As her teacher finished reminding the class about their homework assignment, the bell ringed and Blaze hurriedly packed up her belongings before quickly walking out of the classroom to get to the cafeteria as it's her lunch period. However, as she's making her way to the staircase, someone accidentally bumped into Blaze, causing her to drop her binder and books to the floor. As she picked her stuff from the ground, she heard a few guys from her last class snickering and muttering, "Sucks to be her."
Oh, how much Blaze wanted to slap those guys. Not just for making fun of her accident, but for how they acted in class. Blowing spitballs at three students (including her)? Disgusting.
Enough about those jerks. Blaze finished picking up her belongings and she quickly shoved her book on her fuchsia messenger bag. Before Blaze put her binder in her bag, she wanted to have a quick check inside her binder, mainly her binder pockets, in case something fell out.
Thank god my schedule didn't fall out, Blaze sighed in relief as she put her binder inside her bag. She really didn't want to lose it, especially on her first day at Emerald High School. Oh, and the map of the school as well since it has three floors on the main building and two buildings. Sheesh, not even her old school was that huge.
Blaze continued her way down the stairs and made her way through the cafeteria. Before she can search for an empty table, her phone vibrated from her jean pockets. Blaze decided to pull her phone out to see that her adopted sister, Marine, has sent her a text message.
Hey, Barb!
Even after five years with Marine, Blaze still doesn't like it when Marine calls her 'Barb' or, heaven forbid, 'Barbie'. She would have been fine with either Blaze or her actual name: Barbara. But for now, Blaze ignored that and continued to read Marine's message.
Are u here at the cafeteria? I even saved you a seat! My new friends won't mind, I promise!
It's 5th period, and already Marine has made friends before Blaze did. Marine is more of a social bird compared to Blaze anyway, even at their old school. Plus, Blaze wouldn't be surprised if Marine invites them over to their house during the weekend as she did back at their old home.
Also, I think you can help with a PRANK! It'll be so epic!
Wait, what. Blaze double-checked the message as she thought she misread it. Nope. 'Prank' is emphasized clearly and Marine is no stranger to pranks. Thankfully, Marine never pulled any pranks on her, but still!
Marine, don't you dare get in trouble on your first week. Let alone your first day at school.
As she finished texting, Blaze found an empty table that's been recently cleaned. She set her bag on the round table and pulled her lunch box from it, along with her water bottle. Even though her sister was nice enough to save a seat for her, Blaze wouldn't want to spend her lunch period with Marine and her new friends. Before she can take a bite of her chicken salad sandwich, she quickly got another message from Marine.
I won't. That prank is going to be saved later in the week for my friend's brother! After school.
Blaze groaned in annoyance, facepalming over Marine's behavior. She's in high school for crying out loud! Blaze wishes that Marine would at least behave once in a while, whether she's in or out of school.
Still, you shouldn't do this to someone else. I swear to God, if you do, you know what will happen.
She's not going to listen to me, is she? Blaze thought as she pulled her headphones from her jeans pocket and plugging them to her phone. She was going to listen to music while reading her assigned reading (Macbeth), but she decided to wait for Marine's response to her threat. For the most part, Marine wouldn't reply whenever Blaze scolds/threatens her in the past minute or two. That can either mean Marine took Blaze's words seriously or not; it's honestly a coin toss at this point.
A minute passed and Marine hasn't responded yet. Not even the typing bubble on her messaging board showed up. Well, the only thing that Blaze can do at this point is to wait or just warn her again after school. One of the two. But for now, she opened her Spotify app and started listening to her study playlist while reading the first two (or three; it depends) scenes of Macbeth. She probably wouldn't take too many bites of her sandwich since she'll be too engaged with her reading; plus, she doesn't want to read her assigned reading when she gets home! She has to deal with a lot of homework that'll eat up her time compared to this, especially Algebra II since it's tedious. Seriously, when will she ever use even half of the material in the real-world anyway?! Like if she gets trapped in a magical place where the problems are solved with math?! Yeah, right.
Blaze's train of thought got interrupted when she heard someone yelling, "Hey, Blaze!"
She turned around to see her next-door neighbor, Venice, standing close to her table, carrying a tray of what appears to be pizza (or was it a quesadilla?). She paused her playlist and took off her headphones to greet her neighbor, "Oh, Venice. I didn't hear you."
"Uh… Just Silver is fine, Blaze," he said as he laughed a bit.
Right. She forgot about that when the two first met a few days ago when she and her family started moving into their new home. She usually refers to others by their real name rather than their nicknames.
