Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic or any of the official characters! All OC's either belong to me or Echidnagirl!

Chapter 7

The lunchroom was crowded, but the tables were pretty much decided on at the dinner. Cam sat alone again, as the rest of the gang gathered at their table, lunches in hand.

"Why the heck did Vector make us do that?!" Amy ranted.

"Because he's an idiot who is too proud to loose to that woman." Espio explained.

"Cameron must have it tough, with skating and school and being bullied and all." Wave inquired.

"Speaking of which…" Tails said as he directed everyone's attention to the other side of the room.

Cam was pinned to the wall again, and Peter was up in her face. (A/N: I just scrolled back to look at the previous Cam torture scene, and I had to edit it a bit. Turns out for a little while I was calling Peter, "Patrick". Oops.)

"You're the reason we had to run laps today!" Peter accused her.

"No, I'm not. My coach made me run laps, yours made you run laps following my coach's example. I am not responsible for the way my coach trains me or the way our gym teacher acts." Cam explained calmly. She had a defiant look on her face, she was getting some of her emotion back.

"You're a liar!" Hannah accused. She had to exercise her power, after all.

"You talked back again, too. You know how I feel right now, don't you?" Peter said with an evil smile.

"Angry that you got beaten by a girl?" Cam had a smirk on her face by then.

"WHY YOU LITTLE-" Peter cut himself off as he wrapped his hand around Cam's neck, lifting her off of the ground and out of Butch and Spike's grasps.

Blaze gasped and covered her mouth.

"Neither of them have ever taken a quarrel that far before." Silver explained. His eyes were really wide at the sight before him.

Cam gritted her teeth and was holding onto Peter's arm with both of hers, trying desperately to pry him off. She was gasping for air while Peter used his free arm to punch her face. The sonic gang had already made up their minds about what side they were taking and jumped into action. Blaze, Rouge, and Wave moved in front of the Babies, making sure they didn't do anything while Shadow and Espio ganged up on Peter, knocking him off of Cam. Knuckles, Silver, and Jet kept Butch away and Sonic, Tails, and Storm did the same with Spike. Amy came forward and checked on Cam, helping her breathe and such.

"What- *gasp* are- *gasp* you doing?" Cam asked as best she could.

"What does it look like we're doing, silly? We're helping you!" Amy said with a smile.

Peter recovered from the blow he received and brushed himself off.

"You're going to be sorry you did that!" Peter threatened. "Just wait. This girl will destroy your lives! She's a monster, a cursed monster!"

"Yeah yeah yeah, cursed monster, blah, blah, blah, Who cares?" Knuckles commented.

"It seems as though you have been practicing the more monstrous behavior." Espio pointed out.

"You'll see!" Peter yelled, pointing at Cam, who was near the exit to go back to the dorm, "She'll hurt every one of you in due time!"

After that last yell, the gang was out the door, headed towards the dorm.

When they all got back, Amy had a realization. "Guys, we left all of our stuff back there."

Everyone (who was normally showing emotion) gave an 'OH CRAP' look and ran out the door to go back and grab their things. That left Cam, Shadow, and Espio.

"I'll get both of your things." Espio said with a sigh and left the room.

"Well, then. I guess it's time for me to return the favor, then." Shadow stated, leaving to find the first aid kit.

"No, that's okay, really. I can do it myself. I've done it before." Cam argued, holding both her hands in front of her.

Shadow arched an eyebrow at this statement. "Then I suppose you can see the place where the back of your head is bleeding with a mirror?"

Cam blinked a couple of times, processing the information. She put her hand on the back of her head and…

"OWW!!!" Cam pulled her hand away quickly.

"That still doesn't answer my question." Shadow sweatdropped at Cam's actions.

"…"

"Well?"

"…no..."

"What was that?"

"...no..."

"I can't hear you…"

"NO! Alright?! I can't see the back of my head, even with a mirror! Happy now?!"

"Yes. Now sit down." Shadow instructed, pointing towards the couch.

