Monday morning came, and Amy found herself up nearly an hour before her alarm. She hadn't been able to sleep much, she was too excited at the prospect of entering the school holding Sonic's hand. She imagined people staring as they sauntered in, and whispering. They would all be blown away by how cute the new couple was, and be jealous of the love so clearly resonating between them. And then it would come time for class, and as they parted Sonic would lean in and kiss her cheek, telling her he'd miss her. Yes, Amy was sure of it, today was going to be perfect!

Because today was going to be so important, Amy spent longer than usual picking an outfit and doing her hair. Once she was ready she really couldn't wait, so she bolted into the hallway and knocked on Cream's door. A very surprised looking Cream answered the door after several impatient moments on Amy's part.

"Amy? I wasn't expecting you quite yet, I haven't even eaten."

"I couldn't wait, I'm just so excited to get to school!" Amy enthused, causing Cream to give her a concerned look.

"Are you feeling well, Amy?"

"Of course, I've never felt this good. Life is perfect, and I can't wait to see everyone."

"Is this about your date with Sonic? Did it go well?"

"Yes," Amy squealed. "Now, hurry up and eat."

By the time Cream had finished her breakfast, grabbed her lunchkit and backpack, and donned her shoes and coat, half an hour had passed and they were leaving at the same time as they usually did. Amy was dancing on the spot as she waited, she had so much energy she could barely stand it.

As the two girls headed out and went to meet Sonia, Amy filled Cream in on all the details about her date. Cream smiled politely, and made the occasional admiring acknowledgement. When they came to the corner where they always met Sonia and her brothers, she was disappointed to see that Sonic wasn't there.

"Hey Sonia, hey Manic," Amy and Cream greeted in unison.

"Hey Amy, hey Cream," Sonia replied at the same time as Manic replied with "Ladies."

"Where's Sonic?" Amy wanted to know.

"Oh, he left early again to walk with a friend," Sonia answered, tucking her Magenta hair behind an ear as the four started walking towards the school.

"Oh, I had hoped he would be here..."

"You did?" Sonic's sister sounded sceptical.

"Of course, I mean, he is my boyfriend after all! Didn't he tell you?"

"No, he failed to mention it..." Sonia's tone was thoughtful, and she seemed distracted.

"Oh, I guess he wanted it to be a surprise then, I shouldn't have said anything," Amy said in an apologetic tone. She hadn't meant to ruin the surprise, she was just so happy.

"Yeah, something like that," Sonia agreed, but she didn't sound convinced.

...

Amy didn't actually see Sonic until lunch break, but when she did she ran across the room and threw her arms around him.

"Sonic!" she cried out. "I missed you this morning! Honestly, I missed you all weekend! Did you miss me?"

"Oh, hey Amy," Sonic called back, stiffening. "Uh, of course I missed you?" he answered, gently trying to disentangle the young girl from himself. Nearby a kid with crimson dreadlocks was laughing at the scene. "What's so funny, knucklehead?" Sonic wanted to know.

"You seem to be having lady trouble, Sonic," the boy laughed.

"Shut up, Knuckles. You're just jealous, you wish girls would fall all over you," Sonic's tone was almost mocking.

"What? I have plenty of girls falling for me, but unlike you, I don't flaunt it!" the dreadlocked boy, Knuckles, protested.

"Is that so?" a flirtatious voice asked from behind him. Knuckles turned to see Rouge leaning on the table, smirking at him.

"Rouge? I, err, of course it is!" Knuckles insisted, but his voice was cracking a little, and there was sweat forming on his brow.

"So if I were to cancel our movie plans on Friday..?" the white-haired girl teased.

Amy turned her attention back to Sonic as Knuckles began protesting what Rouge was saying. "Want to walk me home after school today, just me and you?" she asked, causing Sonic to give a weak smile.

"Ahh, you know I'd love to. But, ah, I have plans, you see." Sonic hoped he sounded convincing.

"Oh that's too bad, what are your plans?" Amy asked with a pout.

"Oh, uh, just some things. And stuff. You know." Sonic hoped his chuckle didn't sound too forced.

