"Ugh!" I groaned, throwing my hands up. I've been working on Eggman's machine, and I was getting nowhere with it!

I allowed myself to collapse, my arms spread out. "What am I going to do?" I mumbled grumpily. This is the most complicated machine of Eggman's I've ever tinkered with.

Knock knock knock.

I jumped up and shoved everything under the bed.

I sighed in relief-having getting that done quickly-before opening the door. It was Cosmo.

"Hey!" I greeted surprised. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

She gave me an odd look. "It's 12:30. It's time for lunch. I came to make sure you were going to come eat."

"It is?" I checked my watch. It read 12:35. "Huh. I guess I was distracted."

She giggled, which I only blushed at in response. "C'mon. Let's go eat."

She led me to the cafeteria. In the kitchen, Cosmo grabbed Caesar Salad and a water, while I grabbed two chilli dogs and orange juice (shhh, technically I'm still eight years old, don't judge).

We sat down at the same table as before, it being the only empty one.

"Why don't you sit with your other friends?" I asked her.

Cosmo looked down sadly. "Well, um, you see..." I waited patiently for her to answer. "I don't really have any friends."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Really?" She gave me a small nod. I smiled at her. "Don't worry. I'll be your friend!" C'mon Tails! You'll be leaving soon! You can't focus on making other friends!

She looked up, keeping eye contact with me. "Really?" she asked, unsure.

"Really."

She gave me a big smile. "Thank you!"

We proceeded to eat. Then I started to notice all of the stares I was getting.

"Uh, why is everyone staring at me?" I asked after finishing a chilli dog.

Cosmo looked around, then shrugged. "It could be for plenty of reasons. You did appear out of nowhere. You allowed in this school without you paying. It could even be that your friends with me!"

I sank lower in my chair. I wasn't very comfortable with all of this attention. I tried to focus on my food, but that was getting difficult.

I finally managed to finish my last chilli dog, and Cosmo had already finished her salad and water. I chugged my juice.

"Do you want to go outside?" Cosmo asked.

"Yes!" I said too quickly, and too loud.

We dropped off our dishes and I scurried out of the cafe as fast as I could, Cosmo giggling behind me.

"Are you not comfortable with attention?" She asked once we were outside.

"Normally, I'm not this bad. I don't know why I'm so nervous today."

"Don't worry. You suddenly showing up should blow over soon."

I sighed, looking down with closed eyes, crossing my arms. "I hope so."

"Hey Cosmo," a familiar voice said. I peeked open an eye and saw a boy with black hair and red stripes. "Your Miles, right?"

"Yeah," I said, biting my tongue before 'Shadow' slipped out.

"I'm Shadow," he introduced. "See you around." He walked in between me and Cosmo.

As me and Cosmo continued walking, I could feel eyes drilling into my head, but when I turned around, no one was there. I shrugged it off as nothing.

Cosmo had become fidgety after we saw Shadow, but a bell rang before I had the chance to ask her about it. "See you around Tails!" She called, running off.

I waved, and slumped against the wall, sliding down to rest on the grass.

I closed my eyes and looked down, struggling to hold back tears.

Why was Cosmo here? It wasn't fair...

I gasped as someone grabbed my shirt and lifted me up. I looked into the red eyes of my attacker. Shadow.

"Stay away from her," he growled.

"What?" I asked, confusion on my face. "Who?"

"Don't get any closer to Cosmo then you already are. That's the only warning you're getting."

Shadow slammed my head into the wall and walked away. I sat there dazed, blinking back the stars dancing in my eyesight. When they finally faded, I looked in the direction Shadow had walked off to. Why had he told me to not get any closer to Cosmo? And did he really have to bash my head into the wall?

I let out a breath slowly. No point in worrying about it. I stood up and walked forward, remembering that Mr. Eggman said I would know when when the property ended.

I quickly arrived at a chain linked fence. On the other side stood a forest. I leaned against the fence, thinking that if the school hadn't taken me in, I'd probably be hiding in there. I turned around, ready to walk back to the school, when something shiny caught my eye. I decided that I might as well check it out, so I climbed over the fence. When at the top, I jumped to the floor and grabbed the shiny object.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, jumping with joy as I held up the yellow Chaos Emerald. The incident with Shadow had already been forgotten. "Two down, five more to go!"

I calmed down enough to climb back over the fence. I ran back towards the school, but started to slow down the closer I got. Dread starting to fill me as I realized that the rest weren't going to be this easy to find. They never were.

I was walking now that I was inside the school. I headed towards my room. Hopefully, with two emeralds, Eggman's machine might become easier to figure out, but that didn't sound likely...