"Sorry, Silver," Blaze apologized, using the nickname. Silver never gave an explanation to his nickname, but Blaze can see why since it's obvious: his grayish hair reaching close to his shoulders. "Anyway, why are you here?"
"Well, I was going outside to eat lunch with my friends, but then I saw you sitting alone," Silver started to explain before asking, "So I was wondering, can I with you Blaze? If that's alright with you."
Blaze folded the top edge of the page she was reading before closing her book. She was going to refuse politely, but she did remember that Silver offered her and Marine a ride to school earlier today. Plus, he gave her advice on how to navigate this monster of a school, along with showing her where most of her classes are before first period started.
After a few seconds of thinking, Blaze replied, "Yeah, Silver. You can join me."
Silver quietly cheered, "Yea!" before sitting next to Blaze and setting his tray on the table.
For a while, minus the noise around the cafeteria, there's silence between Silver and Blaze. Silver was texting on his phone while Blaze is taking small bites of her sandwich and drinking from her water bottle. There were points that the two wanted to start a conversation, only for them to hesitate and say, "It's nothing."
Not even five minutes passed and already, Blaze felt hot and sweaty. No, not from this awkward silence between her and Silver (that's only a small bit), but because of how humid it is inside a building! It's mid-September for crying out loud, not mid-to-late July! She quickly took a huge gulp of her water bottle, hoping that she can stay cool, but only ended up drinking half of it before coughing a bit due to drinking too fast.
"Not used to the Texas heat?" Silver asked, finally breaking the awkward silence.
After clearing her throat, Blaze said in response, "Uh… not really. I was feeling a bit hot, even though we're inside."
How that's possible despite air-conditioning is beyond Blaze.
"When you live in New York for almost all of your life, anything above 80 in September, or almost any month not in summer, is just torture for me," Blaze explained. As she finished her sentence, she swore that she saw Silver choking on that pizza/quesadilla slice a bit before washing it down with some orange juice.
"Wait a minute. You mean, New York City? As in, The Big Apple?" Silver asked happily to Blaze.
"Yeah." Blaze nodded her head.
"No way! I've always wanted to go there since I was a kid!" Silver is practically on his seat, on the verge of falling in any second. Thankfully, he quickly sat back down before asking, "So why'd you move from New York to Green Hills anyway?"
"It's mainly because of my father's job. He used to be a biology teacher at my old private school until he recently got a job offer as a professor at a university near Green Hills. Naturally, he accepted and we had to move here."
"Wow! But wasn't it difficult to move from your home and school?"
Blaze shook her head and said, "For the most part, not really. Sure, I had to say good-bye to some of my friends, but it wasn't too hard. Though it's still awkward to sleep at night without the sound of late-night traffic." Blaze laughed a bit before continuing, "Of course, there was some stuff I was really happy to leave behind."
"Like what?"
Blaze had to think about her response for a moment. She didn't want to accidentally reveal to Silver about 'that' incident before she moved. That was a stressful day for both her and her father.
Thankfully, there's an answer that can work.
"For one, a group of girls that bullied me throughout my old private school," Blaze answered.
"Yikes! Glad you'll never see them again," says Silver.
"That's what I said to my dad on my last day there. Anyway, those girls, they dubbed themselves as 'The Diamond Girlz', with the 's' replaced with a 'z'-"
Silver snickered at that name.
"It's a dumb name, I know. They even had their own jacket for god's sake."
Basically the school's navy blue blazer with the back with studded pink jewels that had their name. Normally, this would break the school's dress code, but the Diamonds were able to get away with since their parents make huge donations to the school every year.
"Well anyway, those girls targeted me the most for," Blaze had to pause for a moment before snapping her fingers and a small flame appeared on her index finger.
"Holy crap!" Silver exclaimed happily. "You have-"
"Pyrokinesis, yes." Blaze snapped her fingers again and the flame disappeared. "I had them for as long as I remember. While I'll admit that they're useful at times, I often sometimes wish I didn't have them. Especially since The Diamonds would mock me for having them, or worse…"
She really didn't want to remember the day where the police were involved with the incident of her inside a-
"Never mind. Maybe for another time," Blaze said as she took another sip of her water. "Besides, it's pretty recent and I'd rather not remember it for now."
"Yeah, I understand. There were some moments that I'd like to forget as well," Silver agreed. "But on the topic of powers, check this out, Blaze."
Silver's left hand started glowing light blue and he pointed at an empty chair with a table full of guys from the varsity football team (due to their green jackets having a giant football on the back with a giant ring around). The empty chair glowed the same color as Silver's hand and without hesitation, Silver swiped his hand quickly, causing the chair to slide at least five feet away from the table. As a bonus, half of the guys screamed in terror, one sounded pretty high-pitched from what Silver and Blaze can hear.
