Big Brother Sandbar

by HenBasket

Chapter 5: “Why?”

After several minutes of hysterics, Cozy Glow finally had calmed down enough to stand up. Wiping her eyes with her hoof, she walked over to her roommate. Starlight watched from the doorway.

“Fizzy,” Cozy asked her, “why do you put up with me?”

Taken aback by her friend’s seemingly sudden question, Berry lifted Cozy’s hair with her hoof and asked her, “What do you mean by that Cozy?”

“I think you know what I mean,” Cozy said accusingly. “I’m twelve, Fizzy. I should be into sports or something. But here I am, with the emotions of a foal half my age. I had four tantrums today. Four! It isn’t even lunch yet! I came here to learn how to ma--”

“I put up with you because I love you, Cozy.” Berry put her hoof over the pegasus’s mouth to give her a moment to speak. “You’re like a sister to me, and I wanna help you. I don’t think any less of you because of how you act, you can’t help it. So don’t beat yourself up over it, embrace who you are.”

“Do… you really feel that way?” Cozy asked, genuinely curious.

“Cozy, if I didn’t, I would have requested a new roommate way back in the beginning of school. I didn’t do that, did I? I made myself a promise to help you as much as I could, and I intend to keep that promise. In fact… Starlight? Can you tell her?”

“Tell me what?” Cozy looked between the two unicorns, confused.

Starlight walked in and sat down near the pegasus. Sighing, Starlight began, “You’re very lucky to have Fizzy as a friend, Cozy. You see, back in the beginning of the school year, we didn’t know what you had gone through at the orphanage. We just thought you were acting out for attention, we didn’t think that it was from psychological trauma. We thought you were a bad pony, Cozy, so we… we treated you like one. Those detentions and in-school suspensions, we thought we were teaching you, when in fact we were making things worse.”

Starlight took a deep breath to calm herself down. “We were going to expel you, Cozy. We thought that you had come here to cause trouble, and not to make friends. We didn’t want the kind of pony we thought you were in our school, so we thought it would be best if you didn’t go here. But, we were wrong, and your friend helped us see that. We were so close to kicking you out of school when Berry came in and told us that you were hurting inside. I’ll still remember those words she said to me the day before we were gonna send you back. She said, ‘Counselor Starlight, I don’t think Cozy is being bad on purpose. I think she’s hurting. I think the orphanage hurt her.’ Part of me wanted to ignore her, that you had somehow convinced her to say that just so you could stay here.”

Starlight saw Cozy’s blank expression and pulled her for a hug. She continued her story. “However, as a guidance counselor, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I had ignored her, so I took you out of ISS and asked you if it was true. When you said yes and cried, I was so happy. Happy that we didn’t need to expel you, happy that we could continue to teach you friendship, happy that we could save you. Most importantly, we were happy that you made a friend who was willing to face punishment by vouching for you. You are a very lucky pony, Cozy. Not many ponies have friends who care for each other that much. Hold onto this friendship, Cozy. Hold onto it.”

Bleary-eyed, Cozy asked with a quivering voice, “So that’s why you changed your mind about expelling me?”

“Yes, Cozy,” replied Starlight, stroking Cozy’s back. “I will never forgive myself for that. I should have known something was wrong. I should have known twelve-year-olds don’t act like that unless there’s something wrong. But that’s the past, and I’ve corrected my mistakes. Those special classes help you, don’t they?”

“Yeah, *sniff* they do,” whimpered Cozy. “But why help me?”

“Well, why not,” asked Starlight compassionately, “isn’t that part of what friendship is? Helping ponies through tough times regardless whether it helps you?”

“Yeah, but why me?”

“Oh…” Starlight realized what Cozy was getting at. “You’re not the only student I help, Cozy. I help many others with problems they have. It’s a lot of work, so the work needs to be spread across multiple ponies. That’s why you may have seen a few other counselors throughout the school.”

“Why do you spend so much time helping me though?”

“Because we almost failed you once,” Starlight said with a hint of guilt. “We don’t want to fail you again, Cozy. We want to help you to grow up and be a successful member of society. We want everypony to.”

“Besides, you have a friend to look after you when Starlight can’t,” Berry Fizz spoke up. “Did I ever tell you what I sacrificed just so could make sure you were okay during lunch?”

“No,” Cozy asked, standing up, “what did you sacrifice?”

“My advanced placement,” Berry said, sighing. “I had the opportunity to take lessons typically meant for ponies older than me. If I had gone for that, I wouldn’t have been able to eat lunch during the same period as you during the week. I wasn’t sure if you could handle it, Cozy. So I declined to AP offer and went with regular classes for my age, just so you wouldn’t be alone.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Cozy said, pawing at the ground. “So why did you?”

“Because it was the right thing to do. Sure, my parents were ticked when they heard I turned down the opportunity. But, when I told them I did it for you, they immediately turned around and praised me. I gave up a big opportunity for you, and I’m not looking for anything in return.”

“Why not?”

Berry put her hoof on Cozy shoulder and said, “Because you’re my friend, Cozy. I didn’t do it for extra credit or because somepony told me to. And if I did it for personal gain, I wouldn’t be a very good friend. Cozy, you a very special pony, and I’m glad we’re friends.

“Thanks, Fizzy!” Cozy embraced her friend in a hug and allowed herself to cry. Starlight smiled and left the room, thinking about how she could eventually get Cozy to talk about what happened so that she could testify against the orphanage.

Comments

[asdtroi8895]

Cute!

Nice way to get Cozy to testify.

[Bronycommander]

Adorable. About the orphanage, this is gonna be good!