Chapters It was a usual history lesson on a usual school day at Crystal Prep Academy. The teacher stood at the chalkboard, scribbling down the dates and names of historic events and personalities while telling the students about them – though his words often didn’t match what he was currently writing, since he didn’t stop talking to finish the diagrams on the board. Instead he kept on speaking without a pause, while his hand was hectically moving over the board with the chalk clenched tightly in his fingers. Just as hectically the pens of the students flew over their notebooks, trying to catch up with the teacher’s fast-paced lecture.
However, not every student was following the lesson: Arms crossed over her notebook, one girl was cuddling her head against its pages as well as her hands. The goggles she wore on her forehead were pointing at the windows, the sunlight shining directly into her face. She didn’t seem to mind though as she was peacefully breathing in and out, in a calm and slow rhythm, with her eyes closed. Without the noise of the scribbling pens and the talk of the teacher, one could have heard her snore softly.
From the chair behind her a blue-skinned girl with short purple hair looked up at the sleeping girl. She was bearing a slightly worried expression, while at the same time her eye-brows were knit in an angered manner. “Did she stay up all night to play videogames again?” Sunny whispered, her pen jittering a little as she tried to simultaneously look at Indigo and take notes. “I mean she’s already been sleeping in English and Math!”
“She’s fine” she could hear a girl next to her say. The voice sounded rather carefree, but at the same time highly concentrated. “Told me she was going to train longer with her soccer team cause a big game is coming up. Guess it turned into an all-nighter.”
Sunny tried to focus on the lesson, but her eyes kept gazing up at the slumped figure of Indigo. “Shouldn’t we wake her up?” she asked concerned. “He’s gonna test us on this!”
“Nah, let her snooze it out” she heard the girl’s voice, followed by a snipping sound. Confused Sunny looked to the side. The green-haired girl sitting next to her was holding her head on the table, similar to Indigo, only her gaze was fixed on the table in front of her. From her notebook several small bits had been ripped off the pages, while at the same time Sunny noticed a large number of small paper balls lying on her table. The tip of her index finger on her thumb Lemon placed it behind one of the paper balls, staring with one eye closed at the girl sitting in front of her. Her tongue stuck out she snipped the ball forward. It flew in a slight arc past one of the girl’s three pigtails, landing on the floor in front of her table. Lemon scowled for a moment, before picking up another paper ball. “She can just lend our notes if she needs them” she added as she set up her next projectile.
Sunny glanced at the empty pages beneath Lemon’s arms. “Yeah” she muttered, leaning back over her own notebook again. “OUR notes…”
“Silence!” the harsh voice of the teacher commanded, making Sunny and Lemon wince slightly. After giving everyone in the class a scolding look he bent over his desk. Three books were lying open on it, all of them very thick and large. The eyes of the middle-aged man looked over the pages of each one, seeming a little lost as he roamed through them. “Okay, let’s see” he murmured to himself, focusing on the book to his right. “I think we can follow the original curriculum and skip the battles on the countryside after the defeat of General Hurricane, to focus on the events in the capitol… no wait!” he suddenly said, putting his finger on the book to the left. “It says here in this college book the difference between land and city population is essential in understanding the conflict between the members of the Puddinghead party and the population that supported the royal forces.” He straightened himself again, scratching his head as he stared into the book in the middle of his desk. “Or should we cover the individual chapters from the 12th grade book about each key figure of the revolution?” He looked over the three books on his desk, seemingly confused.
Seeing at the overwhelmed teacher Sunny clenched her pen in anger. “We don’t even have those books!” she complained quietly. “How are we supposed to learn if we miss something he says?”
“Uh-huh” Lemon murmured, bringing her gun-finger in line with the paper ball. She took aim at the neck of the girl, and fired. The projectile flew past the girl’s shoulder onto her table, bounced off the pencil bag and hit the head of the girl sitting on the next chair. The long ponytail of the accidental target swayed a she turned around, looking with a surprisingly sweet smile at Lemon.
“So sorry to interrupt your little bombardment” she gently whispered to her, before looking at her with a frown. “But could you try to keep the causalities to a minimum?”
The green-haired girl stared at her for a moment with big eyes, before grinning happily. “Not planned, but that was definitely awesome!” she praised herself.
Meanwhile the teacher had picked up one of the books, and continued his lesson. “… as the troops from the countryside entered the governmental district of the capitol it had already been evacuated” he told his students, all the while writing down numbers, names and events on the chalkboard. While most other student tried to keep up with their notes Lemon placed another paper ball on the edge of her table.
“With the whole area deserted they were free to vandalize the numerous symbols and buildings representing the rule of the crown.”
Fixed on the girl with the three pigtails Lemon narrowed her eyes, her fingers forming a pyramid as she took aim. With her concentration at its peak she prepared herself to fire, holding her breath as she tensed her fingers.
“When the cannonball hit the major’s hall and the clock tower fell on the statue of Princess Platinum, the leader of the rebels was supposed to have said-”
“BOOYA!” Lemon cheered, raising both arms into the air. The big grin on her face quickly faded however as not only the girl she had hit at the head, but the whole class stopped writing and turned their eyes towards her.
The teacher coldly glared at Lemon. “Not quite” he told her, his voice stern and hard. “He was supposed to have said ‘It was about time’.”
A giggle went through the class, many students sneering at Lemon. A vibrant blush on her pink cheeks she smiled sheepishly, hiding herself up to her chin under her desk. The teacher seemed like he wanted to scold her further. But a glance at the clock made him quickly continue his lesson instead. Soon the whole class had their attention back on their notebooks. Lemon also was also leaning over her blanks pages, hectically starting to fill them like everyone else.
Everyone but Indigo, her head still resting on the table as she was sunken in deep slumber.
Sunny kept glancing up at the blue-haired girl, in a mixture of concern and annoyance. “Psst!” she whispered at her, nervously glancing towards the teacher. “Hey, Indigo! Wake up!”
Sunny watched her rolling her head, munching slightly in her dreams before nestling her head on her arms again.
Frowning Sunny put down her pen. She glanced at Lemon’s table, the green-haired girl seeming rather distressed as she tried to catch up with the lesson. On the side of her table her unused paper balls were still lying. Sunny gazed at the teacher, seeing he was facing the chalkboard. With a swift motion she snatched the paper balls from Lemon’s table. Still cautious of the teacher she mashed them into a larger ball. When she was sure nobody was looking she pulled back her hand, and tossed the chunk of paper hardly against the neck of Indigo. As it hit the back of her head her quiet snoring turned louder for a second. Grumpy moans resonated from her throat, he eye-lids twitching. Groggily Indigo raised her head, slowly opening her eyes. They were still half-closed as she picked up the paper ball from her collar. After staring at it for a moment she furiously turned her head around.
“Hey, what was that for?” she hissed at Sunny.
Staring back just as furiously Sunny put her finger on her lips. “Shh!” she commanded her. Nodding towards the teacher. “We’re in the middle of the lesson, you big dumb sloth!”
Still a little dazzled Indigo looked at the clock hanging over the door, before glaring back at Sunny. “You could have woken me up when lesson was over!” she told her in a more quiet, but not less furious tone. “History is a snooze lesson anyway!”
“A snooze lesson we will be tested on!” Sunny reminded Indigo, leaning back over her notebook. “Now just try to keep your eyes open and listen to get at least some notes! And by the way” she added, looking up into Indigo’s eyes again while pointing with her pen at her “You owe me one!”
Indigo rolled her eyes, groaning silently as she turned towards the chalkboard. She picked up her pen lying on the side, her other hand holding her head as she stemmed her elbow against the table. The teacher’s dry lecture streamed through her ears, a flow of dates, names and events that was trickling down on her mind. Her eye-lids slowly dropped, looking like she was about to doze off again.
“After the Puddinghead party took over the capitol the royal forces were scattered over the country” the teacher’s voice bored itself into her brain. “However, the divergent interests of the farmers led to internal disputes and paralysed their troops for several weeks. Taking opportunity of their confusion the royal forces began to battle the Puddinghead party all over the country.”
Just before her eyelashes fell closed Indigo opened them by a notch again. Battles?
“One of the many battles was raging right within this city” was the next she heard after another flood of dates. “For three days the royal forces put it under heavy siege. Many tales of heroes were born within this time, though most of them probably belong in the realm of legends.”
Indigo’s eyes opened further. Heroes?
