Octavia had a special routine for her Saturday morning. Much like any other day, she would wake up early. It was still later than during the schooldays, but it was none the less early for a Saturday. The first thing she would do would be to go groom herself in her bathroom. Though by now she had been calling it her and Vinyl’s bathroom.

As soon as she was out of her PJs and freshly out of her cleaning routine, Octavia would hop in comfortable sweat clothes: usually black trousers and her dark grey hoodie. Though, today she was feeling daring, and decided to take one of her teacher’s hoodies instead of her own, the fact that the latter was still in the washing bin might have been an influence in her choice. After all Octavia couldn’t hang around the house in early November without a sweatshirt, right?

As she pulled the zipper of Vinyl’s dark blue piece of clothing up to her nose, Octavia was assaulted by the scent of it. She blushed slightly as she recognized the smell of her teacher’s perfume before she inhaled as much as possible, quietly moaning in the blue fabric. Like most of Vinyl’s favorite clothes, it had been tailor-made for the blue-haired woman by Rarity, which probably explained why it was so baggy around Octavia’s chest.

Her cheeks a bit rosy from actually sniffing Vinyl’s clothing, Octavia finished tying her hair in what she called her weekend-hair-bun. As soon as that was done, she skipped peacefully down the stairs to reach the kitchen. Her father looked up from his newspaper when Octavia passed her arms around his neck and gave him a quick peck on his bearded cheek.

“You’re in quite a good mood today, Octavia,” Vito commented with a small smile as Octavia sat across the counter to pour herself a bowl of cereal. “Any particular reason?” he asked with a suspicious grin.

“Niente di nuovo, Papa!” [Nothing new, Daddy!] Octavia replied casually as possible, bringing a wider smile from her father when she spoke Italian. “We’re all psyched about the selection for the New Year’s Gala since Nightmare Night was a huge success.”

“You’ve mentioned that quite a few times, yes!” Vito nodded, remembering the many times that Octavia had spoken brightly of the Halloween Festival over the last two weeks. “Are you sure it has nothing to do with something else...?”

“......I don’t see what else it could be….” Octavia let out, suddenly tense and freaking out on the inside, while trying to keep it cool on the outside.

“Are you sure?” Vito asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Positive!” Octavia assured firmly before grabbing her bowl and a spoon. “Anyway, I’m gonna eat in the music room before rehearsing. I’ll see you later.”

Before Vito could comment, his daughter had already left the room with her breakfast. He frowned at Octavia’s behavior before shrugging and getting back to his newspaper and his mug of coffee.

To think she’d forget what day it is….. Vito thought with a mental scoff. Youngsters these days! Always with their heads in the clouds.

In the meantime, Octavia was back at the top of the stairs when Vinyl slowly and sleepily came from her right. The pair bumped into each other, nearly making Octavia drop her cereal and causing Vinyl to trip backwards. The latter shook her head to a more awake state before her cerise eyes fell on Octavia’s brilliant amethyst ones.

“Buon giorno, Vinyl,” [Good morning, Vinyl,] Octavia said with a small blush after giving Vinyl the glad eye, stopping on her obviously too tight shirt.

“Gli occhi miei sono lassù, ragazzina,” [My eyes are up here, little girl,] Vinyl whispered in a sleepy chuckle, forcing her interlocutor to look in her eyes once again.

There was brief pause between the two women before Octavia glanced quickly at the bottom of the stairs. When she heard no sign of her father leaving the kitchen in the immediate future, the student leaned toward her teacher and stood on tiptoe to place a small kiss on Vinyl’s lips.

The young teacher couldn’t prevent herself from letting out a soft, pleased humming sound when the cellist’s lips met her own. She was about to open them and deepen the kiss that made her feel more awake than anything else, except her morning coffee, but Octavia pulled back with a coquettish smile before stepping away to the music room to rehearse. Frowning a bit, Vinyl was about to say something before she stopped herself.

Way too early to argue with her about that… I need my coffee. Vinyl thought as she started to walked down the stairs.

“Oh, hello, Vincenza,” Vito called when the other woman of the house entered the kitchen. “Sleep well?”

“Sleep was good, but way too short!” Vinyl yawned loudly, letting herself fall on the bar stool across Vito. “I blame you and your daughter for turning me into an early bird!” She pointed accusingly at her host and sort of landlord.

