Oops, I forgot to put an A/N on the last chapter. Well, today Stacey goes to a party! What will happen? Looooooots of talking. It's to help you get to know the characters!
Chapter 3: The Summer Party
"Stacey, can you take this punch and take it to the snack table?"
"Sure."
"Ack! Can someone help me with the streamers?"
"On it!"
"We need more popcorn!"
"I'm popping it as fast as it will pop!"
Such were the noises that were heard at my house the evening of the dreaded summer party.
I was rushing around trying to help everyone at once, which were Mom, Dad, and Uncle Tails. Nebula was going to arrive with Knuckles, Shade, and their kids.
"Do we even need streamers?" I asked as they started to tangle me up.
"They look nice!" Mom called from the kitchen where she was making popcorn.
"They cause more mess than they're worth!" I shot back.
"Everybody duck!" Dad screamed as all the streamers we had so pain-stakeingly hung up came crashing down.
"Maybe we can skip the streamers," Uncle Tails suggested.
Half an hour of preparation later, I heard the first knock on the door.
"I got it!" Dad yelled from the other room.
Within two seconds he was at the door and opening it.
"Welcome to our humble abode," Dad greeted with fake humility.
A silvery hedgehog with high-tech looking shoes and gloves and a small crown perched on his head entered first. I immediately recognized him as Silver, the time traveling hedgehog Dad told me about, because of the crown. Dad said that Silver had married Blaze, the princess of the Sol Dimension, and in doing so became king.
Next to walk in was a light purple cat wearing an expensive looking coat and a small crown of her own. Her crown told me that she must be Blaze.
Lastly, a darkish gray fox with a tiny tiara hopped in. She had a dress which looked like it may have been very long at one point but had been torn off closer to the knees, no shoes, and a most peculiar cyan triangle perched on her forehead, pointy side down. I knew she was probably Pepper, Silver and Blaze's daughter.
"Nice place you got here," Silver remarked.
"I was forced to work against my own will, just to get this party ready," I moaned dramatically.
Uncle Tails chuckled and said, "Well, I believe you weren't the only one forced to do labor here."
"You come early, you help with the party," Dad said. "It's common sense."
"Well, it must not be all that common if Tails didn't know it," Silver joked.
Everyone laughed. Silver, Dad, and Uncle Tails went off to do something, and Mom and Blaze started talking, so that left Pepper and I standing in the entryway.
"Sooooo… is it fun being a princess?" I asked.
"Nope," Pepper answered, as if it were a fact that everyone knew.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, everyone coodles and coddles you, but they never do what you actually want," she explained. " 'Don't cliff dive out of the highest tower, Pepper!', 'Where are you going with that flamethrower, Pepper!', 'What did you do to your hair, Pepper!'."
"What did you do to your hair?" I wondered.
"Well," she said, flipping her head back and turning a bit so that I could see her hair.
It was a monstrous hair-cut, with clumps of hair sticking out at odd angles ending at about an inch above her shoulders.
"Wow." I gaped. "That's even worse than my quills and that's saying something. Not to be offensive or anything."
"Oh, I don't mind," Pepper replied. "I didn't like how long it was before, and I knew I could have a royal barber or someone cut it for me, but I kinda knew that they wouldn't do it right. So, I did it myself. And I know it looks horrible. I only get reminded about fifty times a day by the royal nurses and such."
"Sounds… exciting?" I said, not really sure what to say.
"Maybe to you, but it's pretty normal to me," Pepper stated.
Then we stared at each other in silence for a minute. It was awkward.
Thankfully, someone else knocked on the door.
Both Pepper and I stepped forward to open the door. We "fought" over the doorknob for a second before I emerged victorious and swung the door open.
There were two bunnies, one wearing an orange dress and holding a heroic chao, and one wearing a jacket with the sleeves rolled up and holding a chao of a type I've never seen before with two more of the same kind circling her head.
"Hello! You must be Stacey and Pepper," the bunny with the heroic chao said. "I'm Cream, and this is Cinnamon."
"Hi," Cinnamon grunted.
"We've heard so much about you guys from Tails and Nebula," Cream continued.
"They visit a lot," Cinnamon added.
"We like to take care of chao," Cream said. "Cinnamon has even bred a whole new species!"
"There are only three of them in the world. I call them heroic neutral chao," Cinnamon explained.
She showed us the chao she was holding. It had butterfly wings like a neutral chao, but they were yellow instead of pink, and it had the eyes and head thingy of a heroic chao, but its pupils were blue instead of white. It also had a yellow circle on its chest.
