Anonymous Review Replies!

Serein; Well, I've taken half a year. Fair? :p

Belarus: Doing my best! And yeah, I do enjoy anime for their tropes and madness. It's a fun medium!

John: I do enjoy my cliffies. This chapter is actually a rare exception.

W1R3: Ooh man, yeah, I'm also always *extremely* wary of HighSchool AUs, but I also love taking an iffy premise and trying to turn it into something fun! :p And yeah, Sonic is likely to find out a few things about Shadow...let's see what he thinks of them! ;)

Lone Garurumon: Boy are they ever. XD That quote is a line from Knuckles in SonicX and a rare gem of a line in the franchise. :) The mongoose students were indeed Ash and Mina! I do love using side characters from other universes!

DEV: Aahahah, najaaa, also ich hab zumindest bisher keinen Chara außer Tails und Chris umgebracht...XD Mal schauen, inwiefern Shadow sich hier zurückhalten kann und ob es Konsequenzen haben wird.^^° Das Worldbuilding macht wie immer sehr viel Spaß, freut mich, dass auch die unschöneren Aspekte zumindest zur Atmosphäre beitragen :D Und ja, Shadow-neben-der-Spur ist glaube ich einer meiner drei Lieblingsarten ihn zu schreiben, und diese fic hier liefert schönerweise eine Vorlage nach der nächsten. XD Mal schauen, ob es laaaangsam etwas besser wird...^^° Vielen Dank für das wunderschöne Review mal wieder!

Tiredandlazy: Well, your wish might just be about to fulfilled...:P

MlpSonicFan: I am! Just busy, ahahah. Hope you like the new chapter!

ShadowFan: Sure thing!

Chapter 8: Fast Friends?

It had to be said that for the sheer amount of violence that happened, it was actually over fairly quickly.

Sonic blinked.

Storm the Albatross was now stuck in a tree, Jet had been knocked unconscious by Wave used as a bludgeon, the blue hawk had somehow been rammed headfirst into the sandpit, and the chicken, now currently running for the pool, had actually been set on fire.

"Oh," Sonic commented, staring. "Uh. Wow."

"What the hell!"

Shadow, panting more from satisfaction than exhaustion, whirled around. The last few moments had mostly happened in a slightly red-coloured haze, and now the world was slowly returning to normal.

It also contained a human man running toward them now, shouting. Sonic groaned.

"Great, now one of them shows up."

"Sonic the Hedgehog!" Mr Steward yelled. "What on Earth did you think you were doing?!" He reached them and immediately seized a surprised Sonic around the forearm, gesturing around at the Babylon Rogues draped over various landscape features. "Tossing your classmates about! Are you insane? You knew you were this close to getting expelled and now…!" he dragged his free hand down in his face, teeth bared in a grimace of both fury and frustration. "And now I have no choice but to – to…! God, why do you have to be so impulsive!"

"I…!" Sonic started, but then interrupted himself, for some reason his gaze briefly catching on Shadow's power rings. "I...the Babylon Rogues started it," he then firmly said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "They were physically attacking Shadow."

Mr Steward looked like he was gnashing his teeth, not actually noticing the expression briefly flitting over Shadow's face. "Sonic, we've been over this. You can't-"

"Wait. Why do you think it was him?"

Mr Steward glanced up, and even though Shadow didn't show it, he actually felt as surprised at his own words as the human currently looked. Sonic also turned his head, and though the blue hedgehog's expression was passive, there was...something in his eyes, a glint of curiosity.

Mr Steward sighed in irritation. "It's the Babylon Rogues looking like they were just hit by a spiked tornado. Unfortunately, Mr. Hedgehog has quite the record of this happening when he is just inconveniently around. Unfortunately, the consequences this time will be rather more severe."

"It was me."

Now finally Steward let go of Sonic's arm, blinking. "Excuse me?"

