> King of the Court > by KingYakko5991 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > A Whole New Day! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Before I even get the chance to reach for the alarm, I find my face being covered in slobber. “Alright Titan, I’m up boy! I’m up!” I say to the German Shepherd, licking me to try and get me to turn off the alarm. I get out of bed and turn off the alarm. “Big day ahead, Titan,” I say, scratching him behind the ear. I grab a t-shirt to throw on for the time being, quickly wash the dog slobber off my bright white face, and put my contacts on my sky blue eyes, then head downstairs to the kitchen to grab a quick bowl of cereal. “Good morning Lighting!” a voice calls out. I look over to see a light gray woman standing in the kitchen. She has blonde hair with a single red highlight going down her right, as well as those same blue eyes that I have. “Morning, Mom,” I say in response. I then look at the figure standing next to her. “Hey dad.” The tall, tan, dark brown haired man turns around to look at me with those amber eyes of his. “Good morning son,” his booming voice speaks out. “Ready for your first day of school?” “Dad, it’s not like it’s my first day all over again. Just, my first day at a new school. Nothing to be ready or nervous for, really.” He chuckles as my comment. “I know that, son. But still, new school, new peers, new teachers and all. Just want to make sure you’re prepared is all.” “Thanks, but I’m fine, Dad really,” I reply, grabbing the milk from the fridge and heading for the box of Lucky Charms. I grab a bowl and spoon and dump the cereal and milk in. But as I go to eat the first spoonful, I get a slap on the back which nearly causes me to spill my spoonful of cereal on the table. Swift, I think to myself. I turn around to find, just as I guessed, my older brother Swift Bolt standing there with his light gray skin and messy, jet black hair. “Sup, lil bro?” he asks, giving me a mischievous look with those purple eyes of his. “Hey Swift,” I simply reply, finally getting my first mouthful of cereal. “Is Bounder up yet?” I ask no one in particular. But as if on queue, I hear him come running down the stairs. “Hey everyone!” calls out the short, yellow skinned boy with the same brown hair as Dad and same blue eyes as me and Mom. Everyone responds with a “hey” or “good morning” to Bounder, as he goes to grab some Eggo waffles to eat. Cool. Whole family’s up and at it now. We kinda just eat breakfast and discuss what everyone is doing for the day, since we just moved here and all. Obviously, Bounder and I are going to school, Canterlot High if I recall correctly. Swift had officially moved out years ago and was only here to help us move and unpack over the weekend. So he’s just gonna help Mom and Dad out until he decides to head back to his home, wherever that’s at. Dad is actually in the military, but is off duty for a little which is why we chose to move now rather than later. He says he’ll have to leave in a few days and will be gone for God knows how long. And so, that leaves Mom. She actually got a new job opportunity here in Canterlot, one of the main reasons we moved in the first place. Her first day is actually today, so that’s cool. After we finish our breakfasts and discussion for the day, Bounder and I head back upstairs to get ready for school. Great. Personally I never really had disliked school, but it’s not like I’m enthusiastic about it either, ya know? But for some reason, today specifically has some sort of extra drag to it. Maybe it’s those Monday vibes. Whatever. Anyway, I head back to the bathroom and brush my teeth then quickly comb through the golden blonde mess I call my hair. I don't mind it messy, because you can't tame the mane, ya know? Anyway, I then go back to my room to get dressed. Let’s see, random t-shirt, jeans, jacket. Cool. I grab my backpack and make sure everything is in it and ready. But before I head out, I take a good look at the jersey I have hanging on my wall. A number 23 Chicago Bulls jersey, signed by the legend Michael Jordan himself. Honestly, I’m not afraid to admit he’s my hero, or that I look up to him. Man was a freaking basketball legend. You got this Lighting, I think to myself. Hell yeah I do. And with that, I head back downstairs and wait for Bounder. As per usual, Bounder takes his sweet time to get ready and come to the door. God, I swear that kid is going to make me miss the bus one of these days. But eventually, he makes his way down the steps and to the front door. “Bye Mom! Bye Dad! See you after school!” I call out. I then turn to Swift. “See you around, man.” They all say their byes to Bounder and me, then we head out into the world. As we walk to the bus stop, I nudge Bounder with my elbow. “Nervous?” I ask. “Nervous?” he repeats. “What for?” “Hey, you never know man. New school, new peers, new teachers.” I say, giving him a wink. “Yeah, as if. Maybe you’re the one who’s nervous!” “Nah, that’s not me.” We make it to the bus stop and there are a few other people there waiting. I look around so I can attempt to remember what