HOME | DD

Description
Nobody's Home

It's been two days and ever since that appalling event from the lunchroom, students couldn't stop talking about it. Sadly, Amy called home early and she was absent from school yesterday. She was too embarrassed to be around her peers and she has spent almost an entire day washing off the trauma. During her absence, the Hedgehogs 5x couldn't help but to feel more apprehensive for the Rose.

As for Sally Acorn, Fiona Fox, and the rest of their crew—let's just say half of them suffered humiliation and the other half suffered punishment.

Today, the Hedgehogs 5x are standing in the hallways, having a group conversation.

"Have any of you seen Amy today? I tried calling and texting her, but she hasn't been responding." Sonic asks his friends and they all answered no.

"She wasn't in History yesterday," Silver informs, "Class wasn't the same without her."

"And she missed Bio, too," Shadow did the same. "I just hope Rose is in school today. I already miss her."

Scourge takes out his phone and he starts reading through random things on the screen. "Well, look on the bright side," he tells them, "At least we snitched them out and they got what they deserved. Ames would've been happy about it if we told her right away that we got her back."

Manic says while playing with his drumstick in his fingertips, "Do you think she's still upset about what Sally and Fiona did to her?"

Sonic was about to answer his brother, but the group caught Tails passing by them. The genius fox is pushing a cart with a projector on top as he is heading somewhere.

"Tails!" Sonic calls out to him. He stops pushing the cart and then makes eye contact. They walk closer to him.

"Hey, guys." Tails replies to the Hedgehogs 5x.

"Tails," Manic begins. "Is Amy in school today? There's something we want to tell her."

The fox sighs as he responds, "Actually she is. I ran into her this morning," he gets cut off when the Hedgehogs 5x became relieved.

"But," their moment of relief abruptly ends, knowing that by the tone of his voice, it's not a good thing. Tails persists, "She wants me to tell you this and you're not going to like it."

"Tell us what?" Shadow remarks.

He finishes, "She kind of doesn't want to see you five again. She thinks it's better off if she stopped being around with you. Just for a personal reason."

This shocks them, "What? Why?"

Tails shrugs his shoulder, "That's all she told me. She didn't say why. Although, she seems really distraught when I saw and spoke to her. Not only that, she also wanted to stop making contact with me and the others: Cream, Tikal, Knuckles, you know it." He then gives them the sad look.

Silver asks, "Could it be something regarding to the day before yesterday? We were going to tell her that we reported Fiona and Sally to the principal."

"Yeah, and they got suspended." Sonic finishes.

At that moment, they hear Amy coming.

"Emily, for the last time," the pink hedgehog is talking on her phone, though she sounded really disheartened. Her voice breaks as she lies over the line, "I am 100 percent fine, really. There's no way I'm going back to that place, I don't want to suffer the same shit over and over again way before I came back here… Emily, please…"

She already passed by the guys and she's oblivious that they're all looking at her since she's too distracted by her emotional phone-call. The Hedgehogs 5x became concerned about what she just mentioned.

Soon, Amy heads to her locker, still not looking back at them. The hedgehog crew gazes back at Tails.

"You can try to go ask her yourselves." Tails places both of his hands back on the projector, "I have to take this back to the audio visual room. See ya later." And then he leaves, pushing the cart up front.

When Tails left, the Hedgehogs 5x make their way to the Rose.

"Hey, Ames!" Sonic calls out to her, but there's no response from her. They stroll closer to Amy as she's gathering and organizing her things into her locker. They stood around her and she's still not looking back at them.

With a closer inspection, Amy is wearing a really dark outfit, presumably symbolizing her current mood. She's wearing a black T-shirt with a broken-heart print and a charcoal-shade hoodie; a black pleaded skirt with thigh-length black-and-white striped stockings; a black headband with a skull; and finally black combat boots. Her appearance feels strange to them, barring Shadow since the darkness is secretly making him feel more attracted to her. They didn't want to say anything about it.

"Uh, hey Amy," Manic nervously begins to talk. He has his hand behind his head, "We missed you yesterday."

Amy is still ignoring them. Despite that, they persisted.

Shadow impulsively says, "Nice getup you're wearing, Rose. It…" He trails off while his crimsoned eyes are descending and ascending on her appearance, "really suits you." The 'emo' hedgehog tries to let out a smile.

Still nothing.

It's Scourge's turn now, "Babe, has anyone ever told you that—" he tried to come up with a pick up line to get her attention, "you look really beautiful when you're sad?" He tries to grin as well, but… nothing.

Sonic sighs (and he even smacks Scourge in the arm with the back of his hand), "Amy, look. I'm not sure you've heard of this, but—"

Right away, Amy cuts him off as she glances at them.

"They got suspended for weeks, I know. And you guys reported them for me." This surprises the Hedgehogs 5x. At least they finally got her attention.

The jock finishes, "Yeah, we had to do it. We wanted to protect you because no girl, like you, deserves to be treated like that."

