My Little Brony

by K. M. Hayes

  I walked slowly, letting Jake back out of the driveway before I got to the house so I would hear if anything was going on inside.

  Silence.

  But a light was still on.

  Pulling out my house key, I unlocked the door and stepped inside. I spotted Mom in the living room, and before I even shut the door, she was on her way to me. She grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me over like I might be injured. “What happened? Where did you go? How did you get home?”

  “Dad didn’t tell you anything?” I said.

  She shook her head, tearing up. “He said you went missing, then he found you. Then he showed up without you and went to bed refusing to explain. What in the world happened tonight, Andrew?”

  Andrew. My full name meant she was much more upset than she let on. “He found out I like My Little Pony.”

  “What?” She hadn’t let go of me yet, and her nails dug into my arms. “You mean the show Holly watches?”

  I nodded slowly. This conversation was exhausting. How many times would I have to explain this? “I like it a lot, and I started drawing the ponies for me and then for Holly, too. That’s why she asked for those colored pencils. Then I found a friend who likes it at school. I went with her to a meeting for other people who are fans of the show. And I met this cool guy who’s an illustrator and I think I want to do that. I want to go into animation, but I didn’t get a chance to tell Dad that because he freaked over the ponies and told me how ashamed he is of me and how I’m a huge loser.”

  Mom stepped back but watched me as she processed the information. I couldn’t read her expression, and I was too tired to care about which way she’d go at this point.

  “You want to be an animator?” she finally asked.

  “I think so.” It was odd to think I’d only figured it out tonight. It felt like something I had always wanted.

  “You’ve never said you wanted to be anything. Not since football went sour.”

  “I know.”

  “But you have a dream now? Because of this show?”

  “I guess.” I hadn’t thought of it that way, that wanting to be an animator was a dream. It was something I realized I wanted to do. “The illustrator at the meet-up, his name was Tyler. He’s in college for it. He said my drawings were good and I should keep going.”

  “Really?” Mom smiled. She also cried. I had no idea what was happening. Then she hugged me. “Oh, Drew, that’s so great!”

  “It is?” I needed to give up predicting how people would react because minus my dad, I had been wrong almost every time.

  “Yes! I was always terrified you’d never find what was right for you with how your father . . .” Her grip on me loosened. “Oh lord, did he really say he was ashamed of you?”

  “Yeah.” My voice cracked. Stupid emotions. “He wouldn’t even drive me home because I stuck up for myself and told him he was being a jerk.”

  “I’ll talk to him, sugar.” She patted my back. “You don’t worry about this anymore. It’s his problem. He’s a proud man and it’s annoying as hell.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” After such a long day filled with so many crazy new things, all I could do was hug my mother and not let my tears show. Because not having to deal with my dad? That was what I needed right now.

  Chapter 29

  ONE THING I never expected to do: willingly go to the guidance counselor. But by Monday morning, when Mom drove me all the way to Yearling High, since Dad wouldn’t, I was determined to see Miss Overly. Mom at least supported my decision.

  “Andrew Morris?” Miss Overly called when she stepped out of her office.

  Mom and I stood up. Miss Overly guided us into her small space, and we sat in the chairs in front of her cluttered desk. The walls were covered with inspirational posters and college brochures, and for a second I got nervous. This was my first real step towards “doing something with my life.”

  “So what can I help you with today?” Miss Overly asked as she clasped her hands and leaned forward.

  “Nothing too serious,” Mom said for me. “Just some class changes for next semester.”

  “Oh?” Miss Overly smiled. “What are we thinking, Andrew?”

  “Um, it’s Drew,” I said and gulped. “I want to take an art class instead of wood shop.”

  “I see . . .” She typed into her computer. “We can probably work that out for you. Any reason for the change?”

  “I’m just thinking about being an artist.” The heat rose to my face. I remembered how she had told Skye to have a backup plan. Maybe she wouldn’t think it was as great as my mom did. “Figured it’d be good to be in art classes.”

