Board Thread:Short Stories and Fanfictions/@comment-43347423-20200111144721/@comment-43347423-20200114013906

Chapter Five

Sophie woke up ready for the day. Foxfire was in session again, so Sophie started getting ready for school.

Then she realized she needed to check in with Keefe, so she stretched out her mind to find his thoughts. ''Keefe? Are you there?''

Yeah, he replied after a second. Did you fall asleep too?

Sophie’s mind filled with the last word. She finally gained enough focus to say ''Yeah. See you at school.''

‘Kay.

Then she went downstairs for breakfast. Grady and Edaline were already at the table, eating what looked like orange berries. She filled her plate and sat down with them.

“How’s you sleep?” Grady asked.

“Pretty well, actually,” she replied.

Edaline smiled. “Oh good! We were worried about you when you were still in the healing center with Keefe. Did you sleep okay there?”

“Well, not really. But I slept enough.”

“Speaking of Keefe,” Grady said, “What’s up with you and That Boy?”

Sophie sighed. “Can you please call him by his real name?” she asked, avoiding his question.

Grady sighed back. “Fine. Keefe. But don’t avoid my question. What’s up with you two?”

“Nothing. I was just worried about him because he’d been out for so long. He almost died!” she said.

Edaline smiled. “He almost Fostered it, you mean.”

Sophie sighed again and covered her face. “Yes, he almost Fostered it. But can you blame me for being worried about him?”

“You wouldn’t have to have been if he’d stayed back like he’d promised he would,” Grady pointed out.

“He only came because there was a flaw in our plan,” Sophie told him. “If he hadn’t come, we all would have died. We had no way to get out of Loamnore.”

That seemed to hit Grady hard. “I… didn’t know that,” he said.

Edaline put her arm around him.

They continued their meal in silence, and then Sophie headed up to the third floor to take the Leapmaster to school.

“Bye, honey,” Edaline said. “Have a good day!”

Sophie hugged her adoptive parents. “I will.”

Grady ruffled her hair, and then she was at Foxfire before she knew it. It was weird being back, but she walked into the Level Four wing to find Fitz waiting for her at her locker.

Her heart screeched to a halt.

“Fitz what are you doing here?” she asked, trying to sound normal. She pushed her anger down to the knot under her ribs, saving it for when she needed it.

Fitz ran a hand through his hair. “I wanted to apologize.”

Sophie almost snorted but she managed to hold it in.

“I’ve been a jerk lately. I don’t mean to have been… I guess it was just a lot. First breaking up with you and then almost immediately you and Keefe are a thing.”

“What?” Sophie asked, trying not to panic. “We’re not a thing!”

They weren’t, after all.

“Please. It was pretty obvious.”

Sophie sighed, hoping she wasn’t turning red. “But… we’re actually not a thing.”

Fitz ran his hand through his hair again. “Okay. Well, I just wanted to say sorry and to tell you that I support you.”

“Well… thanks, I guess,” Sophie said.

Then Dex walked up, saving them from having to continue their conversation. “Are you guys excited for school to be back in session?” he asked. “I’m not. If we have as much homework as we did the last time we had accelerated curriculum, plus Team Valiant, plus whatever else the Black Swan has us do…” he trailed off, noticing Sophie turning pale.

She’d forgotten about Team Valliant.

Again.

She needed to get her love life under control. She couldn’t keep doing this.

And then she remembered: she’d never checked in with Oralie about stellarlune.

“Ugh,” Sophie groaned.

Dex sighed. “What else?”

“I never checked in with Oralie about her cache.”

“Wait, what about Oralie’s cache?” Fitz asked. “I feel like I missed something.”

Now it was Sophie’s turn to sigh. “Oralie was going to open her cache so we could see what stellarlune was.”

“Why didn’t she?” Dex asked.

“Because Fitz came to tell me that Keefe was awake before she could,” Sophie replied. “I kind of forgot about it.”

Dex looked her in the eye. “Sophie, it’s been one day. No one expects you to have been able to do that. Just check in with her after school. I’m sure it’s fine.”

Fitz nodded, but Sophie wasn’t convinced. But then Keefe walked over with Biana, Linh, Tam, Marella, Maruca, Stina, and Glimmer.

Glimmer. She still hadn’t lowered her hood, and everyone but Tam was suspicious. Tam trusted Glimmer with his life, but he wouldn’t tell the others why. Apparently, they’d been close to friends when Tam was with the Neverseen, and Sophie wondered if they were currently more than that.

“So, guys, how’s it going?” Keefe asked somewhat awkwardly.

When no one said anything, he asked, “That bad, huh?”

“No, I’m kind of excited to be back at Foxfire,” Biana said at last. “Maybe things will go back to normal.”

“Things can’t be normal until the Neverseen are done for,” Tam argued.

Glimmer nodded. “They’re horrible. I used to think maybe they weren’t, because after all, all I’d ever heard about them came from the Black Swan, but–”

She stopped talking suddenly.

“Wait, you heard about the Neverseen from the Black Swan?” Linh asked. She looked strangely triumphant.

“Um,” Glimmer said awkwardly, “kind of.”

Linh looked at Glimmer’s Level Eight cloak. She’d agreed to come to Foxfire to finish her sessions, which she’d apparently quit when she joined the Neverseen, but had still refused to show anyone her face. “Did you betray the Black Swan to the Neverseen?” she finally asked.

“Um, I don’t have to answer that,” she said.

Tam glared at her. “So that’s a yes.”

“Fine. It’s a yes. But I betrayed the Neverseen for the Black Swan four days ago, so I think that cancels it out,” Glimmer tried. “Plus, I had reasons for joining the Neverseen.”

“Like what?” Sophie asked, and the words came out sharper than she meant them to.

Then Magnate Leto’s face appeared for orientation.

They listened to the usual announcements of detentions and rules and things. But Sophie was surprised to hear one thing:

“Oh, and Sophie and Keefe?” he said over the projection. “Come to my office.”

This day just got better and bet