The normal life of Nitpick Bittersweet

by Ryusun

Chapter 63- You are scaring her, Flash!

It was October 20th. A new week came once again to greet the living with the possibility of choosing new paths, keep on traveling the same ones, or have a brief moment of respite and think about the future. What kind of action I will choose in this particular week?

Trying to remember how to solve my nightmarish test could be an excellent start.

I was facing my greatest challenge yet in the academic fields since the time I teamed up with Midnight last year. The physics test was starting to get a life on its own. Or so I thought. This piece of paper was mocking my existence, enjoying its greatest pleasure in making my student's life more miserable that it already was. It could possibly be an exaggeration on my part, considering that I had a house to return to and many other privileges that many lack.

But even so, although it may sound cruel, those weren't my immediate problems. Right now, I had to overcome this challenge somehow. I briefly observed my peers while they were doing their tests. It was a better panorama than the one from the last time. Overall, most students were assertive while writing their answers to their sheets, even though some were having a kind of delay in their actions. To my relief, Dash had a calmer expression in her visage, having her usual cocky smile exposed to the world to see.

By seeing that, I reread my test once again with new found resolve, trying to remember all the lessons that Sugarcoat blessed me with during our little chat on yesterday's evening. She was as bitchy as always at teaching the four of us through Stalpy Live Messenger, but she managed to overcome her innate rage against Blueblood's lack of...uh, scientific intellect in these fields of science. Reem was a better student than us despite her strange quirks, and Gilda and I were doing our best to follow our teacher’s steps.

Now, after partially remembering her lessons, I was able to transform the once mocking face of my test into readable words and I proceeded to answer it. Not as hard as I thought, considering that the trigonometry's test was somewhat bothersome as well. Ethics was so easy that I could have just closed my eyes while answering it.

"I finished!" An enthusiastic Scientist got up her chair while delivering her test to our illustrious teacher.

"Ohohoho! Excellent job once again, Miss Twilight Sparkle! I knew you would finish first once again! Oh! Miss Shimmer and Mr. Microchip are done as well! You can do whatever you want in your chairs in silence while you wait for your friends to finish their test!" Said Santa Calculus in his sickly happy tone.

Those three walked back to their seats in quietly. Or so I thought. Before she took her seat, I felt that my friend gave me a quick glance, even when I was trying to focus solely on my test.

"You can do it." She mumbled with a sweet tone.

She shouldn't have said that. I was feeling still somewhat guilty after allowing Sugarcoat to stomp on her a few times during our first day on our communitarian duties. I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a decision that would bite me in the ass later... I hope it was the right thing for her, for my karma, and most importantly, for her sake.

...

"Done at last." I delivered my test to my teacher.

I believe this time I'll get a better note. When I told my Father that I got my first D on last time's test, he nearly cut my allowance for this month. Thankfully, Mother intervened, but for a silly reason. She still thought that I had a girlfriend in the form of Sunset Shimmer, and I needed all the money at my disposal to treat her like royalty until I could find a part-time job like Dancer. Yeah, that’s not happening anytime soon. At least the royalty part. I was indeed searching for a job, an easy one to start to get the ropes on being a corporate slave in my future.

The bell rang, marking the time to go my next class of literature. I took a little detour to my favorite vending machine to buy a Chocolate of Spirit to refuel my sugar reserves. What is this shit? They raised the fucking price of them by seven cents. Greedy bastards! Oh well, you only live once.

My Sixth Sense!

"Hey, man! What's up?" A 'friendly' greeting was spoken from behind, given me an unsettling chilling on my spine.

"Flash..." I didn't turn around until my chocolate was on my hand. "There we go. What do you want?"

"Why do you think I want something?"

I don't know, cool guy, perhaps because this part of the hallway is far away from your mandatory route to your classroom.

"Well, I just thought you wanted something from me. If it is not the case, I should go." Before I could leave the place, I was stopped from my arm.

"Have you talked with Twilight recently?"

I knew it would be something related to her.

"Besides during the time in our job on those organizations, no, I haven’t."

"Really?" He asked a little more intensely.

"Look, Sentry! I'll tell you once more so you can burn it in that brain of yours! Date her several times and confess to her if you believe she is the one! Just don’t rush things like a desperate idiot! And if you get rejected, deal with it!"

"So you don't know?"

"Know what? No, forget it! I don't want to be part of any silly gossip this time around! This school makes things too annoying for its own sake! I really must go to my next class now."

