Alright, for now, my other story, Unforgivable, is lying dormant. I do plan on continuing it, and I shall as soon as I can figure out exactly what to do with it. I have a direction, but, for the moment, it is still something to work on.

Also, at the moment, my inbox is doing odd things, and, apparently, I haven't been receiving all messages. So, I apologize if you've sent me a message that I never replied to.

Now, for this story. If you like the idea, I credit it to the boredom of sitting in Study Hall for an hour and a half every other day all school year. If you don't like it... I BLAME it on the boredom of sitting in Study Hall for an hour and a half every other day all school year. ;P

No, but seriously... I'm just glad to be able to write something for the first time in a few months.

My Story Disclaimer: I do not own, in any way, any of the canon Sonic characters used and/or mentioned in this story (including but not limited to Sonic, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, Espio, Silver, Blaze, Wave, Jet, Cream, Vector, Charmy, and Dr. Eggman). Nor do I own the inspiration from some of the other characters taken from other games/movies (such as Ganondorf Dragmire who belongs to the Zelda franchise, and Queen Grimhilde who belongs to Disney). Nor, again, do I own any objects or names that are associated with the Sonic universe, any other game or movie or tv show's universe, or any business/corporation names. In addition, the celebrity personas illustrated in the story mean no harm and are not meant to be offensive in any way.

Yes, that is probably unnecessarily long, but I take few chances. Now, what I DO own... All fancharacters and teachers used in this story are the product of my own imagination and belong entirely to me, save for a few who belong to Symphony-of-the-Soul.

What Happens In High School

1. The Arrival

"Metropolis Upper Class Academy: Where the Gifted Thrive."

Tails lowered his map, looking from the big sign to the paper in Amy's hand. He read the school name aloud from the paper and nodded at the sign in affirmation. "Yep, this is it."

Sonic let out a low whistle, staring up at the collection of pristine, white marble buildings that were scattered across a campus that seemed to stretch on for miles. "You sure, buddy?"

"Positive..." Tails also stared out at the buildings, trying to separate the towers into dormitories and class buildings. "You guys sure are lucky," the fox said, fantasizing about all the learning that would happen behind those pearly walls.

Sonic put a reassuring hand on the small fox's shoulder, "Don't worry, buddy. We'll come visit whenever we get breaks. And, besides, if you skip grades as fast as I know you will, you'll be here with us next year."

Knuckles was almost completely blinded by the countless bags of luggage that had been loaded on top of him, and, as he would rather have been on Angel Island guarding his emerald, he was extremely irritated. "Can we just go, now?"

"Calm down, Knuckie. Why so impatient?" Rouge flashed a smile at the echidna, only making him angrier.

"Maybe because I'm the ONLY ONE carrying anything!" He roared, turning his head around to glare at the empty-handed Sonic and Rouge - and Amy, who was only carrying the paper with the school information on it, "Or EVERYTHING, for that matter!"

Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Cream easily ignored the echidna's shouting and began walking down the sidewalk toward the buildings. Knuckles followed them, doing his best not to trip over some of the loose baggage, and Rouge walked with him, hoping to be the first to witness him tripping over the same loose baggage.

Cream was the first to spot the sign along the sidewalk that read "First-Years This Way" and pointed them with an arrow toward one of the larger buildings. She skipped along, ahead of them, happily chiming, "I just know you will have so much fun this year, Amy! My cousin is going to come here this year, too! She says that the school is really great!"

Amy smiled at the little rabbit before glancing over at Sonic. "I'm excited, too, Cream! It's going to be great!"

Sonic nodded then laughed, "Well, except for the fact that I'll be living within a mile of Knucklehead all year long." Amy and Cream giggled.

A large purple suitcase flew through the air, just barely missing Sonic's head as Knuckles bellowed, "You can carry your own damn luggage then, Sonic!"

Rouge gave Knuckles a dirty look, running after the suitcase and yelling back at the echidna, "You idiot! Then throw his suitcase - not mine!"

As the group bickered amongst themselves, other students were arriving. Two guys came up behind the group and stopped when they didn't want to walk through the argument. Both of the guys were well-built, and one of them was, like Knuckles, packed with half a ton of luggage. Also, like Knuckles, very little of his face could be seen, and the only landmark trait that could be taken from his hidden appearance was pitch-black fur.

