Just Big Boned

Butter continued to advance forward at a slow pace, looking around his vicinity. He didn't want to be caught off guard by any bullies trying to possibly heckle him. He turned around his whole body slowly and began walking backwards, making sure he had a full view of the scenery behind him. Occupied with his surroundings, Butter suddenly bumped into somepony in front of him. Somepony big. Somepony big enough to easily beat a defenseless colt to a yellow pulp.

Flinching and yelping softly, Butter fell to the ground. He gazed up quickly at who he bumped into, hoping that he or she wouldn't be angry. Instead, he saw a purple pony holding a list of some sort looking at him not in an angry way, but more of a concerned way. Almost immediately, the pony asked, "Oh goodness, are you okay?"

Embarrassed about falling over, Butter quickly got to his hooves and nodded quickly. "Uhh, y-yeah. I'm fine."

The pony's worried look soon changed into a look of relief as she smiled at him. She checked at her list as if searching for something and then looked back at him.

"Are you Butterball?" Butter nodded in response as the purple pony's smile grew a bit. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Miss Cheerilee and I'll be your teacher."

There was something about her pleasant tone that made Butter feel a bit more comfortable. Butter smiled back a bit and said softly, "Nice to meet you, too." Butter looked past the teacher and noticed that the school was right behind her. Butter thought to himself, How could I have missed that?

Cheerilee noticed her new student's discovery as she spoke once more. "Here, let me lead you inside." Butter looked at her and nodded as he followed Cheerilee inside the school. He noticed that there was only a hoofful of students inside talking to each other, so either he was early or there was not many students attending here. Then again, this was the only school in Ponyville, so he suspected that it was the former. He observed the chalkboard on the east wall and noticed some multiplication and division equations written on it. Out of all the things in class, he hated mathematics most of all. He prayed to Celestia that they wouldn't do much work in that field.

Cheerilee interrupted his thoughts and told him, "Your desk will have your name taped on it. I moved you to the second row so you'd be able to watch and listen better." Cheerilee saw this as a way to be able to get him more adapted and comfortable to the classroom. Butter just saw this as a way to get called on more for questions he most likely didn't know the answer to. A bit irritated, Butter walked past a row of chairs and towards the second row, trying to locate his seat. He saw in the middle of the row a desk with the name "Butterball" taped on it. Butter shrugged and moved the chair back so he could sit down. After that, he moved in closer to the desk. It was a tight fit, but Butter blamed the chairs for being too high up and the desks for being too low down. That was certainly not the case for the other students, however to Butter, a lot of things were too small for him in the first place.

A few minutes passed as Butter just gazed up at the clock, waiting for class to officially begin. He saw a few other ponies entering the classroom, filling the room around behind him and in front. The most intriguing students to enter the classroom, however, were two fillies. One gray, with glasses on (which looked like they were just an accessory and didn't have lenses in them, but he couldn't tell) and the other pink, with a tiara which made the filly look rather snobby as it laid on top of her head. He noticed that both of them glared at him and mumbled to each other before giggling to themselves and sitting down in front of him at two empty desks. He was extremely suspicious over what they were talking about, but his thoughts were disrupted as a trio of fillies trotted into the classroom.

"GOOD MORNING, MISS CHEERILEE!" they yelled in unison. Startling Cheerilee, she screeched loudly and fell out of her chair. Butter couldn't help but snicker softly under his breath as she fell. He knew it wasn't kind to laugh at somepony, but he couldn't help himself. Cheerilee got up quickly, eyes wide from the sudden outburst from the three ponies.

"G-Good morning, girls!" she tried to exclaim back with the same amount of energy. All three of the ponies smiled and stopped when they noticed Butter sitting in the middle of the row of desks. He looked back at them as he froze.

The orange pegasus spoke up. "Um...what are you doing at my desk?"

Butter started to stammer and stutter, "U-Uh...um..."

Cheerilee then spoke up, "Oh, I forgot to tell you about our new student!" She giggled at her mistake and added, "Scootaloo, I moved your desk to the right of him."