"Although, you should've seen the look on their faces; they were pretty pissed. Even Sally was pissed off that she got academic suspension from her cheerleading squad." Manic informs with a smirk. The rest of the gang laughs along, just thinking about it really makes their day.

Unfortunately—Amy is still not smiling at all, not even a smirk. Now, the guys' smiles have turned back into sad frowns.

"Rose," Shadow begins, "just so you know, we'll always have your back and we will keep defending you every time you're in need." The rest nodded their heads in agreement.

The Rose continues, "I really appreciated that you did that for me and that you five really cared about me. But—I really don't think this friendship is going to work out at all." This saddens them.

Silver asks in concern, "Amy, why? How come you don't want to be with us anymore? Tails told us that you wanted to stop seeing us."

Amy is saddened, too, "I just can't, alright? You need to understand that this isn't about you, it's me. I just want to be away, that's all. I'm really sorry if this upsets you." She sniffs.

Suddenly, Amy goes back into her locker and she took something out of her storage—her panda bear, the same one they gave her. She hands it back to them.

"Here," she says, "I think Panny wants you guys back. She said she wants to go back home with you." Sonic reluctantly takes the cutesy panda bear into his hands. She persists, "I'd give you back the roses too, but it looks like they already died."

Afterwards, Amy closes her locker and pulls her backpack over her shoulder. She looks at them once more, "Bye."

The Hedgehogs 5x, now more depressed than ever, watches her leave until she's out of sight for them. They couldn't believe that the same girl they have fallen for—has left them.

As the day passes by—it has become really depressing for the Hedgehogs 5x:

At History, Silver was about to sit next to Amy, but as soon as she took a glimpse at him, all she did was move several seats away from him. She even refused to say one word to the prep hedgehog during class. It's bad enough that without her, he couldn't focus on the lecture, thus failing for the day.

At Art, Manic happily offered to help Amy with her pottery, but she pushed herself away from him. To make matters worse for the rock-star hedgehog, he accidentally made Amy ruin her project by dropping the vase onto the floor, frustrating her and making her start over. Her temporary anger caused her to ignore him for the rest of the class.

At Biology, Shadow found a rose on his way to class and he gave it to Amy to at least cheer her up a little. Alas—she intentionally (though in a sad way) broke the rose stem in half and then plucks all of its petals off, breaking the dark hedgehog's heart. Morose interfered him when he saw her sprinkle the petals out of the opened window and watched them flow through the breeze.

Out in the hallways, every time they run into her, see her, and wave at her, Amy kept strolling away from them with sadness in her eyes. She even broke Scourge's heart when she returned that little heart-shaped box he had given to her on her first day. The rebel hedgehog was heartbroken when he found out that—she returned the leather bracelet with a silver heart—it was supposed to be a welcome present from him to her.

As for Sonic, while he was doing some stretches during track training out on the track field, he caught Amy passing by on the other side of the metal chain fence. She stopped walking and she returned his gaze for a mere second. The jock couldn't help but to feel distracted by her—still depressed behavior; the look of her face was breaking him. Afterwards, she faced back to her front and resumed walking away, leaving him alone with his teammates.

As soon as the day has come to an end, the Hedgehogs 5x came into an abrupt realization after meeting each other at the front of the school. Despite that Amy told them that she doesn't want to see them again, they decided to convince her all together, whether she likes it or not. They are going to visit her house.

In the afternoon, the hedgehog crew is walking through the neighborhood, heading their way to Amy's house. It didn't take too long to get there and Sonic happens to have the address to her home, written on a piece of paper. He's been leading the way.

The Hedgehogs 5x made it there. They stood at the front porch of the private house and they stared at the architecture; 2 stories high and beautifully built in a modern theme, with its façade in a unique shade of beige and a dark scarlet rooftop. It's too stunning for them.

"Wow," Silver compliments, "I actually assumed that she'd live in a luxurious manor rather than a modern house."

"Damn. How did her family afford this?" Manic wonders.

Sonic takes a quick look at the piece of paper in his hand, "Well, this is her address alright. Papers don't lie." Then, he refolds the paper before he puts it into his pocket.

The five walk closer to the front door and Sonic rings the doorbell. After when the bell finished ringing, someone in the household opens the door for them—but it's not Amy.

Instead, an adult female hedgehog, about in her late-twenties or early thirties, stood by the doorway. She bears a striking resemblance as Amy, with her jade-green eyes and similar styled long quills, except her fur is sky-blue. She's wearing a casual outfit with a white sweater and light blue designer sweatpants. She maturely gazes at the five boys.

"Can I help you all?" She asks. Nervousness is building up inside of them.

Sonic begins, "Uh, hi. We're here to see Amy Rose. Is she home?"

Unaware to the Hedgehogs 5x, Amy was in her pajamas and she was about to descend the stairs, though she only stood at the very top. She took a quick look at the doorway and she's about to run back into her room to avoid seeing them.

"Um," the female adult hedgehog glances at Amy. Amy shakes her head, mouthing no and gestures her to make up an excuse.

