Sonata flopped her face down on Principal Luna’s desk, looking up with sad eyes. “I’m not failing on purpose, I promise! I’ve just never really been that smart! Even Adagio and Aria think so!”
Luna, facing away from her, rolled her eyes. I wonder why… She turned back and sat down opposite her. “Sonata, just because you believe that, doesn’t mean you can’t put in the effort. Everyone has potential inside of them, but you won’t get anywhere if you don’t try. And you know if you don’t pass the end of year exams, you will have to redo your senior year.”
“But it’s so hard!” Sonata whined. “I don’t understand all these facts and complicated words and languages!” She cried, placing her hands over her eyes.
“Hmmm.” Luna pushed a box of tissues towards her, letting the siren blow her nose loudly. “You say that, but…” She pushed forward her test score for history. “This is rather impressive, Sonata.”
The upset siren looked down at her score. “B–But I was there for all those events. That shouldn’t count.”
“Every score counts, advantage or not. But that’s not it. It’s the fact that you remembered these events that’s impressive.” Luna knotted her fingers together, leaning forward. “Tell me, have you ever asked your siblings if they can remember who reigned supreme after the Norman invasion of England they experienced just less than 1000 years ago?”
“The Normans, or more specifically, King William. He was so cute when he was young,” Sonata gushed, smiling happily.
Luna cleared her throat. “Right, very well done. Anyways, I know for a fact that you didn’t study at all before hand. You have an amazing memory, Sonata. Now we just need someone who can help you understand what you need to remember…” She placed a hand under her chin in thought.
Sonata blinked. “What are you thinking?”
“Of course, we need someone to tutor you,” Luna said, moving back on her chair and standing up, flicking through her student records. She stopped at S, and with a smile, closed the drawer. She sat back down, fingers knotting together again, looking towards Sonata. “And I know just the one.”
Sonata’s pupils shrunk. “Oh no.”
Sonata bit into her nachos, hands shaking and feet shuffling constantly as she waited at one of the tables in the empty library. Strictly speaking, eating was banned in the library, but nobody else was around, aside from Vice Principal Luna and her partly late tutor, and Sonata was too nervous to care.
She looked around, but there was still no sign of her. Sonata had high expectations on her tutor’s knowledge, but...she didn’t exactly think being late was the best way to go.
Suddenly, the library door burst open, and Sonata jumped, her eyes darting towards the girl with bacon coloured hair, who was undoubtedly out of breath.
Apparently, she wasn’t the only one breaking rules.
“Running in the hallway, are we?” Sonata said, leaning forward.
“Hush, Siren,” Sunset said with a half smile, rolling her eyes, “did you want me to take longer?”
Sonata’s eyes widened and a guilty look formed on her face. “I guess not.”
Sunset sat down next to her, dumping her bag on the ground. “And look at you, eating…” she trailed off, giving her a strange look. “Is that...nachos?”
“What?” Sonata said, swallowing. “I like other Mexican food too, you know!”
“Right, right,” Sunset said, pulling out a bunch of textbooks. “What should we start with first?”
Sonata’s mouth almost fell open from shock, but she kept her composure. “Uh…” she pulled out one of her exercise books. “Well, the most confusing thing would have to be all those letters and tiny numbers combined to make some odd sum that you somehow have to work out without knowing what the letters actually mean.”
Sunset slowly raised an eyebrow. “You mean algebra.”
Sonata grinned awkwardly. “Uh, yeah. I knew that.”
Sunset chuckled and dragged over her Maths text book from the middle of the pile. She flipped it open and dragged her finger over the contents page to read it, then flicked to page 127. “Alright, well, Algebra, in its most general form, is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics."
“And uh, what exactly is unifying?” Sonata tilted her head, confused.
“Something that brings everything else together — makes it united,” Sunset said, looking at one of the sums on the page.
“Okay, so the tiny numbers above are called indices, and their purpose is like a replacement for multiplying something by itself, so say you have the number two, and it has a small two above it, you’d multiply the bigger two by itself, in this case, two, again. So you’d have the number four,” Sunset explained.
Sonata nodded slowly. “That’s a lot of two’s.”
“It’s the first number that pops into everyone’s head, really,” Sunset said. “So, did you get that?”
