Don't kill me don't kill me don't kill me here's your chapter don't kill me *hides in the corner*

I don't know if this chapter is really "Done," per say, but it was something that I could put out there into the world so you all know what the crap is going on in my brain. Perhaps shorter chapters are in order.

In case you forgot, here's the disclaimer:

Sure, this story is mine. Most of the OC's are mine as well, with the rest belonging to EchidnaGirl. I do not, however, own Sonic the Hedgehog, its characters, or anything else associated with SEGA. I also do not own any songs mentioned in this chapter. All of the routines for figure skating portions of the story don't belong to me either, they were based off of the performances of Sasha Cohen and Fumie Suguri. If there's anything else I've missed, just assume it doesn't belong to me.

Chapter 35

Eggman pulled out an airhorn and soundproof earmuffs. He put on the earmuffs and instructed the stundents who would pay attention to cover their ears, then slammed his finger down on the button.

Hannah and Cam screamed and sat up with a jolt.

Eggman put the airhorn down and took off the earmuffs. "Nice of you to join us, ladies."

"I'm sorry Mr.-"

"Doctor…" Eggman interrupted Cam.

"I'm sorry Dr. Eggman. It won't happen again." Cam said to the man in front of the room from her back-of-the-room seat, awkwardly placed next to her now-ex boyfriend.

"You should not be sleeping, especially in this class, Miss Cameron. If you hadn't noticed, you are failing. Furthermore, I checked in with your other teachers. You are failing all of those classes as well, even the one your coach teaches." He gave her a firm look, and Hannah snickered.

"I wouldn't snicker if I were you, Miss Hannah. Your scores are even worse!"

Hannah gave a shocked and offended look. "Well it's not my fault. Nationals are coming up really soon, and my coach is making me practice super hard! And then all of you teachers decide now would be a great time to slam me with huge projects all at once? It isn't fair!"

"Like you can talk, princess." Cam grumbled to herself. She opened her book to the right chapter and stared at the page, trying desperately to understand the meaning of its contents. Anyone watching her would know that she was failing miserably.

The two figure skaters had gone through the same thing in math class the previous period. Before Eggman could rant at them any further, the bell rang and the class headed out the door for gym.

Somehow, Vector had gotten Hannah, Anna and Montana to start actually running. Something along the lines of "every lap you don't run, you have to do two more" was what got them there. So there the group was, out on the track in the cold morning air. The number of laps was set at five. Clearly, Vector wanted to get inside. The speed types of the group finished the laps in no time at all, but the rest of the class was having trouble, especially the figure skaters. Cam, who normally would have stayed running the entire time and more, was now jogging, breathing heavily, and had to stop to catch her breath a couple of times. Hannah was no better, but she had to stop twice as often as Cameron.

When Cam finished her fifth lap, she bent over and set her hands on her knees, all of the breath knocked out of her.

"Do you feel okay, Cam?" Amy asked, concerned for her friend.

"I just need… to sit…" Cam said between breaths. Before she could finish her sentence, the brown Echidna's eyes shut as she fell to the ground.

"Vector!" Amy called her friend and teacher.

"Amy, if it's another spid- What happened?" Vector said as he turned around, kneeling down by Cam's side.

"She just collapsed!"

Vector looked up and scanned the people who were done with the laps. "Shadow, take her to the nurse!" He commanded.

Shadow scowled, but did as he was told. He turned Cam over, made sure her arms were on her lap and not going anywhere, and picked her up, carrying her off.

Carrying your passed-out ex-girlfriend down the hallway during school hours wasn't a very good definition of "fun," especially when you were trying hard to suppress any lingering feelings for her. The nurse, of course, was too busy talking on the phone to take care of the girl or write him a note back to class. So Shadow sat there, in the same room as Cameron, half-hoping that this was the result of some terrible disease and half-hoping that she would be alright.

The nurse strolled into the room with no look of urgency on her features. "Alright, so what happened with this one?"

"She collapsed on the track during gym."

