Alright, so what do you get when you are practicing social distancing, university has closed, you don't really have exams (open book assessments), your other assessments have been cancelled, and you watched the new season of elite and re-watched some gossip girl episodes? A NEW STORY!
First off, I would like to say I'm sorry for being so late! I just started university and was still trying to balance my time between work, friends and this. First year of university was quite a ride and I was worried that my interest in this may falter, but it didn't so yay!
Secondly, I would like to say that I hope everyone is keeping safe and practicing social distancing! I know it's not the best thing in the world right now but in order to flatten the curve we have to do it, the earlier we start, the faster this all can end and we can move on with our lives!
So anyway, welcome to my book Emerald Academy! This has been in my head for a while but I've been so busy with university and all that I didn't have time to execute it, but with self-isolation, I CAN! YAY! (trying to find some joy in this guys, I know it's not the best)
Anyway, before y'all dive in into this story, please read this part of the story thanks.
- This is a Sonic AU highschool story, meaning that nothing that happened in the games would be happening here. The hedgehogs don't have supersonic speed, Knuckles doesn't have incredible strength and Dr Eggman is not on the quest to find the chaos Emeralds and defeat Sonic and the gang. However, things that happen in the games would be hinted at in some way (e.g. Sonic being a part of the track team and Eggman being well, kind of a dick)
- This story is rated M as there would be controversial topics that people may not be a huge fan of reading. Warning, this story is not censored to mature topics including; explicit language, sexual content, the use of drugs and alcohol, mental illness, graphic images (e.g. death), homophobia, etc. I will put a WARNING before a chapter that has these contents but I just wanted to give you a warning now in case mature stories are simply not your thing
- There will be OCs. At first, I wasn't really inclined to have any OCs but because of the type of story (Sonic gang going to a rich, elite highschool), I realised that I need some OCs. The OCs will be mostly parents as not everyone's parents are canon in the franchise. You don't have to ask permission before you use these OCs but I will like some credit if you use them please
- There will be set couples in this story. I love my couples and if you don't like them, fair enough, but please don't come for them. Couples in this story will include; Knuckles/Rouge, Sonic/Amy, Tails/Cosmo, Shadow/Tikal, Silver/Blaze, Manic/Sally, Mighty/Sonia, Charmy/Cream, Tangle/Whisper (new to my OTPs) and some more that I won't reveal just yet. ;)
- There's no individual main character. Every character has their own storyline and journey in the book and they are all equally valid as each other. In addition to that, a lot of characters will be receiving a point of view, also making chapters very long so be aware!
- Aside from my OCs and the occasional use of S'phone to create a parody of iPhone (I watched some Victorious), majority of the characters and locations used DO NOT BELONG TO ME. They belong to their respectful owners of SEGA, Archie, IDW publishing and any person involved within the Sonic franchise.
- Speaking of characters, since this is an AU, characters will be flipped around from their usual role for the sake of the plot for example Aleena would be Bernadette's sister and the hedgehog triplet's aunt. (I'm so sorry but I love Bernadette, one of the only things I liked from the pre-boot Archie comics)
- That's all I have to say, I hope you all enjoy this story!
~xxx~
i.
Knuckles huffed as he completed packing his last box. The red echidna sighed with relief before looking at his empty room. His bed was now bare, the once dark red sheets that filled them had been stripped, the sand covered walls in his room were rid of all the posters of his favourite footballers, basketballers and boxers. Additionally, his matching sand coloured night-stand table had nothing left on top of it. Knuckles never pictured that his room would be this empty. Then again, he had never really imagined moving from Angel Island to Station Square.
Station Square. Even though he had been there before, he still found it odd that he was actually going to be living there. His father, Locke, owned the Master Emerald, one of the most refined banks in the whole of Mobius. It was a well-known fact that he was his father and most people normally complimented him that he looked like him. Knuckles never really knew whether or not to take it as a compliment, but he always said 'thank you' regardless.
His father wasn't exactly father of the year. He cared about his business and provided the family with necessities but he was never really around. He missed a lot of school events, football games and Knuckles wasn't even sure if he actually remembered him at his birthdays. His workaholic behaviour pushed his mother, Lara-Le to divorce him a few years back. After a while, she started dating Wynmacher, another well-successful man who, despite his success, paid attention to her, something that she greatly appreciated.