“I think so, but just incase...tell me the whole thing again, you lost me,” Sonata said quickly.
Sunset let out a groan of frustration. “Okay, so as I said, the numbers above are used to indicate that you have to multiply the number by itself — that’s why they’re called indices. If the number above is a two, you multiply the number below by itself only once, if the number above is a three, you multiply the number below three times by itself, and so on.”
“I think I’m getting it now! But what does this have to do with the letters?” Sonata asked.
“Well, with the letters, the indices have the same job, but you obviously can’t multiply the letter “x”. So you have to know what “x” actually is in order to work it out,” Sunset said, turning towards her. “But that’s easy stuff. You’ve been learning all about expanding and factorising, right?”
“Yeah, but the whole thing just sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me. I don’t understand it at all,” Sonata said, gripping the ends of her hair.
“It’s alright,” Sunset said, placing a hand on her shoulder, “that’s why I’m here to help. Now, expanding and factorising is the conversion of a set of numbers from one way to another. Expanding, um, expands the numbers in the brackets by multiplying them with FOIL — First, Outside, Inside, Last — then simplifying them. Factorising is the opposite, separating the group numbers to the brackets by finding the HCF — Highest Common Factor — and finding out the number that when other numbers are multiplied by, it equals, uh...more numbers.”
Sonata stared ahead at her, taking in all of the information that came from Sunset’s lips. It was slightly shocking that she could understand and comprehend everything that she was saying, compared to when the teacher described it. Sonata didn’t know what she was so worried about! This was going to be easy!
“Now then,” Sunset said, “try and work these out.”
...Or not. Sonata stared blankly ahead at the sums, while Sunset turned to this week's homework they had to complete. She wanted to ask her for help, but closed her mouth before the words could come out. Sunset was busy, and Sonata could work this out if she just put her mind to to it. She placed her pencil against the piece of paper, and scanned through the sums as best she could.
Alright, two times eight equals sixteen, and two times twelve equals, uh… Sonata tapped her pencil against her chin, right, twenty-four! So that’s sixteen times twenty four equal to A, open bracket, B plus six, closed bracket. A times B equals, uh, AB and A times six equals 6A. She grinned and scribbled down the answer, holding up the book proudly. “Done!”
Sunset closed her book and checked the time. “Great. That took you a whole hour and ten minutes,” she said.
“Oh…” Sonata said, looking down.
“It’s alright! There’s still a fair few weeks till the end of the year,” Sunset said, looking through her paper. “Well, despite the time, this is pretty good! Only a couple of questions wrong!” She took Sonata’s book. “I’ll make up some more sums so you can keep working on them at home. Then tomorrow, we’ll start with fractions.”
“Okay!” Sonata said, clapping her hands together. She was suddenly feeling a lot more confident than before. She could do this!
“I can not do this,” Sonata said to herself, flopping down on the kitchen table.
“Seriously?” Aria said, peering over her shoulder. “I’m pretty sure that’s Grade 9 work, at most.”
“Uh huh,” Sonata said, “and just how well do you think you can do it, huh?”
“Better than you,” Aria said, opening the fridge and grabbing herself a can of cola.
“Oh yeah! Well, we’ll see about that!” Sonata stood up, pointing at her. “Lunch time, Friday, you and me. Person with the highest score wins!”
“I don’t have time for your silly competitions, Sonata,” Aria said, taking a sip.
“I think you’re just afraid you’ll lose,” Sonata said, folding her arms.
Aria almost spat out her drink. “What? No way! I refuse to lose to an idiot like you! I accept!”
“I’m not an idiot, I’ll show you! You’re on!” Sonata yelled back.
Adagio rolled her eyes and turned away to the stairs. “You’re both just as idiotic as each other,” she muttered, plugging her fingers in her ears as the two carried on.
Sonata placed down the finished sums in front of Sunset, grinning proudly.
Sunset scanned over the paper, her face showing signs of disbelief. “Sonata… you only got three of them right.”
“What?!” Sonata said, shocked. She melted onto the table. “But I tried so hard!” she grumbled and folded her arms. “I bet it was all Aria’s fault.”
“Aria?” Sunset said, raising an eyebrow. “She riled you up, didn’t she?”