  “Very true,” she said. “What kind of art are you interested in?”

  “Mostly cartoons and animation.”

  She nodded, still looking at her screen. “Those are competitive fields, but there are more jobs there than other artistic focuses. So, because you haven’t taken any art classes, you don’t have too many options. Basically it’s Drawing I or Beginning Arts. All the higher courses require you to have taken those first.”

  “What’s the difference?” Mom asked.

  “Drawing I is focused on paper and pencil drawing, I think. It says ‘dry media.’” Miss Overly grinned sheepishly. “I don’t actually know what that means. The description for Beginning Arts says it covers all art media and forms, so I’m assuming it’s not just drawing but painting and sculpting, too.”

  I pursed my lips, thinking. They both sounded interesting. “You said I need them both to do the higher level classes?”

  “Yes, Drawing II, Painting I and II, Figure Studies . . . and if you are good at them, there are Honors and AP classes, but those are by invitation of the art teacher only,” she said. “So which are you thinking of?”

  “Can I take both?”

  Her eyebrows popped up. “Well, your other elective next semester is PE. You need at least two semesters of physical education classes to graduate, so I would recommend not putting that off.”

  “I’d like to take both if I can.” Forget PE. If I got those two classes done, I could get to the cooler ones faster. They’d probably be more work, so I would only do one a semester. I could do PE then.

  Miss Overly looked at Mom. “Is that okay with you?”

  “Of course. If this is what he wants to do and he can do it, by all means let him.” Mom smiled as she looked at me. “He’s got a talent for it.”

  “Okay then, let’s move this schedule around.” Miss Overly started changing almost my entire schedule. To get in both art classes, I’d have to transfer into different periods for history and math. I was okay with that even if it’d be weird to switch teachers in the middle of the year. It took almost half of first period to work it out, but as I walked out of her office with my new schedule, I could hardly wait for next semester. Too bad it was still six weeks away.

  “You look happy,” Mom said.

  I smiled. “You know, I am. For the most part.”

  “It looks good on you, sugar.” She gave me a side hug. “You run along to class. I’m gonna go shopping in Austin while you’re learning. May as well since I had to drive all the way here.”

  “What about Holly?” I asked. We wouldn’t get home in time to pick her up from school. All the details of my transportation had yet to be worked out.

  “Quincy’s mom is grabbing her for me today.”

  “Ah.” Quincy’s mom. Quincy. It felt like ages since I’d seen them. Friday night had been the first time I missed pizza night in a long time, and it happened to be the night my whole life had changed.

  “Run along—you’re already very late,” Mom said. “It’ll all work itself out. You wait and see.”

  “I hope so.” I waved and headed down the deserted hall to English. My nerves grew with each step, since it’d be the first time I would see Skye and Emma since Dad yelled at me. I had no idea what to expect, but I figured they’d both have a lot of questions for me.

  “Drew, welcome to c
lass!” Mr. Rivera said as I came in. “Just so you know, there’s a difference between fashionably late and just plain epically late.”

  “Sorry.” I held up the pink slip Miss Overly gave me. “Was meeting with the guidance counselor.”

  “Ah.” He held out his hand, and I walked to the front to give him the note. “Well, I guess I can’t make fun of you now. Way to take the wind out of my sails.”

  “There’s plenty you can still make fun of him for,” someone nearby mumbled.

  I forced myself to ignore the comment and took my seat. Skye was right in front of me, sporting a DJ Pon-3 look. She smacked my arm. “When you didn’t show up this morning, I thought you were dead!”

  “I am. Kinda,” I whispered to her. “At least to my father.”

  Her eyes widened. “Shit, did you tell him?”

  I nodded. “He left me at the school; he was so mad.”

  “No way!”

  Mr. Rivera cleared his throat. “Drew, c’mon. You just got here and now you’re flirting instead of trying to catch up?”

