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“I don’t want to be here…” Tails muttered with a yawn quickly following after. He dragged his feet up the school’s staircase to the main entrance. And kept his gaze down at his latest model of his plane, the X-Tornado as he likes to call this space shuttle version of the Tornado. His brother excitedly patted his back, somehow beaming with happiness and energy this early in the morning.
“Don’t be like that, buddy! The day’ll be over before you know it!” Sonic said, smiling brightly. Tails couldn’t help but smile along; Chaos, how does he always do it? Always manage to put a bright smile on anyone’s face no matter how bad of a day they might have or could have been having.
“Easy for you to say,” The young fox remarked and nudged the hedgehog with his elbow, “How many cups of coffee did you have this morning anyway?”
“None!” The hero exclaimed, “Maybe take this as a lesson to go to sleep at a reasonable hour next time!”
Tails groans and pouts, “I had to get my latest invention done before I lost motivation to work on it! And it’s my best one so far!”
Sonic shakes his head, “You and your crazy inventions… You could win any science fair with those!” Tails snaps his fingers at him.
“That’s the whole point! Now you get it!”
The hero laughs, “Chaos, I should’ve known it was the prize money you were after!”
“No! I just want to prove to the world that these inventions of mine are revolutionary! That’s the only way people can take me seriously!” That statement made Sonic’s laugh die out a bit. Before he could say anything, Tails continued, “But I just wish Knuckles was here to help me carry it all here. One of the science teachers was really interested to see them.”
Sonic sighs a bit, “Ah, you can ask him when we get home. Big guy’s got early morning practice tomorrow too, you know.”
“But… it’s not football season yet?” Tails tilts his head in confusion, “Isn’t it during the springtime?”
“You’re thinking of track, bud! Football’s started and the school already has tryouts set for any new aspiring athletes!”
“Oh! I had no idea! I don’t-” A high-pitched gasp cut Tails off and the two looked toward the main entrance. A handful of mobians in letterman jackets, gathered around the entrance with a few boxes by the feet. It was the sophomore batch of student council members plus the council’s president, Amy Rose.
“Sonic! Tails! Hey!” Amy welcomed the cobalt hedgehog and his little brother with absolute glee in her tone. There the pink hedgehog stood next to a box full of colorful leis; a couple hung on each peach arm. What was the student council up to this time? “You made it just in time! We’re handing out leis to bring a bit of symbolism! It’s our way to show love, respect, and appreciation! What do you think?”
Sonic was taken aback for sure, what an odd little treat. First it was handing out pins on Mondays and then mints on Fridays now this just for today? He didn’t know about the others but it sure brightened up his mood.
“I think it’s a fantastic idea, Ames!” He happily accepted the red and white colored lei from her and carefully got it around his quills. And looking at the others in the box, an idea came to mind. She said it was to show love, respect, and appreciation, right? Then maybe… “Actually, would you mind if I took another?”
“Not at all! Go for it!” She said as she placed a lei around the young fox’s neck. Tails was intrigued to say the least.
Man, there were so many different colored leis in the box. What color would he like? Now that Sonic thought about it, he had no idea what his friend’s favorite color was! ‘Hm… let’s go with blue as the safest option’ Sonic thought to himself, reaching to grab it. Sure, it would heavily stand out on his friend’s fur but… the thought of him in blue made Sonic smile. ‘He could stand to use some bright colors from time to time! Besides, how can anyone hate this shade of blue?’
“Thanks a lot Ames!” With that said, Sonic headed into the building with his little brother.
The kit gives him a mischievous look, “Let me guess, you grabbed an extra lei for Shadow?”
“Pffft! How’d you know!”
Tails rolls his eyes and nudges the cobalt hedgehog, “It’s not rocket science to figure out whom you’d be thinking about a lot. Especially after that supposed date you went on recently.”
Sonic blushes deeply and chuckles, “Alright, you caught me, Einstein! I just thought he would like this, you know? He always wears such dark and bleak clothes, a bit of color would look nice!”
“Yeah, I know,” The young fox gives him a soft smile, “I hear he hangs out in Ms. Robotnik’s classroom a lot. So he’s probably in there right now if you want to go give it to him.”
“Hm… I just might! Thanks a lot, buddy! I’ll catch ya in a sec!” With a spring in his step, Sonic runs off toward the science hall, leaving his little brother in the commons.
~~~
“You’re doing the double and single stuffed oreo experiment and you didn’t save me any extras??” Shadow mumbled, putting the paper into its respective ‘graded’ bin.
Maria huffs dramatically and turns away from her computer, “I would! Only if someone didn’t eat away at them a few nights ago when that someone came over, knowing full well I needed them for my classes!”
“UH! I only had like 3 cookies!” He argued back. “You also ate some!”
“Because oreos are delicious!”
“Exactly! So you can’t just pin the blame on me!” Shadow ‘hmphed’ as his older sister toppled over in laughter.
“Whatever! I’ll have you grade more papers if you keep sassing me like this!” She joked.
