one side. “Did I?”
“Yeah, you were just sitting here, staring out the window.”
She smiled and laughed a little. I didn’t know how to respond, so I found myself laughing along with her. “Come now, Sky. You aren’t a very good liar.”
“Oh, you saw through it, huh?” I smiled and continued laughing. “Alright, the real reason is that I can’t stand sitting with Henry. He’s only interested in talking about himself and always thinks his ideas are better than everybody else’s.”
Rarity turned around to look at Henry, who was too occupied to notice. “I could see how that would get annoying. But isn’t he your friend?”
I thought about it a moment. Was he my friend? I real friend wouldn’t lie to me. “Not really,” I admitted, “We don’t really talk much,” I wanted to change the subject. “What about you? Have you made any friends yet?”
She looked up as if she was thinking really hard about it. “Only one,” she said while continuing to think.
I gave in. “Really? Who?”
She simply looked back down at me and smiled. “You, of course.”
Honestly, I was taken aback. She really thought of me as her friend? But we had only just met the day before. Noticing my slight recoil, Rarity asked, “What? You don’t think of me as your friend?”
I thought for a brief moment. Did I? “Yeah, of course I do. It’s just that I figured a girl like you would have more friends, that’s all.”
She smiled and let out a chuckle. “I haven’t really talked to many people here, except for you.”
She had a really cute smile. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it before. I loved seeing her smile; it was better than any accessory she ever could have worn. I looked behind her and out of the window to see that we were nearing the school. I smiled back at her before grabbing my bag and throwing it on my back. “Don’t worry. I girl like you will make plenty of friends in no time.”
She looked out the window and put her bag on after seeing how close the school was. “Would you mind, too terribly, if I sat with you at your table when we get there?”
“Yeah, no problem. No one really sits around me anyway,” There were a few kids who sit at the opposite end of my table, but I, honestly, didn’t know any of their names.
“Thank you. I sat with group of ruffians yesterday and they were very loud and rude, so it’ll be nice to sit with some well-behaved people,” As she finished her statement, the bus came to a stop, much harder than anyone would have like, but no one cared enough to complain.
The other high-schoolers began crowding off the bus before I was able to get to my feet. As such, I was shoved and bumped over and over again as the kids rushed past me to get into the school. Why anyone would want to get into school that fast was beyond me.
I was finally able to stand and let Rarity out before me, to which she smiled a polite “thank you.” I could kiss up if I needed to. We got off the bus and the door closed behind me just before the bus took off.
We had just walked into the building when Rarity spoke up. “Um, where, exactly, do you sit, Sky?”
I pointed towards to the 300 Hall. “Over there, it’s where my first class is, anyway.”
There are four different halls: the 100 Hall, the 200 Hall, the 300 Hall, and the 400 Hall. The gym was actually part of the 500 Hall, but that was just an extension of the 400 Hall, so everybody just considers it a part of that one. Each hall had a set subject. Math was in the 100 Hall, along with anything else that was like math. The 200 Hall had English and any of the other languages my school offered. Any kind of elective was down the 300 Hall and the 400 Hall had all of the sciences and physical activity classes. It wasn’t a big school, but there weren’t a lot of kids, so it didn’t need to be.
I dropped my bag, after having reached my table, and took my usual seat. Rarity made her seat across from mine. I looked towards the hall that my first class happened to be down and saw a certain, pink-haired, girl standing alone at the opening of the hallway.
I turned back towards Rarity. “Would you mind if I asked someone else to sit with us?” I noticed that she had taken out her iPad while I was looking at Fluttershy. She must have gotten it sometime the day before. I briefly considered messaging Fluttershy and asking her to sit with us, but decided against it, since it would have been to easy for her to say “no” that way.
She looked up from her iPad and shook her head. “Not at all! I love meeting new people!” I thought about why that attitude hadn’t won her any friends already. I got to my feet and began to make my way towards Fluttershy.
I was quickly interrupted by the annoying kid from gym class. “Quite the lady’s man, aren’t we?” His voice was scratchy and annoying, like a can opener opening a can of food.