The adult gazes back at the boys. She says in a sweet and sympathetic tone, "I'm sorry, but Amy's not home right now. She went to take a walk outside to get some fresh air." Amy, after hearing the excuse, quickly strolls back into her room and closes the door.

"Although," the adult continues, "I'm sure she won't mind if I allowed some visitors in for a few minutes. Would you boys like to come in?" She lets out a warming smile.

Sonic glances at the crew and they subtly nodded in agreement.

"Sure." And then, they enter the house. The adult closes the door after they step in.

"I'm Emily Violet, by the way," she introduces herself, "Amy has told me so much about you. I believe you're Shadow, Scourge, Silver, Manic, and Sonic. Is that right?" She even got their identities accurate.

"Yes, we are." Silver remarks.

The five inspects the entire living room. Its design is very modern and the interior matches the exterior of the house perfectly.

"Nice place," Shadow compliments.

"Thank you," Emily Violet responds.

Just then, they hear a little meow coming close to them. A white fluffy non-Mobian cat appears into the living room and it stood right in front of the Hedgehogs 5x, swaying its tail side to side. They stare at the little feline.

"Aww," Manic coos, "You two have a cat?"

"Yeah," Emily replies as she walks closer to the cat and strokes its back. "Her name is Serenity. Amy and I found her at the shelter and we decided to adopt her." The cat purrs.

Manic chuckles as he held his hand out to Serenity, attempting to pet her. "Here, kitty, kitty, kit—"

HISSSSSSS!

Serenity lets out a loud hiss at them, baring her tiny feline fangs, and trying to claw at them with her paw. Right away, the boys yelp and flinch in fear and they step away from her. Their eyes widen when they see that vicious look on the cat.

Subsequently, Serenity pounces into Emily's arms.

"Yeah, sorry about that. She doesn't like men at all. She's not really used to being around with them." She smiles while petting her and Serenity responses by purring affectionately.

"That's one serene cat you got there," Silver sarcastically comments.

Shadow starts another topic, "I don't mean to offend you, but you look awfully young to be Amy's mother."

"Mother?" Emily chuckles, "No, I'm her older sister of course."

"Sister?" They're bewildered at that statement. They never knew that Amy Rose has a sister.

"I happen to be her legitimate guardian." She informs them. "Unfortunately, our father left the picture and our mother passed away years ago."

This caught their attention and sympathy arises, "We're so sorry." Silver says.

"Thanks, and I happened to be the only one left in the family for her. You can say that I'm like a mother-figure for Amy."

Scourge takes a look through some personal framed pictures sitting on the black mahogany table. Some are of Amy, Emily, and even their mom together before her passing. The mother's fur is off-pink and she, too, had some resemblance of her daughters.

There's one photo of Emily Violet, which caught the rebel's attention, holding herself close to another female Mobian, who is about the same age as her. She depicts a golden yellow fox with long blonde-auburn hair, pink eyes, and the two were wearing sexy mini-dresses at a night-club.

Scourge is stunned when he brought the picture into his hand for a closer look. He lets out a whistle when seeing the attractive-looking fox.

"Whoa," he comments as he points the photo out to Emily. "Who's this with you?"

Emily responds, "That's Stella. She's my girlfriend." There's a pause, "And in case you're wondering, we're in a same-sex relationship."

Scourge's eyes widen in shock and he instantly puts the photo back down onto the table, careful not to break the rainbow-colored frame. Soon, he joins back to the rest of the guys as they sit by the ivory leathered couch.

Sonic changes the subject. "Emily, we actually came here because we wanted to talk to Amy. You see, she's been feeling really different lately and we were worried about her."

Emily pays close attention to the statement. Carefully, she puts Serenity back down on the floor. She then lets out an adorable meow as she scuttles up the stairs. "Let me guess, some girls at school treated her like shit?"

"You knew?" Shadow asks.

"She told me as soon as possible right after the incident happened, and I had to pick her up to take her home early. She missed school yesterday because of—some personal issues. She didn't tell you about self-mutilation, did she?"

They all answered no.

"That's what I was afraid of," she says.

The intelligent hedgehog asks once again, "How did she get involved into this?"

Emily continues the whole sad story about the Rose. "Four years ago, when I first found out that Amy ran away from home, I got deeply worried and I feared that something terrible would happen to her. I searched from neighborhood to neighborhood, looking for her and suddenly, when I came by the park… my fears came true."

She pauses and takes a deep breath before finishing, "She was trying to take her life away by hanging herself on one of the trees. Miraculously, she was still breathing when I got up to her, although she was unconscious. The only option I had left was to take her to the hospital and thank God, they were able to save her in time.

"As I sat by the hospital bed, staying by her side, Amy told me she did it because of—some guy she was with broke her heart into pieces and he treated her like trash."

While the others are feeling devastated, Sonic secretly feels some remorse going on. He didn't remember that moment… until now. No one knows about this, but—he was alleged for Amy's suicide attempt years back. He was the one who treated her like that and broke her fragile little heart.

