Show and Tell
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE OUT?!"
Sally screams at Rosy in rage. The two, along with Fiona, are having a heated argument in the back of the school—albeit that the dyad is suspended.
"I mean I'm out!" Rosy retaliates. Her temper is starting to get severe for her.
"Don't tell me you're leaving us, too!" the chipmunk persists, "You're our spy! Your job is to make others miserable as hell by revealing all of their darkest secrets!"
"Well, I quit! You two can find yourselves a new spy! And frankly, I truly feel bad about what you made me do to those three!" Rosy comes clean. "Do you even know how much pain we're causing them?! Hell, they couldn't even stop crying about it!"
What she just said was true. The three former girls who have left the group recently suffered their own karma when Rosy was forced to expose their secrets on the 'Chaotic Chat' column online about a few days ago. Now—the entire school knows about them.
Rouge was being hated and accused for stealing, when in reality, she's a recovering kleptomaniac; she's still seeking therapy and treatment outside of the school for her impulsive control disorder. Blaze ended up on academic probation when she got caught plagiarizing several essays and cheated on a few exams… due to her stress and anxiety attacks. Mina experienced humiliation when the school saw a video of her singing, or lip-synching, malfunction; she really thought her laryngitis wouldn't stop her from performing on a talent show until the recording behind the curtain went on a fritz.
Fiona argues, "They truly deserved it! That's what they get for abandoning us! Why do you want to leave us anyway?!"
Rosy stammers on the question. She knows that she is not allowed to tell anyone about her condition.
On impulse, she screams, "I can't say, okay? Because that's really NONE OF YOUR FUCKING CONCERN!" The last part was a shrill, loud enough for anyone nearby the schoolyard to hear.
Some bystanders hear their conversation as they pause and stare at the three. Fiona returns their gazes, "MIND YOUR BUSINESS, PEOPLE! THIS MEETING IS PRIVATE!" She growls at the students, scaring them as they walk away.
Rosy continues, ameliorating the shrillness of her tone, "And speaking of which, do you even know what that Amy-girl is going through?! Do you even know what it's like to live in such a difficult life?! Not everyone is all happy, rainbows, and unicorns everyday! What you two made me do was such a disgrace and I shouldn't have done this in the first place!" Then, Rosy pauses, taking a few deep breaths.
Sally retaliates, "We don't even give a flying shit about her feelings, or the others! Since when did you decide to be on her side?!"
"Again, that's none of your damn business. Mina was right all along, you two are horrible people and I shouldn't have listened to any of you. Once again, I quit!" Rosy glances at Fiona, "And you are lucky enough that I faked this whole 'being-nice-to-you' thing when you told me that Scourge broke up with you. With him or not, I never wanted to be friends with you anyway!"
Fiona scoffs, "Whatever, I still don't like you either! You don't deserve to be with him!"
Still glaring at the duo, Rosy takes her backpack off the ground and then carries it over her shoulder. "You should get out of here. You know what happens to students who show up on school grounds during suspension." She threatens them before she leaves to the entrance.
The chipmunk and the fox, now on their own, watch her walk into the school. Deep inside, they have never been this outraged before.
Inside the building, Rosy the Rascal, still feeling infuriated after the whole fight with them, scurries her way through the corridors with only about fifteen minutes until the bell. She runs into the girls' restroom and then goes to the sinks and mirrors. Dropping her backpack onto the floor, she quickly unzips it to search for a couple of things she needed: her water bottle and her pills. Instantly, Rosy opens the bottle, takes one dose out, and then inserts it into her mouth as she closes the cap back on. Subsequently, she opens her water next to take a sip and swallows the pill down, careful enough to not choke on it.
Seconds after taking her medication, Rosy can already feel the tension ameliorating itself. Getting up from the floor, she stares at herself in the mirror; instead of seeing her own reflection—she sees Amy. She has a weird feeling that somehow, she and the Rose are one and the same. Just like her, the Rascal is, too, playing the hide and seek game whenever she's around with people.
