Hey guys!

Thanks for sticking with me – I am so happy with myself that I am updating so soon after the last one (compared to the one before that….) and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

We left off at Espio's little get-together, and in this chapter we will be seeing some of Kairy's days in school and then some from a few other points of view just to switch things up. Also warning, there is some harsh subject matter in this chapter. Please don't expect to read through the whole thing lightly!

Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Kairy's POV

Monday morning showed up WAY too fast. I had stayed up late all Sunday night finishing homework I had stupidly neglected until then and barely made the bell for homeroom. I was happy to be in school, though, because I was very curious as to how Silver was.

Amy was her normal self in homeroom, which was nice, seeing that the last time I interacted with her she had been beyond distraught about Sonic. When I sat down in my usual spot, I collapsed with my head on my books. Amy rubbed my back.

"Rough night?" She asked while looking at me with her big green eyes. "Yeah, just so much chem homework. Don't know why I put myself through AP sometimes." I moaned. She let out a little laugh.

"What class are you missing today?" Cosmo asked the two of us as she walked in to sit with us.

"I'm missing math. So happy about that too! We were going to have a quiz until my teacher remembered the assembly." Amy boasted. I looked up from my desk, "Wait what?"

"We have the assembly about sexual assault or something today during block 4." Cosmo answered.

I nodded, remembering the announcement from the previous week. I did a quick internal scroll through my schedule and realized I'd be missing history. I then felt a little more prepared for the day.

The first two classes went by seamlessly as the day went on. I felt as though I was merely going through the motions since I was so tired, but I also didn't feel lost on anything new that was being taught.

The bell for third period eventually rolled around and I made my way into chem class toting my folder full of finished homework for my teacher. As I sat down I watched everyone else walk in looking almost as stressed as myself over the workload. Glad I was not the only one.

Tikal came in and took her seat next to me and sighed. "Did you get number 6 on the written problem set 2?" She asked. I laughed, "Yeah, if looking it up on the internet counts." She giggled and nodded in agreement.

Shadow then walked in to take his place behind me. For once he was not giving me a death glare and was instead just ignoring my presence. Still kind of pissed me off that he felt it was okay to be a jerk to someone he barely knew, but Tikal had told me he did this to everyone. Sometimes I just wished that he would say something to engage in normal conversation though so I could get to know him passed the grumpy face.

After class ended I proceeded to put my things away until Shadow tapped me on the shoulder.

"What?" I tried to ask as nicely as possible.

"Are you good at chemistry?" He asked, although the way he said it made the question sound more like a statement.

"Um well I like it. I'm not the best but I know how to do most of—"

"Can I have your number I might need help." He cut me off. I gave him a slightly annoyed look but wrote it down and gave it to him anyway.

He took the paper and walked out without saying anything.

"Could have at least have said thanks." I mumbled to myself.

As he walked out Tikal stared at me with her head tilted.

"Now THAT was an interesting move." She said, bewildered, "I have never seen him ask for help before. He is seriously one of the most unpredictable creatures I have ever met. Be careful around that one. I just do not get any good vibes from behind the black exterior."

I shrugged. He pissed me off enough that if he asked for homework help I would probably just tell him to go suck a fat one for being so rude. But then again I didn't usually have the confidence to back most of my malicious ideas.

Tikal walked out of chem with me and I was about to head to history when I remembered the assembly. Assemblies were so wonderful. Probably God's gift to students, really. A student enters school expecting a full day of classes and learning (mostly things they do not care about) with one small break for eating relatively decent food. But then assemblies were created, where now and then the students were given an unexpected lecture in one big room about something they probably already knew all about and it was all worth it to miss one class. Or even just half of a class. But no matter what, it was all worth it.

Anyway…

Tikal put her stuff in her locker and I just threw my backpack down by mine. We followed the herd of juniors already heading down to the auditorium. When we entered I followed the orange echidna to where Amy and Cosmo were sitting.

"Hey guys!" Amy greeted cheerily as we took our seats next to them. I nodded and waved.

Everyone piled in the small room and the lights lit up onto the stage in front of us.

