9. Sergeant Cinch's Angry Hearts Club Band
Indigo’s eyes shot open.
For a while, she thought she was still in the cottage, curled up in a ball by Bulk’s side. Then, she remembered the blur that was the last couple of days of vacation. The long way home; them joining Lemon Zest at the funeral; Lemon, staring into space with her ears covered by headphones.
Indigo turned in her bed and closed her eyes, but at the same time, the alarm of her phone rang. She groaned, realising that it was the first day of the school year.
When she got up and took a shower, she realised that maybe it was for the best; for the last few days, she was either worried, sad, or just staring at the wall of her room, too drained to do anything. Having something to occupy her mind and keep her busy would be a nice change.
She put her uniform on and looked at herself in the mirror. After the whole vacation without it, Indigo thought she looked ridiculous. She lowered her socks and skewed the skirt, before turning around and going to the kitchen.
After some cereal and a big cup of coffee, Indigo was ready to go. She went to the living room to grab her bag and the motorcycle helmet, when she saw her father sitting on the couch.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you to school?” he asked.
Indigo rolled her eyes. “Dad, I’m not in the fifth grade anymore.”
“I’m just worried when you ride a motorbike to school,” he replied. “Lemon Zest–”
“Her mother had cancer,” Indigo said, shuddering. “She didn’t die in a crash. Also, you bought me that motorbike in the first place.”
Her father waved his hand. “Okay, okay. I’m just worried. My on– I mean, my daughter will soon be an adult…”
Indigo nodded. “Yeah. But for now, I have to go to school, dad.”
She walked to the garage and kicked the starter of her motorbike. Soon, she was riding down the street, still thinking about something her father said. Of course, he was worried about Lemon; he knew her mother well, and went to the funeral with Indigo, but there was something else. Indigo noticed that he almost called her his only daughter. Poor Lighting, she thought. Mom and dad don’t even want to think about her. Was it worse than dead parents? Indigo thought so.
She imagined what’d happen if her parents chose to forget about her and trembled. Of course there were her friends and Bulk, but that wouldn’t be the same.
Indigo pushed the brakes, seeing Sunny Flare sitting at the bus stop, her eyes focused on the screen of her wrist devices. “Hello,” Indigo said. “What are you doing?”
“Have you heard of those self-driving cars they’re testing now?” Sunny Flare asked. “Some schmuck in one is gonna have a bad day…”
“That’s why I prefer stuff without computers in it,” Indigo replied. “Get on my bike. I’d rather not be late.”
Sunny Flare sat in the back of Indigo’s motorbike and they drove towards Crystal Prep.
“On a side note, aren’t you afraid that you’ll get caught for hacking?” Indigo asked.
“Oh, please,” Sunny Flare replied. “They can only track me to some third world shithole. And even if that company does find me, remember that my mother is a TV personality. She writes soap operas and was in Late Night with Discord. At best, they may even hire me.”
“Or we’ll never hear from you again.” Indigo chuckled. “If one day you’ll wake up in some basement where masked guys will introduce you to waterboarding, don’t tell that I didn’t warn you.”
“Wait, you mean this sport that is like water skiing, but with one board?”
Indigo groaned. “No, that’s wakeboarding. Waterboarding is…” She looked back at Sunny Flare. “Actually, nevermind.” She turned and focused on the road, taking over the school bus and stopping in front of a zebra crossing to let some excited kids in Crystal Prep uniforms cross the street. As soon as they were safe on the pavement, she twisted the throttle grip, causing the engine to roar, startling them.
Indigo chuckled and turned towards the car park and stopped by the door of the school.
“Showing off to a bunch of second graders?” Sunny Flare shook her head, getting off the motorbike. “Of course. Lessons didn’t even start, but Indigo Zap has to pull off some weird–”
Someone behind her cleared her throat. Indigo and Sunny turned to see Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet approaching them.
“So…” Sour Sweet frowned. “Lemon said she’s not coming to school today.”
“Strange,” Sunny said. “I mean, I don’t remember her saying anything since the funeral.”
Sour Sweet gave Sunny a long, stern look. “She didn’t have to say anything and I understood her.” She sighed. “You too should know when to shut up.”