The pony apparently named Scootaloo sighed and mumbled, "Okay..."

The yellow earth pony then stated, "It's okay, Scoots. At least we're not separated from across the room!"

The white unicorn added, "Yeah! It could be worse!"

Scootaloo just sighed and replied after a bit of thinking, "I guess you two are right." She grinned a bit as the three ponies continued to walk to their seats. The white unicorn sat to the left of Butter and Scootaloo sat to the right of him. The yellow pony took a seat to the left of the white unicorn and straightened the bow perched on top of her red hair. Scootaloo then moved her chair out a bit so that the three could all engage in a conversation together. Butter ignored their discussion and examined the clock once more, still anxious for class to begin. Suddenly, he realized that the three fillies stopped talking...

Butter slowly looked to the left of him and saw them all staring at him, smiling big. Startled, Butter turned his whole body their direction and just stared at them back. Time froze for a split second as Butter finally spoke up. "...What?"

Almost instantly, the yellow pony greeted him. "Hi! Ah'm Applebloom!"

The white unicorn followed her lead, "I'm Sweetie Belle!"

"And I'm Scootaloo!"

Then in unison they cheered, "And we're the CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!"

After deafening the class with their chant, Butter had hundreds of thousands of questions for them. Cutie Mark what? What was that chant for? Are you the weird kids of the school? Are you three initiating me in a gang?! Instead, he only responded with an awkward, "...Cool..."

Overly excited, Sweetie Belle asked, "What's your name?"

Butter's mind raced. After that energetic release of over-enthusiasm, he didn't even know his own Celestia dang name! All he could do was stutter, "Um..." and "Uh..." a few times before he was interrupted by the teacher.

"Okay, class! Time to take your seats!"

Embarrassed by his failure of introducing himself, Butter quickly set all his attention on Cheerilee, not noting the three confused fillies around him.

"...But before we get to our lesson, it's time to introduce our newest classmate!"

...Horseapples... Butter leaned his head lower and hid his face with his hooves, hoping his amateur cloaking skills would come into play. Unfortunately, he was not that lucky, as he heard his name come from the teacher.

"Butter, would you mind standing up and telling the class about yourself?"

Butter groaned in defeat as he had no choice but to stand up in front of the classroom. He observed the classroom, noting that the three fillies eyes were wide. All three of them started talking to each other silently as Butter raised an eyebrow. More noticeably though, he noticed the pink pony with the tiara whispering something to the gray pony. They both simultaneously giggled as Butter thought Oh Celestia, please don't let it be me they're talking about...

"Butter?" he heard Cheerilee ask again. Butter shook his head.

"Um...I'm...Butterball...and..."

He heard the pink pony cover her mouth as she tried not to laugh audibly. He looked away and wondered what was so funny.

"M-My dad is a baker...and works at the new Donut Joe's right here in Ponyville."

The pink pony with the tiara immediately rose her hoof up. Before Cheerilee even had the chance to call on her, she blurted out, "Were you his taste tester then? Pfft..."

Butter didn't know if that was an insult masquerading as a serious question, but he reluctantly answered, "Well...only with a few of cakes and pies..."

"Oh, I see!" The pink pony then started to giggle softly with her gray friend. Butter's ears lowered a bit as he watched them.

"Aaaand...that'sallthereisaboutmethankyouI'lltakemydesknow!" Cheerilee opened her mouth again to speak, but Butter quickly bolted to his desk and laid his head down, covering his face with his arms.

"Ooookay then," Cheerilee stammered. "Well then class, today we were learning about division and multiplication."

Cheerilee's voice drifted off in Butter's mind as he thought, Great...now I look like an idiot. AND we have to do math! Suddenly, Butter felt his shoulder being tapped. Looking up in curiosity, he looked towards Sweetie Belle as she passed him a note swiftly, undetected by the teacher. Butter sat up quickly and looked at the note. He hesitated a bit before opening it up and reading it.

Meet us three after school for an offer you can't refuse.

Butter reread the note again quickly to make sure he read every word correctly. He thought to himself, biting his lip. I am so gonna get beat up...