“I guess, Jingle,” His real name was “Brandon,” but there were a lot of kids with that name at my school, so a lot of them got called by their last names.
“First that ‘Rainbow Dash’ girl and now her?” He gestured towards the table where Rarity was seated. “How many girlfriends do you have?”
I looked at him with a disgusted look on my face. “They aren’t my girlfriends, all right? I’m just trying to make them comfortable here, nothing else.”
He rolled his eyes, with a bit too much emphasis on the “rolling” part. “Yeah, right. Maybe comfortable snuggled up to you in your bed, but, certainly, not here at school!” He wasn’t very good at come-backs, either.
“Whatever, just go away. I didn’t come over here to talk to you,” I tried to walk around him, but he quickly blocked my path. He was small, but he could really move.
“No! I’m not going anywhere until you say I can have one of your girlfriends!”
I sighed. “They aren’t my girlfriends! And they aren’t mine to give! If you want to date them so badly, go talk to one of them.”
“Really? Awesome! Now where’s that ‘Rainbow Dash’ girl?” He looked around the cafeteria, failed to find her, and then looked back at me for help.
“How should I know? I don’t keep track of her every second of the day,” He then scowled at me and went on his way. I wasn’t worried about it; I knew Rainbow Dash would put him in his place.
I turned back towards Fluttershy and continued my way towards her. She must have noticed me approach, as she looked up at me and smiled. “Hello, Sky,” Although she was still very soft-spoken, she seemed to have warmed up to the idea of talking to me.
“Hey,” I replied as I returned her smile. “How come you’re just standing over here all alone?” Of course, I already knew the answer to that, but I needed an excuse to get on the subject.
“Well,” she began as she looked down at the ground, playing with her hair as she did, “I don’t talk to anybody, really, except for you.”
“Why don’t you come sit with me and some of my friends?”
Her eyes grew as she looked back up at me in shock. “Huh?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fun. They’re really nice and I’m sure they’ll like you,” Although it was just Rarity and me at the table, I thought she might enjoy the thought of meeting a few new people, even if they weren’t really there.
“I don’t know,” She looked away from me and back towards the ground.
“Don’t worry,” I said, “I know they’ll like you,” I reached out my hand, hoping it would soothe her, if ,even, just a little.
She glanced down at my hand and then back up at me. “A-alright,” she said as she placed her hand in mine. Her hand was soft and gentle to the touch. I almost wanted to hold her hand forever; it was just that relaxing.
I smiled at her and led her back to my table. We dodged our way through the crowd of people and finally arrived. I didn’t want to let go, but forced myself to. Rarity was still enthralled in her iPad when I sat down across from her. Fluttershy found a spot just on my right.
Rarity looked up when she noticed us. “Oh, hello. I’m Rarity and you are?”
Fluttershy immediately hid behind her hair and silently whispered her name under her breath. I was only able to hear because the faced my direction. I turned to Rarity, who had a slightly confused expression across her face. “This is Fluttershy,” I explained. “She’s a little shy, but I’m trying to help her make some friends here.”
Rarity’s expression faded into one of understanding and she looked back at Fluttershy, who was now coming out from behind her hair. “Oh, so you’re new here too? Wonderful! We can be new together!” I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but it seemed to help Fluttershy come a little bit farther out from her shell.
They began talking a bit, of course, Rarity doing more than Fluttershy, but progress is progress. I then glanced up at the clock on the wall and saw that we still had about fifteen minutes before the first class started. I looked back down at the girls and simply said, “I’ll be back,” before getting up and walking away from the table.
I began searching the cafeteria for a certain girl. I didn’t know which group she fit in best with, so I wasn’t entirely sure where I should have been looking. There were a few separate groups of students at my school: the jocks, the popular crowd, the nerds, and the country boys.
The jocks were mostly in the center of the cafeteria and a few were scattered around the edges. By far, they were the biggest group, since they had to take multiple tables. They were just what one would expect from a bunch of muscled-up football freaks; they were big and rude. They didn’t care who they upset and would constantly mess with the other kids, but they weren’t, by any means, bullies. Everybody who knew any of the jocks knew that whenever they messed with anyone else, they were only kidding and didn’t mean any of it seriously. It was hard to mistake it for anything else.
