C.1 - Morning Jinx
The night air was still crisp and dark. Very few lights were on around the small Manehattan suburb. The sun was already starting to rise above the horizon over the towering buildings of the large city. Morning was starting to claim the sky once again as the dark color of the sky was changing into a light purple, and then to a light blue. This day in particular was a special one for most of the young foals and the young adults; the first day of school.
Flask was stretched out all on most of the bed; the sheets were mostly hanging off the edge of the bed and he had his face buried into the pillow throughout most of the night. The two things that were swirling in his mind was school, and that stupid alarm clock that was about to go off.
Minutes passed and the time for the clock to go off struck, but no sound was emitted. Instead, he felt the soft shoving of his brother's hooves against his back.
"Hey bro, it's time to get ready for school…"
Flask could only shuffle a bit and let out an irritated groan. His brother pushed him a bit harder.
"Come on. You know that it's mandatory for me to go to school on the first day or else we'll be fined."
Instead of shuffling, he turned to the opposite direction to face the sibling. "You do realize that it's Sunday, right?" he croaked.
His brother picked up the clock that was sitting directly to his left, and held it in front of Flask's face with his mouth. Three small digital letters reading "MON" were sitting next to the numbers that represented the current time. Flask's eyes drooped as he stepped off the bed.
"Okay, get dressed and pack the stuff you need for school in your saddlebags while I clean my face."
For a brief moment, Flask smiled and turned to look at his brother, remembering the past months to the day their parents abandoned them seven years ago. With that, he stepped into the bathroom and turned on the sink, splashing cold water onto his face. He wiped his face with the towel that was hung on a shelf and put it in the dry sink next to the wet sink.
Once he trotted back into the small bedroom, his brother had finally slipped his arm through the last sleeve of his shirt before heading into the dark kitchen. Flask opened the pantry door, levitating different cereal brands in rows with magic. "This all we have breakfast wise; toss me the cereal you want and I'll fix it up."
Delta; which was the sibling's name, levitated each cereal box in front of him and tossed them into a pile on the dinner table, until he put one of the brands near Flask.
Flask nodded with a smile as the box opened and rotated at an angle, bits of the food falling into a small bowl next to a jug of milk, followed by an empty plastic cup.
A blue aura surrounded the jug as it hovered toward the bowl first, the milk running freely onto the cereal. While Flask poured the beverage into the cup, Delta turned on the small television that was sitting near the stove. Just as Flask returned the jug to the refrigerator, he quickly turned the electronic off.
"Not this time, bud. I need you to start focusing more on school this year. Middle school is more serious than that lenient elementary school you're used to."
"Aww, come on Flask. I promise I'll be focused this year!"
"I don't care. I'm going to start limiting some of your activities around here. That computer has distracted you long enough and I'm not risking you flunking more classes unlike last year. Am I clear?"
"But-"
"Am I clear?"
"Yes…"
With that said and done, Flask walked back into their bedroom to change for the day. Delta levitated his bowl into the sink along with the empty cup that used to have the beverage in it, and packed his saddlebags until they could hold no more. The apartment door opened and he said his good-byes as the door closed.
Flask only had up to fifteen minutes to get ready and head out to his own school building. The school itself had just a simple name; "Manehattan East".
He knew that there wasn't enough time to get another set of breakfast ready, which would mean that he would have to wait until lunch comes around. Then again, the year itself would have its particular perks.
Flask put his messenger bag on and opened the apartment door to see a Navy Blue Pegasus pony sitting right there just in front of the doorway, smiling sheepishly, with a small case on his back. Just by looking at him, he was about an inch shorter than Flask in height.
"What the hell do you want?"
"Oh- sorry, my family & I just recently moved in last night a few doors down and I decided to take this opportunity to greet some of the residents here." He extended a hoof out toward Flask. "Name's Symphony; and you are?"
He just stared with his bloodshot eyes to the stallion in front of him, giving him that get-out-of-my-way look. "It's Flask."
"Mm-hm, I can tell by your…'interesting' cutie mark." Symphony peered over to look at Flask's Teal flank, viewing to what seemed like a beaker broken in half with three shards surrounding the two pieces. Time was still ticking by, and Flask moved the stallion out of his way so he could make his way to the elevators.
After he pressed the button with an arrow pointing down, the thought of the case entered his mind again. "So, what's in that case you're carrying?"
"This thing holds different pieces to my Clarinet."
"Mm-hm."
"You know; the hardest instrument to learn?"
"Mmm."
The elevator arrived with a soft "Ding" and one of the two sets of doors opened with a small room awaiting the two. With each step taken onto the diamond plate floor of the elevator, it bounced a bit and an eerie creek erupted from below. Flasket reached over to the button labeled "L" and pushed it.
Symphony's eyes wondered around the walls of the elevator, soon leading to Flask's irritated face. He hesitated about trying to start another conversation with him. The same thought always came to mind just before he could say anything. The elevator came to a halt at the last floor, and the doors opened to the cabin-like lobby. Flask took in the scent of Maplewood as he stepped onto the carpet. It's now or never, Symphony thought.