“Clearly,” Sugarcoat muttered, rolling her eyes behind Sour Sweet’s back. “We’re gonna visit her after school, by the way.” She turned to Indigo. “So, no giving swirlies to freshmen after Cinch’s speech.”
“I never gave any kid a swirly,” Indigo replied. “Except maybe once, in the fourth grade. And it wasn’t even me, it was Sour Sweet.”
“That was eight years ago? Time sure flies,” Sour Sweet said. “Tell anyone about that and your head will end up in the toilet. Separated from the rest of the body.”
“Yeah, Sour, we love you too,” Indigo muttered, looking at the school. “Better get inside. If we’re late, Cinch will have our kidneys for lunch.”
“Do you think she’s still upset about The Friendship Games?” Sunny asked when they walked up the stairs towards the hall.
“‘Upset’ doesn’t even begin to describe it,” Sugarcoat said. “She probably spent her vacation in some dark room, plotting revenge or something.”
They joined the crowd filling the corridors. It seemed that someone polished all the crystal walls before their arrival, but Indigo knew that was a futile task; at the end of the day, they’d be full of fingerprints again, much to the janitor’s annoyance. Misbehaving students were often sent to help with cleaning it; since it happened to her, Indigo preferred not to rest herself against the walls.
By the entrance of the hall, they saw Dean Cadance, who furrowed her eyebrows, looking at Indigo.
“Ms. Zap, pull your socks up,” Cadance said. “I tell you that every day since you started school.”
“Yes, ma’am…” Indigo pulled her socks up and joined her friends. After a while, she looked around and lowered the socks to her ankles again.
“Screw the rules, but only when no one looks, huh?” Sugarcoat deadpanned.
“I can always be like my sister,” Indigo said. “In her only photo in the school uniform, she had two different socks. But they both were full of holes.”
“And look where it took her,” Sunny Flare muttered.
They took their seats in the hall, staring at the stage in front of them. Indigo looked around, searching for familiar faces. She saw the coach. He was busy looking at some particularly interesting crystal, but when he noticed Indigo and her friends, he walked to them; while he wasn’t as muscular as Bulk, his long dark hair and beard made his appearance no less threatening.
“Good morning, Mr. Sombra,” Indigo said.
“Morning,” Mr. Sombra replied. “We have the first soccer training tomorrow after lessons.”
“Sure,” Indigo said.
Sombra frowned. “I can’t see our offensive midfielder with you. Is she okay?”
“Lemon?” Sunny asked. “She… Well, she had a rough time recently…”
“Her mother died, there’s no use beating around the bush,” Sugarcoat said. “She’ll come back when she feels better.”
Sombra nodded. “Hope she gets better before the game with Canterlot High,” he said, turning to walk away. “Oh, by the way, Indigo…”
“Yes?” Indigo asked.
“Remember about preparations to the rowing season in the Spring,” Sombra said. “We’re going to do as much training on the river until it gets too cold. Then we’re switching to indoor exercise. I’ll give you the timetable after the soccer training tomorrow.”
“Sure.” Indigo nodded. Sombra walked away to find the other members of the rowing team.
Sugarcoat smirked. “You get turned on by muscular guys, don’t you?”
“Not him,” Indigo replied. “Like, he didn’t even bat an eyebrow when you told him about Lemon’s mom…”
“Yeah, and he keeps staring at those crystal walls.” Sunny Flare shrugged. “That, or playing with the stair climber machine in the gym.”
“Every PE teacher is a bit weird,” Sour Sweet said. “Some played football without a helmet, some molest their students…”
“Shh!” Sunny Flare looked at the stage. “The speech will start soon.”
“Speech-shmeech,” Sour Sweet muttered. “My sister was also giving speeches but after the archery accident–”
“Yeah, sure.” Sugarcoat groaned. “We checked everywhere and asked everyone, but from your numerous siblings none was ever shot with a bow. You made that up when you ran out of meds or something.”
“But it could happen!” Sour Sweet exclaimed. She wanted to say something else, but she was interrupted by someone clearing throat.
“So, while we are at discipline, Ms. Sour Sweet just earned herself a few hours of polishing the walls,” Principal Cinch said, smiling at Sour Sweet, who smacked her forehead.
“Busted,” Sunny Flare whispered. “Told you so.”