Emily resumes, "The doctors recommended her to check into an institution. They thought it'd be best if she did go because they didn't want any more suicides going on. So—we both agreed.

"After years of psychological help from the institution, Amy has changed drastically. Days after she came back home, I caught her performing self-injury in the bathroom. I asked her why she's doing it and—she told me that she had trouble getting along with the other patients back at the place. Apparently, she's been keeping that to herself every time I visited her during hours. She lied to me that everything went alright, even though it was far from alright. They verbally and emotionally abused her real badly, and due to the torment, she self-mutilates. Not that she's trying to kill herself again—which I hope won't happen—she's doing it as a way to relief herself. Aside with that—Amy's also diagnosed with an eating disorder."

"Eating disorder?" Sonic asks, "Is she bulimic?"

"Anorexia more specifically," Emily answers as she continues, "Amy's fear of weight gain is much severe than bulimia. She also told me that one of the patients said to her that no one will like her because of her body type, and she forced her to starve herself, thus making her feel insecure about her body. I tried to persuade her to go to a specialist, and by that I meant like therapy or a psychologist, but she's so stubborn. She refused to seek help because she fears that the torment will remain persistent. It worries me a lot."

There's another pause, and Emily concludes, "It's really difficult for the both of us."

"Crap," Manic says, "I feel sorry for her now."

Emily sighs softly as she remarks to Manic's statement, "Honestly, I don't know how much of this will last. Hopefully in time, Amy will come to her senses that there are others in her life who care deeply about her and that they want to help her improve." She then makes another full eye contact with the boys, "It's a good thing that you five showed some sincerity for my sister."

There's complete silence for about a minute. Keeping that disheartening remorseful frown on his façade, the rest of the gang glances at Sonic. His current facial expression is new to them.

"Bro? Are you okay?" Manic asks Sonic. Immediately, the jock gets up from the couch.

"Sorry, Emily," he impetuously says, "but I think I have to go. If Amy comes back, tell her that we said 'hi'." Afterwards, he exits the house, leaving his friends and brother behind. He closes the door behind him.

In reality, Sonic doesn't want the others to think about what he had done to cause Amy to suffer such pain for the last four years. It's possible that they might resent him for that.

Soon, they gaze back at Emily, "We apologize about that, I'm assuming that something went inside his head." Silver tells her as he gets up. The others did the same, "Do you mind if we leave early?"

"No, not at all," Emily sympathetically responds, "I understand. And I'll inform Amy that you paid a visit. Thanks for stopping by anyway." They nodded and left the house.

Once they're out, Emily Violet gazes out the window as she watches them leave. She can see that the four are trying to ask Sonic what was wrong, but their dialogues are muffled behind the thick glass. She witnesses the athlete pushing himself away and he resumes walking, while simultaneously they attempted to get his attention as they follow him.

Subsequently, she leaves the window and ascends the stairs, heading straight to Amy's room. The door is already wide opened and Emily can see the Rose sitting on the floor, leaning her back against her bed. Their cat Serenity is in her arms; she's purring in comfort while Amy is stroking her soft fluffy white fur. There's sadness in her eyes.

Emily gets herself closer to her sister, in apprehension. She crouches down adjacent to her and Amy returns the eye contact. The adult female strokes her pink quills.

"Did they know?" Amy asks meekly. She nodded, causing her to become more morose.

"I'm sorry, baby girl," Emily responds in a motherly tone. Then, Amy lays her head on top of her shoulder, while Emily wraps her arms around her younger sibling, resting her chin on her head.

Outside of their house, EVERYONE is completely unaware that they have another guest, hiding in between the bushes and the exterior wall of the house, just below one of the windows. The (other) pink hedgehog has been sitting there this whole time since the Hedgehogs 5x first walked in, presumably spying again. But—despite her villainous personality—something doesn't feel right for her at all.

Standing up from the bushes, Rosy the Rascal slowly lets down her notebook and she's completely confused; she doesn't know whether she should be feeling sympathetic or antagonizing towards Amy after overhearing the true facts about her (and she sure has ears of a hawk).

The reason why? No one knows about this, not even Sally and her crew, but—Rosy is bipolar—and she could relate to the exact same issues that Amy underwent.

Aside with her own illness, she, too, was severely heartbroken and disheartened by someone she used to love—Scourge. Her heartbreak from him caused her to develop a near-fatal episode that almost cost her life.

Rosy is lost in her trail of thoughts as she thinks about her own past. At that moment, her phone vibrates, interrupting her thoughts. She answers it, "Hello?"

It's Sally on the other line, "Rosy, did you find anything new about her?"?

There's a pause. The silence was about 30 seconds long.

"Hello? Are you there? I said, did you get some new stuff about Amy?" Sally demanded sternly.

Without letting her know, Rosy suddenly tears up her new notes from her notebook. Pieces of white lined paper are flowing into the breeze as they land on the ground.

"Sorry, but—no." The 'deviant' hedgehog coldly lies to the leader. Then, she hangs up her phone in anger.

