Chapter 2 - First Day Back

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Shadow came to a stop in front of Emerald High School. The high school was the only one in the village, but it was a good one. It was made of stone, which had started to crack a little in some places, and several smaller buildings worked together to make up the school. Our five friends walked in and went to their lockers, which were all in the same corridor. Suddenly, Sonic stopped walking and yelled, "Dangit!"

"What is it?" Tails asked. "Did you forget something?"

"*sigh* Yeah. I had to pass on a message from my mum to yours, but I forgot somehow," Sonic replied.

"Give me the message. I'll tell her when I get home," Tails said loyally. He would do just about anything to help his friends.

"Okay. It went something like this: Apparently, my mum borrowed a book from your mum. She's taking a while to read it and she'll have to return it later than she expected to."

Tails started to answer, but before he could, a familiar voice came from next to them. "What was the book called, losers? Was it by any chance 'How To Deal With Your Kids Being Freaks' or something?"

Everyone in our group of friends turned to where the mean voice was coming from. Their fears were confirmed - Lightning Cloud was standing against a locker, smirking. Like the majority of Emerald Village's residents, Lightning was a hedgehog, around the same age as Sonic and Shadow. He was a bright yellow, with a tan skin colour in the typical hedgehog areas and a single, jet-black streak that ran along his top spine and stopped around his forehead. On the topic of spines, Lightning's pointed straight backwards, a little like Shadow's spines but a lot straighter. His eyes were an extremely dark shade of blue, almost going into a purple-indigo colour. Lightning slightly bent the rules of Mobian society, wearing a black leather jacket, but nothing much else. He followed the white gloves trend, like almost everyone, and his shoes were jet black with bright red laces. Now, you could be forgiven for thinking that Lightning seemed like a cool guy. But don't let looks fool you, because he was a first-class bully, determined to seek out anyone who had even the slightest flaw, the tiniest bit of disrespect for him, or a single sign of being better than him in some way or other, then mercilessly torture them. He had gained the fearful respect of nearly all the hundred and twenty or so students in the school, and seemed to have an unexplained grudge against the five. Although a well-timed comeback could leave him stuttering, nothing and no one could divert him from a target - except for another potential victim.

"You know, Lightning, you could use a book like that. Shame nobody in your family can read," Amy snapped.

This comment didn't seem to affect Lightning. He simply shot back, "So in all those years of your sister and my sister hanging out, you've never seen Rainbow with a magazine before?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "First of all, there are lots of pictures in those things. And second, the only reason she has good grades is because Amanda does her homework for her."

Lightning's eyes narrowed. "Big deal. Besides, that wasn't much of a comeback. Does anyone here know how to say stuff back? You pathetic losers make this too easy. Um, anybody who has a decent response, please report to the front desk."

Shadow suddenly stepped forwards. His friends were somewhat confused - Shadow rarely got involved in small verbal fights like these. He growled without even the slightest trace of sarcasm, "I have something for you. As you would have known if you weren't stupid, I have a gun and permission to fire when provoked. I'm planning on doing research. Do you by any chance know how much aggression can be shown before it reaches the point at which fighting back in a potentially fatal way is legal?"

The colour drained from Lightning's face. Trying to look brave, he stuttered, "You… you wouldn't. You wouldn't dare. You're too chicken. I bet you don't… you don't even know how to use… how to use… a g-gun… I'll get the… the cops onto you…"

Shadow smiled slightly, appearing satisfied. He turned back and kept walking. His friends followed him. Lightning just mumbled random things about 'firearms' and 'chicken' and 'illegal' and 'police' and 'jail'. He was definitely scared.

"So, do you actually have a gun? And are you seriously allowed to use it without messing up the law and stuff?" Knuckles asked. "And were you serious about the research, or do you already know how much someone needs to make you angry for you to be allowed to shoot them? Hey, when me and Sonic were arguing, and you freaked out, were you allowed to fire on us? Wow, I'm never arguing again if you were. Or do you need to get attacked with violence? I'm gonna start throwing paper planes with messages on them at your house. I need to ask so many questions. If I'm annoying you right now, does the law let you put bullets in my face? Wait, if Lightning was stupid to not know that you had a gun, are we stupid?"

Shadow's eye twitched a little, like it always did when he was annoyed. He took a deep breath and then very quickly answered all of Knuckles' questions. "Yes I have a gun it's currently at home I do have legal permission to use it but only in extreme cases I'm only allowed to use it if somebody's seriously trying to kill me lucky for us Lightning doesn't know anything about gun laws I wasn't allowed to shoot you when you and Sonic were arguing this morning and even if I was I wouldn't have done anything I was too busy getting over the fact that you were having an argument about baby food you're not going to throw questions at my house unless you feel no need to sleep peacefully at night without fearing that the guy next door is going to use that gun despite the law and I haven't told you four about the gun up until now so you aren't stupid I was just messing with Lightning's single brain cell." After saying this, Shadow breathed in very quickly to avoid accidentally suffocating himself.

Knuckles blinked, then nodded. Just as he did this, Sonic asked, "So, will we meet at the basketball courts as usual?"