The two finally tied the knot two months ago and decided that after summer, they would move into his mansion and he and his twin sister Tikal would start school in Station Square. Whilst he was happy that his mum had found new happiness, he didn't really know how to feel about moving out of Angel Island. Angel Island was his first home after all, the place where he and Tikal grew up in, the place where he had been with his family—albeit it not being the happiest.
He had concluded that the main reason for him not wanting to leave Angel Island was because he liked familiarity. Knuckles wasn't such a huge fan of change, it wasn't really something that he looked forward to a lot. He liked the same routine, the same pattern, that way, he knew everything that was coming. He had always hated surprises, new things and new ventures. He had only made an exception to this change because it was to make his mother happy.
Knuckles glanced at his phone to check the time. 8:45am. He had realised that the moving truck was coming in about fifteen minutes and the last thing that he needed was his mother yelling at him.
He carried his last box and suitcase downstairs before seeing his mother adjusting her dreads by the wall mirror. Knuckles wanted to chuckle. It was odd seeing his mother care about her appearance this much, the last time she had remembered that was before his father started working at the bank and pretty much neglecting her.
"You look fine mum." Knuckles commented as Lara-Le turned to see the red echidna smirk before Lara quickly adjusted her dress.
"I know." She stated firmly. Like him, she was never such a huge fan of showing emotion. "I thought I had something in my hair."
Knuckles cocked a brow before she huffed. "I'm going to look around the house one more time."
Knuckles held a laugh as his mother walked past before sitting down next to his sister on the couch. She was currently in her book, her peach dreads tied up in a bun as she continued to scan the pages. He had always wondered how the two of them were twins, granted it was fraternal but twins regardless. Knuckles was more into sports and she was more into books. Knuckles was rough and she was soft. But he had always guessed that the two balanced off each other.
"By the way, he dies." Knuckles grinned as he watched Tikal let out a small smile, before saving the page in her book.
"You know, it never gets funny when you do that." Tikal huffed with a smile.
"It does to me." He snickered.
"Mum was adjusting her hair for a good ten minutes." Tikal confessed as Knuckles chortled.
His mother must really be in love. He had never really seen like this, wanting everything to be perfect. With their father, she just wanted everything to be amateur, sometimes even bad on purpose. But not with Wynmacher, he brought a new side to her, a side that made her smile more, which made him pretty happy.
"She seems really happy." Tikal beamed. "I'm happy for her."
Knuckles looked at the sincerity in her cobalt eyes. Tikal had always been the optimistic, hopeful one out of the both of them, but he couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
"You sure?" Knuckles asked. He didn't mean it in an offensive way and he hoped that she didn't take it either.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Tikal smiled. Knuckles' expression turned contrite.
He knew that she knew he didn't mean it in an offensive way, but he had to ask. Tikal's optimistic behaviour was one of her greatest strengths and also her strongest flaws. She had always been the one hoping that her father and mother would get back together. Whenever their father used to visit, she had always attempted to 'parent trap' them. Knowing that the plan was going to fail—because it always did—but still feeling bad for her, he supported the plan and watched turn into a disaster.
Eventually when his mother started dating Wynmacher, he knew that she was happy for them but she was also hurt because in that moment, she had realised that the idealistic world of Parent trap was just that, an idealistic world.
Tikal noticed her brother's expression before rubbing his cheek and giving him a soft smile. He looked up at her as her smile got wider.
"I'm happy." And she meant it. She knew that he was looking at for her, the naïve little girl who still wanted her parents back together, but seeing Wynmacher, seeing how happy he had made her mother, there was no denying her mother's happiness over a fantasy.
Knuckles smiled, satisfied at her answer.
HONK HONK!
"That's the truck, start putting the stuff in!" Their mother yelled from upstairs.
Knuckles and Tikal chuckled to themselves, knowing that their mother was probably adjusting her make-up for her new husband before adhering to their mother's order. When they were done putting all the boxes—Knuckles doing most of the heavy ones—Knuckles and Tikal glanced at their empty house.
"You kids ready?" Lara-Le beamed as she was walking down the stairs.
It seemed like a simple question, Lara had a secret meaning behind it. She wanted to make her kids happy and even though tradition stated that she should have kept the husband in to make them a 'happy family', she knew that Locke and her weren't happy and their constant arguing wasn't going to make the kids happy either. She did what was best for her and to her amazement, it brought good results.
