Post by Kiara on Jul 10, 2008 17:29:30 GMT -5
The first day of school... Some people like it, some people hate it. Personally, I could care less. I sat near the front of my school, tapping a rhythm on the ground in front of me as I waited for the doors to be unlocked. It was around five-thirty in the morning, and the doors opened at around six-thirty. My parents were never home, and I was bored out of my mind there anyway, so there wasn’t much of a difference when I went to the school early. There was one other person who ever went to school early, but she often didn’t come until six. My ears went up. Funny, I heard her footsteps; I could distinguish them from all others, as she took long strides, but with little sound. Of course, this was all natural for a cat.
Blaze walked up to me, smiling. She was always pretty nice to me, even though she keeps her emotions hidden from most people... Except Silver, of course. Anyway, we were both entering the sixth grade, and neither of us seemed to be the least bit nervous. I smiled back at the lavender-colored cat. I noticed that she hadn’t changed at all, still wearing her purple shirt and white pants, as well as the white gloves and socks with fluffy cuffs. Her shoes, though new, were still in the same style as always, a magenta color with vertical white stripes on them. Most kids found her weird because of the darker-tipped ponytail held by a red jewel and a similarly-colored jewel on her forehead, but I thought it was kind of cool-looking.
“Hey Blaze, you’re early today,” I said. “That or my clock is out of whack.”
Blaze laughed a little, which was actually pretty rare for her. “I assure you, you don’t have to reset your internal clock. I am pretty early, aren’t I?”
I thought for a moment. “Yeah... Half an hour early! What’s up?”
“Nothing really,” she said, sitting next to me. “I just wanted to get here early for the first day of school. How are your parents doing?”
I shrugged, looking down. She always asked me that. Normally, I wouldn’t mind, but at that moment, well... Let’s just say things were getting worse at home than usual. Blaze began looking worried at my continued silence, so I decided to speak up.
“Well... They could be better,” I said truthfully. I knew Blaze could smell a lie a mile away... It was kind of scary sometimes. Then again, I did the same thing, so in all honesty... I scared myself at times. “Mom’s home more often than before, but it isn’t always a good thing. She’s a bit... You know... Out of it.”
Blaze frowned. “Manic, you really should tell someone. This can’t be good...”
I shook my head. “Nah. Chances are, I’d be sent to an orphanage or something. I really don’t want to have to go through that. Besides, I’m getting along well enough...”
“Manic,” she growled. “Your parents are constantly leaving you alone, and when they are at your house, they act terrible. I don’t see how this is ‘well enough.’”
I sighed. Blaze was always protective of her friends, especially me and Silver. “Sorry, but... I just can’t. I couldn’t live with being sent away...”
Blaze put a hand on my shoulder in silence. Both of us looked up as a bell rang, signaling that the doors were unlocked. A gust of wind and the sound of doors opening and closing signaled the arrival of Sonic, the local speed demon. Blaze and I walked in more slowly. We headed toward the auditorium to wait for another bell to signal the time we were allowed to go to our lockers, which would be in one half hour.
Sonic grinned at us as we entered. He wore casual clothes, a simple gray shirt and blue shorts... Sometimes I wondered how he lived through winter. As always, he had red shoes with white straps and golden buckles... What was with everyone and constantly buying the same shoes over and over again?
“Hey Blaze! Hey Manic!” he said, waving. “What took you two so long?”
I sat in the row of seats behind Sonic, Blaze taking the seat next to me. “We just decided to take it slow,” I said, grinning back at him. My ears went up as I heard footsteps outside. The rushed and unsure steps signaled the arrival of Silver. Lo and behold, a certain white hedgehog walked into the auditorium. He had an odd quill style, with a quill that fanned out into five tips on his forehead - which can also be described as a potleaf, but let’s not get into that - and two larger quills on the back of his head. A soft blue shirt partially covered the fluffy mane he had, and his blue jeans covered part of his navy blue boots with green stripes going over the top of them. The white gloves he wore had glow-in-the-dark green circles on the front and back of the palm, and a glow-in-the-dark green line going from the circle to the golden cuffs, which had green lines on them.
“Hey guys,” he said, managing a shy smile. He was always a shy person.
“Hi Silver,” Blaze said, smiling back at him. Silver sat next to her, leaving one dull red chair on the end of our row and twenty minutes until we were allowed to leave.
