Chapter 10: The Awful Morning

Wednesday morning came with Maddie knocking on Sonic's door as per usual.

"I'm awake." Sonic groaned, forcing himself to sit up and yawn. He felt exhausted. He really needed to stop staying up so late. Creatures or not. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, Maddie opened the door and stepped in. "I said I was awake."

"I know you did." Maddie smiled warmly. "I only came in to give you these." As she said it, she held up a pair of crutches adjusted to his size. She gently placed them on his bed, to which the hedgehog responded by pulling his legs up, hissing at them as if he were a cat hissing at a rat. He even went the extra mile of raising his quills up, piercing his pajamas.

"Oh Sonic, come on." Maddie rolled her eyes a bit as she approached him and started trying to pull the shirt off of him. "It is not that serious."

Sonic ignored her and continued to growl at the crutches, adjusting his voice to make himself actually sound like a snarling cat. Maddie huffed and flicked his ear, grabbing his attention. "That's enough out of you, young man. Whether you like it or not, you are going to use these crutches."

Sonic huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine." He grumbled.

"Good." Maddie nodded. "Now hurry up and get dressed so Tom and I can get you to school in time." She turned to leave, but then stopped at the door in the last second. "Also, we got a notification from your school. It says parent/teacher night is this weekend. Did you forget to tell us yesterday?"

Sonic thought back to school yesterday and facepalmed himself, remembering that his homeroom teacher did mention the upcoming event. "I did, I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Just try to remember from now on. We don't wanna think that you're hiding something from us."

"I will, promise."

Satisfied, Maddie nodded and finally left Sonic's room, closing the door behind her. As soon as she was gone, Sonic sighed and started the gruelling task of getting ready for school, trying to use the crutches as he kept off of his bad foot. When he was finally ready, he started heading for his bedroom door, when he suddenly stopped. He looked back at his pillow, remembering that he still had a tooth underneath there. Curious, he carried himself back to his bed and lifted the pillow. He gasped in shock and wonder as instead of a tooth, he found a silver dollar.

"Wow." He breathed in delight as he picked up the old looking coin, twirling it around his fingers as he inspected it. "Neat." Did the creatures from last night give him this?

Suddenly, at that moment, Tom came barging into his room without knocking. It was so unexpected and startling, that Sonic jumped and dropped the coin back on his bed. He turned to glare at the man. "Jeez, Tom, ever heard of knocking?"

Tom ignored him and started searching around Sonic's room, opening his drawers and looking under his bed. "Can I help you find something?" Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Where are they?" The human said in an accusatory tone.

Sonic frowned. "Where are what?"

"I think you know what."

"Uh, obviously not otherwise I wouldn't be asking."

"Don't get smart with me, young man. You're in enough trouble as it is." Tom snapped, making Sonic jump a little. He's never snapped at him before.

"Trouble?" Sonic glared. "What for? I didn't do anything."

"Oh really? Cutting up all of Maddie's nice dresses isn't doing anything?"

"What?" Sonic hissed, his eyes wide. "No, I didn't do that. I would never!"

"Oh really? Just like you would never sneak food?"

"What are you talking about?" Sonic was getting really confused. Why was he facing all of these accusations?

"We found the little mess you made in the kitchen last night." Tom frowned. "You know you're not supposed to have junk food before bed."

"I didn't!"

"Tom, that's enough."

Sonic looked over to his bedroom door. Maddie was standing in the doorway, holding up one of her nice purple dresses. The hedgehog gasped at the sight of it. It was completely torn to shreds, as if a clawed animal had used it as a scratching post. Not even a sewing machine could save the mess of sequins and threads. He looked back at Tom, his eyes widening as he saw the man reach into one of his drawers and pull out a pair of scissors, some bits of fabric still caught where the ends meet.

"Well, what do we have here?" He frowned at the blue being.

"Sonic…" Maddie's disappointed sigh broke his heart.

"No… no, I didn't do it!" Sonic insisted. "How could you think I would do such a thing?!"

"Oh please, Sonic, you've been rebelling against us ever since we took you in." Tom rolled his eyes, standing up and throwing the scissors on top of the dresser angrily. "You think that just because you were able to take care of yourself for ten years you don't need to follow rules and respect our authority."

"Your 'authority'?!"

"Yes, mister, our authority! Do you wanna be a part of this family?"

"Tom…"

"Yes, of course I wanna be a part of this family!"

"Then you better start treating us with respect."

"Tom…"

"Like or not Sonic, we're your parents now, and it's time we start owning up to the role."

Sonic didn't like where this was going. His body was trembling, and he was having a hard time keeping his emotions in. His eyes stung, wanting to cry but refusing to. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that for the rest of the week, you're grounded. No running, no friends, and I'm sorry, but no birthday celebration."

"Tom!"

"What?!" The man looked at his wife angrily.

"That is enough!" Maddie stated crossly. "You've done enough."

Tom huffed and looked back at Sonic. The moment he did, regret filled his features.

Sonic wasn't holding back his emotions anymore. Tears flowed down his face freely, the look of anger, sadness, and betrayal filling his eyes. Small sparks of blue electricity radiated from the blue hedgehog.

"Sonic…" Tom started, but didn't get a chance to continue as the blue being suddenly dashed out of his room, leaving his crutches behind as he raced down the stairs and out the door, not even bothering to grab his backpack.

Maddie huffed and looked at her husband with a stern glare. "Nice Tom. Real nice."

"I was just putting my foot down, Maddie." He tried to reason with her. "He's a rowdy rebellious teenager who needs structure and discipline."

"He's also a child who's been alone for ten years and doesn't need the first family he's had in so long to think that they hate him."

"Come on, honey, you don't think he actually thinks we hate him, do you?"

"I don't know. You tell me. Because that wasn't guilt in his eyes."

As the woman left with an angry huff, Tom sighed and sat on Sonic's bed, his head in his hands.

"What have I done?" He sighed. "I've turned into my father."

The man sighed again and went to stand up to go after Sonic, but the moment he put his hand on the bed, he touched something cold and metallic.

He looked down and noticed the silver dollar that Sonic had found under his pillow. Curious, Tom picked it up.

It was very old looking. Probably an antique. He'll hold onto it for now, and give it back to Sonic when he finds him, and apologizes.