This feeling was of a deep hatred -- No, a fear.
Lunaediesophobia.
"Uh, Ms. Vanilla? I think I might be sick. May I visit the nurse?"
"Nice try, Scourge. You're not sick. You just have a case of the Mondays." Honest told him.
She then tilted her head back to look at the green pineapple with an amused expression. However, Scourge was unable to give her any sort of look back due to his eyes being fearfully adhered to his desk.
Vanilla blinked curiously at Scourge's strange behavior. "I don't know, Honest. He doesn't look very well. Maybe you should go to the nurse's office, Scourge." Honest sighed loudly. There really was nothing wrong with him. "And you should accompany him there just in case it's something serious that requires extra attention." Of course.
Honest slid out of her chair and pulled her bag off the back of it to take with her. It was close enough to the period's ending that they might not return. "Come on, Scrooge."
Just as they reached the door of the classroom and were about to walk out into the hallway, a voice halted them. "Wait!"
Also wielding her bag, Fiona the Fox came running towards them from the back of the room. Honest narrowed her eyes at the red-haired vulpine as Fiona widened hers. "I feel obligated to protect the king. I'm sure you understand."
Honest looked kind of lost as she tilted her head. "I... do. Yeah, you can come. Let's go." Honest smiled, turned, and left the room. Scourge just stood there utterly confused.
Fiona laughed and started to push him through the door. "Well, go on, your majesty! How am I going to guard you if you're just going to stand there dumbfounded for hours?"
The door shut on its own behind them.
After they had been walking a distance, the anti-Sonic twiddled his thumbs. "So, um, Honest... Where is the nurse's office exactly? I mean, if it's far away, I may not be able to make it in time before I get really sick or somethi-"
"Oh, come on, Scourge. You can't still be trying to keep up that act, are you? You're not sick; you're just trying to get out of class." Scourge looked like he doubted that, but then he looked shocked. "Besides, there's no actual nurse here to help you." The viridian pineapple's eyes became white disks and his mouth swung open.
Honest pushed open the slightly ajar door beside them, revealing a nearly deserted library with one shadowy figure sitting at the middle table.
During the events of {w/Sonic}, {w/Snow}, and {Forces Edition}, this was the only library, but with some help from supernatural beings found in the Sonic universe, Honest was able to create a much larger library that would suit the presence of a much larger cast of characters. Now, this original library was the perfect room for serious, quiet reading to take place. That's why this shadowy figure was here.
"Instead, I'm just going to use this time to goof off and visit my good pal Shadow in the library!"
Lifting his head from his totally engrossing book, the Ultimate Lifeform regarded the three with a judging look. "How did you know I was in here?"
Honest rushed over and stood beside his table. She tapped her temple with her index finger three times and excitedly explained. "I'm always aware of where you are! I'm constantly connected to you, you know."
Fiona and Scourge still stood at the entrance. Scourge still looked betrayed while Fiona appeared to be intrigued.
Sparkles seemed to spread from Honest's hands as she rested her elbows on the shadowy one's table, stars in her eyes. "It's 'cause you're special."
Scourge jumped when Fiona muffled a laugh with her hand. "What?"
"You're special, too, aren't you?" the scarlet fox asked, turning to him. If you've read my other story, Is a Walled Garden Still Rosy?, you'll remember that Fiona called him special in chapter... 3? 4? Something like that.
Scourge thought a moment. "I-" He rubbed his arm nervously. "I think I am."
Fiona tilted her head at him and looked confused. Then, Scourge noticed Fiona was staring and turned away, laughing as he did so. "Wait, 'special'? What are we even talking about?"
Fiona shrugged and laughed as well. "Who knows?"
Suddenly, to turn this light-hearted atmosphere towards some productive and worthwhile thing, Honest spun around. "Let's all go make good use of Scourge's Monday!"
They all four went into the hallway. They had no idea where they were going, and that was a problem.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Honest, who was leading the pack, motioned for everyone behind her to cease what they were doing and look. At the end of the hall stood a pink porcupine with long, curly spines receiving a firm talking-to from Infinite.
"I- I'm just v- visiting the restroom..." sniffed the girl, Key the Porcupine.
"Is your teacher okay with you doing that?"
"Uh- of course!" Key fished a wooden pass with a chain on it out of one of her bag's pockets. "See, look! I have a hall pass!"
