Rise From The Ashes
Chapter Two-"Its Raining"
Shadow woke up at 7:22am and looked around to see if anyone was up. Someone else was up; Marina was sitting on the floor, back leaning against the couch Shadow was sleeping on, and watching the Maury Povich show. She turns around and looks at him, "Oh Shadow, you're awake. You want breakfast?" Shadow nodded, he was pretty hungry. Marina stood up and got the wrinkles out her light pink nightgown, and picked up her empty coffee mug and went out in the kitchen. She came back and the coffee mug was full. She sat down and had an annoyed look on her face, "Oh shoot, I forgot." Shadow looks at her. She yells, "Sonic! Can you make you and your friend breakfast?" Shadow hears sonic grumbling words he couldn't understand, then he hears the refrigerator door shut and Sonic comes out with two slices of cold pizza. Marina looks at Sonic like he has two heads, "Sonic! How can you eat pizza for breakfast? You just had it yesterday!" Sonic says after swallowing a mouth full of food, "Mom, ya know I can't cook!" Marina rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the television. Sonic mocked her rolling her eyes but made it Dramatic. Calmly, without even looking at him (and Sonic didn't know she noticed he did that), she says, "That's it, you can't go out today." Sonic, stuffing the crust in his mouth, then choking on it, and forcing it down, "WHAAT!? Why? What did I do?"
"You know what you did."
"But moooooooooooooooom—"
"I don't care."
"What did I dooooo?"
"Don't make me miss my show."
"Does that mean I can stay home from school today?"
"No."
"You are NOT the father!" Shadow looked at the television screen disgusted, 'How can someone have that much sex with so many people in the space of a week? Fucking whore.' When Shadow paid his attention to the bicker battle Marina and Sonic were having, he started to feel a little uncomfortable being in the middle of it.
"I gave you life and I could easily take it away!"
"You know you won't!"
"You little jerk, you clearly mocked me!"
"No, I didn't! It was your coffee!"
"My coffee didn't mock me."
"No, I mean, you drink too much of it. It gets you paranoid."
Shadow decided he should probably leave, this was getting ridiculous. But he was disappointed he wasn't going to find out who fathered Lasiandra's baby. It was one of Shadow's guilty pleasures, the Maury show. He also liked Jerry Springer. Whenever he stayed over Sonic's house, Marina would always put it on, and when he would go over Rouge's whenever she would sleep late, go on an assignment at work, or just go out, he would put it on. He liked making fun of the people on the show in his head, because they are too far away to do it to their faces. Shadow finally took the first bite of his pizza. He didn't like cold pizza that much, he liked it warmer. He thought back to something that happened yesterday……during the commercial break, that is.
Around 4, they decided that's when they should order the pizza. Sonic picked his blue RAZR phone and looked at the menu for prices. He dialed the number for the pizza parlor and Sonic said into the phone, "Hi, I'd like to make an order……delivery. Yea, hold on." He looked at Shadow and Roxanne, "What'd'ya guys want?" Shadow shrugged his left shoulder, "I don't care." Sonic said into the phone, "yea, I want a large pepperoni pizza and, uhh… hold on." He looked at Roxanne, "What'd'ya want?" She said, "A green pepper, onion and tomato pizza." Sonic looked at her like she had two heads, "What? How are you going to ruin a good pizza with that rabbit food on it?" Roxanne frowned, "What? It's good and actually a little healthier for you then pepperoni!" Sonic said, "But it's gross." Shadow interrupted, "Just order it Sonic, the person is still on the phone with you." Sonic furrowed his brow at the black hedgehog. And he turned to the phone, he said with a grudge to his voice, "and a large onion, green pepper, and tomato pizza….that's it…….okay." He hung up the phone.
About 50 minutes later, someone was banging on the door. Sonic joyfully got up and opened the door, the pizza man looked annoyed, and said, "Does the doorbell work?" Roxanne yelled at the door, "Nah, it's been broken for years." The pizza guy handed Sonic the pizzas and said "That will be $24.50." Sonic gave him the exact amount and the pizza guy grumbled and walked away. Sonic had no concept of tips, he never gave tips, he wasn't mean, he would just forget.
