Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Sonic the Hedgehog characters.
With the first week of school out of the way, the second week of school brought new excitement because it was the week of tryouts! Everybody who was planning to tryout was super excited while everybody else couldn't care less. Liecy was by her locker after school when Tyler approached her. Tyler and Liecy have always been close, but since they didn't really run in the same groups they didn't see each other much. However, they still made it a point to talk to each other when they could.
"Hey Liecy." Tyler said as she turned and smiled at him.
"Hi Tyler!" She said as she closed her locker. "I'm surprised to see you actually taking time to talk to me. All the other guys are so focused on tryouts." Liecy said closing her locker.
"I'm not trying out for anything here. You know I only go for skating competitions and I doubt this school will ever have one." Tyler said as Liecy giggled.
"Well at least I have someone to talk to. I swear everybody is so caught up." Liecy said rolling her eyes. Suddenly a dark brown squirrel with blue eyes wearing a preppy outfit walked up to Liecy and wrapped his arms around her before kissing her on the cheek.
"I'm here to talk to you." The squirrel said as Liecy smiled and Tyler rolled his eyes.
"Hi, Tyler you remember Craig my boyfriend." Liecy said as she looked at the squirrel.
"Yeah, hi." Tyler said not looking at them.
"'Sup, man." He said, but quickly returned his attention to Liecy. "So…me, you, Friday night at the diner?" He asked as Liecy kissed him. Tyler literally wanted to vomit. "Mmm…I'm taking that as a yes." He said as Liecy laughed. He hated Craig and always has. He didn't like Liecy being with him because he knew exactly what kind of guy he was. He didn't deserve her.
"I'll see you later. Okay?" She said as Craig kissed her goodbye and left. "So…" She said turning back to faced Tyler as he grabbed his board.
"I'm sorry I got to go. My dad wants me to come home early. I'll catch you later." He said as he skated away. Liecy watched him leave sadly and Tyler tried to ignore the immense amount of jealousy he felt.
"With the boyfriend again?" Onyx asked when Tyler walked out of the school.
"Let's not talk about it and just get to my house." He said and quickly got on his board and skated away. Onyx nodded and got on his board following after Tyler. Back at the school tryouts were beginning. Football, Basketball, Baseball, Cheerleading, Soccer, etc. Shade, Julian, Conner, Bolt, Lazarus, and Brice were all in the men's locker room getting ready for their football tryouts.
"I don't get why we have to tryout. We've been on the team since our freshmen year and it's pretty much guaranteed that we'll make it. I mean, hello, I'm the star player." Julian said as Brice rolled his eyes.
"Whatever pretty boy, you're not that great." Brice said as he tied on his cleats.
"Please, I'm shoe-in, what'll make this year any different?" Julian asked putting on his shoulder pads.
"A new coach." Conner said as he leaned against the lockers ready and waiting for everyone else to finish.
"Whatever, just because Coach Ruban retired last year doesn't mean the new coach won't be able to see talent." Julian said as everybody rolled their eyes. On the other side of the lockers, the non-senior guys were sitting there getting ready.
"You're awfully quiet." Shade said looking at Lazarus.
"Oh. Sorry just thinking." Lazarus said shaking his head.
"About Tsunami?" Shade asked as Lazarus came out of his trance. He was thinking about her, but he didn't want Shade to know that. The chain of information it took to get back to AJ or Julian was too short for him to tell him about Tsunami.
"No, but I know she's thinking about me." Lazarus said with his cocky grin.
"Sure…just keep on saying that." Shade said as they started to walk out to the field. When they walked out to the field all the guys' (with the exception of Shade) mouths dropped. There, standing on the field in full football gear, was none other than Ebony the Hedgehog. Ebony was dressed out and talking to the other football players casually.
"You're trying out for football?" Brice exclaimed rudely. Shade shook his head at his stupidity and Ebony glared at him before putting her hands on her hips.
"Yeah I am, what's your problem?" She yelled back glaring up at Brice.