While hearing the reactions was priceless enough, one guy screamed this golden line:
"Ahh! The cafeteria ghost came back to haunt us all!"
This alone caused both teens to laugh hard, to the point that Blaze's face turned slightly red from how hard she laughed. Once she got a hold of herself, Blaze took a deep breath and stated, "Okay, that's actually hilarious. So what you did there, was that physic powers?"
"Yeah, psychokinesis to be exact," Silver answered. "Just like with you, they were with me and I don't know why I have them. Of course, they were very helpful when I wanted to get stuff from places that I couldn't reach or during the Halloween season."
The two looked back at the table with the football players. One of them is on the floor, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth, muttering something that no one understands. Both Silver and Blaze realized that the chair Silver moved is still away from the table. He quickly used his powers to move the chair back into the table, prompting the entire table to scream even louder.
During this, both Silver and Blaze heard another laughter behind them. While familiar to Silver, Blaze didn't know who it belonged to. Along with Silver, Blaze turned around to see a guy with bright-blue short spiky hair, carrying a tray with a chili dog, an apple, and a red Powerade.
"Sonic! Took you long enough to get here," Silver greeted him as Sonic sat down next to him.
"Sorry about that, lil bro. The line took longer than usual since someone was arguing with the lunch lady for two minutes straight," Sonic explained as he started eating his chili dog. As he was eating, he noticed Blaze and greeted her with, "Oh, hey there, Blaze! What's up?"
Blaze tilted her head to the left, confused on what Sonic had said. 'Lil bro'? Other than their similar skin tone (Silver's light olive skin compared to Sonic's fair skin), they don't look like siblings. What with their different eye color (Silver amber while Sonic is dark green) and especially hair color!
Thankfully, Silver noticed Blaze's confusion and explained, "I should have mentioned this to you earlier, but I'm adopted by Sonic's family. So technically, he's my older brother."
"Yep! Been with the Griffith's for two years and it's great!" Sonic chimed into the conversation. "Though his full name is kind of a mouthful. I mean, Venice Florence Faust-Griffith?! Try saying that five times fast."
When Blaze first met Silver a few days ago, he introduced himself with 'Faust' as his last name; no mention of either his middle or legal last name. She can understand the middle name as it's not often used, but why hide the last name? Still, she can agree that's a mouthful of a name; at least compared to her own: Barbara Aegir Jewel.
"H-hey! My name isn't that bad!" Silver exclaimed, lightly punching him on his shoulder. "Plus, I'm still getting used to Griffith as my legal last name."
"Alright. I'll stop poking fun at your name, especially in front of Blaze."
"Okay, thank-" Silver paused his sentence when he heard Sonic mention Blaze. From what he knows, the two never met, even when Blaze moved in. "Wait a minute, how do you-?"
"Sonic and I share Algebra II together," Blaze simply explained. "He's surprisingly good at it when I asked him about today's lesson."
"Didn't want you to fall behind, especially since you're new here," Sonic added as he twisted the Powerade cap open. "Speaking of classes, how are you enjoying-"
"SOOONIC!"
"Aw, crap. Amy's coming," Sonic muttered as he tried to jump out of his seat in time.
"Hm? Who's Amy?" Blaze wondered.
In response to Blaze's question, Silver pointed to a girl with bright pink hair, styled in a short bob-cut. Honestly, Blaze doesn't know why almost half of the students at Emerald High have abnormal hair and eye color, but then again, she has lilac hair with lavender highlights on the bottom of her hair and amber eyes. She shouldn't question this at all.
Right as Sonic got out of his chair, he's instantly greeted with a tight hug from Amy, squealing happily, "Ah, my darling Sonic! I finally got you this time!"
"A-Amy! Let me go!" Sonic demanded as he tried to push Amy away from him.
"Aw! But we haven't eaten lunch together in a while!"
"That was four days ago!" Sonic exclaimed as he shoved his hand in Amy's face.
Amy moved Sonic's hand out of her face while saying, "Hey! You promised me that you'll eat the lunch that I made for-" She paused when she spotted Blaze. Confused, she asked, "Hey Sonic, who's that girl next to Silver? Is she Silver's boyfriend?!"
WHAT?! Both Blaze's and Silver's faces turned a bright pink and they quickly turned their faces away from each other. Also, she can swear she hear Silver stammering at this point, along with the words, "Not dating… No way… Hahaha…"
Wanting to clear things up, Blaze cleared her throat and said, "Uh… excuse me, um… Amy, was it?"