"Does she got asthma?" The nurse asked while washing her hands slowly.

"No."

"How much sleep she been gettin'?"

"From what I know, none. She's been working too hard and staying up all night trying to get her homework done after all of her practices."

Peter stepped in carrying Hannah, also unconscious.

The nurse groaned. "Another one?"

Peter set Hannah down on one of the unoccupied beds. "She passed out during gym. She doesn't have asthma."

"How much sleep she been gettin'?" The nurse asked again.

"Not enough. Whatever time she doesn't spend practicing her skating for nationals, she's up partying all night."

The nurse turned to Shadow. "This girl a figure skater?"

Shadow nodded.

The nurse gave a disapproving shake of the head. "The boy skater came in here earlier today with the same problem, but he walked here himself. You two take these ladies up to their rooms. Stay there, and make sure they actually sleep instead of freakin' out and deciding to study or practice. They are on a days' bed rest. I'll contact Mrs. White…"

The nurse waddled out to the phone, leaving the boys there. The two male hedgehogs glared at each other momentarily, but seemed too occupied with carrying their girl through the hallway to really care what was going on around them for any longer than that.

Up in the dorm room, Shadow had no trouble making Cam sleep. She had just barely woken up when he set her down on her bed, and even then, she looked as if she wasn't really awake. She fell back asleep two seconds later. Now, during lunch, when the rest of the dorm-mates came to check on the two and bring them their stuff, she was still asleep.

"How is she?" Blaze asked, being the first person into Cam's room.

"She barely opened her eyes when I brought her here. Nothing has happened since." Shadow reported. His tone resembled that of giving a report to G.U.N. after a mission, not taking care of a friend.

Silver now entered the room, cautious, since Cameron's room was the farthest into the girls' hallway.

"You can go get lunch and finish classes, Shadow." He said. "Blaze and I were volunteered to stay and watch Cam, since we have the highest grades and Tails wanted to take that test so badly…" Silver shook his head, forever doomed to be confused by Tails' logic.

Shadow nodded and left the room without a second glance.

Blaze and Silver exchanged a look, both silently agreeing that this entire experience must have been agonizingly awkward for Shadow.

Blaze, in an attempt to lighten the mood, nudged Silver with her shoulder. "Why don't you go make me a sammich, boy?"

Silver laughed. "What kind of sammich?"

Blaze smirked at Silver. "You should know by now."

"Fish. Right." Silver said. He, of course, knew all along.

"So…" Silver said as he and Blaze ate their sandwiches in the living room. "What exactly happened the other day at the basketball game…?"

He saw Blaze tense up, but, after a few seconds, she swallowed her bite of sandwich and spoke.

"Sebastian is my parents' adviser. Personally, I think he's a ratfink, but he was only here to make sure word hadn't gotten around about my status. He disapproved of a couple of things, but he couldn't do anything about them…" Blaze explained as vaguely as possible.

"What kinds of things didn't he agree with?" Silver asked.

"Well, that I was on the boys' basketball team, for one, and not in the ballroom dancing class…" Blaze took another bite of her sandwich. "Not that I could learn anything new from that stupid club…"

Silver still had the feeling that she was keeping something from him. "And…?"

Blaze sighed, knowing she wasn't getting out of telling Silver. "He really didn't approve of my being together with you. When he told me, I told him I didn't give a damn, and that he had better go burn in hell before I burn him myself."

Blaze's sandwich was becoming grilled quickly, and Silver didn't fail to notice. He took her scorching hand, trying to calm her down. "I appreciate that."

"He scurried away faster than Sonic can run." Blaze sighed and leaned on Silver's shoulder. "I don't want to find out what's going to happen when he tells my parents."

~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~

"We're going to do what?" Hannah screeched at her coach, who was sitting next to Mrs. White and Hiko's coach opposite each skater at a table in the skating rink.