"Ah, I gotcha, things. Right." Amy didn't for the life of her have a clue as to what Sonic's plans could be, but she didn't want him to think she was ignorant of his hobbies. A short while later, the bell rang for class, and Amy headed off, meeting Blaze in the hall.

"I saw you with Sonic in the lunchroom, does this mean you two are an item?" the purple haired girl enquired.

"Yeah," Amy answered with a grin. "Yeah, we're a couple now." Her tone was bliss, Amy could not get over it. Sonic, star of the track team, was dating her. Her! It was still incredibly overwhelming.

...

The rest of the day passed without too much incident, and Amy wound up walking home with Cream and Manic, Sonia having other plans.

"I'm not too sure how I feel about you dating my brother," Manic confessed, earning a distressed look from Cream.

"What, am I not good enough for him?" Cream opened her mouth to placate Amy, when Manic cut her off.

"No, no, it's just... Amy you're like a sister to us. And I'm not sure Sonic is right for you, to be honest. He-"

"You're wrong," Amy cut in. "Sonic is perfect for me, and if you really think of me as a sister you should be happy for me." Trying again, Cream opened her mouth, but whatever she said was drowned out by the green-haired boy's voice.

"Amy, I'm glad you're happy, but... I just don't want you getting hurt." Again, Cream sent a distressed look Manic's way.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Manic, but you're worrying about nothing. Sonic wouldn't hurt me, I think you're letting your own personal discomfort cloud your judgement." Cream squirmed, opening her mouth again in an attempt to speak.

"Amy..." Manic started, but trailed off as Cream grabbed his wrist, when he turned to her she shook her head a little and subtly mouthed 'not now', before dropping the older boys arm.

"Manic," Cream spoke up. "Did you ever manage to finish that hover board you were talking about?" Cream asked, giving him a pleading look as she attempted to change the subject.

Manic opened his mouth to ask Cream what the problem was, thought better of it, and answered the question at hand. "Yeah, there's still a few bugs, but for the most part she flies like a dream," he said with a smile, relaxing into a more casual posture.

Amy didn't seem to notice the silent interaction Cream and Manic had exchanged before the topic change occurred, as she had been too distracted by her own thoughts; most of which had revolved around her offence at Manic's selfish discomfort. Couldn't he see that her and Sonic were happy? But she couldn't help but be in awe of Manic's technological skills, building your own hover board didn't seem like an easy feat.

"You'll show us sometime, won't you?" Amy hoped he would, seeing a hover board might be almost as exciting as seeing Sonic, Amy admitted to herself.

"Oh please, won't you Manic?" Cream asked, in voice rich with excitement. Cream loved the idea of being able to fly, she even had a flight helmet in her room, though she hid it when she had friends over. Amy wouldn't have been surprised if Cream had tried to convince Manic to let her ride the hover board.

"Sure, why don't you guys swing by tonight and I'll take her for a test run," Manic suggested as they neared the intersection the three would separate at.

"Really? If you don't mind then that would be lovely," Cream enthused, turning to Amy. "Could we?"

Amy laughed, "You know, you can go without me."

"Oh, I don't know that I could..." the small girl trailed off.

"I'll be testing at six tonight, so swing by a little before then if you're interested," Manic suggested with a wink for Cream. Cream just squeaked in response, stepping back a little and raising her hands to her chin, her eyes wide with surprise. Manic just laughed, "Ladies," he said for a farewell, turning and walking off on his own.

...

The next day at school, Amy found her thoughts torn between getting to see Sonic run today, and remembering the night before. Around six, Amy and Cream had found themselves watching Manic test out his hover board. Amy had gone partially to keep Cream company, partially out of curiosity, and partially, she admitted, in the hopes of seeing Sonic. Sonic and Sonia had turned out to still be out, but Amy had wound up having fun anyways. Manic started off by doing a bit of low flying, making sure the board was stable, then he went higher and tried out some fancier moves.