"This one is named Crumbs," Cinnamon said.
"Cool," I said.
"Isn't chao breeding boring though?" Pepper asked. "It would take forever to get the chao to have an egg, and then you have to wait for it to hatch."
"It's a skill that requires patience," Cinnamon replied, "which I guess you don't have."
Then Pepper and Cinnamon started a glaring contest, which is like a staring contest, except you're glaring at each other.
"Erm, Mom and Blaze are over there," I told Cream, pointing in a vague direction.
I didn't actually know or care where they were, but I knew the general area.
"Oh, thank you," Cream said, walking off and leaving me to deal with Pepper and Cinnamon.
"There are snacks in the kitchen," I said. "And punch."
They ignored me, so I shrugged and walked off to get a bag of chips.
As I was returning, I decided to "take the scenic route", A.K.A., take the long way. I was passing the stairway leading upstairs when I heard all the "dads" talking. I stopped and pricked my ears to listen.
"Do you think Shadow's coming?" I heard one of them whisper.
"I asked, but… ."
"What?"
"He didn't seem very enthusiastic about it."
"That sounds… like him."
I had never met Shadow. Dad talked about him sometimes… but not anymore. I don't know why he stopped. Actually, that sounds really suspicious. I pricked my ears some more.
"And also, I could tell he was being secretive about something."
"What?"
"I don't know… maybe he knows where Rouge went?"
"Wasn't she in jail?"
"Knowing her, she's probably gotten out."
"But if it wasn't her, what would it be?"
"...I don't know."
I hadn't met Rouge either, but apparently she was some jewel thief. I wasn't really surprised that she got in jail, but her escaping from it didn't sound good. Suddenly, I heard a very loud sound.
It was the sound of the front door slamming open and a bunch of voices shouting.
I quickly ran into the livingroom and saw a bunch of small echidnas either standing around like they didn't know what they were supposed to do or climbing on the couches.
"Please take your sandals off before standing on the couch!" I heard Nebula shout.
She was standing in the doorway holding the hands of a red echidna and a pink echidna.
An orangish brownish echidna hopped from the couch and started unlatching their sandals, but the rest didn't listen.
"Sandals off!" Someone roared.
Immediately, most of the echidnas sat down to take off their shoes. A pink echidna wearing a black headband with a purple insignia of some sort and metal in her quills walked over to the remaining echidnas and glared.
"Listen to your mother," an orange echidna wearing a lot of jewelry and a skirt with a complicated pattern said.
"That's Shade," Nebula told me, pointing to the one with the headband, "and that other one is their Aunt Tikal."
"Wait, are they related?" I asked.
"No, but Tikal is basically an aunt to them," Nebula explained.
"Nebula, you can let the kids go," someone said, walking over. (Nebula was still holding the hands of two echidnas.)
This someone was either a red echidna with pink spots, or a pink echidna with red spots. Probably red with pink spots. Maybe. Anyway, they were a girl and had purple eyes and a white star on their forehead. She wore a light blue T-shirt, a leather skirt, and sandals which looked like they were made out of metal.
"Nice sandals," I said.
"My mother gave them to me," she replied.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce you guys!" Nebula exclaimed. "Stacey, this is my friend Star. Star, this is my cousin Stacey."
"Hi," I said.
"Nice to meet you," Star replied. "Seriously, Nebula, you don't have to hold those kids' hands the whole time."
"OK. I'm going to go talk to Cinnamon," Nebula told us.
She walked off.
"Soooo… you and Nebula are friends?" I asked.
"She kinda told you that already," Star replied.
"Yeah. Um. Is it nice having a lot of siblings?" I asked.
"No," Star replied, as though it were common sense.
"Oh. Well, why not?"
"Because they're so annoying. Like you're being right now."
I took the not-so subtle hint and turned to walk off.
"Did you see them?" Cinnamon asked, coming over with a heroic neutral chao in her arms.
"See what?" I wondered.
"The echidnas! They glided right out of the sky," Cinnamon explained.
"It was epic!" Pepper cried, having come over.
"Wow!" I exclaimed.
"Yep, that's what they do," Dad said.
I flinched a little, as I hadn't noticed him coming.
"Snuck up on you, did I?" Dad asked.
"Nah," I replied. "Totally all this noise."
"So, how do you like the echidnas so far?" Dad asked.
