Crystal Clear
It's been a couple of weeks. Throughout those days, everything went smoothly for Amy Rose and the Hedgehogs 5x ever since that talk back at the school's garden.
There were a lot of laughs in the entire group. For instance, Manic showed off some of his skateboarding stunts down at the school yard and several of his accidents have made their day (or at least he have 'failed' intentionally just to entertain them); there was one time when all six had shopping cart joyrides at a supermarket; and who could forget? Four days ago, Scourge devised a plan to TP and egg Fiona Fox's house, which they all happily participated and it was a good thing they didn't get caught.
Yes, these activities have really brought a lot of amusement, especially for Amy, now that the dark cloud from above her head has faded away. Hanging around with Sonic, Silver, Manic, Scourge, and Shadow have made her forget all the things that those—girls—have done to her.
It's also great news that Amy has been talking to Tails, Knuckles, Cream, Tikal, and of course the Hedgehogs 5x about her weaknesses. Ever since that intervention they, along with Emily Violet, staged for her the day after Sonic took her to the garden, Amy has made a commitment to stay strong for herself and everyone she deeply cares for. She even made a pact to persist battling her anorexia, self-injury, and depression—and she did.
Today, the six hedgehogs have entered the school. They all are walking through the hallways together and there's laughter from the group, with Amy being in the very center.
"So right on the balcony of his apartment, he was opening the champagne bottle by squeezing the neck with his hands and before you know it, it popped and we watched the cork fly right out from 10 stories high," Amy exclaims, "Then, we heard some passerby screaming 'where the hell did that flying cork came from?' from the very bottom of the building!" She lets out a laugh.
The Hedgehogs 5x laughed along as they all stood in the middle of the corridors.
"I'm guessing that it landed on his head or something!" Sonic comments as the crack-up persists loudly.
"Probably," Amy finishes off.
During this moment, Manic is trying to hold back his laughter while un-wrapping the aluminum foil from his breakfast burrito.
"Okay, you really need to stop making me laugh, I'm trying to eat." The rock-star chuckles. He crumbles the foil into his left hand whilst holding his roll into his other. "You don't want me to die while choking, do you?"
Scourge jokingly remarks, "Then at least close your mouth when you chew, like you always do every time we eat together!"
With that, the rebel playfully smacks Manic on his upper back, causing him to drop his burrito. Everyone sees the hand-held food sitting on top of the tiled floor.
"Looks like you don't want it any—"Sonic says, but he gets cut off before he could finish.
"Five-second rule!" Manic then shouts as he picks his breakfast back up. Instantly—he takes a big bite of it, despite it was on the mildly contaminated floor. He lets out an arrogant smirk.
"Ew!" Everyone is disgusted at his action.
"What? It's not that bad!" He persists eating it.
"It's not sanitary, Manic!" Silver informs him. Subsequently, the roaring laughter from the group returns.
As the sextet resumes walking, everyone's laughter suddenly ameliorates into giggles and smirks when they're about a few yards away from the Rose's locker. They pause and Amy faces to them.
"I got to get ready for English," she tells them as she attempts to hold back her laugh, "I'll see you guys either in class or later in the hallways."
The boys accepted her agenda; soon, they all exchanged their byes to her before they head off to their separate ways. Afterwards, she turns back around and heads toward her locker.
Amy turns the dial to undo the lock. When she opens the door, she sets her bag into her storage to gather her necessities and possibly do some quick organizing in her supplies. While doing so—she can't help but to feel some infatuation going on with the Hedgehogs 5x.
She comments each and everyone one of them in her head, "Sonic, my very first love, is so handsome and heart-warming and he always will be. But he's not the only one: Manic is really cute and funny with a great sense of humor; both Shadow and Scourge are really sexy with two different unique personalities; and Silver is so smart and dazzling at the same time. I know I can't date all of them at once. Now, the choice is hard to make; I can't decide who to choose…"
Amy looks around the inside of her locker. She has some photos, taped inside, of her and the guys hanging out together, reminiscing all the times she had with them throughout these passed weeks. She lets out a warming smile. Their laughs and smiles are what made her day. It's their devotion, compassion, and even integrity she's attracted to. Her heart is now in five pieces since she couldn't make up her mind for the perfect hedgehog she wants to be with.
