Chapter I, Quiet
Fluttershy
Someone placed their hand on my shoulder. The heat from their hand warmed my body.
"Flutters, you need to get up."A scratchy, but kind voice said, speaking so quietly only I can hear her, "It's not good to be by yourself in a closet."
To answer to this I curl up into a tighter ball, tucking my legs under my chin and shake my head.
"Come one Fluttershy, you can't let those bullies get to you. You need to show them it doesn't effect you. Then they'll get bored and move on." She says, refusing to let me be.
"That's just it," I say, my voice barely louder than a whisper, "It does affect me, and they won't move on, not ever." The final phrase I said so quietly it's a wonder that Rainbow Dash could hear me.
Rainbow Dash squatted down and crawled into the closet. "What makes you say that?"
I shake my head, she can't know.
Rainbow Dash sighs but doesn't leave, instead she puts her arm around my shoulder and pulls me close. I make no resistance, but even if I did it would still end the same, her being able to bench more than I weigh.
We stayed like this for a while, her arm around me, my head on her shoulder, her head on my head. I knew eventually we would have to get off the closet floor. I'm not going to be the one to pull away.
"Who were you yelling at?" I ask.
"Sparrow Feather." She says without a moments hesitation.
"Why were you yelling at the most popular girl in school?"
"A reason." She answers.
"What is that reason?" I press.
Rainbow Dash pauses for a moment, probably considering if she should tell me, "she was making fun of you. I couldn't stand it."
"Did you yell at her During class?" I ask, shocked, because talking during class isn't a smart thing to do at Cloudsdale High, at any school, you could get detention, you could get called up in front of the class, you could be sent to Principal Wren... My mind kept adding to the list, making it worse and worse.
But Rainbow Dash interrupted my thoughts, which had now gotten as bad as, getting expelled, get banished from Equestria etc. "Yeah." She answers, the corners of her mouth twitching as she tries to suppress a grin from my gasp of horror.
"You shouldn't have! How much trouble are you in? What did the teacher do? What else did you do?"
"I know I shouldn't have, but I did, and I don't regret it. Besides yell at her I leapt at her, but I didn't get to her, Dumbbell caught me first, sometimes his crush on her gets really annoying." Dumbbell is Rainbow Dashes nickname for Bulk Biceps, a good friend of hers. The nickname is based on his love for dumbells, and his reputation of being, well, a dumb bell. "The teacher yelled, but Mr. Presley can't do anything against us, he could have retired 3 years ago!"
"I think Mr. Presley is a sweet little guy, it's not his fault everybody's so hard on him." I say in his defense.
"I'm not saying he's not, I'm just saying he couldn't have done much if he wanted to. He gave me detention for a week and a note for my Dad. Not bad if you ask me."
I jump when I here a thump and it takes a moment for me to realize it's my Mom coming up the stairs, probably with laundry.
"Well Zephyr Breeze won't help her, let's go." Rainbow Dash says.
Zephyr Breeze is my lazy little brothers name, he's a year younger than me and can't finish one simple job.
"Yeah." Even though I don't want to move I scoot over to the side a little so Rainbow Dash can get out. I follow her to the stairs were my Mom is struggling to carry the laundry bin up the stairs, both cause the laundry bin is filled to the brim, and her being eight months pregnant.
"Here, let me help." Rainbow Dash says, going down the stairs and grabbing the bin from her.
"Oh, thanks Rainbow Dash, I don't think I could have made it to the top." Mom says, breathing hard.
"No sweat Mrs. Swaide." Rainbow Dash says, smiling at my mom's determination.
When Rainbow Dash gets to the top and carries the bin a little ways away, I help mom go up the remainder of the way.
"I don't know what I would do without you two girls." Mom says in her quiet way that everybody in my family speaks in, except for Zephyr. "I'll take the bin so I can fold." She turns to Rainbow Dash and takes the bin and walks into her and my Dads bedroom.
