Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 15: I Meet All My Friends This Way

In all the places we moved before we finally settled in Skytree I always felt like an outsider at school. Don't get me wrong, I love everyone, both humans and ponies, but being the only pony in a class, or one of the few ponies in class had its disadvantages. In the schools where I was literally the only pony people would treat me strangely, and give me looks like they didn't know how to act around me.

There was also the act of writing. I'm not terrible with my penmanship, in fact, I think I'm pretty good, but I'm not as dexterous or as fast as a human. There would be so many times an assignment would be given, and the entire rest of the class would finish it long before me, and they had to wait for the 'pony' to finish writing her answer. It was an uncomfortable type of attention, and there were a few teachers who thought I was mentally slow just because I couldn't write as fast as my human classmates.

So my first day of public school in Skytree was a complete change of pace for me. For the first time ever, ponies made up the majority of my classmates. There were humans still, but in terms of numbers it was a complete role reversal. I was no longer an outsider, but instead part of the majority. I also wasn't considered slow anymore when it came to completing assignments. Even though humans and unicorns still typically finished their assignments first, I was usually among one of the fastest done out of the remaining ponies. I think my years of trying to keep up with my human classmates had improved my writing speed dramatically. It was nice to not be 'the slow one' anymore when it came to schoolwork, and it was even nicer not feeling like an alien in the classroom.

My former experiences still made an impression on me, and about a week into classes I couldn't help but notice this one human girl that was in several of my classes who ended up being the only human in class in every class but one. She kept to herself, and I didn't see anyone having more than a passing greeting to her. It made me think of my own time as the odd one out, and resolved that I was going to try to be friends with her.

Our geography class had its first project assigned that particular day. As there were twenty-six of us, and fifty-two states, we each had to give a report on two seperate states. Being that this was a pony dominated school, cooperation was always encouraged with getting projects done, even individual projects like this one. In this case, cooperation on doing a group presentation awarded extra credit, even if the individual reports would be scored separately. I was assigned Guam and Hawaii, and noticed that the girl was assigned Puerto Rico and Florida. Those seemed like they could be good complementary states for a presentation. As soon as class ended that day I decided to approach the girl to see if she wanted to work together to help get our reports done.

However, she was a lot quicker than me getting out of the classroom. That meant I needed to run to catch up to her, and me running never turned out well. I wasn't as heavy back then, but I was still just as much a disaster waiting to happen; an object in motion that wanted to stay in motion (at least until I collided hard against something bigger).

I was running down the hallway, and realized my error as soon as I knew I had to come to a stop. The linoleum floors didn't exactly provide the best traction for hooves, and putting on the brakes resulted in me hurtling along the floor like a bowling ball waiting to smack some pins. The pin in this instance turned out to be a big glass trophy case that was right next to where the girl was standing.

PLOUFP!

That was a fascinating new sound.

She instantly helped me back up. "Are you alright?"

I gave my body a shake, and looked at the trophy case. It was thankfully not cracked, nor was my head. "Yeah, I'm great. Pegasus ponies are made to take crashes. I'm just glad I didn't break this glass." I turned to her and gave her a broad smile. "I was trying to catch up with you."

She blinked and stood up straight. "Um, what did you want?"

"Want to work together for some extra credit?" I asked. "I got two island states, and I noticed you got the third one and then Florida. It seems like we could make a tropical vacation themed presentation."

The corners of her mouth tightened. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm just doing the regular report. I don't need to do any extra credit."

My ears fell. "Please? I already was thinking about all the cool props we could get. Well, I would get them if you are worried about getting extra stuff."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, but I don't do the whole super-social thing you ponies do. I'm sure you can ask one of your other pony friends to do a presentation with you."

This wasn't going as I hoped. "If you don't like speaking in front of class I can do all the talking."

At this point she was frowning. "It isn't really public speaking I was talking about, although I don't like that either." She looked at my sad face and slumped her shoulders. "Look, Rebecca, right? I don't think you can understand my feelings, but try. I don't mean to be mean or anything. This is my first year here, and you ponies... are a little much for me."

My eyes shifted to a different type of sadness. "I do get it. This is my first year here too. I have met some new people, but I don't have any long history with anyone here. This is my first time at a school where I'm not the odd one out for being a pony. I noticed you and it reminded me of how I felt in all the other places. We don't have to do the project together, if you don't want to, but I'd still like to hang out or something with you. I might not be another human, but I'm someone who knows what it's like to feel alone when surrounded by people. I figured that might count for something."

She just stared at me for a few seconds, and I couldn't tell what she was thinking. She then let off another sigh. "No project, I'm not interested."

My wings and tail sagged, and I turned to go. "Alright. If that's what you want."

I walked away, and continued with classes through the day. I tried not to let the rejection get to me, and to just bounce back, but it just stuck to my mood for some reason. When lunch came I sat by myself, and picked at my hash browns and apple slices without eating with my normal enthusiasm for food.

Then someone sat their lunch tray down across from me. I looked up, and saw the girl looking at me. She then sat down. "So… you used to go to schools where you were the only pony in class?"

Still figuring out how to feel, I just nodded. "Yeah, this is the first place where having four legs is normal."

She picked at her own food. "Yet the first person you choose to try to make an extra effort to be friends with is a human. That's kind of weird that you were so eager to have more pony classmates and then you go right to the one human. I guess you aren't used to this many ponies either."

"I guess not," I cautiously agreed.

