Woohoo! Second chapter! Well, first technically, but whatever! Diamond, disclaimer!

Diamond: Spaz-girl here doesn't own Sonic Underground. But she does own me and some of my family, sadly.

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Chapter One: A New Day Brings New Problems

I just don't get it… All my dreams lately have been about her… Who is that girl? What does she have to do with me anyway? It's all just so confusing… Diamond, completely lost in thought, was still thinking about his unusual re-occurring dream. It was morning and he, Monica, and Aleena were getting dressed and ready for school. Diamond sighed as he pulled on his green and white tennis shoes. Aleena, a few feet away, yawned and snapped her white belt closed in place

"So, another weekend gone by…" Monica murmured to no one in particular, and Diamond and Aleena just kind of nodded. "Y'know, next weekend, we should go visit Josie!" Monica continued excitedly, Aleena moved over to Monica's wall mirror to tie her white and purple ribbon in her hair.

"Maybe." The younger girl muttered, giving the knot in her ribbon a little tug. "If we have time, Floating Isle's pretty far away…"

Diamond nodded, and, as a strand of his long purple hair fell into his face, he pushed it back, knowing full well it would fall back in a minute-how he wished his hair wasn't so straight. The purple hedgehog heaved a yawn.

"I'm going down stairs." He informed his cousins. He then turned the door handle, pushed the door open, and stepped out into one of the numerous hallways and corridors that made up their home. Living in a castle had its downsides, but thankfully, Diamond had a pretty good memory and knew his way around. Monica and Aleena, however, still got lost every once in a while. Diamond rolled his neck a little as he walked down a rather grand-looking staircase, around a corner, and down another hall, a motion that was greeted with several cracks from his tired bones. Diamond paid it no heed and pushed open a heavy down into the dining hall.

"Mornin' sweetie!" Diamond's mother, Amy, greeted with a little wave. "You sleep well?" Diamond winced a little at the reminder of his dream, but thankfully Amy didn't notice, or just didn't think much of it.

"Yeah, fine." Diamond mutter as he took his seat at the table and started cutting his pancake into smaller, bite-sized pieces. "Dad and Uncle joining us? They should be getting back soon…" Diamond added hopefully. Unfortunately, Amy shook her head.

"The negotiations are taking longer than they expected… They should be back next week, maybe the week after." Diamond sighed. That was another downside to royalty: it seemed the family was always busy and never had a lot of time to spend together. Diamond was glad that his cousins and mom were usually always around, but he would like to spend more time with his father, not to mention his aunts and uncles-he had six.

"Oh, well." Diamond sighed dejectedly and took a sip of his glass of orange juice. Just then, the door practically flew open, revealing-who else?-Monica Hedgehog, with Aleena more or less hiding behind her older cousin, looking kind of scared.

"Hold your applause, but Ms. Monica has arrived!" The green-furred hedgehog shouted and dashed to her place at the table, with Aleena trailing behind a bit slower, and began practically devouring her pancakes. Amy gave her niece a disapproving look, but said nothing. Diamond just sighed.

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Diamond trudged down the painfully slow lunch line, snatching up a tray as he reached the main counter and picking up a carton of orange juice from the crates of drinks. He was perfectly aware of numerous students, mostly girls, watching him as he stood jadedly in line, but he hardly even glanced at them. He was popular, so what? I didn't really mean much to him. He knew who his real friends were, friends like Basil, who was, oddly, nowhere to be seen.

"Just a salad, please." He politely told the eternally-grumpy lunch lady. She carelessly tossed him a clear plastic container of salad, which Diamond caught and placed on his tray, giving an irritable "Thank you." under his breath.

Diamond navigated aimlessly between the numerous rows of lunch tables. Several other students waved at him and beckoned him over to the tables, but Diamond ignored most of them. He skimmed over the faces of all the students, until he spotted Monica and Aleena and slipped over to join them. Aleena voiced a quick greeting, but Monica was, as usual, complaining as if there was no tomorrow.

"Ugh, I mean, come on! How unfair is that?!" Monica mumbled between bites of her tuna fish-and-celery sandwich.

"Well, I think-" little Aleena started to say, but was soon cut of.

"I mean, look at us! Us! Children of Mobius' rulers and we're stuck in a stupid, low-class, public school in Knothole! I mean, Dad always tell me that, even though we're royalty, we're not entitled to any special treatment, but sometimes it feels like the whole world goes out of it's way to make sure we never get any special treatment!" Monica finished her rant with a scoff and drank a swing of her chocolate milk.

"Um, may I continue?" Aleena ask, bordering irritably. Monica ignored the little hedgebat and continued on in her complaints. Monica never really listened to what Aleena had to say, which, frankly, suited Aleena just fine, because she never really felt like she had much to say anyway. Aleena sipped her chicken-noodle soup and turn her attention back to her older cousin.

"And, what's worse, is the fact that, while we're here, Josie's livin' it up at a fancy-schmansy, high-class boarding school on the Floating Isle. That is just so lame! We does she always get the cool stuff?" Monica grumbled as she took a rather aggressive bite from her sandwich.

Diamond munched thoughtfully on his salad. "Well," he said finally. "I suppose, if you think floating continents, giant mushrooms, and ill-tempered echidna colonies are cool."

Monica half-glared. "Your no fun." she concluded, and bit off half of one of her mozzarella sticks.

