Summary:

Neophyte: A person who is new to a subject, skill, or belief.

This is what the bubblegum pink hedgehog is going through whenever she sees the new kid in her high school. How her heart flutters at just the sight of him.

He was a tall, slender hedgehog, perfect enough for her to hug him right now and their body would fit like a glove. His blue spiky quills make her want to go and touch it. His tan muzzle makes her want to kiss it. And that smile he would show, revealing a dimple on his right cheek nobody would notice except her. But most importantly, those eyes. Those enchanting Emerald Green eyes glisten whenever he talks about his interest. It was indeed a strange feeling she was going through.

The azure hedgehog already knew from the start that she was staring at him. And he hated it. He wishes that she would stop being friendly to him. To stop talking to him. To stop helping.

For him, he got nothing to do with her. She should focus on her social status instead of him. Because...

He's still a neophyte. Learning to become a better person... learning to be a better dad to his daughter.

The boy was a teen dad in hiding.

|.|.|.|

This is a story about Sonic searching for his daughter's biological mother. He became a teen father after a drunken one-night stand and raised Elaine as a single parent. He's currently living with his Aunt Aleena after going no contact with his parents. Thanks to her, he received a full scholarship to a prestigious private school, where he later meets a preppy girl, Amy, who seems to be interested in him.

During the pandemic, I've jotted down and changed the entire plot. I noticed I've been making too many School AUs, so I tried to convert the story into an Office AU but couldn't. Then, after much consideration, I decided to cancel the idea. Why? Because I don't believe I have the potential and writing skills when it comes to creating the story I imagined.

I wanted to try out writing a serious story; However, I don't think the topic of teen pregnancy would be a good choice to start. I'm afraid of messing it up. What if it doesn't result as I expected? What if it comes off as unrealistic? What if I end up glorifying teen pregnancy when I didn't mean to? I rather prefer someone more mature and high-skilled in writing to tell the story than me.

Now that everything has been explained, it's time to discuss the spoilers. We'll talk about the School AU, the secret, and the deleted scenes. But first, here's a fun fact! Did you know I wanted to name Sonic's daughter Elise? C'mon! It's a really pretty name. But Elaine is a cute name too. Oh well. You can decide which name to use. Anyway, off we go!!

⊱ ──── {.⋅ SCHOOL AU: ⋅.} ──── ⊰

Most students in the private school come from upper-class families (EX: Amy, Rouge, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, and later Maria), while the few are either from middle-class families (EX: Cream) or on a full scholarship (EX: Sonic). Each character has their own arc that involves one another. They know each other before and carry certain relationships the readers will discover. Those includes:

- The arch-rivalry between Amy's and Rouge's families in the jewelry industry.

- Amy's and Cream's broken friendship due to Cream's mother being harshly fired from Amy's family. They barely acknowledge each other since then.

- Shadow and Knuckles being mutual friends with Amy, Rouge, and Maria.

- How Shadow's friendship with Maria grew closer because of her transfer to the private school and their families arranging a close associate in the biotechnology industry. Soon, everyone finds out the reason Maria transferred is because of her terminal disease.

- Tails being considered an acquaintance to the five students. He's dating Cream and befriended Sonic. He's willing to accept Knuckles and Amy into the group when the two are seen hanging out more with Sonic.

- And Amy's attraction to Sonic since day 01 and she wants to know more about him, however, Sonic tries to distance himself to avoid getting too close to her and not have anyone discover his secret life as a teen dad, but he couldn't help be drawn to her.

The two hedgehogs kept seeing each other, especially when Sonic agreed to tutor Amy discreetly for some cash. He enjoys her company. It feels like she understands him well. She always brightens up his days, yet he can't let her know about his personal life. That is until, one day, Amy caught Sonic and Elaine leaving daycare (owned by Cream's mom). She wondered who the little pale purple hedgehog with jungle-green eyes was that had just called Sonic "dad." Luckily enough, Sonic was able to make an excuse. He lied to Amy that he was Elaine's uncle, who she looked up to as a father figure. It was enough to make Amy believe his words.

In spite of that, Sonic suddenly grows suspicious of Amy. For some odd reason, she looks quite identical to his daughter and has several similar attitudes, like puffing out her cheeks when frustrated. And her jade eyes... Could it be? Sonic didn't wait any longer as he confronted Amy, asking her if she, by any chance, had gone to Maria's end-of-school-year party on Emerald Coast three years ago. Amy seemed hesitant but denied it.

Sonic doubts her answer but remains quiet. He has decided to take a strand of Amy's quill to the laboratory and take a maternity DNA test using her sample. Before he receives the test results, a huge discovery unfolds during an argument between Cream and Amy. The two former friends were recalling the time the two estranged. To the moment where Cream's mother was fired.