"You are all going to start training and studying together after school. " Mrs. White explained once more. "All of you need to get your grades up – even Hiko – at the same time as training for nationals and getting the proper amount of sleep. So, starting tomorrow, you will all report to the rink immediately after school, with both your skating equipment and school supplies. You will all take turns on the ice, and when you're not skating, you will be working with whoever else is not on the ice to do your homework and study."

"No! No way in hell am I doing that! I am not going to spend that much of my day with a freak of nature and a sissy boy!" Hannah ranted.

Both Mrs. White and Hiko's coach gave Hannah a stern look.

"Hannah." The hedgehog's coach's voice said in a tone that could freeze over hot chocolate, "You do not speak like that to other people. You will do this, or I'm pulling you out of the competition at nationals. Do you understand?"

Hannah, by some miracle, backed down, sitting down nicely by Hiko. "Yes ma'am."

"Good." The woman nodded. "You're first on the ice, Hannah. Get going."

Hannah stood up all too eagerly to go to the rink, and all of the coaches stood up and left as well, leaving Cam and Hiko alone at the table. Both skaters let out a sigh at the same time, then looked at each other and smiled.

"Let's go get our homework, sissy boy." Cam said sarcastically.

Hiko slid out of the booth and stood up, waiting for Cameron to slide out. "After you, freak of nature."

Cameron stared at the worksheet in front of her blankly for a good minute before Hiko looked up from his work and noticed her stare.

"Need some help?" He asked politely from across the table.

Cam snapped out of her trance and looked up at him. "Yeah. It's this science problem. How the heck am I supposed to know what makes up a cell? They're so tiny, anyway, I don't see how it matters…"

"Do you have your book?" Hiko asked.

"Yeah, but the chapter doesn't explain well enough for me to understand. They don't even put in a picture…"

"Actually, they do." Hiko said, flipping through the pages towards the back. "They just hide it." When he finally reached the page, he got a small sticky note from a pile on the table and put it there.

Cam took a moment to look over the diagram and smiled. "Hey, that's great! I get it now!"

"They really should just use that picture instead of all of those words in the chapter." Hiko agreed. "But, can I ask you something now?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Hiko took the paper he was working on and turned it so that Cam could see the question he pointed to better. "Can you explain this to me?"

"Oh, this is history. Finally, a class I'm good at. How did the Greeks win the Trojan war, huh? Oh, I love this story!"

"Good. I understood none of it."

"Oh, it's easy. What happened was, after being at war for so many years, the Greeks made a plan to fool the Trojans. They made a giant, hollow wooden horse – the Trojan horse, which I'm sure you've heard of – and hid men inside it. They told the Trojans that they were surrendering and gave them the horse as a gift, then got on their boats and sailed away, just far enough to get out of sight, before they turned around and came back to Troy. During that whole time, though, the Trojans were celebrating inside their city walls around their giant wooden horse. They partied pretty hard back then after a victory. So they all got drunk and partied until they dropped, and when all of them were sleeping, the Greeks who were in the horse came out and started killing people, and opened the doors for the rest of the Greeks to come in. And that's how they won!"

Hiko blinked. "You just gave me the answers to that entire worksheet, and I actually know what happened now."

Cam shrugged. "Yeah, it's a lot easier to understand when it's said in plain, modern English instead of the old, complicated, elaborately-worded stuff we have to read. Translating all of that old Echidnean helps – they use a lot of words that we don't anymore, but I can always understand it."

"Well, that makes one of us…" Hiko started scribbling down the answers to the worksheet as Cam started copying from the picture in the book.

"Cameron, finish up what you're doing; it's your turn!" Mrs. White called from the door to the rink.

"Okay, Coach!" Cam shouted back, shoving the worksheet into the page of the book with the picture. She packed up all of her homework and brought it with her to her locker, just in case Hannah got any ideas.

On Cam's way to the ice, Hannah was leaving. Their shoulders collided as they passed by, and the two girls managed to share a glare over their shoulders before they had to look at where they were going.

Hannah grabbed her backpack and sat down across from Hiko, where Cam was sitting before, then grabbed her worksheets. She took Hiko's complete homework and started copying the answers onto her own paper.