"Moni, you argue like a two-year-old." Diamond chuckled, and took a sip of his carton of orange juice. He smiled amusedly when he saw Monica's face scrunch up a little, the way it did when she was angry.

"Don't call me Moni!!!" Monica shouted, standing up and slamming her hands down against the table. Monica suddenly blush as most of the cafeteria turn to look at her oddly. She had apparently said that a little louder than she meant. "Eh, heh. Nothing to see hear…" Monica laughed nervously and sat back down. Aleena was covering her mouth with her hands to keep herself from laughing. Diamond just rolled his eyes. Suddenly, there was a loud bang as another tray slammed onto the lunch table next to Monica. Diamond glance up towards the source of the noise and smirked a little.

"You certainly seem irritable this afternoon!" The yellow-y orange-furred, ring-tailed newcomer quipped, taking a seat next to Monica. The green-furred hedgehog princess gave an exaggerated sigh.

"Hi, Basil." Monica sighed, and added under her breath, "Just what I need, another idiot to annoy me." Basil smirked, and rested his head on his cupped hands.

"Well, thought you'd like to know," Basil started and munched on his meatball sub sandwich. "Skye sent me a letter, said there was some weird weather on something… Thought it might interest you, Di, You being the smartie and all. Eh, no offense."

"None taken." Diamond shrugged. "Abnormal weather patterns, huh? I wonder why…"

Monica, Diamond noticed, had an odd, pondering look on her face, something that was rather foreign to the Monica that Diamond knew.

"I heard about that. Huge and unpredicted tempests, cold winds and snow pretty late into spring, stuff like that." Diamond, Aleena, and Basil all turned to look at Monica it surprise when she finished. She blinked. "What?"

"Monica, where did you here about this?" Diamond inquired awkwardly, cocking his head to one side. Monica gave him a similar look.

"What? Am I not allowed to watch the news or read the paper, now?" Monica was getting a little edgy, if the tone of her voice was to be a good judge of that. Basil shrugged.

"No, I guess not, but… It's just not you, really." The yellow-orange raccoon stated awkwardly. "You're usually not interested in that kind of stuff." Monica huffed.

"Well, usually I'm not, but I noticed in that most of it was taking place near Josie's school so, I'd thought I'd check it out. I did a little research online, too, and asked around a little. No one seems to know much about it, so it was kind of a waste of time." As Monica finished, she dipped one of her mozzarella stick into her marinara sauce and stuffed it into her mouth, hardly bothering to chew.

"I wonder if Josephine knows anything about this…" The others were surprised for a second time that lunch period when Aleena, who had remained silent through most of the conversation, spoke up. Monica scoffed a little, though.

"Why would Josie know anything?" Monica's words had a bit of a scolding tone, and Aleena just blushed, and glanced down.

"I-I don't know… She's near where it mostly took place, so I though it was just a possibility." Aleena murmured. "I guess it would make much but sense, but you never know." The yellow-furred hedgebat, adverting Monica's gaze, went back to sipping her soup in silence.

"Geez, Mo-ni-ca, don't rag on the kid." Basil gave a little, disbelieving scoff. "She was only trying to suggest something. And, besides, it's not really that farfetched to think someone whose so close to this stuff to know a thing or two." Diamond would be surprised-for a third time today-if Monica was actually listening. "So, uh…" Basil decided now would be a good time to change the subject. "You guys going to the Halloween party tonight?" Suddenly, Diamond's stomach dropped, and the table was so quiet, you would have been able to hear a pin drop, if the other tables weren't so loud, that is.

"D'oh! The party! We forgot, didn't we!?" Monica was now in panic-mode (something that was actually uncommon, Diamond had come to know) and glanced at Diamond and Aleena, both of whom nodded miserably. Diamond pressed his forehead into his palm. How stupid were they forgetting about something like this? The Halloween dance, along with the winter dance and the end-of-school dance, was one of the most important school dances in the school year, and he forgot! Why couldn't it be later?! Why couldn't--

Huh?

There was a loud POP, shortly followed by a ZZZZ…. sound from above. Just about every kid in the cafeteria's head shot up to see what was causing the noise. One of the twenty-one lights that lit up the massive cafeteria had just, quite literally, exploded. What the...?

POP! POP, POP, POP, POP, POP, POP, POP-POP! POP! ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

One after another, each of the light bulbs in the ceiling lamps exploded. There were sparks falling everywhere and the students were in a complete panic in a matter on seconds.

POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP! POP! ZZZZZZ!!

Soon, the sparks that were falling must have caugh on something flamable, because the little electric hops became a fire, a fire that quickly spread. Screams echoed off the tile walls of the cafeteria and the teachers were trying to calm the kids and usher them outside the burning room.

As Diamond walked out with the rest of the panicking students, a sudden thought occurred to him. A seemed like, the very moment he wished the dance could take place later, the lights had started exploding, and the cafeteria had set on fire. The cafeteria also doubled as the auditorium, and the auditorium was where the Halloween dance would be taking place. Due to the fire, the party-and maybe even some classes-would be postponed, possibly even cancelled. Most of Diamond, the real Diamond, the one who got things done instead of daydreaming about the impossible, was assured that it was just a bizarre coincidence. But, another part of Diamond, a small part hidden deep with him, one that would believe the wildest explanation you could offer it, conjured up a sudden thought that the rest of him tried to push into the back of his mind, but to no avail…

Did I do that?

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Ooooh, cliffhanger.... sorta. Anyhow, Twists of Fate has been deleted, so this will by my main project, for the time being.