Chapter 12: Artistic Expression
As Sunset walked into her history class on Monday, she was immediately headed off by one of her students. “Izzy,” she said with a smile, “I like it. Looks very you.”
Izzy grinned beneath her new clear frame glasses, the sides of which had already been decorated with some glitter and a sticker depicting some balloons. “Thank you, Ms. Sunset.” She held out a glasses case. “I won’t be needing these anymore. Thanks for letting me borrow them.”
Sunset took the case and nodded before proceeding to the teacher’s desk. “Good morning, my loyal subjects,” she told Class 2-A.
“Good morning, Your Majesty,” the students responded jokingly.
She leaned against her desk, grinning. “Right, I’ve taught you well.” This was then followed by an overly dramatic sigh. “Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. I can’t keep hogging all the cake for myself and I’ve been known to lose my head. Who can tell me what I’m talking about?”
Zipp raised her hand. “Viva la revolution!”
“Correct,” Sunset said, noting the lack of chalk in the tray without surprise and pulling a piece of her dwindling personal supply out of her pocket. She wrote three numbers on the blackboard. 1789, 1848 and 1917. She then pointed at the three rows of desks in turn: “Windownia French Revolution, Aislandia German Revolution and Free Cities you got the Russian Revolution. I want you to open your books and prepare a short summary for your assigned revolution. In twenty minutes, one of each group will explain what they’ve learned to the rest of the class and then we’ll compare how those revolutions resembled each other and how they differed from each other. Begin!” Sunset clapped her hands together once and noted with satisfaction how everyone dutifully opened their books and started on their assignments without complaint.
Sitting down at her desk, she picked up the glasses case and noted something rattling within. Curious, she opened it to find a handmade charm bracelet in addition to Twilight’s old glasses. She looked up to find Izzy watching her intently. Smiling, Sunset slipped the bracelet onto her left wrist, holding it upfor a second, and winked at her student.
After beaming with joy for a moment, Izzy returned to her book.
Five minutes passed, and the sound of pens and pencils on paper began to lull a bit, so Sunset decided this was a good time to employ some proximity teaching, getting up to have a walk around the classroom.
She came to a stop next to her newest student. “Misty,” she said, “may I see your book for a moment?”
Even though Sunset had spoken quietly, she’d still managed to startle Misty who looked up at her with wide eyes, but picked up her history book to hold it out.
Sunset noted the crackling spine and weathered pages as she turned to the front page, zoning in on the publication date. “This is a very old edition, Misty. It’s not really up to date anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” Misty said very quietly. “It’s all they had at the used book shop. New books are expensive.”
Sunset frowned. “I agree, and it doesn’t have to be fresh off the printing press. But this is nearly twenty years old and several editions back. This would have been out of date when I went to school here. I need to know you’ve got the right page number and question when I give an assignment from the book. I want you to go see Ms. Cheerilee at the library before our next lesson. I’m sure she can give you a loaner that’s newer than this for the semester. As for right now …”
Having heard the conversation from her desk right in front of Misty, Sunny turned around. “We can share my book.”
“There you go,” Sunset said, giving Sunny a smile. “Why don’t you sit next to Sunny for today?”
“O-okay,” Misty replied hesitantly, pulling up a chair next to Sunny and adding even more quietly: “Thanks.”
Sunset nodded and clasped her hands behind her back to continue her rounds. She didn’t even break her stride as she got Pipp to put her phone away with a precision glare. Pivoting around the back of the class, she continued on until she stood behind Sprout, looking over his shoulder.
Her momentary hope at seeing him with his head down and moving his pencil gave way to a frown when she realized that he was actually sketching something behind the history book he’d propped up as a blind in front of him.
“Would you like to share your artwork with the rest of the class?” Sunset asked, snatching up the paper.
Sprout’s head whipped around and he looked at her with a horrified expression. Putting his hand up to snatch back the paper, he brought it back and put it in front of his mouth.
Sunset looked at the sketch with a raised eyebrow and began blushing furiously before folding the piece of paper quickly in half so nobody else would see it. “This isn’t art class, Sprout,” she said after clearing her throat.
With the moment of panic receding, Sprout moved his arm around to rub the back of his neck. “Sorry, Ms. Sunset. Won’t happen again,” he said, trying to sound apologetic in an attempt to mitigate the infraction.
That’s when Sunset spotted it, a white substance clinging to the edge of his letter jacket sleeve, and she grabbed it before he could put his hand down again. Turning the sleeve over several times, she gave him a hard stare.
“Uhm, that is, I mean,” he stammered and Sunset held the gaze until his eyes darted in a certain direction, giving away the game.
Nudging Sprout’s pencil case, Sunset calmly picked up the box of chalk that had been hidden underneath it and held it up in front of his face.
“That,” Sprout said weakly, “I, erm, I was gonna give that to you. Yeah. I picked it up from the supply room cause you’re always so low on chalk, Ms. Sunset.”
Others might have called it a cool smile under the circumstances, Sunset called it what it was. She was baring her fangs at him. “How thoughtful of you, Sprout,” she said in a sweet voice that carried enough of an edge to cut steel. “I’ve got a present for you, too.” With that, she pulled out a detention slip and slammed it down on the desk in front of him. “I’ll see you in the afternoon.”
Taking the box of chalk with her, Sunset turned and continued her class as Sprout sank deep enough into his chair as to almost vanish under his desk.
During lunch, Sunset sat with her elbows propped up on the table in the teachers’ lounge and pouted, her head held in her hands and blushing like a tomato as her fellow teachers passed the paper around and laughed uproariously. “Why I thought it was a good idea to ask the lot of you for advice, I’ll never know.”
