Hypocritical Parent

Chapter 1

For those of you who have read What A Long Hard Life and remember it, this will be easy to understand. This is a story that involves Shadow's family but think of it as a story line without Iblis being released, so their lives carry on as usual with no disaster.

Bless got home from school feeling miserable, she had a horrible feeling inside, deep inside her gut she was nervous, she was late because of her after school detention and she knew that when her father knew, she'd be in deep trouble.

Because she was so much like her father, physically as well as psychologically, she looked a lot like him, as well as act like him. She was mischievous and grumpy, it was in her genes, it was Shadow's fault that the young teen got into a lot of trouble at her secondary school, but Shadow never took Bless' gene's excuse and punished her anyway.

Bless stepped inside and tried to close the door as slowly and as silently as she could, so that no one could hear her therefore be unable to confront her. She cautiously walked upstairs and into her bedroom, put her stuff down and went into the kitchen to get something to eat.

Her mother, Maria was there, sitting at the table, looking concerned. "You're late home again Bless?" she said in a soft and caring voice.

"Yes... I got into trouble again." Bless sighed. "Is dad home?" she whispered worriedly.

"No... I think you're lucky this time, what did you do?" Maria asked.

"I... punched one of the boys who were annoying me." Bless said anxiously. Maria gasped, this was serious.

"I know it's hard to keep your temper under control Bless, but you must not result to violence." Maria said sternly and assertive.

"I'm sorry Mum, I know." Bless said in frustration, her voice raised as she started to plead. "Please don't tell Dad, please!" She cried out.

"Don't tell me what?"

Bless froze at the sound of the masculine, serious voice that had just come from the door way of the kitchen. She turned around in fear, he was there. Shadow was looking at Bless ominously, almost as if he couldn't wait to punish her.

"Well Bless?" Shadow asked with his arms folded, waiting patiently to hear what Bless had done.

"I was... kept behind at school today... because... I hurt someone." Bless said in a nervous and very quiet voice. Shadow walked up to her, a look of disapproval on his face.

"Go to your room, Bless." he said darkly, looking down on her, Bless could see the shadows on his face as the light shone down on the back of his head, unable to get to the front. Bless tiptoed past him and sped upstairs. Shadow could hear her running up the stairs, her feet were banging against them as she rushed. "I'm adding another week to your punishment!" he called after he out of the kitchen door.

Bless could feel tears stinging in her eyes, she would be grounded for another extra week, but she couldn't help it, this would never stop.

Shadow stood in the kitchen and waited for his lecture from Maria. "Shadow, you know that this isn't the right way to get her to stop." Maria said. "I think you're just making it worse." she warned.

Shadow was silent, he left ashamed, but he wouldn't stop his methods of parenting, after all, this type of punishment worked for Shade, Bless' older brother, the one who behaved, the one he missed, he had grown up and moved out already. Shadow sat down at the table, put his elbows on it and rested his head in his hands, it looked as if he was trying to cope with a migraine, then again, Bless could be a migraine sometimes.

"I know what I'll do, Maria, I'll go into school with Bless tomorrow and speak to the head teacher... and sort something out." he sighed and looked up at her. "Some therapy for Bless, parenting advice for me, anything." Shadow said sincerely, as if he was trying to desperately gain approval.

So the next day, when Bless came down for breakfast and sat opposite her father, still looking sorry for herself, Shadow spoke to her. "Bless, I understand that you have a problem, and I think it's time to sort it out." Shadow said seriously. This made Bless look uneasy, she knew that when words like this came out of Shadow's mouth, bad things were to happen to her.

What she didn't know was that Shadow was taking a different approach this time, she wouldn't be punished, she would be helped. "I'm going into school today to speak to your head teacher and I will find a way to help you." Shadow said honestly. Bless was no longer looked worried, she was surprised.

"Really?" Bless said in hope, then she looked unconvinced, "This was mum's idea, wasn't it?" Bless said in disbelief.

"No! I swear, this is my idea, I want to help you!" Shadow exclaimed desperately, wanting Bless to trust him. "I swear..."

"Okay..." she sighed and finished her breakfast. "I'll get ready and you can come with me to school." Bless said and went upstairs to get dressed.

