You Make My Heart Flutter

Winter had come and gone in the town of Canterlot, and it was an unusually warm February. Although Canterlot High School always had a vacation week in the middle of the month, Crystal Prep Academy did not. Therefore, while all the CHS students were enjoying the nice weather at home or elsewhere, the CPA students were stuck indoors.

On Wednesday afternoon of that week, a boy with long blue and black hair walked slowly out the front door of Crystal Prep. A girl with long bright green hair walked with him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Come on, Sky, this isn’t as bad as it seems.” the girl said, trying to comfort her friend.

The boy sighed heavily. “Of course it’s as bad as it seems, Lemon! Sure, I got my hat back, but my parents are going to kill me for this! Not to mention where the hell will I go to school now?!”

The boy spotted his mother’s car parked at the end of the parking lot. “Well, goodbye, Lemon.” he said. “I’d better just go and face whatever punishment I get.”

The girl nodded. “See you, Sky.” She turned and walked away.

The boy opened the door of the car and sat in the front passenger seat next to his mother, who’d just gotten off the phone.

“Hey, Mom.” the boy said. “I’m guessing you just got off the phone with Principal Cinch.”

“Yes.” his mother replied. “I’m so disappointed in you.”

“Look, I can explain.” said the boy.

EARLIER THAT MORNING…

Sky Scraper walked into Crystal Prep Academy wearing a bright blue cap with silver lettering. Lemon Zest saw him come in, ran up and hugged him. “What’s up, Sky?” she exclaimed. “Finally get up on time today?”

Sky normally didn’t like being suddenly touched by other people, but he was perfectly fine with a hug from his best and pretty much only friend. He laughed. “Yep! Got up right on time, and remembered my hat!”

The hat in question was the Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso driver cap, that Sky had bought from an F1 store in Manetreal the previous summer. “You know, I’m pretty sure Principal Cinch doesn’t allow hats.” Lemon chuckled, giving him a punch in the arm. “You’re not becoming all anti-establishment on me, are you?”

Sky burst out laughing. “You’re one to talk!” he shot back. “You’re a rocker! You literally can’t get any more anti-establishment than that!”

“Fine, fine, you got me there.” said Lemon. “But seriously, you’d better be careful. You could actually get a detention – or worse.”

Sky gave Lemon a playful shove. “Shut up! You sound like my mom!”

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Lemon winked at Sky as she entered her first class of the day.

As Sky continued on his way, he was stopped by an all too familiar voice saying, “No hats allowed in school.” He turned around to see Principal Cinch looking just as stern and annoyed as she looked every day.

“Fine.” Sky said. He opened his locker and put his hat on the top shelf. After making sure the textbooks in his locker were stacked perfectly straight, he headed off to his first class. Although Sky usually had great attention to detail, re-locking his locker somehow slipped his mind today.

THAT AFTERNOON…

As everyone filed out of the school at the end of the day, Sky and Lemon walked down the hall together. Sky had had a trying day, and was even grumpier than usual. Today, he’d gotten a ton of homework assignments, and it was just one of those days where everyone seemed to be against him. Then again, that described pretty much every day for him at Crystal Prep. There was a reason Lemon was his only friend. She was the only one who was nice to Sky, so eventually Sky had just stopped trying to be nice to anyone but her.

“I swear, I’m gonna knock out the next motherfucker who pisses me off!” Sky grumbled.

“Oh, cheer up!” said Lemon. “You look more miserable than Cinch.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not my fault everyone seemed to think it was ‘Annoying Sky Scraper Day’ today.” Sky replied.

Sky was almost never in the mood to talk to anyone but Lemon, and he certainly wasn’t in the mood now. But near his locker, he was stopped by Citrus Drops and Mulberry Seed – the two guys he hated more than anyone else.

“Oh, look here, it’s Mr. OCD.” said Citrus. “Clean anything new today?”

Sky rolled his eyes. This was the kind of crap he had to deal with almost every day. “Fuck you, Citrus, I don’t do that.” he replied.

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” Mulberry laughed. “You’re the guy who freaks out if he doesn’t wash his hands a hundred times a day.”

“Dude, that’s not even possible!” Lemon interjected. “So get your facts straight and leave Sky alone!”

“Fine, have it your way.” said Citrus. “But seriously, your boyfriend needs help.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” Lemon growled.

Mulberry smirked. “You know, this guy’s supposed to be obsessed with keeping everything straight. So why did he leave his locker open all day?”

“Wait, what?” Sky ran to his locker and found that he had indeed left it unlocked. And even worse, when he opened the door, his Pierre Gasly hat was missing.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Sky cried out. He turned to Citrus and Mulberry. “You two shitheads stole it, didn’t you?”

