Expectations Vs Reality: A Sonic 'High School' Story
Written for the Kelviniana forum Back to School challenge.
Shadow stood impatiently at the main entrance of GUN headquarters. He rolled his eyes when he noticed Sonic heading towards him.
"Finally," Shadow sighed as Sonic skidded to a halt in front of him.
"Why did you call me, Shadow? I was about to break the light barrier."
Shadow looked at Sonic confusedly.
"Don't you mean… sound barrier?" Shadow asked reluctantly. "-Don't even answer! Come with me! The Commander wants to see you." The dark hedgehog turned and began to walk down the hallway.
"Uh oh. What have I done this time?" Sonic chuckled. Shadow stepped back, reached out, and yanked Sonic's wrist to make him follow. Sonic's body jerked forward as he was hauled into the building and towards The Commander's office.
Sonic felt awkward while Shadow knocked on the door of the office and waited for The Commander to answer. The blue one just stood silently, making limited eye contact with his rival, who looked as miserable as usual. There was the usual detached look in his eyes and a frown on his muzzle.
Instead of calling them in, The Commander came out of the office and began to walk down the long, thin corridor.
"Follow!" he called. The two hedgehogs obeyed and jogged after him.
"Shadow… what's going on?" Sonic asked the dark one. Shadow didn't bother to answer and looked away from Sonic slightly. This unnerved Sonic; he didn't know why he'd been called or what was going on. The situation could have been dire, or he could have been in trouble, and no one was telling him!
The three of them walked into a lift which brought them to the roof of the building, where a helicopter was waiting; it had already started up. Sonic's face lit up, perhaps, it was time for an adventure. The Commander turned to face Sonic and so did Shadow.
"Sonic," he spoke as best as he could over the sound of the helicopter blades. "We've had a request to send you to an area devoid of anthrops."
"To do what?" Sonic asked, feeling uneasy.
"To… receive education."
Sonic's mouth gaped open. Shadow looked up at The Commander questioningly, then back at Sonic.
"But- what if Eggman attacks? How can I defeat him if I'm not here?" Sonic asked.
"Shadow can do that. You, however, will be in Britonia, studying," The Commander said flatly. Sonic bit his bottom lip at the thought of going to lessons and taking tests. He thought he'd avoided it by becoming a hero, but apparently he hadn't.
Before he could think about escaping with his feet, he was grabbed from behind and pushed towards the door of the helicopter. Sonic turned his head, looked over his shoulder, and saw Shadow's sinister smile. The Commander had already turned to leave.
"Wait! Why can't you send Shadow instead? He's the one who works for you!" Sonic cried out while he struggled to stay out of the helicopter by hanging onto the frame of the door. The GUN soldiers tried their hardest to push Sonic inside.
"He has another important mission to do. He can join you when he's done," The Commander said and entered the lift.
Shadow's eyes widened and he turned to the lift door.
"What?" Shadow yelled and ran after The Commander. The lift door closed before Shadow could enter. "Commander! Wait! You weren't serious, were you?" Shadow frantically pressed the down button on the lift and banged on the door. "COMMANDER!"
Sonic couldn't hold onto the frame much longer, so he plummeted backwards and landed on his back. The door was closed immediately. Sonic felt trapped when the sunlight one his face disappeared and he was left in darkness. The hedgehog felt a sense of vertigo and guessed that the helicopter must have taken off already.
"Don't worry, Sonic, you're in good hands," said an assuring voice.
Sonic looked up to see a few soldiers surrounding him in the room. The hedgehog just sulked, not believing a word they said.
"Last time I was in one of these helicopters, I was on my way to prison island," Sonic complained while folding his arms. "And I still haven't gotten an apology for that, by the way."
"We can assure you that you're not going to any prison this time, and we even provided food and movies-"
Sonic rose to his feet optimistically then sat down on one of the seats at the side of the room.
"The movie'd better be good," he mumbled.
"There will be several movies, the flight will take about 7 hours."
"But I can't sit still for that long!" Sonic exclaimed.
"Well, you're going to have to do that every day when you're in school!" one of the soldiers exclaimed. The group burst into laughter. Sonic's pupils shrunk and his jaw dropped.
"No, please. I'll do anything!" Sonic exclaimed, but the humans continued to laugh. "HEEEELP!" he cried out to the skies, but no one could save him. He would have to endure the agonies of school.
Seven hours passed and the vehicle landed. Sonic eagerly ran to the door and waited for it to open. One of the soldiers reached for the door, and as soon as there was a gap for Sonic to get through, the hedgehog bolted through it. The hero landed on the concrete ground with both feet and felt the joy of fresh air and freedom. He expected to feel the warmth of the sun on a summer's day, but it was drizzling and the sky was grey instead of blue. Then he noticed his surroundings.