the stop looks like. I think I’ll be fine getting off the bus after school, though. We all kind of just stand around at the bust stop, just waiting. No one really has anything to say to anyone else. Again, Monday vibes. What a killer. Anyway, the bus comes after a few minutes of just awkwardly, silently standing around. We all get on to find that it’s empty. Huh. Must be the first stop. I take a seat in the way back, and Bounder takes the seat across from me. Probably going to be a long ride, so I take my headphones out of my backpack and play one of my music playlists. Man do I love music. I try not to like jam out or head bop too hard, I mean I am on public transportation of course. But then Queen starts playing and I have to really fight the urge to not go full nerd and start air guitaring Brian May’s solos. God I’m such a nerd… Anyway, the bus stops at the school and we head off. School looks pretty big actually. And the front kind of gives off this castle vibe. There’s also this like mustang or horse statue out the front too. Looks pretty cool, I have to admit. The exact second he’s off the bus, Bounder starts taking off like a bullet. I just smile and shake my head. Classic Bounder. I look over the school again while heading towards the entrance. Man. I’m gonna have to learn where all my classes are, as I didn’t really get the chance to do that over the weekend. Doesn’t really matter though, I’m sure I’ll get the gist of it in due time. Well, look out Canterlot High! There’s a new guy in town and his name is Lightning Bli- “Oof.” Uh oh. I think I just ran someone over. I look down in front of me to see this girl on the ground. Geez, way to go Prince Charming! “Oh my goodness I’m so sorry! I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and...” The girl doesn’t even look in my direction, like she’s scared or something. I see that she has a nice yellow skin tone and a blue dress on but she’s hiding her face behind her long. Light pink hair. “Hey, are you alright?” I ask. No response. Yikes. In fact she seems to get more intimidated the more I speak. Man, what can I even do at this point? I guess I should at least try to help her up. Show a little kindness. I mean, it is my fault she’s on the ground and her papers are scattered everywhere. Oh! Her papers! I hadn’t even realized them at first. “Here, let me help you,” I say, going to pick up the papers. It’s the least I can do. But as I go to grab one, I notice the picture on the front. “Oh my gosh! Are those puppies?” I ask excitedly. Yeah, I’m a sucker for dogs. The girl seems to perk up at my sudden enthusiasm. When she sees the smile on my face, her teal eyes just bright up and all of a sudden, she’s matching my enthusiasm. Wow. This girl is adorable when she gets excited like that. “Oh yes, they are! You see, I volunteer at the animal shelter nearby and I like to come out here throughout the week to hand out flyers and ask people to volunteer.” she explains as I help her back up. Her voice is really soft and just quiet. “Were you interested in volunteering?” she asks, with this adorable smile on her face. Dang. How can I say no to that? “Well, I just moved in so I won’t be busy with anything for a while. Sure, why not. It’ll be fun!” I start to pick up the rest of her flyers. “Oh! I thought you didn’t look familiar! My name is Fluttershy!” she says, extending out her hand. “Lightning Blitz,” I reply, shaking her hand. “Well, it was nice meeting you Lightning,” she hands me a flyer. “If you’re still interested in volunteering, everything you need to know is on that flyer! ” “Alright, thanks! I guess I’ll see you around, Fluttershy!” I wave as I walk off and she waves back. Cool. Thirty seconds on the school grounds and I already have after school plans. Wait, let me actually see when and where I need to be so I don’t look like a complete buffoon. I quickly scan over the paper looking for the info I need… Alright! Got it. Man, those puppies are just adorable. I hope there are some at the she- “Ouch!” Next thing I know, I’m the one on the ground. Man I really need to stop running into people. I’m not always like this, I swear! I look up to see this bright orange girl with red and yellow streaky hair rubbing her head with her eyes closed. “I’m so sorry,” I start. “I was paying attention to where I was going and-” “No no, it’s okay,” she says, opening her turquoise eyes to look at me. Wow. I think my heart just skipped a beat. She is beautiful… Oop. She’s reaching her hand out to help me up. I snap out of my trance and take it, getting up. “Hey! You’re the new guy, right?” I just simply nod my head, at a loss for words. “Well, my name is Sunset Shimmer,” she says, extending her hand. Wow. Sunset Shimmer. Such a nice name. And it suits her so well too. “Ah, my name’s Blitz, Lightning Blitz,” I say shaking her hand. Her skin is so smooth. She giggles a little at my James Bond intro. “Well you see Lighting, I’m actually supposed to show you around, you know, give you a tour of the school and all.” Awesome! “Oh, really? I didn’t know about that. That’d be great, thanks.” Too bad Bounder had already