For lunch, the group sat separately. Rouge, Amy, and Tails sat on one table, Sonic and Knuckles sat at another table. Cream came with her plate, her girl friends trailing behind, and they all sat by Shadow.
"Hi, Shadow," Cream said. "These are my girl friends I was telling you about. They're just dying to meet you."
"I'm honored," Shadow said very formally.
"He's such a gentlemen!" said a blonde bunny with green eyes, wearing a pink dress.
"That's Cindy," Cream said.
"Nice to meet you," Shadow said to her.
"And this is Tia, Claire, and Roxi."
"I'm Tia," said the chipmunk. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and wore a black and turquoise skin-tight suit.
"A pleasure to meet you," Shadow said, and kissed her hand.
"I'm Claire," came from a purple rabbit with blue eyes, and wearing a long yellow dress.
"I like your eyes," Shadow commented, and Claire giggled.
"And I'm Roxi," said a black hedgehog with red highlights, her hair long a straight down, with purple eyes, and wearing a white and purple cheerleading outfit.
"You're colors are lovely," Shadow told her, admiring the combination of black and red and white and purple.
Just then, a beautiful white bat walked in. She was wearing a blue tube top and long black pants, along with black boots covered in rhinestones. Her eyes were a glistening violet, and her lips were as red as rubies. She was the very image of beauty.
"Who is that?" Shadow asked.
"That is Linda," Cream answered. "Funny, she doesn't usually put on that color lipstick."
"She usually wears purple," Claire added.
"I wonder if she's trying to impress someone," said Cindy.
"Let's just pray she doesn't see Shadow," Roxi whispered to Tia.
Linda walked right passed them, as if they weren't there. She headed straight for a table where two young male echidnas were sitting. One was white with purple eyes and an orange flame marking his chest. The other was dark red, with green eyes, and a diamond marking on his chest.
"Who are they?" Shadow asked.
"The white one's Leo, and the red one's Jim," Cream answered. "Linda flirts with them a lot."
"But they never seem to be interested in her," said Claire. "The poor thing."
"Hi, boys," Linda said to the echidnas. "How are you?"
"We're fine," Leo said.
"Oh, uh, I think I hear Coach calling," Jim said, and slapped Leo's arm with the back of his hand.
"Oh, yeah, I uh, hear him, too," Leo said.
They both grabbed their plates and headed off. Suddenly, Shadow spotted Knuckles get up and walk over to Linda.
"Uh oh, disaster is about to strike," Roxi commented.
"Hey, Linda," Knuckles said, and put his arm around Linda's shoulder.
"What do you want?" Linda said, plucking his arm off of her shoulder.
"You know what I want," Knuckles said. "Give me your number and we'll discuss our terms."
"What terms?" Linda asked.
Knuckles then whispered something into Linda's ear, and the next sound they heard was Linda's hand making hard contact with Knuckles' face.
"PERVERT!" Linda screamed, and stormed off.
Apparently, Knuckles had something sexually offensive.
"Damn, that bitch can slap hard!" Knuckles exclaimed.
Across the cafeteria, Sonic burst out laughing. Soon, enough, he had the whole cafeteria laughing, even if they didn't know what was going on. The bell rang, and everyone went back to the hallways to get books from their lockers for the next class. So far, this was one hell of a day for Shadow.
As Shadow was walking to his locker, he felt a hand on shoulder. He turned and saw Knuckles standing there with a big grin on his face.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey," Shadow said back.
"Today, I'm gonna teach you about girls," Knuckles said, and leaned on Shadow.
"I think I already know enough about girls," Shadow said.
"But you don't know about points," Knuckles told him.
"Points?"
"Oh yeah," Knuckles said. "You see, each girl is worth a certain amount of points."
"That's kind of offensive, don't you think?" Shadow commented.
"Whatever," Knuckles said, a little bit annoyed. "Okay, you see that one?"
Knuckles pointed to a blonde cat with pink eyes, short hair, and wearing a tank top and a mini skirt.
"She's worth 20 points," Knuckles said. "Each girl can be worth up to 50 points. After 50, they're considered a Jackpot."
He continued pointing out girls. "That one's 20 pints…She's 30 points…Over there is 15 points…Yikes, 5 points…Ooo, redhead; 40 points *wink*."
Shadow held on the every word Knuckles said, and made not of how to determine how many points a girl was worth—which later he told himself was extremely idiotic.
"Now, Rouge and Linda are Jackpots," Knuckles informed him. "Jackpots are the most beautiful, but I must warn you, they're the hardest to score with. So watch out. The uglier they are, the more desperate they are."
Shadow nodded.
"Ok, now you try," Knuckles said.
He pointed to a pink echidna with glasses, yellow eyes, a long-sleeved shirt, and a knee-length skirt. "Tell me how much she's worth."
"Um…10 points?" Shadow guessed.
"Correct!" Knuckles exclaimed. "Now, a harder one."
He scanned the area. Soon, his eyes fell on a black bat with purple eye shadow, blue eyes, a red low-cut sleeveless shirt, a black mini skirt, and black stilettos.
"That one?" he said, looking her up and down.
"Hmmm…45 points?" Shadow tried on that one.
"Wrong," Knuckles said. "She's actually 50 points. If she had a jacket, covering her chest, then she's be 45 points. Excuse me for a second."
Knuckles walked over to the bat and started talking to her. A moment later, the bat giggled, handed him a slip of paper, and walked off. Knuckles walked back toward Shadow, grinning.
"I got her number," he said, and waved the slip of paper. "It takes a certain amount of charm and skill to get a girl's number."
Suddenly, a purple female fox approached Shadow.
"Hi there," she said. "I haven't seen you around here before."
"I'm new here," Shadow replied.
"Well, if you ever need any help getting around, you can find me in the gym," she said, and handed him a slip of paper with her phone number on it. "Call me."
She turned and walked off. Shadow turned back to Knuckles and smiled.
"I wonder what charm and skill I used to get her number," he said, feeling superior.
"You just got lucky," Knuckles said—obviously upset—and walked away.
Shadow chuckled. Things are going all right.