A Love Like Never Before: The Shadow and The Shrek.

Chapter 9: A Friday Night.

Fridays were the days were the hallways raged with abnormal excitment because everyone wanted to leave quickly as soon as they got to school. But in class, teachers were grateful that students cooperated for the first time in the entire week. Everyone was willing to do as much to earn the weekend ahead of themselves. Or, to have no homework to do while they hung out with friends. Either way, it was a weekly phenomenon.

This week however, students looked the same throughout all give days of the week, even during this special day of the week. For Shrek, the atmosphere felt oddly calming just as he preferred it. The same exact atmosphere that reminded him of his favorite place in the world, the swamp he usually competed in during the swamp swimming competition. And it was to no surprise that just the next month the competition would take place. But there was something he loved to do Fridays, and that was to go to Milos' Bistro to pick up a layered onion shake after school. But today, he might as well ask out Shadow as a celebration for Fionna's fall.

While Shrek planned his Friday afternoon, what seemed to be a deep blue spiky ball approached him at a high speed. What the fuck is that? Shrek thought as the blue spiked ball quickly turned back into Sonic. 

"Shrek! I have to tell you something!" Sonic wailed.

"What? You're grieving your beloved Fionna? Didn't you have enough fun getting Shadow in trouble with those goons?" Shrek glanced down at her with slight irritation.

"I- That's not what I am here for. It's something a lot more important that concerns the safety of you and Shadow." Sonic replied.

"Safety? Don't bullshit me with your lies, I'm pretty sure safety is not the major concern here. Considering how she told me you were scheming behind her back together with Fionna to go up in the hierarchy. I am more concerned about you."  Shrek looked at Sonic dead in the eye.

"After Fionna and her friends were taken away, the hierarchy broke down! But some people in this school are so unhappy with their lives that they're staring at both of you right now. They feel offended that a weird and below average girl like Shadow is going out with the popular guy. It is not acceptable... For them. They even threatened you with sabotaging your performance in the competition." 

"Why should I believe you? I think the people around here respect me more than someone such as yourself." Shrek grumbled.

"EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!" Steven Hei yelled while he just passed by and greeted Shrek. 

"If you don't believe me, you can go ask Phil Swift. He was the one that asked me to warn you." Sonic said before she parted ways.

After Shrek pondered on the most boring class in the world, trigonometry, he made his way to English, where he expected to forget the torture he endured in that class. It is a hard way to put it, but his trigonometry teacher clearly tried to hard to seem 'cool' in the eyes of the students she had. For instance, she thought her unhealthy obsession over Justin B. would be the most relatable thing to those kids who simped for anime characters. She didn't even understand what anime was, but oh well. It was no wonder that she was the loudest and creepiest teacher in school. 

Just as he made his way down the hallway, Shrek noticed Phil Swift opening his locker just right in front of the English classroom. 

"Swift! I got a question to ask you!" Shrek announced.

"About the flex tape, right?" Phil Swift gave Shrek a quick glance before returning his focus to the locker.

"No, something else." Shrek walked up to Phil and continued, "Sonic came up to me and told me about this whole ordeal that some people were willing to sabotage my competition unless I stopped seeing Shadow because they think we're not fit to be together."

"I asked Sonic to warn you, but that was because I was busy and couldn't go up to you to warn you personally." Phil gave Shrek a quick glance as he spoke.

"Do you know who are they?" 

Phil Swift locked his locker up, fixed his glasses, and asked Shrek to follow him down the seething crowded hallway to an area where they could talk privately. While they walked, Shrek glanced around and noticed how the lights at the end of the hallway barely attempted to light it anymore. He noticed how the hallway emptied at the very end of it and felt an odd sensation of freedom and privacy. That was when Swift stopped and looked up at Shrek, who was a lot taller and bulkier than him. Shrek glanced down at him and looked at the white highlights his glasses developed.

"It's a lot of them. A lot of people are simply against your interactions with Shadow. Have you seen the girls gossiping everyday by the library? Or the drama kids talking non stop about Fionna's fall? Or even," Phil Swift took his glasses off and continued, "The other jocks talking about how lame of a couple the two of you were, don't tell me you haven't noticed?"

At this point, the two friends glanced at each other quietly. Something felt odd, something wasn't right.

"I noticed a few times, but shrugged it off... What can they really do against me?" Shrek finally said.

"We're talking about the whole school against not only you... But also Shadow. What about Shadow? Didn't you say you loved her?" Phil Swift replied.

"H-How did you know? Phil, who told you?" Shrek hesitated.

"W-Well, rumors fly through the school. And I've seen you next to Shadow this past few days on a streak, don't assume I haven't realized it yet." Phil Swift assured.

"Well... I never said so... But I do feel some sort of... Happiness when I am close to her. I feel comforted and understood by her in a way I can't simply describe. It is like both of us have suffered the same in the past and by destiny we met. We understand each other, and I... Don't want to see her suffer anymore." Shrek confirmed.

"Then stop meeting with her, at least for her own good." Phil Swift persuaded Shrek.

Shrek thought silently for a solid minute. If the whole school was really after the two of them, he might as well keep Shadow away from the suffering. Shrek has never been the emotional guy, but he indeed expressed that he loved Shadow. That there hasn't been anyone that made him feel a certain way like Shadow did. She was beaten for fighting injustice, she was harassed for years by Fionna and her goons. And even when Fionna's kingdom fell into the abyss, her remnants of perdition still walked across the hallways. The people in the school grew so used to how things were, that they were all willing to harass the two of them. 

The tall green ogre glanced at his reflection in a locker next to him. The competition... I can't afford to lose that either... Shrek thought. The competition meant everything to Shrek as well, after all, it was his everything. Was he seriously willing to give up his competition over a high school romance? Wasn't he told that high school romances were always deemed to fail?

"I'll stop then." Shrek finally expressed.

Chapter 9 End.