Amy's phone woke her up using "Anti-Hero" by Taylor Swift as her alarm. As if that wasn't enough of a wake-up, she discovered Shadow nibbling her ear again.

"SHADDY!"

Amy repeatedly slapped Shadow until he let go of her, smiling.

"I'm sorry, was I not supposed to tell the sexiest girl in the world how happy I am this morning?"

Amy growled. "You know, I should kick your ass for being so cheeky!" She smiled. "But, on the other hand, I slept extremely well last night, so I should pay you back for your kindness!"

"Oh…AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Yeah, the payback is TICKLES!"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AMY, STAHP!"

"Not until you tell me I'm a better person than you!"

"I'LL NEVER TELL! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Well, I guess I'll have to make the tickles worse, won't I?"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OK! OK! YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Amy stopped tickling Shadow. "Good boy!"

"Hmph."

After heading to the kitchen/dining room, Shadow and Amy found Douglas at the table reading a copy of The Hancock Times while sipping some coffee. Shadow grabbed a Star Trek mug and poured himself some.

"Good morning, Shadow and Amy," said Douglas. "Excited for school today?"

Shadow smiled. "Ordinarily, my answer to that would be a big fat 'no', but since your lovely daughter helped me get over some past trauma and has just generally been good for my mental and emotional well-being, I actually am looking forward to going."

Amy giggled. "Shaddy, still such a charmer in the morning!"

Shadow smiled as he took another sip of coffee.

Once they were both dressed, Shadow and Amy headed for school, and they were of course holding hands. The difference this time, however, was that Shadow was skipping along the sidewalk, which Amy took notice of:

"Wow, you have a really sunny personality today! Care to explain?"

"What is there to explain? I get to hold hands with a sexy pink girl while I go to school!"

Amy laughed and shoved Shadow. "Shaddy, stahp!"

"Yeah, I'll give you 'stahp'!"

"SHADDY! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Now you can get tickled, you big beautiful girl!"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU BASTARD! YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

"Won't I? I…HEY!"

Amy put Shadow in another headlock and ruffled the quills on top of his head, and not only did he break out of the headlock, but he returned the favor as well, causing them to pull each other to the ground and playfully wrestle with each other, laughing all the while. Eventually, Amy pushed Shadow away.

"OK, Sillyhog, enough screwing around; let's get to school!"

"If you say so…Sexyhog."

At school, hardly anything was different, although people were less inclined to stare at Shadow. There were still those who would spread rumors regarding him and Amy dating, but he pushed such gossip aside and pretended that they were talking about how jealous they were of him for dating the most beautiful plus-size girl ever. Eventually, his Hedgehog Sense tingled, and when the crowds parted, it became evident that Rouge was the one he was being alerted to.

"ROUGE!"

Shadow ran up to Rouge, who smiled upon seeing him rush after her, but nevertheless opened her arms wide to anticipate his tackle hug, which she gladly returned. Upon seeing the two friends bond, Amy clasped her hands together, held them up to the side of her head and gave a sweet "awww!"

"Rouge, am I glad to see you today!"

"I'm glad to see you, Shaddy, but there's no need to crush my windpipe, honey. Now please, let go of me and tell me why you're so sunshiney today."

Shadow let go of Rouge. "What? Is a guy not allowed to be happy?"

Rouge chuckled and put her hand on her hip. "OK, Shaddy, lemme guess: Amy stole your heart like it was a precious gem?"

Shadow chuckled. "Judge for yourself, my dear Rouge."

"Hey Rouge!" Amy waved at Rouge.

"And Amy, what did you do to Shaddy to turn his frowny face upside-downy?"

Amy giggled. "What? I just invited him over to my place! OK, he did cry his eyes out opening up about Maria, but he became that much happier after I gave him a glass of warm milk." She stroked her chin. "Although, I can't understand why warm milk has that sort of effect on him…"

Rouge put a hand on Shadow's shoulder. "Well, I'm so proud of you for getting better at opening up to other people! See? The world's not that scary, hon!"

Shadow smiled and shrugged. "You're right. Not everybody is that bad. Granted, I'm still a long way away from loving everybody, but…nevermind. We don't want to be late to class, do we?"

Amy and Rouge giggled simultaneously.

At lunch, not only had Rouge joined Amy, but Shadow got an unexpected surprise:

"Hey Shad!"

Sonic and Tails had elected to join them as well, prompting a pleasant reaction from him:

"Ah, hello there, Sonic and Tails!"

Sonic's expression turned serious. "Whoa, Shad, what's with the happy face? You light a joint before school or somethin'?"

"Yeah, it's not like you to be this happy," said Tails.

"No, Sonic and Tails, I'm completely sober. The only drug I'm on is love…more specifically that provided by this lovely girl we call Amy Rose."

Amy laughed. "OK, Shaddy, you're such a sillyhog!"

Sonic smiled. "Though I gotta say, I'd rather see ya bein' happy than bein' miserable."

Tails smiled. "Me too!"

Shadow nodded. "I agree; feeling happy isn't that bad. Also, Amy tells me that she knew you two in elementary school."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, but with Uncle Chuck's gig takin' him around the country, we kinda lost contact."

"My father being in the military didn't exactly help, either." Tails smiled. "On the other hand, I'm glad I got to meet you again! Amy is a really good friend, and it sucks that people make fun of her for her weight."

Amy smiled. "Awww, you're a good friend too, Tails!"