“Well, she did get me pretty mad by saying she could do better than me, so I absent-mindedly suggested a contest and she agreed,” Sonata said, shrinking lower in her seat.
“What?” Sunset said, almost looking angry. “Sonata, you shouldn’t do things like that. It’ll only get you more riled up.”
“B–But, if I go back now, Aria will call me a chicken and declare herself the winner. I have to do this!” Sonata said, looking up at her hopefully.
Sunset sighed, placing a hand on her forehead. She couldn’t resist those eyes. “Alright, fine, I’ll help you with the contest. Just please promise me you won’t do this again.”
Sonata smiled. “Thank you! I promise!”
Sunset half smiled, opening up her text book again. “Alright, now let’s go over this one more time…”
Sonata walked up to Sunset at lunch, clutching her exercise book to her chest, she sat down next to her. “So, um, I need a little bit of help with question seven…”
“Now?” Sunset said, frowning in confusion.
“Well, yeah. I mean, I would’ve asked you this afternoon, but I just saw you, and I thought it would be okay. Also, we only really see each other for school stuff! We should hang out sometimes, you know? Go shopping or catch a movie or something! Ooh, we should totally celebrate when I beat Aria this Friday!” Sonata said, grinning, as she flipped open her book.
Sunset placed down her sandwich. “You know, you shouldn’t fill yourself with too much confidence; it’ll be a really hard hit if you don’t actually beat her.”
Sonata’s face drooped as she turned towards her. “Y–You don’t think I’ll win?”
Sunset frantically waved her hands about. “N–No, that’s not what I meant! Of course you will!”
“Yay!” Sonata said, hugging her. Sunset looked around awkwardly, unseen by the siren.
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous Dusk,” Aria said, walking up in front of the two. “You won’t stand a chance against me.”
“And what makes you think that? Your grades haven’t exactly been the best either,” Sonata said, standing up.
“Sonata…” Sunset said, but she ignored her, glaring at Aria.
“Hmmm… I think you’ll find them massively improving in the span of the next two days,” Aria said, smirking, she turned around, heading towards the seats where a purple haired girl with glasses sat, skimming her eyes across what seemed to be a college maths text book.
“Hmmm,” Sonata said, sitting back down, her arms folded. “She’s so full of herself.”
“And she has all the knowledge to be,” Sunset said, staring ahead at Aria and the girl she sat with.
“What?” Sonata said, turning to face where she was looking. “Hey, who's that girl?”
Sunset sighed and leaned back against the back of the chair. “Twilight Sparkle. She joined Canterlot a few weeks before you guys did, and she’s already top of every class, even Physical Education. She’s been topping her classes since she was five years old, and now she’s in grade twelve at the age of fifteen, having skipped three years of school for her over-the-top test scores. Technically, she’s already graduated, but her sister-in-law insisted she redo grade twelve in hopes of her making some friends. Yeah, that worked out so well. This is the first time I’ve seen her even talk to someone. Wonder how Aria got her out of her shell…” Sunset said, frowning in confusion. “But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you’re going to have to work twice as hard if you ever want a chance to beat her.”
“Eh???” Sonata said, pouting.
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Or you could just admit defeat…”
Sonata shook her head quickly. “No. I started this, and I’m gonna finish it. And win it.”
Sunset smiled and handed her back the paper. “Remember, when you have two of the same letter, you combine them to make a².”
“Got it!” Sonata said, carrying on happily.
Aria grinned as she scanned her eyes down her marked sheet; all answers correct. She turned to Twilight, who, with no expression, held out her hand. Aria rolled her eyes and looked around, before digging into her pocket and pulling out twenty dollars, handing it to Twilight.
“Here. Don’t spend it all in one place,” she said, standing up. “I’ll see you tomorrow nerdy.”
“The name’s Twilight,” she said, “it’s the least you can do.”
“I’m paying you!” Aria said, frowning.
“And I’m going out of my way to help you study for some silly little contest that won’t really mean much in the end,” Twilight said, packing up her books.
“Fair point,” Aria said, smirking. “Well, it does mean a lot to me, so fifty bucks if you do both fractions and quadratics tomorrow.”
“Done,” Twilight said, taking out her lunch.
“Sweet. See you then,” Aria said, heading off.
