I looked into the eyes of my former school principal turned secretary to this one...Ms. (formerly Principal) Cinch. She still had the piercing gaze that could melt all but the strongest of her students.Her eyes had grown a little less feisty since I last saw her, since she had "lost: the Friendship games "Hello Cinch." I said running my hands across her desk and smirking slyly. The look on her face after the whole...Twilight going crazy episode from a while back at the Games. It hadn't been very long since then, and when I saw how happy Twilight seemed here, finally able to open up and talk to others, no longer the cold and bottled up girl I knew her as. I wanted in on how good it seemed here. What I hadn't taken into account was just because something worked out well and dandy for her, won't necessarily have the same results for me and the other Shadowbolt girls.
"That's still MS. Cinch to you Indigo! I may not be the authority figure you knew me as a student under my care, but you shall still show me the proper respect as the educator I still am. She said trying to put on her old air of the snooty, snobbish woman she is. I only laughed in my throat and flipped my electric blue hair back. I scoffed softly and stared her down, she thought she still had the nerve to push me around. Still saw herself as a top dog, but I could see it her eyes, she was legions behind what she once was. If you're wondering why I was being sent to the principal's office, well let's just say it involves a prank on the girl's soccer team when the coach had them hit the showers. I didn't mean to be mean bad or mean, I just...wanted to have a little fun messing around with everyone here. Can you blame a girl who can't find her place in the world?
"You push paper." I said and I gave the drinky bird on her desk a little flick. My statement seemed to really sink in and with a look at the tacky nick knacks and administrative papers on her desk, she realized her new..."purpose." That all she did now was take attendance records and pour Principal Celestia her coffee every day. Again can you blame me? This woman once used anything from blackmail to holding what you wanted the most in her hands to get you to do what she wants for her. Twilight told me all about how Cinch had held her getting into that independent study program, back when she really wanted it from her. Si Am really such a bad girl for putting that woman in her place?
"Oh my God." She said looking down at her hands in shame. As it all sunk in, from matron of a bunch of hormonal pulsating young adults to the dead end world of the secretary in a high school. Not that she didn't deserve to be taken down a peg by karma. "Just sit down and be quiet Indigo, I have to get back to work and fix the mess some one made of today's attendance."
"Yeah welcome to the club Cinch." I said with a toothy grin. As I took a seat and blew a few locks of hair with a puff of my breath. A satisfied look on my face...Now don't think I got some sick kicks out of watching her suffer, it's just...hey you try being under her hawk eyed gaze and super strict standards of a second rate hackneyed dump like Crystal Prep, and you try telling me if you don't get a sense of justice seeing her like this. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not all that bad a girl, just a little...well let me put it this way. I and the girls had been here at Canterlot High for a while now, and it still felt like we only had ourselves to make the days pass.
We didn't know who we fit in with, and that isn't exactly something easy to find out. Back at Crystal Prep, most of us kept to ourselves and merged with who we felt we had the most in common with, but it was the way C.P was a school of so many faces, all blank and studious, with little to no motivation to do anything beyond study or practice to keep up our school's ego and image. Here it was vastly different than that place, their were so many other students, with so many different interests, all together. The cliques had disbanded...o at least had no more barriers between them, taken down a while back. You'd think that would make it a lot easier to find just what it is you're good at, or who it is you fit in or could make friends with when things are like that right?
"Just tell me what you're in for you little..." She was interrupted by the door opening for some one else to enter. Someone also here for reasons not unlike myself. He stood in the doorway a big red hoodie that hung down to his waist over a plain white tee shirt, his jeans had fades and holes in them, as if he threw them in a washer with a bottle of bleach and dish soap to wash. "Well if it isn't the one who shredded today's attendance records...Mr. Exinferis I believe?" She said as she looked over what his "grievance" was for being sent here.
"You're lucky I didn't go with my full plan and shred the payroll records for the week." I hadn't seen someone, talk to Cinch like that Oh God! The guys back at Crystal Prep never had that kinda gumption, maybe it was because they were all spoiled trust fund babies that would flaunt their parent's money around. He was everything they weren't. His hoodie had wear and tear but it was clean...hell I was sure he intentionally bleached it to discolor the blood red and make it tatter. Instead of expensive cologne and spray, I picked up the faint smell of Dollar store body spray and Irish Spring bars of soap. There was something about that perked my interest...so to speak
"Ms Zap?!" Cinch said snapping me from my captivating attraction. I shook my head and looked at her as I noticed her stamping the time sheet for being in her office. "I see you two should get along well seeing as you're in here for disconnecting the hot water in the girl's showers...and loosening the knobs so no one was able to turn the water off for hours." I cleared my throat and adjusted my goggles in confidence.
