It was just a crush, little brother
"Well done, Bread Sticks." Her mother, Marmite Sandwich praised. She looked at her daughter with a strong sense of pride. "I know for sure that with this talent you will meet a handsome stallion, becoming a beautiful couple." While speaking, she gestured to the fiddle stick on her flank, and the fiddle she held with a red aura of her magic. Lifting her foreleg, Marmite brushed a hoof through Bread Stick's coffee cream-coloured mane. "Now," She said in a much firmer tone, "onto your next song."
Bread Sticks looked up at her mother. "What would you like me to play, mother?" She spoke softly, placing her fiddle back into her hooves with her magic. It had been her special talent since the day her Dad, Walnut Cheddar, gave it to her as a gift for her fifth birthday. Her mother thought it was a ridiculous present for a filly her age, but once she began to play, she saw potential in her daughter, and expected great things from her in the future.
"Play 'Mist Covered Mountains of Home.'" Marmite requested. With a nod of her head, Bread Sticks began to play a slow, soft melody. The room was only filled beautifully soft high and low pitches with escaped from the musical instrument. The bow of the fiddle flowed gracefully across the neck, causing Bread Stick's mother to enchant a small harmonious sigh. She closed her cool emerald green eyes and moved her tail and head to and fro the melodious tune.
This carried on for a somewhat long lasting three minutes, all was peaceful until--
"Moooom!" Cried a little golden colt as he swung open the door with his tiny hooves, the door knob leaving yet another imprint in the wall which he had caused numerous amounts of times. Marmite groaned loudly and turned her attention to her son, Cheese Sandwich. The colt stood on the wooden floor, shifting from hoof to hoof, making the floorboards squeak with each movement. His chocolate curly mane seemed to have so peculiar pink, sticky substance in it. One of the thick lenses on his goggle-like glasses was cracked right down to the middle, while the frame was completely twisted to the point that they where almost breaking apart.
Bread Sticks peaked over her mother's shoulder. "Oh for Celestia above, what is it now, Cheese. Your sister and I are busy." Marmite said, obviously agitated by her own son's rude entrance. Cheese cowered at his mother's usual harsh voice. "Spit it out, boy!" She clenched her jaw tightly, grinding her teeth fiercly.
Cheese squeaked slightly and then spoke. "I-I got beat up, mom."
Hmph, knowing Cheese, he probably deserved it. Marmite huffed to herself. Her face held an unsatisfied look. "Care to explain why you got beat up?" She questioned.
Once again, Cheese's fear of his mother began to consume him. He mumbled. Clearly getting annoyed, Marmite stamped her left foreleg forcefully onto the ground to get the ill-advised colt to speak. The little pony mumbled a second time. As known by most, Marmite Sandwich was not a patient mare, especially when it came to her children. "Am I going to have to knock some sense into you, boy?" She spat.
Raising her hoof, she was about to strike her son, who was now whimpering, but was stopped when she overheard her daughter shout at her. "You lay one hoof on him, I'll make sure Dad finds out when he gets back from the military tomorrow!" Her fire red eyes glowed with rage.
Marmite walked straight up to Bread Sticks, her nose pressed hard against hers. Her voice was like serpent. "How dare you speak to your own mother like that. You have no right to speak to me in that manor, you're in my house." She snorted loudly through her nostrils and pulled her head back. This time, her mother raised her hoof, striking Bread Sticks sharply across her cheek; she let a small, quiet yelp escape her lips. "If I see you speaking to me like that again, I will lock you in the basement all night." With that said, she left the room, slamming the door with her magic.
Bread Sticks sniffled a little while rubbing her sore cheek. Trying to forget the pain, she turned her attention to Cheese, who was still whimpering at what he just saw. Quickly, he scampered over to her. Bread Sticks lowered her head to meets her little brother's eyes. He threw his forelegs carefully around her muzzle, cautiously not trying to hurt her cheek. "Y-you did have to do that, Bready!" Cheese bawled.
Bready simply rolled her eyes and pulled her head up. "It's okay, Cheddar Brain, I'll be fine. It's you who I need to keep an eye on." She cocked her head to the side and ran a hoof through her long, wavy mane. "So," she continued, "how exactly did you get beat up today?" She asked while hopping onto her bed, motioning Cheese to follow. He lay next her so that their fur was touching each other, and a steady heartbeat could be felt.
"Well," Cheese began, twiddling his hooves together, "It all started during maths class--"
*****
The classroom was filled with colts and fillies screaming and giggling at the top of their lungs, some stomped their hooves wildly on the desks, while others sat quietly, awaiting for their teacher to enter. Scrunched up paper balls were thrown back and forth across the room, a few hitting the back of a light-golden-coated colt's head. He grunted every time his thick glasses fell off his muzzle. Keep it together, Cheese, he thought to himself.
