When Wednesday comes, Cream is bounding with more excitement than ever. Leaving school with the Sonic Gang, she is skipping along, singing random notes with a big smile on her face. Not knowing what the event is that is making her so happy, everyone else just looks on as they walk down the sidewalk. She isn`t stirring up any trouble or getting out of hand, so no one stops Cream from her display of joy.

Since Shadow was absent from school yet again today, marking this as a whole week he has missed, everyone has decided to walk by the hospital to see if he`s still there. If he is, they hope they can convince him to return to school before he misses out on so much that he would be held back. Even if he isn`t closely bonded with the group, they still consider him as a friend and friends care about each other. They want to help him and make sure that he doesn`t make any mistakes that he would regret or would have dire consequences.

The hospital comes into view and the Sonic Gang soon wonder to the bench where they most commonly had seen Shadow sitting at. When they find that bench, they are surprised to find that Shadow isn`t there today. Not even any of his items he had with him are there. Everyone looks around to see if he had just moved to another spot but there are no signs that he is there. No other benches or any of the trees bear Shadow`s presence.

This is very puzzling to everyone. Shadow just suddenly dropped out of showing up for school for a week, hanging around this hospital. He wouldn`t speak a word to anyone as to why or what`s going on. Now he is gone with no clue left behind.

Unlike everyone else, Cream doesn`t seem to be phased by this. Instead, she seems eager to go home. This is strange behaviour of Cream. Normally, she would be bursting with explaining why she is so happy and she usually is more than happy to go places with everyone. Now this makes two people in their group that are acting unusual for themselves. Could Shadow and Cream`s behaviour be linked? Putting that together, Sonic brings up the idea of everyone taking Cream home and hanging around there for a bit, to which everyone, including Cream, agree to.

When the entire group arrive at Cream`s house, Cream races up the walkway and quickly enters her home, leaving the front door open. She runs to the kitchen, calling for her mother. Vanilla is walking towards the front door to close it and she verbalizes to Cream her location. But as she is about to close the door, she stops and notices Cream`s friends coming towards the door. Vanilla smiles to them all,"Why hello there. Have you all come to play with Cream today?"

Sonic puts his hands on his hips in his usual way and gives a smile back to Vanilla,"Something like that."

Amy quickly jumps forward, latching on to Sonic`s right arm as she leans forward. Her own face bares a smile as she speaks to Vanilla,"You wouldn`t mind would you, Vanilla?"

Vanilla steps aside to let everyone enter inside the home,"Not at all. Come right in."

As everyone begins to enter the home one by one, Cream dashes to her mom. She had left her backpack in the kitchen and now her pet chao, Cheese, is accompanying her. Cream pauses as she notices her friends coming inside. Her smile drops as she begins to wonder what to do. She isn`t the type of person to lie. With her friends here she would have no choice but to reveal her secret to them. But she can`t, she made a promise that she wouldn`t. What could she do?

Quickly, Cream formulates a story. It would be something that is mostly true so that she wouldn`t be a liar and yet at the same time would be something that would get everyone to leave. A smile quickly appears on Cream`s face and she puts her hands behind her back,"Actually, everyone, I would just like to do my homework today."

Amy looks at Cream in surprise. Cream turned down a play day? She lifts a hand to settling on her cheek,"Are you sure, Cream?"

Cream nods her head,"Yes, I`m sure."

"Well, all right..."

Sonic looks at Vanilla,"We`ll go then, I guess, and let Cream do her homework."

At this sudden change of events, Vanilla is confused but accepts it. It is important for Cream to have her homework done and her friends probably have homework of their own to do. Vanilla sees everyone out the door and gives them her goodbye. Everyone return their goodbyes to her as they exit the house and go down the pathway.

Being the leader of the group, Sonic is walking in front. He isn`t going to press the matter of finding out what is going on. Cream is an innocent person, she wouldn`t be up to anything malicious. Besides, if she is having any problems, she has her mother to help her, or if things get too bad they can always call the rest of the group. Sonic isn`t the prodding type and he`s already done more than enough with Shadow. If whatever is causing the two of them to act strange is anything bad, it will eventually present itself out in the open and then, Sonic decides, he will step in if necessary.

As the whole group is leaving Cream`s neighbourhood to go find something to do for the day, Fang negatively comments,"Well, that was a big waste of time."

Sonic waves off the comment,"It`s fine. Cream is home like she wanted to be. We`ll just go have fun."

Amy begins to perk up. She has her own ideas of what is fun,"Oh what are we going to do? Go to Twinkle Park? Go to Emerald Coast? Either one would be really romantic...Or maybe the Casino?"

Sonic shrugs,"I was actually thinking of running along Speed Highway or maybe even Radical Highway."