She responded with, "Yep. I'm fine with either Amelia or Amy."
"Okay then. I'm Barbara Jewel, but you can call me Blaze if you want," she introduced herself to Amy. "Anyway, I'm not Silver's boyfriend. In fact, we just met a few days ago as neighbors. My family and I moved from New York-"
Before Blaze can finish her sentence, Amy squealed with excitement and immediately released her embrace from Sonic (much to his relief as he sat back down). She quickly took a seat next to Sonic and leaned to Blaze and grabbed both of her hands, happily shaking them up and down.
"Oh, my god! You're really from THE New York, New York?!" Amy happily asked Blaze, still shaking hands.
Blaze quickly let go of Amy's hands and responded nervously, "Y-yes, ever since I was born."
"Ooh! You've got to tell me everything about that city! I've been planning to go there during the summer since I've got Broadway tickets to see this cool new musical called Be More Chill, alongside with the acclaimed…"
Not even thirty seconds went by and already, Blaze has lost track of the conversation with Amy. It's not the first time that Blaze lost interest in a conversation with someone before. She did that with her old friends back in New York. However, in the case with Amy, she's talking at a pace that's difficult for Blaze to keep track of, only understanding some keywords such as 'cool museums' and 'park'.
While listening to Amy's conversation to the best of her ability, Blaze noticed two boys talking to Sonic and Silver: one short fair-skinned boy with blond hair and a medium-brown skinned muscular boy with red dreadlocks. From what she can hear, the blond boy is named Tails while the other with dreadlocks is Knuckles. Strange nicknames, sure, but still. Anyway, Silver pointed to Blaze during the conversation, in which Tails gasped while Knuckles mentioned that he shared a history class together with her. Funny, she never noticed him in that class despite his bright hair color.
As Amy finished up the (finally) conversation with a mention of staying at a cool hotel, she spotted Tails and Knuckles and greeted them, "Hey there guys! I almost didn't see you!"
"Hey, Ames. Yeah, the line was a pain in the ass," Knuckles replied back.
"Something about the slushie machine not working properly," Tails added to the conversation.
"God, that thing is like twenty years old. You think they would replace it by now," Amy replied as she pulled her lunch container from her bag. "Anyway, have you guys met Blaze? She's…"
"From New York. Yeah, Sonic and Silver told us," Tails informed Amy as he and Knuckles sat down.
"No need to recap for us," Knuckles added. "Besides, she's probably tired of that 'New York' business. What she really needs to hear is about Green Hills and its great parks! Especially one that's big enough to hold a sporting event in a few weeks!"
Oh. Sporting event? Now, this is something for Blaze to hear.
"Really?" Blaze perked up at the mention of it. "What kind of sporting event?"
Knuckles was about ready to answer until he got literally knocked out by both Sonic and Silver; the latter apologizing to Knuckles for pushing him to the tiled floor.
"It's the kind that hosts a whole bunch of games and sports like a three-legged race, bean-bag tossing, soccer, and especially Extreme Gear racing!" Sonic excitedly explained to Blaze. He searched through his red jacket pocket and pulled out a blue flyer that reads: The 30th Annual EX-Games coming this early November! Sign-up for the EX-Gear Race! Every other event is welcomed by everyone!
"Sonic really looks forward to this event every year," Silver added as he laughed over how his adoptive brother is acting.
"I can see." Honestly, it's not hard for Blaze (or anyone really) to notice how giddy Sonic is.
God, I didn't expect this to happen to me, Blaze thought as she looked around her table. She thought she would have a quiet lunch today, but in a way, she was glad that things turned out differently than she expected. She did get to learn more about Silver and meet his adoptive older brother, alongside a few of his friends and an event that she might be interested in next month.
No need to wait for me, Silver. Just go ahead home already. You know that I'm the fastest thing alive and can get home in a flash!
The wonders of having super-speed, yet you own a car, Silver thought as he read the text message Sonic sent him just now. At this point, Silver should just own Sonic's blue Mitsubishi Lancer as he drives it more often compared to Sonic (unless it's raining).
He put his phone inside his green olive jacket pockets, pulled his keys inside his jacket pockets and unlocked his car door. As he's starting the car up, he spotted Blaze waiting at the school's front stairway, looking at her phone. Luckily, he didn't start the car and he decided to leave everything inside his car (except his keys and phone) and run towards Blaze.
"Hey!" Silver called as he ran, waving his hands.
Seeing Silver, she put her phone away in her bag, waved back at him and saying, "Silver, hey."
