Playing Their Game

You struggle with yourself, deciding on who it should be. Twilight seems to be friendly, helpful, and trying something with you aside from being a study partner. Fluttershy isn't herself, not from what you can reflect on. She was nervous, anxious about the whole ordeal with being framed and what she felt on bullying you. Now she's practically vile and malicious with it all. In the end, you couldn't care less for either one, but you may as well go for the one that seems probable to your parents. "It's Twilight."

"I knew it," Your dad boasts. "I knew it in my gut, and it's never wrong."

"I'm still waiting on how that investment you made months ago will pick up." Your mom tries to provoke him.

"The stock market is very fickle, it'll pick up."

"If you say so, dear. I swear, Fluttershy sounded like a nice girl over the phone. I wish I had the chance to meet her in person." You're not so willing with the idea of your parents meeting the person that's bullying you. Better off to stay with Twilight. At least, for now.

"Sorry mom, Twilight's just compelling in her own way."

"So, what makes her attractive, specifically speaking?" Your mother asks.

"Erm, it's hard to think right off the bat."

"I can wait until it comes right back to you." Damnit, you're better off heading back to class rather than dealing with this.

"She's smart and I like the purple streak in her hair."

"Even though that is obvious, I can't control your taste in girls," Your mother adjusts the strap on her purse. "You should get back to class, me and your father still have work to do." You head off to--

"And Anon," Your father stops you in your tracks. "We'll talk about your car later."

"Sure, that's fine."

As you travel through the hallways, it feels lackluster in conversation between people. Just whispers going through three people at its highest and the rest are not talking at all. Today must have put a spook throughout the school, knowing that someone is out for you and intend on doing more. You slightly worry on the idea and wonder on who it might be. That wonderment ends when you receive a text message by Fluttershy. 'Meet me across the street, we need to talk.' You exit the school and look over the groups of students to spot Fluttershy leaning on a stop sign across the street. You don't waste any time to meet up with her, the last thing that you probably want is for her to walk over here and cause another scene. "Hi, Anon."

"Hey, you sound upset." She shrugs when standing upright.

"I didn't give you an apology about my recent outbursts."

"Forget it, some shouting and a slight headache isn't much to me."

"It's just that, I wanted to do that to everyone else, but with what you said back in the hallway, it still bothers me."

"Just stick to the plan. If people see you beating me down, they are sure as hell don't want to feel any of it. Keep that in mind."

"They deserve it, not you. It's time that I start to put it on them." She really is getting fussy about this.

"Isn't it enough at the animal shelter?"

"It is. I tell them to do something and they do it without a second thought. I just feel like they get what's coming to them."

"Maybe, but we don't want to start an uprising."

"Then what was that during lunch, right after I left with the donation?" You almost forgot that this entire thing was also for the animals instead of your amusement. At least it's for a good cause. Oh, right. Her question.

"A setback."

"Anon, they turned your car into a bonfire."

"I know. Whoever it was must have finally made their revenge."

"What if they want more? What if I'm next?!"

"Relax. If they were after you, they would have done that a while ago."

"I can't relax! I don't want anything to happen with the animals!"

"Slow down, what are--"

"If they are after you, they might be after me later! I mean, if they can go for your car, they might go for the shelter!" She's starting to get loud. Anymore and the people across the street will hear her. You grab her by the arms and pull her in.

"Listen to me very carefully; they won't go for your animals, and I'm more than sure that they will only go for me. Okay?" You don't even need to think twice about what you're doing, you just thought up an idea. "Now, I want you to slap me--" She then moves her left arm out to slap you across the face. You let go, nearly jumping back in the process. "Ow." You say when rubbing your cheek.

"Uh, sorry?"

"You couldn't let me finish my sentence?"

"T-they were looking, I swear!"

"It's fine. We should go somewhere else." She nods.

You and Fluttershy stroll away from the campus, passing by any of the people that are from your school. There's no question that you need to find somewhere else to do anything private, now that your car is gone and the outskirts of town isn't an option. Since it is Friday, everyone will be at the movies, mall, arcade, even the restaurants will be packed. You sure as hell do not want to head over to your place, since you marked Twilight as a person of interest and it would be hard to explain why Fluttershy is there. Fluttershy's place isn't viable. Her parents aren't too keen with the idea of having a guy at her place. The shelter is handled with a few people, one of which is scheduled to be Lightning Dust, so that's a no-go.

Only one place that you can think that they wouldn't go to, the park. Hidden in plain sight, just what you need. "Are you sure about this, Anon? What if anyone sees us?"

"Trust me on this. Only old people and unattended children visit parks nowadays."

"I'm not sure if that was a joke, Anon." You decided to stay silent and keep walking until a birdbath catches your eye.

"Look on the bright side, birds will come by once every while to take a bath."

"You didn't answer my question." She didn't buy it. No point on trying to avoid it.

"It depends on how you look at it. Everyone has their sort of humor."

