Percy’s heart beats in anticipation as the excitement for his graduation flowed through his nerves.

His buoyant, curly, magenta mane started to quickly cover his eyes as he quietly fidgeted his left hoove causing him to swing his head in order to realine his mane. 

Percy listened to the long tedious lecture of the principal, a sasquatch who had given many similar lectures in the past however this lecture was the one that Percy was the most engaged with. 

All the heartache, stress, and confusion of high school had built up this seemingly climatic moment in Percy’s life. The moment when he’d toss that silly little square hat into the air along with his best friend that sat on his right.

Like him, Sophia was an alicorn, but rather than sporting Percy’s bubblegum pink fur and magenta mane, Sophia sported pale yellow fur and a bright yellow mane.

As soon as the sasquatch declared that the students were now graduates, Percy quickly grabbed his hat and tossed it up in the air.

Percy quickly turned to Sophia, who was looking up at the sky as her hat flew up into the air. Percy couldn’t help but feel excitement for his best friend, even more so than for himself knowing all the drama she had endured during her time at high school.

Percy’s emerald green eyes met Sophia’s violet eyes as they stared at each other for a few seconds before Percy’s gaze was blocked out by a square hat landing on his horn blocking his view. He could hear Sophia laugh loudly from the other side of the hat.

Percy didn’t share in that laughter, essentially pouting to cloak his utter embarrassment. He lifted his hooves to grab it but before Percy could grab the hat, Sophia grabbed it and tossed it onto the floor before embracing him. 

Percy looked down until he finally began to laugh at the situation. He leaned his head on Sophia’s shoulder as everyone cheered. 

… 

Many of their classmates had dispersed into little clusters leaving the many rows of seats empty towards the east end of the football field. 

Sophia has already run off to talk to one of her many friends, specifically her Ex-boyfriend, A Dwarf Minotaur name Adrian and his family.

Percy, on the other hand, stood alone by the end of the aisle set up by the chairs as he scanned the scenery in an attempt to find his parents who claimed they would be running late to the graduation.

He saw small groups of families, friends, and teachers, each in individual clusters, little spheres of influence in which he had no place in. One sphere of influence managed to catch Percy’s attention. 

Two fairies were operating a camera with their son, Vincent, who was the subject of the photo. He didn’t notice anyone else with them which caught him off guard. Everyone was already buddied up with a partner for their photos but him.

He thought back to his earlier days at school, wondering if Vincent had any friends. He couldn’t find a concrete answer only finding catalogs of Vincent swapping friend groups almost every month. 

He recalled Sophia bringing up how much of an oddball he was during a brief conversation.

While Percy’s instinct to isolate himself remained dominant it was now in current competition with another instinct to engage with Vincent. Percy was unnerved for a bit as these two instincts fought for control over Percy.

After the growing cognitive dissonance in his head became unbearable Percy walked over quickly to Vincent and his family.

“Hey, Vincent,” Percy said which cause Vincent to look behind him. “Do you mind if we take a picture together?”

“Oh uh.” Vincent looked down attempting to process the spontaneous request. “Uh yeah, yeah sure thing.”

Percy leans his head towards Vincent as they both looked at the camera. Percy grinned his teeth and squinted his eyes as Vincent’s parents flashed the camera. Percy looked forward blankly but was concerned that the flash of light caused him to blink.

“Did I blink?” Percy asked.

“No, you did great!” Vincent’s mom said. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Percy said. 

“What now?” Vincent asked.

“Huh.” Percy looked at Vincent.

“What are your plans after high school?” Vincent clarified. “I mean if you have any plans.”

“Oh!” Percy said. “I’m going to college.”

“Really?” Vincent paused briefly “Which one.”

“Leeds University”

“No way!” Vincent replied, “Wait, isn’t that the one Sophia is going to?” 

“Yeah.”

“Lucky you.” Vincent turned around before looking back at Percy. “I’ve gotta get going, it was nice talking to you.”

“Of course.” Percy smiled. “Have fun.”

“Thanks, man.” Vincent flew after his parents. “You too.”

Percy looked off finally noticing his contradictory instinctual drives seising their battle for control. 

…

“God, I’m going to miss these,” Sophia remarked. 

“Me too,” Percy replied, staring at the small simple piece of Americana staring back at him through the window of the ice cream shop. “That's one of the only things I’m going to miss from this place.”

“Come on, Percy,” Sophia whined. “There's gotta be something about this place you're gonna miss.”

Percy drank his milkshake for a bit before raising his head and staring up at the ceiling to think. 

“Hmmm.” Percy paused for a bit attempting to think of anything he’d remotely care about in this town before shrugging. “Nah.”

“Are you not going to miss your parents or anything?” Sophia leaned forward. 

“I can always visit them for the holidays, ” Percy rebutted. “I’m not going to miss this town. There’s not much to miss.”

“Okay,” Sophia said hesitantly. “If you say so…”

Sophia began to play with her nearly empty cup for a bit as Percy took another sip before looking back up at Sophia. 

“What are you gonna miss?” Percy asked. “Well aside from the milkshakes of course.”

“A lot…” Sophia paused. “ I don’t even think I’m ready for this whole college thing.”

“It’s okay” Percy shrugged. “You don’t have to feel ready. I mean, we’re moving out so that’s a pretty basic thing to feel.”

Sophia looked at Percy for a while before weakly smiling.

“You’re right,” Sophia said quietly. “Yeah, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

… 

The sun had slowly begun to set, Percy and Sophia had left the shop a while back and were now continuing their chat as they approached a curb.

Percy was facing, Sophia on the left side which gave him a bit of visibility of the sidewalk and the road he was approaching. Immediately he spotted something, a tall red car approaching his direction. 

The car began to honk which signaled Percy’s expression to change and Sophia to turn her head toward where Percy was looking. They both fluttered their wings and hopped backward as fast as they could narrowly avoiding the honking car.

Percy caught a glimpse of the driver inside the car. He was able to make out a humanoid figure with greenish-brown slimy skin partially covered by a white dirty muscle tee. He had wings poking out from his back and his head was an array of tentacles that encircled the center of his face like a flower with the center of his face only consisting of a large eyeball. 

Percy recognized that he was an old god, or in this instants a young old god, or perhaps a young god. Percy couldn’t quite come up with a term for him but he was clearly a Lovecraftian abomination with horrendous driving skills.

The car sped off down the road without even stopping to see if there were any other cars coming. 

“Watch where you’re going!” Percy was watching the car, disappointed that he could only release an ounce of his rage at the Lovecraftian Deity before turning to Sophia. “Goodness, where do all these horrible drivers get their licenses?”

“I know,” Sophia said. “A Driver like that driving that beauty should be a crime.”

“Yeah, what an idiot,” Percy remarked. “This is why we should just stick to flying, at least everyone up their respects air traffic.”

Percy and Sophia walked across the road attempting to get back to their conversion as they made their way home.