"Hey, Cinnamon!" Nebula called, causing Pepper and the bunny to walk over to her.
"There's so many!" I told Dad.
"Yep," Dad agreed. "Knuckles told me why once, but I didn't really get it. Something about echidnas and eggs."
"I've already talked to Star a little," I said, not mentioning that I thought she was a bit of a jerk.
"Ah, Star," Dad said. "She's a cool kid. She's to be the next Guardian of the Master Emerald."
"Mhm," I mhmed.
Dad walked off to talk with someone else, and the echidna who Nebula had introduced as Tikal came over.
"You must be Stacy," she said brightly. "Nebula told me about you."
"Yeah," I replied.
"How has your day been?" Tikal asked.
"Good enough," I answered.
"It must be hard, not knowing anyone," Tikal said sympathetically.
"Mom and Dad don't invite visitors very often," I replied.
"I hope that's not too boring?" She asked.
"No, I'm usually the one against people coming over," I answered.
"Oh. Why is that?" Tikal wondered.
I froze. I had given away too much information. She must not find out. She must not find out.
Thankfully, I was saved by a little echidna tackling Tikal while shouting, "Auntie Tikal! Auntie Tikal!"
Of course, I took the opportunity to slink off.
And promptly bumped into Silver and an adult red echidna.
"Whoa there!" Silver said.
"Sorry," I apologized.
"Oh, Knuckles, this is Stacey, Sonic and Amy's daughter," Silver explained. "Stacy, this is Knuckles, all those echidnas' dad."
"Hello," I said.
"Hi," Knuckles greeted me gruffly.
"What's it like on Angel Island?" I asked.
"You're not allowed up there, so don't get any ideas," he snarled.
"Sorry."
"Knuckles is a bit… protective of the Master Emerald," Silver explained.
"Cool," I commented.
Then we stood there for a minute, staring at each other awkwardly.
"Bye," I said, walking off.
I ducked into the kitchen and grabbed a bag of chips.
"Are those flaming hot chilidog doritos?" someone asked.
I looked down to see a dullish red echidna staring at my chip bag in awe.
"Can I try one?" they asked. "Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease? Mother and Father never let me try them!"
"Uh, here, have the whole bag," I said awkwardly, the kid's enthusiasm pressuring me until I couldn't just say no.
"Thanks so much, you're my new favorite!" they gushed.
As they turned and ran out of the room, I yelled after them, "Don't let your mom or dad see you with them!"
"Stacey, was it?"
I spun around, and there behind me stood a black hedgehog. I didn't recognize him at all, and he was just standing in my house. Now that's creepy.
"H-how do you know my name?" I stammered.
He just gave me one of those soul-piercing looks.
"Who are y-you?" I asked.
"Shadow," he answered.
"Wait- you're him?" I asked. "Wow! Um- just- wow!"
He raised his eyebrows at me.
I couldn't believe it! Shadow, the guy that Mom and Dad and even Uncle Tails won't talk about!
"Do you want some chips?" I asked in a desperate attempt to be cool.
I think I failed, judging by his unimpressed expression.
"Or, I could get Sonic, my dad," I said.
"The moon is rising," Shadow said.
And now that I thought about it, I could feel the subtle itching that occurred before transformation.
"Oh, uh, I gotta go," I said.
I ditched the kitchen and ran for my room.
Once safely inside, I collapsed on my bed.
Who was that guy? How did he know my name? Why did he mention the moon?
My eyes widened.
Does he know my secret?
…
Surely it's just a coincidence, right?
Suddenly, pain streaked through my body.
My fur thickened and grew ragged, my claws, which normally were more like fingernails, lengthened and sharpened, and my eyes slitted like a cat while giving me night-vision.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
A little echidna girl screamed in terror. Apparently, the snoop had found it a good idea to peek into my room.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"
I may have momentarily screamed back.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Tikal was close enough to try to see what was going on. She also screamed.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"
I screamed as I jumped out the window.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The voice of the little echidna girl faded as I ran.
My secret is out
I could only focus on one thing as I raced through the forest.
My secret is out
Tears streamed down my face.
My secret is out
A bat fluttered overhead.
My secret is out
What was going to happen to me…?
Short answer? A lot.
This concludes the chapters I already have written. And I'm going on an almost week-long camping trip, so the next update will be a while :P
In the meantime, I have a question.
What do you think of Stacey? I'm trying my best to not make her a Mary Sue, but I don't know if I'm succeeding ^^'