> A Ballad of Kindness and Pink Hair > by Bronyboy115 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue: Not All Mornings are Bad > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- *BEEP...BEEP...BEEP* "Ugh...." I grumbled, rolling on to my side to hit the alarm set for 6:00. Annoyed and Severely groggy, I sat up, then swung my legs over the side of my bed. Standing up (which was a task in its self let me tell you, my legs were, of course, still asleep and so felt like jelly), I shuffled, akin to a zombie on tranquilizers, out of my room to the hallway. "Morning Sweetie!" Mom called. I mumbled an incomprehensible response as I walked downstairs, and into the bathroom. The shower'll wake me up... I thought, and turned on the faucet. I undressed, stepped inside, and then immediately felt relief. The fog of my mind cleared, and the aching of my muscles, angry at being awoken, slowly began to cease. Ah! Yes. Nothing like a morning shower to wake me up. Stepping out of the shower, I felt much better. Groggy, but better, like the world had a brand new, almost bright outlook. I got dressed (Nothing too fancy, just a Faded Foo Fighters T-shirt and some worn out jeans), and ran back upstairs to get my shoes and backpack. Having 10 minutes to spare before I had to leave for the bus, I sat at my desk and opened my laptop to Fimfiction.net. Unfortunately, none of my stories had updated, so I was left feeling slightly disappointed. Coupled with the fact that I had school, well, apparently now, and I was left in a slightly sour mood. I grabbed my backpack and left, walking the few blocks it took to get to my bus stop. I talked to nobody while waiting, mostly due to the fact that I never really did anyway, and started to think how the day would turn out. Just tackle it head-on Connor, you'll be fine I told myself. I never really was one for school, even if my grades and status as an International Baccalaureate student betrayed that fact.It sucks.The work, stress, and expectations are almost enough to feel like a physical barrier, barred with chains and spikes that jutted out at every angle. Nothing you can't handle dude... As the bus arrived, I stepped on board and sat in an empty seat, just behind my friend James, who apparently didn't care much for others, sprawled out on the seat comfortably. Rolling my eyes at his inconsiderate Behavior, I followed his example. I'm not too much of a people person anyway, but whatever. I got comfortable and popped my headphones in to my iPod, and a familiar song started playing as I closed my eyes, flowing through my mind with its soothing chords and winding vocals. About 3/4 of the way in, I heard a sort of mumbling. Ignoring it, I continued listening, thinking the person would leave me alone. Unfortunately, a couple seconds later, I felt a tap at my leg. Curious, I cracked an eye open, and saw quite possibly one of the cutest girls I've ever seen. She was sort of short, I would say about 5'7'', and wore a gracefully fitting yellow sweater, showing one of her shoulders. She also had donned a comfortably fitting pair of light brown capri pants. Her hair was... Pink...? and pulled into a ponytail, so that her face was visible, with bright aquamarine eyes that sparkled with the growing morning light. She wore an uncertain expression on her face though, so curiously, I pulled out my earphones and asked her "What can I do for you?" She glanced around, shifted her weight, and, almost silently, whispered "Um... would it be okay... if I could, you know... sit here?" She blushed and looked away at the end of her sentence, giving me time to look around the bus. Sure enough, it was completely full. Realizing my fate Not a bad one but stillI looked back at her, saw her staring at me expectantly, and I moved to sit up so she could sit. I indicated to the spot next to me, and she hesitantly took the seat. Wow, she's a cutie I thought. I figured starting a conversation with her would be a good idea, even if every alarm bell in my introverted head was screaming at me to "just shut up and wait for the pretty girl to leave." "So... are you new in town?" I asked her awkwardly. She looked at me quickly and nodded her head. Good start Idiot. Suddenly, her bag started to rumble, softly at first, then with much more vigor. She unzipped it quickly revealing a small white bunny, with coal black eyes and apparently a matching personality. "Oh, Angel, I just fed you..." The bunny had none of it though and started to nose his way to what looked like a bundle of carrots. "You know having animals on school property is forbidden right...?" I slowly asked. She didn't pay attention though, paying more attention to untying the bundle of carrots, proceeding to feed one to the apparently