Alright. My computer was down for almost a month. And, then I went into a period of complete and utter writer's block (not to mention, I couldn't find all my brainstorming pages for the chapter). Still... I have finally managed to finish this chapter - much to my joy. And, as I've been out of school for this entire week due to snow, I've got a pretty good bearing on the direction for the next chapter. So, hopefully, I can finish that chapter this weekend - in between studying for my exams... (Psh... Studying. Ha, right. Like that's gonna happen...)
Thanks to my reviewers and your inspiring words! :D And, thank you also to Symphony-of-the-Soul for helping me look up random things on the internet that all, somehow, contributed to this story.
So, without further nonsense...
My Story Disclaimer: I do not own, in any way, any of the canon Sonic characters used and/or mentioned in this story (including but not limited to Sonic, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, Espio, Silver, Blaze, Wave, Jet, Cream, Vector, Charmy, and Dr. Eggman). Nor do I own the inspiration from some of the other characters taken from other games/movies (such as Ganondorf Dragmire who belongs to the Zelda franchise, and Queen Grimhilde who belongs to Disney). Nor, again, do I own any objects or names that are associated with the Sonic universe, any other game or movie or tv show's universe, or any business/corporation names. In addition, the celebrity personas illustrated in the story mean no harm and are not meant to be offensive in any way.
Chapter Disclaimer: I do not own Google... I do not own one of Jet's comebacks that he makes at the lunch table - it belongs to Symphony-of-the-Soul. I do not own any of the literature mentioned like The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. And, I do not own little references to literature (namely, in this chapter, the Jabberwocky).
3. Day One
"Room 303?" Rouge looked at her schedule again, then she scanned the area, looking at the large, white school buildings.
Wave shrugged. "It's got to be one of them. Not like they're going to count us late on the first day, anyway... Where's the senior chick? Can't we just ask her?"
Rouge shook her head. "If we head all the way back to the dorm now, then there's no way we'll be on time to class. We can just look for someone else..."
"Whatever." The purple swallow glanced over to the side, catching some movement. "Hey, is Sparkles in class with us?"
Rouge turned the direction Wave was looking, and she saw Walker heading toward the doors of one of the buildings. She tilted her head. "Well, he's a first-year, right?"
"It's worth a shot." So, the two girls kept a distance behind the orange echidna but followed him into the building. The hall was quiet when they entered; few students were there - only classes for Freshmen and Sophomores were held during first-period, so only about half of the school was awake. Walker took a right into a classroom, and the girls followed a few feet behind.
The classroom was fairly large in size: a room big enough to comfortably seat fifty people was waiting at the bottom of a small set of stairs through the classroom door. Rouge saw Shadow instantly, seated on the side of the classroom just in front of the stairs, and she walked over to him, sitting down in the desk next to his. "Well, this looks fun, don't you think, Shadow?"
The frowning hedgehog barely glanced at her. "Oh, yes. Just about as fun as stabbing myself in the eye with a pencil."
Amy, who was sitting a few desks behind Shadow, cringed a bit at that mental picture; Rouge, however, laughed, "Enthusiastic as ever, I see." She took a look around the room as Wave sat down, and the bat tilted her head. "Where is everyone? Class starts in, like, five minutes, right?"
Wave nodded and replied, "Yes, but in teenage boy time, five minutes might as well be five hours. They'll be here at either the last second possible, or they'll be late. Mark my words." The swallow looked up then and glanced toward the back wall of the room. There was a desk - a highly unorganized desk - that was covered in books and all sorts of notes. A few feet away from the desk, in the center of the room was a podium, standing next to a table. On the table were a few notebooks, some more books, some more notes; below the table was a bookshelf full of - yes - more books. "Well, we're certainly in English class." A dark-haired, serious-looking chipmunk was seated at the desk, quite focused on his computer. He looked fairly young, no older than his late-thirties, Wave guessed. "And, I'm assuming that's Mr. Fish."
Amy glanced nervously at the clock, then at the door. Where was everyone? She continued to glance back and forth until there were only thirty seconds left before the bell, and, then, just like that, the rest of the students began to show up.
Knuckles walked in, and, after scanning the room for a semi-friendly face, he took the desk next to Amy. Blaze and Espio both arrived at about the same time, and Blaze sat by herself, a few desks away from Knuckles. Espio sat on the opposite side of the room, a couple of desks away from Walker. Then came a brown wolf, who sat near Espio, and a brunette, echidna-looking girl, who sat in a desk between Espio and Walker.
When only five seconds were left before the bell, Silver showed up and immediately blurted out, "Am I late?" When Amy shook her head, the white-grey hedgehog took a deep, relieved breath and sat down in the first available seat - between Knuckles and Blaze.