The popular kids weren’t like they were in movies or TV shows. They were actually pretty nice and fun to hang out with. They didn’t bully anyone else for being less popular than they were. These guys were just sprinkled around the entire cafeteria. They didn’t have a single spot that they liked to hang out in or a specific group of people that they liked to hang out with. They talked to everybody from the jocks to the nerds. They weren’t stuck up like the popular kids people always hear about in movies, which is probably the reason so many people like them.
The nerds were just your average group of weird kids who didn’t fit in anywhere else. They were all alone in their own little spot by the front of the cafeteria, just beside the stage. The one thing that set them apart from other nerds like you see in TV shows is that they weren’t very smart and I should know, considering I’m near the top of my class. The few goth and emo kids we had in our school like to hang out with these guys, for some reason. But they all got along pretty well, so there was never any drama.
The country boys were the real problem at my school. They thought they were all big and bad since the school was in a rural area. Sure, they were big and strong, but they were dumber than a bag of rocks, even combined. As such, they were the real bullies in my school. They would pick on anybody who got in their way and always got in fights for some dumb reason or another, which were mostly between each other.
I didn’t fit in with any of these groups. I didn’t play sports, so jocks were out, I’m anti-social, so I had no popularity, the nerds were far too weird for my taste, and I was certainly no bully... that and I hate camo colors. I was in a group of my own creation and, as far as I knew, I was the only one in it, which didn’t bother me.
I continued to look around the cafeteria for the girl and soon found her sitting alone, reading a book, her dark purple hair having stood out to me. ‘Of course,’ I thought to myself as I approached her. I sat down across from her and said, “Hey.”
She looked up from her book and smiled. “Oh, hello, Sky.” She certainly looked happy to see me, but I was able to see past that. I could tell that her smile wasn’t real, but I wasn’t able to figure out why. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” I considered asking her what was wrong. After all, we had talked quite a bit the day before and, as far as I knew, I was the only person she had really spoken to. But then again, I had no way of finding out if she had spoken to anybody else. “How about you?”
“I’m doing well, just tired,” Her smile died a bit and her eyes softened.
“Yeah, moving can be pretty annoying,” I couldn’t tell if she was really tired or not. She certainly looked it, but, even if she was, there seemed to be something else bothering her. I decided against bringing it up to avoid sounding too intrusive.
She closed her book and held the page with the attached bookmark, which was little more than a piece of fancy red yarn. “Yeah. But it isn’t so bad. I do like going to new places and meeting new people,”
“Oh, speaking of that; why don’t you come sit with me and my other friends? You look lonely all by yourself.”
“Oh, that’s alright. I’ve got my book, so I’ll be okay here,” She tapped her book for emphasis.
I could see that she wouldn’t change her mind, she just had that kind of look about her, but I decided to try again anyway. “Are you sure? I’m sure they’ll all like you.”
She shook her head just enough to emphasize her point. “I don’t think I’ll be very good with conversation right now, Sky. I’m really tired,” I must have let my disappointment show, because the next thing she said was, “Maybe tomorrow.”
“Alright,” I said, simply. I rose to my feet and stepped away from the table. “See you in class,” I began the walk back to my table through the maze of people. I took one last look back at her and saw that she was opening her book back to the page she had left it on. I just couldn’t seem to figure her out.
As I arrived back at my table, which, I suppose, had then become our table, I noticed that Rarity and Fluttershy had stopped talking. Not because they had gotten on each other’s bad side; it was simply one of those things that you can tell. I assumed it was because they had gotten back into their “new” iPads. They weren’t new, not anymore. The students had gotten them when I was in ninth grade, which was two years before then. Well, to be more accurate, we had gotten them around the middle of that year. So, I suppose, it would have been closer to one and a half years, as it was only a couple of weeks into my junior year.
Rarity looked up at me as I sat down. “Well, where did you run off to, Sky?” It wasn’t long before she was looking back down at her iPad, but Fluttershy had stopped messing with her’s and looked up at me, awaiting my answer.
“I was just trying to find someone else I know, but she was...,” My voice trailed off before I was able to stop it. “...busy.”