"Nothing." Brice muttered quietly as the guys laughed at him. Brice looked up to see two figures walking towards the field. His eyes widened as he tapped Shade on the shoulder.
"No!" Shade shouted as he saw his father and Knuckles walking towards the field.
"Welcome to football gentlemen and lady." Shadow said looking at everybody.
"Why must you be a part of everything?" Brice yelled throwing his arms in the air.
"Because we have nothing better to do. Work is slow on us." Knuckles said as Brice dropped his head.
"How can it be slow on you? You're two of the top agents." Shade said as Shadow rolled his eyes.
"Well ever since Robotnik died it has been slow. Now, can we continue with tryouts?" Shadow asked as Brice and Shade grumbled.
"We're not going to waste time with a stupid speech since most of our time was spent explaining why we're here." Knuckles said shooting a look at Brice and Shade.
"Let's run some drills." Shadow said as everybody lined up. They continued with tryouts with running, catching and throwing, tackling, and finally a scrimmage. Ebony was at the position of halfback and the guy in front of her was smirking.
"You should be on the sidelines as my cheerleader instead out here with the big boys." He said arrogantly as Ebony glared at him. Shadow blew the whistle and the play started.
Ebony tackled the guy down and started running down the field looking back to see the ball heading towards her. She could see the other players coming at her and she ignored them and caught the ball. She started running down the field as fast as she could at the speed that was permitted, but a hawk got in the way of her and the end zone. She couldn't run around him since he was following her every move. She suddenly spotted a spot between his legs and she dove for it. When she opened her eyes she saw that her whole body was out of the end zone, but her hands and the ball were in. Knuckles blew his whistle as everybody looked at him.
"Touchdown!" He said as Ebony teamed cheered for her and half of the other team cheered too. She bounced up and threw the football to the ground as she did her football dance.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, enough of that." Shadow said stepping in front of her. She put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. Tryouts ended and everybody was confident about making the team.
"I wonder if any of the other parents are coaching." Conner said as he returned to the locker room.
"Knowing them they probably are." Brice said rolling his eyes. Out in the soccer fields, the girls on one field and the boys on the other, everybody was stretching. Tsunami was next to Topaz as she juggled the ball.
"I have a bad feeling about the coach." Tsunami said as she stopped juggling the ball.
"Why?" Topaz said bouncing up.
"I can't place my finger on it, but something is going to be bad about the coach." Tsunami said as Serenity and Nicole walked onto the field along with the coach. The coach was a pink chipmunk with long curly hair that she had in a bun. She had orange eyes and a blue tracksuit on.
"Okay girls line up!" She called out in a bubbly voice. All the girls lined up in four lines in front of her. "I'm Coach Michelle. I know some of you probably miss your old coach, but I promise to try and be the best coach possible! Let's start off this tryout with some dribbling drills." She said as everyone started to set up for the drills.
"God, I wanted a soccer coach not cheerleading coach." Tsunami muttered as Topaz snorted. Everyone lined up to begin the drills and Tsunami was the first in her line. Coach Michelle blew her whistle and Tsunami started off slowly trying to pace her energy.
"Let's move it, Storm! I've seen snails move faster than you! Get those knees up! God, have you even played soccer? Move! Move! Move!" Coach Michelle yelled shocking the hell out of Tsunami and the rest of the girls. The rest of tryouts involved more drills, shooting, trapping, running plays, goalie work, and a lot, a lot of yelling. Similar to the football tryouts, they ended the tryouts with a scrimmage.
Serenity dribbled the ball down the field dodging everybody who came at her. She finally noticed that Tsunami was coming at her. She smirked as she scissor kicked it to Nicole who scored it passed Topaz's defense. Tsunami watched in awe as she saw Serenity scored. She shook herself out of her trance and waited for the ball to be passed to her. Serenity wasn't captain of the team for no reason, after all. The scrimmage continued on with Serenity's team winning by two points, but there were no hard feelings between the players.