After maybe half an hour, Aleena, mother of Sonic and his siblings, had come out with some refreshments for Amy, Cream, and Manic. The three ate quickly, and then Manic offered each of the girls a ride on his board. Amy had refused, but Cream jumped right on the opportunity. The girls had left around eight, as Sonia came home. There had been no sign of Sonic, but Amy was less disappointed than she would have expected.

The sound of the bell ringing brought Amy out of her memories, and she quickly gathered her things, then headed off to her next class.

Time passed agonizingly slow for Amy, and by lunch it felt like she had been at school for a week, just waiting to get through her morning classes. After she and her friends had finished eating, they headed for the bleachers overlooking the paved track, as they did every Tuesday. When they got there, Amy waved at Sonic, calling down to him. Sonic, waved back and then proceeded to focus on what he was doing, and ignore the various things Amy was shouting to him.

Eventually the bell rang, indicating five minutes until class resumed and the track team headed in to change and wash up. Amy wanted to go give Sonic a hug and tell him how amazing he was, but Blaze reminded her that they had a class to get to themselves.

School ended, and Amy and Cream walked home together with Sonia and Manic. Apparently Sonic was busy again. Not too long after Amy got home, her apartment's buzzer went off, reminding Amy that she had a tutor coming. Amidst all the thinking of Sonic, she had completely forgotten.

Amy picked up the receiver to answer the buzz. "Hello, who is it?" she greeted.

"Hello, my name is Shadow. I'm here to tutor an Amelia Rose in History," a velvety voice answered.

"Ah, come right up," Amy replied, buzzing him in. It didn't take long for a knock to come at the door, announcing that Shadow had found her unit. Amy opened her door to see an older boy with coppery tan skin, thick black hair, and crimson eyes. His black hair was wavy and flicked up at the ends, and it had streaks of red through it.

"Amelia, I presume," was the boy's greeting.

"Ah, I prefer Amy," Amy stammered, as she stepped aside to let him in.

MONDAY

Shadow was awoken by an obnoxious beeping somewhere to his left. Groggily, he started reaching around, trying to find the cause, but with no luck. After a few moments of unsuccessfully smothering his ears with his pillow, Shadow pushed himself into a sitting position, and looked around for his alarm clock. He had moved it last night, as he did every Sunday, so that he would actually have to wake up to find it on Monday. The goal was to at least make it to school Monday, even if he decided to skip out on the rest of the week. Eventually, after determining that it wasn't in sight of his bed, Shadow climbed down the ladder, and checked his desk under his bed. It wasn't there either, and the black haired boy determined that he was never moving his alarm clock again, as he did every Monday. This time, though, he meant it. This was ridiculous, he could be sleeping in instead of looking for the infernal contraption. Eventually Shadow managed to locate the source of his displeasure. It was in his closet, why would he put it in there? That's just stupid, is what that is. Grumbling to himself, Shadow grabbed his towel and some clothes, and went to have a shower.

Shadow's morning passed pretty routinely, he got ready for school and headed out the door, grabbing a fresh-made muffin on his way out. Shadow lived in a pretty nice neighbourhood, there were no apartment buildings in it; just nice houses with sizable yards. Because of this, the walk to school was always fairly unremarkable.

Really, Shadow's entire day passed pretty unremarkably. There was a bit of a commotion at lunch when a pink-haired girl tackled Sonic and proceeded to be all over him, much to his displeasure judging by the look on his face, but it was of no concern to Shadow, and it didn't feel like long before Shadow was home and touching up his skates again. By the time he decided to go to bed, he felt they were ready for short periods of use. They would still short out if overused, but they should at least be able to make it from his house to school.

The next morning Shadow decided to test just that, and was satisfied with the results. The trip to school had taken a quarter of the usual time, maybe less, and had been exhilarating. Shadow only hoped that they'd continue working so well. The school day itself was uneventful, and ended with Shadow going to the office to get a map to his student's house. At lunch he had considered joining track practice to truly test his new shoes, but had decided they weren't ready and ate with Manic as per usual.

...

Now, after texting Azizi with a reminder that he would be late, Shadow stared impassively at 614 7th Street, a large apartment complex that must've had a good 12 floors. Shadow frowned and checked the time to be sure that he wasn't too early before finally stepping forwards and ringing the buzzer labelled '703. Rose'.

