Chapter 3, A Breeze in Flames

Almost every head shot up to see just who had barged open the doors. There were a few snickers from the males and some of the females giggled. However the majority of students just raised an eyebrow clearly not amused. They didn't really know the blue hedgehog, but knew the ones following his lead. They had a guess the blue hedgehog was knew, and in a few seconds they all turned back to what they were doing.

Sonic smiled slightly. He hadn't actually felt so masculine before. He actually felt rather cool. His spikes had been gelled up and a few red highlights were streaked across them. His tie dangled from his collar, and four buttons were undone to reveal his chest. His trousers had been slipped down to his crotch revealing some of his boxers.

Silver snickered and walked beside him, "You look hard."

Sonic said nothing and sat down at his seat again. Fang, Vector and Jet had grins over their faces as they sat down again. Fang was the first to speak, "You look pretty damn fine, Sonic! Way better."

The hedgehog grinned cockily, and was happy to find a few females looking his way. Sonic turned his head back to them and noticed Espio watching him for a short moment, before shaking his head and looking away. Sonic's confidence had boosted since Silver, Jet, Vector and Fang had given him a bit of a makeover. Sonic looked incredibly rebellious and even hunky.

The hedgehog picked up one his chips and placed it into his mouth. Just then he watched as a beige coloured echidna made her way over. She had beads in her hair and had a very cute expression. Sonic watched as she made her way over and slung her arms around Silver's neck. The grey hedgehog smirked and rose his head, "Hey, Tikal."

"Hi Silver," she replied, and looked over towards Sonic, "New friend?"

"Yes," Silver answered, and turned towards the blue hedgehog, "Sonic, this is Tikal - my girlfriend. Tikal, this is Sonic. He's new here."

Sonic grinned, "Hi."
She bobbed her head towards him, and then pecked Silver's cheek, "I'll see you tonight, Silv."

"In a bit."

Fang wolf whistled as Tikal left them be. Jet and him shared a snicker and then sprayed their chips with tomato sauce. Sonic propped himself on one elbow, and Silver noticed his expression. He smirked.

"Cute, isn't she?"

"What?" Sonic rose his eyebrows, "No, no. I was thinking of something else."

"Uh-Huh," Silver laughed. "Hey, after dinner you want to go outside? There are more people I'd like you to meet."

Sonic swallowed his chip and nodded, "Yes, okay."

Silver nodded and turned back to his food. The blue hedgehog turned back to his, then rose his head. He then turned towards the table with the ebony hedgehog, beige hedgehog, yellow fox and lilac feline. The ebony hedgehog still had his arm leaning against the feline's chair and seemed almost protective over her. Sonic watched them for a short while, before the feline turned to meet eye contact with him.

He flinched slightly and quickly looked away when the ebony hedgehog started to raise his head from the book. Sonic didn't like the look of that hedgehog, but was curious about the lilac feline.

He liked and wanted to know her, but it looked like those four were... outcasts, it seemed. He wanted to know why, so turned to Silver, "Tell me about those four."

The hedgehog followed his gaze, "Oh. Blaze, eh? She one hell of a chick. All the guys swooned over her when we all started school here together. However she'll turn you down if you ask her out... Trust me, I've tried."

Sonic laughed, "Really?"

Silver chewed his lip for a moment, "Well... sort of. Anyway, you know that black hedgehog with the red highlights like yours?"
Sonic nodded once noticing him, but quickly turned back to Silver, "What's his name?"

"Shadow. Haha! Cool or what? No really. His name's 'Shadow', and those two are always with one another. I don't know if they're going out though. He's a lot like her though. Straight face, always to themselves."

"Yeah..." he agreed, "Hmm..." he examined the four again, "What about the echidna?"

"I'd say she's nicer. But isn't really accepted much for who she is."

This made Sonic slightly angry. He hated it when people were judged by their looks or aren't accepted for just who they simply are, "Why?"

"Oh... It's not like that," Silver quickly said, "I mean... It's difficult really. And the yellow fox... He's so cute, isn't he? He fancies some student here."