"It was me." Shadow crossed his arms, deliberately choosing not to look at Sonic's face as he said it. "I beat them up."

"You…?" Steward for the first time seemed to take him in fully. "You're new, right?" He frowned. "Chandelier the Hedgehog?"

"It's Shadow! Shadow Robotnik!" Shadow snapped, having the brief satisfaction of Steward at least flinching at his sudden outburst before he managed to get himself under control again. He pinched the skin above his snout.

"My name is Shadow. And I beat the Babylon Rogues up. They were threatening and assaulting me and I reacted accordingly."

" But - you're not registered with any powers," Steward squinted at him. Shadow stiffened.

"I…"

Sonic snorted. "Mr S, it's the Babylon Rogues. When they're not on their stupid hover boards, they're not actually that tough."

Steward raised an eye brow at Sonic. "Oh really now? And I assume Storm being registered as the second-strongest student at school-"

"Well, someone might've accidentally tripped him," Sonic replied glibly, looking at his fingertips, before turning his gaze back on Steward earnest again. "And besides, are you ignoring the entire rest here?" he gestured at their surroundings. "I'm telling you, they cornered Shadow, grabbed him, insulted him, punched him when he couldn't move and then kicked him to the floor. He was only fighting back. You can't punish him for that. And yeah, I tried to 'deescalate it verbally' before that," the blue hedgehog added, the words dripping with disdain. "Worked brilliantly, obviously."

Mr Steward gave Sonic a long look, for a moment looking like he was considering the situation from an angle that hadn't occurred to him before. Around them, the birds were also slowly starting to regain consciousness, groaning and weakly flopping on the ground. Then he seemed to come to a decision. He looked down at Shadow.

"Is that true?"

"I... yes. I may have gone a bit overboard with the retribution," Shadow conceded, (even if he privately felt he hadn't). "But yes. They attacked first, and without me actually having done anything to provoke them. And they did insult my species."

The human groaned then, and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'Chaos, not this speciesist shit again' but then cleared his throat and looked at them both.

"Right. But I'm sorry, even if I do believe you two, this is-"

"Mr S, you can believe us," Sonic cut him off. "I've got a temper but I ain't the lying type. You know that," he said, at the same time staring up at the human without blinking, his voice devoid of the jocularity Shadow had grown used to hearing from him. And, just for a moment, green eyes also flitted over to Shadow, Sonic adding more quietly, but with a definite satisfied smile riding on the words, "And I don't hang around with liars, either."

The human held eye contact with the blue hedgehog for one, two moments, the silence stretching, until finally...

"...oh, fine." the teacher huffed, slumping minutely and at the same time letting go of Shadow's arm. "I won't report this to the principal. Or the vice principal," he said pointedly when it seemed like Sonic was about to object to something. "But you'll still have to spend your lunch period at the office to fill out a report about this. That way, if Jet and his friends or their parents decide to make this matter into a case against you, you'll already have established a paper trail claiming they were at fault. That'll help end the matter before it gets any further."

"Okay. Thanks, Mr S. C'mon, Shads," Sonic gave the teacher a small smile, picked up his gym bag and nodded at Shadow to follow them. The Ultimate Lifeform looked at the strewn around bodies on the court yard and blinked.

"Uh...and what about...?"

"Eh, this is Station Square High. The nurse has seen worse." Sonic shrugged. Mr Steward shot him a pointed look.

"Though it would do you well to maybe emulate Shadow and show some concern for your hurt class mates. Nurse Blaze has been contacted. She and her team should be here any moment," the teacher said, nodding at Shadow. "You're lucky none of them seem to be seriously injured, or else I wouldn't be able to get this past the principal."

Shadow considered for a moment whether the answer 'they didn't deserve my full attention or else their spines would be broken' would gain him any brownie points here, decided that it didn't, and therefore merely inclined his head.

"I'll try not to let it happen again."

