(Another new story, I know, but I wanted to try something different… again. I wanted to try out a story with longer chapters. I started this one a while back, actually, but I lost the note I made about the plot. I came back to it recently and found some new inspiration! I hope you guys enjoy this. It's not the best, and it's not the most original idea ever – not by a long shot – but I had fun writing this for a change.

Let me know if you guys even want to read any more of this. I'll be back with a new chapter of These Inhibitors' Flaws soon, hopefully. See you next time guys and enjoy!)

Chapter One – New School

'Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Just knock on the door. C'mon, you can do this.'

Taking in a shaky breath, the young blue hedgehog raised his fist to knock on the door to the headmistress' office. To say he was nervous would be an understatement – he was petrified. Not only had he never really been a fan of schools before, but he was starting in new area too. Now, if this was some forest or meadow somewhere, he would be ecstatic. Afterall, he loved exploring. But school? This was a whole other thing entirely; rules and regulations were certainly not his favourite things and being forced to sit still for hours upon hours was like torture. He still wasn't settled into his new home quite yet either and the city was a little daunting. Plus, with his uncle getting a new job as a scientist at the robotics lab down the street, he was a tad anxious. He hadn't liked robots since Robotnik took over his old home, Mobotropolis, but it was the only job near their new home that his uncle qualified for and it did have flexible hours. Still, it did irk him considerably. What if something went wrong at the lab? What if his uncle got hurt because of it? What if others got hurt because of it…?

He was so deep in thought that he almost missed the call of "come in" from the other side of the door. Gripping the strap of his new red bag, he pushed the handle down and entered the office. The office was decently sized. The walls were painted kind of dark, and at first, he thought it would make this all the more intimidating. However, when he took in the rest of the office, he realised that it actually looked pretty cosy and inviting. There was a walnut-wood desk towards the back of the room with purple plush chairs in front of it. Several pictures lined the walls and there was a soft, warm glow coming from a lamp on the desk. He spotted a globe to his right and there was a window to his left, but the purple curtains were drawn. Looking back at the desk, he took in his new headmistress.

She was a snow-white bat with teal coloured eyes. Her black wings were neatly folded behind her and she wore a black, skin-tight suit with a pink and white heart chest plate. Her elbow-long gloves were white with pink cuffs and her white boots were knee-high and sported a heart on the toes of each shoe. Her hands were folded neatly on the desk in front of her, a friendly smile on her fair face.

She gestured to the seats in front of the desk, "You must be Maurice. Please, have a seat."

Self-consciously, he shuffled to the chair on the right to sit down. The soft, inviting plush of the chairs was even more comfortable than he had expected. It did nothing to calm his nerves, however, and to make matters worse, the headmistress seemed to notice.

"No need to be nervous, Hun!" she chuckled reassuringly, "My name is Miss Rouge. I just need to ask you a few questions then I'll show you to your new Learning Mentor. You may have to follow another student around for now until we work out your timetable, unfortunately…" Maurice just looked at the desk, "But hey, at least you won't get lost!"

He simply nodded. She sounded nice enough, but he'd had enough experience in his short life to know that he would need more information about her to really trust her. Just because people put on an encouraging front, doesn't mean they always mean well…

"So, you just transferred here from Mobotropolis, is that correct?"

"Oh, um, yes." Why did he have to be so socially awkward?

Miss Rouge giggled at that and Maurice felt his ears grow hot with embarrassment. Unfortunately, she seemed to enjoy that even more.

"And you have been to school before?" she inquired.

"No. I was home-schooled. My, uh, my uncle taught me all he could. The war was still going on though, so…"

"Ah, say no more. I understand." She blinked sympathetically, briefly confusing Maurice; what was it that she meant by that…?

"One last thing." She paused, carefully thinking how to phrase it, "Who will it be that we need to contact if there are any problems?"

"That would be my uncle, Charles. He, uh, he works at the lab on 31st. I believe he already put his phone number down?" he asked hesitantly.

Miss Rouge replied with a nod and a hum. She looked down at the papers on her desk on which she had been noting down some things as he spoke. She studied them for a moment as if deciding whether she had all she needed before she clapped her hands, snapping Maurice to attention.

"That seems to be it for now. Come on," she said, standing, "I'll show you to your Learning Mentor, Mr Shadow."

She held the office door open for Maurice and followed him out. Briskly walking down the hallway, she led him out another door, across the school grounds, and into what he was told was the science block. There were so many things decorating the walls, that it was hard for Maurice to focus on just one thing. There were ones that were really colourful and others riddled with text. In the end, he ended up not taking in any of it, his nerves too frayed to concentrate anyway.

"Mr Shadow can be… quite uptight but believe me he's not that bad. He's strict, but don't let that get to you." She told him, pausing at the door he assumed was Mr Shadow's.

'Uptight? Strict? Wonderful, I can already see that this isn't going to go well… I'll have to try to do as he says, but it won't be easy.'

Miss Rouge nocked on the door, "Yes?" replied the already annoyed sounding voice from inside.

'Not easy at all…' he thought with a quiet gulp.

