Shooting Star (A Sonic Movie Fanfic: Book 1 of the Real World Chronicles)

Ch. 5: A New Face In Town

Early that morning, Maddie and Ozzy left to catch a flight to San Francisco. Tom was once again out on the Route 4 speed trap.

"And so," he announced to his audience. "It is with a heavy heart that I tell you all that I've accepted a position at the San Francisco Police Department, effective immediately." He paused to catch his breath. "It's gonna be tough to leave my hometown and all my friendships. But this is something I feel like I need to do to grow... as both an officer. And a man."

Tom shrugged at his audience. "What do you think, Sergeant Sprinkles?"

He was actually practicing his departure speech in front of his hood ornament, a pink frosted sprinkled donut wearing glasses.

"That wasn't so bad, right?" He asked, as if wanting approval.

There was no response, but Tom pretended there was a nod.

"Now all I got to do is... tell everyone who isn't a donut."

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A slight breeze rustled through the dry grass, yet the late summer sun was already taking its toll at seven in the morning.

A lone hiker with a faded navy blue school backpack on her shoulders walked along the side of the road. Her face was shaded under a large hiker's sunhat, but it wasn't enough to keep off the rising heat. The thirteen-year-old's turquoise T-shirt and knee length shorts were as dusty as her hand-me-down tennis shoes.

'How in the the world did I get into this mess? ' she thought.

About seven hours prior, she was supposed to fly with her family down to Sacramento, California to end their summer. But everything happened so fast: they had to speed-walk through security checkpoint, though subway, through terminal, and... Let's just say she didn't quite see the terminal her parents and three brothers went into, and the rest was history in the making.

'It's only a matter of time before they realize I'm missing,' she thought.

She couldn't afford a taxi or Uber when she got out of the Kalispell City Airport. So the next smart thing she could do was find somewhere cheap until she could get ahold of her parents.

And so the next thing she knew, she was hiking on the side of the highway for the next two hours. The girl didn't keep track of how many miles she'd gone; all she knew was that she was heading southwest, judging from the looks of the sun.

It was about half an hour since her last break when she arrived at Route 9. She looked down at the ground, lost in thought.

Then it happened.

A huge blast or gust of wind surprised her a ton, nearly knocking her off her feet.

She quickly regained her balance before looking out on the road. No one was around, but that didn't stop her from yelling, "Hey! Haven't you ever heard of pedestrian awareness?!"

The girl made sure her hat was secure before treading on soil again. She looked to her right, a bit surprised to see a straight path through the grass blown by that force. 'There's no tire tracks or anything! ' She thought. 'How's that even possible? '

Then she saw a faint blue.

She hunched over a particular spot that was trodden to take a closer look. Plucking it out of the grass, the girl twirled in he fingers what seemed to be an electric blue quill.