------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You unlock your phone for the fifth time in the past minute and check the time.

        Still three thirty...

        You exhale quietly and readjust yourself so you could see Rainbow.

        Earlier, Rainbow had come back a few minutes after your little incident with Tom, and when she had come back you we’re still being extremely pathetic and regretting what you had just done. When she had attempted to approach you to see what was wrong, you snapped at her out of the anger you still had for Tom, and she seemed extremely hurt after you did it. You had apologized to her a couple of minutes later when you had finally cleared your head, and she went back to normal; she went back to playing Call of Duty.

        The one night I really need someone, she decides not to force me to hold her...

        You check your phone once again. Two minutes. You stand up and make your way to Rainbow’s bedside, and you get on your knees and open up your reserved drawer in her nightstand. You pull out a small blue glass heart that you’ve had ever since you were a kid and roll it in between your fingers. There are some tiny scratches on it because of age, but other than that it was still your heart.

        Am I really going to follow through with this little bet...

        “Why are you up so early...” you hear Rainbow say.

        You place the heart in the drawer and quickly look over at her, and judging by her appearance, you assume she could fall back asleep at any second. She is lying sideways with her arm on top of her pillow, her head resting on her arm, and she is simply watching you with a tired and confused expression.

        Please, please do not let me lose her...

        You feel your eyes start to water, and you wipe them away and hope Rainbow didn’t notice.

        “Wait are you crying?” she sits up immediately and she looks like she is wide awake.

        You crawl closer to her, and once you are close enough you wrap your arms around her waist and put your forehead against hers.

        “Rainbow,” you say, but you don’t have the guts to tell her what you had done.

        “What?” she says, her voice sounding perplexed by your sudden actions.

        “I just really need someone right now...” you say, falling sideways onto the bed and dragging her down with you.

        She doesn’t object; in fact, she scooches closer to you. The smell of her hair calms your nerves a bit, and you hold her even closer, so her head was essentially on your chest.

        “Hey Rainbow?” you say, and you hear her mumble something incomprehensible.

        “What would you do if I was going to get expelled?” you say really slowly.

        You wait for a response, but none comes. You listen closely and realize she is asleep, mainly because of the pace of the hot breath hitting your chest.

        I’m an idiot for making her bid on Tom. Why did I do that. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t felt sorry for him. Why am I so nice now? Just a few months ago I would have watched anyone crash and burn...

        You clench your teeth together as images of Tom flash through your head. His sick smile, his face right before he kissed Rainbow, and his reaction to when you punched him. All of these keep playing through your mind, and you can’t get them out.

        You open your eyes and look down at Rainbow, and then all of your moments with her flash through your head instead of Tom. Her cute face she would put on when she was jealous, the moment you first met her where you were on your back, the morning it had stormed and she had clung to you like a baby to its mother, her sticking her tongue at you when you were teasing her, heck, even just her standing in this very room in her uniform trying to wake you up.

        Do not let me lose her. Not before I tell her that I...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        “Rise and shine!”

        The warm safety of the covers that you we’re just feeling moments ago is now completely gone. You sit up and yawn as loud as you possibly could.

        Alright. Time to suck it up and put on a brave face for Rainbow. No more thinking about yesterday... well besides Ditzy.

        “Morning.” you say, sitting up and stretching. You swing your legs out of the bed and stand up to stretch some more.

        “Well that was easy. I think that’s the fastest I’ve ever gotten you to get up.” she says with a grin.

        “So what was with you last night? I could have sworn I saw a tear...”

        “Just forget about it.” you say, tacking on a gentle smile, hoping she gets the hint that you want her to just drop it.

        She apparently does, because she walks over to the closet and tosses your uniform over to you.

        “Well we better get going soon. We have about thirty minutes before the first bell.”

        You groan and rub your stomach.

        “You are forcing me to skip breakfast...”

        “Shh. I went over to the bakery Pinkie works at and bought you one of their top selling muffins.” she says, pointing to a muffin on the nightstand.