"Uh… You waiting to get picked up from your parents?" Silver asked. He didn't point out if Blaze takes the bus since if she did, she would be at the back of the school, where the bus loop is. Plus, the first set of buses leave fifteen minutes after the last bell; it's 4:05 and the bell rang five minutes ago.
Blaze nodded her head before adding, "Though I have to wait until 5 since my parents are both busy with work. But even then…"
Traffic sucks at 5 PM, regardless of state or city.
"I've just sent Marine a message about this," Blaze continued, "She's in the school's library to check out a book or two."
"I see. Well, do you mind if I gave you and Marine a ride home?" Silver offered, pulling his keys from his pockets.
"Y-you mean it?"
"Yeah. And since we're neighbors, you can ask me to give you a ride anytime," Silver added, twiddling his fingers a bit while being careful on not letting his keys slip out.
Blaze thought about Silver's offer for a moment before pulling out her phone and typing a message. In just a few seconds, her phone vibrated and Blaze briefly skimmed at her screen before responding, "Sure, Silver. I'll take your offer. We'll just have to wait for Marine and then we can leave. But can we wait inside your car instead?"
Silver nodded as the two started to make a mad dash towards Silver's car. He unlocked the door, tossed his backpack into the back (it was in the driver's seat), and plopped into the driver's seat, starting the car up and sighing in relief when the air conditioner blasted his face. God, he needed that. Blaze especially was relieved since Silver heard her sigh deeply and commenting "Thank god!"
"Is September weather in Texas this hot?!" Blaze complained as she turned the right a/c fan towards her.
"For the most part," Silver commented. "God, two years in Texas and I'm still not used to the weather!"
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
Silver sighed a bit, leaning back against his seat and explained, "I'm not from here. Where I'm from… Well, it's complicated… I don't even know where I was born since I jumped to a lot of orphanages throughout my childhood."
"Oh, god. I'm sorry if I brought that up by accident," Blaze apologized, placing her hand on Silver's shoulder.
"N-no, it's fine, Blaze." Silver took a deep breath and tilted his head upwards to prevent himself from crying; especially in front of someone he just met a few days ago. Thankfully, he's not feeling any tears, nor is his throat feeling lumpy, so he's good for now. "I'm just glad I don't have to deal with that anymore. But enough about my past, that can be saved for another time."
As he got back into the proper position, Silver noticed that there's no music playing since he started the car. He pressed a few buttons to find a decent radio station, but it either came up with one in the middle of an advertisement or a song he didn't like. He decided to press the CD button since he has problems connecting his phone to the car lately. As he did, the first sound that came out of the speakers is a loud guitar riff, alongside some drums.
"Oh, my god, Sonic. Not the Crush 40 mix CD again," Silver groaned as he checked his CD holder on his car visor. He pulled them a bit before sighing deeply as the CD that he wanted isn't there. "Blaze, you mind this playing?"
She shook her head in response before saying, "Uh, I forgot to ask you during lunch. But, can I get your number? You know, so we can just… um… text and call…?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, sure! I was going to ask you that anyway," Silver laughed as he lowered the volume of the music.
The two pulled their phones out, but before they can start exchanging numbers…
KNOCK! KNOCK!
"Oi! Let me in!"
Both of them looked at their windows and the banging came from Blaze's side. They spotted Marine banging the window with both of her fists; one of which is clenching a book.
Groaning, Blaze pressed the window down switch, which caused Marine to stop once the windows were slowly going down.
"Marine, the doors unlocked," Blaze explained to the young auburn. "You don't need to bang on the windows."
Marine stuck her tongue out before getting inside the car and putting her seatbelt on. "Fine, fine. Not my fault you were paying attention to your boyfriend instead of your own sister."
H-HUH?!
"M-Marine! W-we've just met! There's no way that Silver and I are dating!" Blaze angrily exclaimed, her face turning a bright shade of pink.
"Y-yeah, that's right! We're just friends," Silver agreed as he put on his seatbelt. He leaned towards Blaze and whispered, "Let's exchange numbers when we get home. Okay?"
"Agreed," Blaze quietly responded.
Next: No Peace of Mind Allowed
Author's Note: I can't believe it's been eight years since I've first posted my first fanfic. It may have been discontinued, but it's now going to be remade! There are some elements in "Gray Flame" that are still present in here, but there's some differences.
Plus, most of the chapters are going to be in a short-story style and after the first chapter, you can read them in any order you want!
I'll have the next chapter ready pretty soon. This story is also on AO3 if you want to check it out (also under the same username)
See you soon and stay healthy everyone! :D