Football and soccer is the same thing, Guest.

Freshman: Chapter 8

Shadow's POV

After a visit to the nurse's office it didn't take long for me to return to the gym with Amy at my side. My shirt was still tainted with blood, so I was offered a spare one, which smelled suspiciously sweaty. There were a few people who asked me if I was alright, but I convinced them that I was just fine. Sure my nose, no, the whole front of my muzzle was sore, but it went easily ignored.

"You look better without all that blood on your face, but I don't think your shirt was much of an upgrade." Sonic stated as he, once again, sat next to me on the sidelines. He obviously picked up the horrendous smell, mobians had a much more sensitive sense of smell compared to humans, and he couldn't help but tease me about it.

"Oh shut up, there weren't alot of alternatives." I replied, crossing my arms in front of my chest. This shirt was making me feel uncomfortable. It had been used by countless of people and I don't think they actually went through the trouble of regularly washing these spare uniforms.

When I get home, the first thing I'm going to do is jump into the shower and scrub my chest fur clean.

"But seriously now, what're you gonna do about Scourge." Sonic asked, knowing that I wasn't just going to let this go. That green jerk hadn't just kicked my face in with a stupid football, but he had also manhandled my pride. No one touched my pride and got away with it!

Not unharmed atleast.

"Hmpf!" I huffed as I looked toward the green hedgehog still playing football. The bastard was having the time of his life ever since he kicked that ball in my face.

Sonic knew he wasn't getting an answer out of me and decided to watch the football match instead. I don't think he wanted to know either, because I knew exactly how to get even with Scourge.

Atleast twenty minutes before the last bell would ring I had another chance to partake in a last game of volleyball. In ten minutes we would start to tidy up the place before retreating to the locker rooms to change into our normal clothes and go home when the bell does ring. Ten minutes is what I had to get back at Scourge and ten minutes is all I need.

The minutes ticked by, but I did finally get my turn to serve. My classmates didn't trust me when I took the ball because of how bad of an aim my right arm had with this sport, for some reason the teacher didn't allow me to use my left, but I could make it work to my advantage. I had only one shot at this, so I hope luck was on my side too.

I waited for the right moment, threw the ball into the air, raised my arm and hit it with as much force I could muster, despites this not being the right form of serving in volleyball.

"Argh!"

"Scourge!"

Several people gasped when Scourge landed on the ground with a harsh thud and a shout of pain and shock, his back receiving most of the impact while his face ached after being used as a target for my weapon of choice to hit.

I looked at the hedgehog on the floor groaning as he held his own nose and felt satisfied, my hands resting on my hips. Knowing how terrible I was at serving, no one but Sonic, Tails and Amy knew that was on purpose.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Scourge yelled at me he crawled back up on his feet and glared at me, blood running down his nose.

Okay, so Scourge was another person who figured out that wasn't an accident.

"Scourge, calm down, I'm sure it was just an accident." His gym teacher tried to calm him down, but to no avail. The green hedgehog stormed off towards the infirmary like the teacher told him to, pissed that I dare to take revenge.

After tidying the place up, we retreated to the locker room and changed back into our usual clothing. Chaos, was I relieved to wear my own clothes instead of that spare gym shirt that hadn't been washed in Chaos only knows how long ago.

I still plan on taking a shower when I get home, though. I might be rid of it now, but I still feel like I just can't be clean without scrubbing all the invisible filth off first.

The last bell rang and we were free to go home.

I left through the black gate of the school and decided to sit and wait on a nearby bench as I noticed Rouge wasn't here yet. I'd Chaos Control home, but I don't want to risk getting punished for something as trivial as using my powers to go home.

I can be patient. So why risk getting myself punished when I can simply wait for my ride to come. And I don't think Rouge will take a long time.

Someone sat down on the bench with me.

"So how did getting even with Scourge feel?" Sonic asked, obviously not in a hurry to get home.

"It was satisfying." I answered, the kitsune Sonic lives with joining us on the bench.