Description
Nobody's Home

It's been two days and ever since that appalling event from the lunchroom, students couldn't stop talking about it. Sadly, Amy called home early and she was absent from school yesterday. She was too embarrassed to be around her peers and she has spent almost an entire day washing off the trauma. During her absence, the Hedgehogs 5x couldn't help but to feel more apprehensive for the Rose.

As for Sally Acorn, Fiona Fox, and the rest of their crew—let's just say half of them suffered humiliation and the other half suffered punishment.

Today, the Hedgehogs 5x are standing in the hallways, having a group conversation.

"Have any of you seen Amy today? I tried calling and texting her, but she hasn't been responding." Sonic asks his friends and they all answered no.

"She wasn't in History yesterday," Silver informs, "Class wasn't the same without her."

"And she missed Bio, too," Shadow did the same. "I just hope Rose is in school today. I already miss her."

Scourge takes out his phone and he starts reading through random things on the screen. "Well, look on the bright side," he tells them, "At least we snitched them out and they got what they deserved. Ames would've been happy about it if we told her right away that we got her back."

Manic says while playing with his drumstick in his fingertips, "Do you think she's still upset about what Sally and Fiona did to her?"

Sonic was about to answer his brother, but the group caught Tails passing by them. The genius fox is pushing a cart with a projector on top as he is heading somewhere.

"Tails!" Sonic calls out to him. He stops pushing the cart and then makes eye contact. They walk closer to him.

"Hey, guys." Tails replies to the Hedgehogs 5x.

"Tails," Manic begins. "Is Amy in school today? There's something we want to tell her."

The fox sighs as he responds, "Actually she is. I ran into her this morning," he gets cut off when the Hedgehogs 5x became relieved.

"But," their moment of relief abruptly ends, knowing that by the tone of his voice, it's not a good thing. Tails persists, "She wants me to tell you this and you're not going to like it."

"Tell us what?" Shadow remarks.

He finishes, "She kind of doesn't want to see you five again. She thinks it's better off if she stopped being around with you. Just for a personal reason."

This shocks them, "What? Why?"

Tails shrugs his shoulder, "That's all she told me. She didn't say why. Although, she seems really distraught when I saw and spoke to her. Not only that, she also wanted to stop making contact with me and the others: Cream, Tikal, Knuckles, you know it." He then gives them the sad look.

Silver asks, "Could it be something regarding to the day before yesterday? We were going to tell her that we reported Fiona and Sally to the principal."

"Yeah, and they got suspended." Sonic finishes.

At that moment, they hear Amy coming.

"Emily, for the last time," the pink hedgehog is talking on her phone, though she sounded really disheartened. Her voice breaks as she lies over the line, "I am 100 percent fine, really. There's no way I'm going back to that place, I don't want to suffer the same shit over and over again way before I came back here… Emily, please…"

She already passed by the guys and she's oblivious that they're all looking at her since she's too distracted by her emotional phone-call. The Hedgehogs 5x became concerned about what she just mentioned.

Soon, Amy heads to her locker, still not looking back at them. The hedgehog crew gazes back at Tails.

"You can try to go ask her yourselves." Tails places both of his hands back on the projector, "I have to take this back to the audio visual room. See ya later." And then he leaves, pushing the cart up front.

When Tails left, the Hedgehogs 5x make their way to the Rose.

"Hey, Ames!" Sonic calls out to her, but there's no response from her. They stroll closer to Amy as she's gathering and organizing her things into her locker. They stood around her and she's still not looking back at them.

With a closer inspection, Amy is wearing a really dark outfit, presumably symbolizing her current mood. She's wearing a black T-shirt with a broken-heart print and a charcoal-shade hoodie; a black pleaded skirt with thigh-length black-and-white striped stockings; a black headband with a skull; and finally black combat boots. Her appearance feels strange to them, barring Shadow since the darkness is secretly making him feel more attracted to her. They didn't want to say anything about it.

"Uh, hey Amy," Manic nervously begins to talk. He has his hand behind his head, "We missed you yesterday."

Amy is still ignoring them. Despite that, they persisted.

Shadow impulsively says, "Nice getup you're wearing, Rose. It…" He trails off while his crimsoned eyes are descending and ascending on her appearance, "really suits you." The 'emo' hedgehog tries to let out a smile.

Still nothing.

It's Scourge's turn now, "Babe, has anyone ever told you that—" he tried to come up with a pick up line to get her attention, "you look really beautiful when you're sad?" He tries to grin as well, but… nothing.

Sonic sighs (and he even smacks Scourge in the arm with the back of his hand), "Amy, look. I'm not sure you've heard of this, but—"

Right away, Amy cuts him off as she glances at them.

"They got suspended for weeks, I know. And you guys reported them for me." This surprises the Hedgehogs 5x. At least they finally got her attention.

The jock finishes, "Yeah, we had to do it. We wanted to protect you because no girl, like you, deserves to be treated like that."