Beside the black-furred luggage-carrier was an orange creature that greatly resembled an echidna in form. His bright orange dreadlocks stopped at his shoulders, and his muzzle was a perfect, light tan.

Amy and Tails noticed the newcomers and tried to drag Sonic and Rouge to the front of the group in hopes that they would stop trying to fight with Knuckles. Neither Amy nor Tails could gain any ground - hopeless against their taller, angrier friends. However, their frazzled attempts quickly drew a bright laugh from the orange echidna standing behind them. Sonic and Rouge ceased their attempts to strangle Knuckles at the sound of laughter, and Sonic, trying to be friendly, acted as though the little scuffle had never even happened, spinning around and greeting the newcomers, "Hey, there!"

The orange one smiled and answered, "Hello. You all must be new, as well."

Amy waited for Sonic to answer but when he didn't, she took charge, "Yeah, we are. Are you two?"

"Well, I am, but Dread isn't." The orange echidna nodded his head toward his companion, then extended a hand toward Amy in greeting. "I'm Walker."

Amy shook his hand, nodding, and she pointed at each of the people in her own group. "Nice to meet you, Walker. This is Tails, and that's Cream. They're just here to see us off."

Walker smiled cheerfully at the two. "Nice to meet you."

"And this is Rouge. She can be a bit of a handful, but she's pretty nice once you get to know her..."

Rouge rolled her eyes. Walker nodded.

"That's Knuckles carrying the bags... And Sonic's the blue one." She took a breath before introducing herself, "And, I'm Amy Rose. But, just call me Amy."

"Nice to meet you, Amy."

The pink hedgehog smiled but then glanced at Sonic, who was just staring at Walker as if dumbfounded. Unsure of what to do, she politely stepped off the sidewalk, apologizing, "Sorry, we're in your way. You two can go on ahead."

"Thanks," Walker said, and he and his companion quickly walked through the group, heading toward a large building.

When they had passed, Amy and the others stepped back onto the path and started following them toward the building. "Well, they seemed nice," Amy said, trying to start a conversation, hoping that the previous fight would not break out again. She then noticed Sonic still looking dumbfounded. "What is it, Sonic?"

"Didn't you see what he was wearing?"

"I didn't pay particular attention, no..."

Rouge laughed, "How could you not notice? His shirt was metallic silver, and he was wearing a leather jacket and leather pants. It's barely halfway through August! It's still summer! You know that fabric's not breathable."

Sonic nodded. "Plus, he was wearing more eyeliner than Rouge!"

Rouge continued, "Exactl-wait." She spun around to leer at Sonic. "Was that a slam on my makeup?"

The blue hedgehog sweatdropped, looking down at the sidewalk nervously. "Uh...No! I said he was wearing more, didn't I?" The bat continued to watch Sonic dangerously.

"Would you two be quiet? They're not that far ahead; they can probably hear you!" Amy sighed as the group approached the doors to the building, "We're not here to criticize the way people dress, okay? At least he was nice." Cream smiled in agreement with Amy.

Rouge shrugged. "Well, I did kinda figure that the place would be crawling with stuck-up jerks, so I guess we're in the clear, now."

Tails opened the door to let the others in, but Knuckles stopped before going through the door. He tried to look around the bags to give Tails a demeaning, you're-an-idiot look, but when that failed, he just growled, "How the hell do you think I'm going to fit through that door with all this junk?"

The fox blinked then looked around, locating the other guy who had been carrying a bunch of luggage. Tails pointed toward the building that the other guy was walking to and said, "I think you drop that off over there."

"Over where?" Knuckles tried to look to where Tails was pointing, but it was useless: he could barely see anything beyond the pile of luggage in his arms. He turned back around to ask Tails again, but the fox was gone, and the door was closed. Grumbling something along the lines of, "Chaos, I hate this place already," and, "Never again," and, "Next time they're carrying their own damn luggage," the red echidna set off in the general direction he assumed he was supposed to go.

Inside the large building that the others had entered, Amy, Sonic, and Rouge were looking for a place to sit. They were standing at the back of a huge white room that appeared to be the school cafeteria. Long white tables took up one half of the room while small, round white tables took up the other half. About fifty others were already seated in the cafeteria, talking quietly amongst themselves. Amy felt awkward standing at the back of the room while everyone else was sitting, so she scanned the tables for a familiar face. Walker had taken a seat at an empty round table that only had three chairs, so she could see that the group wouldn't fit there. But, as she scanned the rest of her colorful classmates, she finally did spot two familiar faces. A purple chameleon and a black hedgehog were sitting together - albeit sitting opposite of each other and not even sparing one another a glance - at one of the round tables.