“While the Puddinghead party and royal forces were fighting each other, the deserting military troops were able regroup themselves. Soon they were able to reconquer some land, and regained their old strength. With three factions battling each other this period was considered the wildest and most turbulent one of the entire revolution.”
Revolution?
Slowly Indigo raised her head, looking at the teacher with a shimmer of curiosity in her eyes.
“…and then Hurricane stormed the capitol and BAM!! BANG!! BOOM!! threw out all those pudding pies and crown-sissies!” Indigo yelled, almost bursting with excitement. She made some pseudo-karate moves while jumping around on the sand. “Everyone thought the military was out cold, but suddenly they are back and kicking! In a single week they took back all the stuff they lost, and-”
“Hey Indigo, guess what?” a voice so honeyed just listening made one’s teeth ache interrupted her. From the top of the slide, her legs spread out on the shining slope Sour Sweet glared down at Indigo. “We know!”
“We’ve all been in the same history class together” Sugarcoat reminded her. The girl with the three pigtails was sitting on top of the monkey bars, letting her legs hang down.
Having taken seat in the middle of the climbing box, her lower body lost in the net of blue bars Sunny added snidely: “And unlike you we didn’t sleep through the first half of class!”
Lemon took off her earphones, placing them around her shoulders. “Um sorry, did someone say something important?” she asked, gazing at the others from upside-down as she was lying with her back on the spinning wheel.
The group of five was hanging around on the playground of Crystal Prep Academy, the probably most polished while at the same time least used playground in the entire school district. All other students seemed to either avoid or not take notice of the sandbox, no one getting closer than twenty feet. Despite being recess the atmosphere was rather quiet on the school yard, save for some mischievous giggles from time to time. Only rarely a friendly laugh could be heard, and it was always only short-lived.
Sighing in deep satisfaction Indigo let herself fall on the swing seat behind her. She placed her elbows on her knees, resting her head in her hands a she stared in childish excitement up at the sky. “Man, rebels are so cool!” she raved.
Lemon looked up – from her perspective down - at the others. “Um, did anyone get who were actually the rebels?” she asked, her hand vanishing in the green cascades of her hair falling on the sand as she scratched her head. “I mean, there were the army dudes, the crown dudes and the farmer dudes, but who were the rebel dudes?”
Sugarcoat shrugged. “As far as I got it, it was a three way war between the deserting military, the royal forces from the cities and the country population. It wasn’t really a rebellion, but because in the end the charter of our country was formed, it’s considered a revolution.”
While Sugarcoat explained this Indigo kept staring dreamily at the sky, a dumb smile plastered on her face. Her mind was full of romantic images from rebels and revolutions, of battles against suppressors and heroes fighting injustice. Suddenly the absent-minded look in her eyes became sharper. “Hey, let’s also start a revolution!” she suggested, sitting up as her stupid grin turned into one of confidence.
Sour Sweet raised an eyebrow. ”What a great idea!” she praised her, before remarking more grumpily: “That’s totally a normal thing to do as a teenager.”
Sunny also frowned at Indigo’s idea. “How do you imagine that?” she asked in a rather rude tone. “Should we all go to the town’s hall and fire a cannonball at it?”
“We don’t have a cannon” Sugarcoat remarked.
Sour glanced at her. “Right. That is totally the problem with this idea.”
Grimacing Indigo leaned back slightly, stretching her legs out to keep balance. “Hey, I didn’t say we should go on the streets and fight the army or anything!” she clarified. “But remember how Dean Cadence said we should try to make the school a friendlier place? That could also be a revolution!”
With a ponderous look on her face Sunny put a finger on her chin. “That… actually doesn’t sound so stupid” she admitted.
Pushing herself forward Sour slid down the slide, jumping off the bottom and landing with both feet on the sand. “And how should we start this friendship revolution, oh great commander?” she asked. Folding her hands she pressed them against her cheek, fluttering her eye-lashes as she spoke: “Should we place confetti canons on top of the roof and fire them over the whole school?”
Lemon showed an upside-down grin to the other girls.
“That was sarcasm, Lemon” Sugarcoat told her.
Pulling her arms around the chains Indigo slumped her back. “You guys are so boring!” she moaned. As she looked towards the school building she noticed a student was approaching them – or more precisely her, the figure with the very light green skin walking straight in Indigo’s direction. Even from faraway she was easy to recognize as a girl, due to the thick amaranth-red hair smoothly falling to her back and the skirt of her uniform. The others also became aware of her, and turned towards the girl their age. With a slightly forced smile on her lips she entered the sand box, waving a hand as a greeting.
“Hey, captain!” she said, her dark magenta eyes cast straight on Indigo. They were half-closed as if she was having trouble to keep her lids up, and some dark circles had formed around them.
One hand on her knee Indigo smirked at the girl. “What’s up Mirror?” she asked amused. “You look like a truck hit you.”
Mirror Sheen was about to respond, but a yawn forced its way out of her mouth. “Yeah, guess I’m still a little exhausted from training yesterday” she admitted with an elongated breath, holding a hand in front of her mouth while stretching out her other arm.
Indigo snickered “What? Already worked out after a few extra hours of training?” she teased her teammate. Sunny gazed with squinted eyes at the blue-haired girl who had slept through two and a half lessons, but remained quiet.
Crossing her arms Mirror frowned at her captain. “Right” she snorted. “A few extra hours. It’s not like we were up past midnight – oh no wait” she corrected herself angrily “WE WERE!!”
With a chuckle Indigo brushed off the rude remark. “Well you better rub that sleep off your eyes until tomorrow” she told her, determinately holding up her fist. “Cause we’re gonna kick the ball till the sun kicks back in!”
In an instant the anger vanished from the girl’s expression. “Actually, um, I wanted to talk to you about that” Mirror stated a lot more meekly, clearing her throat. She tried to keep a confident posture, but her foot rubbed nervously on the sand as she spoke. “Since we basically spent three training sessions yesterday and many of us have to learn for history tomorrow, the team thought that, um, perhaps…”
“You and the others want to slack off, eh?” Indigo finished the sentence for her. From her swing seat she looked up to Mirror, perkily grinning at her. “Well not on my watch! We are Crystal Prep Shadowbolts! We have to make sure we’re in a shape to beat those little lollipop-suckers all the way up to the moon and back down on earth next week – even if we have to train 24/7 for it!”
“Oh, come on!” Mirror insisted, sounding both angry and desperate. “I’ve got school until after four today, and then I have to go to athletics training, AND once I’m done have a ton of homework to do! Tomorrow is the only day when I can really learn for-”
She stopped when Indigo held out a hand to her. “Forget it” she strictly told her, the look on her face a lot more serious. “If we lose the game we’ll also lose the first place in the league. And you know what Cinch does with teams that don’t manage to keep the top spot.” She jumped up from the swing seat, stemming her hands against her hips as she looked her teammate straight in the eyes. “I’m not gonna cut the training, and I won’t let any of you off the hook before I say all of us are ready. Got it?”
Grumbling Mirror cast down her eyes, staring at the sand at her feet. “Yes, captain…”
Indigo turned her ear towards her. “Can’t hear ya…”
“Yes, captain!” Mirror exclaimed, looking back up at her.
Content, Indigo nodded. “Good” she said, letting herself fall back on the swing seat. “Oh, and tell the others anyone who skips training is gonna run laps until their shoes are smoking.”
Indigo held out her first to Mirror, a tough smirk on her lips. With her eyebrows knit the soccer player glared at her captain, before quietly turning around. Indigo looked with a lifted eyebrow after Mirror as she walked back towards the school building, each of her steps a heavy stomp. A chill suddenly crept over Indigo’s spine, as if someone was stuffing ice cubes into her collar. Looking at her friends she noticed all of them were throwing cold glances at her.
“What?” she asked.
“That was rude” Sugarcoat told her, her voice even more aggressive than usually.
“Yeah!” Lemon agreed, rolling on her belly as she scowled at the blue-haired girl. “You were totally the douche here.”
“Can’t you at least try to be a bit considerate?” Sunny asked.
The girl with the goggles gazed at each of her friends, returning their furious glances. “Hey, what should I do?” she yelled at them. “If I don’t get the team in tip-top shape until next week Cinch is gonna cut the soccer team’s budget – or worse, she’ll close it altogether! You know what mood she’s been in since the friendship games…”
Curling up her lips Sour put on the sweetest of smiles. “It was definitely a great start for your friendship revolution! Acting like the complete opposite of a friend…”
Indigo looked at the sour grimace of her friend, and grunted. “We’re teammates, not friends!” she informed her. Looking after Mirror in the distance she mumbled: “She is just a jerk…”
“We were all jerks not so long ago” Sugarcoat reminded her from the top of the monkey bars.