Feeling lost in her thoughts, the door opens. Rosy quickly glances at whom just walked in—her look-alike. The awkward moment appears when the two pink hedgehogs are staring at one another.
"Hello," Amy says monotonously to her.
"Hello, yourself." Rosy did the same, especially with that monotone voice.
Simultaneously, they slowly ascend and descend their eyes on each other's appearance. It's like a mirror, except their quills are styled differently and their clothes they're currently wearing are—coincidentally reversible with only a small difference.
Amy is wearing a black long-sleeve top, a white skirt, grey tights, and black ankle boots with heels. Rosy, on the other hand, is wearing a white top, a black skirt, similar grey tights, and white heeled ankle boots. The only difference is that Rosy is wearing a dark denim jacket.
They make another eye contact. The feeling is really creepy and they swore they felt the chills in their spines.
"Rosy?" Amy guessed her name.
"Yes. And you're Amy Rose. I've heard a lot about you." Rosy responds.
"Let me guess—"
And then, they answered at the same time…
"You've read about me on that school gossip column on the website."
"I've read about you on that school gossip column on the website."
There's complete silence between them. Rosy lied on her statement because she doesn't want to let Amy know that she's the one who wrote about her.
She lies again, "That RascalBrat person must be a total bitch. I mean, who the hell goes into other people's private lives and then writes about it in the public site? That's just wrong."
"Tell me about it," Amy agrees.
"How did you know my name, by the way?" Rosy asks her.
Amy shrugs, "Several of my friends mentioned you to me a few times before. They told me that you look a lot like me." She quickly glances at the Rascal's appearance again, "But I don't see the resemblance."
Rosy did the same thing to her, "Me neither. They must be blind or something." She looks at the time on her phone. "I should get going."
"Well…I guess," Amy pauses, "maybe we'll talk again the next time we see each other."
"Yeah… again. I guess." Then, Rosy exits the bathroom while Amy walks into one of the stalls.
Once Rosy is out in the hallways again, she takes out her phone to do another right thing. On her way to her class, she is about to delete her profile from the 'Chaotic Chat' column, now that she no longer works for Sally and Fiona. Although, she's too focused on the screen and she couldn't really pay attention to the direction she's heading.
Someone bumps into Rosy, causing her to drop her phone on the floor. The device didn't even break, but she got irritated about it.
"Would you watch where you're going?" She coldly says to the Mobian that just ran into her. She crouches down to retrieve it.
"Geez, sorry." A male green hedgehog frigidly remarks at her attitude.
When Rosy gets up and makes eye contact with him—Scourge is surprised to see her.
"Rosy?" The rebel stunningly says her name. Ever since that harsh rejection—things have changed between them.
"Oh, it's you." Rosy replies cruelly. She's seemingly still mad about how he treated her back then.
"Damn, you look… different." Scourge comments while still bewildered. Just like Sonic and Amy years back, the same issue had once occur to Scourge and Rosy. Yes, Rosy used to dress in childish clothes, like Amy, and yes, she used to be as deeply obsessed with him as Amy was with Sonic.
"Yeah, thanks." She says with sarcasm while going through her phone, "You haven't changed much either. Shouldn't you be ready for class?" With that, she finally got the profile deleted.
"No," he answers, "I don't even give a shit about Health. I'm not going to be a freaking doctor, so who cares? Might as well cut and risk getting an 'F'."
She puts her phone away. "Then, what are you going to be, some kind of a playboy?"
Scourge notices the persistent harshness in her tone. He asks nervously, "Are you still pissed off about before?"
Abruptly, the Rascal's mood changed from mean to sadness; she's now thinking about that moment in the past regarding to the calamity from Scourge. Way before the two broke up, he rejected Rosy for Fiona because of her crazy obsession with him. Rosy then got into a severe breakdown with a broken heart—and the rest is too disheartening to tell.
