01/07/19 Edit: Gosh, looking at these next few chapters gets me so embarrassed xD There's definitely a lot of room for tidying up here, haha!

Thank you to: Yasmine155, Fables-and-FairyTale, ShadowsAngel1, DidntMakeDeletingAccountsEasy, Steve993, The High School Hero, anthony. ricci. 3979, Eli Swafford, ToxicWolf1132, TheLastoftheRealOnes, Guest, djiak-niffsta, and TheSecretRoman! You're all amazing; reading your reviews is always one of the highlights of my day! :D

Yasmine115 - Things aren't looking too good for the gang! Haha, go Tails! Aw, thank you!

Fables-and-FairyTale - That one got me xD Very true! Hee hee, I'm glad the drama is high! Thanks!

ShadowsAngel1 - Aw, thank you!

DidntMakeDeletingAccountsEasy - Don't be at all! I love that I've managed to write the chapters well enough that they're relatable! I'm very sorry to hear about that situation — it must have been tough to experience, being stuck in the middle like that. Haha, I guess I must be psychic! Truths all around, it seems! xD Aw, thank you ever so much! I am so happy to hear that! Thank you for your support!

Steve993 - Thank you very much! I'm really glad that you're excited to see what will happen! Lots and lots of secrets from everyone, it seems!

The High School Hero - Hahaha! Woo! Ooh, I love that Ryan Higa reference, ha! Oooh, I'm glad that the chapter has been shocking! Cliffies will be the death of me! Aw, thank you very much!

anthony. ricci. 3979 - Thank you very much!

Eli Swafford - Aw, thank you so much! Haha, that's so sweet! That warms my heart! Thank you!

ToxicWolf1132 - I'm sorry to hear that, it's an awful position to be in. Yep, Cosmo's plan can only go downhill from here and there will be some intense confrontations when it happens. Silvaze is under stress! Thank you!

TheLastoftheRealOnes - Thank you very much! Haha, it is, but they've gotta go through some rough times so that the payoff is worth it ;D Thank you!

Guest - Hahaha! ;D

djiak-niffsta - That is really, really nice! Thank you so much!

TheSecretRoman - Awww, thank you! Haha, it makes me really happy to hear that!

SpeedsMyGame - Ooh, I didn't realise FFN gave notifications for replacement chapters now! I have updated, recontinuing editing this story, after so long of being away! I've missed it! :'3

Destructorbolt - Thank you ever so much! I'm so glad that people are enjoying the changes too! In regards to your questions, (1) I've kept the characters with their powers in this canon, so Shadow does have them, but they never really fully unleash them, unless they have need to (2) In theory, when the chapters have finished updating, my dream is to finish the story, with completely new chapters. However, since it has been so long since I've been writing, it's definitely going to take practice for me to get my groove back (3) She's definitely meeeeean ;D

Symphonic-Labyrinth - That's so sweet, I'm so flattered that you've come back and re-read it - I thought I might have faded into obscurity, haha! I am very good, thank you!

Chapter 11: A Whole New Academic Chapter

(Amy)

Nervous, I entered the art studio, and looked around to find several students already settled, but no sign of the tutor. The University of Spagonia's art buildings were much further out from the campus, so it had taken me a little while to find the correct room, but I'd finally made it. Arriving on time was just a bonus.

I sat down at one of the workbenches, shyly smiling at the rabbit in front of me. She grinned back, ruffling the back of her head, but didn't say anything. A little disheartened by my inability to converse — it felt like school all over again — I took out my Mobian Anatomy portfolio, which I'd worked on over the summer, for this module. Using photos as references, I had intricately sketched drawings of the gang: Rouge hugging Knuckles; Silver giving Blaze a piggyback; Cosmo and Cream laughing together; Sonic and Tails with their arms around each other; Shadow on his motorbike; and, of course, Sonic and I, with his arm wrapped around my waist.

I was pretty proud of what I'd done.

"Welcome, undergraduates," The tutor boomed, as he strolled into the room. He was a ram, with curly black hair and a corduroy waistcoat. His voice was a little intense, "Well done on making it to Fine Art at Spagonia University, and for choosing my Mobian Anatomy module."

I'd presumed that everyone had arrived, but the door suddenly burst open, and a familiar face swanned into the room.

"Might I ask who interrupts my teaching?" The ram asked, looking irritated.

Bunnie just smirked, "Bunnie Rabbot. 'Sorry that I'm late."

She took a seat at the far end of the room, but she still managed to send a significant look in my direction. I blushed and stared at my bag.

