S. Chensu: Hello and welcome to episode eleven, the start of school.
That's why it's called Monday Blues, because Mondays always make me feel
depressed coz of crappy school and AS Levels (Whose stupid idea was that
eh? My exams are in 4 months time and so far I don't think I've learnt
anything!). GCSEs were so much simpler.
Luff: Stop moaning! She's been doing this all day and it's really starting to annoy me now! But I have to agree with you; so far this year (10) is probably the one where I have had the least amount of homework.
S. Chensu: It's all right for you; you're still doing your GCSEs! I know what they're like and it's a lot simpler than what I'm doing! *Coughs suddenly when she notices readers looking at her in a strange way* Anyway, please excuse the ranting. Remember that just because its school doesn't mean it's going to be simple.
Luff: You also need to know that because our computer f**ks everything up, the bit where they're writing notes to each other is meant to be in a different font so we'll put in brackets at the end of each bit who's writing it.
S. Chensu: This is quite long so we'll let you get on with it. Just remember:
Disclaimer: We do not own anything in this story, apart from the story itself and the characters Lauren, Hannah, Peter, Dan, Marie, Bruce, Miss Petrie, Mrs Skillet, Miss Dink, Mr Kenly, Gillian, Sean, Sammie and Emily. And we definitely don't own the songs 'Not of this Earth' (Robbie Williams), which is Knuckles' theme song and 'Angels' (also Robbie Williams), which is Tails' theme song. Oh and the 'Cheeky Song' by the Cheeky Girls.
Really important note: This has more kissing as well as other bad stuff. I mean like the fact a boy tries to kiss Rouge.
Luff: Now you can definitely get on with it.
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Episode eleven: Monday blues
Shadow woke up in the morning to the sounds of Eggman shouting at Sonic.
"Come on Sonic, you have to get up!"
"I don't want to! It's too early for me!" Sonic yelled. Groaning, Shadow got out of bed to see what was happening. He saw Eggman standing by Sonic's door and leaning inwards. His face had gone red from shouting and peeking in, he saw Sonic in bed with his head under his pillow. The others weren't anywhere to be seen and he went to find them.
He found Tails in his room gazing at himself in the mirror, looking very depressed.
"Morning Tails, ready for school I see. Unlike Sonic, who seems to be content with just lying in bed." Shadow commented.
"Eggman went to wake him up this morning and he's refusing to go to school. I'm sure he'll get out eventually though." Tails said, smiling for the first time.
"ARRRGH! All right, all right I'm out of bed!" They heard Sonic yell.
"It seems he is now out of bed. I wonder what Eggman did?" Tails asked.
"Let's go outside and find out." Shadow said and they walked out of the room. Sonic had locked himself in one of the bathrooms and Knuckles and Rouge who were sat at the kitchen table, were laughing.
"What happened? We heard a scream and then lots of yelling." Shadow said.
"Then a bit of shouting too." Tails added.
"Eggman got some ice cubes out from the freezer and placed them in a bowl. He then tipped them all over Sonic!" Rouge giggled.
Just then, Sonic appeared, now washed and half changed, looking very irritated.
"Good morning Sonic." Knuckles said amiably.
"Shut up! I'm not in a good mood!" He snapped.
"And why could that be? I didn't hear anything happen." Shadow said.
"Oh ha ha ha, very funny! Your wit continues to astound and amaze me!" He said scornfully (Note from S. Chensu: I always say this when I'm annoyed!).
"Come on you, get changed. Just remember I've still got the ice cubes to use if necessary." Eggman said, appearing from Sonic's room. The mention of ice cubes made Sonic shiver and he went to his room to find his shirt, tie and blazer.
"Thank you for the entertainment Eggman. This is certainly going to make the day a bit more bearable. Come on Knuckles, we'll see you lot in a minute." Rouge said and they both left the table after putting their bowls away.
When they had gone, Sonic returned now fully dressed and in a better mood. He sat down and Tails passed him a bowl of cereal.
"Thanks Tails. Good morning everyone, sorry about my behaviour earlier, I'm always bad on a Monday." Sonic said.
"No problem Sonic." Tails said.
"Hang on, where have Knuckles and Rouge gone? They're acting even stranger than they were before." Sonic said.
"I suppose now's a good a time as any to tell you." Eggman started. Tails stared at him but Eggman just shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, you may as well." Tails said.
"Knuckles and Rouge.how do you say it? They're close." Eggman started.
"Very close." Tails added.
"What, you mean like best friends?" Sonic said and Shadow put his face in his hands.
"No, closer than best friends." Tails said desperately but just then, Knuckles and Rouge entered the room, looking a bit flushed.
"Well, I suppose you'd better get going now. Everyone's got their stuff packed?" Eggman said. They nodded their heads and got their bags. Once everyone had their shoes on, Sonic opened the door and stepped outside.
"Bye everyone, see you later." Shadow said and they walked down the stairs. Once they were out, they set out along the road to school.
Knuckles and Rouge who were behind Sonic and Tails were holding hands and talking.
"Knuckles, you wouldn't mind if we kept our relationship out of school do you? It's less hassle then." Rouge asked.
"I don't mind, whatever you want. It shall be our little secret." He whispered. She smiled and saw out of the corner of her eye, Sonic staring at them. Not wanting to alarm Knuckles, she didn't say anything though and kissed him on the cheek instead.
"Thanks Knuckles. I wonder what school will be like?"
************************
~Could that be what Tails meant? About them being closer than best friends?~ Sonic suddenly realised after all of this time the truth about Knuckles and Rouge. ~I don't believe it; they're going out with each other! Ew, that's disgusting! I have to talk to Knuckles about this.~
"Sonic, are you ok? You've come over a bit distant." Tails asked. Sonic turned to him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"I think I've just understood what you meant about Knuckles and Rouge."
"At last! I wondered how long it would take!" Tails exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Sonic frowned.
"Well, you know how you went on about nothing happening in Italy? They got together there, so something did happen." Tails said.
"Ew, going out with a girl? What on Earth does he want to do that for?" Sonic pulled a face and Tails laughed.
"Because he loves her. Just accept the fact that they're together and may be for a long time." Tails suggested.
"I'm happy for them but I need to talk to Knuckles. I still can't believe that he, a cold hearted old crow has softened up!" He stopped and so did Tails. Rouge and Knuckles quickly let go of each other's hands and stopped in front of them.
"Why are we stopping?" Rouge asked.
"Knuckles, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone, please." Sonic said and Tails grabbed Rouge by her arm.
"Come on Rouge, I wanted to ask you something anyway." Tails said as he led her away.
Knuckles stared at Sonic in expectation but now that he was here, Sonic couldn't think of anything to say.
"Did you want something Sonic?" Knuckles eventually asked.
"Um.I don't know how to say this but why?" He stumbled.
"Why what? Oh I see! You mean about me and Rouge!" He grinned when he saw Sonic wince. "This may sound really strange but I don't know what actually happens next." He looked up hopefully and the person at the big computer in the sky sighed. A hand reached down and in it was a copy of the script.
Knuckles scanned the page for a few moments before his eyes widened.
"On no, please not that, anything but that." He whimpered but the hand had already disappeared.
"What is it?" A look of realisation appeared on Sonic's face. "Oh no, don't tell me you have to sing."
"Yes, oh why me? It's going to be so embarrassing!" Knuckles exclaimed.
"I'm not worried about that, I'm more scared about the song. Please tell me it's not a love song?" At this Knuckles smiled.
"You'll be pleased to know that it.is." Knuckles continued to smile as he saw Sonic's face rise and fall in a split second.
"NO, not a love song!" Sonic screamed and Knuckles took this opportunity to start singing while no one was paying attention to him.
"Not of this Earth
You've changed places with the Sun
I know that you're the one
I love what we've become
Not of this Earth
I wear you like a shroud
I know I'll make you proud
You done your crying now
She's not of this Earth
And I no longer need to search
If I ever leave this world
You will have a song to sing
So you know what you're worth
Not of this Earth
She came walking down my lane
I've learned to laugh again
Like a moth to a flame
Not of this Earth
Not surprised we're unashamed
She's gonna have to change her name
Then we'll know that she's the same
She's not of this Earth
And I believe we've seen the worst
If I ever leave this world
You will have a song to sing
So you know what you're worth
(Light of this Earth)
Better get used to this smile
(Light of this Earth)
Gonna be around for awhile
(Light of this Earth)
Spent so much time being cursed
(Light of this Earth)
Not of this Earth (Oh not of)
You've changed places with the Sun
I know that you're the one (I know that you're)
I love what we've become
Not of this Earth
I wear you like a shroud
I know I'll make you proud (I know I'll make you proud)
You done your crying now
Light of this Earth." He finished the song and looked embarrassed. Rouge, who had heard the whole thing ran up to him and hugged him.
"Knuckles that was so good!" She exclaimed which made him go even redder.
"It doesn't look like Sonic appreciated it as much though." Tails noted and they saw Sonic running around, with his fingers in his ears. "SONIC, ITS FINISHED NOW! YOU CAN TAKE YOUR FINGERS OUT OF YOUR EARS!" Tails yelled and Sonic took them out cautiously.
"At last, the hell on Earth has ended!" He sighed relieved. "I'm happy for both of you, honestly I am but the idea of love sickens me!" He retched to show them.
"Thank you for your opinion Sonic but I think we'd better get to school now before we're late." Rouge said.
"Oh my God! We've got ten minutes to get there, we'd better get going now!" Tails said, looking at his watch.
They started to run down the road and skidded around the corner. They continued to sprint until they got to Poplar Park where the schools were. Inverio didn't start until 8:50 so Tails still had 15 minutes but Maples school started at 8:30 and the three of them were already five minutes late. They waved goodbye to Tails and quickly entered the school.
They were met in the reception by a stern looking lady who stared at them for a few moments.
"I take it you are Sonic, Knuckles and Rouge?" They nodded slightly and she gazed at them as she continued to speak. "You're five minutes late but I suppose it's your first day so that doesn't matter. And you do miss the first two lessons. But that doesn't mean you can be late again ok?" They nodded their heads again and she smiled for the first time. "Welcome to Maples High School. I'm Mrs Skillet, the head teacher here. If you follow me, I'll take you to your form room." She turned away and they followed her down the corridor to a room full of teenagers sat down. "You are in 11V. Your form tutor is Miss Dink and she'll give you more information. I will be seeing you at the end of the week but until then, good luck." They thanked her and she opened the door. The woman sitting at the desk at the front looked up and saw her. Mrs Skillet showed the three of them in before turning away.
Miss Dink was about twenty-five and wore quite casual clothes for a teacher made up of a pair of baggy trousers and tailored shirt. She had highlighted brown hair, which hung loosely around her shoulders. She smiled at them and they instantly felt less nervous. They stood at the front of the classroom and gazed out upon the rest of their class. There was a mixture of humans and animals but they all wore the same uniform.
"Class we have three new students with us this year. Do you want to introduce yourselves?" She asked. They said their names in turn and she pointed to one table, made up of six places, two already filled by people. "You can sit there and Emily and Sammie will look after you, show you around etc." The group walked over to the table and saw the two girls for the first time.
They both looked almost identical, both having brown hair and brown eyes. One had curly hair though while the other's was straight. Sonic sat down opposite them and after looking at Rouge, Knuckles sat down next to him. Rouge sat diagonally across from him and the girl with straight hair started talking.
"Hi I'm Emily and this is my sister Sammie. As you may have noticed, we're twins but we do have our differences. The first thing we have to warn you about is some of the people in this class. Most important to your knowledge here at school is that there is a hierarchy and Gillian is at the top. That's her over there." She pointed to a fox that was giggling with some other girls and looking at them occasionally. Her fur was a deep chestnut colour and you could tell she was popular. Rouge stared at her and sniffed loudly.
"Yep, just what I think of her too but it's usually best to just stay out of her way. The one you really have to look out for Rouge is him, Sean Bonnet. He tries to hit on any single girl who has any features about her and some that are already booked." Among the group of girls surrounding Gillian was a boy who had his hands practically down her pants. She seemed to be enjoying it though and he was basking in her glory. Knuckles went slightly pink and just then, he saw Sean staring at Rouge. He turned back to Gillian after a few seconds but that didn't stop Knuckles from noticing an evil glint in his eyes. He turned back to the conversation that the others were having, shaking his head slightly.
"So what about the lessons then?" Rouge asked.
"Do you really want to know about them? Let's just say you'll be bored out of your brain after the first ten minutes but the stuff's easy enough so that you don't flunk the subjects. As long as you look like you're listening, the teachers are happy." Sammie explained.
"The head teacher said something to us about missing some lessons but I don't understand what she meant." Sonic said.
"On the first day of term we miss the first two lessons so we have some time to catch up on what people have been doing etc. or in the case of them," Emily glanced at the group with Gillian and Sean. "A chance to reassure their dominance of the class. It also gives us some time to tell you things about this school."
"Although you wonder why people want to know things about this dump." Sammie muttered.
"Class can I have your attention please?" Miss Dink announced and everyone stopped talking. "I'm just going to give you your timetables and afterwards you can go to your lockers." She held some papers in her hand and handed them out. The group got theirs and looked at them.
"Oh no look what we have today! Geography, Maths and Japanese! I don't think the day can get much worse than this!" Sammie wailed and she leaned over to Rouge's timetable. "How come you have a gap where I've got Japanese?" She looked closer and gasped. "A free study period! Emily, why can't we have one? I've always wanted one of them."
"There must obviously be a reason. Do you know why?" Emily asked.
"I'm fluent in Japanese so I suppose they didn't see the point in me having lessons." Rouge replied in perfect Japanese.
"How do you do that? I have trouble saying hello in Japanese, let alone anything else!" Sammie said.
"It's true you know. I've never known anyone worse than her at trying to learn something." Emily added.
"We've spent a lot of time in Japan so we've learnt the lingo. Does this mean we have one less subject?" Sonic asked hopefully.
"It must do. Lucky old you is all I can say. Can we not talk about lessons anymore please?" Sammie said, shivering at the mention of the word.
"So then, what sort of music do you like?" Emily said quickly, looking at Sammie worriedly.
"All sorts really as long as it's not teeny beeny bobbers music." Rouge commented.
"How about that song by Liberty X? You know, just a little." Emily suggested.
"I can't remember how that one goes." Knuckles said.