famished bunny. Guess she doesn't care... I thought, and went back to listening to music. Conversation can wait I thought,and this time I listened through one ear bud, just in case either me or the girl changed her mind. The bus arrived at the school, and we were the last ones off the bus. Before the girl got away though I called out to her, since i at least wanted to get her name. Who knows? I might see her again. "Hey!," I said, "could I get your name?" She looked back, gave a small smile and whispered "Katherine..." Confused as to what the said, I asked again. "Katherine..." She said, this time with a little more volume. What a pretty name... I thought. "My name is Connor. Pleasure to meet you." I held out my hand, and she took it daintily. Then she started to turn around, but my brain decided I had more to say, and I asked her another question. "Hey wait, Katherine! I figured since you kinda don't know the place, I could at least show you to the office?" Thank you so much retard. This time her smile was wide, and she softly said "Yeah... I'd like that..." and she walked up to me so we were shoulder to shoulder.Well that's new. "Well," I said "welcome to Granby High School." xXxXXXxXx I decided instead of taking Katherine straight to the office, I would give her a little detour, so she could get the feel of what most likely could be either hell or home for her.Seems to be a little bit of both sometimes... I jiked to myself. I voiced my idea, and she agreed, stating that "I need to see the campus anyways." At least she agreed. The sooner the better I thought. First, I took her into the gym, since there was an entrance from the back next to the bus ports, and it would be quicker to do it that way. "Wow...it's...big." She whispered. "That's what she said." I said. DAMN IT DUDE I said as I mentally slapped myself. "That's what...who said?" She looked at me curiously.Lucky she doesn't understand my humor. I looked around quickly to make sure no one else noticed my predicament. Realizing I was safe, I dodged the subject almost as quickly as it had come up, to avoid embarrassing myself more than I already have. "Uh... nevermind about that." I hurried her along and into the hallway, further into the depths of the 6 hour school/prison. Of course, I had to hurry her through the main hallway, so she wouldn't get hit by the many kids that were rough-housing or goofing off as was normal for the school. I pulled her into the library, so it would be a bit more safe. "Brooklyn would love this..." she breathed, staring around at the numerous books and magazines that stocked the shelves of the rather large library. I knew where just about every book went in there, especially since this was my favorite spot to study. Home sweet home... I joked to myself. Remembering what she had said though, I re-initiated conversation. "One of your friends?" I asked, surprised. She looked to the ground, crestfallen, making me wonder if I had touched upon something I shouldn't. She sighed heavily. "Old friends..." she said. Crap I knew it. "Moving took a lot out of me, I guess..." She hid behind her bangs almost timidly at finishing the statement. "Oh. Uh... sorry." I said embarrassed. a blush beginning to form. Katherine looked up quickly though, and shook her head. "It's okay. I'm already making new ones." A small smile graced her lips as she said this, and I definitely couldn't help a small blush this time. But only a small one. Giggling softly, she started to walk around. I followed her, letting her do a little bit of the leading. After all, I don't want her to think I'm dragging her around... After looking at a few of the books on animals in the non-fiction section, we walked out into the main foyer. I poked her and pointed to my right. "Just over there is the office when you're ready." She looked at me, nodded, but started forward into the cafeteria instead of going straight to pick up her schedule. Just then I heard familiar voices. Oh jeez, not now! "CONNOR! YOU'RE HERE!" Screamed Nicole, my best friend since God knows when. She ran forward and barreled into me, effectively knocking me into the ground in a tackle hug, also effectively knocking the wind out of me. I swear that girl weighs way more than she looks. "Jeez Nicky! Calm down! It's like you thought I died." thinking for a second, I added sarcastically "In the 18 hours since I saw you last..." She picked herself up off of me, and looked over at Katherine, while I myself recovered from the not- so surprising- yet- still- very- surprising tackle. "Who's this?" She asked, "She's not gonna take you from me is she?" She asked teasingly. Upon hearing this, Katherine promptly Meeped and hid behind her bangs. Don't scare her off damnit Nicky... "No Nicky" I