So I realized I accidentally called Knux' eyes blue again; I went back and fixed it, in case anyone cares.

Lost and Forgotten Memories: Thank you for the input! After some deliberation and my husband offering his advice, I decided to splice my idea with yours to create the new title. We'll see if it gets more views this way. I couldn't find the exact fic you mentioned on devArt, but I did find some gems, hoo boy. Let's just say I never pictured Shadow as the type of guy who flirts chronically and makes out with multiple girls in one day. Geez louise.

Re-Harakhty: Yay, you're back! Trust me, this isn't the type of fic I normally read or write either, but I've seen enough (in my desperate attempts to find something to read) that I know it needed a new take. I hope you enjoy!

3: At the End of the Day, It Begins

Linehardt University Library and student store was almost a parallel dimension in its own right. Located smack in the middle of the History and Language building (making the structure the largest of the three and the words "Main Building" emblazoned across the top of the doors), it was a icon of perfection; what all bookstores aimed to be. With mahogany paneled walls, massive stained-glass pendant lamps, and even a coffee shop next to the cash registers, it was an oasis of zen in a desert of dramatic young adult life. Amy breathed in the smell of coffee, closing her eyes.

"Oh hey!"

She opened her eyes to see Sally and Tikal sitting at a study table, piles of thick books and papers around them. Tikal was waving and grinning broadly. Sally was scrolling through her phone, brows stitched together firmly, with a pen in the other hand. Amy waved back and skipped over, sitting next to Sally and looking across at the sherbet echidna. Tikal leaned forward and took the younger girl's hands in her own.

"So how was your first day? And what's your name anyway?" She pulled one hand away to twirl one of her dreadlocks around a finger.

"Amy Rose," said hedgehog responded, deciding she quite liked Tikal's bubbly personality; it had a reassuring effect which proved to be sorely needed. Tikal nodded and gestured at Sally.

"Pleased to meet you, Amy. As you probably guessed from earlier, that's Sally." The chipmunk raised her eyebrows in unenthusiastic greeting before resuming her frown. The echidna pointed at herself, dancing in her seat, "I'm Tikal, expert in all things historical and psychological. If you need help getting around or with homework stuff, Sally and I are usually here until four."

Sally suddenly slammed a fist on the table and growled, "How dare those misogynists say that! Feminism is not about reducing men's rights!" Amy blinked rapidly but Sally went back to focused silence, angrily typing a reply to whatever blog she'd read. Tikal waved a dismissive hand.

"Ignore her; Sally is majoring in Political Science and has 'big plans' for the women's rights movement."

Amy suddenly cocked her head as an idea struck her, "Wait... Tikal, you said you were an expert in history? You wouldn't happen to be taking Ancient Society Two, would you?" Tikal chewed a pen, her bright blue eyes flicking around the library absently.

"What? Oh... yeah, I am." Her face lit up and she leaned forward dramatically, "Amy, are you interested in history?!"

Amy shook her head, "Unfortunately, not really... but I met someone today who said he'd been trying to get into that class. For some reason he can't pass, so he's stuck in Global Studies with me."

"Who's your teacher?"

"Professor Shell."

Tikal's bright face paled, her eyebrow twitching faintly. She leaned back and began shuffling her papers. Amy flailed her hands, trying to backpedal.

"Oh, I don't mean anything by it, I was just wondering if maybe you could help him out!"

Tikal's smile was forced, "Um... No, I don't think I could..." Amy felt awful. Whatever she had said, it had been wrong. She was possibly moments from losing one of the only potential friends she had made in the sorority. Was she making enemies right now? Then, as if it took all the strength in the world, Sally finally breathed out an explanation.

"Tikal took Shell's class a year ago. There was this unbelievably dim-witted echidna in it and he fell head over heels for her. He's been trying to pass but keeps forgetting to turn in a signed attendance slip to the main office, which is the only proof that he took a lecture-only class. We'd prefer to keep it that way." She finally leaned forward and—pen in hand—began furiously scribbling the start of an essay. Amy's stomach had gone numb. Poor Knuckles, needlessly stuck in a basic class... And poor Tikal, having to deal with whatever had transpired between the two upperclassmen in the past.

"Well," Amy exhaled morosely, "I guess I'll just have to find a way to pass without letting him know..."

"That's the spirit," Sally deadpanned. Tikal made an apologetic face.

"I'm sorry, Amy... I just really don't want to run into him again."