She continued to pick at her food. "I didn't want to move here. My dad is a construction contractor, and moved us all down here because there's lots of work and it pays more than other places. It's always about the money with him. It's like he doesn't even care that we were fine where we were, not when he could be making more money than he was."

We continued to talk about our shared experiences moving from place to place through the whole lunch hour. We talked again during lunch the next day, and again the next after that, and again each day after that. It took a while before we started doing anything other than talk during lunch, but after a few weeks we started hanging out after school. It would be months before we'd work on any projects together, but that was okay.

Ponies tend to just walk up to people and consider themselves good friends with people that they just talked to for a few minutes, it’s a stereotype but it’s true. But sometimes friendships take time to form and strengthen. Maggie and I are now great friends, and it all started with us just talking during our lunches. Those are the best friendships, the ones that take time to mature and grow.

---

"So, did you get knocked off course or somethin'?" Russell asked as we walked towards the female dorm's entrance.

I shrugged. "Not so much knocked off course. I'm just not the best at flying."

He glanced down at me. "That's a surprise. I thought it just came natural to you all."

Another shrug. "Not so much me. It used to bother me, but I've gotten over it. I'll never be great at flying, but I'm great at other things. My flights just contribute to making life interesting."

I heard him chuckle. "You sound like my mom. She's an earth pony, and an IT engineer. People are always askin' her how she manages to do all that work with hooves and her mouth. She just puts a positive spin on it and says the same exact thing you just said; it makes life interesting."

"Oh, you have pony parents?"

"Just my mom," he replied. "Dad partially transformed and rehumanized, and I didn't get ETS. I was off with my grandparents when it hit. Dad stuck with my mom, even though she refused to rehumanize. He says he doesn't know anyone else that will put up with him, and isn't going to go try lookin'. Mom's a tough one. Don't ever count a determined earth pony out. They ain't no pushovers."

We happened to be walking through the shadow of the Remembrance Monument, so it was kind of hard to discount what a determined earth pony could do. I heard some people used to think earth ponies were the least capable of the tribes, but I didn't think anyone in Skytree would ever question that earth ponies were just as capable as everyone else. Wild Growth had obliterated that old misconception.

"Are you a freshman too?" I asked as we reached the entrance to the dorm building.

He grabbed the door for me and held it open. "Sophomore. Although it feels like I've been here longer. I took some classes here my senior year of high school for early credit. So, I'm going to be hitting my junior year next semester. Where'd you go to high school? Somewhere around here, or you from out of town?"

I nodded my thanks to him being a gentleman and passed through the door and he followed after. "I went to Patel High," I answered. "Graduated like twenty-something in place in my class. I'm in the architectural engineering design program."

"You're a Patel Night Doctor?" He asked, referring to our sports team name, the Night Doctors. I had no idea why my high school had that for a team name, apparently it had something to do with the guy our high school was named after, but I always thought it was the dumbest sounding team name I'd ever heard.

I raised my wings up in mock cheer. "What's up, Docs!" Yeah, our cheer was that bad.

He laughed. "No wonder you guys lost every year to us in… well… everything. I'm a Middleton Mauler. I was on the human wrestling team."

I turned to look at him. "To be fair, Patel High is mostly ponies, so our human teams had pretty slim pickings. Of course you'll beat our human teams. You've got like ten times more humans to pick a team from."

He gave me a playful tap with his leg. "Our flight team beat you too, all four years I was there. Think they beat you last year as well."

I spread my wings wide. "That's just because they didn't have me flying for them. Would have been a whole different story if I had."

"Is that so?" He asked, amused.

I put my head up high. "Yep, if I'd been on the team we would have either not even made it to the finals every year to face your team, or every other team would be in stitches from me running into them."

"Can't argue with that logic," he replied as we reached the elevator. He pulled out his cell phone and punched in a few quick commands, and held it towards me. "Here's my number. If you ever need any help, don't be afraid to call. You're sure you're feeling okay?"

I held out my wrist phone and they synched the contact numbers. "Yeah. As I said it happens all the time. I don't know a lot of people here yet. Do you mind me just calling to go hang out?"

He shook his head. "Go right ahead. Just don't go crashing into any more buildings."

The elevator opened and I stepped into it, then turned to face him. "No promises on that. It's how I meet all my friends. Nice meeting you, Russell!"

"Likewise, Rebecca."

The door shut and I pushed the appropriate button. I hummed to myself as the elevator rose up, and was pleased to have met a new friend. Still, I was here today mainly for club and sorority sign-ups, so hopefully I'd meet a lot more new friends before the day was through.

Comments

[Gargon94]

I like the different noises Rebecca makes when she crashes. It's so entertaining, I would love to hear those sounds out loud.

[Kek lel]

Not sure why this story isn't extremely popular right now. This is good stuff right here, with content and quality and intrigue. Keep it up!

[Chrome Masquerade]

There was also the act of writing. I'm not terrible with my penmanship, in fact, I think I'm pretty good, but I'm not as dexterous or as fast as a human.

Personality, my fine motor skills are gross.

[Chrome Masquerade]

I was assigned Guam and Hawaii, and noticed that the girl was assigned Puerto Rico and Florida. Those seemed like they could be good complimentary states for a presentation.

Don't you mean complementary?

[Chrome Masquerade]

She picked at her own food. "Yet the first person you choose to try to make an extra effort to be friends with is a human. That's kind of weird that you were so eager to have more pony classmates and then you go right to the one human. I guess you aren't used to this many ponies either."

Fair enough.

[PonyofEntropy]

Great update. I really love this story. I can relate to Rebecca in being fluffy and clumsy.