A moment after her sweet nostalgia, she goes back into doing her agenda. The second she's about to put one of her books into her bag, someone says her name in a considerate tone,
"Hey, Amy?"
The Rose stops what she was doing for now and gazes at whom just called her. She looked at behind the locker door and there stood—them: the three former cronies of Sally Acorn and Fiona Fox. The yellow and purple mongoose was the one who just called her; she's standing in between the bat and the cat.
After looking at the three, Amy lets out a scowl. Apparently, she can never forget that time.
"Oh, hello girls," she tells them with a small hint of coldness. "I've haven't seen you three for a while."
Mina remarks apologetically, "Are you still mad at us?"
"Maybe," Amy responds while keeping a frown in her face.
"Well," the singer-mongoose pauses with a silent sigh, "we're really sorry for what we did. Can you ever forgive us?"
While keeping the conversation going and averting her eyes into her storage, Amy continues to gather her supplies she needed for her class, "I don't know, it's hard to forgive and mostly, I just can't forget. You don't even know what I've been through."
Blaze responds, "Actually, we do."
This caught the Rose's attention, "Huh?" She stops and then gazes back at them.
The intellect continues, "It's true that we were envy of you, but when we first heard about your—you know, we actually felt bad about what you were going through. We were really trying to stop Sally and Fiona from putting you into more severe pain, but…" She pauses.
"But what?" Amy responds while closing her locker and then strapping her bag over her shoulder.
The trio takes a quick glance at one another before Blaze resumes, "We couldn't because they blackmailed us."
Rouge informs, "They told us if we failed to follow what they said, they'd revealed our deepest secrets to the entire school. And sadly, they did."
Mina finishes, "It was terrible. I had to go incognito until everyone forgets, so I could avoid shame from my performance. No one could understand that I lost my voice by the night of the talent show and I didn't even expect that the recording would go shitty in the middle of it."
Rouge begins her own statement, "I had to go to therapy according to the school counselor's orders, even though I'm still controlling myself from theft. Honestly, I've haven't been stealing anything for months, but I still had to go."
"And for the very first time in my life, I got both detention and academic probation for dishonesty." Blaze affirms with guilt, "I had several anxiety attacks while I was studying and I got pressured into copying off some essays and answers during exams."
"Overall," the bat concludes, "What we're trying to say is that—you're not alone. As you could see, none of us are perfect and we shouldn't have let our jealousy get the best of us."
This surprises Amy, "Wow, that's just—I can't believe that an intellect, an aspiring singer, and a fashionista, like you three, went through all of that. I'm so sorry to hear about your obscurities and misfortunes."
At that moment, the first bell rings.
"I have to go," The Rose is about to take off, but one of them stops her for a moment. Tenderly, she touches her shoulder.
"Wait," Amy turns to make eye contact with Blaze, "Listen, we still need to talk. We have some important things to tell you." The cat lets her hand down from her shoulder, "Do you think it's okay if we can see you during your lunch period?"
They give her a moment to think about it. Then, Amy replies, "We'll see."
Afterwards, the hedgehog turns around and heads to her class, leaving the triad alone and without even saying one goodbye.
It's free period time.
Amy is texting whilst exiting out of the classroom. During her last lecture, she couldn't stop thinking whether or not she should talk to the three earlier this morning. She was thinking of the pros and cons while taking Trigonometry notes.
Pro: What Blaze said could be serious, according to that solemn look on her face. She did say that they're important, but what? Are their apologies and sympathies serious as well? If Amy forgives them, maybe they would leave her alone or possibly learn to be friends with her.