"Although, you should've seen the look on their faces; they were pretty pissed. Even Sally was pissed off that she got academic suspension from her cheerleading squad." Manic informs with a smirk. The rest of the gang laughs along, just thinking about it really makes their day.

Unfortunately—Amy is still not smiling at all, not even a smirk. Now, the guys' smiles have turned back into sad frowns.

"Rose," Shadow begins, "just so you know, we'll always have your back and we will keep defending you every time you're in need." The rest nodded their heads in agreement.

The Rose continues, "I really appreciated that you did that for me and that you five really cared about me. But—I really don't think this friendship is going to work out at all." This saddens them.

Silver asks in concern, "Amy, why? How come you don't want to be with us anymore? Tails told us that you wanted to stop seeing us."

Amy is saddened, too, "I just can't, alright? You need to understand that this isn't about you, it's me. I just want to be away, that's all. I'm really sorry if this upsets you." She sniffs.

Suddenly, Amy goes back into her locker and she took something out of her storage—her panda bear, the same one they gave her. She hands it back to them.

"Here," she says, "I think Panny wants you guys back. She said she wants to go back home with you." Sonic reluctantly takes the cutesy panda bear into his hands. She persists, "I'd give you back the roses too, but it looks like they already died."

Afterwards, Amy closes her locker and pulls her backpack over her shoulder. She looks at them once more, "Bye."

The Hedgehogs 5x, now more depressed than ever, watches her leave until she's out of sight for them. They couldn't believe that the same girl they have fallen for—has left them.

As the day passes by—it has become really depressing for the Hedgehogs 5x:

At History, Silver was about to sit next to Amy, but as soon as she took a glimpse at him, all she did was move several seats away from him. She even refused to say one word to the prep hedgehog during class. It's bad enough that without her, he couldn't focus on the lecture, thus failing for the day.

At Art, Manic happily offered to help Amy with her pottery, but she pushed herself away from him. To make matters worse for the rock-star hedgehog, he accidentally made Amy ruin her project by dropping the vase onto the floor, frustrating her and making her start over. Her temporary anger caused her to ignore him for the rest of the class.

At Biology, Shadow found a rose on his way to class and he gave it to Amy to at least cheer her up a little. Alas—she intentionally (though in a sad way) broke the rose stem in half and then plucks all of its petals off, breaking the dark hedgehog's heart. Morose interfered him when he saw her sprinkle the petals out of the opened window and watched them flow through the breeze.

Out in the hallways, every time they run into her, see her, and wave at her, Amy kept strolling away from them with sadness in her eyes. She even broke Scourge's heart when she returned that little heart-shaped box he had given to her on her first day. The rebel hedgehog was heartbroken when he found out that—she returned the leather bracelet with a silver heart—it was supposed to be a welcome present from him to her.

As for Sonic, while he was doing some stretches during track training out on the track field, he caught Amy passing by on the other side of the metal chain fence. She stopped walking and she returned his gaze for a mere second. The jock couldn't help but to feel distracted by her—still depressed behavior; the look of her face was breaking him. Afterwards, she faced back to her front and resumed walking away, leaving him alone with his teammates.

As soon as the day has come to an end, the Hedgehogs 5x came into an abrupt realization after meeting each other at the front of the school. Despite that Amy told them that she doesn't want to see them again, they decided to convince her all together, whether she likes it or not. They are going to visit her house.

In the afternoon, the hedgehog crew is walking through the neighborhood, heading their way to Amy's house. It didn't take too long to get there and Sonic happens to have the address to her home, written on a piece of paper. He's been leading the way.

The Hedgehogs 5x made it there. They stood at the front porch of the private house and they stared at the architecture; 2 stories high and beautifully built in a modern theme, with its façade in a unique shade of beige and a dark scarlet rooftop. It's too stunning for them.

"Wow," Silver compliments, "I actually assumed that she'd live in a luxurious manor rather than a modern house."

"Damn. How did her family afford this?" Manic wonders.

Sonic takes a quick look at the piece of paper in his hand, "Well, this is her address alright. Papers don't lie." Then, he refolds the paper before he puts it into his pocket.

The five walk closer to the front door and Sonic rings the doorbell. After when the bell finished ringing, someone in the household opens the door for them—but it's not Amy.

Instead, an adult female hedgehog, about in her late-twenties or early thirties, stood by the doorway. She bears a striking resemblance as Amy, with her jade-green eyes and similar styled long quills, except her fur is sky-blue. She's wearing a casual outfit with a white sweater and light blue designer sweatpants. She maturely gazes at the five boys.

"Can I help you all?" She asks. Nervousness is building up inside of them.

Sonic begins, "Uh, hi. We're here to see Amy Rose. Is she home?"

Unaware to the Hedgehogs 5x, Amy was in her pajamas and she was about to descend the stairs, though she only stood at the very top. She took a quick look at the doorway and she's about to run back into her room to avoid seeing them.

"Um," the female adult hedgehog glances at Amy. Amy shakes her head, mouthing no and gestures her to make up an excuse.