laughed, "She won't. She's new here at Granby. I was just showing her around." I swear if she... "Such a gentleman..." She purred. "Don't get frisky on me Connor!" Of course... Katherine, by now, had a full blush and was nervously watching the scene, looking as if she wanted to be ANYWHERE but here. I couldn't help but feel for the poor girl. "Calm down Nicky. I swear nothing is or is going to happen." I glanced over at Katherine, who still looked very much red and very much embarrassed. "Sorry about her... she's a bit hyperactive at times." And absolutely perverted... At hearing this, She visibly relaxed. "I know what that's like..." she said softly. Nicky must be like one of her friends... The bell rang shortly after my little "Meet up" with Nicole, so I thought it best to take Katherine to the office for her schedule, So i had a small chance of not being late. I do NOT like being tardy. "Well that was fun, but I better get Katherine to the office so I can help her get her schedule." Nodding, Nicole walked off to go to her first bell, but not without winking and mouthing I know what you're up to. That girl is a handful at all times... I took Katherine up to the rather small looking little office, but stopped before entering. "You'll be fine on you own now right...?" I asked hesitantly, hoping she didn't have the same kind of nervousness I had when talking to positions of authority. Or girls. Or other strangers. "Mmhmm" she said. "Thank you very much for your help..." She looked to me again with that small smile I was growing used to very quickly. I grinned at her. "It's no problem. Anything for a... well, a friend right?" She blushed a bit, looked away, and whispered "Yeah... a friend" She looked back at me with her smile and stepped in to the office. With her gone, I finally took notice of the lack of students in the hallway, and the time on th- CRAP I'M LATE and bolted up the stairs to the rest of my supposedly uneventful, boring instructional day. Boy, was I wrong. > Chapter 1: Lucky Me > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Good morning Mr. Giddens." I looked up from bursting through the door, only to be met with a roomful of snickers and disinterested glances, as well as a disapproving glare from Mr. Fraley did nothing but give me a sense of unease in my stomach. Being my first tardy, there weren't any repercussions that mattered any: Only a warning and a brisk indication to sit down. Gladly, I took the invitation so I would cease to be the center of attention, hopefully for the rest of the class. I sit at the back of the class most days, so as to avoid being picked and to have a wonderful view of all that was going on outside. Today apparently though, a mist had started to form and move as quick as the wind would take it. Weather, mostly the bad, was of great interest to me, so it was no wonder I didn't hear my teacher clear his throat when I started to stare outside. "Ahem! Mr. Giddens I believe it is in your best interest to pay attention. I have an announcement to make after all." Mr. Fraley said snootily. He waited until he had what he thought was my complete attention. "Oh uh... Yes Sir." "Prick." Apparently satisfied with my response, he turned his attention to the rest of the class to inform us of this supposedly important announcement. "Students, we have a new student with us here today in our Geometry class." At his indication, we all looked to the door to see "Well, Guess who it is." Katherine peek her head through the door. Uncertainly, she walked through the door and into the classroom all the way, glimpsing at her schedule every few seconds to make sure she was in the right place. Some of the boys looked to each other and started snickering about something I'm sure isn't appropriate. At Mr. Fraley's glare however, they stopped after a few more chuckles. "About time you do something other than act haughty and be a complete pain in everyone's ass." "Um... am I in the right place...?" She looked to the teacher, and he nodded, waving his arm across the classroom in a pseudo- elegant manner. "Yes, Ms. Grace, you are. Welcome to Geometry." He then looked to us. "Students, this is Ms. Katherine Grace. She will remain here with us for the remainder of the year. Say hello." The class responded with a series of unintelligible grunts with only a few "Hey"s and "Sup"s scattered here and there throughout the classroom. Of course, the snickering from the pervs began again apparently noticing in more detail Katherine's more notable features. She didn't look to welcomed at this it seemed, based off of the way she hid behind her hair and stood awkwardly in the center of the room. Rolling his eyes, Mr. Fraley walked back to his desk, muttering stuff like "unmannered