*Rouge's POV*
"So you got her to leave?" I asked Sonia as she changed into her cheerleader uniform. We were currently at the gym girls' locker room.

"Are you done?" Blaze knocked on the restroom stall door where Amy was changing. She had become very shy around Blaze ever since they started dating.

"Almost!" Amy shouted.

"Yeah. She left after I walked her out of the school yesterday and had a talk with her." Sonia sat on top of the sink in the restroom and leaned closer to the mirror as she fixed her makeup and did her hair.

"What happened with your brother?" Blaze asked what I was about to ask.

"He was doing better when Manic and I got home. Actually, I was going to tell you about that, Rouge." I sat down on the counter as well beside Sonia but facing the bathroom stalls.

"What?" I asked curiously as I looked at my nails to make sure they weren't chipped or anything. The gemstones on my nails shone with the light.

"According to our mother, Shadow stopped by with his little sister. When he left, Sonic was doing better. Apparently, he explained what happened, and Sonic is no longer grounded either." Sonia explained as she leaned even closer to the mirror while applying her mascara.

"Shadow has a sister?" Amy asked as she got out of the stall. Blaze looked at me as well, expecting an answer. 

"Well, in a way." I said, not wanting to go into details, knowing very well that Shadow would get mad if I did. "But Shadow went to your house? To talk to Sonic?"

"Apparently." Sonia shrugged and turned around when she finished getting ready. "Where's Lucy?"

"She's been late ever since she started dating Spike." Amy explained to Sonia.

"Right. Okay then, let's go before we are late as well." We both got off the counter and walked out of the locker room.

*Silver's POV*
"You ready?" I asked Blaze as I waited outside for them.

"Yes. Let's get this over with." Blaze answered. She wasn't a fan of being a cheerleader. She had only joined because Amy had asked her years ago, and she couldn't say no to her. She'd been a cheerleader for as long as I can remember. "Have you talked to him yet?"

"What? No. I have a lot on my plate right now. President of student council, representative of our grade, classes, I don't have time." I crossed my arms and walked beside her towards the gym where the whole school was already sitting in the bleachers.

We were celebrating the football team first game of the season, which was going to be tonight.

"Well, if you don't tell him, I already told you I would. You have til the end of the week. Which is in 2 days, Silver." She lifted two fingers while she threatened me.

"Right. Right. Honestly. I think I'll just write him a letter." I bit my tongue. "Actually. I kind of already did."

"What? You did?" She gasped and stopped walking, I stopped as well and lowered my ears. I pulled out the letter from my pocket and showed it to her. My cheeks flushed, and I could feel the heat of them reaching my ears just at the thought of him reading this.

"Well... This works. Slip it in his locker. Quick." I froze when she said that and grabbed the letter back.

"I can't do that." I said a bit too loudly.

"What? Silver, you've had a crush on Mephiles for years now. You need to tell him." She rolled her eyes.

"Hey, you have no right to say anything. May I remind you how long you waited to tell Amy? She almost dated the new student, for chaos sake." I placed the note back in my pocket and crossed my arms.

"Alright. Alright." She waved her hands in front of herself. "What's important is you already made a huge step by writing your feelings for him in that letter. We will work on how to give it to him later." The music in the gym turned on, her queue to go in. Lucy came in running with her cheerleader outfit a bit crooked from being in a rush.

"I'm here. I'm here. Let's go!" She grabbed Blaze's arm and dragged her away.

The good thing about Mephiles and I was that we had made progress. We were friends. Well, sometimes I felt more like a pest to him than a friend, but he tolerated me enough to be around me. In fact, I was the only one who could be around him. I found him beside the bleachers, his arms crossed and refusing to go take a seat, so I walked towards him.

"Still not a people person, I see." I smiled at him, Mephiles simply staring. "Or a party person." I continued.

"Teachers wouldn't let me go to the library. Said everyone had to be here." He explained, and I nodded, standing beside him. "Aren't you going to take a seat?"

"Me? Nah. I'll just stay here with you. I'd rather not get squished by all the people cheering." I nervously laughed.

The music suddenly got louder, the football team coming in, and the cheerleaders right behind them. The principal walked in the middle of the gym after the team took a seat on the floor, and the cheerleaders stood behind them, dancing their routine for the music that was playing.

Mr. Robotnik did his usual speech for the football game, wishing them luck, and then it was time to cheer for them.

"Come on, you can't just stay quiet. Cheer!" I turned to look at Mighty and Espio. Espio was always quiet, but he was starting to slowly express himself a bit more because of Mighty. He was trying to get Espio to shout a cheerleader like the rest of the school was, but he was refusing. "Come on, Silver. Let's show these two how to have school spirit." Mighty gave me a football rattle and started shouting.

I laughed and started turning the rattle as I copied him.

*Mephiles' POV*
I couldn't look away from him, even when the armadillo wrapped an arm around him and started jumping with him to do a cheer. He looked so happy, so excited. I will never understand that.

My gaze followed a piece of paper that fell out of his pocket when he kept on jumping. His attention was on the football team and the cheerleaders, so he didn't even notice. I used my powers to grab the paper and placed it on my hand. Before I tried to give it back to him, something caught my attention.

'To: Mephiles'

The note was addressed to me.