It was September 5th, 2017, and Honest had just settled in front of her computer at 10:18, ready to begin working on the next chapter of her fan fiction.

It was lonely not having Scourge or Espio to talk to during this period. She was all by herself. Honest wasn't going to cry about it or anything. It was just, kind of sad...

5 minutes had passed and she still didn't have anything typed except "it was September 5th, 2017". She was kind of in a drawing mood, actually. So she drew instead. Surely Honest would have something interesting to type about after lunch, when she had study hall.

Honest wasn't allowed to eat much of her lunch. She ate as much as she could before being drug outside by Shadow.

"Where are we going?" Honest asked him as they rounded a corner and started sprinting down a path they didn't usually go down.

Shadow didn't say anything. Honest just kept her mouth shut as well until they arrived wherever they were going.

The path emptied out into a small square of empty space between the old gym and a fence. There was a small statue, like something you'd see in a garden, sitting on the far end. Sunlight was filtered in through branches overarching above their heads.

Still without saying anything, Shadow went and kicked the statue over.

"What are you doing? That could've been a statue to some spir-" A strange noise erupted from the statue. There was a compartment underneath the statue. Shadow reached in and pulled out something..

"The Scepter of Darkness!" Honest exclaimed. Shadow threw it up in the air and caught it.

"I knew this was where it would be."

Honest began walking circles inside of the small space, glimpsing through the fence at the trees and peeking into the gym through the windows of the building to their left. "How come I never knew this place existed?" Honest asked herself.

Shadow was stood near the statue, which he had stood back up after retrieving the Scepter from underneath it. "You've gotten so used to your schedule of going to the front of the building and sunning every day that you'd never thought to go back here," he answered her, assuming she was talking to him.

"What are you going to do with that?" Honest asked him, turning her head.

"I suppose I will hold onto it. Though GUN would probably prefer I turn it into them," Shadow observed the Scepter before sticking it... somewhere. In his spines? Who knows.

"Why hold on to it? What would you need with-" When Honest paused, Shadow frowned. Well, more than he had already been frowning. "You're keeping it so you can imprison Mephiles in it, right?"

"Yep. Just in case he attacks," Shadow said, closing his eyes and nodding.

"But to let him out.. you would need to break it," Honest pointed out.

Shadow continued to nod. Then he stopped abruptly and opened his eyes. "Oh, yeah."

"You should only use it when Mephiles does something like- I don't know- join with Iblis to form Solaris?" Honest said.

He nodded again but this time solemnly. It was clear he wanted to capture him whenever he acted hostile towards him in any way, including cutting in front of him, but it just wasn't that convenient. "I'm sorry. It's not a pokeball."

Shadow sighed and walked towards Honest, taking her hand. "We should go back out front." Honest nodded and they retraced their steps, heading back to the front of the school so they could sun for a few minutes before the bell rang.

Well, Honest had something to write about in study hall now.

Now it was September 6th, and Honest walked into her second period class, English, and sat down next to Shadow. Last year, Honest's senpai had this same class this period, and she had entrepreneurship. Ah, memories. That day, the thing that they had to write about was about their ideal date. This is what Honest wrote...

"I've only been to watch a movie twice in my life. Once was when I was four or five and I went to see a boring movie about horses with my friend. I only remember snippets of it because I kept falling asleep. If I were going to go on a date with someone, it would be to somewhere with food. There's no way I would fall asleep then. Except maybe afterwards. I get real sleepy after I eat. Plus, eating creates conversation! We'll talk mostly about him and find out everything he likes. Then, after the date, we'll go home and play his favorite video game! Unless it's Mario. Then we're breaking up."

Honest smiled to herself and typed what she wrote in her journal into her fan fiction. She gets so emotional when she writes anything. You can practically hear her voice when you read something she wrote. Honest wondered if Shadow would agree to do anything with her like going out to eat. It wouldn't be a date, but Honest just thought it would be fun. She then wondered if she'll ever go on a real date. Probably never. ;(

Next period, Honest took boring notes on supply and demand and similar subjects in science. Then she thought about how fun it would be if they took notes on something interesting like Sonic 06 cut scenes. Honest watched them for hours at home. She would be able to note everything she saw if she wanted to. But of course that didn't happen. Instead, they took notes until the bell rang.