zoomed off. Wonder if she’s supposed to show him around too, or if he gets a different tour guide and the stars aligned in my favor to have me walk into mine. “Well, we can get that started if you’d like?” Guess it is just me. “Yeah! Sure thing!” And with that, we’re off. We head inside and Sunset explains to me the layout of the school and where to find everything. It’s actually pretty interesting and convenient. Each hall or wing is dedicated to a certain subject, like math or English or something like that, which differs from my old school where it was loosely grouped by grade level, and even then you still found yourself running halfway across the school to get to your next class. I guess that still would happen here, even more technically, but at least there’s a much more logical reason for it. Anyway, after all that’s done, the tour ends near my locker, which is cool. “Alright, well that concludes the tour. If you have any questions you can always ask Principal Celestia or Vice Principal Luna! Or, if you see me around you can always feel free to ask me anything or just say hi if you’d like!” She says, giving me a warm friendly smile. “Okay, well thanks a ton Sunset! I really appreciated this and you helped me out a lot.” “Anytime! Well, I‘ll see you around Lighting!” And with that she gives me a wave as she heads off. Naturally, I wave back. Man, what a girl. She seemed really nice and friendly, and really smart too. And I just can’t get over how beautiful she is… I shake my head to get myself out of my trance. Need to focus on school now. Only a few more minutes before I need to be in homeroom. Luckily, it’s close by and the same class as my first period. I quickly open up my locker and grab the stuff that I’ll need, shut it, then head off to homeroom. I get to the classroom, and see that most of the desks are full, except for a few in the way back. Nice. Just where I like to sit. I take a seat in the back and just take out my phone, scrolling through Discord and Reddit waiting for something to happen. Eventually, the teacher comes in and takes the attendance, morning announcements happen, and the bell rings, telling everyone to head on over to first period. Most of the kids get up but not me. My first class is right here in this class, and it’s one that I don’t mind too much, especially if the teacher is any good. I reach into my bag and grab my notebook, pencil, and graphing calculator. That’s right, first up on the list is Calculus I. > Off to Classes > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I just kinda sit back as I watch more than half the class get up to leave for their first period classes. Even the teacher leaves the classroom to go somewhere else. This is why I never understood the point of homeroom. I mean, what’s the point of hauling everyone into a classroom for like 15 minutes if half of them leave to go somewhere else? Sure, it makes sure everyone is somewhere they can hear the announcements, but that could easily be done in first period, right? Whatever, that’s not important right now anyway. I look around the classroom to see if I can find any hint as to what we’re doing in Calc. At my old school, we just finished up limits, which was stupidly tedious and I’d hate to have to go through that mess again, even if it means more practice. As I look around, I catch a glimpse of Sunset Shimmer, coming right into the classroom! Man, did I luck out. I can’t believe I have my first period with her! Even better, she notices me in the back and gives me this smile and waves at me. I wave back as she walks towards where I am. Awesome! “Hey Lightning!” she says, sitting in the desk next to me. “Hey Sunset,” I reply. “Looks like we have the same math class, huh?” “It would appear so,” I start. “Hey Sunset, would you happen to know what section we’re on?” She pauses for a moment to think about it. “Well, we just finished up limits, so I’d assume we’re going to start differentials and integrals today.” I let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness it’s just some relatively simple stuff. Sunset finishes taking her stuff out of the bag as the teacher, Ms. Sugarsweet, I think, comes into the classroom. A few minutes later, the bell rings and class starts. A surprise to no one, the first thing Ms. Sugarsweet does once class starts is announce to everyone that I’m the new guy. “Class, we have a new student today.” She says. “Lightning Blitz could you please stand up?” I stand up and wave awkwardly at the dozens of pairs of eyes staring in my direction. At least I won’t have to do this again after today. I take my seat and class goes on like normal. Ms. Sugarsweet goes up to the board and starts scribbling stuff all over the place for us to take notes on. Like Sunset said, we’re learning about differentials and integrals, meaning we just take the derivatives and antiderivatives of functions. Sounds complicated I know, but it’s actually pretty simple in concept. Besides, she does a really good job of explaining everything so that it actually makes sense which is a neat bonus. After the frenzy of notes, she hands out some