Helping
Giving aid, support, assistance or the like.
"Why do I not believe you?"
Vanilla Rabbit, the councillor at Union Academy, raised one slender brow and drummed her fingers on her mahogany desk.
Scourge knocked his fist on the table with each syllable, trying emphasize what he was saying.
"She whacked me with a hammer," he yelled. "A giant hammer! She's a bi-"
"There's no room for that kind of language here," Vanilla snapped.
Amy gulped, feeling the rabbit's eyes turn to her.
She was sure that her guilt was painted on her face. There was no way she could lie to this woman.
It was true. Amy had hit Scourge in the nuts with a hammer.
He deserved it but she shouldn't have resorted to violence. In fact, she never should have gotten angry.
"So, you two," Mrs. Rabbit's eyes darted between Amy and Sonic, "what do you say happened?"
Amy opened her mouth but the words were too dry to come out.
She knew what was going to happen.
Mrs. Rabbit would call Amy's teachers and they'd come right over to bring her home.
Amy could kiss her dream of being normal goodbye.
"I kicked him," Sonic interjected. "He used some pretty vulgar language after Amy asked for her luggage back so I just kind of...lost my temper."
Vanilla gestured to Sonic and turned to Scourge.
"That's a story I can believe."
Amy looked over at Sonic.
All she had been was trouble for him.
She had slept in a closet, screamed about molestation, dragged him into a fight and then pinned the blame on him.
Yet each time he just seemed all too happy to help.
It only worked to make Amy feel worse, like she was taking advantage of his kindness.
"Now, I must say I'm very disappointed in you, Sonic. But since this is unusual behaviour for you I'll let you off with a warning and a phone call home."
"But it wasn't him!" Scourge objected. "That girl has a freaking hammer! She pulled it out of thin air!"
Sonic laughed out loud catching everyone else off guard.
"Are you saying her Piko object is a hammer?"
"Yes! You saw it too!"
"Do you even know how Piko objects work?"
Vanilla nodded lightly.
"He's right. We, the people of Piko, only have objects that can be summoned to comfort us in times of despair. How would a weapon comfort anyone?"
"Because she's a sadistic monster!"
Sonic could see Amy flinch out of the corner of his eye.
He could tell that one really hit home.
"That's quite enough, Scourge," Vanilla cut him off. "This is all done and I suggest you go back and enjoy the activities fair because it's the last free time you'll have in a while after this little theft stunt."
Scourge narrowed his eyes and shot Sonic a glare.
"Nice job getting your chica off."
Sonic shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Standing, Scourge stormed out of the office with a huff.
Amy squeezed her eyes shut at the slam of the door.
This certainly was a pretty mess she had made of her first few school days.
"I'm sorry about what happened, Miss Rose," Vanilla apologized. "We'll have your luggage delivered right back to your room. Now, what's the number?"
"She bunks with Rouge," Sonic answered.
The rabbit's face lit up.
"Then you must have met my daughter, Cream."
That caught Amy's attention.
"Yes, she's seems very nice."
Sonic chuckled to which the mother sent him a glare.
"Oh, she is. I'll have her keep tabs on you. She'll keep dirty mitts off your things next time, alright, Doll?"
Amy smiled brightly.
It was nice to know at least two people from home now, Cream and Vanilla.
Now she'd know where to go if she ever had problems adjusting.
"Alright, thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Well," Sonic stood, rocking back and forth on his heels, tired of siting still. "I'm gonna get going now. So much to do, so little time. You coming?"
It took Amy a second to register what he said.
He still wanted her around? Why? She had been nothing but a bringer of problems for him.
Despite that, Amy nodded.
She couldn't stand the idea of being left to wander campus alone.
"Good," Sonic grinned widely.
Amy felt his hand under her arm as he eased her up and linked them again, as though he had escorted her a million times.
Her teachers were right about one thing so far: Chaos kids were very affectionate.
"Come on let's get going."
"A-alright," Amy answered, being dragged out by the boy. "Goodbye, Mrs. Rabbit."
