A/n: I wanna eat pizza but I'm poor. So poor in fact that I do not own Sonic although I wish I did. Also I just finished the last chapter of Run Away Home with means I'll be uploading these regularly, every week either on Friday or Saturday depending on when I feel like it. Also I know today not Friday or Saturday but let pretend it is so I can give you guys your first weekly update. Enjoy :3
"You look terrible," Knuckles commented as Sonic entered his first period class and sat down in his spot next to knuckles.
"Gee thanks!" Sonic replied grumpily as he rested his chin on his Geometry textbook.
"What happened? Did Tails beat you in another video game?" Knuckles asked trying to keep the mood light.
"No, I got fired from my job and now I'm trying to find a new one," Sonic replied.
"It's effecting your health. Maybe you should take a break, after all it's not like you pay the bills."
'Oh if only he knew,' Sonic thought so himself.
Once class started the teacher gave a lecture causing Sonic to eventually fall asleep. It felt so nice to close his eyes and drift off into unconsciousness, however this bliss was sort lived due to the fact that the blue haired teen was awoken by the loud crack of a yard stick hitting his desk.
"Mr. Hedgehog, I would appreciate it you used your textbook for studying and not to catch your drool."
Sonic then realized how wet his cheek was and quickly started to white it with his shirt. All the students (including knuckles) laughed at this while Sonic shot his supposed best friend a look that said "you traitor."
When class ended Sonic and Knuckles left and since they were going the same way for their next class Knuckles decided it would be a good time to confront Sonic about what had happened in class.
"I already told you I'm fine," Sonic said in a annoyed voice.
"Well sorry I just wanna make sure. I know you normally do bad in every class-"
"You don't have to rub it in."
"But you've never fell asleep in any, at least none that I know of."
Sonic opened his mouth to make a rebuttal only to be cut off by the late bell.
"Damn, I'm gonna be late for gym. See ya later," Sonic said before taking off.
Knuckles felt tempted to follow his friend but he only had minutes to get to art class and he knew that if he was late then Ms. Jynx would have a hissyfit. The red haired students let out a sigh before speeding off towards class.
Later that day Sonic picked up his little brother from school, walked him over to his friend Cream's house (just like on Saturday he didn't want his brother being home alone), and started looking for a job. To say the spiky haired teen was getting desperate would be an understatement. He only had one more day to find a job before Tails tried to get a job but for some reason no one would hire Sonic. He had a feeling was either because he couldn't drive or because he wasn't adult, or a mix of both.
Sonic stood in front of the last building he could think of that would possibly hire a teenager, that place being a book store. He was hoping to get a job as a cashier and although he didn't like standing in one place for a too long, a job was still a job.
The speedster entered the store and walking over the counter. Behind the counter stood a bored looking 40 year old woman who needed to cut back on the perfume. Honestly Sonic felt like the fumes would cause him to pass out soon.
"Hello, welcome to Linda's books how may I help you," The woman said it an unenthusiastic voice.
"Hi, I was hoping I could get a application from here."
The woman sighed.
"We don't have applications but I can get my boss to talk to you."
"That'd be great," Sonic replied. He was kind of hoping for this. He hadn't really been to this store much but he was sure he could use his charm and good looks to persuade Linda to give him a job.
After a couple seconds of waiting a man came out of nowhere.
"Hi I'm Linda," The man said.
Sonic felt his heart drop. Well there goes his plan….
"I'm Sonic Hedgehog."
Linda wrote down the teen's name and then looked back at him.
"Okay so I'm going to ask you a couple questions. Consider this your interview. So the first question is what time can your work on weekdays."
"4:00-9:00"
"Those are some odd hours. I thought high schoolers got out at 2," Linda said.
"They do but I have to pick up my younger brother from school and the elementary school doesn't let out until 3:30."
Linda nodded and wrote something down and then asked, "Do you know the OPAC system?"
Sonic stared at the man and blinked, the man sighed, "How about the Dewey decimal system?"
The teen thought for a minute, "Doesn't that have something to do with numbers?"
The man sighed once more, "Look kid, I don't think your cut out to work here. Us here at Linda's books have quality to our staff and you lack quality."
"Quality? I can see the employee I talking to earlier from here and she's hitting a can of ravioli with a wrench," Sonic replied.
"You do realize that's my wife, right?" Linda asked in a slightly angry tone.
Sonic stifled the urge to groan. He just insulted the man's wife. great!
"I better go. See ya!" Sonic said running out of the store before Linda decided to pull out a taser or something.
After running for a good 10 minutes Sonic plopped down on a bench in a nearby park. He took out his phone and looked at the time.
"5:30, I have to to pick up Tails in a hour and I still haven't found a job. What am I gonna do."
Sonic closed his eye's and rested his head in the palm of his hand. He suddenly felt a gust of wind and when he opened his eyes their was a piece of folded paper on his lap. He picked the paper up and unfolded it revealing a note inside.
If you want a job go to Central Square Donut shop and say "Chaos" to the employee.
Sonic felt confused. Where did this note come from and why did was it instructing him to go to a donut shop. The teen figured he had nothing to lose and started his way there. Once he got there he walked in to find the place dead.
