clereen's story chapter 10

Bad Romance

Clereen had never realised Sonic had such a soft side to him before her night with him on the roof. It made her have a new admiration for him. Once that idea had entered her head she started to grow strangely curious about him. She noticed his waddling walk similar to hers and it made her feel warm inside. She suddenly found herself starting to feel rather giddy around Sonic and found it increasingly difficult to speak to him as the days went by. She wondered if she was perhaps starting with some kind of sickness or if she hit her head too hard the last time she tried to climb the tree in the extensive garden of the mansion.

She asked Knuckles about it, him being the one she trusted the most with most of her emotional and embarrassing problems. Like when Clereen managed to get gummy worms stuck way up in her nose after a dare from Amy but that story is for another time. Knuckles managed to get some medical information out of Tails without raising suspicion and did a few tests but Clereen didn’t seem ill at all. As she was being examined, Sonic passed by the doorway of her bedroom she was sitting in. Knuckles looked on at Clereen and sighed as he saw her blush like a radish when she saw him. He found a fire inside him growing.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, Clereen. Get out of my sight” Knuckles said with little distain. Clereen stared back at him. She could tell his tone of voice was rather aggressive and she hadn’t done anything to deserve it. At least not that she knew of.

“Go on! Get the fuck out!” Knuckles shouted as he shooed her away like a mangy stray mutt caught in the kitchen dumpster. Clereen considered it best to get out as fast as possible. She didn’t want to cause any unnecessary arguments. So she continued down the corridor to meet up with Sonic. Soon she found herself not able to think of anything other than Sonic. It didn’t dawn on her as an obsession but more like a fondness she never knew.

She noticed she suddenly felt much more awkward and aware of people’s feelings towards her than she had done in the past, even in the same conversations. Something weird was going on but all of those thoughts were blurred by the thought of Sonic’s beautiful and surprisingly soft quills. She knew they were because she was curious enough to touch them in his sleep. A part of her screamed to her that this was kinda creepy but she couldn’t help herself.

Meanwhile Sonic had taken to try and avoid her as much as possible. It was weird how she suddenly wanted to always be around him like a fly to rotten meat. She was just always...there. She had even started to butt into his conversations with his other friends and had become some sort of bodyguard. Although it was a nice sentiment, it was also a curse as it always made things really strange and awkward around him and Sonic was never good with awkward.

The more and more Clereen spent time with Sonic, the more and more Clereen noticed a feeling of distain between her and Knuckles. Clereen wasn’t sure what she had done at first so she thought there would be no harm in asking. After all, Knuckles had said he admired her honesty in situations like this.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Clereen? Can’t you leave me alone? I’m busy” Knuckles protested

“You see?! THIS is exactly what I am talking about! Every time I am with Sonic you throw some kind of hissy fit and tell me to bugger off! And don’t you give me that bullshit! You were never busy before, Knuckles! You always had time for me! What the fuck have you got to do anyway, Knuckles? Find the chaos emeralds?! You know we haven’t any success with those for weeks now!” Clereen yelled accusingly, which made her feel surprisingly brave and accomplished like she was an interrogator in a police drama. Suddenly she felt like she had a little insight as to how Amy and Tails feel when they shout at people although obviously for completely different reasons.

“And you have never acted like such a smartass before, Clereen! So what if you are hanging out with Sonic! I don’t give a fuck! He’s my fucking rival. I don’t fucking care what happens to him! And what he hell happened to your language?!” Knuckles replied with increasing anguish

“This isn’t about Sonic or my language! This is about me! You are clearly changing the subject!” Clereen exclaimed while pointing to herself to accentuate the point but then she stopped for a minute and stood back, silent in thought. Knuckles didn’t say anything, dreading what she was thinking of. Then Clereen gave him a cheeky grin which made Knuckles feel rather unsettled.

“Oooooh I get it...YOU ARE JELOUS! OH MY GOD!” Clereen announced loudly to the world as she made her great discovery.

Knuckles blushed bright red. “I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about!” Clereen found it hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing in his face until eventually Knuckles yelled.