“Fuck that,” Sour Sweet muttered. “We’re going to visit Lemon, remember? And I am going to visit her.”
“Well, to be exact, Principal Cinch never said you’re supposed to clean the walls today.” Sugarcoat smirked. “This probably won’t help you, but you can try.”
Indigo only shrugged, trying to pay attention to the speech. It soon turned out to be impossible; all she could get were some isolated words and phrases, like “healthy rivalry”, “cooperation”, “shaping the future”, and so on. Indigo rested her chin on her hands and blinked, trying to keep herself awake.
A sudden round of applause startled her; she opened her eyes and looked around, standing up with the rest of the students.
“Way to go, Indigo,” Sunny Flare said when the students stopped clapping. “At least you don’t snore.”
“Oh, shut up,” Indigo muttered. The students began to walk around the hall, trying to reach their respective classes to get their new timetables or talk with their teachers. Indigo and her friends walked with the crowd, slowly advancing towards the doors.
“Excuse me!” Some boy with bright violet skin, blue hair and golden rim glasses walked to Indigo. “You’re Lemon Zest’s friend, right?”
“Yeah, what about her?” Indigo asked, still walking with the crowd.
The guy blushed slightly. “Well, we wanted to have the first meeting of the Crystal Prep LGBT Students Club and she’s our treasurer, so–”
Indigo raised her eyebrows. “Wait, we have an LGBT club?”
“If you want to join, the entry fee is–”
Indigo groaned. “No, thanks, I’m straight. But the thing is–”
“Some of our members are straight,” the guy said.
“Yes, but I’m also in the soccer team, rowing team, philosophical society, I go to the gym and also there are days when I like to sit on my ass and do nothing, so thanks for the offer,” Indigo replied. “What I mean is that… Cinch really allowed gay students to meet in school?”
“I know you don’t like her, but she actually did.” The boy shrugged. “Apparently one of the school founders, the one who designed the uniforms really liked to wear them. Especially the skirts.”
Indigo chuckled. “Never heard about that… But yeah, never expected that from Cinch.”
“But if you tried to found The Crystal Prep Magic Society, you’d be burnt at the stake in the name of applying traditional values to the modern world,” Sugarcoat said. Seeing Indigo’s blank stare, she added, “She said something like that in her speech.”
“Ah, sure.” Indigo shrugged. “Luckily, I don’t feel like checking if I have any magic skills. If Twilight started to tear holes in the universe, I’d probably ruin it or something.”
“I’d replace the sun with a black hole.” Sugarcoat smirked, baring her teeth. “Then I’d spend the rest of my life listening to people begging me to turn it back.”
Indigo raised her finger. “If you ever try to learn magic, even once, I’ll make sure to break every single of your bones before you can master it.” She looked into Sugarcoat’s eyes. “I’m serious now.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t be that bad.” Sugarcoat’s smirk faded. “Just imagine what’d happen if Sour Sweet learned magic.”
Indigo shuddered, staring into the distance. “No. Just no.”
Sour Sweet shrugged. “Well, of course I could learn magic to bring eternal peril and suffering on humanity, watching it crawl under my feet… But what’s the point? Humans can do worse things to each other than I can imagine.”
“Magic sucks,” Sunny Flare said. They left the hall and walked down the corridor, getting lost in a crowd of excited first graders, who apparently ended up in the wrong building. Currently, they were trying to solve this problem by yelling and pushing each other.
“Care to elaborate?” Sugarcoat asked, trying not to step on someone.
“Being awesome with magic is easy.” Sunny Flare tripped one of the first graders. He fell on his classmate, causing a fight to break out. “Being awesome without it is way better.”
“Aww, aren’t they the cutest?” Sour Sweet helped one of the kids up. “I hope they all die,” she muttered when they walked away.
Finally they reached the classroom, where they grabbed their timetables, carefully avoiding Fleur dis Lee, who, luckily for them, was busy yelling at someone. They preferred to keep a low profile around her; Indigo wasn’t very much into social media, but she saw enough to know that Fleur didn’t react to the outcome of Friendship Games well.
Their teacher gave a brief welcome speech. Indigo hardly listened to it, staring at the window until Sunny Flare poked her. “Train your attention span a bit,” she whispered. “Ms. Cosinus is talking about important stuff.”
