Ramy

Ramy is the het ship between Ricky Underwood and Amy Juergens from the The Secret Life of the American Teenager fandom.

One Night at Band Camp
During the summer of 2008, the summer before Amy's freshman year, Amy Juergens and Ricky Underwood shared a night at the 'Best of the Best' band camp that they would never forget for the rest of their lives, a night which turned the lives of these teenagers upside down.

The two first caught sight of each other when Amy was playing in the marching band while Ricky was hanging out with a couple of guys, watching on from the bleachers. As Ricky waved to her, however, Amy gets thrown off and breaks the formation, prompting Ricky to have a little chuckle to himself.

While Amy is sitting alone in the lunchroom, Ricky introduces himself to her and tells her that someone had told him that she was due to go to the same school, Grant High, in the fall, meaning they would also be in the same band together. As Ricky sits down opposite her, he enquires if Amy has a boyfriend and mistakenly thinks that Amy's lack of interest in boys is because she swings the other way, which she amusingly clarifies to him that it wasn't the case. Ricky calls Amy pretty which makes Amy rather nervous as she starts to think that this mysterious boy likes her. Ricky asks her if she wants to do anything that night, but after finding out that she is due to play the freshman solo, he guarantees Amy that he will be there to cheer her on. When Ricky leaves, a girl approaches Amy and reveals that Ricky is the most popular boy at camp and that all the girls want to go out with him, making Amy feel a little embarrassed. The girl goes on to warn Amy, however, telling her to be careful. Later, Ricky walks in on Amy practising for the big solo and volunteers to help her practice. In order to try and combat her nerves, she tries telling herself that he was 'just a guy'. As Amy starts to play in front of him, Ricky leans in for a light kiss, making Amy all flustered. Ricky confesses that he isn't looking for a friend, rather a girlfriend and the two walk over to Amy's cabin arm in arm.

After the big performance, Amy asks Ricky out for coffee and the two sneak into the cafeteria at night and decide to stay and hang out. As they are talking over hamburgers, the two decide to move over to the more comfortable couch and after convincing Amy, they start to make out and soon, the two end up having unprotected sex, causing Amy to get pregnant and thus her life would never be the same again.


 * Amy: I've never done that before.
 * Ricky: Oh yeah? Bet you'd be good at it - making out.
 * Amy: Oh, you do that a lot? Make out?
 * Ricky: I've made out with a few girls before but not every girl I meet, just if they're special.
 * Ricky: You're special Amy. I like you. I like you a lot. We're going to the same school and I thought... I don't know, maybe you and I could be... well, this could be the start of something big.
 * Ricky: I mean you feel the same way about me as I feel about you?
 * Amy: I think.
 * Ricky: Then what's a few more minutes?

Amy's Pregnancy
After arriving home from band camp, Amy takes a pregnancy test and the test comes back positive and all her worst fears are realised, she was pregnant, and it was Ricky's baby.

When Amy starts high school at Grant High, she was initially intrigued when she saw Ricky with another girl (Adrian Lee) but also felt extremely embarrassed about the events that unfolded in the summer, neglecting to tell her friends that it was with Ricky and instead telling them that it was with some guy from a different school. Despite this, she did seem quite interested in Ricky and as she tried to walk past without being noticed, he stops her and reminds her of their night together and strokes her hair.

However, Amy soon falls in love with Ben Boykewich, the kind and caring son of the Sausage King. This annoys Ricky as he feels that Ben is just trying to be like him in order to win over Amy which in turn is causing her to lose interest in him. In spite of Ricky’s attempts to get Amy to remember what happened that summer, she repeatedly rejects him, insisting that she has a boyfriend and chooses to not tell Ricky that she was pregnant, not wanting to have anything to do with him. Soon, Ricky moves on from his pursuit of Amy and switches to trying to capture the affections of the virginal Grace Bowman while simultaneously having a physical FWB relationship with Adrian Lee behind her back and against Amy’s wishes, rumours started to circulate around school that Amy was pregnant Ricky being the father which leaves Ricky shocked, regretful and distraught.


 * Amy: I’m seeing someone
 * Ricky: Who are you seeing? That little geek who wants to be me?
 * Ricky: Come on, why would you do that when you could be out with the real thing?

Regardless of Ricky's promises to Amy’s dad to leave Amy and the baby alone, Ricky decides to confront Amy and tell her that he wants to be involved with the baby. However, at this point, Amy is irritated and angry at Ricky as she doesn’t want Ricky to have anything more to do with her, wishing to have Ben by her side instead.