"Nice job ladies. The team roster will be posted up tomorrow morning." Coach Michelle said sweetly as everyone dragged themselves off the field.
"I think you were wrong about the coach." Topaz muttered pouring water over her sweaty face.
"Shut up." Tsunami said as they grabbed their bags.
Out in the baseball field Hydro, Flash, and Shawn were passing a ball around while the rest of the team waited around for the coach to show up. Flash was becoming impatient and heatedly threw the ball at Shawn.
"Where's the damn coach already?" Flash exclaimed tapping his foot impatiently.
"Calm down, he'll be here in two minutes." Shawn told him as he threw the ball to Hydro. They continued to pass the ball back and forth when a familiar dark green echidna walked onto the field.
"Good afternoon, I'm your baseball coach, Ricky Anderson." The green echidna said. Shawn snapped his head up and his eyes widened when he saw their new baseball coach.
"Damn, how come I didn't see this coming?" He muttered under his breath.
"You know him?" Hydro asked as Shawn looked at him.
"No, but my Dad does. He was the guy who tried to break up my Mom and Dad." Shawn muttered glaring at Ricky.
"Let's start some drills!" Ricky shouted blowing his whistle. They ran around the field a couple times, some more than others. The tryout continued with Shawn trying to hide himself the best he could, but he already knew he was caught by the way Ricky worked him so hard.
"Well that wasn't so hard." Flash said as Shawn glared at him.
"Yeah for you." Shawn muttered as he grabbed his bag. The day finally ended though and with the conclusion of tryouts everybody headed home exhausted. A storm rolled in and it began raining all over the city with thunder sounding and lightning flashing. Flash glared at his brother who was casually sitting in the kitchen.
"Hydro!" Flash yelled at him before pointing to the sky.
"Hey it's not me. This is mother nature this time." Hydro said walking upstairs. The storm really started to come down when Derek was heading home. He took off his now soaked jacket and looked at a note that was on the fridge.
Your Dad is working late and Lilac and I went shopping. Be home soon.
Love, Mom
Derek trashed the note and looked in the fridge for something to eat when the power went out. He sighed and threw on a dry jacket and went down to the basement. He tried to look for a flashlight, but couldn't find one. He found one of the many candles that Nikki keeps lying around and lit it. He walked back down to the basement and looked for the power box. He opened it, careful to keep the candle a safe distance away from it. He tried to figure out the problem, but couldn't find it.
'Where's Bolt when you need him?' He thought to himself when he came back up from the basement. There was a loud knocking on the front door and he walked back up to go answer it. When he opened the door he was shocked to see Ginger standing there soaked from head to toe.
"No one was at my house and the power went out and I got a little scared and your house is the closest from mine and I don't know." She rambled as she stood out in the rain still. Derek didn't say anything and let her in. She had her arms around herself as she stepped inside the large house.
"I'll get you something dry to wear." He told her as he began walking upstairs.
"It's fine." Ginger said as she pulled the water out of her clothes and hair. She dispersed the water into the plants they had lying around, but she shivered still.
"I'll be getting that jacket then." Derek said as she smiled appreciatively at him. Ginger walked into the living room with the candle he left there in her hand. She could smell that it was a cinnamon candle, which she liked. She saw Derek's shoes by the garage door and she decided to be polite and take her shoes off. Derek soon came back with a black sweatshirt in his hand. "I couldn't find anything else. Do you mind?" He said as he handed her his sweatshirt.
"It's fine, thank you." Ginger said as Derek nodded. "Can I use your restroom?" She asked politely. He pointed to the bathroom and she walked off in that direction. Derek sat on his couch as he turned on his music and put on his headphones. "What are you listening to?" He heard Ginger's soft voice say. He turned to see her wearing his over-sized black sweatshirt on her. It was little above her knees and it wrapped her body and made Derek blushed a bit.
"Uh…Paralyzer by Finger Eleven." He said. She sat next to him keeping enough space between them as she brought her knees to her chest and rested her head on them.