"I hope this works..." Shadow groaned, looking stressed again.

Bless took Shadow to her school, he didn't even know where the secondary school was yet, that was how involved he was with her school life, he knew nothing, he'd not stepped foot in any school since parents evening in primary school and he'd not had any education since his life on the ARK.

They stepped inside, Shadow didn't like the atmosphere, there were too many people around and he hated crowds, he especially hated the fact that some of the students looked older than him, due to his agelessness. This was a school full of Mobians, there were no sign of humans, this put Shadow at ease slightly, until they reached the Head Teacher's office.

The head master was a human, tall and fearless looking, quite old and he looked slightly familiar. "Dad, this is Mr Towers, the headteacher." Bless said as she went into the office with Shadow. Shadow tensed up, 'Towers', that was the surname of The Commander he hated so much. That was why he looked familiar, this man resembled The Commander, he must have been a brother or a cousin of him since he seemed to be roughly the same age, with his greying hair and bold look.

"What do you want?" He asked sounding grumpy while sitting at his desk.

"I uh... brought my dad in to speak to you." Bless said timidly.

"At last... I asked this of you a month ago." Mr Towers grumbled. Bless turned to Shadow with worried and pleading eyes.

"And... why didn't I know about this?" Shadow hissed, anger in his eyes. Bless just gulped and sat down in one of the chairs that was facing the Head's desk.

"Well then Bless, your friend here can leave... where is your father?" The Head teacher asked. Shadow gave a nervous laugh, this was going to be awkward.

"I... am her father." Shadow said while clearing his throat. The head teacher's eyes narrowed at Bless and then Shadow.

"You should know by now Bless, that I don't like jokes." Mr Towers said seriously.

"But, this isn't a joke, I AM her father." Shadow said sounding frustrated.

"That's it boy, what's your name!" The head yelled, getting up from his chair and banging his hand against his desk, Bless cringed at his anger.

"Shadow, Shadow the Hedgehog." Shadow snarled.

"I've not heard the name before at this school, where do you learn?" he asked.

"Nowhere, I don't go to school." Shadow said sounding offended.

"You look too young to have left school... have you ever been to school?" Towers asked, interestedly.

"No... and before you get any ideas, I don't need to." Shadow said strongly.

"But it's the law here to go to school until the age of 18 and you... boy... are not of age." Towers said while walking over to him and stopping in front of him. Shadow then felt nervous, the man was tall and quite threatening. "I think you'll fit in well here." he said and walked over to his desk. "Shadow, welcome to Station Square Secondary School." he said. "I will be seeing you tomorrow at 8:30am sharp." he demanded. "I'll put you in the same class as Bless here, so she can show you around the school."

Shadow's mouth gaped open, he had been signed up for school, even worse, the same school his own daughter was in, the same class that she was in. Shadow had never felt so ashamed and embarrassed.

"And you... young lady... I had better see one of your real parents soon or there will be big trouble." Mr Towers threatened. Then the two of them left the office, eager to get away from him.

"Dad, you'd better go home... I'll see you after school." Bless sighed and went off to her classroom. Shadow promptly found his way out of the school, trying to think of a way that he would be able to break the news to Maria.

Bless was home late again that day, Shadow was waiting impatiently for her in the kitchen, when he heard the front door go his ears pricked up as he realised that she was home. After a few minutes Bless came into the room sheepishly, Shadow had a look on his face which meant he was demanding an explanation.

"Dad, please don't punish me for this one." Bless pleaded. "It wasn't my fault!" she exclaimed.

"Why were you kept behind today?" Shadow asked.

"Because I took in a 'fake' parent." Bless said nervously. Then Shadow was furious, Bless had been wrongly kept behind today.

"Fucking human..." Shadow hissed.

"So... are you going to forget about it?" Bless asked hopefully.

"Yes, you're exempt from today's punishment." Shadow sighed, Bless then left the room eagerly. Shadow put his elbows on the table and rest his head in it again, in frustration. He had a strong feeling that he would see exactly why Bless was always in trouble, and that perhaps it wasn't the poor girl's fault.