Pt.4
It's been a few weeks since the party and Sonic had long forgotten Shadow. Sure, he'd developed a tiny crush on him in the small amount of time they spent together but it didn't take long for him to forget due to the mountains of class work being handed out to him from all of his AP classes.
{Monday, 3 weeks since the party}
It hadn't been that long since Sonic started attending physical school but he was already used to it. He was on top of all of his classes, knew a bunch of shortcuts, and made friends with a bunch of other kids from his classes, and on top of that, he hadn't been called into work meaning that he had more time to focus on himself. Everything was going well, nothing could possibly ruin this for him.
He would usually spend his mornings running around the track on campus, though he would have preferred different running grounds like the forest or hills he didn't really have much of a choice. Though the track was a bit small for his liking running around it did sort of help him lose some of the unnecessary energy he had stored in him.
{11:35 am}
Sonic ran out of his 2nd period class and immediately sped toward their usual hang out spot. He never ate lunch except for a bit of fruit since Tails insisted on him doing so, so he'd usually just run off to their hangout spot for lunch and wait for them all to arrive from the cafeteria.
He'd spaced out as he sat alone drawing in his science notebook as he waited for someone to arrive. He was so sucked into his drawing that he hadn't even noticed Knuckles and Tails loudly making their way toward him.
Knuckles put his hand on Sonic's shoulder completely catching him off guard, without a second thought Sonic span around, punched him in the gut, and pinned him down on the ground.
"Whoa, Sonic, easy there!" He gasped, catching his breath after the unexpected punch. Tails burst into laughter, doubling over at the sight.
Sonic stifled a chuckle as he helped Knuckles up. "Sorry, man. Reflexes, you know?"
Tails wiped a tear from his eye, still grinning. "Knuckles, you good?"
Knuckles, rubbing his abdomen, shot a playful glare at Sonic. "Next time, a warning would be nice."
Tails finally managed to control his laughter, patting Knuckles on the back. "Oh, come on, Knuckles. Quit being dramatic. Sonic didn't mean to turn you into a floor mat."
Sonic could barely hold in his laughter, "Yeah, sorry about that-"
"Alright, alright. Drop it before Sonic here decides he wants to practice martial arts on me."
The three of them sat there Laughing and joking around with each other, Tails was seated at Sonic's right, and Knuckles at his Left.
Eventually, everyone else apart of the group showed up, the most recognizable to Sonic being, Amy, Silver, Blaze, and Rouge.
Rouge walked up to the 3 with the others trailing behind her.
"Hey, Sonic!" She called out with a hand on her hip, "We're going out to a cafe for lunch you wanna come?"
"I almost forgot about that-" Knuckles chimed in
"So?" Rouge asked,
"I don't see why not!" He smiled as he pulled both Knuckles and Tails up and off the bench and toward the group.
Sonic had enough money, MORE than enough money to pay for some food so he didn't mind tagging along. He never ate lunch or cafeteria food in general anyway so in a way this would be a nice treat.
Rouge led them to the cafe, it wasn't too far, Sonic could have easily gotten there in a matter of seconds if he'd decided to run instead.
Once they arrived Rouge led them to a booth, far from the entrance with a familiar-looking ebony hedgehog seated at the far end, by the window.
"Took you long enough-" Shadow turned to look at the group, seemingly surprised by the sheer amount of people there. He seemed to be even more surprised when a bright blue hedgehog ran over and into view.
"Give me a break, we just got out for lunch AND if you'd of OFFERED to bring us here then we WOULD'VE been here sooner," Rouge replied sarcastically with a hand on her hip.
He nodded not really taking her words into account and blankly stared at Sonic.
Eventually, they all sat down,
Sonic sat by the window beside Knuckles, Tails, and Silver, while Shadow, Rouge, Amy, and Blaze sat on the opposite side. (In that order!)
They all ordered and not long after their orders arrived, they spoke amongst each other with their own little side conversations,
Silver was talking to Blaze while occasionally joining Sonic's conversations,
Shadow and Rouge spoke to each other with Amy joining in to talk to Rouge from time to time,
Tails, Sonic and Knuckles chatted, mostly about upcoming projects, classes, teachers, that sort of stuff.
Amy would try to talk to Sonic separately but couldn't quite do so since Silver, Knuckles, and Tails kept interrupting her.
A little while passed and eventually, Sonic stopped talking all together and just watched and listened as the others talked amongst each other. To be completely honest he'd grown to enjoy their company and their constant bickering. He found it both comforting and soothing.
Sonic couldn't quite pinpoint exactly where Shadow and him had first met but he knew they'd met before, and that was all that mattered.
Suddenly Sonic heard his phone ring,
he could feel everyone staring at him as he fumbled to pick up his phone, completely embarrassed as he looked at the caller ID and immediately hung up.
"Just a prank call-" he nervously smiled,
Everyone resumed their previous conversations as he sipped on the latte he ordered, listening and occasionally speaking to Tails and Knuckle's conversation.
