Luna wasn’t sure why she couldn’t let go. She had easily gotten rid of the dark thoughts that had plagued her mind when she was a teenager when she had done a lot of stupid crap which had indirectly motivated her to become a teacher and later Vice-Principal alongside her sister Celestia who was the Principal of the school she worked at, Canterlot High School.
While there, she met a lot of troubled teens. Teens who had the maturity of an adult because they either lacked a parent or didn’t have parents at all.
Many of them also did stupid things, but they’re teenagers, what are people expecting of them? They cannot be treated like children and then expect them to act like adults, the world doesn’t work like that.
Because of that mentality, Luna walked a dark path, a very dark path that she thanked God every day she could get out of. She blinked and saw the troubled teenager in front of her.
He looked normal. He had black brownish hair, green bluish eyes and a small nose. He was wearing a black hoodie, two sizes larger black jeans and black sneakers. He was lean and muscular and was holding a cigarette in between his fingers.
They were sitting outside a café where there wasn’t much traffic nor were there many people who would come out there at six in the morning. It was cloudy outside and looked as though it would rain any second, but neither of them moved from the table that separated them.
This was Sean McGarden.
He had been a student at Canterlot High until he disappeared out of the blue one day and never returned. It was after school hours, so there wasn’t anything Luna could have done at the time, but she managed to track him down.
He had been sent to prison for murder.
But he had bailed himself out which had been a hefty fee that he had somehow paid off and walked scot free but he never showed up to school again.
Luna had been worried because he hadn’t dropped out of school nor had he contacted any of his friends who were worried for him. The much older woman also believed that there was a girl by the name of Octavia who had a crush on him and who had been the most worried.
Looking at him now, the look on his face wasn’t the face of an eighteen-year-old. It was one that soldiers had when they came back from warfare.
He took a drag of his burning cigarette and finally spoke the first words since he got there.
“Hello Vice-Principal Luna, you wanted to speak with me?” Sean asked in a somewhat friendly voice.
Luna nodded. “Yes, Mr McGarden. Despite that you bailed yourself out you didn’t return to school. Have you transferred somewhere else?”
Sean shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe,” he replied disinterested.
“Well, you’re going to have to sign paperwork if you want to transfer somewhere else. Although, I would advise against it due to schools not wanting… troubled young adults on their campus,” Luna tried to not sound rude but she knew that it would sound like it either way.
The dark-haired teen shrugged his shoulders again and took a drag and exhaled the smoke.
“True, but I highly doubt that Canterlot High would want a… murderer like me walking among the students.” He explained while glancing to the left where a police car passed them and took a sharp right turn and blazed its sirens. “...Pigs,” he muttered darkly under his breath but the Vice–Principal heard him.
“Ignore them, they haven’t done anything to you,” Luna tried but was met with an incredulous look.
“Vice-Principal, if you knew I was in prison, what does that tell you? That I confessed my crime? No, they kicked down my door and shoved my head into the back of the car and drove me away to that court filled with old hags and drunkards,” Sean spoke with malice, his face contorted into a pure rage but calmed down with a drag of his cigarette.
Luna allowed him to vent. Most likely, he had refused to speak his mind which made him bottle up the emotions. If his venting from moments ago was anything to go by, then he was traumatised. He hadn’t been able to speak about his trauma to anyone because he either refused to seek help or was denied that help.
“Fucking pigs the lot of them,” he muttered while taking a drag. “Pardon my French.” He joked and chuckled a little at his joke.
Luna sighed. “Mr McGarden do you need help?”
The question was so sudden and unexpected, that Sean looked visibly startled. He looked at her, reading her body language before taking a drag and leaning back and exhaling slowly, allowing the smoke to leave his body.
“Help with what?” He asked neutrally.
Luna shrugged her shoulders. “Anything at all. If you want me to help you get into another school—if that’s what you desire—then I can do that for you. If you need help with getting up to date with the classes you’ve missed, I can also help with that, though I have heard that there’s a student that wants to help you out,”
“Who?” Sean asked, bewildered. He had no friends over at CHS.
“I will refrain from speaking the name for now due to privacy reasons but also because of school policy. You’re next answers may change that.” Luna knew it was a bit of a gamble, but it might be worth it.
