Despite me having no weariness at all in my body, The Lady, the one who tells us what to do and we must obey, ordered us to sleep, called "Nap Time". She was our god, the one who ruled us with an iron fist, as we were all afraid to go against her and her rules. She was kind, but yet fierce. If you decided to break any of her rules, then may Solaris have mercy on your soul, if she doesn't make it take a timeout first.

I laid there, staring at the white ceiling with my eyes fully open. The Lady put on some "calming" music to make us go to sleep, hoping it would silence our muffling. The music was a bunch of children singing nursery rhymes or songs. For some reason, I hated these children. They were singing, in their broken little voices, on a little black sheep. I don't hate them because they were probably more successful than me, but because I hated this song. I didn't hate the song because it was a terrible song, but for a reason I cannot explain, it made me feel…lonely. I didn't really know what the song truly was about, but I've heard the phrase, "the black sheep of the family". Being called a black sheep among a herd of white sheep meant you were unique, but you were considered dark, mysterious, and you didn't seemed to fit in with the rest of them.

Why should I care? Sheep are mindless dumb animals that will do whatever you tell them and baa and have that nasty smell of feces and rotten food. If I was unique unlike all the other mindless idiots who liked the same thing then maybe I shouldn't worry incessantly about it.

But yet the song touched me unlike the many other songs in that disc. Sometimes I wished that people could…understand me, as weird as that sounds. As much as I hated those white sheep, I wished that maybe they could understand why I seemed to be so angry at them. Maybe I was angry because I hated the color white and I hated how they smelled.

I looked around, still not even tired a smidge. Many colorful boxes to the left of me and my blanket that had cars on it (Cars are…may I have to admit, awesome, by the way. That's why one day I decided to drive a motorcycle and other vehicles that I could get my hands on.) and I began to count how many fire trucks were on it. One fire truck, two fire trucks, three fire trucks…I got up to five until I heard a, "Hey Shadow!"

It was Sonic, grinning at me as if it was his birthday. "What are you doing up, Sonic? If the teacher finds out, you could get in trouble…"

"I'm just thinking…what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Ah yes, that question that had kids pipe up almost unattainable careers that they would never achieve in their lives…astronaut, doctor, fireman, the man who discovers a new color, a fire truck…

But yet I answered him anyways. "I want to be a truck driver."

He tried to suppress his laughter. "A truck driver? Why?"

"I don't know. I like driving things."

"Why?"

"Because it's fun."

"Why?"

"…Because I always liked driving things."

"Why?"

"I don't know, Sonic. Quit asking why."

"Why?"

I got annoyed, but I held my agitation to Sonic's curiosity, in fear of angering The Lady. I turned my body away from him. "Go to sleep, Sonic."

"I want to be a superhero when I grow up."

I turned my neck to look at him. "That isn't real, Sonic."

"A real what?" he queried with those big green eyes.

"A real thing you can do when you grow up."

"The teacher said if you put your mind to it…"

"The teacher is full of poo!"

He was silent, as if I said something that tore into him deeply. I thought I broke apart his dreams until he finally said, "I'm telling the teacher on you!"

"You better not!"

"I'm going to right now!" He got up and walked across the room. "Teecha! Teecha!"

I immediately rose and followed him, prepared to explain myself.

"What is it, Sonic? Is it hard for you to nap again?" she asked in that sweet voice that melted our hearts, but yet made us fear her.

"No teecha. Shadow said you were full of poo!" He pointed to me indiscriminately.

She sighed. "Sonic, what did I tell you about talking to people while they're trying to nap?"

"But…but…he said you were…" His pointing was starting to shake.

"Shadow, you don't say I'm full of poo. That hurts my feelings and isn't very nice, and Sonic, don't try to interrupt anyone's nap time. When everyone gets up I want you two to take an extra five minutes napping and take a timeout. Shadow's probably cranky and you need it, especially."

"But…but…"

"Now, Sonic. Back to your napping corner."

As he walked back to his "napping corner" I stuck my tongue out at him. Justice was served, even if I said she was full of poo.

But yet I didn't feel so lonely now there was another child suffering like me. Men don't suffer alone. At least, I wasn't going to. I was usually the problem child, racking up more timeouts than anyone, but this time, someone had to go down with me.