She sniffs, "What do you think? I almost killed myself before right after you did that to me."
It's just like Sonic and Amy all over again. Scourge sees the sadness in her eyes. He sighs, "Look, I'm really sorry, okay? I never meant to hurt you, but I didn't even know that you would do something harsh to yourself. Listen, I'm not with her anymore—"
Rosy cuts him off and snaps, "You don't have to tell me. If you don't like me, then I respect that. I'll do you a favor; I'll leave you alone for good, okay? You don't have to worry about me obsessing over you. As the matter of fact, there might be a chance that I may never be in this world ever again. Goodbye, Scourge." Her voice broke at the end.
She leaves, separating herself away from him. Scourge watches her leave until she's gone. While doing so, he couldn't help but to feel some remorse and all at once—preoccupied by Rosy's new fully grown, mature appearance. He couldn't believe that he's now starting to feel just a tad attracted to the Rascal. No, it's more than just a tad—it's bigger.
Subsequently, Scourge heads to his friends, who were waiting for him before the bell rings. Deep down, he's unable to get the thought about Rosy out of his head.
"Dude, who was that girl you were talking to?" Manic asks him.
"That's Rosy," Scourge clears his throat, attempting to hide his remorse away from the gang, "She used to have some kind of crush on me, but… it's a long story."
The rebel then notices Sonic staring blankly and solemnly around the corner of the hallway. He's staring at the usual spot where Amy walks to her first class.
"What's with Blue?" he asks the other three.
Silver responses, "He's been like this since we walked in. Apparently, he's incorrigibly melancholic about yesterday after our visit at Amy's house."
They gave him confused looks, "Incorri-what?" Manic asks.
The prep sighs, "He's still feeling sad."
"Oh," The rock-star now understands.
Shadow finishes off, "And he's still not telling us why. I wonder what his deal is. Honestly, I can't stand seeing like this anymore, it's getting on my nerves."
At that moment—Amy appears down the hall. Without letting his friends and brother see his facial expression, Sonic lets out an inaudible gasp, knowing that he'll finally be able to at least make some contact with her. When Amy walks down the corridor, she instantly passes by the Hedgehogs 5x; they're looking at her and she returns their glimpse.
But it's not what Sonic hoped for. As she glances at them for a mere second, the jock is giving her a subtle smile, despite that he's feeling lachrymose in the inside, while the rest of the crew gave her tiny waves and warming smiles of their own. Amy on the other hand—didn't return anything. She's still ignoring them because deep down, she's too afraid to be around with them now that they know about her—true self. She glances away from the Hedgehogs 5x and resumes walking to her class.
Now—the boys quickly alter back to unhappiness. Sonic slowly turns around to face to them.
"Sonic," Manic begins, "You know you cannot stay like this forever."
Silver commences, "Your brother is right. Remaining pessimistic for a prolonged time is not good for you, even for the rest of us."
Finally, Sonic replies to them—gloomily. "At least I'm not becoming like Shadow," he gazes at the dark hedgehog, "No offense."
"None taken," Shadow remarks.
The bell suddenly rings.
Sonic looks at them once more before everyone heads off their separate ways. "See you guys later." Then, he sadly walks away.
Hours later…
It's dismissal time and everyone is exiting out of the school.
Amy is wrapping her arms securely around her stomach as she slowly walks out of the doors along with the students. Instead of being all blissful and loquacious, like the rest of them, she is completely lachrymose and silent. Her head is down, staring straight at the ground, and she's walking along the pavement as if she's an outsider.
"Amy, wait!" She hears someone calling her name. Amy lifts her head back up after hearing the familiar voice. She turns around—and she sees him.
Sonic runs straight to her. Amy is about to turn back around and walk away from him, but the jock is too swift. He made it to her in seconds.
"Amy, please don't go yet," Sonic tells her as he places his hand on her shoulder to get her attention. He seems really apprehensive when he looked at her. "I really need to talk to you. It's important."