Shadow finished his cold pizza and noticed Sonic and his mother stopped fighting, but Marina reigned triumphant, Sonic looked glum in the corner of the couch with drooped ears. 'That blue hedgehog sure gets into fights a lot. He is just too damn proud.'
A few of minutes later, Sonic was in the same corner, but had a small bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Shadow noticed when he heard a chip crunch. Shadow looked at him cock-eyed, "You're eating again?" Sonic said, mouthful of chips, "Wool, yea. Ahm ongry." Shadow was getting really bored, Maury was over and that stupid Greg show was on. Shadow didn't like it at all. He found it annoying and boring. Shadow stood up and said to Sonic, "I'm out." Sonic said, "Wha—why?" Shadow lied, "I need to run." Sonic jumped up, "Great, I can race ya!" Shadow didn't want him to, he wanted to be alone. Marina pushed him back on the couch, "Oh, no you don't. You got school. You're inside today. Which reminds me, you should get going." Sonic whined, "But I don't have to be in until eight!" "I don't care." Sonic's ears drooped, "Catch ya later, Shad." Shadow furrowed his brow, 'I hate him.' Shadow walked to the front door, opened it and without looking back, left Sonic's house. Shadow felt wind hit his face. He liked the wind, usually he didn't because it hindered his running, but today it was good, it has been really hot out lately. He looked up at the sky and noticed the sky was grey. He liked that too, the sun was blocked, so he wasn't going to be as hot. Looked to the broken down brown house next door and then sped his way down the street.
He ran for a couple of hours. He didn't know what else to do. He regretted leaving Sonic's house, how can he go back now? They would think he was using them for somewhere to eat and sleep, which he technically was. And he couldn't go back to Rouge's, he felt bad about his last visit, even though she was fine with it. 'I guess I am camping outside tonight.' He just kept running, he didn't know where, he just did kept running.
A few hours later, Shadow found himself sitting on a bench in Cirrus Park. It started raining about 20 minutes ago. He hated the rain. Also, he had no where to go, so he sat under a bench under a tree. He was already wet; he could get much more wet. 'How could I forget that it was going to rain? The weather people were actually right for once.' Poor Shadow just sat there. He closed his eyes, bowed his head, smirked and said aloud, "I should of stay at Sonic's."
Roxanne was so excited, today was the last day of school. She had been waiting nine months until this day, June 5th, the last day of school. She remembered her mother telling her to bring an umbrella to school because it would rain. She liked the rain, a lot actually, but just didn't feel like getting wet today. She didn't take her usual root home. She stopped at a Chinese take-out restaurant and bought a home-made iced tea. She loved them. She was in a joyous mood that day, since it was the last day. 'I can go home and take this gay uniform off.' She went to a catholic school, and her uniform was a light blue button up shirt, black tie, a black and blue plaid shirt, high black socks, and black dress shoes. She hated the shoes most of all, she wishes they could wear sneakers or boots, those shoes are so uncomfortable. She was walking down the street and say Cirrus Park 'If I cut through it, I will get to my house faster.' She walked on the concrete pavement down the middle of the park, little did she know on a bench on the other side of the park, was a certain black hedgehog.
She walked down the path looked at the trees, she always liked these trees, she remember Sonic and her used to play here a lot.
"C'mon Roxy! Let's go on the swings!" shouted a little Sonic the hedgehog about the age of seven. He was a lot smaller, only about 2'5. Roxanne was a lot smaller too, she was only four foot, she was eight, and her hair was just black, she only had two ear piercings in each ear. Sonic sped over to the swings, and Roxanne ran over, no where near as fast Sonic, but then again, at the time, no one was. They both swung on the swings, laughing, just showing of how high they can go.