Amy feels guilty for not doing anything and for being brainwashed by her parents. She asks for forgiveness and wishes to rekindle their friendship. Deep down, Cream still cares for Amy because she knows how horrible her parents can get; However, she tells Amy she needs space to think. Amy understood, and the girls went on their separate ways. Then comes Sonic, who stops and confronts Amy over what he has overheard. He wants an explanation about the big reveal.

And so, Amy did. Sonic was upset she was hiding this from him. He tried to walk away, but Amy begged him not to leave her alone again. She kept apologizing, crying about how she didn't mean to break his trust. However, none of her words convinced him to stay.

Sonic ignored her in the following weeks. What she confessed was a lot to take in. He was frustrated with himself, with Amy, and with life. He wishes he could move on, but he's aware of the impact Amy has on him. This is where Sonic comes to terms with that he gained romantic feelings for her.

Now, he isn't sure what to do next. He couldn't pretend the previous event didn't occur. Sonic need to plan out how he'll approach Amy when suddenly, he hears a sound by his window late at night. He goes near it to see Amy throwing pebbles towards it to grab his attention.

Next to her lays her backpack and her duffle bag. When Sonic helps her sneak in his window, he asks her what she's doing there. Amy tells him that she ran away from home. She does not want her parents to find her, so she avoided their vacation houses. Her parents drained her bank account too when they found her gone, but luckily enough, Amy has some money saved up from birthdays and allowances to live off for two months.

Amy then asks if she can stay with him for a while. She is willing to pay rent and babysit Elaine whenever he goes out. Sonic lets her stay, advising her to negotiate with his Aunt Aleena in the morning. In the meantime, she can sleep in his bed while he goes to the couch. But before he leaves, Sonic and Amy apologize to each other. They have a deep conversation about their friendship and how their dynamic has changed. It ended with the two embracing in a deep, meaningful hug. They were close to kissing each other, but Sonic stopped himself. He believes this is not the right moment.

Once Aunt Aleena and Amy arranged an agreement the next day, Sonic took her out to let her vent. What happened was she had an intense argument with her parents, most specifically her father, since her mother was only giving her judging looks. Amy had a big burnout from pretending to be the perfect daughter and wanted to talk about it to them as normal parents. However, they shame her and downplay her feelings. Amy had enough of their neglect and told them off, leading her to now. She knows that they wouldn't care if she was missing. After all, they can always make up a story about her absence.

Despite being heartbroken, Amy became more self-resilient with the help and loving support of her friends and Elaine. She went through many changes. Amy finally got her own place through work but had to drop out of school because of financial and mental health issues; However, she was able to attend GED classes. She changed her legal name (Amelie Desrosiers) to Amy Rose, repaired her friendship with Cream, and became more involved in Elaine's life.

The pink and blue hedgehogs are always locking gazes together. They're seen holding hands and acting more affectionately. It took them finger painting with Elaine to realize each other feelings when Elaine gifted Sonic a painting of her and her father giving a flower to Amy. The difference was that the little girl drew heart-shaped eyes on Sonic's and Amy's faces. When asked, Elaine tells Sonic that she just painted what she observed, earning a laugh from Amy.

As Sonic accompanies Amy to her taxi, he says goodbye and plants a kiss on her lips before closing the door for her. Amy was too stunned to stop the taxi driver from taking her home. But once she recovered, she sent Sonic a text saying, "Help! I can't stop thinking about the kiss! When can I see you again?". He replied back, saying, "Meet me at 4 PM. By the ice cream parlor."

The story ends with the new couple raising Elaine as a happy family. They named Tails and Cream as Elaine's godparents. While Knuckles and Shadow are the protective uncles, Rouge is the fun aunt, and Maria becomes the doting aunt. Everyone went on their separate ways but still had contact with each other. Especially when they sadly reunited for Maria's funeral to give their condolences.

In Maria's will, she wishes for them to take her place in the future. She platonically loved Shadow and wanted him to continue realizing their promise of bringing hope to humanity. She left her diaries and the blue bracelets she always wears for him to keep. Lastly, Elaine will receive her other personal jewelry and $3,000 to distribute at age 18 for being her favorite girl.

It wasn't easy for them to get their own lives together, but it was worth it in the end. And while there's still a long road ahead as neophytes in life, what matters the most is that their friendships will never fade. Because they all managed to find their own happiness and love through their journey.

THE END

⊱ ──── {.⋅ THE SECRET: ⋅.} ──── ⊰

If Sonic had received and seen the maternity DNA results before the confrontation, it would have come out with Amy not being the biological mother of Elaine but still somehow related. And when I mean related, I mean that Amy is Elaine's aunt. Let me explain:

Amelie "Amy" Desrosiers is the oldest of her twin sister, Adaline "Rosy" Desrosiers.

