Re: Hollow Hills High

[myori]

A small surge of excitement shot through Pan as his hand came to rest on top of Berezi’s without her immediately drawing away. His nervous smile widened confidently, and now feeling better he looked up at her to encourage her to keep talking. The moment only lasted a second, and Berezi never got to tell him what Zelenka had said, because who should show up at that exact moment but the nasty filly herself.

Zelenka’s words seemed to drip with hatred, and that made Pan immediately snap his head up to look at her. Rarely did he get angry enough that he showed it, but Pan didn’t bother hiding his anger this time - he wasn’t even sure if he could. He glared at Zelenka as hard as he could, not only for her horrible behavior, but for her sudden unwanted appearance that had caused Berezi to move away from him again.

He hated to admit the filly was right though. He couldn’t really do anything. He couldn’t hit fillies, based on his upbringing and his own morals and the fact that he would get in lots of trouble for hurting another student. He could yell, but it’d be disruptive… but he thought maybe it’d be worth it. As he took in Zelenka’s sneer once more and felt the emptiness under his hand, he decided that yes, it’d definitely be worth it.

Just as he stood, mouth opening to give the filly a piece of his mind, he saw Berezi stand too. He only watched her, dumbfounded, as she walked away. His heart sunk, his anger burning out with it, as Zelenka and her gang followed. For a moment he just stood there. He felt stupid, and hurt. He would have liked it better if Zelenka had stayed and picked on him. Then Berezi would be safe from her harassment and he’d have something to vent his emotions on, even if that meant getting beat up by Zelenka’s brutish boyfriend at the end of it all. By the time all of his feelings had settled to the pit of his stomach Berezi and the bullies were out of sight, and it was only now that he realized he should have followed and tried to stop them from bothering the Da anymore. Frustrated with himself he turned to yank up his bookbag from the bench. As he bent down, some small scraps of paper scattered on the floor caught his eye. His annoyance was easily magnified by his already present anger and he whisked up the pieces, asking himself why someone couldn’t have just thrown these away in the trash can a few feet away.

It wasn’t until he was about to throw the trash away that he actually glanced at what was on the small sheets of paper. He stopped, hand in mid-air, because what he thought was litter was actually a picture. He spread out the pieces in one of his palms, turning over those scraps that were upside-down. It was his picture. The colt instantly knew why they’d been on the floor under the bench, and where they’d come from, but why it was all wrinkled and ripped up he didn’t know. He frowned down at the scraps of himself.

The colt simultaneously wanted and didn’t want to go find Berezi right away. He had to follow the not want feeling though, because his next class would start soon. Not going to class would have been just as productive, however. Throughout his math class, Pan could think of nothing else but the filly, though he tried hard to concentrate on the teacher. Why would she tear up a picture of him? Perhaps she’d been mad at him; maybe she was mad that he hadn’t gotten in touch with her before then, or maybe she resented being lost in the woods with him, somehow blaming him for her getting hurt and losing her books. Maybe it was his fault, Pan thought, because they probably would not have ended up in that situation if he hadn’t fallen down that cliff. And her being mad would explain why she had just suddenly left him. She had been too polite to leave at first, but Zelenka’s appearance had given her an excuse. It made sense, but… Pan didn’t want to believe it.

The same thoughts were still stuck in his mind as he entered the art room during the lunch break. He wasn’t hungry and he just wanted to be somewhere quiet, and he knew his mom probably wouldn’t think much about him coming into her classroom. She was used to him coming to her room during his breaks sometimes. “Hey, mom,” he said, setting his bookbag down on one of the empty tables.

Absentmindedly he started to walk around the room, studying the artwork done recently by his mom’s students. Though he wasn’t much of an artist himself, he still liked to admire what others did, and it was an old habit of his to look at all the new paintings and drawings that her students had done. Some he liked, others seemed a bit more like they’d been done by foals instead of high school students. When he came to one particular painting though, he stopped. It caught his eye, because it was so well done. He could tell it was a pastel work, but it was so expertly painted that you could have guessed it was a photo, if not a miniature, live recreation of some fantastical scene. He leaned closer, staring hard. The artwork seemed so familiar, yet he knew he’d never seen it before. It was a knight fighting off a gryphon for a beautiful Da maiden… no, a unicorn maiden. He realized with slight surprise that he had liked it better when the shadows had tricked him into thinking the mare was without a horn.

Just as the thought crossed his mind that Berezi is without a horn his mother nudged him. He smiled at her, leaning back away from the painting. The smile disappeared at once when she spoke. That’s why it looked so familiar! He’d been there! Yes, now he could see that though the stallion was not him, in a way it was. Just as the maiden was actually a Da, one he’d fought a gryphon for. The rest of his mother’s statement distracted him from looking further at the painting though. He hated hearing that Berezi was so disliked. He rarely spoke in class either, but it was different. He felt that his silence was a choice, while Berezi’s was more because she felt that she had to be. Turning away from the painting he sat down in one of the chairs.