The adult gazes back at the boys. She says in a sweet and sympathetic tone, "I'm sorry, but Amy's not home right now. She went to take a walk outside to get some fresh air." Amy, after hearing the excuse, quickly strolls back into her room and closes the door.

"Although," the adult continues, "I'm sure she won't mind if I allowed some visitors in for a few minutes. Would you boys like to come in?" She lets out a warming smile.

Sonic glances at the crew and they subtly nodded in agreement.

"Sure." And then, they enter the house. The adult closes the door after they step in.

"I'm Emily Violet, by the way," she introduces herself, "Amy has told me so much about you. I believe you're Shadow, Scourge, Silver, Manic, and Sonic. Is that right?" She even got their identities accurate.

"Yes, we are." Silver remarks.

The five inspects the entire living room. Its design is very modern and the interior matches the exterior of the house perfectly.

"Nice place," Shadow compliments.

"Thank you," Emily Violet responds.

Just then, they hear a little meow coming close to them. A white fluffy non-Mobian cat appears into the living room and it stood right in front of the Hedgehogs 5x, swaying its tail side to side. They stare at the little feline.

"Aww," Manic coos, "You two have a cat?"

"Yeah," Emily replies as she walks closer to the cat and strokes its back. "Her name is Serenity. Amy and I found her at the shelter and we decided to adopt her." The cat purrs.

Manic chuckles as he held his hand out to Serenity, attempting to pet her. "Here, kitty, kitty, kit—"

HISSSSSSS!

Serenity lets out a loud hiss at them, baring her tiny feline fangs, and trying to claw at them with her paw. Right away, the boys yelp and flinch in fear and they step away from her. Their eyes widen when they see that vicious look on the cat.

Subsequently, Serenity pounces into Emily's arms.

"Yeah, sorry about that. She doesn't like men at all. She's not really used to being around with them." She smiles while petting her and Serenity responses by purring affectionately.

"That's one serene cat you got there," Silver sarcastically comments.

Shadow starts another topic, "I don't mean to offend you, but you look awfully young to be Amy's mother."

"Mother?" Emily chuckles, "No, I'm her older sister of course."

"Sister?" They're bewildered at that statement. They never knew that Amy Rose has a sister.

"I happen to be her legitimate guardian." She informs them. "Unfortunately, our father left the picture and our mother passed away years ago."

This caught their attention and sympathy arises, "We're so sorry." Silver says.

"Thanks, and I happened to be the only one left in the family for her. You can say that I'm like a mother-figure for Amy."

Scourge takes a look through some personal framed pictures sitting on the black mahogany table. Some are of Amy, Emily, and even their mom together before her passing. The mother's fur is off-pink and she, too, had some resemblance of her daughters.

There's one photo of Emily Violet, which caught the rebel's attention, holding herself close to another female Mobian, who is about the same age as her. She depicts a golden yellow fox with long blonde-auburn hair, pink eyes, and the two were wearing sexy mini-dresses at a night-club.

Scourge is stunned when he brought the picture into his hand for a closer look. He lets out a whistle when seeing the attractive-looking fox.

"Whoa," he comments as he points the photo out to Emily. "Who's this with you?"

Emily responds, "That's Stella. She's my girlfriend." There's a pause, "And in case you're wondering, we're in a same-sex relationship."

Scourge's eyes widen in shock and he instantly puts the photo back down onto the table, careful not to break the rainbow-colored frame. Soon, he joins back to the rest of the guys as they sit by the ivory leathered couch.

Sonic changes the subject. "Emily, we actually came here because we wanted to talk to Amy. You see, she's been feeling really different lately and we were worried about her."

Emily pays close attention to the statement. Carefully, she puts Serenity back down on the floor. She then lets out an adorable meow as she scuttles up the stairs. "Let me guess, some girls at school treated her like shit?"

"You knew?" Shadow asks.

"She told me as soon as possible right after the incident happened, and I had to pick her up to take her home early. She missed school yesterday because of—some personal issues. She didn't tell you about self-mutilation, did she?"

They all answered no.

"That's what I was afraid of," she says.

The intelligent hedgehog asks once again, "How did she get involved into this?"

Emily continues the whole sad story about the Rose. "Four years ago, when I first found out that Amy ran away from home, I got deeply worried and I feared that something terrible would happen to her. I searched from neighborhood to neighborhood, looking for her and suddenly, when I came by the park… my fears came true."

She pauses and takes a deep breath before finishing, "She was trying to take her life away by hanging herself on one of the trees. Miraculously, she was still breathing when I got up to her, although she was unconscious. The only option I had left was to take her to the hospital and thank God, they were able to save her in time.

"As I sat by the hospital bed, staying by her side, Amy told me she did it because of—some guy she was with broke her heart into pieces and he treated her like trash."

While the others are feeling devastated, Sonic secretly feels some remorse going on. He didn't remember that moment… until now. No one knows about this, but—he was alleged for Amy's suicide attempt years back. He was the one who treated her like that and broke her fragile little heart.