"Hey at least I didn't lock them in to freeze, plus nothing was broken or damaged, just loosened and undid, it took Mr. Discord less than ten minutes to repair it." I said defensively as my eyes wandered back to...Him.
"She's right you know, that was the least destructive prank I've had to fix...still hilarious thought." Mr. Discord said passing by the office door.
"Get back to work you lazy excuse for a janitor!" Cinch snapped shooing him away." Now take your seats both of you and no talking unless I address you." I sat down at one end of the room and he the other. Now, you're probably wondering what was my motive for doing that to them. Well Let me just say that even though the girls and I had bee here shortly after Twilight decided to make a new start here, we though the same could be said for us. What we didn't take into account was the adjustment period for some, may not work the same way it does for others. I personally still had yet to fit in with any other groups or make nice with anyone else here. Maybe it was because our reputation as the Shadowbolts, the notorious overly competitive, often to the point of cheating when it came to those friendship games. It wouldn't be the first time the Canterlot High alumni would act that way to someone like me. I guess they just learned to be more subtle with their ostracization over the years.
So maybe that doesn't justify the way I acted, but if they wanted to be so cold and distant, then what's the harm in a little payback? I had one think on my mind as I watched him take his seat, I could almost see a sense of familiarity in his steel grey eyes, like he and I shared something, A desire to belong, and be accepted. Get him to notice you without speaking to him...easy.
I started by giving a flip of my icy and electric blue wavy hair held back by my cute goggles, gave me a very J-pop girl look. I liked that enough to start...then I gave a little girlish ruffle of my Crystal Prep school uniform. Sure I was one of their ranks now, but the Crystal Prep look she had still evoked that forbidden fruit feeling of me being a Shadow Bolt and him a WonderColt. Plus the school girl uniform look was just so damn cute and enticingly attractive, a slight hint of sexy in it.
Even with that taken into account, there was something about me beyond that, Even as a student I didn't seem to fit the mold of my Crystal Prep upbringing. A few attitude issues that honestly with a little ironing out could be resolved aside, It felt like the Shadow Bolt girls could easily have fit in here. Not to mention being rough around the edges myself...The attitude trouble maker personality is one I find, effective when it comes to being flirty, to say the least.
"May I ask why you further insult me by still wearing my old school's uniform Ms. Zapp?" Ms. Cinch said as she began to file her nails nonchalantly.
I flipped my hair a bit at him again before lowering my golden tinted eyes a bit. He responded by smiling back at me and took a comb from his pocket and ran it through the thick bangs of his hair. I couldn't tell if he was interested or playing hard to get. So I sighed heavily and stretched my arms over my head, my body was well toned and fit, but I wasn't exactly well endowed in the T&A department. I had a decent sized B cup that came in handy during the Friendship Games, but didn't exactly entice the boys...so to speak
"I removed the Crystal Prep patches didn't I? You didn't exactly make these things cheap to buy seeing as how my parents had to shill top dollar for the uniform." I said as I leaned casually in my chair answering Ms. Cinch's question from before. I sighed again as I folded my boots over the coffee table and resting my hands behind my head, as I looked over at Dante to see how he'd react.
"Young lady! Get your filthy boots off my table!" Cinch shouted turning red as a tomato as I only laughed.
"Hey it's not your table, the kicks ain't filthy, and don't call me young lady." She may as well have called me "little girl," which I'm not. Maybe "Alighieri" over there likes a little push comes to shove with the attitude on authority figures...he certainly looks like he would. "Plus, I think the girls and I make them look good, do you think we pull these uniform looks off?" I asked using the opportunity to talk to Dante.
I gave my skirt a little side sweep before folding my arms across my chest, I made a bit of a goof though, as I ended up folding my legs over briefly offering me a flash of my panties. I didn't mean too, I just hadn't done this sorta thing very often. I blushed hard realizing what I did but tried to make it look I intended to do that. The thought made me hold my breath before I repeated her question.
"So...what do you think...do I make her old uniforms look good or what?" I said with a flirty tone, my words rolling smoothly off my lips as I spoke. He looked into my big, round golden eyes, and I could see into his gray blue ones. He cracked the knuckles of his black gloved hands and gave his red hoodie a flip onto his head, and crossed my own boots for good measure.
"Well I think..." but he was cut off by the hag shouting at us.
"You're both being punished! You're not her to make any compliments on each other's wardrobes. Now silence before I have to discipline you both my..." She was cut off by the bell ringing, she'd kept us here so long she forgot to let Principal Celestia know we were here. "Self...Ohhh just get out of my sight the both of you!" She said with a huff.
