It was somewhat difficult to accept the absence behind my seat.

I pedaled along the sidewalk and felt myself wear a sort of poker face, but inside, I couldn't help thinking about her. I was so used to having my back covered by her during most of the rides on my bicycle, but there was no shield this time. I knew it was only temporary, but it still felt pretty lonely when her voice wasn't there to give me something nice to listen to besides the ambience of the city streets.

It didn't take too long to reach Crystal Prep Academy, but during this one ride, it seemed as if the whole school had relocated to an even further location. I felt the need to fumble with my blazer, as it practically restricted myself from moving comfortably as I pedaled. Usually, my close companion would do me the favor of carefully holding the apparent essential part to my uniform along the ride. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, the seat behind me was empty.

I've had the bright idea of stuffing it into my bag, but never again was I willing to the take the risk of a trip down to the principal's office for a messy and wrinkled uniform. For now, I just had to deal with the fact that I had to handle things on my own. Unlike every single other student at Crystal Prep, I didn't have the luxury of riding in a spacious and air-conditioned car. I suppose that was one of the reasons why I was sort of isolated from everyone else. Well, except for a few people…

I parked my bike at the stands provided by Crystal Prep and reached for the lock from my bag. After securing it carefully, I turned and headed for the doors of the quite enormous academy. Ever since my first year, I was surprised they had bicycle stands, considering that no one here apparently would ever think about riding a bike to school.

I had arrived with about ten minutes left before classes began. I was glad that I was able to skip the cafeteria since I had breakfast before coming here. Still, it felt pretty bothering walking the halls to class on my own. Nevertheless, I reached the door to my first class, opened it, and walked inside. There were already students talking among themselves. For some reason, my body found it necessary to release a deep sign before making my way to my seat.

Once I sat, I dropped my bag and stared at the board at the front of the classroom. However, my eyes soon found themselves drifting and wandering to the seat next to me. I suppose I secretly hoped that her things would be there, but they weren't. I didn't really have a good idea when she would be back.

"Him? Really?" I heard from my left. I normally wouldn't have paid any attention, but since it sounded as if the voice was directed towards me, it would have been pretty dumb not to look back. Slightly removing my right cheek from the hand that was lazily supporting it, I turned my head towards the source of the voice. The first two students I saw were Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet. They appeared to have been talking to each other, so why did the voice sound like it was aimed at me?
"Sure, if you like that he only talks to that other one weird girl."

I didn't have the solid evidence, but the lifting of my eyebrow indicated that I had a fairly good idea of who they were talking about.

Sour Sweet sent another ugly glance at me before she realized I had been watching her for a short moment.

She immediately retracted her glare and forced out a huge grin. "Oh, good morning, Chase!" Her obvious feign of kindness was more annoying than her real personality. I could even hear the quotation marks she verbally used for my name from her greeting. After all, it was what I was called the majority of time by my absent friend.

Despite her rude actions, I remained silent. Sour Sweet didn't bother to continue facing me and see if I would actually greet her back. I turned my sight towards the girl she was making conversation with, Sunny Flare. I noticed that every now and then in their conversation, she would sent me a kind odd smile. In fact, by how long she faced me with that indulged grin, it seemed she wanted me to realize that she was looking at me in a way she'd hardly look at anyone else.

I wasn't sure how to react at this, so I decided to turn back at the board. I was never really that much of a morning person, so I decided I would take the extra few minutes to rest my eyes before the teacher arrived.

After class, I tidily slipped the carefully taken notes into my binder and dropped them into my bag. I wanted to make sure she'd understand as much as she could for the classes she had to miss today. I was sure being absent from high school was one thing, but this wasn't high school. This was practically university. Based on my sister's experience from attending university, sometimes I wondered if academics were as rigorous as the preparatory academy made them seem.

I had to admit that if there was any sense of a public school in this academy, it would probably be that classes were usually filled with the same group of people. In this case, students like Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare were in practically all of my classes. Crystal Prep was an exclusive institution for those that raised high expectations, whether purposely or not. In this school, we were seen more like a constricted group that was wired to be presented as more "talented" than others like trophies. In example, Sunny Flare, Sour Sweet, and I would be in Group A that would attend classes in a specific order. At the same time, other students in Group B would follow another schedule based on their skills and desires. The alternate schedules go for the rest of the groups attending the academy. It's a bit complicated to understand at first, but it just gets programmed into your head after living through it for a while. In fact, as long as your performance and grades are up, you really didn't have to think about it at all.

If there was any period of time I actually enjoyed at this school, it was lunch. Today especially felt suffocating with her absence, and some time at the cafeteria would allow me some room to breathe. I didn't like the idea of sitting alone at our table, but I allowed the thought of being spaced out from everyone else and having time to myself keep me up.

Before visiting the cafeteria, I stopped by my locker to drop off my bag. When my bag was in, I felt my eyes stare inside the small space of my locker for a moment. My head faced the floor in thought and then turned right to see the locker besides mine.

I was glad when she was allowed to move to the one next to mine, so we wouldn't have to separate for our things between classes. It only proved how much I enjoyed her company. As a matter of fact, I began wondering how she was doing without me.

I sighed with a touch of glum on my face before I closed the door to my personal storage space.

"What's shakin', bacon?" I heard from my left, causing me to almost jump in surprise.