Con: What if it's another trick and they're secretly undercover for—you know who? What if they hurt her again? What if they're pretending to be sympathetic all along? If she refuses to forgive, then more dramatic crises may occur.
It's 50-50. Now—the choice is tough to make for the confused Rose.
She puts her phone away into her pocket inside her bag and she makes her way to the cafeteria. Minding her business, she strolls through the hallways, passing by the grandiloquent and loquacious students.
Within yards away, she makes it to the double doors of the cafeteria. Just before she's about to walk in with her palm laying against the door, someone calls her, "Amy."
Amy turns around for a second and she sees Blaze, coming towards her. She lets her hand down from the door and soon, the cat stood next to her.
"Have you thought about it?" She asks Amy.
"About that," the hedgehog responds, "I'm still thinking about it. I was just heading into the lunchroom because I thought you guys might be there."
"Actually, we're in the library. We figured that would be a better place other than the cafeteria. Do you mind if I take you there?"
The Rose takes a quick glance through the double doors, and then faces back at Blaze. She sighs with reluctance, "I guess not."
After the talk, the two make their way to the library. During their walk, Amy asks, "What's something imperative that you guys need to tell me?"
Blaze went quiet for a quick second, "I'm not sure if you—"
"I do." The Rose answers by impulse, not even knowing what she had to say before she could finish her sentence.
There's another silence, and then the cat answers, "It's about Sally Acorn."
After hearing the words, Amy stops walking. Blaze notices this and she, too, stops walking to gaze at her. She can see that sullen look on her face, thinking that talking about someone, like Sally, is not going to be a good idea. Despite that, Blaze has no option but to tell Amy the life story about the chipmunk.
"Maybe, I should—"Amy tries to inform, but again she gets cut off.
"No, please don't go." Blaze tenderly begs her, "it's very crucial if we tell you some things you don't know about her. Otherwise, she and Fiona may come back as soon as their suspension is over and you may never know what they might do to you next. Plus, me, Rouge and Mina also want to help you, now that we're no longer friends with them. But first, we must tell you the factual truths about Sally."
Hearing that statement made Amy realized that this is something she cannot ignore or deny. What she just mentioned could be right, albeit she may never know if more drama and danger may come back any time in the future. Maybe having a talk with them won't be such a bad idea after all. Maybe they are being serious at first.
Immediately, Amy answers, "Okay, I'll talk."
Subsequently, both girls face to their direction and resume walking to their destination just in time before the warning bell rings.
When Amy and Blaze step through the double doors of the library, they could see Rouge and Mina sitting at the very back of the room. Both are presumably reading through some magazines as they wait for them to show up. The two then walk closer to the bat and mongoose, careful enough not the make a sound to disturb other students in the library.
They took their seats, facing opposite to the other duo, and setting their bags on top of the table. Rouge and Mina notices their presence and then they close the magazine they were reading before they set it aside with the others.
"Good, you made it." Mina stated.
"Yeah, I did." Amy responds. "Blaze told me this is regarding to Sally. Is it true that you guys want to—help me?" They answer by nodding their heads.
"To be deeply honest with you," Mina commences with sincerity, "we really don't want to cause any more trouble towards you. That's why we decided to be on your side."
"Wow, that's really," Amy pauses, trying to think of a word to describe this, "considerate of you guys."
"To begin with," Rouge says, "Do you know anything in her history?"
"Well, while I was with Sonic the other day, all he told me is that Sally befriended with Fiona on the first time they met and then her behavior suddenly changed, or that ever since she joined the cheerleading team, she decided to change. Either way, I'm implying that this has something to do with a psychological effect." The Rose informs.
It's Blaze turn, "What you said could be the source. You see, from what I've discovered, she didn't exactly psychologically alter when she joined the team; that was after when she met Fiona Fox."
Amy is slightly perplexed, but she's able to get the information down in her head. "Really?"