"Fine…" Cam mumbled as she did as she was told.

Shadow sat down next to her and made her turn her head towards him. (A/N: Cam was sitting on Shadow's right side. She was also being held up with Peter's right hand and punched with his left, making all of her facial injuries primarily on the right cheek. The way she was sitting required her to turn her head towards Shadow so he could see the wounds. End of explanation.) He then began cleaning off the wounds.

"Why do you put up with being beaten up like this?" He asked.

"If I try to fight back, I only get hurt worse."

"So? Eventually they would stop."

"That's not it. Because of their high social position, the teachers won't touch them if they do anything to me. If I fought back, who knows what could happen? It all depends on how creative Peter and Hannah are feeling that day."

"That would stop too, once you had proof that they were the ones beating you up."

"Still…"

"That's not all, is it?"

"No…"

"Then why else?"

"I want to prove them wrong."

"What?"

"They're always saying that I'm this horrible, cursed monster, who does nothing but hurt people and destroy lives. I guess I figured… that if I kept my distance from people… and never fought back… and didn't show any emotion… that I'd be able to prove them wrong, but…"

"But?"

"But then Kevin came along. He asked if he could be my friend and I was so happy, you know? Someone who I could show my true colors around. But on that day, the accident happened. I tried to go see him at the hospital, but his family had gotten word of the rumors and wouldn't let me in. They even blocked out my cards and gifts…"

"So he thought you didn't care."

"Pretty much… since he told me he never wanted to see my face again, I took it seriously and started avoiding him, and covering my face if I had to go into his line of sight. Anything just so he won't look at me like that again…"

"Like what?"

"With so much hatred… I can see it in his eyes every time… It's one thing if Peter, Hannah, and their groups look at me like that, I mean, that's normal. But with him… he looked at me with different eyes before that… softer eyes… the difference is just too great for me to handle."

"So that gave them justification for beating you up more?"

"Yeah…"

Little did the two know that everyone else was outside of the door, listening in on the conversation. Tails was recording it, too. :P

Shadow had nearly finished with her face, now he just had to put on the band-aids. Remember that deep down somewhere in Cam's brain, her girl self is freaking out that a boy is actually touching her face in a gentle way. Shadow put on the band-aids and moved closer to make sure he had covered everything. They both then looked at each other and realized how close their faces were, both practically jumping back and trying to hide their blushes.

"Now face the other way." Shadow directed.

Cam did as she was told and looked the other way, and Shadow got to work.

"I wonder if everyone's alright… they've been away an awfully long time…" Cam wondered out loud.

As if on cue, everyone walked into the room, acting as if they heard nothing.

"Hi, everyone." Cam greeted. "Thanks for the help back there."

"Stand still." Shadow scolded.

"Don't mention it." Sonic said with a thumbs-up.

"That's what friends do, right?" Amy said with a smile.

"Friends?" Cam asked.

"Yeah, friends." Blaze joined in. "And good ones, too."

"Okay then. From now on, all of you will have my friendship. This time, I'll get it right. I'll protect you all, no matter what." Cam said with a determined look on her face.

"You protect us? I think it's gonna work the other way." Wave said.

"Still. It's my responsibility now. I took this oath with Kevin, too. He obviously gets upset when he sees me, so I avoid him. But I never stop caring about him, and if he ever got hurt again, I'd never forgive myself. The same goes for you guys. There's always going to be something I can do." Cam said, still determined.

Shadow finished wrapping up Cam's head and took the first aid box back to where it came from.

"Then it's a deal. We'll all take care of each other." Tails said happily.

Sonic, Jet, and Silver all put there hands together in the center of what would become a circle. Everyone else joined in and had their hands in the middle.

"1, 2, 3!" Sonic said as their hands bobbed up and down.

A cheer from the more enthusiastic of the group went up just as the bell rang, so everyone grabbed their bags and ran off to social studies. (A/N: BOOOOOO!!! I hate that class. I'm not good with dates! DX)