I swear I didn't even need to see her face to confirm it was her.

"Faith!" My spirits soared through the roof. There was no way I could help myself. I reached for her and brought her in for a tight embrace. I was about to even lift her up slightly above the ground until I had the chance to notice disgusted and bothered stares from other students. Before any strict school staff could see us, I quickly released her while momentarily placing a hand on her shoulder. "S-sorry…" I apologized as I held a fist to my mouth while trying to keep in an embarrassed chuckle. I noticed she was wearing a side ponytail today instead of the usual hair-over-the-left-shoulder look.

Despite what happened, she giggled and appeared jubilant as a reaction to my heartwarming greeting. "Don't worry, I missed you too." She mentioned in a rather humorous and teasing manner.

"It was kind of…quiet…without you here." I tried to explain to her without getting too emotionally invested. "But you made it just in time for lunch."

"Sweet!" She expressed cheerfully and showed off her school bag a little. "My mom got us some lunch today."

"Really? That was really nice of her." I answered.

"Come on." She directed as she placed a hand on the back of my right shoulder. "Let's head into the cafeteria and eat!"

"So, how was the optometrist?" I asked as we settled ourselves in our table.

"Everything checked out great!" Faith began to fumble with the straps of her school bag. "My doctor was pretty sure I'll be seeing just fine like anyone else." She pulled out a brown paper bag from the inside of her main bag. "I also mentioned that I wasn't planning to use contacts for that one little trick I'd do to my eyes anymore."

I watched as she placed the paper bag onto the table between us and smiled warmly. "You know, I like your eyes a lot better than when you tried to hide them. They're really…attractive."

Faith stopped the movement of her hands with the paper bag to look at me with a slightly agape mouth. Blood flooded her cheeks after she had an extra moment to realize what I said. "S-s-s-stop! You're going to make me blush…"

"You already are." I laughed lightly. "And I mean it. Other people might find it weird because you're different, but I don't know. I think your mismatched eyes are really appealing. At least they're not two completely opposite colors."

After passing through the wave of embarrassment she endured, she managed to smile lightly at my heartfelt comment. "You're not any different yourself, you know."

"I know." I rested my head on my hand as the two of us continued eye contact. "Sometimes, I don't even remember that they're like that, to be honest. Unless people bring it up every second, you really get used to it."

"Yeah." She shrugged with a happy-go-lucky beam. "I guess you're right. But if you keep saying stuff like that about my eyes, I'm going to feel really embarrassed."

I slightly lowered both my head and voice for what I was about to say next. "Come on. I'm sure it can never be as bad like the time when we were at the neighborhood pool and the top of your swimsuit sna—"

She immediately lurched forward and clasped her hands over my mouth. Her faced was flushed significantly more than usual. "N-n-no! S-stop! Don't remind me!" She removed her hands and began anxiously adverting her gaze away from me. Her right hand began hovering over her face as if she was trying to keep her presence unknown. "You weren't supposed to see that…"

"Okay, okay." I decided it was time to stop my friendly teasing. "Don't worry about it really. It's not like anyone else was there to see."

She felt comfortable enough to place her hand back down and look at me. "Still…" The volume of her voice lowered to where I could barely hear her. "You know how I feel about…those…"

I nodded my head. She didn't need to say anymore. "I know. Sorry about bringing it up, Faith. I thought we'd have a nice laugh about it instead."

She seemed to softly turn her frown around. "It's okay. It was still a good time anyway."

"Yeah." I turned my look towards the cafeteria floor and began thinking back to that event. "I wonder how it would have been if she had shown up like I hoped." I thought out loud as Faith had been removing several items from the paper bag sitting on the middle of the table.

"She's just really busy." Faith shared both her response and the sandwich she held in front of me. "It must be time-consuming being the top student of the whole academy." She continued as I accepted her offer. "I'm sure there'll be a time where she can hang out with us."

"I hope so." I expressed as I began to unwrap the sandwich, giving me a closer and detailed view of the lettuce dripping with sweet dressing as it poked out under the crispy toasted bread. "It looks really good."

"Thank my mom!" Faith had unwrapped hers as well, and then pulled out a couple bags of chips. She slid one towards me before claiming hers.

I formed a firm grasp on my sandwich before I began lifting it up towards my mouth. Before I could take a bite, I felt an extra weight join my side of the table. Turning my head to the right, I had a front view of a pair of half-lidded eyes gazing at me. Sunny Flare greeted me with a silent but inviting look. Her head rested on the palm of her hand while her fingers curved inward close to her chin.

"…hi?" I broke the short uncomfortable silence between us.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

I took a glance at my sandwich. "Eating?" I found her behavior really odd. She had never just come up to check on me like that before.

"You know, there's an extra seat at my table. Maybe you'd like some company?"

I looked past her in the direction she came. There was one table that specifically caught my eye. Sour Sweet was sitting there observing our conversation. Despite the prickly vibes creeping up on me, I had no intention of leaving. I shot Faith a look and returned my response. "…thanks but I'm sitting with Faith right now."

Sunny Flare turned her head towards Faith. "Oh, Faith! I didn't see you in class today."

"I was…somewhere…" Faith awkwardly answered.

Sunny Flare only replied with a giggle and stood up. "I'm sure you could join me another time." She mentioned as she kept a hand on my shoulder. "It's nice seeing you, dearie!" She surprisingly ended as she began walking back to her table.