"Hey there Sonic," Said a familiar voice.
Sonic looked over to see none other than Rouge sitting on the counter in her usual attire.
"Rouge? What are you doing here?" Sonic asked.
The white haired girl winked at the blue haired boy, "I work here. So What can I get you?"
"Well, I need a job so I need some Chaos."
Rouge's smile grew as she hopped off the counter, "Follow me."
Sonic followed her to the back of the room behind a vat with a rug behind it. She lifted the rug and tapped on the tiled floor 3 times. Twice the the left and once on top. 30 of the tiles disappeared and a small pod like device shot up.
"After you." Rouge said.
Sonic stepped into the pod. It was kind of small and only seemed big enough for one person. The pod door closed and it's started to descend. When it was going down all Sonic could see was darkness. When the pod reached its destination it emitted a small "ding" sound and opened allowing the teen to exit. Sonic looked around, the inky blackness had been replaced by what appeared to be a lab. Sonic heard another ding from behind him and turned around to see Rouge exiting a pod.
"Where are we?" Sonic asked Rouge while looking around.
"You'll find out in a bit. Doctor!"
"Ah Miss Rouge how's it going?" Asked the Doctor. The Doctor had a giant mustache and wore glasses and was very overweight. Sonic couldn't help but to think that the doctor kind of looked like a egg.
"Doctor this is my friend Sonic. He's looking for a job."
"I see and why do you think he may be of use to us?" The doctor asked.
Rouge smirked, "Let's just say his speed isn't ordinary."
"I see…"
"Um, excuse me but can someone please explain to me what's going on?" Sonic asked impatiently.
"Very well then. I am Doctor Ivo Robotnik and this is my lab where I condone various experiments. I also specialize in robotics."
Sonic nodded and turned to Rouge, "If you specialize in robotics then why are you working here Rouge? Don't get me wrong but you never came off as interested in robots."
"You'll find out soon enough," She replied with a wink.
"Before we go any farther with this I must condone an experiment to see if you are fit for the job," Robotnik said.
"What kind of experiment?" Sonic asked.
"Nothing much, I'll just need you to run on a treadmill to measure your speed and endurance."
"Okay."
"Well I better head back up. Good-bye boys," Rouge said before walking away.
"Follow me Mister…." Robonic paused
"Sonics fine."
"Alright then, follow me Sonic."
After a minute of walking the two walked through a door that led to what appeared to be a gym with a mirror. The gym was medium sized, it had 2 treadmills, some weights and a stairmaster. It also had a yoga ball off in the corner, 2 jump ropes and a yoga mat.
"Okay so just step on the treadmill and set the settings as you like. This mirror you see is actually one way glass so I'm going to be watching your through it. The longer you're on the treadmill the more the speed and incline will increase. Whenever you're done just press the stop button."
"Got it." Sonic replied getting one of the treadmills.
"I'll give you the signal to start just wait for my signal," Robotnik said.
"Right," Sonic said. Although he wouldn't admit it he felt kind of excited. This would be the first time in a long time he'd be able to run because he felt like and not because he had to worry about being late to work.
Sonic set the speed at around 15 with a incline of 5.
"Ready?" Eggman asked through a loudspeaker.
"Ready," Sonic replied.
"Are your mark….get set...go!"
Sonic pressed the button and started running. Everything had been fine for the first couple of minutes. Sonic hadn't even broken a sweat, this was too easy. The incline and speed changed like Robotnik said. Now it was a speed of 17 with a incline of 6.
The teen was confused. He hadn't expected the speed and incline to change so drastically. He just shrugged it off though and started running faster. After a couple more minutes it changed once again but this time in was a speed of 20 and a incline of 8. Now Sonic was starting to sweat. Normally he didn't have to run this fast and he was having a really hard time trying to keep from getting flung off the treadmill. Unfortunately for him that's exactly what happened and he went flying across the room. Fortunately however he had landed on the yoga ball which was on the yoga mat, so most of his fall was broken.
Sonic let out a groan of pain when he heard the door open.
"Excellent work Sonic!" Robonik exclaimed while clapping his hands, "You may be of some use to my research after all."
"Good to hear," Sonic groaned as he got up.
"I expect you to be here on Monday thru Thursday for the first week and-"
"Wait wait slow down for a minute. You expect me to be here? Does that mean I'm...hired?" Sonic asked.
"Of course you're hired," Robotnik replied.
"Yes! I got a job!" Sonic exclaimed pumping both fists into the air.
"As I was saying earlier you will be payed 20 dollars and hour-"
"20 dollars?!" Sonic practically yelled his mouth dropping open. At his old job it'd take him a whole day to earn that much.
"Yes well, here I don't exactly pay minimum wage and it's only fair that I pay you that much. Your job starts Monday at 4 to 8 so make sure you get plenty of rest."
"Thank you so much, you won't be sorry," Sonic said. He turned to leave only to turn right back around, "Um...where's the exit to this place again?"