She met a wonderful man, but she needed to know that her kids liked him and supported her decision. They supported her decision to date him, but marriage was a completely different step.
Tikal smiled at her mother. "Yeah, we're ready." The peach echidna glanced at her brother who nodded in support.
Lara smiled. "Good, we should get going." The last thing she needed were for her kids to see her cry.
~x~
Knuckles had been to big houses before. The house that he had lived in in Angel Island was quite big for just the three of them. When his father used to invite Tikal and Knuckles over for sleepovers—a bit of a strong term but that was the only word that Knuckles had for it—his father had brought them to his mansions to spent the weekend. So the red echidna didn't know why he was so surprised when he saw this mansion.
The black iron gates opened, before the car had pulled into the driveway and parked in front of the mansion, the moving truck right behind them. Knuckles got out of the car, glancing at his new home. It was a Georgian style mansion, the dusty brick walls complemented with the white windows. Surrounding it were the greenest patches of grass he had ever seen.
And I thought Angel Island was the only place that was filled with nature.
"Mister Knuckles?"
The red echidna jumped. Standing in front of him was a purple echidna in a butler suit. His pose remained unfazed by Knuckles outburst, just a simple raised white eyebrow.
"I'm Mykol, the butler." He said in a refined tone. "Would you like help with your bags?"
Knuckles was shocked. Normally with his dad, the butler just carried his duffel bag and went on his way. He never actually formally introduced himself.
"You don't have to, we-
"Wynmacher!" Lara beamed from behind before running to hug the echidna. Said echidna was currently in a white polo T-shirt with contrasting sand tennis shorts and white tennis shoes. Knuckles glanced at the happy couple and smiled, before seeing them kiss and wanting to immediately gag.
Him being happy for his mother does not mean he wanted to see them canodooling in front of him.
"Actually, I'd like some help." He clarified, knowing that his mother was off in her fairy tale land.
The butler had helped him and Tikal put their things in their respective rooms—Knuckles was quite impressed with the strength that the butler had.
"Knuckles." Wynmacher finally greeted as Knuckles brought out his hand to shake.
Wynmacher glanced down before giving Knuckles a smug smile and pulling him in for a hug. He had forgotten that Wynmacher was quite the hugger. He gave him a forced smile as the echidna let go.
"Hey Wynmacher." He let out. He knew the echidna met well, but hugging wasn't necessarily his favourite thing to do in the world.
"Tikal." He greeted as Tikal flashed him her usual friendly smile before openly accepting the hug. Another trait that made Knuckles wonder how they could actually be twins.
"Hi Wynmacher." She smiled happily. "You've got a wonderful home."
"There's no need for that." Wynmacher dismissed. "It's our home."
Our. It was only a three letter word, but it brought a lot of joy to Knuckles. Not like he was going to admit that. Emotions weren't really his thing. Even though his father invited them to his home and acted like a father—somewhat—he had always made it distinctively clear that it was strictly his home. A part of him knew that it was mostly to get at their mother, but saying it to them, made him wonder if he really cared for them at all.
"Knuckles?"
The red echidna snapped back to reality to glance at Wynmacher worried face.
"Sorry?" Knuckles asked.
"I asked, if you would like to see your room." Wynmacher repeated before Knuckles nodded.
He glanced at the worried look that his mother had and dissolved it with a small smile. The last thing that needed to be on her mind was the thought of their father.
"You alright? You zoned out for a bit." Tikal stated worriedly as Knuckles scoffed with a smirk. "I'm fine."
Don't need to worry Tikal either.
The trio had walked up the spiral staircase before stopping at Knuckles' room first. The red echidna glanced at his new room that felt like a hotel suite. The king sized bed that sat firmly in the middle of the room, the row of lights that shined strongly within the room, the small basketball hoop that was placed on the sand covered wall and the red couch that sat firmly on the left corner of the room, facing the flat screen TV.
"This is my room?" Knuckles said, trying to hide the shock in his voice but ultimately failing.
Wynmacher smiled at him. "Yeah. I remembered you liked basketball so I had them put a basketball hoop."
Consideration. He had to give Wynmacher points for that. Normally, his dad would just make one of the workers play basketball with him or if he was really lucky, got to watch a game with him every once in a while. Wynmacher put effort, he actually remembered facts about them. He smiled earnestly at his new step-father.
"Thank you." Wynmacher smiled back at the echidna.
