Honesty is the Best Policy! {Forces Edition}

Chapter 7: Honest Forces Dina on Everyone

Honest and Shadow were walking to school on the eleventh of January when suddenly Honest's stomach erupted in growling.

"What did you eat for breakfast this morning, Honest?" Shadow asked her.

Honest sighed. The two of them stared at the sidewalk beneath them.

"I ate a half a can of soup that I found in the back of the fridge," Honest said.

"Did you check to see if it had mold growing in it?" Shadow asked her.

"Of course!" Honest exclaimed. She sighed again. "I was still hungry afterwards, though.."

"Then you should've ate a peanut butter tortilla with Silver and I this morning."

"Shadow, there are only so many of those I can eat before I lose my mind," Honest told him, well, honestly. "I put a bunch of hot sauce in it and everything."

"What would hot sauce do?" Shadow asked her, slightly confused.

"If I make it incredibly spicy, it will take a while to eat so it will feel like I ate a lot of food afterwards," Honest told him.

"Ah. That's sad, but if it works, it works," Shadow told her in reply.

"Mhm," Honest said quietly. Lately being hungry was the only thought going through her mind. Her head would just say "I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry", and her stomach would harmonize with it until Honest couldn't take all the chatter anymore. It was one thing having to listen to her classmates screaming for attention; it was another thing having to listen to her body parts and organs screaming for food. Other people would talk about what fun things they did over the weekend, but all Honest talked about was how hungry she was. She could do nothing about it except eat everything on her plate at lunch no matter how sick the school's food made her.

What Honest wanted most was to hug someone and have them tell her how much they care about how miserable she felt. Except, well, no one seemed to care. Not even Shadow. He was never as dramatic as Honest wanted him to be. He would only become dramatic over silly, less serious things like when Sonic would bug him or when Honest was acting like a pitiful fan character. Maybe Honest was just being selfish by wanting people to care about her. Afterall, it was important that she cared for other people as well.

---

Honest was standing in line for lunch when someone inside the kitchen held up what looked like a peace sign but was actually a two. There was only enough food left for two more students. Honest was one of those luckily, but she felt bad for everyone else in the line behind her who wouldn't be able to eat. Honest believed that whatever god, whether it was Chaos, the Echidna God of Destruction, or someone else, must've caused that particular stroke of luck Honest had. They had known how hungry she had been and had felt a bit of charity just then.

Honest emerged from the lunchroom with a full stomach and a heart full of joy at the thought that someone had pitied her, even if it wasn't a physical person. What did physical matter to Honest anyway? None of her friends were physical people, but she was still doing well, wasn't she?

"Who is this?"

Honest, Shadow, and Dina had been walking down the sidewalk when they encountered Knuckles, Tails, Amy, and Cream. Knuckles saw Dina and was immediately interested in who she was.

"Oh! This is Dina! I adopted her a while ago, but I never thought to put her in the story until now," Honest explained.

"Dina," Knuckles repeated, as if testing out the word on his own tongue.

"Yeah! I'm Dina. And you're... Knuckles, right?" Dina replied, smiling.

Honest looked sideways at Dina, feeling somewhat proud at the pink and white rodent. She herself had always been terrible with introductions. The only reason Honest had friends now was because she had met them as a result of some old plot, sad as it is.