Was it wrong of her to say that she needed a vacation?

At this point, even she wasn't sure anymore.

The thought wasn't really relevant to that of any other she had created, but as she sat down Diamond Tiara in the 'time out' corner–which might as well have been her second home in this class–she couldn't help but to have it just pop up.

"Harrasing the other students again", Cherilee thought to herself exasperatedly, seating herself back behind her desk, her dual-toned pink mane bouncing slightly against her cerise coat as she then began rubbing the side of her head with a hoof. She had had a particularly stressful day today, and the building migraine proved it.

As she looked up to the rest of her class, momentarily closing both of her deep green eyes and taking a deep breath, she put on her signature 'teacher-to-student' smile and went on with the rest of her lesson.

"Now, if we could please get back on track..."; that was the line that always started her back up; the line that, after years of having committed herself to her work as an educator, had become tiresome and cycled. It had come to a point where it was almost involuntary for her to say it, at this point.

That is to say, it was not that she did not enjoy teaching. Quite the opposite. She, in fact, rather enjoyed watching young minds blossom as they learned new things. That was the reasoning behind her cutie mark, after all.

What she didn't enjoy, however, was the constant work and responsibility that this entailed.

If it was not ensuring that the fillies and colts would not hurt themselves, or one another, in any way, it was the stream of paperwork and grading that she was responsible for afterwards. Let alone the near constant board meetings, and the occasions in which she would need to deal with the parents of the foals on the scant event of which they would actually check their foal's grades, and only then notice how they were doing–as of recent though, this had become quite common, as it usually would be like near the end of the grading period.

As if she was the one at fault for how her students decided wether to, or not to, do their homework, or study for their tests. Were it not for the fact that she was currently in the classroom, in fact, she would have rolled her eyes at the recollection of all the times this had occurred.

She would never voice these complaints, of course. She would never do anything that would put her job at risk. She still enjoyed it, despite the stress and flaws that it brought with it, and it paid the bills with ease.

As she continued her lecture on the history of interaction between humans and ponies–a topic which she herself very much enjoyed, going so far as to highlight and underline it several times over in her lesson plan–she noticed out of the corner of her eye that one of her students, a small pegasus filly named Scootaloo, was busying herself on her notebook; only, rather than notes, she was adding a few doodles to her viable 'gallery' of inattentiveness.

Cherilee mentally smirked as she continued her lesson without missing a beat, acting as if she had not noticed this sight. She knew how to deal with this situation very well. It wasn't the first time she had needed to, after all.

"... Leading to the Meeting of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and the human... Anypony?" She paused, looking away from her chalkboard and towards her class, seeking out an answer that she already knew.

A uniquely combined sense of pride and amusement welled in her as she saw several of her students shoot their hooves up at once, the initial 'me first's or 'pick me's droning out after the first few seconds; Scootaloo was not among these hooves, still distracted with her doodling. Giving a silent chuckle as she began to calmly walk around the room, strolling in between the neatly aligned desks of her students with a hoof on her chin as she sought out who could possibly answer her question. From the moment she had asked the question though, she knew well and good who would be the one she would 'randomly' select.

"... Scootaloo..." she said with a smirk as she halted her walk a small distance away from the orange pegasus's desk, taking note of how she quickly closed her off-topic notebook and looked to her with an 'innocent' expression. She also, though with less focus, heard the sound of disappointed students as they put their hooves down and began to grumble.

Don't worry, she thought, aiming her mental conversation towards the rest of her class; you'll all have your chances.

Clearing her throat, she turned her head to look towards her current subject of attention, this time with a neutral expression. "Would you mind answering the question?"

For a short moment, she could almost see a bead of sweat go down the side of her head as she gave a broad smile and a nervous chuckle. "Um... Sure, Ms. Cherilee..." She paused, pursing her lips before then giving her the same nervous smile as before. "Uh, which question was that again?"

Much of the class held back a laugh at this, to Scootaloo's apparent embarrassment.

"The human that met with the princesses regarding the interaction between one another... Don't you remember? It should be in your notes." As she had expected, Scootaloo widened her eyes at the mention of her 'notes'. Despite this, Cherilee retained her relatively blank expression.

"Oh, heh, right...! Notes..." Cherilee raised a knowing brow in her direction.

"You did take notes, didn't you?" A smirk fought against her to show itself as she sprung her trap, watching as everything went as she predicted it would.

First, the momentary stutter. "O-of course I did." Followed shortly after by another nervous laugh. Next, it would be her part to play.

"Oh? Would you mind reading some of them out loud then?" And from there, it would be history... Quite literally too, in this regard.

"Well- Um, you see... Heh." Another overly broad smile from Scootaloo brought about all that Cherilee, and the other students, needed to know in order to guess that she had pretty much done nothing in regards to her notes. This was also all that was needed to bring about a short laugh from the class.

Now finally allowing a smug grin on her face as she began to head to her desk again, she left Scootaloo to continue on her own, faintly noticing her as she opened her notebook again and began to furiously scribble whatever she could see on the board and from her neighboring students, a light tint of red on her face.

Cherilee had learned how to do this sort of thing with a practiced and perfected grace over the years, really. That is to say, it wasn't that she enjoyed embarrassing her students, but she still needed to keep them on track as best as she could; If anything, a little embarrassment was a meager price for this, in Scootaloo's case.

"Now, if we could please get back on track..."

And there it is again, Cherilee mused with a short mental giggle.

"We-" Before she could go any further on, the sound of the school bell ringing cut her off, attracting a sigh from the entirety of her class and, to an extent, from her.

Students began to stand themselves from their desks and rush out of the classroom door as of their lives depended on it, their voices all sounding out and jumbling together into a loud mess that practically overflowed through the even smallest nooks and crannies of the class.

Cherilee had to reach an even higher level of sound just to adress them. "Remember to study the trading systems of humans and ponies for the quiz next week!" She shouted, a part of her not even sure if they had heard her, or if they had simply chosen to tone her out.

Within a few short and chaotic moments, the class was void of other ponies; save for Cherilee, who simply gave a sigh of relief and exhaustion.

Reaching for one of her desk cabinets, she pulled the small containing area open, immediately being met by a large stack of disorganized and messily written papers. With practiced monotony, she reached into the cabinet and began to stack the papers onto her desk, neatening them as best as she could, before then opening another equally filled cabinet and doing the same.

Now came the more tedious part of her day. The paperwork; the grading; the parental responses; all of them due by the end of her work day. Administration was, after all, very strict in that regard.

Readying a quill and some ink, Cherilee glanced out of one of the nearby windows to the class, taking notice of the sun that was raised high into the air, signaling that it was somewhere around midday.

The worst part about this was that those were only her morning classes. Soon, her afternoon class would come in through the same classroom door, and she'd have to do this all over again for a second time.

Even then, she'd likely be working well into the night because of the further given upon paperwork that would be stacked on her desk.

The only thing she could really look forward to, at the moment, was the fact that it was the weekend tomorrow. Students weren't the only ones who looked forward to the end of the week, after all.

Author's Note

And character number two's point of view everyone!

... God I wish I knew what to say for these things.

Anyways, until I figure out who can help with a more viable cover, I'll be using the one that I had made, as you may see. It's not great, but it will do.

Hope you like the chapter. :D