"Right, I'm going to let you unpack and show your sister to her new room." Wynmacher beamed before the two left together. Knuckles sighed, before taking in his new room. It was nice, hell, it was amazing and he could tell that Wynmacher had put a lot of thought into it. Maybe this change wasn't as bad as he made it out to be.
BUZZ BUZZ
The vibrations from his phone interrupted any future thoughts that he had. He wondered who could be calling him at this time.
Dad? He scoffed. Yeah right.
Knuckles sighed before taking his red S'phone out of his pocket before he saw the caller ID
Relic
There was a tiny part of him that was disappointed that it wasn't his father, but he ignored the thought before picking up the call.
"Hey Relic, what's—"
"Omg, how's the mansion? How's Wynmacher? How's Station square?" she cut off, her excitement highlighted within her tone.
Relic the Pika, one of the Knuckles' closest—and honestly, only—friends that he had made in Angel Island. She annoyed the living day light out of him most of the time, but he did miss her. Saying goodbye to her was hard, especially considering the fact that she was very emotional and Knuckles didn't really enjoy emotions.
"It's all good." Knuckles chuckled out before she had another chance to ramble. "How's Angel Island?"
"Ugh, boring! Without you and Tikal, I have to listen to my mum talk about the time she was almost a new generation of Marylin Monroe." She let out. "Oh my gosh, I didn't even tell you what she said today, so basically—"
Knuckles had tuned her out at this point. Their conversations normally went like this, she would call, ask how he's doing and all, he would answer quickly because he knew he was in for Relic ranting on about something about her day. Even though he could easily lie and say he has to go and end the call, he chose not to. He did miss her after all, even though he was never going to tell her that.
"—and then she told me that Julie is in Station Square as well."
Knuckles jumped to sit up on his bed from his original lying down position. "What?" he was both shocked at that information and the fact that she had managed to jump from talking about her mother and her idealistic approach towards fame to that information.
"Yeah. Apparently, she moved there last year. She's also in your school, so you won't be lonely." Relic beamed.
Huh. The last he had heard from Julie, she was in Echidnopolis, living with her extended family. Then again, the last time he had heard from Julie, he was thirteen years old.
"Anyway, I've got to go! Mum needs some help with the TV, talk to you tomorrow?" Relic said, unaware of her news affecting the red echidna.
"Yeah, night Relic." Knuckles commented, before ending the call.
Julie-Su. His ex-best friend and ex crush. She had moved to live with their grandparents when they were thirteen and he had confessed that he liked her as more than a friend but she didn't feel the same. Hence, the end of the friendship.
Knuckles had moved on after that. It had been three years and he even managed to have a five month relationship with Shade, a nice echidna in their year. They decided to break up during the summer, due to Knuckles moving and the relationship simply not being as strong as it once was. There was no hostility but he had guessed that she simply was the type that didn't want to be friends with an ex.
Anyways, the point being, he had moved on. But that didn't mean that seeing Julie was not going to be weird.
Living in Station Square was going to be a lot more interesting than he thought.
~xxx~
"What?" Julie almost spit out her orange juice. She looked surprised at her mother, who was simply beaming at the news that she had just given her.
"You heard me. I was just on the phone with Lara-Le and Knuckles and Tikal moved here and are starting at Emerald Academy today!" Mari-Su smiled, the dark violet eyes that she had inherited from her gleaming with joy.
Julie wasn't surprised. Lara-Le was pretty much her mother's best friend. She knew that she missed them when they had to move to Echidnopolis due to their grandfather's growing illness. Now that they were in Station Square together, she knew that her mother was leaping for joy.
Julie on the other hand, not so much.
"Oh, your little boyfriend came over?" Lien-Da, her half-sister grinned maliciously before stealing a slice of her toast.
Julie frowned.
Lien-Da, her half-sister, the devil incarnate. The two never really got along and Lien-Da always looked for an opportunity to make her life a living hell. With Knuckles living here, she knew that it was going to get a lot worse.
"You know, there's a large amount on the table." Julie hissed as Lien smiled wickedly before Julie rolled her eyes.
"Oh honey, I thought you would be more excited." Mari-Su stated, her face filled with worry.
"Aww, she's just worried because the only boy that could possibly like her got rejected by her and now he's going to the same school as her." Lien-Da explained condescendingly.