“I don’t know… well… I mean...” he wasn’t sure where to start. Out of embarrassment, he didn’t want to tell his mom about all of his conflicting feelings about the filly, and he certainly didn’t want to mention the photo pieces that were currently stuffed in his pocket. “Berezi is being bullied. Zelenka and her gang are the ones doing it. They’re probably the ones responsible for her book being damaged, actually. But…” he paused, looking back at the painting. “I just wish I could do something about it. Her life is bad enough as is, not even having a home... She doesn’t need any more problems when she comes here.” He looked at his mother helplessly. “Isn’t there anything we could do to help her?”

-Pan


(OOC: This is really long, but has very little for you to actually reply to. Sorry about that.)

[Alcyone]

She couldn’t help but wonder why Pans mother had approached her when she was about to leave school the day before. The teacher had offered her to come to the artroom to study, to get help by her if she needed it. If it hadn’t been for the minty filly, standing close by, just waiting for her to exit the school, she might have accepted it. As Zelenka grabbed her, holding her hard by the shoulders like they were best friends and dragged her away, surrounded by the clones Berezi was sure that it all looked like a group of fillies that didn’t have any trouble at all. That if a teacher would have seen the earlier incident it would pass as a ‘fillyfit’, like they had disagreed over something, like colts. In other words – a typical high school filly behavior. As far as she knew Zelenka had always gotten away with whatever she did. Some of the teachers had to know but they didn’t do anything…They had cornered her and picked on her until their rides came. She might have been able to get away sooner but she wasn’t a violent filly – at all – she had never hit anyone.

When it came to Zelenkas sire…she wasn’t sure what he did but he had a pretty important position and had quite a lot of money. Berezi knew he wasn’t a really nice stallion, greedy and somewhat cruel, but people still liked him, or perhaps tried to be on his side in hope to get advantages in their own businesses due to his money. However at the same time they feared him since he could take it away just as fast and easy as he could give it. He was in the schoolboard as well. That was probably why his daughter got away with so many things, and it was most likely because of this Zelenka felt she could act the way she did.

The Da filly hesitated at the entrance of the school. She hadn’t stolen the dress Zelenka wanted her to, nor did she have the money. Why did the minty filly steal things when she could without trouble buy them? The poor filly Zelenka had picked on before her had given in quickly to the minty filly but Arik’s treatment had made her strong. Her own father might have been mostly absent but the few times he was about he had been at least kind if he had noticed her at all…most of the time those visits only led to that her mother ended up pregnant again. How would her life have looked like if she had remained? Similar to her mothers life? Would she have foals of her own by now if she had remained there? Her mother had meant well, but she could never have known that Arik wasn’t the one he said he was. He had been decent at first, promising a job and a place to live while she were in school. However after the mare he supposed to been married to left him it was like something…snapped… She shuddered when she thought of him…he had enjoyed beating her…enjoyed the smell of her fear… In a similar way it seemed to trigger something within the minty filly to express her power over someone weaker.

A hard shove and a wellknown voice brought her back to the present. “Where is my dress freak?! You better have it this time!” Berezi sighed and turned around. There were Zelenka, impatiently tapping her foot and a with a paper coffeecup in her hand while staring her. “I don’t steal things, not even for you Zelenka! You have enough money to buy it and you shouldn’t steal…”

The slap was quick and hard but somehow she managed to sense it coming and avoided most of the impact but her nose still got scratched a bit by one of the minty filly’s large rings. The Da filly yelped and her own hands flew up to protect herself. When she did this her hands struck the coffeecup the minty filly held, causing the content to spill over. The coffee wasn’t really hot but Zelenkas scream were most of the fact that the liquid had stained her dress.

“HORNLESS RETARDED FREAK! You know how much this dress cost? No wonder your parents sold you! You will PAY for this FREAKHEAD!!”

Zelenka seemed to tremble with anger as she continued to yell at her and first Berezi thought the filly was going to hit her again, but she spit at her before turning and walking away.

As Berezi looked around she noticed the students present pretended not to see what just had happened. Some fillies whispered, heads close together, the colts…she didn’t know what they thought but she thought she saw that earless colt grinning together with his friends. Zel had started some sort of rumor of that her parents had sold her. It wasn’t true. She dried her nose from the little droplet of blood, fought the tears and then did her best to remove the spit with a tissue. She couldn’t really figure out why Zelenka hadn’t hit her again but she must have seen one of the teacher’s cars pulling in on the parking lot. The minty filly was twofaced in that way. She knew that most teachers liked her because Zelenka was a very good actor. Her clones helped her keep a look out so the teachers wouldn’t catch her.

Another sigh and she bent down to get her bag. It was – if possible – even more torn and tattered than the one she had lost in the slide. She had received her allowance yesterday but everything extra she didn’t need she sent home to her mom. Zelenkas treatment was hard but…she could live with it…high school wouldn’t last forever and dealing with Zelenka was better than being with Arik.
She hoisted the bag on her shoulder and pushed the door open. Therefore she missed the strange car that was parked outside the schoolgrounds and the stallion inside that was watching her.

With her eyes down she made her way through the hall, a shove made her loose her balance and drop her bag. The impact with the floor caused all her things to fall out and scatter.

-Berezi