imbeciles" and "I don't even know why I try." "How about you sit over there, in the seat next to him?' He spoke, in exasperation towards the class, while pointing at the desk to my left. She looked over to the desk, then at me, seeming to notice just then that I was actually in the room. At this she smiled, and hurried over towards the desk that would be her seat for the rest of the year. "Well look who it is?" I smiled. "What are the chances you'd end up in my class, of all the others?" Setting down her things, she glanced at me, and looked to me with her small smile. "I would guess pretty slim...." At this, she took out a sheet of paper and began to focus on taking the notes that had apparently been there the whole time. "What the...? How did...?" I thought, mimicking Katherine's action, except with a little bit more tempo and silent cursing towards my inability to pay attention during important moments. As the class wore on, I was growing increasingly bored, especially since Katherine didn't pay a lick of attention to me during class, seeming very engrossed in the subject, and my work was done well before the end of class as always. I decided daydreaming was pretty much my best bet in this little hellhole, so I did just that. Instead of daydreaming about regular things for me though, such as Video Games or Random scenarios on just as random topics, my mind drifted towards Katherine. "Who would've known she would have a class of mine? I thought. "I suppose I'm glad she does... I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable with her anywhere near any of the perverts widespread across the school... My thoughts were cut short though as Katherine gently shook my arm. "Are you done?" She asked. "Of course. I usually get all my work done by the 30 minute mark." I lifted the completed worksheet as proof, and she looked to me in what was almost awe. "Oh my... I usually can't finish that quickly..." She beckoned to her own worksheet, with notes and work speckled across the paper, yet was still only about half done."Guess that's why she was paying so much attention." "Need any help?" I offered. She shook her head gratefully, and slid her worksheet over between the two of us. We worked hard, and the class ended with Katherine and I finishing up her worksheet, as well as a lengthy conversation on angle tangents, which is what she was struggling with in the first place. As we packed our things and stepped out into the hallway, something came to my mind as we began walking towards a currently unknown destination for her. "Hey, can I see your schedule?" She responded by handing the lime green paper to me, and I studied it closely. Out of her 8 classes, it looked like she had me in about 3 of them. Health and P.E., Geometry, and Honors Biology "Guess that's where we're apparently going." were the classes she took with me, but she was also apparently taking Honors World Studies, Honors Spanish, Honors English, Drawing and Painting, and Choir. "Choir huh? Can you sing well?" I asked, genuinely curious. "Oh, well of course. I wouldn't want to embarrass myself otherwise..." She looked to the ground, apparently now very interested in how the floors were tiled, leaving me to look back at her schedule. "What about Drawing and Painting? What's you're favorite thing to draw or paint about?" She looked up from the ground at this and turned to me with a large smile. "Why, my animals of course! I sketch my bunny Angel, many different types of birds, and sometimes even squirrels when they decide to come and eat the nuts I place for them." "Wow, she really seems to be into animals..." "Let me guess, you want a veterinary degree? You seem to really like animals." I looked over to her staring wistfully into space, that large smile still plastered onto her adorable face. "I certainly hope so... " She replied, "I want to be able to help as many animals as I can. It's what I love to do." She turned to me. "What about you? What would you like to do?" Feeling like I probably had better keep it a little bit secret because of the implications of violence that came with the job, I gave a simple answer. "Military." I said. "Um...what job in the military... might I ask?" She asked a little uncertainly, letting me know I was right in not telling her. I lied and said "I don't know yet. Probably some type of engineer." Okay, that wasn't EXACTLY a lie, but it was a little deceiving. Aeronautical Engineering was my fallback plan after all. By now, we had approached the Biology classroom, and walked in. I introduced Katherine to Mrs. Whitehurst, the biology, teacher, Katherine giving a timid hello and the biology teacher responding in kind with a curt "Nice to meet you.". She gave her another seat next to me, much