I flounced down the hall to my locker, I hadn't gotten off Scott free completely, I had to report for Saturday morning detention, but its not like I had much to do that day anyway, I took a brush from my locker shelf and used the spring out 50's style barber mirror to give my hair a nice brushing to get it in order. I only knew his name and that he like myself had a knack for raising Kane, just for the heck of it mostly, but I wanted to know more.
He was just so...different from the others at Crystal Prep, not into their parent's money or living above their means. I never really felt the way the others did...if anything the girls and I, not just Twilight: Lemon Zest, Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, and Sour Sweet. It just felt like we didn't belong among all those pretentious snobs...they held us back, tried to sculpt us...into them.
Something I wasn't about to let any teacher or stuck up school strip me of what makes me who I am, granted that wasn't what happened in this place, but I still felt like after all that time here I had yet to find someone who knew what it was like to feel so alone, like no one wanted to even look at me.
'Because you both might just be on the same wavelength.' A tiny voice in the back of my skull said. As I applied a coat of jolly rancher blue raspberry lipstick and gloss and a touch of blush and liner....hey I know I'm a sporty tomboy, but that doesn't mean you can't look good while you tear up the dirt bike motocross tracks right? I took one last admiring glance kissing my reflection and was off.
Then what happened?...or...girl talk.
"Did he kiss you? " Lemon Zest asked before taking a sip of her frozen lemonade. The girls and I had gathered at Sugar Cube Corner, it had been a few hours since that first meeting. Sugarcoat huffed a bit before taking a sip of her milkshake, she had taken the seat beside Lemon, who was next to me, to my other side was Sour, and beside her was sunny Flare. We were waiting for Twilight.
"I can't believe you flashed him your underwear, have some dignity Indigo." She didn't mean to get on my case the way she was, its just how girls can get. I took a few sips of my soda as Mr. Cakes placed a jumbo basket of mozzarella sticks in front of us. Lemon licks her lips hungrily and reaches for one as I do my best to recover from Sugarcoat's words.
"Hey I didn't intend to do it like that! I'm not exactly a pro at the flirting game!" I said with a huff before helping myself to one of the mozzarella sticks. My words made the girls laugh and chuckle as they sat back and chilled.
"Confidence is almost always ranked by guys as the most attractive trait a woman can have Indy. You gotta keep your head up and eyes focused if you wanna impress." Sugarcoat said before returning to her shake. Sour Sweet had a more direct ideology to the flirting game. She sipped her drink of choice, (seltzer with LOTS of lemon wedges)
"You gotta think to yourself I'm sexy and any guy would be lucky to even talk to me.'" She chimed in with her own brand of advice on hooking the boys. Sour was not all that bad at it, but most guys were of put by her tendency to be so sour. Still other girls with similar personalities Aria Blaze, Lighting Dust, and Spitfire all managed to get a special someone, how hard could it be right?
"Frankly I think you could do better than some Devil May Cry wanna be like him. I mean what kinda last name is Exinferis? Why not just have his first name be Damian?" Sugarcoat said with a huff, "and that jacket! Ugh acid washed red?! What a dork! I bet he sleeps with a wafiu pillow!" Her words again made the girls all laugh, mostly playful, but under it all I could hear a hint of malice in their words.
"Hey now come on girls, I'm sure it's just a phase. All guys have them, but only the good ones grow out of them." Sunny added before taking her compact from her purse to apply some chap stick.
"Hey a DmC phase isn't the worst a guy could be going through you know, but let's not play any gender stereotyping cards okay girls? I mean, that opens so many cans of worms you know." Sunny added before dipping her stick in sauce and giggling as she pretended it was tube of lipstick and spread it on her lips. Making Sugarcoat cringe a bit.
"Ugh! Lemon grow up will ya!?" She said as she took her geometry homework from her bag to work on it, "and were's Twilight? Geo is my worst subject and I need her help with it!" She said as she tried to find the area of a triangle with the numbers being letters, yeah even I don't get education sometimes either. I scooted beside her and looked at the problems on the Worksheet Mr. Ruler had given her, it wasn't too advanced for me but I saw why she needed a brainiac like Twilight to help her with it. I placed my hand on the paper and said.
"Here it's so hard once you got the the factors figured out, here's how you find them." I placed my own pencil on the paper and leaned on Sugarcoat's shoulder as I helped her with the problems,no doubt the way I was getting close in leaning up against her got a few giggles from our friends. "I'm just helping her jeez!I need a good look at the problems you know." I said defensively, though I must admit that, catching a whiff or two Sugarcoat's peach scented body spray was, oddly pleasant as we worked on the homework problems.
