team foster-keefe

Chapter 1

"Sophie! Wake up! You're going to be late to your first day of school!" Edaline, Sophie's adopted mom, shouted from downstairs.

A tray of blitzenberry muffins appear on Sophie's bedside table, Edaline must've conjured it up to her room. 

Sophie groaned. She hadn't been able to sleep much the night before, super stressed out about her first day of Level 5 at Foxfire, the Lost Cities' most noble school.

Sophie lazily got out of bed, and slipped on her Foxfire uniform, taking a bite of her muffin. She stepped in front of Vertina, her talking mirror, and decided she was going to go simple, and put her hair in a pony tail. 

"Don't do that! You look horrible! At least braid it!" Vertina shrieked, terrified by Sophie's rumpled appearance. 

Sophie yawned and stepped out of the reflection's range, so Vertina couldn't berate her anymore. 

As she headed down the stairs to the Leapmaster, she heard Edaline shout, "Sophie! You're late!"

Sophie stumbled down the stairs quicker, and tripped on the last step, and fell.

"Ugh." Sophie groaned for most likely the 5th time that morning, and slowly got up. 

"Sophie!"

"Shoot," Sophie mumbled to herself, and ran for the Leapmaster. 

"Foxfire!" She yelled, and was whisked away by the light. 

Sophie had missed orientation, but Dex and Biana, her best friends, were waiting for her.

"Sophie! Where have you been?" They asked in unison. 

"Slept in. Fell down stairs." She grumbled. 

"Um... Okay, but you have to get to Elementation! Remember when you missed it last time?"

That's right. She got detention and had to peel curdleroots for Lady Cadence. Gross.

"Yeah, I'd better hurry then. Thanks! Bye! See you at lunch!" Sophie jogged to Elementation, as she shouted her multiple goodbyes. 

At lunch, she sat between Linh and Dex, and everyone talked about their first day so far. 

"Hey, Sophie, don't you have Alchemy after lunch?" Linh asked.

Sophie's eyes widened with horror. "Darn it. That's right. I can't believe they made me take up Alchemy again. I'd rather have an ability restrictor!"

Everyone fake laughed, because when she got an ability restrictor, it wasn't great. They still can't make jokes about it. Especially Dex, who was still feeling terribly guilty. Sophie tugged out an eyelash, her nervous habit. 

Fitz tried to lighten the mood. "Hey, how about you burn Lady Galvin's cape again?"

Sophie's face heated up even though she was grateful for the subject change, and everyone laughed. 

Lunch ended. She walked slowly to Alchemy class, but ended up sprinting, and made it just in time. 

"Well, if it isn't my least favorite prodigy." Lady Galvin said, menacingly.

Sophie grimaced. "Well, if it isn't my least favorite Mentor."

Lady Galvin looked shocked, and Sophie stumbled back when she realized what she said. 

"I'm sorry- I- I didn't mean-"

"Hush. I don't care for your opinion, and they're are no excuses for what you've just said. 3 days of detention."

"But-"

"No buts. Now, let's get on with it, please."

Sophie was extremely careful throughout the whole class, careful with all the instructions, and noticed Lady Galvin rolling her eyes every time she double checked. Finally, when she was finished with the concoction, she looked at the final direction, and she stifled a laugh. It said WHAP, which meant "wash hands and present", but in her first year in the Lost Cities, she had thought it said "whip" and she burned Lady Galvin's cape, and Keefe had had a field day. 

Keefe. Sophie missed Keefe. His father, Lord Cassius, hadn't allowed him to return to school after he pulled a hilarious prank, somewhat resembling the Great Gulon Incident. Apparently, that was the last straw. Lord Cassius made him stay home from school, and he wasn't allowed to see any of his friends. It had been like this for months. 

"Now, let's not have you make the same mistake as your first class with me."

Sophie nodded. As she headed over to the sink to begin 'washing her hands and presenting' Lady Galvin shouted, "No! Foolish girl!"

Sophie ran over to her creation, and saw it bubbling up, rising, spilling over the bottle's edges. 

"You were supposed to whip it! Have you learned nothing?" Lady Galvin screeched, as she backed further away. 

Sophie sputtered, and leaned forward to look at the piece of paper that displayed the instructions.

Oh no. It said "whip", not "WHAP"!

"Get away from it! Back!" Lady Galvin shrieked, taking off her cape and putting it somewhere safe so it wouldn't get ruined. Again. 

But Sophie didn't have the time. The potion bubbled, fizzled, and exploded. It got on her forearm, burning her. 

"AH!"

"Please, before you do anything else to humiliate yourself, go to the Healing Center so I can fix this!" Lady Galvin yelped, but Sophie was already making a mad dash for the door. 

Her burn was worse than last time. She couldn't look at it, or she would be sick. 

She had memorized her way to the Healing Center, having to visit it multiple times, but her burn made her dizzy and she got lost. 

She ended up in a familiar hallway, with white walls. 

"You must be lost."

She spun around, to be greeted by a blonde boy with ice blue eyes.

"Keefe?"

"Yeah?"

"Keefe!"

Sophie threw her arms around him, momentarily forgetting about her burn. 

"Miss me, Foster?" He blushed at the embrace, but she didn't notice. 

She grinned against his Foxfire uniform, but pulled away and winced, looking at her burn and feeling nauseous. 

"Woah, Foster, what happened there?" 

She looked at him, but noticed his gaze wasn't on her forearm, but on her thigh.

Sophie followed his gaze and stared in horror at the burn on her upper leg. 

It was spreading, turning colors like orange, pink, and blue. But it hurt. A lot. 

She hadn't realized she'd been burned twice, because she was distracted by the injury on her arm, but when she saw her leg, she staggered backwards into the wall. 

"Ouch."

"Foster, what happened?" asked Keefe, worriedly. 

"I'm fine, I just need to get to the Healing-" her vision went blurry, and her knees gave out. 

"Fine? Seriously?" But he was cut off by lunging to catch her before she fell on the tiled floors. 

Sophie struggled to open her eyes, and she tried to walk, but she felt arms pick her up, bridal style, before her world went black.