I left him there while I focused my will to my objective: arriving on time to Cranky’s boring class. I saw the Cutie Crusaders in the room talking about their stuff. The three of them greeted me with shimmering beauty and cheerfulness that could leave my eyes blind by the radiance of their teeth. Applebloom called me once again Bub-in-law. I was too lazy to search it’s meaning on the web so I just returned her probably sweet nickname in kind, much to her approval.

Seriously, the middle school children from the academy would look at me in fright. I miss that little sense of personal space. But if it is the Crusaders, I guess I could let it pass. They are cute... Oh no, I can’t walk in that kind of trap with my age. Just a few months more and…

“Good morning, students. Let’s finish this quickly!” Said the teacher while arriving with unusual speed to his desk.

The rest of my companions followed not far behind his shadow and soon enough, another boring chore from him was delivered to us. It seems that his test will be on the next class because he had a kind of a ‘problem’ in preparing them for the occasion. That’s another way to say that he forgot about today or he simply didn’t care enough. Seriously, how this guy became a teacher is beyond me. He even let us go around thirty minutes earlier because he has some duties from the Principal he needed to finish. Not complaining but… Ah forget it!

Time to waste some time alone in the library and play Fire Seal! I need to grind some levels… my main character’s resistance growth simply sucks! No! Every single one of my units sucks! Stupid RNG Goddess and her middle finger on my progress! TWENTY SEVEN LEVELS AND MY AVATAR JUST HAVE TEN OF POINTS OF RESISTANCE! REALLY?

Must… Calm down… this time it will be different, I can feel it.

…

EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME IS THE SAME SHIT, OVER AND OVER!

These games are worse than playing the lottery with my family! Every single fucking time you believe you’re going to get lucky, the RNG Goddess, Fortuna, comes down from the heavens, fucks up my already bad luck and leaves to her throne with a trolling mask on her face.

“Psst! Nitty…!”

“UH?”

“Over here!”

…What the hell?

I took a seat from the table where the voice came from. Seeing her like that filled me with a kind of embarrassment. “May I know what are you doing below the PC tables, Sparkion?” I’ll whisper as long as she does it.

“Hiding.” She whispered even lower than before.

“No shit, Sherlock!”

“Language.”

“Ugh… Flash, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you talked to him about your feelings on the matter?”

“Yes! I already rejected him!”

“Really? I knew you could… wait, when?”

“The Sunday from two weeks ago! He and I had… a kind of a date. It didn’t end well.”

That explains Flash’s weird attitude from earlier.

“Why are you hiding here in the first place?”

“Ever since that day, I have felt that someone was watching me from afar! At first, I thought it was my imagination, but then, Spike saw a shadow following me while I was on my own on the school! He, uh, sensed that it was Flash!”

Flash a… No, no, and no! It can’t be!

“And you ended up here because…?”

“I think I saw Flash again in the corner while I was returning from the bathroom, so I rushed and hid here! Oh! Why did I have to leave Spike with Sunset on the classroom?”

“Sunset is aware of this possible behavior of his?”

“Yes! But she says that maybe he wants my friendship still… but I can’t give that to him either!”

“Text Sunset to come for you, then! That way you will not be alone!”

And I’m sure she’ll help you in shun him away better than I.

“I can’t!”

“Why!?”

“I forgot my phone on the desk!”

“…”

My curiosity, and stupefaction, was starting to flare to dangerously high levels, making me put my 3SD back in my special, hidden pocket on my long-shirt. Should I ask?

“Won’t you ask me what happened between us?” She said a little... expectative.

“Only if you sit beside me like a normal, human girl.”

“Hehe, fair enough.”

She took a seat and sat uncomfortably close to me. That feeling disappeared immediately after she told me the whole story. The start sounded like a typical first date for someone like her… it was the last part that rubbed me in the wrong way. To say that I was shocked, baffled, angered and ready to smash his face would be a massive understatement.

“Dating someone to replace your former lover… what kind of asshole does that!?”

“…”

“Sorry, language.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind it that much.” Said Midnight while playing with her hands.

“So as long as it’s him, I can curse whatever I want, huh?”

“No! Behave yourself, fiend!”

“Fiend? Your kind of rejection was a monstrosity on its own right! Not even Reem could have come with such a crushing speech! Perhaps Sugarcoat could trump that…”

“That’s not true! You say meaner things daily! Just like during last Saturday where you were supposed to defend me from Sugarcoat, but you sided with her! To be honest, I felt a little betrayed…”

“Sorry, but I said the truth! You can’t be a pushover for the rest of your life! There will come the day where you must put your chin high and beat your opposition to the ground! Whether it is literally or metaphorically, I’ll leave that to you!”

“Mmm…!”

“Come on! You should be happy! You rejected Flash! In a well-deserved but cruel fashion, but rejected him nonetheless! Don’t you feel a little more secure about your persona?”

