-hey... so i haven't really tried to publish anything here before... i wasn't sure how to use the website... but i hope people like this... here goes nothing...-

-...oh and i own nothing... why the heck would i dream up a bunch of talking hedgehogs anyway?...

The cold night was harsh enough to rip its way through every layer of clothing Shadow was wearing. He ran faster. There were dark, blurred shapes in every direction but no clear destination to be making his way to anywhere. He fell suddenly, hands splayed out in front of him in an attempt to stop himself. Even so, his face collided with the ground roughly.

Panting, he sat up, and then immediately scrambled backward, his eyes wide. Directly in front of him was a steep cliff. It went strait downward for an unknown distance, but at the bottom there seemed to be a slight shimmer. Water? In any case he was grateful to have avoided the drop. He pushed himself to his feet, wincing slightly at several scrapes and soon to be bruises. He peered around one more time and bit his lip. What now? Then with a shudder he realized some thing was different.

The stars were gone.

When he had been running before the sky had been filled with the bluish twinkling orbs, and it had given him enough light to at least semi-navigate though the night. Now the sky was blank. There was no way for him to keep running in this. He sat again and put his face in his hands. Why now? He had been so close to… So close to… He didn't know but he was sure he was about to reach it. And now a couple of twinkling sky lights were going to stop him. He groaned.

Something giggled. Shadow's head snapped up at the sound. What the hell? He looked around quickly as the sound pierced his ears again. Then he felt a soft touch on his forehead. Another giggle. He realized that whatever it was was above him. He looked up, and was once again baffled. There was a boy floating in the air above him. The rest of the night seemed even darker when compared to the person staring intently down at him. He was pale, with white clothing that was tinted a faint turquoise blue from the shimmering bubble-like force field that surrounded him, and must have been how he was suspended in the air like that. His eyes were wide and playful as they took in Shadow's face almost expectantly, a golden color that shimmered brightly.

The boy giggled again, suddenly doing a somersault in mid- air. He shot forward a bit and then looked back to Shadow as if he wanted him to follow. Shadow shrugged. He had nothing else to do. He walked behind his unexpected new companion wondering why this little guy had shown up in the first place. He giggled several more times as Shadow followed and continuously looked back, his eyes bright. Shadow couldn't help it when he broke into a wide smile. The boy was somewhat adorable.

They walked farther and farther into the night that seemed to be much warmer than it was before. Shadow shrugged out of his coat and slung it over his arm as he walked. The boy had begun to do more somersaults, one after the other more and more frantically until Shadow was sure that the little white blur was going to become dizzy and fall. Then the boy stopped. He looked as if he was standing in the air. Shadow halted behind him, his eyes level with his companions white boots. With another giggle the boy turned and looked down at Shadow again. His wide eyes looked curious as he leaned down until his face was only a few inches away from Shadow's.

A smile broke out across the floating person's face. His face moved even closer, only an inch away from Shadow's. Shadow blushed and backed up a bit as the boy's grin became mischievous. The boy once again came closer. Shadow stepped back more. The boy's eyes narrowed and his bottom lip suck out in a pout and he once again moved forward. For some reason, Shadow's heart began to pound furiously as the boy put his hands on either side of his face, shifting forward faster than before. For a second, soft lips touched his. He stumbled backward horrified.

Then with a start he realized that there was nothing but air underneath his foot. The boy's golden eye's met his momentarily, widened also with shock. He grabbed for the front of Shadow's shirt only a second to late.

"Don't fall!" The boy's voice rang over the side of the cliff even as Shadow was falling, sweet sounding and panicked.

Shadow's eyes shut tightly and his breath caught in his throat for the couple of seconds of tumbling backward though the once again frigid air. The water below hit his back with an incredibly sharp sting. He kept his eyes shut as he sank deeper and deeper…

Shadow sat up in bed, sighing and rubbing his eyes. What the heck was with that dream? Gay floating girl-boy thing. No more dark chocolate fudge before bed. Right. He glanced at the clock and internally groaned. Six. Early enough to still be sleeping, but late enough that he could get ready for school. He flopped his head back down on the pillow. The dream must have been an omen of some sort then. This day was going to suck miserably.