Ricky attends Amy and Ben’s illegal wedding and insists that he does not care for Amy and that she is better off with Ben. This does not stop Ricky from going to the wedding with Grace, however.

Whilst Amy wishes to give the baby up for adoption, explaining that it would be best for the baby, Ricky strongly disagrees with the idea, preferring that he and Amy raised their kid together at her house with him coming over to see them.

In order to try to do the right thing for their son, Ricky and Amy decide to work things out between them, meeting with each other in order to talk about 'baby stuff', much to the annoyance of their respective partners and the intrigue of their friends. Before Ricky arrives, Ashley finds Amy looking for something to wear and asks her if she's 'dressing up for Ricky' and tells her that she doesn't want her to make the same mistake of Ricky twice. This angers Amy because, despite what Ashley and Ben think, she claims that she is not interested in Ricky and that she is only talking to him because she needs his permission to put the baby up for adoption. Ricky reveals that it was Amy who wanted him to be involved in the decision making process, which prompts Ben into realising that he should give Ricky and Amy some space because he cannot change the fact that Amy and Ricky will always be bound together by the baby which might lead to Amy and Ricky wanting to be together at some point, something which would be out of Ben's control. In order to get Ben back, Amy calls Ricky and tells him that raising the baby together wouldn't work out for the baby and if he truly loved his son, he would go along with whatever Amy thought was best for the kid. Reluctantly, Ricky agrees to put his child up for adoption.

Amy feels guilty for Ben's decision to back out because she doesn't want to be tied to Ricky so she goes along with the idea of her dad's co-worker Donovan and his partner Leon being possible candidates for being the adopted parents. Ricky, however, soon reverses his decision and tells Amy he doesn't feel like he could just give up their child to a random couple which overwhelms Amy causing him to embrace her in a hug, as Ben, Adrian and Grace watch on. When Grace's ex-boyfriend Jack Pappas drops by Ricky's place while he's studying about babies, Ricky reveals that he's only interested in being with Amy Juergens, before he individually tells Adrian and Grace quite bluntly that he and them are done for good.


 * Ricky: I'm not interested in Grace anymore, or Adrian.
 * Jack: Who are you interested in?
 * Ricky: The mother of my son, Amy, I'm interested in Amy.
 * Jack: What? For real?
 * Ricky: Yeah, for real.
 * Jack: What about her and -
 * Ricky: I think they broke up.
 * Jack: Yeah but Amy and Ben got married.
 * Ricky: Yeah but Amy and I had sex and we're having a baby.

Ricky also proclaims this to his shrink Dr. Fields, but he also tells him of his plan to go along with whatever Amy wants until it looks like the baby is set for adoption, when he'll try to get his mother on his side in a custody battle. Despite Amy's attempts, Ben is still trying to stay out of everything which includes not talking to her which makes her think that she is probably better off being with Ricky considering that it is their baby.


 * Dr. Fields: Who are you in love with?
 * Ricky: Amy.
 * Dr. Fields: Now it's Amy?
 * Ricky: I'm not a careless guy, I've never been a careless guy, but with Amy... I dunno, maybe I wanted her to get pregnant?
 * Dr. Fields: Because you love her?
 * Ricky: Yeah.
 * Ricky: Maybe Amy and I would be good parents
 * Ricky: I have my heart set on Amy and our baby.Hugs.jpg

Amy starts to have a few doubts about putting her baby up for adoption, telling her dad what Ricky told her, that she doesn't know if she could bring herself to just give her son away. With his plan in motion, Ricky agrees to meet Donovan and Leon with Amy to talk about the adoption of their baby but tells her that he wants the adoption to perfect because he doesn't want to hurt her more than he has already.


 * George: You don't like Ricky do you? I mean, as a boyfriend?
 * Amy: No, but...
 * George: But what?
 * Amy: I think Ricky likes me and when someone likes you, you can't help but like them back.
 * Amy: Maybe fate just intervened.
 * George: Oh no, I know what you're thinking - you're thinking maybe you'll marry Ricky cos he's the guy you had sex with.
 * George: You had sex with the wrong guy and you can't fix this by marrying the wrong guy.
 * Amy: Maybe even though I love Ben, I was meant to be with Ricky.