"Which is probably the best I can hope for from any of you lot," Mr Steward sighed, and then started walking again, the two hedgehogs falling into step behind him. Shadow thought he was also muttering something along the lines of 'friggin sapients and their crazy battles with their crazy powers, when it's humans fighting it's at least just bloody noses, jeezus.'

xxx

They were led through a corridor Shadow recognized as part of the administrative tract, and then finally shown into what looked like an empty secretarial office, dominated by a large writing desk and a long cupboard stuffed with paperwork behind it.

"Sit down," Mr Steward said, indicating two upholstered chairs behind a low coffee table that made up the rest of the furniture in the room. Sonic and Shadow let themselves plop into the dusty seats, while the blond teacher rummaged through the cupboard, first pulling out a slim manila folder that Shadow could recognize as labeled with his name and then-

"Umph!"

WOMPH.

"Lord."

...Mr Steward heaved another folder from the shelf, except this one was at least a foot thick and stuffed with so many post-its, letters, frayed extra papers, newspaper clippings and even something that weirdly looked like the cover of an edition of the Arthurian Legends peeking out. It was so heavy, Mr Steward barely managed to maneuver it onto the desk surface. To Shadow that folder looked like it was basically waiting for a reason to explode.

"Uh. Yeah. That's uh, that's my file," Sonic said, slightly sheepishly.

"...right."

"Okay," Mr Steward panted, opening a drawer and retrieving two sheets of paper that seemed to be a form of some sort, as well as two pens. He handed them to the hedgehogs.

"I'm going to get my sandwich. You start filling out these reports. Don't leave the room. And don't touch anything."

"No worries, we'll be good," Sonic reassured the frazzled teacher with a small wave as he closed the door behind him, then stretched, sighed, and finally grabbed the pen and his report sheet.

"Okay. Chaos. Let's get this over with. Maybe if we're finished quickly, we can still manage to get some lunch in. Damn, I hate filling out forms..." he grumbled, but then still bent over the coffee table and fell into silence as he began to fill in his name and other required information on the sheet. Shadow managed to stay silent for all of ten seconds until he couldn't contain himself any longer.

"You're...not freaked out by this at all?"

Sonic didn't look up and continued writing. "Freaked out by what?"

"By me throwing someone thrice my size ten yards into a tree, for example."

"Oh." Now Sonic actually stopped for a moment. Then:

"Hm, nah, I've seen both Knux and Mighty throw people further." He briefly winced. "In, uh, both cases me, actually."

Then he continued writing.

Shadow blinked. It was a strange feeling. Like you had expected to be struck down by lightning for a crime against humanity or for being a freak of nature, and all that had happened was someone accidentally zapping you with static electricity.

And then, even when you pointed out your crime or your freakish form, they didn't say anything except for 'Oh, yeah, no, I've seen crimier crimes and freakier freaks. You, like, don't even have a seventh arm, dude' and then walking off.

Somehow, Shadow felt even irritatingly disappointed.

Or at least, that was what he told himself, because the alternative would have been relief, and that was an emotion he just knew wasn't supposed to figure in his life. 'He took a breath.

"You…didn't tell him I had powers."

Sonic eyed him from the side. "…no," he said slowly. "I didn't."

"Why?"

A shrug. "Way I see it, apparently you and your family had a reason to hide them from the school. Not really my business, then. 'sides," he gave a slight twitch of the lips. "I don't really care for whether people have powers, s' long as they're honest when it counts." Next, he turned back to his writing again, leaving Shadow to sort through that statement.

Then he shook his head. Determined to get started on his report any moment now, he just permitted himself to let his gaze travel once around the room to let himself relax and drive the confusing thoughts away, allowing his attention to drift out of the window...

Shadow noticed that visible through the window, there was an elderly owl in a Hawaiian shirt sitting on the roof.

He cleared his throat. "There is an elderly owl in a Hawaiian shirt sitting on the roof."

Now Sonic briefly glanced up. "Oh. Yeah. That's the principal. Oldman the Owl."