As time progressed he noticed Shadow had gone quiet, he didn't try looking in his direction as he could barely remember where they'd met, he didn't want to make it awkward for him.
Eventually, he gave in and turned to look at Shadow, which to his surprise was already staring directly at him with a small smile on his face.
Completely caught off guard he immediately turned away, completely flustered, his face red from embarrassment.
Silver mouthed 'Are you ok?' To which Sonic simply nodded still as red as ever with his heart pounding.
Sonic quickly smuggled his way back into his conversation with Tails and Knuckles as he tried to distract himself from what he now knew was Shadow's intense and excessive staring.
Eventually, the waiter made their way back to the table,
"Are you all ready for the check?" The ebony wolf asked with a checkbook in hand.
"Mhm!" Rouge hummed, "is it possible for us to get separate checks?" She asked as she rested her hand on the table.
"Ah... Sorry, but we don't provide that service here." She apologetically replied placing the checkbook down on the table.
"Don't worry about it!" Sonic quickly replied as he quickly swiped the checkbook off the table and placed a 200$ bill inside quickly handing it back to the waiter. (The total bill was $50)
"This is-" the waiter looked a him stunned as she looked inside, "d-do you want change?-" she nervously asked.
"No, it's your tip!" He replied with a smile as he ushered her away.
Everyone around them watched as the two conversed. No one had seen exactly how much money he had actually placed inside but by the waiter's reaction, it had to be a lot.
"Gee Sonic didn't even give us a chance to pay for our own meals-" Rouge sarcastically spoke.
"Don't worry, it really wasn't much." He smiled and they all stood up, obviously all of them thanked him. As they began to walk out of the cafe he heard a voice call out to him,
"Sonic,"
He quickly turned around in the direction of the voice and spotted Shadow staring directly at him as he walked toward him.
He hummed in acknowledgment with a small smile on his face.
Sonic significantly slowed down walking side by side with Shadow as everyone walked far ahead.
"How come I've never seen you around before?" He asked, "You are a Sophomore Right?"
Sonic didn't really know what he meant by it as he had assumed that he'd already graduated.
He smiled, "mhm! I did online school for most of my middle and high school years!" He replied.
Shadow stared at him and slowly nodded as if something was wrong with the reasoning he'd given him.
"How come?"
Sonic shrugged, "I had a tight schedule?" he nervously smiled.
Shadow chuckled, likely due to how Sonic had spoken in a questioning tone almost like he himself didn't know the answer.
"Was it easy?" Silver butted in, neither of them had even noticed that Silver was listening into their conversation let alone walking beside them.
Sonic swore he heard Shadow scoff but didn't wanna read too much into it.
"Mhm! I could take my classes basically whenever and the teachers were super laid back." He smiled hoping that they'd drop the subject since he wasn't a big fan of talking about himself, it made him feel like he was being interviewed.
"Luckyy" Silver replied as Sonic stifled a chuckle in response.
Shadow loudly cleared his voice which caught everyone's attention, "It's almost one, I can drop you all backoff?" He asked with a monotone voice.
"I thought you'd never ask!" Rouge replied sarcastically as they all hopped inside Shadow's vehicle which wasn't parked too far from where they were standing.
Shadow insisted on him sitting in the front passenger seat beside him to wich Sonic couldn't deny since he politely insisted on it.
Everyone shuffled their way into the car, Blaze, Amy, and Silver seated at the back while Knuckles, Tails, and Rouge sat in the front.
The car was loud as everyone indulged in their own conversations with each other. Sonic sat silently as he stared out the window.
His vehicle looked an awful lot like the military cars Sonic occasionally had to ride around in during stealth missions. Though he refrained from questioning it and simply thanked Shadow for the ride back to campus.
The moment they stepped on campus the bell rang and everyone separated and walked to class.
Silver and Sonic made their way to the science building and up the stairs to their biology class,
"Hey,"
Sonic turned his head to face Silver as he walked up the steps, "hm?"
"Sorry I interrupted you two, you seemed really uncomfortable-"
Sonic quickly shut down the conversation as he truly didn't mind, "don't worry about it Silver, it's fine really! You only had good intentions." he smiled as he wrapped a hand around Silvers's shoulder and entered the classroom.
It was quiet, they'd been the first to arrive at class despite being across campus.
Buz
Buz buz buzzz
He sighed as he pulled out his phone from his pocket,
'Got em!'
The message read, there were at least 7 people in the group chat not counting himself, the chat was labeled 'flight crew', it was probably some stupid inside joke but Sonic couldn't help but chuckle.
He quickly asked everyone for their names and labeled them as he waited for class to begin.
Once he spotted the teacher going around and passing out papers he quickly put his phone in his jacket pocket and payed attention to the lesson,
He could hear the phone buzzing from time to time but decided to ignore it since he didn't want to get distracted and inevitably left behind.
Today was rather eventful!
'Ill text them back later,'
He thought as he took notes.
(HEYYYY... been a while hasn't it? I hope this chapter isn't too bad I kind of made it on a whim- I'm in the middle of finalizing some class work and then I'll be free to return to my regular posting schedule!!)