Indigo tuned in to the speech.
“Unfortunately, it’s your last year in this school,” Ms. Cosinus said. “But I firmly believe that you’re now prepared to live your lives to the fullest and become the pride of Crystal Prep and our society.”
“Pride of society, my ass…” Indigo muttered. “I don’t even know how to do my taxes, but I know that ad mortuum defecatum means–”
“Shh.” Sugarcoat furrowed her eyebrows. “You can learn to do your taxes in five minutes on the internet. Be an adult and don’t trust school on everything.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Sour Sweet whispered. “Before some little shit reminds Cinch that I’m supposed to polish the walls.”
Right after the speech ended, they sneaked out of the class and went to the car park. Indigo and Sunny sat on Indigo’s motorcycle while Sugarcoat sat in a small, funny car Sour Sweet’s parents gave to their daughter when, after a long discussion between her doctor and the officials, she got a driving licence.
“Just don’t challenge her to a race,” Sunny said when Indigo turned on the engine. “She may run us over if she loses.”
“Oh, please.” Indigo rode towards the street. “She drove me somewhere once and I must say she’s the safest driver I know. Nothing can be done about her swearing at the wheel, though.”
They drove to the city centre, to one of the loft apartments adapted from the buildings of an old factory. Indigo liked those blocks of red brick; her father told her that when he was young, they were mostly inhabited by artists, painters and musicians like Lemon Zest’s parents, as well as some strange types, moonshine makers, weed farmers, or self-taught chemists.
Nowadays, however, they lost some of its bohemian character; gypsy kids and vagabonds from the past grew older and their children were hipsters more often than starving artists. Some, like Sour Sweet’s parents, had nothing to do with the previous inhabitants, unless one counted psychiatry as a form of art.
Indigo parked her motorcycle by the pavement and walked between the two buildings. She saw a couple of Canterlot High students coming back from school there. A green-haired girl with a beret, who, as Indigo remembered, used to work in a cafe, was talking with a taller girl with her hair tied in a brown bun and a pair of red earrings. A group of kids was drawing something with chalk on the pavement.
Indigo, Sunny, Sour Sweet, and Sugarcoat walked past them to the staircase and began to climb to the third floor, accompanied by cello music coming from one of the flats.
“There we are.” Sour Sweet sighed and knocked on the door.
“Come in!” someone exclaimed. Sour Sweet pushed the door open and walked inside.
Lemon Zest’s father was sitting in the living room. Indigo noticed that he looked much better than during the funeral, though he still shuddered when he saw them. His guitar was lying on the couch, as if thrown there, but other than that, the room was in a pristine condition.
“Good afternoon,” he said, immediately lowering his voice to a whisper. “She’s still in her room. Sour, I talked with your mom. She said she’ll come to talk with Lemon… But I think you’d better do it too… As her friends.”
“Sure.” Sour Sweet nodded. “My mother never managed to fix me, so I don’t think she’d help,” she whispered on their way to Lemon’s room.
“Sour, shut up,” Sunny Flare muttered. “And you too, Sugarcoat. Your attempts at cheering people up are the leading cause of suicide or something.”
“I didn’t even say anything,” Sugarcoat replied, opening the door of Lemon Zest’s room.
The interior was dim; the curtains were shut and for a moment, they couldn’t see anything. Only after a while, their eyes got used to darkness, recognising more and more shapes. Large bed, speakers, some boxes, a punching bag hanging from the ceiling, and various other strange things littered the room.
“Too quiet,” Indigo whispered. “I don’t like it.”
“I can’t see her,” Sunny Flare said. “You don’t think she did… something, umm…”
“If she jumped out of the window, we’d hear those kids screaming.” Sugarcoat stood by the window and moved the curtain aside. “She’d ruin their chalk drawing.”
“There are many more methods of suicide.” A faint smirk appeared on Sour Sweet’s face. She walked to the closet and opened it. “Peekaboo!”
“Sour, for the love of–” Indigo stood next to Sour Sweet and looked into the closet.
Lemon Zest was sitting inside, her knees under her chin. Her unkempt hair was obscuring her face completely; her ears were covered by headphones.
