ADHD??? More like Neigh-DHD! Am I right fellas?? Fellas?????
Get up. Get out of the chair, Pinkie. Stop staring at your desk, and go get something to eat. Your homework is due in 28 minutes, but you’re too hungry to work. You need to get up.
Pinkie got up, with slightly less energy than most of her friends would expect from her, but that was okay. It was just Rarity in the house, and she was always the super-duperiest most helpful friend in the world. She’d understand.
Go to the kitchen. Past the bathroom.
Pinkie felt as though she had other things she could be doing, other than standing in the bathroom. Ooh, she needed to change the toilet paper, and bring the empty cardboard on the way to get two things done at once. So efficient! She looked at herself in the mirror and giggled. Her hair was so poofy when it was frizzy! She should really brush it more often. Where was her brush?
Look at a clock to tell when the homework’s due.
Clocks, clocks. She didn’t have a clock in the bathroom, but her stomach rumbled, and she felt like she was forgetting something, so she tried to run through her mental checklist again.
Food. Kitchen, then clock then homework then Rarity.
Right! She shuffled towards the kitchen, almost tripping on a jacket left in the hallway. This wasn’t hers, was it? No, no, it was Rarity’s. Rarity was visiting, wasn’t she? Pinkie slung the jacket over her arm as she walked into the living room.
Rarity was over because they were supposed to be working on homework. Homework is due soon. Better look at a clock.
What was she doing in the living room? Pinkie went back to her room and squinted at the clock.
25 minutes until the assignment is due. The assignment was a short response to a few questions that she hadn’t started yet.
She sat down in front of her computer. This was not her jacket, and she felt like she was forgetting something.
Kitchen. You were going to the kitchen, Pinkie.
Right! She bolted towards the kitchen.
Kitchen, gotta go to the kitchen. We’re getting food, in the kitchen, where we’re going. Do not pass go, Pinkie, do not collect $200, just collect food, which we’re getting while we’re in the kitchen.
Maud gave Pinkie a tired wave as she skidded to a halt in front of the sink. She needed to get some food, but this wasn’t her jacket and she had homework to do and she hadn’t even started yet. What should she eat? Where did she even start, she was just hungry, but not for anything.
Why was she holding a cardboard tube? Whatever, she’d figure it out soon enough. She set it down and took a deep breath.
Get some food, then do your homework, then talk to Rarity.
Pinkie opened the fridge. There was pasta, and milk, and butter, and cheese, and meat, and whipped cream, and leftover cake. She could make a sandwich with the cheese and the meat, or she could get some cake, or she could layer pasta and butter and cheese and make some sort of lasagna, and ooooh, there was sauce too, towards the back! But what if a sandwich was better? Or maybe she needed fast energy, and whipped cream on bread was the best option. Was she thirsty? Did she want some milk? Could she put whipped cream on-
“You’re getting caught up in the details again,” murmured Maud, as she refilled Boulder’s pet bowl with cereal. “I know that look.”
Pinkie grinned. Kitchen, homework, Rarity. “I’m just getting something to eat before I finish my homework.”
Maud gave Boulder a little pat before setting him in the food bowl. “There’s leftover pasta in the fridge we need to use up, and some sauce for on top. You don’t mind eating that, do you?”
Pasta. To make pasta, she should put it in a bowl, then put sauce on it, then put it in the microwave.
“I don’t mind! Happy to help!” Pinkie gave her sister her bestest Pinkie-licious grin, and Maud leveled her with a content gaze of understanding before heading back towards her room. The food conundrum solved, she put the pasta in the bowl and started the microwave.
Pasta, microwave, done! Start the microwave, do the homework - 20 minutes until it’s due, judging by the clock on the microwave - and then-
“Hello, darling,” trilled Rarity as she sauntered into the kitchen.
Rarity then microwave then homework then Rarity???
Pinkie often forgot that people don’t fit into checklists very well. “Hiya Rarity! I’m just getting some snackaroos before finishing the homework, and then we can hang out!” The microwave beeped, and Pinkie opened it to stop the beeping.
Rarity chuckled in that no-nonsense ladylike way of hers that made Pinkie’s smile grow without even needing to concentrate on it. “That little thing? I promise it doesn’t take nearly as much time as you’d think it would. Why, it barely took me ten minutes, and I’ll admit, I haven’t even been studying!”
Homework takes ten minutes, and it’s 13 minutes before it’s due. Pasta, then Rarity then homework then Rarity again.
The microwave was open. Pinkie closed it and frowned. This was not her jacket. A cardboard tube sat on the countertop. Why was that there? Pinkie threw it into the recycling.
“You look a little stressed, Pinkie. Are you doing alright?” Rarity held out her hand, and after a moment of confusion she handed her the jacket. Must’ve been Rarity’s all along. It sure did look super-duper-cozy-rific on her!
Pinkie started the microwave and laughed. “I’m as okie-dokie as they come! Just got a lot of things to do!”
“You know,” said Rarity, pulling out her phone to check her messages. “Whenever I’m worried about all the things I have to do, I try to make a list. Then I don’t have to remember everything!”
Pasta, then homework, then-
“I’ve tried that. I forgot to make a list of where the list could be, though!” Rarity laughed, and the microwave beeped insistently. Pinkie opened it. The noodles seemed burnt, for some reason. She looked at the clock.
Nine minutes before the homework is due, and it takes ten minutes.
“Did you want to hang out, Rarity?”
Was it worth starting it if she wasn’t even going to finish it in time?
“What about your homework?”
Rarity then homework then Rarity.
“It’s fine, I’ll make it up.”
At least she still had her pasta.
“If… if you say so, darling. By the way, the toilet paper in the bathroom is out. Just wanted to remind you, so you don’t forget, okay?”