“I don’t have to deal with this shit!” before leaving the room in a huff but Clereen only paused for a second or two before bellowing in laugher again and yelling down the corridor to him

“YOU SO JELLYYYYYYY!!”

Later that day, Tails started to tell Clereen about how she should be cutting down on cake as she was taking a slice of chocolate cake from the fridge. Without thinking about it too much, Clereen found herself saying.

“I can eat what I want!” She felt rather proud to finally have the courage to say something like that to her as it had been bugging her something chronic these little pep talks she would have when she was just trying to enjoy herself.

It had never crossed her mind much more than a minute before but now it seemed every other word of Tails’ had some hidden meaning and it pissed her off. Like she was any better! She needed someone to tell her what HER faults were. Then she wouldn’t have any room to judge. That comment blew up into a full heated argument and Knuckles not being in the best mood locked Clereen in her bedroom to stop the fight.

This had never happened before in the whole time she had been here and it bothered her a LOT! This reminded her of the times when she was punished for bad behaviour with her father and she hated it. She wasn’t a child anymore! She screamed with frustration late into the night and never really apologised for it either. For some reason, she didn’t feel guilty. Not in the slightest. At least, that is what she told herself whenever she thought about an apology.

She had also come to spend more time with Amy. Fulfilling dares and watching more drama shows on TV. It had never interested her before but now watching someone get what they deserved seemed so much sweeter. She couldn’t imagine why she felt bad for them before. Why should she? They had caused the problem so they should be punished. Isn’t that how it always works?

One day, Clereen found Sonic trying to sneak a hamburger out of the fridge. ‘This is my chance!’ Clereen thought to herself.

“I LIKE FOOD TO!” Clereen screamed as she tried desperately to grin in a friendly way but ended up looking more like a crazy stalking ex girlfriend. Clereen quickly got out a slice of cake to prove to him the truth of her words. Not that it was needed as she had forgotten everyone was already very aware of her eating habits.

“errr...” Sonic just stared back at Clereen, not knowing how to respond. Sonic wasn’t great at conversation at the best of times but this was turning out to be a very awkward situation. Sonic then heard someone approaching.

“Tails!” Sonic exclaimed while also trying to stay quiet.

“Sonic, where are you?” Tails said with a stern tone.

“He’s here!” Clereen yelled out to her, trying to be helpful. Sonic tried desperately to signal to her to shut up but it was too late and Tails came round the corner into the kitchen. Tails gave Sonic an angry and accusing stare.

“I told you, no more hamburgers! You are fat enough already!” Tails exclaimed while grabbing the burger and putting it back in the fridge. Clereen watched Sonic’s sad face as Tails dragged him back around the kitchen corner. Clereen hung her head as she realised she had made a stupid mistake.

“Oh no! What have I done!” Clereen exclaimed to herself before an idea sparked in her head.

“I know!” Clereen yelled to herself before rushing off to find Holly, the family chef. Holly was swaying her hips and hoovering the sitting room carpet, singing with her usual vigour and energy.

“Holly! Holly!” Clereen called with earnest as she bounced towards her and tugged on her dress.

“Yes, yes, whatever is the matter child?” Holly responded after she turned the hoover off.

“I made a terrible mistake and I need you to help me make a cake to make for it. Pleeeeeeeeeeease!” Clereen whined with urgency.

“Alright, alright child. Don’t you lose your soft brown fur now. Just let me finish the hoovering and we can get started” Holly answered but Clereen wasn’t in the mood for waiting.

“But I have to make it NOW or he will hate me forever! Holly, pleeeee-he-heeeease!” Clereen said sounding more and more desperate.

“Well, I’m sorry little one but you are just going to have to wait. This room ain’t gonna clean itself, you know” Holly said, disappointed she couldn’t help.

“Oh DAMN IT!” Clereen screamed in anger before rushing off towards the kitchen. If Holly wasn’t going to help then she would have to do it herself.

Surely there was some cooking recipe book somewhere she could follow. Clereen looked in almost all the cupboards in the kitchen before finally finding an old folder with lots of laminated recipe lists in it. It was clearly well used as the pages were yellow with age despite being in plastic cases and even the binder to the folder was bent making it hard to turn the pages.