worksheets, one for class and one for homework, I assume. “Okay everyone, you have the remainder of class to finish these sheets. You can do them in whatever order you like, but you need to turn at least one in before you head out the door. Whatever you don’t finish is due tomorrow at the beginning of class. You may work quietly with the person next to, if you’d like.” After hearing that last part, I turn to Sunset and give her this goofy grin, to which she giggles at. She moves her desk closer to me, so that it’s easier for us to work together. We look at the two worksheets, decide which seems more difficult, and then get to work. Pretty quickly, we start cranking out answers like nobody’s business. We finish the whole thing in about ten minutes. I offer to take Sunset’s paper up to the front and Ms. Sugarsweet gives me a little smile as I drop our papers in the basket. As I sit back down, I see that we only have a few minutes left of class, so Sunset and I decide not to start the next sheet. We kind of just sit in silence for a little bit and I start to feel awkward. I feel like I should say something to her, anything, but my mind is just drawing a complete blank. I wonder if she’s feeling the same way? Probably not. I open my mouth to say something, but instead of words the only sound audible is the bell signaling that class is over. Instead of saying whatever improv nonsense that was about to come out of my mouth, I just say “See you around, Sunset.” “See you, Lightning,” she says with a smile. We walk out of the classroom and go our separate ways. Man, what a girl. She’s beautiful, she’s smart… She’s like the whole package! Granted I did just meet her today so you never know. But still. Sometimes you just get certain feelings about someone or something, ya know? Anyway, I take a quick peep at my schedule to see where I’m headed. Right. Physics with Mr. Tarran. I make my way over to where the classroom is at and enter. In the classroom, I’m greeted with a bunch of black tables that fit two people each and tons of equipment that’s just out in the open. Guess things get pretty hands on in this class. Which is a good thing. I like that. Once again, I head to the back of the class and grab a seat at a table. I put my backpack on the floor and dig through for my Physics stuff. But when I look back up at the table, I’m met with this pink girl with crazy poofy hair staring at me with these big baby blue eyes and a massive grin. “GYAHH!” I quickly cover my mouth, slightly surprised by the sound I just made. “Hi there!” The girl says to me. “Um, h-hi?” “You wanna be my lab partner?” “I uh, um… Your what?” I am so lost at this point. “Well you see, we have this BIG project that we’re starting today and I was wondering if you’d like to be my lab partner!” “Oh, well… Sure. I guess.” I mean, I guess I don’t really have any other choice. Or maybe I do. But really, how likely is it that some random person would want to partner up with the new guy who they know nothing about? Other than this girl, apparently. “Yay!” She immediately zips into the chair to my left and gives me another massive grin. How on Earth did she do that? What did my eyes just witness? “My name is Pinkie Pie, by the way.” “Lightning Blitz,” I reply. “Oooooohh! I like your name!” “Thanks, I like yours too. So uh, why did you want to be my lab partner specifically? If you don’t mind me asking.” “Weeeellll, I saw you come into the classroom and I realized that I didn’t recognize you, which must mean that you’re new because I know everybody, and I mean everybody at CHS and because you’re new, you might not know anyone yet and might not have any friends which made me sad so I decided that I’d come and ask to be lab partners so that you’d also have at least one friend!” She explains, suddenly pulling me into a really tight hug. I can feel my face warming up. “Wow that’s… really sweet of you, Pinkie.” Right after I say that, she hugs me even tighter, and I start to feel a little crushed. She finally releases me when the bell rings and Mr. Tarran walks into the classroom. Like in math, he starts off with attendance and announcing my existence to the class. But after that, he goes over to his desks and grabs a stack of thick packets and starts to hand them out to the class. “This, ladies and gentlemen,” he announces, “is going to be your upcoming project.” A few students groan in response to hearing this. “This is intended to be a fun, more lenient project. We are going to use your knowledge of air resistance, momentum, and acceleration due to gravity for an egg drop test. You and a partner will be tasked to construct a device to cradle the egg to prevent it from cracking or bursting. We will do a total of three drop tests from varying heights. “You will not be graded solely on whether your egg survives or not, but by the creativity and design of your device. Obviously, the survival of your egg will gain you more points towards your grade, but the main goal is to be creative and to have fun with this project. Feel free to go wild. You will have all of this week to brainstorm ideas and come up with your design