> Against The Wall > by Penguin17203 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Better Luck Next Time... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The bell rang, letting the school know that it was time to finally go home. Trixie, like everyone else, was thrilled. Understandably so, after all school was boring. It was something that you will never get used to. She hasn't, at least. She didn't know about everyone else but she didn't care either way; she never got used to it. As soon as she stepped inside, all she wanted to do was go home. The most intriguing and, no doubt, the most entertaining event that took place was when Sunset got assaulted by Lightning Dust and her goons. It was coming up on one week since that day. The fight that took place between Bon Bon and Lightning was the highlight of her month maybe even the year. Everyone was thrown completely off-guard by Bon Bon's martial arts skills. But not her... Trixie wasn't thrown off. She wasn't even surprised. She knew the extent of how good the pale-colored girl was when it came to combat. How does she know this? Simply put, Trixie also happened to attend the same Silat dojo as she did. No one else knew this except Lyra and Bon Bon herself; having seen and sparred against them on numerous occasions in the past. She was certain that Bon Bon excelled way past Lyra. In comparison, she consistently attended the dojo whereas the aquamarine girl would only sometimes attend. Not like Trixie and her best friend, Bon Bon who were dedicated. She guessed that Lyra only came to the dojo to hang out with her friend which she couldn't help but scoff at. It was interesting as well as thrilling to seeing Bon Bon's skills put to the test in a real-life scenario. While everyone was staring in befuddlement at the pale-colored girl fighting off the four bullies, Trixie was watching with eagerness; not put off by her combat skills. Although, Trixie did wonder why she and Lyra bothered to intervene in the first place. Seeing as how Sunset was Anon-a-miss, she was getting what she deserved. Trixie slugged her lavender-colored backpack over her shoulder before she left the classroom. The halls were filled with students, some of them rushing to get home and some taking their time and chatting with their friends. As she was about to leave the hallway, she nearly bumped into one of her former bandmates Fuchsia Blush. "Oh sorry-Trixie!?" Trixie hmphed. "Perhaps next time when you're turning a corner, you oughta slow down, yeah?" She navigated around her and continued making her way to the entrance. "Oh wait, hang on a sec!" Fuchsia said, walking up next to her. "Why? To make up more lies? Sorry but Trixie has somewhere to be and that is a place called home." She replied, not bothering to look back at her. "B-but can't we just talk?" She stopped, turning to face the girl; keeping her expression neutral. "Uh... no, we can't. I, unfortunately, don't feel like conversating with a backstabber." She said concluded before carrying on toward the entrance of the school. "Oh for goodness sake, Trixie! It wasn't me! How many times do I have to say that!?" "I don't know, you're the one saying it so you figure it out!" Trixie shouted as she picked up her speed. She wasn't going to waste her time talking with her, she only had a few hours until she had school started again. She'd rather not kill any seconds or minutes that she will never get back trying to fix a friendship that was never there. She slowed down as there was a handful of students squeezing through the doors. Once she made it through, she walked over to the left side of the horse statue then continued down the road leading to her home. Trixie turned around the left corner, slowly coming to a stop and frowned at the construction sight in front of her. This was the road she always took to go and come home from school. She glanced at the "road closed" sign and an arrow pointing to the right; on the other side of the road. The construction workers looked like they were still setting up their equipment and the site itself stretched almost as far as the horizon. Her home was on the quieter part of town, barely any traffic rolled through here. She turned to her right where the column of buildings continued down. At the end was a building, the only way to go was left. On the other side of the road the forest, a large mountain in the background of it. A few graffiti tags here and there but not too prominent. She grunted before carrying on pass the construction site. It usually took half an hour before she eventually made it home. Thanks to the construction site, it was unfortunately going to take way longer. She never went down this road before. After what felt like an hour of walking, taking turns and passing numerous streets; she somehow managed to find herself in the more... shady part of town. To her relief, the afternoon sun was still up. Thankfully. Walking through a dirty street at night was the last thing she wanted to do. There were scraps of litter everywhere, graffiti tags were practically the paint of the buildings. The air smelt dreadful, not cold like a breeze. It was like breathing in something hot and musky. There were a few people walking along the sidewalk, not sparing her or anyone else a glance which made her feel slightly more at ease; that everyone was just minding their own business and getting to wherever they needed to get to. Trixie continued down the dirty part of town for a couple more minutes, taking multiple turns and crossing a couple roads. She ended coming down to a large building, it wasn't a skyscraper like the one's you see in the cities. It was large as in being wide like a school, like Canterlot High. She seemed to be