Painting our Life - 6 Colors

Flying. In the air. With a pony. Rainbow Dash. She's smiling. I'm smiling. We fly out of town. To Toronto. Hanging over CN Tower. People don't notice us. She laughs. And points down. I look. It's a bald buisiness man. He looks funny. Funny in a strange way. I laugh and return my gaze to Dash. A human greets me with a smile. Human girl with rainbow hair. I ask her where Dash is. She slaps me. Says she is Dash. A hand reaches out of no where and grabs her by the shoulder. She smiles slyly at me. And flies away. With a jock. On the Centennial football team. My wings crack. They burst into flames. Burn to ashes. And I fall. Down.

   My alarm clock rings, tearing me from what had turned into a nightmare. I groan. My face is swearing. What just happened in there? Is it a sign? An omen? Dash has changed a bit since she became human, that's for sure. I push the dream away, deeming it an average nightmare, and walk over to my closet to get dressed for the day. The day. Oh yeah. Highschool.

   Centennial CVI. I've heard about this school. Apparently it's one of the best schools in the board. I don't know how this happened, but when I called in last night to register ourselves into the school, Dash and my names were already on the computer database. Tenth graders Kyle Linston and Shay Brooksin. Twilight must've somehow gotten into their computer system and added us in.

   If you ask me, I am totally against the idea of going to highschool. If it wasn't for Dash, I'd be finding a way to get to Twilight and immediately have her change us back. We haven't heard from her yet, meaning the unicorn is still keeping something from us.

   "It's about time you woke up," Dash says as I walk down the stairs. Her face is drenched in sweat. She flexes her muscles. Not big. At least, not as large as before. Twilight's spell had not only turned us young, but shrunk our muscles as well.

   "Why are you sweating?" I ask. She grabs a hairband and ties her long rainbow hair into a ponytail.

   "Push ups." My jaw hits the ground.

   "This much sweat from push ups?!" How is that even possible?

   "It's not my fault you almost never sweat. You're not that manly." She laughs and pats me on the back.

   "Hey," I object, "I was sweating from a nightmare this morning." I shoot her a glare screaming I'm a thousand times more manly than you. She shoots me a look that told me: Hey, shut up, I'm a woman.

   "Oh? What was the nightmare about?" I look away, completely uncomfortable and relive the whole dream. How would she react? No doubt she would call me a dork.

   "Oh you know, scary stuff my brain is trying to tell me." She furrows her brow.

   "Can't be scary enough to make you sweat." She smiles and rolls her eyes. The smile somewhat comforts me. Her presence itself somewhat comforts me. She hasn't ditched me for some jock. She is here with me. She hasn't flied off (not that she can now.) That's all that matters.

   "Trust me, it's my worst fear." I smile back. That's as true as it can get.

   "Whatever, you ready to go?" I blink.

   "Where?"

   "Highschool of course, I packed our lunches, they're sitting in the our bags by the door."

   "But I haven't eaten breakfast ye-" She stops me with a finger.

   "You can eat during lunch." My stomach growls, but the pleading look on Dash's face to leave quickly wins me over.

   The car door opens and we hop out. I press a button on my keys and the car lock clicks. Adjusting the strap of my bag, I look at Dash, and open the door for her. She mumbles her thanks and I follow.

   I take a look at my schedule. Dash pulls me over and asks me to compare schedules with her, to see if we have any classes together. I'm glad she asked. There are a few periods where we are together, and there are a few where we aren't. My first class today is... English and Dash's is... English! She notices as well, smiles at me, and then punches me in the shoulder before we leave to find Room 200.

   The hall is occupied with students stumbling to class. A few lean against their locker while chatting and a few girls have mirrors kept in theirs for- I don't even know -make up? I realize we haven't found our lockers yet, but it's our first day and Dash and I agree to just carry our bags around since we didn't bring locks either.