Sunny glanced towards the spinning wheel. “Some of us still are…”
Frowning Lemon stared back up at Sunny. “Yeah, SOME of us!”
Indigo didn’t really listen to them. Lazily swinging forth and back she had cast her eyes down, watching her feet getting dragged over the sand. “I tried to be befriend the members of my sports teams” she told the other girls, sounding somewhat bitter. “The day after we decided to become friends, I invited the soccer gals over to meet at Joe’s doughnut bar, to hang around. But they all rejected me. And when I went to the other teams, it was all the same.” Her fingers jittered as she tightly clenched the chains. “Some of them said they would come, but then didn’t show up just to laugh at me the next day in school – Mirror was one of them. They know I am the most athletic girl in school and need me to win trophies, but at the same time are jealous of my position. Most of them would sell me out the instant they see a chance to become captain themselves.” She let out a sigh, looking sadly up at the sky. A cloud was moving over the sun, casting a shadow on the playground. “I know I said to Dean Cadence we could turn this school around, but… seeing I can’t even get my own teammates to change, I’m starting to doubt it.”
Quietly the others stared at the usually peppy girl being so depressed, a look of compassion on their faces. Slowly Sour walked over to her side, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. “That’s not like you, giving up so quickly” she said, genuinely smiling at Indigo.
“Yeah!” Lemon agreed, also grinning. She pulled herself up on a bar, crossing her arms and placing her head on them. “That loser talk so ain’t you!”
“You have to be more confident in yourself!” Sunny tried to cheer her up. “I’m facing the same problems with my tennis team, but we promised Dean Cadence to try and make this school friendlier!”
Adjusting her glasses Sugarcoat remarked: “You can’t expect to become friends with them as fast as we did. It’ll probably take some time.”
Sour winked at the girl in the swing seat. “Besides, wouldn’t becoming friends with your teammates make for a nice little revolution?”
Indigo didn’t turn her head to her friends. Instead she set her gaze straight ahead towards the school building, looking at the students walking over the school yard. There were a few small groups, but most of them were by themselves. From the distance they appeared like a mass of purple sticks. But even from far away she could see the same uniform look of smugness and hostility on their faces.
Suddenly her own expression lit up, the dropped corners of her mouth rising to a sly grin. “A nice little revolution?” she sneered at Sour, looking a lot more boldly. “That’s something for small fry like you. But a big shot like me has got to think bigger!”
Startled by the sudden swing of attitude Sour pulled back her hand from Indigo’s shoulder, before angrily furrowing her brows at her. “Sheesh, moody much?”
“What did you think of, Gogo?” Lemon asked, tilting her head in a mixture of curiosity and concern.
The bell rang, signalizing the end of recess. With her vigor returned Indigo jumped up on her feet, confidently turning to her friends. “You’ll see!” she hollered, beaming as she pumped her fist towards the sky. “Tomorrow I’m gonna shake all of Crystal Prep, big time! When this revolution is over, you won’t recognize the place - literally!”
A big grin on her face Indigo dashed off towards the other students streaming back into the school. Her friends stared after her, looking a little worried. Sour, Lemon and Sugarcoat then turned their eyes towards Sunny, the short-haired girl surprised by their insulting glares.
“W-why are you looking at me?” she asked, uncomfortably hiding herself in the climbing box.
“You woke her up” Sugarcoat reminded her.
Coming back out from her hideout Sunny huffed. “I thought I was waking up a dozing classmate, not a sleeping giant!”
As soon as it dawned Crystal Prep Academy was filled by dozens of students roaming the crystalline hallways. Murmurs and sneers were echoing through the corridors, small groups of students talking to each other. Most of the students had already rolled in when the doors to the school suddenly swung open. A few students in the entrance hall turned their gaze, their eyes widening at what they saw. They began to point at the girl standing in the door, who didn’t take a step into the school as if to present herself. In a matter of the seconds the conversations had died off, all the boys and girls staring startled at her.
With a proud sway in her stride the girl walked through the hall into a corridor, silently followed by the gaze of the other students. As she passed the lockers everyone she came by grew silent and froze, some even dropping their books. The eyes of the students turned to her as if she was attracting them like a magnet. Confidently the girl walked straight, but not with haste towards a particular group of lockers. There a group of four girls, two on each side of the hallway were standing, all having their heads in their lockers.
“Hey!” Lemon called to the others, lowering the volume of her headphones slightly. “Anyone else hyped to see what Indigo’s revolution is gonna be like?”
Without raising her gaze from her locker Sour replied: “Well, my guess is that she forgot the whole thing by time she went to bed.”
Her books under her arm Sunny giggled. “It’s so childish!” she said while closing the door of her locker. “I mean does that girl really think she can start a revolution just… like... that?”
Sunny fell silent, staring with wide eyes into the hallway. Pulling their heads out of their lockers the others followed her glance, almost simultaneously lifting their eye-brows. In the middle of the hallway Indigo Zap was standing, the Crystal Prep student proudly presenting herself to them.
Or more precisely, presenting her clothes.
Unbelieving the four Shadowbolts gaped at the outfit of their friend, differing drastically from their own: Her skirt was smooth and not pleated, her short-sleeved vest had an open zipper instead of closed buttons, and her blouse was actually a loose tank-top hanging out under her vest slightly. Even shoes and socks didn’t belong to the usual school uniform, Indigo wearing short sports socks and a pair of sandals. All of her clothes were coloured in various shades of blue, standing out from the purple hues the students staring at her wore.
With a smirk Indigo thrust out her hip, placing a hand on it while letting her other arm hang from the side. “Sup.”
Her friends silently looked at her, jaws dropped and eyes wide. Only Sugarcoat remained her composure. Calmly she inspected Indigo from head to toe, looking at her sky-coloured top, deep-blue vest, azure skirt and indigo socks. „Cinch will kill you” she flatly told her.
The blue-haired and –clothed girl chuckled. “And that’s exactly why you gals can never start a revolution!” she said superiorly, pointing with her thumb at her chest. “None of you have the guts to pull that sort of thing off!”
“You mean dressing up in… blue?” Lemon asked, looking a little disappointed over Indigo’s attire. “That’s your revolution? Being… blue?
Sticking out her chest Indigo proudly nodded. “Exactly!”
Rubbing the back of her head Lemon mumbled: “That’s a rather heavy let-down… I was hoping you’d roll a pair of party cannons into school or something.”
Indigo slumped her shoulders, obviously not expecting such a lukewarm reception. “Don’t you get it?” she yelled, sounding a little insulted as she ran her hands along her blue top. “By dressing up like this I fight against the restrictions of the school, and present myself as a symbol of freedom!”
The others gave her confused looks. “What freedom?” Sunny asked.
A wide grin on her lips Indigo raised her glance. “The freedom that each and every girl and boy at this school should decide for themselves what clothes they wear, and not be turned into a regiment of uniformed school-soldiers!” she declared grandly, holding her clenched fist up into the air.
Unfazed by her speech Sour looked over the blue rebel, before cracking a smile. “Yes! That’s a brilliant idea! Hey, you know what you should have put on? A T-shirt saying in big bold letters I WANNA BE EXPELLED!!” she suddenly blared at her.
Sunny rubbed the bridge of her nose, sighing. “Why the uniforms, of all things?” she asked.
“Someone who is as much into school spirit as you should approve of common clothing for the student body” Sugarcoat remarked.
Lowering her fist Indigo took on a more serious face. “I don’t mind the school uniforms” she told her friends. By that time most of the students around them had lost their interest in Indigo, and the quiet noise of students searching through their lockers and talking to each other returned to the hallway. “I guess I’d even wear them if we weren’t forced to. But that’s just the point: We ARE forced to wear them! At this school we don’t even have the freedom to wear the clothes we want! If we could decide on our own what to wear, the students would feel a lot freer and not so repressed anymore, I’m sure. Maybe this would make them a little friendlier, too.”
Hearing this Sour, Sugarcoat and Sunny pondered for a moment. “Okay, that does make some sense” Sour admitted, although stating in the same breath: “But it’s still a stupid idea! You’re basically a target walking through school like this!”