"Yes you do. It's that one I sung once and you fell over afterwards?" Rouge said and Knuckles' eyes widened in realisation.
"Oh yeah, how could I forget?"
"He fell over from hearing that song?" Sammie asked.
"Yes, but we never did find out why. We just assumed it was because I have a terrible voice." Rouge laughed.
"I know why! It's because-" Sonic stopped though when Knuckles kicked him under the table. "It's because he felt ill but we'll never be sure."
"Oh, right. But have you heard that song by the Cheeky Girls? Doesn't it make you want to vomit?" Sammie said.
"No we haven't. How does it go?" Sonic asked.
"It's a good thing you asked that because we know exactly how it goes. And its also quite funny because the two girls are twins and so are we." Sammie grinned evilly and Emily sighed.
"You've done it now. You are going to be very embarrassed after this." They started to sing the song, still sitting in their seats.
"I never ever ask where do you go
I never ever ask what do you do
I never ever ask what's in your mind
I never ever ask if you'll be mine
Come and smile
don't be shy
Touch my bum
this is life
We are the cheeky girls
we are the cheeky girls
you are the cheeky boys
you are the cheeky boys. (Note from S. Chensu: I won't write anymore of the song, as it's bad enough as it is)"
Rouge was grinning like mad but Knuckles and Sonic were blushing really badly. Sammie cleared her throat in an attempt to stop herself from laughing but failed miserably.
"Right class, you can now go and choose your lockers." Miss Dink announced and there was a stampede to get the top lockers. The lockers were behind Sammie and Emily and they quickly took two behind them.
"Give us your PE kits and we'll put them in here." Emily said and they passed them over. They were put in three of the top lockers behind them and Sammie sighed in relief.
"That was probably the most challenging part of the day. Now you have a locker, everything will be a breeze. Just make sure your locker stays tidy. If it doesn't then the stuff will fall out and hit the people below you and funnily enough, they don't like that." Sammie explained.
"So what do we do now?" Sonic asked.
"Nothing, we just talk. I know, we can do a question and answer session." Sammie said. "I'll start. So then, where do you live?" She asked, in mock seriousness.
"Sounds like we're being interviewed. Well I say that we should ask you questions too. We live in Garden Views. Where do you-" But Rouge was interrupted by Sammie.
"Garden Views? We live just along the road from there. Who do you live with? Are you all related?" Sammie asked. Knuckles and Sonic looked uneasily at each other but Rouge took control of the situation.
"We live with two friends our ours called Tails and his guardian and Shadow. We're all friends with each other. We've mostly been living in Japan but we wanted to do some travelling to England so we're staying here for the year." Rouge explained.
"But why stay here? This place is a dump!" Sammie exclaimed.
"I suppose we were just attracted to London. But what about you?" Rouge asked.
"Oh we're a lot more boring than that. We've lived here all our lives and we went to Inverio across the park before we came here, where we've remained for five years. We just live with our mum and dad, no brothers or sisters. I like drawing and shopping-" Emily said.
"You're not the only one. Why do girls like shopping?" Sonic sighed.
"I don't! I like martial arts and we both play video games. We also love music, all sorts." Sammie added.
"You do martial arts? What sort?" Knuckles was suddenly interested in the conversation.
"So the cat let go of your tongue now?" Sammie laughed. "I do karate, judo and tae kwon do. Do you do any then?"
"I used to but I only practise occasionally now. So do you do any armed combat?"
"No, I have a bad case of Aichmophobia."
"A fear of sharp objects." Emily quickly explained. "She had an accident with a sword when she used to do kendo and she hasn't been able to face pointy objects since then." The others could only imagine what terrible thing could have happened.
"When we were in Japan, I did learn some fencing. You like video games? I don't know many girls that play them." Sonic commented.
"I know but it just makes things more interesting. If you come from Japan, can you speak fluent English too?"
"Yep, it's compulsory until you're fourteen but we continued with it because we knew we would be coming here." Rouge explained.
"So what about Maths and Geography? What are they like?" Knuckles asked.
"What did I say about not mentioning lessons?" Sammie shouted.
"We're in sets for Maths but most people are in the middle set." Emily looked at their tables. "That's strange, you've been put in the top set, and we're in that too. Geography is hilarious, we get taught by an old bat called Mr Kenly. It's usually easier to read the textbook than trying to understand what he's saying." Emily described.
"So this day is going to be interesting." Rouge remarked.
"Humph, we'll see about that. We still don't know what the slut and her pet dog think of you yet." Sammie said.
"Does it matter that much then?" Sonic asked.
"Oh yes. It's important so you can decide whether you want to commit suicide or dunk someone's head down the toilet and make /them/ feel suicidal by the end of the week." Sammie said bitterly.
"What she's trying to say is that if they don't like you then life may not be easy-" Emily clarified.
"And here they come now." Sammie muttered and true to her words, Sean and Gillian were walking over to their table.
Knuckles stared stonily at them while Rouge talked to Sonic, pretending they didn't exist.
"So anyway I think you'd better-" They stood by Rouge and she looked up. "Hello, and who might you two be? Did you want something?" She asked amiably.
"You should know our names by now rat with wings." Gillian jeered. Knuckles was about to say something but Rouge shook her head slightly.
"I'm sorry, of course I should. After all, who's more important than you?" She replied mockingly. "By the way, the name's Rouge, not rat with wings."
"We don't care about your name, we just want you to know that by hanging around certain people." Gillian glanced at Sammie and Emily as she said this. "You will lose what little credit you have."
"And who gave you the right to decide anyway? You are little more than a bimbo and," Rouge turned to Sean in puzzlement. "What is this thing called? I was told he's a boy although it's hard to tell, he's more earthworm to me."
"You mean slimy, blind and stupid? I see what you mean Rouge." Sonic added.
"You keep out of this pin cushion!" Gillian said.
"Ouch, that really hurt! I don't care what you think about us!" Sonic retaliated.
"I would keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you. So then, you're new around here?" Sean asked.
"Do you by any chance have a rocket scientist degree? Yes we're new but I don't see what it is to you." Rouge said.
"Well you be careful because we rule this class and we won't have our positions threatened." Gillian seemed to notice Knuckles for the first time. "And what about you hippy? Don't you have anything to say?" Knuckles glared at her and Sean winced slightly but it didn't affect her.
"I never say anything unless it is to a person who is worth it. And to be honest, you have a long way to go before you get there." Knuckles stated. Gillian smiled slightly at him but he kept his face the same.
"Strong and silent.I like that in a man. We'll leave you for the moment. Good day freaks." Gillian said to Sammie and Emily before going back to their table.
Knuckles had gone red from what she said but Rouge was full of indignation.
"How dare they talk to us like that! And calling you two freaks. They're are going to pay for that." Rouge muttered.
"All right, no need to remind us. I must say though, nobody's ever been able to stand up to them two before. You did well for your first meeting with them.they'll find a way of getting to you though." Emily said.
"No they won't! We're not going to let pathetic things like them agitate us. I think it's time to launch Operation Removal." Rouge announced.
"And what's that going to involve?" Emily asked.
"The removal of them two from the top of the hierarchy. We'll have to figure out a plan first of all." Rouge explained.
"And you think you can do it? Trust me, people have tried to do it before and it's never worked." Sammie laughed.
"Yes but no one's looked so serious about it. We'll help you in whatever way we can." Emily said.
Just then, the bell went and Miss Dink stood up at the front of the class.
"Break time everyone! Off you go then and have a good day!" She declared and everyone stood up, walking out of the room. Emily and Sammie stood up and Rouge cringed slightly. Although they had looked ok when sitting down, seeing all of them was a shock. They wore their pleated skirts long and had their socks pulled up. They wore unflattering shoes and they had tucked their shirts in.
"The first thing you can do to help us is to show me the toilets. I think you need a make over." Rouge said.
"What do you mean?" Emily asked.
"If we're going to show them who's boss then you have to look the part and you don't at the moment." Was all Rouge would say. Sammie shrugged her shoulders and led the way out of the room to the toilets.
They reached them and Rouge turned to Knuckles and Sonic, who were frowning in puzzlement.
"I'm just going to sort these two out so you'll have to stay out here. You can think of a plan or something." Rouge said before pushing Sammie and Emily in.
"Great, it's girls stuff! This is going to take the whole of break. What shall we do until then?" Sonic asked.
"We'll just wander around until they're ready." Knuckles said and he set off down the corridor.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? We could get lost." Sonic said.
"Hey, we'll just go down the corridor and then back up again. We won't go that far." Knuckles reassured and he continued to walk down the corridor. They walked slowly in silence for a while until Sonic cleared his throat.
"Knuckles, are you worried about what might happen?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know why but I get the feeling that Gillian and Sean are big trouble."
"Yes but I know that already."
"No I don't mean it like that." Sonic stopped talking and Knuckles turned to him, realising that he was trying to say something important. "I mean that they could be trouble to your relationship with Rouge."
"Why do you say that? Anyway, I thought you hated love." Knuckles smiled.
"I don't hate it, I'd just never want to be in it, that's all. I'm happy for you two and I don't want to see that happiness destroyed by a pair of bullies." Sonic sounded so serious that Knuckles stopped walking to consider what he had said.
"Don't worry Sonic, they can't change our feelings about each other."
"No I don't mean that. I'm trying to say that they may create difficulties deliberately to stress you two or get you into trouble. I don't think they're worried about me but I saw the way they looked at you two. If they find out about it then who knows what may happen."
"That's why they're not going to find out. We'll deal with them whatever happens." But Knuckles had been worried by Sonic's words so he changed the subject. "Why don't we go back and check up on the others?" They turned back and were soon outside the girl's toilets. They only had to wait a few minutes before Rouge left the room with Sammie and Emily who now looked completely different.
Their skirts had now been hitched up and their shirts were untucked. Their socks were pulled down and Rouge had applied some makeup to their faces. Sammie's hair was less frizzy and Emily's had been tied back. Before they had looked plain but now they were pretty. They were staring down nervously but Sonic grinned.
"You look great! Wow Rouge, you can do a lot in a short amount of time. You have completely changed." He said. They looked up and Sammie smiled cheekily.
"Why thank you young sir. But now I think it's time to go to Geography if we want to get their table."
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked.
"You want to start this plan don't you? What better way than to get the table they always sit at? Come on, we'd better go now." Sammie said and they set off towards the Geography room.
************************
Tails entered the school and was met by a woman in the reception.
"Hello, I'm Miss Petrie. And you must be Miles." She smiled kindly and he smiled back.
"Yes but call me Tails please." He said.
"Ok then, Tails it is. I'm going to be your teacher and I'll show you where to put your bag." She led him out of the reception and along a corridor full of pegs. "Here's your peg. Take out your pencil case and put your bag on there." Tails had a red peg with his name on a small plaque above it. He took out his pencil case and put his bag on the peg. "I'll show you to the classroom now." They reached the end of the corridor and entered a new part of the school. "This is the C Block where year five and six classes are. You are in 5S." She said as she stood outside a classroom. They entered it and Tails looked around.
The room was made up of thirty single desks lined up in rows all facing a table at the front and a white board.
"The class sit in alphabetical order so you can just stand for the moment until the bell goes. Are you nervous?" She asked once Tails had settled himself down on the edge of a desk at the front.
"A little but I'm sure I'll be ok. What are the people in this class like? Are they noisy, immature?" He asked and she smiled.
"You're looking at things a bit seriously aren't you? No doubt they'll be noisy and immature to you but once you get to know them they're nice.if you give them the chance." She replied looking seriously at Tails.
"I'll try to." He said and the bell went.
"Come with me and we'll get the rabble sorted out." She laughed as she led him outside.
Children were milling around outside the room but stood still when they saw Miss Petrie.
"Good morning class. Now then, when I call your name come inside and sit down at the desk I show you." She announced. A hand near the back rose and she sighed. "Yes Marie?"
"But surely miss, putting us in alphabetical order won't help us to learn but make us more disruptive?" She asked.
~Show off, I can tell she's a mouthy little brat.~ Tails thought as he wrinkled his nose.
"Yes maybe you are right Marie but if all of you can behave in alphabetical order, then I'll reconsider." She said. She looked at the piece of paper and started to read out names. She said Tails' and he entered the class, looking at where he was going to sit.
~Yeah! A seat by the window! This seating arrangement won't be so bad as long as I don't have to sit next to-~ His thoughts were interrupted by Miss Petrie.
"Marie Rally." Tails sat down in shock when he heard her name.
~Oh no, not her! Why, why, why? Just don't look at her, just don't.~ He couldn't help looking up as she entered the room and as he stared at her, something fluttered inside him. ~She's really pretty.~ She had pale pink fur and just like him had two tails. A red ribbon in her hair kept it in place and she smiled as she saw Tails.
"Hello, are you the new person?" She asked as she sat down next to him.
"Yes." He replied shortly. She turned to look at him but he stared out of the window.
"Are you ok? You look annoyed. Oh I see, you don't want to talk to me. That's ok with me." She smiled and turned to the person behind her. "Hi Lauren, how was your holiday?" She asked and Tails sighed as he leant on his elbows.
~She didn't have to put it quite like that. Why do I care anyway? I don't even like her.~ Except something was niggling at the back of his mind. ~She's arrogant and thinks she's so brainy. But she is really pretty, and she's trying to be nice. Maybe it would be all right to be civil to her.~
Miss Petrie sat down at her desk as the last person entered. She took out the register and took it. Once that was done, she stood up to talk to the class.
"Right everyone, we have a new person joining us this year. His name's Tails and I want you to be nice to him ok?" Everyone turned to him but he just stared down at his desk. "Right it's English now so I'll give out the books."
The lesson started and Tails copied down what she wrote on the board, not really paying attention. He stared out of the window, wishing he wasn't in a classroom.
~I wonder what the others are doing? Wait until break, the teasing will start then.~ He was disrupted from his thinking though by a piece of paper that had landed on his table. He opened it up and read what was written there.
Hi Tails its Marie writing to you. Are you sure you're ok? You look depressed and I was wondering if you wanted to talk about it. Please reply, even if it's to tell me to go away. (Marie)
He looked over to her but she was writing in her book. He smiled slightly as he re-read her note and making sure Miss Petrie wasn't looking, he wrote below what she had written.