Miss Rouge, however, was not phased by this in the slightest – the chuckle, that she didn't even try to hide, was accompanied by an exaggerated eyeroll. She reached for the door handle and threw the door open in a way that made Maurice, himself, flinch ever so slightly.

Inside, who Maurice assumed was Mr Shadow, looked beyond pissed. His fur was as dark as obsidian, only broken up by the sudden intensity of crimson streaks on his upturned quills, arms and legs. A plume of white fur, almost as bright as Miss Rouge's fur, covered his chest. He wore white gloves and peculiar looking white, red and black metal shoes. He also had four golden rings around all four limbs. In short, he looked so intimidating that Maurice almost died right there.

Thankfully, his scarlet gaze was not fixed on him… yet. In fact, he hadn't seemed to have noticed him at all. He was more concerned with shooting Miss Rouge the most irritated, pissed glare Maurice had ever seen.

"Do you have to burst open that door every time like that?" he snapped, "You don't seem to know how to open a door properly, do you?"

"Ain't you just a ball of sunshine this morning?" Miss Rouge giggled.

Maurice looked between them incredulously. Had he really just yelled at the headmistress? And had she really just responded nonchalantly, as if he hadn't just yelled at her? He was so confused; was this how school staff usually interacted? Was this… normal?

The white bat shrugged off the continued glare she was getting and glanced back at Maurice. Seeing his surprised and confused face, she put an arm around his shoulders and practically dragged him further into the room to stand beside her. His ears were slightly lowered, and he could only assume he looked pretty pathetic – a great first impression, he was sure.

"Anyway, this here," she gestured to him, "is Maurice. He'll be joining your learning mentor group today. Isn't that right, Hun?"

"U-uh, yeah…"

Why? Why did he have to stutter? As if he didn't already look pitiful. This was nothing. He'd just come here from a warzone. So why was any of this making him nervous at all? He was so anxious and frustrated with himself at the same time that he felt like he was about to upchuck his guts.

Mr Shadow studied him for a moment before looking back at the laptop on his desk, "And?"

"Oh, c'mon Shadow." Miss Rouge scolded, "He's really nervous, and he could really use an encouraging teacher right now."

"Then why are you dumping him on me?"

"Ha ha ha, Shadow. You're funny, you know that? I brought him to you, because he may have…" she glanced at Maurice, seemingly trying to find the best way to phrase it, "some difficulties fitting in to school life."

Maurice now had trouble looking at either teacher, instead occupying his time by surveying the floor. The very, very interesting floor. Was that a stain, or was that the pattern of the floor? No, it was a stain. Definitely a stain…

Mr Shadow looked back at Maurice with an unreadable expression, "What do you mean about that, exactly…?"

Miss Rouge followed his line of sight to look at Maurice too. Maurice didn't like the brief look he saw her give him. He also had a feeling he wasn't supposed to catch it either, which made him feel worse.

"Maurice, Hun, could you wait outside for a moment while I talk to Mr Shadow?" She spoke to him sweetly, which frustrated him to no end.

Why did everyone get all cautious around him when he mentioned that he used to live in Mobotropolis? He hated it. He hated the careful tiptoe around him, the hushed whispers of others when they thought his back was turned, or he was out of earshot. He heard all of it, of course. Living in a warzone for most of your life, you tend to pick up on behaviours and skills that others, perhaps, don't have. His hearing was sharper, and his steps were quieter. His reflexes were lightning fast, and he knew how to improvise. Most importantly, he slowly began to learn how people work – the subtleties in their speech, movement, anything really, that would give away something they're trying to hide.

In this case, his new headmistress was trying to sweet-talk him, trying to be delicate with him, as if he were made of glass. It was more likely that he was made of stone – diamond even – because of his experiences. He'd been through things they wouldn't understand, things that made him stronger. They wouldn't know, and they never will. Even still, a voice in the back of his mind taunted him with echoes of 'why are you so jumpy, then?' every time.

Not wanting to mess up on his first day here, and also unsure if he'd been in his head as long as he felt he had, he merely nodded and opened the door to go out of the classroom. He didn't like it, but he had no choice.

And besides… he was only jumpy because he was cautious.

…

They watched the blue furred mobian leave the room quietly, his ears bent ever so slightly, the hand clutching his red bag strap tightened subtly. It was enough, though. Glancing at Rouge, Shadow guessed she saw it too.

"He's not dumb." He pointed out once he'd left, "He knows we're talking about him."

"I know." She sighed, "But I still think it's easier to talk in private about this."

"So, what's this about him having 'some difficulties fitting into school life' anyway?"

"He's from Mobotropolis." Was all she needed to say.

Shadow paused before responding with, "Oh. I see."

"From what we've heard from G.U.N. about Mobotropolis, I for one know it certainly is not the place for a teenager." Her tone was joking, but he knew she was being serious, "The war only ended – what? – a month ago? Shadow, he must have lived through all of that…" Rouge turned her teal gaze on him, her eyes full of pity.