"Hello, who is it?" a high pitched, feminine voice answered after a second.

"Hello, my name is Shadow," he answered neutrally. "I'm here to tutor an Amelia Rose in History."

"Ah, come right up," the feminine voice replied, followed by a buzzing that Shadow could only assume was her hitting the door release. As Shadow entered the building, he took in his surroundings, noticing that it was a very nice building.

After a quick elevator ride, Shadow found himself at a door labelled 703, and proceeded to knock. After a second a pale girl a little younger than himself answered, she had bright pink hair to her chin, and the widest green eyes he had ever seen.

"Amelia, I presume?"

"Ah, I prefer Amy," the girl stammered, stepping aside to let him in.

Shadow entered the unit, taking note of it's appearance. It seemed nice enough, certainly well decorated. Turning to his student, Shadow gestured vaguely into the unit. "Anywhere in particular you want to study?"

"Oh," Amy squeaked. "Yes, yeah we can study in the living room, if that's okay with you? I mean, I don't see why it wouldn't be, it's a nice living room. Do you want anything to eat though? Like, a pre-study snack? I think daddy left some pie. Do you like pie? It's homemade, my mum makes the best apple pi-"

"Enough," Shadow cut in, interrupting the senseless babbling. "Amelia, if you're going to be tutored by me, you're going to need to be less..." he fumbled for a moment. "Excitable. I'll need you to be less excitable."

"Sorry! I just, I don't really know you, y'know?" Amy half explained, half asked, smiling nervously. After a moment of Shadow just staring at the girl she seemed to become even more flustered, if that were possible. "I'm sorry, if it's not too much trouble, could we maybe have a snack together before we begin? I can't focus on an empty stomach."

Shadow found himself increasingly frustrated by his student, if hunger was such a problem why hadn't she had a snack before he got there? Still, he didn't relish the idea of trying to tutor her as she was, so he decided to allow it. "Alright, we can have some pie, but then we study. Got that?"

"Yeah sure, the table's through there," Amy said, gesturing to an archway on the right and managing a small smile. Shaking his head, Shadow walked into the other room and took a seat at the table. He was arranging some history texts off to the side of the table when Amy walked in with two small plates with some delicious smelling pie slices on them. "I'm sorry you got stuck with me," the pink haired girl said quietly as she passed Shadow a plate and took her own seat. "I can be a bit scatterbrained and I'm sure I won't be the easiest student, so I'll understand if you start getting frustrated with me."

"As long as you actually want to learn," Shadow replied, taking a bite of his snack. He was pleasantly surprised by the flavour, maybe the girl hadn't been exaggerating about her mother's pie baking skills.

It was strange to Shadow how much Amy changed after their snack. He had barely responded to anything she had said to him, but she seemed much more at ease. Certainly her babbling had lost it's nervous tone, though Shadow wasn't sure if he could deal with this twice a week.

"Amelia, how do you expect to learn any of this if you keep changing the subject and not waiting for answers?"

"Right, you're right. I'm just so excited, you know? Because Sonic finally asked me to be his girlfriend on Friday, and I just want to scream and dance and celebrate, you know?" Shadow did know, if only because Amy had already expressed her excitement about Sonic four other times. Thankfully it wouldn't be much longer until their two hours were up.

"Amelia, if you're not going to focus I'm not going to come back. Also, I thought you said you asked him?"

"Well, I mean, technically I asked him, but it's the same thing, isn't it?" the girl sounded irritated with Shadow for questioning her and Sonic's relationship.

"Right," Shadow's tone was dripping with sarcasm. Before Amy could respond to this, however, Shadow continued. "Anyways, could you please close your book? I am going to quiz you on what we've gone over today, and if you can get half of the answers correct, I'll return on Thursday."

In the end Amy got a little under half, but Shadow decided she had tried hard and he'd let her get away with it this once.

...

The next day, Shadow went out of his way to be at Rouge's in time to walk to school with her.