“Ah! This one! It’s perfect!” Clereen exclaimed as she saw a three layered chocolate cake with toffee cream filling.

“Sonic loves chocolate and toffee!” she said gleefully

So Clereen got to work on the cake with great speed. Clereen had the image in her head of what it would look like. It would be a grand chocolate cake with green icing on and around it to represent the expansive garden around the mansion. It would have the mansion in the middle with the spot Sonic and Clereen lay on the roof nice and big. Then she would have a little Sonic laying on the cake roof with her beside him. This was going to be amazing and it would remind her and him about how important that talk was for their friendship.

However, Clereen knew nothing about cooking and didn’t even know what ounces and tablespoons were. It wasn’t even easy to know the ingredients as some of the words were half rubbed away with age so she had to improvise quite a lot. She had seen Holly just chucking it in there without reading any stupid instructions so surely it can’t be that hard, right? WRONG! Clereen couldn’t even understand the instructions correctly.

“Wait I was supposed to stir the chocolate when melting it? You didn’t tell me that earlier! Now the edges are burnt ARGHHHHH!!” Clereen grew increasingly frustrated with every mistake she made but she tried to keep her cool. If she could just get this thing in the oven things would be sorted. At least that was what she thought. Despite finally getting the damn thing in there, Clereen couldn’t shake her impatience. ‘Well, if it takes an hour on 180 degrees then it should take 5 minutes on 230 degrees right?’ Clereen thought to herself as she turned the oven temperature up.

Clereen brushed her head with a great sigh of relief as she sat down on the kitchen floor near the oven. She had some time to relax now and think about the decorations she was going to make on the cake later. But then she soon realised that she would have to create the decorations beforehand otherwise the cake would be going cold. Cake is OK cold but it would be even better if she could give it to him while it was still warm, fresh from the oven.

Clereen got to work on creating the little sonic figurine made of icing but the icing was too liquidy and whenever she tried to create his face it melted into his chest making him look like an old, creepy, grandpa rat.

“NO!” Clereen screamed in anger. By now she was getting in the realms of frustration where there was no return. Her visions of a perfect cake was fading along with her hope of making up with Sonic. As she started to really lose her hope she lost even more of her patience and temper. She tried again and again screaming in anger at every time she failed to make Sonic’s beautiful face. She was screaming so loud now that everyone could hear her across the entire mansion and she was completely unaware of the little spectating audience that was growing outside the kitchen. No-one would dare go in since she was in such a bad temper they were surely to get yelled at if they even stepped foot into her anger bubble she had put herself in.

No-one that is except Holly. Holly felt the most sympathy for her. She felt guilty knowing that she had gone to her for help earlier and she had refused so she volunteered to go into the kitchen to talk to her. Holly came in cautiously, creeping her head round the kitchen door in the most gentle approach she could muster.

She gently mustered “Clereen. Are you doing OK in here child?” Holly said

Clereen was still struggling to get the face of Sonic right and now it barely resembled any creature that existed on this earth. She didn’t turn away from her efforts as she yelled “OH so NOW you want to HELP?!” with the most aggressively sarcastic tone ever. Clereen was going to continue her protesting rant when Holly’s eyes quickly caught sight of the fire coming out of the oven.

“OH MY GOODNESS GRAVY! CLEREEN, SWEET HEART GET OUT OF THERE!!” Holly cried as she ran in to stop the flames.

Clereen carried on with her rant completely unaware of what was going on “NO! I AM GOING TO MAKE THIS CAKE NOW! YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE!” But before Clereen could continue she suddenly started coughing from the black fumes coming out of the oven and soon saw the flames. Clereen screamed in panic before Holly hoisted her up and threw her out of the kitchen like a bomb about to detonate.

Clereen saw everyone else crowded around and they helped her up onto her feet. She stared unbelieving at the spectacle around her and they all just looked at her with sorry eyes. She then turned as they all heard the fire alarm blaring away but something was off. Clereen realised she was in an entirely different world to everyone else. She hadn’t even heard the fire alarm at all until now.

“We were calling for you. Why didn’t you answer” Tails asked with concern and earnest. Clereen didn’t respond. What could she say? That she didn’t hear them? Surely there was no way she couldn’t have but she didn’t remember them saying anything.

