...I Will Survive, I Will Survive...

Amy walked through the schools double doors with several students and stopped. The school was even bigger on the inside. There was a large staircase leading up to the second floor in the middle of the main hall. Looking up, Amy saw other teens on the upper levels. She also saw the banner displaying the school's mascot, the Ridgecrest Whirlwinds. Actually, it was kinda hard to miss. It was huge and orange, ringed with black and had a picture of a blue tornado in the center.

Feeling incredibly small, Amy slowly moved forward. Where the heck was she supposed to go?! She didn't know where the office was, and there weren't any signs. Amy took a deep breath before she panicked. This was no place to be scared. A group of girls bustled past Amy, cell phones out and beeping. One of them, a black and white skunk and obviously the leader, looked Amy over with a critical eye. Amy smiled at her, trying to make a good impression. The skunk pointed her out to her group, said something, and they all burst out laughing.

Amy glared at them as they walked on, her stomach tightening into a hard little knot. 'Brats. Now I know who to avoid later on.'

She looked around again and saw a gold lion with red hair sitting at the base of the stairs, plucking a guitar; the plaintive notes of 'Cry Me a River' floating through the air. Forgetting her less-than-helpful experience, Amy made her way over to him.

"Office is the third door to the left." He said before she'd even opened her mouth. He kept his eyes on his guitar, so he didn't see her flush. At least, she hoped he didn't− his eyes were hidden behind his shaggy hair.

"Uh, thanks. I'm Amy by the way."

"Draco. Good luck." He replied, switching over to 'Feel Good Inc.' as Amy moved in the right direction. Maybe today wouldn't be so horrible after all! 'Mental note: trust Draco.' Amy thought, striding into the office with a little more confidence. In no time at all, she had a detailed map of the school, her locker information, and a bell schedule.

Oooookay, first class− Algebra. Great. Amy climbed the stairs and forged her way through the crowd of students. On her quest on not getting lost, Amy ignored the looks she was getting, determined to find her locked and some firm footing. But she could probably guess what they were thinking. 'Who's that?, Never seen her before., She's definitely not from around here.'

With immense relief, Amy found and opened her locker. She threw in her backpack, pulled out a pencil and notebook, and took a step toward her class.

"EEEEE-YOW-EEE-AARGH!!!"

Amy thought she was having a heart attack. She jumped into the air and looked down. A white cat with brown hair was sitting cross-legged on the floor. She was rubbing her tail that had a perfect imprint of the underside of Amys shoe. "Sheesh, if you want my attention, just poke me or something." She grumbled, looking disgruntled. "You don't have to go extreme about it."

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I didn't see you down there!"

"What?" The cat looked up and her blue eyes widened. Faster than was possible, she bounced to her feet, grinning. "Oh it's cool, it happens all the time. I just keep forgetting to wrap my tail around my waist. But I forget a lot of things lately, so I cant really use that excuse can I?" She gave a very baffled Amy a toothy smile and waited for the hedgehog to say something. It took a while, but Amy finally said, "Um...no?"

The cat giggled, her poofy ponytail waving. "Ha! Look at your face! I'll bet you're totally freaked out by now. Don't worry, I'm not insane. Most of the time. I'm Elise the Mentally Unstable. Or the cat, either one." She rolled her eyes and shrugged.

It was incredibly hard not to laugh at the end of Elise's random narrative. Grinning back, Amy decided she liked the cat. "I'm Amy, Amy Rose. My family just moved here."

"Ah, a newbie in uncharted land!" Elise went all serious and slung an arm around Amy's shoulders. "Fear not dear friend, for tho the road be perilous, thy strength of heart shall bear thee through."

"..."

"Uh, but in all un-seriousness, don't panic. After a while, you'll get used to things."

"Really?"

"Nope. PENCIL!"

Scaring Amy for the second time in five minutes, Elise dived off somewhere. A green hedgehog wearing sunglasses walked by and muttered to his friends, "I swear that cat is popping ecstasy or something."

The cat in question came back, holding an American flag pencil and looking just a bit uncomfortable. "Sorry, I'm a bit of a pencil hoarder. People think I'm weird."

"No, no that's...ok. I collect stamps. Or I used to..."

Right at that moment, the bell rang.

"Ah well, I'd best be going. Farewell-ith Amy, band awaits!"

Amy shook her head at the cat's retreating figure. Well, that one was odd, make no mistake. Still, she seemed nice enough. 'Maybe I'll see her later.'