I'm ok, just a bit down but it is the first day of term after all. I'm just missing my friends and I want to talk to them. Won't we get into trouble if Miss Petrie sees this? (Tails)
He waited until Miss Petrie was facing the board before flicking it back onto her table. Realising that he had some stuff to write, he did so and then waited for the note to come back. The lesson went on like this, them two passing this note between them.
I know, the first day is always the worst. Where are your friends then? Shouldn't they be at school? We will get into trouble but if we're careful then it doesn't matter. (Marie)
Do the days actually get better than this? My friends are in school, they go to Maples. You're being a bit reckless aren't you? (Tails)
Nope, they all remain as boring as this one is. Just think of it as a taste of what is to come. What are they called? My sister Gillian goes there but I hate her. And I wouldn't call it being reckless, I call it entertaining myself. (Marie)
Great, I'm looking forward to my life from now on. My friends are Sonic, Knuckles and Rouge. They're in year 11. Why don't you like your sister? I must say though, this is good entertainment. (Tails)
My sister's in year 11 too. She's nasty and a bully to me as well as the other people in her class. She thinks I'm a freak because I have two tails. I'm the only one in my family that does. (Marie)
I wonder if they know her? Now I can see why you don't like her. You're not a freak but I know how you feel. (Tails)
You'll soon find out if they do because she and her pet dog will probably try to beat them up. How do you know how I feel? (Marie)
Sonic can deal with anyone but who's her pet dog? I will show you how I know at break time. (Tails)
Sean, her boyfriend. He follows her round everywhere and will do whatever she wants. You're being very mysterious all of a sudden. (Marie)
Well it's a bit hard to show you now. *Sigh* At least it's Science now. (Tails)
I want to know now! Are you sure you can't tell me? And Science isn't that good you know, we're not even allowed to do any decent practical work. (Marie)
You wouldn't believe me if I told you and patience is a virtue. Do you like Science then? (Tails)
It's hard to be patient when you're in Science. I do like it but not the boring theory work. I like blowing things up and destroying electrical equipment. (Marie)
You're rather vicious aren't you? Only ten minutes left but I wish there were none. (Tails)
No I'm not, it just makes things more interesting in my life. Do you want to eat with my friends and me? (Marie)
I agree, practical things in Science are a lot better than the writing. Yes please, if it's ok with you. Yes, the bell has gone. (Tails)
Everyone put their books away and tried to get out of the room while Miss Petrie was shouting at them.
"Class break time now! Stop rushing towards the door please." Everyone slowed down and Tails remained sat while the class left. Marie stood up and looked at him.
"You can keep this if you want." She passed him the note and he put it in his pencil case. "Will you show me now?" She asked. In response, he stood up and turned around. "You have two tails too! I've never known anyone else like me. Do you think we're related?"
"I don't know. Shall we go outside for break?" He asked. She nodded her head and they left the room.
They stood outside and Marie pointed out different features to him.
"That is the infants' playground and that's the sport field. This is the junior playground and over there are some benches to sit on." They walked over to one table where four people were sitting at it. Marie sat down and Tails perched himself on the end.
"Hi Marie is this Tails?" One voice asked.
"Yes. Everyone this is Tails. Tails this is Lauren the sassy chick, Peter the worrier, Hannah our ignorant one and Dan our sportsman." She introduced in turn.
Lauren was a squirrel with pale grey fur and shoulder length grey hair; Peter was a human with light brown hair and blue eyes, Hannah was a human too but she had blonde hair and brown eyes and Dan was a rabbit with dark brown fur and pointy ears.
"So then, who do you live with?" Lauren asked.
"I live with my three friends and my guardian. Are you all friends with each other?"
"Yes and we have been since reception year. So then, what do you think of the school so far?" Hannah asked.
"It's not too bad I suppose. You all have titles but what is Marie known as?"
"She is Marie the brain. But now we have to think of a name for you."
"Come on Hannah, we have to get to know Tails first before we decide anything. So you live with your friends. Do they go to Maples?" Dan asked.
"Yes they do, they're in year eleven."
"They're in year eleven? If there is one thing, which we all have in common, it's the fact that we have brothers or sisters in year eleven. And you have friends there too.freaky." Peter commented.
"Peter, it's just a coincidence. You'll meet our relatives soon enough but that isn't a good thing necessarily." Lauren muttered.
"Am I the only one who gets on with the people I live with?" Tails asked.
"Yes but you're not related to them and they probably treat you nicely." Dan noted.
"I suppose you're right." Tails said.
"Where do you actually live?" Marie asked.
"Garden Views."
"That's not far from where most of us live. I live along the road and so does Peter. Dan lives a couple of roads away and so do Marie and Lauren." Hannah explained.
Just then, the bell went and they stood up slowly, watching people crowding into lines.
"What are they doing?" Tails asked.
"When break has finished, we line up in rows of classes and go in separately." Dan explained. They walked to their row and stood at the back. They waited for the years below them to go in before doing so themselves, Tails sighing at the thought of another two lessons.
************************
"Good, they're not here yet. Come on, this is where they sit." Sammie indicated a table at the back by the windows. They sat down at it and soon other people came trickling in. They looked at the five of them sitting there in wonder and some of them pointed at Sammie and Emily.
"Is it really that big a deal?" Sonic asked.
"Of course it is. They've sat here since year seven. I'm going to love seeing their faces when they come in." Sonic's compliments earlier had brought confidence to Emily and Sammie and they grinned at each other.
Silence fell upon the room when Gillian, Sean and their gang walked in. They began to walk towards the table when they realised that they were already sitting there.
"Just ignore them ok? So then Sammie and Emily, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to come shopping with me one day? You know, to get some new clothes etc. for your makeover." Rouge said.
"You mean it's not over yet? I thought we were doing all right. Hang on a minute, I've suddenly realised you said the words 'come shopping'." Sammie shivered slightly and they continued to talk, ignoring Gillian and Sean.
Sonic looked at them from the corner of his eye and saw that Gillian and Sean were staring at Knuckles and Rouge. They exchanged a look before going to sit down at another table.
~They're going to do something, I can just tell. And the worst thing is, I don't have a clue what it is! I wish Tails was here; he would be able to tell me what's going on.~ He stopped thinking when an old man entered the room.
He had a long beard and looked about a hundred. He walked slowly in the room and sat down at his desk. As he sat down, Miss Dink came in.
"Sorry to interrupt your lesson Mr Kenly but I forgot to give the students their planners." She had a box in her hands and she quickly passed them around. The three of them looked at their planners with interest and Sammie started to rummage around her bag. They were A5 notepads with 'Maples High School' typed on the front in yellow lettering with a dark blue background.
"Look at this Emily, it looks like we have something to do in Geography for once." Sammie commented.
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.
"Instead of becoming vegetables, we can decorate our planners and keep ourselves entertained." Sammie explained. She and Emily swapped planners and turned to the notes section. They started to write something in them when Mr Kenly started talking.
Now the three of them understood why it was easier to read the textbook. He seemed to talk into his beard and they frowned in puzzlement but Sammie and Emily seemed untroubled.
"Umm you two, did you just understand that?" Sonic asked.
"He said we're getting new textbooks and folders this year and he wants us to keep them clean." Sammie said offhand.
"How do you do that?" Rouge asked.
"/I/ don't, Sammie's the only one who can clearly understand him. She's a translator for me." Emily explained.
"It's not that hard, you just listen to everything he says before understanding it." Sammie said as she passed round new folders and textbooks. Mr Kenly carried on talking and they looked at Sammie expectantly as she continued to write in Emily's planner. He finished talking and the whole class looked puzzled as one. Sammie meanwhile had opened her folder and her textbook and started to write in it.
"Have you finished writing my message yet?" Emily asked.
"No, I'll have to complete it once we've done the work. We have to copy out a paragraph from p.56." She said and the others started to do so.
They spent the rest of the lesson working in silence and left quickly once the bell had gone. Maths was just as uneventful until five minutes before the end of the lesson.
"Right everyone, get out your planners and copy down the homework." The teacher announced.
"And we'd been doing so well." Emily said as she opened her planner.
"Complete exercises two and three on page twenty for tomorrow's lesson and no excuses." Sammie quickly looked at the questions and sighed in frustration.
"That's four pages worth of questions! Lunch is going to be fun."
"What are we doing at lunch then?" Sonic asked.
"This of course! We do our homework at school so we can relax at home." Emily explained.
"But isn't that-" Rouge started.
"Something only nerds do? Yes but you have the choice of doing nothing at lunch, no listening to music, shopping etc. and being stressed at home. Or you can do it at lunch with your friends and relax at home, chatting, shopping or anything else you're interested in. Personally, the latter option is more appealing to me, except for the shopping." Sammie said.
"Maybe we should do the questions at lunch then. Where do you usually do it?" Rouge asked.
"In the library."
"But it's nice and sunny today. Can't we do it outside?" Sonic suggested.
Just then the bell went and they left the classroom, heading for a table outside.
"We can do it here." Emily said as she sat down. The others did so too and Sammie looked at the questions as they ate their lunches.
"There are forty five questions in total in both exercises so to make it equal, we should so nine each. I'll do the first nine now while you finish eating." Sammie opened her book and began to quickly do her questions. Sonic looked at her in amazement as she sped through them.
"How does she do that?" He asked and looking up, Emily smiled.
"She may absolutely awful at Japanese but she makes up for it by being brilliant at Maths. I don't know why but she's just been always able to do it. We'd better start our bits soon." They got out their books.
"I'll do the next nine if you want." Emily suggested and when no one said anything, she started writing. Sammie by now had finished and she gave the three of them her book. They copied them out and then did the same with Emily's questions.
"Who wants to do the next ones?" Sonic asked and Rouge volunteered. "So what shall we do once this is done?"
"We'll show you some places if you want. Did you say where your friend goes to school?" Emily asked.
"He goes to Inverio. Why?"
"We can see the junior playground from here. He will probably be there about now."
"So does that mean we can see him?" Emily nodded her head and Sonic smiled.
"That would be nice. Have you finished yet Rouge?" She stopped writing and nodded her head.
"Yeah, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"I told you so. The work is easy enough so you don't flunk the subjects." Sammie said. The others copied her work and when they were done, Knuckles started the next part.
"Is there any reason why you want to do the last ones?" Rouge asked Sonic.
"It means that I haven't had to do anything up until now." Sonic said.
"I thought it might have been that. Anyway, when do you want to go shopping?"
"You were serious when you said that earlier? Why don't we do it on a Saturday? It can be an end of the week 'treat'." Sammie gulped slightly.
"Do you want us to tart ourselves up tomorrow as well?" Emily asked.
"If you can. Do you have any make up at home?"
"Just because we don't wear it, doesn't mean we don't have it. I might have to tie Sammie down to a chair though."
~What are they doing there? They've got a plan. But I probably won't realise what it is until it happens.~ Sonic saw Gillian and Sean staring at them from a different table.
"Sonic, do you want to copy Knuckles' questions? Any time soon would be nice." Sammie said.
"Sorry about that. I'll do that last lesson if you want." He looked at how much space he needed to leave and then did his questions.
"Yes, you probably will have to tie me down. I don't really wear it because I spend a lot of time after school practising martial arts." Sammie explained. She finished with Knuckles' book and passed it back to him. "Now it's just the last few questions then we won't have to worry about it anymore."
"How much time do you spend practising then?" Knuckles asked.
"Two nights a week for each one for about two hours. I've just got my brown belt for judo so it's a resting period for me at the moment."
"Wow, that's a lot of time. You must be very good then." Rouge commented.
"Yeah I'm ok I suppose. I'm crap at Japanese though, which is a bit weird."
"How do you do the work then?"
"I don't, I usually get Emily to do it for me. My parents know about it but they aren't worried. My mum is terrible with foreign languages too. It runs in the family I suppose."
"Have you finished yet?" Emily asked Sonic.
"Yep just this last one to do." He wrote down the answer and passed the book to Emily and Sammie. "The others can copy the answers later." They shrugged their shoulders and wrote down the questions. While they did so, everyone packed their stuff away and soon Emily and Sammie were doing the same.
"Ok, let's show you the fence." Sammie announced and they walked across the courtyard to a wire fence where Inverio was. They leaned up against it and the three of them scanned for Tails. After a few minutes though, it was clear he wasn't there.
"I wonder why he isn't there? They aren't allowed to stay inside during lunch." Emily pondered.
"I'm sure he has his reasons. You can meet him after school if you want." Sonic said.
"Oh yeah and we can walk home together because we live in the same direction." Sammie added. They walked away from the fence and Sammie plus Emily continued to show them other places throughout the rest of lunch.
************************
Tails sat down at his desk and wondered how he was going to survive two lessons of Maths at once. Although he liked mechanics, he had never liked the whole equations and lengths part as he found it boring and tedious. So finding out he had two lessons worth of it made him bang his head on the table. He didn't even have the energy to write a note to Marie and she didn't either by the looks of things.
This boring lesson did have one advantage though. It gave him the chance to work out his feelings and decide on how the day had gone so far. He was still confused about Marie but knowing that for the first time in his life, no one had tried to make fun of him was very nice. And although Lauren seemed a bit cold and Hannah was very giggly, Dan and Peter weren't that bad. He knew that he hadn't even been there for a whole day but the fact that things had gone so well made him happy and he actually liked school.
Lunchtime soon arrived and they talked about trivial things as they ate. Music, Maths (At least how boring it was) and their families were just some of the things. Tails didn't participate much in the conversation but instead watched and listened to what the others said. He found that Dan was a lot like Sonic in that he was impatient and cheerful. Hannah was only giggly because she felt insecure about not being as good as the others and Lauren was trying to come over as being mature for her age. Peter was nice, as long as you ignored him when he started to panic but he was still puzzled about Marie. Sometimes she would act normally and participate in the conversation but other times she would interrupt people and ignore them if they said something she didn't like. Her actions confused him and he couldn't make out why she did the things she did.
That didn't matter though when suddenly a group of boys walked up to them. Tails recognised them from his class but didn't know much about them. The others jumped up though and he stood up slowly, puzzled by their behaviour.
"There he is Bruce, let's get him!" A boy rabbit shouted to Bruce, a big brute of a human. Tails realised with shock that they were pointing at him and he backed away slowly.
"What are you lot doing here? You leave him alone!" Dan shouted. Bruce clicked his fingers and a couple of people surrounded Dan and started to drag him away. Some other people did the same with the others until just him and Marie were left. Bruce grabbed Marie by her neck and lifted her off the ground.