The colts' and fillies' were cut short when an elderly dark brown mare entered the room. Her light lavender mane was tied up into a loosely hanging bun; her cutie mark was a smiling red chalk drawn apple on a blackboard. She squinted as she adjusted the spectacles on her muzzle, allowing her soft blue eyes to be seen by the whole class. The mare looked up and smiled softly, earning a few smile back. "Good Morning, everypony!" She said in a gleeful manor.
"Good Morning, Mrs. Treacle Cake!" The entire class said unison.
"All right, now, settle down, settle down." She said to a few colts who were still throwing papers balls everywhere. "Today, I'd like to welcome you to a new student who is part of our class. I wish that you all treat her with kindness. Please give a warm welcome to Rose Thorn." Mrs. Treacle took a step back a presented a small, lime green earth pony to the class. Everypony gave a small round of applause to the young filly. Once particular colt had definitely caught a glimpse of the cute beauty.
"Wow." Cheese said aloud. He turned his head to his only friend in the class and gently elbowed her in the ribs. "Psst, hey, Coco," Cheese whispered, "What do you think of her, huh?"
The little shy mare looked back at her friend a little confused for a moment. "Wha-, oh, um," A soft miniature blush covered her light cream face. "S-she's okay, I-I guess. . ." Coco had noticed that Cheese was now gazing upon Rose Thorn with dream-filled eyes, the base of his hoof squishing softly into his cheek. "Cheese? A-are you okay?" She said, waving a hoof in front of his eyes.
Cheese Sandwich sighed heartily. "I'm more than okay, Coco. I'm in love." Coco Pommel only groaned at her friend's cringe-worthy love thoughts.
"Good." Mrs. Treacle continued. "Now that she's been introduced, Rose, would you please sit down." She commanded softly. Rose Thorn did as she was told a took a seat. Unfortunately, to Cheese's disappointment, Rose had decided to sit at the next to all of the bullies. Why? It wasn't fair. But Cheese was going to give up to a bully, not without a witty attempt.
"Okay, everypony, it's time for us to do some math." Mrs. Treacle said with glee, only to have the rest of the class emit a groan of defeat. She rolled her eyes playfully and the lesson began.
"I still can't believe you kept looking at Rose Thorn all the way through that maths lesson." Coco exclaimed as both her and Cheese Sandwich walked out of the school building for their lunch. The sound of traffic and shouting Manehattanians flooded the air.
"Heh heh, I know, wasn't she just perfect?" Cheese said, his thoughts within the land of daydreams. He held his head high in the air with his eyes drifting off in every possible angle.
Coco Pommel snorted a short, cute laugh. "Pfft, yeah, because I think everypony is perfect." She said sarcastically. After realising what she had just said, Coco went into a small panic. "Wait. I-I'm not saying you're not perfect, because you are and--oh, dear." Her face turned bright red with embarrassment. She turned to look a Cheese who hadn't seemed to listen to a single word she just said, his head was still in the clouds. She huffed a stray piece of mane out of her face and said to herself: "Why do I even bother with you?"
After what seemed like forever, Cheese had finally snapped out of his love trance and took a seat at the bench. He pulled out a red apple and a tomato sandwich from his saddlebag, while Coco took out a strawberry yogurt and a daisy sandwich. They sat and ate for a bit, talking about what they did on the weekend and what they were going to do on the next weekend.
"Well," Cheese said through a mouthful of his sandwich, "My Dad is coming home tomorrow from the military, that's gonna be super fun."
"Wow, already?" Coco asked, Cheese nodded his head. "Well, on Sunday my Mommy's taking me to Canterlot on a business trip meet a up with an old friend of hers. . .I think his name was Fancy Panties, or something." Both giggled at the silly name; soon, it turned into a rapid fire of laughs and chuckles.
Once all had calmed down, Cheese pulled out two pieces of paper, giving the other piece to Coco. "Do you wanna draw before the bell goes, Coco?" He asked polity but eager to know.
"Sure!" The shy filly squeaked.
Coco pulled out a large variety of crayons, all different colours of the rainbow. They both placed a crayon each in their mouths' and began to draw. While Coco was drawing a picture of her and Cheese playing with cute little puppies and kittens, Cheese was drawing himself with another filly. He first made the top half of the page sky blue, and the other half radiant green; a big yellow sun was draw in the corner of the page-- like any other child would usually do. Then came the main event.
He first began to make to draw to big purple eyes, followed by lime green fur, and finally, a long, straight baby pink mane. The finishing touches were a few little red hearts in the sky. With a satisfied sigh, he took the crayon out of his mouth and stared at his achievement. "Done!" He cheered.