and then the following two weeks to build and test your designs. Also, all of what I am telling you now will be on the first page of your packet. Any questions?” He looks around and sees that nobody raises their hand. “Well, with that being all, you may use the rest of this time to find a partner, if you don’t have one already, and begin to brainstorm your designs.” And with that, the students in the class start scrambling about looking for someone to work with. Seeing that I have the first part already taken care of thanks to Pinkie here, I look over the packet. Like Mr. Tarran said, everything he went over was on the first page, so I move on to the next which just prompts some questions about what we want to do. I grab my pencil and notebook and start to brainstorm some ideas, and can see that Pinkie is doing the same. At least, her face seems to have some form of concentration written on it. Let’s see… “Okay, here’s an idea,” I say after a few minutes of brainstorming. I start drawing as I tell Pinkie my idea. “So I was thinking that we could have a box with a pouch suspended in the middle by four rubberbands, right? And then-” “We could make a parachute for the box!” It’s almost as if she read my mind. “Yes, exactly,” I roughly sketch out the parachute. “Actually, we might want to use more than one parachute. The added air resistance from them should in theory accommodate from the weight of the box and egg. We could use newspapers or something for that?” I ask, looking over to Pinkie, who just smiles and nods rapidly in response. I erase the single parachute and then draw out multiple. “And I was thinking for the little pouch, we could line it with-” “Marshmallows!” Wait what? Is she for real? “Uh, I was actually thinking cotton balls,” I pause to think about her proposal though. “Although I suppose the density of smaller marshmallows would produce a more effective cushion. My only concern with large marshmallows is that they would be too dense to act as a cushion and end up exerting an undesirable amount of force on the egg. Although I guess we could stretch them out to lessen some of that density… What do you think?” I ask, turning to her. She just gives me this blank stare. All of a sudden, she pulls a bag of marshmallows… out of her hair? Was that seriously there this whole time? She then proceeds to shove a handful into her mouth. “I think they taste super yummy!” She exclaims. “Want one?” She puts the bag in front of me, the sweet aroma filling my nose. Sure, why not. I reach into the bag and grab one, and pop it into my mouth. It… tastes just like you’d expect a marshmallow to taste. “Thanks, Pinkie.” She replies by throwing her arms around me and squeezing me yet again. We go on making some edits to our design. We decide to go with smaller marshmallows for the pouch cushion. We finalized our design a few minutes before the end of class and when I go to high five Pinkie, she gives me another hug instead. “Heh, that works too I guess.” We kinda just sit back and eat a few marshmallows here and there for the rest of class. The bell rings and we get up to leave. “Well,” I say, turning to look at Pinkie. “I’ll see you around, Pinkie. This was pretty fun, to be hone-” Pinkie gives me one last hug, but this time I actually hug her back. “I can already tell we’re gonna be besties!” Honestly, that doesn’t seem too bad. We walk out of the classroom, and I head off to my third period class, English with Ms. Hack. I go into the classroom and honestly, nothing much happens. No new people speaking out to me, sure Ms. Hack has me stand up for the class like usual but besides that, English is just English. She hands out the book we’re reading, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and tells us how many annotations we need. She gives us the class to get started and says we’ll discuss on Wednesday, and that’s English. But up next is a big one, a real make or break class depending on who’s in it and what we’re doing in it. I pack up my stuff and head on over to the locker room to prepare for whatever is about to happen in gym class. > Gym Time! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I make my way to the boys’ locker room and find an empty locker in the back, next to this guy with black skin who was changing his shirt. I start taking out my uniform and change my shirt when he notices me next to him. “New guy, huh?” he asks, turning to look at me with ruby red eyes. “Yup.” I simply reply. “Name’s Crystal Shadow.” He stands up and extends his hand, revealing his towering height as he does so. I mean, I’m no short guy at just over 6 feet, but this guy towers even me. “Lightning Blitz,” I say shaking his hand. “So, what’s this class like? Any good?” “Yeah it’s usually pretty tolerable when our actual teacher, Mr. Kulick, is here,” he says, running a hand through his gray hair. “But on days like today where we have a sub, we almost always play dodgeball, sometimes kickball if the sub feels like it. Turns into a complete brawl half the time.” “I see.” “Yeah. We were supposed to start our basketball unit today, but of course Kulick wasn’t