Shadow stared at him.

"What the hell is wrong with this school?"

Sonic raised an eye ridge. "Eh? Not much, apart from a couple blockheads, it's alright." He frowned at his form sheet. "What does 'leniency' mean?"

"Mercy or forgiveness, especially in the negotiation of punishment in court cases," Shadow said, automatically and absent-mindedly, still mentally completely somewhere else. "But how can this school be run by somebody who lounges atop the roof with a...a...skateboard-?!"

"Hey, why do you think this is the one place where all we misfits can go?" Sonic finally smiled at him. "Oldman's all right."

Shadow, once again, had to admit he was mystified. From the beginning of this week, he had been doing his damndest just to fit in. But, it became more and more apparent, most of these people almost seemed fine with, and the blue hedgehog even...proud of being anything but normal.

Shadow sighed. But still..

"Then why the big deal about the fighting?" he asked. "And why did those birds act like you're on borrowed time?"

"Oh. Yeah." Sonic's expression abruptly became a bit darker. "That would be because of the vice principal. Lazar the Lizp."

"The what?"

"It's a student nickname." Sonic shrugged. "He's actually a lizard, but, yeah, he hasss thissss ssspeech impediment," Sonic drew out the 's's artificially in his sentence, also modulating his voice that it sounded reedy and irritating for a moment, before he snorted and returned to his normal tones, "So that's what we call him. And lemme tell ya, he's an utter douchebag." There was real anger riding on the words, Sonic's already barely legible scribbling on the report becoming a furious scrawl for a moment.

"I have my experiences with utter douchebags," Shadow offered. "What makes this one special?"

Sonic scowled at his paper. "The guy came to the school like half a year ago. And I think he hated me right from Day One." He leaned back and gestured vaguely. "You've probably noticed there's quite a few asshats walking around here. Both Mobian and human."

"Yeah. So?"

"Well, earlier I could step in whenever I saw someone getting picked on or somethin'. But then as soon as Laz-ass shows up, and I'm just doing my usual routine, suddenly that Julian creep lets himself drop when I pull him off Ray and screams bloody murder like I had freakin' kicked him or something. Lazar used that as a reason to forbid me point blank any 'aggressive action on school grounds'" Sonic made a pause for air quotes, "or else I'd get expelled immediately. He couldn't do much about my clause allowing me to take off whenever the city calls me, but..." The blue hedgehog leaned back with crossed arms and a scowl.

Shadow raised an eye ridge. "And what would be so bad about you getting expelled?"

Now Sonic looked at him. "Excuse me? I'm not planning on becoming a drop-out."

"Well, you don't seem to care much about not becoming one," Shadow replied, not aggressively, just like someone who was stating a fact."You keep running off, sleeping in class, not paying attention to anything and forgetting your homework. I did wonder why you were even here." He cocked his head. "With all the merch sold with your face on it surely you don't need the career prospects?"

"I..." Sonic looked at him for one, two moments, green gaze switching between annoyance, insulted dignity and something else that Shadow couldn't quite identify, but then Sonic finally let out a huff and looked away.

"...fine. But just so you know, I'm not telling you this to make you think better of me or feel sorry for me, but mainly because I believe in telling the truth, alright? Mr. 'No Powers'," Sonic added dryly, and had the satisfaction of Shadow giving the tiniest involuntary flinch.

"Anyway," the blue hedgehog waved a hand. "If you have to know, mainly I'm here because it looks good on paper for the CPS".

"The CPS?"

Again, Sonic briefly looked at him with a 'Don't you know anything?'-expression, but then that was gone as quickly as it had come.

"The Child Protection Services. They have to check that I can give my li'l bro Tails all that he needs. And apparently I have to either possess or be working toward at least a High School degree for it to count as a 'stable environment'," he scoffed.

"Tails? The fox kid from Advanced Physics? He is living with you?"