Amy smiled, "It's totally fine; I understand. But... I think I should go get my text books before all the good copies are gone." The two older girls nodded, waving her off, and Amy stalked up to the cash register. An orange weasel with a badge that read "Student Volunteer" greeted her.

"What can I help you with?" She said brightly. Amy handed her a list of all the books she'd be needing. The weasel's bright green eyes scanned the list. She picked up two clipboards, each with a different set of paperwork. "Would you like to rent these or do Linehardt's Roll-over Student Discount?"

Amy rubbed her chin at the unexpected options, "Uh, what's the second one?" The weasel put down one clipboard and handed it to the pink hedgehog.

"The Roll-over is what most people choose here. At the beginning of a semester, you pay full price. If you return the books in perfect condition, you get a fraction of the price back and a credit towards your next semester, should you return. If you rent, however, you must return the books in perfect condition—or pay a fine equal to the cost—and you do not get a roll-over credit for your next set." The weasel inhaled loudly at the end, having spouted the entire summary in one breath. Amy bit her lip.

"I think... I think I'll do the student discount?"

"Total cost comes to five hundred dollars."

"Five hundred?!" Amy shrieked. A nearby librarian glared at her. The pink hedgehog sighed, crestfallen, and handed the weasel her student ID.

Amy trudged back to the dorms, arms laden with rented books. The crowds of noon-class students passed around her like water around a rock. Some lingering day students were going home for lunch, but most had gone out to the city to shop and eat. Amy wondered if Rouge might show her around, if the bat wasn't sleeping still. Suddenly, the doors to one of the frat houses Amy was passing opened and a green hedgehog wearing sunglasses came out. An unpleasant, rank smell mixed with the lilt of Top 40 music poured out of the doors. The hedgehog noticed Amy and grinned, lowering his sunglasses to reveal icy blue eyes.

"Hey, babe. Wanna come hang at a real frat?"

Amy wrinkled her nose, "With that reek? No way."

"You won't get any finer company at Linehardt," he called after her as she walked away a little faster than necessary. When she didn't acknowledge him any further, he shrugged and passed back into the house, forgetting what he had gone outside for in the first place.

Amy wrinkled her nose again as she entered GNO, grimacing from the wretched stink. As she headed up the stairs, loud voices seeped out of the room to the left.

"I don't care what you needed it for, I bought it with my money and you need to replace it!"

"Wave, aren't we both mechanics? Don' we need ta stick tagetha?"

"I'm in a completely different field from you! Just replace my speed attachment by tomorrow."

"Eh... I spent... all my money...?"

Amy suppressed a chuckle at the death-gurgle she assumed was Wave as she passed the bedroom. She was beginning to understand what Rouge meant about "high-strung" and the image of stately Wave and stumpy Marine arguing was... entertaining, to say the least. At last, Amy reached her own room and kicked open the door. Rouge was sitting at her desk, brushing her fingers through wet hair. The white bat looked up at the noise and smiled.

"Welcome back. How'd it go?"

Amy set the stack of books on her own desk as gently as she could. The thud echoed in the small room nonetheless. She slumped into the chair and fell forward on the table, resting her forehead on her arms.

"Tiring, if anything. My first class started with this really scary girl... Then I ran into Triple S... or... two of them, or something." Amy sat up, looking at her friend with puppy eyes. Rouge rifled through her makeup bag, smiling in that strange way she had. It always looked like she knew something you didn't. Not in bad way, just unnerving sometimes. The bat pulled out a pink lipstick and mirror and began the long process of making herself up.

"So you heard about the terrible trio, eh? They're the worst of SLK. The echidna is actually kinda cute, all brawny and all." She put the lipstick down and reached for an eye primer. Amy placed her hands under her chin and watched the older girl work, sighing.

"I just wanted to make a good first impression, but it was like... everywhere I went, they were there. My science class hates me because Sonic called me 'cutie'... That echidna was in my history class," Amy paused when Rouge raised her eyebrows before continuing, "but he's a total dunce." Rouge pouted. Amy twiddled her fingers, "There was this really hot fox in my computer class, but Espio scared him away before I could get his name."

"It'll sort itself out," Rouge offered, packing peacock-blue powder onto her eyelids. "Just try to survive the first week and then you'll be in the clear. SLK will fade into the background and everyone will think you're just another new kid."

"Thanks," Amy muttered sarcastically. Rouge finished her look with mascara and zipped her makeup bag shut. She smiled at Amy, raising perfectly-shaped brows.

"Hey... you hungry?"

As if on cue, the pink hedgehog's stomach growled.