"You let her go right now!" Tails shouted but he just laughed.
"You see him there?" Marie nodded her head slightly. "I have chosen him to be your next victim."
"Please Bruce, anyone else but him, please." But her pleading didn't affect him.
"You will do it unless you want things to change. And I'm not going to leave until you do!" He put her down roughly and Tails went to help her up but she just pushed him away.
"Get away from me you creep! Who do you think you are, sitting with whoever you like?" She slapped him hard across the face and the stinging sensation made his eyes swim. He looked at her in confusion but seeing her glare, turned around and walked away. "And don't you ever dare talk to me again!" She screamed after him and Tails started to cry silently.
He found a clump of trees in the corner and climbed one quickly. He sat himself on a branch high up and making sure he was well hidden, he started to rock back and forth.
~Why did she do that to me? I thought we were friends! I'm glad I was wary of her; she's just a mindless bully. And I thought I might be happy here. I've gone from having five friends to none in the space of half a day. I'm not going back to that school, whatever happens.~ He thought angrily and remained where he was when the bell went. He sat like this for the whole afternoon, the same thoughts running around his head. The end of the day came slowly and Tails jumped out of the tree quickly making his way towards the school gate, ignoring his bag.
************************
At the end of form time, in which not much happened, Rouge, Sonic and Knuckles made their way up to the library as they had been instructed to do. When they arrived, they found Mrs Skillet waiting outside the door.
"Hello again you three. I have been told that you are fluent in Japanese so therefore I thought you probably wouldn't want to do it. You can sit in the library and talk quietly or do any homework if you have some, but you must stay in there. I don't like students wandering around the school, is that understood?" They nodded their heads and entered the library. No one was there so they sat themselves in a corner and Sonic and Knuckles got out their Maths books.
"I can imagine this is going to be a fun hour. Well if we can get this over and done with quickly then we can talk for the rest of the time." Rouge said and looked at the table.
"What is it?" Sonic asked.
"I left my Maths book in the form room. I'll be back in a minute, I have to get it." Rouge said and she quickly walked out of the library.
As she left one building, she slowed down slightly, not seeing the need to rush.
"After all, it's not like anything is going to happen." She said aloud.
"Oh I wouldn't say that." A voice whispered behind her. She spun round and saw Sean standing in front of her.
"What are you doing here? You should be in a lesson." She accused.
"It's called skiving you know. And what about you, what is your reason for not being there?" He asked, inching closer to her. She turned away from him and carried on towards the room.
"That is none of your business." He grabbed her by the wrist and she struggled against him.
"Oh but it is." He whispered before dragging her behind some bushes.
"What do you want?" She yelled and he used his other hand to cover her mouth.
"Who else but you?" He smiled evilly and pushed her against the wall. He removed his hand from her mouth and she screamed loudly. He pressed it back again and squeezed her wrist. Her struggles grew weaker as he put more pressure on. "Don't you do that again or it might be your throat." She nodded her head and looked fearfully at him. He lifted his hand away and leaned forward quickly. He started to kiss her fervently and the shock initially made her struggle madly. She stopped though when she felt a hand go towards her neck and he started to stroke her arms instead.
~Ok Rouge, just keep calm. As long as you remain still, he won't hurt you.~ She thought but him stroking her made her feel dirty. ~Why is he doing this to me? Hang on this is what Sammie said.~
"The one you really have to look out for Rouge is him, Sean Bonnet. He tries to hit on any single girl who has any features about her and some that are already booked." The memory flashed through her mind but was brought abruptly to her senses when she felt a hand sneaking up her shirt. She tried to move away but he kept her immobile, crushed against the wall.
"Just keep calm and I won't hurt you." He whispered and she suddenly realised what he might want to do.
"Oh no you don't!" She shouted and kneed him hard in the crotch. He buckled and she took this chance to run as fast as she could. He managed to grab her by her leg though and she was dragged down onto the ground.
She looked around in panic and saw Knuckles wandering around, obviously trying to look for her.
"Knuckles help me!" She yelled and seeing her, he ran towards them. He saw Sean and lifted him up. Rouge sighed in relief and smiled. "Thanks Knuckles, we'd better go now." He didn't reply though and she saw with shock that Knuckles was trying to strangle him. "Knuckles let go! Don't hurt him!" She screamed but he ignored her. He put him back down on the ground and twisted his arm around.
"Let go of me! I'm sorry ok?" Sean shouted but closed his eyes when he felt something crunch in his arm. He stumbled backwards and Knuckles punched him square on the face, knocking him out.
"Knuckles what did you do that for? I told you not to hurt him! You're going to be in so much trouble!" Knuckles looked at her but suddenly they heard someone walking towards them.
"What's going on here?" It was Mrs Skillet and she definitely did not look happy. "I thought I told you to stay in the library! And what have you done to him? You have a lot of explaining to do!" They looked down in shame and she stood above them, her arms crossed.
"Well I left my Maths book in the form room so I went back to get it. Sean grabbed my arm and he was trying to." She tailed off and shivered.
"Trying to what?"
"He was kissing me against my will. I couldn't do anything when I saw Knuckles. He came over and, well you know the rest." Rouge ended.
"Nothing else happened?" Her look had softened slightly but her arms remained crossed.
"No, that's all that happened. We're sorry for what's gone on, this wasn't meant to happen."
"Is this true Knuckles?" She turned to him and he looked up, staring at her.
"Yes it is. I'm not sorry for what I did to him though." Rouge winced but he ignored her.
"I'm afraid that you will have to have a detention tomorrow lunchtime."
"A detention? But all I did was knock him out!"
"Yes but that is not acceptable at this school. And you haven't just knocked him out, you broke his arm too." Knuckles frowned in puzzlement.
"I did?" He glanced at Rouge and she gave him a warning look. "That wasn't meant to happen, I don't think so at least."
"If you carry on talking like that I'll make it after school instead. I want you to go and get your stuff and remain in the library for the rest of the lesson, do I make myself clear?" They nodded their heads and she carried Sean to the medical room.
Once she had gone, Rouge turned to Knuckles. She was shaking in anger and he looked away.
"What did you go and break his arm for? I told you not to hurt him, so what do you go and do? You try and kill him!" She said.
"I was telling the truth when I said I didn't mean to do it! All I saw was him trying to hurt you and I suppose I got carried away. I'm sorry, I didn't realise you would be so against it, seeing as he tried to assault you." He snapped and this made her stop.
"You didn't realise what he was going to do to me."
"You weren't telling the truth earlier were you? What happened?" He asked quietly.
"I'm not going to tell you because you'll just try and kill him then. I just want to forget about it. Come on, let's go to the form room." She walked away and he stood for a moment as Sonic's words came back into his mind.
"I'm trying to say that they may create difficulties deliberately to stress you two or get you into trouble. I don't think they're worried about me but I saw the way they looked at you two." He wondered if this is what Sonic meant.
~Rouge is definitely stressed and I am in trouble. A detention, how on earth did I manage to get one on my first day?~ Sighing, he walked after Rouge who was nearly at the room. He waited outside as she got her book and then walked back to the library in silence.
They entered the library and Sonic looked up at them with interest. They sat down and he passed back Knuckles' book, which he had been copying out of.
"What happened to you two? You certainly took your time." He looked amused but frowned when they remained quiet.
"Lets just say that Sean was looking for trouble so Knuckles here decided to break his arm and beat him unconscious." Rouge explained.
"I think a bit more happened than that!" But Knuckles stopped when he saw the look on Rouge's face.
"And not just that! He's now got a detention too!" Rouge added. Sonic stared at Knuckles in surprise but he didn't say anything.
"Well this day has certainly been eventful. I wonder if Tails has had a good day?" Sonic pondered.
"I hope so. But now I just want to finish copying up this Maths work." Rouge said and she took Sonic's book. She copied out his part and then Knuckles did the same. He had just finished when the bell rang so they went down to the form room where they waited for Sammie and Emily. Once they were there, they put their books away and walked out of the school.
"So then, did much happen during your lesson?" Sonic asked Emily.
"Yep, Sammie managed to cause our teacher to have a mental breakdown because she's that bad at Japanese." Emily said and Sammie smiled cheekily.
"But you must admit, it did make the lesson more interesting. Did anything happen with you?"
"Did it? Knuckles beat up Sean and broke his arm!" Sonic said cheerfully.
"And he got a detention because of it!" Rouge added and Emily raised an eyebrow.
"Did you? I'm not surprised to be honest." They walked towards Inverio, not aware of what was happening meanwhile.
************************
Tails walked quickly, keeping his head down in case someone recognised him. He heard someone calling his name and turning around, realised that it was Marie. He scowled and walked faster.
"Tails wait, I need to talk to you! Why are you walking away from me?" She shouted as she tried to catch up with him. He was so mixed up that he didn't notice Shadow who had decided to wait for him.
"Hi Tails.bye Tails." Shadow said as he walked straight past. He then heard Marie calling his name and running up to him.
"Excuse me, but do you know Tails?" She asked Shadow breathlessly.
"Yes but what did you do to him? I assume it's you who upset him." He said looking straight at her. She kept up his gaze though.
"I don't know what I did but I'm worried about him." She said and seeing him disappear, ran after him.
They nearly collided into the others who had also seen Tails walking off too.
"What's going on here?" Sonic demanded.
"I don't know. I was just waiting for him and he walked straight past me."
"It doesn't look like he's going back home though. He's making for the park." Sammie commented.
"I'll go and look for him, you lot go back to the flat ok?" Rouge said but Sonic shook his head.
"No, I'm his best friend I should go."
"Don't argue Sonic ok? I'll find him, don't you worry." Rouge said and she ran off after him.
"Oh hello Marie, I didn't realise you were here. Do you know anything about this?" Emily asked.
"Oh hi Emily, hi Sammie. I'm sure everyone can do their explaining on the way home. There's nothing we can do now except for wait for Rouge to come back." Marie said and they set off home, each explaining what had happened in their day.
************************
Not knowing where he was going, Tails ran for the park and slowed down as he entered it. Now he was here, he felt calmer and searched for the bench he had found yesterday. Once he had done so, he sat down, looking at his reflection in the lake. Seeing no one around, he started to sing softly to himself.
"I sit and wait
Does an angel contemplate my fate?
And do they know
The places where we go
When we're grey and old
'Cos I've been told
That salvation lets their wings unfold
So when I'm lying in my bed
Thoughts running through my head
And I feel that love is dad
I'm loving angels instead
And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead
When I'm feeling weak
And my pain walks down a one-way street
I look above
And I know I'll always be blessed with love
And as the feeling grows
She breathes flesh to my bones
And when love is dead
I'm loving angels instead
And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead." As he finished singing, Tails wiped away the tears in his eyes and stared out across the lake. A few pigeons trotted around the bench but someone walking towards him quickly caused them to flutter away. He looked up uninterested but was surprised when he saw that the person was Rouge. She sat down next to him and he turned back to the lake in silence. She did so too, and for some time the only thing heard was the wind rustling the leaves and an occasional quack of a duck on the lake.
"That's one of my favourite songs you know. Do you believe in angels then?" Her voice rang loud and clear amongst the quiet.
"I don't know what to believe anymore. But there must be something out there watching over me. That's what I tell myself anyway." He glanced up at the sky as he said this but sighed and looked downwards.
"Do you want to talk?"
"Yes but not about what's happened. Rouge, when did you realise that you were in love with Knuckles?" This question caught her by surprise and she thought for a moment.
"It's hard to say a definite event but I think I first considered the idea when he saved my life."
"What happened?"
"We had just fought against each other and we were arguing when I lost my footing. I would have died but he grabbed my arm even though he was shouting at me a few moments earlier. That made me angry and so I said some things I didn't mean to. He apologised for hurting me and then disappeared. I wanted to see him again and so I did." She stopped as she thought about what had happened. "Why do you want to know?"
"No reason but what does it feel like to be in love?"
"It's hard to describe that too. When I'm with Knuckles though, I'm happy and carefree. I want to hold him close to me and stay like that." Her eyes widened in realisation. "There's someone you like isn't there?" Tails blushed slightly and she smiled.
"There is, maybe. But I'm worried that she doesn't like me in the same way. Sometimes I want to tell but other times she acts really arrogantly and annoys me."
"If you really love her then he bad habits won't irritate you. I mean Knuckles is hot headed but I'm sure you know him well enough to realise this." He nodded his head and without realising it, she continued speaking. "He doesn't listen to what you say and misunderstands you. He's ashamed of the way he feels-"
"Rouge, are you ok? You've gone really red and there's a dangerous glint in your eyes." Tails commented and Rouge frowned.
"I'm sorry, got a bit carried away there. What were we talking about?" She asked and this time, Tails frowned. ~Why is he looking at me like that? And why did I keep going on about Knuckles?~ She thought to herself.
"What do you like about him then?" He asked instead.
~I wish he wouldn't ask me these sort of questions, he's just confusing me.~ She smiled and cleared her throat, seeing his concerned look. "He loves me for who I am. He's made me very happy."
"I can tell. I wish I could be as happy."
"Well you can. All you have to do is tell her how you feel."
"But-"
"No buts. This might be your only chance at being truly happy so there's no point in considering it."
"But if I don't end up happy, I'll end up sad instead."
"Tails, it is up to you and only you as to what you do. I can only give you advice after all."
"I know but I'm very glad of it. You've cleared a lot of things up." He hugged her and she squeezed his shoulders.
"I'm glad I could help." But in truth she was worried. ~He may feel better not but he's just made me confused.~
"Can you not tell the others about the girl please?"
"If you don't want to but what about Sonic? He wasn't very happy about me telling him to go home."
"I'll talk to him but now I think it's time for /us/ to go home." Tails said and they stood up, making their way back to the flat.
***************************************************************************
S. Chensu: 29 pages!!!!!!! I am never reading that much again!
Luff: The worse thing is that the next episode is just as long as this one!
Sonic: Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!
S. Chensu: I don't see what you're moaning about; you're not the one who has to grammar check this damn thing.
Luff: But we are determined to finish it. Despite the fact episodes 14 and 15 are still not written.
S. Chensu: Yes but 16-25 are written!
Eggman: That doesn't count for much seeing as you have two in the middle missing.
