Sonic

"Runners! On your mark."

Sonic pressed his fingers to the rubber below him, foot impatiently twitching against the starting block.

"Get set."

His body felt like a livewire, tensed and sparking with unreleased energy.

"Go!" The starting pistol went off and Sonic was off like a rocket.

Arms pumping, his feet a blur below him, every muscle in his body was tense at once, pushing him further and further. As soon as he'd begun, the finish line was under his feet, and he released all his tension at once. Hands on his knees, chasing after his breath, he waited to hear his results.

"#23," a megaphone eventually sounded. Sonic snapped his head up—that was his number. "Time: 10.35 seconds."

Sonic gasped, both for air and from the news. Not only was his time the fastest in his heat, he had finally broken his personal best. And by .03 milliseconds no less. He threw his hands into the air.

Yes! Things are finally going my way!


"Oh man! Congratulations Sonic," Tails, who had been watching from the stadium bleachers, ran up to his big brother. Sonic had decided to spend his lunch up here with his friends and family, rather than with his teammates.

Pulling Tails into a big ole brotherly hug, Sonic ruffled his hair in endearment. "Haha, thanks! It's all because I had my lucky buddy cheering me on!"

Pushing Sonic away with a laugh, Tails led him back to where he and Knuckles were sitting.

"Hey, where's Knux at? Don't tell me he missed my race," Sonic sat with a small pouty face.

Tails, still fixing his fur, gave a soft giggle. "No, he saw you. He just ran to go grab lunch for us."

"Man, I feel like the only time I ever see that guy now is over a plate of food," Sonic joked, taking a swig from his water bottle.

"Well someone's gotta provide for this family," Knuckles, returning with a couple bags of convenience store snacks and sandwiches, sidled into his place by his comrades.

"True," Sonic conceded, grabbing one of the sandwich packs. "Thanks, papa Knux."

Tails snickered at that, but Knuckles just smiled. "Why of course my darling sons, whatever would you do without me?"

"For starters, we'd probably have more food to go around without you hoarding it," Sonic, now munching on his semi-decent turkey sandwich, looked down to the track. He had run in the relay and 400m races, so he was essentially done for the day. He caught a glimpse of Jet, who it seems was preparing for his next event, that self-centered smirk never leaving his beak.

"That's it, you're going to pay from now on," Knuckles pouted, a little hurt by this, but started in on his own ham sandwich nonetheless. "Last time I spend my hard-earned coin on you two." He shook a disapproving finger at each of them. "What did I do to deserve such ungrateful children?"

Tails giggled. "Don't worry, I'll get you a 'world's best dad' mug on Father's Day to make up for it," he assured with a grin.

Knuckles playfully shoved his shoulder. "I deserve a mug and a tacky tie, at least."

Their laughter became background noise as Sonic found himself glancing around the small crowd in the bleachers, eyes watching for something. Or rather, someone.

He knew he said he had work today, but maybe if he got off early…

Dumbass. Why would he come here? For you? He doesn't even like you.

Sonic frowned at the blunt reminder. Yeah, he supposed. Of course he wouldn't be here.

And he couldn't figure out why that stung so much.

The sound of the starting pistol shook him out of his thoughts. His eyes flicked down to the track as the next event started—hurdles.

Sonic watched as the runners sprang from their places, dashing towards the sets of hurdles down the track. It was an event that Sonic had wanted to do—the extra challenge of clearing obstacles without slowing his speed excited him—but events were decided by seniority, which meant assholes like Jet got to have their pick of the litter because they were upperclassmen.

His eyes followed the green-feathered know-it-all as he flew over one hurdle after the other, legs extended, toes pointed in perfect form as he glided over the plastic barriers as if he was running on bullet-time.

He was leagues ahead of the other runners, crossing the painted white stripe of the finish line before they had gotten even halfway through.

Jet waved to the cheering crowd as he slowed to a stop, stupidly-perfect douchey grin widening as he threw a wink and a kiss at the stands.

Sonic actively wanted to barf.

This absolute

"What do you think Sonic," Tails tapped Sonic on the shoulder, bringing him back from his trance.