in the parking lot, noticing the white parking lanes. The building as a whole looked to be quite dirty or poor, whatever term you prefer. The sidewalks had untrimmed grass protruding from the gaps, it's concrete were heavily cracked as if she were walking on jagged rocks. The walls resembled the rest of the town, it's walls splattered with scribbles and crude tags all over it. She had never been to this part of town before. She didn't fully realize what type of building it was but she could take a guess. It was another school. An abandoned with at that. It had to be abandoned, why would it still be open? The state of it looks terrible and even some of the windows had large cracks in them! She wasn't feeling uneasy because of it. It was just an abandoned building, nothing scary or bad about it. What unnerved her was the obnoxiously loud group of people hanging out in the parking lot. There had to be around five or six of them, most of them boys and a couple of girls. By their attire, they looked no better than the school either. Most of them had jeans that looked worn out. Some of them had tank tops or t-shirts that looked like they haven't been washed in weeks. How people can shout at the top of their lungs was mind-boggling, they were attracting attention to themselves. They should be running home with that type of clothing. Complete imbeciles. Trixie continued along the sidewalk, stealing glances at them as she did so. One of the girls in the group caught her gaze. If she were any closer, Trixie would have noticed the hostile look on her face. "What are you looking at!?" The girl shouted from a distance, the rest of the group noticing Trixie's presence. "Uh, nothing?" Trixie shrugged as she continued walking. "Yeah, keep walking then!" Trixie frowned and rolled her eyes. Clearly, this was where the poor and pissed off people lived. She thought bitterly. The group went quiet like cats sneaking around a house. She assumed they were just watching her leave, she was no longer taking glances at them. She began having second thoughts about coming through here. There were other people she passed by earlier and they seemed decent enough. As she was nearing the corner of the building, one of the boys from the group shouted out to her. "Where you from!? Never seen you around here before!" Daring herself, Trixie spared a glance back to find the group walking over to her. The uneasy feeling just increased. She turned away and continued walking, unsure of whether she should give an answer or not. "Uh..." she trailed off, internally cursing her brain for not coming up with some lie. "What's up with you!? Can't you talk properly!?" The girl from before, the rude miscreant exclaimed. "Okay, this is just wonderful, isn't it?..." she muttered to herself. "No, Trixie can speak perfectly fine thank you very much." She responded aloud, looking back at them. "The heck is 'Trixie'?" The one other girl in the group asked, giving her a weird expression. "Me. You're looking at her." Trixie simply provided. The miscreant frowned and chuckled, more of a "I'm mocking you" type of chuckle. "W-why do you say your name? What? Is there something wrong with your brain?" A glare worked it's way onto Trixie's features but the girl didn't seemed phased by it instead grinned back at her. She chose not to respond, ignoring her entirely. They were now a few feet away from her and she now had a clear view on the group. There was five of them in total, three boys and two girls. One of the boys from earlier repeated his question. "So, where you from then?" He asked casually as if his friend absolutely was not being a crook. The boy didn't appear to be that tall if they stood side by side, he'd only be taller than her by an inch and his build was slightly slim. The group had similar body structures to his except for the two girls who were slimmer and their height differences varied. "You go to Crystal Prep?" One of the other boys in the group asked. "Obviously not, she doesn't even have the uniform." The miscreant snarked. "She could've just gotten changed, it might be in her bag." Her breath stopped for a moment as they mentioned her bag. They were now walking with her, Trixie's personal space being invaded. Her hand subtly flew to the strap around her shoulder, her fingers tightening around it. The miscreant who was rudely inquiring was walking right beside her. Trixie felt her stare lingering on the side of her cheek, sometimes breaking eye-contact to see where she was going. Unbeknownst to Trixie, the few group members behind her were eyeing her bag. "So, you from Crystal Prep then?" Trixie held back a sigh. They were now at the entrance of the building and she confirmed it to be a school as her eyes ran along the large bold name stapled near the roof of the building. "Hivemind High" it read. The entrance was just as depraved and unclean as the rest of this suburb. She was never coming here again, clearly even the people that lived here was just as unapproachable. "This school open?" She asked, avoiding the boy's question. "Yeah, we go here." The other girl answered for her. Wow, this place is still open. Trixie thought, surprised at such a dreadful fact. "Why doesn't the principal try cleaning this place up? Maybe pay to get the school renovated or something?" "'Cuz she doesn't care." The girl grunted. One of the boys scoffed. "Yeah! Chrysalis doesn't really care about the... outside of the school. The classrooms look way better though." "What? What're you talking about!? No, they don't!" The miscreant exclaimed. "Yeah, they do!" "No, they do not just shuddup!" Trixie silently agreed. Actually, all of them need to shut up. The universe seemed to have heard her thought as the group