Amy smiled, grabbing Sonic by the arm and dragging him to the table. Rouge, Tails, and Cream followed. Amy made her way over to the table and waved energetically, drawing the attention of Shadow and Espio. "Hi, guys!"

Shadow greeted her in the most warm, welcoming way that he was capable of: "Hmph."

And, Espio said simply, "Hello," before returning to staring at the surface of the table in silence.

Sonic grinned, taking the seat immediately next to Shadow. "Hey, Shads! Long time no see!" Upon receiving no reply, the blue hedgehog only grinned more. "So," he raised an imaginary glass in a toast, "here's hoping we get roomed together - whaddaya say?"

The black hedgehog looked up with dark red eyes, stating flatly, "I would rather cut myself."

"Well, ya probably already do that a bit, don't ya, Shadsy? No worries, though! When we're roomies, I'll help you kick that nasty habit."

"Then I will cut you instead."

Cream hugged Amy before taking a step back and saying in an almost motherly tone, "Call at least once a week and come visit whenever you can, okay?"

Amy smiled at her best friend, answering, "All the time, Cream. I'll see you soon."

"Goodbye, Amy. Have fun, okay?" The little rabbit smiled sweetly at Amy and then nodded toward everyone else. "Have fun, everyone!"

Tails smiled at them all, as well. "Bye, guys. See you later." He waved, taking one last look at his own best friend, Sonic, before turning and walking with Cream back outside.

Amy sighed, sinking in to the chair beside Sonic. She was full of mixed emotions. Glad to have the chance to go to a real high school, sad to be without her best friend... Unsure of just what school was going to be like, or if she was going to make any friends...

The huge clock that was built into the west wall of the building struck three o' clock with three successive tones, and, right on time, a large creature walked through the main doors of the room, marching straight down the center, to the front. He was a peculiar-looking creature, a dark, forest-green boar. His fur was weathered - black in places as if burnt from fire. His face was hardened from scars, and tufts of fiery orange hair fell from his head. He was dressed in black robes littered with gold adornments, and a gold headpiece was fitted onto his head.

The boar stopped only when he was at the very head of the room, the center of attention. And, he spoke with a low, ominous yet elegant tone: "Good afternoon, students..." Unsure of how to greet the giant boar-man, the room remained silent. "During your stay at the Metropolis Upper Class Academy, I will be your principal, your advisor, your keeper, and your disciplinary decider. You will know me as Lord Dragmire, Sir Dragmire, or King Dragmire - nothing less..."

The room's silence was broken when one of the back doors opened, and a tall, black-furred porcupine strutted into the room. Immediately, all stares, including the stare of Lord Dragmire, went to the back, watching the porcupine as if he were some sort of criminal for interrupting the speech.

The porcupine was dressed in almost perfect, midnight tones, wearing dark, loose-fitting jeans, and a plain, black t-shirt. His quills were all long enough to reach his waist, but only two in the front were left to do so. The rest of the quills were styled straight upward, creating a sort of spiked look, and each quill was tipped with either green or fuchsia dye. The porcupine looked up at the principal, nodding in greeting, and he said in a calm voice, as if he either didn't know or didn't care that he was causing such a scene, "Sorry to interrupt, Sir King Dragmire." Several of the students' eyes darted between the porcupine and the principal. "But, your luggage-collectors royally suck this year. A few other guys are coming behind me. I'd check in on that if I were you."

Amy and Rouge exchanged a glance, and an eruption of hushed whispers and pointing at the porcupine commenced, the loudest of which were, "The nerve!," "Who does that guy think he is?," and, from a table girls that he walked by, the loudest comment was only silence, followed by a fit of giggles. The porcupine didn't seem to notice, sweeping through the tables gracefully and taking a seat by the orange echidna, Walker, at an otherwise empty table.

Lord Dragmire raised a hand, silencing the whispers, and he nodded in the porcupine's direction, apparently not impressed, surprised, or annoyed in any way. "Thank you, Mr. Lox. I will have my staff look into that right away." The porcupine just nodded, leaning back in his chair.