Sonic shot him a side glance. "Yeah, we...kinda both lost our parents. I picked him up during one of my adventures when he was three. We travelled for a couple years, but then Tails wanted to settle down and go to school again, so..."

He shrugged again."I bought us a house and enrolled him in the school where it seemed least likely that his two tails would get him in trouble and called names. 'cause he's had enough of that for a lifetime," Sonic said, eyes just briefly becoming noticeably darker again, before he resumed his previous matter-of-fact-tone, "Since this is a mixed school and the Northern Hemisphere big cities are about as diverse as it gets, I figured this was the place to go. Only then, not two weeks in, some overlander paperpusher finds us in the friggin Mystic Ruins, and asks me why I'm not in school, too. Humans."

Sonic looked at Shadow with an exasperated eye roll. "They'd probably marry their freakin paper piles if they could, 'm tellin' ya. Anyway," he continued, "Long story short, they told me if I wanted to settle in United Federation territory and keep being legal guardian for Tails I'd better see to it that I got my spiny blue butt back in their class room. So, here I am," the hedgehog gestured at himself with a wry smile. "Sonic the Hedgehog, national hero, and currently failing history."

Shadow blinked. "Huh."

"Yeah. Tell me about it."

"So even if they allow you to run off and go save their city when they need it, you're not allowed to use your powers in school when you would need them?"

"Basically, yeah." Sonic snorted, at the same time pushing his finished report away from him. Shadow absent-mindedly noticed that in the space that had been labelled 'Reasons for my involvement in rule-breaking' the teenaged hedgehog had put 'Because Jet the Hawk sucks cloaca'.

"It's...they want me to prove that I can fit in," Sonic said, not looking at Shadow, and uttering the last two words clearly with as much disdain as he could muster.

Shadow didn't reply for a moment. This sure had been a strange day. The idea of not being looked at as an abomination just because you could do things others could not...

And the fact that he had been helped by someone who neither owed him nor was family.

He looked at the ceiling. "I was forcibly restrained from using my powers once. It wasn't fun."

"You can say that again. That why you lied about having no powers, huh?" If Sonic had noticed him briefly running one hand over the golden band on his other wrist, the blue hedgehog didn't comment. Instead, the blue hedgehog let out a breath. "I get it, sometimes. Like, it would be nice if people didn't treat you...differently all the time." He glanced at Shadow once again. "But if that's what it takes to keep Tails, I'll do it."

"Anything for your family, is it?" Shadow asked, and he supposed something in his tone had to have surprised Sonic, because the hedgehog looked up just in time to see the edge of the Ultimate Lifeform's mouth twitch into something like a smirk. "Well. I think I can relate to that."

Xxx

It was about half an hour later that both Sonic and Shadow had handed their reports in to Mr Stewart and were let out of the principal's office again.

"I may have to call your parents about this, still," the teacher warned them earnestly, before grimacing a little bit and adding, "Well. Your parents, anyway, Shadow. Sorry, Sonic."

The blue hedgehog snorted. "s'okay," adding under his breath, "You'd think with half this school being orphans they'd have changed the wording on that policy by now…"

"Thank you for telling us, anyway," Shadow nodded at the teacher, as they left, despite not being very happy at the prospect. Neither Maria nor his creator would be pleased about the scrap, but it would be better if he told them rather than they finding out about it via a phone call.

"Right, I'm off for Lit studies," Sonic gave him an amiable shrug. "You?"

"Uh…" Shadow glanced at his schedule. "…Catch-up Home Economics. See you around, then?"

"Sure." Sonic nodded. "Also, glad to know you're not completely helpless. I think that comes in handy with your attitude. Later!"

There was a wink, a shite-eating grin accompanied by a whoosh and then Sonic had already disappeared, leaving Shadow briefly sputtering in his wake.

"Excuse me, handy with my attitude-?!" was what a part of Shadow briefly would have liked to shout after him, but actually, he was surprised to find a part of his habitual anger...lacking.