S. Chensu: Don't worry, I promise they will be written before they have to come out. We've got two weeks to do episode 14, should be enough time.
Luff: But until then, please review! They've been a bit sparse recently.
Luff: Stop moaning! She's been doing this all day and it's really starting to annoy me now! But I have to agree with you; so far this year (10) is probably the one where I have had the least amount of homework.
S. Chensu: It's all right for you; you're still doing your GCSEs! I know what they're like and it's a lot simpler than what I'm doing! *Coughs suddenly when she notices readers looking at her in a strange way* Anyway, please excuse the ranting. Remember that just because its school doesn't mean it's going to be simple.
Luff: You also need to know that because our computer f**ks everything up, the bit where they're writing notes to each other is meant to be in a different font so we'll put in brackets at the end of each bit who's writing it.
S. Chensu: This is quite long so we'll let you get on with it. Just remember:
Disclaimer: We do not own anything in this story, apart from the story itself and the characters Lauren, Hannah, Peter, Dan, Marie, Bruce, Miss Petrie, Mrs Skillet, Miss Dink, Mr Kenly, Gillian, Sean, Sammie and Emily. And we definitely don't own the songs 'Not of this Earth' (Robbie Williams), which is Knuckles' theme song and 'Angels' (also Robbie Williams), which is Tails' theme song. Oh and the 'Cheeky Song' by the Cheeky Girls.
Really important note: This has more kissing as well as other bad stuff. I mean like the fact a boy tries to kiss Rouge.
Luff: Now you can definitely get on with it.
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Episode eleven: Monday blues
Shadow woke up in the morning to the sounds of Eggman shouting at Sonic.
"Come on Sonic, you have to get up!"
"I don't want to! It's too early for me!" Sonic yelled. Groaning, Shadow got out of bed to see what was happening. He saw Eggman standing by Sonic's door and leaning inwards. His face had gone red from shouting and peeking in, he saw Sonic in bed with his head under his pillow. The others weren't anywhere to be seen and he went to find them.
He found Tails in his room gazing at himself in the mirror, looking very depressed.
"Morning Tails, ready for school I see. Unlike Sonic, who seems to be content with just lying in bed." Shadow commented.
"Eggman went to wake him up this morning and he's refusing to go to school. I'm sure he'll get out eventually though." Tails said, smiling for the first time.
"ARRRGH! All right, all right I'm out of bed!" They heard Sonic yell.
"It seems he is now out of bed. I wonder what Eggman did?" Tails asked.
"Let's go outside and find out." Shadow said and they walked out of the room. Sonic had locked himself in one of the bathrooms and Knuckles and Rouge who were sat at the kitchen table, were laughing.
"What happened? We heard a scream and then lots of yelling." Shadow said.
"Then a bit of shouting too." Tails added.
"Eggman got some ice cubes out from the freezer and placed them in a bowl. He then tipped them all over Sonic!" Rouge giggled.
Just then, Sonic appeared, now washed and half changed, looking very irritated.
"Good morning Sonic." Knuckles said amiably.
"Shut up! I'm not in a good mood!" He snapped.
"And why could that be? I didn't hear anything happen." Shadow said.
"Oh ha ha ha, very funny! Your wit continues to astound and amaze me!" He said scornfully (Note from S. Chensu: I always say this when I'm annoyed!).
"Come on you, get changed. Just remember I've still got the ice cubes to use if necessary." Eggman said, appearing from Sonic's room. The mention of ice cubes made Sonic shiver and he went to his room to find his shirt, tie and blazer.
"Thank you for the entertainment Eggman. This is certainly going to make the day a bit more bearable. Come on Knuckles, we'll see you lot in a minute." Rouge said and they both left the table after putting their bowls away.
When they had gone, Sonic returned now fully dressed and in a better mood. He sat down and Tails passed him a bowl of cereal.
"Thanks Tails. Good morning everyone, sorry about my behaviour earlier, I'm always bad on a Monday." Sonic said.
"No problem Sonic." Tails said.
"Hang on, where have Knuckles and Rouge gone? They're acting even stranger than they were before." Sonic said.
"I suppose now's a good a time as any to tell you." Eggman started. Tails stared at him but Eggman just shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, you may as well." Tails said.
"Knuckles and Rouge.how do you say it? They're close." Eggman started.
"Very close." Tails added.
"What, you mean like best friends?" Sonic said and Shadow put his face in his hands.
"No, closer than best friends." Tails said desperately but just then, Knuckles and Rouge entered the room, looking a bit flushed.
"Well, I suppose you'd better get going now. Everyone's got their stuff packed?" Eggman said. They nodded their heads and got their bags. Once everyone had their shoes on, Sonic opened the door and stepped outside.
"Bye everyone, see you later." Shadow said and they walked down the stairs. Once they were out, they set out along the road to school.
Knuckles and Rouge who were behind Sonic and Tails were holding hands and talking.
"Knuckles, you wouldn't mind if we kept our relationship out of school do you? It's less hassle then." Rouge asked.
"I don't mind, whatever you want. It shall be our little secret." He whispered. She smiled and saw out of the corner of her eye, Sonic staring at them. Not wanting to alarm Knuckles, she didn't say anything though and kissed him on the cheek instead.
"Thanks Knuckles. I wonder what school will be like?"
************************
~Could that be what Tails meant? About them being closer than best friends?~ Sonic suddenly realised after all of this time the truth about Knuckles and Rouge. ~I don't believe it; they're going out with each other! Ew, that's disgusting! I have to talk to Knuckles about this.~
"Sonic, are you ok? You've come over a bit distant." Tails asked. Sonic turned to him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"I think I've just understood what you meant about Knuckles and Rouge."
"At last! I wondered how long it would take!" Tails exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Sonic frowned.
"Well, you know how you went on about nothing happening in Italy? They got together there, so something did happen." Tails said.
"Ew, going out with a girl? What on Earth does he want to do that for?" Sonic pulled a face and Tails laughed.
"Because he loves her. Just accept the fact that they're together and may be for a long time." Tails suggested.
"I'm happy for them but I need to talk to Knuckles. I still can't believe that he, a cold hearted old crow has softened up!" He stopped and so did Tails. Rouge and Knuckles quickly let go of each other's hands and stopped in front of them.
"Why are we stopping?" Rouge asked.
"Knuckles, can I talk to you for a minute? Alone, please." Sonic said and Tails grabbed Rouge by her arm.
"Come on Rouge, I wanted to ask you something anyway." Tails said as he led her away.
Knuckles stared at Sonic in expectation but now that he was here, Sonic couldn't think of anything to say.
"Did you want something Sonic?" Knuckles eventually asked.
"Um.I don't know how to say this but why?" He stumbled.
"Why what? Oh I see! You mean about me and Rouge!" He grinned when he saw Sonic wince. "This may sound really strange but I don't know what actually happens next." He looked up hopefully and the person at the big computer in the sky sighed. A hand reached down and in it was a copy of the script.
Knuckles scanned the page for a few moments before his eyes widened.
"On no, please not that, anything but that." He whimpered but the hand had already disappeared.
"What is it?" A look of realisation appeared on Sonic's face. "Oh no, don't tell me you have to sing."
"Yes, oh why me? It's going to be so embarrassing!" Knuckles exclaimed.
"I'm not worried about that, I'm more scared about the song. Please tell me it's not a love song?" At this Knuckles smiled.
"You'll be pleased to know that it.is." Knuckles continued to smile as he saw Sonic's face rise and fall in a split second.
"NO, not a love song!" Sonic screamed and Knuckles took this opportunity to start singing while no one was paying attention to him.
"Not of this Earth
You've changed places with the Sun
I know that you're the one
I love what we've become
Not of this Earth
I wear you like a shroud
I know I'll make you proud
You done your crying now
She's not of this Earth
And I no longer need to search
If I ever leave this world
You will have a song to sing
So you know what you're worth
Not of this Earth
She came walking down my lane
I've learned to laugh again
Like a moth to a flame
Not of this Earth
Not surprised we're unashamed
She's gonna have to change her name
Then we'll know that she's the same
She's not of this Earth
And I believe we've seen the worst
If I ever leave this world
You will have a song to sing
So you know what you're worth
(Light of this Earth)
Better get used to this smile
(Light of this Earth)
Gonna be around for awhile
(Light of this Earth)
Spent so much time being cursed
(Light of this Earth)
Not of this Earth (Oh not of)
You've changed places with the Sun
I know that you're the one (I know that you're)
I love what we've become
Not of this Earth
I wear you like a shroud
I know I'll make you proud (I know I'll make you proud)
You done your crying now
Light of this Earth." He finished the song and looked embarrassed. Rouge, who had heard the whole thing ran up to him and hugged him.
"Knuckles that was so good!" She exclaimed which made him go even redder.
"It doesn't look like Sonic appreciated it as much though." Tails noted and they saw Sonic running around, with his fingers in his ears. "SONIC, ITS FINISHED NOW! YOU CAN TAKE YOUR FINGERS OUT OF YOUR EARS!" Tails yelled and Sonic took them out cautiously.
"At last, the hell on Earth has ended!" He sighed relieved. "I'm happy for both of you, honestly I am but the idea of love sickens me!" He retched to show them.
"Thank you for your opinion Sonic but I think we'd better get to school now before we're late." Rouge said.
"Oh my God! We've got ten minutes to get there, we'd better get going now!" Tails said, looking at his watch.
They started to run down the road and skidded around the corner. They continued to sprint until they got to Poplar Park where the schools were. Inverio didn't start until 8:50 so Tails still had 15 minutes but Maples school started at 8:30 and the three of them were already five minutes late. They waved goodbye to Tails and quickly entered the school.
They were met in the reception by a stern looking lady who stared at them for a few moments.
"I take it you are Sonic, Knuckles and Rouge?" They nodded slightly and she gazed at them as she continued to speak. "You're five minutes late but I suppose it's your first day so that doesn't matter. And you do miss the first two lessons. But that doesn't mean you can be late again ok?" They nodded their heads again and she smiled for the first time. "Welcome to Maples High School. I'm Mrs Skillet, the head teacher here. If you follow me, I'll take you to your form room." She turned away and they followed her down the corridor to a room full of teenagers sat down. "You are in 11V. Your form tutor is Miss Dink and she'll give you more information. I will be seeing you at the end of the week but until then, good luck." They thanked her and she opened the door. The woman sitting at the desk at the front looked up and saw her. Mrs Skillet showed the three of them in before turning away.
Miss Dink was about twenty-five and wore quite casual clothes for a teacher made up of a pair of baggy trousers and tailored shirt. She had highlighted brown hair, which hung loosely around her shoulders. She smiled at them and they instantly felt less nervous. They stood at the front of the classroom and gazed out upon the rest of their class. There was a mixture of humans and animals but they all wore the same uniform.
"Class we have three new students with us this year. Do you want to introduce yourselves?" She asked. They said their names in turn and she pointed to one table, made up of six places, two already filled by people. "You can sit there and Emily and Sammie will look after you, show you around etc." The group walked over to the table and saw the two girls for the first time.
They both looked almost identical, both having brown hair and brown eyes. One had curly hair though while the other's was straight. Sonic sat down opposite them and after looking at Rouge, Knuckles sat down next to him. Rouge sat diagonally across from him and the girl with straight hair started talking.
"Hi I'm Emily and this is my sister Sammie. As you may have noticed, we're twins but we do have our differences. The first thing we have to warn you about is some of the people in this class. Most important to your knowledge here at school is that there is a hierarchy and Gillian is at the top. That's her over there." She pointed to a fox that was giggling with some other girls and looking at them occasionally. Her fur was a deep chestnut colour and you could tell she was popular. Rouge stared at her and sniffed loudly.
"Yep, just what I think of her too but it's usually best to just stay out of her way. The one you really have to look out for Rouge is him, Sean Bonnet. He tries to hit on any single girl who has any features about her and some that are already booked." Among the group of girls surrounding Gillian was a boy who had his hands practically down her pants. She seemed to be enjoying it though and he was basking in her glory. Knuckles went slightly pink and just then, he saw Sean staring at Rouge. He turned back to Gillian after a few seconds but that didn't stop Knuckles from noticing an evil glint in his eyes. He turned back to the conversation that the others were having, shaking his head slightly.
"So what about the lessons then?" Rouge asked.
"Do you really want to know about them? Let's just say you'll be bored out of your brain after the first ten minutes but the stuff's easy enough so that you don't flunk the subjects. As long as you look like you're listening, the teachers are happy." Sammie explained.
"The head teacher said something to us about missing some lessons but I don't understand what she meant." Sonic said.
"On the first day of term we miss the first two lessons so we have some time to catch up on what people have been doing etc. or in the case of them," Emily glanced at the group with Gillian and Sean. "A chance to reassure their dominance of the class. It also gives us some time to tell you things about this school."
"Although you wonder why people want to know things about this dump." Sammie muttered.
"Class can I have your attention please?" Miss Dink announced and everyone stopped talking. "I'm just going to give you your timetables and afterwards you can go to your lockers." She held some papers in her hand and handed them out. The group got theirs and looked at them.
"Oh no look what we have today! Geography, Maths and Japanese! I don't think the day can get much worse than this!" Sammie wailed and she leaned over to Rouge's timetable. "How come you have a gap where I've got Japanese?" She looked closer and gasped. "A free study period! Emily, why can't we have one? I've always wanted one of them."
"There must obviously be a reason. Do you know why?" Emily asked.
"I'm fluent in Japanese so I suppose they didn't see the point in me having lessons." Rouge replied in perfect Japanese.
"How do you do that? I have trouble saying hello in Japanese, let alone anything else!" Sammie said.
"It's true you know. I've never known anyone worse than her at trying to learn something." Emily added.
"We've spent a lot of time in Japan so we've learnt the lingo. Does this mean we have one less subject?" Sonic asked hopefully.
"It must do. Lucky old you is all I can say. Can we not talk about lessons anymore please?" Sammie said, shivering at the mention of the word.
"So then, what sort of music do you like?" Emily said quickly, looking at Sammie worriedly.
"All sorts really as long as it's not teeny beeny bobbers music." Rouge commented.
"How about that song by Liberty X? You know, just a little." Emily suggested.
"I can't remember how that one goes." Knuckles said.
"Yes you do. It's that one I sung once and you fell over afterwards?" Rouge said and Knuckles' eyes widened in realisation.