"Scourge looked pretty angry, though. Was it really such a good idea to get back at him?" Tails asked, dropping his backpack in front of his feet. The thing had a keychain with two furry tails similar to his own.

"Affirmative." I simply answered.

Tails frowned, not really happy with my answer. He didn't think it was all that smart to go look for trouble with Scourge. But it was the green hedgehog who started it, I simply responded in the manner I saw fit. And since he nearly broke my nose with a ball, I decided to return the favour.

The sudden honking of a car drew our attention and we could see a white stylish car parked in the parking lot of the school. It was Rouge. Just like I had expected it didn't take her long to arrive.

"I have to go, my ride is here. I'll see you two next monday in school." I told the hedgehog and the kitsune goodbye as I stood up from the bench and walked towards the car. I was just about to pull on the handle when Sonic called my name. So I turned around to face him.

"I was wondering if you felt like doing something this weekend." He asked, seemingly a bit nervous for some reason. That was unlike him. Sonic wasn't the kind of person to get nervous so easily. I guess he was in a hurry to get home?

"I was actually going to do my homework during the weekend so I can relax and waste my time reading tonight, but sure I think I can come by tomorrow. Do you have anything special in mind?" I asked.

Rouge was without a doubt waiting for me to get in, but she was being surprisingly patient. She just got off work, so she should be pretty hungry right now. Not to mention that I was considerably hungry myself.

"Not really." He replied.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow." I told him, after which I pulled the door open and sat down in the passenger seat.

As Sonic walked back to Tails and told him it was time to go home, I fastened my seatbelt and Rouge did quite an unpleasant discovery.

"What's that on your face?!" She asked, her arms crossing in front of her in disapproval.

I kind of had a hard time looking at her, like a child being scolded. Of course I should've expected some sort of reaction from her. My black fur might hide the bruising, but the tan fur on my muzzle certainly doesn't. The area around my nose was all black and blue.

I actually found myself contemplating weither or not I should tell her the truth.

"Remember when Scourge threatened me?" I asked.

Rouge's jaw dropped slightly in disbelieve. Of course she knew of the threat because I told her the day I was threatened. But because the days and even weeks passed by and nothing happened, she had actually believed him to be quite a pansy. All bark but no bite.

"Yes, I was surprised too, but he did make his threat come true." I said.

"And how exactly? Did he punch you? Or kick you? It looks more like he kicked you." The bat stated as she took a closer look at the big bruise.

"Close enough, but he didn't exactly kick me. During gym he was playing football with his class and he apparently thought it was a great opportunity. So he kicked a ball in my face." I explained, the urge to rub my painful nose rose up, but I had to refuse if I didn't want a jolt of pain to make my nose ache even more.

"He did?! What did you do? Did you tell a teacher?" Rouge asked.

"Yeah, I told a teacher." I answered, shifting uncomfortably in the passenger seat.

"You're lying, Shadow. Your ears always give you away." She said with a sigh. She'd rather not have me get in trouble. Especially not in school or at work. She might've been quite the troublemaker back in her days of school, but somehow she was dissapointed when I got in trouble.

And yes, it were always my ears that gave me away. Well, almost always. Whenever I lied, either my voice would rise higher in tone or my ears would twitch in a way that just screamed that they wanted to lie down in guilt, but couldn't really do it either.

"Okay, I didn't tell a teacher. I slammed a volleyball in his face. But it's okay. Nearly everyone thought it was a simple coincidental accident because of how terrible I am at volleyball." I tried to reassure her, but it didn't work in the least.

"Nearly?"

"Sonic, Amy, Tails and Scourge know it was on purpose."

Rouge huffed, clearly dissapointed in me. She had hoped I'd make the wise decision of telling a teacher instead of playing vigilante.

She turned the key in the ignition and the engine roared to life. I looked out of the window and saw that Sonic and Tails were no longer there as the car pulled out of the parking and drove onto the road with the intent of bringing us home.