"Really?" Sonic grinned, "And why doesn't anybody hang around with him?"

"Sonic, I'm gonna sound awful here but... He's a freak," Silver was actually serious, and Sonic felt a shiver go up his spine, "He's deformed."

"Uh... how?"

"Two tails. Not to mention he knows more maths than I do, and the fox is... I dunno, five years younger than me. He's been put up two years, but he still gets As in almost every piece of work he does. He's a big brain when it comes to Technology lessons as well."

"Gosh," Sonic snickered, "You have quite interesting classmates here."

Silver smiled, but it soon faded and he leaned closer to the hedgehog, "I'd watch out for Blaze though. Sure, Shadow is one heck of a dangerous guy, but... Blaze is the one you don't want to mess with."

He liked what he was hearing, so leaned closer to him, "Tell me. Why?"

Just then, Fang appeared from behind the silver hedgehog. Sonic swallowed, disappointed he wouldn't receiving an answer. The rat grinned towards the two, "C'mon, let's head outside. Shit in here."

And all together they all stood up and headed out of the hall. Fang hurried over to walk beside Sonic and whispered in his ear, "Walk like how I told you to."

Sonic quickly remembered, and placed his hands in his pockets, placed his shoulders back and continued walking. He was quite a broad hedgehog, and so he sometimes had people moving away for him to get past.

They were all soon in the playground, and in a few minutes they were all chatting together. Fang and Espio were leaning against the school's building and Jet was sitting on a bannister nearby. Sonic had taken his place with sitting on a small wall along with Silver.

"Say, Sonic," Fang said, turning to him, "Can you do a handstand?"

"Sure can," Sonic replied.

"Cool. C'mon, let's see who can do the handstand the longest, eh?"

Jet instantly liked the idea and told Sonic to compete against Fang. Sonic rolled his eyes, but grinned anyway. He didn't like to doing handstands because of medical reasons. If he was upside down for at least five seconds he'd faint by the amount of blood rushing to his head. However his doctor did say he was getting better as long as he didn't do it for a while.

But the hedgehog didn't want to look like a coward in front of these people. He hurried over to take a place beside Fang, and the two smirked to one another.

Espio then told them to make their handstand. Sonic pressed his feet against the wall, and then hauled himself forward so his hands held his weight. He wobbled slightly, and Jet and Silver made a noise of surprise when he slowly began to remove his feet from the wall. Sonic started to sweat all of a sudden though, and soon found it difficult to breathe. He wasn't so sure if Fang had done his handstand or not, but no way was the hedgehog going to let himself down.

And his feet removed themselves from the wall. He straightened up his legs, ignoring his shirt which had fallen over his face.

"C'mon, Sonic!"

He didn't know who had said that and a migraine was forming. This hurt too much and he felt sick and dizzy and... Sonic yelped and fell forwards.
"Haha! I win!"

That voice was muffled though, and Sonic's throat began to hurt. His head was throbbing and it was like a herd of elephants were stamping over his head. Finally the five noticed something was wrong, but it was too late to ask if he was okay. Sonic had fallen unconscious.

***

He could now hear the sound of a scanner. His eyes were closed and he seemed very much relaxed, but why could he hear a scanner? Something was printing, and he wanted to know what it was. Sonic slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a dimly lit room. Someone had obviously placed him in here after he'd fallen unconscious and dimmed the lights for his headache. He soon found the source of the noise. Sonic was in a medical room, and a photocopier had been placed in the room. What shocked him was who was photocopying. It was the lilac feline, and she hadn't seemed to have noticed he'd awoken.

Sonic wanted to start a conversation with her, but she was soon done and had collected the photocopied papers. He watched her, and examined her figure again. She did look pretty.

"Instead of showing off in front of your friends, I think you should have kept yourself well," she spoke. Sonic cocked an eyebrow. Her voice was very calm and smooth... almost gentle.

He decided to reply, "I know. Quite silly of me, wasn't it?"

She looked at him with those gorgeous amber eyes, then turned on her heel and left the room. The blue hedgehog exhaled slowly. What was that all about?