Youth ~ Sonadow High School Fanfic

Part 23: Bus Conversation

~Shadow's P.O.V~

It was hard for either of them to get up in the morning. Shadow barely slept at all the previous night and Sonic was lucky to with the pain in his stomach getting even worse. Sonic had explained it to Shadow when they were getting ready for bed. Shadow knew Sonic didn't really want him to worry, but it was as both of them have said before, they felt like they needed to. Sonic had woken up before Shadow, obviously, because he wasn't in bed when Shadow woke up. Must've been his stomach hurting again, Shadow thought. If somebody had tried waking him, it would've gotten me up too. He went ahead and got up, pulling down his quills since his head was starting to hurt getting up so quick. He always felt that helped him. He got dressed and went downstairs to find Sonic. Aleena had put her blue trench coat on over her dress and Sonia and Manic were just getting their things ready. They seemed to be in a rush. Sonic sat on the couch, holding his stomach tightly. It was clear he was in a lot of pain, especially by the tears that were starting to fall down his face.
Shadow almost whimpered seeing him like this, so he went and sat down beside the blue hedgehog. He put one hand on the other's as if trying to steady him, and he seemed to calm down a little. Aleena walked over to the two of them and sat down beside Sonic for a moment.
"If anything happens at school today, especially one that includes the baby, please go to the nurse and tell her to call me. I'll come over as fast as I can to take both of you home, okay?" Shadow and Sonic both nodded. Aleena hugged the both of them before she opened the door, and let Sonia and Manic run outside to the car.
Once the door shut, Sonic hugged Shadow tightly, resting his head on the other's shoulder. "I'm really glad that you're here with me, I don't think I could bear this on my own."
Shadow held Sonic as gentle as he could. He couldn't think of anything to say, but he didn't think he needed to. They sat there like this for an hour until they finally got up to go to the bus stop. They walked down there hand-in-hand, not even fearing judgement from other people. Amy and Rouge were the first down to the stop, as always, and they already seemed pretty happy this morning. Other people ran down to the stop with them once Sonic and Shadow got there, but his ears flattened when he knew the one person that wasn't going to be joining them.
Shadow and Sonic got on the bus first, as a normal school day, and they both ran back to their seat, letting everyone else take their spots. Once the bus started moving, Sonic actually turned around and started talking to the girls behind them, which Shadow never really payed attention to who they were.
Amy piped up from the backseat. "What do you guys think you're gonna do over the summer? School's already almost over, isn't it crazy?"
Rouge chuckled. "You'd think the year just started. Time goes by really fast, especially with all the assemblies going on lately."
Shadow normally never got involved in conversations like these, but he decided to take his chances this time. "The school has really just been throwing them at us. It's unexpected, really."
Rouge looked at him. "Speaking of unexpected things, you never get involved in our conversations, you don't listen either... Why do you wanna talk now?"
Shadow shrugged. "No reason. Even people like me need conversation every once in a while."
Rouge smiled. "I really should be more considerate about these things. I'm sorry."
"It's fine."
Tails leapt into his seat next to Knuckles in the back. "You guys already start talking about summer plans?"
Amy giggled. "Well, we were, but then we got into talk about all the assemblies."
"There certainly has been a lot of em..." Tails thought a moment, then he shrugged. "Then again, the school has had so many restarts it seems, they just want to get them out of the way. The year's almost over!"
Cream moved up a seat next to Amy so she could talk. "I really don't want the year to be over yet, honestly. I like staying around my friends, I don't want to be alone for 3 months..."
Amy hugged her. "Don't worry Cream, you can still see us outside of school."
Cream whimpered. "It wouldn't feel the same. I like going to class and learning with all of you."
Silver almost burst out laughing at this, it seemed, but he managed not to, only letting out a little chuckle. "Well, of course you'd say that. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but you are still pretty young, after all."
Cream nodded. "With all these new things going on, it's hard to keep track of assignments, really."
"It's not really that difficult, depending on your classes," Sonic flattened his ears as he said this. "But, there are other things that also get in the way." Shadow held back a growl, not really wanting to scare him.
"Like what?" Rouge titled her head and sat down properly, facing forward.
Sonic struggled to think for a moment, but Shadow helped him. "Family. And not just small issues." Shadow felt a tear roll down his cheek as he said this, and he tried to look away before anybody noticed, but he knew somebody did. And that wasn't just Sonic either.
Cream sat up a little in her seat so she could look down at Shadow. "What's wrong, Mr. Shadow?"
Shadow shut his eyes. "Maria died yesterday." He could tell everyone was surprised by hearing this.
"Oh no, what happened?" Tails whimpered.
"Sickness. Whatever you want to call it, I don't really care, but that's what killed her. And it's going to kill my father too."
Sonic sat back down and hugged Shadow. Shadow knew there wasn't really anything that Sonic could say, both of their thoughts were blank. Everyone fell silent from their normal conversation, after hearing of Maria's death. Rouge and Amy seemed almost as upset as Shadow. Almost.
Tails sighed. "Let's not try and stay upset. I heard classes changed this morning."
Amy pulled out her phone. "Actually, they did. Everybody has gym in the morning for today only, so the whole grade is gonna be in the gymnasium. We're trying to do something fun for an end-of-the-year kind of party. We want to keep people happy..." Shadow almost instantly knew the people she was implying with that sentence. Sonic yelped a tad and held his stomach tightly in his hands. Amy leapt up to Rouge's seat, and held her hands tightly together as she looked up at Sonic. "Are you okay?"
Sonic kept a smile and looked at her. "I-I'm fine. Just a little... uh... stomach ache. Hehe..."
"Do you wanna head to the nurse's office when we get to school?"
"No no! I'll be fine. I wouldn't want to miss out on all the fun, anyways," He managed a chuckle saying this, but his ears flattened again when he and Shadow both knew somebody was gonna get hurt out there.
Amy faced forward and looked through her phone. "They just notified me of the games we're gonna be playing. The first two are just simple running games, run around the gym kind of like, so nobody should get hurt. I'm not gonna spoil the third game, yet, hehe! And then the last game is kickball."
"We're really gonna be playing kickball?" Knuckles groaned. "Ain't that game for the little kids? Like, from the elementary?"
"Look who's talking," Shadow smirked as he said that, and almost the entire back of the bus burst out laughing. Knuckles slumped back in his chair with a bright pink spread over his face.
"Yeah yeah, very funny, can you stop now?!" He crossed his arms and looked out the window. "We're almost at the school." Rouge and Amy both leapt to the window to look outside. They were there before they knew it.
Amy and Rouge got up first, but they stopped by the aisle to look at Sonic for a minute. "Are you sure you're gonna be fine?"
Sonic nodded slowly and stared down at the floor. Shadow flattened his ears and looked out the window. He hated seeing people upset, but one of them being Sonic made him feel even worse. Amy and Rouge walked down the aisle, letting everyone else follow. Shadow turned back to Sonic when Cream stopped next to him. She hugged him a little tight before running off after Amy and Rouge. Sonic almost smiled as he watched her go, and then he got up, picking up his stuff and holding it. Shadow put his hand over Sonic's, and they both looked at eachother for a minute.
Shadow then sighed. "Let me carry something for you, you don't need this much."
Sonic thought a minute but then nodded, and let Shadow take his binder before they ran down the aisle and down the stairs on the bus.