Chapter 9:
Shade got up and stretched her harms and legs and went to the door. She opened it and saw Ball was there rubbing one fist into a sleepy eye and the other hand was raised to knock the door. "Oh miff Shave, your afake." Shade smiled knowing Ball was making the errors only because he was tired. "Yes I am awake. Let's go get some breakfast." In the end she ended up carrying Ball down the stairs. When she arrived in the dining room with Ball in her arms the others applauded. "What?" "You...stood up to Vivid instead of being cowed. You cowed her. She's been huffy all morning, so we're going to have new tenants?" "Yes." "Do they like playing hop scotch and jump rope?" Asked Ivy. "I don't know." Said Shade. "When are they arriving?" "Ten." "Okay good, we'll set up welcome banners." Shade smiled at Ivy and Cookie's enthusiasm. "Alright. But just put welcome on them." "Alright!" Ivy and Cookie skipped off to get the banners ready.
"So... you enjoying yourself?" "How so?" "Well...fights with other residents, walks without anyone knowing, a nice bedroom, a almost constant visitor, boyfriends falling on you from the sky..." "Who said Explosive was my boyfriend?" Asked Shade sharply. "Well you hang around him all the time..." "I don't hang out with him because he's my boyfriend which he is not." Said Shade rather stiffly. "Oh alright. You know I was joking about the boyfriend thing right?" Asked Sniper grinning. Shade made a noise in her throat that was remarkably like a bird screeching as it tore apart it's prey.
Shade went into the living room and almost fell over as if the bright colours had hit her. Cookie and Ivy where pinning up another multicoloured banner as she had come in. "Oh hi Shade! How do you like it?" Shade looked around herself. "It's...very good." There where snacks out on the table, the sofas and other chairs had bright covers on them and a new carpet had been rolled out. "Oh my gosh it's only nine twenty. Come on Ivy, let's go set up bobbin' for apples." "Yippee! Then we'll play darts!" "Okay, let's go!" Shade decided to go out, she got her trench coat and asked Chaos to apologize for Shade if they arrived before she got back. She went outside and put her hands in her pockets, she walked towards the park and picked up a loaf of bread on the way so she could feed the ducks. When she arrived she sat down on a park bench near the duck pond and started crumbling bread and throwing it out for them. "Hi." A hedgehog sat beside her looking absolutely miserable. "Hi. What's wrong with you?" Asked Shade. "Well...my parents just passed away and I don't have a home now since somebody hacked into my bank account when I don't even use online banking and stole all my money." "What's your name?" "Freeva." "I'm Shade." "Nice to meet you." Said Freeva gloomily. "Would you like to come to my house?" "I don't have anything to pay you with." Said Freeva awkwardly. "That's alright, the only way you have to pay me is by being a good friend." "What?" "By only being a good friend." Said Shade smiling, standing up and throwing the last of the bread to the ducks she held out her hand to Freeva. He took it hesitantly and she pulled him up. They walked in silence back to the house where Chaos was saying, "I'm sorry but Shade isn't back yet, would you come in?" Shade smirked and hid behind a bush with Freeva. "This will be soooo funny when I come through the door and they say that they've only just arrived." As the door closed and Shade and Freeva started to walk up the path Shade caught a glimmer of movement. Her eyes narrowed and she then saw it was a small silver furred fox. "Hi, what do you want?" Asked Shade, the poor fox jumped so badly he almost hit his head on the fence. "N...n...nothing!" He stammered. "Oh yes you do." Shade took his hand and pulled him up. She walked up the rest of the path with the fox wildly wriggling and opened the door. "Oh hi Shade we only just...who's that?" "This is Freeva and I still don't know this guys name." Said Shade setting the fox down.
"It's Disc." "Disc? Cool name." Said Freeva. Chaos smiled. "This actually looks like a Sonic and Tails pairing." "Sonic and Tails?" Asked Shade confused. "Yeah, Sonic is the speedy blue cheese and Tails is the flying bread." Chaos giggled. "What I mean Shade is that Sonic is the blue hedgehog who can run faster than the speed of sound and Tails is his two-tailed fox friend." Freeva and Disc did look very funny together, Freeva with his grey fur and brown eyes and Disc with his silver fur and red eyes. "How about you come to the living room?"