He was in a car park, surrounded by three large buildings. The one on the middle had one storey, while the two on the side had three storeys each. The structures themselves didn't look new or glamorous. Instead of marble or amazing smooth brick, they were made of painted metal and rough red brick. There was very little greenery around, not a field in sight. Sonic figured that they were behind the buildings.
This was not what Sonic expected High School to be like. No amazing summer start, sitting on the grass, reminiscing summer break. Just… crumbling concrete and rain. There was no laughter either, since no one was around. School started tomorrow.
"Sonic, you may find school here a little different to what you see back home," a voice from behind said.
"You don't say!" Sonic turned around and said. "This is worse than I thought!"
"Let's take you inside so you can hear from the experts."
Sonic was led inside the middle building. After passing the reception area, there was only one corridor, and it was large. There were rooms on all four sides of it. The floor was a grey carpet and the walls were white. The windows were high up above the rooms, coming through the sides of the roof at the top.
"This is the administrative block, there are no classrooms here. Just offices. We can enrol you here," a solider said. They walked over to and knocked on the door that said 'administrator's office' on it.
"Come in!" came a strong, female voice. The accent was strongly English.
Sonic felt the nerves growing inside of him, like it was judgement day. There was no turning back now. There was no doubt that he was be shot or tasered if he were to attempt to run away. The doorway was blocked by the group of soldiers he had come with.
There were several desks in the room; a lady in the furthest desk gave a slight wave. Sonic was supposed to walk to her. The hedgehog looked up at his escorts worriedly; then walked to the other side of the room.
Sonic sat down in the empty chair facing the desk and waited for the questions and lectures about joining the school. This was no fun. He was expecting to have made friends and raced in the fields by now, but it looked as if no such thing was to happen.
After ten minutes of typing up questions, the young woman passed Sonic a thin booklet with all of the information needed.
"You'll be in the upper building. It's to you left when you leave this building, it's on your right as you enter the premises," she explained. "That building is for level 4 and 5. You're in the first year of level 4. Level five is optional," she added quickly. "You may have lessons in the lower building, but you will be based at top. Any questions?"
"Uuum… n-no…" Sonic stuttered slowly and got up.
"You must read everything on that pack that I just gave you, it's very important," she mentioned before Sonic left the room.
Sonic read while he walked, this was certainly not what he expected. There were compulsory uniforms at this school. Different uniforms for different levels. He was grateful he'd missed out on the third level's uncool uniform, and didn't have to wear the tie and shirt in level 5, but he didn't want to wear one at all.
The younger years wore a bottle green jumper, with dark red t-shirt and black trouser's/skirt. The level Sonic was in had to wear a bottle green jumper, white shirt and black trousers. The higher years wore black jumpers, buttoned shirts, ties and black trousers. It certainly exaggerated the complicated hierarchy of high school… or secondary school as it said on the front of the booklet.
"We have to go and get you fitted into a uniform of your own, Sonic, you won't start school until tomorrow," one of the soldiers said and led him back to the helicopter.
While Sonic began another waiting game on the way to his next destination, he had a look at his time table.
"I wonder how often I'll have PE," Sonic pondered and looked at the schedule. He scanned the page for a few minutes until he realised… there was only one hour of PE a week. One measly hour. "But I need to move more than that!"
The spaces were filled with English, maths, science and humanities. He was expecting different lessons, some fun lessons. Not strongly academic lessons. What's more, he didn't want to be on those lessons, in an itchy old uniform either. Sonic couldn't wait for Shadow to arrive so he endure the same pain.
The uniform was fitted at a local firm and Sonic was put into a close GUN base. It wasn't as big as HQ in the United Federations, but the regional base would do. Sonic wasn't trusted to look after himself in a house of his own, so he stayed in makeshift apartment in the base.
"Sonic, you should go to bed soon, school starts at 8:30 tomorrow."
"That's a lot later than I expected," Sonic replied. "Anyway, I don't need that much sleep, I'll be fine."
After that, Sonic was left alone. He began to yawn and stretch, and realised that perhaps it was a good idea to go to bed soon. He'd spent seven hours on the ride over and when he arrived it was late morning. It had been a long time since he'd slept and he wouldn't get the chance to do so tomorrow because of school. The hedgehog kicked off his shoes and jumped under the covers with a sigh.
This high school experience was not what he expected on the way there, and nothing like what he'd heard of back home. He had no idea what to expect when he got back to school the next day.
This school is based on the set-up of a British School. The curriculum, sadly, isn't really like that where I live, but it's a lot different to schools in the USA. Third level is Key stage 3, fourth level is Key stage 4 or GSCE, and level 5 is A-level.
Lucy Labrador