"You sure you're not just repressing something in saying you like that Dante guy Indy?" Sour chimed with a playful giggle. I won't say her words weren't entirely without merit, but I knew what I wanted, and as much as the idea seemed enticing to try, one step at a time, after all. Whatever happened to a traditional love story? Either it had to amp up the freaky factor by throwing in copious but really lacking things like fetishism and BDSM, or you get things that had to be obligatory homo erotica, not that I have against that, just that once you have those stories everywhere, it loses its shock and awe you may have originally had.
"How about this? If I can see more in him than what lies on the surface, then we invite him to an official Shadow Bolt "Initiation?" I said with an ear to ear grin that had so many implications behind it. Lemon only laughed at the idea, not what I pitched but rather the idea that...
"Your "Boyfriend"...Is nothing more than a one note, "edgy" token not worth a girl like you Indigo, even one of US would be better than that...POSER!" She blurted that last word out so loud it made half the customers outside turn their heads to our table in surprise. Mostly at her having such an outburst. I scoffed and took a pair of skates from my bag, maybe just to spite them or maybe to mess with them. I have Sugarcoat a quick peck on her cheek and a "You're welcome," for the homework help as I took on my skates. As I passed by people on the sidewalks, not caring if I crashed into anyone or anything. My mind racked with questions. 'Were they right? Was I only fooling myself in thinking I actually liked him?'
I kept my eyes on the roads but didn't care where my wheels carried me until I came to the park, it was the late afternoon and the clouds where overcast but not threatening to rain just yet. The sun disappeared behind the cloud coverage as couples, not put off by the weather, strolled along walkways arm in arm, whispering sweet nothings in each others ears. It was then that I saw him. He sat at a wooden stool alone in a gazebo. A canvas propped in an A frame and a brush stroking gently across the white cloth fame. He HAD changed out of the last thing I saw him in, almost made me wonder if he wore it too school to get attention.
He now had a blue button up blue fleece shirt and jeans, even though the outfit wasn't as...grungy as the school look, it was a lot more baggy than it needed to be. There was a also a cap on his head though from where I was I could only see that the back was a bright green mesh. I tried to get a look at what he had been painting. I had to slowly step up to the gazebo and hide on the steps to see, the last time we had been in close contact, ergo the time he held my cheek. I squeaked like a tiny mouse, the pure eroticism of being held by him overwhelmed me as I felt my breath stiffen in my chest, and my nether regions grew wetter than any time I cracked open one of my mothers "special books." I saw his head tilt like an animal getting startled as he let out a soft.
"Hmmm? Is someone there?"He turned and I saw he had a green trucker cap, It looked old and faded but it looked like this was an intentional move on the behalf of the designers as opposed to him trying to make it all trashy. I wondered if that spoke about him and offered some insight into his interest, but I'd bring it up provided I don't run away like last time. I got up from where I was hiding and smiled softly at Dante.
"HEY, you uh...painting something there?" I asked twirling a few locks of my electric blue hair. He only shrugged and continued to paint.
"I guess so." Was his only response as he streaked some blue on the pond he was painting. He stood aside and let me see that he was indeed painting the vista we could see from the gazebo, the park pond with the bike trail and trees planted on the shores, the ducks home for the spring, the snow almost completely gone, sure sign that winter was all but gone. It was strange based on what that other Twilight had told, OUR Twilight. This wasn't a normal thing to see in her world, that her own race (and I mean ponies in that regard) would decide when the season changed and just like here...it really never seemed to change much beyond the superficial stuff. Dante sighed softly and resumed painting.
"Did you know this was Mary Shelly's least favorite season?" He asked me as painted in the sun...even though the clouds somewhat blocked it.
"Why's that? I asked as I noticed a stack of books on the stone sides of the gazebo which indeed included Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, as well as Walden by Henry David Thoreau.
"Because it always brought her nothing but misfortune every time it came, her miscarriage, her little boy's drowning, the death of her husband...I'm sorry. You must think I'm saying these kinds of things to live up to the image I go around school painting of myself, that I'm some." I shushed him with a finger to his lips and a gentle.
"Shhhhh, it's okay Dante, I think you're...well knowledgeable to know so much about a great author like her." I said as I picked up one of his brushes. "May I?" I asked looking into his eyes and giving a cute flutter of my own.
"Go ahead." He replied as he went over to his backpack and took from it two plastic cups with more Ninja Turtles on them and a bottle of Hawaiian Punch, "You thirsty Ms.?" He asked and it was then that realized that while I knew his name from earlier when Ms. Ms. Cinch yelled at him, he never knew mine since I ran away before I could tell him. I painted a few more black lines to be the flying birds and said.