~*~*~*~

By some unspoken miracle, Amy made it to lunch with hardly a scratch. Algebra was a horror, but that's just how the subject was. She made several other friends in Health and Biology. An armadillo named Mighty who was really good with CPR, Ashes, a gray and blue hedgehog with a short attention span, and two gerbil twins Aaron and Anna. Following the stream of teens into the cafeteria, she spotted Elise sitting with a group of friends. The cat promptly waved Amy over with a lot of enthusiasm.

"Guys, this is Amy! She just moved here. Maddie, budge up, make some space."

Elise's group, The Random Sisters, were a lot of fun, if a little crazy. There was Carissa, a black fox who loved to randomly break out into song, Maddie, a purple and turquoise wolf that was acting as 'alpha' and hated every second of it, Jessie, a maroon rabbit that just wouldn't sit still, Tyler, a dark red lion who was pretty quiet most of the time and occasionally slipped something in, and Crystal, a bouncy pink and green bear with black streaks in her hair. She zoned in and out of the conversation with her MP3 player.

Ten minutes later, Amy was reaching for her Mountain Dew when Carissa, who was sitting next to her, froze, ears pricked up as high as they would go, and eyes very wide. "Incoming! Third to the left!"

Every head, except Amy's and Crystal's, turned. Eyes were glazed, lips curled into dreamy smiles, and every three seconds someone let out a sigh.

"Uh..." Amy tried to see what had captured their attention. "What are you looking at?"

Jessie pointed. "That." She said breathlessly.

A hedgehog was walking by, and he was probably the hottest guy Amy had ever seen. His fur and quills were a deep black and highlighted with red stripes. The Zumez jacke he wore, matched his fur perfectly. His eyes were red and calculating as they swept over the tables, his expression somewhat blank. The Random Sisters all looked away before he noticed them, but Amy, not really sure what was going on, met his gaze. In the few seconds before she looked away, she saw him raise his eyebrow and a small spark of curiosity danced in his ruby eyes. He walked on and Amy looked down at her pizza, her heart thumping. 'Whoa...hot...'

"Wow! He looked at you!"

Amy raised her eyes to stare at the others, still feeling a little star-struck. "Who was that?"

"Only the best looking guy in the universe!" crooned Jessie.

"The only boy worth staring at!" Maddie breathed.

"The very essence of hot-ness!" Carissa gibbered.

"The sexy, tall-dark-and-handsome hedgehog that every girl has dreamed of!" Elise's eyes were unfocused.

As one they all sighed, "Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Amy sweat-dropped at the love-struck looks on her friend's faces. Crystal blinking pulling out one of her earphones. "What?"

~*~*~*~

Still a bit incredulous, Amy walked into Computer Tech. Ok yeah, he was hot, but was he that drool-worthy? He didn't really look that fun to be around, all dark and serious. Amy didn't notice that she'd walked right past the object of her musings until she sat down in the row behind him. She stiffened and stared at him. He seemed to zone out the world as he read the webpage before him. However, as if he sensed her, his head rose and he turned around. Amy (she was ready for it this time) quickly watched a blue-furred kangaroo bother his girlfriend and get whacked in the head until she thought it was safe. Shadow had turned back to his computer, but it looked like he was sighing.

The hedgehog flew out of Amy's mind as the class started. The teacher demanded undivided attention as he introduced the section they'd be working on. Who knew Excel was so complicated? When the bell finally ran, Amy stood and stretched. The day was almost over, and she'd survived!

She'd made some friends, had found her classes, and besides the Brat Bunch she'd met this morning, nobody had made her feel like an outsider! She felt good as she headed to English.

Amy had barely made it to her locker before something pushed her against the wall and held her there with surprising strength.

"Say it's true!"

"S−say what's true?! And let go of me!"

Elise rolled her eyes impatiently, but stepped back to give Amy some breathing room. "Well duh, do I have to spell it out? You. Have. A. Class. With. Shadow. Do you deny it?"

"I−whoa, whoa, wait! How did you know?"

"HA, that confirms it! It's true! Oh, and I have spies everywhere. Speaking of which..." Elise turned to a purple chameleon who'd appeared out of nowhere and gave him ten bucks. "Thanks Espio."

Espio bowed and melted out of sight. Amy stared at the spot hed been standing, somewhat disturbed. She had freakin SPIES?! Just what was this place she'd moved to?!

"You are so lucky."

Amy sighed in exasperation. "Oh come on Elise, how am I lucky? I don't even talk to him. Besides," She continued, opening her locker and snatching her backpack, "He hasn't shown any sign of wanting to know me, so I'm sure well just ignore each other."

"You could always talk to him."

"I prefer it when guys make the first move."

"Old fashioned, but I still like ya for it. Have fun!"

