Silver

"Shit, we're gonna be late," Silver cursed as he ran. "It's the first day of school, Blaze. We can be late every other day, but we have to be on time on the first day. And it's our last year here!"

"I don't recall any such rule," his purple-haired best friend replied flatly. She ran several paces ahead of him, and she wasn't nearly as out of breath as he was (that bitch).

"You were the one obsessing about your hair!" Silver accused.

"You need a haircut," Blaze retorted without looking once in his direction.

As if on cue, Silver's long bangs slapped his eyes, making them sting. "Quit changing the subject! Why did you have to dye your hair this morning? Couldn't you do it last night?"

"You would've probably skewered me if I did," Blaze deadpanned. They stopped running as they reached the school gates, walking slowly instead. "You said the last time I dyed my hair, and I quote, 'ain't nobody got time for that'."

"Who're you trying to impress anyway?" Silver asked. "Me? 'Cause it's not working."

Blaze elbowed him in the ribs. "Shut up. You have no idea how lucky you are. Your hair is freaking beautiful. Most girls would die for your hair… no pun intended."

Silver scoffed. "Yours is too! … when it's not dyed purple! Seriously, though. Why purple? How are you not delinquent-status already?"

"Did you seriously just say 'delinquent-status'? Wow, Silver. That's pretty nerdy, even for you."

Silver stuck his tongue out at her in retaliation. "Besides, people think I'm some freaky albino anyway. Even though my eyes aren't red."

"But your hair's so long and soft and pretty."

"It's a bitch to take care of. I think I'll cut it all off."

"You cut it, you die."

"You just told me to cut it five minutes ago!" By now, they'd reached the classroom, with less than thirty seconds to spare, and there were only two spots left open – two spots on opposite sides of the room. "This is your fault," Silver said flatly.

Blaze smiled sheepishly in return. "Sorry…" she said slowly. "Okay, I'll make it up to you. You get first pick."

"How exactly is that making things up to me?" Silver asked rhetorically, rolling his eyes. He glanced from one open seat to the other, frowning. One of the desks was in the back row, one seat away from the already occupied window seat. "That one," he said pointing to it.

Blaze giggled. "Nice pick," she said. "Of course you'd take the one with the cute girl next to it."

"Girl?" Silver echoed. To be honest, he didn't even look to see who occupied the desks next to the empty one. Sitting by the window was a girl with strawberry blonde hair and the greenest eyes Silver had ever seen. She clasped her hands together, with her elbows resting on her desk, and she stared absentmindedly out the window. "Oh," Silver said. "Her. Is she new?"

"I guess so," Blaze replied. "I've never seen her before." The door suddenly slammed shut as the teacher shuffled in, and Blaze gave Silver a shove. "Go," she hissed urgently.

Silver practically sprinted to his seat, and the girl by the window gave him a smile that seemed to light up her whole face. Silver smiled back, though not quite as brightly, but the teacher began talking before either of them could get a word in. School was boring, and each subsequent period made Silver want to burn to death in a fiery inferno. Setting himself on fire to get out of school was growing more and more appealing as the last class of the day finally inched to a close, and Silver found himself packing up his schoolbag ten minutes before the period even ended. The girl approached him shortly after the bell rang. "Excuse me," she said. "Do you know where the faculty office is?"

"Yeah," Silver replied. "You just go up the stairs, and it's the second door on the left."

"Thanks," the girl said with a smile.

Silver smiled faintly before glancing around the room. People were already clearing out of the classroom, and one of those people was apparently Blaze. "Huh? Where's…"

The girl's face contorted into an expression that looked so out of place on her. "I'm sorry," she said. "Did you miss someone because of me?"

"Ah…" Nice going, Silver mentally chided himself. "It's okay. I'm sure she's still around here somewhere. I'll be able to find her."

Without warning, the girl clasped his hands with both of hers. "Well then, I'll help you!" she announced. "After all, two heads are better than one when looking for someone, right?" And then, she gave a shrill gasp, her eyes widening in something akin to recognition. She stared at Silver with a dumbstruck expression, then down at her hands, which were still clasped tightly around his.

"Uh…" Silver said slowly. "Didn't you say you needed to go to the faculty office?"

"Huh…?" the girl mumbled faintly. "Oh!" She forced a smile, and Silver wondered if he'd done something to offend her in anyway. "Y-Yeah, I do. Um… If you take me there, I can help you look for… whoever it is you're looking for."