Choosing not to think about what that signified, Shadow shook his head instead again and set off into the opposite direction. Only one more class in this madhouse today and then he could go home. Maybe the insanity for this day would then be at an end.

After all, Shadow thought, opening the door to his classroom, how crazy can Home Economics get?

xxx

"GREETINGS WORTHLESS CONSUMER STUDENT! I WILL BE YOUR SUBSTITUTE TEACHING UNIT!"

Shadow stared at the large, red, black and white obvious two-tonne killer robot standing behind the teacher's desk.

I'm not surprised. I shouldn't be surprised. I am clearly the last remaining sane individual in an utterly crackpot universe.

"Shadow! Mah man!"

Red (by now also slightly bloodshot) eyes travelled across the room to see the only other student in class, and Shadow briefly closed his eyes.

"Hello…Vector."

"Yeah, dude! Have a seat! This is gonna be radical! Mr O, can he sit next to me?"

The robot looked at him again. "STUDENT UNIT DESIGNATION: SHAWN THE HEDGEHOG?"

Shadow stared at the hulking assassination robot. Then:

"…you know what? Forget it. Sure."

"STUDENT DESIGNATION: ACKNOWLEDGED! THIS TEACHING UNIT DESIGNATED AS: E-123 OMEGA!"

"Great."

"LESSON WILL COMMENCE IN T-5! PREPARE LEARNING MATERIALS, ORGANIC CREATURES!"

Shadow sank into his desk and let his head land on the surface with an audible bonk. His ears twitched slightly as he thought he heard the door of the classroom open again, but he couldn't actually be bothered to look up. Nothing seemed to matter at this school anymore, anyway. Then the newcomer spoke.

"Well, hello. Am I right for home economics or is this depression management 101?"

Shadow lifted his head. His eyes widened slightly.

In the door stood a succubus.

Well. He blinked again. Of course, it wasn't a succubus, but actually a white-furred bat, but with the clothing she was wearing, a tight-fitting, low-cut black leather catsuit and thigh-high, white leather boots, the costume decorated with bright rose hearts in strategic places, he wasn't sure whether there was actually much difference.

"Hi," she said, smiling. "I'm Rogue the Bat. I'm a new exchange student."

Vector recovered first. One thing had to be said for crocodiles, there was no one to rival them for grins.

"Oh, uh, well, hello Rogue. Charmed to make yer acquaintance."

"Likewise, I'm sure," Rogue smiled back at him, before her eyes flitted over to Shadow and the black hedgehog wondered whether he had imagined the predatory glint briefly flashing in their depths. "And you would be…?"

"…Shadow," Shadow said cautiously. Then his eyes narrowed. "Sorry, but how old are you?"

Rogue's eye ridges rose. "Excuse me?" she gasped. "Rude!"

"Yeah, dude, you don't ask the age of a lady!" Vector admonished, before turning to Rogue again, "So sorry 'bout him, miss, but 'course, we can't all be gentlecrocs…"

"Evidently," Rogue replied with a wry smile, before pursing her lips. "Mr. Omega, I think my class mate would benefit from some etiquette classes."

"ETIQUETTE CLASSES OF THE CONCUSSIVE SORT, ROU- I MEAN STUDENT UNIT ROGUE?" E-123 Omega asked in what Shadow was not quite sure wasn't actually some sort of disproportionate AI enthusiasm in his tone.

"Well, maybe not those kind of classes," Rogue sighed but then sat down at Shadow's other side.

"EVALUATION: DISAPPOINTMENT. ENGAGING HOME ECONOMICS SUBROUTINE!" the robot announced in response, before turning around and opening a small hatch in his front. Light spilled out of it and Shadow blinked as he realized that the robot was actually projecting what seemed to be an educational movie about Home Economics now, and that was that.