Amy responds in pain, "Sonic, no. I'm not in the mood to talk. I really need to get going." She faces away, but Sonic soothingly turns her back around to make full eye contact with him. She notices the pained expression in his emerald eyes.
"Please, Ames?" Sonic begs to her, "Look, there's something that I really need to tell you and I can't keep it in any longer. Also, this is something that I can't let the others know, too, so we're going to have to go some place where we can be alone."
"I don't know, Sonic."
"Please?" A subtle tear wells up in the corner of his eye. Sonic pleads once more as Amy perceives the complete sorrow in him. She makes her decision.
"Are you sure that—?" She asks, but her question gets cut off.
He instantly answers, "Yes, it's just you and me. No one else. I already told the gang that I want to talk to you alone and they understand."
Amy finally responses, "Okay, I'll talk." He sighs in relief.
Carefully, Sonic takes Amy's hand and he leads her the way to the other side of the school. She has no idea where exactly they're heading.
"Where are we going?" She asks again.
"To some place where no one in the school has ever been to very often." He answers.
Soon, the two hedgehogs reach at the very back of the school yard, pass through the track and football field, and then to the metal chain-linked fence. Before they can go through, Amy perceives through the gate and she is stunned. There are flowers of many breeds, bushes, and small trees everywhere.
"Wow, I didn't even know that the school has a garden." Amy comments silently.
Sonic shrugs his shoulder. "Neither did I until Tails and Cream told me about it. They told me they came here before and it was really nice."
"Are you sure we're allowed to go in? It's too beautiful to be entered by others."
"As long as no one finds us, we'll be safe." Sonic then grasps onto the door of the fence and surprisingly, it's unlocked. Cautiously, he opens it for the Rose. He lets out a smile.
"After you," He says while holding a door like a gentleman. Amy tries to let out a smile back and she takes her first step in. Afterwards, Sonic strides in and closes the door behind.
Amy takes a whole glimpse at the garden. It's so beautiful, even up close inside. Sonic takes her hand again and they stroll together along the concrete pavement in between the patches of flowers and plantations.
"I can't believe that this place is completely empty," She says while still glimpsing at the sight. The scent of flowers and fresh air is really tranquil for her.
Since the garden is not so big though not so small, the two reaches to the very end where a bed of roses is located. They stood adjacent to the rose patch and they face to each other perfectly, making full eye contact.
"So, what is it that you really need to tell me, Sonic?" Amy asks.
Sonic sighs as he is about to tell the whole story to her.
"Amy, I know that this is too traumatizing for you to talk about this but," he pauses, "when me and my pals went to your house and talked to your sister, she said that you attempted suicide four years ago."
That thought returns to her; she lets her head down for a moment. Sonic, sincerely, lifts her chin back up as he persists,
"And, I don't know if you remembered much, but—" The statement gets cut off.
Amy sniffs and sobs, "I can never forget that. You really hurt me back then. You yelled at me so cruelly and then you told me that you didn't want to see me again. The pain in my heart was too unbearable, so I had to get away. When I first saw you and the others again, I actually thought that you wouldn't remember the time you shattered me and then got me into that hellhole right after I tried to kill myself. So I acted as if it never happened every time I'm with you."
She lets out another sniff before she continues, "I had to do that because I didn't want to accuse you at first. When I looked at you, I still have deep feelings for you, but at the same time, I was still mad at you. The reason why I refused to speak to you and the others is because I worried about what you all might think, now that you know I—" Amy stops, not wanting to mention two of her horrifying conditions.
Sonic is now watching her cry in emotional pain. He brings her closer to him for comfort by wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her head. He even strokes her quills. Her face is set on his shirt underneath his varsity jacket. The smell of his cologne and the artificial leather of his jacket are calming her down.
"I'm really sorry for that." He says softly to her.