Sean shrugged. “Whatever,” and finished his cigarette and put it out in the small glass ashtray to the side of the wooden table. “Sure, if you’re gonna bring my ass out here I might as well humour you, what do you want to know?”
“How is your home situation?” Luna asked and noticed the teen roll his eyes as if he expected that.
“My mother died in a car accident and my father is in the military. He was deployed three years ago which is a recurring theme in my childhood.” He admitted. None of that was anything secret, this was something anyone could learn.
“Okay… do you have a job?” Luna wondered how he could afford his bail so either his family was secretly rich, or he had a very generous job somewhere.
“I guess you could say that,” he replied and lit another cigarette. Luna hadn’t expected that reply.
“What do you mean?” She pushed and leaned slightly forward.
“I mean that I do have a form of a job… but it’s only legal for specific people in the government.” He replied vaguely.
Luna pieced two and two together. “You’re… a hitman?”
Sean shrugged his shoulders. “Pay hella good. But I, of course, do other things as well like make rap songs. Pay’s the bills even though I gotta pay the fat cows in the government to exist,”
Luna nodded her head. “Do you want to continue with you’re education?”
Sean looked thoughtful at the question. It was a good one, did he want to finish High School? It’s something you only do once in a lifetime…
“No, I ain’t interested. Besides, what good is education if I’ll only die a young death?” Sean asked while taking a few drags of the cigarette that allowed the smoke to fly high upwards into the darkened skies.
Luna felt panic course through her veins.
“Wait… are you in danger?” She asked concerned and tried to reach his hand with her own but he pulled back.
“No, but the life I chose is destructive.” Sean allowed it to escape from his lips.
“What do you mean, ‘destructive’?” Luna asked using her fingers as quotation marks.
Sean sighed and rubbed his temples. “What I mean is, that the criminal underworld is a dark and treacherous place. You can earn good money if you know what you’re doing, but it’s incredibly dangerous. Not only will the cops be on you’re tail, but also rival gangsters who don’t like competition.”
With each word he spoke, the more worried Luna became. It sounded like he was indeed in danger. He was aware that he was in danger even if he wasn’t worried about it.
Before the older woman could speak, however, her ears heard the voice of her student speak.
“You know, I was fifteen when I took a life for the first time.” Sean had a distant look on his face as if remembering the day. “I stabbed a guy to death and pinned the blame on someone else. That guy received the death penalty.” He didn’t look the least bit remorseful when he said it. “He had been a rapist. I pinned the blame on another rapist. The case was an opened and closed case.”
Luna did not know if she should believe him or but she decided it wasn’t important right now and focused instead on the story he was telling.
“Where I grew up, fucked up shit would happen on a daily basis, but the cops don’t do shit.” Sean looked quite sour as he said that. “You do everything you do to survive, you even go as far as to sell drugs to keep yourself alive,”
“And you’ve sold narcotics?” Luna asked just as the waiter came over and handed them both large cups of coffee. “Thank you,” Luna thanked with a smile.
Sean didn’t shrug his shoulders. “Yes, I did.” He took a drag and exhaled.
“Did? You mean to say you don’t do so anymore?” Luna implored while taking a sip of her coffee. Looking over the teen, Luna could tell he hadn’t been sleeping well for who knows how long.
While he was a student and CHS, he had been above average but didn’t top the scale of the top five students that had the best grades. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t good but could have been better.
She could tell he was intelligent. His best subjects had been math, music, English, and gym. The other classes he was also good in, but the four mentioned were his best classes.
Sean took a sip of his coffee and nodded. “I stopped selling it when I was offered good money to off some motherfucker that was invading some dude’s turf. Guy was loaded, with fancy cars, a big mansion, and men that could do a lot of fucked up shit. But you see, he couldn’t rely on any of his dudes at that time, so he paid me to blow a traitor's brains out.”
Luna quirked a brow. “I thought you said someone was invading his turf?”
Sean snickered. “Yeah, well, I found out later that the guy I killed used to be a member of the rich dude. Can’t say I feel bad for him,”
Luna didn’t know how she managed to keep her nerves down around the legal adult. He was admitting to crimes he had done as if they were nothing. Not even during her angsty faze did she ever do something like what he was describing. She had robbed people and assaulted them, but that was as far as she had been willing to go.