"Yeah, that would be great," Silver didn't so much answer as let the words flow freely from his mouth. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something strange about this girl, though in a good way, if that made sense at all. Something that drew him to her. Something that made him want to stay by her side at all times, though not necessarily in a romantic way. "Uh…" It only just occurred to him that he didn't even know her name.

"Amy," the girl supplied helpfully. "Amy Rose. What's your name?"

"S-Silver," he replied shakily.

Amy smiled sweetly at him, more naturally this time. "That's a nice name," she said sincerely. "So let's go!"

"Ah – okay."


In the end, they didn't find Blaze, because the purple-haired girl had already gone home (and texted Silver about it twenty minutes into their search for his trouble). But it was in those twenty minutes that Silver made the second best friend of his life. Oh, he wasn't nearly as close to Amy as he was to Blaze – not yet, anyway. But that was very quickly becoming a reality.

To be honest, Amy's cheerfulness and positive attitude were downright infectious. If anything, it made him even more determined to do as much community service as possible in his lifetime so that people like her could just keep smiling. As it turned out, her parents recently divorced, and she moved to Station Square with her mother and siblings, after a relatively quick and painless custody battle. She had a little sister named Cream, an older brother named Big, two cats named Cheese and Chocola (apparently, naming things after food was a pretty huge deal for her sister), and a frog named Froggy (oh so creatively named by her brother). Her life sounded so interesting compared to Silver's…

… and Blaze relentlessly teased him about it for the rest of the day. "You like her," she said to him as she lounged on his bed.

"I do not," Silver refuted staunchly. "I just met her today."

"Dear god, next you'll be writing love ballads about her. And I'll be the test audience."

An evil idea came to him quickly. "Oh yeah, I already have one. Listen to this. Amy, sweet Amy with your hair so thick, would you be a dear, and please suck on my—"

"NO," Blaze said loudly and emphatically, bolting upright and waving her arms around frantically. Silver burst out laughing. "If she doesn't kill you for using that one on her, I will."

"You didn't even let me finish," Silver whined.

"I know how it ends!" Blaze shouted.

"Blaze," Silver said in a serious voice. "I was kidding."

"I hope so," Blaze replied in an equally serious voice. "But seriously, though. Do you like her?"

All Silver could do was shrug. "She's a nice person," he said blandly. "A really nice person. She's fun to be around."

"So can I meet her?" Blaze asked.

"Why are you asking for my permission?" Silver deadpanned, his eyes narrowing. "She's not my girlfriend."

He really didn't like that smirk on his best friend's face. "Not yet."

"Blaze!"


His dreams were strangely vivid that night, though he really wished his memories of them would fade just like the ones of all the others. In retrospect, the dream made no sense whatsoever. He stood at a rocky cliff, overlooking a ruined city swathed in flames, with a sky clouded by ash and smoke hanging ominously above. Blaze stood before him, holding two sparkling gems – cyan and white – smiling at him in a bittersweet, sentimental sort of way. She was wearing her school uniform, and her hair – still purple, but somehow naturally so – was pulled back into a high ponytail. She looked so normal… but Silver could tell that something was seriously, horribly wrong.

Then, all of a sudden, flames swirled mystically around her, and her body began to glow. She closed her eyes and sighed, dropping the gems in her hands to the ground. As she slowly rose into the air, her body began to fade. "Blaze!" Silver shouted in panic, reaching out to her, but she was too far away.

She smiled warmly at him, like she did that time the upperclassmen picked on him during his first year of middle school, and she reached out to him. "Good luck, Silver!" she called. She rose higher and higher into the sky, and then disappeared entirely into a bright flash of light.

And at that moment, Silver jerked awake, panting heavily, his body drenched in sweat. He felt so sick to his stomach that he tumbled out of head and sprinted to the bathroom, and all the while, he couldn't stop shaking and crying. It's not real, he told himself as he heaved into the toilet. It's just a dream. It was this mantra he repeated over and over in his head until there was nothing left in his stomach to throw up, but he felt so drained that all he could do was lie there, crumpled on the floor.

He must have fallen asleep there, because the next thing he knew, he was lying in bed, and it was ten-thirty in the morning – three and a half hours after school was supposed to start. He didn't feel sick anymore, but he was still so, so tired. "Just rest today," his mom advised, under the impression that he'd probably just caught a twenty-four hour bug..

And, as soon as his mother left him alone, he called Blaze. In the end, he only got her voicemail, but hearing her voice – warm and happy and real – was more than enough.

Blaze wasn't going to leave him.


So there's finally a semblance of a plot… or a skeleton of one, anyway. If you're still here… please… review?