“N-not that much.” She was blushing intensely while looking at the side.

“Don’t lie to me, Sparkion!”

“Stop calling me like that!” She said in a loud tone. Luckily, Cheerilee wasn’t around to hear that.

“Good! That’s the way!”

“Then will you stop calling me like that?” She smiled for the possibility of her wish being fulfilled.

“Will you stop calling me Nitty?”

“I like that name for you, it is of my own invention!”

“Then you will eventually love the name I thought for you, too!” I chuckled.

“Arrgghh! You are impossible!”

“If you are feeling safer now, we should…”

My Sixth Sense!

“What’s wrong? Why did you shake a little?”

“I just had a sudden bad feeling!” I whispered. “We should go…”

“Yes! Let’s go back with Sunset in the classroom!”

“Uh, Shimmer…?”

“You are friends with her… right?”

“Ah, yeah, sorta… no! I’ll leave you there with her and I’ll see you in a few minutes on the next class! Let’s go!”

“Don’t pull my hand- waaah!”

Seriously, the day I ask Sunset Shimmer any favor of sorts, that day I will ask her out again!

Midnight and I were walking on the empty halls of the school in a quick fashion. I was sure that I felt the guy around the place inside the library. But this wasn’t the first time my sense deceived me since the first time I arrived to this school. Fucking weird institution and it’s almost crazy population. Just a few steps more and-

I brusquely stopped our journey.

“Why did we stop?”

“I… no...”

There was a time when I had a desire to be with Bookful Sporty, my first crush, to the point of trying to reach her intellectual capabilities and nimble skills in the physical department, just to have something to talk with her. Even I gave her that nickname of hers, just like with Twilight who is Midnight, or like Gilda who is Gily, Blueblood the Asshole, and some other nicknames to my closer friends. In the realms of my foolish youth, you could say that I was extremely infatuated by her, even when I discovered that she already had a love interest.

I learned a hard lesson that day: You must let go if you truly love someone. My Grandfather reinforced me that teaching of life with the following:

‘Son, people often misunderstands rejection with a future opportunity to try again much later, if interest still exists. That’s because it’s on our nature to achieve happiness, even if it is a selfish one. Others choose resentment, which in a way, is a healthy method to move to something else, as long as you don’t affect third parties and grow from the experience… But remember! There are people that choose something far worst. Something that could lead to disastrous results in the possible future.’

I asked him what was that last choice… he never answered it, choosing to let life teach that to me.

I was scared in that moment while I stood there in deep reflection, finally learning the final piece my Grandfather omitted on his speech.

Obsessions can end up in dangerous outcomes, whether psychological or physiological. In worst a case scenario, a combination of the two. How should I approach this dilemma? How should solve this problem of her? This is beyond her current capabilities, but I can’t intervene that much if I expect her to grow.

Perhaps I spoke too soon about my dating with her.

For my annoyance, or in this case, blessing, I added her number in case I would need something of utter importance from her during the Thanksgiving event. While I used my cellphone to contact Shimmer through text messaging, Midnight was looking around like a mouse would do when it sensed danger in a quiet habitat. Thinking this with mockery, my first text to Sunset would be for…

-Nitpick: I need your help.

I hope she replies quick- OH!

-Sunset: Anything I can help you with, friend? :*

Ughhh! Sensing that she was willing to help me from the bottom of her heart disturbed me even more than the menace that was around the corner of the next corridor. I texted her to say that if it wasn’t much trouble that if she could come and rendezvous with us. Not forgetting to bring Spike, of course. I must ask Lightbulb what kind of breakfast diners are popular for dates around here. Something cheap would be nice since Shimmer isn’t my girl.

Hopefully, when she comes for us, she will spirit away the guy around the corner who I once thought belonged to the ‘Cool Guy’ trope.

Author's Note:

As always, comments, suggestions and corrections are welcome!

Comments

[Guy With No Name]

If Nitpick had a Luck stat, it would be in the negative range by now.....

[Adusk]

7157076

Nitpick Stats:

Luck: 1

Charisma: 7

Intilect: 6

Strength: 8

Agility: 8

(I has been playing Fallout 4...)

Anyway, Nice cover art Ryusun!

[Ryusun]

7162522
7157076

I haven't given any thought of a stat system to my characyers until you mentioned it... Mmm! I could do something about that in a future as a joke chapter of sorts!

Note: I think that my OC's luck would be neutral, to not say other words.

[Adusk]

7177019 Yeah, But for me nitpicks luck is crap.

[Adusk]

7177019 Yeah, But for me nitpicks luck is crap.