Amy looks up at him, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I'm really sorry if I caused you all that pain. To tell you the truth, I didn't remember that time until Emily brought that up, even though she didn't specify the name. When your sister mentioned it, I couldn't help but to feel really guilty; I didn't have the courage to tell the gang that I was the guy to broke your heart severely, because I don't want them to know and they still don't know. I didn't want them to hate me for putting you through all that hell at that—place."
Sonic sniffs, sharing his emotions with her. "I never meant to hurt you so harshly. I was just mad at the way you chased me around and I really thought that you have some kind of love-sick fan-girl crush on me. I was really annoyed at first because of your immaturity. But when I looked at you, I realized that you've changed. You're not that same old Amy Rose with a child-like personality who always chased me down; you've changed into a more beautiful and mature young woman, and that got me." He lets out a warming smile.
Amy is touched by his last statement. "You really think I've changed that much?"
Sonic nods his head. Then, his smile quickly turns back into a solemn frown. "But most importantly, we, especially Emily, are also really worried about the fact you cut yourself and you having an eating disorder. If you want, maybe we can have some kind of group meeting with the others and we'll help you deal with what you're going through. You know we're here for you if you ever needed someone to talk to other than just Emily. How's that sound, Ames?"
She thought about it, "I'd like that very much."
"And," Sonic resumes when his smile returns, "I'm starting to grow really attracted to you."
Then, the two broke off from their embrace. Sonic goes to the patch and he takes his hand in there. Carefully, he picks one of the roses out of its bed and hands it to Amy. Amy sincerely accepts the rose as she takes it into her own hands. It's pink, just like her fur, and it literally glistens under the sunlight, possibly because it still has dew on its petals.
It's her turn to smile now. "Thanks, Sonic. I don't know what to do without you."
Sonic gently strokes her cheek with the back of his hand, "And just so you know, me and the guys will keep protecting you from Sally or Fiona or anyone else who gets under your skin. If they want to hurt you, they're going to have to go through us." He winks at her.
This makes her chuckle, "You are so devoted. That's what I like about you."
"So, do you forgive me about that past?"
"Yes, and just so you know—I'll get back with you and everyone else."
The jock is completely happy at the fact that Amy is finally willing to be friends with the Hedgehogs 5x and the rest of their devoted friends again.
"That great! I can notify them that you decided to speak with us again." Sonic says. "Oh, and I almost forgot."
He takes his backpack off his shoulder and unzips it. He goes in and he takes out the stuffed panda bear that he has been holding on to ever since she returned it. Sonic shows it to her. "Panny really misses you and she wants to come back home with you."
Before she takes it back, Sonic playfully rubs the panda's head against her neck. Amy lets out a laugh as it tickles against her sensitive skin. She takes it back into her hands. "I really miss Panny, too." Then, she snuggles it, which pleases him.
Afterwards, the two look up at the sky together. The sun is almost halfway setting.
"It's getting late," Amy tells him, "Will you take me home?"
"Of course," Sonic holds Amy's hand once again and the two make their way out of the garden.
As they are strolling hand to hand from school to home, they have a tête-à-tête, "So what made Sally change from a sweetheart to a total mean girl?" The Rose asks.
The jock answers, "I'm assuming that it has something to do with her being friends with Fiona the Witch and Scourge told me that she is the biggest, most evil bitch in the entire school. She probably changed her attitude because of her," The two hedgehogs can be heard laughing together.
On their way back home, all Sonic and Amy hoped for is that nothing bad will ever happen to any one of them. As soon as the two head to the front of Amy's place—they are oblivious that they're being watched.
Sally Acorn hides behind a tree that is across the Rose's house. She takes a glimpse at the two with resentment written all over her face as she leans her hands against the tree bark.
"You got me suspended and for that, you shall pay." The chipmunk snarls.
She watches as Amy waves goodbye to Sonic before she goes inside and he goes back home.
"Amy Rose, you are so dead."