        Blueberry banana nut.

        You see an image of Ditzy flash over your vision, and you smile.

        “Thanks Jeffie.”

        Something slams into you and you get laid out on your her bed, her pinning you again.

        “Why do you insist on calling me Jeffie?”

        “Because you don’t want me to, that’s why.” you say, quickly launching your head up and kissing her.

        I... I will slowly but surely tell her.

        This obviously confuses her, because once you finally break contact she puts her hands up to her mouth and then proceeds to look at her hands and you frantically. You quickly fasten your shoes to your feet, pick up the muffin, and then make your way to the door.

        “We’re going to be late Miss Jefferson.” you say in the most posh voice you could muster, your head already starting to creep back into the state it was in last night.

        She shakes her head and walks over to you, and she smiles when she walks past you.

        “So does that mean today will be the day I get you for a full twenty four hours?”

        You stumble and grasp your chest. It feels as if someone had just stabbed you with a sharp candy cane.

        I might lose her. I could honestly lose her...

        “Woah! Hey are you okay?” Rainbow says, quickly coming up to your side and taking your arm around her neck.

        “Yea, yea I’m good. Just a little dizzy that’s all.” you say. You attempt to use a cheery voice, but it comes out sounding really sad and pathetic.

        “Well we better get going.” she says, releasing your arm and walking forward again.

        Please don’t let me lose her...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        “You okay sugar cube? You don’t look too good.” Applejack says, tossing you a pencil. You catch it and slide it into your pocket.

        “Thanks for that. Exactly what I wanted to hear.” you say, attempting to change your tone to a lighter one. Ever since this morning when you realized you might honestly lose not only Rainbow, but all of your friends, you had acquired a terribly depressing tone of voice.

        “Something wrong partner?”

        “No, Applejack. Did you do the homework?.” you say, attempting to change the conversation topic.

        “About that... Did you by chance do yours?” she says, smiling at you before rubbing the back of her neck.

        You hear the teachers phone ring, and you look up to see the teacher looking at you and saying “He’ll be right there.”

        You pretend not to hear her. You look away and talk to the guy sitting next to you, trying your hardest to just make it all go away. You feel someone tap on your shoulder and you sigh.

        “They would like to see you down in the main office.” the teacher says, and you stand up and start making your way through the maze of desks surrounding you.

        You open the door and turn around to say goodbye to Applejack, but what you see isn’t what you expected. Everyone in the class looks extremely confused, almost as if they are completely shocked that you are going to the office, and they are simply watching you. You shake your head and continue out the door.

        What was that about?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        You walk into the main office and approach the front desk.

        “May I help you young man?” the receptionist says.

        “I was just called down here.”

        “Oh, Mr. Hixon is waiting for you. Last door on your left.” she says, waving her hand to your left.

        You walk down the hallway and stop in front of the door.  Staff lounge. You take a deep breathe and slap your face with both hands, and then immediately open the door and walk through. The first thing you notice is that Tom has a black eye. That is not a good sign. The second thing is that Mr. Hixon looks rather restless, like he had stayed up all of last night doing something, plus he is holding a remote. You see a projector to your immediate right, and Tom and Mr. Hixon are on the left, Tom sitting down, and Mr. Hixon standing next to him.

        The room itself is about the size of Mr. Hixon’s office out in the school square, subtract the huge desk. There is furniture everywhere in the room ranging from multiple small coffee tables, to several recliners. The projector seems to be on a rather large cart, and it is facing the wall that Mr. Hixon is standing in front of.

“I’m going to assume you know why you are here, correct?”

        You nod and close the door behind you, making your way over to the chair farthest away from Tom.

        “And you realize that we cannot let this matter be taken lightly? You have blatantly disregarded the rules of our precious school, by harming my son.”

        You look at Tom, and he is looking rather pleased

        I want to wipe that smug look off of his face so bad...

