The Nerd and the Cellist

Chapter 1

Every day I am thankful that I no longer live in Appleloosa.

When my parents announced that my dad was being transferred to the suburb of Canterlot, it was one of the happiest days of my life. My heart was so filled with excitement that I thought it was going to burst out of my chest. I only knew about Canterlot mostly by name, and yet the idea of moving there or anywhere sounded terrific to me. Any place sounded like heaven to me than staying in Appleloosa.

To be clear, I didn't hate Appleloosa just because it was always scorching hot out there or because most of the buildings are very old or there was very little to do outside of home. No. I hated living in that desert area because I was always alone. My parents are as kind and caring as any loving parents should be, but when you put them aside, there wasn't a soul in all of Appleloosa who cared about me worth spit. I always wanted to have friends, but no one my age wanted to be anywhere near me. In their eyes, I was nothing but a weird freak. Someone that should be avoided like the plague at all costs.

And all because I am a nerd.

Since there is little to do here in Appleloosa, my dad would get me movies and comics and video games from out of town whenever he was on a business trip. Thus, I grew up falling in love with all sorts of fiction from comics about superheroes, to fantasy or science fiction franchises like Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Harry Potter, Transformers, you name it. But out of all of them, my favorite was always Star Wars. I loved all the stories that the Star Wars universe had to offer with all my heart to the point that I began to write fanfiction of me as a powerful Jedi who would always save the galaxy from the Sith and other forces of evil.

But my comfort in all these things cost me whatever chance of a social life in Appleloosa. Movies, comics, and video games hardly interested anyone in that town, even people who were my age. No matter how much I just wanted to make friends, no one would ever say a kind word to me, and so I would always be alone.

So, when my dad was being transferred, I looked at it as a chance to start anew. Maybe in a suburb, I could find someone, anyone who would want to be my friend. My dad showed me pictures of the school I was transferring to called Canterlot High School, and compared to my school in Appleloosa, Canterlot High looked like a palace. Surely with so many students who go to school in this grand, two-story building, I can finally make friends or at least not be treated like an outcast.

But more than finding friendship, my heart wanted a chance to find love. If there were anything I took away from the many fictional stories I would read or watch, it would be that romantic love is something purely beautiful and special. Arwen and Aragorn, Princess Leia and Han Solo, Belle and the Beast, Spider-Man and Mary Jane, Ron and Hermione, Batman and Catwoman, Optimus Prime and Elita-One, these are all fictional couples that made me wish I could find that certain special someone for me. I had lost hope for that in Appleloosa because many girls in my old high school hated and bullied me for what I am, but I hoped things would be different in Canterlot.

On the tenth of August, my parents and I gathered all of our things in a moving truck very early in the morning and drove to our new home in the suburb. My heart was racing with excitement as we eventually entered Canterlot after about four hours of driving. No longer was I in a remote desert where the buildings were old and creaking, and there were few shops worth going to. Canterlot by comparison had so many modern and brightly-colored houses and all sorts of restaurants, video games stores, comic stores, even a mall. We also passed by Canterlot High, and it looked just as majestic in comparison to my old school as it did in the pictures.

We parked the moving truck next to our new two-story house that looked shiny and brand new in comparison to the one-story house we lived in ever since I was born. By around 4 in the afternoon, we had fully moved into our new home, and I was setting up all of my stuff and began to sit back and relax on my bed in my second-floor room. The only problem left was school was a week away, which meant I had to wait that long to try and make any friends there.