Xxx

"Alright, that was interesting. See you around, boys," Rogue was up as soon as the movie had switched off at the ringing of the bell, giving a cheerful wave at Vector and Shadow, adding a "Bye, Mr. Omega," to the robot and then she was already out the door, Shadow a bit too surprised to actually say anything back or to stop her.

"Man, what a woman," Vector next to him sighed dreamily. "I wonder what country she's from."

"Bat country, obviously," Shadow muttered, not really paying attention to his class mate. In truth, he had caught the strange bat staring at him instead of the movie multiple times, but always pretending not to as soon as he had glanced over. The thing that sat uneasily with him was that it hadn't been an…infatuated look like Amy usually had when she stared at Sonic for fifty minutes straight. That would have been awkward, but at least something fitting into the whole high school circus he was now apparently part of. No, Shadow thought, her stare had been…calculating. Assessing.

"Heh, maybe I can ask her out next time we have class together. Bye, Mr. O!" Vector called as they left the classroom. "I can say it's a study date if we have the same subject, right?"

"If we keep on pretending she's 15 instead of at least 21, sure," Shadow replied absent-mindedly. "Why are you even in catch-up Home Economics if you've got your own agency?" he asked, casting a glance at the taller crocodile. Vector huffed, rubbing the back of his head with a bit of embarrassment.

"Yeah, well. Espio is the one who says I have to 'stop accepting muffins as payment, Vector', 'If Charmy keeps setting things on fire, we need to take out an insurance for that, Vector', and 'don't accept contracts from sentient robots disguised as evil scientists, Vector, they don't have any money', so." The crocodile gave a guilty shrug as he quoted the obviously a bit stressed chameleon's words. "We are quite decent detectives, but running an agency does require a bit of paperwork. We're learning, though," he gave Shadow a grin. "So, if you ever have anything you'd need the best detective agency this side of the equator for…"

Shadow cast him a look.

Well, you could find out why some sort of mechanical thing is stalking me. You could find out what on Earth is up with that bat person and why she is pretending to be a High school student. You could also find out why our principal is a clinically insane owl, while you're at it.

Aloud, he said: "I'll give it a thought."

"Sure thing. See ya later, buddy!"

Shadow watched as the crocodile retreated and hefted his books under one arm to join the throngs of students chattering animatedly on their way out of school. He didn't catch a glance of either the Babylonian Rogues or Fiona and her crew (which was a relief) or of Sonic or any of his friends (which was…he wasn't quite sure, actually.). He walked out through the school gate, considering whether he should use his speed to go home faster but then chose to walk instead. At home, he'd have to tell Maria that he'd gotten in a fight, which he wasn't looking forward to. He'd also have to tell her that he had had yet another class where he didn't feel like he was fitting in and –

"Hey! Shadow!"

Shadow froze. He turned around. "…Amy," he said, voice rather quiet at the sight of the pink hedgehog jogging toward him. He cleared his throat. "Listen, about this morning-"

"Oh, I already know, Sonic told me all about it. Sorry for coming on too strong and scaring you," Amy smiled at him slightly ruefully. "I get that sometimes you just need space. Just wanted to say, when you do wanna have lunch with us or something, that's still cool. Or maybe do something after school, sometime."

"…oh." Shadow frowned, caught a little by surprise at this turn of events. "Sure," he heard himself say. "What do you usually do?"

Amy lit up. "Oh, chasing after Sonic, of course! Speaking of which – hey! Sorry, gotta run! SeeyoutomorrowShadowbye!"

There was another whoosh, and Shadow was left staring at the space of thin air. He turned his head slightly to look down the street where, at the far end, a now-familiar blue whirlwind had been zipping along, only he was now rapidly approached by a pink blur and –

Shadow turned and started walking toward his home again, ignoring the sounds of collision, yelping and triumphant hunting cries going on behind him.

He still wasn't looking forward to heading back here tomorrow.

But, well.

Maybe it could be tolerable.

To be continued...