Little Coco looked up at her friend and twirled the yellow crayon in her mouth with her tongue. She leaned over to see what he drew, and unsurprisingly, it was exactly what she had expected of him. Spiting the coloured wax stick out of her mouth, she spoke, "And how did I know you were going to draw something like that?" She giggled.
Coco fell off the bench onto her rump when Cheese pushed her, making a little Oof when she hit the grass. "Hey, shush, you!" Cheese complained. "I just find her cute and I want her to notice me." He hopped off the bench and pulled his friend up. "Sorry, Coco, I didn't mean to." He apologised.
"It's okay, but I get do this now." This time the little filly pushed the colt to the ground and began to use her hooves to tickle his ribs, belly and spine. Cheese squealed with laughter, his hooves kicking frantically in the air, begging for mercy for her to stop. Coco knew that he was cute whenever he laughed, but she realised that she should stop, and so she did.
Gasping for air through chuckles, he spoke, "Heh heh. . .I-I said I was sorry, hehe. . ." He shook his head--messing up his curly mane one than ever--and got up. Once he had calmed down with his laughing fit, Cheese carried on, "Coco? Can I ask a favour of you?"
Oh, no, this does sound too good, Coco thought. "Uh, sure. What do you want me to do?"
Cheese held up the piece of paper he drew earlier. "I want you to put this into Rose Thorn's desk when we get back into class."
"WHAT?! Are you crazy? That's where the bullies sit!"
"I know, I know, but, Coco, I'm asking you as your friend. Please, can you put it there? I have never had a crush like this before."
Coco Pommel sighed and spoke quietly to herself. "I know what it's like to have a crush. . ." She took a quick glance at the pony before her, blushing softly.
"What was that, Coco?"
". . .Oh, um, n-nothing. . ."
"Ookay, so, will you do it?" Cheese said, still a little confused at what Coco had just said.
Admitting defeat, Coco nodded her head. "Fine. I'll do it, but only because you're my fri-wha!" She was cut off by Cheese giving her a big hug which she gladly returned.
"Thank you! You're the bestest friend anypony could ask for!" He spoke happily.
With that said, Coco left Cheese to go to class early and plant Cheese's drawing in Rose Thorn's desk.
After school had finally come, and Cheese Sandwich was bored out of his little mind, the last two lessons he was in weren't all that fun; sports was forever lasting while music, one of his favourite subjects, went somewhat fast. He had always enjoyed music since his father gave him his own accordion, but with a certain filly on his mind, he couldn't get anything done. Coco Pommel had told him that Rose had received the picture and apparently she didn't take it seriously, instead she just crumpled it into a tight ball. It had seemed as though the bullies had already corrupted her mind.
Cheese sat outside the entrance of his school, waiting for Coco to leave. He fiddled with his glasses for a little while and mumbled to himself, "What does Coco mean 'She doesn't like me,' she must like me. If she didn't then she would have said something nasty to me." As if on cue, the filly he was thinking of came walking up to him, alongside a white colt called Platinum Shine and a light grey filly called Silver Oak; they were all snickering underneath their breaths'. Oh, no. Not this again.
One by one stopped in front of the pony. Cheese sucked in a shaky breath a looked up at them. "Uh, hi there, guy." He bit his lower lip. He knew he was in for something, and it wasn't good.
Rose Thorn began to speak, "Ah little birdy told me that 'cha 'ave a crush on me." Cheese tried to look away from the group, but made no avail when he felt a soft hoof on his chin, craning his head upwards to make eye contact with the lime green pony. "What's wrong? Ah think it's cute for a pony like ya ta say that."
Cheese gave a weary smile. "R-really?" A small blush broke through his golden cheeks.
Platinum snickered behind his hoof before being silenced by his sister's icy cold stare. "Of course." Rose continued, a sly grin beginning to form on her face. "But 'cha see, ah can't no four-eyed dork following me around all day." With that said, Rose snatched his glasses off of his muzzle.
"Hey, gives those back!" Cheese demanded. He jumped to his hooves only to find himself stumbling a little. The bullies stood there, glowering at the crying colt. As he tried to run to his glasses through blurry eyes, he fell onto the ground with a fierce thump. A great pressure could be felt on his back as Platinum Shine pressed his front hooves into Cheese's shoulder blades.
While Platinum had him immobilised, his sister, Silver Oak was throwing clumps of bubblegum into his mane as he tried to make an escape. As the two siblings began finishing up with Cheese, Rose was fiddling with the frame of his glasses, earning a few crackling noises as the plastic began to break. Cheese yelped as the pressure on his back built up, making it hard to breath. He pleaded for them to stop but they only laughed as they proceeded to pick on him. Why were they doing this to him?!
