When Ky got home he dropped his bag on the floor and flopped on his bed.

"I'm gonna be a 20 year old Senior in High School. I'm never going to get to College." He said with a muffled sigh.

"Ky… I-I'm sorry…" Kris tried to apologize.

"You should be." Ky grumbled. He turned over to look at the spinning blades on the fan above him. His foot still ached with pain.

The next 2 weeks went very slowly as mid-terms and finals quietly crept up on both faculty and students. Shadow seemed to be extra tense and mean due to tutoring and the incident that went on with Kris and the others. His fangs seemed to always be showing protruding from his upper lip now and sometimes they made him look silly. The tension and worry was even worse with the students. Some even crying at the thought of finals because they were unprepared and had goofed off most of the semester

The week of finals everyone was either preparing or trying hard to avoid class.

In Shadow's classroom the Government final had started and everyone was hard at work filling out bubble sheets and open- answer questions. The test was half multiple choice and half open ended questions. Ky sat at his desk in a cold sweat staring blankly at his final exam.

Oh my God. He thought. What am I looking at?

Kris sat at her desk filling out the answers that she surely knew first but was still getting stuck at points.

He did make the test harder. She thought while trying to fill in a fill-in question.

Ky's head hit his desk with a THUNK!

"Ughhhh…" He moaned.

Shadow sat reading an old book out of the shelf in the back of the classroom. He looked out at his students taking the exam and looked at the clock. Almost 85 minutes later he stood up.

"Five minutes left." Shadow announced and sat back down. He glanced at the stack of papers and bubble sheets that had grown throughout the period as people had finished and now only a few people were left taking the test.

"Okay, I'm done."

Shadow looked up from his book to see Ky handing in his exam. Shadow took it and sorted it into the piles.

Ky walked back to his desk and took out a volume of a manga that he had gotten super into recently. He looked over at Rouge and Kris who had finished before him and were now reading.

Five minutes later everyone had handed in their exams and were now waiting for Shadow to set them free but Shadow did something much unexpected: Shadow put on a Santa hat.

"Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year."

Someone raised their hand slowly.

"Yes?" Shadow answered.

"Can vampires celebrate any of those?"

Shadow paused.

"Just go."

The classroom quickly emptied as Shadow ordered the tests and made them neat. Kris floated over to him.

"I'm sorry about all of the Hell we've caused you."

Shadow put his computer into its carrying case and grabbed it by the handles.

"It's a good thing I'm retiring soon."

His fangs retraced some but were still visible.

"What?" Kris asked.

"I'm retiring after the year ends." Shadow answered.

"Oh, well, I hope you have a good retirement."

"I will. Now go."

Kris obeyed and flew out of the room. Ky stood in the hall waiting.

"How was the test?" Kris asked her brother.

"It was hard. I hope I passed." He answered.

Sonic and Blaze walked out of the Gymnasium.

"Woo that gym mid-term was SO DIFFICULT!" Sonic bragged.

"There was no exam Sonic." Blaze informed him.

"Shhhh" Sonic shushed her. "I know."

Silver, who was hobbling behind them caught up.

Thank goodness." He said.

Tails appeared out of the crowd and joined them.

"World Geography is done!" He announced. "At least for a semester!"

Sonic stopped walking. "Dang! I just remembered World History has an extra hard exam." Sonic said sadly, all the energy had gone out of him with that thought.

In Shadow's World History room. Shadow stood at the front of the room.

"Before we start the test I would like to announce that I am retiring after the year ends."

Sonic's tail started to wag furiously but when the test and bubble sheet landed it stopped. Sonic sighed and picked his pencil up.

At lunch Sonic was happy as ever to the point where he was slobbering on everything.

"Shadow's retiring!" He told Amy as she sat down next to Tails.

"He is? Awww…" Amy replied sadly.

"You weren't missing anything good Amy." Sonic continued. "Just boring lectures and lots of homework."

"So I guess you heard about Shadow retiring huh?" Kris floated over to the table and sat down.

"He announced it to us earlier." Sonic explained.

"Oh." Kris replied. "So are you guys going anywhere for the holidays?"

"Nope. Sonic answered. "I'm staying here."

"I'm going to visit my mom and dad." Amy answered.

"We're probably going to visit our mom and dad." Kris said.

"Hey can I sit here?" Ky asked as he walked over to their table from the Senior table. "I think Rouge has a crush on me and it's really weirding me out."

Sonic nodded and scooted over to make room for Ky to sit down.

"What's she doing?" Sonic asked.

Ky put down his drink. "She keeps trying to flirt with me and she keeps trying to lean on me whenever I sit over there."

"Well, you won't have to see her for a while." Sonic said. "She might find her a boyfriend or something over the break."

"I hope." Ky replied and stuffed some mashed potatoes in his mouth.

The bell rang soon after and everyone split to take more of their exams. The day after would be the last day before the break. At 4:00 A.M. that day the students were set free.

"Happy Holidays!" Sonic howled through the halls as he ran for the front exit. Tails flew behind him holding a candy cane. The two soon met up with Blaze, Silver, Amy, Kris and Ky to say goodbyes as most were leaving to go on trips.

"Bye you guys!" Sonic gave Kris, Ky and Amy a big hug.

All three of them were wrapped in Sonic's fluffy arms.

"Okay Sonic, bye-bye." They said while they were being engulfed by fur.

Sonic stopped and ran out the door into the grass where it had started snowing.

"SNOW!" He yelled and bounced around.

"Tails, is he okay?" Blaze asked quietly.

"Yeah, he acted like this on the Thanksgiving Break but about the mud that was there after the rain."

Blaze nodded.

"He also may be excited about Christmas. He just sometimes acts like a big puppy. He'll be fine." Tails explained.

"Well, I have to go now." Blaze opened her interdimensional portal and walked inside it. Tails waved.

"Bye everyone!" Kris and Ky walked down the sidewalk to their house to pack. Ky heard wings flapping and ducked as Rouge swooped down to steal a kiss from him.

"Com'on Kris run!" Ky pulled his sister along and they both ran off into the distance.

"Ky you know I can't run very fast!" Kris could be heard shouting.

"Then fly! You're a ghost remember!"

Amy and Sonic had started making tiny snowballs out of the piles of snow that had accumulated so far on the ground and were throwing them at each other and everyone who dared to get near them.

"Alright Sonic, I need to get going." Amy told Sonic as she brushed snow off of her dark red dress. "Mama and Papa are waiting to see me."

Amy changed into a bat and flew off, leaving only Sonic and Tails left.

"Com'on Sonic, it's time to go home." Tails started to fly to his house with Sonic, who was still covered in snow, following.

Shadow sat in his United Federation room and looked out the window. He slowly got up, got his cane and computer and left for a long awaited break that even he had been waiting for as much as the students. Soon the school became quiet as snow covered its rooftops and the sun started to rise.