"Most people ask permission before cheating off of another's homework." Hiko said, somewhat annoyed.

"Shut up. I have a plan." Hannah said simply, sitting back from the papers.

"And what is this plan of yours?" Hiko frowned.

"It's the same as the first plan you messed up, with a twist. Instead of just being friends with Cameron, you're going to seduce her. It'll be easy, with this little homework thing and the two of you pair skating together."

"How did you know about that?" Hiko completely stopped paying attention to the work he was doing.

"I have my sources, dear. I also know that you're going to be ice dancing, not pair skating. There's a difference, even though the differences have gotten smaller. Cammie isn't going to like it, though, because ice dancing, in its own way, is much more intimate."

"Cameron is a nice girl. I didn't know her before. You can't make me go through with your plan."

"Oh, but I can." Hannah smiled and leaned her elbows on the table, her fingers gracefully interlocked. "I can pull strings. You live in our dorm, and we have Alexander, first off… and you can't change dorm rooms because of the simple fact that you have to consult my mother, the school counselor, to do that. My daddy dearest is the superintendent of our school district, as well. You weren't around to see how Peter and I made Cameron's life a living hell before those new kids showed up, but I guarantee you that if you don't do this for me, you'll learn." Hannah purred.

"Just who are you threatening here?" Hiko raised an eyebrow at the blonde hedgehog.

"You'll just have to find out, won't you?" Hannah went back to scribbling down the answers for all of her worksheets off of Hiko's. Some were already done, probably from copying another student's work during the school day. She gave Hiko a sugary sweet smile, kissed him on the cheek, then pranced off with her phone, texting away.

Hiko sighed. "What have I gotten myself into…?"

~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~

"Hey, goth chick, should there be chunks like this in the jell-o?" Sonic asked Amy, showing her the little white-and-red lump he found on his spoon.

"Dude, that's gross!" Jet made a horrified face at the gelatin.

Amy rolled her eyes. This was too easy. "Yeah, that's supposed to be in there. It's some vitamin stuff they add to help you do better at things like running."

"Really?" Sonic asked, amazed.

"Hand it over, hedgehog!" Jet grabbed for the cup of jell-o, but Sonic grabbed it before he could. They entered a game of keep-away.

"No, it's mine!"

"I don't care!"

Sonic ended up scarfing all of the jell-o down before Jet could get any. Just as he entered his moment of triumph over Jet, Amy corrected herself.

"Oh, wait, you mean those chunks. Nah, that's the poop from the flickie that got out of the vet science lab the other day. Selma didn't want to let the food go to waste, though."

"What?" Sonic's pupils shrunk before he ran off to the bathroom, coughing the entire way there. Man, did he puke loud.

The girls at the lunch table laughed, giving Amy high fives and congratulating her for such an awesome joke. The guys, however, weren't as amused.

"Don't you think that was a little mean, Amy?" Tails asked cautiously when the laughter had died down.

Amy shrugged. "Not really. It was a joke, and it's not like he got hurt or anything."

"But he's puking his guts out now for no reason, and he's going to be hungry the rest of the school day…"

Amy frowned. "Tails, look me in the eyes and tell me that you think Sonic wouldn't have said that if he had thought of it first."

"But Amy, this is Sonic we're talking about. He does stuff like that all the time."

"So I'm not allowed to play jokes on people because I'm not Sonic?"

"That's not what I-"

"You're seriously still talking about this?" Wave rolled her eyes. "Shorty, it was a joke. Get over it. Pinky, think about it: Nothing is ever going to make Shorty turn against Sonic. He will always take his side. There's no point in arguing with him."

"I don't always take Sonic's side…" Tails' ears drooped.

"Oh, really? Name one time, Shorty." Wave said back.

"Well, I-" Tails was speechless. He couldn't think of anything.

"Stop picking on the kid!" Knuckles stood up, his fists clenched.

"Jak tend. – Sit down." Cam glared at Knuckles, quickly correcting her use of Echidnean.