“You’re rather popular here, aren’t you?” Rarity said, not even acknowledging my loss for words.
I smiled a little. “Not really. I’m actually more of a loner,” I raised my hands to “shrug off” my previous comment. “If you can believe that.”
Rarity simply “hmm”-ed, eyed me suspiciously, and continued her game. I noticed that Fluttershy had resumed whatever it was that she was doing too. I looked up at the clock and saw that class was starting in a couple of minutes. ‘Wow,’ I thought just as the bell had begun to ring, ‘I didn’t realize how long I was looking for Twilight.’
Fluttershy and I got to our feet, having said our goodbyes to Rarity, and began our walk down our hallway. The walk was longer than it was to my other classes, since Music Appreciation was in the chorus room, which happened to be at the end of the hall along with the rest of the music rooms.
The walk was quiet, neither of us speaking a word. Not because of anything negative, but for the simple fact of not knowing what to say. I really was a loner; I liked to be alone. Some days I prefer to be alone and others I like to hang out and talk with other people; the feelings come and go.
As we passed the orchestra room, I could hear the faint sound of a cello. It was being played wonderfully and I was almost forced to stop and listen a bit longer. I didn’t know many people who were in the orchestra, but I did know one girl who played the cello. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought her name was “Octavia,” but I had only heard it once before. Everybody who knew her said that she was an amazing musician, even having moved some students to tears with her symphonies.
I also knew of one other talented musician at school. Well, “musician” doesn’t seem to suit her properly. She was more of a DJ, which, personally, I considered to be a different, yet equally brilliant, musical performer than what a musician is. Her name was Vinyl Scratch, but a lot of people called her by her stage name, which was DJ PON3. Again, I had never met her, but I had heard that she, too, was incredibly talented.
The two of us entered the room and sat down at our spot. Henry, for once, showed up a few minutes afterwards, but before the late bell had a chance to ring. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” I replied simply. “How come you’re here so early?” I tilted my head towards him to better hear what story he had come up with this time.
“I was late getting to school because my dad decided not to wake me up,” He leaned his head back against his chair and looked up at the ceiling. “I just got here a few minutes ago and didn’t know what time it was, so I just came straight here.”
“You don’t have an alarm clock?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t have any money for one.”
“Ask someone for some money or, better yet, ask them to get you an alarm clock.”
“I don’t ask for money,” He picked his head off of the chair and looked ahead at the front board.
I let out a sigh. “Then I don’t know what to tell you, Henry,” Sure, he could have been telling the truth, but how was I to know?
He turned back in my direction and looked behind me. “How’s it going Fluttershy?”
She simply smiled a bit and whispered something along the lines of, “I’m fine.”
Henry chuckled, saying, “Still kind of shy, huh?” At that moment, the bell rang and the teacher began class.
Nothing interesting happened throughout the class period. We finished early, as always, and talked or played games for the rest of the time. Fluttershy and I talked a bit, but not about any one thing. She seemed to become more interested when I told her about how there’s a stray dog that sometimes sleeps in the middle of my road, but the conversation quickly ended when Henry decided that he needed to be involved in it.
The bell rang and I told Fluttershy goodbye. I’ll admit that I was a little anxious to see Twilight and see how she was doing. I was a little bit worried about her. She did seem tired, but there was something that was a little... off about the whole thing; I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
I walked into the classroom and set my things down at my desk. Twilight walked into the room soon after and dropped her things on the floor beside her desk. I could tell that she wasn’t as attentive as she had been the previous day. Perhaps it was that she was tired and I was over-analyzing everything. I tended to do that. Sometimes I would make a normal day into a terrible one, just by thinking about a “bump in the road” over the course of the day.
Soon after, we were handed our worksheets and told to finish them by the end of class. I finished mine just as quickly as I had the other ones, but I noticed that Twilight was moving a little more slowly than she had been. I was finally able to convince myself that she was tired and that there was nothing more to it. I remembered what I had said to her before, “Moving can be pretty annoying.”