Two hours later, Shadow sat slumped on a bench outside the school, trying to get the motivation to walk inside. The truth was that, on most days, he would rather be anywhere but school. He honestly couldn't stand the place. Too many people, too many expectations, too many peers watching him from a distance, wishing to know 'the real him' but scared that if they got even close to him, he would take their head off. And they were absolutely right.

Well, pissing and moaning here wasn't going to make this day move any quicker. He got up and made his way inside the school building and down to his locker at the end of the sophomore hall. He had a few friends here, a lucky handful that he graced with his presence. Amy, one of them, an almost always annoying girl with pink hair, was already at his locker waiting. He greeted her with a nice, friendly, "Hey, skank," before opening his locker and wrestling his books from the disorganized mess inside.

She playfully punched him on the arm. "Oh, come on Shads, do you always have to be so mean?"

"Yes."

Amy studied him for a second. "Wow, you look like you're in a bad mood." Well, Shadow thought, you try getting up an hour early and then debating whether or not you have homosexual tendencies in the shower because of some she-male thing that visited you in your sleep. Not the best way to start off a day. And then of course there was school. That always put him in a bad mood.

Amy was staring at him. He sighed. "What do you want?"

She bit her lip, but then her green eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! I have something to tell you."

Was this of importance? Probably not, but he had to ask anyway. "What?"

"There's a new student."

Shadow had to use all his willpower not to roll his eyes and slap Amy across the face for such a useless bit of information. Instead he shrugged, grabbed his books and started making his way to first hour. In about two seconds he was sick of the pink haired girl following him.

"Hey," He said casually, "Don't you have somewhere to be? Like chasing after your boyfriend Sonic?"

He grinned as he saw the hurt pass over Amy's face. Because Sonic definitely was NOT her boyfriend, though she would have liked him to be. "Whatever," She mumbled and proceeded to stop following him.

First hour was dull, incredibly dull. English. Yawn. The teacher had them all take turns reading. Shads could care less. There was no way anyone was going to pick him to read. Mostly because of the big 'or else' he kept on his face. Halfway through the hour, he laid back and slept. Second and third hours passed similarly, other than the change in subject Shadow did exactly the same thing.

Fourth hour was a study hall hour for the entire school. Study optional. He got into his assigned study room with time to spare and took the seat in the back corner. The seat might as well have had his name on it; he was the only one that ever sat there. He leaned back and wished he hadn't forgotten his Ipod at home. Well, whatever.

A girls whisper caught his ear as he sat, staring at nothing and thinking. "The new guy is in this hour, and he is totally cute!"

Shadow didn't know why he cared, but looked over anyway. The girls were in the desks next to his, leaning in close to each other as if what they were talking about was a big secret. The one with green pigtails giggled.

"Yeah, but I heard that he's gay…"

The other girl gasped. "No! Why must all the cute ones be gay?" They both broke up into another fit of giggles. Shad stopped listening. He hadn't needed to hear that in the first place. He turned back toward the front and drummed his fingers on the desk absentmindedly. Whoever this new guy was, gay or not gay, Shadow got the feeling that he probably wouldn't talk to him anyway. Maybe it was because the girls had made him out to be some sort of pretty boy. Oh well, he would find out soon enough, he guessed.

It only took a few minutes of 'studying' for the classroom to become more than a dull roar. In fact, today, it was borderline chaos. But that was the unwritten rule of study hall hour. No one studied. Ever. The teacher didn't care, of course. She sat back at her desk with an expression on her face that could only mean, 'they don't pay me enough for this'. Shads smiled and threw another paper wad at the back of the head of the person sitting in front of him. He twitched, obviously annoyed, but didn't turn around. Trying to be the better person or something. Ha! Wimp.

The girl's threat of a new kid seemed to be a false one. Shadow had scanned the room twice now. There was no one new, just the same faces he had been seeing in here for the entire year. Those girls obviously didn't know what they were talking about.

Shadow was about to throw one more wad of paper when suddenly the whole class seemed to just shut up. It was strange for them to do something like this. This was study hall after all. Who died, Shadow thought. It was then that he realized that everyone's attention was focused to the front of the room. The door specifically. So Shadow looked too.