"Thanks Dante," before adding a quick, "and my name's Indigo by the way, Indigo Zap." I said as I struck a pose that I was all too familiar with from so many Shadow Bolt victories. He cracked a warm smile as he poured the juice out and handed my cup.
"I never took you for a TMNT fan." I said before taking a sip and watching him sit on the railing and watch the pond's placid surface. He sighed softly and said.
"Why? is it the initial impression you got of me?" He asked taking a sip from his cup. I gasped softly and blushed as I hopped onto the stone railing beside him as looked out into the vista with him.
"Kinda...Dante why do you go around dressing and acting the way you do?" I asked as I looked him dead serious in his eyes and brushed a lock of his hair lovingly.
"I guess I...Just don't know so much about myself even at my age, I mean the new 45 seems to be eighteen these days, if you don't know what you plan on doing by then...maybe sooner, than what's the point in..." I placed my finger on his lips again and shhhed softly as I gave him a tight and close hug, something I feel a "boy" like him need to get a bit closer to becoming a man, but what's the rush?
"Stop, don't think like that anymore, or I'm not going to be around you anymore...Dante I like you, because I thought there's more to you than what lies on your shell. Beyond the mask of the token loner you kept deluding yourself into believing yourself to be. No more masks, no more guises, I want to know the real you...can you do that for me?" I asked as leaned in and planted a restrained and conservative little kiss on the corner of his mouth and watch some color return to those pale cheeks.
"Okay Indigo, for you, I'll do anything. Cause I like you too." He said as he gave my cheek a gentle caress with his hand. The sun came out at last just as it was starting to set. The dying light of the sunshine made us both look...divine in our own special way.l He looked more like an actual person in the light as opposed to a token that he left an impression on me before, sure my actions before were more "Schoolgirl crush" reactions. Now I realized that maybe their was something worth pursuing a relationship with him. At least their was more to my interest than I though once the spur of the moment wore off. It was like if Anna in...oh never mind. Why spoil the moment thinking of a reference for the sake of a reference right?
"You like to paint?" I asked as I took another sip and leaned on his shoulder, he took his free hand and stroked and rubbed my hair. MHhhing softly feeling how silky soft it was.
"Yeah, and draw and sculpt, I'm artsy but I try not to be so...blunt about it." He said as he softly held me under his arm. I sighed contently as I leaned into his fleece button up watched the sunset.
"Why hide what you're really like?" I asked as he began softly kissing my head, I didn't object. I knew he'd stop if I told him too, but I didn't want him too...yet.
"I guess I just never had anyone to really be myself around, or I thought no one would like or share my interests." He said as I took his hand and nuzzled it like a cat. "Never...though...I'd find someone...who would listen."
"Dante?" I asked looking into his eyes with my own ones gleaming and shimmering in the late evening sun against the purple sky.
"Yeah?" He asked hugging me so close to him, I could feel the beating of his heart, and call it cliche, but I swear I heard and felt my own slow at just the right time and sync up with his.
"Is your name really Dante? Or at the very least...Is your last name really bad Latin Exinferis?...From Hell? I asked as I nuzzled his cheek again like a cat, a cat showing affection to someone it likes.
"Yes it is...My name is my own and nothing will ever change that...but it doesn't reflect who I am inside Lightning...and it never will." He said picking my chin up and locking eyes with me intensely. I nodded and slowly inched my face to his, closer and closer I drew him in but just as he thought we;d be locking lips. I swerved and kissed his cheek softly, no less passionate than if I had kissed his lips, but not yet...not yet. "You wanna meet up tommorw and do something?" He asked after the cheek kiss was broken.
"I got detention." I replied glumly. He only finished his punch and stroked my hair again.
"I'll be right outside...I promise I'll wait for you, and when they let you out...we'll make it all worthwhile." His words made me giggle a bit.
"Dante! It's just Saturday detention! You're making it sound like im going to Litchfield Penitentiary with the predatory Lizzie's!" I said with a chuckle, but that last part only made him give me a 'Huh? I don't...get it' Look. "Orange is the new black?" I said placing a finger on my lip quizzically.
"I don't have a Netflix." He said packing up his art supplies.
"Oh...I'm sorry just trying to make a funny."
"Now that...is something I get...If you were intentionally trying to make a reference too...ya know?" He said giving his hat a little tweak.
"Just keep that promise to wait for me till Cinch and Chrysalis let me go?" I asked taking his hand and blushing.
"I promise." He said sneaking a stolen kiss on my cheek that made me redder than an Apple family farm apple and giggle softly in anticipation.