The prep-intellect persists, "And it's not just Sally we want to inform you about. It's Fiona, too. I'm not sure you know, but she happens to be the most noncompliant student the school has ever had in history and—she's really dangerous."
The female hedgehog widened her eyes, "Dangerous how?"
Rouge finishes for Blaze, "It's better off if you not know because we don't want to bring any fear to this school—especially you."
Mina cuts in, "Although, all we could say is that she heavily smokes and drinks, despite being underage."
There's a pause.
Blaze resumes, "Getting back to Sally, ever since she became friends with her, Fiona is pretty much the reason why she transformed into a badass bitch. She was so drawn to the adrenaline and the activities she normally does every day that she decided to follow her footsteps. Fiona has taught her a lot of things, like stealing valuable things from the mall, skipping classes, being disrespectful to the teachers in this school, and sneaking around after curfew, all without getting caught at all. Ever since then, Sally now believes that being all malevolent is a great way to get what she wants, which is why she refuses to change back to her normal beneficial side.
"Aside with that, we knew about Sally dating Sonic and Fiona dating Scourge before. Unfortunately for those two couples, Fiona cheated on him for another guy and it pissed off Scourge a lot. Right after he broke up with her, Fiona was so outraged about that, she started vandalizing and bashing his motorcycle. As for Sonic, it's not just her newly-formed attitude of hers; he realized how much trouble Sally has been causing around lately. He couldn't stand seeing her being disobedient and malicious every day that he decided to officially break up with her."
Amy is even more surprised about the full facts, despite that she already knew some of them, "Oh my God."
"Yeah, pretty crazy. We know." Rouge says.
"I have a question," Amy begins, "why did you guys become friends with them before?"
There's another pause until Mina breaks the silence. "It's a long story, really." Then, she whispers to Rouge and Blaze. "Should we tell her?"
Rouge whispers back, "I think we should." With that, Mina glances back at Amy. It's her turn to tell the facts.
"Ever since the very beginning of this semester, we were actually drawn to the popularity and 'coolness' of Sally and Fiona. We were eager to break the ice, so we asked if we could hang out with them at some time—and so we did. However, things didn't turn out as we expected; in reality, they are nothing but a bad influence for us. Despite all that, we refused to leave them because we were all blinded by the truths and that we all have one thing in common: we're deeply infatuated to each of the Hedgehogs 5x.
"It finally came to our sense that just because we were attracted to their popularity, doesn't mean we really wanted to be true friends with them at all. At first, we thought they wanted to be friends with us, but—"The singer pauses so she could take a deep breath, "it turns out that they were using us this whole time."
"Using you?" Amy asks.
Mina persists, "Yes, they never wanted to be friends with us all along. They only used us for our abilities; you know: Rouge's style, Blaze's brains, and my fun activity ideas. They really took advantage of us."
Rouge takes her place for the next part, "You don't even know what it's like to have your activity ideas for school events and new outfit designs stolen by those two and they took all the credit."
Blaze cuts in, "And you don't even want to know how painful it was for me to do all the assignment and homework for them. They still get the academic credit despite that they did nothing at all."
"All in all," Mina stated, "not only we were the so-called followers, we were mostly slaves. And—we're not as evil as Sally and Fiona are. We would never do anything like that to hurt anyone."
Amy is more surprised at this fact. She cannot believe her eyes.
"So," the bat concludes, "after coming back to reality when we noticed how much damaged we caused to you before and what they have been doing to us, we chose to quit."
Another moment of silence has occurred. Amy mentally jots down everything they have said. It's becoming clear now.
"That makes so much sense now," the Rose whispers to herself.
The cat then tenderly places her hand on top of hers; Amy glances back at them and she could finally see their apologetic faces, only this time with more emotion than earlier.
"Amy," Blaze says as she slowly pulls her hand away, "I know it's really complicated for you to forget, but—can you still forgive us? And look, as soon as you forgive, we will always be on your side from now on. Please?"
