Pacific Paradiseby Hivetyrant25ChaptersTrouble In ParadiseIntegrationSchool DazeTrouble In Paradise“How in the HELL do you get seasick Chris?” “Shut the hell up, I told you to leave it alone already!” “One, you’re a lifeguard in Waikiki. Two, you constantly go fishing with your uncle on his boat. Three, you are in scuba class at school, and lastly... you are a faggot, therefore I rest my case.” “Grrrr... Steven, shut the hell up!” “I’m sorry what was that?” “Nothing...” “That’s what I thought...” I flexed my shoulders and sat down on the rocky cliffside, feeling quite satisfied with myself after winning that pointless argument with Chris. Today was a good day, I just knew. Eighty-two degrees and barely a cloud in the sky, this is what I love about living in what some might call paradise. The waves crashing on the rocks just a hundred feet to our left sent sprays of cool Pacific water our way. On our right, was the beach itself, with white sand and calm waves that belied the true power and nature of the ocean. I leaned backwards and fell harder than intended onto the hard rocks. Pain aside, I noticed the sun was almost directly overhead, telling me that it was almost noon. The thought of me being able to tell time by looking at the sun made me chuckle a bit. “Say Chris, when’s Gabe getting here?” I asked with a strange amount of annoyance. The heavyset Asian beside me just shrugged as I continued daydreaming. Chris was a friend from school, a dick in all uses of the word, but one who knows when to stop. In actuality he’s usually playing around when teasing people, as we all do. I on the other hand, am a complete asshole, a six-foot two asshole who enjoys watching Ponies a bit too much... go figure. I live on the island of ‘Oahu, which many of you may just call Hawaii. Believe me when I say that not all the islands are called Hawaii pal. Anyway, I live near the Harbor on the west side of the island, pretty far away from the famous beaches like Waikiki, but close to plenty of beaches nonetheless. Truth be told, I rarely go to the beach, but today was a special occasion, Friday the 13th, and it was almost customary for all of my friends to go and cruise on these supposedly cursed days. I looked down at my phone and realized I had been lying on my back for over an hour just staring at the sky. I also realized that my eyes were burning like someone poured a few grams of salt directly in them and shut them faster than my brain could comprehend what happened. “Jesus Christ Chris it’s been over an hour and Gabe lives the closest to Barber’s Point!” I yelled way louder than normal. “What do you want me to do about it?” came Chris’s rebuttal, matching my volume. “Oh I don’t know? Call him?” “Why don’t you call him?” “Because screw you that’s why!” “God you are such a...” “I’m such a what Chris? An asshole? I take great pride in that thank you very much.” I retorted. A few moments passed waiting for a counter smart-ass remark, but none came, instead I was gifted with a rather hard punch in the shoulder. “What the hell was... that... for?” I stammered as I bolted up and saw what had made Chris’s normally big mouth shut up. In the sky was... well the sky itself turned pink for about a minute and faded back to normal. I raised an eyebrow in confusion as I tried to piece together what I saw. “There has to be a logical explanation for this.” I thought. Well the weather has been acting freaky all week; maybe it’s just another freaky weather thing? Replied the voice in my head “I’m almost positive that the entire sky turning pink is different than a few lightning clouds and a waterspout.” I’d agree with you on that, had the lightning clouds acted normal. “Wow the lightning almost reached the ground! We should call the Ghostbusters or the MIB.” I responded sarcastically. Hey lightning never goes past cloud level in Hawaii and you know it! Don’t come crying to me when something odd happens. “Well you have a point there but... wait... do I smell... fudge?” I sniffed the air for a few seconds, but there was no mistaking it, there was a strong smell of fudge in the air. It was so strong in fact that I instinctively covered my nose to keep it out. If there was one sweet smell I couldn’t tolerate a large amount of, it was the smell of chocolate. You KNOW that something’s smell is too strong when it overpowers the smell of fish. The only thing I could think of was where the hell that smell was coming from. I looked all around our fishing area but couldn’t find anything that smelled close to fudge. “Dude did you bring fudge with you? You know I hate the smell of strong fudge!” I asked Chris. “Do I look like I carry around chocolate with me?” He replied with the expected amount of sarcasm. “You are no help at all!” I replied, continuing in my search. After a few more minutes of searching, I gave up. I left Chris to sunbathe as turned around and headed back inland, towards our SUV. Upon reaching the car, I dug around through the glove compartment and pulled out the bottle of perfume my mom keeps in the glove compartment. I silently prayed to god for my heterosexual soul as I opened the bottle and dabbed a few drops of perfume right under my nostrils. This particular brand smelled heavily of citrus, but I was just glad to have that damn fudge smell out of my nose. I began walking back towards the beach. As I did I had this strange feeling in my gut, like something was vaguely amiss, something was not right here. I approached our fishing area and resumed sitting down began to finally relax. It didn’t last long… As soon as I began to feel comfortable I started to stare at the ocean, the giver of life for my ancestors. It’s odd how little I actually think of my Hawaiian heritage and how much we depended on the ocean for things. For our food, our travel, our women… Wait what? I snapped back to reality and was finally able to focus on what drew my attention. Two women, floating face up in the water, unmoving. Two things stood out about these particular women. One, was the fact that their hair colors were extremely odd, with one having hair as pink as, well… Pinkie Pie, and the other had hair the color of the cool Hawaiian sky. The second thing stood out about these two, was that they were totally naked! They didn’t seem to move I slapped Chris in the back of the head and pointed towards the two strange women. With a groan he punched me in the arm. “They’re probably just skinnydippers, I hear they like to jump off the rock faces on this side of the island. I guess they like the fact that not many people come to the West side for its beaches.” “Yeah, all the tourists go to Waikiki and junk, pretty cliche if you ask me.” I replied. We turned our heads away from the two odd girls, after all it is rude to stare. At first I dismissed the thought of seeing something move out of the corner of my eye, but being paranoid as usual, I decided to turn my head back towards the two skinny dippers. For once in my damn life my paranoia pays off as I catch the pink haired one capsize in the water like a dead goldfish. "Chris!" I yelled out. "I don't think they are conscious!" "Dude they are probably just high, let it go." "Ugh, why the fuck do I have to be the only one with a good moral compass here?" I exclaimed as I simultaneously took of my shirt. I ran as fast as I could down to the edge of the rocky edifice and dove 15 feet down into the water like a boss... Wrong. Bellyflopped into the water, and it stung like hell, but there was no time to focus on the pain. I began to swim out toward the girls, silently thanking God that I had to do four years of intense swimming and running for school. I was about 20 feet from the girls when I heard a splash behind me. I knew that my friend had just entered the water and I picked up my pace. When I got to the pink haired girl, I flulipped her over rather ungracefully. Not knowing exactly what to do next, I just tread water for what seemed like an eternity, my heart racing the entire time. My friend eventually got to the two girls, yet my heart continued beating at an accelerated rate. "Muah mwah mwah muah mwah" What the he'll was that? "Did you fucking hear me?" Yelled Chris. "We need to get them back to shore!" All I could do was nod and follow his lead as he grabbed the blue haired girl and began to backstroke towards the beach. It was only then did I remember that these two were completely naked, and I felt my heart rate skyrocket again. I tried to think only about getting to shore, but every few moments I felt my heart rate jump back up. The last of these "episodes" caused me to flail and I almost lost hold of the girl whose life I was saving. I could not let this girl die on me, I wouldn't allow it. After that, I put my game face on and double timed it to shore. Although my watch stated the whole ordeal took only five minutes, it almost felt as if it had taken hours. When we finally got to the beach, I dragged the girl with the pink hair past the wavebreak and checked to see if she was breathing. I literally felt my heart stop when I realized that she was not. Seconds felt like days as I panicked, but then I found new courage and began to administer CPR. After two long minutes, I was rewarded with a faceful of seawater, courtesy of the pink haired lady. I turned around to see That Chris had gotten the blue haired one to shore and had gotten her wrapped up in a towel, though I noted that she was still unconscious. "Aloe!" I heard from behind me. I nearly had a heart attack for the third time that day before turning around just in time to see that the pink haired girl had bolted upright. With a loud thud, she hit the sand and fell back into unconsciousness. "Well fuck..." I murmured. The next thing I knew the whole world went dark, I felt as if I couldn't breath... Then I realized that Chris had thrown a towel on my head. I ignored what he was blabbering on about, though I did hear him call me an idiot, among other things. The girl on the ground still wasn't moving, but I managed to get the towel to cover her "delicates." I hoisted her up onto my shoulder caveman style. It wasn't a far walk to the SUV, but the feeling of having dead weight on you just invites all sorts of weird feelings. She wasn't exactly heavy either, I just couldn't shake the feeling that this didn't really happen. I placed her behind the driver's seat of the SUV and quickly ran around to open the door for Chris to put the blue-haired one in. "So what do we do with them?" He asked. "I don't know right now, let me think." I replied. I found myself staring at them for an unhealthy amount of time. I had this nagging feeling that I knew something, but it was so far in the back of my mind that I'd have to claw through my own eyes to get at it. It was then that I noticed the one with the pink hair, for now let's call her "Aloe," wasn't looking too good. She seemed to be sweating up a storm. I walked over and gently placed the back of my hand on her forehead and... "HOLY SWEET JESUS SHE'S HOT!" I yelled, flailing my hand as if it had just burst into flames. "Well, yeah she actually is isn't she?" "Not in that way you goddamn moron, she's burning up!" I snapped. I buckled Aloe in and closed her door. As I walked around the car towards the other back door, I graced Chris with a slap to the back of the head. I buckled in the girl with blue hair and closed her door. I got in the driver's seat and turned on the ignition. "Where are we going?" Asked Chris as he got in the passenger door. "To my grandma's house." "Is that such a good idea?" "With the hospital Ewa shut down, the closest place she can go is probably Pali Momi in Aiea, and that's twenty miles away. Not to mention that there will probably be traffic on the freeway... No, my grandma will be able to give her at least a little bit of help." My grandma lived only a few miles from where we were fishing. She lived in Ewa Beach, a large town on the west coast of Pearl Harbor. The ride only took about five minutes, especially how fast I was driving. As we passed the sewage treatment plant that marked the end of the former Barber's Point Military base, I heard a noise coming from behind me and I turned to see the blue haired woman finally beginning to wake up. As soon as she saw my face however, her eyes bolted open. "Well look who's... OW MOTHERF-" I yelled as she punched me square in the face, screaming. The car swerved to the left and we started heading towards the edge of the road. I quickly got the car back onto the road and thanked the lord almighty that there were no other cars around. The blue haired girl hadn't stopped screaming during the entire ordeal. She passed out, possibly due to shock, a few seconds later. I looked at Chris and noticed he was gripping the door handle for dear life. I laughed like a hyena upon seeing that. I guess he started to find the humour in it because he started laughing too. I took a quick inspection of myself in the rearview mirror. I didn't seem to be bleeding, but I was sure to have a bruise by tomorrow. We finally reached the cul-de-sac my grandma lived in. I got out to open the gate and pulled up into her driveway. I noticed my grandma didn't come out to greet us, as she usually does when company arrives, even unexpectedly. I just reasoned that she was in her room at the back of the house and didn't hear us pull up. I got out of the car and gently lifted Aloe out of the seat and carried her to the house fireman style. I opened the screen door, granted it took me a few tries, but we were finally in the house. I held open the door for Chris as he brought in that bitch who punched me. "Obaasan!" I shouted. "Ah tsa Su-ti-bin" yelled a small asian lady as she came out of the back room. Now, if you look at me, and then look at my grandma, you'd think I was adopted somewhere down the line, but I'm not. My grandma is full Okinawan and about four-foot eight, while I on the other hand, look completely white and am six-two. "Aiya Su-ti-bin, why you bring so many people to my house? They dirty! Look at him he no even take off shoes. Aiyana! Dese two are wet why you bring them in wet?" "Grandma," I spoke up, stopping her rant. "Dis girl has a fevah, she needs help." I said, matching her accent with my own, butchered copy. "Put her in you uncle's bed then, he not using it!" she yelled as she opened the screen door and walked outside. "Chris put the other one lying down on the couch for now then." I said with my normal voice. "What the hell was with that Japanese accent back there?" "Sometimes my grandma doesn't understand me if I speak normally, so I try to match her accent, it works... Most of the time." I said as I walked through the single hallway and into the middle room. My uncle lives with my grandma, but this week he went to the mainland to watch golf, or hockey, or some shit like that. Either way I was pretty pissed because he was supposed to hang out with me that weekend but, whatever... His room was a testament to metal and rock, with Def Leppard and Kiss T-shirts hung up all over the place, and various other rock memorabilia stacked on shelves. I gently laid Aloe down on the bed and put my hand to her forehead again. Oh god she's getting worse I thought to myself. I hear the distinct clank of the screen door being shut and turn around to see my grandma with a bowl full of plants in one hand, and a pounder in the other. She grows a lot of crap in her garden, and being raised in Okinawa on what was basically a farm had taught her much about natural remedies. "Su-ti-bin, get me glass and Sprite, Hayaku!" She yelled as I bolted out the door and opened the fridge. Sprite... sprite... sprite... WHERE'S THE SPRITE? I moved a few Diet Pepsi cans to reveal... 