I was bored out of my mind, even with my friends. No one ever showed up until after the bell rang, aside from me, Sonic, and Blaze... And Silver, this time. He wasn’t likely to come this early the next day. I took out my drumsticks from a pocket in my red-brown vest and started tapping a beat on the chair in front of me. Silver caught on and started humming a tune; he really wasn’t bad at singing... Now if only he overcame his shyness to audition for something.
Sonic started humming something as well, and it fit surprisingly well with Silver’s song. Blaze wasn’t one to be left out, so she fit words to it all. Boredom sparks amazing things sometimes... After a few minutes, we wrapped up the song. The performance reminded me of something. “Hey guys, wasn’t there a rumor about an a cappella group starting at some point?”
Silver nodded. “Yeah. It was organized over the summer; apparently the signups are going to be in a few weeks.”
Sonic and Blaze grinned. “Why don’t we sign up?” Sonic asked.
I grinned as well, but Silver didn’t look so sure. “I’m sure we’d have to audition for it...” Gods, he was still worried about that.
“Dude, you really need to get over that,” I told him. “You sing better than you think you do...”
Silver shook his head. “I’ll think about it.”
The bell rang shortly after that statement. Dang, we had good timing that day. Seeing as it was the first day of school, we weren’t assigned lockers yet, so we just hung out in the hall, fooling around and waiting for the rest of the teachers to arrive. After a little while, the local prep found us.
“Hi guys,” Sonia said, smiling. Oh, she looked nice at that moment, but she was one magenta hedgehog you did not want to get angry. She was a few inches taller than me, just like everyone else - I was always one of the shortest people in the school - and she had light pink quills and a light pink poofball-for-hair. As always, she wore a red sleeveless shirt, a navy blue skirt, a gold belt with a jewel on it, navy blue gloves, and navy blue boots with red tips. She had soft red eyes that, when she gave someone a death glare, could practically scare the fur off of someone.
“Hey Sonia!” Sonic, as always, was cheerful.
I leaned with my back against the wall and spun one of my drumsticks around a finger. Sonia glanced at me, and I could practically feel the scorn emanating from her... Did I ever mention that she could be freaking scary?
The sparks went off for a little while, both of us locking the other in a glare, until Silver spoke up. “So... What are everyone’s schedules?”
Oh yeah, I had nearly forgotten. The schedules were mailed to us a few weeks before the first day of school. I took mine out of another pocket in my vest-of-pockets. Everyone else wound up getting theirs out of their backpacks, which they were lucky to be able to afford.
“Let’s see... Pre-algebra first, room C4.” Fate works in mysterious ways, especially with me.
“Same here,” Blaze told me, scanning her schedule.
I looked over at Silver and Sonic, both looking at their schedules with confused faces. I couldn’t resist the grin that appeared on my face... It seemed as though my little joke worked.
“Sonic... Why do I have your schedule?” Silver asked, looking at Sonic.
Sonic looked back at him, shrugging. “If I knew that, I’d know why I have your schedule.”
There was a short pause, and both of them turned to look at me. I pretended to act innocent, whistling a tune. Hey, I couldn’t resist! The looks on their faces were priceless! Heck, even Blaze cracked a smile at that one! Anyway, Sonic and Silver traded schedules and all was well and right again.
The teachers came, a third bell rang, and we were all headed for homeroom. For the most part, we were spread apart. Or, well, I was separated from the group. I wasn’t sure about the others.
The day went by like it was supposed to. As it turned out, the pre-algebra teacher had a sense of humor. Pictures of explosions and bombs adorned the walls of the otherwise plain white classroom. Other than that, everything about the day was average. Finally, the time came for us to go to the cafeteria to get our daily... Uh, “nourishment.” In other words, lint pizza, lintburgers, spaghetti and lint, whatever they were selling was what we had to eat.
Naturally, my friends and I sat at the same table. The tables were your average picnic bench-style tables, brown and dull... Just like the “food.” We all dug into our lint and had our normal conversations about nothing at all. Or, well, everyone else talked. I was pretty silent. Afterwards, the staff allowed us to go outside and do whatever in the cool September air. Blaze, Silver, Sonia, and I just sat at the picnic tables outside of the school. Blaze, being the oh-so-kind cat she was, decided to bring up my problems.
“Manic, you said something about things being a bit bad at home... Care to elaborate?” she asked. Well, at least she was kind enough to bring this up while only my more trusted friends were around. Sonic came by, heard the statement, and sat next to me.
“What’s up?” I could detect just the slightest bit of a worried look in his eyes. “I didn’t hear what I think I just heard, did I?”