"And I'm guessing he hasn't even seen a school before, has he?" his answer was a curt shake of the head from Rouge, "Which is going to make it difficult for him to get settled."

"Exactly. We also have the very possible PTSD to worry about too. He seems a tad jumpy, but he is starting a new school – that may just be first day jitters, you know?"

She trailed off into silence. For a moment or two, they both sat there in thought, milling over what it is they could possibly do. After a while, Rouge piped up again.

"The only thing I can think to do is to sit him down and talk to him about it; see if there's anything we need to worry about…" her wings fluttered faintly and he could tell she was really worried about the kid.

Shadow shook his head, his upturned quills following the motion behind him, "He may not want to talk about it. We'll be lucky to get a few words out of him; people don't usually like opening up to friends or family about traumatic experiences, you really think he'll talk to two people he's just met?"

Rouge sighed, "I know, I know, but it's worth a shot, right? We could try it now, we have time. If not, we can at least tell him that we're both all ears if he ever wants to talk about it." She suggested.

Shadow reluctantly nodded in agreement.

As she headed to the door, Shadow prepared himself to be as gentle as he could – unfortunately, he wasn't so great at 'gentle,' but he would try. It wasn't every day that they had a possibly traumatic teenager in this school, and it was their job to keep the students safe and healthy – that included mentally too. To do that, first they had to know if there were any problems. Finding that out was sometimes harder than finding help.

Rouge walked back in with the quiet blue hedgehog in tow. His ears were no longer droopy, but it seemed that he was fighting every cell in his body to keep them perked up and himself calm. Shadow respected that. This kid was nervous, he was worried – that was obvious in his demeanour before, but now, not so much – but he was trying to look like he wasn't fazed at all. It wasn't perfect, but he was trying. Shadow knew from experience that doing that was hard, that it took courage. Alas, that also meant that it was something he'd had to learn or felt like he'd had to learn. Shadow didn't think that was a particularly good sign.

…

It took every fibre of his being to keep his ears raised, and head at least somewhat high, when walking back into the classroom. He'd already had a go at himself outside in the corridor for looking so weak for his first impression. Now he felt more like himself, if still a tad panicky.

Miss Rouge gestured for him to sit, so he sat on the chair she had pushed in front of Mr Shadow's desk for him. She jumped up to sit on the side of the desk while he took off his bag, loosing the one comfort he had been holding onto since coming here. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest. That helped, somewhat; it was almost as if he were giving himself a self-assured hug.

"Alright, Maurice. We're just going to ask you a few more things." Miss Rouge started, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to… but it would help us to know, ok?"

Maurice nodded.

His ear twitched when Shadow spoke up, "We're aware that you came here from an area consumed by war," already, Maurice was beginning to get tired of this, "we just wanted to make sure that you know that Miss Rouge and I are both here if you want to talk about it, if anything's bothering you."

He wanted to scream "of course something's bothering me!" at the top of his lungs, but he stopped himself at the last moment. He turned his emerald eyes to the window at his right, one that he hadn't noticed earlier, before closing them entirely.

"I'm alright." He shrugged.

A loud, high-pitched shrill rang through the air, startling him. He jumped to his feet, ears perked, body tense, eyes as wide as saucers. Was it an attack? A warning alarm? He looked over at the two teachers. They looked startled too. However, they were staring straight at him instead. He suddenly had a sinking feeling that he'd just proven to them that he was not "alright," judging by their expressions.

He forced his body to relax as the sound cut out, his ears finding that familiar, slightly bent position again.

"Are… are you alright?" Miss Rouge asked in that soft voice again.

"Just… wasn't expecting that, that's all." He murmured as he lowered himself back into the chair.

He folded his arms again, this time glaring a hole at the floor. That sound was normal in schools too, wasn't it? Who would use such a horrible sound as, what he could only assume was, a warning?

"Well, you're going to be hearing it a lot, I'm afraid." Miss Rouge apologised, "It's the school bell. It rings to announce the start of the school day as well as the start and end of lessons."

'Joy. I'm going to be hearing that awful noise, Chaos knows how many times, every day?' he thought miserably, 'Huh, I suppose it is a sort of alarm…'

He nodded again, still glaring at the floor, annoyed with himself.

"You won't have to worry that much about if for now, since you'll be following someone all day." She chuckled, trying to cheer him up, he supposed, "We'll just need to find someone to be your guide for now…"

"I'm sure Miles won't mind." Shadow suggested quietly.

Maurice just sat there silently while they talked. What could he say?

"Hey, maybe Maurice can pick someone to show him around!" Maurice froze.

'What…?'

Looking over at his new Learning Mentor, Mr Shadow seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"It'll be great. He can talk to a few students, see who he feels the most comfortable with. That way he'll at least be able to talk to the student he'll be following around." She added to Mr Shadow, "You'll have your learning mentor group for the first two lessons anyway."

Huh, that actually made sense to Maurice. Not that he was any happier about doing it…

He started to hear footsteps and several voices in the corridor. They were loud, like the bell. He didn't like that. He didn't think he'd like any of this. Not. At. All.

'Let the fun commence…' he thought dryly.