“I gotta admit, you are taking this far easier than I expected. Shouldn’t you be freaking out and telling me to never come to school again?” Sean abruptly asked after he put the cigarette inside the ashtray.
“I should,” the Vice-Principal admitted with a nod. “But at the same time, you have made mistakes. Grave mistakes that you’ll never be able to be forgiven for, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to be better.”
Sean quirked a brow.
“I mean, you may not regret it right now, but later down the line, you will realise that you robbed someone of life. Yes, some of the ones you mentioned may have deserved it but it isn’t up to us civilians to deal with such things, that is why we have police—”
“That does nothing,” Sean spoke casually.
“—To deal with such things,” Luna explained as if she wasn’t interrupted. “Look I know you have lived a tough life and I will not act and say I know exactly what you’ve gone through but I have done my fair share of crimes,”
The teen looked at his Vice-Principal with disbelief. There was no way she had done anything outside the law.
“I’m sorry, Vice-Principal but I find it hard to see you commit any crimes.” He sipped his coffee while observing the older woman’s facial expression.
“I know,” she nodded her head and tilted it. “But we all have our secrets that we never talk about, secrets we want to keep hidden.”
“...Is that why you haven’t told any of the students what happened?” Sean asked. Luna had called him on the phone randomly in the early hours of the morning and asked to meet him for coffee. While they chatted she admitted that she knew where he disappeared to and she swore she hadn’t told anyone else, not even her sister. That had been two hours ago.
Luna nodded. “Yes, I didn’t want the other students afraid of you and lose the friends you have,”
“But I don’t have any friends, Vice-Principal, all I see them as are acquaintances that go to school with raging hormones that fuck anything that moves. Of course, I’m still in my teen years and definitively not a ‘man’ but I am not childish, immature, sure, but not childish.” Sean spoke with frustration while he rubbed his hands over his face tiredly.
Luna shrugged. “I think you do have friends, you’re just too afraid of opening up,” she hit him right in the heart. The look on his face is one of murder.
“You don’t know anything!” He furiously spoke, gripping the cup hard in his hands.
“True,” Luna acknowledged. “But I have observed how you speak to them. They seem to see you as their friend.”
“I don’t even know their names,” Sean stubbornly denied.
“Flash Sentry, Bulk Biceps, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon-Bon, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody.” Luna listed the ones she had seen interact with the most. Those six were the most prominent around him.
“Oh, so that’s their names,” Sean mocked with a grin, loosening his grip around his coffee.
Luna rolled her eyes. “You can pretend all you want, but you care for them. What would you do if someone was after their families?”
Sean didn’t realise the trap he walked into. “I would pay the best motherfucking gunners in town and stand watch. I’d even send them to a safe house!”
Luna smiled. “See? You do care about them!”
Sean paled. “You conniving daughter….”
Luna giggled into her hand uncontrollably. “Look, I understand you don’t like talking about your feelings. Believe me, I have a hard time as well. But If you decide to continue with you’re studies at CHS then you and I can set up appointments once a week to just talk. You and me,”
“What If I don’t have time?” He asked seeing a small flaw. “Or what if you have more work on whatever day we pick? I mean, I like music and want to be at the top of my game you know? But You have work too.”
Luna smirked at him. “So you do want help and you do care about others!” He looked at her sourly. “Alright, alright, but to answer your question; yes that can pose a problem. But it won’t be if you decide to quit school,”
The teen was flabbergasted. “I thought you wanted me in school?” Had she changed her mind?
“Oh believe me I do,” Luna replied with a smile. “But you didn’t show any interest before which is why I’m uncertain whether or not we should continue this discussion. You don’t have to go to school again if you don’t want to. You’re old enough to make decisions for yourself,”
The rapper look down at the table they sat on, feeling the morning sun over them.
“If I wouldn’t be interested, I wouldn’t be here,” he replied after a while.
“I suppose,” Luna hummed. “I wasn’t certain you would show up. I was surprised when I saw you parking across the street and come over.”
Sean shrugged his shoulders. “I had nothing better to do,”
Luna smiled knowingly. He wanted to come because he wanted to go back to school. She looked down at her night blue watch on her wrist and noticed that it was getting late. She would have to worry about school.