Amy looked shocked, speaking in a low voice over the table, "The principal knows him!"

Espio answered quietly, "This is a school for the gifted... The student body is made up of the famous, the rich, and the exceptionally gifted... Perhaps he is famous."

Sonic agreed with the chameleon, "Yeah. Like, if I were to get up and act out, the principal'd probably be all, 'Thank you, Mr. Sonic.' It's no big deal, Ames."

The pink hedgehog sighed, "Well, I've never heard of him."

Across the table, Rouge's ears were twitching violently from the nearby conversations that were going on. She shook her head, confirming Amy's thoughts, "Neither has anyone else, apparently." The bat's eyes fluttered over to the distant table where the porcupine was lounging. "He looks too old for high school... Especially freshman year."

"So do you, Rouge." Sonic laughed, "You're what? Thirty, now?"

The bat's glare turned poisonous. "I'm eighteen."

"Sure. You're only as old as you feel."

Rouge was just about to jump over the table and strangle the blue hedgehog when, luckily for Sonic, the principal's speech continued, "Now, for all of you who failed to read the manual, the meeting for disciplinary action will be held tomorrow night at six sharp. If you do not wish to attend the meeting, then my suggestion would be to read the first twenty pages of your agenda very carefully, or risk expulsion. Starting tomorrow, my office is open from five to five." The boar paused, looking tired of talking, and he concluded his short speech quickly, "Now, if you wait a few moments, Professor Grimhilde will post dorm assignments. Your luggage will be delivered to your rooms by five o' clock this afternoon, and dinner is at six. I look forward to a great year." As soon as the old, battle-scarred boar was finished talking, there was automatic applause from many of the new students who didn't know what else to do. Sonic looked around, shrugged, and started clapping, as well; after a moment, Amy joined him. Lord Dragmire made his formal exit, and Sonic turned back to the others.

The blue hedgehog smiled confidently. "So, room assignments. This'll be fun."

Espio, looking puzzled, finally decided to voice the question that had been bothering him, "How exactly are roommates chosen?"

Amy tilted her head, staring over the table at the purple lizard. "We were sent that whole questionnaire chart about likes and dislikes and schedules and habits and stuff..." She noticed Espio's blank face and made her conclusion, "You didn't answer that?"

Rouge smiled, shaking her head. "Well, this should be interesting, then. Guess you'll be put with all the other delinquents who don't fill out their forms..." A worried look crossed Espio's face, as he mentally pictured himself alone in a room of adult Charmys... Staying up all night and destroying their belongings, his belongings, the entire room, the campus, burning his homework, playing violent video games into the early morning hours... He shuddered and bowed his head, praying desperately for a different fate.

The back door of the room opened again as a few other late arrivals entered, including Knuckles, who stormed over to the table, still in a sour mood. Much to his disappointment, the only seat available was by Rouge, but he took it, not sparing the bat a glance.

Sonic raised his hand in greeting to the red echidna. "See ya finally decided to join us, huh, Knux?"

Knuckles snarled, glaring daggers. "Not. Right. Now. Sonic."

The blue hedgehog raised an eyebrow. "Looks like someone's in a bad mood."

Before Knuckles could respond, Rouge spoke, staring over Sonic's head, "Looks like someone else is just about to be." Sonic and Amy turned around to see what Rouge was looking at, and they both froze.

Sonic groaned, "Oh, come on! What are they here for?"

Espio looked up at the two birds standing across the cafeteria in the doorway, and he tilted his head, trying to be helpful, "Talent, perhaps?" Of course, that comment only earned him the glares of Sonic, Amy, and Rouge. "...That was a rhetorical question... Of course..." And, he returned to his silent prayers.

Shadow stood up, taking a step toward the green hawk and purple swallow, deciding aloud, "Well, any enemy of Faker's is a friend of mine." And, the black hedgehog walked over to Jet and Wave to introduce himself.

Amy and Rouge both crossed their arms, taking turns shooting glares in the purple swallow's general direction. Amy was the first to say, "Ooh, I can't stand her!"

And, Rouge was quick to reply, "Me neither. She's such a know-it-all!"

"And she's just flat-out rude!"

"She thinks she's better than everyone else!"

"She's mean to everyone!"