"Huh, oh sorry, spaced out there for a sec. What's up?" Sonic turned back to his buddies trying to remove any trace of Jet from his mind.

"I asked if you wanted to go to Eggman's, to celebrate," Tails pouted, clearly a little perturbed at Sonic's detachment from their conversation.

"Of course! Always down for games and grub," Sonic beamed, putting his arm around Tails. "We can even knock out a few rounds of mini golf if you want! That is, if you're in the mood to lose," he smirked, as overconfident in his putt-putt skills as he was with most all athletic endeavors.

"Oh yeah?" Knuckles challenged. "I think you're forgetting who absolutely creamed both of you last time." He put a finger to his chin, eyes turned towards the clouds. "Hmm, let me think for a second. He was strong, ruggedly handsome, a wonderful provider of gas station sandwiches…"

Sonic huffed, clocking Knuckles on the shoulder. "Fine, you'll just have to prove your skills tonight, Mr. Bigshot."

Knuckles laughed. "Well, me pwning you nerds will have to wait until tomorrow. I've got a date tonight."

"A date," Sonic questioned, with more disbelief in his voice than he intended.

"Yes, a date." Knuckles slicked his quills back. "Did you miss the 'ruggedly handsome' part of my description earlier?"

Sonic giggled at his over-the-top display, already ready to fire back with stories of how far that had gotten him in high school.

Tails' frown from beside him made Sonic pause. "But we can definitely go tomorrow, yeah," his brother asked hopefully, disappointed at having their plan shot down so quickly.

Sonic gave him a reassuring grin. "Definitely, little buddy. We'll make a day out of it." He gave a stretch as Tails perked up a bit at the confirmation. "But for now, I'm looking forward to just laying back in our dorm and rewatching the extended cut of Chao In Space."

Tails smiled cheekily. "It's one of the only movies you like that's actually good, so I'll accept that."

Sonic stuck out his tongue. "Alright, we can watch one of your pilot documentaries too," he compromised. "If I get to nerd out about Chaos flying their teeny little spaceships, you deserve to get excited about…" Sonic searched for some term, some buzzword he had maybe picked up from Tails' many bright-eyed monologues about flight technology. "...um, turbine rudders?"

Tails shook his head with a chuckle. "Good effort, but not even close."

He was working up another comeback—continuing their little ping-pong pattern of joking conversation they always had—but the sound of the loudspeaker cut through his words as it announced the end of the day's events.

"Oh!" Sonic remembered. "I have to meet back up with my team in the locker room—Big probably wants to talk about results and plan stuff for the season." He glanced back towards each of them. "Knuckles, good luck with the wooing. And Tails, meet me at the gate and we can walk back together?"

Tails nodded.

"Rad. We'll all get together tomorrow, then." He waved as he dashed off towards the locker rooms, sliding through the door as the rest of his team filed in.

Sonic slipped into the crowd as they all gathered around the print-outs of their results for the day, murmuring excitedly as they each scrambled to see their times.

Sonic grinned as he eyed his results. He had smashed some of his best times in his events, beating some of the other freshman on his team by a landslide.

Pride sparked in Sonic's chest in a way it hadn't in a while. He had missed the joy of competition, the high of winning. If he could just keep this streak going…

His eyes flicked over to their overall results, immediately jumping to the fastest times.

At the top of the list, with another record broken for the 100m dash, was Jet. Sonic's self-assured smile suddenly fell into an uncertain line.

"Wow, congratulations Jet," Big said, smiling encouragingly as he called attention to Jet's win. "Looks like you're the top dog—or, should I say, the top bird—once again."

Sonic frowned as a smattering of applause for Jet sounded around him. The sophomore prodigy fluffed out his feathers, chin high as he soaked in the praise.

Big continued talking, working through their strategy for their upcoming season. But Sonic got lost in the white noise.

Anxiety latched onto the gap between his and Jet's times, gnawing at his successes today until they meant nothing.

He still couldn't beat Jet.

Jet still won.

Sonic had done as much as he could, beaten his personal best, and that smarmy asshole still passed him by a longshot.

Would he ever beat Jet?

Did he even deserve to beat Jet?