“Thank you for coming, I will have to get to the school before I’m late.” She finished her coffee and stood up.
“No problem, do you need a lift?” He asked which surprised Luna. That was… the last thing she expected to hear from him.
“Uh that would be nice, but I don’t know if that is… appropriate?” Luna knew if she was seen then there’d be a lot of questions.
Sean smirked. “I don’t have that effect on girls,” he chuckled with mirth while Luna shook her head.
‘Whose the hormonal teenager now?’ She thought while he chuckled.
When Sean finished he finished his coffee and stood up. “You don’t have to join if you don’t want to, but I am willing to drive you there,”
Luna thought it over. She didn’t drive today because she wanted to stretch her legs a bit and collect her thoughts. The distance wasn’t far but she was uncertain where exactly Sean lived. Maybe this was his attempt at being nice?
“Alright, but I want you to park by the side of the building, the place the teachers are hidden from view when they smoke,” Luna requested while looking into Sean’s eyes.
“Sure, no problem. Shall we?” And motioned for the car. She nodded and they left the café. Sean sat behind the wheel and Luna was in the passenger seat.
The drive to the school was in silence. Sean had turned off the radio because the songs were not the most appropriate when you have a Vice-Principal. He couldn’t stop thinking about the school and his… ‘friends’ that he had made while there. He will admit that he cares for them, but, he still wanted to be as distant from them as possible which… wasn’t working properly from the sounds of things.
When Sean parked the car in the area teachers would secretly smoke, he looked over the school. “It hasn’t changed much,” he noted.
“Yeah, not much to change I’m afraid,” Luna spoke with a fond smile.
“Nothing wrong with that, other shitholes change all the time—to the point where it just gets fucking annoying,” Sean spoke with irritability. “Before high school, I went to a school that would change every two months, I thought I was gonna shoot someone,”
Luna didn’t comment but did understand the irritation. She unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car and looked at him.
“Thank you for the lift. It was nice to have a chat. If you want to start school, just tell me,” with that she shut the door and walked through the backdoor entrance to the school.
Sean sat in the car for a good five minutes contemplating. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to join the classrooms again or not. He started the car and drove to the parking lot where there were a few cars and bikes already. He parked the car and got out.
“Fuck it,” he said and marched up to the school. Unknown to him, he was observed by Luna who smiled.
Author's Note
Hello everyone, Dragon-In-Black here back with another one-shot that I have had the urge to do for a while. I hope you enjoyed the story and I have a question; would you guys like to see a romance between Sean McGarden and Octavia Melody? The story would take place during Anon-A-Miss where the secret is revealed. I’ll leave a comment down below where all you have to do is like; (you want to see a romance/Anon-A-Miss story) or dislike; (you don’t want another story/follow-up).
Anyways, I know a lot of you do not speak Swedish so I will post the original lyrics and the translated one here. Be aware, I’m using google translate so some things may be inaccurate word and language-wise
Original;
Rider i vildmarken
Grisarna låser in lejon som hästar i stall
Bakk vad som hänt, vad jag gjort, vad jag kan
Vem var det som sa de vill testa HAVAL?
Mannen, ta risker, kom bakk mitt register
Sen säg vad ni visste, benim criminal, ooh
Jag finns där på listor, lagt grabbar i kistor
Det skitzat, men det inte allt, ooh
Jag dammar upp allt
Guzzar jag bazz sen jag kall, får grabbar på fall
Jag skjuter, punkterar din kropp med metall
Spela inte ball, benim animal
Hon sa jag beter mig som djur
Sättet jag åt hennes hand
Från baksätet sikta och skjut
Jag rattar trafiken där fram, boom, vram-vram
Så fort ni kan, sätt han i bur
Jag ute, folk kallar det tur
Jag skriver på—, har ingen lur
De kallar mig animal, benim är djur
Jag hoppar av Voi, jag ba hoppar på Q
När skotten går av, det är då jag har kul
Jag sitter i cell var och varannan jul
Guzzarna dör för mig, känner mig ful
Benim animal
Ooh, ey, det finns bra killar but I ain't one
Redan som barn blev kallad haiwan
Onormalt, sättet som han är kall
Mm, kalla mig animal
Ooh, animal, animal, ooh, bakk ghettoungen
Animal, animal, Mowgli, vandrar i djungeln
Animal, animal, bit han i halsen och lungor
Animal, animal, orten är vildmarken, benim är kungen
När vi skjuter, shoot-to-kill
Tabbar fäller grabbar, här det gäller va den snabba, benim alltid vaken och jag går med gun
Yeah, make another mill'
Benim blivit pappa, det finns ingen tid att slappa, blivit man
Bakk bland artister, de fastna som klister
Lakk, ser du nå brister? Benim taliban, mm
Har skotthål i jeansen, det Glock och det ryssen
Lakk, shunon på skitzen, kan det va HAVAL?