Oh she'd have fun alright. Amy knew this the moment she saw a black and red hedgehog at the back of the classroom. She was assigned to sit next to him, seeing as that was the only empty seat left. Shadow completely ignored her as she sat down, absently writing in his binder.

And it was like that throughout the rest of the class. Amy divided her time between listening to the teacher ramble on about Shakespeare and staring at Shadow with growing annoyance. He never looked at her, said anything to her, nothing! He just...sat there! She knew that he knew she was there, and yet he pretended that she was just a patch of air! She remembered what Elise said earlier and couldn't take it anymore! The teacher assigned a partner assignment, so the room was filled with chatter. Amy turned to Shadow.

"Hi, I'm Amy and I−"

"My name is Shadow; no you can't have my number, cell number, address, or email. I don't date and have no wish to do so, thank you." He cut across her in a bored voice.

There were several seconds of awkward silence before Amy was able to say something.

"I...wasn't going to say that."

"Hmph, that's what they all say. But since girls have shallow minds from constantly thinking about looks, make-up, and the latest hair accessories, they're not very good at lying."

If the classroom hadn't been so noisy, you could've heard a pin drop. Amy gaped at Shadow in disbelief as he deftly twiddled his pencil in between his fingers and asked in that same bored tone, "So, do you understand what were supposed to do?" He didn't even look at her.

'Oh no he DIDN'T?!'

"No, I'm afraid I don't. I was too busy thinking about looks, make-up, and the latest hair accessories to pay attention with this shallow mind of mine. Could you please tell me what were doing so I can instantly forget?!" Amy's voice was the perfect blend of sarcasm and venom. At that, Shadow finally turned, his red eyes annoyed.

"Since when do girls have sarcasm streaks?"

"Since when did boys get sexist?" Amy shot back, doing her best to control her temper. People closest to their table started to stare, but she didn't care.

"Because, nowadays girls are just as predictable as the rising sun!"

"Oh, well I hate to rain on you parade buddy, but I am NOT your average girl! The sooner you learn that, the better!"

They glared at each other− irritated male versus incensed female. Shadow's glare was stronger than hers however, and Amy looked away, scowling at the assignment on the white board.

"Hasn't anybody taught you the values of manners?" Shadow muttered.

"Nope, but the next class I find, I'm taking you with me!" Amy snapped.

The bell rang. Amy stalked out the classroom her face a dark thundercloud. What a JERK! Values of manners?! He started it, this stupid hypocrite! Shadow caught up to Amy and stood in front of her, not quite done with her yet.

"I don't know if anyone's told you, but things are done differently here." He said frostily.

Amy glared up at him −he was and inch or two taller than her− determined to have the final say. "That's obvious Shadow. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home and read my 25 copies of Seventeen and eat some ice cream, like everybody else!"

That being said, she pushed past him before her temper got out of control. She hurried down the hallway brushing away tears of anger. Whispers of confusion followed her. On her way down the stairs, she passed the group of girls that had laughed at her earlier. The leader looked over at her and called out in a sneering voice, "Oh look, it's the new girl. What's wrong? Had a bad−"

"Oh just shut up you stupid diva! I don't have time to deal with your crap right now!"

Amy's temper was like a raging volcano and a legend back at home. They occasionally called her 'Mount McAmy', but only when she was in a good mood. Much, much, later Amy would enjoy the look on that skunk's face and the snorts from passersby. She'd probably just made a potential enemy, but right now she didn't care.

~*~*~*~

Amy collapsed onto her bed with an exhausted sigh. School had never been so tiring. 'You're still getting used to things here, that's all.' She thought, kicking off her shoes. 'Like the heat, insane friends, and really stupid jerks.'

Before she fell back into a bad mood, Amy rolled off her bed and booted up her computer. She silently counted to 100 by tens until the web browser loaded up. Amy signed into her email account. There were several messages there from her friends back home. Smiling, Amy clicked on the message from flowerQuEen21, aka: Cream.

Hi Amy, how R U doing? I miss
you a lot. Was school ok?

Amy fought back a surge of homesickness and typed a reply.

Hey Cream. I miss U too.
School...it was ok. Made some
new friends. You'd love them.

Sending that, Amy went back to her inbox. Her smile faded as she read the address from the second message. running_Dude4reAl. Carefully, as if the monitor would blow up the moment she opened it.

Hey Ames! Sorry I wasn't there
to see ya off. It's just that Sally
had a dance and

Aaaand that was time for her to go to bed before she started crying. Snuggling into the warm protection of her bed later that night, Amy tried to fall asleep and get ready to face the next day in California.

Author's Note: Yello! Anyone you don't know here belongs to me and/or the Random Sisters.

R&R peoples!