"Don't you go acting like you can boss me around." Knuckles glared back.

"Who's acting?"

Amidst all of the arguing that had broken loose, Blaze's cell phone started ringing. She quietly slipped away and went into a deserted hallway before answering.

"Hello, Mother. Hello, Father. Why are you calling me?"

Blaze stood there silently, frozen, for ten minutes before hanging up. She was at a deadly calm. When she came back to the table, the argument was still underway, even after Sonic had come back.

The atmosphere around the group was tense for the rest of the school day, so no one, not even Silver, could figure out what was really wrong.

~A week later~

Cam was sitting across from Hiko once again, laughing over a comment he made on a book that they had to read. Her translation papers were spread out in front of her, because her homework was already done.

"I am so glad the coaches made us do this. I mean, having to study at the same table as Hannah is kind of a pain, but I've been getting all the sleep I need, my grades are going back up, and all of my work for the day is done in a few hours!" Cam said cheerfully.

Hiko smiled back at her. "I'm glad, too. It's a pleasure to get to spend time with you like this."

Cam spared a brief smile before scribbling down on her notepad while reading the symbols on the paper. After a few lines, she developed enough concentration to speak at the same time as translating. "Say, Hiko, why are you always so formal?"

"Pardon?" The dog blinked.

"With how you speak and act. You seem like a prince compared to the other guys around the school." Cam clarified.

At that moment, the hockey team, full of testosterone-filled, pad-covered, meat-headed guys, showed up by their table.

"Well if it isn't a couple of twirl-girls!" The captain said, catching the attention of the rest of his team. "Look, fellas, these prissy ice fairies must be tired and taking a break!"

"Excuse me, but we were having a conversation." Hiko said as politely as possible.

"Like I care about your conversation, you fag."

Cam slammed her hands down on the table and stood up, right in the hockey player's face, glaring him down.

"Listen here, you jello-for-brains! A fourth grade figure skater could skate circles around all of your ugly mugs! You have no right to just tramp over here and flinging insults at people! Now I've just got some new tricks up my sleeve," Cam grabbed the hockey player by his pads and hoisted him into the air with one hand, balling the other into a fist, both they and her eyes glowing gold, "and you don't want to be the one that I test them on! So do us all a favor and take your stick and shove it up your ass!"

They hockey player looked from Cam's eyes to her fist, then back to her eyes.

"Dude, I think that's the girl that was on TV." One of the team members said.

"Yeah, she is. That's definitely her. We should get out of here." Another agreed.

A growl from the girl with a little extra glow starting to come off of her fur did the trick. Cam threw the boy down, and he and his posse backed off and went directly to the rink they would be using.

Cam sighed and let the glow fade away, sitting back down.

Hiko stared at her in mild shock. "Such strong words. You didn't have to do that, you know."

"Yes, I did," Cam countered. "I hate being called a twirl-girl in the first place, but calling you that was just unacceptable."

Hiko shrugged. "It isn't a problem. I get that all the time. I especially got it back where I came from."

"Yes, Hiko, it is a problem. They had no right to say those things to you just because you're a guy who figure skates."

Hiko smiled at Cam. "Well, thank you. I enjoyed watching a mob of huge, brutish thugs back down to a petite figure skating girl about half their size."

It was Cam's turn to smile. "I'm not petite, and you know it. Sure, I'm slim, but come on. I'm taller than lots of other figure skating girls."

"This is true." Hiko agreed.

They turned back to their work for a minute. As Hiko finished one subject's assignment, he turned to Cam again.

"Say, Cameron…"

"Yeah?"

"Are you planning anything tomorrow? Since it's the weekend and all?"

"You of all people should know what I have planned, Hiko."

"Other than skating, I mean."

"No, why?"

"Then, would you go on a date with me tomorrow evening?"

Cam blinked for a second, startled. But slowly, her startled expression morphed into a smile. "Yeah. That would be nice."

"Cameron! Get your rear end out here; nationals are in two weeks!" Mrs. White yelled.

