8:20 a.m.
As Knuckles lets the Mc'Newman parents know that he can find his 1st grade class on his own and takes off, the hedgehog family walk through the office and into the crowded hallway. And crowded indeed, as lots of different families were lining up in front of their respective classrooms.
These different families involve parents/guardians smiling and taking pictures of their kids, drooling babies or toddlers in strollers, and a wide variety of children screaming for joy or crying because it's the first day of school.
Tugging onto his blue backpack on his shoulders, Sonic suddenly didn't feel too sure about his first day. Aleena sees his face and puts her hand on his shoulder saying, "Don't worry, Sonic. We all believe in you."
Sonic smiles at his mom as suddenly, a mildly overweight human woman with wrinkles, tan skin, and curly red hair walks towards the entrance of the Waiting Room and begins speaking through a megaphone.
"May I have your attention, please?" she speaks loudly and clearly. All the adults and kids quickly turn their heads to the woman. "My name is Betsy, and I am one of the yard duties for this school year. I know that this is a very exciting day for you all, but for future reference, the staff would prefer the kids to be in the Waiting Room until the last five minutes before class starts."
Everyone turns to each other, confused. What is Betsy talking about?
"Principal Brown will be here shortly," says Betsy. "but in the meantime, take some time to meet new classmates and make some friends."
She opens the Waiting Room door and quickly moves out of the way, as the many, many families all cram through the big door at once. Once everyone is in the big room, they smile in awe. Turns out the Waiting Room is a lot more awesome than any of the new families realized!
The room is filled with at least ten circular tables with six chairs each, two big couches on opposite sides of the room, and a few sofa chairs next to the couches. For the activities, there are about four bookshelves for different reading levels, various toys neatly placed (such as blocks, stuffed animals, dolls, racecars, etc.), some coloring books, and even a small television! There are also two different restrooms on the opposite ends of the room!
Jacob turns to Aleena, feeling nostalgic over his days in Emerald Elementary. "Wow!" he exclaims. "They really upgraded the Waiting Room!"
As Sonic runs over to the toys and ends up bumping into a light pink hedgehog. "Ow!" the hedgehog screams. She then turns to the blue boy. "Watch where you're going!"
"Sorry!" Sonic apologizes, then takes a look at the girl. Her quills rest about three inches below her shoulders, and on top of her head, she is wearing a yellow headband with a white flower attached to it. She has lemon yellow eyes, and is wearing a white cardigan over a yellow sundress, along with white frilly socks and black Mary Janes.
"You should be," the pink girl comments. "You almost ruined my new dress!"
An older female hedgehog similar-looking to the girl bends down next to her and says, "Now Barbra, I'm sure that boy didn't mean to bump into you."
"But Mom!" Barbra protests. "He did bump into me! He did it on purpose!"
Sonic sighs in anger, rolling his eyes. That Barbra girl is such a brat! Not wanting to listen to her nonsense, Sonic walks away from the pink hedgehogs to do something else. He sees his parents talking to a female light blue rabbit, whose legs are wrapped around by her son's arms.
As the adult rabbit talks away, the little rabbit cries, "Mommy, I don't wanna go to school! Whaahhh!" The boy has a white muzzle, and he is wearing a blue and white striped polo shirt, blue jeans, and blue sneakers.
Sonic walks over to sad rabbit and calmly says to him, "Hey. Everything will be okay."
The rabbit opens his ocean blue eyes. "Really?" he asks.
"Yeah," the hedgehog answers. "My name's Sonic. What's your's?"
"I'm Charlie," the rabbit responds, letting go of his mother's legs. "I'm starting Kindergarten in Miss Hardberry's class."
Sonic's face lights up. "Me too!"
Charlie's long ears droop down, meaning he is upset or worried. "I don't know if I'm ready for school," he quivers, twiddling his thumbs. "My mom helped me in preschool a lot, and now she says I have to go to Kindergarten on my own."
Sonic nods in relation. Sure, he's excited to go to school, but at the same time, neither of his parents will be around to help him throughout the day. Unlike in preschool, where kids are in class for about two hours, elementary goes on for seven hours; from 8:30 to 2:30. Sure, kindergarteners get out of class 15 minutes earlier than the bigger kids, but the blue five-year-old doesn't even know how he's gonna handle school, and it hasn't even started yet!
In the nick of time, Principal Brown shows up and claps her loud hands, getting everyone's attention. "Hello, kindergarteners of 1999 and 2000!" she greets with a smile. "Welcome to Emerald Elementary! Who's excited for the first day of school?"
A few kids, including that Barbra girl Sonic bumped into earlier, cheer in excitement. Principal Brown chuckles. "That makes us really happy," the human says. "The staff here at Emerald Elementary are to make sure you kids have the best years here, living in a safe and heart-warming environment. The first bell is about to ring, and when it does, you are to walk carefully to your class. Now have a great day!"
She walks off, and the bell rings (as in BRRINNGGG!), making lots of kids run out of the room. Sonic and Charlie say good-bye to their respective families and run off together, with Sonic making sure his new friend is safe. As the Room 1 door opens, the two boys slow down as the walk into the classroom.
Miss Hardberry sees the boys and greets them. "Hello, boys!" she happily says. "Just stand in the back of the room until everybody gets here, okay?"
Sonic and Charlie nod in response as they walk to the back of the room, with six other kids standing there. Sonic takes some time to examine the room; five small circular tables with four chairs each, and up in front of the room is a dark blue rug with differently colored squares trailing along. Sonic's lucky he's blue-furred, as blue is his favorite color. He hopes he gets to sit on that color if the class ever gets to sit there. Up on that wall, are a large whiteboard and the alphabet with various pictures above it. Written on the top left of the whiteboard are written 'Miss Hardberry' and today's date. Next to them is today's schedule as well. For a first-time teacher, Miss Hardberry really knows how to keep a classroom friendly and organized.
After the remaining 12 kids arrive and the second bell rings (this one signaling class to begin), Miss Hardberry closes the door and walks towards the students. "Hello, everyone," she begins. "My name is Miss Hardberry, and I will be your teacher this year. Right now, I want you all to find a seat in any of these five tables."
The orange fox moves out of the way as the 20 kids start dashing towards the tables. Sonic and Charlie take the middle one in the front, and much to the former's dismay, so does Barbra. As Sonic glares at the pink hedgehog, she boasts, "I want to be the best in school, and the best kids always sit up front."
As Barbra sits down, another female hedgehog coated in orange fur walks over. She has her brown hair tied up in a high ponytail by a big yellow bow. She has apricot skin and olive green eyes, and is wearing a yellow shirt with red roses all over, a red skirt, and red and yellow sneakers.
"Can I sit here?" she asks the three five-year-olds.
"Sure," says Sonic, followed by the girl sitting down. "My name's Sonic. Sonic Mc'Newman."
"My name's Hannah," the girl responds. "I can't wait for school to be awesome!"
Me neither, Sonic says in his head.
And that's Chapter 3! An interesting fact about this chatper, it was missing in the original rewrite! I don't know how it happened, but it didn't make the cut! Maybe I accidentally deleted it, and I didn't realize... Now it's here, and better than I expected it to be! And Sonic has met some classmates, who we'll see more in the story. Although Barbra and Charlie are mine, Hannah is not. I don't know who originally made her, but she was a character from DeviantArt and some old Sonic Sprite videos from YouTube.
If you're interested in this story, give this a like, follow, and a review, and I will be back for Chapter 4!