Honest walked down the hallway to put up her binder. Honest watched as a drawing she made last year of a girl sitting on a throne of squid tentacles disappear into her locker on the cover of her binder. Then she turned to go back down the hallway.

Eggman was standing at his door like usual. He didn't say anything, but he just stared at her as she passed. He must be planning something. He must be.

Fourth period, Honest froze while waiting for the Spanish teacher to host a video conference to discuss what they'd be doing that week. She wore a jacket over the dress she usually wore, but it still didn't prevent her from becoming a chunk of ice. It was hard for her to focus on typing, but she managed to anyway.

Fifth period, Honest looked up images to fill up her collage of thoughts. None of the images made sense when they were all put together. One was of a stream with a raging current, water hitting mossed-over rocks. One was of a soccer player mid-kick. Another of a man running track. One was a cartoon man in a car. Another was a strange pattern of black and white arrows. Clip art of a thought bubble sat just above that. If this was what the inside of Honest's head looked like, no wonder it was so hard for her to keep her mind from trailing to Sonic when she was supposed to be working. And I don't mean the character. I mean the franchise as a whole. The only person who thinks about Sonic like that is Sonic himself. .

The rest of the class was making paper as well out of scraps of construction paper, some weird things with a wire sheet, a white criss-crossed plastic thing, and water. She began making her first sheet of paper when Mephiles dropped a big glob of darkness into her pulp. "C-Can I use that?"

"Continue," Mephiles said, motioning with his hand for her to go ahead and flip the paper.

"O-Okay.." It actually turned out to look rather nice. "I name this one Grape-y," Honest announced. It did kind of look like grapes... when you squinted.

Honest laid it on the rack to dry. She turned around for one second to pick up another sheet of construction paper when suddenly the paper fell off the rack. "Oops." She bent down to pick it up. Suddenly the paper moved and tiny droplets of pure darkness shot out from inside of it, running off to join with Mephiles again. Her paper turned to pulp again. She turned to Mephiles with smoke billowing out of her ears. Mephiles returned her gaze without flinching. "Sorry."

Honest had a club meeting at lunch, so Shadow ate by himself. Sonic came to sit by him. "So, faker." Sonic said rather cheerfully.

"Hm?" Shadow said, not looking at him.

"You want to go hang out at Club Rouge this afternoon?" Sonic asked him.

"I have work," Shadow replied.

"After work, silly," Sonic said, rolling his eyes.

"Sure."

"Yahoo! It's a date!" Sonic exclaimed, holding his hands above his head.

"No, it's not. I'm bringing Honest," Shadow said.

"Is a little, blond cat-girl really your bodyguard?" Sonic asked him. Shadow clenched his teeth. Sonic whispered, "You don't need a bodyguard, Shadster. You're the Ultimate Lifeform, or have you forgotten?"

"Don't call me th-that, but yes, Honest is my body guard," Shadow looked up from his food and stared into the distance. "But she's very much necessary."

"Are you admitting I'm stronger than you? I knew it would come out eventually," Sonic asked. He was uber close to Shadow's face right now.

"Of course not," Shadow said in reply.

"Well then why else would you need a bodyguard when going on a date with me?"

"It's not a date, Sonic. And I'm bringing Honest along just to keep it that way."

"I don't want to go."

"Wait, what?" Honest was editing a song in Audacity. She had her over-sized, white, Super Sonico headphones around her neck.

"I said, I don't want to go. I'm way too busy right now to go on a date with you."

"It's not a date!" Shadow yelled. "Sonic's coming with us." When Honest opened her mouth to retort, Shadow stopped her.

"Look. It's not a matter of 'you can come if you want'. It's a matter of 'do you want me to come back dead or alive'. You're going to be my bodyguard if Sonic tries anything."

"What do you mean by 'tries anything'? You're the Ultimate Lifeform, or have you forgotten?" Honest asked him. "Plus, I can't fight the Fastest Thing Alive."

"Oh. My. Goodness! Okay, I will go on my own, but if anything happens, it's your fault for not agreeing to come with me, capeesh?"

Honest laughed. "'Capeesh'? XD Kirky-poo just said 'capeesh'!" She then continued to die of laughter. Shadow growled and stomped off down the hallway.

What happened to Shadow will be a secret no matter what happens. :P