Past the high stone walls and the embellished iron gate of Linehardt, Station Square bustled and changed on a daily basis. The college was but a microcosm in a much larger world. The city rose and dipped and rose again—skyscrapers to residential streets and back. The buildings were tall, the streets noisy, and the sidewalks crowded. The city's namesake train depot, SS Central Station, was a hive of business folk and average people-needing-to-get-places. Yet, somehow, there was a magnetic draw to the lifestyle that pulled people from as far as Mystic Ruins. Rouge's high heels clicked on the pavement as Amy followed close behind, trying not to gawk at the magnificent scenery too much.

"Rouge!"

"Amy, for the billionth time, it's just another dime-a-dozen sky scraper. C'mon, the restaurant is right around the corner."

True to the bat's word, it was. Lenny's was a quaint sort of diner, seemingly out of place in the sophisticated world that surrounded it. The roof was copper; the walls old, dirty stucco; and the signage dated. Still, it was the only restaurant open twenty-four-seven that served both breakfast and dinner. Not to mention it had a karaoke bar in the back. Amy eyed the structure warily.

"Are you... sure... this is good?" She shifted away from a homeless-looking rat who was sleeping against one of the walls. Rouge turned and grabbed the hedgehog's hand, pulling her inside the swing door. The heavenly scent of pancakes combined with a bizarrely-pleasing mix of steak and hot fudge assaulted Amy's nose. She looked around the simple place, the smell of breakfast breads raising her spirits. A skinny coyote led the pair of college students into one of the dining areas, seating them at a window booth. The coyote's bushy tail swayed when she put the menus down and she walked away to get two glasses of water. Hope renewed, Amy opened her menu with a determined snap.

"This place looks like Hell," Rouge said quietly, "but wait till you try their french toast."

"I can't decide what I want," Amy's green eyes flicked over the many pages. "There are too many options!"

At that moment, the rumble of an idling car seemed to shake the entire diner. Amy looked out the large glass window to the right—and immediately cowered behind her menu, sinking down into the booth so as not to be seen. Rouge put down her own menu and frowned.

"Amy. What are you doing?"

"It's t-them! They're here!" Amy exclaimed, pointing out the window with a shaking hand. Sure enough, the little blue car with a big attitude had pulled in, parking against the curb outside. The roar ceased and Silver got out of the driver's side this time, with Sonic crawling out from the middle and Shadow casually standing up from the passenger's seat. Triple S made their way up the sidewalk and around the corner. Rouge's blue eyes followed their path along with Amy's trembling finger. The bell on the front door jingled and the trio of frat boys walked in.

"They're eating here!"

"Well, yeah, hon, that's what people do here. Why are you so afraid?" Rouge flipped open her menu again, uninterested in the latest surrounding developments. Amy, her eyes trained on the cash register as Shadow spoke to the hostess with his two friends scuffling around behind, launched upwards in her seat. Her eyes flared.

"Are you kidding me? Ever since I got to school you said 'stay away from SLK', 'trust me, those guys are a bad bunch', 'better not go near those losers'. Now you're saying it doesn't matter that I ran into them all day and the entire freshman year is going to think I'm having lunch with them?"

"Amy, calm down. You're frothing at the mouth."

"Ugh!" The pink hedgehog hissed at her friend's fickle behavior. The sound of another car door slamming made the pair of girls look outside once more. The waitress led Triple S into another dining area before coming back to place water glasses on Rouge and Amy's table. Oddly enough, Blaze, Knuckles and Espio were getting out of the blue car. Amy's frustration dissipated at the sight of the lavender cat.

"Poor girl, getting used by her crush like that," she remarked sympathetically. Rouge nearly spat a mouthful of water out. She swallowed and wiped her mouth, chuckling.

"I'm sorry... What did you say about Blaze?"

Amy rested her face on a fist, watching the next trio meander up the sidewalk, "She likes Shadow, but he's just using her, making her pay for homework help with her body."

"You've been reading too many high school fics on that website you like," Rouge muttered, skimming over her menu for the umpteenth time. Amy frowned and glared at her friend.

"I haven't been on that site since I was sixteen! I'm telling the truth! I heard them in the hallway... Why are you smiling like that?"

Rouge snickered, "You'll find out soon enough, I think."

The waitress returned and took their orders. Amy's poor, tender mind burned with curiosity, trying to figure out the white bat's cryptic statement. She was so deep in thought, she almost forgot to notice how delicious her french toast was.

