Tails and Silver entered the room a bit curious, they really felt more confident after their talk with the principal. But that new confidence would be stripped from them soon enough.
The whole class stared at them as they walked in, some of the students were whispering, Silver could only understand one word in de buzzing of whispers. Silver blushed a bit as he heard the word ``cuties'' being spoken by two girls at the front.
``Thank you for bringing them Mrs Rose. I will let you know how it al went.''
Mrs Rose winked at Silver and Tails before closing the door.
``As I was just saying,'' Ms Tikal continued towards the students,''This year we have two new students, two younger students, added to our class.'' Silver waved a bit awkwardly at the students in the class as they were being introduced by their teacher.
``Daw just look at that'' one of them whispered and Silver quickly put down his hand and stared at the ground trying to hide their face.
Ms Tikal noticed how nervous Silver was getting, she stood behind them and placed her hand on their shoulders to back them up. ``Would you two like to introduce yourself?'' Tikal asked. Tails was the first one to speak as he always had been more upbeat than Silver.
``Hi there,'' He started and look around through his new classmates. ``I'm Miles, but everybody always calls me Tails the fox because of my extra tail, obviously. I'm a boy, 16 years old and I'm really excited to start this new challenge, I will mostly be studying in the direction of animatronics and robotics.'' The students looked at him with mixed feelings, some seemed impressed but others smiled a bit sarcastically as they knew how hard that field of study was going to be.
Tails looked over at Silver to encourage them to introduce theirself as well. Silver swallowed as he looked through the classroom and back to the ground, ``hi I'm silver'' he started with a small voice not looking at anyone.
``Speak up, we can't hear you!'' someone at the back shouted but he was out of sight. Silver looked up a bit shocked and took a deep breath to calm theirself down. Tikal gave the student at the back a stern look.
``Hi, I'm Silver,'' they spoke acting a bit more self assured, ``I'm 15 years old, almost 16. Unlike Tails I'm not so sure about my field of study yet, s-so I will be participating in all the courses.'' Now there was more mumbling in the class as there was nobody in their class who has ever done all the courses at the same time.
``And what are you?'' The voice at the back shouted again.
``Ow yeah s-sorry, I'm a hedgehog,'' Silver explained.
``That's not what I meant!'' Some students started to look towards the back of the class, as the students in front moved Silver could spot the student who was shouting from the back. The dark hedgehog from the stairs was sitting at the back of the class. He had his feet on the table and had his chair tipped back balanced on two chair legs. Silver looked a bit shocked as they didn't expect to be in the same mentor class as this guy. ``Are you a boy or a girl?'' he added, he didn't really seem interested in the answer but was smirking as he liked the idea of only making this new youngster uncomfortable. Tails looked at Silver concerned.
``That's enough Shadow!'' Tikal yelled as she slammed het desk.
``What? it's just a normal question'' He said shrugging his shoulders
``Don't be so rude, sit down and get your feet off the table, I don't think you want to get detention on the first day of school'' The dark hedgehog rolled his eyes and set his chair back on all fours with a bang while taking his feet off the table.
Silver felt more confident as Tikal was standing up for him, Silver wanted to start to say something, but...
``You don't have to answer that question, if you don't want to'' Tikal whispered to Silver. Silver smiled softly at her still with a blush on their face and nodded.
``Thank you'' Silver replayed softly, only so Ms Tikal and Tails could hear. Tails squeezed Silvers shoulder to try and comfort Silver a bit. The class turned silent and looked back at the front of the classroom again, they looked at Silver questioningly, as they were starting to wonder the same as Shadow.
``Well let's continue the introduction for this school year'' Ms. Tikal quickly said in order to break the tension in the room. ``Just take a seat over there'' She said to Silver and Tails as she pointed at two empty seats, so they sat diagonally in front of the ebony hedgehog and two of his dark friends, who were smirking arrogantly. They timidly walked through the classroom, Tails looked up at the other students and smiled a bit while passing them. Silver only looked down at the ground while following their friend trying to avoid the gazes of the other students. Tails sat down first taking the spot which was closer to Shadow than the other empty desk. He did that on purpose as he felt he should protect Silver from the dark hedgehog who would probably give his friend a hard time. Not that Tails is such a heroic little fox, but he knew he's a thicker skinned than his friend.