soon quieted down for a few moments. "Cool bag," the other girl suddenly said, a frown quickly making it's way to Trixie's face. It would have been a normal compliment if not for what came out of her mouth next. "What's in it?" She took a second to process what she had just asked. "I am not answering that que-" A hard tug came from her right shoulder, forcing her to a sudden stop. Her hand was still wrapped around the strap of her bag, she turned and scowled at the miscreant beside her; her hand gripped tightly on her bag. "What are you doing?" Trixie asked, keeping her voice leveled with fake calmness. "I just wanna see what's in the bag," the stupid crook casually replied with an even stupider grin on her face. She wanted rip that fake smile right off her face. She could and probably would have if not for her friends that were in close proximity. Probably was why she was so confident to begin with. Trixie kept her scowl on her but she appeared unphased by it. She glanced toward others and quickly caught on to the situation. They weren't stopping what their friend was doing. They looked just as eager to snatch her bag away from her. The uneasiness that she was already feeling just increased ten times over, her mind scrambling and jotting down multiple theories of what was about to happen. Trixie turned back toward the girl, not bothering to glare or scowl. "I don't care." She said as she grabbed the girl's hand and ripped it away from her bag before turning her heel to leave. She barely stepped away before she was yanked back again. She turned back to see one of the boys holding onto her bag this time. "Show us what's in the bag." He demanded, his voice raising slightly and no longer masked with a friendly-façade. The group was slowly beginning to circle around her and she struggled to keep the tremble out of her hand. "Let go, now." She removed the straps from her shoulder, ready to rip it away from him. She would soon come to regret that decision. One of the other boys in the group, closest to her, abruptly shoved her away; the strap of her bag was torn from her grasp "Hey!" The group snickered as the boy who had her bag unzipped it and began rummaging through her stuff. She went to go take it back when the boy who shoved her earlier blocked her path. "I demand that you get out of my way, now!" She yelled, not bothering to keep her calm exterior anymore. "Or what!? You aren't gonna do anything!" The girl teased, laughing as she did so. "What does she got?" "Does she have money?" "I said get outta the way!" Trixie attempted to walk around him but the boy shoved her away once again. In a sudden burst of anger, she thrusted a powerful kick to the boy's chest; sending him back a few feet and nearly colliding into his friends. He grimaced and his hand flew to the area he was kicked in. Soon after, the rest of the group began to charge at her; having seeing what she had just done to their friend and forgetting about her bag entirely. The closest one to her was the miscreant. Her friends were right behind her and Trixie had knew by default she would get overwhelmed quickly if she didn't deal with her as soon as possible. The girl swung her at her but Trixie blocked it with her forearm. She followed up with a fist to her chin, making sure it was facing downwards for her sharp knuckles before kicking her back into her friends. One of the boys pushed her to the side, ignoring her and ascended on Trixie. Using her forearms, she blocked the first few hits before he attempted to kick her. She caught his leg under her arm before smacking him with her backhand and elbow. She kneed him and sent him to the ground before immediately advancing on the two boys that were left. They attempted to land strikes at her but she flawlessly blocking them; dodging and swerving to the side before kicking one of them in the side; pushing them off elsewhere. The boy that was left attempted to land a kick on her but like the other, she caught it. She was about to finish him off when a sharp wave of force slammed into the right side of her ribs, sending her flying to the concrete below her. She let out a yelp as she landed before quickly noticing two boys charging toward her; taking advantage of her floored state. She kicked one of the legs out from one of the boys, rolling over as he almost fell on top of her. She rolled once again as the other boy attempted to stomp on her. He recovered quickly as he then swung his right leg at her, no doubt aiming for her head. It was a fruitless attempt, along with all of their other previous attempts as it only ended up being blocked by Trixie's forearm. She slammed her palm into his thigh, pushing away his leg before leaning forward and offered a crushing elbow to his left knee; forcing him to fall to the ground. As she tried to get back up, there was a kick to her shoulder which sent her back down to the ground. Trixie found herself laying on her back as the miscreant she had dealt with earlier began advancing on her. She rolled over, her legs wrapping around the other girl's leg and pushing the crook of the girl's knee; taking her to the ground with her. Once she came back around, she finished her off with another kick to the face. She went to get back up but another leg swung at her. Instinctively, her forearms flew to her face to shield herself from the coming blow. The extreme force from the kick sent her flying back to the pavement below her, landing on her back with a loud clap and a yelp was forced out of her. Unable to move due to the piercing pain on her back, the fight had been drained out of her immediately and she soon felt a huge weight pounce on top of her. She found herself pinned, stuck and unable to move when a flurry of