The purple echidna wanted to kill her half-sister at that point. She didn't know which one was worse, the fact that Lien-Da was smirking at her statement or her mother's curious expression. The last thing she needed on her first day of junior year was talk about her love life.
"Mum, I don't want to talk about it." Julie grumbled before eating her piece of toast quite aggressively.
As much as she loved her mum, the last thing that she needed was to really talk about her love life, even though she didn't really think Knuckles was a huge part of her love life.
"Alright, just know that I'm always here for you." Her mother reassured her.
Lien-Da rolled her eyes. "Ew." She hissed before walking upstairs. Julie ignored her sister as she smiled at her mother.
"Thanks."
Her mother smiled before stating that she had to leave, although Julie wasn't really sure why considering that she was already lost in her thoughts. While it would be happy to be reunited with Tikal—she loved that girl like a sister—she wasn't too sure about Knuckles.
She had nothing against the echidna but ever since the day that he had confessed his feelings for her and she had politely rejected, their friendship wasn't the same. They had promised each other they were going to send letters and talk all the time when she moved but none of that happened. Eventually, she just decided not to keep in contact with them at all.
Oh chaos, what if he hates me?
Julie wasn't really good with her emotions, something that she had in common with Knuckles, but the thought of hating her did come whenever she thought about the red echidna. He had every reason to, after all, she didn't message him in three years and rejected his advances, not exactly best friend worthy.
If she could even count as a best friend anymore.
The purple echidna shook off the negative thoughts. There was no point dwelling on something that could possibly not happen. Maybe Knuckles might even remember her. Heck, it's been three years, a lot has happened. Emerald Academy was a pretty big school after all, there was high possibility that she wasn't going to bump into him anyway.
~x~
"So you're just going to avoid him?" Mighty, her best friend concluded after Julie had told him everything.
Mighty the Armadillo, her new found best friend in Emerald Academy. Mighty had shown her around when she was still the new girl. Mighty was a nice, friendly and caring person. He was also pretty popular and she had always wondered why out of all the people he knew, he chose to hang out with her. Regardless, she wasn't complaining, she had made a pretty awesome friend in a school that was filled with quite a number of dickheads.
The two were currently in Mighty's convertible, a tradition that they started doing when Mighty got his license. It was between him driving her to school or Lien-Da and considering her and Lien Da's hatred, Mighty was a much better option.
"It's not so much avoiding, just letting nature take its course." Julie explained. "This school is big enough for me not to see him."
"Okay, the school is big but not that big." Matilda, his little sister argued from the backseat. "Plus you're in the school for two years?"
"Matilda." Mighty scolded his sister in the backseat as the armadillo shrugged. Mighty glanced at Julie. "She's not wrong though."
Julie huffed. She knew that her avoiding plan was very likely—probably a hundred percent, knowing her luck—going to fail. Was she still willing to do it to avoid her feelings? Of course she was.
"You know you can't keep avoiding your feelings." Mighty reminded, his blue eyes still focused on the road.
He known Julie for over two years and while she was an awesome friend, he knew that one of her greatest flaws was talking about her feelings. From hearing of the situation, he knew that she missed Knuckles, he was her first best friend and wants to return to what they once were.
"Do you always have to psychoanalyse me?" Julie huffed as Mighty glanced at her before smirking
"Yup."
She had always found Mighty's smirk to be one of his most attractive features. She saw what girls saw in him to make him one of the most attractive boys in Emerald Academy. He was on the football and wrestling team, he had an amazing build—she once opened his house where he had opened the door shirtless—and he had an amazing personality.
But she knew that she could never date Mighty. First off, the last best friendship she had that could have led to more brought her into this situation, and two, she had never pictured Mighty that way. She cared for him like a brother and he cared for like a sister.
"Ugh." She rolled her eyes at her situation whilst removing any thought of her and Mighty dating.
"Don't worry about it. He psychoanalyses everyone." Ray, his adoptive yellow flying squirrel brother added from the backseat as Julie swore she heard Matilda chuckle a little.
"Really Ray?" Mighty sighed as Ray smiled and Matilda shrugged.
"So what are you going do to?" Mighty asked before making a turn towards the road of their school.
"Simple. Avoid." She stated truthfully as she heard Mighty sigh before driving into their school parking lot.
"You know that's a dumb idea right?" Mighty stated as Julie stuck out her tongue.