I continued observing her for a moment before I turned to Faith. I supposed I was looking for some sort of answer from her. However, Faith's eyebrows were furrowed lightly and she seemed to glare back at Sunny Flare for some reason.

"This is going to sound crazy, but…I think she…likes me?" I commented.

Faith scoffed. "You know she only likes you for your eyes, right?"

Her answer was direct and straightforward, which was actually pretty rare from her. In fact, I believed she only ever acted this way when she was pretty dead serious.

"Huh?"

"She wants to date you because of your eyes." Faith proceeded to explain. "I heard her talking about it with Sour Sweet in the locker room yesterday. She didn't specifically mention you, but she was talking about dating someone that would attract attention to her. I noticed she glanced at me and then began talking about how someone having eyes like mine would fit the bill." Faith motioned the wrist of her right hand in a circle. "Said something like it would go with her style of fashion and a bunch of other ridiculous things."

"Hm." I honestly wasn't really hurt by that. It's not like I had a thing for her to begin with anyway. I folded my hand into a fist and rested my cheek on it. "Who knows? Maybe I'll still take her up on her offer anyway. I have zero experience with romance, and it doesn't seem like anyone else is interested in me…" I crossed my arms and looked to the side, feeling a bit upset to be sharing that.

"Are you kidding?!" Faith looked like she could slam the table with her hands. "There's no way I'm going to let you date someone like that! It doesn't matter even if you don't care about her. Nothing good will come out of wasting your time with someone like that!"

My eyes widened at Faith's outburst. That was something I had never really seen, most likely due to the fact that I had never really considered dating someone she didn't approve of.

She took note of my reaction and sighed, calming herself down.

"I'm sorry. It's just…I don't want to see anything bad happen to you. I just have a bad feeling if you're with someone like that. Like, what if she treats you like her dog, and if she doesn't get what she wants, she'll punish you by spreading rumors or something? I just don't like the possibility of something like that happening. To be honest…" Faith moved her right hand and wrapped her fingers around her left arm. "I'd rather want us to date each other… At least then I'd know you'd be with someone who cares about you and not with someone who would just use you."

My heart skipped a beat in surprise, and I remained sitting there frozen in shock.

Now THAT was something I had never heard from her before, despite how long we've been with each other as friends. But why did it seem to be out of place? The idea of dating Faith never seemed to have crossed my mind before, and it felt like it didn't cross hers either. It's not like I didn't want to date her, but it was more like I was absolutely fine with what I already had with her.

I rested my arms on top of the table. My sandwich still remained unbitten.

"Can I ask you something, Faith?"

She lifted her head from the floor pretty quickly. "W-What?"

"I'm being pretty serious now. We're so close. It's almost like I can read your thoughts. So, I'm just wondering…why haven't we been doing that?"

"Y-y-you mean dating?" She was starting to sound like she regretted bringing it up in the first place.

"Well, yeah. Serious question. I'm just curious."

"I-I don't know." She repeatedly poked her sandwich with her finger. "Maybe because we're such close friends that it'd be weird if we started seeing each other like that?"

"Would it?" I questioned, unsure of such an idea.

Faith merely shrugged and adverted her gaze while holding a light blush. "I can't say that I've thought about it. Maybe I'm just scared if that did happen, we would grow apart some way, believe it or not." She lowered the lids of her eyes quietly for a few seconds before she shook her head almost vigorously and turned back to me. "But either way, I'd rather want you to go out with me than her!"

Faith was starting to get a little loud from where I was at. I uneasily looked around for any unwanted attention before getting back to her. "Okay, okay, I get it. I won't go out with her."

She sighed and stared down at her skirt. "I don't mean to be bossy… It's just… I liked a guy once…and you know how that turned out."

I remembered almost every word of the story she had to build up the courage to tell me.

"Yeah."

She seemed to have forgotten the existence of her sandwich after succumbing to the effects of a depressed state of mind. I felt really guilty. Ever since her return today, I was practically the one who got her feeling down, and I was the one who was supposed to keep her happy.

I'm her best and closest friend. It's my job.

"Can I see your hand?" I asked. She looked a little confused, but she brought out her hand on the table. I lightly held a firm grip of her hand and returned serious empathetic look. She stared back at me with the same questioning expression for a silent while. Then, I lightly raised the corners of my lips and told her an unexpected statement. "Your sandwich is going to get cold."

That caused her to be even more lost and confused. Finally, she spurted out a few chuckles and formed the smile I wanted to see. "You're so stupid."

"Not really." I playfully acted smart. "Lunch will be over pretty soon."

We finished our meals with minutes to spare and returned to class. The difference between atmospheres was so clear to see when Faith was back in the classroom.

It was weird.

I suppose the best way to describe it was class was pretty gray when she wasn't around. However, as soon as she came back, she brought life back inside along with her. In other words, I say she gave me a reason for being in there.

Nevertheless, I had to admit I was ready to go home once the end of the school day was near.

I still had to go through the physical education regimen that was implanted in our curriculum. Normal schools would call it simply P.E. though. Fortunately, I had Faith for that period too, and I was especially glad when we wouldn't be separated based on gender. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get along with the other guys since most of the guys here were just as stuck-up as the girls were.