With about half a second left before the late bell, the tall porcupine, Dread, stepped into the room, and the bell rang out as he descended the stairs. As he was on his way to sit in the desk in front of Walker, Jet and Sonic both rushed through the doorway at the same time. The entire class turned to look at them.
Jet tripped down the stairs, landing flat on his beak, but then he quickly stood up, holding a victorious hand in the air. "I WIN!"
Sonic jumped over the stairs, landing at the bottom of them, and he glared at the green bird, shouting, "You did not! I got there a full hundredth of a second before you ever did!"
"Yeah, on OPPOSITE DAY, MAYBE!"
At the front of the classroom, the tall chipmunk, Mr. Fish, stood up from his desk. Amy shot a warning glare at Sonic and Jet, whispering, "Guys! You're late! Sit down!"
Both boys looked at her, tilting their heads in a simultaneous, "Huh?"
Wave shook her head and said clearly, "If you don't sit down in the next two seconds, you're guaranteed to get a detention."
"Right." Both guys raced to their seats. Sonic sat in front of Knuckles, and Jet sat near Dread on the opposite side of the room.
Everyone ignored the obnoxiously loud, "I WIN," that came from Jet's desk.
As Jet's shout faded, the class was left in total silence, staring at their teacher. Mr. Fish carried a mug of coffee over to his table in the center of the room, and he moved a notebook to the podium next to it. Without a word, he opened the notebook and flipped to a certain page. He picked up a pen.
Fish's deep, comical voice called out, "Rouge the Bat?"
"Here," Rouge sang across the room, automatically.
"Good, good... " Fish checked her name off in his notebook, nodding in acknowledgment in her direction. Then he looked to the next name. "Do I have a Queen Blaze the Ca-"
"Please. Just Blaze."
The tall chipmunk scribbled a note on his attendance sheet before taking a long swig of coffee from the mug beside him. "Ah, understandable. Sorry about that, Miss Blaze..." He turned his attention back to the attendance sheet and continued, "Espio the Chameleon?"
"Present."
"Nice to meet you. Knuckles the Echidna?"
"Huh?" Knuckles blinked.
Rouge rolled her eyes, but the teacher, Mr. Fish, simply nodded and continued, "Half-here, then. Alright... Jet the Hawk?"
"Here!"
"Good to see you here..." Mr. Fish looked up from his paper to eye Shadow and Silver. "I assume you aren't all related?"
Silver tilted his head, but Shadow, understanding, gave a firm, "No."
"Alright. Shadow the Hedgehog?"
"Here."
"Nice to see you. Silver the Hedgehog?"
"Here?," Silver responded, somewhat confused.
Mr. Fish nodded quickly. "Good, good... And, the last of my Hedgehogs: Sonic the Hedgehog."
"Present and ready to learn, sir!" The blue hedgehog flashed a thumbs-up at the teacher, grinning.
Shadow coughed loudly, though the sound of a hissed, "Kiss-up!," was faintly audible. Jet sniggered; Sonic glared.
Fish didn't look up from marking his attendance sheet, but after marking the hedgehog down, he did say, "I can see we're all getting along..." He then looked to the next name on the sheet and smiled slightly, looking up at the dark porcupine sitting at the front of the classroom. "Ah, Mr. Lox, good to see you back again this year."
Dread smirked, turning away from his conversation with Walker to face the teacher. "Same to you, Fish... Ready to get rid of me this year?"
The brown-haired chipmunk raised an eyebrow. "Planning on passing this year, Mr. Lox?"
"Yes, indeed."
Fish considered the words for a moment before returning to his attendance sheet. "Care to give a reason?"
"I shouldn't think it would take much of one."
"Fair enough," Mr. Fish chimed, checking the porcupine's name from the list. "Amy Rose?"
Amy raised her hand. "Here."
"Hello, Miss Rose. Good to see you in class... Wave the Swallow?"
"Here," Wave said, bored already.
The tall chipmunk paused at the next name, trying to figure out what to say. After a moment, he shook his head, "I'm not even going to try to pronounce your last name. Axe?"
Walker cringed a bit, raising his hand. "It's...Tliltic. Like... Lleelt-eek." As all the eyes in the classroom went to him, he stuttered a bit, uncomfortable with the attention. "...It's from the Nahuatl language... I-it just means 'black'..."
Fish watched the orange echidna, expressionless. "Understandable. Axe Black, then?"
"N-no! Um..." Walker closed his eyes, taking a breath. "I... Just call me Walker..."