"Oh yeah, how could I forget?"
"He fell over from hearing that song?" Sammie asked.
"Yes, but we never did find out why. We just assumed it was because I have a terrible voice." Rouge laughed.
"I know why! It's because-" Sonic stopped though when Knuckles kicked him under the table. "It's because he felt ill but we'll never be sure."
"Oh, right. But have you heard that song by the Cheeky Girls? Doesn't it make you want to vomit?" Sammie said.
"No we haven't. How does it go?" Sonic asked.
"It's a good thing you asked that because we know exactly how it goes. And its also quite funny because the two girls are twins and so are we." Sammie grinned evilly and Emily sighed.
"You've done it now. You are going to be very embarrassed after this." They started to sing the song, still sitting in their seats.
"I never ever ask where do you go
I never ever ask what do you do
I never ever ask what's in your mind
I never ever ask if you'll be mine
Come and smile
don't be shy
Touch my bum
this is life
We are the cheeky girls
we are the cheeky girls
you are the cheeky boys
you are the cheeky boys. (Note from S. Chensu: I won't write anymore of the song, as it's bad enough as it is)"
Rouge was grinning like mad but Knuckles and Sonic were blushing really badly. Sammie cleared her throat in an attempt to stop herself from laughing but failed miserably.
"Right class, you can now go and choose your lockers." Miss Dink announced and there was a stampede to get the top lockers. The lockers were behind Sammie and Emily and they quickly took two behind them.
"Give us your PE kits and we'll put them in here." Emily said and they passed them over. They were put in three of the top lockers behind them and Sammie sighed in relief.
"That was probably the most challenging part of the day. Now you have a locker, everything will be a breeze. Just make sure your locker stays tidy. If it doesn't then the stuff will fall out and hit the people below you and funnily enough, they don't like that." Sammie explained.
"So what do we do now?" Sonic asked.
"Nothing, we just talk. I know, we can do a question and answer session." Sammie said. "I'll start. So then, where do you live?" She asked, in mock seriousness.
"Sounds like we're being interviewed. Well I say that we should ask you questions too. We live in Garden Views. Where do you-" But Rouge was interrupted by Sammie.
"Garden Views? We live just along the road from there. Who do you live with? Are you all related?" Sammie asked. Knuckles and Sonic looked uneasily at each other but Rouge took control of the situation.
"We live with two friends our ours called Tails and his guardian and Shadow. We're all friends with each other. We've mostly been living in Japan but we wanted to do some travelling to England so we're staying here for the year." Rouge explained.
"But why stay here? This place is a dump!" Sammie exclaimed.
"I suppose we were just attracted to London. But what about you?" Rouge asked.
"Oh we're a lot more boring than that. We've lived here all our lives and we went to Inverio across the park before we came here, where we've remained for five years. We just live with our mum and dad, no brothers or sisters. I like drawing and shopping-" Emily said.
"You're not the only one. Why do girls like shopping?" Sonic sighed.
"I don't! I like martial arts and we both play video games. We also love music, all sorts." Sammie added.
"You do martial arts? What sort?" Knuckles was suddenly interested in the conversation.
"So the cat let go of your tongue now?" Sammie laughed. "I do karate, judo and tae kwon do. Do you do any then?"
"I used to but I only practise occasionally now. So do you do any armed combat?"
"No, I have a bad case of Aichmophobia."
"A fear of sharp objects." Emily quickly explained. "She had an accident with a sword when she used to do kendo and she hasn't been able to face pointy objects since then." The others could only imagine what terrible thing could have happened.
"When we were in Japan, I did learn some fencing. You like video games? I don't know many girls that play them." Sonic commented.
"I know but it just makes things more interesting. If you come from Japan, can you speak fluent English too?"
"Yep, it's compulsory until you're fourteen but we continued with it because we knew we would be coming here." Rouge explained.
"So what about Maths and Geography? What are they like?" Knuckles asked.
"What did I say about not mentioning lessons?" Sammie shouted.
"We're in sets for Maths but most people are in the middle set." Emily looked at their tables. "That's strange, you've been put in the top set, and we're in that too. Geography is hilarious, we get taught by an old bat called Mr Kenly. It's usually easier to read the textbook than trying to understand what he's saying." Emily described.
"So this day is going to be interesting." Rouge remarked.
"Humph, we'll see about that. We still don't know what the slut and her pet dog think of you yet." Sammie said.
"Does it matter that much then?" Sonic asked.
"Oh yes. It's important so you can decide whether you want to commit suicide or dunk someone's head down the toilet and make /them/ feel suicidal by the end of the week." Sammie said bitterly.
"What she's trying to say is that if they don't like you then life may not be easy-" Emily clarified.
"And here they come now." Sammie muttered and true to her words, Sean and Gillian were walking over to their table.
Knuckles stared stonily at them while Rouge talked to Sonic, pretending they didn't exist.
"So anyway I think you'd better-" They stood by Rouge and she looked up. "Hello, and who might you two be? Did you want something?" She asked amiably.
"You should know our names by now rat with wings." Gillian jeered. Knuckles was about to say something but Rouge shook her head slightly.
"I'm sorry, of course I should. After all, who's more important than you?" She replied mockingly. "By the way, the name's Rouge, not rat with wings."
"We don't care about your name, we just want you to know that by hanging around certain people." Gillian glanced at Sammie and Emily as she said this. "You will lose what little credit you have."
"And who gave you the right to decide anyway? You are little more than a bimbo and," Rouge turned to Sean in puzzlement. "What is this thing called? I was told he's a boy although it's hard to tell, he's more earthworm to me."
"You mean slimy, blind and stupid? I see what you mean Rouge." Sonic added.
"You keep out of this pin cushion!" Gillian said.
"Ouch, that really hurt! I don't care what you think about us!" Sonic retaliated.
"I would keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you. So then, you're new around here?" Sean asked.
"Do you by any chance have a rocket scientist degree? Yes we're new but I don't see what it is to you." Rouge said.
"Well you be careful because we rule this class and we won't have our positions threatened." Gillian seemed to notice Knuckles for the first time. "And what about you hippy? Don't you have anything to say?" Knuckles glared at her and Sean winced slightly but it didn't affect her.
"I never say anything unless it is to a person who is worth it. And to be honest, you have a long way to go before you get there." Knuckles stated. Gillian smiled slightly at him but he kept his face the same.
"Strong and silent.I like that in a man. We'll leave you for the moment. Good day freaks." Gillian said to Sammie and Emily before going back to their table.
Knuckles had gone red from what she said but Rouge was full of indignation.
"How dare they talk to us like that! And calling you two freaks. They're are going to pay for that." Rouge muttered.
"All right, no need to remind us. I must say though, nobody's ever been able to stand up to them two before. You did well for your first meeting with them.they'll find a way of getting to you though." Emily said.
"No they won't! We're not going to let pathetic things like them agitate us. I think it's time to launch Operation Removal." Rouge announced.
"And what's that going to involve?" Emily asked.
"The removal of them two from the top of the hierarchy. We'll have to figure out a plan first of all." Rouge explained.
"And you think you can do it? Trust me, people have tried to do it before and it's never worked." Sammie laughed.
"Yes but no one's looked so serious about it. We'll help you in whatever way we can." Emily said.
Just then, the bell went and Miss Dink stood up at the front of the class.
"Break time everyone! Off you go then and have a good day!" She declared and everyone stood up, walking out of the room. Emily and Sammie stood up and Rouge cringed slightly. Although they had looked ok when sitting down, seeing all of them was a shock. They wore their pleated skirts long and had their socks pulled up. They wore unflattering shoes and they had tucked their shirts in.
"The first thing you can do to help us is to show me the toilets. I think you need a make over." Rouge said.
"What do you mean?" Emily asked.
"If we're going to show them who's boss then you have to look the part and you don't at the moment." Was all Rouge would say. Sammie shrugged her shoulders and led the way out of the room to the toilets.
They reached them and Rouge turned to Knuckles and Sonic, who were frowning in puzzlement.
"I'm just going to sort these two out so you'll have to stay out here. You can think of a plan or something." Rouge said before pushing Sammie and Emily in.
"Great, it's girls stuff! This is going to take the whole of break. What shall we do until then?" Sonic asked.
"We'll just wander around until they're ready." Knuckles said and he set off down the corridor.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? We could get lost." Sonic said.
"Hey, we'll just go down the corridor and then back up again. We won't go that far." Knuckles reassured and he continued to walk down the corridor. They walked slowly in silence for a while until Sonic cleared his throat.
"Knuckles, are you worried about what might happen?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know why but I get the feeling that Gillian and Sean are big trouble."
"Yes but I know that already."
"No I don't mean it like that." Sonic stopped talking and Knuckles turned to him, realising that he was trying to say something important. "I mean that they could be trouble to your relationship with Rouge."
"Why do you say that? Anyway, I thought you hated love." Knuckles smiled.
"I don't hate it, I'd just never want to be in it, that's all. I'm happy for you two and I don't want to see that happiness destroyed by a pair of bullies." Sonic sounded so serious that Knuckles stopped walking to consider what he had said.
"Don't worry Sonic, they can't change our feelings about each other."
"No I don't mean that. I'm trying to say that they may create difficulties deliberately to stress you two or get you into trouble. I don't think they're worried about me but I saw the way they looked at you two. If they find out about it then who knows what may happen."
"That's why they're not going to find out. We'll deal with them whatever happens." But Knuckles had been worried by Sonic's words so he changed the subject. "Why don't we go back and check up on the others?" They turned back and were soon outside the girl's toilets. They only had to wait a few minutes before Rouge left the room with Sammie and Emily who now looked completely different.
Their skirts had now been hitched up and their shirts were untucked. Their socks were pulled down and Rouge had applied some makeup to their faces. Sammie's hair was less frizzy and Emily's had been tied back. Before they had looked plain but now they were pretty. They were staring down nervously but Sonic grinned.
"You look great! Wow Rouge, you can do a lot in a short amount of time. You have completely changed." He said. They looked up and Sammie smiled cheekily.
"Why thank you young sir. But now I think it's time to go to Geography if we want to get their table."
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked.
"You want to start this plan don't you? What better way than to get the table they always sit at? Come on, we'd better go now." Sammie said and they set off towards the Geography room.
************************
Tails entered the school and was met by a woman in the reception.
"Hello, I'm Miss Petrie. And you must be Miles." She smiled kindly and he smiled back.
"Yes but call me Tails please." He said.
"Ok then, Tails it is. I'm going to be your teacher and I'll show you where to put your bag." She led him out of the reception and along a corridor full of pegs. "Here's your peg. Take out your pencil case and put your bag on there." Tails had a red peg with his name on a small plaque above it. He took out his pencil case and put his bag on the peg. "I'll show you to the classroom now." They reached the end of the corridor and entered a new part of the school. "This is the C Block where year five and six classes are. You are in 5S." She said as she stood outside a classroom. They entered it and Tails looked around.
The room was made up of thirty single desks lined up in rows all facing a table at the front and a white board.
"The class sit in alphabetical order so you can just stand for the moment until the bell goes. Are you nervous?" She asked once Tails had settled himself down on the edge of a desk at the front.
"A little but I'm sure I'll be ok. What are the people in this class like? Are they noisy, immature?" He asked and she smiled.
"You're looking at things a bit seriously aren't you? No doubt they'll be noisy and immature to you but once you get to know them they're nice.if you give them the chance." She replied looking seriously at Tails.
"I'll try to." He said and the bell went.
"Come with me and we'll get the rabble sorted out." She laughed as she led him outside.
Children were milling around outside the room but stood still when they saw Miss Petrie.
"Good morning class. Now then, when I call your name come inside and sit down at the desk I show you." She announced. A hand near the back rose and she sighed. "Yes Marie?"
"But surely miss, putting us in alphabetical order won't help us to learn but make us more disruptive?" She asked.
~Show off, I can tell she's a mouthy little brat.~ Tails thought as he wrinkled his nose.
"Yes maybe you are right Marie but if all of you can behave in alphabetical order, then I'll reconsider." She said. She looked at the piece of paper and started to read out names. She said Tails' and he entered the class, looking at where he was going to sit.
~Yeah! A seat by the window! This seating arrangement won't be so bad as long as I don't have to sit next to-~ His thoughts were interrupted by Miss Petrie.
"Marie Rally." Tails sat down in shock when he heard her name.
~Oh no, not her! Why, why, why? Just don't look at her, just don't.~ He couldn't help looking up as she entered the room and as he stared at her, something fluttered inside him. ~She's really pretty.~ She had pale pink fur and just like him had two tails. A red ribbon in her hair kept it in place and she smiled as she saw Tails.
"Hello, are you the new person?" She asked as she sat down next to him.
"Yes." He replied shortly. She turned to look at him but he stared out of the window.
"Are you ok? You look annoyed. Oh I see, you don't want to talk to me. That's ok with me." She smiled and turned to the person behind her. "Hi Lauren, how was your holiday?" She asked and Tails sighed as he leant on his elbows.
~She didn't have to put it quite like that. Why do I care anyway? I don't even like her.~ Except something was niggling at the back of his mind. ~She's arrogant and thinks she's so brainy. But she is really pretty, and she's trying to be nice. Maybe it would be all right to be civil to her.~
Miss Petrie sat down at her desk as the last person entered. She took out the register and took it. Once that was done, she stood up to talk to the class.
"Right everyone, we have a new person joining us this year. His name's Tails and I want you to be nice to him ok?" Everyone turned to him but he just stared down at his desk. "Right it's English now so I'll give out the books."
The lesson started and Tails copied down what she wrote on the board, not really paying attention. He stared out of the window, wishing he wasn't in a classroom.
~I wonder what the others are doing? Wait until break, the teasing will start then.~ He was disrupted from his thinking though by a piece of paper that had landed on his table. He opened it up and read what was written there.
Hi Tails its Marie writing to you. Are you sure you're ok? You look depressed and I was wondering if you wanted to talk about it. Please reply, even if it's to tell me to go away. (Marie)
He looked over to her but she was writing in her book. He smiled slightly as he re-read her note and making sure Miss Petrie wasn't looking, he wrote below what she had written.
I'm ok, just a bit down but it is the first day of term after all. I'm just missing my friends and I want to talk to them. Won't we get into trouble if Miss Petrie sees this? (Tails)
He waited until Miss Petrie was facing the board before flicking it back onto her table. Realising that he had some stuff to write, he did so and then waited for the note to come back. The lesson went on like this, them two passing this note between them.