Indigo chuckled. “You gotta take some risks if you wanna be a rebel” she simple replied.
Meanwhile Lemon was walking around Indigo, looking at her clothes from each side. “So, any reason why are you rebelling in… blue?” she asked, taking a few steps back as she skeptically stared at Indigo’s attire.
Sunny snickered at Lemon’s question “Oh please” she said smugly, holding up her nose. “She is obviously representing the limitless sky and seas, symbolizing the infinite possibilities if the student body had the liberty to dress the way they wanted.”
Seeming a little dumfounded Indigo blinked. “Yeeaah, no” she stated, shaking her head with a smile. “Tis just my favorite colour.” Startled Sunny winced, before the combined giggles of the others made her turn her head away in offense.
“Well I think your idea is radical!” Lemon told Indigo, pulling her arm around her shoulder. “It’d be awesome if I could wear something that doesn’t scream ‘boring’ into everyone’s face.”
Once she was done pouting Sunny looked down on her uniform. “I’d also like to show off some of the designer clothes in my closet” she admitted, while Sour put a finger on her chin.
“And I have some cute outfits I’ve been dying to show off – especially to the boys ” she added, throwing a flirtatious look at a group of boys near them.
Her arms crossed Sugarcoat looked at her eager friends. “Aren’t you all a little too optimistic?” she asked snidely. “They won’t allow students to dress freely at Crystal Prep just because one girl doesn’t wear a uniform.”
Indigo looked at Sugarcoat as if she had been waiting for that objection. “Oh, it won’t be one girl for long!” she assured her, the passion in her voice growing with every word as she spoke: “I’m gonna keep coming into school with these clothes, and my example will ignite the spark of revolution in everybody’s hearts! Soon the whole school will follow me, and then they will have no choice but to give in to our demands!”
“YEAH!! REVOLUTION!!!” Lemon screamed. With a quick twist on her player she ramped up her music to the maximum, wailing away on an air guitar to the deafening sound of rebellious punk rock. Holding their ears her friends took a few steps back from the wildly partying girl.
“Well it sounds nice in theory! ” Sour yelled, having trouble to keep her voice sweet over the loud music. “Buuuut don’t you think Cinch will try to stop you?”
Indigo laughed out loud. “She can try!” she replied, putting her hands off her ears and folding them confidently over her chest. “I mean what’s the worst she can do?”
“MISS ZAP!!”
Everybody winced at the sudden shout. The voice was so loud and strict it even managed to get past Lemon’s headphones into her ears. Jumping in shock the green-haired girl quickly took and shut them off, hiding them sheepishly behind her back. The hallway was dead-silent, even the little bits of conversation among the rest of the students having died off. All had turned their attention to the woman standing behind Indigo, the blue rebel slowly turning around. Hands on her hips she stared down on Indigo through her small sharp glasses, furiously squinting her eyes. It felt like her stare was boring itself into Indigo’s heart, draining the vigor from her soul.
“I guess you are about to find out” Sunny whispered into Indigo’s ear. The usually resolute girl gulped, awkwardly smiling up at the principal of Crystal Prep Academy.
Still staring sternly at her Cinch pointed down the hallway. “Into my office!” she commanded. “NOW!”
Sitting in front of her desk Indigo wondered how Cinch could work in her office.
It was so dark ninety percent of the floor and furniture was hidden in shadows. The girl in the blue clothes had a hard time imagining how anyone could do paperwork in this light, making her wonder if Cinch actually had night-sight. The only things she could see clearly from her position on the chair were the desk in front of her, the trophy shelf on the wall to her right and the two women on the other side of the table. One of them, pink-skinned with a green blazer and skirt was standing quietly at the almost dark window, holding a clipboard in her hands. The other one was walking up and down behind the desk, hands folded behind her back. Each enraged step she took caused her high-heels to clap soundly.
“This is one of the biggest violations of the school codex a single student is can conduct!” Cinch harangued at Indigo, glaring down at her. “You know very well, Miss Zap, it is mandatory for all students to wear the Crystal Prep school uniforms during class! Never before anyone has dared to go against this rule! Detention would be a punishment far too mild for this.”
The woman in the background cleared her throat. “Please, let us not jump to conclusions” the dean tried to calm the principal, taking a step forward. “Let’s hear what Indi- I mean Miss Zap has to say about this. Maybe there is a reason she is not attending school in her uniform today?” Behind the principal’s back she winked at Indigo.
With a huff Cinch sat down at her desk. “Fine” she mumbled. Folding her hands in front of her face she interlaced her fingers, staring over them at Indigo. “Is there a good reason why are you walking through the dignified halls of our school in this… manner?”
Having sit slumped in her chair Indigo straightened herself. “You bet there is!” she said boldly, smirking at the principal and dean. “It’s because I’m a rebel, and I’m gonna start a revolution!”
Cinch looked irritated at the student, while Cadence silently slapped her hand against her face.
“What nonsense are you babbling?!” the principal snapped at her, angrily gesticulating with her hands.
“Oh you know what I’m talking about!” Indigo returned, words of confidence flowing out of her mouth like a waterfall. “I’m talking about the injustice and suppression that is brought down on the students of Crystal Prep Academy! We’ve been taking it quietly for years, but now is the time to rise up and tear down the wall between us AND TRUUUE LIIBEERTYY!!” As she shouted this with a big grin on her face she jumped up to her feet, spreading out her legs and holding both her fists towards the ceiling.
With a lifted eyebrow Cinch glanced first at her, then at the dean. Cadence threw her arms into the air, looking a little lost as she shrugged. “It seems they are currently covering the revolution in history” she guessed, forcing out a nervous laugh.
Cinch took off her glasses. “Maybe I should revise the expansion of the history curriculum…”
While the principal rubbed her temple Cadence turned towards the passionate rebel. “Look, I know this is probably very important and exciting to you, but please try to calm down and explain us why exactly you think the school uniforms repress your freedom” she told her. “Try to convince me and the principal with arguments of your ideas, not with pep speeches. It would be for the sake of your cause.” Holding a hand at the side of her mouth she whispered with a pleading look in her eyes: “And for your own!”
Indigo looked at Dean Cadence, as if she was irritated she didn’t immediately take side for her. After a moment of silence she dropped her arms and sighed. “Every day, every single student at this school is forced to wear these school uniforms” she began to explain in a more composed manner. “It’s nice to have school spirit and clothes that represent that, but if people have to wear them… there isn’t really a point to it. I think people should be free to wear what they want, even if it means not everybody is going to wear the uniforms. Cause if they don’t, these clothes are like chains put on us – chains that symbolize the repression of our individual spirit and…”
“I think that’s enough” Cadence quickly cut her off as her voice got louder again.
Cinch had quietly listened. She was looking at Indigo with a bland, almost bored expression, one that still radiated strictness in each contour however. With her long thin fingers she grabbed the edge of her desk, pushing her chair back as she stood up. “Miss Zap” she began, turning her back to the Shadowbolt as she walked over to the window. Despite the shutters being nearly closed she kept her gaze fixed on it as she spoke.
“Crystal Prep Academy was founded with the goal of creating an institution where young women and men could be educated in the most dignified manner as possible, in order to sharpen all of their skills to a degree of perfection that would ensure those who managed to graduate a position at the top of society.” Her voice was void of anger or any other emotion as she spoke, except for a certain ring of intellectual superiority that resonated in each word. “Uniforms have been a symbol of this since the very first days of our beloved school. During all the decades students have been taught in these halls they have all been wearing those symbols of dignity and perfection.”
She turned around to Indigo, putting a hand on her chest. “I have been wearing them when I attended this school” she stated, walking back towards the desk while waving her hand over to the dean. “Dean Cadence has been wearing them while she was a student here, and you, Miss Zap” she said sternly as she leaned over the desk, pointing her sharp fingernail at Indigo. “You will also wear them until the day you graduate from Crystal Prep Academy!” Standing up straight she mumbled more to herself: “Or have to leave it for some other reason…”
Indigo could feel her anger boiling up inside her. Scowling at the principal she crossed her arms. “Well just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s good!” she told her, leaning a little closer. “And maybe it’s about time something changed at this school!”
“The uniforms represent the spirit of excellence and academic discipline of Crystal Prep Academy” Cinch stated, also leaning slightly forward.
“They are the cages that suppress our individuality!” Indigo yelled, slamming her hands against the desk and bending over it.