Infinite then promptly smacked the pass out of her hand with one of his own gloved ones. "That pass is out of date! Principal Mephiles replaced all the wooden passes this morning." Even from here, it was apparent that Key was trying hard not to cry.
Infinite crossed his arms and regarded the irresponsible irritation disapprovingly. "That hall pass is from a previous time you traversed this hall during class, isn't it? You hung onto it so that you could take an unreasonable amount of bathroom trips whenever you wanted to, is that right?"
Key was too afraid to reply. Instead she just shivered and looked at her hands as if she hadn't seen where the hall pass went after Infinite smacked it out of her hands and was still looking for it.
"That's such a shameless thing for you to attempt. I ought to turn you into Principal Mephiles for that." Key shook her head, pleading for him to reconsider. "Instead, I think I'd much rather leave you to feel ashamed of yourself for even attempting to trick one of your fellow students." Infinite rested a hand on his mask. "And most of all, I want you to imagine the Principal's hurt expression when he finds out you betrayed him like this."
As he moved away, Key started to cry and ran the opposite direction. She ran past Honest, Shadow, Fiona, and Scourge, bumping into Scourge and throwing him off balance on her way through. Fiona caught him and stood him up fortunately before the viridian monarch could topple over and call the cruel council member's attention to them.
"Wow," Shadow remarked in a low voice afterwards. "Was all of that really necessary?"
"None of that was even remotely called for," Fiona exclaimed crossly. "Why does he care so much for enforcing the principal's rules anyway? The class representatives are appointed by the students to protect them from rules that are unfair to them."
All four of them still were focusing on the place the two had been previously standing. Honest huffed, "It's just his nature. Come on. Let's go to the club room." The blond cat girl waved for them to follow her and continued down the hallway.
Entering the room, they found Amy sitting in front of a bookshelf, pulling game cases from a box and organizing them by year of release.
"Ooh!" Honest suddenly exclaimed, scaring the pink hedgehog and making her drop a game in a blue case back into the box. "I just remembered. Guess what I got for Christmas this year," she instructed the group.
"More GameCube games?" Scourge asked.
"Catnip?" Fiona guessed, not sure if she should care or not.
"Am I allowed to guess?" Shadow asked. He then looked behind him at Scourge. "I mean, I already know what you got, so-"
"A PS4 and Forces!"
Now was the time for everyone to look extremely confused.
"Wait. But {Forces Edition} was two stories ago, was it not? Why are you just now getting the game?"
Honest smiled. "Stories are released as things happen; not as I get things. I experienced Forces through long plays and watching cut scenes." She shrugged and walked over to the shelf on the back wall where Amy was.
The others followed her, Scourge crouching beside the pink hedgehog in front of the game shelf. "What do you have this period?" the viridian hedgehog asked.
"A study hall," Amy replied. "It's a long walk back, so I'd better leave now." The fuchsia pineapple stood up, leaving the box of game cases laying there on the floor. She waved to them and disappeared out the door.
"Study hall? Hey, Amy. Wait up." When the pink hedgy heard Honest, she stepped back in.
"Huh?"
"If study hall's all you have, why don't you stay here and skip with us?"
"'Skip'?" Amy repeated. She looked hurt. "Are you sure that's okay?"
"Sure! Study hall is purely for the student's benefit. If the student chooses not to benefit from it, that's their problem." Honest plopped down on a couch.
When Amy and the others still looked unsure, Honest smiled and added, "What can possibly happen as a result?"
...
Everybody sat on benches besides Shadow who walked back and forth in front of the others impatiently. Honest had pulled a page out of a magazine and was now folding it in her lap with a serious expression. Fiona was reading a magazine, and Scourge was admiring the artwork on the walls. Who had decorated the office all fancy? It couldn't have been Mephiles, could've it? Amy was watching Shadow with a concerned look.
Infinite walked out of a room on their left and turned to face the "skippers". "Principal Mephiles has determined that you will all have detention Monday and Wednesday."
Everyone sighed, the tension finally being broken. Amy glared over at Honest. "Nice going."
"Why not Tuesday? If you're gonna keep us for multiple days, why not group them together?" Shadow asked crossly.
"Because," Infinite said, cocking his head to one side. "If you'd let me finish, the Principal told me he'll be giving you homework to do that day." He kept walking towards the other side of the room.