She finished a few minutes later and returned to her seat. She took out her book and began reading at the spot that her yarn told her she had left off at. I thought about talking to her, but told myself that it would rude to interrupt her reading. So, instead, I took out my iPad to play a game. I couldn’t help but glance back up at her one more time, though. Something didn’t seem to be right.
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Later that day, I found myself eating the food that the lunch ladies provided. This meal proved to be much better tasting than any of the other meals they had prepared for us. It was a simple chicken tender meal, but it was far beyond anything they had actually took the time to prepare. I always said that whatever they didn’t make themselves was, almost, always better than anything they did.
“Hey there, Sky,” I heard from just out of my field of vision. I looked over to see Applejack nearing the table with a tray of her own in her hands. She had gotten the same thing I had: chicken tenders. She also had some apple wedges to go along with them, which I didn’t care for myself.
“Hey, Applejack,” I replied just before taking a bite out of the tender that I had already grabbed. “What’s up?”
“Nothin’ too much, how about yourself?” She sat down across from me and began munching on her apple wedges, eating about half of each one in a single bite.
“Just bored is all,” I knew what I looked like at the time: distant and as if I wasn’t completely there, because I wasn’t. I was still thinking about Twilight and how she was acting. I couldn’t seem to push it from my mind.
Suddenly, I was ripped away from my thoughts as I heard a loud, practically shouting, voice from behind. “Hey, Sky! Hey, Applejack!”
I turned to see Pinkie sitting down beside me with a lunch box covered in multicolored balloons in her hands. “Hey, Pinkie,” Applejack said as she took another bite of her apple slice. “What’cha been up to?”
“Nothing, really...,” She began to look a little distant herself. “Except having an amazing day!” I should’ve known. “Last class was so much fun! We made some kind of bubbly chemical in Chemistry! It was green, but then it turned blue and I was like,” She made a surprised face, which included putting her hands on her cheeks, and gasped. “Everybody else thought it was boring, but I loved it!”
I couldn’t resist myself. “You two know each other?”
“Yeah,” Applejack replied, “We’re in the same Algebra class,” She smiled a bit. “Pinkie certainly livens things up in there!” Having finished her apples, she began to reach for her chicken strips. “How about you? How do ya’ll know each other?”
“We’re-”
“Sky is in Culinary Arts with me!” Pinkie blurted, barely giving me a chance to get a single word out of my mouth. “He’s the one who helped me make cupcakes yesterday!”
“Oh, yeah. Pinkie told me about that earlier today. She said you were pretty good in the kitchen,” Honestly, I think some blood went into my cheeks. It had been a while since anybody had given me a compliment.
---------------
Since we had finished all of the cupcakes, Chef having frosted them all in some of her free time, that day was pretty slow. We simply read a chapter out of our textbooks and finished all of the work in about an hour. It was rare that we ever got free time, since we were always so busy in there, so everybody took advantage of it, including Pinkie and I.
“So, how come the football game is today? I would’ve put it on a Friday, like lots of other schools do,” Pinkie said as she sat back down at her seat with her small, foam cup-full of water. We had an ice machine in the room, so Chef got some little cups for us to get water if we ever wanted it. We also had a bathroom in the room, which was nice, but a little uncomfortable to use, since everyone could hear almost every sound that came from inside.
“Actually, it was supposed to happen last Friday, but it got rained out. Then there was a bad storm on Saturday and, I guess, nobody wanted to have a game on Sunday or Monday, so now now it’s supposed to happen today, but I think it’ll just rain again,” The weather was never nice there, but I liked it that way. I liked the rain, I liked the storms, and I even liked when the TV went off because of all of the clouds. It’s a little strange, but I just felt so much cozier inside of my house because of how bad it was outside.
“What about this Friday?” Pinkie asked before taking a sip of her water. A drop or two fell on her chef jacket, but she didn’t notice. It didn’t really matter, though. After all, water doesn’t stain a lot of things. Chef always stressed about how important it was to have a clean uniform every day, which was true, since a lot of germs and stuff like that can easily get picked up on a uniform.
“There’s another game this Friday, but it’s an away game, so we aren’t making anything for it,” I never really knew the schedule for the games until I got involved in Culinary Arts. I just knew that there was a game. I didn’t know who it was against, what the theme was, or if it was going to be at home or away. “But that reminds me... Do you have a ride to the game?”