"She gets everything she wants!"

The girls' hate-fest was interrupted, though, when Knuckles noticed a bunch of the students crowding around a wall, and he said, "Guys, I think they just put the rooms up..."

Sonic put a hand to his heart, half-falling out of his chair dramatically. "Knuckles thinks?" The hedgehog then actually turned his head and noticed the crowd as well. "Hm, I think Knuckles might be right..."

Amy and Rouge exchanged a glance, and then both broke into a mimicry of Sonic, nearly falling out of their own chairs, chorusing, "Sonic thinks?"

The blue hedgehog just shook his head, standing up and running full-speed over to the crowd. It was impossible to see the list from the back of the crowd, so he had to duck under some people and put his elbows to good use, but, finally, he managed to spot his name, and he returned to the table victoriously.

Rouge raised an eyebrow, expecting him to say something. "So...?"

"Room C1!" Sonic gave her a thumbs-up, as if the room number was something special.

Knuckles frowned. "What about the rest of us?"

The hedgehog shrugged. "You guys got feet. Use 'em."

Amy sighed, standing up reluctantly, but, upon seeing the huge crowd, she changed her mind, turning back to the table. "So, who are your roommates, Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog shrugged again. "The list was grouped by name, not rooms."

Their attention was diverted to another sound, then. From across the cafeteria, they heard a familiar, snotty voice as Jet broke from the crowd at the wall and returned to Wave and Shadow. "God, these people are crazy!"

Amy, Rouge, and Sonic all turned around to watch them and saw Wave say something to Jet, but her voice wasn't loud enough to be heard from across the room. In answer, Jet again opened his beak and shouted, "I dunno! Room 'C1', whatever the heck that means!"

Amy and Rouge both instantly looked at Sonic, who was quickly paling. The blue hedgehog moaned into his hands, "Oh, heck, no..." He looked up at Amy hopefully. "...He said D1, right?"

Rouge walked over to the cool blue hero, patting him on the back. "Good luck, honey." And, she started toward the crowd to fetch her own room number.

Sonic turned to Knuckles for help, "Knuckles, man, you gotta get roomed with me, right? I mean, we share all sorts of stuff in common! Emerald-searching and... saving the world... and... Eggman-fighting... and... and emerald-searching..."

"Sonic, there's no way in Hell we're gonna be roomies. We have nothing in common. I don't race, I'm not competitive, I don't find humor in any of your stupid jokes, I'm not fast... You spend the day drinking energy drinks and eating chili dogs; I can't stand that nasty, greasy junk. And, I can't stand it when people have too much sugar."

Espio chimed in on that comment as if to defend Knuckles' point of view, "Sugar does cause tooth decay and unnecessary hyperactivity."

Sonic sulked in his chair. "Well, at least I could make fun of you guys. Instead, I'll just be competing constantly for the tv and the remote and the good lamp and the hair dryer and the bathroom and..."

Knuckles stood up to go get his room assignment, carelessly shrugging at Sonic. "Well, that's what you get for being so competitive: competition." Espio stood up and followed Knuckles over to the wall which by then had a much smaller crowd around it.

About five minutes passed before every one of the group members located his or her respective room number and met back at the table to compare. And, much to their - though especially Sonic's - dismay, none of their room numbers matched up.

"I can't believe this," the blue hedgehog moped. "Weeks of looking forward to this and suddenly Mr. 'I'm-the-fastest-thing-alive' - even though he's so not - shows up and ruins the whole year!"

Knuckles frowned, ignoring the hedgehog's whining, and asked hesitantly, "What do the numbers and letters mean?"

Rouge was sitting back in her chair, arms crossed, with a nasty scowl on her face. Amy looked over at her, concerned. "What's wrong, Rouge?"

Avoiding the pink hedgehog's question, the bat turned her head toward Knuckles and answered simply, "The letter refers to the building number. The dormitories we saw when entering were dorms A through E. The rest of the dorms are at the other end of the campus. The number is whatever floor you're on."

Amy continued to watch Rouge with a worried gaze for several seconds, but then her attention was caught by several of the doors of the cafeteria opening as other students left. She watched them for a moment before looking at Sonic. "Where do you think they're going, Sonic?"

"I dunno. I'm guessing most of them are going to find their dorms, bring their cars around, and meet with roommates."