        You nod once again, and Mr. Hixon sighs. He presses a button on the remote he has and takes a seat next to his son. The video that is playing is in black and white and has a timer on the bottom left. It shows Rainbow running past you, and then you slamming Tom against the wall when he attempts to follow her. The video continues to play through the parts of you slamming Tom against the wall, and as you had expected, the audio is missing. You were positioned perfectly so you couldn’t see Tom’s face, so you couldn’t even attempt to translate what he was saying just by the movement of his lips.. The video ends right as your fist makes contact with Tom’s eye, and you sigh at how bad the situation was for you.

        “What about the camera down my hallway?”

        “It hasn’t been working since last year. Everytime we get someone to repair it, they say it should work but it doesn’t. We gave up hope about a month ago. Mr. Jefferson and I just thought that we would get a new security system over the next summer break.”

        Lady luck really is not on my side then...

        You sigh and put your head in your hands.

        “So how is this going to play out? An investigation or something?”

        Mr. Hixon clears his throat, and then proceeds to walk over to you.

        “Now normally I would consult Mr. Jefferson about this matter, it is his school and he has supreme jurisdiction in the matter, but everytime I have attempted to contact him he is still on a flight where phones are not allowed. So basically... the judgement comes down to me...” he says, not sounding too ecstatic that he gets to choose your fate.

        “The proof is right there. I’m afraid there’s nothing I can really do for you my young gentleman...” he puts his hands on your shoulders.

        “The policy about bullying is quite simple here at Red Thrush. Zero tolerance, punishable by expulsion.”

        “I spoke with your god parents last night. Your flight leaves this afternoon at one thirty.”

        Your heart drops down to your stomach, and on its way down it is torn to shreds.

        “That’s it? I’m just going to be expelled?” you say, your voice going monotone.

        “That’s it. The evidence is right there, and it is quite apparent that you were bullying my son. He does nothing to fight back, yet you repeatedly slam him against the wall.”

        “Tom, are you really just going to sit there and let me get expelled? Come o-”

        “It is as simple as you hit me, and since I did nothing to retaliate, it would seem that you were bullying me. Plus the fact that there is no audio either, so all of the cruel things you said to me are going to go unheard.” he smiles at you, and you feel your hands start to throb from how hard you were grasping the chair.

        “There was nobody around to see? What about Rainbow? She can tell you what he did!” you say, regaining your voice and standing up.

        “Unfortunately Rainbow does not have the best reputation for being truthful in this type of situation. The fact that you are her first roommate means she has probably grown attached to you, so she would quite simply lie to help you. Nobody else was around at the time, so you have noone to vouch for you. The decision is final.” he turns and proceeds to walk to the door and open it.

        “Come Tom, you have to go back to class. I’ll go write you a pass. Take your time young man, say your goodbyes and then leave. Your ticket is over there on the table.” he points at a table in the corner of the room.

        “I am truly sorry that it had come down to this. The only reason I was rude to you when you first got here was because I thought you had so much potential... I’m sorry for thinking that way.” Mr. Hixon turns and leaves the room, and Tom follows suit.

        Tom gives you one last smug expression before shutting the door behind him, and instead of getting up and chasing after him and beating the living daylights out of him like you would have thought you would have done, you end up just sitting there.

        You just sit there for a good thirty minutes. You can’t feel anything. It was exactly like when your parents had died. You can’t think, you can’t feel, you can’t even comprehend what was happening.You sat there for so long, sitting so still that the light sensors thought you had left and the lights had turned off.

        The bell rings and you stand up and walk over to the coffee table to pick up your ticket.

        Right when everything is going right, everything gets ripped away from me. This... this is a cruel world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        You glance over the loft of Building C and smile.

        I never even got to use that Dance Dance Revolution machine...

        You turn and proceed to walk down the hall to go pack up your things. You stand in front of Rarity’s door and trace your fingers over the number on the door.

        I never got to take her on that Dinner she deserved.

        You go to open your door, but the thoughts in your brain are overwhelming.

        I won’t be able to go to that mystery dinner. I won’t be able to say goodbye to anyone because everyone is school. I... hate life...