I know, the first day is always the worst. Where are your friends then? Shouldn't they be at school? We will get into trouble but if we're careful then it doesn't matter. (Marie)
Do the days actually get better than this? My friends are in school, they go to Maples. You're being a bit reckless aren't you? (Tails)
Nope, they all remain as boring as this one is. Just think of it as a taste of what is to come. What are they called? My sister Gillian goes there but I hate her. And I wouldn't call it being reckless, I call it entertaining myself. (Marie)
Great, I'm looking forward to my life from now on. My friends are Sonic, Knuckles and Rouge. They're in year 11. Why don't you like your sister? I must say though, this is good entertainment. (Tails)
My sister's in year 11 too. She's nasty and a bully to me as well as the other people in her class. She thinks I'm a freak because I have two tails. I'm the only one in my family that does. (Marie)
I wonder if they know her? Now I can see why you don't like her. You're not a freak but I know how you feel. (Tails)
You'll soon find out if they do because she and her pet dog will probably try to beat them up. How do you know how I feel? (Marie)
Sonic can deal with anyone but who's her pet dog? I will show you how I know at break time. (Tails)
Sean, her boyfriend. He follows her round everywhere and will do whatever she wants. You're being very mysterious all of a sudden. (Marie)
Well it's a bit hard to show you now. *Sigh* At least it's Science now. (Tails)
I want to know now! Are you sure you can't tell me? And Science isn't that good you know, we're not even allowed to do any decent practical work. (Marie)
You wouldn't believe me if I told you and patience is a virtue. Do you like Science then? (Tails)
It's hard to be patient when you're in Science. I do like it but not the boring theory work. I like blowing things up and destroying electrical equipment. (Marie)
You're rather vicious aren't you? Only ten minutes left but I wish there were none. (Tails)
No I'm not, it just makes things more interesting in my life. Do you want to eat with my friends and me? (Marie)
I agree, practical things in Science are a lot better than the writing. Yes please, if it's ok with you. Yes, the bell has gone. (Tails)
Everyone put their books away and tried to get out of the room while Miss Petrie was shouting at them.
"Class break time now! Stop rushing towards the door please." Everyone slowed down and Tails remained sat while the class left. Marie stood up and looked at him.
"You can keep this if you want." She passed him the note and he put it in his pencil case. "Will you show me now?" She asked. In response, he stood up and turned around. "You have two tails too! I've never known anyone else like me. Do you think we're related?"
"I don't know. Shall we go outside for break?" He asked. She nodded her head and they left the room.
They stood outside and Marie pointed out different features to him.
"That is the infants' playground and that's the sport field. This is the junior playground and over there are some benches to sit on." They walked over to one table where four people were sitting at it. Marie sat down and Tails perched himself on the end.
"Hi Marie is this Tails?" One voice asked.
"Yes. Everyone this is Tails. Tails this is Lauren the sassy chick, Peter the worrier, Hannah our ignorant one and Dan our sportsman." She introduced in turn.
Lauren was a squirrel with pale grey fur and shoulder length grey hair; Peter was a human with light brown hair and blue eyes, Hannah was a human too but she had blonde hair and brown eyes and Dan was a rabbit with dark brown fur and pointy ears.
"So then, who do you live with?" Lauren asked.
"I live with my three friends and my guardian. Are you all friends with each other?"
"Yes and we have been since reception year. So then, what do you think of the school so far?" Hannah asked.
"It's not too bad I suppose. You all have titles but what is Marie known as?"
"She is Marie the brain. But now we have to think of a name for you."
"Come on Hannah, we have to get to know Tails first before we decide anything. So you live with your friends. Do they go to Maples?" Dan asked.
"Yes they do, they're in year eleven."
"They're in year eleven? If there is one thing, which we all have in common, it's the fact that we have brothers or sisters in year eleven. And you have friends there too.freaky." Peter commented.
"Peter, it's just a coincidence. You'll meet our relatives soon enough but that isn't a good thing necessarily." Lauren muttered.
"Am I the only one who gets on with the people I live with?" Tails asked.
"Yes but you're not related to them and they probably treat you nicely." Dan noted.
"I suppose you're right." Tails said.
"Where do you actually live?" Marie asked.
"Garden Views."
"That's not far from where most of us live. I live along the road and so does Peter. Dan lives a couple of roads away and so do Marie and Lauren." Hannah explained.
Just then, the bell went and they stood up slowly, watching people crowding into lines.
"What are they doing?" Tails asked.
"When break has finished, we line up in rows of classes and go in separately." Dan explained. They walked to their row and stood at the back. They waited for the years below them to go in before doing so themselves, Tails sighing at the thought of another two lessons.
************************
"Good, they're not here yet. Come on, this is where they sit." Sammie indicated a table at the back by the windows. They sat down at it and soon other people came trickling in. They looked at the five of them sitting there in wonder and some of them pointed at Sammie and Emily.
"Is it really that big a deal?" Sonic asked.
"Of course it is. They've sat here since year seven. I'm going to love seeing their faces when they come in." Sonic's compliments earlier had brought confidence to Emily and Sammie and they grinned at each other.
Silence fell upon the room when Gillian, Sean and their gang walked in. They began to walk towards the table when they realised that they were already sitting there.
"Just ignore them ok? So then Sammie and Emily, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to come shopping with me one day? You know, to get some new clothes etc. for your makeover." Rouge said.
"You mean it's not over yet? I thought we were doing all right. Hang on a minute, I've suddenly realised you said the words 'come shopping'." Sammie shivered slightly and they continued to talk, ignoring Gillian and Sean.
Sonic looked at them from the corner of his eye and saw that Gillian and Sean were staring at Knuckles and Rouge. They exchanged a look before going to sit down at another table.
~They're going to do something, I can just tell. And the worst thing is, I don't have a clue what it is! I wish Tails was here; he would be able to tell me what's going on.~ He stopped thinking when an old man entered the room.
He had a long beard and looked about a hundred. He walked slowly in the room and sat down at his desk. As he sat down, Miss Dink came in.
"Sorry to interrupt your lesson Mr Kenly but I forgot to give the students their planners." She had a box in her hands and she quickly passed them around. The three of them looked at their planners with interest and Sammie started to rummage around her bag. They were A5 notepads with 'Maples High School' typed on the front in yellow lettering with a dark blue background.
"Look at this Emily, it looks like we have something to do in Geography for once." Sammie commented.
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked.
"Instead of becoming vegetables, we can decorate our planners and keep ourselves entertained." Sammie explained. She and Emily swapped planners and turned to the notes section. They started to write something in them when Mr Kenly started talking.
Now the three of them understood why it was easier to read the textbook. He seemed to talk into his beard and they frowned in puzzlement but Sammie and Emily seemed untroubled.
"Umm you two, did you just understand that?" Sonic asked.
"He said we're getting new textbooks and folders this year and he wants us to keep them clean." Sammie said offhand.
"How do you do that?" Rouge asked.
"/I/ don't, Sammie's the only one who can clearly understand him. She's a translator for me." Emily explained.
"It's not that hard, you just listen to everything he says before understanding it." Sammie said as she passed round new folders and textbooks. Mr Kenly carried on talking and they looked at Sammie expectantly as she continued to write in Emily's planner. He finished talking and the whole class looked puzzled as one. Sammie meanwhile had opened her folder and her textbook and started to write in it.
"Have you finished writing my message yet?" Emily asked.
"No, I'll have to complete it once we've done the work. We have to copy out a paragraph from p.56." She said and the others started to do so.
They spent the rest of the lesson working in silence and left quickly once the bell had gone. Maths was just as uneventful until five minutes before the end of the lesson.
"Right everyone, get out your planners and copy down the homework." The teacher announced.
"And we'd been doing so well." Emily said as she opened her planner.
"Complete exercises two and three on page twenty for tomorrow's lesson and no excuses." Sammie quickly looked at the questions and sighed in frustration.
"That's four pages worth of questions! Lunch is going to be fun."
"What are we doing at lunch then?" Sonic asked.
"This of course! We do our homework at school so we can relax at home." Emily explained.
"But isn't that-" Rouge started.
"Something only nerds do? Yes but you have the choice of doing nothing at lunch, no listening to music, shopping etc. and being stressed at home. Or you can do it at lunch with your friends and relax at home, chatting, shopping or anything else you're interested in. Personally, the latter option is more appealing to me, except for the shopping." Sammie said.
"Maybe we should do the questions at lunch then. Where do you usually do it?" Rouge asked.
"In the library."
"But it's nice and sunny today. Can't we do it outside?" Sonic suggested.
Just then the bell went and they left the classroom, heading for a table outside.
"We can do it here." Emily said as she sat down. The others did so too and Sammie looked at the questions as they ate their lunches.
"There are forty five questions in total in both exercises so to make it equal, we should so nine each. I'll do the first nine now while you finish eating." Sammie opened her book and began to quickly do her questions. Sonic looked at her in amazement as she sped through them.
"How does she do that?" He asked and looking up, Emily smiled.
"She may absolutely awful at Japanese but she makes up for it by being brilliant at Maths. I don't know why but she's just been always able to do it. We'd better start our bits soon." They got out their books.
"I'll do the next nine if you want." Emily suggested and when no one said anything, she started writing. Sammie by now had finished and she gave the three of them her book. They copied them out and then did the same with Emily's questions.
"Who wants to do the next ones?" Sonic asked and Rouge volunteered. "So what shall we do once this is done?"
"We'll show you some places if you want. Did you say where your friend goes to school?" Emily asked.
"He goes to Inverio. Why?"
"We can see the junior playground from here. He will probably be there about now."
"So does that mean we can see him?" Emily nodded her head and Sonic smiled.
"That would be nice. Have you finished yet Rouge?" She stopped writing and nodded her head.
"Yeah, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"I told you so. The work is easy enough so you don't flunk the subjects." Sammie said. The others copied her work and when they were done, Knuckles started the next part.
"Is there any reason why you want to do the last ones?" Rouge asked Sonic.
"It means that I haven't had to do anything up until now." Sonic said.
"I thought it might have been that. Anyway, when do you want to go shopping?"
"You were serious when you said that earlier? Why don't we do it on a Saturday? It can be an end of the week 'treat'." Sammie gulped slightly.
"Do you want us to tart ourselves up tomorrow as well?" Emily asked.
"If you can. Do you have any make up at home?"
"Just because we don't wear it, doesn't mean we don't have it. I might have to tie Sammie down to a chair though."
~What are they doing there? They've got a plan. But I probably won't realise what it is until it happens.~ Sonic saw Gillian and Sean staring at them from a different table.
"Sonic, do you want to copy Knuckles' questions? Any time soon would be nice." Sammie said.
"Sorry about that. I'll do that last lesson if you want." He looked at how much space he needed to leave and then did his questions.
"Yes, you probably will have to tie me down. I don't really wear it because I spend a lot of time after school practising martial arts." Sammie explained. She finished with Knuckles' book and passed it back to him. "Now it's just the last few questions then we won't have to worry about it anymore."
"How much time do you spend practising then?" Knuckles asked.
"Two nights a week for each one for about two hours. I've just got my brown belt for judo so it's a resting period for me at the moment."
"Wow, that's a lot of time. You must be very good then." Rouge commented.
"Yeah I'm ok I suppose. I'm crap at Japanese though, which is a bit weird."
"How do you do the work then?"
"I don't, I usually get Emily to do it for me. My parents know about it but they aren't worried. My mum is terrible with foreign languages too. It runs in the family I suppose."
"Have you finished yet?" Emily asked Sonic.
"Yep just this last one to do." He wrote down the answer and passed the book to Emily and Sammie. "The others can copy the answers later." They shrugged their shoulders and wrote down the questions. While they did so, everyone packed their stuff away and soon Emily and Sammie were doing the same.
"Ok, let's show you the fence." Sammie announced and they walked across the courtyard to a wire fence where Inverio was. They leaned up against it and the three of them scanned for Tails. After a few minutes though, it was clear he wasn't there.
"I wonder why he isn't there? They aren't allowed to stay inside during lunch." Emily pondered.
"I'm sure he has his reasons. You can meet him after school if you want." Sonic said.
"Oh yeah and we can walk home together because we live in the same direction." Sammie added. They walked away from the fence and Sammie plus Emily continued to show them other places throughout the rest of lunch.
************************
Tails sat down at his desk and wondered how he was going to survive two lessons of Maths at once. Although he liked mechanics, he had never liked the whole equations and lengths part as he found it boring and tedious. So finding out he had two lessons worth of it made him bang his head on the table. He didn't even have the energy to write a note to Marie and she didn't either by the looks of things.
This boring lesson did have one advantage though. It gave him the chance to work out his feelings and decide on how the day had gone so far. He was still confused about Marie but knowing that for the first time in his life, no one had tried to make fun of him was very nice. And although Lauren seemed a bit cold and Hannah was very giggly, Dan and Peter weren't that bad. He knew that he hadn't even been there for a whole day but the fact that things had gone so well made him happy and he actually liked school.
Lunchtime soon arrived and they talked about trivial things as they ate. Music, Maths (At least how boring it was) and their families were just some of the things. Tails didn't participate much in the conversation but instead watched and listened to what the others said. He found that Dan was a lot like Sonic in that he was impatient and cheerful. Hannah was only giggly because she felt insecure about not being as good as the others and Lauren was trying to come over as being mature for her age. Peter was nice, as long as you ignored him when he started to panic but he was still puzzled about Marie. Sometimes she would act normally and participate in the conversation but other times she would interrupt people and ignore them if they said something she didn't like. Her actions confused him and he couldn't make out why she did the things she did.
That didn't matter though when suddenly a group of boys walked up to them. Tails recognised them from his class but didn't know much about them. The others jumped up though and he stood up slowly, puzzled by their behaviour.
"There he is Bruce, let's get him!" A boy rabbit shouted to Bruce, a big brute of a human. Tails realised with shock that they were pointing at him and he backed away slowly.
"What are you lot doing here? You leave him alone!" Dan shouted. Bruce clicked his fingers and a couple of people surrounded Dan and started to drag him away. Some other people did the same with the others until just him and Marie were left. Bruce grabbed Marie by her neck and lifted her off the ground.