Faith joined me back on the field with her hands behind her back and a warm smile glued to her face. I wasn't exactly sure of her standpoint on sports or physical activity, but she seemed to enjoy it when she was with me.

"Get your gears together. We're starting with short-burst sprints." The coach announced directly, offering not even a second or two for a greeting.

That was the norm for not only the students.

He blew his whistle, leading us to take our runner's positions.

Faith's eyes darted over to me as she released a devious smirk. I could almost feel a telepathic message being shot into my mind.

Wanna race?

I sent her the same look.

If you think you can keep up.

The coach blew his whistle, causing us to get a move on.

We continued these short-burst sprints several times, running back and forth on the field. Sometime later, the coach blew his whistle loudly once more and shouted his next objective.

"Down on the ground. Push-ups, go!"

I could hear myself beginning to run out of breath. Faith stopped beside me, releasing a few grunts of fatigue. Nevertheless, we both positioned ourselves on the ground and followed the sound of the coach's whistle in the time we'd perform the push-up. The time between each blow was about a second. Fortunately, the long whistle came in soon, allowing us to stop.

We had about a few seconds to rest before we moved onto crunches.

"I'll go first." I told Faith as I began to lie myself on the grass. I wanted her to have a longer break.

"Oh, you're so sweet." She teasingly shared as she knelt on the ground to bend over and hold her hands on my shoes. This, of course, was to keep my feet from rising up as I performed the exercise.

I attempted to get a little comfortable and placed the back of my hands behind my head. After a few seconds, I began working my upper body to reach my bent knees as much as I could. Faith smiled cheerfully as we both kept eye contact towards one another. I found this silly for some reason, and she made want to smile and laugh in reaction. But it was a little hard to do just that in the middle of exerting such energy through physical exercises.

I tried keeping my breathing intact, but I wasn't so great at keeping a perfect rhythm. This, in turn, caused me to lose seconds of uninterrupted exertion, but it was enough to last through.

"It's okay. You're doing great." Faith shared, working her natural position as my motivator.

I wanted to respond back to her, but I could only do that if I was resting. The most I could pull out was a grunt and a nod before I pressed on.

What I'd give to have a break right now…

"…BEING QUIET!" An unexpected and absolutely tremendously loud voice screeched out from the bushes near us.

All of us froze at what we were doing to stare back at this one girl with rainbow-colored hair standing out in front of us. The coach had seen this girl for himself and he did not look happy. To be fair, he never really did to begin with.

This unknown girl noticed our eyes on her and grinned nervously before a bush beside her began speaking to her. "Bush to Dash. Code red. You have been spotted." Immediately after, this pink-haired girl jumped out and ran in a flash like a bolt of lightning. "RUUUUUUUUUUUNNN!"

The one who originally shouted glanced back at us one last time before she took off with the other. We continued observing them run down the parking lot near the field. At the moment, for some reason, it seemed like I had seen them before. Despite the majority of us questioning what had just happened, the coach turned back to us and blew his whistle.

"Back to work."

At the end of the period, Faith laid exhaustedly on the grass, heavily breathing for a moment. I stayed by her side, recuperating in almost the same manner. Our coach had dismissed and left us to return back to the locker room. He didn't have to supervise us anymore since we had already reached the end of the school day, and we were technically already free to leave the premises.

"Man…" Faith tried to speak once regaining her breath. "You know…I really wish we'd be able to do whatever we wanted this period as long as we exercised from it. It's totes lame to have to be all formal even for P.E."

"Well, that's Crystal Prep for you." I responded, feeling good enough to walk. "It's not about what the students want. It's what benefits the school more."

"That's pretty depressing to hear…" She answered a little sadly.

"After meeting Principal Cinch, it's pretty much obvious." I recalled one of my first experiences with her. It wasn't exactly pleasant.

"I guess you're right." Faith had her share of her experiences. She had gotten in trouble at times when a little of her mid-riff would show, due to the fact that the size she wore was around youth large. In fact, I was able to see her belly button at the moment she was lying down, but no one really cared in this period. Everyone else was too busy with their exercises to bother looking at anyone else. "I can't wait to go hoooome." She shared with a small groan.

I smiled a little and stood up as I stretched out my hand to her. She noticed it fairly quickly and returned a warm smile back when accepting it. I helped her up and offered my back to carry her to her side of the locker rooms. She seemed to usually love the ride, so she didn't hesitate to jump on.

We had to separate momentarily to change back into our uniforms, but we reconvened with each after several minutes, ready to go home. However, before we left the area, I noticed Sunny Flare leaving with Sour Sweet. Sunny Flare glanced over to me and threw an alluring smile as she waved lightly.

I had to admit it… After Faith told me about her true intentions, the smallest part of me sort of resented Sunny Flare for it. Nevertheless, Faith at my side had me feeling mainly uncaring.

Paying attention to Sunny Flare in the moment, I hardly noticed Sour Sweet's intense glare shooting bullets at me. When I switched my eyes to her, she immediately pulled it back and sent a fake friendly beaming face.

When they were far away enough, I turned to Faith. "She say anything about me in there today?"

"Just some stupid stuff you really don't need to know." Faith kept it short and sweet. "Just make sure you don't fall for her dumb tricks. She thinks she can make any guy do what she wants because of them. You're way too good for that."