The hedgehog looks down as they gave her a second to think about it. After understanding all the facts about them, she already thought about it and she finally makes her decision.
She looks back at them—and then she lets out a small smile, even though she's still feeling solemn deep inside.
"Yes, I forgive you." she tells them.
Everyone is relieved and they, too, smile back at her.
"And," Blaze asks her once again, "is it also okay if we all start over again and be friends?"
"I'd like that very much," the Rose replies.
"Oh, thank God," Mina happily whispers. The rest giggles at her reaction.
Soon afterwards, Amy goes into her bag. She digs her hand inside, going through her necessities.
"Before we head off to our next class, there's something that I might want to give you three." She informs.
One second later, she takes her hand and grasping in her fingertips—are three roses: one green, one white, and one red. She hands them to Mina, Blaze, and Rouge.
Amy resumes her statement, "The Hedgehogs 5x gave me these earlier, but—I decided to give away three of them, to you."
With that said, she gives the green rose to Mina, the red rose to Rouge, and finally the white rose to Blaze. Amy lets out another warming smile as she persists, "Those three are really from Manic, Shadow, and Silver. I've heard that you three have something in common with them, so I've decided to at least do something to keep the compatibility going."
This stuns them.
"Wow, this is really thoughtful of you. Thank you." Blaze comments.
"Thanks," Rouge and Mina did the same, though inarticulately.
"You're welcome." Amy replies as she, along with the rest, gets up from their seats. Right before they exit out of the library, she changes the subject.
"Now, just out of curiosity… what do you think Sally and Fiona are doing right now during their suspension?"
Meanwhile…
Sally and Fiona are both at the fox's house. Sally has something in mind to get back at Amy Rose, yet again. Their first revenge didn't exactly work out as they plan—so for this one… let's just say they're going to need more than just humiliating her. It's far more than humiliation. It's—more drastic and hazardous than just throwing food and revealing Amy's scars.
Both girls are really in Fiona's bedroom. While smoking their cigarettes and filling the room with smoke, Fiona goes through her drawers in search for something that they could use.
"You sure we could do this, Fi?" Sally says as she exhales and holding the cigarette in between her fingers.
"Positive," Fiona responds with hers in between her lips to hold in place whilst opening more drawers. "Like I said, I don't give a flying damn if my parents ground me for life."
"God, I'm so glad you brought me into this. This feels so good." The chipmunk comments as she takes a whiff from the strong, burning scent.
"I know, isn't it?" The fox remarks with a malevolent smirk.
After opening a couple more drawers, she finally finds what she's looking for: a small rectangular wooden box.
"Bingo, baby," Fiona takes the box out of the drawer and then sets it on top of her bed, so Sally can get a closer look. While inhaling her cigarette, Fiona then taps the box twice with her free palm. Sally sits right next to her.
"This is it, Honey Acorn." She tells her. Subsequently, the two set their almost finished-cigarettes into the ashtray, sitting on the floor. Then, Fiona has both of her hands on the box, undoing the latch. "This is the moment we've been waiting for."
The rebel finally opens the box—showing the inside to Sally. The former leader of the group let out a stunned, silent gasp after seeing what's inside. After that—she lets out a wicked smile.
"God, this is too perfect. I can't believe you actually carry that. How and where did you get it?"
The fox playfully shrugs, "I know a guy." And she laughs.
"Fi, I know for sure that this will definitely work. Once we get that thing on Amy Rose—she's going to wish that she was never even born." Sally commences and laughs as she takes her cigarette back from its tray.
Fiona does the same, "True that. This will teach her a lesson on never messing with us and never stealing our men." She inhales the smoke.
"Also," Sally continues, "who needs Rosy or those other girls when we still got each other? After all, it's still two against one."
"Exactly," Then, both girls gaze back at the object inside the box—which happens to be a deadly weapon. They stare at it, admiring its beauty.
The weapon: a dagger.