messy punches were thrown at her. Still dazed from the impact and unable to think straight, she threw her arms up in defense, hoping to prevent any further damage. That soon proved to be futile as everyone who was recovering from her previous attacks saw her current state and tried to ignore any pain they might have been feeling and joined in on the assault. Trixie tried in vain to shield herself from the various waves of attacks. Punches, kicks and probably the most painful; the stomps. The pain quickly increased to an intolerable degree as she now began letting out yelps as the group wailed on her. It felt like hours before something finally happened that caused them to stop. "Hey! What the hell are you guys doin' out here!?" She didn't hear the loud yell that echoed across the yard, the only thing that registered was the fact that the group was finally stopping their assault. The weight that was pinning her to the ground was quickly lifted and Trixie suddenly felt like she can breathe again. She didn't bother to look up as she slowly writhed on the ground; her hands idly massaging her painfully throbbing muscles. "Mr. Pharynx!" She heard one of the boys say. "Sorry sir! But-" "Did Thorax say detention was over!? Did he say it was over!?" Nobody said anything, Trixie still had her eyes shut in pain. The teacher strode over to the group, a heavy glare plastered on his face. "No sir!" One of the boys said. "We were jus-" "Exactly, he didn't! So, get back in class now or I'll drag you back there! Go!" He barked, leaving no room for negotiation. Numerous "yes sirs'" were offered before she heard multiple footsteps around her as they quickly became distant. Relief flooded her potentially broken bones as she thought to lay there and rest for a few minutes. Perhaps even sleep there, the ground feels quite comfortable for some odd reason. "Hey!... Hey! Get up!" A voice barked, forcing her eyes to open. Trixie somehow managed to find the strength to grit her teeth as she thought about the absurdity of that request. Angry and feeling slightly humiliated, she sighed before pushing propping herself up to look at the teacher... or what she presumed to be a teacher. He was a dark aqua color and his hair was red and slicked back. He wore a button up shirt with a pair of slacks. His expression was locked with a scowl. She didn't even have the energy to consider holding his gaze. "You good?" He grunted. "...Y-You... s-serious?" She seethed out. "Yeah, now hurry up and get up!" "H-how are you asking me... to do that!?" She winced as she almost shouted. "I just... g-got beaten into the ground and you want me to stand!?" She gritted out. "Well if you wanna keep laying there then fine." "W-what type of teacher are you!?" "Assistant." He corrected. "Not no teacher. My brother is and he does a terrible job at it!" "H-he can't be worse than you though..." "He's the whole reason why you're in this mess. He didn't bother trying to stop those brats from leaving the classroom, I had to go and do it!" As she tried to stand, multiple sharp pains shot through numerous points in her body. Tears began to form as she stopped trying to get up. Pharynx stared at her for a moment, glancing over at her bag that was scattered along with her papers and other school books. He walked over to it, began packing it up and stuffing back into her bag before walking back over to the injured girl. He dropped her bag before leaning down and picked her up, ignoring her pained yelp and slinging her arm over his shoulder; letting her lean on him. He picked up her bag once again before they began making their way toward the school. She reluctantly let her left leg drag along the ground as putting even the slightest amount of pressure on it would send her into wave of searing pain. Her whole body was aching, bruises were definitely going to form. There was a faint trickling feeling running down her temple, Trixie doubted that it was sweat. "W-where... a-are we going?" She asked, getting closer to the doors of the school. "Nurses station." He grunted. "Where else?" If Trixie was in a better state, she would've laughed at how blunt this "assistant" was. She'll be grateful by the time they actually make it to the nurse's office until then she'll continue to judge. This principal needs to start thinking about hiring better teachers, actually this whole school needs to be shutdown. It looked like it was dying anyway. Everything about it was garbage and she experienced it firsthand. There was not one good or even decent thing about this putrid cesspool. The whole area was empty, not even one pedestrian was seen anywhere. On the other side of the road was a whole row of houses all stacked against each other with a few alley ways. She was supposed to be home by now, it was supposed to be a simple detour but now she's caked in injuries. All because of that damn roadblock! This was going to be absolutely delightful explaining this to her mother. Why she took so long to get home. It was already difficult enough trying to stand straight even more difficult walking with a limp. She'd be lucky if she was able to keep her voice steady as she spoke maybe play it off. Pretend that it wasn't as bad as it was? Yeah, that's not going to work... As they neared the doors, Trixie thought about calling her mother and just face it all together. Probably not a good idea. She did not want to get into more drama than what she was already in. She could just lie, move to some random street then call her mother- she quickly dismissed the thought. The nurse would probably just end up calling her mother anyway or maybe even the principal. Trixie was too exhausted to care, they can do whatever as long as it involved getting some sleep.