Shadow and Sonic left for school separately from Honest that morning. It was March 27th, 2017, three days before Honest's birthday. She had found out that they would be getting out early on the day of her birth because of parent-teacher conferences. Wasn't that lucky?

When Honest arrived at her locker, Shadow was standing beside it with his literacy binder in his arms and a sucker in his mouth. Honest smiled and pulled her binder from her locker.

"So, you know that the power's out today, right?" Honest tilted her head before realizing that the hallway was actually very dark.

"Really? Are we going home?" Honest couldn't believe she hadn't noticed until then.

"No," he replied, clearly bummed out. "It'll be fixed by lunch."

"By lunch?" Honest asked. Shadow nodded. She couldn't last to lunch in the dark with Mephiles around!

Shadow was curious as to why her fur was beginning to stand on end like it was. "Is that... not okay?"

"Not okay?! Of course it's not okay! Mephiles is in his element when it gets dark!" Honest began shaking, her tail sticking straight out behind her.

"I'll sit by you first period," Shadow offered.

"But what about fifth?" Honest asked. That was biology, a class she shared with Mephiles and not Shadow.

Suddenly a rotten, green pineapple appeared beside them. "I sit by you fifth period! I can protect you from Mephiles!"

"Since when did you care about my safety?" Honest asked.

"Since just now," Scourge answered.

Shadow crossed his arms. "You don't... like Honest, right?"

"No," Scourge responded. "I just... like Honest. After all, I'm with Manic, or have you forgotten?"

"Oh, yes. The couple together only because they're both green. Yeah, I remember now." Scourge didn't reply, only seethe will rage.

Now it was March 30th, Honest's birthday! (Time skip because I hadn't been working on the story for a long time!)

Honest remembered her promise not to be too self-conceited this time around. She stuck to it. In fact, before the announcement of her birthday second period, no one even knew it was her birthday at all. And then, when people did find out and wished her happy birthday right and left, she happily said "thank you!" every time. Shadow began to catch on, but he didn't tell her anything about it. He was simply glad to see that Honest understood just how absorbed she had been in herself last year and was filling to correct it.

At lunch, all the art geeks surprised her with cupcakes. 6th period, she met Jet at her computer. "Want a cupcake?"

"No thanks," he said.

"Uh, are you sure?" Honest asked him, startled.

"Yeah. I've gotta go now, so.." He picked up his backpack and left. Honest pouted silently. Scourge walked in a second later. Honest hid the cupcakes behind her computer and proceeded to talk to him.

"I heard it was your birthday," he stated.

"Well, uh, are you going to tell me 'happy birthday'?"

"Oh, uh, happy birthday, I guess," he said. Honest frowned.

"You want a stinking cupcake?" she asked him.

"Yes, please!" He suddenly perked up.

"Well, you can't have any! What do you think about that, huh?"

Scourge pretended (or not?) to cry. Honest didn't even pretend to feel sorry for him. After all, he was the only person in the school who didn't sound happy when he told her that.

Espio sat down beside her and didn't say anything. Honest didn't expect him to say anything, so she didn't bug him.

School got out at 2:30 pm, early because of parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon. Honest and Shadow stopped at a store to buy 200 rings worth of candy. Then they went home, where Honest ate jerky and drank chocolate milk for her dinner.

Okay, so I've just now realized that this book series has been going on for two years now. O.O We celebrated Honest's birthday last year, then the majority of {w/Sonic} was written a year before that, so yeah. Two years. Wow. I'm officially 16 now, and thus older than Shadow! XP Time to run rub it in his face! :D Since I don't know exactly when I started writing these stories, I'll call this the two year anniversary. I started writing this sometime before summer, so it's probably close to now anyway. I wish I could find the first few chapters of {w/Sonic} that I wrote before Chapter 1.. ;( Anyway, thanks for reading if you've read since the beginning of {w/Sonic}. If you haven't, read that story. So much action! So much drama! XD And, (leave a review on these stories) if you haven't. Read {Cafe Edition}, as that is the book I am working on alongside this story. Be seeing you!