I Found A Pinkie At A Party

My pink road to happiness started with an invite.

I know, I know. Doesn't sound surprising or shocking, right? It actually sounds weird or confusing. Well, let me tell you about me before I get to the nitty-gritty.

My name is Artie Smartie, and, quite frankly, I'm not the greatest looking guy around. I'm not ugly, per se, but my looks don't exactly rake in the girls. I'm tall and thin, not the big and wide-with-muscles that they all go for. I have hair that's brown, as in the color of dirt. Think about that for a sec. Does that sound like a good thing to attract the ladies?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Not only that, my orange skin makes me look disease-prone, my big, square glasses make me look like the biggest nerd in the school, and on top of that, I have a bad fashion sense. I tried to get help from this girl named Rarity at the high school, but apparently, even her "generosity" and fashion sense couldn't help me. We searched through all the clothes she could find(and believe me, that took a good while), but I couldn't find anything to my liking. There was just no appeal to me. Plus, it didn't help that I didn't speak much of my opinion to her, because I'm too much of a shy guy.

That's another thing: my shyness. Every time I tried to talk to someone, the only thing my mouth wanted was to yammer and stutter and hide where it couldn't be seen. I could barely get out a few sentences at a time. I also break out in a cold sweat, which doesn't help my situation in socialness.

So, overtime, I stopped hanging out with people because I felt I was too much of a weirdo to be near them. It's not like I would talk with them, anyway, so it didn't really affect anyone's lives except mine.

Overtime, though, as I came into high school, nearing freshman year, I felt, at the same time, along with this feeling of hopelessness, I felt something else; loneliness. I wanted to be liked by people. I wanted to be respected. Every day at school, I urged to talk, to do something to get myself a friend. But then, immediately, that sense of hopelessness and feeling like a shy loser creeped into my mind like a spider, and the urge would go away.

That was how it was for a long time. Then, something rather surprising came into my life.

I was doing what I normally did on a Friday evening in summer(or any day or season, for that matter). I was surfing on Facebook, aimlessly and hopelessly wandering through endless streams of messages and posts on other profiles, wishing I could be in that stream (I know, I sound like a stalker, but bear with me).

But then, on the corner of the screen of my laptop, a small blip emerged. It was a notification. As soon as I saw it out of the corner of my eye, I mentally gasped in awe and confusion. Like I said, I had no friends, so notifications were rare, and were usually from family members and their friends.

I didn't know what to do. I wanted to open it and see what wonders awaited, yet at the same time, my hopeless side didn't want to be disappointed if it was just my mom from work at the boutique requesting for me to get milk, or my sister at the mall needing twenty bucks.

Eventually, I decided to heck with it, deciding there wasn't any point in leaving it or seeing it, and opened it. What I saw was more surprising than seeing the notification.

It was an event entitled High School Beginning Bash!, with the page modified a bright pink color, The cover picture was a white background, with large, pink letters spelling PARTY!!! In the description, it read:

Dear Facebook people,

You are all invited to a great, big party! It is to celebrate our finally coming to high school, and starting another happy step in life! It's going to be lots of fun! With lots of food, dancing, and streamers(especially streamers!), it's going to be abso-posi-lutely fantastic!

Hope to see you there!

Yours, the greatest party planner at Canterlot High!

I didn't know what to think. To think somebody actually invited me to a party!

But then, like a pesky, annoying mosquito back for blood, that fear of being weird and unliked crept into my mind. I closed Facebook and rubbed my head, conflicting in my mind about whether or not to go. After a minute, the negative possibilities ran high, and it felt like the hopelessness would strike again. But then, turning around, I saw a poster on my wall. I had bought it some time ago, to maybe give me strength to be more than me. It was cliché, but it was inspiring: the poster of a tiny cat hanging on a branch, with big words saying, "Hang in there!"

I looked at that cat's eyes and saw the reflection of my sadness stare right back at me. I stared right back at it for what seemed like hours until finally, I knew what to do.

I opened back up the invite and, with a depressed and afraid finger, clicked the "Going" button.