"I guess." You and Fluttershy find a suitable bench to sit on. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry about what happened to your car."

"That wasn't you who did that, so you don't have any reason to apologize." She shuffles around on her side of the bench.

"I feel as if this is all my fault."

"How?"

"The fights, the suspensions, your car is now gone, all of it." You can tell that she sounds awful about this realization. She sounds like her old self. You're tempted to ask what she was over the last few days, but do you want to risk breaking her back into that state of mind?

You will hold onto it for now and make use of what is left of her. "You can live with it."

"I can't!" She breaks. "I just can't keep going on with this, not if you're in danger."

"I'm not in danger of anything. I barely have anything to lose."

"Barely. What do you have left?"

"My health, my family, a roof over my head, and you." Fluttershy brights up when you mention her.

"M-me?"

"Yeah. I mean, there are those that sort of like me."

"O-oh," It dims down. "Who?"

"There is Pinkie Pie and Twilight." She gets irritated at the moment that you mention Twilight's name.

"Right, her." She leans back, trying to shove off the topic by looking at the fountain. Great, she's in that mood. Now you're completely unsure to ask about her attitude. It's either that or whatever is around here, and it isn't much. There is the fact that your parents now know that you prefer Twilight, but do you really want to try messing around with fire? Still, as long that she doesn't ask, you should be in the clear. "Hey Anon, how come we couldn't go to your house?" Fucking hell, should you tell her the truth or spin off a lie?

Better off to spin off some truth. Your parents definitely want to have a chat with you about the car, so there's that. "My family is pretty upset about the car, I don't want to risk talking about it if there is the slightest chance of them staying at the house."

"Hm, can't we just walk over to check?"

"Oh no, the moment that they look past the curtains is the moment that they'll drag my ass inside."

"Fine, you've made your point." Few, now you just need to stall some time and have her relax.

"Anon, do you want to do something later?"

"I don't want to help out the animal shelter. At least, not for the weekend." You seriously need to catch up in something, one of your dipshit friends is catching up in the leaderboards and you need to spawn kill another.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to go somewhere and just talk, but if you need some time to yourself, then fine."

"But, we are doing that. As of right now."

"I mean, in a different term." You might be spotting something differently, but she's hinting at it for you quite clearly.

"Oh."

"So, we could do it maybe tomorrow or Sunday. We can just meet up somewhere and talk over--"

"Anon!" You turn around in your seat to see Twilight jogging down the stone path. Shit, shit, shit! This is the very last thing that you needed.

"Anon, what's--"

"Hey, Twi!" You get up and walk away to try and talk with Twilight in private.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"You never responded to any of my messages, so I followed you to the park." She waives her book around. "It is later, so I thought that you wanted to get a crack for next week's test." You should have been more detailed about the whole "later" aspect. That's not much of a concern, what is a concern is how Fluttershy will react if Twilight doesn't leave soon.

"Can we do it tomorrow? Today isn't good for me."

"Anon, I know. Your car is gone, but those tests won't stop until the end of the school year."

"It's more than that. It's Fluttershy." You whisper.

"It's what?" Fluttershy intrudes your personal space.

"Fuck! It's a day to relax?" You fib out.

"You need to practice on your lying, Anon." Fluttershy stand in front of you and looks directly at Twilight. "What did Anon say, Twilight?" You shake your head and word out 'Don't tell her a goddamn thing'. Twilight notices, but so does Fluttershy. In the nick of time, you stop before she was able to see a glimpse of it. "Tell me, Twilight. What did Anon really say?"

Twilight is clearly wedged between you and Fluttershy, but she breaks down and unravels it. "It was you, Fluttershy."

"Me?" She questions. "What's so bad about me that you need to keep quiet, Anon?" She keeps her eyes focused on you. Her threatening stare numbs you.

"I-I'm terrified of you?" She starts to smile and laughs.

"Anon, we were acting in school."

"The back of my head and stained shirt says otherwise."

"You know I needed to make it look good."

"Wait, did she really hurt you, Anon?" Twilight asks.

"This doesn't involve you, Twilight."

"Just like you, Anon in my friend. If anything happens to him, I want to know."

Fluttershy turns back to Twilight. "Did you forget that I got to Anon first?"

"No, I didn't. But what you're doing to him is a bit extreme, don't you think?" You jump in between them.

"Hey, we should go for some shaved ice, huh? I'll buy, how does that sound?"

"Stay out of this, Anon. Extreme? I barely did anything to him!"

"The bruise on the back of his head is a different story."

"It was a push! Do we need to over exaggerate it?"

"STOP!" Twilight holds her breath. "It doesn't even matter, I'm fine and still walking. Stop making a big deal out of it and let's go." Both of them look off to the side, avoiding to look at the other.

"I could go for a snack." Twilight grabs on to your suggestion. Fluttershy is tempted, but still irritated from the argument.

"I want cherry."