Nice guys always finished last, especially in the living Tartarus that was adolescence and that especially held true in the cutthroat world known as ‘high school’.
Soarin had learned that harsh reality from the last school year, when he finally worked up the courage to ask out a mare he’d had a crush on since he was twelve.
Her name was ‘Burning Passion’, whether that was her actual birth name or a nickname she had adopted to add to her ‘mystique’ was a subject of some debate between those who discussed her in awe or as a subject of their ire.
It was made even more difficult by the fact that she was always surrounded by her girlfriends that were ready to gang up and attack anyone they didn’t like or made a mistake around their leader like a pack of wolves.
She was a beautiful Pegasus mare with a magenta coat, golden-yellow eyes, and a dark blue mane.
“Uh…hi…” Soarin began nervously as he approached her at her locker, surrounded by her girlfriends.
The others giggled at him as Burning slammed her locker shut and stared at him icily.
“What do you want?” she asked, callously.
“I was wondering if uh, you wanted to….go out sometime or something?” Soarin asked weakly as he scratched the back of his neck and averted his gaze in an attempt to hide the blush in his cheeks.
She regarded him for a second.
“You’re kidding, right?” she asked as her friends giggled again.
Soarin felt his heart stop as he looked back up at her, questioningly.
“I mean, you’re so quiet and weird…and you always hang out with Spitfire, but never made a move on her-I just assumed you were a Colt Cuddler.” She continued, clutching books to her chest.
Wait, she thought he was GAY?
“And let’s be honest; you’re kind of a wimp and I doubt any self-respecting mare would ever be seen in public with you…which is probably why Spitfire hangs out with you so much-she probably hates herself for being a dyke and all…”
With that she cantered off to her next class with the others in tow.
Spitfire may have been a bit of a tomboy, but he knew that she wasn’t a fillyfooler-she was just more focused on schoolwork and creating a path to the future on her own merits rather than her father’s wealth, unlike Burning.
Depression hit Soarin pretty hard after that, not only had the mare of his dreams shot him down, but she had gone the extra mile to insult both him and his best friend-humiliating them in front of her friends (assuming of course that’s what they actually were and not just mares trying to leech of her vast wealth.)
This year as a freshman he had learned his lesson, forget about dating or making new friends and just focus on his schoolwork.
His thoughts were interrupted as he was slammed against his locker as Heavy-Weight had walked passed him.
Heavy-Weight was a Pegasus stallion with a dark grey coat, light grey mane, and green eyes with the Cutie Mark of a weight block.
He was Captain of the Hoofball, dating Burning Passion, and worst of all; knew about Soarin asking her out the year before they started dating and just loved to use that as an excuse to make his life a living Tartarus.
“Hey,” a female voice greeted as a hoof was placed on his shoulder. “Why don’t you try to stand up for yourself, Soar?”
Turning around he could see Spitfire.
“What? Start a fight and get kicked out of school?” he shot back, glumly.
“Look, I know that bi-” she began before catching herself. “I know her rejection from last year must still be stinging pretty bad…but, are you really going to give up on everything just because of that?”
“No,” he sighed.
A triumphant smile spread across Spitfire’s face before fading just as quickly at hearing Soarin’s next sentence.
“I’m giving up because I realize she’s right; I’m a total loser and nobody with a shred of self-respect would be interested in dating me.”
Soarin was shocked as Spitfire pressed her lips against his, pushing his back against the locker.
Slowly, he closed his eyes as he began to enjoy it and couldn’t help, but feel disappointed as she pulled back.
“What about me?” she asked. “I’m a self-respecting mare and I don’t mind being seen with you like this.”
Soarin felt his cheeks burn red with embarrassment as he realized where they were, but was relieved to discover upon a quick scan of the halls that there was nobody else around to see them.
He couldn’t help, but regard her with a shocked and questioning look…after all; his best friend had just kissed him.
“H-how long have you felt like this?” he managed to choke out.
“Since the seventh grade.” She replied. “I didn’t say anything before because I knew how you felt about…her.”
The last part she added as if there was a bad taste caught in her mouth.
“And I was pretty sure she’d react about the same way that she did…except for the part where she insulted us-but, I wanted to give you a chance to be happy with her in case I was wrong.”
“We’re going to be late for class…” Soarin uttered weakly, it wasn’t that he didn’t care about Spitfire-it was just that he hated getting in trouble-specifically the part where he’d get yelled at.
“Screw it, let’s cut.” Spitfire replied, apathetically. “Besides, working on your self-esteem is way more important right now and it’s not like either of us are exactly struggling with our grades.”
He had to admit that she had a point there, they both had an ‘A-’ average in all of their classes.
She began leading the way outside as Soarin reluctantly followed behind, occasionally glancing nervously over his shoulder for the vice principal who just loved busting students; regardless of whether or not they were carrying a hall pass.
Then again, while Spitfire tried to keep her family’s wealth a secret as she desperately wanted to avoid becoming like Burning Passion-it did help her get an audition with the Wonderbolts, who were impressed by the athletic flying abilities and charitable nature of the fifteen year old Pegasus.
The confidence she had possessed was something Soarin had always envied and very little ever seemed to bother her.
“You’re biggest problem is that you don’t have any faith in yourself.” She lectured. “I mean you are one seriously depressed guy-you’re so focused on beating yourself up most of the time-that you don’t even notice half of the things going on around you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I sent like fifty signals that I was interested in you over the past two years…some of them were pretty obvious and you didn’t catch a single one.”
She placed a hoof on his shoulder once more.
“Do you know what helped me become the youngest member to ever be accepted into the Wonderbolts?” she asked.
Soarin shook his head.
“Confidence.”
“If you had even just half the amount of confidence in yourself as I have in you, you could become a great athlete-maybe even a Wonderbolt yourself!”
She slapped him on the back.
“Hay, I could even train you!”
He smiled, liking the sound of that and the thought occurred to him that perhaps he was wrong and nice guys didn’t always necessarily finish last, after all.
Author's Note
Burning Passion and Heavy-Weight were more or less plot devices, but I will probably use them in future one-shot stories with Spitfire and Soarin in high school.
And yes, Heavy-Weight is related to Dumb-Bell.
Special thanks goes to Felyon for helping brainstorm the name for the mare Soarin' had a crush on.