My heart felt touched when she mentioned that last part, despite the bothered look on her face.

"That's why I have you, isn't it?" I smiled and messed with the top of her hair a little.

I began walking, leaving her standing with a slight redness that overcame her face.

"Why do you have to do such embarrassing things to me?" She asked almost timidly as she jogged shortly to catch up.

"Because it's fun." I chuckled lightly, looking forward in the direction of the entrance/exit of the school grounds. "Plus, your reactions are so cute."

Faith immediately adverted her eyes away from me in embarrassment. "Th-there you go again!"

"Haha." I returned. "Faith, if you knew how you looked like right now in my shoes, you'd see why it's so great for me."

She sighed loudly. "I would think, being with you for so long, I'd be used to this."

"Then you wouldn't be as much of the real you." I stated rather a little confusingly.

"Huh?" Her eyebrow raised to prove as such.

"Nothing." I contently left it at that.

We made it to the front where my bike was visible.

"Where were we again?" Faith questioned as she tried to recall what we had been talking about to begin with. "Oh yeah. Like I said. Don't fall her tricks. After all, it's…that one person you know I'm talking about that you have something for, right?

"Yep…" I reached for my bike and began messing with the lock. "But it's kind of hard to get anywhere with her when it seems like she hardly notices you…"

"I know what you mean…" Faith continued as she watched me with her hands behind her back. "But maybe you shouldn't take it so personally. She's kind of like that with everyone. I mean, she does lock herself up in that room. I don't even think she even goes to any classes."

"Doesn't surprise me." I unlocked the lock and began stuffing it in my bag. "She must had taken some tests to skip all the other classes. I mean, I haven't seen her with me in class after our second year."

"Hmm." Faith placed a finger to her lips. "If she skipped all those classes, then why is she still here? Wouldn't she have graduated already? Maybe she's in some kind of program or has some kind of special advantage where she doesn't even need to show up for lectures. Maybe she knows so much that she just has to take the test and bam. All the free time in the world."

"Yeah. That sounds more like it actually." I remained standing near my bike while holding my hands on the handlebars.

"Isn't that how real university is?" Faith added.

"I think so. My sister's told me that apparently people don't even need to show up for lectures. As long as they know their stuff somehow, they can just take the tests and eventually pass the class."

"I guess that explains it." Faith moved her hands to her hips. "Hold on a second… Is that the real reason you like her?" She crossed her arms and sort of gave a disapproving and perhaps even jealous frown. "Because she's smart…?"

"N-no!" The way she said that made me sound like I only wanted to take advantage of Twilight. "I told you, haven't I?" I sighed and looked away in reminiscence. "Ever since our first year…she was the only person I thought I could connect with at first. No one really talked to her. In fact, everyone seemed to be so jealous that they actually didn't like her. I can relate to that because no one really talked or liked me too. At first…I kind of just had interest in being her friend…but ever since we unintentionally got paired up one day…I sort of wanted more…" I shook my head, feeling like this was no place to talk about things like this. "I don't know. Let's just go home, I guess."

"Chase?" I heard another voice suddenly protrude through the silence around us.

I turned to see the subject of our conversation right there on the school steps.

No way?! Had she been listening the whole time?! Did she know!? This wasn't the way I wanted it to be done!

"T-T-Twilight!?" I could feel myself frantically stuttering. "I-I didn't see you there!"

"I'm sorry to bother you." She began walking towards me, surprisingly wearing something completely opposite from her uniform. She wore a pullover hoodie with jeans and sneakers. How did she get past the dress code? Then again…she was the top student, so maybe she was able to get away with a few things… She approached me and began making me feel nervous. "You see… I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor."

Judging from her request, it seemed she hadn't heard me at all, and if she did, she had no idea who I was talking about. Or maybe she just didn't care…

"Y-yeah!" I almost immediately responded. "What do you need?"

"Can you take me out of the city really quick?"

Her question surprised me. I glanced over to Faith to see that she hadn't been expecting such a request either.

"What for?" I followed up with a question.

She pulled up some device with antennas. "It's…for some research." She looked back up to me with a pleading face. "I promise you it won't be long. I just need to check out something. It won't take more than a few minutes there."

I sighed.

To be honest, I didn't want to deny this request, but I definitely would feel bad if I just left Faith waiting here for me to get back. I supposed I would ask Faith, and if she wasn't okay with it, I'd just have to suck it up and sadly decline.

"Faith?" I turned to her. "Do you think you can wait for me? I don't think I'll be longer than thirty minutes."

"Sure…" She strained that word a bit as she lightly bent over with her hands behind her back in curiosity. "I can probably get some schoolwork done or something…"

"Oh…!" I immediately remembered. I pulled the notes out of my bag and stretched them out to her. "I took these for you while you were absent."

"Oh, geez, really?!" It was as if she actually believed that I wouldn't go to such lengths for her. She politely accepted them and thanked me as she skimmed them through. "Thanks! I'll just look these over while you're gone."

I nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can." I turned to Twilight. "Alright. Let's go."

Faith waved goodbye to us as we exited out of the school yard on my bicycle. Twilight had ridden with me a few times in the past, so she didn't have much trouble with holding on to me. I can't lie and say that I didn't enjoy Twilight's semi-embrace though…

"So where are we going?" I asked.