        “I wasn’t skipping!” is the first thing you hear when you open the door.

        When you realize who it was, you immediately snap back to reality and grow a smile.

        At least I can say bye to Rainbow...

        She is laying on her bed with a cyan binder next to her, and she had opened it the second she had realized you were in the room. The biggest give away was that her hair was a little messed up, plus she had the covers pulled up.

        “Relax girl, I’m not here to drag you back to class or anything.” you say, smiling and making your way over to her, carefully stepping over Ceviche who seemed like he was trying to trip you on purpose. You fling yourself on the bed and crawl under the covers.

        “I’m tired. Mind if I go to sleep?” you ask.

        “Uh go right ahead.” you hear her say in a confused tone.

        “Hey are you okay? You’ve been acting strange ever since yesterday.” you feel her latch onto your back like she had a million times before.

        “I’m fine Rainbow.” you say in your best “average” voice you could manage.

        “Are you okay Rainbow? I saw what Tom did to you yesterday...” her eyes get wide and she squeezes you as she gets closer, her body being one hundred percent on yours right now.

        I’m going to miss her warmth...

        “Sorry I didn’t tell yo- Wait, you saw what happened and you didn’t do anything about it?” she says, pushing herself away from you.

        Great...

        “I’m sorry Rainbow. I was too scared to do anything. I was scared of what might have happened if I did something... Trust me though, if I knew I could have gotten away with it, I would have done something... anything.” you stutter quite a few times in the lie, and you could quite literally feel the tension coming from her.

        You turn over and face her, and she has a sad smile on.

        “You know I thought I would have known you better... I honestly thought you would have hit him, and if you did I would get you out of that trouble no matter what.” she says, moving just a tad closer and looking at you with her beautiful magenta eyes.

        I’m not going to be able to see her in forever... I probably won’t ever see her again for as long as I live... and yet I can’t even tell her that I’m leaving... I can’t even tell her that I...

        You swing your legs off the bed and open your drawer and pull out your heart.

        “Hey Rainbow?”

        “Yeah?” she says, the word coming out as a barely comprehensible mess of sound due to her head being buried in her pillow..

        “Let’s make a bet.” you say, turning to face her and rolling the glass heart between your fingers.

        “Wow that is really pretty...” she says, sitting up and sitting on her knees as she goes to reach for it.

        “Tsk tsk.” You say, withdrawing your hand and putting it behind your back.

        “It’s part of the bet.”

        “Alright, well get on with the damn bet.” she says, obviously being impatient.

        “Alright, alright. Jeez Dashie.” you say as she slowly creeps closer to you.

        “If you can keep my glass heart away from me for the rest of the day I will admit that I...” you gulp.

        “You?” Rainbow says, grinning and moving in closer.

        “I will tell you what I really think of you... In here.” you pat the spot where your heart is in your chest, and you rub the back of your neck as you realize how corny that had sounded.

        Gah... am I really doing this... why can’t I just tell her.

        Rainbow gasps and holds out her hand and acts like a child in a candy store.

        “Gimme gimme gimme!” she says, impatiently squirming.

        You place it in her hand and she blasts off towards the door, picking up her bag on the way. Ceviche chases after her, probably thinking she was going to play with him. She stops at the door and turns around with one of the biggest grins you had ever seen on her face.

        “You better be ready to tell me then.”

        “That is only if you win..” you say, giving her a sad smile.

        “I’ll see you later then!” she says, closing the door.

        I don’t plan on winning...

        You punch the wall closest to you as hard as you can, and you just let the pain run through your now throbbing hand. You sigh and stand up, going into the closet and finding your suitcase.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        You set down your suitcase and walk over to Rainbows nightstand one last time. You leave a card standing up on the nightstand and turn around to leave. Ceviche stops you by sitting down in front of you, and you crouch down and pat him on the head.

        “You take care of Rainbow now, you hear?” you say, feeling your emotions spill through into your words. Ceviche stands up and attacks you with licks in a feeble attempt to make you feel better, and you end up just pushing him off and standing up.