“Nope!” Citrus replied. He and Mulberry showed Sky their empty hands. Then Sky looked down the hall and in the distance, he saw his hat on the head of Amaranth Gray.

“Of course!” Sky muttered. He bolted after Amaranth, making sure to flip Citrus and Mulberry the finger as he left. After re-locking Sky’s locker, Lemon followed.

Amaranth Gray was a friend of Citrus and Mulberry, and another guy that Sky hated immensely. Stealing Sky’s hat was just typical of him. Sky was quite a fast runner, so he pushed past several other students and caught up to Amaranth easily. He blocked Amaranth’s path and simply said, “Give me back my hat.”

Amaranth sneered. “Make me.”

Sky was already nearing his breaking point, and Amaranth’s snide reply was all it took to push him completely over the edge. Just as Lemon arrived on the scene, Sky threw a fast punch and busted Amaranth right in the nose.

“Sky, what the hell are you doing?!” Lemon exclaimed.

Amaranth staggered back, his hand covering his now bloody nose. But he didn’t give Sky the hat. Sky then hit Amaranth again, harder this time, with an uppercut to the jaw. Amaranth fell back, hit his head on the lockers and slumped to the ground, unconscious. Everyone was shocked at what had just happened.

Sky bent down and snatched his hat off of Amaranth’s head. “Thank you very much.” he said dryly.

“Oh, crap!” said Lemon sadly. “You’re gonna get in so much trouble!”

And Sky most certainly did. Principal Cinch and Dean Cadance had heard the commotion and rushed down the hall. “Cadance, call for an ambulance.” Principal Cinch ordered. “Sky Scraper, in my office, now.”

Sky followed Principal Cinch back to her office, where she told him to take a seat across from her desk. “Sky Scraper, do you know what Crystal Prep is known for?” she asked sternly.

“Yes, yes, its reputation, I know.” said a still very angry Sky. “I’ve been going here for two and a half years.”

“Don’t get smart with me, young man.” said Cinch. “It will not help your case. The question is, what happened out there between you and Amaranth Gray?”

“That guy stole my hat.” Sky replied.

“And so you attacked him?” Cinch asked, raising an eyebrow. “It is actions such as the ones you took today that make this school look bad.”

“How?” Sky demanded, trying desperately to think of something to say in his defense. “He stole my hat! He broke into my locker! And I’ve never once been in trouble here! If anyone’s making this school look bad, it’s him!”

“Don’t raise your voice at me!” Cinch snapped. “None of that matters right now. What matters is that what you did was incredibly reckless, juvenile and dangerous. Amaranth has had to go to the hospital for a likely concussion and broken jaw. As a result, I have no choice but to expel you from Crystal Prep Academy. I cannot risk having someone like you ruining the school’s reputation.”

Sky was a loss for words. He finally said, “Fine. I’m happy to be out of this place.” He stood up and left Principal Cinch’s office. As he left, he saw Cinch pick up the phone and dial his mother’s number.

As Sky had predicted, both his parents were very unhappy with him. “Look, dude, even if that kid was a jerk and did steal your hat, that’s still no reason to hit him.” Sky’s father, Air Raider, said over dinner.

“Now we have to worry about his parents suing us.” said Sky’s mother, Evening Shade. “Not to mention what school are we going to send you to, Sky? No private school’s going to take you after this.”

Sky swallowed a mouthful of his mother’s homemade pasta. “I don’t want to go to another private school.” he replied firmly.

“Then where would you go to school?” Evening asked. “Canterlot High is a few blocks away, but it might be too dangerous – I don’t like the idea of you getting caught up in any of the magical stuff that goes on there.”

Of course Sky knew about what had happened at Canterlot High earlier that year, with first a she-demon nearly destroying the school, and then three strange girls trying to brainwash the students. If you lived in Canterlot, it was impossible not to have at least heard about those things. But at this point he didn’t really care. “Yes, I would like to go to Canterlot High.” he said. “The truth is, I’ve been miserable at Crystal Prep these past couple of years. The reason I’ve only got one friend is because Lemon’s the only one there who’s nice to me. Everyone else there is just so distant and well, mean. They make fun of me all the time. It really got to me and I guess today I just snapped. I really don’t want to go through that again.”

Both Evening and Air were very surprised to hear this confession from their son. Sky hardly ever told them anything about his life at school, so they never knew how lonely and miserable he actually was. His report card always had pretty much straight A’s, and he’d never gotten in trouble until now. So they’d assumed that he was doing great and enjoying himself, when in fact that was not the case.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” said Evening sympathetically. “If you’d told us sooner, we’d have transferred you earlier.” Air nodded in agreement.