"Coming, Coach!" Cam called. She gathered her papers and threw them into her bag, and before she ran off to throw the bag in her locker, she turned around and kissed Hiko on the cheek. Her smile turned into a grin. "We'll figure out the details tonight. By the vending machines, 7:30."

Hiko smiled back, a slight blush appearing on his face. "I'll see you then."

Cam practically skipped to the ice rink, completely oblivious of Hannah's glare as she walked past.

"Did you ask her?" The hedgehog asked, sliding into the seat at the table.

Hiko's smile and blush faded. He nodded. "I did."

Hannah smirked. "Good boy. Now, here's what you're going to do…"

~squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~

-The next day-

As Rouge, Knuckles, Amy, Tails, Blaze and Silver sat around the kitchen table for breakfast, Cam sauntered past them into the kitchen.

"You look awfully cheerful for going to a boot camp." Rouge said as Cam walked by.

Cam smiled and grabbed an apple, taking a bite. "That's because I'm going on a date after the boot camp." She hoisted herself onto the counted and let her legs swing down from the edge.

Shadow, who was sitting in the living room, couldn't help but catch the conversation and listen in. His ear twitched.

"Oh? Who's the poor sap?" Rouge asked.

"Hiko." Cam took another bite of her apple.

"What, you mean the guy you didn't trust an inch and dumped as your dance partner?"

"The one and only."

"But why?" Amy asked, getting straight to the point.

"Well, he asked me, and since Coach agreed that we would do a pair skating routine together, it would be a good idea to bond a little. It might also help with my artistry for Romeo and Juliet. Coach has been getting on me about that lately. I know my routine from heart; being a little bit ditzy and lovestruck couldn't hurt me. It's just a little pick-me-up after what happened with the last one…"

Shadow's ear twitched again.

Cam finished her apple and hopped down from the counter, throwing the core away. "Well, I'd better be off. See you all later tonight!"

With a smile and a wave, Cam ran out the door.

Rouge casually strolled over to the couch and sat down by Shadow. "You're going to miss your chance to get her back, you know."

Shadow spared a sideways glance towards Rouge, not moving his head an inch. "Who said I wanted to get her back?"

Rouge scoffed. "Please. I've seen that look in your eyes. Not only that, but I've heard you carry her to her room at night after she faints on the couch. I've heard what you whispered to her while she slept. But you're too immature to just apologize to her. You blew up at her just because she said something about Maria when she wasn't herself. Yet you sit around moping like you have no life since you broke up with her." She grabbed Shadow's shoulders, forcing him to look her in the eyes. "She is moving on with her life, Shadow, and if you don't hurry up, she'll leave you behind!"

Amy wandered over behind the couch and leaned down onto the back of it. "We heard Hannah and her cronies talking at cheerleading practice the other day. Hiko's going to tell her to go to some crappy, run-down, dangerous place in the city and wait for him there, then he's going to ditch her. If she even sticks around that long, he'll tell her after about 2 hours via text message that he had something better to do. Somewhere in there, Hannah is going to go to where Cam is and do something to her. She quieted down on that part, so it was hard to eavesdrop."

Rouge released Shadow's shoulders from her grasp, and he faced forward once more. "If you're so concerned, why don't you go after her?"

"You're better at fighting than we are, Shadow." Rouge crossed her arms.

"You honestly think that Hannah is going to take us seriously? We're the underlings of her underlings on the cheerleading squad. Two of the three of them have magic on their side, and what if they've already done something to Cam by the time we find her? You would be able to get her out of there." Amy reasoned.

"Not to mention you're more intimidating-looking than about anyone in this group." Rouge agreed.

Blaze wandered over from where she was sitting. "I've been in her classes for quite a while now. While most girls feel like they're beyond the typical fantasy of being rescued by their prince charming, Cam is crazy about the idea. Not that I blame her. If you save her from whatever goes on, and you somehow manage to be nice about it, she may even apologize first."

Shadow was silent for a second. Then, under pressure of the three sets of staring eyes, "She's apologized many times before."

