The Conduits of Fire and Earth - Book 1: Sparks
I woke to the sound of my parents arguing...again. I cautiously opened an eye, taking in the scene before me. My window was open, sunlight pooling on the blanket I had cast off to the floor in the night. Overhead my fully functional paper model of my bike twirled in circles from the lite breeze.
As I got out of bed, I started regretting having to go to school and face the possibility of coming home with bruises again. I hated explaining to father why I looked like an aged banana everyday, being the topic of the argument woke me. I looked down to the faint bruise on my left foreleg from Vaan slamming me into my locker yesterday. Hopefully today would be better.
Walking in the front door of the school I knew my hopes were pointless once I heard the trademark, “Hey you!”
I turned around, preparing to face the oncoming stallion. This was the fifth time today Vaan had found and started to torment me.
“Yeah you with the blank flank, stop looking at my marefriend or I'll come over there and whoop your ass.”
Sighing to myself I turned back to my locker, hoping to just get to class before he got violent again, cringing as my leg brushed against the door of my locker. As soon as I turned my back, I felt the first pencil hit my flank, clattering to the floor. Today would be no different than yesterday.
“Don't you ignore me! Hey, I'm talkin' to you!” He threw another pencil at me, this time bouncing it off my locker and into my face, ending up on the floor as well. I flinched from the impact, enticing laughter from the peanut gallery of ponies that started to increase in size as the torment went on.
“What a sap, he can't even take a hit, oh and he's already crying!” There was more laughter directed at me. I wasn't often seen crying in public, especially by Vaan. Even though I tried not to show it, I started to get red in the face as I realised how much more crap I'd have to deal with now.
I stopped myself short of wanting to whirl around and deck the stallion right in the jaw, and instead took a few deep breaths and started to walk away. With every successive breath I got a bit weaker, my body heat seeming to rise with every breath. My eyes started to water from the sensation. I heard another burst of laughter and heard another pencil fly towards me. I turned in time to see it explode into a smoldering pile of ashes and fly away me on the wind from the open window behind Vaan. He stood there like a statue, his eyes following the ashes as they flew past him out the window. Everypony else seemed to have not noticed, and continued pointing at me and laughing. The feeling I had in my stomach changed from one of hunger, to one of rejection. Turning to walk out the side door next to the Biology classroom, I loosed my breakfast oats all over the filly that had the misfortune of being in the way.
“Oh my, I'm so sorry!” I took a closer look at the face under the liquified oats, ignoring the roaring chorus of jeers from the bullies. Immediately I recognized the snow white coat of my friend Sarahna under the thick layer of acidic grains. She stood rooted to the spot, completely covered in bile, while I attempted to wipe off her face enough that she could breathe.
Sarahna opened her deep, sorrowful, cyan eyes and looked at me through a few thick mats of her golden yellow mane. In a concerned voice she asked, “Are you okay? You don't feel well do you?” She wrapped a hoof around my neck. I again spilled the contents of my stomach, this time out into the grass outside. “Yeah, I'm taking you to the nurse.”
After being sent home with a fever of one hundred and three degrees, I started pacing my room. I was surprised by how quickly I had gotten sick at school earlier, and for the life of me could not figure out why my temperature had read ninety eight when I got home. My mind danced around the memory of that last pencil. I couldn't seem to figure out what had happened, so I decided to just go back to school after having a small lunch, and went downstairs to make a sandwich.
When I got back to school, I did my best to avoid Vaan, and instead took a quick route to the Biology room. I stepped in catching a quick, upward glance from Sarahna. She looked back down at a sheet of reddish brown paper she had been writing on, blushing, and expertly folded it into the shape of a small pegasus. I walked over to her and sat down quietly in my seat, not wanting to embarrass her again today. Without missing a beat, the two colts in front of us started making retching noises to each other, laughing the whole time. I noticed a shifting movement to my right, and looked over to see Sarahna with her eyes cast down at the floor, hiding herself in her mane. A small tear dropped from the mass of hair and landed with an almost thunderous splash upon the paper pegasus she held between her hooves.
The teacher walked in and immediately started the lecture. I paid him no mind and instead focused on the piece of paper on my desk. The white sheet of blank nothingness reminded me of this morning's events. I clenched my jaw, setting my mind to work remembering all the times I've been insulted, put down, or assaulted. A particularly upseting memory of my first beat-down came up, and nearly made me break my jaw from the amount of pain I tried to repress.
I heard someone whisper my name, jolting me out of my trance. I looked around in confusion until I saw Sarahna staring wide eyed at the paper in front of me. I looked down to see my legs through a pair of smoldering holes in both the paper and the wood desk, centered on the spot I had been looking at. I tried standing up, but was held in place by a strong pressure on my left shoulder. The teacher pulled me up out of my chair and dragged me out of class. I was in for a wild ride.