here today. I was really looking forward to it too.” “Damn, that’s unlucky.” “It really is.” We continue our small talk as we finish getting changed. Apparently Crystal here has played on the basketball team for CHS every year he’s been here, which seems pretty cool to me. We head out to the actual gym once everyone is ready. Sure enough, there are dodgeballs lined up at the center, waiting to be thrown across the gym at people. As the sub does a quick attendance, I try to look over at the girls in the class that obviously weren’t in the boys’ locker room. Ya know, just to see if anyone I met so far has gym with me. No other reason, I swear. Sadly, I don’t see anyone familiar, which is a bummer, but at least there’s Crystal, who seems pretty cool. The sub tells us to pick sides and even out. Me and Crystal end up taking the same side, which is cool with me. Much better to have someone like him as an ally rather than an enemy in dodgeball. As the two sides of the gym even out, everyone gets ready for the whistle. It blows and everyone rushes towards the center to try and grab a ball. And so, the gym slowly turns into a battlefield. Balls whip back and forth from either side. The sound of balls hitting walls and bodies exploding. It’s like I’m in a Black Ops 3 deathmatch or something. I manage to stay alive for a good while, and so does Crystal. I dodge a ball, then another, then catch a third that was headed for my face. Not today, bud. I whip the ball back and it domes this guy who wasn’t paying attention. I do a little celebratory fist pump to myself as this super bulk looking guy with blonde hair picks up a ball. His red eyes filled with determination, he throws a ball across the gym and it hits this guy right in the gut. Looks like it hurt, but the guy seems to walk it off just fin- “YEAH!” the bulk guy on my team screams, not directly at me but it might as well have been. Crystal whips a ball at someone, but then this athletic looking girl catches it and he’s out. I look around to notice that on my team, it’s just me and the bulk guy while on the other it’s the athletic girl and some other big dude. I look over to my teammate and say “We got this, dude.” “YEAH!” he screams again, louder than last time. The athletic girl goes to throw a ball at me and I prepare to catch it. It flies at me fast, a little too fast, but before it makes contact, the bulk guy reaches out an arm and catches it with one hand. He gives me a fist bump as the girl walks off to the side, looking a bit annoyed. But the huge guy on the other team whips a ball in our direction. It hammers my teammate right in the face and he actually falls over from it, leaving me in complete shock. I snap out of it just in time to dodge a second ball headed right for my head. The boom of the ball hitting the wall echoes throughout the entire gym. This guy is trying to kill me, I think to myself. The atmosphere of the gym changes, and all of a sudden it’s like I’m a cowboy ready for a showdown at high noon. Me and the other guy glare at each other, both of us holding a ball in each hand. The guy stands tall and large, not as tall as Crystal, but definitely larger than the guy on my team. Sweat glistening off his tan face, his brown eyes full with aggression, this guy really meant business. Another bullet of a ball heads towards me and I manage to duck under it, feeling the wind from it whoosh right over my head. I whip a ball back at him as hard as I can, and it flies pretty quickly, but he dodges it with ease. “Too slow!” his taunting voice yells at me. For some reason, that really irks me. I toss the other ball to my right hand, my dominant hand, and try again. This time I put all of my body into my right arm and throw even harder than before. The ball probably flies the tiniest bit faster. A surprise to no one, the guy dodges it again. Then this grin creeps up on his face as he whips his last ball at me. It goes by too fast for me to react to and I get smacked right in the face. The whistle blows again signaling the end of the game, and my face is stinging. The guy chuckles as he prepares for the next game “You good, Blitz?” I hear Crystal call out to me. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I say. Really, I am though. “That’s good. One hell of an introduction from Chester, I’d say.” “Chester?” “Yeah. Chester Broastmen. He’s the school jock and a complete dick to everyone. You know, typical, ‘I can beat everyone in everything and need to prove it’ type of guy.” “Ah. I see.” We prepare for the next game. But then Crystal turns to the bulk guy who was on my team. “You good, Bulk Biceps?” he asks. “YEAH!” he replies. I look at Crystal. “Does that guy know any word other than yeah?” He just chuckles at my question. “Guess you’ll just have to wait and find out, huh?” With that, we prepare for the next game. Everyone lines up for the balls in the center and… off goes the whistle. The second game goes much smoother. I actually get way more people out this time, even that athletic girl that got Crystal out in the first game. Yet despite all this, I still find myself face to face with the