"You're a dick you know that?" she hissed jokingly as Mighty looked hurt offended before switching off the engine.
"That's no way to be talking to your designated driver." Mighty stated as Julie rolled her eyes and chuckled.
"Well, if you two are done flirting." Matilda commented, her emphasis on 'flirting' said with a disgusted tone. "I'm going to find my friends."
Julie blushed faintly at Matilda's comments. She had always made comments like that, but she guessed from her earlier thoughts that it was only making the situation worse.
"See you later guys!" Ray added sweetly before leaving the two.
"See you buddy." Mighty smiled before turning back to Julie
"Matilda just gets sweeter every year." Julie commented as Mighty chuckled.
The purple echidna turned to glance at the school building. Emerald Academy. It felt like a walking cliché to her. A bunch of rich kids all packed into one school. Some were more humble than others, some were cockier than others. It was a basic high school but deciding to give everyone a million Mobium allowance.
And she was stuck here for another two years. At least she had Mighty.
The two began walking towards the entrance of the school before she saw Principal Nephthys approaching them, her lips smiled with delight at the sight of Julie.
"Morning Julie-Su, Morning Mighty." she beamed as Julie and Mighty greeted her back. She was surprised that the principal was coming to talk to her, considering she wasn't really in that many activities aside from the volleyball team.
"Julie, I was hoping that you could show the new students around. They're just in my office, your mother told me that you guys were friends?" the vulture asked as Julie wanted to sink into the ground.
Reminder: Yell at mum when I get home.
A part of her wanted to be bold and just say no, but she had been in Emerald Academy long enough to know that when the principal wanted something, she had to get it.
"Gee, I—"
"Perfect!" the vulture beamed, not allowing Julie to finish her sentence. "Come with me."
Although there was a smile on her face, she knew it was an order. She managed to get a glance from Mighty who was doing nothing but smirking at her. She gave him the finger before continuing to follow the vulture.
~xxx~
"Here she is." The principal beamed. "Julie-Su."
Knuckles glanced at his former best friend. She had grown a little bit taller and her dreads were a lot longer, being up in a high ponytail. He had even noticed that she had dyed one of her dreads grey, he was a little curious to ask why but knowing Julie, he was never going to get an answer.
The room was already awkward, no one really talking after the principal had brought Julie in the room.
"Hi Julie." Tikal finally let out, easing the awkward silence a little. Julie gave her a small smile, before she glanced at Knuckles.
"Hi." she let out.
"Hi." he let out.
Fuck, what now?
"Alright, I thought this was going to be a lot less awkward." The principal intervened before coughing awkwardly.
"I'll just show you two around." Julie commented awkwardly before she left the room, the two echidnas following behind her.
Knuckles looked at Tikal who glanced him a sympathetic look. She was aware of the unrequited crush Knuckles had on her, hence making this situation a lot more awkward.
"So I noticed you're not wearing the skirt." Tikal let out as Knuckles gave her a confused look. Tikal shrugged apologetically before Julie chuckled.
"Yeah, it was a little bit too girly for my taste." Julie smirked as Knuckles couldn't help but chuckle.
"Still the same." he muttered. He swore that he saw a small smile appear on Julie's face.
"Alright, so welcome to Emerald Academy." Julie started. "Or as I like to call it, the land of the snobby rich kids."
"But you go here as well." Knuckles grinned before Julie glared at him.
"Don't push me." Julie deadpanned as Knuckles smirked at her. Their banter was coming back. They would have to address the elephant in the room eventually, but it was nice that they were at least getting along.
"Anyway, before your annoying brother interrupted." she commented to Tikal as the peach echidna giggled. "Emerald Academy is—
"Julie, I didn't know you had other friends."
Knuckles watched her expression turn into a frown as an attractive white bat approached them. Her white wavy hair that reached her shoulders contrasted with her blue eyeshadow and teal eyes. Contrast to Julie's uniform, she wore the skirt, fitted right on her waist as she wore black laced up boots, compared to Julie's sneakers.
"What do you want Rouge?" Julie hissed. Knuckles gulped. He knew that Julie's temper was not something to be messed with.
Rouge. Nice name.
"To say hello." Rouge shrugged innocently, before waving at Tikal, Knuckles noticing her black painted nails. She glanced at Knuckles afterwards.
"Hey handsome." She grinned as Knuckles couldn't help but flush a bit. Julie's glare however made him flush for a different reason.