Unknown to the both of them, Sunset frowned from behind the nearby tree. “That dirty little cheat…”
“She’s paying her to do what?” Sonata said, her hands slamming on the table.
“I mean it, she’s paying Twilight to tutor her. What a great ‘friendship’,” Sunset said, flipping through the book.
“Sunset, are you sure I can do this?” Sonata asked.
“Of course you can!” Sunset said, half grinning. “We’ll show that Aria who’s boss, Twilight or not. You have a chance.”
“Yay! Thank you Sunset!” Sonata said happily.
Sunset smiled, then changed to a serious look. “But not so much if we don’t get on with it. Let’s start with page 132,” she said, moving the book over a bit.
“Alright!” Sonata said, picking up her pencil.
Sonata yawned as she lay across her bedroom floor on her stomach, frowning as she focused on answering the questions in front of her. She felt competitive, but calm as she answered question after question, the answers coming much more easily to her.
“Sonata!” Adagio’s voice came from downstairs. “Dinner’s ready!”
Sonata dropped her pencil and was about to head downstairs, when she noticed the large pile of papers next to the one she had been working on. Ignoring her stomach, she shook her head and sat back down. “I–I’ll come down later! You can start without me!” she replied, carrying on. She had to get this done tonight.
A couple of hours later, Sonata shook her hand and looked at the last few couple of pages. She could get them done, no sweat. But for now, she felt compelled to get something to eat. She grabbed her pencil and the paper and headed down the stairs.
The kitchen was dark and deserted when she went in, so she assumed the other’s had already gone to bed. That, and considering the fact that it was almost past midnight. Sonata looked into the fridge, and saw her dinner sitting inside, but decided to grab herself an apple instead. She had to hurry up and finish this off and get to bed. She had no time to heat up and eat all of that, because by then it would be at least one o’clock in the morning. She munched into it as she carried on with her homework.
Once she had finished, she shook her sore hand, and bit into the apple. Her eyelids dropped and she arched her back, slowly sinking down onto the table. The apple rolled out of her hand as she fell asleep right then and there.
Sonata jolted awake to the door slamming shut in front of her. She looked up to see Adagio heading out the door, presumably following after Aria.
“G–Guys! Why didn’t you wake me up?” she squealed, rushing upstairs. She quickly shoved herself into her clothes and pulled on her shoes as she bounced towards the stairs. Rushing down. She looked around frantically as she shoved all of her stuff in her bag, running to the bathroom with it on her back as she brushed her hair and teeth, sticking it up into a rather messy ponytail. She noticed, but ignored the sleep under her eyes as she rushed back downstairs, grabbed yet another apple and raced outside.
Sonata went to run off, but stopped abruptly in her tracks when she heard the door click behind her. She blinked and looked back, seeing Aria and Adagio standing inside, the former laughing so hard tears were beginning to form in her eyes.
Sonata tilted her head, confused, she tried to pull at the door, but it was locked. She folded her arms and turned around in frustration. It was only then she noticed that the sun had barely gone over the horizon. She mentally kicked herself for falling for such a prank so quickly. Had she been paying attention, she could’ve averted this. Sighing, she started to walk down the road, kicking pebbles. No point in arguing now, it wouldn’t change anything.
“Don’t you think this was a bit over the top?” Adagio said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.
“What’s ‘over the top’ on April Fools?” Aria said, placing down her maths book and turning to her. “Besides, she totally had it coming.”
“That’s the thing,” Adagio said, “she didn’t. Everything we’ve done to her, ever, has been for no reason whatsoever. It has nothing to do with revenge or anything like that. We just do it because we feel like it, and that’s honestly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m blaming this one on you, Aria, and everything before it.” She turned around and made her way up the stairs.
Aria stayed silent for a bit, then turned away, folding her arms. “W-Whatever! I don’t care what happens to that idiot! I do what I wanna do and that’s that!”
“Be quiet and get back to your ‘algebra’ or whatever that science thing is called,” Adagio called out from her room.
“It’s maths!” Aria replied, groaning and plonking herself down on the kitchen chair.