"Goodbye, Dear."
As the pair left Vanilla couldn't help but frown.
A hammer, huh?
She shook her head.
It couldn't be.
Scourge was just making excuses as usual.
With that the councillor rolled the worry off her shoulders and went back to her computer database.
Time to do some profile building.
"Amy, I'm not sure if you noticed but you have a giant ass hammer."
Amy blushed, turning her eyes away from Sonic.
"Yeah, I do."
"How did you get it? Where does it go when you're not using it? Are you sure you're a peaceful Piko?"
The sea of questions was dumped on her head as Amy just walked along side him, panicking.
"Uh, it's my Piko object," Amy answered the first and second questions. She couldn't remember the billion ones that followed.
"It comforts you to hit things?"
Amy could feel every inch of her flesh burning from the inside out with shame.
Yes, it made her feel alive. Hitting, punching, yelling, letting everything go, it was too intoxicating for her to avoid sometimes.
Scourge was right. She was a sadistic monster.
She was made to destroy, not give life, nurture or protect like the other Piko girls.
She was everything she shouldn't be.
The burning within rose to her face until she felt hot moisture in her eyes.
Amy looked down, closing her emerald orbs and pulling her hand away from Sonic's arm to wipe away stray tears.
"Whoa, whoa there, Doll. You okay?"
Amy nodded.
Sonic knew right off the bat it was a lie. Why did girls always lie about stuff like that?
it was so obvious she was upset.
Biting his lip he looked around helplessly.
He did not know how to deal with tears well, not when it was him, a friend or a stranger.
What should he do? What should he say?
Looking back at his despaired acquaintance he smiled and decided on a question.
"Why are you crying?"
"B-because you must...h-hate me."
Sonic's ears pinned back.
"Why would I hate you?"
"I'm a wicked child," Amy answered as though quoting from a text. "Such a bad, wicked girl."
"If you mean wicked as in awesome then yeah, you are."
Amy peeked out from her dampened eyelashes.
What did he mean?
"That was the bravest, most badass thing I've seen any chick do and I'm from Chaos!"
Amy sniffled out a response. "Is that good?"
"Good? It's great!" Sonic concluded. "You, my friend, are great."
Her pink ears perked at his statement.
"Friend...as in...friend?"
Sonic frowned.
The word sounded as though she had a foreign tongue on her lips.
Sonic gave her a once over and realized these were not just any tears he was witnessing. Her's were tears of pure self-loathing.
It was a tragic sight.
"Yeah, if that's what you want."
Amy let a soft smile grace her face as she wiped away her tear stains.
"I'd like that."
"Good. But you have to let me do the ass whooping next time. Agreed?"
Amy's eyes widened.
"No, no! I couldn't ask you to-"
Sonic waved it off.
"That's what friends are for. Now come on, we gotta check out the other booths."
"Tell us everything!"
Amy now understood what it felt like to be a cornered animal.
Here she was in the evening, perched peacefully on her bed checking her returned bags when WHAM!
Rouge came in and pinned Amy down, hovering above her with a giddy smile.
"Let her up," Cream scolded. "She's new from Piko. She's not used to this yet."
Amy had to get used to this?
Grumbling something about 'yes, mother,' the bat let her room mate up but plopped down beside her and stayed too close for comfort.
"How'd it go?"
"How did what go?"
Blaze rolled her eyes.
"So naive."
Cream smiled gently at the other girl and prompted her.
"You know how we left you at the fair?"
Amy nodded, still confused.
"We did it on purpose," Rouge explained. "So you and Sonic could get some alone time."
Amy puzzled at the wink Rouge gave her.
Was she supposed to understand why they wanted her and Sonic to be alone?
To be honest, Amy thought it was rather mean. She had just embarrassed him, after all.
What if he had been angry at her?
"Rouge and Cream here think Sonic needs a girlfriend," Blaze cut in. "And since you're the first single girl to pop up-"
"Not just that," Rouge insisted. "Did you see the way he looked at her this morning?"