“Relax, kid,” Cranky said, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye and letting out the last of his chuckles, “if nothing else, it should tell you not to worry about it. This isn’t even a blip on the radar after you’ve done this job for a while.”
Harshwhinny, who was sitting at the table with Cranky and Sunset, picked up the paper and looked it over one more time with a smile. “Also, you can’t be too upset at it. This is really more on the flattering end of the spectrum as far as these things go.”
Time Turner, who was standing behind Harshwhinny stole one last glance. “I think Gladys is right. He’s a pretty good artist, that one.” He turned to Cranky and added: “Are we gonna call it then?”
The acting vice-principal nodded and addressed the room at large. “I guess so. Who had eight weeks in the betting pool until a student drew a nudie picture of Sunset?”
A hand was raised up over on the couch. “Eyup.”
“Big Mac!” Sunset said accusingly.
The gym teacher simply shrugged as he started collecting from the other teachers present.
“Relax, Sunset,” Cheerilee said while handing over a fiver to him, “it’s happened to all of us, men and women alike.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes at him. “So that means somewhere exists a naked picture of you drawn by a love-struck high school girl.”
“Ey… maybe?”
“Guard your briefcase well, Big Macintosh,” she told him flatly. “I will make it my mission in life to find that picture and show it to AJ.”
Cheerilee chuckled at that. “What makes you think that someone hasn’t already snapped a picture of that art piece and sent it to her?”
Big Mac glared at her but said nothing after he’d collected his winnings while she simply stuck out her tongue at him impishly.
That interaction almost made Sunset feel better, but she turned back around to Cranky and Harshwhinny, who she’d grudgingly accepted to be good sources for advice in spite of the snark. “Seriously though, what am I supposed to do about this?”
“There’s nothing to be done, Sunset,” Gladys replied simply. “Have you looked in a mirror lately? Look again through the eyes of a 15-year-old boy. It’s gonna happen, and he’s not gonna be the only one.”
“Yeah,” Cranky concurred, “unless you plan on teaching from behind a curtain from now on, age is really the only thing that’ll eventually put a stop to it.”
“Speak for yourself,” Gladys said with a smirk. “I’m in the MILF Goldilocks zone right now. It’s about the only ego boost I get now and then.”
“Look, he can’t help being a horny teenager, I get that,” Sunset went on with a sigh, “but Sprout’s not the sharpest tool in the shed to put it mildly. How’s he gonna learn anything in my class if the person teaching him is his biggest distraction?”
“These things don’t last forever, Sunset,” Cranky pointed out. “You gave him detention, right?”
Leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms, Sunset mused: “I’m not sure that I haven’t given him what he wanted all along, more time to ogle me. Why pull the stunt with all the chalk otherwise?”
Gladys nodded. “They sometimes do that, cause trouble on purpose to get sent to detention. But the illusion will fade pretty quickly once they realize that it’s not gonna go the way the internet makes it out to be.” She drummed her fingers on the table for a few moments and then offered: “Do you want me to take over detention this afternoon for you, honey?”
As one, the entire faculty present looked up and stared at Ms. Harshwhinny in silence.
“You’re … in a good mood today, Gladys,” Sunset said carefully, equally as perplexed as her colleagues at the offer.
Ms. Harshwhinny tapped her phone. “I’ve got a date this weekend thanks to tweaking my profile a bit. I figure I owe you one.”
Sunset closed her eyes for a moment before slowly shaking her head. “Thanks anyway, Gladys. But if what you said is true, I had better bite the bullet sooner and dispel any illusions that Rule 34 is part of the school regulations.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.017 seconds
Total duration
980 users online
1,835,985 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Excellent job on this latest chapter. Really appreciate the work going into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Definitely liked the bit with Izzy with her new glasses as well as Sunset and Sunny helping Misty out after they found out the only book the used book store had was two decades out of date (Sunset by recommending Misty talk to Cheerilee after class and Sunny by sharing HER book for the class. And, yeah, it was only a matter of time before at least one of the students would develop a crush on Sunset - it turned out to be Sprout this time. And Sprout got detention (and, yeah, he probably has read a little too much internet porn). Really liked the dialogue with the other teachers, especially the part with the betting pool and Harshwhinny agreeing to handle detention for Sunset this time.
Definitely looking forward to more of this. And Happy Holidays.
Hmm some interesting Misty info here
Wouldn't be surprised that picture found its way into Sunset's circle of friends, especially if Mac involved with its distribution.
yeah we've all been there, although i never drew any art
Sprout, what is wrong with you?!
11457904
Nothing. He's hot for teacher AND clueless like all boys his age.
Just surprised it took Sunset this long to catch him.
And this IS Sunset Shimmer we're talking about. Can't really blame him, and he's probably not the only one!
The only way this could have gone better would have been if Adagio Freaking Dazzle had been teaching - and she'd probably try having the sketch framed and posted at her desk...
The interesting thing about Misty's book is it reminded me of my own high school. You got issued books, so it wasn't a cost issue for students, buuuuuuuuut the school wasn't updating their books frequently.
My Algebra text was new my sophomore year, but my history textbook the following year was so old it had become relevant again in 1991 (I know, I am a dinosaur 🦖). It was chock-full of comments on the 'recent and current crisis in the Middle East' yet the 'current events' it referred to involved the Yom Kippur war!
how Sunsets detention lack is! Maybe Flash will come by or she'll dress up specially! (or Fluttershy faints him!) HA Ha
I figured he was the one behind it.
He had it coming.
Seriously!