"Walker?" Fish looked up from jotting a note on his sheet, and he smiled. "So, you must be the famous Walker I've heard so much about."
Walker blinked. "...um... What?" The orange echidna shot a panicked glance at Dread, who was sitting right in front of him, but the porcupine only kept his signature smirk, offering no comfort.
"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Black."
"...um... You... too?"
"Now, then: Katana... I'm assuming you're related to Mr. Black."
The quiet echidna girl sitting against the room's back wall, Blaze's roommate, said dully, "We're twins. I'm Kimaera. Just Kim is fine."
"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Kim." Mr. Fish marked her name off and read the last name on the list, "Micheal the Wolf."
"Here."
Fish set down his role-book and took another swig of coffee as the class watched in total silence...
BAM! The entire class jumped in surprise, and several - namely, Knuckles, Espio, Blaze, and Shadow - were on their feet, ready to go after the threat.
Only a burst of hollow, somewhat maniacal laughter from the front of the room made the class realize that the disturbance had been Fish purposely slamming his fist down on a nearby filing cabinet.
Amy put a hand over her heart, trying to calm herself. Espio slowly put away the two shurikens he'd automatically armed himself with and sat back down. Rouge and Wave both tried to steady their breathing, while Sonic attempted to play it off like he hadn't jumped along with the rest of the class. Silver was trying his hardest not to draw attention to his own moment of fear. Dread's eyes held an amused glint as he looked over his classmates, but even he was breathing heavily. Walker had collapsed onto his desk entirely, fainted.
Fish continued to laugh at his joke.
Shadow, Knuckles, and Blaze were not amused.
The black- and red-furred hedgehog cocked his gun, aiming it right at the tall chipmunk he'd decided was a homicidal lunatic - well, that's what his defense was going to be in court, anyway.
At the sound of the gun, Fish stopped laughing, looking at his three standing students with raised eyebrows.
Blaze snarled dangerously, and she and Knuckles suddenly shouted, so perfectly in-sync that it was hard to believe they hadn't rehearsed, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"
"Teaching strategy #72," the teacher replied, unfazed, " 'To capture the attention of your audience, random, alarming disturbances are necessary.' "
As the class stared in disbelief at their teacher, Dread leaned over to rummage through Walker's bag: he pulled out a bottle of water and set it on Walker's desk, giving the passed-out echidna's arm a slight shake. Walker didn't stir, so Dread turned back toward the class. "It works. When he's actually teaching. ...Other times, he just enjoys it."
Very reluctantly, Shadow disarmed his gun and sat down. Blaze and Knuckles followed suit, but they watched their teacher very carefully.
Fish waited for a few moments to make sure his class had calmed down, but he didn't bring up a question about the weapons. He'd leave that to another teacher if it happened again. "So... Summer reading projects..."
Knuckles' face blanched. "Summer what?"
Amy turned toward him, holding up a book that Knuckles was fairly certain she had not ever had before that moment. She said, "Our summer reading assignment, Knuckles. The Sun Also Rises?"
The red echidna stared at her blankly.
At the front of the classroom, Fish picked up a stack of papers and continued, "So, you'll have twenty minutes for this test. Just twenty-five questions... Easy stuff..." He walked over to the left side of the classroom, passing out the papers there first.
"Test?," Knuckles yelled, unintentionally drawing the attention of his entire class.
Fish didn't say a word; he simply finished passing out the tests and started his timer.
Knuckles stared miserably at the two pages in front of him, full of questions he was pretty sure he wouldn't know even if he had read the book. "In what war was Jake injured?" ...Who the heck is "Jake"?
The room returned to silence.
Walker woke up about fifteen minutes into the test and was startled to find the papers on his desk. One glance around the room told him what was going on, so he retrieved a pen from the bag next to his desk and started marking away.
"Time's up," Fish announced.
Simultaneously, Espio, Walker, and Blaze stood up and walked to the front of the classroom to turn their papers in. Amy glanced to the desk next to her, whispering fiercely, "Knuckles! That's it: you have to turn it in!"
"I'm not finished!," he growled in response.
Sonic turned around in his chair to look at the frustrated echidna, starting, "Look, Knux, you didn't read, so..."
"YES, I DID READ!" He lowered his voice to a mumble as he saw Fish approaching to confiscate his test, "-I just... Can't remember who 'Jake' is..."
Amy narrowed her eyes. "Jake's the main character, Knuckles." And, the teacher pulled the test away from the poor red echidna.
Walker took a drink from the water bottle on his desk, then flashed a peace sign across the room, saying loudly, "Don't worry, dude. I Christmas Tree'd that thing!"