"Well, maybe we should do that, then!"

"You and Rouge are the only two with cars, Ames."

Amy rose from her seat, putting her hands on her hips. "Well, Sonic, if you don't want to come with one of us to move our cars, then you could always go fraternize with your new dorm family." She looked over to the place that Jet and Wave had been standing in earlier. "Looks like Jet's already gone."

Knuckles stood up, turning toward the door. "I'm going to go find my room. Anyone know where building X is?"

Rouge stood up, as well, answering, "Just walk and walk and walk until you hit the edge of campus. It's the last building you're going to see."

And, with that, Knuckles' mood turned sour again as he headed out the door. Amy shook her head, looking back at Sonic. "So, what's it gonna be? Are you helping me and Rouge move the cars or going to get to know your new best friend, Jet?"

The hedgehog sprang from his chair, shouting, "To the Batmobile!" Rouge rolled her eyes, and they waved to Espio before leaving for the parking lot.

"Building X, Building X..." Knuckles stopped in front of what appeared to be the last building on campus, not entirely sure of what to do. Room X2... So, that's the second floor, right? He searched the side of the building, hoping to find a staircase, but the only thing he saw was the flat side of the building. Do I go in, or...? He paced back around to the front of the building, eyeing the door.

"Excuse me; are you new here?"

Knuckles whirled around at the sound of the voice to find himself facing a pale yellow bird. Her feathers were curled in an elegant design, and she was wearing a light blue sundress. Around her back, a guitar was slung. Knuckles quickly looked from her to the door, before deciding to answer, "Uh, yeah." He paused before deciding to swallow his pride for one second, and he turned back to her to ask, "Yeah, uh, I'm supposed to be in X2... How do you get there?"

She smiled. "Well, you go inside, and there's a staircase in the common room." She stepped around him, putting her hand on the door. "Come on, I'll show you." The door opened easily, and the bird walked inside. Reluctantly, Knuckles followed. The door opened into a large, circular room that was furnished with white furniture. The walls were a basic white but splattered with random patches of red, yellow, and blue paint. On the couch, a white tigress was lounging. She looked up when they came in.

The tigress glanced over Knuckles, then she turned to the bird, jumping up to give her a hug, shouting, "Tay-Tay! It's been FOREVER since I last saw you!" Knuckles watched them, feeling greatly uncomfortable. What if he was roomed with a bunch of... GIRLS?

When the two girls came out of their hug, the yellow bird turned back to Knuckles, introducing her friend, "This is Claws. She's a tiger. And one of my very best friends." The tigress waved, and Knuckles just nodded awkwardly. "And, I'm Taylor." The bird paused before saying, "Taylor the Swift."

Again, Knuckles just nodded, feeling extremely out of place. "...Alright..."

Taylor seemed slightly surprised at the echidna's lack of reaction, but she pointed to the stairs and said good-naturedly, "Your roommates will show up soon, I'm sure. But, if you're the first one, then that means you can stake your claim of the lot."

Knuckles quickly went for the stairs and was glad when he reached the top of the staircase. He was standing at the beginning of a short hallway with a door on each side it. At the end of the hallway was another pair of doors. Slowly, Knuckles walked toward the door on the right side of the hallway, opening the door. To his surprise, someone was already in the room. A dark brown buck was standing over one of the room's two beds, unloading some books out of what looked like a briefcase. The deer was dressed simply in some paint-speckled blue jeans and a striped green t-shirt. As soon as he heard the click of the door, the buck turned around, half-waving, with a paint brush in his hand, at Knuckles.

"Hi," the deer said plainly.

"...Uh, hey," Knuckles replied, staying in the doorway. And, I'm stuck in a building way off campus with a bunch of strangers. Chaos, Tails had better be watching the Master Emerald...

The door opened behind Knuckles then, hitting him in the back, and a quick, "Oh, I'm sorry!," followed. Knuckles spun around, ready to chew out whoever had opened the door, when he found himself face-to-face with a familiar, white-grey hedgehog.

"Silver?"

"Knuckles?" They stared at each other for a few moments in silence before Silver noticed that the person he'd hit with the door was, in fact, Knuckles. "Um, so, nice to see you - I'll be just across the hall if you need me!"