Vito let out a short chuckle as Vinyl turned to her coffee machine. “Speaking of Octavia… have you noticed anything new about her?”

“What do you mean?” Vinyl asked back without a care in the world. Without her morning coffee, she hardly cared about anything.

“I don’t know. This year’s been quite unusual for her to begin with,” Vito said with great concern. “I mean, you coming here and becoming her teacher, her getting detention for fighting with her friend Laura…”

“It was hardly a fight,” Vinyl brushed off with dismissive wave of her hand before taking her first cup and placing another in the machine. “None of their clothes were torn apart, no bruises, no bloody lips, no chairs slammed on their back…” She inhaled the aroma of her coffee. “Good times,” She added with a sigh before gulping down her double espresso.

“Why did I choose you to be a teacher again?” Vito asked mirthfully, earning a casual shrug of shoulders in response. “Anyway, I…”

Vito was interrupted by the melody of a cello coming from upstairs. Apparently, Octavia had forgotten to close the music room’s door correctly. Vito couldn’t help but to hear that her piece was much more alive than before. Octavia had always played flawlessly, but to a trained ear like her father, her melody kept a sort of mechanical ring to it, like she wasn’t feeling the emotions of her piece fully.

Now her bow seemed to flow following some sort of great passion that had taken over Octavia’s purely technical skill. Vito was pleased with that change, extremely pleased one would say, yet he couldn’t stop wondering what had provoked such change.

“Vincenza, does Octavia have a boyfriend at school?” Vito asked after listening to his daughter’s music for five good minutes.

At that precise moment, a part of Vinyl’s mind, a very small one, was thankful she had decided to put another coat of jam on her bread, for she would have choked on it when the rest of her mind went blank at Vito’s question. The father looked at his younger interlocutor with puzzlement before Vinyl finally closed her mouth on the strawberry jam with a bit of bread she held in her hand.

“Why do you think she does?” Vinyl asked back in the most casual tone she could muster.

“She seems … happier these days… She’s a bit more outgoing than before, more affectionate generally,” Vito explained with a small sigh. “Her mother was kind of like that after we started dating back in the day, so I thought that…”

“Ha,” Vinyl let out slowly. It wasn’t often that Vito talked about his late wife. It was actually the only time Vinyl heard him talked about her. “I guess you know what you’re talking about…” she added uneasily.

“Then again, Sonia was a lot more open than Octavia to begin with,” Vito continued as if Vinyl hadn’t said anything. “So it might just be she’s a late bloomer when it comes to expressing herself.”

“Well, if it’s of any reassurance, I’ve hardly seen any boys paying more attention to her than when I started teaching,” Vinyl told in a conversational tone. It wasn’t far from the truth, all things considered. “But, it’s not like I’m always paying attention to her myself whenever I’m at school.”

That last bit though was quite a big lie. Vinyl had managed to hide three months of daily detentions from her mother when she was fourteen: lying to a parent wasn’t much of an issue for her. She wasn’t extremely proud of that skill, but Vinyl couldn’t deny its usefulness.

“So there are boys that have been paying attention to her,” Vito commented coldly with a frown.

“.... I… guess it’s a...hum… bad thing?” Vinyl suggested slowly, greatly disturbed by the man’s sudden change of tone.

“It’s that Horzowski kid, isn’t it?!” Vito asked angrily. “I knew there was something wrong with that kid when he came here to work on a project in fourth grade!”

“... In fourth grade?” Vinyl asked back with a cocked eyebrow.

“He had that way of looking at her back then that I didn’t like!” Vito rambled sourly. “Some sort of lady killer kind of gaze…”

“When him and Ottavia were nine years old?” Vinyl’s eyebrow went higher up her brow.

“Then he started to play the piano… Probably to get all the women! Pianists know they attract women!”

“I hardly think he was aware of that fact at the age of nine years old,” Vinyl commented. “Heck, I’m twenty-two and I wasn’t aware of it at all.”

“Then he started to talk all fancy, but he didn’t fool me!” Vito growled.

“You’re not listening to a single word I’m saying, are you?”

“Vinyl, can I ask you to keep an eye on Frederic and try to prevent him from approaching my daughter?” Vito asked in a stern voice. “She’s way too good for him!!”

“...Suuure! Why not?” I wonder if Ottavia knows about Vito’s obsession over Freddy.