Twilight used one hand to pull the hoodie over her head. "Canterlot High School."

Canterlot High School. I've heard that name before. In fact, I believe that was where I would have been had I denied my acceptance into Crystal Prep. But it wasn't just that… There was something else I've heard about that place…but I couldn't recall exactly what it was.

"Huh?" I questioned, wanting to look back but couldn't because of my current cycling. "Why there?"

"There's something about that school I need to see for myself." She returned.

Right. I remember her mentioning something like that before. However, when I remembered how she dressed herself for this visit, I couldn't help but ask another question in concern.

"You're not going to do anything bad, are you?"

"Of course not." Twilight assured. "But I can't let them know who I am or where I'm from. If they know I'm from Crystal Prep, I'm sure they'll think I'm up to no good."

Looking shady doesn't exactly help either…

"What about me? I'm in my uniform." I brought up.

"Don't worry. I just need you to drop me off at the side of the street, wait for a little moment while I gather my data, and then we'll head back after."

"Okay…" You're the genius after all.

The school was in clear view as I arrived on the other side of the street.

Twilight patted my shoulders. "Okay, stop here." I braked and placed a foot on the side of the bicycle as Twilight appeared to look around. "Doesn't seem like anyone's around. Understandable since it should be after school hours."

"What now?" I asked.

"Wait here." She directed as she carefully stepped off the bike. "I'll only be a few minutes."

"Be careful." I advised as she looked both ways before crossing the street.

Once she was on the other side, I noticed her pull out the device she had shown me earlier. From there, she began heading towards the statue of the mascot that was presented in front of the school. I decided to take a look around me to make sure there was no one specifically eyeing us, but it was pretty clear. I turned back to Twilight to observe her waving her device around the statue for some reason. I couldn't come up with a single idea on why she would be so focused on that one thing, but I couldn't question it as my IQ was nowhere near as high as hers.

Eventually, she went around the statue to possibly investigate it more. This made me more nervous, but I couldn't catch her attention. She disappeared from my sight, and I was pretty sure that if anyone was at least at the front doors inside the school, they would probably see her.

I remained staring at the direction she disappeared at until I heard a faint yell or call. My body lightly hovered over and my hands tightened at the handles.

"Wait! Stop!" I heard an unknown voice.

Most importantly, I noticed Twilight running straight back towards me. There was somebody else chasing her. I immediately readied myself to pedal out of there as soon as Twilight boarded on. Fortunately, but extremely dangerously as well, Twilight ran across the road, having this person chasing her stop due to a passing car.

Twilight hopped on as quickly as she could and immediately tightened her arms around my waist. "Go, go!"

I did and pedaled as fast as I could. As I began leaving, I saw this girl run across the road, but we had already separated far enough for her to find it bothersome to chase after us any longer.

"Are we clear?" I asked Twilight to clarify.

She looked back and sighed. Afterwards, she removed her hood off her head. "We're fine."

Arriving back at Crystal Prep, I could see Faith loyally remaining at the steps looking over her notes. She didn't seem to notice our arrival yet.

"Thanks a lot, Chase." Twilight expressed, preparing to step off. "I didn't get everything I was hoping to get, but I have a better idea on what I'm looking for."

"Okay…" I merely stated as I began to see her prepare to leave. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to get back to work on this." She turned her body towards the school but sent a little wave back to me. "Thank you for taking the time to assist me."

"Well…I—" I churned out. I wanted to say something, but I had no idea what to say. Either way, I stopped in my efforts when I noticed her returning to the front doors of the school. As she walked past the steps, Faith heard and noticed her. They didn't make any conversation though. Instead, Faith turned to me and immediately packed up her things to jog over to where I was stationed.

I sighed pretty heavily before she reached me.

"How'd it go?" She questioned with a somewhat confident smile.

"Meh." I effortlessly answered. "It was just whatever, I guess."

"That doesn't sound good." Faith frowned.

"I mean…it's not like it went bad." I rubbed the back of my head. "It's just…you know…nothing different."

"Sorry to hear that…" Faith seemed like she understood my feelings on the matter.

"It doesn't matter." I closed. "Come on, let's head home."

Once Faith climbed on and secured herself, I began biking us home.

---

When we arrived at the end of the neighborhood where she lived, Faith stepped off and turned towards me with both a warm grin on her face and a question in her mind. "Hey, do you want to come over for a bit?"

Spending time with each other off campus was very common with Faith and me. This included spending time at each other's houses. However, usually I preferred being at Faith's house instead of mine. My parents were just too touchy on the relationship Faith and I had. We lived in the same neighborhood with a few houses between us, so we saw each other very often.

It wasn't rare for Faith's mom to spend her time at her work late until the night. Normally, she comes back home a few hours after Faith does in the weekday. It's actually one of the reasons why I started taking Faith home myself. Another is that we pretty much live in the same place. Referring back to her mom, I actually felt bad for both her and Faith. Faith's mom is really sweet, and it makes me think that I'm actually a lot closer to her than I am with my own parents. Sometimes, I find myself thinking that she deserves more than she has to do with, especially due to the fact that she's the only parent Faith has.

Faith has had to spend many weekday evenings home alone because of her mother's schedule. Surprisingly, she's managed to distract herself with her interests such as music and video games. However, there have been times where she's called me up to ask if I wanted to come over. To be honest, staying at Faith's was a lot better than being at my own home was. Even though it wasn't too far away, it sort of felt like a place to escape certain things and just be in each other's presence in peace.