“It’s just that you guys spent so much money getting this house and getting me into CPA. I thought you’d be disappointed in me if I suddenly wanted out.”

“Oh, no, of course we wouldn’t be.” said Air. “You had a good reason for wanting to leave. We’ll see about registering you for Canterlot High later this week. But just so you know, you’re still going to be punished for what happened today.”

In the end, Amaranth’s parents did not take any legal action. Maybe Sky writing a long letter of apology was enough to satisfy them. Sky’s parents grounded him and took away all his electronic devices for the next month. Sky thought the punishment was fair, because he knew that what he had done was extremely stupid.

That Sunday, Sky went with his parents to meet Celestia, the principal of Canterlot High. Sky’s application was accepted, but due to his previous disciplinary record, he was warned that his first offense at his new school would be his last. Although Sky was glad to be able to start anew, he was worried that the stigma of his expulsion from Crystal Prep might carry over into Canterlot High.

Monday came and vacation was officially over for the students of Canterlot High. That afternoon, Sky was scheduled for a tour of the school. He stood in the main atrium and waited, making sure not to touch anything. If there was one good thing about private schools, it was that they tended to be cleaner than public schools.

After several minutes of waiting and no one showing up, Sky began to get restless and impatient. He began pacing back and forth and cracking his fingers, just as a girl with bright red and yellow hair walked into the atrium. “Excuse me, are you Sky Scraper?” she asked.

Something about this girl looked familiar, but Sky couldn’t quite place it. “Yeah, that’s me.” he replied. “You here to show me around the school?”

“Yep!” the girl replied. “I’m Sunset Shimmer. Nice to meet you.”

Sky hesitated a moment before replying. “It’s, um… nice to meet you too.” He always got a bit nervous talking to people he’d never met before.

“Canterlot High is a great school.” said Sunset as she led Sky down one of the corridors. “You’ll love it here.”

“I hope so.” Sky said quietly. “More than my old school, anyway.”

Sunset suddenly realized something. “Are you the guy who got kicked out of Crystal Prep? That was, like, the talk of the town last week.”

Sky sighed. He had a feeling Sunset would ask him about that sooner or later. “Yes. I am.” he replied sadly. “Let me guess, you probably don’t want anything to do with me now.”

“Actually, I was hoping to get to know you.” said Sunset. “You and I have something in common.”

Sky was confused. He’d always felt like he didn’t really have much in common with anyone his age. “Really?” he asked. “What would that be?”

“Well, you probably heard about the she-demon incident that happened here a few months ago.”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“That she-demon was me.”

Sky was taken aback. He realized why Sunset looked so familiar to him. “That was you?” he exclaimed. “How did you not get expelled? That’s way worse than what I did!”

Sunset chuckled. “Well, I had to rebuild the front of the school all by myself, and I was actually suspended for two weeks while I did that. I was really lucky that I found five friends who were willing to forgive me, even if it took longer for the rest of the school to do the same.”

“Wow!” said Sky. “Here I was thinking that everyone would judge me on my past.”

“Yeah, you really shouldn’t worry about that.” said Sunset with a smile. “Pretty much everyone here will accept you. I mean, there are a few problem people, but they won’t talk to you anyway.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” said Sky. He was feeling a lot better than he had in a long time. “Anyway, is this a five-year high school like Crystal Prep?”

“Yep. We have students here in grades eight through twelve. You’re in tenth grade, right?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, me too! Maybe we’ll be in a few classes together!”

“Yeah, that’d be nice!” said Sky. He liked Sunset already.

Sunset spent the next hour showing Sky around the entire school, and finally showed him his locker. “No one’s using this one, so I guess it’s yours!”

Sky looked at the number plate on the locker. It was number 254, a number whose final digit he despised. “Sorry, but I don’t think this one’s going to work for me.” he said. “Are there any other empty lockers?”

Sunset was confused. She thought for a moment, and then walked across the hall to another locker, numbered 339. “I think this one’s empty.” She opened the door and looked inside. “Yep, this one’s available.”

Sky smiled. This was a much better number. “Yes! Perfect! Thanks so much for showing me around here. I like it better than Crystal Prep already. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” He turned and headed back toward the front door.

“You too!” Sunset smiled as Sky left. To Sunset, this new boy actually seemed pretty friendly, although his thing about the lockers was a bit strange.

To Sky, Canterlot High seemed like a great place. He had a really good feeling about it.