Vinyl had just spent most of her morning in the living room, re-watching the first season of one of her favorite tv-shows with a mug of her special cocoa and in Vito’s company. She had managed to convince him it was worth the watch. It was also to make him stop talking about what he’d do to the boy, Frederic according to him, who would try to date Octavia. Vinyl had never been so glad of being a girl before that.

“So… their family was on the throne before...” Vito asked, pointing at the brother and sister on the screen. “But they were almost butchered at the end of the rebellion?”

“Basically, yes.” Vinyl nodded casually.

“Why did the rebels do that?” Vito asked with a frown. “Only the previous king was mad…”

“Well, the king’s family fought to defend him…. I think…” Vinyl supposed when the doorbell rang. “Huh. Boy, are they punctual,” she commented after glancing at her watch.

“You’re waiting for somebody?” Vito asked as Vinyl stood up and walked to the front door.

“Sort of!”

When she opened the door of the house, Vinyl found three black hooded figures in front of her. Vinyl cocked an eyebrow before she spotted that two more people that stood behind the hooded group, namely Harpo and Frederic, shrugging dismissively. The smallest of the hooded group took a step forward.

“Octavia Philharmonica?” the person asked in a hoarse version of Diana’s voice.

“Second floor, first door on your left,” Vinyl replied monotonously, stepping away from the doorway.

All three hooded persons nodded before they rushed inside, heading straight for the stairs. In passing, they all waved their hello to Vito who had come to see what was going on. Soon after they disappeared from their line of sight, Vinyl and Vito turned toward the two young men who had remained outside.

“WHAT THE…! WHO ARE YOU?!!” Octavia’s panicked shouts came from the floor above.

“So, what have you all got planned for today?” Vinyl asked Frederic and Harpo with curiosity.

“HELP ME!!!”

“That’s a good question,” Frederic replied with a nod, ignoring Octavia’s pleas for help and the fighting noises coming from above. “Beatrice just asked me if I could borrow the van for the occasion.”

“KIDNAPPERS!!! DAD, VINYL, HEMMMMGGPGHGHG!”

“I think they planned an all-girls afternoon before we do something altogether tonight,” Harpo added as Octavia’s screams were still ignored by everyone before they came to sudden stop.

“Then, why exactly did you insist on coming?” Frederic asked his friend in confusion.

“I didn’t want to miss that!” Harpo cheerfully replied, pointing his finger at the staircase.

All gazes turned to see two of the hooded girls carrying a fiercely struggling Octavia who had a thick piece of fabric wrapped around her mouth and few others keeping her wrists and ankles together. The third of the group started to come down the stairs with a small travel bag, probably containing Octavia’s toilet bag and her night clothes, while the kidnappers were at the door.

Octavia cast a pleading, confused look at her father, Vinyl, and her two male friends as she was carried to Frederic’s van. It was answered by a series of small waves of hand from Vito and her teacher.

“Have a good day, Dear!” Vito called with a soft, amused chuckle.

“Enjoy your birthday party, Ragazzina!” Vinyl shouted happily as Octavia was gently thrown in the back of the van.

The two boys shook their heads with brief chuckles before bidding their goodbyes to Vinyl and Vito. Frederic couldn’t stop himself from blinking in confusion when he noticed Octavia’s father placing two of his fingers just below his eyes and then pointing briefly at the young pianist with an aggressive frown. While greatly unsettled by this, he didn’t get time to see Vinyl shaking her head in disapproval at the older man and slamming the door shut.

“What exactly did you do to Octavia’s father?” Harpo asked with a cocked eyebrow as the two of them were going back to the van.

“I don’t have the slightest idea,” Frederic replied, scratching his brow in bewilderment.

The boys had dropped the girls in front of Fiona’s apartment complex, where they had planned to spend the rest of the day before the official birthday night they had planned. Beatrice and Laura happily carried Octavia inside the building, waving happily at the few adults that glanced at them in confusion, while Diana was subtly telling the boys to buzz off. It was only when the diminutive flautist joined them in the elevator that Beatrice and Laura took the fabric around Octavia’s mouth away.

“DID YOU HAVE TO KEEP THE GAG ON DURING THE WHOLE RIDE?!” Octavia yelled in anger as soon as the gag was pulled down her mouth.

“It wouldn’t have been as much fun if we didn’t,” Laura remarked playfully as Beatrice pushed on the “four” button.

“And why did you kidnap me?” the cellist growled sourly.