“Of course, silly! Why wouldn’t I?” She talked like she was offended, but didn’t imply it or act like it.
I laughed under by breath. “I don’t know. I was just wondering because I don’t have one and I wanted to know if you could give me a ride to the game. Would you?”
She smiled. “Yeah! No problem! I’m sure AJ wouldn’t mind driving the both of us!”
I wasn’t expecting Applejack to be her ride. I mean, I knew that they knew each other, but I didn’t think they were that close. “Oh, Applejack’s taking you?”
“Yep! I asked her earlier today and she said okay!” She didn’t sound surprised by Applejack’s answer in the slightest.
“Just like that?”
“Well,” There it was. “she did seem a little shocked, but then she said she was going anyway and that she could drive me. So I think she could take you too!”
I didn’t see how that added up to Applejack being able to take both me and Pinkie, but I went with it anyway. “Alright. Well, here’s my phone number.” I pulled out a piece of scrap paper and scribbled down the ten digits that made up my number, handing it to her afterwards. “Just text me or something when you ask her and tell me what she says.”
She took the piece of paper and examined it, making her own little scribbles on it with a pencil that I was sure she didn’t have before then. “Okey dokey lokey!”
---------------
Gym was boring that day. We didn’t do much except learn about what a racket was and the different parts that it had on it. Afterwards we were let loose to try our hands at badminton using the nets that had been set up earlier in the day.
Rainbow and I paired up again for the simple fact that she didn’t know or particularly like anybody else there. The same went for me. The class was full of all of the big jerks who thought they were better than everybody else because they were stronger and better at sports than most of the others. It works in the same way as me thinking they were stupid because I was better at math than they were.
“So what exactly are we gonna do in this class?” Rainbow asked as the birdie left her racket.
“It’s supposed to be basketball, badminton, and bowling, but it’s better than the other choices for a gym credit,” The other choices were a yoga and Junior ROTC, which was basically a military class.
“Can’t argue with that,” she said as the birdie hit the ground after I failed to swing at in time. “That’s game!”
I chuckled. Her competitiveness was almost contagious. “Oh well, I’m getting kind of tired anyway. I think I’ll take a little break,” Rainbow let out a short laugh, but followed me to the bench.
I sat down and rested my arms on my knees. It might not seem like it, but badminton is exhausting , especially with someone like Rainbow as an opponent. “ So are you going to the game tonight?” I asked as she sat down beside me and almost mimicked my position. The only difference was that she wasn’t leaning as far as I was and her hands were held together.
“Yeah, I thought about it and I think I’ll go. Only to see what the team is like. Are they any good?” She turned to me and I saw her rainbow-colored hair fall just over her far shoulder.
“Not really,” I simply said. I may not have been to many of their games, but I knew that much about our team. “I almost never go, but everybody says they suck. I’m only going tonight to help sell cupcakes for Culinary Arts.”
“Oh,” She looked back ahead and I heard her let out a sigh. I looked up and saw Jingle making his way towards us.
“What’s the matter, Sky? Tired already?” He smiled that toothy grin of his and looked at Rainbow. “Why do you play with this guy? He’s not good at anything.”
“He’s better than you,” she said simply. ‘Ouch,’ I thought to myself. ‘She hardly even defended me.’
“You think so?” He crossed his arms and looked back at me. “Fine. I’ll play you in a game and the winner gets to spend the rest of the semester playing with Rainbow Dash,”
I looked up at him with a look that said, “Are you an idiot?”
But before I had a chance to actually speak, Rainbow spoke up instead. “Deal,” I then looked at her with a raised eyebrow. ‘Is she sure about this? What if I lose?’ Then I thought rationally for a moment. ‘Wait, this is Jingle. What are the odds of me losing?’
“Alright,” Jingle said as he tossed his racket into the air and watched it fall back into his hand. “Let’s play to five. Rainbow can judge,” He pointed to her with the tip of his racket. He then walked back towards the net that Rainbow and I had been playing at.
I looked back towards Rainbow as I stood up. “Don’t worry. He stinks at sports.”
