The next couple of days at school were pretty much the same, until one day. Miss Eveline walked in next to a short, potbellied, dome-headed little boy. "Class, we have a new student joining us today. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, Mortimer?" "Well, um, I'm Mortimer Robotnik, and I like inventing stuff with my dad Ivo." Suddenly, Knuckles yelled out, "You're an egghead!" Mortimer began to cry. "Knuckles, that's a time out! It's not nice to tease someone!" Miss Eveline said angrily. Knuckles walked over to the time out chair, his head drooped low.
At snack time, Mortimer was sitting all by himself, talking to himself sadly. Sonic and Isaac came over to sit with him. "We're sorry," Sonic said. "I don't think you're an egghead." "Thanks." "You know," Isaac said, "I like to invent things too." "Really? Maybe you can come over sometime and invent something with me!" "Yeah!"
When Sonic got off the bus to head home that day, a giant robot suddenly jumped out in front of him. "AAAHHHH!!! MOMMYYYY!!!" Sonic screamed as he started to run toward his house. Suddenly, he heard a friendly voice say, "Don't worry, Beta won't hurt you." "Um, Mr. Robot, did you just talk to me?" Sonic said nervously. A fat, bald man stepped out from behind the robot, laughing. "No, I haven't installed a voice chip yet. Are you Sonic?" "Yeah..." "Oh, you're in my son Mortimer's class. I live right next door to you. Maybe you could come play with Mortimer sometime. He told me that you were nice."
Sonic walked inside, still a bit shaken. "How was school today?" "It was fun. I made a new friend. He lives next door." Sonic had a quick lunch of chilidogs, and then went to play outside. He went out to the tree house that his dad had built in the wood in his backyard. He decided to play his favorite game—jump from tree to tree for as long as he could without touching the ground. Today he did his particularly well; he jumped 17 trees, breaking his old record. Suddenly, he heard his mother calling. "Sonic, there's someone here to see you." "Oh boy!" he said, running toward the house as fast as he could (about 30 MPH). He ran straight through the back door, and saw that Knuckles was waiting next to the front door. "Hi Sonic," he said. "Can you come play at my house?" Sonic looked at his mom expectantly. "Okay, but look both ways before crossing the street." "Yeah!" When Sonic and Knuckles walked into the Echidna residence, Knuckles' mother as waiting for them. "Oh, hi Sonic. Knuckles told me a lot about you." Sonic saw a glowing shard of some strange gem encased in glass sitting on the mantle. "What's that?" Sonic asked in awe. "Oh, that's a shard of the Master Emerald we won when we were vacationing on Angel Island." "Angel Island is so cool! You should go sometime!" said Knuckles. Mrs. Echidna laughed. "Would you two like to go out in back and play?" "Okay," said the two in unison. Sonic powered out the front door and straight around to the back, but realized that Knuckles was just running out the door. "Sonic?" he called. "Wait for me!" Sonic saw a huge jungle gym. He was amazed. He zoomed over and started climbing all over it. When Knuckles got into the backyard, all he could see was a blue blur all over the jungle gym. "Mom!" he screamed. "The jungle gym is haunted!" "It's okay, honey," his mother called out reassuringly. "That's just Sonic." "Hey Sonic," Knuckles yelled. "You wanna play a game?" Sonic ran over, nodding his head. "Okay, how about hide-and-seek?" Sonic nodded again. "Can I count?" Knuckles asked. Sonic nodded yet again. "Okay, I'll count to ten. But you have to stay in the backyard. Ready... Go! One, two, three..." Sonic tried to find a hiding spot. "Four, five, six..." Sonic looked around wildly. "Seven, eight..." Suddenly, he knew where he would hide. Up in a tree! "Nine..." Sonic blasted up into the tree. "Ten..." He hid behind some leaves. Knuckles opened his eyes. "Ready or not, here I come!" First, Knuckles looked behind the slide. Then he looked in a pile of leaves. He was about to give up, when he heard a rustling. He looked overhead, and saw a spot of blue. "Oh, I see you Sonic! You're up in the tree!" "Oh..." Sonic moaned. Sonic was just about to start counting when Mrs. Echidna called, "Sonic, your Mom just called. It's time for you to go home." Sonic said goodbye to Knuckles, and was home within a couple of minutes (he only lived about three blocks away). When Sonic got home, it was dinnertime. Sonic was surprised to see that Mortimer and his dad were at the table. "Hi Sonic," said Mrs. Hedgehog. "These are our new neighbors: Mr. Robotnik and his son Mortimer." "Please, call me Ivo," said Mr. Robotnik. Dinner was uneventful. The adults talked the whole time. "Hi Mortimer." "Hi Sonic." Soon, dinner was over, and the guests left. Then it was bedtime. Sonic fell asleep right away, looking forward to another day of school.