"Right. My name is Max Warfield. During the course of this module, I will be helping you to adapt on your sketches of anatomy, using your pre-made portfolios — which you should have completed before the start of the course. This will be a fast-paced module, so I expect the upmost effort from all of you. But, first, I want to know what I'm working with. You're obviously a talented bunch, just for getting here, but I want to judge you myself. Begin by choosing a piece of work from your portfolio, and I shall come around and have a look at it. Once we've established what you're going to be working on for the next few weeks, we'll investigate further on how to make anatomy come alive in both 3D and 2D work. So get choosing."

Whoa, talk about hitting the ground running. I had no idea which picture I wanted to choose.

"Is that your boyfriend?"

I was startled at the voice. Turning around, I faced the frown of a bat, who was standing behind me, and clutching her own folder to her chest.

"Uh. Y-Yes. I-It is. I'm sorry — you surprised me," I was blushing.

But she warmly smiled, "No worries. I have that effect on people."

The rabbit opposite me — who had remained silent — now laughed, "Sit down, Mel. You're making her nervous."

Mel shrugged, before taking the seat beside me, "What's your name?"

"A-Amy," I stuttered, then gestured at the two of them, "What about you?"

"Mel is short for Melanie," Mel tossed her hair over her shoulder, which had a few pink streaks amidst the brown tones. She was wearing ripped jeans and a sweet, black shirt, with pink hearts dotted across it.

"I'm Rachel," The rabbit replied, shooting me a smile. Her black, wavy hair was ruffled, and she had a light-denim shirt, with dark jeans. The two of them seemed friendly.

"So. That's your boyfriend, then?"

"Yeah."

"He's cute."

Rachel frowned, "Mel!"

"What? He is. You two look good together, so don't worry, I'm not going to try and steal him or anything," The bat frowned at my pale expression, "Whoa, I was just kidding. Let me guess, you've had girl problems before, haven't you? Not surprising, when your guy looks like that."

"Melanie..." Maya sighed, at the end of her tether.

"I'm sympathising, Rach, jeez!"

"So, uh, do either of you have a partner?" I asked, eager to change the subject.

Rachel nodded, "My girlfriend. But she lives back home — I'm from abroad. I met Mel a couple of days ago, 'cause we share a flat together. It's interesting, to say the least."

"Way to make me feel special," Mel teased. I laughed at her comment, but I wasn't aware that Bunnie was standing directly behind me, until she cleared her throat.

"What an annoying laugh," She muttered, storming towards the bin and spitting her gum into it. As she sat back down again, I hid my face beneath the strands of my hair and waited until she was far away from my view.

"What's her problem?" Mel growled.

I chewed on my lower lip, "I honestly have no idea, but she doesn't seem to like me. I only met her recently, and even that was brief."

"Ignore her," Rachel suggested, leaning over to take a proper look at my portfolio, "Wow, your work is good. Which one are you going to choose to improve?"

"I don't know," I truthfully admitted.

"That one."

Someone else pointed at the sketch of Sonic and I. My eyes followed the limb until I made eye-contact with the tutor, Max Warfield. Warmly, he smiled and gave a firm nod.

"You've captured the light perfectly, and you've defined the toning well. There's a good display of contrast. You need to work on spacing more closely, but it's a good piece. This is only my opinion, but I believe that you should choose this one. There's clearly a history between you and the other subject."

I flushed red, as he moved onto Mel's work. But I knew that he was right — there was a lot of history behind this piece, and that meant that I could throw a lot of passion into it.

"I said it was good," Rachel whispered, gently nudging me in the ribs.

I laughed.

"So, how were everyone's lectures? Or seminars? Or workshops, 'cause I can't keep up with all of your degrees."

"Don't even, Rouge."

"Someone sounds happy, Knuckie."

"Mine was pretty awesome, actually!" Tails burbled, in delight, "In my Electrical Connections lecture, we learnt about advanced, positive and negative charges, and how they affect a motherboard and its properties!"

Knuckles blinked, "What?"

"Never mind."

Cream giggled, "How was Drama, Silver?"

"We dove into the content really quickly!" He seemed excited, but something about Silver's passion was muted, as he significantly avoided Blaze's eyes. The two of them hadn't really been speaking since their disagreement, over whatever it was about. No one dared broach the subject, "We were given the syllabus, and then we were told to read up on this assigned play, and to look online to find out what character we were in our seminar groups!"

"Nice," Knuckles nodded, "History was long. I had my Historic Religion lecture, today, and there is a lot of note-taking. Nothing about my ancestors yet, but maybe there will be soon."

"Hang in there, dude," Sonic shifted in his seat, "Sport was a-okay. We had to choose what area we were interested in and what we were good at, in strength, speed, flexibility and stamina, for Athletics. I went for speed, and so did Shadow, and then they timed our track runs. Who got the faster time, Shadow, huh?"

"The sun was in my eyes," Shadow grumbled.

Sonic laughed, "Anyway. The only downside was that Jet and Scourge are in our category. They were speed types, too."