What the… The boy had silvery-white hair that framed around his face and hung longer in the back, his white clothes clung to him as if they couldn't get much tighter, and they came with a matching pair of knee-high boots. Last but not least, his eyes were a shimming golden color, wide and innocent looking.

"Um… excuse me," The boy said blushing, "Is this Mrs. Hayle's fourth hour study hall?" The voice was slightly high-pitched and almost cute-sounding.

That cinched it. But there was no way either. What the hell was this?

He was the boy from his dream.

His heart pounding, Shadow watched the boy make his way to a seat and sit. Was it simply coincidence that the seat he chose was the one right next to Shadow? No. Hell no. There was something going on here. Something… freaky. He watched as the boy got out a notebook and opened it neatly to a clean page and pulled out a pink gel pen. He was swinging his legs back and forth in his chair childishly and nibbled on the end of the pen before writing something.

You know, it's not polite to stare. The pink scribble was obviously directed at him. Shadow's face flushed and he turned away quickly, biting his lip. In another second he had his own sheet of paper out and had written a message back.

What the fuck are you? He nearly showed it to him before he realized just exactly what he was doing. On the one hand, he was almost positive that this guy had entered his dreams last night. On the other, if it was just some sort of freaky coincidence, the new kid was going to think he was a freak. He crumbled the note into a ball and stared forward for the rest of class.

Shadow's skin was crawling by the end of the period. Part of it was his mind over exaggerating the connection (connection?) between his dream and the guy sitting next to him. The other part was the fact that even though the boy had just got onto him for doing it himself, he was staring at him. He could almost feel his eyes on him and when he glanced over the boy would give him this sweet little smile, and not even bother to look away. He almost expected the kid to start giggling and float out of his chair at any moment. It was all he could take before the bell rang.

The bell finally sounded just when he thought he could take it no more. Shadow got out of his seat just as a thought occurred to him. The girls, their giggling. His face reddened once more. If that boy was gay… He bolted for the door. Somehow not fast enough though. The white-haired-new-kid-possibly-gay fell right into step with him as he walked out the door. He smiled and Shadow wanted to jump out of his skin. He was about to tell the guy off, possibly rather violently, when the little guy turned to him.

"Bye Shadow," He said cutely and skipped away (literally skipped) down a different hallway.

Shadow stopped where he was, dumbfounded. What the hell was that? He thought. And then another thought occurred to him. How had the pipsqueak known his name? Without warning and not sure why he was doing it, Shadow shivered.

By the end of the day, Shadow had long since given up hope of getting rid of his headache. It had started at lunch as a dull pain and since had escalated into a constant pounding that he had to clench his teeth to endure. Not even the ibuprofen he had grabbed from Amy when the teacher wasn't looking had done anything to ease his suffering. Now, on the walk home, it seemed to be subsiding, just a bit.

As he got a bit farther from the school, he realized that he was tensing his shoulders. He rolled them around once and felt the tension ease. He released a long breath. The day had been rather longer than normal, more miserable than he could have ever not hoped for. Part one was, of course, the headache that seemed to be a step away from his head exploding. The second part was… extreme irrational paranoia. Every class he went to for the rest of the day he had felt it. An itching sensation that made him want to look over his shoulder, expecting to see a white-clad golden-eyed stalking menace. He never did. The constant worry was a complete waste. At the end of the day the realization finally hit that they had only one class together. Joy. No, wait. He couldn't use that word. Too many things were wrong with it when your name was Shadow.

Collapsing onto the bed in his room, Shadow kicked off his shoes, leaned back his head, and shut his eyes. The silence of being alone again was quite relaxing, but at the same time, boring. He sat up and looked around. Homework? No. What? How had he even thought that? There must be something wrong with him. He looked away from his black book bag, disgusted. His eyes finally came to rest on his ipod. Yes. In a second he had crammed the headphones into his ears and began to let the insanely loud beat of the song take his mind away. The last remnant of headache finally slipped away to the heavy guitar and shrieking. He didn't even notice when he drifted into sleep.

-so there it was... comment if you feel the need, or want to be nice, or really loved the story and want to beg me to write more, or really hated it and want to throw bricks at me... you get the picture...