7-UP... I face palmed harder than I had ever face palmed before, and screamed in pain as I remembered that I had just gotten sucker-punched by one of the girls. I grumbled to no one in particular as I opened the cupboard and grabbed a cup. I gave my grandma the cup and Spri... er... 7-UP and was just about to sit down at the foot of the bed when Chris burst into the room. "The other girl woke up." "Is she going paranoid this time?" I asked "Not at the moment she's not, though I wouldn't hold my breath." he said as I walked out of the bedroom into the living-room. The blue haired girl didn't notice us at first, she just kept... looking at her hands. It freaked me out really. "So... mind telling me why you punched me on the ride over here?" I asked with a tinge of annoyance. "Where am I? Who are you? WHERE'S LOTUS?" she said, with each statement more vocal than the last. "Look lady, I don't know who the fuck you are, but me and my friend here saved you and your friend so the least you could say is thank you..." I paused "Who the hell is Lotus?" I asked "She is my sister, she has the loveliest blue coat and the most wonderful pink mane! Tell me where she is you monster!" Her accent was foreign, it reminded me of a stereotypical French person, oui oui and all. I saw that she was at the verge of tears, and it was right then and there that my heart caved in. Then it hit me, Did she just say "coat?" I was almost positive of it. "What the do you mean coat?" I asked in a gentler voice. "What is not to get? All ponies such as myself have coats!" the girl said sternly, though the tears kind of threw off the serious look she was giving me. It was then that the rusty gears in my brain started turning. They clinked and they clanked and clinked some more. I face palmed myself once more, seemingly going for the record of hardest face palm in history. "So you are saying your sister is a pony?" I asked "Yes that is correct." she responded, having wiped most of her tears already. "So therefore, YOU are... or WERE a pony yourself?" It seemed like an extremely stupid question but it was one that needed to be asked. There was no way that she'd actually... "Yes" came her response. Wait, what? She had that stern look on, much more convincing without the tears. All I could do was stare in disbelief. Did she actually think she was a pony or is she just messing with me? HOLY CRAP what if she was telling the truth? I just stood there for a few minutes with the same stupid look on my face. "My name..." she continued, "My name is Aloe, and I am from Ponyville, in Equestria. Me and my sister own a Spa in town and..." "Wait up, wait up," I interrupted, "So you are saying you are from Ponyville, a made up location from the show My Little Pony? You do know that show is just fiction right?" Chris groaned at the words "My Little Pony," and rather loudly too. I shot him a glare that would make an Arbok proud. "What is this 'My Little Pony' you speak of?" She asked with general surprise. "Ugh let me show you already!" I yelled as I pulled out my iPod Touch. I went to YouTube and went to my history, which was unsurprisingly, filled with ponies. I selected the last episode I had watched entitled 'Green Isn't Your Color' and played it for her. She just sat there with her mouth open in shock the whole time, apparently amazed at my old as shit iTouch. "So sorry to be late Fluttershy!" Rarity exclaimed as she burst through the door. I paused the video right there. This time, it was my turn to be in shock. "Aloe" reached for the screen nervously with her pointer finger and began to rub the Spa pony in the background. "Wha... Wha... What is this magic? I remember this day, but how did you..." she began blabbering, and I followed suit with a flurry of "buts" and "whats" and "huhs" of my own. I could feel my eye twitch as I suddenly came to a realization... Ponies are real! IntegrationA few hours had passed since I first brought Aloe and Lotus to my grandma’s house. In that time, my grandma had given Lotus some home remedies and then proceeded to cook us dinner. I silently thanked god that she only cooked miso soup, and that she ran out of SPAM too. (I know what you bastards are thinking “Eeew SPAM, that’s like, leftover pig!” Well you know what? Fuck you...) It took about half an hour just to teach Aloe how to use a spoon, I didn’t want to find out how long it would take her to learn how to use chopsticks. Lotus was still unconscious by the time we finished. After dinner, I drove Chris back to his house in Pearl City, and even offered Aloe a ride in the car. Unsurprisingly, she refused, obviously still shaken from earlier. The ride to Pearl City was relatively short, so I was back at my grandma’s house, in almost no time. Nevertheless, it was close to sunset; the sky had already started turning beautiful shades of orange, basking in the final glows of the sun. As I pulled into the driveway, I noticed Aloe sitting in one of the small red chairs towards the back of the garage. Also of note was the lack of cars in the garage. Apparently my grandma had gone to one of her friend’s house and left a complete stranger in her house; I may have to talk to her about that later. Aloe seemed to pay no heed to me as I got out of the car and walked around the back towards the small metal shed grandma kept back there. After rummaging through garbage bags covered in lizard shit, I pulled out a ladder and leaned it up against the back of the garage’s overhang. I started climbing up but stopped myself halfway. I climbed back down and walked around to the front of the garage to find Aloe still sitting the chair gazing at nothing in particular. “Would you like to watch the sunset with me? It’s very beautiful here.” I asked in the softest tone I could possibly muster. All she did was nod. She stood up and I led her around to the back of the garage where I had placed the ladder. After a few minutes of demonstration, I was able to get her on the ladder and she slowly started climbing up. I could tell she was scared, she was shaking, and that was causing the ladder to shake. After she got about halfway up, I climbed up after her. On instinct I looked straight up, forgetting she was still wearing the towel only the towel. I caught a glimpse of a tattoo on her ass before nearly falling off the ladder. Thankfully I was able to regain my composure and I resumed climbing up, with my eyes closed shut this time. As soon as heard her step onto the roof I opened my eyes. I climbed up soon after and saw that she was already sitting with her feet dangling over the edge, watching the sunset. “This world is very beautiful.” she said, almost too soft to hear. I could hear the heartbreak in her voice. “Yeah...” Was all I could say. I sat down next to her as she watched the sunset with teary eyes. I gazed out towards the sunset and allowed myself to zone out. The next thing I knew, I felt Aloe wrap her arms around mine while resting her head on my left shoulder. I vowed right then and there that I would help these two girls out as much as humanly possible. Am I crazy? We sat up there for what felt like hours. Aloe had fallen asleep soon after sunset, but I couldn’t muster up the nerve to move for fear of waking her. She looked so peaceful lying there, and with the day we have had, I think she deserved some proper rest. For some stupid reason, I decided to lift my left arm, forgetting that she was still clinging onto it. Her eyes bolted open at my sudden movement and for the second time that day, she punched me straight in the face. It must have been pretty hard because I blacked out soon after. I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! shouted a voice in the darkness. “Who’s there?” I yeled back. Oh Aloe, look what you’ve done now! “Aloe?” I stammered, walking towards the voice in the darkness Oh Celestia, I hope I haven’t hurt him too much! The voice seemed closer now. I began running towards the voice, hearing it clearer and clearer the further I ran. After running for what seemed like an eternity, the voice began sobbing. The sound of its sorrow made me pick up the pace even further. I could see a light on the horizon; an oasis of light in a cold desert of darkness. The light flooded over me like a tidal wave until I could see no more. With a groan, I forced open my eyes, only to see a girl standing over me. She had stunning blue hair that was held back by a white band. What the hell is going on? I thought to myself. Then memories slowly began flowing back to me. “Aloe?” The question was barely audible. I rubbed my head and began to sit up. Pushing up on my left hand, I felt the familiar pricks of asphalt indenting my skin. “H-how did I get on the ground?” I stammered. “I may have, maybe, punched you over the edge...” she replied, nervously pushing her index fingers together and looking away. “But I didn’t mean to I swear! Can you please fogive me?” she shouted. I could see that she was concerned, her eyes gave off a slight glimmer in the moonlight. “It’s alright, it was just an accident.” As I began to stand up, a whole new level of pain swept over me. I dropped down onto my right knee. What did you expect? You just fell 10 feet! “You aren’t helping at all.” I thought to myself. It took another few minutes to stand up and regain my balance. Thankfully, nothing seemed to be broken. God must have been smiling down on me for once, because I was actually able to get myself inside. Aloe was right behind me, never faltering in her barrage of apologies. “I said I forgive you.” I said, trying to stem the tide; it didn’t help. Quickly, I turned around and grabbed both of her forearms and looked straight into her azure eyes. “I forgive you.” She just stared into my eyes for a few seconds. “Okay...” she said. Letting go of her arms, I was reminded that she only had a towel on... well used to anyway. It seemed to have fallen off while she was flailing behind me apologizing like wild. I caught myself staring for longer than I should have. What piqued my interest was the mark on her ass that I assumed to be her cutie mark. It was a stunning white lotus, the petals branching outwards. I was genuinely surprised at the level of detail it had in it. Realizing that I was staring too long, I pulled my eyes back up to hers through sheer force of will. “We need to get you some clothes.” “Why?” “Because normal humans wear clothes to cover theses.” I gestured towards her unmentionables. “Ok... I trust you...” and with that, I led her into my mom’s old room. The bed was removed, but the dressers were left where they were. Thankfully the clothes in here were from when my mom was herself a teenager. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a pink top. Wow, this has to be a coincidence. I thought to myself. After demonstrating how to put on the clothes to her, I exited the room and allowed Aloe to finish dressing. To my surprise, Lotus had apparently gotten up and walked out of my uncle’s room. “Oh thank god you are... Oomph” My sentence was cut short by yet another punch, this time in the gut. I fell to the floor gasping for air. Lotus stood over me, the look of murder in her azure eyes. "Who are you and what have you done to my sister?" she screamed. Oh great, this again... I slowly forced myself up. I had never noticed how much shorter she was until now. She was almost six inches shorter than me, so I assumed her sister would be around the same height. It’s odd how you don’t notice these little things at first. While getting up, one thing was clear; she had no clothes on. Just like her sister, she only had a towel to cover her when we brought her home. Out of curiosity, I glanced at her ass to check if she too had a cutie mark. Lo and behold she did, and it was an exact match to her sister’s. I looked into her eyes and saw them full of malice. There was no doubt that this girl would punch me again if it meant saving her sister. As if on cue, Aloe emerged from my mom’s old room in her new outfit. “Lotus? You are ok! Thank Celestia you are ok!” she ran towards her sister and gave her one of the biggest hugs I’ve ever seen. “I’m... I’m fine Aloe.” It seemed Lotus’ body hadn’t heard the news yet, for she still looked ill. Her hair looked like a bird had taken up residence, and then had its home severely trashed, no doubt due to tossing and turning during the day. Her face was a bright red, especially around her temple, and her eyes were bloodshot. I was amazed she had managed to get up and still have the energy to knock the wind out of me. She didn’t have a headband like her sister, but I just assumed that my grandma had taken it off of her head earlier in the day. She turned her gaze to me and gave me a menacing glare. “Oh Lotus, this is Steven, he saved us from drowning earlier,” Aloe said, apparently catching her sister giving me the stink eye. “Oh, umm... Sorry about that... I was so worried about Aloe, I should have thought instead of react.” she lowered her head to her chin. Her sincere apology combined with the depressed, and dare I say, cute reaction to the news she just heard caused my heart to fall to pieces again. You’ve got to stop being such a pansy. What can I say? I’m a sucker for the whole “cuteness overload apology” thing. “It’s ok,” I coughed out. “I didn’t need to use my liver for anything anyway.” Putting on a weak smile, I slowly made my way past the two sisters and plopped down on the couch in the living room. God I need a break. “No kidding.” Thankfully the two sisters didn’t hear that. After about an hour of reconnecting, Aloe decided it was best to have me teach them about human ways. I explained to Lotus that humans wore clothes on a daily basis. Again I rummaged through my mother’s dresser and found another pair of jeans and a blue shirt. You have got to be kidding me. It was too perfect, almost like destiny had led us clothes on a path that converged here, in this very spot. Aloe was wearing a pink shirt and had ocean blue hair; the colors of her pony form, and Lotus was now wearing a light blue shirt which, in combination with her pink hair, matched her pony form as well. I left well enough alone and returned to the living room. “I’ll tell you