Every Dark Night Turns Into Day

Indigo Zap

I groaned in frustration as I tossed my books lazily into my locker. My locker buddies gave me confused looks as I shrugged in response. Ironically enough, Sour Sweet and the others had been my locker neighbors for the last four years. I glanced down the hallway as Lemon danced down the hallway, bobbing her to her music.

“Is something the matter dearie?” Sunny Flare asked from her locker two lockers away as she neatly placed her books in a row and I gritted my teeth. I hated when she called me dearie.

“Just fine,” I ground out as I tossed my bag inside.

“You’re throwing everything inside your locker and probably damaging anything in your bag,” Sugarcoat said dryly as she adjusted her glasses.

“Thanks Captain Obvious,” I rolled my eyes in response. “I’m not looking forward to math is all if you must know.”

“It could be worse,” Sour answered from her own locker. “You could be dead.”

“Uh yeah I guess?” I blinked at her before I shook my head. “I wonder if we will ever get rid of these damn uniforms.”

“Don’t you like them? I thought you would because they’re all about unity and stuff,” Sunny pointed as I watched Lemon open her locker and hit in the head with a book.

“Ow,” Lemon groaned softly and rubbed her head before kicking her book. “Take that English class.”

“I was at first,” I admitted. “But I don’t know. It’s kinda boring wearing it. I mean look around, we’re all wearing the same thing. There’s like no diversity here.”

“She’s right,” Sugarcoat agreed as she leaned against her locker. “I know Principal Twinkleshine wanted to get rid of them but it’s a bit too soon. She just became principal and it’s a risky move to immediately remove them. Might lose support from the parents.”

“Makes sense,” I sighed. “Stupid parents and needing their approval.” A sudden explosion made me stumble and fall on top of Sour Sweet as we both groaned.

“What the fuck?” I muttered.

“Is everyone alright?” Sunny asked worriedly as she held out a hand.

“Head hurts but yeah,” Sour muttered as we stood up. “What was that?”

“Sounds like one of the furnaces blew up,” Sugarcoat stated with a worried tone. “They were pretty old from what I remember.”

“Is everyone okay?” Lemon Hearts asked as she hurried out of her classroom into the hall. All of us nodded as she gave a relieved sigh. “Good. I’m going to go find Twinkle. Just go sit in my classroom, I’ll write you girls a pass.”

“We should follow her!” Lemon exclaimed as she slung her head phones around her neck.

“Oh yes such a good idea!” Sour praised her. “Because that’s definitely the safe option!”

“You know they aren’t gonna give us the full story,” Lemon argued. “We can be like private investigators!”

“I’m bored and I’m down,” Sugarcoat shrugged. “Could be worse.”

“I’m in!” I announced as we looked at the other two. Sunny sighed in frustration.

“Fine. Someone has to keep you three out of trouble.”

“And I guess I’ll have to make sure you don’t do it wrong,” Sour grumbled as she slammed her locker shut. “Let’s go. We’re losing her!”

We all hid behind the door and peeked around it. Moondancer, Cadence, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine were all standing at the furnace with a repair guy inspecting it. Surprised the damage wasn’t as bad to be honest.

“So how bad is it?” Twinkleshine asked worriedly.

“The entire thing needs replaced. It should have been replaced like ten years ago I’d say. They haven’t made a model like this in years,” the repairman answered. “You’re lucky no one was near it. Most likely could have killed someone.”

“You think Cinch had something to do with it?” Moondancer asked as she placed her hands on her hips. “Seems like the type of thing she would do for revenge.”

“No this isn’t sabotage. It was just old,” the repairman responded and pointed at it. “Newer furnaces have a shut off. They don’t explode. I’m guessing there was a accumulation of gas or vapor or dust in the boiler and eventually it was just gonna explode like this.”

“Cinch is in a jail cell awaiting trial too,” Lemon Hearts added. “She couldn’t have done this. As much as I would like to push blame on her, we can’t.”

“And she did want it replaced,” Cadence admitted. “I was there when a furnace company looked at it. The school board was fighting with her on it. I can’t believe I’m about to say this but it wasn’t her fault. This was just a bad accident. The school board sent a cheap repair guy to fix it when it broke down last year and well he was cheap to say the least. Neither of us were happy about it. For different reasons of course.”

“Fascinating,” Sugarcoat whispered. “Can’t believe Cinch would do anything for our benefit.”

“You know damn well it wasn’t for us. We couldn’t have gone to school with a broken furnace. It was just a way to keep her reputation safe,” I hissed quietly so our teachers wouldn’t hear us. Lemon was being surprisingly quiet. Mainly because Sunny had stolen her headphones temporarily until after.

“Touche.”

“So how much will it cost to fix?” Twinkleshine asked worriedly.

“If this was a small school, I’d say not much. But this is a large school. You’re gonna have to get everything in here replaced. I’d say around thirty thousand give or take. Of course, the more high end model you get the more you are gonna pay,” he explained as he shut the door. Twinkleshine groaned as she facepalmed.

“This is awful,” she muttered. “They’ll probably fire me for this. The school board is annoying.”

“They won’t,” Lemon Hearts reassured her. “They can’t risk it either. It would look bad if you left after Cinch. Parents would take their kids out of here and it would be bad for the board. Besides, if you got fired I’d quit.”

“Same here,” Moondancer declared.

“Thanks guy,” Twinkleshine faintly smiled. “And thanks Rusty for getting here so fast.”

“No problem,” he nodded as he left the room and we heard his footsteps disappear up the stairs. This was probably the first time I’ve ever been down here.

“I’m going to go make some calls,” Twinkleshine sighed. “Might as well get the ball rolling on this.”

We all looked at each other with various levels of worry. Even Lemon seemed nervous and that never happens.