"Ugh," Silver agreed, "What else did you do?"

"Not much. We were introduced to all of the different sports equipment. Then we were told about all the different kinds of sports societies. I signed up for the Athletics society, and they've got a hundred metres race, in a couple of weeks."

"You'll win that, easily," I reached forward and squeezed his arm. Sonic flashed a grin back, clearly pleased.

But Blaze frowned, "Where is the Sports Centre? I didn't even know the university had one."

"It's at the end of the campus," Shadow explained, "The big, glass building behind the Sciences. It was built quite recently."

Sonic nodded, "There's even a gym that everyone can use."

"Well, that's where I'll be," Knuckles grinned, flexing his biceps, "I've gotta keep up my strength."

"Now what strength would that be, Knuckie?" Rouge teased.

Tails cleared his throat and courageously turned towards Cosmo. I held my breath for him, hoping that this wouldn't be awkward, "What about you, Cosmo? How was Music?"

"Um. Well. My lecture was about projection, but we all got a bit distracted when they showed us the orchestra hall. There are a lot of practice rooms, and a massive hall for the choir. There's a technology room for the keyboards and DJs. Our group stayed in the orchestra hall, today. The class seemed nice, although there was a mongoose who kept staring at me."

I frowned, as the description sounded familiar, "What did the mongoose look like?"

"Um, she had yellow fur, black shorts and a vest top. She had purple hair, too."

"Mina," Sonic clenched his fists.

My frown deepened, "Do you know her?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, kinda. She was from my old school, before Mobius High. She must have moved here and gone to this university," Sonic mumbled, sounding distracted and like he was off in his own little world. I decided not to question it further: I was unlikely to get a reply, when Sonic was like this.

"She sounds irritating," Rouge rolled her eyes in sympathy, "Just like my Gender Fashion seminar, which is literally just pointing out differences. Although, we are being encouraged to design a new piece of menswear. Maybe I can design you an outfit, Knuckles?"

"I don't think so," Knuckles took a swig of his water.

We were lounging around on a bench, outside, in the grounds of the university. There was a collective food hall that we had bought our lunch from - it was very different to the canteen at Mobius High: no crummy, small plastic seats, just normal chairs and tables. Since it was a nice day, we'd decided to sit outside to eat.

"How was English Literature?" Silver asked Blaze, flatly. It was the first time that they had properly spoke, in front of the rest of us, and I could tell that everyone was holding their breath.

Blaze shrugged, "This morning was a lecture on Novels, so we focused on the definition of a novel and how that has changed over the years. It's okay. The people seem nice."

Silver awkwardly nodded, unsure of what to do, before he turned to me, "What about Fine Art, Amy?"

I faltered, as Blaze ignored everything around her and pulled a book from her bag. I recognised the cover: it was the book that she always read when she was upset and needed comforting.

"Oh, I... um," I couldn't take my eyes off of Blaze's book. Why was she upset? Had something happened with Silver? They hadn't- no, they wouldn't. They were the strongest couple in the group. They couldn't have broken up, "It was fun. We're focusing on Anatomy, and we have to improve one of our sketches from our Summer portfolios. That's for my techniques module."

"Which one did you pick?" Sonic asked, curiously.

I blushed. It seemed like I'd been doing that a lot, today, "The drawing of me and you..."

"Aw," Rouge wolf-whistled, "That's a cute one."

Sticking my tongue out at her, I couldn't help but smile. Sonic laughed, "I'm sure it will be great."

Silver tapped Cream's arm, who hadn't said much, during the conversation, "What about you, Cream? What was Food Science like?"

She giggled, "We had a seminar on Introduction to Food Microbiology. Of course, the first one was on safety."

"That makes sense," Rouge slid her sunglasses into her hair, leaning back into the sunlight, "So. What's on your timetables next?"

"Design and Production seminar, in a couple of hours," Tails replied, pulling out a printed sheet, detailing all of his meetings and lectures, "Wow! With Professor Hilton!"

"I'm guessing that's good?" Silver grinned.

"I have a lecture on Tempo," Cosmo glanced at her map of the university layout, "Amy, what do you have next?"

I peered at my timetable, "A seminar, in the library. Researching, by the sounds of it: Art History."

"Well, lots of history for you then," Knuckles laughed to himself, "I don't have anything else today."

"Neither do I!" Silver beamed, "It looks like we're gonna be hanging out, Knuckles."

"Oh, good," The echidna muttered.

Sonic and Shadow smirked at each other.

I held in a giggle, as the rest of them compared their timetables. Cream had a quiet day, along with Knuckles, Silver, and also Rouge. But Sonic, Shadow, Blaze, Tails, Cosmo and I still had events that we needed to attend and rush to.

A part of me missed the simplicity of Mobius High.