"We've all seen the way you've been looking at her, Shadow." Amy glared at the black-and-red hedgehog. "Suck it up, tell her that you've missed her and that you forgive her and you're sorry for all the crap you've been giving her. Then she might think you're decent enough of a person to date again."

"Someone is cranky."

"GO!" The three girls yelled. They practically shoved him out the door.

~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~ squiggle~

Cam checked her phone again, far past the point of getting restless. She didn't know why Hiko was having her meet him at this particular bus stop in the middle of the worst part of town. Five thugs had already tried to take her home with them. The cops had pulled up three times to make sure she wasn't a prostitute. And the bus driver along this route was insisting every time that he pulled up that she should stop waiting and reschedule the date. Hiko had said he might be a little late, but this…?

Another thug walked up to wait for the bus, going to who-knows-where. He started looking Cam up and down, and she was mentally preparing herself to tell him off when her phone rang, indicating that she had a text message.

'Coach wanted me to stay late. The date will have to wait until some other day. Couldn't reach the phone until now. –Hiko'

"Great…" Cam sighed, a frown setting in on her face.

"Ooh, didjya boyfriend dump you, girl? Want me to cheer you up?" The thug said as he grabbed Cam's behind.

Cam immediately started glowing and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, hoisting him up like she did the hockey player. "You have ten seconds to get out of my sight, and then I might let you live!" She hurled him into the nearest building, breaking a few bricks in the process. "One…" The thug scrambled onto his feet and tried saying something to Cam. "Two…" He tried laughing it off. "Three…" His smile faded as the glow around Cam's hands got darker and darker, going from gold to an eerie purple. "Four…" Cam's voice started changing now, and her entire glow changed. "Five…" The thug ran as fast as he could to the nearest alley.

The glow around Cam faded away. She sighed, and focused on composing herself. She knew that she was a few seconds from giving in to Melaine again when she was scaring the thug off.

The bus pulled up again, and Cam was ready to get on and go back to the dorm when Hannah, Anna and Montana got off.

"Cameron!" Hannah smiled in her sugary-sweet, 'your life is about to become a living hell' tone. "Sorry we're late! Let's go!"

Anna and Montana each looped an arm around one of Cam's, and they lead her off down the street into an alleyway, which was fortunately different than the one the thug had run down. Once they were far out of sight of anyone, Anna and Montana slammed Cam into a wall.

"What do you want, Hannah?" Cam said, pulling out her staff.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Cammy. You'd lose your chance at not being disqualified from Nationals." Hannah chided.

"What are you talking about?"

Hannah scoffed, dropping her happy demeanor. "Please, Cameron, you're not the only one who can sense it when someone else is using magic. You've been cheating, and don't you dare deny it."

"I have not!" Cam snapped back.

"Oh, really? Using an enchanted ring to keep away the pain and injuries that another skater would normally have when they've been pushing themselves as hard as you?"

Anna whipped out her staff and knocked Cam's out of her hand.

"Give me this." Hannah grabbed Cam's wrist and pulled off the silver band around her finger that she'd been wearing since her image change.

Cam immediately fell to the ground, gritting her teeth and growling at Hannah through them.

"Just like I thought. I've heard about this spell before. It suppresses all of your pain until you take it off, when all of the pain that it took away from you comes back at once, twice as strong." Hannah squatted down by Cam, using the hand not holding the ring to make Cam look at her. "You're going to take this ring off every night at 7 o' clock until nationals." The ring took on a slight purple glow for a moment before fading back to its original color. "And if you don't, I'll know, because I just put my own enchantment on it." Hannah took the ring and slipped it back onto Cam's finger. "You can put the ring back on at 5 AM. I realize that 10 hours of constant pain will be hard to live through, much less sleep through for just less than two weeks. But I've made sure that the pain will last that long, too. Oh, and this should remain between us." Hannah stood up and smiled again. "Good luck, Cammie, you're going to need it. May the best skater win."

With that, Hannah and crew walked off, not before leaving Cam with a few swift kicks to the gut, and catching the next bus just before it left.