"Well this is unexpected," she teased. "To what do I owe the honour?"

"I just figured I should tell you that our Thursday movie nights will either need to be a good deal later, or be moved to a different day of the week."

"Oh? I take it you've decided to actually be serious about this tutoring thing, then?"

Shadow nodded, "Yeah. Miss Rose is infuriating, but I promised Azizi. And, she's proven that she's not a completely lost cause." Rouge chuckled at this.

"Very well, if it's alright with Azizi I'll come later on tomorrow, say six or seven? And we can have dinner, watch our movie, and I'll sleep in your guest room. Then starting next week Wednesdays work for me."

"Works for me." Azizi had long since stopped protesting about Rouge sleeping over, once it had become clear that Shadow had no interests in getting involved with Rouge.

The two made it to school and parted ways as the bell rang. After lunch Shadow considered going home, but decided to stick it out. Today he got to run, after all.

It was another nice day, so Shadow found himself running through the forest with Sonic again. Once they started running, Sonic decided to speak up. "You given any further thought to joining the track team, Shads?" Shadow frowned at the nickname, but decided to ignore it.

"It's Tuesdays at lunch and Thursdays after school, right?" Sonic nodded. "Can't, then."

"What, why not?" Sonic seemed genuinely disappointed, but Shadow was secretly pleased to have an excuse. He didn't do well with groups, after all.

"I'm tutoring your girlfriend in History after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

Sonic frowned, confused for a moment. "My girlfriend..? What makes you- oh, right. My girlfriend. My girlfriend Amy, that girlfriend. Right."

"You do not like her," they both knew it wasn't a question.

"Of course I like her," Sonic replied heatedly. "I grew up with Ames, she's as much a part of my family as Sonia and Manic are."

"Look, it doesn't matter to me what you do with your life, but dating a girl you have no interest in seems cruel."

"You think I don't know that? But, I just couldn't disappoint her, you dig?"

"Like I said, it doesn't matter to me. I honestly couldn't care less, your life, your girlfriend, your problem." With that, Shadow picked up his pace, hoping Sonic would get that he was serious, that it was all just so trivial to him. Sure, on some level it bothered him that Sonic was leading the girl on, but only because of the needlessness of it, and not enough to do more than point out said needlessness.

...

Once school was out Shadow slipped on his hover-skates and proceeded to head home. Around halfway there one of them sputtered and died, slamming his foot into the pavement and tripping him up. This time however, Shadow was prepared. Twisting his body as he hurtled through the air, Shadow curled his shoulder an brought his arm up. Landing on the shoulder and doing a pseudo-somersault, Shadow intended to end up on his back with, ideally, minimal damage. To his credit, Shadow did manage to land on his back without hurting it, but the wind was knocked out of him and it was already clear that his shoulder would be a large mass of bruising by that night. After the longest minute or so Shadow could remember, he managed to get his breath back. After another minute he sat up and inspected himself. The arm and shoulder he had braced himself with were pretty scraped up, and bruises were already forming, but that seemed to be the worst of it so Shadow proceeded to get up. And promptly fell back down with gritted teeth. Crap. Shadow took off the skate that had sputtered out and poked at his ankle, finding that it was very tender and sensitive, and beginning to swell up a little. Not good. Frowning, Shadow attempted again to stand up. This turned out to be unpleasant, but do-able. Once up, he tentatively put a bit more weight on his hurt foot. Alright, not too wobbly, and painful but bearable. Shadow could do this. One step, two, three, four... Shadow seemed to be managing, but it was more unpleasant than a simple bruising would merit. Probably a sprain then, a minor one. It would probably take a week or so to heal, if Shadow remembered the medical text he'd read last summer correctly. Well, nothing Shadow couldn't deal with, so he continued on his way home.

The next morning, Shadow was surprised to discover that his ankle felt fine, the swelling had gone down and there was minimal bruising. I guess it wasn't a sprain after all... the dark haired boy mused, he had been sure though... After a moment spent debating whether or not to go to school Shadow started gathering his clothes for a shower, completely oblivious to the excitement he would experience later on in the day.