"Thank you, Mr. Black, for sharing that with the class," Fish said, nodding at Walker.
The orange echidna smiled. "No problem!"
"Welcome to anatomy, everyone!" The teacher, a black-furred rabbit, Mrs. Burroughs, smiled enthusiastically at the class. She received a few mumbled replies.
Rouge glanced at Wave, whispering, "I can already tell I'm going to like this class."
Wave shrugged, whispering back, "I heard it's just a bunch of coloring."
Mrs. Burroughs continued, oblivious to the chatting in her classroom, "Now I'm going to give each of you a syllabus..." She gave a stack of papers to the white tigress sitting in the first seat and told her to pass them out. "And, if any of you have any questions at all about the class, I'll take them right now..."
Rouge giggled as Wave raised her hand. Mrs. Burroughs smiled, apparently excited that someone actually was willing to ask something, and she pointed at Wave, asking, "Yes, dear?"
Wave folded her hands, asking with complete clarity, "Exactly where will we begin and end in our studies?"
The older rabbit answered, "We'll be studying the anatomy of most every basic creature in the animal kingdom, excluding fish and amphibians. We'll spend about a week each on the anatomy of similar animals..." She then paused. "Well, except for a select few who are so unique in their anatomy that they require more personal study, of course. Like bats, or the monotremes, for example." The teacher smiled, glancing at Rouge, then at Knuckles. Rouge returned the smile, but Knuckles did his best to avoid the rabbit's eyes.
On the other side of the room, Walker was eyeing the laboratory area with wary eyes. He wasn't sure how comfortable he was with there being a lab in a classroom dedicated to the study of the body.
The owl adjusted her round spectacles, staring down from the stage at her new students. She wrapped her shawl around herself carefully as the students all took their seats in the auditorium. She cleared her throat and raised her wings dramatically, "Welcome... to the theater!"
Amy listened carefully to the drama teacher, Miss English, give her dramatic monologue about the class. Most of the speech Amy had expected. She knew that she would be practicing monologues and plays and such - that was what drama was, right?
But, then came the words from the brown owl she hadn't completely expected, "Trust is the foundation of all great arts. One must trust himself, one must trust his abilities, and, most of all, in the theater, one must trust his fellow man... And, so, as our time runs short this week, we shall take the next two days of class to get to know one another in a few games..."
Amy tilted her head, wondering what was coming. She glanced around at her classmates, all seated in the first few rows of the auditorium. Walker was the first one she recognized, sitting by himself - as he always was when the dark-haired porcupine wasn't about... She looked around, hoping to see someone else, but the only other familiar sight was Jet. She cringed upon seeing him, wondering what he was even doing in drama class. Guess he didn't have enough credits, so they put him in here...
"To start off, I'm going to put each of you with a partner, and you will be given a starting situation... You will improv your lines in front of the class."
Amy sighed. Well, maybe it wouldn't be that bad. She wasn't necessarily bad with improvisation, she didn't think...
Miss English looked down her attendance sheet, randomly pairing names together. Amy didn't pay complete attention as the names were all unfamiliar to her until the teacher said, "Walker... and... Emily." Amy glanced up to see the orange echidna stand up just before a small brown mouse. They both walked off to stand next to the other pairs. "Jet...and... Amy."
Amy froze. ...Surely not. The green bird stood up and began to approach her, though. So, the pink hedgehog gritted her teeth and stood up as well.
When the partners had all been assigned, the owl watched the students through her spectacles carefully for a moment before she asked, "Alright, then, can I have any volunteers to go first?"
A few moments of silence passed before the brown mouse Walker was standing with raised her hand and said, "We'll go, Miss English."
The class watched as Walker and the mouse, Emily, ascended the steps to the stage. Miss English nodded at the two of them and said, "Alright, one of you will be the babysitter, and the other will be a child. The babysitter is trying to put the child to sleep, but the child will not go. Remember: it's all in good fun. Be creative!" She backed away a few steps, and Walker whispered something to Emily. She nodded and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Miss English waited for them to begin, but, when they didn't, she finally said, "And... action!"
The tiny mouse Emily paced across the stage for a moment before turning and approaching Walker, who was now seated on the stage playing with imaginary toys, with a sweet voice, "Alright, Walker, honey - it's time for bed..."
The orange echidna glanced up at the babysitter but apparently decided to ignore her.
"Ahem," Emily tried again, "Walker, dear, you need to get to bed..."
"No, thank you," he brightly replied, not looking up at her.
Emily placed her hands on her hips, "It wasn't a question, Walker. You're going to bed."
And, just like that, the orange echidna exploded into a fit of crocodile tears, latching onto the mouse's leg, "No! You can't make me go," he wailed. "The Jabberwocky will get me!"