Ben and Amy reconcile, however, as Ricky sets his sights back to Adrian and Grace after realising that he wouldn't be able to provide for both the baby and Amy like Ben would. Ricky soon gets a job working at the Boykewich family butcher shop, along with Ben, and tells Amy that he could still contribute to raising the baby, even if the baby does get adopted, which she ultimately decides against thanks to the help from all of their family and friends.


 * Ben: So which one are you after Ricky, Amy or the baby?
 * Ricky: Both.

The Birth of Their Son John
Amy calls Ricky from the hospital after going into labour while he's busy baby-proofing his room and tells him that the baby is on the way and she thinks that he should be there for the birth of his son. When Ricky gets to the hospital, Amy is getting some much-needed rest so he offers to get a Dairyshack burger for her. While Ricky is waiting outside, he starts to feel really sorry for Amy and extremely guilty for having a baby he doesn't deserve with a nice girl like her. Despite this, he promises Ashley that he's gonna be there for his son no matter what.

When the baby, named John Juergens by Ashley, is finally born, Ricky is the first to go inside and see him. When he enters, he is overcome by the whole ordeal but after he seeing his kid in his mother's arms, Amy smiles at him, relieved that the dreaded pregnancy was over. Initially, he is quite apprehensive about holding John when Amy offers to pass him on, but after cradling the little guy in his arms, he realises that he might actually enjoy fatherhood. The season ends with Ricky over at Amy's house, cradling his son as Amy sleeps away.

Butting Heads as Parents
After John's birth, Ricky is very hands-on with his involvement, visiting practically everyday and helping out, which Amy is grateful for but also quite annoyed about due to the fact that he is a lot better with John than her. Ricky even offers to stay over and look after him through the night while Amy gets some rest.

When Ben wants to babysit John while Amy visits Grace, Amy declines his offer, with her preferring that Ricky stays with John instead.

Ricky notices how hard being a teenager mother is for Amy so volunteers to help out with John more often but Amy refuses, saying that she can handle it on her own not without acknowledging and thanking Ricky for his help with John however. Ricky manages to convince Amy to let Ben go to Bologna by reminding her of their duties of being parents to their son. He also assures Adrian that, with Ben gone, he wouldn't even consider trying to have sex with Amy because of his friendship with Ben.

Ricky decides to move out of his foster parents' house and get his own place which would allow him to be with just Amy and John from time to time. When Amy insists on going with Ben to Italy and taking John with her, Ricky gets infuriated as he doesn't want her to just take off for Europe with 'our son', telling Adrian that she makes him go crazy. Ricky helps Amy calm down after she starts rating about how her life really sucks, advising her to have a more positive outlook on things instead. He even jokes about the yearbook, which contains a photo of a very pregnant Amy, and tells her to lighten up. When Ricky finishes from work, he pops by Amy's house so he can take John to his new apartment above the butcher shop to spend his first night with his son, but finds John already asleep with Amy watching over him. The two parents talk about life and how no matter how bad life can get, they should be grateful for at least having their son in their lives. This cheers Amy up as her and Ricky share a moment of smiles which Amy quickly finds a bit awkward. Not wanting to wake him up, Ricky decides to wait until another time to have John over at his apartment but since he was already there, he offers to wait for John to wake up in the nursery, while she goes to get some sleep in her room. Amy agrees but when Ben comes over in the morning and sees that Ricky spent the night, Ben gets upset and leaves in anger despite them both telling him that it wasn't what it looked like.


 * Amy: It's kind of funny how John got into the yearbook.
 * Ricky: Yeah. That's a good way to look at it, that's a good way to look at life - when everything is bad in our lives, at least we've got him.

Over the summer, Ricky frequently visits John at Amy’s house, even staying the night on numerous occasions which annoys Ben. When Amy persistently interrogates Ricky about whether or not Ben had sex on his trip to Italy, Ricky defends him in order to save Ben‘s relationship after he finds out that Ben might needlessly break up with Amy.

With Adrian seemingly close to moving in next to Amy’s house, Ricky tries to get the two to put their differences aside as their hatred of each other could be to the detriment of his privilege of being able to see his son. When Amy finally has enough with Adrian, she calls Ricky to inform him that she doesn’t want Adrian anywhere near their son. This prompts Ricky to find out what Amy’s really angry about, asking her if she could see them being together if Adrian and Ben weren’t in the picture. Amy responds by pointing out Ricky’s inability to be in a committed relationship which stems from a lack of interest in being monogamous. Amy goes on to say that they aren’t the right people for each other, putting to bed any chance of the two getting together anytime soon.