I sighed. “I’d rather not talk about it, okay?”
“Honestly, Manic,” Sonia said. “Sometimes I just don’t understand you. It doesn’t make things worse to talk about something; you should know that by now!”
I winced at the harsh tone of her voice. I think I mentioned this before, but that girl could get freaking scary at times.
Silver acted more concerned than angry. “You can talk to us about anything...”
“Yeah, I know... I just... I don’t want to talk about it.” I turned away; I knew the looks they were giving me. Blaze was emotionless, Silver was concerned, Sonia was exasperated, and Sonic was just... Sonic.
Speaking of true blue, he chose that moment to change the subject. “So, how’s everything been going for you guys?”
“Things are normal on my end,” Blaze reported.
“Same here,” Silver told us.
“There’s nothing new.” I could tell that Sonia was still looking at me. Her gaze was practically burning my fur off.
A bell rang, and we all went back to our normal, boring schedule.
After school, I walked back home with Silver, Blaze, and Sonia. We talked a little bit, but for the most part, things were pretty quiet between us. At one point, we came to the forest, where Sonia and Silver had to go in another direction while Blaze and I cut through the forest. Sonia and Silver were out of hearing range when Blaze spoke up.
“So, do you think you can talk to me now?” she asked.
I sighed. “There’s no getting around it, is there? Okay. You know about my parents and how they used to never come home until night time. Well, over the summer, mom started coming home during the day a bit more often. Even dad comes home sometimes now. The thing is... I can tell they’ve got some pretty serious problems. I don’t think they really even care about anything anymore. They fight constantly, and not just verbal fighting, either. I can tell they drink more than they should. And... Well... Sometimes they take some of their constant anger out on me.”
Blaze was obviously concerned at that. “Manic, you need to tell someone. You need to tell someone of authority.”
“I won’t, and nothing’s changing that.” I looked directly into Blaze’s yellow eyes. “Please... Don’t tell anyone.”
Blaze sighed. “Alright. But you will tell someone if it gets worse, right?”
I nodded, and we both headed our separate ways.
---
Well, this is another of my unconventional 'fics This one's obviously brighter than Yrevals, but it's still got its dark moments.
Don't think for one flippin' MOMENT that I'm discontinuing Yrevals. I just like working on multiple projects at one time. When I run out of ideas for one, I work on another. Heck, I've got another 'fic in the works right now!
Anyway, this currently-nameless 'fic was written to be a continuing story. In other words, it's unlikely that there'll be an ending to this. <3 Woot. Same with my other 'fic that none of you know about. Yrevals has an end, tho'. Woot.
Blaze walked up to me, smiling. She was always pretty nice to me, even though she keeps her emotions hidden from most people... Except Silver, of course. Anyway, we were both entering the sixth grade, and neither of us seemed to be the least bit nervous. I smiled back at the lavender-colored cat. I noticed that she hadn’t changed at all, still wearing her purple shirt and white pants, as well as the white gloves and socks with fluffy cuffs. Her shoes, though new, were still in the same style as always, a magenta color with vertical white stripes on them. Most kids found her weird because of the darker-tipped ponytail held by a red jewel and a similarly-colored jewel on her forehead, but I thought it was kind of cool-looking.
“Hey Blaze, you’re early today,” I said. “That or my clock is out of whack.”
Blaze laughed a little, which was actually pretty rare for her. “I assure you, you don’t have to reset your internal clock. I am pretty early, aren’t I?”
I thought for a moment. “Yeah... Half an hour early! What’s up?”
“Nothing really,” she said, sitting next to me. “I just wanted to get here early for the first day of school. How are your parents doing?”
I shrugged, looking down. She always asked me that. Normally, I wouldn’t mind, but at that moment, well... Let’s just say things were getting worse at home than usual. Blaze began looking worried at my continued silence, so I decided to speak up.
“Well... They could be better,” I said truthfully. I knew Blaze could smell a lie a mile away... It was kind of scary sometimes. Then again, I did the same thing, so in all honesty... I scared myself at times. “Mom’s home more often than before, but it isn’t always a good thing. She’s a bit... You know... Out of it.”
Blaze frowned. “Manic, you really should tell someone. This can’t be good...”
I shook my head. “Nah. Chances are, I’d be sent to an orphanage or something. I really don’t want to have to go through that. Besides, I’m getting along well enough...”
“Manic,” she growled. “Your parents are constantly leaving you alone, and when they are at your house, they act terrible. I don’t see how this is ‘well enough.’”