"...The Jabberwocky...?" Emily raised an eyebrow but shook her head.
Amy couldn't help but giggle at the performance. It continued on for a few minutes before Miss English finally cut it off, saying that they needed to let other groups have a try. None of the other groups were quite as dramatic as the first performance; eventually, however, it was Amy's turn. And, half-wanting to bolt, she walked up to the stage with Jet.
Miss English thought for a moment before nodding at them and saying, "Alright. Now, one of you is going to be a member of a new religious group, and you are going to try to convince the other to quit his own religion to join you. Ready?"
Amy blinked. Would she be able to come up with a new religion that quickly? She almost giggled, as she thought of perhaps becoming a worshiper of chili dogs. Surely that would gain followers; it would, at least, appeal to Sonic and Tails, certainly.
Jet, however, much to her surprise, whispered, "Don't worry; I got this." And, before she could respond, the teacher had called for them to begin.
So, awkwardly, Amy stood still on the stage, waiting for Jet to do something.
After a moment, he asked, "Hey, Pinky, what are you - ya know, in a religious perspective?"
Amy blinked, then just decided that he'd make his point no matter what she said, so she replied, "Well, I'm Christian. Why?"
"Don't you ever get tired of talking to someone you can't see and who doesn't answer your questions?"
Amy blinked. "...What are you suggesting?"
"I'm just sayin' I found the answer." He nodded sagely. "The real omnipotent ones are computers."
"Excuse me?"
"Just sayin'. Ya know, God can't give you all the answers. God doesn't have a 'Google' option." Caught off guard, Amy had to fight back a laugh. "He doesn't save your work or e-mail things to people. Computers are the omnipotent ones. Yeah."
Amy crossed her arms, returning the argument playfully. "And, you also can't shut him down. You can't unplug him and let his battery run out and expect him to leave you alone. He's always there."
"So are computers," the green hawk countered. "Did you know, on average, you get video-taped anywhere from one hundred to two hundred times a day?"
Amy smirked at her own argument. "Well, did you know, on average, God watches you twenty-four hours of the day?"
Amy heard a few laughs from the rest of the class as well as one guy, who had apparently forgotten that their whole argument wasn't even real, comment, "Burrr-n..." Amy giggled as Miss English called an end to their little skit.
Maybe Jet wasn't so bad.
The cafeteria was mostly empty when Amy and Jet set their trays down on their chosen table. There was no sign of the rest of the gang: apparently, everyone else had either already eaten during the previous class period or had gone back to class again. There were a few seniors in the lunchroom who looked as though they were just waking up, but the majority of the few creatures scattered throughout the cafeteria were students from drama class.
Amy sighed, poking at a white vegetable on her plate. "Guess we're eating lunch alone on Mondays, huh?"
Jet didn't bother to look at what he was eating, instead opting to see how much of it he could stuff into his beak at one time. Upon hearing Amy's question, however, he forced himself to swallow and take a drink before answering, "Looks like it!" He yawned, leaning back in his chair. "Fine by me, though. Any break from hearing Wave go on and on about stupid stuff that no one cares about - like science or math or how she doesn't get enough appreciation, blah, blah, blah - is a gift."
Amy watched him shoveling the food with slight disgust. The meat on the plate was unidentifiable - but, then again, she wasn't sure she wanted to know what it was. But, the vegetables were odd things: odd, bitter things. "Are those turnips or radishes?"
The hawk shrugged, swallowing again. "How should I know? I'm no farmer!"
Amy crinkled her nose, looking at the partially-eaten vegetable on her own plate. "Well, they're gross, either way. How can you eat them?"
"I'm a bird," he grumbled in between bites. "Less taste buds than you."
The pink hedgehog tilted her head, unsure of whether or not that was true. It was an interesting thought. She shrugged. It would explain some things, at least. She looked up as someone took a seat across the table.
Jet nearly jumped out of his chair as someone sat down next to him, but then he realized who it was and calmed down. "Oh - it's you. God, you scared me for a minute there! I thought it was Wave!"
Espio gave the bird an odd look.
"Sorry 'bout that. The pink just threw me off for a second there."
Espio crossed his arms, a rare flicker of annoyance in his amber eyes. "I am quite purple."
Amy shook her head, deciding to speak up before Jet could say anything else, "So, Espio, what are you doing here?"
The chameleon turned to face her and answered, "Culture starts in an hour. I was hoping that Knuckles would be here, since he is the only other one I know of taking the class."
"Oh." Amy looked down at her plate again, then pushed it toward the center of the table. "Well, he's not here. We haven't really seen anyone. I haven't seen Sonic since third period..."
