Chapter 2: Simple instructions

Miss Cherilee sat down and watched the chaos unfold right before her, her class immediately began to throw everything together and apply glue whenever something touched together.

Cherilee put on a fake smile “Now students make sure you follow the instructions on the board” She said in a vain attempt to regain control but only received a momentary silence before the chaos continued

The mess from this morning returned as the kites began to take shape and the fillies all began to decorate their small disaster of constructions

“More glitter!” Sweetie Bell screamed as she poured a pot of silver glitter across the kite she, Scootaloo and Applebloom made, most of the glitter missed and sprayed across the floor causing it to sparkle brightly in the suns reflection as it all found ways to get into every nook and cranny possible.

“Add some more stripes!” Snips called to Snails who carved some lines into the floor through the thin, paper kite, some of the glitter dug into the small trenches and would prove harder to clean later

As the kites began to take shape and all the decorating came to a close, Cherilee took all the students outside so they could see if their creations could fly

“Alright, now run as fast as you can so the kites catch the wind” Miss Cherilee watched as the kites all failed in one way or another

Featherweight raced forwards so fast that the kite broke from the sudden acceleration, Snips ran and the string wrapped around his legs causing him to trip over, Silver Spoon jogged forwards slowly causing the kite to bounce along the ground

Scootaloo managed to get her kite in the air and it gracefully floated in the air “Yay we did it!” she cheered happily, as she cheered the string fell out her mouth causing the kite to spiral out of control and it dived into Cherilee, breaking as it collided with her head

The class gasped as they looked at the glue and glitter covered teacher “Oh no!” Sweetie Bell screamed as she ran over “Are you ok Miss Cherilee?”

Cherilee slowly removed the kite from her face, and applied her usual smile before dropping it to the floor “I’m fine Sweetie Bell, don’t worry accidents happen” She looked up at her glue covered mane “Just be more careful next time, Scootaloo”

Scootaloo hung her head in shame as the class recovered their flying disasters and took them back inside

The class all packed their bags and one by one started to head home, apart from Scootaloo who stayed behind to talk with her messy teacher

“Miss Cherilee?” She quietly asked “Is there anything I can do to make up for earlier?”

Cherilee looked at the sad filly and gave her a warm smile “I know you didn’t mean it so I don’t see a reason to punish you” She looked at her ruined classroom “I’ll see you tomorrow”

“Thank you Miss Cherilee” Scootaloo’s natural smile returning “I’ll see you tomorrow!” She called out happily as she ran out the front door

Cherilee waved her student goodbye before letting her head fall to her desk “Just four more days until the weekend” she sighed in an effort to reassure herself, and as she tried to lift her head up, the glue in her mane had stuck to the desk and kept her from moving “oh great” she muttered angrily as she pulled her head painfully from the wooden desk

As she left her school in a total mess, she locked the door behind her and headed home.

The school wasn’t too far away from her house, mainly for convenience but also so she didn’t have to walk into Ponyville looking like she did now.

Her home came into view the and the straw roof and flower garden outside was a welcome sight to Cherilee as she walked into her front room, there was a large purple chair resting beside the school’s projector, she kept it at her house unless the school needed it and she used it to watch films if she wanted to.

Placing her bags down she walked into her large clean white bathroom, a large bathtub sat on one side and she began to fill it with warm water, as the bathtub was filling up Cherilee walked over to a large cabinet and opened it.

She was greeted by the sight of numerous bottles of different shampoos and other cleaning products, she carefully removed two bottles that would remove all the glue from her mane and placed them next to her bath.

This wasn’t the first time Cherilee was this messy and she was well prepared, after teaching for as long as she had she had learned how to deal with any mess that the children caused.

Cherilee turned the taps off on her bath and climbed in, letting out a drawn out sigh as the warm water removed the stress of the day, she dunked her head under the water and applied hoof after hoof of shampoo to her dirty mane.

After she washed all the glue and glitter away, Cherilee pulled the plug from her bath and wrapped her mane in a pink towel “Finally some alone time” she sighed happily as she put on a large, fluffy dressing gown and sat down in her front room

As if fate conspired against her, the front door bell rang. She angrily stood up, marched over to her door and opened it applying a fake smile “Oh hello girls”

The cutie mark crusaders all stood happily in front of her “Hi Miss Cherilee, we were wondering if ya could help us?” Applebloom asked as they all applied large grins as she let out a long sigh

“Of course, how can I help?” She watched as Sweetie Bell removed a small tub from her bag and opened it

“What’s this?” Scootaloo asked and a small winged ball of fuzz flew past Cherilee’s head and into her house

“Oh no!” Cherilee cried as she chased after the creature “A parasprite! Shut the door and I’ll see you girls tomorrow!” The crusaders all looked at each other as their teacher frantically chased the parasprite around the room

“Ok Miss Cherilee, thanks for the help” Scootaloo closed the door and happily chased her friends down the road

Cherilee then spent the remainder of her alone time chasing the parasprite around her house before finally catching it “ah ha got you” She said triumphantly as she walked outside and kicked it away as hard as she could “and stay out!” she called after it as it flew into the distance

Yawning Cherilee walked back inside her house to find it in a mess with overturned chairs and broken plant pots “still tidier than the school” she sighed sadly as she collapsed asleep on the floor