Managing to find some unknown strength in both his forelegs and hind legs, Cheese was able to buck the bigger colt off of his back. Silver was taken aback a what she had just witnessed happening to her own brother. She growled loudly and marched right up to Cheese before being stopped by a passing voice. "Hey!" Called the voice. "You leave that poor colt alone, or so help me Celestia I will call you parents!"
The two fillies and colt looked up to see Coco Pommel's mother, Scarlet Ribbon scowling upon them. "Go on, scram." She shouted. They did as they were told and scampered away, Rose Thorn turned around for a brief moment and launched Cheese's glasses at his face. The glasses hit him hard on the snout , and then began its plummet to the concrete earth. Once they hit the ground, a loud crack could be heard, clearly stating that possibly one of the lenses was either broken or cracked.
Scarlet Ribbon quickly trotted up to Cheese and hugged him in a motherly fashion. "My goodness, Cheese. Are you all right, sweetie?" She asked while brushing dusty dirt off of his coat.
Placing his glasses back on his and shaking his head, Cheese uttered, "Y-yeah, I'm okay. Please don't tell anypony what happened."
"But, honey, what of your mother? Doesn't she need to find out what happened to you?"
Cheese squeaked loudly in protest. "N-no! Not her. . .anyone but her."
"Cheese, why don't you want me telling your mother?" Cheese's blank stare was enough to tell her almost everything. "Ah, I see, okay then. I know Marmite doesn't take it too well if somepony has bad news for her." Scarlet knelt down to her knees and gently brushed Cheese's now brown and pink sticky mane. She smiled softly. "Tell you what, when Coco comes out, we will walk home with you to make sure that you get there safely, okay?"
A small, toothy smile broke out on Cheese's face and nodded his head. "Okay then. Thank you, Scarlet--I-I mean Mrs. Ribbon. . ." He winced at his rude mistake.
Scarlet chuckled softly. "It's okay, Cheese, you can call me Scarlet if you wish. After all, I'm not your mother." She jokingly said. With a sigh of relief, Cheese sat next to Scarlet--well rather around her forelegs, protectively--and waited for Coco Pommel to leave. No more than five minutes later, Coco exited the school building and all left to walk back to Cheese's house.
Once they had arrived, Scarlet gave Cheese a quick kiss on the cheek, while Coco gave him a big friendly hug. They said their farewells' to each other and walked away. Just before they fully walked out of the block, Coco called out, "Good luck, Cheesie!"
Luck? Cheese knew that that was an understatement, but he ignored that and smiled back at Coco with acknowledgment. He carefully limped up the steps and opened the front door. Already, he could hear the sound of a fiddle being played. No doubt Marmite was making Bread Sticks practice again. He rolled his eyes and set down his saddlebag.
You can do this, Cheese. He took in a deep breath and marched in the best he could into his sister's bedroom--
*****
"Hmm," Bread Sticks began to ponder. "That's quite a story you've got there. It seems as though you were judging a book by its cover."
"Huh?" Cheese questioned, his head tilting faintly to the side.
"'Judging a book by its cover,' Cheese, it means you fell for Rose Thorn's looks without getting to know her personality properly. Do you understand now?"
"Uh huh." Cheese said while nodding his head for probably the eighth time today. He looked down sadly. "I was stupid think that I would actually like her. . ."
"Hey, now don't go saying that." Bread Sticks said, pulling Cheese into a warm embrace as they lay down."Besides, don't you remember what Dad always says?" Cheese gave a deadpan look, Bready huffed. "He said 'not all roses are perfect. As beautiful as they may, some contain some mighty thick thorns.'"
"Ohh, now I remember. Heh, I guess that's why her last name was Thorn." He chuckled loudly then snuggled close to his sister's chest and sighed softly. "Thanks for listening, Bready, it means a lot to me."
"No problem, Cheddar Brain." She rested her on top of Cheese's mane, only to remember that it was covered in bubblegum. "Okay, mister, you're not getting another cuddle from me until you get a cold bath."
"Ugh, you are so annoying, Bready, but I love you."
"I love you too, Cheese." With that said, Bready sent her brother to the bathroom for one of the most coldest baths he will of had in years.
Author's Note
Okay, this is the first story I have done in ages. I wish I had written more stories. . .Oh well. So anyway, I haven't quite felt myself lately (Well, kind of a giant understatement), I've been really sick and I'm not going to go into too much detail; so if you want to know what's wrong, go to the link in at the bottom.
So I hope you liked this, I think I have improved since last time, but if you have seen any mistakes, please let me know; I need to know 'cause I have this big English exam on Tuesday and need to know if it is in tip top shape.
Oh, and this fic was inspired by a Weird Al animation I watched a couple of days ago (Btw, I made Cheese into an eight year old, not a twelve year old):
Bread Sticks' song:
Hospital beds aren't comfy: http://goo.gl/5YeZi6
You guys are all amazing!
~Arian Blaze, out 