Amy and Rosy always get compared; However, it's obvious that Amy is the favorite. Their parents believe she was much prettier, loyal, and easy to gaslight. It made Rosy resent them, yet she couldn't help but feel jealous of Amy receiving all their love. It wasn't fair that she had to always walk on eggshells while her sister held on a high pedestal. However, Rosy kept it to herself, knowing Amy did nothing wrong and didn't want to ruin their good sisterhood.

One day, Amy and Rosy heard about Maria's end-of-the-school-year party. Once Amy convinced their father to let them go, the twin sisters arrived before Sonic and Jet. Speaking of which, Amy sees Sonic and falls in love with him at first sight. Rosy grew tired of listening to Amy ramble about wanting to introduce herself to him. She encouraged her sister to get his number by the end of the night before leaving her behind.

This is where the prologue takes place, as Rosy didn't know the guy she slept with was the guy Amy had her eyes on since she didn't receive a good description of who he was. After some time, Rosy tells Amy she wants to leave because she doesn't feel well from all the alcohol she drank and from encountering her former toxic friends. Amy, unable to find Sonic at the massive party, took her home.

In three months, Rosy noticed signs of pregnancy and was devastated to see her pregnancy test positive. She hid her bump with the help of her beloved nanny (Vanilla). Unfortunately, they got caught by her father. Amy watched her parents disown Rosy and looked away when Vanilla was kicked out of the house. She later became manipulated to believe that Vanilla's family is untrustworthy because if Vanilla had told them about the pregnancy earlier, they wouldn't have become a broken family.

For the following months, Rosy was forced to stay indoors. Amy never left her side and was her shoulder to cry. She was the only person who protected and took care of her until Rosy death when there were complications during childbirth. This led Amy to be in a grieving mess.

Amy wanted to look after the baby badly, but her father took his granddaughter away. Throughout the pregnancy, he located the baby's father based on the information Rosy gave and the informants he hired. Her father sent the baby to Sonic's house with its important documents. Amy learned about all this when she investigated her niece's whereabouts a year later.

So basically, she knew Sonic was lying about being Elaine's uncle. She didn't mind, though. After all, she didn't tell the truth either because she wanted to get closer to them. Oh, but her plan failed.

⊱ ── {.⋅ DELETED SCENES: ⋅.} ── ⊰

➼ Rosy wasn't supposed to die from labor, but instead went M.I.A. She probably ran away with Scourge or is living in paradise. At some point, Rosy was about to appear and request Sonic to see Elaine, but I changed my mind.

➼ Silver and Blaze were close to being part of the cast. Both were college students involved in Sonic's and Amy's stories. Silver was a teacher's assistant while Blaze was Amy's personal maid.

➼ In other circumstances, Silver was an uprising star for the musicals he wrote and composed. Sonic was a fan and got to partake in one of his new projects. Around the time, I was in my musical phase and wanted to add it to the story.

➼ Before there was Elaine, there were twins! Their name was Marcela and Maeve.

➼ There was going to be a love square between Rouge, Knuckles, Shadow, and Maria. More info. will be in the next one.

➼ Maria originally transferred to the private school to be closer to Sonic. Then, when she sees Shadow, she falls in love with him. However, Rouge has a small crush on Shadow since they are best friends, but she also likes her rival, Knuckles. Meanwhile, Knuckles denies having any feelings for Rouge and Shadow has no clue about what's going on. In the end, Shadaria and Knuxouge would win but I excluded the subplot because I don't want there to be any love triangles/squares.

➼ Also, Shadow and Maria were originally supposed to be adopted siblings. Awkward...

➼ Remember that PG-14 rating?... That was because, after some tutoring sessions, Sonic and Amy began sleeping together with no strings attached. Just to clarify: No, I wasn't going to write smut. It was supposed to be spicy mentions but I'm embarrassed to do so. >///<

➼ I was thinking of making Amy hide a letter somewhere around Elaine's baby cradle car seat before being left at Sonic's doorstep. She knew her father's plan and was against it but remain silent out of fear. So, she wrote the letter, pretending to be Rosy. Nonetheless, Sonic kept the letter and would read it many times that he memorized each word. The following last sentences gave him hope:

__________

'...There are a lot of regrets I hold but this one I feel it's right. I know what I'm doing is wrong but I will return someday. Please take care of her well. Don't let anyone think you're nothing because you're not, Sonic.'
- A
__________

And that's how "Neophyte" ends. I know many of you expected Amy to be the biological mother, but I wanted to put a plot twist. Thank you so much for reading! I hope this satisfies you. Bye!