Sonata curled up in a ball at the bottom of the statue, flicking through her maths book. She studied through the questions she had already finished and decided to add a few herself to complete. Well, not like there was anything better to do. She tried her best to concentrate, but with the mild gusts of wind constantly flipping the pages of her book, that wasn’t much of an option. She sighed and leaned back, staring up at the sky. Well, she could just try and go back to sleep. She moved around to try and get comfortable on the statue, and closed her eyes.
Truth be told, she really just lay there with her eyes closed. Sonata gained no extra sleep from then until her study partner bent down in front of her, shaking her shoulder.
“Hey, Sonata. You up?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah…” Sonata said, opening her eyes and sitting up. “I couldn’t get to sleep.”
“No kidding, you’re lying on a stone statue,” Sunset said, helping her up. “What are you doing out here anyway, and so early?”
Sonata folded her arms and looked down in annoyance. “Aria and Adagio tricked me into believing I was gonna be late for school, then locked me out of the house.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “That’s a lame prank. My idea of painting my adopted sister like a chicken while she slept was so much better. Even though she screamed at me for half an hour, at least.”
“Huh? Why did you—” Sonata cut herself off, confused. She looked around, and could see loads of people either coloured weirdly, dressed weirdly, or simply blushing or yelling like crazy at someone.
Sonata blinked. “It can’t be…”
“April Fools!” Aria called out, laughing again as she walked past her.
“Ugh….” Sonata groaned, flopping back on the grass. “I really need to get a calendar.”
Sonata pulled her book out of her bag as she sat down on the lunch table next to Sunset, letting out a quiet yawn.
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You know, we don’t have to work on this now. We could just sit down and eat lunch for once. Or, you could.”
“It’s fine, I’m not hungry,” Sonata said, but that may have been a lie. Well, not like Sunset would ever find out.
“Still, this is lunchtime. You’re supposed to eat at lunchtime,” Sunset said, frowning.
“Thanks for that, Captain Obvious. Really, I’m fine. I have to work hard, or I won’t be able to beat Aria,” Sonata said, placing her hand on Sunset’s bag. “May I?”
“Whatever,” Sunset said, taking a bite of her peanut butter and golden syrup sandwich. She swallowed, stopping before she was about to take another bite. “What’s so important about beating Aria anyway?”
“It’s simple. All my life she’s always called me an idiot, acting like she’s better and smarter than me. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but normal people get pretty sick of it after five days. Have them try one thousand years. Anyway, this might not stop her, but at least if I beat her, I can prove everything she said is wrong,” Sonata said, frowning in concentration.
“And then what?” Sunset asked, but the siren seemed to be paying no attention to her anymore. She sighed and finished her sandwich. She shouldn’t be upset, since working this hard would massively improve her grades, but Sunset could tell the girl was hungry and tired just by looking at her. She wanted to help her, but everytime she opened her mouth, she closed it again immediately after. If Sonata had been ignoring her before, there wouldn’t be much chance of her listening now.
Aria looked around the cafeteria, spotting Twilight in the corner. She made her way through the seats towards her, sitting down next to her. She frowned a little at the slightly softer feeling, but ignored it. It was probably just her. Aria placed down her lunch tray and started eating, constantly turning to look at Twilight. After a while, the nerd turned to face her as well.
“What?” she said.
Aria swallowed. “Is it just me, or does the seat feel a bit softer than before?”
Twilight shrugged, popping a few grapes in her mouth. “Pretty sure it’s you.”
Aria raised an eyebrow, but shrugged as well and went back to eating. She looked around at Sonata, who was furiously scribbling away at her maths. Aria smirked. Slow and steady wins the race Sonata.
The bell rang when Aria was half way through the maths page (in the time Sonata had done about five), and she packed up, standing up.
...Although she didn’t. She tried again, but was pulled back down to the seat. She frowned deeply in annoyance and looked down.
Oh no. Oh no. As stupid as the prank sounded, Aria had totally fallen for it.
Somebody had spread honey on her seat. And she didn’t need to be a genius to know who it was.
After at least ten minutes of scraping the stuck Aria off her seat, Twilight never wanted to encounter honey again in her life. Personally, she’d found the whole thing a little bit amusing, and did have a slight bit of disappointment that no-one had tried this on her. But whatever. She didn’t need to be pranked to go to college or anything.