"Okay," said Amy, answering the question for everyone. Barely a second after she did this, the bell rang for the start of the school day, practically giving Tails a heart attack and cutting off any more questions Knuckles may have been about to ask. The friends simultaneously looked at their schedules, which were sticky-taped to their lockers. Sonic, Tails and Shadow were starting the term with English, and Knuckles and Amy had to go to Science. The friends went off to their classes, waving at each other as they moved away.

As Sonic, Tails and Shadow walked into their English class, they were met by the usual sight - a few of the school's twenty or so Year 10 students sitting down, one or two looking for a good seat, half a million words written on the whiteboard and their teacher, Miss Rabbit, standing at the front of the room in her typical long, purple dress. About half the class was already there, sitting in various positions. Tails found three seats reasonably close to the back of the room – jackpot! He motioned for Sonic and Shadow to come sit with him. However, just as the three friends took their seats, an all-too-familiar face appeared once again.

"I think you might have sat in my seat by mistake."

Lightning was there again, being a complete jerk as usual. Sonic looked up and said, "I don't see your name on it."

Tails stifled a laugh. Lightning could be taken down by the simplest and most overused comebacks sometimes. The bully growled in a hostile way. He was about to tighten a hand on Sonic's shoulder when Miss Rabbit interfered. "Lightning, what are you doing?"

For a split second Lightning hesitated, then answered, "He took my seat!"

Miss Rabbit told him sternly, "I think that if this seat really was yours, you most likely would have set out your things already. Sonic, Shadow and Miles can sit where they like in my class. Why don't you come and take this nice seat at the front?"

Lightning made a weird noise like he was going to put his hands around Miss Rabbit's neck, then resisted the urge to kill his teacher and, grumbling angrily, sat down at the desk she had pointed to. Shadow asked his friends quietly, "Should we be happy that we got rid of Lightning, or scared because now we're screwed at recess?"

Tails thought for a while, then replied, "Does that toy sword thing that Sonic's little brother bruised my leg with that one time count as a weapon? Because I think I know someone who has one we could borrow if we need to avoid being torn apart."

Meanwhile, in Science, Knuckles and Amy were at least going a little better. The teacher Dr. Fukurokov, an old owl with glasses, a white beard, an unpronounceable surname and a very short temper, waited for the Year 7 class to settle down. Everyone in the class sat down at two-person labs, ready to mix together chemicals with potentially explosive results. Just as the last seat had been taken, Dr. F told the class, "Alright, everyone. I have all your names written down on pieces of paper, which I've got in this thing." At this point, he held up a mug saying 'Complex Science for Remaining Period of Fitting the Official Definition of Alive' on the side. "I'll take out two names at a time, and those two will be in a pair at the lab I tell them to. There will be NO swapping unless commanded by me."

The class groaned. There was only one thing they all agreed on - random choice was evil. Ignoring his students, Dr. F pulled out two bits of paper. "And at this lab here, we will have… Espio and Mighty. Over here… Charmy and Saffron. At this one…"

So far, everyone picked had been lucky. Espio and Mighty were close friends, and Charmy and Saffron were going out. More and more students were partnered up. "Honey and Mina. Azura and Misty. Knuckles and… uh… this one is kind of hard to read… Anny? No, we don't have an Anny. Hang on… Knuckles and Amy!"

Knuckles and Amy high-fived each other excitedly, then raced to their lab. The day was starting off well for them.

The lessons went by. Sonic, Shadow and Tails handed up their first worksheets. Naturally, Tails got 100% and an A+. Sonic managed to get most of his answers right, and Shadow just about got the C he needed to pass the test. Knuckles and Amy made it through their first experiment, avoiding any smashed glass beakers and getting a decent mark as well. Time ticked on. Eventually, the bell for recess rung, freeing everybody. Our friends raced to the basketball court where they usually met up.

"You guys sure took your time," Knuckles pointed out.

"Well, we ended the previous lesson on the other side of the school. On the other hand, you and Amy came out of the History classroom just a short distance from where we stand now," Shadow explained with obvious annoyance.

Amy shuddered. "Ugh. Don't remind me. History is the absolute worst. Hey, where's Tails?"

"Oh, he went to the robotics club meeting or something you'd expect Tails to be a part of in the last lesson," Sonic said. "He said that he'd be waiting on the oval."

So the foursome walked to the grassy field where P.E. lessons were often held. While they were doing this, Knuckles asked, "Where the heck is everyone? I've seen… one, two, three… four - no, three other people on the way here. And the basketball court is usually packed."

Before any of his friends could come up with an answer, though, they saw something which seemed to be some kind of solution. Nearly every single student at Emerald High School was part of a massive crowd that seemed to all be watching some sort of massively important event. Somebody seemed to be saying a lot of stuff which was earning cheers from the group of onlookers. Sonic, Amy, Shadow and Knuckles pushed their way through to a position near the front of the crowd. The closer they got, the more they could hear. Nothing said sounded like anything that was going to end in happiness, cake and love. It was all mean comments: "Nerd… freak… weird friends…" The four heroes were worried - this was sounding like a nightmare they had experienced far too often. Despite their anxiety, they kept moving until they could see and hear everything. What they were met by confirmed their fears of the worst.

Lightning was doing another of his massive bully shows. And Tails was his chosen victim.