"GET BACK HERE, SILVER!" The echidna chased the hedgehog down the hall, but Silver successfully made it to his room first, slamming the door in Knuckles' face and leaning against it, hoping that Knuckles wasn't riled up enough to try to break the door down.

Sonic approached the forsaken Building C with the decision already made in his mind. He was going to pick the bed or room or however the dorms were set up - he was going to make himself the farthest away from Jet as was humanly - scratch that - HEDGEHOGLY possible. Then, all he had to do was go to bed later than Jet, get up earlier than Jet, not go back to the room whenever Jet was there, never hang out in the common room, and then the green hawk would never even know that he was sharing a dorm with Sonic the Hedgehog!

The door was unlocked, so Sonic walked in, only to find himself in the empty common room. The walls were black, and the furniture was in bright, neon colors. Sonic just glanced over the room; it wasn't too bad. Actually, it was a shame he'd have to avoid the room. He walked through the common area, entering the hallway, and he noticed a door on each side of the corridor. Even better! If the dorms were split in half, he wouldn't even have to room with Jet!

Sonic paused, taking a second to think. The door on his left was the one that he was considering entering... But Jet was an insufferable copycat, er, copybird - wait, mockingbird! - yeah, Jet was an insufferable mockingbird. So, chances were, that Jet was already in the left room! So, Sonic opened the door to the right room... Only to find two coal-colored creatures already inhabiting the room.

Sonic looked at Shadow - who was lounging on one of the two beds without a care in the world - with a dulled gaze. "You have GOT to be kidding me, Shads."

The other dark-furred creature, the porcupine who'd interrupted the principal's speech earlier, glanced up at Sonic from where he was unpacking his single, small suitcase. "You must be Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic glanced over at the porcupine, one last hope shining in his eyes. If the porcupine was a fan of his, then maybe Sonic could get him to trade rooms! The blue hedgehog flourished a smile and said, "I see I've got a fan!"

"Not really," came the porcupine's reply as he stood up, towering about a foot over the blue hedgehog.

"...Oh." Sonic paused, taken aback by the blunt statement. "Well, do you feel like doing me a little, tiny favor?"

"Not really."

Sonic sweatdropped then noticed Shadow snickering silently, and the blue hedgehog crossed his arms. "Look, whatever Shadow told you is not true."

"Oh..." The porcupine raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms, as well. "So, then, you're not a blue egomaniac hedgehog with stupid hair and an annoying, headache-inducing voice?"

Sonic blinked. "Oh...kay... How about I rephrase that? Whatever Shadow told you is probably not true." The porcupine continued to watch Sonic with an unamused expression. "Oh, come on! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog! I've saved the world! Just look at me! I'm cool, right?"

"Not really."

Sonic huffed, turning to Shadow, "Why aren't YOU rooming with Jet? What happened to, 'Any enemy of Faker's is a friend of mine'?" The ebony hedgehog only continued to watch Sonic smugly, so, finally, Sonic turned back to the door. "I hope you're happy!"

"Ecstatic." Shadow closed his eyes, perfectly relaxed, as Sonic stalked out of the room.

Stupid Shadow... Your regularly scheduled prank has just been moved forward... Oh, yeah, you'd better watch yourself... And your little roommate, too! Reluctantly, Sonic pushed open the door to the left room... Only to find it empty.

He took a step forward, looking around. Huh. Maybe I was worried about nothing.

And, then, the familiar, snotty voice that Sonic had been dreading piped up from behind him, "Well, well, well, if it isn't Sonic the Hedgehog..."

"I hadn't realized when coming in that the parking lot was that far away..." Amy sighed, getting out of her old, red station wagon and looking over at Rouge, who was getting out of her own white car, decorated with pink hearts and decals. "Don't you feel kinda bad about making Sonic get out back there?"

Rouge shook her head. "No. He was already going to be one of the last ones there. Besides, his feet were on my dashboard... I'm going to have to clean that off later..."

Amy turned her head to the side, staring at the shiny, purple hovercraft she'd parked next to. "Who do you think that car belongs to?"

Rouge shrugged. "Some roommate of mine who spends more time on cars than anything else, I'm sure."

Amy sighed, walking onto the sidewalk that lined the back of Building D. "Guess this is goodbye, Rouge."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "We'll see each other at dinner, in, like, an hour. And, then there's tomorrow. I'm sure we'll have at least some classes together."