guys everything about humans tomorrow. It’s almost midnight and I’m extremely tired from saving you two and getting beaten down three times, all in the same day.” Aloe opened her mouth to object, but ended up yawning instead. Her sister followed suit, and it took all of my willpower not to yawn as well. I stood up and walked over to my uncle’s room. There was an outline of sweat in the sheets, no doubt from Lotus. Her towel was on the bed, as well as her head band. With one swift motion, I took all the sheets off the bed and remade it. “Is that where we’ll be sleeping tonight?” came a quiet voice. Turning around I noticed Lotus standing in the doorway. “Yeah... Oh, I think this is yours” I gave her the headband I had found on the bed. “Thank you.” She said as she put it around her head. “You know I really am sorry for hitting you earlier it’s just th-” “Don’t worry about it, your sister reacted in exactly the same way. In fact, she almost killed me twice today.” It was true, though I really didn’t want to think about it. Am I in over my head? “Besides, I would act the same way if I thought my sibling was in trouble.” “Thanks for understanding...” She yawned again, and yet again I had to use every ounce of willpower to keep from doing it myself. “Hehe, I guess I really should rest.” She said, chuckling. God that’s adorable “Shut the hell up,” I whispered to the voice in my head. “What was that?” Asked Lotus, clearly puzzled. “I said, where’s your sister? I have a busy day planned out tomorrow for you two and you need your rest.” “I think she fell asleep on the couch. Do you want me to wake her?” “No I’ll get her, just try to get some sleep.” As I stepped into the living room, I saw Aloe had indeed fallen asleep. To be honest, I was dreading the idea of having to move her. The last time I accidentally woke her, I had fallen ten feet, and that was unpleasant. She deserves a real bed tonight. Gently, I placed my hands under her and lifted her fireman style into my uncle’s room. I nearly dropped her when she put her arms around my neck. Keep it together, she isn’t trying to kill you, intentionally... I gently placed her on the bed next to her sister, who had already fallen asleep. Silently, I exited the room and allowed myself to finally yawn, and yawn I did. Really, I’m pretty sure there was a vacuum, somewhere devoid of air in the house. With a loud thud I relaxed myself on the couch, and closed my eyes. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. The weekend was finally here, and it would be a good one, I could feel it. I awoke at five and took a quick walk around the neighborhood. My grandma came home at around three, but she wasn’t as sneaky as she used to be. When you get up before dawn almost every day, you come to appreciate the transition from night to day. The sunrise had always made me happy. On most days, you could see the moon until eight-o'clock in the morning. Having the moon in the light of day was a very wonderful experience. Today was different, I was home before the sunrise, I had things I needed to get done. In the hours before the twins awoke, I had made a few phone calls, and planned out the entire weekend. Today is going to be a good day. I thought with a grin. The twins awoke near noon, and by that time my grandma had gotten up and left to go with her friends again. God that woman has a better social life than I do... I was busy making myself some lunch when they stumbled out of the room. “Good morning girls!” They turned to me at almost the same time, with the same look of confusion. “Umm... Good morning...” They said in unison. Damn that’s creepy. It took a few seconds, but I finally realized why they had a confused look on their face. “To answer your question; yes, yesterday was real, and this isn’t a dream. I’m sorry but we are going to have to live life like this for the time being.” It sounded harsh and I knew it, but I felt that being blunt was necessary here. “Now, what would you girls like for break... erm lunch?” I said, turning around to wash some dishes. “What do you have?” One of them asked, I really didn’t know which one. “Well, why don’t we just have some plain old pancakes for now hmm?” They nodded in agreement. After brunch, I put my ingenious plan in motion. I taught them about the basics of human society. By Sunday, they were adept at using their hands to manipulate things, and they were no longer terrified of the car. We even took a trip to the Bishop Museum together. They were more than interested in the Ancient Hawaiian exhibits in the museum, more so than any one person there. It was extremely boring, but the whole weekend I had avoided one important topic, one I knew would upset them. was Sunday night, and we had just finished dinner. “So girls, I’m very proud of you,” I began. “And now I think you two are ready to hear this. I know this may be hard to believe, but humans are omnivores. Do you two know what that means?” They shook their heads. “Of course... It means that humans can and will eat meat as well as plants.” They stared at me in disbelief. “I myself love the taste of meat, but I’ve been refraining from eating any this weekend for your sake. I hope you two can understand that in this world, it’s normal for us to eat animals like pigs and cows. You must understand, in your world, these animals are sentient, but here... they aren’t.” “I... I don’t know how I should react...” Aloe was clearly overwhelmed by this. Her sister didn’t take it any better. Lotus stood up and ran to my uncle’s room. “Lotus!” Cried her sister who was running after her. They locked the door to my uncle’s room. I could hear them sobbing in the room and it just made me feel terrible knowing I did that. Neither of them came out for the duration of the night. With a loud thud I slammed my head onto the table. It was hard to get up from the chair and relocate to the couch, my heart felt like a boulder. Eventually I was able to move to my makeshift couch-bed. I sat alone, in the living room with my thoughts for hours. Around midnight, the sobbing stopped. There was only silence in the house. Not as planned. I have no idea when I fell asleep, but I woke up around five in the morning on Monday. I went outside for some fresh air. Climbing up onto the garage roof, I sat down, staring into space for what seemed like hours. “It’s not your fault you know.” I heard a voice behind me. Aloe sat down next to me on the roof. “It was just a lot of information to take at once. Some of my friends knew cows and other animals that could talk. Knowing that they are eaten isn’t something I wanted to be told. Even worse, is knowing that these animals here can’t talk or think like you and I... I speak for Lotus as well when I say we don’t blame you. It isn’t your fault you are like this.” It was of little comfort, I still felt terrible about last night. She caught me off guard with a hug, and suddenly I felt better. We stayed up there to watch the sunrise together. “Ok come on, we have a busy day ahead of us.” I said as I got up. We climbed down the ladder and entered the house. “What do you have planned this time?” She asked. “It’s a surprise, please go wake your sister.” She obeyed, and ten minutes later, Lotus walked out into the living room. I looked in her eyes and somehow knew she had also forgiven me for being a complete idiot the night before. “Alright girls!” I shouted, “Into the car, I’m taking you guys on a road trip.” We left the house around 6:00 and picked up some McDonalds for breakfast, but only after asking the girls if eggs were ok. Shockingly, they stated that many ponies ate eggs. I really didn’t know what to say so I just left it alone. It took us twenty minutes to get to the freeway, less than ten miles away from my grandma’s house. Yes, traffic sucks that much in Hawaii. The freeway was barely any better. After almost an hour, we reached the edge of Honolulu or “town” as us locals call it. “That’s where we are going,” I said, pointing to a mountain to our left. “I go to school there, and it is Monday so I figured I’d take you two along with me. I already called up the school and asked them if I could bring two visitors with me for the next week or so. This will be a great way to get you two better accustomed to our way of life, much better than me just telling you about it.” I turned around and saw that they were both smiling with barely contained joy. I let my own smile loose. Big Mistake... Almost immediately, they began screaming with joy and bounced up and down in the seats. Thankfully this only lasted about two minutes and we were back to a relatively normal car ride. Though the base of the mountain was only five or so miles from the freeway, it took almost twenty minutes getting there due to the sheer amount of people driving around town. We reached the base of the mountain, where there was a guard station that heralded the entrance to the private school. The large sign on the right clearly read Kamehameha Schools: Kapalama. Driving up the hill, we passed an olympic sized swimming pool. A little further up the road, in the schools heart, was a Chapel. Another seven minutes of driving up the extremely windy roads, and we were at the Upper Campus, where the Juniors and Seniors had their classes. I pulled into one of the many parking stalls and got out. The girls followed suit. After grabbing my laptop and backpack from the trunk, I locked the door. And so it begins. My first class was that day Hawaiian Language II. It wasn’t the smartest thing to immediately immerse the girls into a whole new language, but I didn’t have control over my schedule. I walked into class and put my stuff in one of the desks and motioned for the girls to sit in the two seats next to me. “Hele i waho.” yelled the kumu [teacher]. It basically meant to get outside, and I knew why. The rest of the class lined up outside the door and began to chant. After we finished, the kumu responded with one of his own. With that, the class entered, but did not sit down. “E pule kakou,” [let us pray] the kumu said. We bowed our heads and said the Lord’s Prayer in Hawaiian. “Noho i lalo.” [sit down] “Why did you have to do that?” Lotus whispered as I sat down. “It is tradition to chant to ask for entrance into the room. Then the kumu, the teacher, returns the chant if he finds our chant strong and worthy of entering his room. The prayer is just that, a prayer.” I whispered back. “Pu’uwai, would you like to introduce us to your guests?” The kumu asked. I winced at my Hawaiian name, having totally forgotten that we never use our western names in this class. “Of course kumu,” I replied. Ok Steven, you got this... “This is Lotus and Aloe,” I said, motioning to each girl. They both waved at the class. “Aloha Lotus and Aloe!” The class responded. I continued, “They are from France, and if you are wondering why they have such odd names, well it’s because their French names are harder to pronounce.” Saved, like a boss. Hiding my smug smirk, I continued talking. “They are staying with me for a while and I’ve decided to show them around our school.” With that, I sat down. “Mahalo Pu’uwai,” [Thank you] said the kumu. “Ok let’s begin with the Nui sentence structure...” The bell rang, signalling the class’s end. It was a pretty boring class, I felt bad that Aloe and Lotus weren’t able to learn much about human ways. My next class was Literary Fantasy, and I was sure that they would learn a little more in that class. As I walked out the door though, I felt a shiver down my spine as I remembered who the teacher was. Mr. V. was the Literary Fantasy teacher, and he was an asshole. He wasn’t an asshole like a normal teacher was, he was an asshole like me, one who poked fun at other people. Other than that he was a cool teacher, and my favorite one at that. The whole walk up to his class I began to panic, trying to predict what Mr. V. would say about the two girls following silently behind me. “Well, well, what have we here?” Came a familiar voice. It seems that I walked into the lion’s den without realizing it. Fuck me... School DazeDammit, come up with a comeback dumbass! All I could do was raise my middle finger in defiance. I took my normal seat in the back of the class, directly opposite Mr. V’s podium. Chris usually sat on my right, and the desk on my left was empty, its usual occupant on vacation. Luckily, Chris wasn’t here yet, so both seats were open. Lotus and Aloe each took a seat next to me, Aloe on my right, Lotus to my left. “Girls,” I whispered, “If anyone asks, you two are twins from France. I was lucky the teacher last period didn’t ask you personally. Also leave out how you two are ponies and how I found you butt naked in the ocean. You don’t have any problem lying right?” “But for the most part, we wouldn’t be lying.” replied Lotus. “Yeah we are from Prance, which I’m assuming is much like your ‘France,’ and we are twins.” Aloe added. “Oh... Right, how did I not see that earlier?” I knew it would be hard to keep their identities a secret for long. I have experience with lying, and the thing about lies is that, the longer you keep them alive, the more they want to get out in the open. Once I told my teacher that I had computer problems. One thing led to another and I ended up having to basically throw my computer down the mountain. I had insurance so it was repaired with no cost to me. Steven. Spies took on new identities in movies all the time, but the girls weren’t trained, and they didn’t give off the impression that they were frequent liars. Steven... Hello? Being an experienced liar, I could... STEVEN!!! I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder. I turned to my right to see Aloe staring at me. “Are you Alright?” she asked. Apparently I had been daydreaming for the past five minutes. “Yeah, yeah just... thinking is all.” “Oh alright,” She said, apparently deciding to let me tell her when I was good and ready. I started to ease back into reality, noticing that Mr. V was looking directly at me. I prayed he wouldn’t pick on me today. Too bad I know how Mr. V thinks. “Salty, you want to introduce us to your friends?” Mr. V. bellowed. I groaned at the sound of his stupid, but accurate nickname for me. “Umm... No?” Was the only response I could think of. He gave me a stare that screamed come on, do it or I’ll fail you. “Ugh fine! This is Aloe and this is Lotus, they are from France and have a neat accent. They will be staying with me for a while.” Mr. V. started to raise his eyebrows up and down implying... “”Oh god no, nothing like that!” I yelled way louder than I should have. “Yeah, yeah sure.” He replied. “I hate you Mr. V.” “I know Salty,” By this time, the class was chuckling amongst themselves like a pack of hyenas. I slammed my face into my desk hard, earning confused stares from the two girls sitting next to me. The rest of the class period was boring. Vinta lectured a little about a book that we are supposed to read for class. A