Green Hill University (Sonadow College AU)

Chapter 13

Sonic

5:00.

Sonic watched as time slowly marched forward, hypnotized by the ticking hands of his desk clock.

Slumped over, head balanced in one hand, he twirled his pencil in his fingers. If he tapped his foot any faster, it would surely take off on its own.

Having spent the majority of this rainy Saturday stuck in his dorm room, actively avoiding his responsibilities, he eventually felt guilty enough to take a crack at his math homework. And, despite his usual stubbornness, he wanted to try proving Shadow wrong by actually doing his own work before their meeting tonight.

Snapping himself from his glassy-eyed trance, he tried focusing back in on his problem set.

Alright, alright, inequalities. Soooo, if I subtract 7, that leaves me with 4z which is greater than 23+7z... but why the hell is there a Z?! Isn't this supposed to be math?!

"UUUGH, I don't get any of this!" He threw his hands up in frustration, leaning backwards in his chair. It didn't help any that he neglected to take notes in any of his classes anyway, and had lost track of his textbook sometime shortly after renting it.

He whipped back to his desk, desperately wrangling his thoughts in long enough to complete even the first problem. Holding his head in both hands, he stared at the paper, hoping the solution would just jump to the page if he waited long enough.

It felt like an eternity had passed when he finally caved, peeking at the clock once more.

5:03

"I'm hopeless," Sonic frustratedly put his head down on his desk.

"Hey now, that's not the Sonic I know," Tails chided as he stepped out of the bathroom, drying his freshly-showered fur with a fluffy towel. "Where's the cocky show-off I know and love—the daredevil crazy enough to race out into traffic without a second thought?"

Though it wasn't a common occurrence, Sonic had had his brushes with danger in his youth. As a young lad of twelve, he had risked his life to save a six-year-old Tails, playing in the street, from a car running a stop sign. He hadn't really thought anything of it, acting before he even had a chance to consider the possible consequences. Their small town, though, championed the feat. For the next few years, Sonic was hailed as the young hero of Emerald Hill, able to outpace a car.

Even now, he would get an occasional exclamation and clap on the back from any middle-aged resident who remembered his face from the incident. He always blushed and tried to shrug it off when Knuckles would clown him about it, but a small part of him still shone at the praise.

His local hero status hadn't spread beyond his hometown, though, and no one at GHU knew anything about him or his supposed reputation. Sonic had yet to decide whether was a good thing or not.

"Tails, nothing on this math is more oppressive or soul-crushing than college algebra," Sonic mumbled from his arms.

"Umm, you said 'math' instead of 'earth'," Tails coyly corrected.

"Oh no, it's spreading to my language ability. Noooo, that's the only thing I've got going for me," Sonic whined, giving a rather pathetic moan of frustration.

"Haha, oh Sonic, don't despair, I'm always ready to help out where I can," Tails beamed, eagerly pulling a chair up to Sonic's desk.

"Aww, Tails, you're my mathematical angel," Sonic weakly latched onto Tails in an exaggerated display.

"Well, we all have our strengths, I suppose." Tails was always exceedingly bright. By age eight, he had already rebuilt and upgraded their families old bi-plane. By ten, he had tested out of junior high. By thirteen, he had hundreds of scholarships tossed his way, all eager to have the boy genius among their admissions.