“To make your eighteenth birthday memorable!” Beatrice smiled brightly at the frowning birthday girl.

“And I think we did pretty good on that part!” Diana commented with a short laugh, quickly joined by her two fellow kidnappers.

Grumbling sourly for most of their time in the elevator, Octavia relaxed a bit when the ties around her ankles and wrists came loose. As she rubbed her slightly sore parts with delicateness, she cast a glance at her friends.

“Who exactly gave you the idea?” Octavia asked slowly.

“Scratch’s friend, Patty,” Laura replied with a smile.

“Of course it was her.” Octavia massaged her temple while sighing softly.

During the Nightmare Night Festival, most of her classmates and quite a few teachers had become fast friends with the pink-haired girl. Octavia was no exception as Patty came to visit Vinyl during the afternoon after the festival to catch up with her old friend. Though, while Patty was a really nice girl that would be caught dead before hurting someone’s feelings intentionally, Octavia had one beef with her. She was way too huggy with the blue-haired girl’s pillows for the cellist’s liking, no matter how many times Vinyl pushed her away and told her to stop.

“And, what else did she suggest you to do for the occasion?” Octavia asked slowly, her mind boiling at that lone but unpleasant moment with the eccentric baker.

“Well, she did mention a go-go dancer surging out of a huge cake.” Beatrice scratched her chin with an embarrassed expression on her face.

“...But we figured out that wouldn’t be ….huh… Let’s say proper for an eighteenth birthday,” Laura quickly added with a sheepish chuckle as Octavia blinked in shock. “Plus, there was that problem of baking a cake that big, transporting it, and putting the dude inside it…”

“Well, you get the idea!” Diana interrupted Laura’s statement of all the logistics about a dancer in a cake and led Octavia out of the elevator when it reached Fiona’s floor. “We’ll spend the afternoon here and we’ll go somewhere for the evening!” the smaller girl explained playfully.

“Where exactly?”

“Surprise!” Diana let out playfully as the girls made their way to an apartment door beyond which they could hear two women’s voices arguing over something.

“You’ve left Viola alone with Fiona in Fiona’s flat?” Octavia cocked an eyebrow high at her friends who seemed to only realize the extent of what was happening inside.

“No, Viola was supposed to join us a bit later. I suppose she arrived earlier than planned.” Beatrice frowned before sighing wearily. “I wish they would stop arguing like that,” she added pointing at the door.

“It’s like a cat and a dog,” Laura philosophized with a shrug. “A refined cat with a country dog I might add. It’s in their genetics, I tell you!”

“Considering your grades in science, I’ll choose to not take your opinion for granted in the matter,” Diana mocked playfully.

Without any warning, the small blonde pushed the handle down, thus opening the flat’s door. Before anyone could ask her how she knew that the door wasn’t locked, Diana stormed inside Fiona’s modest living room, finding that Viola and Fiona weren’t arguing at all. Both violinists were casually sitting on the Southerner’s raggedy, brown couch, focused on the movie they were watching, which was showing an argument scene between two women.

“Ever heard of knockin’, Diana?” the host asked without much of a caring tone.

“Thought you two were arguing,” Diana justified simply. “Glad we were wrong!”

When she spotted Octavia, Viola turned away from the screen and wished her friend a happy birthday, only to be mimicked by Fiona just a few seconds later.

“Ok, now that the girl of the day is here, we can start our preparation for tonight!” Viola let with excitement and faced the kidnapping trio. “Did you tell her?”

“Tell me what?”

“Nope, we wanted to wait till all of us were together first”

“Tell me what?!” Octavia frowned angrily when she was once again ignored.

“It’s going to be so much fun!” Viola squealed in an unladylike fashion due to her excitement.

“Yer way too much excited about that, girl…”

“About what?!”

“Your gift,” Laura stated softly.

“We’ve all chipped in for it…” Diana commented with a wide smile.

“The boys did as well along with your father...” Beatrice added, her smile matching the small blonde’s.

“...Huh?” Octavia blinked in confusion. “You didn’t pay too much, did you?” she asked with worry.

“Well, let’s be honest, yer Pap’ chipped in a lot more than us… But we chose it all together!” Fiona sheepishly explained.

“You didn’t have to buy me a gift, you know?!”

“You’re saying that ‘cause you haven’t seen it yet!” Laura chuckled playfully before facing Fiona. “Why don’t you go get it?”

