Unexpected Changes

The rest of recess was spent trying to figure out what had come in to replace Lily. They'd narrowed it down to either robots, aliens, or alien robots. Daisy, Glory and Snapdragon all knew that it was heat, but since Lily had asked them not to say anything about it, Daisy and Snapdragon were dismissing the claims, and Glory was opting for whichever was the funniest at the time, currently the changeling queen that ate farts. It made sense, after all, as pickled eggs would make that happen.

After playing around for a bit, they went back inside to do their presentation. They went in seating order, starting with the front left and going right, then the next row back, then the next row, and so on.

Top Story introduced himself as a lover of battle tops, and had written little slice-of-life stories for the little creature stickers that decorated the tops. He'd even drawn pictures. The blue and white ones were best friends, the red one was the romantic interest of both, the yellow one was evil and was trying to take over the world... It was very interesting stuff, but Ms. Mayberry had to put a stop to it, as there was limited time in the day, and they had to introduce everypony else.

Snapdragon talked at length about her favourite swatches of fabric, why some of them didn't take to colours as well as others, and why certain stitching techniques were considered proper or improper for each. Glory had missed the point of the assignment, talking about her mother, her sister, her father, and how they were all good at what they did.

Daisy barely had anything. Seeing herself as being "normal," she didn't know what to put down to make her seem special, as her main interests were things she could share with her friends. She enjoyed joking with Glory, she enjoyed hoofball with Lily, and she enjoyed makeovers with Snapdragon. But by herself, she wasn't always really into any of these things.

Finally, it was time for Lily to go. "So, I'm really into hoofball," she started. "I actually spent most of my summer in the filly hoofball league with my closest friends. I won an award for MVP, but I wasn't able to collect it because I missed the last game. They're sending me the medal in the mail. I ended up sick right before the last game, and they had to send me home, but I'm better, now."

"What sickness did you have!?" shouted one of the other students, waving his hoof.

"Is it contagious!?" shouted another, covering her mouth and nose.

Lily shook her head. "I said I'm better, now. That means I'm not sick anymore."

"But you're still carrying germs!"

"The doctor said it's not contagious at all!"

"That's just a thing doctors say when they want diseases to spread!"

"That's enough!" called Ms. Mayberry. "She doesn't have to tell us the exact nature of her illness. Lily has a right to medical privacy, as do the rest of you. If she wants to tell us about it, she can, but if she doesn't want to, she doesn't have to. The only exception to this would be if she has something contagious, which she said it wasn't. If she cut herself, and the wound was infected, that's not something that will spread to you, but it could very easily keep her from playing hoofball. The same if she tore a muscle in her leg, or if one of her arteries clotted. That poses no danger to you, and she might not want to say what happened."

"But what if the doctor was wrong?" asked Gusty. "What if she has something else that they didn't test for? Like, what if they thought it was a cold, and it was actually the feather flu?"

"Then we operate under the assumption that it's a cold until we find evidence to the contrary. Now," she turned back to Lily. "Hurry along, we still have a few more students to go over."

With a nod, Lily began to explain her favourite parts of hoofball, her preferred position as a center forward, and how to perfectly line up a shot so that the ball went exactly where she wanted it to go. When she finished, she sat down, and it was Gusty's turn. Her special interest was racing.

Eventually, they made it through all of the students, and only had a few minutes left of class, which they used for administrative stuff. They each individually thought it was odd to fill out their planners at the end of the day, explaining the various things they did, rather than planning out what they thought their tasks for each day would entail, but such was the way they were supposed to do things. It was more like a progress tracker than a progress guide, but it was what they were meant to do at the end of the day.

As the school bell rang, Ms. Mayberry asked Lily to stay behind. "Just for a minute, dear, then you can catch up with your friends right away."

Lily approached the desk and waited while she pulled out a few papers. "What's this about? Am I in trouble?"

Ms. Mayberry shook her head. "No, you're not in trouble. I just need to know a bit more about this illness, is all."

"But you said I had a right to medical privacy?"

"You do. I just need you to take this home with you and have your dad sign it." She pushed a piece of paper into Lily's hooves.

"Oh. My dad's not home right now."

"When he comes back home, have him sign it."

"That's going to be a few weeks."

Ms. Mayberry turned to look at Lily, her mouth agape. "He just left you home, alone?"

"No, no... Since he had to pick me up from camp and help me recover from my illness, he had to drop some meetings, so now he has to make up for them. He found a sitter for me."

Ms. Mayberry nodded. "I see. That all adds up, now. Have your sitter contact your doctor, and have this paper signed, so you can stay in my class."

Lily looked at the paper. She didn't know what "Liability Waiver" meant, but if all she had to do was have it signed, she could make sure that happened.