Of course not, something said. It's not like you did anything to earn it, you lazy fuck-up.

Sonic gritted his teeth.

Big clapped his hands. "Alright, everybody, great work today. Go home, rest up—we'll discuss the rest of our season at our next practice."

And with that, the crowd dispersed, the clang of lockers and rustle of clothing shoved into gym bags filling the small space.

A loud, pointed ahem sounded from the middle of the room.

Sonic glanced back to see Jet standing there, watching, waiting to make sure all eyes were on him.

Oh god, what now?

"Alright, assholes, listen up. To celebrate yet another record smashed by yours truly," Jet placed a hand to his chest, as if someone was questioning what other self-absorbed asshole he could possibly be referring to, "Party at my place, and it's gonna be fucking lit. Anybody who's anybody is invited, so be there, or regret it for the rest of your pathetic lives."

If Jet's eyes pointedly slid over to Sonic's form at the underhanded invitation, Sonic pretended not to notice.

The rest of the locker room broke out in excited cheers, looking forward to an evening of fun and debauchery.

Sonic scoffed aloud. There was no way he was

A hand slammed his locker shut.

Sonic ducked out of the way, barely fast enough to avoid his nose being closed in the metal. He glared at Jet's face leering far too close for comfort.

"And surely GHU's rising track star, Sonic the Hedgehog, will make an appearance at my party," he taunted. "Why, it would just hurt my widdle feelings if you didn't show."

"I'd honestly rather fall into a pit of spikes," Sonic spat.

"Wow, didn't realize you had a stick that far up your ass. Too good for a party with your teammates?" He gave an over-exaggerated pout. One of Jet's down feathers flew into Sonic's face as he pushed himself away from the row of lockers. Sonic swatted it away with an open sneer.

It must have irritated his nose in the process, as he sneezed pointedly in Jet's face. Sonic sniffled, "Ah, excuse me, I think I'm just allergic to assholes."

A few of his team members popped up from behind Jet, drowning out his winning comeback. "Aw, come on, Sonic. Don't be a drag. Come have fun with us."

"Yeah," Jet drawled. "Come have fun with us Sonic. It'll just be a blast." He wrapped an arm around the person closest to him, a squirrel who yelped at being pulled into the sudden embrace. "Aren't you going to regret not spending any time with your fellow track stars—like Vinny here."

"Um," the squirrel muttered. "It's Ray, actually."

Jet practically shoved him off of him. "Anyway. I wouldn't miss out on this if I were you," he said cooly, leaning back against the lockers. "Wouldn't want the rest of the team to resent you for not coming, now would we?"

Sonic tensed, feeling every eye in the room on him like a sniper rifle. Jet's cocky grin spread wider—he'd won and he knew it as he watched an angry blush spread across Sonic's cheeks.

He felt trapped. "Fine," Sonic muttered, shouldering his bag and striding from the room as fast as he could.

Jet only laughed behind him.

Tails sat on the patchy grass by the fence, glancing up from his phone as Sonic finally approached. He grinned. "There you are. Now it's pizza and Chao time!" He brushed the dirt off his knees, grin slowly falling as he noticed the guilty look coloring Sonic's face. "...Sonic?"

Sonic looked at the ground. "I may have just gotten roped in to going to Jet's after-party."

Tails blinked, mouth actually falling open. "What?"

"I know; I'm sorry. But everyone cornered me and I couldn't say no without looking bad and I just wanted to get him off my back and—" He let out a breath, meeting Tails' disappointed gaze. "Listen, I really don't wanna go alone. I don't think I can handle going alone, really." He sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm terrible, but, can you come with me? We can go, and we'll be in and out, I promise. Home in plenty enough time to watch all your favorite pilot movies over mediocre take-out and—"

Tails held up a placating hand. "Sure, Sonic, don't worry about it."

Sonic paused, hesitant at Tails' acceptance. "Really? You sure?"

Tails gave an understanding smile, but there was something off about it...something tired. "Of course. As long as you promise you won't be there all night."

Sonic made an invisible X over his chest. "Cross my heart."

Tails let out a chuckle. "Alright, alright. Let's go."