"He found her in a closet," Blaze hissed. "He was just worried about her."
"What about how he walked up to the stand just to talk to her?"
The lilac cat shrugged.
"He likes books. She likes books. It natural to want to discuss a common interest."
"You just don't believe in love," Rouge pouted mockingly.
"I believe that love should come naturally," she argued. "It shouldn't be forced."
Amy was lost.
She had no idea what they were even talking about anymore.
What she did know, however, was that a nap after a long and turbulent day sounded really good.
"Oh no, Missy!" Rouge shook Amy by the shoulder. "You still have to give me an update."
You know that feeling that you get, where at a certain time you just kind of go from a beautiful princess to a fat ugly pumpkin? Well, this was Amy's pumpkin time.
She shrugged Rouge's hand off and mumbled. "We're friends now."
"Like, how close?"
"I don't know," Amy sighed.
"Do you think he...you know..." Cream suggested with a gasp.
"He couldn't have, so soon?"
Amy's eyes fluttered.
Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay a-
Forget it.
She crawled to the far right of the bed and started to curl up beneath her covers.
Oh, this was much better than her previous arrangements.
"Well, maybe he did. You never know with that guy. He's always so-"
"He friend zoned her! Alright? Now can we all just get some sleep."
Cream and Rouge frowned at Blaze.
Clearly that cat did not have a popular outlook on things.
"Okay," Cream nodded, stepping towards the door.
"We'll get going now, Rouge. Don't keep the new girl up too long."
Amy and Rouge's neighbours left for their own room and Amy felt relieved.
Finally, beddy-bye time.
"So, do you like him?"
Nope, sleep was hopeless.
"You're taking wood working?"
Amy glanced timidly away from the red echidna, Knuckles, who was peering over her shoulder.
"Funny. I didn't peg you as the type."
Honestly, Amy wasn't the type.
She never needed to take a trade class in Piko.
Here at Union, however, it was nessecary to graduate.
She just so happened to choose wood working.
"She can take wood working if she wants to take wood working," Sonic chimed in, flicking Knuckles in the ear. "Besides, she'll have an acquaintance in the next class."
Amy smiled, gazing up at Sonic.
"Are you in my class, then?"
He gave her a warm look back but shook his head.
"Sorry, Doll. I'm not. But Tails over there is."
Amy's eyes followed Sonic's finger to a two-tailed yellow fox who waved and spoke kindly.
"Hi!"
"...Hi."
"It's not too far from this lawn. Just a little down the path."
Amy smiled timidly.
"That's good."
She felt a large hand rest on her shoulder.
"Go on," Sonic encouraged. "He doesn't bite."
Amy approached the fox who held his hand up in a short greeting but kept his distance.
He couldn't have been a Chaos kid.
"Where are you from?" Amy wondered aloud.
"Gaia," the fox replied.
Amy nodded but cocked her head, a little confused.
Chaos named their kids after their Chaos super power.
Sonic was obviously fast. Knuckles was strong. Blaze must have had some sort of fire power. The only one she stumped on was Silver. He was just...named after his colour.
Tails was named for his tails, though. It seemed odd that Gaia parents would follow a Chaos tradition in naming.
"Tails is just my nickname," he added, picking up on Amy's puzzlement. "Miles is what my family calls me."
Amy blushed.
She must have been staring too long and too hard if he knew she was thinking about it.
"Sorry," she murmured an apology.
"No problem. But we should get going now."
Amy stole one last glance over her shoulder at Sonic.
He was heading the other way with Knuckles but he still looked back at her and shot her a nod.
Well, he was so nice how could she not take his encouragement.
"Alright, let's go."
Tails gestured for her to follow him as they walked.
"Great! We can be partners in class. I'll show you the ropes."
"Thank you," Amy purred in gratitude.
So far this was turning out to be not as bad as she initially thought.
Amy had one official friend and was paving the road for many more.
What could possibly go wrong?
Alright, guys! I put my best into this, just for you. I hope you had fun reading it. Thanks to everyone! Please review and tell me what you think.