book that most of the class would not be reading. After that, he just went straight into his class Dungeons and Dragons game. The ‘Revengers’ were the unlucky chumps today. The way Vinta played D&D, he’d give you a chance in the first few stages of his dungeon, allowing you to clear them out and keeping you alive until the boss room. As soon as you reached the boss however, the tables quickly turn and he beats the living hell out of you with overpowered creatures. “What are they doing over there?” Lotus asked. “They’re playing Dungeons and Dragons, and it seems like they’re losing based on all the groans coming from that side of the room.” I replied. “Are we going to get a turn too?” Aloe said, her eyes lighting up. “Yeah, will we?” her sister chimed in. “Uh... Sure... I’ll ask Mr. V. after class if you can join....” I said, scratching the back of my head. “Why are you interested in playing a game like that? I always pegged you two as girly girls...” They looked at each other for a few seconds before shrugging. I groaned and slumped back in my chair, rubbing my temples. They chuckled softly, turning their heads back towards the maelstrom of anger that was forming at the opposite end of the room. From what I could decipher, it seemed as if three of the players had already died. Knowing Vinta, I assumed they were at the final boss of the dungeon. The “Revengers” had unfortunately chosen the hardest dungeon. Vinta constantly brags that this dungeon has never been beaten, even after nearly thirteen years of teaching. I glanced at the clock, tapping my finger impatiently on the desk. Normally, I would take out my computer and screw around on it, but I thought it might be a bit rude to do that while I have two “guests” with me. "So... Did you two want to talk?" I asked, my head turning towards them. The only response I got was a single head shake from Lotus. "Are you su... Fuck it..." I quickly pulled out my laptop and logged onto fimfiction.net. "What's that?" Lotus asked, pointing to the screen. "And why are there pictures of us?" "I told you two earlier... Your former lives are part of a popular cartoon in our worl..." I replied, turning my head, only to find Lotus' face was dangerously close to mine, our noses a fraction of an inch away from each other. I cleared my throat, my face getting warmer with each passing millisecond. "A-and some people write stories based on it..." "Wow..." was the only thing she said before turning her attention back to the game taking place in the corner of the classroom. "Yeah..." I said softly, turning my head back to the computer. The IRC chat page popped up and I logged on as Hivetyrant25. Draequine: Hey hive, I'm making a collab, want in? Hivetyrant25: No... Draequine: Come on... Hivetyrant25: Let me think about it... No.... Draequine: >.> Draequine: At least let me tell you the concept... Hivetyrant25: Fine Draequine: It's about ponies being sent to earth as humans by discord! Hivetyrant25: ... Hivetyrant25: No... Draequine: Come on, I already got a few authors Hivetyrant25: Like who? Draequine: TheSlorg, DragonLS, Belgarion... Belgarion: -_- Draequine: What? Belgarion: You fucking pinged... Draequine: I'm getting hive into the collab, shut the fuck up Hivetyrant25: Who has what? Belgarion: I have Rarity :D Hivetyrant25: Okay? Draequine: I'm doing Discord :3 Hivetyrant25: Of course... Belgarion: You should do the spa twins! Then we can do crossovers and shit Hivetyrant25: You're joking... right? Belgarion: No man! We could totally do thta! Belgarion: that* Hivetyrant25: I don't even know anything about the fucking spa twins... Belgarion: Come on... Draequine: Do it!!! Yozzoy: Hey Hive Hivetyrant25: I'm getting off... I closed my laptop and buried my face into its case. Ding! Ding! Ding! My head quickly popped up out of instinct. I silently thanked God that the class was over as I stood up. "Alright, let's go!" I said, clapping my hands together. They slowly stood up and I immediately began pushing them towards the door, snatching my laptop case off of the desk. "Later Mr. V!" I shouted, turning my head back to him. "Go get 'em Salty." He responded, giving me the most obvious wink I have ever seen in my life. "I hate you..." "I know you do Salty. Take care." I closed the door behind me, Vinta's laughs penetrating the glass. With English out of the way, I led the twins down the stairs towards a large white building, a colorful mural depicting various Hawaiian flowers on its front wall. The building was simply named the “Auditorium. I walked under the archway, turning towards the open-aired hallway to my left. A small kiosk sat in the corner, students and bags surrounding it. I groaned as I saw who was sitting on the kiosk. “Chris!” I shouted. “Why weren’t you in Vinta’s?” He turned his head towards me, smiling as I stomped towards him. “Brah, I had a docta’s appointment okay?” he replied, rolling his eyes. “What are they here for?” He pointed to Lotus and Aloe. “Shouldn’t they be like... with their families or something?” “Long story short, they’re staying with me for a while.” “Oh, I see,” he said, nudging me. “Sorry eh? I’m not cool like you!” he raised his hands, bowing to me. “Please, oh white man, teach me your ways!” “Shut the hell up...” I said, flicking his ear. “Something wrong?” Lotus said, walking up to me, her sister close behind. “No, my friend is just being an asshole...” I replied. They gave me a confused look. “A dick?” I groaned, their expressions unchanging. “He’s being a jerk...” “Oh... That’s not very nice of him...” Aloe replied. “It’s fine, we’re friends, we’re always being jerks to each other.” “That doesn’t seem like a good friendship to me.” “Our culture is much different than yours, the best friends are the ones who irritate each other most.” I responded. It seemed odd saying it out loud, but it was true. “Come on, let me introduce you to some of my friends.” I led them to a small gathering of people. “Sup white man.” A short brown asian boy said, raising his fist, his elbow forming a right angle, mimicking the Black Panther hand signal. Another asian, slightly taller than the first, turned around and copied the first one, chuckling softly. “Hey.” I replied, returning the gesture, smirking ever so slightly. “Girls,” I said, turning to the twins. “This is Scott,” I pointed to the first boy. “And this little bastard is Mason...” I said, glaring at the second boy. “Hi.” The twins said in unison, waving at them. A tall, skinny black kid pushed mason out of the way, raising his fist like the others. “Sup whitey!” He said, grinning. “Sup blacky.” I said, tracing a circle around my head and pulling my hand up behind my neck, dropping my head onto my shoulder, feigning death. “Please white man, don’t lynch me!” he said, chuckling. “Only if you get back in the fields!” I replied, laughing as I shook his hand. “Girls, this is James, our resident negro.” They gave me a blank stare as I wrapped my arm around James’ neck. I facepalmed, “You don’t know what that is... do you?” “Umm... No, I’m sorry.” Aloe replied, her sister twiddling her hands off to the side. “It’s fine,” I said, turning to James. “They’re from France, they don’t know much slang.” “Ooooh...” he replied, “That makes sense.” “Yeah so... what’s for lunch today?” “Turkey Pastrami.” said Scott. “Did you want to go eat?” “Shoots, we go!” a voice from behind us exclaimed. I turned around to see a tall, skinny white boy, his glasses pressed up against his face. “Gabe!” I yelled. “Where were you Friday?” “Brah, I didn’t have ride!” “You live like a mile from the beach.” I replied, rubbing my temples. “I no like walk dat far.” “Ugh. Why didn’t you call me then?” “My mom used my phone that day. She got so piss that you kept callin’ her at work.” “Whatever.” I said, walking towards the stairs. “Come on girls, let’s get some lunch.” They followed me as I walked down, towards the dining hall. The dining hall itself was only part of the large building that layed on the slope of the mountain. Six flights of stairs and three ramps separated it from the Auditorium. I walked up to the glass doors of the dining hall, the work “Akahi” posted onto the wall above them. Inside, a large number of students were already eating their lunches inside. “Alright girls,” I said, turning to them as I opened the door. “It’s buffet style here so get as much as you want.” I walked in, waving at a few familiar faces while leading the twins to the large line of students converging around the food carts. Groaning, I pushed through the horde, looking back occasionally at the twins, making sure they were keeping up. I finally exited the crowd and walked through an archway into the next room. Lotus and Aloe soon caught up, panting ever so slightly. “Yeah, it gets pretty crazy sometimes.” I said, chuckling. “Back here is pasta and salad. I figured you’d enjoy that more than the red meat they’re serving in the main line.” “That sounds good.” Aloe said, sniffing the air. “And it smells good too.” “Really?” I asked, raising my brow. “This stuff tastes like... Nevermind. The plates are over there, trays and utensils are over here.” Their eyes followed my hand as I pointed out the various utilities around the room. “Drinks are over there, you’ll have to serve yourself. There’s apple juice, orange juice, fruit punch, and grape juice available. If you don’t like that, there’s milk and hot cocoa over there.” I pointed to the wall separating the two rooms, beverage fountains filling the entirety of it. “I usually don’t eat, so I’ll meet you two at a table.” They nodded as I walked off, making myself a cup of water before walking back into the main dining area. I found Gabe near the exit of the buffet line, sitting at a table and happily munching on his sandwich. He payed me no attention as I sat down. With nothing better to do, I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes, my shoe tapping quickly on the floor. A soft “tink” jarred me out of my slumber. As I opened my eyes, I saw Aloe and Lotus sitting next to me, eating spaghetti. “How is it?” I asked, smiling warmly. “It’s decent.” aloe said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “This reminds me of Rarity’s cooking.” Lotus chuckled. “She always thought she was a good cook...” She sighed, twirling her fork into the pasta. “Uh... So Gabe!” I yelled, clapping my hands together, a nervous smile stretched across my face. “This is Aloe and Lotus, they’re visiting from France.” “Mmph?” He gulped his food. “Ho nah! How you know dem Steven?” “Friends of friends...” I rolled my eyes. “Does it matter?” “Nah brah, I was jus’ wonderin’.” He turned his attention to Lotus and Aloe. “So what you girls like?” “Soft skin.” said Lotus. “Silky hair.” her sister chimed in. “Giving and getting massages.” “Mineral baths.” “Saunas.” “Hoofi...” “Pedicures.” I quickly interrupted her. “Of course.” Aloe replied. “Oo, I do love it when we get our ma... hair done.” Lotus cooed. “Rarity always styled our hair so perfectly.” Aloe said, giggling softly. “So I’m guessing you guys goin’ go prom den?” Gabe said, bouncing his eyebrows up and down. “No they aren’t going to...” “Prom?” they shouted in unison, putting their hands up to their mouths as they started squeeing. “Yeah, we get senior prom coming up. You need one date?” He said, biting his lower lip. “No...” I said as I slapped the back of his head. “We aren’t going to prom, and they aren’t going to need dates.” Glancing at the twins, I saw that they were giving me sad little puppy dog eyes. I gritted my teeth hard, trying to look away. That served just to intensify their expressions, all four irises staring straight at me unforgivingly. “Fine!” I yelled. “We can go to Senior Prom...” I grumbled as I sat back in the chair, defeated. As expected, the twins began squeeing loudly, much to the chagrin of the students eating lunch around us. I face-planted into the table, groaning into it. Gabe sat there, laughing his heart out as the girls started babbling some nonsense about “dresses.” Being a guy, I tuned that out almost immediately, going into a vegetative state. Ding! Ding! Ding! “Oh thank God...” I said, standing up. “Let’s go, I don’t want to be late for homeroom.” “Brah, you don’t even go homeroom...” replied Gabe. “Oh yeah, that’s right!” I chuckled, sitting back down. “Jackass...” He said, giving me the bird as he pushed open the glass doors. “What does that mean?” Aloe asked, her brow raising slightly. “Oh um... It’s uh... Just don’t repeat it, and don’t do that hand gesture he just did either.” “But...” “Let’s go meet some people, shall we?” I said, standing up. Aloe sighed as she stood up, her sister following suit. We started the walk back up towards the Auditorium. Every so often, one of the sisters would glance out towards the ocean. Being on top of a hill, Kamehameha Schools has a very nice view of most of the western half of the island. The sun was just cresting over the sky, causing the distant ocean to glitter yellow. “It’s amazing...” Lotus said, stopping in her tracks. “Uh yeah... It is.” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “It’s so easy to forget how beautiful it is here, especially if you’ve lived here your whole life.” She smiled at me and continued up the steps. I took one last glance at the ocean before following her. We quickly caught up to her sister, who was completely oblivious to our temporary absence. I found myself glancing back at the ocean occasionally as we walked up the stairs. Centuries ago, my ancestors came to the islands using their knowledge of the stars and the waves. The ocean called to all Hawaiians, and I was no exception. “Hey girls...” I said, causing them to turn around. “Hmm?” replied Aloe. “How would you two like to go to the beach again? This time, without the drowning part.” I smiled, looking out to sea. “That sounds lovely.” said Lotus, following my gaze. I sighed happily and turned my head to them. “Let’s go meet my homeroom teacher, shall we?” I smiled, walking past them, the last flight of stairs upon us. Bzzt. Bzzt. My left pocket began vibrating, rattling my keys as well. Bzzt. Bzzt. I grumbled, reaching into my pocket. I pulled out my phone and clicked on the green icon, putting it up to my ear. “Hello?” “Steven, we need to talk...” AUTHOR'S NOTE: Four long months... Four of the busiest damn months of my entire life, but I was finally able to finish this chapter. What to say? Well, I'd like to thank everyone who favorited this fic. It really means a lot to me that you folks enjoy reading it. Just coming onto fimfiction every few days and seeing a new favorite really motivated me to finish all my real life crap so I could continue writing this story. Without you guys, I would have just scrapped this story altogether. I greatly appreciate comments, positive or otherwise, I love reading all of them. I'd like to thank Yozzoy especially for his encouragement. He found me in the fimfic chat and gave so many kind words about my fic. <3 You bud! (No-homo)