Espio nodded. "I saw him on the way here. He has no classes for the remainder of the day..."
"Really?" Amy considered that for a moment before a stray thought crossed her mind. "Wait, Knuckles wasn't with Sonic?"
"No."
"So, what was Sonic doing?"
The chameleon caught the dangerous tone in Amy's voice, so he said as calmly as possible, "I believe he was going on a tour of the school... A few juniors and sophomores were showing him around..."
Amy was going to ask for specific details on these "juniors" and "sophomores", but her attention was caught by an orange echidna who was sitting by himself at a nearby table. She glanced at a nearby clock. They'd been sitting down for over twenty minutes, and there was an hour left before next class. She glanced around the room for any sign of the echidna's porcupine friend, but when she didn't see him, she turned to Espio. "Espio, will you turn around and ask that guy to sit with us?"
The chameleon blinked, surprised that Amy wasn't going to give him twenty questions about the crowd Sonic was with. He quickly nodded, though, and turned to the table behind him to see who she was talking about. "Walker?" He glanced back at the pink hedgehog, and she nodded, so he stood up and walked a few steps over to the orange echidna's table.
Walker looked up as Espio approached, and the echidna smiled in recognition. "Hey there, Es."
Espio flinched slightly at the nickname, but he gestured back toward the table Jet and Amy were seated at. "If you're going to sit there for an hour with no one to talk to, then you may as well come sit with us."
Walker rolled his eyes. "She's gonna make someone come over here to ask me at every meal until I say yes, isn't she?"
"Most likely."
The orange echidna shook his head but picked up the black messenger bag by his chair, pulling it over his shoulder. "Alright, roomie... I'll go."
Amy grinned at Jet as they watched Espio return with Walker, and she whispered, "Told you. Third time's the charm! ...So, that means you lose~..." The hawk scowled, reluctantly picking up his own tray as well as Amy's. He stood up and carried the trays to the tray deposit.
Espio sat down at the table again, and Walker took one of the other free chairs. Walker waved semi-awkwardly at Amy and greeted her with a simple, "Hey."
Amy beamed. "Hi, Walker! I'm so glad you could sit with us! Your performance in drama was great!"
"Um... thank you?" He smiled at her overly-zealous greeting. "...So, where are all your friends?"
"In class, I guess," Amy answered. But, the question made her remember what Espio had said earlier about Sonic... "Espio, exactly who was Sonic with earlier again?"
The chameleon stared down at his hands resting on the table. "Running around campus with a few others..."
"Others?"
"I do not know their names, of course..."
Amy's eyes narrowed as she caught on to Espio's avoidance of her question. "What did they look like, Espio?"
He sighed, knowing what she was asking. "Yes, they were girls."
Walker tilted his head, cutting in, "Wait, Sonic's the blue one, right?" Espio nodded, and Walker looked at Amy. "Is he your boyfriend or something?"
Amy opened her mouth to say that he was, but she was cut off by Jet sitting down next to her and answering, "She wishes." Amy glared.
Walker glanced at the hawk, noting the quick answer, and he smirked. "Oh. So, is he your boyfriend, then?"
Amy snorted, waiting for Jet to explode in fury; much to Amy's disappointment, however, the hawk casually answered, "Nah. That'd break all my adoring fangirls' hearts."
Walker raised an eyebrow. "Fangirls?"
Amy rolled her eyes. "Psh. HE wishes."
Espio shook his head as Walker and Amy laughed; Jet was in his own happy thoughts, oblivious. Espio looked up at the wall to his left, noting the time on the giant clock. He stood up. "Does anyone know where the culture classroom is?"
Walker shrugged. "No. I only know where my classes are."
Amy tilted her head. "What class do you have next?"
"Umm... " Walker reached into the black bag at his side, taking out a folded yellow sheet of paper. He scanned it quickly. "Child Care with Clarke..."
"Us, too!" Amy smiled, motioning to herself and Jet. "We all have the same schedule on Mondays!"
"Really? I don't think you were in my anatomy class..."
"Oh. Well, I have biology, not anatomy. But, other than that..."
Espio took a breath and stood up. "I am off to find either Knuckles or my classroom - whichever I happen upon first."
Walker waved at the chameleon in dismissal. "Alright. See ya later, Es!"
"How do you know Espio, Walker?," Amy asked as the chameleon walked away.
"We're roomies," he answered.
Amy grinned, remembering how frightened Espio had been the previous day to find out who his roommates would be. "You didn't fill out the form for placement in dorms, either?"
Walker's face fell slightly as his blue eyes focused on the table. "...No. I filled it out."