Though she could definitely imagine the look on her sister-in law’s face when she told her she hadn’t even tried, she didn’t really seem to care.
Or did she? It was confusing even for Twilight herself. Since she had started teaching this Aria, she’d been seeing different points of view she didn’t want to. Like how boring her life was from someone else’s point of view. She had somehow succeeded to picture herself as someone else, looking at someone who sat by herself, studying twenty four seven and never getting involved with anyone else and missing out on so much in life. Twilight wasn’t ready to give it a shot, but she had to admit the whole thing sounded a bit depressing.
But she could live without it. It wasn’t a necessity. She wasn’t depressed, she just simply had no need for friends.
But still…
Twilight shook her head. No, she wasn’t going there. She was going to finish this year, head on to college, and never have to speak to anyone her again. (Well, aside from her family.)
On that note, Twilight picked up her bag and marched out of the cafeteria to her next class.
Sonata yawned in the middle of her test, made and given to her by Sunset, who raised an eyebrow.
“Sonata, I understand you want to beat her, but I really think you should slow down and get some rest,” Sunset said, but the girl carried on, gleaming happily when she finished, handing it to Sunset.
“Oh, sorry, did you say something?” Sonata asked innocently, and Sunset just sighed.
“Nothing. Never mind,” she said, going through her answers. “Alright, it’s not nothing. Look, Sonata, every question right. You’re going to be fine. But I really think you should get home and rest.”
Sonata opened her mouth to object, but one word flashed in her mind.
Lie.
“Alright then…” she said, yawning again and standing up. “Thanks for all your help, Sunset. I promise to sleep, if you say so.” She stood up and, slinging her bag over her shoulder, she trundled out of the library.
No way, Sonata thought, spreading out the book Sunset had given her, along with her own. I can’t risk losing. She carried on into the night, while one certain purple siren slept the whole time, a winning smile already on her face.
Sonata took a deep breath as she walked downstairs in the morning — Friday morning. Aria was already looking towards her with a wide grin.
“Prepare to be shot down. You have no chance against me,” Aria said.
“That’s what…” — yawn — “you think,” Sonata finished, plonking down on the table. “I am an…” — another yawn — “eternal flame… baby…”
“Uh, huh, sure. I can see my win already,” Aria said, smirking as she swung the fridge door open.
“Alright! I’m ready!” Sonata said to Sunset, heading towards the cafeteria.
“Are you sure? Sonata, you look like you haven’t slept in months? Did you really do what I said yesterday?” Sunset asked, heading to the cafeteria with her.
“Of course I did,” Sonata replied with a yawn. At 2 o’clock in the morning. “I’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know. I really think you shouldn’t do this…” Sunset said.
“No way, no how! I’m gonna do this, if it’s the last thing I do!” Sonata said, marching in.
That sounds more serious than it should… Sunset thought, running after her a little.
Sonata sat down in front of Aria, frowning competitively.
“Already riled up, I see,” Aria said. “Well, what are we waiting for?”
Sunset sighed and opened up her bag, pulling out two test papers she had put together over the last couple of days. “Alright, let’s get this over with. For this test, you’re only allowed a pencil and eraser, nothing else. You have until lunch ends. Person with the highest score wins, and I’ll announce it in the library after school.” Her little announcement had already attracted the attention of a few nearby students. Oddly enough, they seemed to be picking sides. The girls of the group stood behind Sonata, while the guys went over behind Aria.
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Alright. Pencils at the ready,” she said, “and begin!”
Sonata opened up the test booklet and furiously began writing. Immediately, Sunset had a bad feeling about this. She got Sonata’s attention, and acted out taking a deep breath.
Sonata copied her action, and she had to admit, it helped her calm down a bit. She turned back to her paper, and the answers flowed out of her. She was about half way through the test, but at that point, the words in front of it started to blur. She squinted her eyes, and it just made enough difference for her to keep going, but only for now. It was hard to tell, but her vision was making it hard to see all of the questions, as some blended into others. As time dragged on, she felt her head ache, but she carried on, unaware that she was missing every second question.
Sunset couldn’t help but stare at both their papers as they went on. While Aria answered each question without struggle, Sonata seemed to be skipping questions, way too constant to be on purpose. She frowned, and although she wanted to stop her, she felt it’d be pointless — Sonata would object.