  The class laughed. I went beet red. “Sorry, sir.”

  “Fill me in later, I guess.” Skye turned back around, a bit embarrassed herself.

  I tried to listen to the lesson and take notes, but it only took a minute for me to catch Emma looking at me from across the room. Something in her expression made my heart flip. Not that it was romantic, but I could tell she wanted to talk to me. I had missed talking to her so much. Now I had to wait the whole day for it to happen.

  Chapter 30

  SKYE MET UP with me after school. I’d told her every-thing at lunch, and she in turn recounted how it had gone down with Emma after I left to find my dad. They had kind of talked and I think they had figured out that maybe they didn’t have to hate each other. At least that’s why I thought Skye was doing this favor for me.

  “My mom should be here soon in a black van,” I said. “Just introduce yourself, keep her busy while I get my phone from Emma.”

  “Sure.” Skye looked at me slyly. “Go get your phone from your girlfriend.”

  My eyes widened. “Don’t say that! She’s not my—my—”

  “Oh my gosh! Look at you!” She laughed. Hard. “And here I thought Emma freaked out when I asked if you were her boyfriend. Your reaction is ever better!”

  “Why are you even asking that?” I shoved her lightly. “She won’t even acknowledge me in public. She’d never . . .” I realized how sad and hurt that made me feel. “You know how she is.”

  Skye pouted. “Sorry, Drew. I’ll shut up.”

  “Good. We still need her to let go of the ‘media is evil’ concept. One thing at a time.”

  “She’s almost there. Don’t know how you did it, honestly.”

  I shrugged. “I’ll be right back.”

  “I’m gonna go meet your mom!” Skye waved and bounced off.

  I took a deep breath, suddenly nervous to see Emma thanks to all the relationship talk. But I headed for the library anyway. To my surprise, I didn’t have to go to the back corner where she’d hidden before. Emma sat at our usual table, a book in hand and my phone in front of her. I walked over slowly, savoring the feeling of seeing her there.

  “Hey,” I said as I sat in my usual chair.

  Emma jumped a little, looking at me. “Hi.”

  “You watch the show?” I asked, reaching out for my phone and charger.

  She nodded, setting down her book. “To episode ten, but I couldn’t sneak in more.”

  “And?”

  “It’s really cute,” she said. “The writing . . . You were right—it’s really good. Not that I know a lot about TV show writing, but it flows really well and the characters are strong and unique.”

  I let out a small laugh. “You sound like a reviewer!”

  “What am I supposed to sound like?” She folded her arms, tipping her chin up. “I watched it, and now you’re making fun of me for it.”

  “I am not! I think it’s awesome you thought about it that much.” I turned on my phone and was surprised to see about forty texts. Half of them were from Quincy, of all people. I figured he thought I was too weird to talk to ever again. And after I was so mean to him, I wasn’t sure I even deserved to be his friend anymore. “So will you watch more and hang out with me and Skye now?”

  Her eyes narrowed, but she smiled. “I’m thinking about it. But I have other friends, too, you know.”

  “Bring them along. Friendship is magic and stuff.”

  I was happy to hear her laugh. But then she became still. “So, how did things go with your dad?”

  “A little bit worse than I expected,” I admitted. “I think he’s kind of disowned me?”

  Her shoulders slumped. “That’s not encouraging me to come clean to my parents.”

  “I didn’t know that’s what I was supposed to be doing!” I put my phone down, scrambling to make up for what I had just said. “My mom was really great though! I told her about how My Little Pony helped me realize I want to be an artist, and she was all over it. That’s why I was late this morning—we were with the school counselor changing my schedule to have art classes next semester.”

  “Really?” Emma said hopefully.

  I nodded. “It’s been pretty unpredictable how people react to it all. People I thought would be cool with it weren’t, others I thought would mock me didn’t, and some I guessed right. But overall, I’m happy, Emma. Like, actually happy, despite the hate.”