Amy's grin faded as she caught on to the dull tone in Walker's voice. She started to ask him what was wrong, but... Instead, she changed the subject. "So, what are your hobbies, Walker?"
"Thank God that's over," Wave said, standing up and putting her pencil away.
Rouge yawned, also standing up. "I hate math..."
Wave walked out of the classroom, followed by Rouge. They walked outside the building and took a quick look over the campus. "What now?," Wave asked.
Rouge stopped in place, trying to straighten her own hair with her hands. "Well, that's it for me. I don't have any classes this afternoon or tomorrow morning."
"I don't have anything until last period. So, I've got about an hour and a half with the week's short schedule." The swallow checked her watch to make sure she was right.
"Well, after you get out of last period, we could go shopping. They posted class materials on the cafeteria wall at lunch."
"Alright, whatever. But, I'm not waiting around for people."
The bat nodded. "I'll tell Amy when she gets out of her last class, and we can be waiting."
"Hmph. Fine." Wave chose a random direction and began following the sidewalk, deciding to explore campus. Rouge followed; she had nothing better to do.
So, it was by an unfortunate, random coincidence that they stumbled their way into upperclassman territory.
Knuckles and Espio sat down next to each other, feeling extremely out-of-place among their surroundings. Knuckles' eyes roved the room, noting all the eyes that were on him, and he whispered cautiously to Espio, "Espio, what do we do?"
"Stare at your desk. Don't make eye contact. They can sense fear," the chameleon wisely told him. Knuckles quickly followed his instructions.
Neither had suspected that they were going to be in class with seventeen girls and no other guys.
The bell rang, and a tall, slender cat sauntered into the room, smiling at the class. Her dazzling ice-colored eyes swept across the room, resting for a few seconds on Knuckles and Espio before moving on. Her voice rang out after a moment, welcoming them, "Good afternoon, class... I hope you're all as happy to be here as I am..."
Knuckles refused to look up, choosing to follow Espio's advice with no exceptions - not even for teachers who just happened to be girls. Of course, his obviously averted stare only drew the teacher's attention.
The light blue-furred cat rested her gaze on Knuckles as she continued, "I may not be familiar to most of you, since this is my first year teaching at M.U.C.A... I am Miss Tracey..." She emphasized the "Miss" almost too well.
Espio leaned slightly to his left, whispering to Knuckles, "You must at least stare at the wall behind the teacher. Obvious avoidance of eye contact is one of the key signals of fear." The echidna quickly obeyed, locating a spot to the teacher's right and focusing on it.
"As you all know, I'm sure, this is Culture class, where will be studying all the finer ideals of culture: etiquette, attire..."
Knuckles glanced at Espio, panicked, breathing, "I thought this was going to be about cultures, like our culture, and Acorn Kingdom culture, and Earth culture, and..." Espio put up a hand to silence Knuckles, noticing the teacher's eyes still focused on the echidna.
Miss Tracey tapped her perfectly-manicured nails on her desktop as she said, "Today, of course... We'll be looking at what you already know..." She picked up a stack of papers and began to hand out the pieces of paper. "The only grade for this will be completion, of course... Don't worry if you don't know an answer." She smiled warmly as she returned to her desk after handing all the papers out. "That is what this class is for." She gestured with her hand toward the door. "Class dismissed."
A couple of the girls across the room exchanged confused glances, and a murmur of, "Can she do that? Can we leave?," filled the classroom.
But, Knuckles and Espio gratefully stood up and were out the door before she could change her mind.
"We-ell, what do we have here...?"
Wave and Rouge continued walking, ignoring the small crowd of seniors and juniors. They were all guys with athletic builds, likely players on the school's various sports teams. But, they were less than interesting to Wave. And, Rouge just followed Wave, since she had no intention of being left alone in a foreign area with a bunch guys she didn't know, who were making passes at her and her new friend.
If only ignoring people always worked.
Walker, Amy, Jet, and Silver were all seated together in child care class. Their teacher, Mrs. Clarke, was at the front of the room, giving a long introduction to the class. Unfortunately for the teacher, most of her speech was lost upon her keen English accent - which was all that most of her class was paying attention to.
"I wish I talked like that," one of the girls sitting near Amy mused to a friend. The girl then proceeded to feign the accent and say, "I'd always go about asking for tea and crumpets all day!" Naturally, the entire classroom could hear the girl's lousy attempt.
However, luckily for the girl, Mrs. Clarke was good-natured enough to only laugh at the attempt and continue with her speech.