jock, Chester Broastmen in the end. Same situation as before, in fact, I even hear someone whistle the theme to the Good the Bad and the Ugly. Nice to see I’m not the only movie nerd here. I take another look at Chester, and just the sheer size of this man. There’s no way I can take him head on, he’d just out athlete me everytime, if that’s even a thing. But I might be able to outsmart him… I decided to play the patient game with him. I wait until he throws his two balls, barely managing to dodge both of them. But when he glances at the two balls in my hand, that awful grin from earlier creeps back onto his face. I’m gonna have to nickname that the Chester Grin or something. “COME ON, SLIM JIM!” he yells. “LET’S SEE WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF!” Alright, well he asked for it. I throw the ball in my right hand low, then throw the ball in my left in the opposite direction, a bit higher. I try to curve the second ball as best as I can but don’t exactly get what I wanted. Still, Chester dodges the first ball and in the process gets smacked in the face by the second. The whistle blows, signaling the end of the game once more. This time I fist pump much more obviously and let out a big “Yes!” Some people in the class actually cheer a little for me while others look in shock. Chester gets up,brushes violently past me and heads towards the locker room. But now that I look around, I see that a lot of others are heading back as well. Class must be over already. Crystal comes over and slaps me on the back. “Dude,” he starts. “That was-” “Awesome!” He’s suddenly cut off by this raspy voice. We turn to see this blue girl with rainbow hair, the athletic looking girl from earlier, approaching, looking at me with awe in her magenta colored eyes. “You really showed him!” she says. Giving me a punch on the shoulder. “Thanks,” I say, rubbing my arm. It kinda hurt from that. “Name’s Rainbow Dash,” she says. “Lighting Blitz,” I reply. “Well, Blitz, seems like you’re gonna make this gym class pretty interesting if you can keep up with Chester like that!” She says, giving me a wink. Not sure of what else to say, or think for that matter, I just simply reply with a thanks. With that, me and Crystal head back over to the boys locker room. “That was pretty sick out there,” he says to me. “But you might wanna watch out though. Chester doesn’t exactly like people showing him up, especially in anything athletic.” I then look over to catch a glance of him staring me down in the locker room. Great. Just perfect. I look back to Crystal. “Well, thanks for the heads up man.” “Yeah, no problem,” he says chuckling. With that, we head out of the locker room. Up next is one that I’m really looking forward to now. After that gym class, I’m starving. I’m honestly glad that I can say that we make out way over to the cafeteria for lunch now. > Old Friendly Faces > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crystal and I head out of the locker room to get ready to head on over to lunch. We barely get moving before he nudges me, probably to say something. “Hey, Lightning, I really don’t mean to like ditch you or anything, but my table at lunch is kinda full at the moment. But I can help you find some place to sit, if you’d like.” Oh, that’s it? “Oh, it’s fine dude,” I reply. “I’ll figure something out.” “You sure, man?” “Yeah, positive.” “Alright then. I’ll see you around, man.” Crystal goes down a different hallway, probably to go to his locker or something, but I keep heading towards the cafeteria. It takes me a bit to remember exactly where it’s at, but I get there within a reasonable amount of time. I see the entrance to the cafeteria and make my way over when suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see Sunset Shimmer of all people behind me giving me a warm smile. “Oh, hey Sunset,” I say to her. “Hey Lightning. I’m guessing you don’t have a place to sit at lunch?” I just shake my head no in response. “Well, don’t worry. You can sit with me and my friends if you’d like, there’s still a few open seats.” “That sounds great! Thanks,” I say quickly. There’s no way I’m passing up this opportunity. To get to sit with Sunset Shimmer during lunch everyday? It most likely isn’t the opportunity of a lifetime, or nearly as big a deal as I’m making it out to be to myself, but it sure as hell does feel that way. I just hope that I don’t make an idiot of myself in front of her friends or give off a bad first impression or something like that. I’m sure I’m just overthinking everything and I’ll be alright. Probably. We head into the cafeteria and grab our trays to throw some slop on. Well, I say that, but honestly the food looks pretty edible, which is leagues better than what most other high schools have to offer. We pick out our food and head out into the big open area where all the tables are. I follow Sunset in presumably what is the general direction of where her table, which seems to be in the back across from these big doors. I soon figure out which table we’re heading towards, since a few of the girls facing our way start to smile and wave when they