CHAPTER 7: What A Day...

Tails sighed as he walked through the door of his apartment at 3:00 in the afternoon, which was just a few doors down from Sonic's. The way this was arranged was, Tails would have his own place, but until he was 18, it would be in Sonic's name, and Sonic would be paying for it(Tails was secretly keeping track of how much Sonic had paid and planned to pay him back one day). He threw down his bookbag, not having put it in his locker, then he threw himself down on the couch, flat on his back. He didn't plan on opening the very cramped metal box for a LONG time after spending the previous night in it. He had actually considered asking a teacher to watch him while he was at his locker so no one shoved him in it, but he didn't want to bother them with that.

"What a day," Tails murmured. "Feet are still killing me... Least I didn't have to run those laps in gym today. I should probably give Sonic a call-" No sooner than he'd spit that out did Tails hear a knock at his door. "Come on in, it's open!" In walked Sonic.

"Tails, where have you been?" Sonic asked. "I tried calling a bunch of times last night after I saw Amy, but you didn't pick up!"

"I wasn't home, I had to spend the night in my locker," Tails replied without looking up.

"WHAT!?" Sonic yelled. "Who did it!?"

"Don't worry about that," Tails replied with a grim smile. "Shaw took care of that already. He's my history teacher, and I swear to God, if I EVER heard a guy scream THAT loud while getting licks, I'll give up working on machines and get a job as a parking valet at some fancy restaurant."

"Whoa, he beat the kid's ass THAT hard?" Sonic was in awe.

"Yeah. Surprises me that the school lets him do it. He's a monster in terms of strength. He's also the one who got me out of my locker. I'm not going near it again for a while." Tails pointed at his bag. "Needless to say, I'll need to figure out a way of remembering to take my bookbag with me every morning. I also need some ice for my feet." He kicked off his shoes with a bit of difficulty: a few more blisters had popped up during the day.

"Damn!" Sonic's jaw hit the floor and stayed there. Whether Tails was serious about the ice, Sonic didn't care. He walked into the kitchen, pulled open the freezer, dumped some ice in a bag, and tossed it to Tails.

"Thanks." Tails tossed the bag to the end of the couch and put his aching feet on it. He knew he'd have trouble walking if they were numb, but he could fly. Besides, he was having trouble walking even with feeling in them.

"So how was yesterday, besides being shoved in your locker?" Sonic asked.

"It was pretty good," Tails replied. "Met my teachers, learned not to cross Shaw by watching someone eat belt, had pizza for lunch, the usual first day type of stuff."

"Cool," Sonic said casually. "So, what about today?"

"Well, Shaw of course annihilated Clyde, the guy who shoved me in my locker," Tails began, "and I got excused from gym because of my feet. Good thing too, we were supposed to run laps today. We had corn dogs for lunch, we got our books issued, and our science teacher had us do a book scavenger hunt. Y'know, where she gives us a list of questions, and we hunt down the answers in the book. Anyway, how was YOUR day?"

"Ah, nothing major," Sonic replied. "I ran into Amy last night. Been a while since we've seen her, huh?"

"Yeah," Tails closed his eyes. "Since she was 16, right?"

"Yeah. Well, I found out what she's been doing all this time. She owns a restaurant."

"REALLY?"

"Yeah. She said she got the money by helping Rouge hack Eggman's accounts before he bought the farm. I only found out because someone who looked kinda like her was murdered in the restaurant yesterday."

"Whoa, what!?" Tails sat up a bit and opened his eyes. "Murdered!?"

"Yeah. They don't know who or why, but they think it was because someone was after Amy and screwed up. It was a serious mess down there. Trust me, don't go check it out."

"I'm not worried about that as much as I'm worried about whether it's a good idea to leave Amy alone."

"She's got someone keeping an eye on her. She hired someone from that place... Chaotix Detective Agency, or something like that."

"Oh, okay..."

"Anyway, she kinda caught me off guard. She asked if we could wipe the slate clean after all the marriage proposals and death hugs. After I said yeah, she roped me into a date for tonight..."

"I never would have thought she'd actually do it." Tails grinned, laid back on the couch, and closed his eyes again: he had a little bit of a headache besides his feet hurting.

"Well, I had actually planned to start treating her less as an annoyance once she stopped trying to crush me to death and asking me to marry her. Including dating her if she asked nicely enough. I may not show it, but I kinda like her."

"Well, sounds like you've got yourself a heck of a night ahead of you, huh?"

"Yeah. We're gonna go out and have dinner somewhere."

"Ha!" Tails shook his head, slightly amused, without opening his eyes. "That's ironic!"

"What is?"

"You're fixing to take the owner of a restaurant out to eat at one of her competitors' places." Another short laugh.

"Oh. Yeah, that IS pretty ironic, huh? Anyway, I just wanted to know where you'd been last night, so I'll head back to my place."

"Alright. I'll see you later. Lemme know how your date goes."

"I might. MAYBE." Sonic cracked a grin and stepped out the door, closing it behind him.

Yeah, maybe, Tails thought. But I bet you conveniently forget to tell me if she's a good kisser and what she tastes like, and you KNOW she's gonna plant one on you.

Across the way, a dark figure lowered a pair of binoculars and stepped away from the dark window.

Ooh, dark figure with a pair of binoculars. Wondering who/what it is, and what it wants? Well, are you? You'll find out eventually. I already know, but I ain't gonna tell just yet, heh heh heh. R&R as usual, please. Thanks in advance.