"Yeah, sure." I answered with a smile of my own and followed her on her driveway.

I stationed my bike in her garage and followed her through the front door.

After she closed the door, she released a huge and loud sigh. "Gaaaaahhh! Finally home!" She exclaimed with arms stretching out wide. Afterwards, she removed her formal shoes and threw them lightly against the wall. I decided to remove mine as well, but I placed them gently to the side instead. I didn't want Grinch getting after any little spots or scratches on my shoes.

She walked towards the stairs with her socks, already beginning to remove her blazer. As I followed her up the stairs, I could only wonder if Faith acted the same way when I wasn't around her. She opened the door to her room and switched the lights on. I closed it for her and decided I could remove my blazer as well. I didn't want to feel like I was at a ball twenty-four seven, and it was annoying enough to wear the majority of the day. I hung it somewhere secure in her room and looked towards her as she headed for her dresser.

"Mind if I lie on your bed?"

"Of course not." She responded as she removed her tie.

I allowed myself to fall on the comfy sheets of her bed and closed my eyes.

Lying there felt so good. It was like jumping into a pool of pillows…I think.

Either way, with the darkness enveloped in front of my eyes, I began thinking about Twilight. I started to wonder if we sort of drifted apart after we didn't see each other so much anymore. We were never close to begin with, but I knew that we'd at least talk somewhat. Nevertheless, as much as I tried, I couldn't really get her out of her work in school. Honestly, I wanted the best for her, but I was starting to feel a little hurt thinking that she finds her work more important than her friends. Well…that's if she even considers us as friends…

I suddenly felt another bundle of weight drop near me. I opened my eyes and spotted Faith by my side, staring at the ceiling with a bright beam. She apparently had changed into a lightly loose long sleeve shirt sporting an illustrated image of a delicious doughnut on the center. She also wore comfortable short shorts.

I found myself noticing the small pile of clothes on the floor near her bed. It was the uniform she had been wearing just a little while ago.

"You should probably take better care of your uniform." I advised, specifically referring to that one person. "You don't want her to catch something off with it."

"Eh. I think she has more important things to worry about than clothes." She replied, sparing hardly a care in the world.

"Well, then be careful when you're 'representing' the school." I laid my head back on the bed and eyed the ceiling with her. The Grinch was always crazy about "reputation". You'd think she literally feeds off that stuff.

Faith launched her upper body up from her bed and turned to face me. "So, what do you want to do? Some gaming? Movie? Videos on my laptop?"

"I'm fine with whatever, really."

She stood up and thought. "Hm…" She didn't look like she could come up with a straight answer. "How about we just start with my laptop?" She sent a glance with a smile back and reached for her computer.

We sat on her bed as she held the laptop in front of us. On the top list of her bookmarked sites was the most popular video sharing website. She clicked on it and the homepage revealed many of the videos she liked to watch. This included information on soon to-be-released video games, adorable animals, and generally funny clips.

We started browsing different videos, sharing some laughs at hilarious compilations. At one point, we found a video with an eye-catching title in the related videos section.

Thief caught red-handed!

"What's this one?" I pointed it out.

Based on the thumbnail, I was curious to watch it.

Faith stared at it for a second in silence before she hovered her mouse over it and clicked it.

"You were trying to swipe some of the cupcakes and you know it!" I heard a voice from the video. It looked like it was being recorded from a phone, and the person hadn't had the subject in the frame yet until after this sentence was spoken.

"Wha- No, I wasn't!" A girl with a very distinguishable and familiar voice cried out.

These two girls had been sharing some kind of tense conversation with each other in front of a crowd that had gathered. What shocked me more was the one being accused. Her clothes had been ruined by what looked like frosting and pieces of cake. Behind her was a stand for a baking club, and on the stand looked to be demolished and squashed cakes.

"Look at yourself! There's no lying out of this one!" The girl pointing the finger shouted. This girl looked familiar as well.

A couple of girls had come running onto the stand. They noticed the state it was in and turned to the accused in shock. "…what were you thinking, Faith?!"

Faith beside me immediately gasped sharply.

"I swear, I—"

The laptop in front of us shut immediately. A hand was planted stilly on the top and I traced it back to Faith. She had been staring aimlessly with tears welling in her eyes.

"Faith." I tried to call her, shocked by my sudden realization of what I saw.

"Oh my gosh…" She slipped out in horror.

"Faith!" I called again and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She lightly cried out and forcefully turned away from me. She brought her knees closer to her head and buried her face on them. "I can't believe it…!" She began to sob.

"Faith…" I said once more, remembering something like this being told to me before. "…was that…?"

"I didn't do it!" She shook her head fiercely. "It was her! It was all her! She lied and got the whole school to hate me!"

I've heard this before. It was the main reason Faith transferred schools and moved to Crystal Prep. It was a story that took an immense amount of courage for her to recall. Back when she was a freshman, she used to be a part of the baking club. In fact, I think she had joined the first day of high school. She had told me that she was given the responsibility to watch and take over the bake sale the club was having for this Freshman Fair thing at their school. One girl she thought she was friends with practically ruined her life when she pulled a little stunt to frame Faith as a thief. I guess that one girl was the one accusing Faith.