She nodded. “Oh, I know. I was kind of watching him while we played. It was a little sad.”
I smiled and walked to the side of the net opposite of Jingle, racket in hand. “Ready?” He asked in a tone that implied that he was going to start regardless of whether or not I was ready to. Just as I thought, he didn’t wait for an answer before serving.
I watched the birdie fly towards the ceiling, which was twenty-five feet in the air, I might add, and fall back down, practically straight at me. I simply raised my racket and bumped it just hard enough to fall back on his side. It sailed just over the net and fell to the ground, bouncing once and then rolling in a small circle. That wasn’t a bad tactic. Hit the birdie hard enough to make it hit the ground as close to the net as possible, but not so soft as to let it fall on my own side.
Jingle grumbled and walked towards the birdie that sat on the ground. He picked it up and leered at me as he turned around and walked back towards his serving position. I looked towards Rainbow and shrugged. She grinned, shrugged back, and held up her left finger to show the score.
He tossed the birdie into the air and swung at it. This time hitting it in a straight line to my left. It was a little harder to get to, but I was able to make contact with it after taking a step in that direction. I knew I wouldn’t have been able to bump it over the net again, so I swung harder this time. The birdie sailed off to the far side of the court: my right.
Expecting it, Jingle quickly walked towards that area and bumped it over the net, just as I had done. My eyes opened a bit as I quickly jumped towards the birdie. But I was too late. The birdie bounced against the ground and landed beside my foot. I sighed as I saw Rainbow hold up her right hand and extend a finger out of the corner of my eye. She didn’t seem at all phased by the fact that Jingle scored a point.
“You’re a little off your game, huh?” Jingle said as he “swaggered” back towards his starting position. It was more of a stumble, really.
“Whatever,” I said simply as I picked up the birdie and stepped back to serve. I tossed the thing into the air and swung, aiming for his far left. I watched as the birdie flew closer to the out-of-bounds line than I had wanted, but it was as close to the line as it could possibly get, so I couldn’t complain.
Jingle went straight for it, just like I wanted him to. He swung and sent it back towards me. It was a little risky, as he could have simply tapped it over the net again, but I knew he wouldn’t be able to do that. He was forced to backhand it, which meant it would be harder than usual to simply tap it.
The birdie came flying in my direction. I grinned and immediately swung for the side of court opposite of where Jingle was. He tried to run for it, but was far too late. He had barely made it halfway across the court before it hit the ground. It was as simple as the trick before: force him on one side of the court then hit the birdie on the opposite side. It was very difficult to run across the court in enough time to hit it well enough to send it back over the net.
He sighed and grabbed the birdie in his hand. I could see him squeeze the rubber tip as he walked. Yes, I could have taunted him, but I like to think of myself as above that.
He held the birdie in front of him in his left hand with the rubber piece facing downward. His racket swung towards the rubber and sent the thing flying into the air once more. ‘He’s making this too easy,’ I thought as I shot it back towards him.
He swung and hit the birdie almost perfectly. It flew onto the side of the court opposite of where I was. Luckily, his first shot was closer towards the middle, so I was barely able to make contact before had a chance to hit the ground. But I had already prepared for what he was planning. I jumped back towards the center of the court before the birdie even met his racket. As soon as he made contact, I was at the net, ready to send the rubber tip into the ground. He, being a little frazzled because I was ready for his trick, screwed up the shot and sent it straight for me. I simply held up my racket and watched as the birdie bounced off of it and fell to the ground.
“Fine!” he shouted as he swung his racket towards the ground. “I give up! You win!” He scowled at me before marching away in defeat. I watched him head back towards his little group before I turned back towards Rainbow Dash, who was only smiling.
“What?” I asked as I walked back towards her and took my spot beside her.
“I knew you would win. I’ll admit I didn’t think he would forfeit, but I knew he couldn’t beat you,” She simply smiled as the coach ordered everyone into the locker rooms to change.
---------------
I boarded the bus and walked back towards my usual seat near the end. I was surprised to see that Rarity had beaten me there. “Hey, Rarity,” I said as I sat down in the seat across from her.