I sighed. Blaze was always protective of her friends, especially me and Silver. “Sorry, but... I just can’t. I couldn’t live with being sent away...”
Blaze put a hand on my shoulder in silence. Both of us looked up as a bell rang, signaling that the doors were unlocked. A gust of wind and the sound of doors opening and closing signaled the arrival of Sonic, the local speed demon. Blaze and I walked in more slowly. We headed toward the auditorium to wait for another bell to signal the time we were allowed to go to our lockers, which would be in one half hour.
Sonic grinned at us as we entered. He wore casual clothes, a simple gray shirt and blue shorts... Sometimes I wondered how he lived through winter. As always, he had red shoes with white straps and golden buckles... What was with everyone and constantly buying the same shoes over and over again?
“Hey Blaze! Hey Manic!” he said, waving. “What took you two so long?”
I sat in the row of seats behind Sonic, Blaze taking the seat next to me. “We just decided to take it slow,” I said, grinning back at him. My ears went up as I heard footsteps outside. The rushed and unsure steps signaled the arrival of Silver. Lo and behold, a certain white hedgehog walked into the auditorium. He had an odd quill style, with a quill that fanned out into five tips on his forehead - which can also be described as a potleaf, but let’s not get into that - and two larger quills on the back of his head. A soft blue shirt partially covered the fluffy mane he had, and his blue jeans covered part of his navy blue boots with green stripes going over the top of them. The white gloves he wore had glow-in-the-dark green circles on the front and back of the palm, and a glow-in-the-dark green line going from the circle to the golden cuffs, which had green lines on them.
“Hey guys,” he said, managing a shy smile. He was always a shy person.
“Hi Silver,” Blaze said, smiling back at him. Silver sat next to her, leaving one dull red chair on the end of our row and twenty minutes until we were allowed to leave.
I was bored out of my mind, even with my friends. No one ever showed up until after the bell rang, aside from me, Sonic, and Blaze... And Silver, this time. He wasn’t likely to come this early the next day. I took out my drumsticks from a pocket in my red-brown vest and started tapping a beat on the chair in front of me. Silver caught on and started humming a tune; he really wasn’t bad at singing... Now if only he overcame his shyness to audition for something.
Sonic started humming something as well, and it fit surprisingly well with Silver’s song. Blaze wasn’t one to be left out, so she fit words to it all. Boredom sparks amazing things sometimes... After a few minutes, we wrapped up the song. The performance reminded me of something. “Hey guys, wasn’t there a rumor about an a cappella group starting at some point?”
Silver nodded. “Yeah. It was organized over the summer; apparently the signups are going to be in a few weeks.”
Sonic and Blaze grinned. “Why don’t we sign up?” Sonic asked.
I grinned as well, but Silver didn’t look so sure. “I’m sure we’d have to audition for it...” Gods, he was still worried about that.
“Dude, you really need to get over that,” I told him. “You sing better than you think you do...”
Silver shook his head. “I’ll think about it.”
The bell rang shortly after that statement. Dang, we had good timing that day. Seeing as it was the first day of school, we weren’t assigned lockers yet, so we just hung out in the hall, fooling around and waiting for the rest of the teachers to arrive. After a little while, the local prep found us.
“Hi guys,” Sonia said, smiling. Oh, she looked nice at that moment, but she was one magenta hedgehog you did not want to get angry. She was a few inches taller than me, just like everyone else - I was always one of the shortest people in the school - and she had light pink quills and a light pink poofball-for-hair. As always, she wore a red sleeveless shirt, a navy blue skirt, a gold belt with a jewel on it, navy blue gloves, and navy blue boots with red tips. She had soft red eyes that, when she gave someone a death glare, could practically scare the fur off of someone.
“Hey Sonia!” Sonic, as always, was cheerful.
I leaned with my back against the wall and spun one of my drumsticks around a finger. Sonia glanced at me, and I could practically feel the scorn emanating from her... Did I ever mention that she could be freaking scary?
The sparks went off for a little while, both of us locking the other in a glare, until Silver spoke up. “So... What are everyone’s schedules?”
Oh yeah, I had nearly forgotten. The schedules were mailed to us a few weeks before the first day of school. I took mine out of another pocket in my vest-of-pockets. Everyone else wound up getting theirs out of their backpacks, which they were lucky to be able to afford.
“Let’s see... Pre-algebra first, room C4.” Fate works in mysterious ways, especially with me.
“Same here,” Blaze told me, scanning her schedule.
