Welcome to the first chapter of Sticky Wicket, by me - YTN ! . I finally got back in the groove and now I'm ready to write! I hope you enjoy this as much as I do :)

Disclaimer : I don't own any of the characters, they all belong to their respected creators.

-----Sticky Wicket, Chapter One-----

It was red.

Really, just red. When you looked at it, that was the first thing that came to mind.

And that's all you can say about it.

There were tiny ridges in the ball, circling it like lines of latitude (or longitude). It was wooden, like all croquet balls are supposed to be, and was quite heavy for its size. It was approximately the size of an orange, but of course, it was red.

Amy focused on this croquet ball, staring at it with her emerald eyes. She concentrated on it, not moving her stare at all. With a yell, she swung the mallet in her hands, sending the croquet ball soaring through the air to the other side of the grassy field.

Surprised at her effot, the pink hedgehog leaned on her mallet and held a hand up to block the sun. She still had those white gloves with gold rings around her wrists. Everything else had changed.

The years had gone by, and Amy had matured. She had detatched herself from the dream of marrying Sonic, just content to be his friend. Her headband became too small, and she didn't bother to replace it. As she grew, Amy went for a change and got rid of the old red dress, claiming it was 'too tacky'. Her friends figured it was still somewhere in the back of her closet. Her quills had grown longer, framing her face and eyes, which were occasionally blocked by her long bangs. Along with the change had gone Amy's old striped boots, replaced with a pair of pink and white sneakers. Deciding to look more casual, Amy had taken to wearing capris and pink tank tops, as she was this hot summer day.

Sighing, she got up and retrieved the petit orb, her mallet over her shoulder much like her Piko Piko Hammer had been years ago. Checking her watch and realizing she had to be going, the hedgehog grabbed her backpack from the side of the feild and stuffed her mallet unceremoniously into the pocket. Its length made it stick out a bit at the top, revealing a bit of polished wooden handle marked with red stripes. She plopped the ball in as well, hearing it clunk a bit as it contacted with the other contents of her backpack. Zippering it up, she slung the bag over her shoulder and headed towards home.

She took the usual route to her apartment in the city, which she shared with Rouge. It was clean and comfortably small, with bedrooms for the two of them as well as a bathroom and kitchen and living room. As Amy entered she could hear the TV softly from another room, and the sounds of cooking from the kitchen.

"I'm back!" she said loudly, slipping off her shoes and placing them next to her backpack on the floor. Entering the kitchen she found her roommate, Rouge the Bat, cooking something on their electric stove in her pajamas.

"Good morning Amy," the bat smiled, turning away from the stove a moment to hand her settings for the table, "I'm making breakfast," she explained, flipping what Amy thought to be eggs in the sizzling frying pan.

"Thanks," Amy set down plates for the two of them, as well as the forks and knives Rouge had handed to her, "I'm hungry after all that practice."

"I still don't understand how you get up so early to go and train," Rouge turned a knob to 'OFF' and set a plate of eggs in the center of the table.

"I have to train," Amy paused to take a mouthful of the scrambled eggs she had recently shoveled onto her plate, "I need to be ready for that tournament!"

"Which is also why you need to eat," Rouge stated, pouring herself and Amy a glass of orange juice. Amy would have argued with that, but her mouth was full and her stomach wasn't.

"What are you planning on doing the rest of today?" Amy asked, taking a sip and then returning to her breakfast.

"I was going to go to the mall later. All of us were going to meet up, remember?" Rouge chewed slowly, watching Amy gulp down her food.

"Oh, right. Around when?"

"Three o'clock."

Amy grimaced. She had to train with an instructor at two, and the lesson usually lasted an hour.

"Do you think you could meet up with me at about three thirty, around the food court? I have to train more," Amy told her.

Rouge nodded, "I understand. I'll tell everyone once I get there," the white bat picked up her dirty plate and set it down in the sink. She left the room, calling over her shoudler, "I'm going to get changed. I wanted to check out that new store before meeting up."

"Okay!" Amy called to her. She finished the last of her orange juice and set her plate in the sink next to Rouge's. She still had several hours to spare before going to her lesson, since it was only nine thirty-five. She decided to take a nap since she had gotten up very early to practice. Flopping onto her bed, Amy curled up and relaxed. She heard Rouge leave faintly, on the border of sleep. Finally she dozed off from the exhaustion of her practice, all that swinging the mallet over and over and running to retrieve the red ball......

The sound of a phone ringing woke Amy from her weary slumber. Picking up the phone in her room, Amy sat up and blinked a few times to regain her conciousness.

"Hello?" she asked, sounding tired in her own ears.

"Hi Amy, it's Tails," the young voice of her fox friend came over the phone line.

"Oh, hello," Amy rubbed her eyes, yawning a bit from just being woken up.

"Are you still going to come to the mall? Rouge said something about you being at lessons when she called me earlier," Tails explained.

"I'm still going to come," Amy pulled on one of her socks while holding the phone between her shoulder and chin. Somehow it had managed to slip off when she was asleep. "I will just be a bit late, that's all."

"All right," Tails said, "We were thinking of seeing a movie."

"That's fine," Amy realized her other sock was missing as well, and began searching for it in the tangled sheets. Not finding it, she dove under the covers herself, digging around in the cloth. It had to be here somewhere.....

"So do you know a movie that you'd like to se-"

"OOMPH!" Amy landed with a thud on her floor, draped in sheets and covers and lying on her stomach.

"Amy? Are you alright?" Tails asked, the phone muffled from within the covers. The pink hedgehog sighed, picking up the sock she had finally found and jamming it on her foot. She pulled up the covers to find the phone, shaking them in hope it would fall out. I did, right on the number pad.

Tails looked at his phone in confusion when a tone reached his ears.

-----

Well, that's chapter one! Nice and long, eh? Please R&R and all that stuff. Expect a new chapter soon! (if people reveiw)

-YTN