Amy Rose lay in her bed, splayed out like a child. Rouge was gone for night classes and the silence of the small bedroom led to too much introspection. Not to mention, a frat up the street was throwing a loud party, forcing Amy to keep the windows closed. Although, considering the cringe-worthy memory filling her mind like a tasteless B-movie, ear-shattering dubstep might have been a better alternative. She groaned in embarrassment, rolling over in her blankets and burrowing beneath her faded pink pillow. At least she had changed the bedding to her own, the optimistic part of her mind offered.

I was so stupid earlier...

After a relatively pleasant meal at Lenny's, Rouge had gone to the front to pay and Amy had tried to sneak out past the boisterous table of SLK and their feline guest. Unfortunately, just as she passed their dining area, Sonic and Silver had gotten up to play the claw machine by the front door. They nearly knocked a tip-toeing pink hedgehog over in the process.

"Oh, sorry there, cutie freshman," Sonic chuckled warmly. Silver nodded. Amy looked between them, exasperation slowly building up in her chest.

"Um... My name is 'Amy', not 'cutie'..."

"It's a habit of his," Silver shrugged. He extended a hand in greeting. Amy took it gingerly, noticing for the first time the albino was wearing strange gloves, each with a bluish circle in the center. He smiled brightly while he shook her hand, "My name's Silver. Pleased to meet you, Amy. Sorry about disrupting your little class earlier."

"It's... fine..."

Sonic slapped Silver's lingering hand away from Amy's, "Hey, man, cool the forward. I met her first."

Silver grimaced and rolled his eyes, "Whatever! She can like who she likes." Sonic pursed his lips before giving Amy a conspiring look. He waggled his eyebrows.

"Well, I think this cutie has good taste. Whaddya say, Ames? Blue or white?"

Amy, who had been growing more irate by the second, finally burst, "NEITHER!" The restaurant went silent. Somewhere at the back of her mind Amy heard Rouge utter her name chidingly, but the only thing she could see was a red filter over these obnoxious boys who seemed to be trying to ruin her life.

"Neither!" She hissed again, "I've run into you people all day! Is it your goal to alienate me from the rest of the school?!"

The two boys looked confused, as if they couldn't quite grasp what she was saying.

Amy continued, "All I want is to blend in and have a good first year! In order to do that, I can't be seen as your friend or acquaintance. So why don't you just STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Sonic's face turned sullen, his lower lip pushing out in a pout. Silver just winced and shrank away, his visage wounded. Amy finally noticed the restaurant's stares and Rouge's mortified expression. Realizing that she had just humiliated two upperclassmen and herself, she ran from the building... all the way back to Gamma Nu Omega.

Ugh... They didn't do anything wrong, Amy thought as the memory faded again, I was just too wound up... and too scared. She bashed her head on the mattress a few times, wishing the ground could have opened and swallowed her up before she made a fool of herself. Now she'd have to face Wednesday morning with the bitter taste of shame in her mouth—and a sea of angry students. Even if SLK was a misfit fraternity, they still were there before her. Would the whole school hate her now? How many other Linehardt students had been eating lunch at that moment? Amy worried herself to sleep, dreading whatever punishment she'd receive in the morning.

However, when she woke too early and sat in Advanced Literature—when she made her way through the day and even sat right next to Knuckles—there wasn't any. No one looked at her any different. Blaze nearly ignored her, only making sarcastic comments about the introductory homework. There was no sign of Sonic and Silver in Physics, nor of Blaze and Shadow before math. Knuckles only read his magazines while Professor Shell rambled about what was going on with the antrho-human communications in the far East, and Espio followed Professor Lebelle's instructions like a carefully trained servant, only pausing to glance at Amy with a flat expression before telling the attractive fox how to open the Start menu.

The week passed in the same perfectly-quiet manner and the guilt had gnawed Amy's innards to dust. The freshman felt as if she would explode if she didn't do something. Sunday morning arrived. Rouge was dead asleep after a wild Saturday night at a club in the downtown area. Sally and Tikal were nowhere to be found and most of the sorority members were out enjoying their weekend or sleeping in. Even Marine and Wave's shared room was quiet. There was no voice of reason or someone to tell her not to go.

So Amy Rose walked across-the-street-and-to-the-right. She marched past the little blue car, up the stone stairs and beside the messed-up landscaping. She marched right up to the red, double front doors—and Amy Rose knocked.

So as we see the wild Amy in her natural habitat, there's a fine line between love and hate, and the members of SLK are infiltrating her mind to the max. How will her frat-affair turn out?