After volunteering to help out Ashley get some furniture for her new room, Ricky is greeted with harsh words from both George and Amy, despite Ricky insisting that he was just being nice and that he wouldn’t be so stupid as to try to do anything with her. This causes a heated discussion between Amy and Ricky about what they did at band camp and how it escalated so quickly, making Amy open up about how she’s angry with everyone because she blames herself for what happened. Ricky replies by telling that no matter what, they should never take it out on John and praises Amy’s efforts as a teen mother. As he tries to get Amy to shift more of the workload onto him, he insists that he can see John with whoever he wants, whether that be with Adrian or his family, which angers Amy.


 * Amy: I really hate you, do you know that?
 * Ricky: Yeah I know that.
 * Ricky: Even when you’re nice to me Amy, I know that.

At this point in time, Ricky and Amy’s relationship is hanging by a thread, at an all time low which has led to a standstill. The two seem to at war with each other by fighting over John and so long as they stay stubborn, things could turn ugly which would only be disastrous for their son.

Amy buys Ricky a new phone so he can receive emails even when he's out, meaning she can reach him a lot easier and a lot quicker, initially using it to send Ricky a shopping list.

While Ricky is helping Adrian move in next door to Amy, he and Amy look through the window at each other from the two houses, with John smiling and waving at his daddy next door. Later in the day, Ricky finds George in the back garden and goes over to get some relationship advice, with the conversation topic quickly switching to whether Ricky sees himself having any sort of future with either Adrian or Amy. Ricky compliments Amy, calling her 'really attractive' and saying that he might even love her, but admits that a relationship between the two would not work because of a lack of 'heat' between them, but George isn't the least bit convinced. Ricky decides to stick it out with Adrian, however, with the hope of being ready to be in a real commitment a bit further down the line.

After agreeing to go to couples counselling, Adrian asks Ricky what he would do if Amy and John moved away with Amy's mother to Palm Springs, expecting him to try to seek legal custody of his son if that happened, but Ricky suggests that he would just have to follow them and not go through the hassle of the courts since he sees that being able to see John everyday is a privilege that could be taken away just as easily as it was given.

Thanks to George, Anne and her new-born Robbie go away to Palm Springs for a few days, taking Amy and John as well. Ricky finds out that Ben is planning to break up with Amy for a girl from Italy and begs him not to do it in order for Amy to stay and not move to Palm Springs permanently. Despite Adrian and her dad pushing him to file for his rights, Ricky is reluctant to do so, for fear of sending the wrong message to Amy and upsetting her. After consulting George, Ricky finally manages to get hold of Amy and asks for her and John to come home but Amy plainly informs him that she'll be back whenever she's ready, which is not what Ricky wanted to hear at all.

Ricky goes over to Adrian's new house and hangs out with Adrian, even though she doesn't want them to have sex, just in case Amy comes home with John but when they don't, he goes home with a new girl, Zoe, instead. When he finds out from Ben that Amy is finally back from Palm Springs, he leaves work and rushes over to see his son and to tell Amy that he will be pursuing some kind of legal agreement which prohibits Amy from just taking off with John ever again, much to Amy's surprise. When Amy and Ben breakup with each other, Ricky tells Ben that there is no point worrying about it because the two had already moved on and so they were done. That night, after Ricky had put John to bed, Ricky tries to help Amy clean up in the kitchen, leading to the two teens talking about a potential agreement and their futures. Ricky apologises for threatening to pursue legal action but Amy tells him that she understands why he was scared of not being able to see John, admitting that she gets scared of Ricky one day taking off and not wanting to see John but Ricky reassures her that he wouldn’t ever just leave John. As Amy goes to tuck her hair to one side, she realises she has soap on her hands, which prompts Ricky to brush her hair away from Amy’s face for her, leading an intimate moment as the two look deeply into each other’s eyes.

Ricky: What if you get a scholarship to Julliard and you take off for New York and take John with you?

Amy: Yeah, well if anything like that ever happens, we’ll sit down and we’ll talk about what’s best for John … and for us.

Ricky: So you’re acknowledging that there is an us?

Amy: Yeah I guess it’s time we both realised that we are a family.