"That's one of my favorite songs." Ginger told as she turned her face to him. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow as she laughed slightly. "What? You didn't expect me to like Justin Bieber, did you?" She said. Derek chuckled lightly as Ginger smiled.
"Do you want to listen?" He said removing one of his headphones. She looked at him and nodded her head. He sat closer to her as he handed her an ear-bud. She placed it in her ear as she leaned back onto the couch. Derek started to notice that she was mouthing the lyrics to the song, but she stopped on one part. He started to listen to the lyrics to see why she had stopped.
Well I'm not paralyzed
But, I seem to be struck by you
I want to make you move
Because you're standing still
If your body matches
What your eyes can do
You'll probably move right through
Me on my way to you
Derek looked over to her and saw that she was staring back at him. She blushed and hid her face behind her hair. He paused the song and she looked up to him after he paused it to see that he was closer than she had originally thought. He cupped his hands around her face as he looked into her emerald eyes and started leaning in. They jumped at the sound of the door opening and looked to see Nikki and Lilac there.
"It's really raining out there—Oh! Hi Ginger, how's Luna?" Nikki asked after Derek and Ginger pulled away from each other.
"She's fine." Ginger said quietly as Nikki smiled. Derek sighed as he leaned back onto the couch. Was he ever going to get his chance? Outside in another neighborhood Ebony was running down the street trying to get to her house and out of the rain.
'Damn rain!' She thought as she slipped and fell on her ass. She looked at her soaked jeans and saw that her jeans were ripped now and her knee was bleeding. She winced as the rain continued to sting it. Suddenly she felt herself being lifted off the ground and the person was running quickly. Ebony could feel herself getting warmer, but couldn't understand why. She tried to looked up at the person, but the rain kept stinging her eyes every time she did. He stopped in front of her house and deposited her onto her front porch. Her quills fell in front of her face and when she turned to look at the guy all he could see was a pair of gray eyes before he disappeared.
"Ebony why are you out in the pouring rain?" Amy asked as she opened the door.
"Sorry Mom." Ebony said still distracted by the guy you helped her.
"Come in before you catch a cold and you're bleeding!" Amy said pulling her in. Back at the school Liecy and Tyler were there to pick up a book that Liecy had forgotten.
"Thanks for coming with me. I can't believe I forgot my Government book!" Liecy said as they walked down the empty halls. Suddenly they heard giggling and kissing noises. They turned the corner to see a couple making out against some lockers.
"Craig stop…someone might see." A pink mongoose said as Craig nibbled her ear.
"Like who?" He smirked as Liecy clenched her fists.
"Like me!" Liecy yelled as Craig stumbled away from the mongoose in shock.
"Liecy! It's not wha—"He started to say before getting cut off.
"Don't give me that shit! You asshole!" She yelled as she ran away. Tyler tried to stop her, but she was already gone. Tyler glared back at Craig and punched him in the jaw causing the mongoose gasp.
"You have no idea how long I wanted to do that." He said before taking off for Liecy. Liecy ignored her car as she ran out of the parking lot into the rain. She had tears running down her cheeks as she entered the park. She finally stopped under the biggest willow tree in the park and cried against her knees. "He was wrong." Tyler said surprising Liecy. She looked up to see him standing in front of her dripping wet and panting.
"W-what?" She asked as she wiped her eyes.
"He was stupid to have cheated on you. He obviously doesn't realize what he has…or had." Tyler said kneeling down next to her. Liecy smiled at him as he smiled back.
"Who does deserve me then?" She asked quietly as the rain started to settle down. Tyler looked into her beautiful pink eyes.
"Someone who would treat you right. Go out of his way to do things for you. Someone like…" He said trying to think of a good word.
"Someone like you?" She whispered as Tyler looked at her. She closed the space between them with her lips making him fall back on the ground with her on top of him. "I've always known." She told him as they pulled apart.
"But…" He said holding her hand.
"I wasn't sure if I was sure." She said but then smiled at him. "I am now." She said before kissing him again.