"Is that all?" Julie let out irritated.
"I'm just surprised you're not with your boyfriend Mighty." She shrugged, although there was a grin on her face at Julie's flushed reaction.
Knuckles didn't know what to think. He certainly wasn't jealous—he didn't really have a right to be—but it was a little awkward finding out from a random girl that his ex-best friend has a new boyfriend.
"Mighty's not my boyfriend." She countered proudly. "He's just a friend."
Rouge raised up her hands in defence. "Whatever you say." She glanced at Knuckles and Tikal. "What do you have first?"
"Oh, um, I've got Philosophy." Tikal admitted shyly. Knuckles remembered that she was normally shy towards new people.
"You, handsome?" she asked, looking at him. He tried not to flush at her calling him handsome, especially considering the fact that Julie and her didn't seem to get along in the slightest.
"Oh, um, economics." Knuckles let out as confidently as he can. Her smirk grew wider.
"So do I. I can show—"
"I will show him." Julie interjected before linking arms with the red echidna. He glanced at Julie's stern face, watching her trying not to explode at the white bat even though her anger was very evident. She shrugged, before turning to his sister.
"Right, Peaches, the philosophy classroom is." she turned, looking for the exact location. "third door on the left."
"Thank you." she beamed as Rouge smiled back before Knuckles watched his sister leave.
"Well, I have to wait for my grump-hog of a friend." she sighed. "See you around, handsome." She glanced at Julie. "Later Julie."
Knuckles could literally hear Julie growl under her breath as Knuckles glanced at the ivory bat walking away.
Wow, she has a cute—
Julie whacked his hand, making him face the angry purple echidna. "What?"
"You were checking her out." Julie frowned.
Knuckles didn't really have much of a defence considering that he was indeed checking her out. She was attractive, but something about her felt different and alluring. Not like he was ever going to mention it to her.
"Who's Mighty?" Knuckles asked changing the subject as Julie sighed awkwardly.
"He's my best friend." Julie confessed as Knuckles nodded, before the two of them starting walking to their economic class in silence.
A part of him was angry, even though he knew he had no right to be angry. When she had left, Relic and Shade had somewhat replaced her role as best friend and crush. It wasn't necessarily fair for him considering he did the same thing.
"Am I going to like him?" Knuckles asked as Julie looked surprised at him.
It was their way of saying that the past was in the past, because well, it was. They were cool, and even though there was a part of him that wondered if their friendship was ever going to be the same, they were at least starting to have a friendship.
"Yeah, you'll like him." Julie smiled as Knuckles nodded before making a turn for the economic classroom.
He saw Rouge, talking—or from the looks of it, annoying—an ebony hedgehog sitting beside her. The white bat glanced at him from the entrance before giving him a wave. He reciprocated the wave, Julie rolling her eyes, before tugging on his blazer sleeve.
"Hey, that's Mighty, we can sit on his row." she beamed, highlighting the fact that she wanted to avoid sitting with Rouge.
"Hey." The red armadillo greeted Knuckles friendly, before bringing out his hand. "Mighty."
"Knuckles." he greeted back before accepting the hand shake. Julie sat in the middle of the two of them, allowing Knuckles to ask her. "Why do you hate Rouge?"
The purple echidna sighed before glancing at her long lost friend. "Long story. Will tell you at lunch."
Knuckles wanted to ask more but a light brown sparrow entered the room, assembling his things on the desk, allowing Knuckles to conclude that he was the teacher. Knuckles couldn't help but wonder though, why does Julie hate this Rouge so much? Was this person that bad of a person?
Knuckles turned to take one more glance at her before the ivory bat winked at him, to which he quickly turned around to face the teacher.
Going to Emerald Academy was going to be a lot more interesting that he thought.
~xxx~
Well, that's chapter one! Sorry, it was a lot longer than I thought it would be. I just want to make one thing clear.
Julie-Su is not a villain. I mainly use Julie-Su because she's the only person who actually dislikes Rouge due to Knuckles. I just want to make it clear that Julie will not just be an antagonist for Rouge and will have her own identity. I'm not exactly a huge fan of her character (to put it simply, I hate the fact that the Archie writers basically made a female Knuckles), but I will not actively bash her or any character because of that reason.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you all in the next!
(btw, ivory and ruby is not getting deleted, she will be returning, soon ;) )