Trouble In Paradise“How in the HELL do you get seasick Chris?” “Shut the hell up, I told you to leave it alone already!” “One, you’re a lifeguard in Waikiki. Two, you constantly go fishing with your uncle on his boat. Three, you are in scuba class at school, and lastly... you are a faggot, therefore I rest my case.” “Grrrr... Steven, shut the hell up!” “I’m sorry what was that?” “Nothing...” “That’s what I thought...” I flexed my shoulders and sat down on the rocky cliffside, feeling quite satisfied with myself after winning that pointless argument with Chris. Today was a good day, I just knew. Eighty-two degrees and barely a cloud in the sky, this is what I love about living in what some might call paradise. The waves crashing on the rocks just a hundred feet to our left sent sprays of cool Pacific water our way. On our right, was the beach itself, with white sand and calm waves that belied the true power and nature of the ocean. I leaned backwards and fell harder than intended onto the hard rocks. Pain aside, I noticed the sun was almost directly overhead, telling me that it was almost noon. The thought of me being able to tell time by looking at the sun made me chuckle a bit. “Say Chris, when’s Gabe getting here?” I asked with a strange amount of annoyance. The heavyset Asian beside me just shrugged as I continued daydreaming. Chris was a friend from school, a dick in all uses of the word, but one who knows when to stop. In actuality he’s usually playing around when teasing people, as we all do. I on the other hand, am a complete asshole, a six-foot two asshole who enjoys watching Ponies a bit too much... go figure. I live on the island of ‘Oahu, which many of you may just call Hawaii. Believe me when I say that not all the islands are called Hawaii pal. Anyway, I live near the Harbor on the west side of the island, pretty far away from the famous beaches like Waikiki, but close to plenty of beaches nonetheless. Truth be told, I rarely go to the beach, but today was a special occasion, Friday the 13th, and it was almost customary for all of my friends to go and cruise on these supposedly cursed days. I looked down at my phone and realized I had been lying on my back for over an hour just staring at the sky. I also realized that my eyes were burning like someone poured a few grams of salt directly in them and shut them faster than my brain could comprehend what happened. “Jesus Christ Chris it’s been over an hour and Gabe lives the closest to Barber’s Point!” I yelled way louder than normal. “What do you want me to do about it?” came Chris’s rebuttal, matching my volume. “Oh I don’t know? Call him?” “Why don’t you call him?” “Because screw you that’s why!” “God you are such a...” “I’m such a what Chris? An asshole? I take great pride in that thank you very much.” I retorted. A few moments passed waiting for a counter smart-ass remark, but none came, instead I was gifted with a rather hard punch in the shoulder. “What the hell was... that... for?” I stammered as I bolted up and saw what had made Chris’s normally big mouth shut up. In the sky was... well the sky itself turned pink for about a minute and faded back to normal. I raised an eyebrow in confusion as I tried to piece together what I saw. “There has to be a logical explanation for this.” I thought. Well the weather has been acting freaky all week; maybe it’s just another freaky weather thing? Replied the voice in my head “I’m almost positive that the entire sky turning pink is different than a few lightning clouds and a waterspout.” I’d agree with you on that, had the lightning clouds acted normal. “Wow the lightning almost reached the ground! We should call the Ghostbusters or the MIB.” I responded sarcastically. Hey lightning never goes past cloud level in Hawaii and you know it! Don’t come crying to me when something odd happens. “Well you have a point there but... wait... do I smell... fudge?” I sniffed the air for a few seconds, but there was no mistaking it, there was a strong smell of fudge in the air. It was so strong in fact that I instinctively covered my nose to keep it out. If there was one sweet smell I couldn’t tolerate a large amount of, it was the smell of chocolate. You KNOW that something’s smell is too strong when it overpowers the smell of fish. The only thing I could think of was where the hell that smell was coming from. I looked all around our fishing area but couldn’t find anything that smelled close to fudge. “Dude did you bring fudge with you? You know I hate the smell of strong fudge!” I asked Chris. “Do I look like I carry around chocolate with me?” He replied with the expected amount of sarcasm. “You are no help at all!” I replied, continuing in my search. After a few more minutes of searching, I gave up. I left Chris to sunbathe as turned around and headed back inland, towards our SUV. Upon reaching the car, I dug around through the glove compartment and pulled out the bottle of perfume my mom keeps in the glove compartment. I silently prayed to god for my heterosexual soul as I opened the bottle and dabbed a few drops of perfume right under my nostrils. This particular brand smelled heavily of citrus, but I was just glad to have that damn fudge smell out of my nose. I began walking back towards the beach. As I did I had this strange feeling in my gut, like something was vaguely amiss, something was not right here. I approached our fishing area and resumed sitting down began to finally relax. It didn’t last long… As soon as I began to feel comfortable I started to stare at the ocean, the giver of life for my ancestors. It’s odd how little I actually think of my Hawaiian heritage and how much we depended on the ocean for things. For our food, our travel, our women… Wait what? I snapped back to reality and was finally able to focus on what drew my attention. Two women, floating face up in the water, unmoving. Two things stood out about these particular women. One, was the fact that their hair colors were extremely odd, with one having hair as pink as, well… Pinkie Pie, and the other had hair the color of the cool Hawaiian sky. The second thing stood out about these two, was that they were totally naked! They didn’t seem to move I slapped Chris in the back of the head and pointed towards the two strange women. With a groan he punched me in the arm. “They’re probably just skinnydippers, I hear they like to jump off the rock faces on this side of the island. I guess they like the fact that not many people come to the West side for its beaches.” “Yeah, all the tourists go to Waikiki and junk, pretty cliche if you ask me.” I replied. We turned our heads away from the two odd girls, after all it is rude to stare. At first I dismissed the thought of seeing something move out of the corner of my eye, but being paranoid as usual, I decided to turn my head back towards the two skinny dippers. For once in my damn life my paranoia pays off as I catch the pink haired one capsize in the water like a dead goldfish. "Chris!" I yelled out. "I don't think they are conscious!" "Dude they are probably just high, let it go." "Ugh, why the fuck do I have to be the only one with a good moral compass here?" I exclaimed as I simultaneously took of my shirt. I ran as fast as I could down to the edge of the rocky edifice and dove 15 feet down into the water like a boss... Wrong. Bellyflopped into the water, and it stung like hell, but there was no time to focus on the pain. I began to swim out toward the girls, silently thanking God that I had to do four years of intense swimming and running for school. I was about 20 feet from the girls when I heard a splash behind me. I knew that my friend had just entered the water and I picked up my pace. When I got to the pink haired girl, I flulipped her over rather ungracefully. Not knowing exactly what to do next, I just tread water for what seemed like an eternity, my heart racing the entire time. My friend eventually got to the two girls, yet my heart continued beating at an accelerated rate. "Muah mwah mwah muah mwah" What the he'll was that? "Did you fucking hear me?" Yelled Chris. "We need to get them back to shore!" All I could do was nod and follow his lead as he grabbed the blue haired girl and began to backstroke towards the beach. It was only then did I remember that these two were completely naked, and I felt my heart rate skyrocket again. I tried to think only about getting to shore, but every few moments I felt my heart rate jump back up. The last of these "episodes" caused me to flail and I almost lost hold of the girl whose life I was saving. I could not let this girl die on me, I wouldn't allow it. After that, I put my game face on and double timed it to shore. Although my watch stated the whole ordeal took only five minutes, it almost felt as if it had taken hours. When we finally got to the beach, I dragged the girl with the pink hair past the wavebreak and checked to see if she was breathing. I literally felt my heart stop when I realized that she was not. Seconds felt like days as I panicked, but then I found new courage and began to administer CPR. After two long minutes, I was rewarded with a faceful of seawater, courtesy of the pink haired lady. I turned around to see That Chris had gotten the blue haired one to shore and had gotten her wrapped up in a towel, though I noted that she was still unconscious. "Aloe!" I heard from behind me. I nearly had a heart attack for the third time that day before turning around just in time to see that the pink haired girl had bolted upright. With a loud thud, she hit the sand and fell back into unconsciousness. "Well fuck..." I murmured. The next thing I knew the whole world went dark, I felt as if I couldn't breath... Then I realized that Chris had thrown a towel on my head. I ignored what he was blabbering on about, though I did hear him call me an idiot, among other things. The girl on the ground still wasn't moving, but I managed to get the towel to cover her "delicates." I hoisted her up onto my shoulder caveman style. It wasn't a far walk to the SUV, but the feeling of having dead weight on you just invites all sorts of weird feelings. She wasn't exactly heavy either, I just couldn't shake the feeling that this didn't really happen. I placed her behind the driver's seat of the SUV and quickly ran around to open the door for Chris to put the blue-haired one in. "So what do we do with them?" He asked. "I don't know right now, let me think." I replied. I found myself staring at them for an unhealthy amount of time. I had this nagging feeling that I knew something, but it was so far in the back of my mind that I'd have to claw through my own eyes to get at it. It was then that I noticed the one with the pink hair, for now let's call her "Aloe," wasn't looking too good. She seemed to be sweating up a storm. I walked over and gently placed the back of my hand on her forehead and... "HOLY SWEET JESUS SHE'S HOT!" I yelled, flailing my hand as if it had just burst into flames. "Well, yeah she actually is isn't she?" "Not in that way you goddamn moron, she's burning up!" I snapped. I buckled Aloe in and closed her door. As I walked around the car towards the other back door, I graced Chris with a slap to the back of the head. I buckled in the girl with blue hair and closed her door. I got in the driver's seat and turned on the ignition. "Where are we going?" Asked Chris as he got in the passenger door. "To my grandma's house." "Is that such a good idea?" "With the hospital Ewa shut down, the closest place she can go is probably Pali Momi in Aiea, and that's twenty miles away. Not to mention that there will probably be traffic on the freeway... No, my grandma will be able to give her at least a little bit of help." My grandma lived only a few miles from where we were fishing. She lived in Ewa Beach, a large town on the west coast of Pearl Harbor. The ride only took about five minutes, especially how fast I was driving. As we passed the sewage treatment plant that marked the end of the former Barber's Point Military base, I heard a noise coming from behind me and I turned to see the blue haired woman finally beginning to wake up. As soon as she saw my face however, her eyes bolted open. "Well look who's... OW MOTHERF-" I yelled as she punched me square in the face, screaming. The car swerved to the left and we started heading towards the edge of the road. I quickly got the car back onto the road and thanked the lord almighty that there were no other cars around. The blue haired girl hadn't stopped screaming during the entire ordeal. She passed out, possibly due to shock, a few seconds later. I looked at Chris and noticed he was gripping the door handle for dear life. I laughed like a hyena upon seeing that. I guess he started to find the humour in it because he started laughing too. I took a quick inspection of myself in the rearview mirror. I didn't seem to be bleeding, but I was sure to have a bruise by tomorrow. We finally reached the cul-de-sac my grandma lived in. I got out to open the gate and pulled up into her driveway. I noticed my grandma didn't come out to greet us, as she usually does when company arrives, even unexpectedly. I just reasoned that she was in her room at the back of the house and didn't hear us pull up. I got out of the car and gently lifted Aloe out of the seat and carried her to the house fireman style. I opened the screen door, granted it took me a few tries, but we were finally in the house. I held open the door for Chris as he brought in that bitch who punched me. "Obaasan!" I shouted. "Ah tsa Su-ti-bin" yelled a small asian lady as she came out of the back room. Now, if you look at me, and then look at my grandma, you'd think I was adopted somewhere down the line, but I'm not. My grandma is full Okinawan and about four-foot eight, while I on the other hand, look completely white and am six-two. "Aiya Su-ti-bin, why you bring so many people to my house? They dirty! Look at him he no even take off shoes. Aiyana! Dese two are wet why you bring them in wet?" "Grandma," I spoke up, stopping her rant. "Dis girl has a fevah, she needs help." I said, matching her accent with my own, butchered copy. "Put her in you uncle's bed then, he not using it!" she yelled as she opened the screen door and walked outside. "Chris put the other one lying down on the couch for now then." I said with my normal voice. "What the hell was with that Japanese accent back there?" "Sometimes my grandma doesn't understand me if I speak normally, so I try to match her accent, it works... Most of the time." I said as I walked through the single hallway and into the middle room. My uncle lives with my grandma, but this week he went to the mainland to watch golf, or hockey, or some shit like that. Either way I was pretty pissed because he was supposed to hang out with me that weekend but, whatever... His room was a testament to metal and rock, with Def Leppard and Kiss T-shirts hung up all over the place, and various other rock memorabilia stacked on shelves. I gently laid Aloe down on the bed and put my hand to her forehead again. Oh god she's getting worse I thought to myself. I hear the distinct clank of the screen door being shut and turn around to see my grandma with a bowl full of plants in one hand, and a pounder in the other. She grows a lot of crap in her garden, and being raised in Okinawa on what was basically a farm had taught her much about natural remedies. "Su-ti-bin, get me glass and Sprite, Hayaku!" She yelled as I bolted out the door and opened the fridge. Sprite... sprite... sprite... WHERE'S THE SPRITE? I moved a few Diet Pepsi cans to reveal... 