Tavi' and I had been best friends since we were little fillies, even before our first day of school, and since then we'd always been there for each other no matter what. When I think about it, there wasn't any other way I'd have it be. There wasn't a thing we wouldn't do for each other, and that's the way it always was. We had met in the laundry room of our apartment complex. I was there doing laundry for my mom, who was sick. She was there with her big brother because they were just hiding out. At the time I had assumed they were just playing hide and seek, but hadn't any clue about how serious it was.
I was loading up a washer, even though I had to stand on an overturned laundry basket to reach. At first she looked a lot smaller and probably younger than me, that's what I would have guessed. She was a good couple inches shorter than myself with raven fine hair that trailed down to her mid back, at the time she was wearing a white button down shirt and a gray plaid skirt that went down to her mid calves. Her brother looked similar, only with pale hair. He was wearing gray khakis and a pale blue button down, he lead her in by the hand. Looking pale and like they'd never seen the room before, they wandered in looking around nervously. I glanced at them curiously, then checked out my own outfit. Mom usually made me run my choices under her watchful eye, but I did dress the way most kids in the city did. It wasn't Sunday, so I had no idea why those kids would be dressed so fancy. Maybe it was someone's birthday.
As they looked around the room, they began to become visibly more nervous. I looked at them just as the girl looked to me nervously. Trying to be polite, I smiled, then dropped a shirt into the washing machine.
"Oh geez, we don't have much time," the boy said, running his free hand through his hair. He was probably a few years older than myself.
"Trying to hide?" I asked. My voice was squeaky for my age, as if I were consistently undergoing a high pitched cold. I was also very unfamiliar with talking to strangers. Everyone I talked to was someone I had known for at least a year.
"Uh, yeah," the kid said.
"I can help you," I said, hopping down from the basket. He looked relieved and skeptical at the same time. I took the girl's free hand and gave it a gentle tug. She looked from me to her brother, then stepped closer to him.
"I can't hide you both in the same place," I explained to her. "You won't both fit." She gave a nervous glance to her brother again, then when he nodded, stepped forward to me. I took her hand once more, it was so much warmer than mine, this fact is burnt into my mind even to this day. I lead her to the dryers, which had stopped a little while ago. I opened one up and took out some of the towels and placed them on top. Gesturing for her to go inside, she looked at me with a pair of terrified eyes. They were a cloudy violet color, another fact that clawed it's way into my mind, but not until years after we had met.
"Don't worry, they're clean. You just don't want an empty dryer 'cause it'll poke you in the back," I said to her. She didn't say a word, just nodded and got inside.
"You'll definitely be able to breathe in here," I said. "I once waited fifteen minutes in one of these because the kid looking for me forgot he was playing." She smiled, and I remember feeling distinctly proud of being able to make her smile. And with that, I closed the door and turned to her brother.
"Okay. You look big, but not too big to fit in a basket," I said, taking the towels from on top of the dryer. I took the basket of clothes I had been loading into the washer and pulled out some of the clothes.
"Hop in," I instructed, tilting the basket. He stepped onto the empty basket and lowered himself in, I then proceeded to pile towels on him. It was hard to get the towels around him so he looked like a pile of clothes, but after a while he just looked like an overflowing laundry basket.
"Thank you so much," I heard him say. His voice was muffled by the clothes on him, but I kicked the basket anyway.
"Shut up, towels don't talk," I pointed out, then hopped up on my standing basket. Now was time for my acting skills. For a little while, no one came in, and I just stood at the washer staring out the window, but after a while I heard big clunky steps coming from down the hall. I started plucking little things from the basket so as not to give away the boy's location and tossing them in. A moment later, a tall, ginger haired man came stomping into the room. I looked to him, then back to the clothes. The point was to make it seem ordinary. He looked grumpy, but I had no doubt he was looking for the boy and his sister. Some people take hide and seek way too seriously. He stomped around for a minute, looking behind washers and into the trash can.
"You, girl," he said. His voice was scratchy and boomed as though he wanted to prove some sort of point. I turned and looked at him, cocking my head.
"Yeah mister?" I asked. He wasn't standing very steady, and I wondered why that was. He gave me a look like I should shut up and get to the point, but I didn't know what point I was supposed to get to.
"I'm looking for two kids, a girl and a boy, you hear?" he boomed.
"Okay," I nodded, waiting for him to continue.
"Well have you seen them?" he asked.
"No, I've been by myself the whole time," I replied. He scrunched up his eyes.
"You lying?" he asked.
"Nuh-uh," I shook my head. He got really close to me then, and even standing on the basket I was still a lot smaller than him.
"Look at me! Are you lying?" he asked again. He didn't smell good. You would think he would, since he was dressed like his son, but he smelled like something you'd clean the floor with.
"No, mister," I rephrased. "Why would I lie about something as stupid as that?" He squinted at me a moment longer, then nodded.
"Yeah, okay. I believe you," he said. He stood really solemn for a moment, then smiled.
"Heh. You're a bright kid," he told me, clapping me on the shoulder. He looked at me a little longer, then shook his head and left the room. Even now that he wasn't so tense, he stomped his feet. I stared off at the door way where he was. Something seemed off about him. After a moment, I hopped off the basket and ran to the door to peak out.
"It's safe," I called, running to the other side fo the room to free the girl from the dryer. Once it opened she began to climb out, I helped her stand steady, but only succeeded in dragging her out and letting her dangle until she regained her balance. All the while, I giggled at how gangly she was. At first, she pouted, then an eventual smile broke out and she laughed with me. I felt a hand on my shoulder and for a split second I thought the man was back. Looking back, it was just the boy.
"Thank you so much," he said.
"You're welcome," I smiled. We stood around awkwardly for a moment, then the boy stuck out his hand.
"I'm Chase," he said confidently. I took his hand and gave it a good shake.
"Vinyl Scratch," I said.
"It's nice to meet you," a small voice behind me said. I turned around to see the little girl looking up at me with those little violet eyes.
"I'm Octavia," she held out her hand.
"Nice to meet you too," I said, then paused. "So was that your dad?" They shared a look that I didn't understand, then nodded.
"Yeah, that's our father," Chase admitted.
"He takes hide and seek seriously, doesn't he?" I asked. He hesitated, then nodded.
"Yeah, but I think he forgot," he replied.
"I see."
"Vinyl?" I turned around to see my mom standing in the doorway. She was skinny and a lighter color than me, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Her nose was red from her cold, but other than that she was my same beautiful mother.
"Salut, ma-ma," I said cheerfully.
"C'est qui?" she asked.
"C'est mes amis," I replied, telling her they were friends.
"Okay, well lunch is ready," she announced. "Tell your friends they can come too." I looked to Chase and Octavia.
"Do you guys wanna have lunch with us?" I asked. Chase immediately nodded, Octavia looked a bit pensive.
"It's okay, Tavi', Father's probably forgotten already," he told his sister.
"Okay," she murmured.
"Let's go then," Mom said. We all turned to go, but Octavia hung back. I stopped and held my hand out to her. Slowly, she took my hand and we started walking.
"So is your father gonna be there too?" she asked me.
"No," I told her. "It's just me and my mommy. I don't have a daddy."
Okay so first story, hope you liked it. Some of you may be mad that it's with human ponies, but I prefer to work with their personalities. Message me if you'd like me to keep it up. Next story will be from Octavia's point of view.