Shadow smiled. "Believe me, with me by her side, NO ONE will make fun of her again."

Shadow's Hedgehog Sense tingled, only for him to notice Sonic and Rouge making out.

"Tails…do Sonic and Rouge do this often?"

Tails gave a look of resignation. "Unfortunately, they do."

Amy scratched her head. As much as she loved Shadow, and as friendly as she was with Sonic and Rouge, she could hardly fathom why two lovers would make out in school.

Once school was over, Shadow and Amy skipped on back to Amy's apartment. When they got there, Douglas wasn't present.

"Odd not seeing your father here."

"Let me see…" Amy checked her phone and found a voicemail from Douglas:

"Hi sugarplum, I'm working at the office today, but I'll be back home as soon as I can for the game, OK? You're welcome to bring your boyfriend over, too! Bye!"

Amy hung up.

"Well?" asked Shadow.

"Daddy's at the office right now. He says we're welcome in anyways!"

"OK."

Amy pulled out her own personal key for the apartment and unlocked the door. After they entered, they immediately headed for her room and did their homework. They managed to finish it just in time for Douglas to get back home.

"DADDY!"

Amy ran up to Douglas and gave him a big hug, and he gladly returned it.

"Good to see you, sugarplum! Are you and Shadow excited for the game today?"

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "What game?"

Amy smiled. "Oh, Daddy and I love watching soccer together! Wanna watch with us?"

Shadow furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you kidding my ass? Watching sports sucks hard enough, but soccer is the worst of them all!"

Amy smiled nervously. "Daddy, will you please excuse us?"

Amy led Shadow out of the apartment.

"What's wrong with you, Shaddy!? I can understand if you don't want to watch the game with us, but you don't just swear about it in front of Daddy like that!"

Shadow crossed his arms. "And why not? It's my god-given right to express my hatred for sports, and neither you nor Douglas are going to curb my freedom of speech."

Amy dropped her jaw. "Excuse me!? Are you serious arguing with me right now!? I thought you'd changed!"

"You know, it's really interesting how you assume I'm a bad guy."

Amy thrust her index finger at Shadow. "Go ahead, keep sassing me, mister! You don't wanna find out what happens when you scorn me!"

"I honestly don't give a goddamn rat's ass what you think. This is my final word on your stupid-ass soccer obsession."

Shadow flipped off Amy, causing her to gasp.

"OK, THAT'S IT!"

Amy punched Shadow in the nose, and he didn't even budge.

"You know, if you weren't a woman, I would've reduced you to a pile of goop for having the balls to do that."

Amy growled. "You know what!? Just get out of my life RIGHT NOW! I HATE YOU!"

"Yeah, well I hate you more!"

Shadow ran away, while Amy ran back into her apartment crying.

After returning to his apartment, Shadow slammed the door behind him.

"Good heavens, Shadow!" exclaimed Gerald. "Have I not told you not to slam the door!?"

"Look, just shut up. I DON'T want to hear about it…Gerald."

Shadow went to his room and locked himself in before curling up with his pillow and crying. In some ways, this hurt even worse than the time he opened up to Amy about Maria's death. He had finally found true happiness for the first time since Maria's death, and he'd thrown it all away on a silly argument that could've easily been discussed politely. At this moment, he cursed himself for his own stupidity, so much so that he was wishing that Gerald had never created him. Eventually, he stopped crying, but kept holding on to the pillow as he lamented every facet of his existence. Soon, however, lament gave way to angry determination:

(No…this can't be the end of our relationship! I can still get Amy back! I HAVE to get her back! I just need to figure out how…)

After laying limply in his bed, Shadow slowly got up as neurons fired in his brain, travelling every which pathway they could as they did their part in trying to help him figure out a way to make up with Amy. Eventually, he figured that maybe music would get her back. The Winter Ball was tomorrow, and even if she wasn't going with him, he figured maybe she'd go with Sonic or somebody else and he'd still have a chance to mend their broken relationship. He wasn't entirely sure where to start, so he opened up YouTube and looked for Umberto Tozzi's version of "Gloria". He already knew the song by heart, so he just clicked on random recommended videos of songs, hoping eventually that one of these would be a hit. After what felt like a lifetime, he managed to find one.

(That's it!)

After supper, Shadow went to a record store that was a block away from his apartment called The Vinyl Countdown. Not only did he buy a 12" single of Umberto Tozzi's "Gloria" that contained extended versions of both the original Italian version as well as the English translation, but he bought a rare 7" single as well. He was on his way back to the apartment when his Hedgehog Sense alerted him to danger. He attempted to skid to a halt when someone grabbed him and dragged him into an alley.

"Hello…Shadow."

Shadow recognized the voice.

"What do you want, Scourge?"

"To pay you back for getting me expelled from school!"

"No thanks."

Shadow knocked Scourge out with a single punch before stomping his head into the concrete and fleeing.

After returning to the apartment, Shadow proceeded to scrawl a note for Amy:

"Dear Amy:

I'm extremely sorry I hurt your feelings. I let my anger get the better of me, and I have no excuse. I pray that you can forgive me for my mistakes. If you do forgive me, meet me in the middle of the dance floor at the Winter Ball when the song 'Do You Remember' plays. I'll be waiting for you.

-Yours truly,
Someone who still loves you very much"

After finishing the note, he enclosed it in an envelope, after which he took a shower, freshened up, and went to bed. That night, he had a nightmare about Maria dying, and when he snapped out of it, he hugged his pillow as he cried some more.

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.