Silver sat down at the empty desk, placing their bag on the table so their face was a bit more hidden. When they were both seated the attention of the students turned back to the front of the classroom.
``Don't let him get to you'' Tail whispered to Silver, repeating the words of their principle.
``Yeah I know'' Silver mumbled with a sigh.
``So let's get started'' Tikal said and Silver and Tails pulled out their notebook and pencil from their bags to try and keep up.
___
The whole morning Ms Tikal gave the students a walkthrough for this school year and talked about their expectations, exams and self study. Tails and Silver wrote down a few important dates in their notebooks. The students also received some paperwork with this years planning, everybody's individual study schedule and the keys to their new lockers.
The school bell rang to announce the first break of the day. Chair scraped the floor when all the students stood up to go for the break. ``See you back in class after the break'' Ms Tikal said to the students who were still listening as they headed for the door.
Silver took a moment to put everything back in their bag while Tails waited for him. Silver took their time to make sure all the other students were gone so they wouldn't have to talk to any of them.
``Shall we have a look for our lockers?'' Tails asked when Silver was ready to leave the classroom.
``Yeah that's a good idea, then we can drop off all the books we don't need for the rest of the day'' Silver felt relieved as Tails suggested to do so. Silver didn't quite feel comfortable to go to the cafeteria which would probably be packed with people they didn't know yet.
They headed for the lockers as they looked at their keys which had a number on them and a code they had to use to open the locker. Silver had number 59 and Tails had number 12. ``Such a shame our lockers aren't next to each other huh?'' Silver said when they first found Tails his locker which was next to the bathroom.
``Yeah it really is! But I think they randomised the lockers so we can all get in touch with other students''
``That's just great'' Silver spook sarcastically. While Tails opened his locker to put his books away, Silver looked around to find its own locker. The ivory hedgehog looked at all the numbers trying to avoid eye contact with students who were just chilling in the hallway but watching closely. `Why do they all have to lean against the lockers, I can't see all the numbers' Silver thought in frustration while going around the corner, `Ah, here's number 50 so my locker must be...'
Silver froze on the spot. He saw the dark gang in this hallway and of course that Shadow guy was leaning up against Silver's locker. Quickly the ivory hedgehog turned around and went back to Tails who just closed his locker.
``Hey, I was just about to come over to you, didn't you find your locker?'' Tails asked
``Y-yes I did'' Silver said a bit nervous while looking over their shoulder.
``Why didn't you put your books away?'' Tails looked at Silver's heavy backpack.
``Yeah, w-well...'' Silver started but they were interrupted.
``Look who we have here!'' A deep voice spook as a shadow cast over them. Silver froze, swallowed nervously and then slowly turned around to see the gang standing there, towering over them. ``So the two of you are in the same class as me,'' Shadow spoke, ``This is going to be fun.'' He said with an evil smirk on his face while rubbing his hands together. Silver, who already looked pale, turned even whiter as their blood just dropped to their feet and their ears flattened.
``Come on just ignore them,'' Tails whispered while taking Silver by the wrist and pulling them away from this group of bullies.
``Ow how cute! I think we scared that little girl,'' The group laughed loudly and let them pass. Tails quickly passed them and went around the corner where Silver's locker was, while dragging the ivory hedgehog along.
``Why does that guy have to be in our mentor class'' Tails sighed as he was looking over at Silver, who looked really pale, nervous and insecure. ``How are you doing?'' he asked concerned.
``Y-yeah, I-i'm f-fine'' Silver stuttered, there where some tears welling up in their eyes.
``Don't you worry Silver'' Tails said as he wrapped an arm around his friend for comfort. ``Don't let that guy get to you, I know you are still insecure about your gender, but that's something you need to figure out on your own and don't let other people tell you what you are.'' He tried to encourage them.
``I know, y-you're right, but it's just hard, I'm just very nervous for this first day at college and that guy really isn't helping.'' Silver said blinking the tears away. ``Why can't I just be more like you''
Tails chuckled a bit ``Well I'm far from perfect, but my dad always taught me, that people who make fun of you are just jealous and very insecure themselves.'' Silver thought about what Tails said, but wasn't quite sure if that was the case. They went over to Silver's locker which was now bully free.