She smiled to herself as she heard the raindrops hit her big umbrella. She sometimes misses the good old days of when she was a kid, she didn't have to deal with some things as she does now. 'I can't believe me and Sonic have been friends for 10 years. Life is going by too fast…'
Roxanne was walking and was half way through the park and saw a form sitting on a bench about fifty feet away. 'It's raining, why the hell are they sitting outside?' She got closer and closer to the form with each step she took. She was ten feet away and lifted her purple umbrella so she could the person better, she whispered aloud to herself, "Shadow?"
She walked up to him, it appears he doesn't notice her. Roxanne finally decided to make her presence known, "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to go under a tree when its raining. You could get struck by lightning." Shadow looked more intently at the ground, knowing she was there, "I don't have a mother." She frowned slightly, "It's raining." Shadow didn't look up at her, "I can see that." She took off her black hoodie and laid it on the bench next to Shadow, and she sat down on it. She looked at him intently as he stared at the ground. He finally looked at her, "Why are you here?" She was taken aback slightly, she said as-a-matter-of-factly, "Well, I'm on my way home from school, you don't have to be grouchy." He said, "Why shouldn't I be? Its raining, and I'm wet." She put the umbrella over both of them, he said acidly, "Not like that will really help now." She furrowed her brow, she was getting more and more irritated by him by the second. She grudgingly said, "Look, I'm trying to be nice; you are by yourself, and you are not exactly happy. Not to mention soaked." Shadow spat, "Why do you care?" She didn't reply.
Roxanne felt genuinely bad for the hedgehog, he was more or less cranky (to say in a nice way), she could tell he was probably really cold, she was cold when she took off her jacket, and she isn't even wet. Not to mention, if he stays out here much longer, he might get sick. And lastly, seeing him here was a depressing sight. She decided to change the subject, "I guess you left Sonic's." Shadow looked at the ground, "…yea." 'Why the hell did I leave?' She had an idea, but wasn't exactly sure what he would say. She asked, "Hey, where are you staying right now?" He met her eyes, he thought 'Where am I staying? How does she know I don't live anywhere to go? Sonic must have told her I don't have anywhere to live. Bastard.' "No where." She smiled slightly, "I know I don't really know you all that well, its cold and its raining, so would you want to come back to my house, dry off and get something to eat?" Shadow's ears perked up at this, he really wanted to get out of the rain, but he also didn't want this girl's pity. He looked at the ground, "No, I'd rather not. I don't need your pity." This was the final straw for Roxanne, she was just trying to be nice, and everything she said, he was nasty about it. She furrowed her brow and stood up and picked up her wet jacket, causing Shadow to have the rain fall on him once again. She spat back at him, "Fine, be like that. I am just trying to do you a favor, but I guess you are the one doing me favor by not coming, I don't wanna hear you bitch and moan about how hard life is anyway!" She walked away.
Shadow looked up again after she was about 10 feet away, she didn't look back. He kind of felt bad for the way he acted, she really was just trying to do him a favor, and he was just being an ass. A big drop of rain hit him right over him left eye. He looked up and it came from the tree. As soon as he looked up a drop of rain fell in his right eye. The rain was really irritating him.
Roxanne was walking and could help but have the black hedgehogs last words he said to her haunt her: ' "I don't need your pity." ' She wasn't trying to make him feel bad, but he made her feel bad instead. 'Asshole.' She walked turned left and walked down Schiller Street and didn't feel alone. She looked to down, and out of the corner of her eye, right at her left, she saw black and red. She turned her head and saw Shadow walking next to her. She held the umbrella over both of them. Then she looked straight ahead again and smirked, she spoke aloud without looking at him, "So you decided to come." He looked up at her, "Yea, well, I don't like the rain." She smirked wider, "So you think you can deal with the pity?" She looked down at him. He could tell she was just joking, he smirked, "I can deal with it." She stopped smirking and gave him a half smile. She held out her half drunken iced tea, "Want any?" He looked at it, then her. She rolled her eyes, "Take it. What? Are you a germ freak?" He just blankly looked at her, he slowly took the drink, and put the straw in hi mouth and drank it. He really didn't like iced tea, but after all that running he did earlier and sitting out in the park for a while, he was pretty thirsty. He was unsure of her kindness, he really didn't know what to think, or if he could really trust her. Not that she really give him a reason for him to not trust her, he just has issues, and he knew that. They turned left down Almond Street. She said, "See? I didn't poison it."
