Saturday, September 11th, 2004

Hey, sparkleshine101 here, with my first ever fanfic! Now I can't give too much away, but i'll give a brief summary: Okay, well Sandy's owner Hillary goes shopping one day, and runs into an extremely cute guy, and falls for him immediately. Who is this mysterious guy, and what will Noel say when he finds out about the new couple? You'll have to read it to find out! There will also be some S/M in it, and although the hamsters are barely in the first few chapters, they will be there, I promise! And now, without further ado, introducing...

A Shoulder to Cry On

By sparkleshine101

Disclaimer: I don't own Hamtaro, any of the Hamtaro characters, or anything related to the show. I only own the tapes of the episodes that I taped of my TV. Anything in this story that is similar to something already in existance is purely coincidental, and unintentional. Now on with the story!

Chapter 1: Chaos in Aisle 12

It was a warm Saturday morning, and the sun had long since risen by the time the small, tiger-striped hamster, known as Sandy, began to wake up. Sandy smiled as she remembered the dream she had been having. It had been about a certain tall, brown hamster. She blushed at the thought of Maxwell, and couldn't wait to visit him at the clubhouse as soon as her owner Hillary left the apartment. But that didn't seem like it would happen anytime soon; Hillary didn't have work this weekend, and was reading the newspaper at the kitchen table. As she turned the page, a large advertisement caught her eye, and she began to read it out loud.

"Need food, toys, or other supplies for your pet? Pete's Pet Palace has it all! It's the largest, cheapest, and best pet superstore in town! Bring your pets to the grand opening on Saturday, June 18th for a chance for you and your pets to meet Dr. Lion: pet expert extraordinaire!"

Below the advertisement was a map of the town, and where the pet superstore was located. Hillary set her newspaper down on the table, and then glanced from the ad to the empty food dish in the hamster cage. She walked across the room, and took Sandy out of her cage. She looked down at her hamster and smiled, "Well Sandy, it looks like we're going shopping!"

Sandy sighed in disappointment as Hillary placed her into her travel carrier. "I guess I won't be seeing my friends today after all," she thought.

Several minutes later, the pair had left Hillary's apartment, and were walking through town. As Hillary paced through the marketplace, Sandy took in the sights all around her. She was looking for the stores where some of her friends lived, hoping to see a familiar face. They soon passed by the eyeglass store where Dexter lived, the convenience store where Howdy lived, and the stationary store where Cappy lived. Just as she was beginning to wonder where exactly this "Pete's Pet Palace" was located, she noticed that they were passing by the bookstore where Maxwell lived. Sandy once again became lost in her thoughts of the book-loving hamster, when Hillary stopped walking. Sandy looked around, and then she saw it: the pet store. It was a large, white building; much bigger than all the stores surrounding it. The windows were covered with brightly coloured posters that had pictures of various pets on them. Above the automatic doors, in big red letters, were the words "Pete's Pet Palace".

"Well, this is the place!" Hillary said brightly, and with that, she walked in.

The inside of Pete's Pet Palace was even bigger than the outside. There were aisles upon aisles all the way down one length of the store. Hillary began walking down the aisle marked "Aisle 12", the one with a hamster picture on the sign, and was intrigued with what she saw. The shelves were stocked with every type of hamster supply imaginable! She continued walking with a steady pace, gazing at the interesting hamster gadgets stored on the walls around her. Before she knew what happened, Crash, she collided with another customer. The victim managed to maintain his balance, however, Hillary was not so lucky, and fell to the floor, dropping Sandy's carrier on the way down.

The customer put down his own hamster's carrier and quickly walked over to Hillary and reached out his hand. "You okay?" (A/N: is this starting to sound familiar to you? This part is "borrowed" from a certain episode of Hamtaro! Can you figure out which one? See my notes at the bottom later.)

"Yeah, I'm alright," Hillary said as she looked up. As soon as she saw his face, she had to do a double take. This guy was absolutely adorable! He had slightly shaggy, chestnut brown hair that fell just past his ears, and his eyes, a gorgeous shade of blue, were framed by a small pair of glasses. And best of all, he looked around her age - 18 or 19. Hillary gladly accepted his gesture of help, and he pulled her up off the ground. "I-I'm r-really sorry about t-that... I wasn't really looking w-where I was g-going," she managed to say.

"No, it's my fault, I wasn't paying attention either." He said, taking half of the blame. "Now you're sure you're alright?"

Hillary's cheeks turned pink, and she nodded. "Don't worry about me," she said. She was nervous, but this was the perfect opportunity to ask him. She just decided to go for it, "...err... I didn't happen to uh... catch your name."

The guy smiled a smile amazing enough to make any girl melt, and said, "The name's Jake, and you are?"

"I'm Hillary, nice to meet ya!" she said enthusiastically, still trying to rid her cheeks of the pink. Jake smiled again, and then noticed Sandy's carrier on the floor, where Hillary had dropped it. He picked it up, and handed it to Hillary. "I believe this belongs to you."

Hillary nodded. "This is my hamster, Sandy," she said as she took Sandy out of the carrier.

"Hey, I've got a hamster too!" Jake said, as he patted Sandy on her head. "One second okay?"

Sandy watched with interest as the male human walked over to the hamster carrier several steps away. "I don't think I've ever seen this guy before," she thought. "Yet something about him seems, like so familiar... But I just can't, like, put my paw on it... And I wonder who his hamster is... hmm..." Jake stood up, his hamster securely in the palms of his hands, and walked back to Hillary and Sandy. Sandy's jaw dropped when she saw the hamster that Jake was carrying. It was Maxwell.

Well, that concludes Chapter 1! I hope everyone liked it! Please rate and review it! Now, before I sign off, I have just a few notes...

1. I made up the name "Pete's Pet Palace". Interesting name, no? I don't think it already exists...

2. I have no idea who Maxwell's real owner is. All I know is that he is the eldest son of a bookstore owner... Well if anyone actually knows, please let me know, but for now, he shall remain "Jake". I just like the name, that's all.

3. If you know what episode that one part of my story was from (only with different characters), tell me in your review! I'll mention all the guesses in my next chapter, and reveal the actual answer!

Well that's it for now, this is sparkleshine101, signing off! Byebye!