   Room 200 is in the academic hall on the top floor. We open the door and a class of chatting students greet us. The teacher glances as us from his book and adjusts his glasses before raising his hand to quiet the students. He takes a good look at me, then to Dash.

   "So you two finally decide to show up for class, eh?" I roll my eyes. It's the first day we've been here, give us a break. "I understand the two of you are new students, but four minutes late is not acceptable in my class." A few students choke on their laughter, trying not to giggle. Don't you hate it when you're doing a presentation and someone in the back is laughing quietly thinking you can't hear them? You're in the same room, and if your audience has any manners, the room would be silent. Just want to point out, the speaker can hear you, and he would very much appreciate it if you keep your mouths shut. But hey, that's just me. "I expect a reasonable explanation." I open my mouth to talk but Dash nudges me, telling me to let her take over.

   "Sorry, my friend sort of slept in this morning, and he's the one who drives me to school." My lips part to protest and defend myself from embarrassment but Dash shoots me a look and I keep quiet. "It'll never happen again but the next time he sleeps in, I'll throw a pail of hot water over his head."

   "Very well then, introduce yourselves to the class." Dash runs to the front of the class and grins.

   "I'm Shay, and this is my dork friend, Kyle." I facepalm, and foresee some shit to happen to me here at school. The teacher points at two desks in the back.

   "I'm Mr. Todd, and I want you to take a seat." Some students burst into laughter, although I find nothing funny about what he just said. A boy in red snickers at me as we walk down the row of desks to our seats. Dash drops her bag beside the desk and sits down.

   "Let's begin today's class on Shakespeare. Does anyone know who Shakespeare is. Kyle? Who is he?" Every eye in the class turns to me. Shit. I don't know.

   "A movie director?" I guess. The class bursts into laughter. Mr. Todd sighs and I watch one of his hairs grow gray.

   "I will not tolerate a jokester, if you want to fool around I will have to send you to the office."

   "I seriously don't know, history isn't my best subject."

   "This is English." I shrug.

   "Seems like history to me." Some of the kids giggle, some whisper about my stupidity.

   "How old are you? Sixteen and you don't even know who Shakespeare is? When I was in grade, pfft, TWO. I read every one of his books." The boy besides me whispers into my ear.

   "And that's nearly a century ago." I laugh. He snickers.

   "You! Jordan! Do you want detention as well?" As well.

   "No Mr. To-"

   "Hall, both of you! I'll deal with you two after class."

   Dash waves goodbye to me and holds up the loser sign. I grumble and shoot a look at her saying "It's not like you'd do any better.". This is going to be a long day.

   Never have I met someone so serious about school. First period and one of the teacher has already grown hatred for me. Not to mention the detention slip he gave to both me and the boy who made a smart remark. The next two periods fly by quickly and I slink off to lunch with Dash.

   When I enter the cafeteria, I scan the room for Dash. Nerds. Jocks. Popular kids. Loners. I find Dash sitting with a group of girls and walk over to them with my bagged lunch. The blonde one sitting beside Dash is first to notice me, and she didn't keep quiet.

   "What do you want, loser." I gulp. Not good. Dash looks up.

   "Oh, hey Ky," she says through a mouthful of peanut butter.

   "You know him?" The blonde shakes her head, sending strands golden hair in hundreds of directions.

   "Yeah, I live with him, come sit down." She pats the empty seat beside her. I smile and set my lunch down on the table.

   "Did you pack the same thing for me?" She nods. The blonde girl beside her looks irritated.

   "She packed your lunch for you? Are you a lazy brother or what?" Brother.

   "Whoa girl, chill. He ain't my brother either." Dash takes another bite of her sandwich. I open my lunch bag.

   "Then what are you two?" Dash shrugs. The brunette sitting across from Dash pipes up.

   "So if you aren't siblings, are you lovers?" Dash shrugs again.

   "You could say that." I blush. Bright red.

   "Shay, I-" Dash shoves the blonde, shutting her up.