She was banging on the door of her brown house, trying to look through the window on it, but curtains were on them on the inside, not that that really stopped her. She yelled "MOOOM!! Open the friggin' door!!" Shadow raised his right eyebrow, "You don't have a key?" She said aggravated, "No, I lost it. I know she's home, she gets back from work at two. And its 3:30 now." She started banging on the door again louder, then the door opened, and Marjarie was standing there, with her hand on her right hip, "Anney, stop banging, don't shit yourself." This surprised Shadow, he never heard Marina cursing at Sonic. Of course he heard Julia do it to Rouge, but she was a junkie, and wasn't her mother. It just surprised him, although he didn't show it. Roxanne and Shadow walked inside the house and stood by the door in the living room. She quickly said, "Sorry mom, can Shadow come in? Think he can eat here too?" Marjarie smiled warmly at Shadow, "Of course he can." She noticed his black trench coat was soaked, said held out her hand, "I'll throw it in the dryer." Shadow cautously handed it to her, she disappeared into the basement, then emerged again.
The three walked into the kitchen, Shadow was never in here, the only part of the house he saw the living room. This room had deep red paint on the walls and table was an old wooden table that must have been expensive when it was first bought. It had two matching chairs, one newer chair with green padding on it, and one that was a white plastic chair. All the things like the oven, refrigerator, sink, and cabinets looked old too, like something out of a fifties show. He put his left hand on the wall and looked at it; he liked red. Marjarie went in the refrigerator and got out a jar of Ragu tomato sauce and put in on the counter next to the stove. She opened in the cabinet and got on her tip-toes to reach a high shelf and got a box of uncooked noodles. Roxanne looked at Shadow, he seemed to like the wall, she thought that was a little weird but didn't let it faze her. She spoke, "Shadow, you like spaghetti?" Shadow looked at her, not dropping his hand, he nodded. Roxanne said, "Well, that's what it looks like we are having…" Shadow dropped his hand and looked at his feet. He hasn't had spaghetti since he was on the ARK. But he only ever had canned spaghetti. Almost everything he ate on the ARK was either canned or preserved. Actually most of the stuff he ate was precooked or ordered out, as at Rouge's and Sonic's house. Rouge only really cooked pancakes, because, frankly, she can't really cook. Except pancakes. He walked over to the table and sat down in the plastic chair, he watched Marjarie as she cooked. He never saw anyone cook uncanned spaghetti before. It fascinated him. Roxanne raised her left eyebrow at him, she thought that was really weird, 'Is he checking out my mom.'
The doorbell rang. Marjarie said, "Anney, can you watch the food?" Roxanne nodded. Her mom walked out of the room to get the door. Roxanne sat down across from Shadow, he was still looking at food on the stove. He turned to her with a concerned look on his face, "Aren't you going o make sure it doesn't burn?" She leaned her elbows on the table, "Nah, it won't burn." Shadow looked back at the food and jumped off the chair, and he walked over to the stove. He clicked his heels and the jets on his shoes activated and this caused him to float. He floated high enough to where he could see the food. He smiled a little, he felt a little childish, but to him, this was exciting. He gingerly grasped the spoon and slowly stirred the food. He felt a something jump in his stomach. The food smelled pretty good. Shadow saw garlic powder next to him, he opened the container and sprinkled a little in the sauce. He mixed it and it started to smell heavenly. He felt happy, he helped make the meal, and it wasn't canned. Well, the sauce came from a jar, but it was more homemade the canned stuff he was used to.
