Author's Note

A bonus picture for all of you! Made by yours truly!
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Hopefully you know who's who. Also, sorry about the size. The original is bigger than 1mb and is not allowed on this site. I tried to make it smaller, but not that small, but for some reason that didn't work out.

Jumping to Conclusions

"Oh my poor little boy!" cried a woman with brown eyes and red-ish hair. She squeezed her son into a hug and whimpered. "My baby! His face is all beaten up! How did this happen?!"

Caesar frowned in his mother's embrace. It was about 10 at night and he was tired. He just wanted to go to sleep. The woman examined every inch of his unhappy face with a careful eye. They were in the living room of the house sitting on the couch when the front door opened. A big man who smelled like pizza walked in. He tossed his cap and apron onto the coat tree and plopped right down on the couch next to his wife. He had a weary smile on his face.

"Today was a busy day. It was so 'uh packed that people had lined up outside the 'uh shop! The TV was set up in the dining area and we all watched the game. Man, was that 'uh the game of the century or what!"

Benito sighed and closed his eyes.

"After the game, the Cloudsdale Pythons came 'uh marching in and ordered lots of pizzas, pastas, and salads! Those kids have done a wonderful job 'uh winning today..."

"Benito...Have you seen our son's face? He's got bruises on his cheek! Caesar's been hurt!" his wife said, disregarding everything he had said before.

The man glanced at Caesar's face and patted him on the back roughly.

"The boy'll be fine, Jades."

Jade Sapphire frowned.

"What? Caesar's 'uh young lad now! He's not 'uh little kid anymore. Getting roughed up is 'uh part of becoming a man," Benito protested.

Jade glared at him before standing up. She held onto Caesar's shirt and so he, too, had to stand.

"Getting hurt is not a part of becoming a man, Ben."

She turned on her heel and marched to the bathroom with Caesar in tow. She made him sit on top of the toilet lid while she looked in cabinets and behind the bathroom mirror for medicine. The boy scratched his curly orange hair while his mother bent down and rummaged around looking for something. He sighed.

"Mother, I can do this by myself."

Without looking at him, the woman replied to him.

"I want to make sure you're doing it right."

"But I can apply medicine cream on my face just fine. What's the point of watching me."

"I need to see that you're applying the right amount on your bruises."

"There are directions on the back. They tell me the amount I should use, mother."

The woman stood up straight after finding the tube of medicine cream and sighed. She put her hands on her hips and looked at her son.

"Can't you let a mother worry for her son? I just am a bit shaken by the new bruises on your face. Geez, you're just like your father. Always having an answer for everything..."

She squeezed out a bit of the cream onto her finger and told him to remove his glasses. Once they were off his face, she smothered him with the medicine cream. His sore cheek stung from it and he whined.

"Mother, that's fine! You don't need to keep rubbing it in!"

After a few seconds she pulled away.

"Tell me, is there any where else that you've been hurt?"

Caesar seriously contemplated lying to her. But seeing as how she would more than likely look him over anyhow, he told her.

"The back of my head got hit, but it's fine. My shoulder, though, is a bit sore."

"Take off your shirt, sweetie," Jade said to him. "I'm going to apply some of this on there."

Caesar did as he was told and his mother took his shirt. To her relief, he didn't smell strongly of the pizza shop. The smell of pizza had always bothered her when it flooded the house. She had lots of air freshener around. She didn't want to inhale the smell of greasy foods and burnt bread. It was one of some disadvantages of having two men in the house who work at a food place. They always smelled like the food. And somehow, the two of them couldn't smell it!

The woman held up his shirt and put it on the counter. It smelled of flour...and something else. She held it up to her nose and inhaled. She picked up a faint scent of something sweet. Not like honey...but like a perfume. And the expensive kind of perfume. Jade kept sniffing the shirt. It had to be from the Michelle Micah commercial brand: The spring collection. To her it smelled of--

"Flowers!" she exclaimed.

Caesar jumped. He stared at his mother. The woman turned to him with a look of suspicion.

"Why does your shirt smell of flowers?"

Caesar blinked.

"Pop had some flour on his hands and he kinda got it all over me. You know how he's always patting my back and rubbing my head. I tried to get it off the best I could."

Jade shook her head.

"No, not flour. Flowers!"

"...Flour. Like the kind you use for baking," Caesar said slowly.

"No! Flowers! Like the plants!"

The boy wrinkled his nose in confusion.