The principal stepped out and began her speech on sexual assault. I would not be one to say out loud that it was boring, because I found the topic to be extremely important, but the speech was the same thing we had heard over and over throughout our lives.

That was until she told a personal experience story.

That caught everyone's attention.

It was always so hard watching and listening to people share stories of personal experience with something as horrible as assault. All of my feelings poured out towards the frail old bird. I could not even imagine myself being able to stand in front of a crowd of mostly immature high schoolers and share something so personal and heart wrenching.

She paused momentarily to take deep breaths. You could see how much it hurt for her to share this event. She told us over and over that she was sharing it because nobody realizes how much it actually happens in today's society. She warned us to never EVER trust a stranger, and to always watch our backs. And, even more importantly, she told us that even in a long-standing relationship, assault can take place, and we should never ever stay silent. We should always find someone to talk to. Always.

After the assembly ended, I looked back on my earlier take on assemblies. Sure, sometimes they were repetitive, and this one could be considered just like that, but I was so shocked about what the principal shared. It was so scary, and sadly so real. Everyone left the auditorium and quietly continued to lunch after that.

Rouge's POV

I left the assembly nearly in tears.

It hit too close to home.

My mom had been sexually abused when she was in her late teens, and had to get a few surgeries because of it. It is a topic that is not often brought up in my family, but she told me when I was 14 to make me wary of any predators. My dad hated talking about it, so it was something we usually kept hush-hush.

Unfortunately, the normal person might look at my family now and see it as relatively unconventional. My mom is currently 36: she had me when she was 19. My dad is the owner of some business that has to do with finances but I am not really sure what he does. I am an only child and my mom pushed me to do dancing and cheerleading as a kid, so those were things I had kept up with for most of my life.

My spoiled life plus being surrounded by the "cool" kids my whole life really put me in a shitty positions going into high school. I mean don't get me wrong, I did like cheerleading and such, but some of the people I was surrounded by 24/7 were just so horrible. Like, texting during the entirety of the principle's speech kind of horrible.

I remember in freshman year I came in looking for nice friends and I did find a few. I used to be really close to Amy Rose. She was a nice girl, and so were all of her friends. Annoying at times, but nice. And above all, a real friend. But towards the middle of sophomore year, all of the upperclassmen had fallen in love with me and encapsulated my entire life. I thought they were so cool originally and dumped my other friends at the drop of a hat.

I still can't believe I did that. I played the ultimate bitch card that day.

It also was both awesome and horrible that my parents were pretty nonchalant about everything. They left me home alone so much in our mansion that it became the central party zone for my 'friends'. I mean I liked that people liked me, even just for the free alc, but sometimes it got old. Especially when my mom's parting words were always, "Just please don't get arrested. And don't leave the house a mess." Not exactly strict. I still feared getting in trouble, and I always cleaned up the house, but I knew deep down they wouldn't really care as long as I was alive and doing well with my academics. And my friends LOVED my parents. The boys all called my mom a MILF, which often made me uncomfortable. But she was a beautiful brown bat with naturally large boobs that I had inherited and gorgeous blue eyes. When I was little I wanted to look just like her. And for the most part, my wish came true. My dad was a grey bat with piercing teal eyes. I had inherited those.

Back to reality…

I had hoped none of them saw my face. I immediately ran into the closest girl's bathroom, which luckily enough for me was in the sophomore wing. I closed myself into a stall and wept silently. I wept for my mom, and I wept for how sad I was. I wanted nothing more than to go home and watch movies with my mom and dad. I did not want to hold up a face in public that was not me. I wanted so badly to meet a nice guy that wasn't a douchebag and would treat me right and go on nice dates and nice friends to hang out with after school. I hated being labeled one of the "cool kids".

But I wouldn't change it.

I couldn't.

I wasn't brave enough.

I hated movies and books about so called "uncool" kids making their way in the world, or "popular" kids that were miraculously able to defy social norms and do "uncool" things and have everyone love them for it. Ridiculous lies.

The tears started to fall faster, and I knew I had to pull it together before gym class. I couldn't let anyone see me like this.

I also hated that that was how I felt.