7-UP... I face palmed harder than I had ever face palmed before, and screamed in pain as I remembered that I had just gotten sucker-punched by one of the girls. I grumbled to no one in particular as I opened the cupboard and grabbed a cup. I gave my grandma the cup and Spri... er... 7-UP and was just about to sit down at the foot of the bed when Chris burst into the room. "The other girl woke up." "Is she going paranoid this time?" I asked "Not at the moment she's not, though I wouldn't hold my breath." he said as I walked out of the bedroom into the living-room. The blue haired girl didn't notice us at first, she just kept... looking at her hands. It freaked me out really. "So... mind telling me why you punched me on the ride over here?" I asked with a tinge of annoyance. "Where am I? Who are you? WHERE'S LOTUS?" she said, with each statement more vocal than the last. "Look lady, I don't know who the fuck you are, but me and my friend here saved you and your friend so the least you could say is thank you..." I paused "Who the hell is Lotus?" I asked "She is my sister, she has the loveliest blue coat and the most wonderful pink mane! Tell me where she is you monster!" Her accent was foreign, it reminded me of a stereotypical French person, oui oui and all. I saw that she was at the verge of tears, and it was right then and there that my heart caved in. Then it hit me, Did she just say "coat?" I was almost positive of it. "What the do you mean coat?" I asked in a gentler voice. "What is not to get? All ponies such as myself have coats!" the girl said sternly, though the tears kind of threw off the serious look she was giving me. It was then that the rusty gears in my brain started turning. They clinked and they clanked and clinked some more. I face palmed myself once more, seemingly going for the record of hardest face palm in history. "So you are saying your sister is a pony?" I asked "Yes that is correct." she responded, having wiped most of her tears already. "So therefore, YOU are... or WERE a pony yourself?" It seemed like an extremely stupid question but it was one that needed to be asked. There was no way that she'd actually... "Yes" came her response. Wait, what? She had that stern look on, much more convincing without the tears. All I could do was stare in disbelief. Did she actually think she was a pony or is she just messing with me? HOLY CRAP what if she was telling the truth? I just stood there for a few minutes with the same stupid look on my face. "My name..." she continued, "My name is Aloe, and I am from Ponyville, in Equestria. Me and my sister own a Spa in town and..." "Wait up, wait up," I interrupted, "So you are saying you are from Ponyville, a made up location from the show My Little Pony? You do know that show is just fiction right?" Chris groaned at the words "My Little Pony," and rather loudly too. I shot him a glare that would make an Arbok proud. "What is this 'My Little Pony' you speak of?" She asked with general surprise. "Ugh let me show you already!" I yelled as I pulled out my iPod Touch. I went to YouTube and went to my history, which was unsurprisingly, filled with ponies. I selected the last episode I had watched entitled 'Green Isn't Your Color' and played it for her. She just sat there with her mouth open in shock the whole time, apparently amazed at my old as shit iTouch. "So sorry to be late Fluttershy!" Rarity exclaimed as she burst through the door. I paused the video right there. This time, it was my turn to be in shock. "Aloe" reached for the screen nervously with her pointer finger and began to rub the Spa pony in the background. "Wha... Wha... What is this magic? I remember this day, but how did you..." she began blabbering, and I followed suit with a flurry of "buts" and "whats" and "huhs" of my own. I could feel my eye twitch as I suddenly came to a realization... Ponies are real!
IntegrationA few hours had passed since I first brought Aloe and Lotus to my grandma’s house. In that time, my grandma had given Lotus some home remedies and then proceeded to cook us dinner. I silently thanked god that she only cooked miso soup, and that she ran out of SPAM too. (I know what you bastards are thinking “Eeew SPAM, that’s like, leftover pig!” Well you know what? Fuck you...) It took about half an hour just to teach Aloe how to use a spoon, I didn’t want to find out how long it would take her to learn how to use chopsticks. Lotus was still unconscious by the time we finished. After dinner, I drove Chris back to his house in Pearl City, and even offered Aloe a ride in the car. Unsurprisingly, she refused, obviously still shaken from earlier. The ride to Pearl City was relatively short, so I was back at my grandma’s house, in almost no time. Nevertheless, it was close to sunset; the sky had already started turning beautiful shades of orange, basking in the final glows of the sun. As I pulled into the driveway, I noticed Aloe sitting in one of the small red chairs towards the back of the garage. Also of note was the lack of cars in the garage. Apparently my grandma had gone to one of her friend’s house and left a complete stranger in her house; I may have to talk to her about that later. Aloe seemed to pay no heed to me as I got out of the car and walked around the back towards the small metal shed grandma kept back there. After rummaging through garbage bags covered in lizard shit, I pulled out a ladder and leaned it up against the back of the garage’s overhang. I started climbing up but stopped myself halfway. I climbed back down and walked around to the front of the garage to find Aloe still sitting the chair gazing at nothing in particular. “Would you like to watch the sunset with me? It’s very beautiful here.” I asked in the softest tone I could possibly muster. All she did was nod. She stood up and I led her around to the back of the garage where I had placed the ladder. After a few minutes of demonstration, I was able to get her on the ladder and she slowly started climbing up. I could tell she was scared, she was shaking, and that was causing the ladder to shake. After she got about halfway up, I climbed up after her. On instinct I looked straight up, forgetting she was still wearing the towel only the towel. I caught a glimpse of a tattoo on her ass before nearly falling off the ladder. Thankfully I was able to regain my composure and I resumed climbing up, with my eyes closed shut this time. As soon as heard her step onto the roof I opened my eyes. I climbed up soon after and saw that she was already sitting with her feet dangling over the edge, watching the sunset. “This world is very beautiful.” she said, almost too soft to hear. I could hear the heartbreak in her voice. “Yeah...” Was all I could say. I sat down next to her as she watched the sunset with teary eyes. I gazed out towards the sunset and allowed myself to zone out. The next thing I knew, I felt Aloe wrap her arms around mine while resting her head on my left shoulder. I vowed right then and there that I would help these two girls out as much as humanly possible. Am I crazy? We sat up there for what felt like hours. Aloe had fallen asleep soon after sunset, but I couldn’t muster up the nerve to move for fear of waking her. She looked so peaceful lying there, and with the day we have had, I think she deserved some proper rest. For some stupid reason, I decided to lift my left arm, forgetting that she was still clinging onto it. Her eyes bolted open at my sudden movement and for the second time that day, she punched me straight in the face. It must have been pretty hard because I blacked out soon after. I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! shouted a voice in the darkness. “Who’s there?” I yeled back. Oh Aloe, look what you’ve done now! “Aloe?” I stammered, walking towards the voice in the darkness Oh Celestia, I hope I haven’t hurt him too much! The voice seemed closer now. I began running towards the voice, hearing it clearer and clearer the further I ran. After running for what seemed like an eternity, the voice began sobbing. The sound of its sorrow made me pick up the pace even further. I could see a light on the horizon; an oasis of light in a cold desert of darkness. The light flooded over me like a tidal wave until I could see no more. With a groan, I forced open my eyes, only to see a girl standing over me. She had stunning blue hair that was held back by a white band. What the hell is going on? I thought to myself. Then memories slowly began flowing back to me. “Aloe?” The question was barely audible. I rubbed my head and began to sit up. Pushing up on my left hand, I felt the familiar pricks of asphalt indenting my skin. “H-how did I get on the ground?” I stammered. “I may have, maybe, punched you over the edge...” she replied, nervously pushing her index fingers together and looking away. “But I didn’t mean to I swear! Can you please fogive me?” she shouted. I could see that she was concerned, her eyes gave off a slight glimmer in the moonlight. “It’s alright, it was just an accident.” As I began to stand up, a whole new level of pain swept over me. I dropped down onto my right knee. What did you expect? You just fell 10 feet! “You aren’t helping at all.” I thought to myself. It took another few minutes to stand up and regain my balance. Thankfully, nothing seemed to be broken. God must have been smiling down on me for once, because I was actually able to get myself inside. Aloe was right behind me, never faltering in her barrage of apologies. “I said I forgive you.” I said, trying to stem the tide; it didn’t help. Quickly, I turned around and grabbed both of her forearms and looked straight into her azure eyes. “I forgive you.” She just stared into my eyes for a few seconds. “Okay...” she said. Letting go of her arms, I was reminded that she only had a towel on... well used to anyway. It seemed to have fallen off while she was flailing behind me apologizing like wild. I caught myself staring for longer than I should have. What piqued my interest was the mark on her ass that I assumed to be her cutie mark. It was a stunning white lotus, the petals branching outwards. I was genuinely surprised at the level of detail it had in it. Realizing that I was staring too long, I pulled my eyes back up to hers through sheer force of will. “We need to get you some clothes.” “Why?” “Because normal humans wear clothes to cover theses.” I gestured towards her unmentionables. “Ok... I trust you...” and with that, I led her into my mom’s old room. The bed was removed, but the dressers were left where they were. Thankfully the clothes in here were from when my mom was herself a teenager. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a pink top. Wow, this has to be a coincidence. I thought to myself. After demonstrating how to put on the clothes to her, I exited the room and allowed Aloe to finish dressing. To my surprise, Lotus had apparently gotten up and walked out of my uncle’s room. “Oh thank god you are... Oomph” My sentence was cut short by yet another punch, this time in the gut. I fell to the floor gasping for air. Lotus stood over me, the look of murder in her azure eyes. "Who are you and what have you done to my sister?" she screamed. Oh great, this again... I slowly forced myself up. I had never noticed how much shorter she was until now. She was almost six inches shorter than me, so I assumed her sister would be around the same height. It’s odd how you don’t notice these little things at first. While getting up, one thing was clear; she had no clothes on. Just like her sister, she only had a towel to cover her when we brought her home. Out of curiosity, I glanced at her ass to check if she too had a cutie mark. Lo and behold she did, and it was an exact match to her sister’s. I looked into her eyes and saw them full of malice. There was no doubt that this girl would punch me again if it meant saving her sister. As if on cue, Aloe emerged from my mom’s old room in her new outfit. “Lotus? You are ok! Thank Celestia you are ok!” she ran towards her sister and gave her one of the biggest hugs I’ve ever seen. “I’m... I’m fine Aloe.” It seemed Lotus’ body hadn’t heard the news yet, for she still looked ill. Her hair looked like a bird had taken up residence, and then had its home severely trashed, no doubt due to tossing and turning during the day. Her face was a bright red, especially around her temple, and her eyes were bloodshot. I was amazed she had managed to get up and still have the energy to knock the wind out of me. She didn’t have a headband like her sister, but I just assumed that my grandma had taken it off of her head earlier in the day. She turned her gaze to me and gave me a menacing glare. “Oh Lotus, this is Steven, he saved us from drowning earlier,” Aloe said, apparently catching her sister giving me the stink eye. “Oh, umm... Sorry about that... I was so worried about Aloe, I should have thought instead of react.” she lowered her head to her chin. Her sincere apology combined with the depressed, and dare I say, cute reaction to the news she just heard caused my heart to fall to pieces again. You’ve got to stop being such a pansy. What can I say? I’m a sucker for the whole “cuteness overload apology” thing. “It’s ok,” I coughed out. “I didn’t need to use my liver for anything anyway.” Putting on a weak smile, I slowly made my way past the two sisters and plopped down on the couch in the living room. God I need a break. “No kidding.” Thankfully the two sisters didn’t hear that. After about an hour of reconnecting, Aloe decided it was best to have me teach them about human ways. I explained to Lotus that humans wore clothes on a daily basis. Again I rummaged through my mother’s dresser and found another pair of jeans and a blue shirt. You have got to be kidding me. It was too perfect, almost like destiny had led us clothes on a path that converged here, in this very spot. Aloe was wearing a pink shirt and had ocean blue hair; the colors of her pony form, and Lotus was now wearing a light blue shirt which, in combination with her pink hair, matched her pony form as well. I left well enough alone and returned to the living room. “I’ll tell you guys everything about humans tomorrow. It’s