“Sure!” The southerner nodded before going in her bedroom in which Viola and her had hid the present.

“Now, don’t worry about our finances!” Beatrice reassured the cellist with a short hug. “It’s worth it!”

“Though, I hope you were not expecting too many presents for Christmas,” Laura commented with comical wince.

“Oh my god, what did you do?!” Octavia asked frantically. “I swear if it’s too expensive, I’m going to send it away so that you get your money back!!!!”

“I don’t think you’d want do that, Sweetie.” Diana smirked knowingly.

“Now, Ah was thinkin’.-Because yes that happens, Viola!” Fiona’s voice came from her bedroom.

“I didn’t say anything!” the other violinist snapped loudly.

“Ah know ya thought it,” Fiona let out with a mocking chuckle before her head peeked from her room. “Anyway, Ah was thinkin’ : Shouldn’t we wait for the boys to be here for her to open her present?”

“When do you want her to open it then?” Diana asked with a shrug. “We can’t really take it with us tonight.”

“True, and I think Octavia will blow a fuse if we don’t tell her what her present is now that we riled her up.”

To prove her point, Laura pointed at the right foot of the cellist, which was tapping nervously and subtly to the rhythm of Octavia’s thoughts. That was one of the few things that the cellist did of sort of childishly. Whenever there were presents involved, for Christmas, birthdays, or any sort of awarding ceremony, Octavia would frantically tap her foot in excitement. No matter how much she told others that had no need for gifts whatsoever, her foot would betray her and let her friends know that she wanted presents as badly as anyone else.

“Fair enough.” Fiona giggled at the blush appearing on the birthday girl’s face before she stepped outside the room carrying a large, rectangular box the size of Diana in her arms.

Octavia’s eyes bulged out of their sockets at how big the package was. Fiona put it in front of her while she was gasping in shock. The girls left Octavia in her stun for a few seconds before Beatrice poked her in the ribs playfully. In reaction, the cellist feverishly tore the wrapping paper apart, revealing a simple cardboard box. As her friends urged her, she opened the box.

Octavia mouthed a silent wow at the sight of the pristine black cello case in the box. She ran her hand on the smooth, leathery surface delicately, tracing the discrete, purple treble clef engraved on it. Octavia was exceptionally good at playing her cello in much higher range notes which caused Laura to nickname her Treble-Clef once. The nickname didn’t last more than a few days, but the symbol was still fresh in her friends’ memory.

“It’s beautiful, girls. Thank you,” Octavia whispered with a warm smile.

“It ain’t over yet,” Fiona stated, returning Octavia’s smile. “Look at what’s inside.”

Octavia’s hands shook a lot as she unhooked the clasps that kept the case closed.

“....You…You didn’t…”

The rest of her sentence died in her throat as the case stood open before her. Laura couldn’t stop her giggles when Octavia froze at the content of her package. The only part of Octavia’s body moving were her eyes that danced all over the instrument inside the case.

The cellist took a series of rapid breaths, following an intense rhythm that tried to match her excitement. It didn’t not succeed in such endeavor, but it didn’t stop. Her chest heaved to the rhythm of her pants before she swallowed her spit a few times.

“Brace yourselves,” Beatrice warned before placing her hands over her ears.

On queue, Octavia screamed their ears off, along with the ones of Fiona’s neighbors who were quite startled by the sudden and intense shrieks. While their ears were still buzzing, Octavia had hugged each of her friends with the strength of a silverback gorilla before she started to examine her brand new electric cello under the proverbial microscope.

Half an hour later, she was still so entranced by it that she hadn’t even notice the two police officers and the many neighbors that had come to knock at Fiona’s door to check on a woman supposedly getting assaulted.

Author's Notes:

ANNNNNNND ITS BACK on track :p

New season starts now, it may start slowly but it's just to get you back in the mood :p

Thanks to my writing crew : G3K0771, GWG & Deamonbunny for proof-reading and editing this mess of writing :p

I hope you enjoyed and that you're bracing yourself for Tavi's B-day Party.

Feel free to comment ^^

Mariacheat-Brony

PS: I'm in my two final weeks of work for my Uni "Memoir" (I can't find a better turn) so I might have not the time to get much writing done, so I apologize in advance for the delay.

PPS: Featured on the Feature Box for the second time WOHOOOO!!