        “Stay boy.” you say, walking through the door one last time and closing it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        “Why did you call me here on such short notice sir?” Mr. Walls says, opening the door to the limo for you.

        “And may I ask what is with the luggage?” he also inquires, picking it up and putting it in the back of the limo.

        He closes the door you hopped into the limo with, and then proceeds to get into the drivers seat.

        “So are you going to tell me where we are going?” he says, sounding extremely confused, but also curious.

        “The airport.” you say, looking down at the floor of the limo.

        Mr. Walls is quiet for about a minute before he turns the limo on, but he doesn’t start driving.

        You feel extremely awkward with him just staring at you in the rear view mirror, so you end up explaining it a little further.

        “Someone did something to hurt Rainbow, so I hurt them. No bullying, no fighting, no anything. Zero tolerance.” you say, holding your emotions back as best you kid, but they make your voice crack near the end.

        “Well does Miss Jefferson know about this? I highly doubt she would just let you get expelled like this...”

        You shrug and look out the window to your right.

        “Where is Mr. Jefferson in all of this?”

        “Every time Mr. Hixon tried to contact him, he would still be on a flight where there was a phone restriction, so the final decision basically was up to him. They had video proof of what I did, but not of what the other kid did to Rainbow.”

        Mr. Walls is quiet for a few moments, and then he breaks the silence.

        “Are you going to answer my question?” he asks.

        “What was your question?”

        “Does Miss Jefferson know about this?”

        “Well no. No one does actually... My flight is scheduled to leave at one thirty, so I didn’t have any time to say goodbye to anyone...”

        You shift awkwardly in your seat and move over to the other side of the vehicle so you could look out of the left window.

        “Well actually... I saw Rainbow about thirty minutes ago and... I couldn’t tell her. I just couldn’t...” you say, immediately feeling better for telling someone about your misfortune.

        “So you we’re scared to tell her?”

        You stare at him in the rearview mirror, but he glares right back at you.

        “Yeah. Yes I was scared, so what?” you growl.

        “So nothing. You simply just acted like you would see her again later?” he says, sounding quite angry.

        “Well... I made a bet with her. I had this glass heart that I had had since I was a little kid, and I told her if she could keep my heart away from me for the rest of the day I would tell her how I really felt about her.”

        “And?”

        “And... I left a card on her nightstand that said...”

        “That said?”

        “Well that’s none of your business Mr. Walls.”

        “Alright alright. I hope you won't regret your decision young sir; I know I would regret it for the rest of my life.”

        You sigh and put your head in your hands, just like earlier.

        “Can we just get going please?” you say, and he also sighs.

        “As you wish.” he says in a sour tone, and starts to drive.

        “Wait!” you yell, realizing one last thing.

        You open the door and climb out, looking back at Red Thrush.

        “I.. I know you won’t hear this Rainbow but... I love you. I don’t really know if you feel the same way about me, but... I’m going to miss you.” you close your eyes and imagine her one last time before you attempt to forget about her for the rest of your life.

       Dear Dashie,

        I’m no good with words, so I’m just going to say this flat out. I love you. I’ve had feelings for you ever since that first day at the mall when I realized you were jealous because you liked me. I haven’t been able to tell you because... well because I guess nobody can really one hundred percent change personalities. Inside I wanted to tell you so bad, to hold you every night and to help you with everything, but I ended up doing what the old me would have done... I just pushed you away and pretended to be oblivious so that I wouldn’t get hurt. I would say that I will always remember you, but that would mean that I would have forgotten you at some point in time... so I’ll just say that I will never forget you, and you will always be on my mind. Oh and that heart that I gave to you for the bet... I know this might be too much to ask, but could you hold onto it for me? For safekeeping if I ever see you again? Well, one last thing,

                        I’m going to miss you Rainbow, but will you miss me?

                                                                        Sincerely,

The New Kid

Next Chapter: Epilogue Estimated time remaining: 3 Minutes