I looked over at Silver and Sonic, both looking at their schedules with confused faces. I couldn’t resist the grin that appeared on my face... It seemed as though my little joke worked.
“Sonic... Why do I have your schedule?” Silver asked, looking at Sonic.
Sonic looked back at him, shrugging. “If I knew that, I’d know why I have your schedule.”
There was a short pause, and both of them turned to look at me. I pretended to act innocent, whistling a tune. Hey, I couldn’t resist! The looks on their faces were priceless! Heck, even Blaze cracked a smile at that one! Anyway, Sonic and Silver traded schedules and all was well and right again.
The teachers came, a third bell rang, and we were all headed for homeroom. For the most part, we were spread apart. Or, well, I was separated from the group. I wasn’t sure about the others.
The day went by like it was supposed to. As it turned out, the pre-algebra teacher had a sense of humor. Pictures of explosions and bombs adorned the walls of the otherwise plain white classroom. Other than that, everything about the day was average. Finally, the time came for us to go to the cafeteria to get our daily... Uh, “nourishment.” In other words, lint pizza, lintburgers, spaghetti and lint, whatever they were selling was what we had to eat.
Naturally, my friends and I sat at the same table. The tables were your average picnic bench-style tables, brown and dull... Just like the “food.” We all dug into our lint and had our normal conversations about nothing at all. Or, well, everyone else talked. I was pretty silent. Afterwards, the staff allowed us to go outside and do whatever in the cool September air. Blaze, Silver, Sonia, and I just sat at the picnic tables outside of the school. Blaze, being the oh-so-kind cat she was, decided to bring up my problems.
“Manic, you said something about things being a bit bad at home... Care to elaborate?” she asked. Well, at least she was kind enough to bring this up while only my more trusted friends were around. Sonic came by, heard the statement, and sat next to me.
“What’s up?” I could detect just the slightest bit of a worried look in his eyes. “I didn’t hear what I think I just heard, did I?”
I sighed. “I’d rather not talk about it, okay?”
“Honestly, Manic,” Sonia said. “Sometimes I just don’t understand you. It doesn’t make things worse to talk about something; you should know that by now!”
I winced at the harsh tone of her voice. I think I mentioned this before, but that girl could get freaking scary at times.
Silver acted more concerned than angry. “You can talk to us about anything...”
“Yeah, I know... I just... I don’t want to talk about it.” I turned away; I knew the looks they were giving me. Blaze was emotionless, Silver was concerned, Sonia was exasperated, and Sonic was just... Sonic.
Speaking of true blue, he chose that moment to change the subject. “So, how’s everything been going for you guys?”
“Things are normal on my end,” Blaze reported.
“Same here,” Silver told us.
“There’s nothing new.” I could tell that Sonia was still looking at me. Her gaze was practically burning my fur off.
A bell rang, and we all went back to our normal, boring schedule.
After school, I walked back home with Silver, Blaze, and Sonia. We talked a little bit, but for the most part, things were pretty quiet between us. At one point, we came to the forest, where Sonia and Silver had to go in another direction while Blaze and I cut through the forest. Sonia and Silver were out of hearing range when Blaze spoke up.
“So, do you think you can talk to me now?” she asked.
I sighed. “There’s no getting around it, is there? Okay. You know about my parents and how they used to never come home until night time. Well, over the summer, mom started coming home during the day a bit more often. Even dad comes home sometimes now. The thing is... I can tell they’ve got some pretty serious problems. I don’t think they really even care about anything anymore. They fight constantly, and not just verbal fighting, either. I can tell they drink more than they should. And... Well... Sometimes they take some of their constant anger out on me.”
Blaze was obviously concerned at that. “Manic, you need to tell someone. You need to tell someone of authority.”
“I won’t, and nothing’s changing that.” I looked directly into Blaze’s yellow eyes. “Please... Don’t tell anyone.”
Blaze sighed. “Alright. But you will tell someone if it gets worse, right?”
I nodded, and we both headed our separate ways.
---
Well, this is another of my unconventional 'fics This one's obviously brighter than Yrevals, but it's still got its dark moments.
Don't think for one flippin' MOMENT that I'm discontinuing Yrevals. I just like working on multiple projects at one time. When I run out of ideas for one, I work on another. Heck, I've got another 'fic in the works right now!
Anyway, this currently-nameless 'fic was written to be a continuing story. In other words, it's unlikely that there'll be an ending to this. <3 Woot. Same with my other 'fic that none of you know about. Yrevals has an end, tho'. Woot.