  “I’m glad you’re happy. And you wanna be an artist?”

  “Yeah. Let me show you.” I pulled out my sketchbook and gave it to her. It was getting easier to show people my drawings. Maybe because every time I did, people complimented me. And compliments were as addictive as MLP.

  She opened the book, and her eyebrows popped up in surprise. “You really did this?”

  “Yes!” I laughed. “Don’t act so shocked.”

  “I’m miserable at drawing.” She turned the pages, smiling at each sketch. “I can’t imagine how amazing you’ll be after you take classes.”

  “Thanks.” Hearing Emma say I was amazing—I could get used to that. We seemed to have picked back up pretty easily after everything that had happened, and I was glad. It gave me enough confidence to ask her something I’d been afraid to on Friday. “So, I noticed last week that you don’t actually get picked up by your mom after school.”

  Her eyes widened.

  “I saw you walking home after you read your book. I just wondered why you’d lie to me about that. It’s kinda weird.”

  Emma put her hands to her pink face and whimpered, “Can you just pretend you didn’t find that out?”

  “I really can’t.”

  She hung her head, and her dark hair covered her face. “That first day of school, I was just going to check out the book and go home like I usually did, okay? My mom does work, so I read at home until she gets back. But then you caught me, and you knew about the book I was reading and it was nice to talk to you.”

  “So . . .” I was on the edge of my seat, dying to hear her say it.

  “I wanted to keep talking to you, but I didn’t want you to know I wanted to. So I lied and said I was waiting for my mom.” She looked up, trying to be mad. “Are you happy now?”

  “Yeah, I’m happy now.” I was sure the grin on my face looked dumb, but Emma wanted to be around me from the beginning and that meant something to me. “I have to go now, though. My mom actually is waiting for me since my dad refuses to drive me to school.”

  “Oh.” She frowned. “Does this mean you won’t be here after school?”

  “Maybe. We’re still working out all the complications.” My smile must have gotten goofier because she was sad I might not be here, and that was pretty awesome. “But Skye is here. She works on her clothes every day. You two could keep each other company.”

  “Did you plan this or something? For us to be friends again?”

  “I admit I hoped for that.” I stood, knowi
ng Mom was probably worried about leaving Holly with Mrs. Jorgenson for too long. “See you later. We hang out in the art hall at lunch if you miss me and want to visit.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t miss you. But I will miss your phone.”

  “Ooh, burn.” I laughed, said good-bye, and headed out to the front of the school feeling like a million bucks. Emma watched MLP, liked it, and was my friend again. Too much good outweighed the bad for me to even think about it.

  I thought about what Skye had said before the meet-up, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

  I hadn’t been doing that long, but my life had already changed.

  Chapter 31

  MOM DROVE TO Quincy’s house to pick up Holly. It was the first time I’d been there since Quincy had laughed at me for liking MLP. I wasn’t sure what to expect. From the texts I’d read on the way back from school, he was saying sorry but it didn’t feel sincere.

  I didn’t want to be like Skye and Emma—not being friends with Quincy because of this one thing—but facing him seemed impossible. Or at least like something I preferred to avoid.

  So when Mom pulled up to the Jorgensons’ house, I seriously considered staying in the car and not dealing with it. But Mom would ask me what was up, and explaining it to her was slightly worse than facing it. I forced myself out of the car and up the stairs of the front porch. Mom rang the doorbell, and Mrs. Jorgenson appeared quickly.

  “Hi!” she said cheerily. “Holly! Your mom and Drew are here to get you!”

  “Noooooooo!” her shrill voice came from the living room. Behind that, I heard My Little Pony playing. “We’re only halfway through the episode. Can we go after?”

  Mrs. Jorgenson laughed as we walked toward Holly. “You were right—all I had to do was turn on that show and she was great.”

  “Oh good. I know she can be a handful.”

  “Aren’t they all? She is adorable. Makes me wish I had a daughter.”