Knuckle's POV

I saw her. I didn't know if anyone else did, but I sure as hell saw her. She ran to the bathroom with near waterfalls running down her face. Part of me cared, but part of me also thought she was being a dramatic bitch looking for attention. Then again, if she had been looking for attention she probably would have made her sobs more obvious.

I shook my head and moseyed around the hall while the crowd thinned out to wait for her. Every molecule in me wanted to just make sure she was okay.

It took her a few minutes, but eventually she came out looking normal as ever. However, a close eye would see the slight rosiness in her cheeks from the crying. Try as she might, she wouldn't fool me.

She looked surprised to see me.

"And what can I help you with?" She said haughtily.

I growled slightly, "Nothing, just wanted to make sure you were okay. But guess you're just fine, my mistake."

I turned and began to walk towards the cafeteria. One quick glance over my shoulder caught her looking at her hands as if nothing was wrong.

Fucking bitch. I didn't understand why I cared so much on the inside.

But damn, did I care. And it was eating at me slowly day by day.

I really needed to quit trying.

Kairy's POV

It wasn't until lunch that I realized I had yet to talk to Blaze, Silver or Marine. I remembered this when I walked into the cafeteria to see Marine in line but the other two nowhere to be found. I left Tikal, Amy and Cosmo to see the raccoon.

"Hey Marine! What's up?" I started as I cut the line to stand with her.

"Hey mate, not much. How was the rest of your weekend?" She said without looking at me. The normal enthusiasm was absent from her voice.

"I'm fine, but I was concerned about you guys. Where are Silver and Blaze?" I prodded. I wasn't about to let her skirt passed the elephant in the room.

She sighed and made eye contact with me, "They're okay. Silver's self-esteem is currently non-existent after having been at least kind of visible and Blaze is his counselor. They're in school, but avoidin' everyone if possible. That's why they didn't come to lunch. But please don't worry 'bout it, this isn't the first time somethin' like this has happened. Sonic can be a douche, and Silver can be a wimp. It's just the nature of things."

I appreciated her short explanation. I figured that Silver and Blaze would do their best to avoid rather than address because of the silver hedgehog's confidence problems. I really wanted to know what happed to cause the fight, but I didn't want to keep asking questions to risk sounding annoying.

I caught Marine up on what she missed at Espio's and I told her how much I enjoyed their company. She smiled and said that they're awesome people and to keep hanging out with them since they don't tend to attract drama. They're just mega chill. I also mentioned that I saw Shard kiss Nicole on the cheek when we were leaving.

Marine laughed, "Aw now ain't that cute. I'm not surprised, those two have been close for forever. You always gotta watch for that. A boy and a girl that hang out forever and ever and are the best of friends a lot of times end up developin'…the feelings!" She whispered the last part and we both burst out in a fit of giggles. She was really funny. But I also wondered if she was being facetious…seeing as that philosophy could easily be applied to a few other pairs.

We continued through the line, grabbed our slices of pizza and head over to where our other friends were sitting. The remainder of lunch went by without a problem, until I let my eyes wander the cafeteria and they connected with a pair of piercing red eyes for a split second.

He glared and stood up from his seat to leave the cafeteria. I was sick of him pulling this bullshit, hating-me-for-no-reason act. I scowled and threw the remainder of my lunch in the trash to go after him and confront him for being an ass.

Tikal grabbed my wrist before I could leave the table, "Kairy what are you doing?" She asked. I growled, "I'm done with Shadow's crap. I want to know why he is such an ass to me."

Amy laughed, "Kairy, he's like that to everyone. It's really not worth it. He seriously is like that towards everyone in this building. Probably everyone in life." She got lost in her own thoughts.

I breathed and sat down again. He wasn't worth my anger.

But I was still really curious. I would have to figure it out at some point if I was ever going to rest easy.

HI EVERYONE!

Look at me, updating and stuff. How neat!

As usual, if you're reading this, I 3 you. Majorly.

Please leave a review if possible! I love any and all feedback.

I will try my absolute hardest to update again ASAP.

Thanks again for reading, you are a wonderful human.

~K