Shadow heard Marjarie say, "Thank you, Shadow, for making sure it doesn't burn, even though that's Anney's job, I guess she's just too lazy." Shadow clicked his heels quickly and landed on his feet. He looked to Marjarie's right and saw a little girl who had chocolate brown hair and green eyes, she was about the age of eight. Roxanne stood up and Shadow walked over to them. Roxanne said, "Shadow, I'd like ya to meet my little sister, Emily." Emily smiled a toothy smiled and waved slightly, "Hello." Shadow simply said, "Hello." He didn't really know how to act with kids. He turned is gaze to the food and saw Marjarie the sauce into four bowls, the three sat down, Shadow last. Marjarie put a bowl in front of Shadow first, he looked at the food and his mouth started to water, it looked so good, the sauce on the noodles. It just looked good.
After everyone was finished eating (and Shadow's third bowl), Marjarie stood up and picked up the bowls and went to the sink. Shadow could tell by her voice she was smiling, "I can tell you liked the food, Shadow." Shadow didn't reply, he didn't really know what to say. Roxanne stood up and quickly scooped up Emily and made raspberries on her cheek. Emily squealed with laughter. Roxanne put her down, "Emmy, did you thank Cream's mom for driving you home?" Emmy smiled, "Mhmm." Marjarie and Vanilla were best friends in high school, and have been since. Emily and Cream became good friends since. Roxanne turned to Shadow, "I'll be back, I gotta change." She left the room, to go to her room and change out of her uniform into normal clothes.
They all were in the living room. Roxanne was wearing a black t-shirt with red writing that said 'CRUSH 40' on it, and dark blue jeans. For Shadow, it was awkwardly quiet. He didn't know any of them well, no he felt like he was intruding. Marjarie say, "Oh shit, I forgot! Anney, you got your report card today. Lemme see it." Roxanne looked a little nervous and got up off the couch, walked to the computer desk and next to it was her neon green book bag. She unzipped it and pulled out a piece of paper. She walked over to her mother and handed it to her. Marjarie looked over the grades. D, C, C, C, D, B. Marjarie handed it back to her, "Well, you did well in Biology. The C's are okay. The D's aren't great, but at least you passed." Roxanne was relieved her mother didn't get mad, or even worse; disappointed. Shadow really didn't understand how report cards worked, he didn't even go to school. All he knows is how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, read, and use big words….but he would never let anyone else know that.
Marjarie got bored with the television, so she went on the computer laying solitaire. Roxanne had been talking to Shadow about her day, she didn't know if he really cared, but she wanted to talk to him about something, to try to get to know him better. "…..I guess not long after you let, Sonic came to my house and met me…"
Sonic was opened the unlocked front door of Roxanne's house and walked right in. He always did this, five days of the week, Monday through Friday, this was a daily ritual. Roxanne kept in unlocked for Sonic to come in. Emily was up first, she was wearing pink and white Powerpuff Girl pajamas and her hair wasn't brushed yet, she was watching PB&J Otter on the Disney Channel. When she saw Sonic walk in, she said "Morning Sonic, Anney should be down soon." Sonic went to the steps and yelled in a mock girlie voice, "Anney! When you come down, can you do my hair? It needs to be curled!"
Roxanne was in her room, she heard Sonic teasing her, so she hurried up a bit, she put the black tie around her neck and tied it. She picked up her eyeliner and put in on under her eyes. Then she picked up her black eye shadow off of her television and applied it. She put on glittery lip gloss. Before she left her room, she made sure her shirt and skirt where straight and unwrinkled. Roxanne's room was at the top of the steps and he saw her open the door, she was clad in her uniform, except for the shoes, tie (which was in her left hand), her hair was pulled in a tight pony tail and the green hair down, framing her face.
Sonic was dressed in the uniform too. Basically the same as hers, except he wore long black pants and he got away with wearing his red and white shoes. She came down the steps and Sonic couldn't help but smile. He put his hand on his hip teasing her, (in the girlie voice), "Oooh, you look gawgiss, can you curl my hair now?" Roxanne put her hand on her hip and smirked, "Can we just go now?" Sonic let go of the act and nodded. Roxanne hugged her little sister and the two friends left off to school.