Amy has a new guy in her life, Jimmy, and on their first date, she frequently calls Ricky because it is the first time he has had his son by himself for a prolonged period of time so Jimmy asks her is if she still has feelings for Ricky. Amy denies having feelings for the father of her baby, going on to say that she never really had any in the first place and that she’s only calling to check on John. Ricky quickly gets annoyed by Amy’s frequent checks and advises her to just enjoy her night and stop calling, for Jimmy's sake. The morning after, Ricky comes by to drop John off back at Amy's and affirms her with some valuable advice and support about not getting caught up in other peoples' lives and about enjoying her own, which Amy is fully appreciative of.

Ricky: I know you're going through the most difficult challenges in life right now, but it seemed to me that you just got over the hurdle and started enjoying yourself.

Ricky: You were moving in the right direction, keep moving.

Amy: Thanks.

Ricky: You're welcome.

Amy: I really needed to hear that, I really needed to hear that I'm doing something right for once.

Kissing Practice
When Jimmy doesn't call Amy back after their entertaining first date, Amy is crushed and confused. Madison tries to cheer her up but she, rather bluntly, ends up suggesting that Jimmy didn't call because she was a bad kisser, which disheartens Amy. While she is alone in the band practice room collecting her thoughts, Ricky walks in and asks her what's wrong but Amy is too embarrassed to tell. With tears in her eyes, she asks him if he thinks that she's a good kisser and even though she doesn't believe so, Ricky reassures her that she is. In order to cheer her up, Ricky volunteers to help Amy practice as a 'friend', but Amy on the other hand, is quite hesitant to accept his offer of help.

Ricky: Of course, anyone could become a better kisser with practice.

Amy: Is that true?

Ricky: Does everything get better with practice?

Amy: I don't know.

Ricky: You wanna practice?

Ricky: Really? After everything we've been through together, we can't kiss each other just so you can get some practice?

Ricky: And no-one has to know.

As Ricky leaves Adrian to go to his appointment with Amy next door, Adrian questions his intentions considering that John would be sound asleep already, but Ricky leaves anyway. When they get round to practicing, Amy finds it quite awkward initially and starts to doubt if it will actually work but Ricky reassures her that she is just nervous and that she should just close her eyes. However just as they are about to start, Ashley walks in on them but despite seeing her, Ricky goes for it anyway.

Amy: I can't. I can't kiss you.

Ricky: You kissed me before we had a baby, I think you can kiss me again.

Ricky: Believe me, it's nothing to either of us - we're just friends.

Amy: Yeah, friends with a baby.

Fanon
Ramy is the most popular and most beloved ship in the Secret Life fandom. The relationship between the two was actually the longest official relationship on the show involving a main character and the 2nd longest non-pre-existing relationship, spanning a mammoth 62 episodes, which cemented their place as the 5th longest overall.

The chemistry between Amy and Ricky is unrivalled with many shipping these two long before they eventually got together. Their ‘Will-They-Won’t-They’ relationship during Amy’s pregnancy and the the first part of John’s life led many to anticipate that Amy and Ricky would get together at some point in the future especially considering how their own respective relationships with other people never seemed to ever work out. In addition, the fact that the two had a son together, whom they both loved dearly, brought them a lot closer than everyone would’ve thought, which allowed them to get to know each other a lot better and appreciate each other.

Their relationship can be viewed as an emotional rollercoaster, with a lot of highs and lows, periods of exhilaration, fear and uncertainty. Even before they were together, their relationship was severely tested by all the challenges teenage parents face and a lot more, but their mutual love of their son always kept them grounded and it always brought them back to good terms.

What also strengthened the popularity of this ship was the fact that the two helped each other out massively and were always there for each other. An example of this is how Amy always believed in Ricky while everyone else was writing him off. Because of this, Ricky changed his whole life around, sorted himself out and let go of his dark past which led him to being a great father, a great husband and a great man.

Despite this, it is rivalled by a number of smaller ships such as Bendrian, Bamy and Radrian. However, these particular ships are not as popular as they did not last too long and they were not as complete and comprehensive as Ricky and Amy’s relationship.

Over the course of the show's five-year run, we have seen Amy and Ricky's relationship evolve and blossom, all starting from that one night at band camp. The addition of their son John brought the two teenagers closer then the would have ever imagined and against all the challenges and problems they faced, Amy and Ricky got through them together, strengthening their relationship in the process.

Fandom
FAN FICTION


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