Part 6: how opposites meet - a Shadilver story
The gang laughed as they quickly got on their motorcycles and drove off. Leaving behind a cloud of dust and smoke from their engines.
Silver laid down their books looking very pale and nauseous. 'What the hell was going on, why do bad things always need to happen to me.' Feeling disgusted by the dark gang's conversation the ivory hedgehog didn't feel much for reading anymore.
After they put back the books and put all their stuff into their backpack, Silver made their way out of the building. 'At least those guys are gone now, I should be really careful around them. Maybe they were just joking around but I don't know for sure. And that Scourge guy, Ugh!' Just thinking about it made a shiver run down their spine. 'I wish I hadn't heard them talk about me, but at least now I know what they're thinking and could be up to.'
Their body felt tired from the whole day and all the new impressions. It started to get a bit darker outside while they made their way back home. It was a soft summer evening, a light breeze made cleared their head. Thirty minutes later Silver was home again and they fell down on their mattress exhausted and pulled off their jeans jacket.
"Hi there, Nibbles,' Silver greeted their calico cat, who had been napping on their mattress. Silver stroked the cat's soft fur and the cat started to pur. "So how was your day on the streets?" the hedgehog asked. The cat meowed pleasantly, "Yeah, was it all good for you today?" Nibbles meowed again. "That's good to know, my day was just really weird." Silver went silent thinking about their day at school and sighed deeply.
Silver heard a pair of paws approaching them and looked over their shoulder. "Ms Prume and Princess Piddle Paws," The ivory hedgehog smiled happily while being greeted by their two felines. They both got on the mattress and curled up against Silver, "Have you two seen Meowrits? Or is he out with the other ladies?" Silver joked while stretching and yawning.
Silver pulled their backpack towards the mattress and took out their little plush 'Bunny Bun'. Silver hugged it tight and curled up in a ball on the mattress. "Oef I am just so tired from today." Silver's eyes were getting heavy and laid a hand on the nearest cat which was Princes Piddle Paws. The hedgehog slowly stroked her fur and closed their eyes as they drifted off to sleep.
Silver had a restless sleep, their body shivered as they mumbled silently and you could see their eyes twitch underneath their eyelids.
All of a sudden Silver's eyes shot open as a gasp escaped their mouth. Ms. Prume, Nibbles and Princess Piddle Paws hissed loudly as they were so roughly disturbed from their sleep. "Oh I'm sorry guys, it was just a bad dream," The cats quickly flew away, out of sight. The ivory hedgehog sighed and wiped the little drops of sweat from their forehead. "Why does it have to be like this every morning." Silver grumped.
Silver grabbed their jeans jacket and took out their cracked phone to check the time. Pressing the buttons, but nothing happened. "DAMNIT I forgot to charge it yesterday!" Silver quickly stood up and put on the jeans jacket, "Probably no time for breakfast today." Taking their charger, backpack and gym cloths the ivory hedgehog ran off to the street corner where Tails and Silver always met in the morning. On their way Silver passed a church tower with a clock on it. 'Shit it's 8.37 already! Our class will start at 9 hopefully I can still make it on time!' Silver sprinted as fast as they could, 'Hopefully Tails hasn't left for school already by the time I get there.'
Silver almost bumped into Tails but dodged him just in time and instead crashed into a trash can and fell down. "Ouch! That's gotta hurt, are you alright Silver?" Tails quickly walked over to help their friend up.
"What's the time!? We can't come in late,"
"It's 8.50 we only have 10 minutes before we have to be into class with our gym cloths on!" Silver quickly stood up and grabbed Tails' wrist to drag him along to get to the building in time. When they got in Silver quickly went to the unisex toilet to get changed.
Shadow stood between the boys and the girls entrance to the dressing rooms. Tails came over and wanted to enter the boys changing room but the ebony hedgehog was holding the door. Tails looked up at him. "Can you please let me trough? I don't want to be late."
"Where is your Silvery friend?" he only asked.
"Silver will be here in a bit, why?" Tails spoke a bit challenging.
"Nothing," he removed his hand to let Tails pass.
The coach popped out his head out of his office, "Shadow! GET CHANGED!" he shouted as he saw Shadow hanging around by the doors. Shadow rolled his eyes and went into the boys changing room the moment Silver turned up in the hallway. "Look at that you're already changed, come in," the coach said when he noticed Silver. Shadow turned around quickly to spot Silver in oversized gym cloths and with their two back quills tied together in a low ponytail. Shadow sighed as he was hoping to find out which changing room Silver would be using, but with that ponytail… surely it must be a girl.
The coach let Silver pass through his office and Silver put their backpack away in the office. They entered the gym where some students were already forming a line in the middle of the big gym.
"Morning Sonic," Silver greeted him as they were happy to see a familiar face.
"Hi there, good to see you again," the azure hedgehog winked at Silver.