Shadow gritted his teeth together. "Why doesn't your beloved principal come out here and tell that to my face?!" Infinite reached for the handle of the door leading out and turned it, holding out a hand to the door as it opened.
"It's because he's not even here. I had to contact him over the phone just now." Shadow looked over at Honest confusedly. "Anyway, you're all free to go back to class for the remainder of the day. But Monday..." Infinite's one eye lit up red for a second as he laughed in the most sinister of manners. "You'll all be under our surveillance."
The masked mongrel jammed something of a doorstop underneath the exit door and laughed darkly once more as he disappeared around the corner, right, and down the hall.
"Man, that dude's ominous," Scourge said, shivering dramatically and being the first to walk through the door leading out of the school office. Everyone else followed. That same ominous laugh was reverberating, echoing through the hallways. Scourge observed the front doors with a sneer. "I opt for skipping the rest of the day. Forget this."
Honest finished folding the magazine's page and now placed a paper bunny on the large desk in the office. She stepped outside once more to rejoin the group.
"Quick to anger today, are we?" Fiona said, wandering towards the green booger with her hands behind her back. "I can't recall a single other instance of that Infinite fellow making you this mad. It's not like this is the tenth time."
"He shouldn't be making me mad at all." Scourge was still regarding the front doors with a disgusted sneer as if they were doing something he didn't approve of. Then, quietly, he whispered, "We had a deal."
"What was that?"
"Oh, nothing!" Scourge exclaimed, very obviously lying. I mean, first of all saying that something is 'nothing' is always a telltale sign someone's lying. Second, Scourge had been angry before, and now he was smiling nervously and scratching the back of his neck. Plus, Fiona wasn't dumb, so she saw through this anyway. Even if he somehow had managed to cover up his lie, she would've been able to see through it.
But even still... "Huh?" was all Fiona said, looking confused. After all, he was lying, but what about?
Apparently not hearing their whole conversation, Honest sprung between them. "But just think about how much time we've shaved off just doing that. In ten minutes, we can all go to lunch!"
"And repeat all that happened yesterday? I'm not sure I'm feeling up to it today," Shadow told Honest, scowling. "I might have to save someone from their own stupidity again today." Fiona and Scourge had no idea what he was talking about, so they just stood there dumbly.
Honest's eyes became all bright and sparkly like they were earlier. "Really? I thought you rather liked saving that blue pineapple's life yesterday. You were like--" Honest closed her eyes shut and put on what sounded like an imitation of a comedian as she falsely quoted Shadow. "'Choking on pizza crust? Water bottle!!'"
Fiona and Scourge were really confused then.
"Uh... I'm going to lunch early to wait in line!" Scourge exclaimed, his eyes greater than and less than signs. He took off down the hall Infinite traveled earlier, opposite from the entrance to the building. Fiona and the others followed him.
---
So, about the title of this chapter, this chapter was kind of foreshadowed in Chapter 11 of {Forces Edition}: "If people didn't take breaks every now and again, school would be too boring to stay at. And then those people would become... Scourge." Though, it's kind of ironic seeing as though Honest did what she said Scourge would do, switching things up at school and getting in trouble for it this time. It would've been alright if she had stopped with unnecessary travel, but instead she went and tried to skip class, which was a big no-no. And Scourge ended up being the good noodle here, but now she's dragging him to detention with her anyway. Bad vibes all around.
You can argue that she would've gotten away with it if she had tried it before there was a student council, but it was still skipping class. She should've used the time she spent walking to the club room to get everyone to their next classes early. That would've helped everyone out. Instead, she got them all put in detention.
And now to foreshadow another chapter... This fatal error might prove to be fatal to one of her friends. Stay tuned! o.o;
And... apparently the product of human world Honest's boredom is lots of illustrations. That's why it took so long to publish. Also, Wattpad's image importing is hideously buggy. Archive of Our Own's seems too easy when compared to this. By the way, if you follow me on there (or whatever they call it... I'm still very new to it), you can find some stories I won't post on here until extremely later. Stories without Honest. Because I like writing in general, I don't always want to recount real events. Sometimes I just wanna write something eloquent, realistic, or mature and that just can't be done with my other self butting in all the time.
Thanks for reading! Talk to you when the next chapter gets published! (It and a few more are completely finished, but the ILLUSTRATIONS! UGHHH)