Chapter Eight

Just Another School Day

Bloonic went to school in Central City, one of his favorite cities in the world. He'd visited Station Square and Westopolis a couple times, mostly during school fieldtrips or during his free time. But, because his parents lived just outside Central City, Central City Elementary was where Bloonic had his normal life education.

Running through the city on his way to school, he took his time to say hi to folks, pet dogs and cats and pay quick visits to people. The city was peaceful and a well-built metropolis, so lively. It was in the morning, Bloonic had gotten up at six and trained at seven, he was supposed to be at school by eight thirty.

He made it to the school on 1992 Aaron W. Street just as the bell rang, catching up with a couple of his friends, Todd Waren and Bill Polik, Todd was an eleven-year-old black haired and blue eyed Hispanic-American, whose parents came from Mexico, and Bill was the ten-year-old red-haired son of a retired British secret agent.

"Good morning, Bloonic." Todd said excitedly, "How've you been and how's your training with your family going?"

"All's great." Bloonic replied, "How's your aunt? I heard she was sick?"

"She's fine herself, it was just a fever, she's better now."

Despite their differences with Bloonic being a hedgehog half vampire and Todd being a human, they were good friends on good terms and, since they became best friends, they were almost like brothers and Todd often looked out for Bloonic just as he would look out for Todd, the two of them protecting each other.

Was Todd aware Bloonic that was half vampire and that his mama was a vampire from another planet in a distant galaxy? Of course he knew, he and Bloonic had talked about it and Todd had seen a couple vampire films and got to meet Vampirella a couple times, in fact, he wasn't too worried at all.

Most of the kids at school didn't know, mainly because they hadn't heard yet. Bloonic being a hedgehog-vampire hybrid was partially a kept secret, some people had anti-vampire sentiments or just weren't fans of vampires in general. Bloonic feared being laughed at if some of the non-Vampire fans found out.

He and his friends made it to class and found their seats, since Bloonic didn't have a school bag or bring any of his books along, he had to borrow some from Todd. It was a miracle the teachers turned a blind eye to that. Just a few seconds away from eight thirty-five, the teacher entered the room.

Mr. Flint Kemanski was a bald man wearing a sweater, white undershirt and black jeans, having been teaching here for eight years. He was an ex-G.U.N soldier, who'd retired after ten G.U.N missions and both he and the current G.U.N commander were old friends.

The room was spacious and the seats were occupied by many human pre-teens along with a couple anthropomorphic animals; Rabbits, foxes, porcupines and ducks. Bloonic, of course, was the only hedgehog in class so far. As a matter of fact, given his hybrid status, he was also the only vampire in school as well.

"Good morning, students." Mr. Kemanski said.

"Good morning, Mr. Kemanski." The students replied, Bloonic included.

Mr. Kemanski was one of Bloonic's favorite teachers next to Robbie Ortez and Myke Benders, Robinson was a science teacher and Mike was one of the best math teachers in the school. The head principle was Iizuma Oshika, one of the first Asians in years to become a principle at an American school.

As for Mr. Kemanski's teacher profession in school, it varied. Some days it was history and some days it was about being open about yourself or talking about something you knew about your friend that people didn't know. Kemanski had taught history several times in the past week, today he was switching.

"Today, we are going to be looking to the topic of talking about what you know about someone that people don't know about." Kemanski said, Todd shot his hand in the air and everyone looked at him. 'This is it,'Bloonic thought, 'He's gonna tell everyone else about me and they all don't know the truth.'

"Yes, Todd?" Kemanski asked.

"My friend, Bloonic," Todd said, "Is not just the son of Sonic the Hedgehog, he's... also half-alien vampire because his mama's a vampire alien."

Some of the kids in the room, those who'd known Bloonic for a bit, broke out into fits of laughter. Many of them were fascinated with vampires, Kemanski only giggled just a bit as he'd known since day one. Regardless, word finally started to spread around the school after Kemanski's class was done.

On the way to science class, Bloonic and Todd passed by a group of kids in the hall, who asked the purple hedgehog if he would "vant to suck some blood" much to Bloonic's annoyance. Some kids sang a couple crude songs in regards to Bloonic, the songs being anti-vampire sentiments.

"Don't worry about 'em, buddy." Todd said, patting the hedgehog on the back, "It'll probably blow over before you know it. Besides, most people like vampires, myself included. So many probably haven't met your mum yet."

"HEY!" Someone shouted.

Bloonic and Todd wheeled around, coming face to face with none other than Bully Boy Billy and his Billy Bully Gang. Bully Boy Billy was a burly spoiled kid in his early teens and tons of kids feared him and his gang, they were well known for their mischief and for being the bully terrors of many schools.

"Whaddaya want, Billy?" Bloonic asked, he'd dealt with this guy so many times and Billy always kept coming back. At this point, he was asking for more punishment. Bloonic and Billy had been enemies for a while now, ever since the hybrid's second week in school, and they'd been in several schoolyard fights.

A neck brace could be seen on Billy's neck, mostly due to the fact that Bloonic had hurt his neck in their last fight. Amazingly, their previous schoolyard fight hadn't left the spoiled kid with an aching neck. Even Billy's left eye looked a bit bruised, it had been since Bloonic bonked him in the face last time.

"You're a super freak, hedgehog." Billy said, pointing his finger at the hybrid kid, "Word has it that you're half vampire, so your hedgehog papa got involved with a vampire from space and you came into existence. What's so special about you other than you can run at 'Sonic speed', 'spin dash' or bite and drink blood?"

"What was that first part?" Anger started boiling in Bloonic, his fists clenching. He wasn't worried about being a hybrid whatever as long as it wasn't a curse, but the one issue he had was being called a freak. While Bloonic was a happy go-lucky kid, he had a dark side like everyone, a dark side that could be unleashed anytime.

As a matter of fact, Bloonic had shown a small bit of his dark side a few times during his previous fights with the bullies causing him issues. He'd been called a weirdo and an emo once, but as for 'super freak'? That crossed the line, Bloonic did not like insults.

"I said you're a super freak." Billy sneered, "C'mon, whaddaya get when you mix a fast blue hedgehog with an oh so lovely bloodsucking humanoid being from another planet? You get yourself a..."

Bloonic lunged towards the bully and snarled ferociously, his eyes blazing in a terrifying manner. "Watch what you say before someone winds up with on the floor." The vampire-hedgehog growled in a somewhat menacing voice. Not wanting to mess with a ferocious-looking hedgehog-vampire, Billy and his crew yelped in alarm and ran off.

"Whoa!" Todd exclaimed, patting Bloonic on the shoulder, "Bloonic, that was awesome. You scared the heck out of Billy and his pack. He's not gonna forget it for the rest of his life and you did a great job making it clear that nobody messes with my pal."

"Thanks." The purple hedgehog said with a shiver, "Just another day at school for good old Bloonic the Hedgehog, hero in training and good buddy with Todd Waren."

Despite having to deal with a bully, Bloonic managed to get to science class on time with his friends. Much to his relief, his science teacher didn't come down hard on him for menacing Bully the Billy in the hallway. To the astonishment of the fang-y hedgehog, today's science lesson was about how werewolves happened and there was no need for any experiments.

After hanging out with Tails a lot, science and math were some of Bloonic's favorite subjects in school next to history. He got through science class with no issue as usual and, as for math class, he was able to correctly answer some of the addition and multiplication problems when the teacher asked him to answer them.

By afternoon as the bell rang, it was time to head home and spend the rest of the day with his parents. Then again, why not go hang out with some of his friends and family aside from his school pals? After all, he just loved spending time with the people he knew and called family...