Faith continued crying at the side of her bed.

I couldn't imagine the pain she was feeling during the moment. How was I going to help fix this?!

Moving to her side was the only thing I could think of doing. She tried to hold back sobs, but I could feel they were really difficult to keep to herself.

"I had no idea… I didn't know…anyone on the internet could see this…" She quietly shared.

"I'm sorry, Faith." I apologized with an immense amount of guilt on my shoulders. "It was my fault. I shouldn't have pointed that video out."

She shook her head and tried to wipe tears from her face. "I thought I was finally over this."

"I know it's hard to believe, but it looked like it was posted around the time you were still at that school. Maybe it's old news now."

"You really think so…?"

I didn't want to lie to her. "Well, I don't know. I can check the comments or something…" I was about to open the laptop up until Faith placed her hand on mine to stop me.

"No. Just…leave it alone. I don't want to risk feeling any worse."

"Right…" I agreed. I couldn't imagine how much more horrible Faith would feel if everyone in the comment section was hating her for looking like a guilty thief in the video. Nevertheless, I felt the intense need to watch the rest of the video myself. As bad as it looked, I sort of felt like it was my duty to see exactly what happened and who was responsible for the mess, but I would have to do that when Faith couldn't see.

Faith remained silent for a moment before she slightly turned to me. "I feel bad for asking this but…do you think you can stay over tonight?"

"Of course." I responded, willing to do anything to cheer her up.

"Thanks…" She expressed and sighed. "I'm going to need one heck of a distraction to get my mind off of this."

---

I supposed things began looking up once Faith's mom arrived home. She made us dinner and Faith fortunately seemed to keep her mind busy when conversing with her mother. However, it began becoming a little difficult for me when it was time for sleep.

I wasn't sure if it was as difficult as I thought it would be, but I tried to keep Faith from remembering or even mentioning about what had happened with the video. I suggested that we watch some TV, but I couldn't help but continue worrying over Faith every time something on the television came up that could possibly remind Faith of the video.

When she was tired enough, she retreated to her bed and laid there. She kept her hand on her stomach and focused her eyes on her ceiling. It was pretty obvious that she was stuck in thought, and I had a bad feeling it was about the video. If she wasn't being cheery, something was definitely bothering her.

I decided to sit by her side and keep her company. She noticed my presence and lightly snapped out of her thoughts to look at me.

"You going to go to sleep?" I asked.

"Oh, right. Sorry…" She lifted up the hand on her stomach and looked at it momentarily. Then, she turned to me. "Is it okay if you hold my hand until I fall asleep? I just need to know you're there when I close my eyes…"

"Yeah, sure." I went ahead and lightly grabbed her hand.

"Thanks, Chase." She released a deep breath and closed her eyes.

I had no intention of falling asleep. Not until I got something done first.

I waited until Faith seemed to follow a rhythmic breathing pattern before I carefully released her hand. I picked up the covers at the end of her bed and dragged them along to tuck her in. Once she looked comfortable, I quietly walked over to the table her laptop was on and opened it. I inserted a plug onto the side of the laptop and placed on a pair of headphones.

The video was still at the same spot, and all I had to do was press play…

I hovered the mouse over the video, but I began growing nervous. Just the thought of seeing Faith in a completely vulnerable state almost made me sick. I really didn't want to watch it, but I felt the need to know what exactly happened and who caused this to her. I took a deep breath and just forced myself to click the button.

"…I didn't do anything!" Faith seemed to fumble with her words. It sounded like she was pretty in shock herself. "S-Sunset Shimmer! You were the one pushed me onto the cakes! Why would you do that and lie about me stealing?!"

Sunset Shimmer…

The accuser scoffed.

"Do you hear that, everyone? She's trying to pin the blame on me now! You're not going to just believe her even though the proof is right in the pudding, are you?" Sunset Shimmer talked to the crowd.

People began to mutter amongst themselves and Faith helplessly turned her eyes to several people in the crowd. Then, she turned to those who ran in during the middle of the scene. I believed they were a part of her baking club. "You girls have to believe me! I would never do anything like this! I don't ever steal!"

"You're lucky I was here to stop her, you know." The one called Sunset Shimmer crossed her arms and conceitedly looked at the two girls Faith was trying to convince.

They looked at each other and appeared to be speechless. Finally, one of them managed to say a few words, but they didn't make anything better.

"I think you should go, Faith…"

Faith looked completely heartbroken. "B-b-but…" She absolutely wanted to speak. She was in desperate need to say anything that would make things just like they were before. However, unless she had some kind magic, there was no way everything could turn back to normal after that. Eventually, Faith ran out of the scene and away from the camera.

Before the video could finish, I paused when I had a clear view of this "Sunset Shimmer". Her hair was a mixture of red and yellow, and it was just one of the things that appeared to have her stand out. I studied her appearance for a moment and thought to myself as my eyebrows furrowed.

If I find her…what am I going to do?

There were so many things I wanted to do, but they weren't effective ways of dealing with the situation. I needed to find a way to expose her for the kind of cold-hearted person she was, but that was if I even met her. However, the main thing I'd want is to show how that scene was a lie, and that Faith had never done any wrong.

Either way, I'll be remembering that name.

Sunset Shimmer.