It’s okay, Sunset. Ten minutes. Ten minutes and this will all be over.
Sonata sighed in relief as she reached the end of the test paper. She smiled happily, having finished first.
Now it was time to worry. She rubbed her eyes, but it didn’t change a thing. Neither when she closed them for a few seconds. Infact, it felt like it was going worse. She swore she could see three Arias in front of her.
Sunset sighed. “Alright, time’s up. Hand me your papers, and I’ll mark them this afternoon.”
Aria grinned and handed it over. Sonata shook her head, feeling a jab of pain but at that moment, everything went back to normal as she handed Sunset her paper, her stomach rumbling. She was just considering eating now when the bell rang. Ignoring it, she stood up to head to her next class. She looked around, and fighting her blurry sights, she slowly made her way to the door.
Sunset took a step towards her, but was stopped by the flood of other students pushing in front of her to leave. She tried to squeeze through them. “Please, move! I have to get to Sonata! She needs help!” she yelled, but her voice was drowned up by everyone’s chatter.
Sonata wrapped her arms around her stomach. The pain that was in her head much worse than before. Was this because of over-thinking? Sonata had no idea, but she couldn’t let this get her down. All of this combined, she started to head down the wrong corridor.
Sunset squeezed through the crowd, but could no longer see the blue and green mop of hair. She peered back and left the crowd, looking around. Once the crowd had disappeared, she continued down the hall, stopping in her tracks at the familiar corridor that she had set foot in twice, and now, for a third time. She ran down, and Sonata came into view as she looked into the darkness.
“Sonata? You can’t stay here. You need to go home,” Sunset said.
Sonata leaned against the wall.”But I can’t! I can’t give up!”
“Sonata, listen to me! You don’t have to force yourself to be the best! Just as good as you can be. When was the last time you looked at yourself? You haven’t had a decent meal in five days! You’re suffering from dehydration! You look like you’re about to collapse any second now!” Sunset yelled.
“I just wanted to show her that I’m not an idiot, that I can be useful too!” Sonata yelled back, tears in her eyes.
“Sonata… you are useful. At what you can do. You don’t need to do this to yourself. I care about your health more than your grades, and I don’t care if you’re immortal. In fact, I think you’ll find Aria cares just as much,” Sunset said. “I’m sure if you—”
“Hey, bacon hair. I can speak for myself,” Aria said, walking past Sunset to Sonata, pointing a finger at her. “Look, seeing you work hard to graduate and move on is one of the most amazing things you’ve done in years. Now that you’ve got the chance, you’re showing us some great potential. But then you went ahead and… and threw that away to win a silly competition that nobody really cares about! I’ll admit I shouldn’t have riled you up like that, but let me tell you the truth, Sonata. ” Aria’s hands turned into fists and she looked away. “That’s the most idiotic move I’ve ever seen you do! Even worse than that time when you jumped off a cliff to save a freaking taco! How dare you cause yourself so much pain like that?”
Sonata cried. “I–I’m sorry… I know it was stupid and idiotic of me, but it isn’t like that. That time was stupid because it was all for my own benefit. This time… I… did it all for you…” she said, dropping to the ground on her knees, crying loudly.
Aria froze and looked to Sunset, but she shook her head. “You can speak for yourself.”
Aria took a deep breath and knelt down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry too. Look, this whole sappy thing isn’t me, so I’m gonna cut to the chase. I’ve never hated you, Sonata. We’ve never hated you. We just let the feelings we had towards this dumb planet out on you. But you know what? You managed to survive every minute of it ‘til today. Just… if I ever do it again, it’s not because I hate you — it’s because I’m stressed or angry or some other dumb reason that probably won’t mean much, but you know? It probably means I need help, so don’t listen to me. Do what you think is right— goddammit, I’m crying!” Aria called out, wiping the tear from her eye. “Stupid… son of a—”
“Thank you!” Sonata called out, squeezing Aria tightly.
Aria grinned awkwardly, looking around. “You’re, um, welcome. Cool. Can you let go of me now?” She blinked and looked back down. “Sonata— ah, crap, she’s passed out!”
Sunset snapped out of her trance. “Uh, quick! To the nurse’s office!” she said, zooming down the hall.