"So, where you're headed at an early time like this?"
"School."
"That's nice. What's the name of it?"
"Manehattan East."
"What a coincidence; that's where I'm going, too."
Flask turned his head before trotting through the two doors of the apartment building.
How fan-fucking-tastic…
"I'm going to be entering my sophomore year; you?"
"Senior; I'll actually be happy that I don't have to take a damn bus once I get into college after this year is over." He returned his gaze to the morning sun in front of him, and proceeded through the open doors with Symphony following after.
The front of the campus was surrounded by many small groups of colts and fillies holding conversations; most of them sitting under a tree or on the staircase to the main entrance of the school. There were very few students in the hallways, but that was commonly expected on every first day.
Once the two colts neared another hallway connecting to the one that they're in, Symphony turned toward it and stopped to make one last remark.
"Got to go put this ol' thing up back at the lockers; see you later, m'kay?"
Flask ignored the statement and continued forward to a large staircase that leads to a maze of hallways where the lockers were. By the looks of it, there had to have been 1,500 lockers total on the second floor; plus 2,000 for the first floor. He looked back down at the piece of paper that was levitating near his face.
"Locker No. 1512
Comb. #: 20-38-10"
Once Flask turned past another set of lockers, he noticed a cluster of ponies blocking most of the hallway ahead. The one that stood out from most of them had a Pale Yellow coat, Crimson mane, and a- Aw shit…
There he was; talking to a couple of mares while stuffing his possessions into his locker. The only difference about him is that he was wearing a hoodie that had the same color as his mane.
Cool Star slammed the locker shut and turned to see Flask walking toward the cluster behind him. A smirk grew on his face from ear to ear. Flask felt his gaze dawn upon him, and brushed his long mane over his eyes.
"Well, seems like the school hothead decided to show up."
Flask kept walking forward, trying to ignore his comment.
"What's the matter, big guy? Did your fuse get soaked over the summer?"
No response.
"You bastard, I'm talking to you-"
He was cut off when an aura quickly formed around him, sending him slamming into the lockers. Flask stepped up just near his muzzle; his eyes somewhat giving off a yellow glow.
"Didn't anyone teach you to shut the hell up when someone doesn't give you a fucking response?"
Cool Star could feel himself becoming light as he continued to gaze into those eyes as he flapped his wings in attempt to brake from the magic's grasp. "Well- um, uh-"
"HEY!"
The loud, booming voice interrupted Flask's train of thought, causing him to lose focus and drop Cool Star. One of the teachers had stepped out of the printing office and saw most of the event unfold; just in time before it got worse.
"What's going on here?"
"Well, you see-"
"HE TRIED TO KILL ME."
Flask gave him with that look again. He knew that he was definitely in for a hell of a lecture.
The classroom was relatively small in size, yet the walls were covered by shelves of flasks and beakers; each one filled with a different liquid.
"So…" Flask began. "How's the morning going along for you? Good?"
The colt in front of him didn't respond or make eye contact. It seemed to be that he was typing something into the computer. Possibly an e-mail to one of the vice principals?
The sound of the office chair turning caught Flask's attention. His eyes soon met the colt's own; what seemed to have a Green Olive like color to them.
"My morning has been a living hell. Thanks for asking."
A small scowl eventually planted itself onto the colt's face, and returned to typing the e-mail he was trying to finish. His coat had a light stone gray color to it, his mane what appeared to have a bright crimson color, followed by an ember of fire that stood out as a cutie-mark.
"May I see your schedule?"
"Hm?" Flask was snapped out of his daze from the statement.
"Your schedule; may I see it, please?"
He was a bit puzzled for a second, trying to figure what he meant. "Oh…that." A green sheet of paper, apart from the other sheet, hovered onto the mahogany desk with ease.
The colt looked over it, putting his reading glasses down once he finished skimming through the text.
"Well, you're in my first period class…" he began.
"Wait, aren't you going to give me a lecture about what I was doing earlier?"
"You, a lecture? Pffft, I thought that hag deserved it. You should've seen him last year."
"I can imagine." The thought of the colt being nice to him was rather abnormal. He was expecting a long lecture about respect and personal space to other students, but he receives support instead.
Flask picked up his stuff and walked up the stairs to the top row of chairs. This was a way of receiving less attention from the teacher. As said by a few of his friends from the past years; the farther you are from the front of the classroom, the less of a chance you'll be picked on for a question.
The warning bell rang two minutes before the final just like always. A colt opened the door to the classroom and made his way up to the stairs to the same row Flask was at. His Navy Blue coat looked familiar as if-
"Hey Flask!"
GOD DAMNIT IT'S SYMPHONY AGAIN!
Quick Notes
Two days it took to write this; plus three for thinking out the plot.
Plus, I need to come with a new cliffhanger for the end of this chapter.
I'd even be lucky if I manage to squeeze more stuff into the second chapter than this one.
EDIT: Changed a few things in the summary; changed some things in one of the quotes.
Read & Review, please!