see Sunset. The girls notice me walking with her and then start to chat and giggle amongst one another. Oh boy, this should be interesting. But then, one of the girls facing away from us turns around to see, but her eyes go wide when she looks at me. She immediately gets up and starts heading in our direction. As she gets closer, I notice that there’s something distinctly familiar about her. Maybe it’s her white face, or her purple coiffed hair. Or maybe it’s those deep blue eyes of hers… Wait… Before I even get the chance to say anything to the girl, she’s already thrown her arms around me, taking both me and Sunset by surprise. Wait a minute… “R-Rarity?” I manage to stutter out. The girl just responds by hugging me even tighter, confirming that it really is her. Of course, I immediately put my one free arm around her, hugging her back while also trying not to drop my lunch or something like that. After a bit, we finally release each other, but I’m just standing in shock. “It’s really you!” I manage. “Mm-hm,” she nods in response. “I really missed you, darling.” She says, speaking in that Transatlantic accent of hers. I missed her too, really. I just can’t believe I’m seeing her again. I stand there in just shock, my mouth open just a little bit, I’m completely incapable of finding any other words to say. She’s just like I remember seeing her all those years ago, smile and all. Sunset then steps in, probably to break the awkward silence. “So, I take it you two know each other already?” “Huh? Oh yeah,” I shake my head out of the, whatever that was. A trance I guess? The girls resume walking over to the table, so I follow. “You see, back in middle school, we used to, uh, ya know...” Suddenly it becomes difficult for me to speak again. “Lighting and I used to date back in middle school, before I moved here.” Rarity finished, blushing a little. “Yeah, that.” I say, blushing myself. “Oh, I see.” Sunset says as we reach the table. I take the empty seat to her right and Rarity sits across from me. Sunset clears her throat to get the attention of everyone else at the table but as she opens her mouth to speak, someone else speaks up first. “Oh, hey Blitz,” it’s Rainbow Dash. “Looks like you’re gonna be sitting with us, huh?” She says with a smirk. “Hey, Rainbow,”I reply. “Looks like i-” “LIGHTING!” I barely get to finish my sentence before I’m cut off and suddenly find all the air being squeezed out of my lungs. I can’t possibly imagine who that would be. “Hey Pinkie Pie,” I say, hugging back the enthusiastic pink girl. I look around the table to see if I recognize anyone else from today, and I see Fluttershy off on the other side of the table. “Hi Fluttershy,” I say waving to her. She just smiles and waves in response. There are two other girls at the table, one orange girl with green eyes and a cowboy, or cowgirl I guess, hat covering her blonde hair. And the other is this purple girl with a ponytail and glasses. She has dark blue hair with a magenta and purple highlight. The cowgirl introduces herself as Applejack, speaking with a southern accent. The other girl says her name is Twilight Sparkle. She seems kinda shy, but nowhere near as shy as Fluttershy when I met her outside the school this morning. “Say,” Applejack says all of a sudden. “Ain’t you in my English class?” She asks me. Honestly, I paid so little attention to who was in that class with me that it’s entirely possible that she was there. I don’t recall seeing her specifically, but it’s not like I was exactly looking for her to begin with. “Uh, probably,” I say, assuming that if she recognizes me from the class, I was probably there. “Ms. Hack, 3rd period?” “Yeah that’s the one.” Guess we do have the same class. “Well, I’ll have to keep an eye out for you tomorrow,” she says, giving me a wink. “So Lighting,” Pinkie Pie butts in “You gonna tell us about yourself or am I going to have to pry it out of you?” “Oh God, not a personality quiz. I suck at these!” I say quickly, earning a couple of giggles from the table. But, I start to tell everyone a little about me, while also finally taking some time to actually eat. Sunset gets really excited when I say I really like to play competitive video games, so I guess that’s one thing we have in common. But yeah we kinda just spend the rest of lunch getting to know each other, or rather I guess the girls learn about me and I learn about them rather than them learning about each other, which is cool. We all finish our lunches and go to throw out our trash but then Sunset asks me what class I’m headed to next. “Oh, I have a study hall next.” “Oh hey! So do Rarity, Pinkie and I! Is it with Ms. Cheerilee?” “Uh, I think so,” I reach for my schedule real quick so that I can double check. “Oh yeah! It is! Awesome!” With that, Sunset, Pinkie, Rarity, and I all wave to the others and head off to study hall. It’s pretty cool that I have it with these three to be honest. Not only do I get to hang out with Rarity and Pinkie Pie, but I also get to spend a little more time with Sunset. I really hope that goes somewhere, but hey, gotta take things one step at a time, right?