Aria quickly picked up the girl and raced after her. “Oh my god, she’s heavy!” she called out, her voice echoing down the hall.
“Alright,” Sunset said. It seemed like the entire school had gathered in the library just to hear the results.
Sonata sat up the front next to Aria, happily munching away on everything that had been given to her by majority of the girls at this school. Aria rolled her eyes, turning to Sunset.
“I have to admit, the results were quite a shock to me too. Aria, despite answering every question, got only seven out of thirty correct.”
Aria growled and turned towards Twilight. “But— I did everything you told me to do!”
“Doesn’t mean that what I told you to do was right,” Twilight replied, looking away. Aria went to walk towards her, but held her back.
“That cheat,” Aria murmured, growling, as Sunset carried on.
“As for Sonata, every question she managed to answer was correct, however, she somehow stuffed up all questions past number 12.” Sunset took a deep breath. “So, this does make Sonata the winner” — the girls grinned — “I really don’t feel right announcing such. Because I believe that everyone in this school has the potential to be their own winner, in what they do best.” Sunset pointed at the two contestants. “So, as such, I’m going to announce that both Aria and Sonata are the winners!”
The crowd went off, loudly cheering, as Sonata threw her arms around Aria again. “Oh my gosh! Did you hear that? We both won! Yay!” she said, shaking her.
“Y–Y–Yeah,” Aria stuttered, holding her head to let her brain catch up. She glared lightly at Sonata, who grinned and giggled.
“Sorry.”
“Eh, whatever. I have someone more important to deal with,” Aria said, standing up and marching towards Twilight.
Sunset brushed back her hair and walked towards Sonata, sitting next to her. “So. Feeling better?”
“Much better! Thank you! I’m really sorry about what I did,” Sonata said.
“It’s alright. Everything’s better now, so there’s no need to worry,” Sunset said, leaning back.
“Right! Everything’s better now! So you know what that means!” Sonata cheered.
“What?” Sunset asked, blinking.
“Ahem. This calls for a flashback,” Sonata said.
“Well, yeah. I mean, I would’ve asked you this afternoon, but I just saw you, and I thought it would be okay. Also, we only really see each other for school stuff! We should hang out sometimes, you know, go shopping or catch a movie or something! Ooh, we should totally celebrate when I beat Aria this Friday!”
“Of course, I didn’t really beat her, but there’s always time to celebrate! You know, the new chipmunks movie came out just a while ago! We should totally catch that!” Sonata grinned at her. “Pleeease?”
“Sure, why not? It’s not like I have anything better to do with my time. Besides, you’ve more than earned it.” Sunset smiled.
“Yay!” Sonata said, hugging her this time. Sunset looked around, then hugged her back, smiling.
Flash!
“Dats it! Dats it! Hold that—” Photo Finish’s voice was cut off by Adagio, who pulled her away by her arm.
Sonata giggled. “Ah, I love this school.”
“Me too, Sonata. Me too.”
Aria slammed her hands down in front of Twilight, who didn’t show any signs of alarm.
“You little cheat! What did you do that for?” she yelled.
“Did you really believe I would teach someone like you? Did you really think I would teach anyone at all? It was hard just to put up with your presence, let alone get you to actually learn anything,” Twilight said honestly.
“So, wait, you thought I was dumb?” Aria asked, annoyed.
“Oh, no. I knew you were.” Twilight stood up and walked towards the exit.
Aria followed her. “I want my money back right now!”
“No can do. You gave it to me, and now it’s mine,” Twilight said.
Aria froze, then continued to follow after her. “You can’t get away with this!”
Twilight stopped and turned around. “You know, there is a third option.”
Aria raised an eyebrow.
“My sister-in-law has been insisting I make some friends at this school, and I’m starting to worry she’ll make me stay at this school until I do. So, I’ll give you the money, but you have to be my friend. Not a real one, of course, just pretend, until I graduate. Then we’ll never have to see each other again,” Twilight said.
“I don’t think that’s enough,” Aria said, stepping forward.
“Alright, how about if I really tutor you? No games, no tricks. I’ll teach you properly, right from the books.”
Aria frowned lightly. “Fine. But you better be telling the truth. I guess this means I’ll see you in class sometime, friend.”