“Do not dare to speak so lowly of them!” Cinch shouted, her face hovering in front of Indigo’s.
“If the school uniforms are so great” Indigo said with a cocky grin “then why do you have to force the students to wear them?”
Snorting with rage the principal grit her teeth. “You little…!”
The two of them stared intensely into each other’s eyes. A cough then cut into the stare-off, both of them turning their heads to the dean and her appeasing smile. “Excuse me, Principal Cinch, but maybe we should consider Miss Zap’s point” she remarked.
The principal stared at Cadence, raising her eyebrows so wide her glasses nearly slid off her nose. “Miss Cadenzia, are you seriously suggesting we should abandon the school uniforms?” she asked, clearly having trouble to keep her composure as she adjusted her glasses.
From the background the dean walked to the side of the desk, to a position between Cinch and Indigo. “I don’t mean to abandon the uniforms, or completely abolish the mandatory to wear them” she clarified. “However, there are schools that allow their students to wear casual attire on Fridays. That way they don’t have to go home and change clothes, but can directly start into the weekend. Also, perhaps it would really improve the morale of the students if they could pick their own outfits at least once a week, and-”
“What kind of foul deal is this?!” Indigo suddenly chimed in, leading the two adults to look at her in bewilderment. “One day a week? That’s like feeding us with a dry bone!” She stomped on the ground. “I say freedom every day, and I’m not gonna take one step down from it!“
“You are in no position to make any demands, Miss Zap!” Cinch made clear, before turning to her dean. “And as for you, the dressing codex is one of Crystal Prep Academy’s most vital foundations. I don’t intend to loosen it by one-”
“FREEDOM!” Indigo screamed the principal into the sentence, then began to sing the national anthem so loud people could hear her outside of the office.
“WILL YOU BE QUIET!” Cinch shouted. But Indigo continued to sing, growing louder and prouder. Her fury increasing by the second Cinch kept telling her to quiet down. Watching the scene the dean’s hand again made its way to her face, her other arm tightly pressing her clipboard against her chest as she let out a sigh.
When she was about to repeat the first verse again Cinch placed her hand over the girl’s mouth. “Don’t forget the position you are in” Cinch told her calmly, but her tone made clear she was dead serious. Taking her hand off Indigo’s mouth she sat back down, sternly staring up the student standing in front of her desk. “You are here because you broke the dressing codex of this school. For this clear violation of the rules, I will have to punish you.”
Indigo was about to object, but before she had the chance to speak Cadence quickly stepped in front of her. “M-maybe a punishment would be a little exaggerated” she hastily said, smiling rather forced. “She didn’t do it in bad faith, but because she believed it was for the better of the school. Also, this is the first time she has done something like that.”
“But definitely not the last time!” Indigo grinned. Cadence pushed her elbow into her side, telling her with a glance to stay quiet.
“Let’s be lenient and just give her a formal warning” the dean suggested. A little more slyly she added: “After all, as the soccer captain, she shouldn’t be distracted from preparing the school’s team for the big game next week.”
Having been rather disinterested before that last argument seemed to make the principal ponder. “Fine” she eventually stated, albeit reluctantly. “I will put mercy before justice and let it slip this one time.” The indifferent look on her face hardened again as she looked over Indigo’s clothes. “However, I will not allow you to continue walking through the halls of Crystal Prep Academy in this attire.”
To this Indigo just snickered. “Well what can you do?” she asked, confidently looking down on the principal. “My uniform is at home! Shall I skip school just to go back and get changed? Or do you want me to leave my clothes here and walk out without them?” she asked, winking at Cinch.
Cadence was about to interject they had spare uniforms at the school. The beep sound of the intercom however cut her off as Cinch put her finger on it.
“What is it, Principal Cinch?” a female voice spoke from the speaker.
The principal looked up at Indigo again. Although her face seemed rather calm and composed the student noticed an intense rage burning in her eyes. “Bring me the boxes with the costumes of the theatre group.”
Shortly afterwards a woman entered the office of the principal, carrying several boxes in her arms. A few minutes later the door opened once more and the woman with the boxes left again, keeping the door open. The silhouette of a girl was standing in it, her appearance shadowed by the darkness in the office. The shoulders of the figure were slumped and her head hanging low, as if a heavy weight was hanging around her neck. Only very slowly she took as step forward, setting one foot out of the office.
The very moment the over-sized brown shoe was on the crystal floor everybody in the hallway turned their eyes towards the silhouette as she walked out. Matching her comically large shoes she was wearing a white clown suit that covered her from neck to foot. Colourful bobbles were swaying on the front of the costume, positioned like a row of buttons. The fabric billowed at her arms and legs, sporting big frills at the end of the sleeves. The goggles on the girl’s head were standing in such a stark contrast to the rest of her outfit, it looked almost more ridiculous as if she had worn a clown’s wig or hat.
The students threw rather weird glances at the girl leaving the principal’s office. Almost simultaneously they suddenly broke out into loud mocking laughter. Indigo’s yellow cheeks burned bright red. Staring at the ground in shame she slowly walked through the hallway towards her next class. Behind her the principal stepped out of her office as well, looking after the rebel. She didn’t move a muscle as she watched every other student laughing and pointing their fingers at her.
“And do not forget” she called after her “Now that you’ve been warned, don’t expect me to be so considerate the next time you do such a foolish thing.”
Indigo didn’t reply, but hung her head even lower. Like a zombie she slurped through the school, dragging her over-sized shoes over the shining floor. She didn’t even seem to notice a group of four girls who were not laughing as she passed them, but staring at her in shock and pity.
“Indigo” Sunny whispered, but the girl in the clown costume held up a hand.
“Just leave me alone” she mumbled, her voice heavy from apathy and defeat. Sunny, Sour, Sugarcoat and Lemon watched her go by, almost looking as miserable as her.
Coming out of the office Dean Cadence walked to the principal’s side. “Isn’t this actually an even greater violation of the dressing codex?” she asked, sadly staring after the crestfallen Indigo.
“Now don’t be so nit-picky, Miss Cadenzia” the principal remarked casually, turning around and walking back into her office. Cadence was about to reply something when the door to the office was closed in front, causing the dean to frown.
Afternoon had arrived at Crystal Prep, the time when the late classes interlaced with early extra-curricular activities. At most other schools lessons were already over, but evening was still so far away the students who were lucky enough to go home had plenty of free time left. Her eye-lids half-closed Indigo stared from the sports fields over to the school building, seeing the numerous students still walking around. Some of them sneered in her direction, but the lethargic girl didn’t take notice. More than their laughs their uniforms were taunting her, the colours of the vests, skirts and pants mocking her louder than the students ever could.
“HEY!!”
Her eyes snapping open Indigo turned to the side. Roughly twelve meters away from her a girl in the sports clothes of Crystal Prep was standing, impatiently tapping with her sneakers on the grass. “Are you gonna pass the ball or what?” Mirror yelled over to her.
Indigo lowered her glance, looking past her own sports clothes down on the ball at her feet. “Oh yeah, right” she muttered, taking a step back. With remarkably little drive she kicked the ball towards Mirror. Mirror tried to take it, but the ball arrived in such a terrible ankle she could only brush its side with her foot, causing it to swirl through the air. Both girls watched it fly over the field, landing in the bushes at the edge of the school property.
Furiously Mirror glared at her captain. “What was that?” she asked snidely.
Embarrassed Indigo rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry” she apologized, putting on a nervous smile. “Feeling a little low today…”
Grunting Mirror stemmed her hands against her hips. “Well you insisted on us training today even though nobody wanted to!” she reminded her sharply. “Don’t think I’ll pity you just because you got a kick in the booty by Cinch!”
Indigo’s nervous smile turned into an annoyed frown. “Stop your rambling and just get the ball!” she told her.
“Why should I get it?” Mirror asked angrily. “It landed in the bushes because of your lame pass!”
“Maybe it was my fault, but you’re the last who touched it with her foot” Indigo argued, sounding somewhat tired.
“But-“
“Also, I’m the captain” she strictly cut off her teammate’s objection. “And I’m telling you to get it!”
Averting Indigo’s eyes Mirror crossed her arms. “Fine”, she mumbled, grumping as she marched towards the bushes.