Holly finally managed to get the fire out with the fire blanket and a sand fire extinguisher and came out telling the others it was safe. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, except for Clereen. Clereen couldn’t stop thinking of the cake and what had happened. Clereen rushed inside as soon as she said it was safe and looked around. The smoke had mostly dispersed by now but there was still enough to get her to cough.

Holly tried to encourage her to leave because of the smoke but Clereen ignored her as she saw the figure of Sonic icing she was making. She stared at it for a good while, while everyone watched quietly, tension all around the room. Clereen looked back at the sooty black Holly and everyone’s sorrowful faces and guilt swept over her.

Clereen burst into tears “I’M SORRY! IT’S ALL MY FAULT!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!” Clereen squealed as Holly came to hold her softly in her large hard working arms. The others also sympathised and gave her the typical ooohs and aaahs and ‘it’s not your faults’ whispered softly in her ears along with pats on the back and head. Amy excluded of course as Amy wouldn’t ever do that sort of thing.

“I JUST WANTED TO MAKE A CAKE FOR YOU, SONIC!” Clereen cried out loud.

“What? Why?” Sonic asked with confusion

“BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!” Clereen screamed but desperate in her emotions it took her a moment to notice how strange that sounded but once she had she wished she had never said it. All Clereen could see were stares of accusation and she grew bright red before rushing off to her bedroom crying.

After a while of sobbing into her pillow, Clereen heard knocking on her bedroom door.

“Clereen? Can I come in?” It was Knuckles voice and it was comforting for her to hear. Clereen went and braced herself with a deep breath before opening the door.

“Do I look awful?” Clereen asked Knuckles as her slightly swollen wet face waited solemnly for his response.

“What are you talking about?” Knuckles said with genuine confusion

“My face is all red and swollen isn’t it” Clereen said, still sniffly from the tears.

“Don’t be stupid. You look fine” Knuckles said rather gently which made Clereen feel a little better. She smiled as she moved aside to let him into the bedroom.

“But you never used to care about that before” Knuckles said as he turned around when she had closed the bedroom door.

“Well I do now” Clereen said, feeling a little irritated by what the connotations of that statement could mean before then softening to thought that she was over-reacting. Even so, she found it more difficult to apologise this time, as if it would mean the loss of her dignity and individuality.

“How do I look?” Clereen asked Knuckles honestly

“Like a Clereen who has been crying” Knuckles answered as he put his arms around her for a hug. This hug felt so much better than previous hugs after it had felt so much earned. Clereen was about to worry about the way he said that but she brushed the thought to the back of her mind. There were other things more important and she wished she had thought about that sooner. The thought made her eyes water again. She made the effort to force the words out she so dreaded.

“I’m sorry” Clereen said

“I know. It’s OK. You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to” Knuckles said with a smile

“But it’s kinda wrong if I don’t” Clereen said while shuffling uncomfortably where she stood

“Well, it is appreciated” Knuckles said. Clereen looked up at him and smiled.

“I’m sorry to. I’ve been so immature the last few weeks” Knuckles said

“It’s OK” Clereen answered with all honesty but then her face fell.

Knuckles noticed “What’s up?” he asked

“I have just been feeling so...conflicted recently. What is wrong with me?” Clereen asked, looking concerned.

“You’re a teenager, Clereen” they heard Tail’s say as she came into the room uninvited

“Having arguments and fluctuating emotions is just what teenagers do” Tails explained

“I didn’t exactly invite you in, you know” Clereen pointed out at Tails with a little distain

“You see” Tails said and Clereen shuffled on the spot when she realised she was right. She hadn’t really thought about it but that was sort of unnecessary and rude of her to say like that.

Clereen sighed but found it difficult again to apologise.

“It’s OK. Don’t worry about it” Tails said with her hand on Clereen’s back. Clereen smiled.

“Dinner will be ready soon. Do you want to help set up the table? I think Holly would appreciate it” Tails suggested. Clereen nodded and they both left the room. Knuckles was left alone but he smiled to himself. Then he sighed and shook his head before then also leaving the room.