Shadow actually paid complete attention when she was talking to him. Usually he would space out if someone bored him. But she didn't, he was actually interested in everything she had to say. She laughed a little as she spoke now and said, "Oh my god, did you ever see 'Chao in Space?' " Shadow said, "No, but I've seen posters of it around outside." She got up and walked to a bookcase filled with videos and DVDs, "You have to see it, it is the worst movie I ever saw!" Shadow furrowed his brow and his left ear twitched, "If its horrible, why do you want to see it?" She found the DVD and turned to face him. Emily's eyes got wide as well as her smile, she squeaked, "Are we going to watch it?" Roxanne opened the DVD player, "Mhmm."
Two and a half hours later, the credits for the movie were rolling, Roxanne was roaring with laughter, Shadow was chuckling a little and a huge smile plastered on his face. Finally, Roxanne calmed down, to a little chuckle, "I love that movie, its so horrible." Shadow agreed, "I can't believe you actually bought it." "Hey, it was on sale at Pathmark for $5.99, I had to." "The special effects were horrible." "And the acting was even worse." Emily piped up and was angry "Hey! I like that movie! It isn't horrible." Roxanne laughed at her sister, "Well, of course you do, its so juvenile! Hey Shad, what about when Koka died!" Shadow laughed, "Oh, you mean the red chao that had the 'dramatic' death scene?" Roxanne laughed, "Yea," she acted all dramatic, " 'Oh, Rupa! You must go on! The fate of Mars depends on you, you must get the healing fruits to the sick chao on there, then, only then can you return to earth! I- I-" she pretended to be dead. Shadow laughed, "That was the worst movie I ever saw." She smiled, "You should see the sequel." "Oh god."
At about eight o'clock, Emily started getting sleepy, she was lying on the floor with a purple fox doll. Roxanne was getting bored with the television. She got up and walked to the front of the TV and turned to Shadow, who was still sitting on the pale blue and pale yellow couch. "Hey Shad, you like video games?" Shadow never really played video games before, "Uhh, I don't know…" She pressed the 'ON' button on the purple Gamecube, "Well, lets find out."
They were sitting in front of the TV indian style, playing 'Super Smash Brother Melee' for three hours. Shadow is a fast learner; at first he didn't do well, (he didn't even know how to make the character jump), but he learned fast. He was playing as Bowser and she was playing as Zelda. Shadow lost again to Roxanne. He started getting annoyed, "Something is wrong with the controller, its not working, I keep losing!" She smirked, "Maybe you just suck." "Hmph! I don't suck!" "Oh really? This is like the eighth time you lost to me? Should I go easy on you?" "That's it! I challenge you to a rematch!"
After another couple hours of playing, they got bored. Emily fell asleep on the couch three hours ago. Marjarie came out of the kitchen with a glass of brandy and looked at the clock, it was 1:19am. She didn't realize how late it was, "Uh-oh, its really late!" (She took a sip of the alcohol) "Shadow, did you want me to drive you home?" Shadow turned to her from the floor, "Uhh, umm—" Roxanne answered for him (because she knew he didn't have a home), "Mom, can Shad sleep over tonight? Its late and all." Marjarie looked at her drink, "I guess he can." She downed it.
Roxanne got up and ran up the stairs, came back down seconds later with a white pillow and a blue-gray blanket. She threw them at the hedgehog, "You can use these, I'll pull out the couch." She went over to the couch and took off the cushions and unfolded the mattress out of it. Roxanne picked up Emily and went to the foot of the stairs, turned to Shadow and said, "I am going to put her to bed, then I'm going to bed, sorry, but I woke up early today, so I'm tired." Shadow mumbled, "Its okay." She smiled, "G'night." He said, "Good night." She went upstairs and not much longer after she did, Marjarie went upstairs too. Shadow laid on the couch, fluffed the pillow and pulled the blanket over him. He closed his eyes and said aloud, "That wasn't so bad." He opened his eyes when he realized something; 'I didn't get mad when she called me 'Shad.' '