Indigo looked after her for a moment, before her gaze went to the rest of the team. They were all practicing passes in pairs, kicking the ball from one to another. As she watched her teammates Indigo noticed none of them really seemed to be into it. They did hit the ball with the right technique, and then took it perfectly almost every time. But they all stood around with slack shoulders, a look of fatigue in their eyes. Some of them actually seemed worried – in the contours of their faces Indigo could almost see how they dreaded the unfinished school work that was waiting at home for them, and wished to get away as quickly as possible.
Indigo watched them for a few seconds, quietly observing them pass the ball without any passion like an army of robots. Turning her head around, she stared back at the students near school in their uniforms, then again at her own team in their tricots. She took in a deep breath, holding it for a moment, before she let out a loud sigh. Quickly she jogged over to Mirror, who was still mumbling to herself as she slowly walked over the field. “Hey, Mirror!” Indigo called out to her.
The green-skinned girl turned her head, glaring at her captain. “What is it?” she snapped at her.
Indigo stopped in front of Mirror, panting slightly. “Once you got the ball, you can bring it to the shelter” she told her teammate, pointing towards the building on the side of the field.
At first Mirror didn’t seem to understand, giving Indigo a weird glance. Her eyes abruptly widened, looking in irritation at her. “Wait, y-you mean…?”
Indigo nodded. “Let’s call it a day” she confirmed her suspicion. Feeling a little more confident she managed to crack a smirk. “I think we are good enough to kick those suckers’ butts big time. Just keep practicing on your passes.”
Blinking frantically Mirror stared at Indigo in disbelief. “Um, sure captain” she mumbled.
Indigo turned around, going towards where their teammates practiced. “I’m gonna tell the others” she stated. Looking back at Mirror she tried to appear assertive, but her face and the way she walked revealed her inner despondence. “Good luck with history!” she called to her teammate, holding up a hand.
Her mouth slightly open Mirror gazed after her captain, watching her walk towards the rest of the team. “Thanks” she whispered. Slowly she turned around, moving like she had been hit hard at the head. As she headed for the bushes again she didn’t notice some of the leaves were rattling slightly. From one of the bushes four heads poked out. With a sad look in their eyes they stared over to Indigo. While all of her teammates looked rather surprised when she shared the news to them the look on her own face seemed rather crestfallen, her apathy even apparent from the distance.
“Poor Indigo” Sunny sighed.
“Yeah” Lemon nodded. “I mean it’s kind of awesome to walk through school as a clown, but not like this…”
“She was lucky Dean Cadence could give her a reserve uniform before lunch” Sugarcoat stated. “Or she would have had to wear that costume for the whole day.
Sour smiled at her. “Yeah, that’s a huge relief! ” she said softly, before adding more hardly: “It’s not like everybody will keep mocking her for weeks anyway.”
The four Shadowbolts pulled back their heads, and got out of the bush. Though they were not hunkering in the leaves anymore they remained in cover, standing in the shadows of the various bushes and trees at the edge of the sports field.
“I don’t think it’s so much about the clown thing” Sunny remarked, her eyes still fixed on the blue-haired girl. “She’s probably more frustrated that her revolution failed so fast and so hard.”
Uncomfortably Lemon scratched the side of her headphones which were hanging around her neck. “Is it really over?” she asked, putting on a smile all of a sudden. “Can’t she just try again tomorrow?”
“So Cinch can humiliate her with another ridiculous costume?” Sour asked cynically. “Don’t forget that animal suit Sunny sewed together is also in the theatre funds.”
Sunny crossed her arms, pouting. “I worked really hard on that…”
“And although everyone laughed at Indigo, they all know now what will happen if they follow her” Sugarcoat stated, her voice dry and fast as usual. “Her idea to inspire the whole student body is pretty much dead.”
Quietly the four girls watched as Indigo slurped behind the rest of her team towards the changing rooms. “I can’t take this!” Lemon suddenly shouted, clenching her fists in anger. “We can’t let Cinch win! There’s gotta be something Indigo can do! I mean at the end of the real revolution everything also ended swell, and we got our liberty and stuff, right?”
“But this isn’t a real revolution!” Sugarcoat harshly reminded her.
Looking at the canopy of a tree above them Sour pondered. “Well, does anyone know what happened at the end of the real revolution?” she asked.
Sunny pulled out her smartphone from her pocket, clicking and wiping around on the touchscreen. “Apparently the civil war between the royal forces, the Puddinghead party and the deserting military went on for several years without any side gaining the upper-hand” she began to read out from the internet. “One year however a very strict and long winter strained all three fractions. Due to the land being fractured after the constant fights and split up unfavorably between them no side had the necessary resources to survive until spring. So, without the approval of their leaders the sub-commanders decided on a truce, and everybody worked together to make it through the winter. During this time members of all sides grew closer, and when spring finally arrived nobody wanted to keep fighting. A few months later the leaders eventually were able to make a compromise and agreed on a common charter. Thus, our country was born.”
Sunny put her smartphone back into her pocket. The four Shadowbolts had formed a circle, looking at each other for a moment. “Soooo… we have to make it snow really hard?” Lemon eventually suggested, causing the others to roll their eyes.
“I think what we can learn here is maybe Indigo should be a liiiittle less stubborn and try to make some sort of compromise” Sour said in friendly tone.
Sunny raised an eyebrow. “A compromise?” she repeated incredulously. “With Cinch?”
“We’d rather make it snow” Sugarcoat commented.
Sour huffed, but then lowered her glance. “Yeah, it’s pretty hopeless” she sighed, looking almost as depressed as Indigo. “You were right, Sugarcoat: Cinch won’t budge just because one student refuses to wear the uniforms.”
The other Shadowbolts also hung their heads. “Yeah” Lemon mumbled. “One student...”
After a few seconds the four girls looked up again. They exchanged glances, a certain sense of suspense lying in the air.
“We… are all thinking the same thing, aren’t we?” Sugarcoat eventually said in an unusually slow pace.
Sunny rubbed her arm. “Probably” Sunny muttered. “But I’m not sure if I like this idea…”
“Even I have a bad feeling about this” Lemon admitted, pulling slightly on her collar.
Sour took in a deep breath. “Well, if you wanna be a rebel, you have to take some risks” she quoted Indigo, adding in a soft tone: “And… I guess the same goes for friends.”
Silence fell over the group again. “Let’s head home and get ready for school tomorrow” Sunny eventually said, sounding a little melancholic, but at the same time determined. “Who knows? It might be our last day at Crystal Prep.”
Sugarcoat looked at the shining, but cold facade of their school. “That might actually not be that bad” she remarked as they began to walk away towards the street.
“If it’s fine by you , maybe you should be the one to tell my parents when we get kicked” Sour offered to her.
Lemon giggled. “Telling mine would probably be the best thing about it, just to see the look on their faces.”
The Shadowbolts kept talking as they walked, the atmosphere around them being both light-hearted and heavy at the same time. As their voices had trailed off one of the bushes suddenly began to rattle. Out of the leaves a red-haired girl in sports clothes was rising, holding a soccer ball in her hands. Staring after the silhouettes of the four girls she bit her lip, her fingers tightly clenching the hard ball.
Moving backwards Indigo stumbled through the darkness. In the shadows that surrounded her she saw the shades of various Crystal Prep students slowly approaching her. Their faces were completely veiled by the dark, except for their smirking teeth that shined bright white in their black faces. More than at their creepy smiles however Indigo stared at their clothes, the vests, skirts and pants of their school uniforms being clearly visible even in the dark. Their sneers echoed around her as the army of students bit by bit closed in to her, forcing Indigo take back step after step. Her retreat was suddenly stopped as she bumped against something behind her. Turning her head she stared up at a colossal mannequin, wearing a giant version of her own uniform. Upon the contact with her the mannequin toppled, slowly tilting forward. Indigo watched in horror as it fell down on her, the girl about to get crushed under the fabric of her own vest…
Jolting up in her bed Indigo gasped for air. Her eyes were widened fearfully, wrinkles of terror on her face as she hysterically breathed in and out. She turned her head from side to side, looking at dark blue wallpapers with yellow lightning symbols on them. Through the window on the left wall the sun streamed into her room. In the morning light the various trophies on the shelf opposite to her bed were glistening slightly. Opposite to the window was the door out of the room, and next to it her dresser. Another door next to her trophy shelf led to a small storeroom, various sports instruments spilling out through the open crack. Sports balls and other gear was lying all over the carpet on the floor, alongside some clothes. Right to her bed was a large mirror, and to the left a small night table with a lamp and clock. The alarm was ringing, Indigo obviously having overheard it in her vivid dreams.