to my pleasure. "Lucky me." The class began with more notes, a lecture, a quiz, and more work. Awfully repetitive for this class, but whatever. As it turns out, due to Katherine's love for animals, she is EXTREMELY good at Biology. Like, impossibly good at it. She blew through the notes, the lecture, the work, and even taught the teacher a few things. When the quiz was handed out, I almost started laughing at the face Mrs. Whitehurst made when she finished. I timed in about 17 seconds for the quiz to be done for her. Honestly, I was a little jealous at how fast everything was getting done by her hand, but I reasoned that I can't be the best at everything anyway. By the time Biology had ended, the rest of the class was in complete awe and jealousy at Katherine's expertise. "Too bad for them" I thought, and chuckled a little bit. It was funny to see the preppy IB kids to get shown up by the "mere" honors student. Serves them right for thinking they're above everyone else anyway. I guess I'm one of the few nicer ones. I waited for Katherine to finish packing, and we left the classroom together. Even though we had different classes this time, we still made it as far as downstairs and at the door to the JROTC room door before I had to say goodbye. I had offered to walk her to class, but she politely refused, saying she didn't want me to be late. I smiled and waved as she walked off, all the while peering at her schedule to find the Choir room. I walked into my JROTC class and fell in to my squad. Beyond this though, I didn't remember too much of the class, as my mind was occupied with thoughts of the days occurrences. "Wow. Two classes with her today." Considering the circumstances, I was starting to think maybe I'm a little bit more lucky than I originally perceived myself to be, which is not at all. "Maybe I have lunch with her too...? That certainly would be welcome." When I was dismissed from class to lunch, I sat down at my usual out of the way table and waited for the lines to die down. Quicker than usual, much to my delight, the lines shortened out and I was able to get my usual delicious turkey and roast beef sandwich. Just as I was about to take a giant bite of my mouthwatering delicacy though, I felt a gentle tap at my shoulder. I turned around, and there she was. Katherine stood there with a small looking bag that I assumed contained her lunch, and smiled, for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. Not that I was complaining, mind you. "Do you mind if I sit here with you?" She asked "That is, if it's okay with you." With this she hid behind her bangs, which I noticed she seemed to do in situations like this that could be uncomfortable for her. "Whatever cosmic force is causing this to happen, I thank you." I thought with glee, and I tried my best to make her feel a bit more at ease. "Of course. Make yourself as comfortable as these plastic seats will let you." I joked. She sat down and set the small bag on the table. The mystery of the contents of the bag was solved as she pulled out a small salad and a miniature thermos full of steaming red liquid that I assumed to be soup. "Or blood." I joked to myself. "So... how has your day been so far Connor?" She said rather conversationally, chewing on a forest green spinach leaf, actually holding a bit of eye contact now, leaving me to wonder what the change in attitude was about. "She must be getting comfortable with me pretty fast..." "I suppose it's been okay," I replied, "I don't really enjoy school though so...." "Well, not everyone can like the same thing as anyone else." She stated rather philosophically. I chuckled a bit. "Huh. Guess you're right." I nodded to her salad. "Not much to eat there... want me to go get you some more?" She shook her head at this. "Oh, no thank you. This is just fine for me." Looking down with a small grimace at the remains of my desecrated sandwich that I had taken care of during pauses in the conversation, she added "I also don't like meat..." "Oh..." The implications caught up to me just then. "OH. You're a vegetarian aren't you?" When she nodded her confirmation, I felt slightly guilty for offering meat to her. When she noticed the look on my face however, she quickly reassured me that no harm was done. "Still, it was kinda dense of me not to at least ask if you're a vegetarian first." She sighed at this. "Connor, I said no harm was done and I meant it. It's ok." When she finished, she gave her infamous small smile that I was quickly growing to enjoy. When lunch had ended, we said our goodbyes again and went to our respective classes. Walking to English however, I quickly realized how absolutely BORED I was about to be. I knew something had to go wrong today. "Ugh.... Lucky me..."