"...Uh...Is there a problem with my shirt smelling like flowers? I certainly don't remember coming into contact with any..."

"Caesar, your shirt doesn't smell like flower flowers. It's perfume."

She narrowed her eyes and tossed him the shirt so he could see what she was talking about. He put it to his nose and caught the faint odor. Suddenly his mind clicked. When he grabbed Fluttershy and held her to protect her from harm's way, he had noticed something. She wore perfume...and it smelled like flowers! He glanced at his mother, who was eyeing him suspiciously.

"Tell me...do you have a girlfriend that I don't know about? Because you can't smell like perfume unless you sprayed it on yourself..."

She leaned forward.

"Or you were very...very...close to a girl. Close enough to hold her in your arms..."

Caesar gulped. His mother did not approve of him dating. She thought that every girl out there was going to use him so he could buy her things or to get another boy to be jealous. She was highly suspicious of any female that came and greeted him when they shopped, walked through the park...she even got suspicious of young lady cashiers at the store that had to talk to Caesar and look his way. How else were they supposed to do their job??

Caesar never had a girlfriend before and hadn't ever thought about getting one. Even if he did want a girlfriend, she'd have to pass his mother's inspection. And no girl would ever want to be scrutinized by his mother. She was very rude and cruel when she didn't like someone. Caesar held the shirt up to his nose to hide the blush on his face. Oh man! Why did this have to happen?!

"Answer, Caesar. It's either you sprayed perfume on yourself or you were all snuggly with a girl," Jade said with a stern voice.

The boy looked away from his mother.

"Uuuuhhhhh....Neither?"

The red-haired woman frowned at him.

"Then explain to me how you have perfume on your shirt. Who is this girl, huh? Is she even nice because if she were you wouldn't be hiding her from me...

Mrs. UpperCrest let out a small gasp. She looked horrified as she looked at her son.

"You know she's not good enough, don't you! You know I wouldn't approve of you two!"

She continued to gasp. Caesar's jaw dropped. He hid his face in his shirt. This wasn't happening...This really wasn't happening. He looked up and saw his mother wipe a tear from the corner of her eye. Nope. This was happening alright.

"What happened to my innocent little baby boy? How could you do this to me?"

"Wha--No no! I'm not dating at all! It's just that...uh, there was this girl and um...we used to go to school together! She had gone to Canterlot High instead of staying here at Cloudsdale. She was just so excited to meet me again that she...hugged me!"

Most of it was true so he didn't have to worry about her finding out it wasn't. He guessed.

His mother was quiet as she watched his every movement.

"Yeah..? I want to see this girl! I don't completely believe you, Caesar..."

She sniffed and wiped another tear from her eye as she walked out the bathroom. The orange-haired boy was quiet for a moment before he groaned. What a day! He was tired and sore in some areas. He had to dodge flailing fans and get yanked around by hungry dudes. Gilda and some of those other girls punched him and now Fluttershy's perfume has faintly left its mark on his shirt. He sighed with exasperation into it.

After a while he took a deep breath and inhaled the scent. Memories of the pink-haired girl flooded his mind. He remembered her hanging out with that Rainbow-haired girl all the time. To him, they seemed to be best friends forever. And still are from what he knows. He remembered her to be quiet and isolated. She only had one friend and was too shy to greet people. He smiled.

There was this one time in seventh grade when his class had gone on a field trip to the zoo. Most everyone didn't want to go. They thought they were too old to go there and look at some 'dumb' animals. But Fluttershy had been full of excitement. She was the first one off the bus when they got there. She loved everything about it. At that time, Caesar didn't really think much about her. Except for thinking she was a classmate who really liked animals.

It seemed long ago, that memory. How he had forgotten all about her he didn't know. But every memory that came back to him was like a breath of fresh air. It was sudden and unexpected, but pleasant all the same. He got up and walked back to his room, forgetting all about the medicine. He could hear his parents talking downstairs in the living room.

"I can't believe this!" Jade exclaimed. "I want to meet this girl!"

"So do I. Caesar's becoming 'uh man now! I'm 'uh so proud! His first girlfriend!"

There was a loud smacking sound and an "OW!" after that.

"Stop it with this man business!" Jade told her husband. "This is serious!"

"Of course. It's seriously 'uh good thing."

Another smack and "OW!". Caesar rolled his eyes and sighed. He shut his door and fell on his bed. He was knocked out in an instant. And in his hand, he held the shirt with Fluttershy's perfume.