almost midnight and I’m extremely tired from saving you two and getting beaten down three times, all in the same day.” Aloe opened her mouth to object, but ended up yawning instead. Her sister followed suit, and it took all of my willpower not to yawn as well. I stood up and walked over to my uncle’s room. There was an outline of sweat in the sheets, no doubt from Lotus. Her towel was on the bed, as well as her head band. With one swift motion, I took all the sheets off the bed and remade it. “Is that where we’ll be sleeping tonight?” came a quiet voice. Turning around I noticed Lotus standing in the doorway. “Yeah... Oh, I think this is yours” I gave her the headband I had found on the bed. “Thank you.” She said as she put it around her head. “You know I really am sorry for hitting you earlier it’s just th-” “Don’t worry about it, your sister reacted in exactly the same way. In fact, she almost killed me twice today.” It was true, though I really didn’t want to think about it. Am I in over my head? “Besides, I would act the same way if I thought my sibling was in trouble.” “Thanks for understanding...” She yawned again, and yet again I had to use every ounce of willpower to keep from doing it myself. “Hehe, I guess I really should rest.” She said, chuckling. God that’s adorable “Shut the hell up,” I whispered to the voice in my head. “What was that?” Asked Lotus, clearly puzzled. “I said, where’s your sister? I have a busy day planned out tomorrow for you two and you need your rest.” “I think she fell asleep on the couch. Do you want me to wake her?” “No I’ll get her, just try to get some sleep.” As I stepped into the living room, I saw Aloe had indeed fallen asleep. To be honest, I was dreading the idea of having to move her. The last time I accidentally woke her, I had fallen ten feet, and that was unpleasant. She deserves a real bed tonight. Gently, I placed my hands under her and lifted her fireman style into my uncle’s room. I nearly dropped her when she put her arms around my neck. Keep it together, she isn’t trying to kill you, intentionally... I gently placed her on the bed next to her sister, who had already fallen asleep. Silently, I exited the room and allowed myself to finally yawn, and yawn I did. Really, I’m pretty sure there was a vacuum, somewhere devoid of air in the house. With a loud thud I relaxed myself on the couch, and closed my eyes. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. The weekend was finally here, and it would be a good one, I could feel it. I awoke at five and took a quick walk around the neighborhood. My grandma came home at around three, but she wasn’t as sneaky as she used to be. When you get up before dawn almost every day, you come to appreciate the transition from night to day. The sunrise had always made me happy. On most days, you could see the moon until eight-o'clock in the morning. Having the moon in the light of day was a very wonderful experience. Today was different, I was home before the sunrise, I had things I needed to get done. In the hours before the twins awoke, I had made a few phone calls, and planned out the entire weekend. Today is going to be a good day. I thought with a grin. The twins awoke near noon, and by that time my grandma had gotten up and left to go with her friends again. God that woman has a better social life than I do... I was busy making myself some lunch when they stumbled out of the room. “Good morning girls!” They turned to me at almost the same time, with the same look of confusion. “Umm... Good morning...” They said in unison. Damn that’s creepy. It took a few seconds, but I finally realized why they had a confused look on their face. “To answer your question; yes, yesterday was real, and this isn’t a dream. I’m sorry but we are going to have to live life like this for the time being.” It sounded harsh and I knew it, but I felt that being blunt was necessary here. “Now, what would you girls like for break... erm lunch?” I said, turning around to wash some dishes. “What do you have?” One of them asked, I really didn’t know which one. “Well, why don’t we just have some plain old pancakes for now hmm?” They nodded in agreement. After brunch, I put my ingenious plan in motion. I taught them about the basics of human society. By Sunday, they were adept at using their hands to manipulate things, and they were no longer terrified of the car. We even took a trip to the Bishop Museum together. They were more than interested in the Ancient Hawaiian exhibits in the museum, more so than any one person there. It was extremely boring, but the whole weekend I had avoided one important topic, one I knew would upset them. was Sunday night, and we had just finished dinner. “So girls, I’m very proud of you,” I began. “And now I think you two are ready to hear this. I know this may be hard to believe, but humans are omnivores. Do you two know what that means?” They shook their heads. “Of course... It means that humans can and will eat meat as well as plants.” They stared at me in disbelief. “I myself love the taste of meat, but I’ve been refraining from eating any this weekend for your sake. I hope you two can understand that in this world, it’s normal for us to eat animals like pigs and cows. You must understand, in your world, these animals are sentient, but here... they aren’t.” “I... I don’t know how I should react...” Aloe was clearly overwhelmed by this. Her sister didn’t take it any better. Lotus stood up and ran to my uncle’s room. “Lotus!” Cried her sister who was running after her. They locked the door to my uncle’s room. I could hear them sobbing in the room and it just made me feel terrible knowing I did that. Neither of them came out for the duration of the night. With a loud thud I slammed my head onto the table. It was hard to get up from the chair and relocate to the couch, my heart felt like a boulder. Eventually I was able to move to my makeshift couch-bed. I sat alone, in the living room with my thoughts for hours. Around midnight, the sobbing stopped. There was only silence in the house. Not as planned. I have no idea when I fell asleep, but I woke up around five in the morning on Monday. I went outside for some fresh air. Climbing up onto the garage roof, I sat down, staring into space for what seemed like hours. “It’s not your fault you know.” I heard a voice behind me. Aloe sat down next to me on the roof. “It was just a lot of information to take at once. Some of my friends knew cows and other animals that could talk. Knowing that they are eaten isn’t something I wanted to be told. Even worse, is knowing that these animals here can’t talk or think like you and I... I speak for Lotus as well when I say we don’t blame you. It isn’t your fault you are like this.” It was of little comfort, I still felt terrible about last night. She caught me off guard with a hug, and suddenly I felt better. We stayed up there to watch the sunrise together. “Ok come on, we have a busy day ahead of us.” I said as I got up. We climbed down the ladder and entered the house. “What do you have planned this time?” She asked. “It’s a surprise, please go wake your sister.” She obeyed, and ten minutes later, Lotus walked out into the living room. I looked in her eyes and somehow knew she had also forgiven me for being a complete idiot the night before. “Alright girls!” I shouted, “Into the car, I’m taking you guys on a road trip.” We left the house around 6:00 and picked up some McDonalds for breakfast, but only after asking the girls if eggs were ok. Shockingly, they stated that many ponies ate eggs. I really didn’t know what to say so I just left it alone. It took us twenty minutes to get to the freeway, less than ten miles away from my grandma’s house. Yes, traffic sucks that much in Hawaii. The freeway was barely any better. After almost an hour, we reached the edge of Honolulu or “town” as us locals call it. “That’s where we are going,” I said, pointing to a mountain to our left. “I go to school there, and it is Monday so I figured I’d take you two along with me. I already called up the school and asked them if I could bring two visitors with me for the next week or so. This will be a great way to get you two better accustomed to our way of life, much better than me just telling you about it.” I turned around and saw that they were both smiling with barely contained joy. I let my own smile loose. Big Mistake... Almost immediately, they began screaming with joy and bounced up and down in the seats. Thankfully this only lasted about two minutes and we were back to a relatively normal car ride. Though the base of the mountain was only five or so miles from the freeway, it took almost twenty minutes getting there due to the sheer amount of people driving around town. We reached the base of the mountain, where there was a guard station that heralded the entrance to the private school. The large sign on the right clearly read Kamehameha Schools: Kapalama. Driving up the hill, we passed an olympic sized swimming pool. A little further up the road, in the schools heart, was a Chapel. Another seven minutes of driving up the extremely windy roads, and we were at the Upper Campus, where the Juniors and Seniors had their classes. I pulled into one of the many parking stalls and got out. The girls followed suit. After grabbing my laptop and backpack from the trunk, I locked the door. And so it begins. My first class was that day Hawaiian Language II. It wasn’t the smartest thing to immediately immerse the girls into a whole new language, but I didn’t have control over my schedule. I walked into class and put my stuff in one of the desks and motioned for the girls to sit in the two seats next to me. “Hele i waho.” yelled the kumu [teacher]. It basically meant to get outside, and I knew why. The rest of the class lined up outside the door and began to chant. After we finished, the kumu responded with one of his own. With that, the class entered, but did not sit down. “E pule kakou,” [let us pray] the kumu said. We bowed our heads and said the Lord’s Prayer in Hawaiian. “Noho i lalo.” [sit down] “Why did you have to do that?” Lotus whispered as I sat down. “It is tradition to chant to ask for entrance into the room. Then the kumu, the teacher, returns the chant if he finds our chant strong and worthy of entering his room. The prayer is just that, a prayer.” I whispered back. “Pu’uwai, would you like to introduce us to your guests?” The kumu asked. I winced at my Hawaiian name, having totally forgotten that we never use our western names in this class. “Of course kumu,” I replied. Ok Steven, you got this... “This is Lotus and Aloe,” I said, motioning to each girl. They both waved at the class. “Aloha Lotus and Aloe!” The class responded. I continued, “They are from France, and if you are wondering why they have such odd names, well it’s because their French names are harder to pronounce.” Saved, like a boss. Hiding my smug smirk, I continued talking. “They are staying with me for a while and I’ve decided to show them around our school.” With that, I sat down. “Mahalo Pu’uwai,” [Thank you] said the kumu. “Ok let’s begin with the Nui sentence structure...” The bell rang, signalling the class’s end. It was a pretty boring class, I felt bad that Aloe and Lotus weren’t able to learn much about human ways. My next class was Literary Fantasy, and I was sure that they would learn a little more in that class. As I walked out the door though, I felt a shiver down my spine as I remembered who the teacher was. Mr. V. was the Literary Fantasy teacher, and he was an asshole. He wasn’t an asshole like a normal teacher was, he was an asshole like me, one who poked fun at other people. Other than that he was a cool teacher, and my favorite one at that. The whole walk up to his class I began to panic, trying to predict what Mr. V. would say about the two girls following silently behind me. “Well, well, what have we here?” Came a familiar voice. It seems that I walked into the lion’s den without realizing it. Fuck me...
School DazeDammit, come up with a comeback dumbass! All I could do was raise my middle finger in defiance. I took my normal seat in the back of the class, directly opposite Mr. V’s podium. Chris usually sat on my right, and the desk on my left was empty, its usual occupant on vacation. Luckily, Chris wasn’t here yet, so both seats were open. Lotus and Aloe each took a seat next to me, Aloe on my right, Lotus to my left. “Girls,” I whispered, “If anyone asks, you two are twins from France. I was lucky the teacher last period didn’t ask you personally. Also leave out how you two are ponies and how I found you butt naked in the ocean. You don’t have any problem lying right?” “But for the most part, we wouldn’t be lying.” replied Lotus. “Yeah we are from Prance, which I’m assuming is much like your ‘France,’ and we are twins.” Aloe added. “Oh... Right, how did I not see that earlier?” I knew it would be hard to keep their identities a secret for long. I have experience with lying, and the thing about lies is that, the longer you keep them alive, the more they want to get out in the open. Once I told my teacher that I had computer problems. One thing led to another and I ended up having to basically throw my computer down the mountain. I had insurance so it was repaired with no cost to me. Steven. Spies took on new identities in movies all the time, but the girls weren’t trained, and they didn’t give off the impression that they were frequent liars. Steven... Hello? Being an experienced liar, I could... STEVEN!!! I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder. I turned to my right to see Aloe staring at me. “Are you Alright?” she asked. Apparently I had been daydreaming for the past five minutes. “Yeah, yeah just... thinking is all.” “Oh alright,” She said, apparently deciding to let me tell her when I was good and ready. I started to ease back into reality, noticing that Mr. V was looking directly at me. I prayed he wouldn’t pick on me today. Too bad I know how Mr. V thinks. “Salty, you want to introduce us to your friends?” Mr. V. bellowed. I groaned at the sound of his stupid, but accurate nickname for me. “Umm... No?” Was the only response I could think of. He gave me a stare that screamed come on, do it or I’ll fail you. “Ugh fine! This is Aloe and this is Lotus, they are from France and have a neat accent. They will be staying with me for a while.” Mr. V. started to raise his eyebrows up and down implying... “”Oh god no, nothing like that!” I yelled way louder than I should have. “Yeah, yeah sure.” He replied. “I hate you Mr. V.” “I know Salty,” By this time, the class was chuckling amongst themselves like a pack of hyenas. I slammed my face into my desk hard, earning confused stares from the two girls sitting next to me. The rest of the class period was boring. Vinta lectured a little about a book that we are supposed to read for class. A book that most of the class would not