Sunny Flare pushed Indigo and Sour Sweet aside. “Umm, so…” She looked at Lemon Zest. “The school year started.” She looked at Indigo and poked her. “I mean… We’d be really glad if you left this place… Umm… talked with us…”
“And you’re saying I’m not helpful.” Sugarcoat rolled her eyes.
“She can’t hear you anyway,” Indigo said, pointing at the headphones.
“She can,” Sour Sweet replied. “Guess she ran out of songs on her playlist a while ago.” She walked into the closet, sat next to Lemon Zest and embraced her.
Sugarcoat raised her eyebrows. “Do you think it’ll help?”
“More than her talking,” Sour Sweet pointed at Sunny Flare. “I’ve been sitting with her like that before school and I’m gonna stay here until the evening. You can leave if you want.”
“I’m not leaving her either.” Indigo sat next to Lemon and hugged her. “Umm… Lemon?” she whispered. “It’s me, Indigo. You know that we really miss you, right? And that you always have us?” She looked at Sugarcoat and Sunny Flare, but they kept distance, staring at her unsurely.
“Lemon, talk to me,” Sour Sweet whispered. “Your dad needs you. I need you.”
“We all do,” Indigo said. “You can’t sit here mourning for the rest of your life.”
Lemon Zest muttered something incomprehensible that ended in a weep.
“Yes?” Sour Sweet said.
“I’m getting over it,” Lemon whispered. “B-but… My grandma was sixty-five when she got sick and d-died… And my mom was forty-five…” She shuddered, grabbing Sour Sweet tighter. “I don’t want to die…”
“Ah, I see,” Sugarcoat said. “You figured out, by analogy, that you have seven more years to live. And you’re now wasting them sitting here.”
“And what happened then?” Bulk asked. Indigo lay on her bed with her phone in her hand, staring at the ceiling. Her school clothes were scattered around her room, apart from her shirt, one sock and tracksuit trousers she had swapped her skirt for.
“She kicked us out,” Indigo replied. “And I mean it. Not the usual ‘Lemon cries, Sour Sweet threatens to murder everyone’ crap. She stood up and… That was kinda scary. I’ve never seen her like that.”
“Damn,” Bulk muttered. “And what now?”
“I think Sour Sweet stayed with Lemon,” Indigo said. “She texted me, asking to keep her away from Sugarcoat tomorrow or she’s not responsible for her actions.”
“Those two must really like each other, huh?” Bulk asked. “Lemon and Sour, I mean.”
“Kinda.” Indigo sighed. “Damn. First day at school and I already wish it was over.”
“Well, it seemed rather rough,” Bulk said. “Looks like you could use some relaxation.”
“Yeah,” Indigo replied, yawning. “We need to meet soon. Maybe after my soccer training tomorrow?”
“Sure. Tomorrow, then.”
“Love you,” Indigo whispered into her phone and hung it up. A few minutes later, she was asleep.
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good story so far. But wheres chapter nine?
8438588
I checked with the gdocs version and I apparently wrote the wrong chapter number here. It's fixed now.
Sugarcoat, you tremendous moron.
8588519
Glad someone said it.
Sugarcoat: Your wasting your life, and are gonna die at 25.
Lemon taking a drag from her cigarette: So. *Puffs out the smoke* You have chosen death.
Sunny: Uhhh, w-where did you get that cigarette?
Also, Sunny's comment on the third world really tells me how disconnected she is from reality.
10776902
From the hammerspace, I guess.
I'm legitimately in tears from reading this, after the shock from the last chapter. The atmosphere portrayed when the four go to school and how uneasy it feels without Lemon around after the funeral, heartwarming that they actually dare to sneak out from a school run by bloody Cinch to see their friend, as dysfunctional as the five are, showing that they do care about each other despite the verbal slanders and such. I think you hit the nail on the head showing a husband and daughter in mourning; both are nervous wrecks at that point, let alone the realization about what the envelope in chapter 4 was. The fact the Lemon might carry genetic markers for the same condition that killed her grandmother and mother, she's in utter despair.
I get Sugarcoat wasn't trying to be vindictive, she's just not good at reading the room, but that pretty much was the worst thing to say at that point.
Now I cannot help but think of a certain Soundgarden song.
I always like to think that the Shadow Five make up for their lack of magical geodes with sheer ruthlessness.
11804373
And desire to see the world burn, yes.