Amy doodled idly on the back of the class syllabus she'd received in Biology I, making a small sketch of a heart and tracing Sonic's initials inside it. Walker was texting - rather conspicuously - with his phone under the desk.
Jet glanced over at the orange echidna and snickered, "I see you're playing my favorite game: 'Let's Make It Obvious'."
Walker's gaze didn't break from the electronic screen below his fingertips. "Shut up." The hawk snickered again.
Silver, unlike most of the class, was actually trying to pay attention... But, he was having difficulty becoming excited about the class: he hadn't willingly signed up for child care... Apparently, the school just thought he should take the class. He froze, glancing at the camera in the corner of the room. But, why would they think he would need the class? Did they know something he didn't? Nervously, he chewed at the eraser on his pencil...
"Oh, come on, birdie, just talk to us for a minute..."
Wave and Rouge glared at the guy who was standing in the middle of the pathway, blocking them from leaving. Nearly an hour of trying their best to ignore the crowd of guys had not paid off. With no other options left, Wave addressed the dark brown-furred wildcat in front of her. "Fine. I see you're keen on getting yourself humiliated in public today. I suppose I might as well be the one to do it."
The wildcat smirked as his friends snickered at the challenge. His eyes watched her. "Now, now, birdie, don't get smart with me..."
"Me? Getting smart?" She faked a look of shock. "I'm surprised you can recognize it."
"Oh, come on, sweetheart, why you gotta be that way?"
Wave sneered, mimicking his tone, "Why you gotta be in my way?"
The wildcat's smirk widened as he stepped off the sidewalk. "Alright, fine, birdie: have it your way... But I'll be seein' you around..."
Wave grabbed Rouge's arm, pulling her along. The swallow just shouted back as her last response, "As long as it's from a distance of at least fifty yards, I don't care," and quickly led Rouge back to safety, away from the guys. She sighed when the upperclassmen were out of earshot, "Finally. I hate guys like that..."
Taking the opportunity, Rouge crossed her arms, smiling slyly, "Oh, really? What kind of guys do you like, then?"
The swallow scowled, catching the glint in Rouge's eye. She responded blatantly, "No."
"Wave! We have to talk about this if we're going to be friends."
"Who said we were friends, Bat?"
"Do you like Jet?"
"NO." Wave shuddered. "He's, like, way younger than me, he never listens when I talk, and he has no respect for the wonders of technology!"
Rouge grinned triumphantly. "So, then, you like guys who are either around your age or older than you, who listen when you talk, and who respect technology."
"...Go find something to do. My class starts soon." The purple swallow walked away, toward the academic buildings.
Rouge, still grinning, yelled after her, "Don't forget we're going shopping in an hour!"
"Amy, come on, we're leaving!" Amy looked up from her conversation, hearing Rouge and Wave call for her. Was it time to go shopping already?
The pink hedgehog nodded, glancing at Walker. "Um... Walker... Hang on. I'm going to ask something."
Walker gave her a confused look as she bounded off toward the two girls. Wave started toward the parking lot and Rouge began to follow.
Amy looked back at Walker, who was standing alone, leaning against the side of the building. She frowned, turned to the girls, and asked, "Hey, um, Rouge, Wave? Why don't we bring Walker, too?"
Wave snorted loudly, "SPARKLES? Are you kidding me?" She and Rouge both laughed.
Amy's frown deepened at the girls' laughter. None of them noticed, but Walker winced a bit, closing his eyes against the wall.
Wave, still laughing, continued walking. "I'll bring the car around. You two wait here."
Amy sighed, and she stepped nervously back over to Walker. He opened his eyes, faking a smile as she approached. Amy tried to return the smile but found that she couldn't quite meet his gaze. "Um... Wave's car doesn't have room for another passenger..."
The orange echidna shook his head. "You didn't have to ask... I've got a ride already. I'm going with..." He looked thoughtful for a moment but then easily said, "Dread. And, my sister."
"Oh, that's good," she said as she heard Rouge and Wave shouting for her from the car. "Uh, I'll see you... In class, okay?"
"Yeah," he answered, watching her join the other two girls in the car. He reached into his pocket, taking out his cell phone and dialing a number... "...Hey, Kim. Um, I know I told you that Dread and I were gonna be busy after school, but... Do you want to go shopping with us in, like, half an hour...?...Well, I kinda told someone that you were going to be with us..." The orange echidna deadpanned at his sister's response. "No, I'm not trying to set you up on a date... Gah... Just... You're coming with us, okay? Bye." He paused, hearing her last words. "Yeah, hate you, too. Bye."
He looked up at the sky. Well, there was nothing wrong with lying to your sister when it was going to help her out, right?
Oh, don't you love sibling relationships?
