Tavi-Scratch Origins

After having finally managed to get through with the principal on everything that was important, Octavia sat in the geometry classroom and started doing some equations with the others. A lot of the problems were rather simple, but it was to be expected. Not to say that public high schools were easier than private academies or anything, it was just that it was early in the school year. The harder and harder events and such always end up happening later in the year.

"Psst" Octavia heard someone whisper. Looking to her side, she found Vinyl looking to have some trouble dealing with a couple of equations. Naturally, such a sight had the earth mare internally rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Vinyl looked like she was about to ask for answers to them, obviously wanting to cheat off of a smarter student's papers, but Octavia wouldn't have any of it. Instead, she simply focused on her own desk and everything that was necessary to advance further and further. Vinyl just groaned angrily and gave the earth mare a glare of frustration before going back to her own equations. Before they had even known it, the class was over, and it was time to move on to the next.

Ahhh, home economics. Without a doubt, one of the all-time best classes to have. It was simple, easy to do, and best of all, a free pass. Vinyl loved this particular class, even though she had to her hands to do a lot of the work. Being a unicorn and all, she'd gotten used to such privileges, but such a privilege was suspended for the sake of learning how to handle such things without relying on magic for everything.

Today's lesson was crepes. Fairly simplistic, but truly effective. Octavia, Vinyl, and all of the other students in the background were focused on blending together their ingredients in...well, a blender. How else would you make it work? Vinyl just held the blender together properly and mixed things together, but one of the others in the class-an earth pony mare with a cream-colored coat and dual-toned mane- seemed to be having a little bit of difficulty with it, somehow.

"Need a hand?" Vinyl offered, using her magic to hold the blender in place for the cream-colored earth pony mare. She smiled at her and nodded her head gratefully.

"Thanks, Vinyl" Bon-Bon mused with a smile, checking her phone for what appeared to be an important message for her. Of course, this story is all about Vinyl and Octavia, so Bon-Bon wouldn't be given any more screen time unless it was necessary.

Octavia turned over and noticed this very easily, smiling a little bit as she then started to pour her own crepe mix into the recently-buttered skillet, letting the mix sizzle just right for a short time. It didn't take long for Octavia to flip it over, smiling rather proudly about her work resulting in a perfectly golden brown crepe. Other students seemed impressed for a split-second or two, enjoying the sights of such a thing. They didn't dwell very long on it though, instead moving on to their own crepes, though it was hard to compare them together.

"My my, how excellent Miss Melody. A+" their instructor mused with a smile on her face. Vinyl looked over and then started working on her own crepes, which looked as though they were a little bit more sloppy than Octavia's by comparison. They were still perfectly edible and all, just shaped a little bit differently. "And an A for you, Miss Scratch. Keep up the good work" she then mused, still impressed, just a tiny bit less. Vinyl just shrugged her shoulders though, not really bothered by it at all.

What? You thought that Vinyl was going to be jealous of Octavia getting more praise than she did? You've gotta give the girl a little bit more credit than that.

The next class for today was a classic; orchestra. Naturally, Octavia was ecstatic to be in a classroom such as this. She had her cello out and ready to play before the instructor had even come into the room. She demonstrated a small song for the other students and managed to impress them right away, most of them clapping for her right as their teacher came into the room to hear it.

"Oh good, maybe now one of you can teach for the day" he joked, getting a rimshot in the back for his sense of humor. He was an earth pony with a brown coat and a basic black mane, essentially being the average Joe among ponies.

"Come on, Mr Cleft, you gotta admit she's got talent" Vinyl then called out from the back, sitting next to a large bass drum. All things considered, this would be the only real reason for her to be in an orchestra class. Octavia just chuckled at the praise, her cheeks getting pink from how good she felt from such praise. Mr Cleft had simply crossed his arms and given the earth mare a little smile in return.

"Talent, she has, but an orchestra isn't just one pony. It's multiple ponies working together, creating harmony, and that's what I plan on bringing here. Let's all turn our music books to page eighty-three and take it from the top, every pony" Mr Cleft had then answered. Everyone else in the room just shared a series of agreements and other such nothings before everyone took their instruments and brought them to their seats. Octavia received a special notice of course for having one already with her.

Once the conversations were over, it was time for the actual music to start happening. Their instructor had started a metronome and the students began to carefully play in accordance to their song books instructing them. Everyone played together in time with the metronome itself, but most of the string players were off-tune. It wasn't horribly bad, considering most of them had been playing various string instruments for a year or two already, but it wasn't really focused or proper. Not surprising with how most of these students only ever played during school hours, specifically during class. At least Octavia sounded perfect, having been taught and gotten proper lessons for how to best play her cello.

Having had such an advantage, Cleft had been looking at Octavia very carefully, intrigued by how well she had been playing. One could see the proverbial gears turning in his head as he examined her. It was a solid ten minutes of everyone playing what they'd been assigned-some playing better than others-before they eventually stopped, with Cleft specifically going up to Octavia.

"Miss Melody, you truly do have a natural talent for music. Might I interest you in the advanced class?" he immediately offered, the likes of which was met with a series of different noises of admiration from the cast in the back of the classroom. Octavia just laughed like the schoolgirl she was written to represent though.

"Charming as that is, I'm going to have to think it over a little bit. It's only the first class and all, it should honestly take more time before I do anything else" Octavia answered plainly, taking things a little bit at a time. Vinyl and a couple of other students made some jeering noises to tease her a little bit, but Octavia could care less at it. Cleft seemed to have some trouble accepting it though.

"Oooh, you're really doing a disservice to the music industry by doing that" he mused.

"She still said no, Teach. Gotta respect her wishes, right?" Vinyl then chimed in from the back. Octavia was a little bit surprised at that though, thinking that she wasn't going to say something like that.

"True. True. Well, guess we'll just move on with the next piece" Cleft then answered, taking it as maturely as possible. He truly wanted to have another student for the most advanced classes, but it was all up to Octavia in the end. Octavia herself had started thinking a little bit better of Vinyl, but not by much.