"Yeah, I guess so... It just sucks that the only person I can talk to is on the other side of campus from me, and so is Sonic."

Rouge put a comforting hand on Amy's shoulder. "Don't worry, Rosie. If you really need to talk to someone while you're over there... Knuckles'll be right upstairs." Rouge laughed.

"Gee, Rouge, that really makes me feel better."

"See you in an hour!"

The pink hedgehog waved goodbye then got back into her little red car to drive down to her own building. And, Rouge walked around the side of Building D, found the door, and walked into the common room. Instantly, a short ground squirrel sprang from the couch, pouncing Rouge in a hug. The startled bat tried to push the small chipmunk off, but the tiny girl simply said in a sing-song voice, "You must be our last roommate! I'm so super stoked to finally meet you!" On the couch, two guys were sniggering at the scene. "My name is Zena! What's yours?"

Finally, Rouge succeeded in pushing the chipmunk off to answer, "Rouge the Bat. Former government agent; touch me again, and you die." The ground squirrel, Zena, just giggled and ran off down the hallway. Rouge then turned toward the two guys on the couch. "Is she high?"

"Zena? Nah, she's just always that way." The guy speaking stood up, extending his hand toward Rouge and introducing himself, "Hey, I'm Justin Beaver." He twitched instinctively in an effort to keep his long, brown hair out of his face - the hair simply moved for a second, then settled back just over his eyes.

Rouge recognized the name, and she raised an eyebrow. "Funny. You look older in person." She paused before adding, "I could swear that you're twelve looking at you in a photo."

The brown-haired beaver shrugged. "Eh, I get that a lot. Haha, just gotta kinda learn to laugh at yourself, ya know? It's all good."

Rouge nodded. "Right..." She then looked over to the other guy and blinked. "Oh, it's you. Walker, right?"

The orange echidna smiled at her brightly. "Yep, that's me. And, you're the girl who gets defensive about her makeup. Rouge."

"Excuse me? How would you know that?"

"You and your friends are really loud talkers, you know."

The bat's face flushed slightly as she recalled her groups' conversation involving Walker's clothes. "Right..." Note to self: watch out for any possible attempts of revenge by the glittery echidna...

Despite Rouge's train of thought, Walker didn't look insulted in the slightest. He stood up, pointing Rouge down the hallway. "You're going to be in the room on the right. Teeth and Zena have the left room. I haven't met the other girl, but she's some sort of bird..."

Oh, Hell, no. "Thanks..." Rouge walked down the hallway, cursing silently in her head. Some sort of bird? Well, there must be a dozen other birds coming to this school. What are the odds that I get a room with the one person... She opened the door slowly, only to see none other than Wave the Swallow sitting on one of the beds, polishing up an extreme gear board.

The purple swallow looked up, freezing in place, eyes locking with Rouge's, and, simultaneously, both girls shouted, "You!"

"Hello! You must be Amy! I'm Taylor the Swift, and I'll be your roommate this year." The friendly bird led Amy from the common room, into the girls' hallway to show her their room.

"Wait," the pink hedgehog said, "the Taylor the Swift?" Taylor nodded. "I love your music! I have, like, all your albums on my yPod!"

The swift smiled. "Thank you, Amy. It's really nice to meet you, too. You're one of Sonic the Hedgehog's friends, right?"

Amy opened her mouth, Yeah! I'm Sonic's girlfriend! "Yeah! I'm... one of Sonic's friends." The pink hedgehog sighed.

"Well, I'm sure we'll all get along really great here. You should come to the common room. I think some of your friends are part of the dorm family..."

"Just Knuckles..."

"Really? I thought that grey hedgehog looked familiar, too..."

"Silver's here?" Amy blinked, running down the hallway toward the common room. Knuckles' roommate, the buck, was sitting on the couch reading an art magazine.

The buck didn't look up from his magazine when Amy came running in, but he did say, "Hi, I'm Lep-hart."

"I'm Amy." She had been hoping that Silver would be in the common room.

Lephart noticed her looking around and sighed, "If you're looking for the guys, they're upstairs. The red one has the silver one locked up in his room, and Alex is trying to break the fight up."

Amy nodded in thanks but shook her head as she went for the stairs. That's just like Knuckles. See an old friend - start a fight. I'm gonna go give him a piece of my mind... And, with that, she marched toward the top of the staircase.