After having calmed down Indigo shut off the alarm. Groaning she cast her blanket aside, and dragged her feet over to the edge of her mattress. Sitting on the side of her bed she rubbed her eyes, still feeling rather groggy. Half-asleep she looked down on her blue night-shorts and the black tank-top showing the same lightning symbol as the walls, before raising her gaze towards her dresser. With mixed feelings Indigo slowly got up to her bare feet, walking over a basketball to the wooden commode. She grabbed the knobs of the upper drawer, and pulled it open.
Various tops, jeans and skirts were lying more or less neatly folded in it, many of them being in a shade of blue. The clothes she had worn yesterday were lying on top, having been used for such a short time it would have made no sense to put them in the laundry. Indigo stared at them for a while, before closing the drawer with a sigh and opening the one below. Three staples, one for skirts, blouses and vests each in the colours of Crystal Prep Academy looked up at her. After staring with hanging eye-lids at them for a while she raised her glance to the goggles lying on top of her dresser. She picked them up, about to put them over her head, but then hesitated. Her shaking fingers clenched the glasses and the leather as Indigo grit her teeth. Furiously she turned around and tossed the goggles on her bed. They jumped over the mattress, almost falling off the other side. One glass and leather strap hanging from the edge they lying upside down on her blanket.
Unintended Indigo closed the drawer as she pressed herself against it. Sighing in frustration she dropped to the ground, sitting on the floor with her back leaning against the dresser. She looked up at the ceiling, fixed on the lamp hanging in the center. “What was I thinking?” she asked into the empty room, then let out a bitter laugh. “All it took Cinch to smash my ‘revolution’ was a silly clown’s costume.” She lowered her head, pulling her arms around her knees and burying her face inside them. “I’m not a rebel. I’m just the queen of losers…”
Quietly Indigo sat in her room, sulking. A loud noise caused her to look up to her window. There was smudge on the glass, as if it had been hit by something hard and dirty. A stone suddenly clashed against it, startling Indigo. More stones followed, none breaking the glass, but each causing a very loud impact. With little energy Indigo got on her feet, moving past the various objects on the floor to the window. She waited for another stone to hit the pane before she pulled it up. Fresh morning air blew into her room, giving the lightly-clothed girl a slight chill. Carefully she poked her head out of the window, already making an angry face as she expected to see some Crystal Prep students who had come to tease her.
“Yeah, yeah!” she shouted down in annoyance. “Your clown is here alright. And if you don’t want her to call the police-”
Suddenly Indigo fell silent, wincing as she saw who was standing on the lawn in front of her house.
“The stones were their idea!” Sunny made clear, pointing towards Sour and Lemon. “Sugarcoat and I wanted to call you on your phone.”
“Hey, we won paper-rock-scissors fair and square!” Lemon insisted.
“T-rex eating rock isn’t really fair” Sugarcoat interjected, sounding a little salty.
“We got her attention, that’s all that matters! ” Sour cheerfully chimed in. “So, Indigo, if you’d be so nice and come join us so we can get to school – coz it’s friggin’ cold out here!” she murmured, she and the other three girls pulling their arms around their bodies and shivering slightly.
Indigo looked down on her friends. The morning light was dim, and she was on the first floor, yet she could clearly see each of them. For a moment she silently stood at her window, unsure how to feel about what she was staring at.
A sly look in her eyes she then cracked a smirked. “Be there in a minute!” she called down to them. Closing her window she leapt over to her dresser, opening the upper drawer. “Just got to get dressed…”
As soon as it dawned Crystal Prep Academy was filled by dozens of students roaming the crystalline hallways. Murmurs and sneers were echoing through the corridors, small groups of students talking to each other. Most of the students had already rolled in when the doors to the school suddenly swung open. A few students in the entrance hall turned their gaze, their eyes widening at what they saw. They began to point at the five girls standing in the door, who didn’t take a step into the school as if to present themselves. In a matter of seconds the conversations had died off, all the boys and girls staring startled at them.
With a proud sway in their stride the girls walked through the hall into a corridor, silently followed by the gaze of the other students. As they passed the lockers everyone they came by grew silent and froze, some even dropping their books. The eyes of the students turned to them as if they were attracting them like a magnet.
Confidently they moved through the school, walking directly towards the office of the principal. As if they were expected Principal Cinch was standing in front of the door, Dean Cadence at her side. Hands on her back the principal looked calm, but strict, while the dean seemed more concerned, though she couldn’t hide a slight smile at the sight of the girls. They stepped up to the two adults, striking sassy poses in front of them.
On the right side was Sunny Flare, showing her shoulder to the heads of the school. She was wearing a short summer dress with a ruffled hem, alongside a mini-vest over it and a pair of stiletto high-heels on her feet. Next to her was Lemon, a devious look on her face. On her spread-out legs she wore jeans with holes at the knees and ripped at the ankles, showing her bare feet in her sandals. Matching her pants she also wore a jeans jacket, and underneath a cropped T-shirt with a skull symbol on the chest. On the left side was Sugarcoat with her arms crossed, clad in a hooded sweat-shirt, a knee-long skirt, a pair of leggings underneath and rather thick boots. Sour Sweet, mimicking the look of an innocent little girl with her hands behind her back, was dressed in a tiny T-shirt and a long-sleeved undershirt, alongside small hot-pants, striped socks reaching up to them and some simple slippers. In the middle of them Indigo was standing, wearing the same clothes as the day before, her fists stemmed against her sides as she and the others smirked at the principal. All of their clothes were coloured in some shade of blue, reaching from aquamarine to deep sea hues.
All other students around quickly left the hallway. Cinch didn’t move a muscle, except for her eyeballs. Thoroughly she inspected each of the girls from head to toe, giving them a disapproving glance. “I should be surprised, but frankly, I am not” she eventually took the first words. “Since the friendship games I had the feeling you five girls would turn into troublemakers. Seeing the rest of you all join Miss Zap’s ridiculous ‘revolution’ only confirms my suspicion.”
With big puppy eyes Sour smiled at their principal. “That’s so charming! ” she cooed at her. “You don’t know how happy it makes us to have lived up to your expectations! That’d make us the first students ever, right?” she cynically added.
The principal grumped at Sour. “A witty remark will not help your situation, Miss Sweet.”
“Principal Cinch” Cadence tried to ease the situation with a pleading look on her face. “We really shouldn’t make hasty deci-”
The raised hand of the principal cut her off. “No more softness, Miss Cadenzia” she told her. Furrowing her brows, she leaned forward to Indigo, looking her straight in the eyes. “I gave Miss Zap a fair chance, but she decided to throw it away.” Indigo didn’t give in to her glare, staring back at her with the same intensity. “What’s even worse” Cinch continued while looking over the other four girls “she convinced other students to participate in her violation of the rules!”
“She didn’t convince us into anything” Sugarcoat made clear.
“Yeah!” Lemon confirmed, taking a step forward. “We’re here because we’re her friends!”
“And no humiliating theatre costume can threaten us to leave her side!” Sunny declared, all four girls forming a half circle around Indigo.
The sheltered student happily smiled at her friends, before looking back at the principal. Cinch didn’t seem impressed in the least, throwing casual glances down on the five Shadowbolts. “Very well” she said calmly. “If you all insist on staying at the side of Miss Zap, then it would only be fair you all share her punishment.”
Indigo stood up to Chinch, almost stepping on Cinch’s toes. “You can’t scare us” she told her straight up. “Maybe I can’t change the school all on my own, but with the help of my friends, you’re gonna be the one who’s got to give in at the end!” she finished, pointing her finger up at her face.
Cold eyes stared down on her. “Bark as much as you want” Cinch whispered, a slightly smug ring in her voice. “You might be the captain of several sports teams, but don’t think because of that I won’t expel you.” She raised her arm, moving her hand over the hallway. “This school is filled with exceptional athletes!” she declared proudly. “I can easily find a replacement for you.”
“But can you also find a replacement for the whole soccer team?” a female voice suddenly interjected.
Surprised everyone stared down the hallway. More than a dozen girls were marching into their direction. Their footsteps echoed through the corridor, a mixture of loud boots and high-heels as well as soft slippers and sandals. None of them were wearing the Crystal Prep uniform, instead being dressed completely in blue clothes. The sight of the blue battalion seemed to shock the principal, causing her to adjust her glasses. After the surprise had settled Indigo broke out into a big smile, her eyes shining brightly. Led by Mirror Sheen the soccer team took position next to their captain, confidently smirking at Cinch.