   "Sorry Ky,some of my friends are a bit rude. Anyways, let me introduce you to them. This is Jane." She points to the blonde. "This is Carrie." The brunette waves. She offers a shy smile before blushing. "And that's Wendy, but she wants to be called Wen." I turn my head to the brunette sitting beside Carrie. She's silently eating her lunch without making a peep. I take a bite of my sandwich. Meatless. Dash is a strict vegetarian. I once got her to try some chicken, she hated it. I guess she feels like she's betraying what she was taught growing up by eating what was once a living being. I've tried my best to live meatless, but I don't think it's possible. As if I'm invisible, the girls return to their chat.

   "Shay, where did you get that rainbow dye? I'm DYING to dye my hair," Jane says full scale girl accent. I roll my eyes.

   "I already told you, it's naturally like that." I give her that are-you-serious look. Dash wipes her mouth and shrugs, tempted to smack me on the side. I could tell. Wendy giggles. I cover my ears. I don't want to be rude, but girlish conversations are the last things I need. Dash notices and gives me a light shove.

   "Fine, be a bitch and don't tell." Make it stop. Just make it stop. Inside, I'm really wishing I'm elsewhere. Elsewhere meaning with Dash and her being who she was and what she was. I mean, it's not that I hate her, I actually love her. Quite a lot. But I can't stress it enough when I say she has changed. The curse word had caught me off guard. When I chat with Dash, we almost never swear. Never. Sure a few times in a blue moon our tongues slipped, but we tried our best not to.

   "Das-" Dash slips her hand over my mouth and let's out a nervous chuckle.

   "I told you not to call me that."

   "Call you what? What was he going to call you?" Carrie asks, her eyes wide. Shoot.

   "Nothing, just a little nickname."

   "Tell us!" the three girls say in perfect chorus. Dash looks around, looking unsure of what to say. She looks to me. I mouth the word "lie". She turns back to the girls.

   "It's really nothing. It's just a small nickname, don't let it get to you guys." The tone she speaks in is believable. Just believable.

   The bell rings, signalling that lunch is over. I grumble, realizing that there's more class afterwards and stand up. My lunch bag is nothing but a disposable paper bag, so I crumble it up and toss it into a nearby trash can. The chatting students file out of the cafeteria and into the halls. I call to Dash.

   "Shay, wanna walk together? I'll walk with you your next class." She brushes a few strands of red hair to the side.

   "Oh sorry, I'm gonna walk with Carrie to our next class," she says, "Maybe some other time? I'm sure we'll be in the same class together at least once this week." Carrie waves for her. "Oh, gotta go, see ya later." She turns to leave and my voice dies to a whisper.

   "Yeah. See ya..." But she already disappeared into the crowd, leaving me alone. My words were gone to waste as no one heard them. I yawn and shrug off the nauseated feeling of being alone.

   My next class is Math with Mrs. Orpell. I wander around the academic hall, searching for the room. I'm lost. I look around, hoping they built a station with a map or some sort. Nothing. I sigh and search some more. Finally, I give up and slump against a locker. I almost drop my textbooks. Highschool isn't working out so far. I could be in my office right now. Being a manager of a five star restaurant. Managing people. My employees. I sigh, and curse the purple unicorn under my breath.

   "Hey, new guy, you lost?" I look up. It's the boy from earlier before in English class.

   "Yeah," I admit, "I can't find where the math room is." He gestures for me to follow.

   "I'll show you, I have math next anyways." He offers a friendly smile.

   "Thanks."

   "I'm Jordan." He holds out a hand.

   I hesitate for a moment before grasping his hand firmly and shaking it firmly. "Kyle."

   "Welcome to Centennial, now let's get to math before Mrs. Orpell D Days us for being late." I laugh. Jordan doesn't seem that bad. He's like that person who can cheer you up with small jokes yet is reliable. I can sense it. And I can sense we're going to be good friends, too.