As soon as she close the door, very gently, Zephyr walks out of his bedroom, that happens to be the room closet to the stairs.
"Why didn't you help Mom?" I ask,getting a little angry, knowing he probably was waiting for Mom to leave.
"Why so angry Sis? Anger does some serious damage to hair." He says in a relaxed, somewhat slurred voice.
"I don't care about my hair..."
"You should." He interrupts.
I glare at him, "Mom's pregnant with our new sibling, and you can't find the decency to help her!"
"I was busy studying." He says in his fake innocent voice, looking at me with big eyes, not noticing Rainbow Dash mimicking him.
"Ha! you've never studied in your life!" I lowered my voice, that never actually got louder than a normal speaking voice, and leaned in close to his face, staring straight into his violet eyes, "I bet you were drinking again, weren't you? You wouldn't want Mom and Dad to know, would you?"
"No I wasn't Sis, *hiccup* you know me better than that." He says, unconvincingly. He leans in closer, putting his mouth next my ear, "but you would want them to know your little secret, would you? Oh, imagine the horror, good Christian parents, the homophobic kind, find out their beloved daughter is... Lesbian. Oh no, you don't want that to happen do you?" He pulls away, looking smug. "Well, bye! Back to studying!"
I look over to Rainbow Dash, who, looks very confused.
"What was that about?" She asks.
"Nothing. Let's just, umm, do you want to play Pnopoly?" I ask, hoping she'll drop the conversation.
"Okay."
We start walking towards the stairs, but when I get to the edge I feel her breath on my ear, a ripple goes through my body, "Flutters, if there's anything you need to tell me, I'm here." Then Rainbow Dash moves back a little and I start going down the stairs. My hand still tingling from when hers touched mine.
Rainbow Dash
"Bye Fluttershy! See you tomorrow!" I yell as I leave The Swaide's house. I walk down the stairs that are in front of their house.
"Rainbow Dash! I need to talk to you!" A quiet voice whispers that could only belong to a Swaide.
I turn to the side to see Mr. Swaide walk out from behind Mrs. Swaide's roses. "Yes?"
"I want to talk to you about Fluttershy."
"What about her?" I'm pretty sure I already know, but he doesn't know that.
"She's been acting quieter than usual, and that's hard to do. Is there anything that's happened at school? I'm worried about her."
"Not that I know of." I lie, "but I'll keep you posted." Another lie.
Mr. Swaide sighs, "okay, could you keep an eye on her? Just to make sure."
"Alright." A blue car with lightning on the sides drives up to the house, the window pulls down and a man in his early thirties with rainbow streaks in his black hair smiles and calls out to me. "Well, my Dad's here, see you later!" I smile and wave as I walk towards the car.
"Hey-ya Bowie!" Dad says in his laughter filled voice.
"Hi-ya Pops!" I say to my Dad in a loud, joking voice, "how was your day?"
"Better now that I've done.. This!" He reaches over and starts tickling me right were I tickle most, the stomach.
I start laughing uncontrollably, flailing my arms around in the car, " stop, *snort* we need to, *giggle* get home!"
"Alright, but first, cool face selfie!"
I snort, this is one of the things I love about my Dad, the way he knows how to make me laugh.
We both pull out sunglasses from the compartment between the two front seats and put them on.
My Dad pulls out his phone and we both do our serious face. Also known as a Pokerface. "One, two, three cheese!" He takes the picture and we both lean in to see. "Ooo, I think this ones a keeper. What do you think Bowie?" Bowie is his nickname name for me, he didn't want to call me 'Dashie' or 'Bow' so he came up with the closet thing, Bowie, not Bow-E, Bough-E. Like David Bowie.
"Yeah, it is." I smile, with Dad being a single dad, he and I have grown really close over the years. I wouldn't want it any other way.
Before we as he shifted gears to go I looked at Fluttershy's house. I think I glimpsed a movement outside of the windows but we started driving before could be sure.