After exiting Central Square Donuts shop ( and buying some donuts for himself and his younger brother so they could celebrate once they got home) Sonic ran to the bakery that Cream lived since he still had to pick up Tails. Once he got there he opened the door and walked in.
Amy, who had been working the counter was cleaning up heard the bell at the door ring.
"I'm sorry, were going to be closing in a litt- Sonic!" Amy exclaimed happily.
"Hey Amy, I'm here to pick up Tails."
"Okay, I'll go get him," Amy replied in a chipper tone, "Tails! Sonic's here to pick you up!" She called up the stairs.
"Well be down in a bit!" Came Creams response.
"So Sonic you've been dropping Tails off here a lot recently. Why is that?" Amy asked.
Sonic, who was still in a good mood at getting such a good job replied with, "Oh no reason in particular," Despite Knuckles, Espio, Vector and Tails knowing Sonic didn't want Amy knowing he was able to get a job, mainly because she had been trying to get him to work at the bakery with her since he was 13 and frankly he didn't want to work their. Although it was better at his current job at the time since his job at that time was the diner he knew that if he worked at this particular bakery he'd never hear the end of it from Knuckles.
The pair heard soft footsteps descend from the stairs and not too long after, in front of the stairs stood Cream and Tails.
"Sonic!" Tails exclaimed happily running over to his big brother.
Sonic gave his brother a high five (or low five in Tails case), "Hey Tails. What's up Cream?"
"Hello Mr. Sonic," Cream said. Despite Cream being Amy's younger sister her hair was light blonde since she got her from their mom opposed to amy who got her hair color from their dad. Cream had very long hair despite only being 6 so she kept it tied and pigtails.
"You can just call me Sonic you know," The teen said to the child.
"Whatever you say Mr. Sonic," Cream replied.
Sonic let out a small chuckle. He'd be a liar if he denied the cute charm Cream seemed to possess.
"Well we better get going. You got everything Tails?" Sonic asked.
"Yup," Tails replied.
"Okay then, See you guys later and tell Vanilla I said thanks! Sonic called over his shoulder and he grabbed his younger brothers hand and they walked out of the building.
"Okay bye Sonic! Bye Tails!" Amy called after the two.
"Bye Tails, let's play again sometime! Bye Mister Sonic!" Cream called.
"Bye Amy! Bye Cream!" Tails called before the door shut and the two started to walk home.
The pair walked in silence for a bit just admiring the night before Tails spoke up.
"So...did you get a job?"
"I'll let you know when we get home," Sonic replied.
"Well can you at least tell me what's in the paper bag?" Tails asked noting the bag his brother was carrying.
Sonic winked and said, "That's a surprise."
The third grader pouted causing Sonic to chuckle. The rest of the 10 minute walk was spent in silence. Once they got through the door and Sonic locked it the teen put the paper bag on the table and turned towards his little brother who wanted an answer.
"I got a job."
"Really? That's great Sonic!" Tails happily exclaimed.
"That's not all, I also got us donuts to celebrate," Sonic said pulling out a donut with light blue mint frosting and handing it to Tails.
"Yay, I love mint donuts!" Tails exclaimed taking a large bite out of his donut.
Sonic reached into the bag and pulled out a donut he had bought for himself that had chocolate frosting. Donuts weren't as good as chilidogs in his opinion but they still tasted pretty good.
After the two finished their donuts they headed into the living and sat on the couch. The blue haired teen channel surfed for a bit before he settled on a movie channel. Tails however wasn't interested in the movie. He wanted to know about sonic's job. What where the hours? What was the pay? Where did he work? What did he do? Was his boss nice? Where his co-workers nice?
Although Sonic was able to answer what his hours were and was his pay was he couldn't tell him where he worked, if his boss was nice, or if his co-workers were nice. He couldn't answer where we worked because it was obvious that his boss wanted to keep what they were doing a secret since he kept it hidden. He also couldn't tell Tails if his boss was nice, if his co-workers were nice or was he was doing. He had just met Robotnik today, however he did seem nice. As for his co-workers he didn't know if they were nice since he hadn't met any of them excluding Rouge who he guessed was nice but also very mischievous.
When Tails had asked what he did Sonic couldn't help but to wonder what did he do? All he knew was that Robotnik was a scientist and found his speed impressive for whatever reason. So when Tails asked what he did Sonic said that he had to run fast.
"That sounds like fun. Maybe I can work their someday," Tails said.
"Maybe," Sonic chuckled ruffling the kid's hair.
The two continued to watch TV in silence, occasionally laughing when something funny happened. Eventually Tails fell asleep resting his head in Sonic's lap. After the movie ended Sonic turned off the TV and picked Tails up and carried him to bed. He carefully placed the grade schooler in bed and whispered good night before walking into his room which was right next door.
Sonic laid down and fell asleep and for the first time in a long time he fell asleep knowing that for once in his life, everything was going to be okay.
A/n: I had so many revisions for this chapter, just saying. There were 3 characters I wanted to introduce in this chapter but I think I'll save them for later *wink*. Also for those of you wondering why Tails is in third grade despite being 8 it's because his birthday is on August 19th so he started school early. Anyways see you guys later, bye!