This earns him a shove from Amy,"Those are places only you enjoy!"

Fang holds a smirk and runs his thumb along the edge of his hat,"I wouldn`t mind the Casino, actually."

Rouge shrugs on her shoulders and seems to be disinterested,"I couldn`t care less where we go, just so long as it livens up the day."

Knuckles picks up the speed of his walk a little during this conversation of everyone deciding what to do for the day. He catches up to Sonic and now walks beside him. Turning his head to Sonic`s direction, Knuckles pitches in his own opinion,"Do we have to keep going to all of these city places? Why not some place quiet and out in the open?"

Amy smiles,"Emerald Coast it is!"

Mighty raises up a fist to call attention of the group to him,"Well wait a minute there. I was actually liking the idea of Twinkle Park."

Silver turns his head to Blaze to hold a short little conversation with her,"What about you, Blaze? What do you think?"

Blaze turns her head to look at Silver,"It doesn`t really matter to me where we decide to go."

By this point, the Sonic Gang has arrived in the main part of Station Square that everyone is so familiar with. The tall buildings, the train station, the hotel and burger shop. It is quite some distance from Cream`s neighbourhood. But time is running out. There is only a few daylight hours left before it will begin to turn night. Everyone will have to make up their minds of where they want to go for the day before it gets too late to have time to enjoy it. Soon, the conversation among them all heats up more. They are getting so engulfed with arguing with each other of where to go that they aren`t paying much attention to where exactly their feet are taking them.

Before he realizes it, Sonic bumps into Shadow. He immediately stumbles back and holds back his apology upon the realization of who he has made contact with. Why doesn`t Sonic want to apologize to Shadow for bumping into him? Because Shadow usually doesn`t seem to take apologies...Everyone in the group immediately stop walking when Sonic stops, all engulfed in surprise to see Shadow. Shadow, however, seems quite perturbed about the rude interruption. He looks to Sonic with that same dark look as he usually has coupled with the dead silence he is so famous for. The two speedsters stare down one another for a time without a word. In fact, the whole gang is silenced.

In Shadow`s hand is an unlabeled bag, which seems to be quite full of some items unseen to the group. Ever the nosy one, Rouge bravely speaks to Shadow from where she stands,"Whatcha got there, Shadow? Went shopping today?"

At this, Silver can`t help but make one of his snide comments about the dark one,"Where could you possibly shop at that they would let you in without any of us with you and not call the police on you just for being there?"

Shadow huffs in his usual arrogant manner and walks forward, determined to continue his way to his intended destination. He doesn`t walk around Sonic but rather their shoulders bump into each other as Shadow passes him. Sonic steps aside at the shoulder bump occurring,"Hey-!"

As Shadow walks on by, not saying a word, Silver gets aggitated over being ignored. He quickly trots up to Shadow. He holds his arm out and grabs for anything of Shadow`s to hold him back, wanting an answer out of him. The object Silver grabs is the bag in Shadow`s hand. Silver grabs it and pulls on it quite hard,"Hey, I asked you a question-!"

The handle of the bag breaks from Silver pulling on it and the contents of the bag spill out onto the sidewalk. Everyone stares in horror when they see just what Shadow had bought.

Women`s clothing!

There are skirts, dresses, shoes, feminine tops, socks and undergarments among the mass of material. Surprisingly, they are all light colours which is in great contrast to Shadow`s usual dark colours.

Shadow looks quite irritated at Silver making a mess of the clothes. He gives Silver a shove, pushing him back a few steps from the clothes. Silver doesn`t retaliate or react to the shove as he normally would. He is too shocked to see that Shadow has bought several women`s clothing. His mouth is gaped open, looking down at the garments. He is just as surprised as everyone else. Each person in the Sonic Gang have their own way of silently displaying their shock. They`re all thinking the same thing but it is Fang who says it. He points his index finger to Shadow in an accusing manner,"You`re cross-dressing?!"

At this time, Shadow is kneeling down, gathering the clothes to put them back in the bag. When Fang makes his remark, Shadow pauses and lifts his head up, looking at Fang. He narrows his eyes, feeling quite irritated at the remark. It should be obvious that the clothes are all much too tiny to fit his masculine frame. Then Shadow picks up the rest of the clothes, puts them in the bag and stands up. Since the one handle is now broken, Shadow wraps an arm around the bag, holding it against his chest. He turns around and walks away from the group without saying a word.

Sonic has his hands on his hips, mouth nearly dropped to the floor,"I don`t believe it..."

Knuckles is in a near spaz over the ordeal,"Shadow! Of all people! He is REALLY acting out of character!"

Amy has a small smile on her face,"Those were some nice clothes he picked out. I`d wear some of them. I wonder where he shopped at?"

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