Tails entered the gym and quickly stood next to his ivory friend.
All the students were now standing in line and the coach stood in front of them. "After 6 weeks of doing nothing but sitting on your lazy asses it's time to start sweating."
"YES COACH!" All the students replied while saluting. Silver and Tails looked questioning at each other, as they thought this was just gym class, not the army.
The coach gave the two a stern look.
"Just play along," Sonic whispered. "This guy is nuts."
"YES COACH!" They both yelled and saluted.
"That's better!" The coach said while nodding in approval. "This year I will make you sweat, yell out in pain and whine like little baby's." The coach yelled as he was pacing in front of the students. Silver and Tails gulped nervously. "Today we're going to test your speed, by doing a beep test."
Many students sighed and moaned as it was still early in the morning and the beep test was just exhausting.
"Yes! I love the beep test!" Sonic said with euphoria.
They all formed a new line against the wall. "Will you be beating me this time Shadow?" Sonic grinned over at ebony hedgehog.
"As always faker," Shadow replied with an evil smirk.
"So the rules are! Run to the other side of the room before the beep, every time the interval between the beeps will get shorter so you have to be faster. Do not hinder your classmates and if you miss three beeps in a row, you're out. UNDERSTOOD?"
"YES COACH!" they all yelled in sync.
"Ready! Get set! GO!'
It started out pretty easy as you could reach the other side and just wait for the beep to run over to the other side. But after a few minutes the time between beeps got shorter and you had to be quick to get to the other side. Only Sonic and shadow weren't struggling at all. They both turned into a blur and just stood still for a moment when they reached the opposite side.
"I-I can't t-take it much longer," Tails started to pant as he already missed two beeps.
"N-neither can I," Silver said and wiped away the sweat forming on their forehead.
"AND YOU'RE OUT!" The coach yelled as Tails missed his third beep. Tails left the group and went to the wooden benches against the wall to rest.
"AND YOU'RE OUT!" The coach quickly followed as Silver also missed a third beep. What the coach didn't need to know was that Silver missed the beeps on purpose. The ivory hedgehog quickly went over to Tails and dropped down on the bench next to him.
"How can they all keep up like that," Tails started to complain.
"Well don't forget they are all like 3 years older than us and they have much longer legs."
"Yeah that's true," Tails said as he felt better about himself already. "But the speed of Sonic and Shadow, that's just unnatural."
It didn't take too long before all their classmates were sitting next to them on the bench just watching as a blue and a black blur just went left and right. It was like the students were watching a tennis match where the speed was a hundredfold. Silver got a bit dizzy and stopped looking at this point. Silver released their pony tail and fiddled with the hair tie while staring off into space.
All of a sudden the hair tie flew through the air. Out of reflex Silver got up to go after the tie and pick it up when they suddenly spotted a black and red blur out of the corner of their eye. Silver's eye widened in shock as Shadow crashed into the ivory youngster hard. They both tumbled in a blur of black and snowy white, smashed against the wall and slid to the ground.
Silver moaned in pain while rubbing their head and slowly opened their eyes. The eyes of the ivory hedgehog shot open quickly as noticing their face was near the ebony hedgehog's crotch, their cheeks turned a bright pink as he looked up at Shadows face, his eyes shot fire at the youngster. Silver quickly backed away to get as far away from this dark figure as possible. "S-s-so s-s-o s-s-orr-y-y," Silver mumbled as their ears dropped down from seeing the angry look on Shadows face.
"Haha, looks like I've won!" Sonic said happily.
"That ain't fair," Shadow growled as he got up and rubbed his back. "You only won because that idiot got in my way!" Shadow spoke as he pointed over at Silver still sitting on the floor.
Tails quickly came over to Silver, "Are you okay?" Silver nodded slowly.
"Now come on, it's just a kid," Sonic said protecting Silver. He walked over and bent down on one knee. "Are you okay buddy?" Sonic asked softly, Silver's body was shocking and shivering as tears of fear came to their eyes.
"I-i I-i'm s-s-orr-y, I didn't m-mean t-t-o," the ivory youngster stuttered.
"Hey come on, it's not your fault, accidents happen," Sonic said kindly and wiped away one of Silver's tears. "Come on," he held out a hand for Silver to hold onto as Sonic pulled them up on their feet.
"What do you mean! Not their fault!" Shadow yelled, "It seems clear to me that this was indeed their fault!"
"Calm down, do you really think Silver did this on purpose!"
"Get back in line!" The coach cut them off before it could get out of hand.
Everybody formed a line, Silver was limping a bit.
"Silver go get yourself checked out at the nurse's office."
"Y-yes coach," Silver said softly as they went through the coach's office and got their backpack. 'Why out of all the people, did I have to make Shadow crash like that,' Silver sighed and just felt miserable.
Tails just felt so bad for his friend when he saw Silver walking out with hanging shoulders and dropped ears.