She must not have noticed me until I said something because her eyes were wide when she turned towards my voice. “Oh, hello, Sky.”
“How’d you get here so fast?” I asked with a raised eyebrow as I placed my bag in the seat next to me to keep other people from sitting with me, namely, Henry.
“Oh, my last class is just down this last hallway, so it doesn’t take much time to get here,” She pointed back towards the doors that lead back into the 200 Hall.
“Oh, cool. My class is, literally, at the farthest end of the school, so it takes a bit of time for me to get here,” I smiled a bit at my own expense. Rarity giggled under her breath. “So are you going to the game tonight?”
“I don’t think so. Football just seems so... rough and... dirty,” She squinted her eyes for effect.
“Yeah, but it’s fun! Plus, it’s a great way to meet new people,” I didn’t know why I was so interested in the game. The day before I wasn’t even phased by it and then I was trying to get people to change their minds and go to it!
“I suppose. Will you be there?” She raised an eyebrow at me and stuck out her lips. Why should me being there make a difference to her? We were friends. Could that be it?
“Y-yeah. Well, I think so. Someone is supposed to drive me there, but I haven’t gotten an answer yet, so...”
“Hmm,” She took a couple of moments to think about the situation. “Alright, I’ll go. But only if you can go too. After all, I don’t want to be all alone there!” She pulled a piece of scrap paper out of her bag and scribbled something down on it. She handed it to me saying, “Tell me if you’re able to go once you find out.”
I took the piece of paper and saw that it was her phone number. I felt my heart jump. Two days and I had already gotten her phone number! Sure, it was for a reason other than just talking, but I still got it! “Alright, I’ll text you when I find out.”
She smiled and put in her ear buds. I remembered that I had left my iPod at home, so no music for me. But it was alright. I had a lot to think about anyway.
---------------
I put the key into the lock and twisted. I felt the click and twisted the knob, which turned with a grunt. I walked into the house and dropped my stuff off in my room before going into the living room, phone in hand.
I flipped on the TV and watched some dumb show about a bunch of idiots doing idiotic things for about an hour until I heard my phone go off. I looked down to see that it was an unknown number. ‘Pinkie, no doubt,’ I thought as I opened up the message and read it. “Hi! It’s Pinkie! AJ said she could pick you up, but she needs your address. Here’s AJ’s number: ----------.”
I dead-panned at no one in particular. Of course she would need my address. How else was she to get me? I responded, “Ok, thanks,” and programmed both their numbers into my phone. I then opened up a new message to Applejack saying, “Hey, it’s Sky. Thanks for the ride to the game! Here’s my address: -- O-- rd.”
I waited a few minutes and got a response from Applejack, who simply said, “Alright and don’t mention it!”
I shot a message at Rarity to tell her that I was going to the game after all. She replied, “Ok, then I’ll see you there!”
I got up to make something to eat before I starved myself. The only thing I had eaten that day was the barely-edible chicken that I had gotten for lunch. I grabbed a tiny bowl of un-cooked macaroni and filled it with water. I liked eating macaroni and cheese, I didn’t understand why more people didn’t like it. It went with almost anything and was awesome!
I glanced up at the clock: five-fifteen. I still had about an hour or so before I would have needed to get ready, so I spent that time watching TV, eating my macaroni, and thinking about how great the game was going to be now that I had some friends to hang out with there. Or, at least, I would have had the TV not gone out...
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The chapter was nice, though I'm surprised about how many jerks the guy knows.
bed
if
That's as far as I could read. I'll continue later. I've been waiting so long for this chapter!
My
5036074
I'll be sure to get an editor on my next one before I put it up! 
I guess I had a few typos...
5040150 It's fine. Also, great chapter!
I know I'm taking forever with posting the new chapters. Yes, I have excuses. No, I won't share them in the comments. If you want to know, message me and I'll tell you. Now that that's out of the way, the next chapter will be ready for posting after I make some tweaks. I'd do that now if it weren't for the fact that I can't find my laptop charger anywhere.
But yeah, the next chapter will be up as soon as I am physically able to tweak and upload it. There's also a special little twist in this one, so you can look forward to that while you wait.