Once she had digested the shock Cinch’s face took on a furious look. She opened her mouth, but just as she was about to speak, another female voice from the other side of the hallway cut in: “Or for the entire rowing team?”
Cinch turned her head, nearly fainting at the sight of another blue-clothed group of girls walking towards her office.
“Or for the motocross team?” another voice called from the other side again, and from around the corner another blue squad appeared.
From all sides groups of female students began to stream to the principal’s office. Cinch could only watch in horror as they all took position at the side of Indigo, whose smile only grew with each sports team that came to support her. When the last one had rolled in a huge bulk of students had assembled at her side, filling out most of the space of the large hallway. The students stood in front of the principal, like a wall built out of blue bricks.
And one green brick.
“Sorry” the girl in the olive shirt said, sheepishly rubbing her head. “I don’t have any blue tops…”
With a whole army at her back Indigo seemed even more sure of herself. “So, still think you can find a replacement for me that easily?” she asked, grinning from ear to ear.
Desperately Cinch stared over the blue rebels. The majority of Crystal Prep’s female athletes had assembled, alongside a few of the male students from mixed teams. “This… this is a scandal!” she yelled, sounding both furious and helpless at the same time. “You are staining the good name of our school! I will… I will see every single one of you punished for this! I will…”
“What will you do?” Lemon chimed into her speech, putting on a cocky grin. “Kick us all out?”
The angered look on the principal’s face indicated she would very well have liked to. Before she could raise her voice however the dean tucked her at her shoulder. “Principal Cinch” she whispered into her ear “I think it’s best if we discuss this situation calmly in your office and try to find a solution that’s the best for all sides.”
Cinch brushed off the dean’s hand. “I will not negotiate with troublemakers!” she told her sternly, shocked by the proposal.
“Then what will you do?” Cadence asked, curiously raising an eye-brow at her. “Since they are all violating the dressing codex, we would have to punish them the same way. But you know very well we can’t expel such a large number of students or put them in detention without getting into trouble with the parents or the school board. Also, these are members from most of our female and mixed sports teams, and we are in the middle of the season!” Cadence folded her arms in front of her chest. “They might be breaking the rules, but for the benefit of the student body and Crystal Prep’s reputation, talking things over with them is really the best option we have!”
Though she was obviously not of the same opinion as her dean Cinch’s expression calmed slightly. She turned her gaze back down on Indigo, who still saw a glimmer of rage burning in her yes. “Into my office!” Cinch demanded, pointing at the door behind her. “Now!”
Cinch and Cadence vanished into her office. Indigo was about to follow, when Sunny grabbed her arm. “Don’t overdo it, okay?” the girl in the summer dress harshly insisted.
Smiling Indigo put off her hand. “Relax” she said to her and the others as she walked over the doorstep. “I know what I’m doing!” With a wink she closed the door behind her, leaving her rebel army in the corridor.
“She has no idea what she’s doing” Sugarcoat stated flatly.
Sour rolled her eyes. “You don’t say?”
Standing in front of the principal’s office the students quietly waited. With each second that passed uneasiness and worry began to overcome them. Occasionally voices were getting louder inside the office, but they couldn’t make out a word that was spoken. Finally, the door opened again. Everybody expectantly looked at Indigo as she stepped into the hallway, who looked back at them with an undefinable expression.
Suddenly she cracked a big grin. “The chains are busted!” she declared, proudly holding her fist up.
The revolutionary army broke out into loud cheers, also raising their fists.
“At least on Fridays” she added more modestly.
Everybody stopped, looking a little confused at Indigo.
“We worked out a compromise” Cadence explained as she appeared behind Indigo, closing the door behind her. She seemed rather cheerful, holding a staple of documents under her arm. “Principal Cinch agreed to introduce the concept of a ‘Casual Friday’ to Crystal Prep Academy. She is currently preparing the announcement, while I will go through the paperwork. It should be done before lunch, so by tomorrow the new rule will be in effect. The dress code still remains from Monday to Thursday, but on Fridays” she said while contently smiling at the blue rebels “the students are free to wear what they want!”
The students broke out into jubilation again. “And of course, you may walk around in these clothes for the rest day” the dean added, though her voice was drowned by the loud cheers of the students. Indigo looked at her rebels. Her usually grumpy teammates celebrated together, bumping fists and even hugging each other in the joy of their victory. Staring at them she suddenly felt a shadow being cast on her, almost jumping in surprise as she saw the dean leaning over her.
“As for you, Miss Zap” she said sternly, before her expression softened “I am looking forward to your next report.” She winked at Indigo, before turning around and walking down the hallway towards her own office.
With a smile Indigo looked after her, before turning to the other students. Everybody was looking at her, many of them holding a hand on their hips or crossing their arms as they smirked at their captain. “You guys…” She had to pause for a moment, rubbing her eye. “I can’t believe you did this!”
“Thank Mirror for it!” one girl from the rowing team yelled, pointing with her thumb at the amaranth-haired girl.
“Yeah!” one of the soccer players agreed. “She convinced us and the other teams into this!”
Mirror Sheen, wearing a blue skirt and blouse shrugged. “What can I say?” she said with a cheeky ring in her voice. “I just overheard your friends talking about your revolution, and we all agreed we couldn’t let you take the fame all by yourselves.”
Indigo returned the smug grin, before her expression became one of genuine gratitude. “Thanks, Mirror” she said to her, then let her gaze wander over all the students in the hallway. “All of you. With your help, even if it’s just by a little, we were able to change this school!”
Once more the rebellious group cheered at their leader. When things had calmed down Mirror stepped up to her, looking a little flustered. “Hey, um, that offer to meet at Joe’s doughnut bar – is it still up?” she asked shyly.
Indigo frowned at the girl who had dumped her once at that place. The suddenly stern look made Mirror wince. “Five o’ clock, under the swirling donut sign” Indigo replied, and Mirror immediately relaxed. “And everybody is invited to join!” she then happily shouted through the hallway.
There was another uproar going through the blue mass of students (and the one with the green shirt). Arms were put around shoulders as the students began to leave, talking and chatting with one another as they got on the way to their classrooms. Indigo watched the assembly of students dissolve, with the exception of four girls who remained at her side.
“That was really amazing, Indigo! ” Sour praised her. “I never would have thought Cinch would give in to a compromise – or you, on that matter.”
Lowering her head Indigo rubbed her neck. “Don’t thank me too much for this” she admitted a little embarrassed. “It was mostly Dean Cadence who convinced Cinch. If she hadn’t kept me on a leash, all of us would have walked out of here as clowns.”
Her friends giggled. “I have one question, though” Sunny then said more seriously. “You wanted to inspire the whole student body, but you never directly asked any of us for help. Why?”
Looking even more embarrassed Indigo shrugged. “I… guess I didn’t want you to get into trouble.”
Sour and Sunny immediately let out an “Aww”, while Sugarcoat rolled her eyes. “Well too bad for you!” Lemon suddenly shouted, startling Indigo as she jumped at her from behind and pulled her arms over her shoulders. “Cause dragging each other into trouble is what friends are supposed to do! Speaking of which: Friday night’s gonna be SO SICK!!” she yelled, letting go off Indigo as she jumped towards the ceiling. “I mean we can hop right over to the disco without needing to change first! IS THAT AWESOME OR WHAT?!”
“I don’t think the disco’s gonna be open before 6 o’clock” Sugarcoat remarked, although it was questionable if the dancing girl was listening to her.
Indigo looked at her friends in their blue clothes they had only put on for her sake. “Thank you guys” she told them. Again Indigo stemmed her hands against her hips, her chin held high as she spread her legs with a proud grin on her face. “If there is one thing I learned today, it’s that when the Shadowbolts of Crystal Prep work together, there is nothing they can’t accomplish!”
Amused Sunny chuckled under her hand. Just then the bell to the first lesson rang. “Come, oh great commander!” she playfully said to her, turning in the direction of their classroom. “It’s time to put your knowledge about real revolutions to the test.”
Indigo remained in her pose, her smile frozen on her face.
“…You completely forgot about the history test, didn’t you?”
“Shut up.”
Author's Note
Thank you for reading the story
You can find the epilogue with the friendship report here