De kallar mig söt
De-de vet inte att mina fiender böt
De vet inte deras guzz visar mig gött
De vet inte om vilka vapen jag köpt, mm
Ey, allt för tidig ålder när jag höll den första millen i min hand
Ey, till trakten jag var bunden så i trakten, broder, millarna försvann
Jag önskar jag var nöjd med lite grann
Men jag toucha mycket, nu jag vill ha mer
Jag styr min ort med— och med gun
Och jag tar mig upp, försök att dra mig ner
Gör para på musik och kilogram
Och av låtarna och brickorna, har fler
Och jag går på samma gata som jag gick när jag var grabb
Ey, det Mowgli med gun mot hela din armé
Ooh, ey, det finns bra killar but I ain't one
Redan som barn blev kallad haiwan
Onormalt, sättet som han är kall
Mm, kalla mig animal
Ooh, animal, animal, ooh, bakk ghettoungen
Animal, animal, Mowgli, vandrar i djungeln
Animal, animal, bit han i halsen och lungor
Animal, animal, orten är vildmarken, benim är kungen
Translate to English
Translated:
Riding in the wilderness
The pigs lock up lions like horses in stables
Bakk what happened, what I did, what I can do
Who said they want to test HAVAL?
Man, take risks, get behind my record
Then tell me what you knew, benim criminal, ooh
I'm there on lists, put boys in coffins
That sketched, but that's not all, ooh
I dust everything
If I guzz bazz then I'm cold, guys fall
I shoot, puncture your body with metal
Don't play ball, benim animal
She said I behave like an animal
The way I ate her hand
Aim and shoot from the back seat
I direct the traffic there, boom, vram-vram
As soon as you can, put him in a cage
I out, people call it luck
I'm signing—, I don't have a phone
They call me animal, benim is animal
I jump off Voi, I ba jump on Q
When the shots go off, that's when I have fun
I sit in a cell every other Christmas
The guzzars are dying for me, I feel ugly
My animal
Ooh, ey, there are good guys but I ain't one
Already as a child was called haiwan
Abnormal, the way he is cold
Mm, call me animal
Ooh, animal, animal, ooh, back the ghetto kid
Animal, animal, Mowgli, walks in the jungle
Animal, animal, bite him in the throat and lungs
Animal, animal, the place is the wilderness, the benim is the king
When we shoot, shoot-to-kill
Mistakes fall guys, here it's about being quick, benim always awake and I go with the gun
Yeah, make another mill'
Benim become a father, there is no time to relax, become a man
Bakk among artists, they stick like glue
Varnish, do you now see flaws? Benim Taliban, etc
Has bullet holes in the jeans, the Glock and the Russian
Lacquer, shunon on the sketch, could it be HAVAL?
They call me cute
They-they don't know that my enemies fined
They don't know their guzz shows me shit
They don't know about which weapons I bought, etc
Ey, way too early age when I held the first mile in my hand
Ey, to the region I was bound so in the region, brother, the millers disappeared
I wish I was happy with a little bit
But I touch a lot, now I want more
I rule my place with— and with gun
And I get up, try to pull myself down
Make money on music and kilograms
And of the songs and tiles, have more
And I walk the same street I walked when I was a boy
Ey, that Mowgli with a gun against your whole army
Ooh, ey, there are good guys but I ain't one
Already as a child was called haiwan
Abnormal, the way he is cold
Mm, call me animal
Ooh, animal, animal, ooh, back the ghetto kid
Animal, animal, Mowgli, walks in the jungle
Animal, animal, bite him in the throat and lungs
Animal, animal, the place is the wilderness, the benim is the king