be reading. After that, he just went straight into his class Dungeons and Dragons game. The ‘Revengers’ were the unlucky chumps today. The way Vinta played D&D, he’d give you a chance in the first few stages of his dungeon, allowing you to clear them out and keeping you alive until the boss room. As soon as you reached the boss however, the tables quickly turn and he beats the living hell out of you with overpowered creatures. “What are they doing over there?” Lotus asked. “They’re playing Dungeons and Dragons, and it seems like they’re losing based on all the groans coming from that side of the room.” I replied. “Are we going to get a turn too?” Aloe said, her eyes lighting up. “Yeah, will we?” her sister chimed in. “Uh... Sure... I’ll ask Mr. V. after class if you can join....” I said, scratching the back of my head. “Why are you interested in playing a game like that? I always pegged you two as girly girls...” They looked at each other for a few seconds before shrugging. I groaned and slumped back in my chair, rubbing my temples. They chuckled softly, turning their heads back towards the maelstrom of anger that was forming at the opposite end of the room. From what I could decipher, it seemed as if three of the players had already died. Knowing Vinta, I assumed they were at the final boss of the dungeon. The “Revengers” had unfortunately chosen the hardest dungeon. Vinta constantly brags that this dungeon has never been beaten, even after nearly thirteen years of teaching. I glanced at the clock, tapping my finger impatiently on the desk. Normally, I would take out my computer and screw around on it, but I thought it might be a bit rude to do that while I have two “guests” with me. "So... Did you two want to talk?" I asked, my head turning towards them. The only response I got was a single head shake from Lotus. "Are you su... Fuck it..." I quickly pulled out my laptop and logged onto fimfiction.net. "What's that?" Lotus asked, pointing to the screen. "And why are there pictures of us?" "I told you two earlier... Your former lives are part of a popular cartoon in our worl..." I replied, turning my head, only to find Lotus' face was dangerously close to mine, our noses a fraction of an inch away from each other. I cleared my throat, my face getting warmer with each passing millisecond. "A-and some people write stories based on it..." "Wow..." was the only thing she said before turning her attention back to the game taking place in the corner of the classroom. "Yeah..." I said softly, turning my head back to the computer. The IRC chat page popped up and I logged on as Hivetyrant25. Draequine: Hey hive, I'm making a collab, want in? Hivetyrant25: No... Draequine: Come on... Hivetyrant25: Let me think about it... No.... Draequine: >.> Draequine: At least let me tell you the concept... Hivetyrant25: Fine Draequine: It's about ponies being sent to earth as humans by discord! Hivetyrant25: ... Hivetyrant25: No... Draequine: Come on, I already got a few authors Hivetyrant25: Like who? Draequine: TheSlorg, DragonLS, Belgarion... Belgarion: -_- Draequine: What? Belgarion: You fucking pinged... Draequine: I'm getting hive into the collab, shut the fuck up Hivetyrant25: Who has what? Belgarion: I have Rarity :D Hivetyrant25: Okay? Draequine: I'm doing Discord :3 Hivetyrant25: Of course... Belgarion: You should do the spa twins! Then we can do crossovers and shit Hivetyrant25: You're joking... right? Belgarion: No man! We could totally do thta! Belgarion: that* Hivetyrant25: I don't even know anything about the fucking spa twins... Belgarion: Come on... Draequine: Do it!!! Yozzoy: Hey Hive Hivetyrant25: I'm getting off... I closed my laptop and buried my face into its case. Ding! Ding! Ding! My head quickly popped up out of instinct. I silently thanked God that the class was over as I stood up. "Alright, let's go!" I said, clapping my hands together. They slowly stood up and I immediately began pushing them towards the door, snatching my laptop case off of the desk. "Later Mr. V!" I shouted, turning my head back to him. "Go get 'em Salty." He responded, giving me the most obvious wink I have ever seen in my life. "I hate you..." "I know you do Salty. Take care." I closed the door behind me, Vinta's laughs penetrating the glass. With English out of the way, I led the twins down the stairs towards a large white building, a colorful mural depicting various Hawaiian flowers on its front wall. The building was simply named the “Auditorium. I walked under the archway, turning towards the open-aired hallway to my left. A small kiosk sat in the corner, students and bags surrounding it. I groaned as I saw who was sitting on the kiosk. “Chris!” I shouted. “Why weren’t you in Vinta’s?” He turned his head towards me, smiling as I stomped towards him. “Brah, I had a docta’s appointment okay?” he replied, rolling his eyes. “What are they here for?” He pointed to Lotus and Aloe. “Shouldn’t they be like... with their families or something?” “Long story short, they’re staying with me for a while.” “Oh, I see,” he said, nudging me. “Sorry eh? I’m not cool like you!” he raised his hands, bowing to me. “Please, oh white man, teach me your ways!” “Shut the hell up...” I said, flicking his ear. “Something wrong?” Lotus said, walking up to me, her sister close behind. “No, my friend is just being an asshole...” I replied. They gave me a confused look. “A dick?” I groaned, their expressions unchanging. “He’s being a jerk...” “Oh... That’s not very nice of him...” Aloe replied. “It’s fine, we’re friends, we’re always being jerks to each other.” “That doesn’t seem like a good friendship to me.” “Our culture is much different than yours, the best friends are the ones who irritate each other most.” I responded. It seemed odd saying it out loud, but it was true. “Come on, let me introduce you to some of my friends.” I led them to a small gathering of people. “Sup white man.” A short brown asian boy said, raising his fist, his elbow forming a right angle, mimicking the Black Panther hand signal. Another asian, slightly taller than the first, turned around and copied the first one, chuckling softly. “Hey.” I replied, returning the gesture, smirking ever so slightly. “Girls,” I said, turning to the twins. “This is Scott,” I pointed to the first boy. “And this little bastard is Mason...” I said, glaring at the second boy. “Hi.” The twins said in unison, waving at them. A tall, skinny black kid pushed mason out of the way, raising his fist like the others. “Sup whitey!” He said, grinning. “Sup blacky.” I said, tracing a circle around my head and pulling my hand up behind my neck, dropping my head onto my shoulder, feigning death. “Please white man, don’t lynch me!” he said, chuckling. “Only if you get back in the fields!” I replied, laughing as I shook his hand. “Girls, this is James, our resident negro.” They gave me a blank stare as I wrapped my arm around James’ neck. I facepalmed, “You don’t know what that is... do you?” “Umm... No, I’m sorry.” Aloe replied, her sister twiddling her hands off to the side. “It’s fine,” I said, turning to James. “They’re from France, they don’t know much slang.” “Ooooh...” he replied, “That makes sense.” “Yeah so... what’s for lunch today?” “Turkey Pastrami.” said Scott. “Did you want to go eat?” “Shoots, we go!” a voice from behind us exclaimed. I turned around to see a tall, skinny white boy, his glasses pressed up against his face. “Gabe!” I yelled. “Where were you Friday?” “Brah, I didn’t have ride!” “You live like a mile from the beach.” I replied, rubbing my temples. “I no like walk dat far.” “Ugh. Why didn’t you call me then?” “My mom used my phone that day. She got so piss that you kept callin’ her at work.” “Whatever.” I said, walking towards the stairs. “Come on girls, let’s get some lunch.” They followed me as I walked down, towards the dining hall. The dining hall itself was only part of the large building that layed on the slope of the mountain. Six flights of stairs and three ramps separated it from the Auditorium. I walked up to the glass doors of the dining hall, the work “Akahi” posted onto the wall above them. Inside, a large number of students were already eating their lunches inside. “Alright girls,” I said, turning to them as I opened the door. “It’s buffet style here so get as much as you want.” I walked in, waving at a few familiar faces while leading the twins to the large line of students converging around the food carts. Groaning, I pushed through the horde, looking back occasionally at the twins, making sure they were keeping up. I finally exited the crowd and walked through an archway into the next room. Lotus and Aloe soon caught up, panting ever so slightly. “Yeah, it gets pretty crazy sometimes.” I said, chuckling. “Back here is pasta and salad. I figured you’d enjoy that more than the red meat they’re serving in the main line.” “That sounds good.” Aloe said, sniffing the air. “And it smells good too.” “Really?” I asked, raising my brow. “This stuff tastes like... Nevermind. The plates are over there, trays and utensils are over here.” Their eyes followed my hand as I pointed out the various utilities around the room. “Drinks are over there, you’ll have to serve yourself. There’s apple juice, orange juice, fruit punch, and grape juice available. If you don’t like that, there’s milk and hot cocoa over there.” I pointed to the wall separating the two rooms, beverage fountains filling the entirety of it. “I usually don’t eat, so I’ll meet you two at a table.” They nodded as I walked off, making myself a cup of water before walking back into the main dining area. I found Gabe near the exit of the buffet line, sitting at a table and happily munching on his sandwich. He payed me no attention as I sat down. With nothing better to do, I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes, my shoe tapping quickly on the floor. A soft “tink” jarred me out of my slumber. As I opened my eyes, I saw Aloe and Lotus sitting next to me, eating spaghetti. “How is it?” I asked, smiling warmly. “It’s decent.” aloe said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “This reminds me of Rarity’s cooking.” Lotus chuckled. “She always thought she was a good cook...” She sighed, twirling her fork into the pasta. “Uh... So Gabe!” I yelled, clapping my hands together, a nervous smile stretched across my face. “This is Aloe and Lotus, they’re visiting from France.” “Mmph?” He gulped his food. “Ho nah! How you know dem Steven?” “Friends of friends...” I rolled my eyes. “Does it matter?” “Nah brah, I was jus’ wonderin’.” He turned his attention to Lotus and Aloe. “So what you girls like?” “Soft skin.” said Lotus. “Silky hair.” her sister chimed in. “Giving and getting massages.” “Mineral baths.” “Saunas.” “Hoofi...” “Pedicures.” I quickly interrupted her. “Of course.” Aloe replied. “Oo, I do love it when we get our ma... hair done.” Lotus cooed. “Rarity always styled our hair so perfectly.” Aloe said, giggling softly. “So I’m guessing you guys goin’ go prom den?” Gabe said, bouncing his eyebrows up and down. “No they aren’t going to...” “Prom?” they shouted in unison, putting their hands up to their mouths as they started squeeing. “Yeah, we get senior prom coming up. You need one date?” He said, biting his lower lip. “No...” I said as I slapped the back of his head. “We aren’t going to prom, and they aren’t going to need dates.” Glancing at the twins, I saw that they were giving me sad little puppy dog eyes. I gritted my teeth hard, trying to look away. That served just to intensify their expressions, all four irises staring straight at me unforgivingly. “Fine!” I yelled. “We can go to Senior Prom...” I grumbled as I sat back in the chair, defeated. As expected, the twins began squeeing loudly, much to the chagrin of the students eating lunch around us. I face-planted into the table, groaning into it. Gabe sat there, laughing his heart out as the girls started babbling some nonsense about “dresses.” Being a guy, I tuned that out almost immediately, going into a vegetative state. Ding! Ding! Ding! “Oh thank God...” I said, standing up. “Let’s go, I don’t want to be late for homeroom.” “Brah, you don’t even go homeroom...” replied Gabe. “Oh yeah, that’s right!” I chuckled, sitting back down. “Jackass...” He said, giving me the bird as he pushed open the glass doors. “What does that mean?” Aloe asked, her brow raising slightly. “Oh um... It’s uh... Just don’t repeat it, and don’t do that hand gesture he just did either.” “But...” “Let’s go meet some people, shall we?” I said, standing up. Aloe sighed as she stood up, her sister following suit. We started the walk back up towards the Auditorium. Every so often, one of the sisters would glance out towards the ocean. Being on top of a hill, Kamehameha Schools has a very nice view of most of the western half of the island. The sun was just cresting over the sky, causing the distant ocean to glitter yellow. “It’s amazing...” Lotus said, stopping in her tracks. “Uh yeah... It is.” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “It’s so easy to forget how beautiful it is here, especially if you’ve lived here your whole life.” She smiled at me and continued up the steps. I took one last glance at the ocean before following her. We quickly caught up to her sister, who was completely oblivious to our temporary absence. I found myself glancing back at the ocean occasionally as we walked up the stairs. Centuries ago, my ancestors came to the islands using their knowledge of the stars and the waves. The ocean called to all Hawaiians, and I was no exception. “Hey girls...” I said, causing them to turn around. “Hmm?” replied Aloe. “How would you two like to go to the beach again? This time, without the drowning part.” I smiled, looking out to sea. “That sounds lovely.” said Lotus, following my gaze. I sighed happily and turned my head to them. “Let’s go meet my homeroom teacher, shall we?” I smiled, walking past them, the last flight of stairs upon us. Bzzt. Bzzt. My left pocket began vibrating, rattling my keys as well. Bzzt. Bzzt. I grumbled, reaching into my pocket. I pulled out my phone and clicked on the green icon, putting it up to my ear. “Hello?” “Steven, we need to talk...” AUTHOR'S NOTE: Four long months... Four of the busiest damn months of my entire life, but I was finally able to finish this chapter. What to say? Well, I'd like to thank everyone who favorited this fic. It really means a lot to me that you folks enjoy reading it. Just coming onto fimfiction every few days and seeing a new favorite really motivated me to finish all my real life crap so I could continue writing this story. Without you guys, I would have just scrapped this story altogether. I greatly appreciate comments, positive or otherwise, I love reading all of them. I'd like to thank Yozzoy especially for his encouragement. He found me in the fimfic chat and gave so many kind words about my fic. <3 You bud! (No-homo)