Cam sat propped up against the side of the alley, catching her breath. 5 minutes later, when she was just managing to stand up, a black streak ran by before coming back into the alley. Shadow stopped in front of Cam, the gust blowing her quills back out of her face.

"Cameron, are you alright?" He asked, offering his arm for support.

Cam glared up at him and shoved his arm down away from herself. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Amy, Blaze and Rouge told me that Hannah was planning something against you."

"What? You could have called me, Shadow! You have my phone number! But instead you run around the city looking for me blindly, thinking you're going to swoop in from nowhere and save me? I don't care what you were trying to be, some superhero or prince charming or whatever bullshit you had in your head, but you were late! Hannah and her cronies were here and gone, they did what they came to do to me!"

"What did they do to you, Cameron?"

"I can't tell you!" Cam tried to walk away without the support of the wall, but fell to the ground without any support on her sore legs.

Shadow kneeled down by her in the dirt and grime of the bottom of the alley, wrapping his arms around her. "I'm sorry, Cameron. I'm sorry for everything."

"You should be." Cam turned in Shadow's grasp, making him release her, and he believed she was going to try to stand up and walk away again, when she hugged him back. "Idiot."

They sat there in silence hugging each other for a few minutes before Cam finally spoke up. "…Hiko had something to do with their plan, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did." Shadow nodded, as if to emphasize his point.

"I'm so stupid…"

"Don't say that." Shadow released Cam from the hug so that they could face each other, and he pushed her bangs out of her face. He left his hand resting on her cheek. "I'm the stupid one. I let go of the most amazing girl in the world when she needed me most."

"I know for a fact that there are definitely more amazing girls out there than me." Cam said with a slight blush on her face.

Their heads moved closer together as an act by both of their subconsciouses, and their eyes closed halfway as they stared at each other.

"Then I'll just have to disagree with you."

Shadow closed his eyes completely and leaned in to kiss her, but she put her hand up in front of him.

"No, Shadow. I can't walk, it isn't safe here, and it's almost 7. Let's go home. Then we can talk, kiss, whatever you want."

Shadow opened his eyes and frowned, but picked Cam up nonetheless.

He ran with her back to the dorm, and both of them couldn't help but be reminded of when they first met and were in a similar situation. Cam instructed Shadow to bring her back to her room, where the clock read 6:45.

"About what you said earlier…" Shadow casually mentioned once Cam was safely sitting on her bed.

Cam rolled her eyes and tugged on his hand, making him bend over until she could use her other hand to push his head to hers, kissing him. Shadow, though shocked at first, relaxed into the kiss and kissed her back in a kiss lasting just over 10 seconds.

Cam pulled away and released Shadow, opening her eyes. "Shadow, I'd love to talk to you more about this, but not right now. I'm really tired and sore, and I need to be alone right now."

Shadow nodded. "Of course." He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Cam glanced at the clock. 6:50. As quickly as she could, Cam made all of the necessary preparations for sleeping and laid down under the covers on her bed. When the clock turned to 7 PM, she took off her ring, forcing herself to drop it on the nightstand.

The pain forced her to curl up into a ball and ball the sheets up in her fists, and it took all of her willpower not to make a sound in reaction to the pain flowing through her.

Hannah smirked as she fell asleep.

Cam got none.

~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~squiggle~

OH MY GOODNESS THIS CHAPTER IS LATE. AGAIN. AGAIN.

I can't say how sorry I am for taking so very long to get these chapters out. Part of it is my busy senior year. Part of it is video games. A huge part of it is that I'm a lazy bum. Thank you all so very much for yelling at me to do this, it probably wouldn't have gotten done otherwise!

THANK YOU TO ALL OF MY SUPER-DUPER-ULTRA-MEGA-WONDERFUL, AMAZING, STUPENDOUS, FANTABULOUS, REVIEWERS!

REVIEWS ARE LOVED AND GET YOU OXYGEN COOKIES! No calories or fat. =D