Emily resumes, "The doctors recommended her to check into an institution. They thought it'd be best if she did go because they didn't want any more suicides going on. So—we both agreed.

"After years of psychological help from the institution, Amy has changed drastically. Days after she came back home, I caught her performing self-injury in the bathroom. I asked her why she's doing it and—she told me that she had trouble getting along with the other patients back at the place. Apparently, she's been keeping that to herself every time I visited her during hours. She lied to me that everything went alright, even though it was far from alright. They verbally and emotionally abused her real badly, and due to the torment, she self-mutilates. Not that she's trying to kill herself again—which I hope won't happen—she's doing it as a way to relief herself. Aside with that—Amy's also diagnosed with an eating disorder."

"Eating disorder?" Sonic asks, "Is she bulimic?"

"Anorexia more specifically," Emily answers as she continues, "Amy's fear of weight gain is much severe than bulimia. She also told me that one of the patients said to her that no one will like her because of her body type, and she forced her to starve herself, thus making her feel insecure about her body. I tried to persuade her to go to a specialist, and by that I meant like therapy or a psychologist, but she's so stubborn. She refused to seek help because she fears that the torment will remain persistent. It worries me a lot."

There's another pause, and Emily concludes, "It's really difficult for the both of us."

"Crap," Manic says, "I feel sorry for her now."

Emily sighs softly as she remarks to Manic's statement, "Honestly, I don't know how much of this will last. Hopefully in time, Amy will come to her senses that there are others in her life who care deeply about her and that they want to help her improve." She then makes another full eye contact with the boys, "It's a good thing that you five showed some sincerity for my sister."

There's complete silence for about a minute. Keeping that disheartening remorseful frown on his façade, the rest of the gang glances at Sonic. His current facial expression is new to them.

"Bro? Are you okay?" Manic asks Sonic. Immediately, the jock gets up from the couch.

"Sorry, Emily," he impetuously says, "but I think I have to go. If Amy comes back, tell her that we said 'hi'." Afterwards, he exits the house, leaving his friends and brother behind. He closes the door behind him.

In reality, Sonic doesn't want the others to think about what he had done to cause Amy to suffer such pain for the last four years. It's possible that they might resent him for that.

Soon, they gaze back at Emily, "We apologize about that, I'm assuming that something went inside his head." Silver tells her as he gets up. The others did the same, "Do you mind if we leave early?"

"No, not at all," Emily sympathetically responds, "I understand. And I'll inform Amy that you paid a visit. Thanks for stopping by anyway." They nodded and left the house.

Once they're out, Emily Violet gazes out the window as she watches them leave. She can see that the four are trying to ask Sonic what was wrong, but their dialogues are muffled behind the thick glass. She witnesses the athlete pushing himself away and he resumes walking, while simultaneously they attempted to get his attention as they follow him.

Subsequently, she leaves the window and ascends the stairs, heading straight to Amy's room. The door is already wide opened and Emily can see the Rose sitting on the floor, leaning her back against her bed. Their cat Serenity is in her arms; she's purring in comfort while Amy is stroking her soft fluffy white fur. There's sadness in her eyes.

Emily gets herself closer to her sister, in apprehension. She crouches down adjacent to her and Amy returns the eye contact. The adult female strokes her pink quills.

"Did they know?" Amy asks meekly. She nodded, causing her to become more morose.

"I'm sorry, baby girl," Emily responds in a motherly tone. Then, Amy lays her head on top of her shoulder, while Emily wraps her arms around her younger sibling, resting her chin on her head.

Outside of their house, EVERYONE is completely unaware that they have another guest, hiding in between the bushes and the exterior wall of the house, just below one of the windows. The (other) pink hedgehog has been sitting there this whole time since the Hedgehogs 5x first walked in, presumably spying again. But—despite her villainous personality—something doesn't feel right for her at all.

Standing up from the bushes, Rosy the Rascal slowly lets down her notebook and she's completely confused; she doesn't know whether she should be feeling sympathetic or antagonizing towards Amy after overhearing the true facts about her (and she sure has ears of a hawk).

The reason why? No one knows about this, not even Sally and her crew, but—Rosy is bipolar—and she could relate to the exact same issues that Amy underwent.

Aside with her own illness, she, too, was severely heartbroken and disheartened by someone she used to love—Scourge. Her heartbreak from him caused her to develop a near-fatal episode that almost cost her life.

Rosy is lost in her trail of thoughts as she thinks about her own past. At that moment, her phone vibrates, interrupting her thoughts. She answers it, "Hello?"

It's Sally on the other line, "Rosy, did you find anything new about her?"?

There's a pause. The silence was about 30 seconds long.

"Hello? Are you there? I said, did you get some new stuff about Amy?" Sally demanded sternly.

Without letting her know, Rosy suddenly tears up her new notes from her notebook. Pieces of white lined paper are flowing into the breeze as they land on the ground.

"Sorry, but—no." The 'deviant' hedgehog coldly lies to the leader. Then, she hangs up her phone in anger.