"You let her go right now!" Tails shouted but he just laughed.
"You see him there?" Marie nodded her head slightly. "I have chosen him to be your next victim."
"Please Bruce, anyone else but him, please." But her pleading didn't affect him.
"You will do it unless you want things to change. And I'm not going to leave until you do!" He put her down roughly and Tails went to help her up but she just pushed him away.
"Get away from me you creep! Who do you think you are, sitting with whoever you like?" She slapped him hard across the face and the stinging sensation made his eyes swim. He looked at her in confusion but seeing her glare, turned around and walked away. "And don't you ever dare talk to me again!" She screamed after him and Tails started to cry silently.
He found a clump of trees in the corner and climbed one quickly. He sat himself on a branch high up and making sure he was well hidden, he started to rock back and forth.
~Why did she do that to me? I thought we were friends! I'm glad I was wary of her; she's just a mindless bully. And I thought I might be happy here. I've gone from having five friends to none in the space of half a day. I'm not going back to that school, whatever happens.~ He thought angrily and remained where he was when the bell went. He sat like this for the whole afternoon, the same thoughts running around his head. The end of the day came slowly and Tails jumped out of the tree quickly making his way towards the school gate, ignoring his bag.
************************
At the end of form time, in which not much happened, Rouge, Sonic and Knuckles made their way up to the library as they had been instructed to do. When they arrived, they found Mrs Skillet waiting outside the door.
"Hello again you three. I have been told that you are fluent in Japanese so therefore I thought you probably wouldn't want to do it. You can sit in the library and talk quietly or do any homework if you have some, but you must stay in there. I don't like students wandering around the school, is that understood?" They nodded their heads and entered the library. No one was there so they sat themselves in a corner and Sonic and Knuckles got out their Maths books.
"I can imagine this is going to be a fun hour. Well if we can get this over and done with quickly then we can talk for the rest of the time." Rouge said and looked at the table.
"What is it?" Sonic asked.
"I left my Maths book in the form room. I'll be back in a minute, I have to get it." Rouge said and she quickly walked out of the library.
As she left one building, she slowed down slightly, not seeing the need to rush.
"After all, it's not like anything is going to happen." She said aloud.
"Oh I wouldn't say that." A voice whispered behind her. She spun round and saw Sean standing in front of her.
"What are you doing here? You should be in a lesson." She accused.
"It's called skiving you know. And what about you, what is your reason for not being there?" He asked, inching closer to her. She turned away from him and carried on towards the room.
"That is none of your business." He grabbed her by the wrist and she struggled against him.
"Oh but it is." He whispered before dragging her behind some bushes.
"What do you want?" She yelled and he used his other hand to cover her mouth.
"Who else but you?" He smiled evilly and pushed her against the wall. He removed his hand from her mouth and she screamed loudly. He pressed it back again and squeezed her wrist. Her struggles grew weaker as he put more pressure on. "Don't you do that again or it might be your throat." She nodded her head and looked fearfully at him. He lifted his hand away and leaned forward quickly. He started to kiss her fervently and the shock initially made her struggle madly. She stopped though when she felt a hand go towards her neck and he started to stroke her arms instead.
~Ok Rouge, just keep calm. As long as you remain still, he won't hurt you.~ She thought but him stroking her made her feel dirty. ~Why is he doing this to me? Hang on this is what Sammie said.~
"The one you really have to look out for Rouge is him, Sean Bonnet. He tries to hit on any single girl who has any features about her and some that are already booked." The memory flashed through her mind but was brought abruptly to her senses when she felt a hand sneaking up her shirt. She tried to move away but he kept her immobile, crushed against the wall.
"Just keep calm and I won't hurt you." He whispered and she suddenly realised what he might want to do.
"Oh no you don't!" She shouted and kneed him hard in the crotch. He buckled and she took this chance to run as fast as she could. He managed to grab her by her leg though and she was dragged down onto the ground.
She looked around in panic and saw Knuckles wandering around, obviously trying to look for her.
"Knuckles help me!" She yelled and seeing her, he ran towards them. He saw Sean and lifted him up. Rouge sighed in relief and smiled. "Thanks Knuckles, we'd better go now." He didn't reply though and she saw with shock that Knuckles was trying to strangle him. "Knuckles let go! Don't hurt him!" She screamed but he ignored her. He put him back down on the ground and twisted his arm around.
"Let go of me! I'm sorry ok?" Sean shouted but closed his eyes when he felt something crunch in his arm. He stumbled backwards and Knuckles punched him square on the face, knocking him out.
"Knuckles what did you do that for? I told you not to hurt him! You're going to be in so much trouble!" Knuckles looked at her but suddenly they heard someone walking towards them.
"What's going on here?" It was Mrs Skillet and she definitely did not look happy. "I thought I told you to stay in the library! And what have you done to him? You have a lot of explaining to do!" They looked down in shame and she stood above them, her arms crossed.
"Well I left my Maths book in the form room so I went back to get it. Sean grabbed my arm and he was trying to." She tailed off and shivered.
"Trying to what?"
"He was kissing me against my will. I couldn't do anything when I saw Knuckles. He came over and, well you know the rest." Rouge ended.
"Nothing else happened?" Her look had softened slightly but her arms remained crossed.
"No, that's all that happened. We're sorry for what's gone on, this wasn't meant to happen."
"Is this true Knuckles?" She turned to him and he looked up, staring at her.
"Yes it is. I'm not sorry for what I did to him though." Rouge winced but he ignored her.
"I'm afraid that you will have to have a detention tomorrow lunchtime."
"A detention? But all I did was knock him out!"
"Yes but that is not acceptable at this school. And you haven't just knocked him out, you broke his arm too." Knuckles frowned in puzzlement.
"I did?" He glanced at Rouge and she gave him a warning look. "That wasn't meant to happen, I don't think so at least."
"If you carry on talking like that I'll make it after school instead. I want you to go and get your stuff and remain in the library for the rest of the lesson, do I make myself clear?" They nodded their heads and she carried Sean to the medical room.
Once she had gone, Rouge turned to Knuckles. She was shaking in anger and he looked away.
"What did you go and break his arm for? I told you not to hurt him, so what do you go and do? You try and kill him!" She said.
"I was telling the truth when I said I didn't mean to do it! All I saw was him trying to hurt you and I suppose I got carried away. I'm sorry, I didn't realise you would be so against it, seeing as he tried to assault you." He snapped and this made her stop.
"You didn't realise what he was going to do to me."
"You weren't telling the truth earlier were you? What happened?" He asked quietly.
"I'm not going to tell you because you'll just try and kill him then. I just want to forget about it. Come on, let's go to the form room." She walked away and he stood for a moment as Sonic's words came back into his mind.
"I'm trying to say that they may create difficulties deliberately to stress you two or get you into trouble. I don't think they're worried about me but I saw the way they looked at you two." He wondered if this is what Sonic meant.
~Rouge is definitely stressed and I am in trouble. A detention, how on earth did I manage to get one on my first day?~ Sighing, he walked after Rouge who was nearly at the room. He waited outside as she got her book and then walked back to the library in silence.
They entered the library and Sonic looked up at them with interest. They sat down and he passed back Knuckles' book, which he had been copying out of.
"What happened to you two? You certainly took your time." He looked amused but frowned when they remained quiet.
"Lets just say that Sean was looking for trouble so Knuckles here decided to break his arm and beat him unconscious." Rouge explained.
"I think a bit more happened than that!" But Knuckles stopped when he saw the look on Rouge's face.
"And not just that! He's now got a detention too!" Rouge added. Sonic stared at Knuckles in surprise but he didn't say anything.
"Well this day has certainly been eventful. I wonder if Tails has had a good day?" Sonic pondered.
"I hope so. But now I just want to finish copying up this Maths work." Rouge said and she took Sonic's book. She copied out his part and then Knuckles did the same. He had just finished when the bell rang so they went down to the form room where they waited for Sammie and Emily. Once they were there, they put their books away and walked out of the school.
"So then, did much happen during your lesson?" Sonic asked Emily.
"Yep, Sammie managed to cause our teacher to have a mental breakdown because she's that bad at Japanese." Emily said and Sammie smiled cheekily.
"But you must admit, it did make the lesson more interesting. Did anything happen with you?"
"Did it? Knuckles beat up Sean and broke his arm!" Sonic said cheerfully.
"And he got a detention because of it!" Rouge added and Emily raised an eyebrow.
"Did you? I'm not surprised to be honest." They walked towards Inverio, not aware of what was happening meanwhile.
************************
Tails walked quickly, keeping his head down in case someone recognised him. He heard someone calling his name and turning around, realised that it was Marie. He scowled and walked faster.
"Tails wait, I need to talk to you! Why are you walking away from me?" She shouted as she tried to catch up with him. He was so mixed up that he didn't notice Shadow who had decided to wait for him.
"Hi Tails.bye Tails." Shadow said as he walked straight past. He then heard Marie calling his name and running up to him.
"Excuse me, but do you know Tails?" She asked Shadow breathlessly.
"Yes but what did you do to him? I assume it's you who upset him." He said looking straight at her. She kept up his gaze though.
"I don't know what I did but I'm worried about him." She said and seeing him disappear, ran after him.
They nearly collided into the others who had also seen Tails walking off too.
"What's going on here?" Sonic demanded.
"I don't know. I was just waiting for him and he walked straight past me."
"It doesn't look like he's going back home though. He's making for the park." Sammie commented.
"I'll go and look for him, you lot go back to the flat ok?" Rouge said but Sonic shook his head.
"No, I'm his best friend I should go."
"Don't argue Sonic ok? I'll find him, don't you worry." Rouge said and she ran off after him.
"Oh hello Marie, I didn't realise you were here. Do you know anything about this?" Emily asked.
"Oh hi Emily, hi Sammie. I'm sure everyone can do their explaining on the way home. There's nothing we can do now except for wait for Rouge to come back." Marie said and they set off home, each explaining what had happened in their day.
************************
Not knowing where he was going, Tails ran for the park and slowed down as he entered it. Now he was here, he felt calmer and searched for the bench he had found yesterday. Once he had done so, he sat down, looking at his reflection in the lake. Seeing no one around, he started to sing softly to himself.
"I sit and wait
Does an angel contemplate my fate?
And do they know
The places where we go
When we're grey and old
'Cos I've been told
That salvation lets their wings unfold
So when I'm lying in my bed
Thoughts running through my head
And I feel that love is dad
I'm loving angels instead
And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead
When I'm feeling weak
And my pain walks down a one-way street
I look above
And I know I'll always be blessed with love
And as the feeling grows
She breathes flesh to my bones
And when love is dead
I'm loving angels instead
And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead." As he finished singing, Tails wiped away the tears in his eyes and stared out across the lake. A few pigeons trotted around the bench but someone walking towards him quickly caused them to flutter away. He looked up uninterested but was surprised when he saw that the person was Rouge. She sat down next to him and he turned back to the lake in silence. She did so too, and for some time the only thing heard was the wind rustling the leaves and an occasional quack of a duck on the lake.
"That's one of my favourite songs you know. Do you believe in angels then?" Her voice rang loud and clear amongst the quiet.
"I don't know what to believe anymore. But there must be something out there watching over me. That's what I tell myself anyway." He glanced up at the sky as he said this but sighed and looked downwards.
"Do you want to talk?"
"Yes but not about what's happened. Rouge, when did you realise that you were in love with Knuckles?" This question caught her by surprise and she thought for a moment.
"It's hard to say a definite event but I think I first considered the idea when he saved my life."
"What happened?"
"We had just fought against each other and we were arguing when I lost my footing. I would have died but he grabbed my arm even though he was shouting at me a few moments earlier. That made me angry and so I said some things I didn't mean to. He apologised for hurting me and then disappeared. I wanted to see him again and so I did." She stopped as she thought about what had happened. "Why do you want to know?"
"No reason but what does it feel like to be in love?"
"It's hard to describe that too. When I'm with Knuckles though, I'm happy and carefree. I want to hold him close to me and stay like that." Her eyes widened in realisation. "There's someone you like isn't there?" Tails blushed slightly and she smiled.
"There is, maybe. But I'm worried that she doesn't like me in the same way. Sometimes I want to tell but other times she acts really arrogantly and annoys me."
"If you really love her then he bad habits won't irritate you. I mean Knuckles is hot headed but I'm sure you know him well enough to realise this." He nodded his head and without realising it, she continued speaking. "He doesn't listen to what you say and misunderstands you. He's ashamed of the way he feels-"
"Rouge, are you ok? You've gone really red and there's a dangerous glint in your eyes." Tails commented and Rouge frowned.
"I'm sorry, got a bit carried away there. What were we talking about?" She asked and this time, Tails frowned. ~Why is he looking at me like that? And why did I keep going on about Knuckles?~ She thought to herself.
"What do you like about him then?" He asked instead.
~I wish he wouldn't ask me these sort of questions, he's just confusing me.~ She smiled and cleared her throat, seeing his concerned look. "He loves me for who I am. He's made me very happy."
"I can tell. I wish I could be as happy."
"Well you can. All you have to do is tell her how you feel."
"But-"
"No buts. This might be your only chance at being truly happy so there's no point in considering it."
"But if I don't end up happy, I'll end up sad instead."
"Tails, it is up to you and only you as to what you do. I can only give you advice after all."
"I know but I'm very glad of it. You've cleared a lot of things up." He hugged her and she squeezed his shoulders.
"I'm glad I could help." But in truth she was worried. ~He may feel better not but he's just made me confused.~
"Can you not tell the others about the girl please?"
"If you don't want to but what about Sonic? He wasn't very happy about me telling him to go home."
"I'll talk to him but now I think it's time for /us/ to go home." Tails said and they stood up, making their way back to the flat.
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S. Chensu: 29 pages!!!!!!! I am never reading that much again!
Luff: The worse thing is that the next episode is just as long as this one!
Sonic: Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!
S. Chensu: I don't see what you're moaning about; you're not the one who has to grammar check this damn thing.
Luff: But we are determined to finish it. Despite the fact episodes 14 and 15 are still not written.
S. Chensu: Yes but 16-25 are written!
Eggman: That doesn't count for much seeing as you have two in the middle missing.
S. Chensu: Don't worry, I promise they will be written before they have to come out. We've got two weeks to do episode 14, should be enough time.
Luff: But until then, please review! They've been a bit sparse recently.