“You give out so many simple assignments, it’s a cinch to grade and do,” The hybrid said, placing more papers in their respective bins, “So, how’re you liking being a teacher anyway?”
Maria leans back in her chair, “Not bad so far! There are a few that are irritating, but nothing I can’t handle! And it seems a lot of students have me as their favorite teacher!”
“Why wouldn’t they? You’re like the second walking embodiment of sunshine I know.”
She gasps, “Who’s the first?”
Shadow’s eyes widened at the slip up, “Uh… the sun. Obviously.” He tried to play off.
Maria narrows her eyes at him and leans in a bit closer, “Oh, ho, ho, ho, does this have to do anything with the guy you keep talking about?”
“No!” He shouts and holds up the paper he was working on to mask the blush that was starting to form. But his sister knew him long enough to spot when he was lying.
“Your ears are red! So it is about him! You never told me what his name was!”
Shadow grunts and folds his ears, “You don’t need to know!”
“Come on! Tell me!”
“No! You’ll just do everything you can to have us partnered up!”
“Oh, so he’s in this class with you?” Another slip, caught by her. It was honestly impressive how quickly she could piece things together. Shadow grumbles in frustration. This conversation wasn’t going in his favor, was it? “Look, I promise I won’t make fun of you for it!”
“I know that! Chaos, you’re not going to give up until I tell you?”
She giggles evilly, “You bet!”
It really wouldn’t hurt for Shadow to tell her. She has his full trust, and he has no idea what his feelings are so maybe it is for the better if he tells her. Besides, out of everyone he knows, she most likely would have the most useful advice for this sort of thing.
“Ugh! Fine! His name is Sonic and has your biology class.”
Maria takes a second to think before it clicks in, “OH! The really chatty hedgehog! He brings positive energy to the class which is refreshing to see.”
“Mhm.”
“You know what… I can see why you’d be attracted to him! Given that your ideal type was shaped by your love for Zac Efron.” She said, Shadow huffs offendedly at that.
“Hey, you leave Zac Efron out of this!”
Maria bursts out into another fit of laughter, “You’re basically living the High School Musical dream!” She winks at him.
“No, I’m not. If I was, there would be a song and dance break every hour. But there isn’t. Thankfully!”
Maria rolls her eyes and before she could playfully tease him some more, there’s a knock on the classroom door and a cobalt hedgehog’s face peeks into the room, scanning before emerald eyes widened once he spotted the man he was looking for.
“Shadow! Hey! I knew I’d find you here!” A bright voice exclaimed as soon as he entered the biology classroom. Speak of the devil! There he is! Maria and Shadow were just talking about him!
Shadow swivels his chair around to face the voice that regarded him with such energy. A small smile immediately found itself on his face, the tan muzzle lightly tinting pink at the sight of his cobalt hedgehog.
Quickly he composes himself, “Morning. You need me for something?” Right as he asked that, he notices the red and white lei around Sonic’s neck. It looked nice with his cobalt fur.
“Just stopping by to give you this!” Sonic exclaimed, holding up another lei, letting it dangle a bit on the edge of his finger. This lei contrasted with Sonic’s with its more cool tones of blue and white. “The student council members were handing these out at the front of the school and I thought you’d also like one! So I grabbed a blue one, I hope you don’t mind?”
Shadow blinks then glanced back at his sister who had a shit-eating grin on her face. “That’s very sweet of you, but who told you blue was my favorite color?” He reaches out to grab the lei from his hands but Sonic doesn’t let him. Quickly holding it out of the sable’s reach. The audacity?? The nerve??
Emerald eyes sparkled in excitement, “Lucky guess?” He chuckles, then carefully gets the lei around sable quills and onto the hedgehog. Sonic steps back a little to admire the bright color against Shadow’s dark clothes, “Now we match!”
Ah, so he didn’t hand it to Shadow because he wanted to put it on him. How sweet is that? Shadow couldn’t help but smile wider.
“Thank you…”
“No problem! I’ll see you and Ms.Robotnik in bio later! Bye!” Sonic flashes that brilliant smile of his and with a quick wave he jogs out of the class. Chaos, who let him be this cute and handsome?
Once he was gone, Shadow swivels back around to face his sister who wiggled her brows, “Don’t you dare-”
“You like-like him~” Maria giggles softly. “How adorable is that! Ah, the coldhearted and stoic edgehog has a crush!”
“Shh! It’s not like that at all!” Shadow’s blush darkened, “He and I are just… friends.”
Maria decides against arguing with him and instead smiles brightly, “Whatever you say, Shads.” It really was cute to see him meet someone like Sonic. Maybe… he’ll be what Shadow has been needing in his life for a really long time. Be the spring to Shadow’s bleak winter.
Maria could only hope and be supportive. And… perhaps pull some strings of her own. A nudge in the right direction doesn’t hurt! Especially after knowing how much of the denying and shy type Shadow is.
With the way Shadow idly ran his fingers along the petals on his lei and the almost lovesick look in his eyes, Maria could tell this would be very fun and interesting to see how everything plays out. Plus the number of changes this would bring to his life.
She was happy for him.