KEEFER Of The Lost Cities(EDITING IN PROGRESS)

CHAPTER THREE

The day passed by normally, and Keefe heard whispers and talking, but there was no sign of Sophie anywhere. He had detention today, but Dame Alina still hadn't found out it was him that put the reekrod in her desk. It was for talking during Study Hall, which was seriously annoying, because Keefe had finished all his work.

At lunch, he stood with Fitz in the lunch line, near the front, but when he looked at the back of the line, there she was, Sophie- mysterious girl extraordinaire.

But she didn't look mysterious, she looked like a normal elf. She had blonde hair that fell to her shoulders, long fingers fiddling with the edge of her skirt, an adorable blush- seriously, did she ever stop blushing? And big, wide brown eyes- wait, brown eyes?

"Fitz!" He whisper-hissed, "Sophie has brown eyes."

"Cool." He said, unsurprised- that was weird. WHY IS EVERYTHING WEIRD TODAY? "Were you staring at her?" Fitz inquired, raising his eyebrows

"Yeah, along with the rest of the school." Keefe gestured at the whole cafeteria- every single pair of eyes in the room was trained on Sophie. She seemed to know that quite well "By the way, why don't you feel surprised at all?"

"I am very surprised," He said, unconvincingly. Keefe narrowed his eyes, but let it go. He didn't want yet another mystery to solve.

As he left the cafeteria for detention, the last thing he saw was Sophie pulling out an eyelash.

Is that healthy? Is she part of an alien species that always does that? Keefe had seen her do it before- Like in orientation. Is she even aware that she does it? Is she aware that she's always blushing for some reason, even if it's super light?

Detention was terrible already- Lady Belva made them ballroom dance- and immediately decided to use Keefe as an example. Then made Keefe dance with her when the real dancing started- she did this every time.

But the whole time, while he purposefully stepped on Belva's feet so maybe she would stop dancing with him, he couldn't seem to take his thoughts off of Sophie. Why did she have brown eyes?

There was a rumor going around Foxfire that she was raised by HUMANS. Maybe that was why. Is she human?

She definitely looks like an elf... Very mysterious.

How did she get here? Why did she get here NOW? Like, why today? What does Fitz have to do with it? He looked very suspicious... Something was wrong. As soon as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch/detention, he rushed out of the room, but his questions stayed.

Having a human first name kind of made sense. Some elves like to watch human movies and liked the names. But she also had a human last name. 

Foster. 

He kind of liked that better than Sophie- A bunch of the Sophie's in human movies he had watched were really annoying.

During Study Hall, Keefe was talking to Fitz and Fitz was finishing his work. The second Fitz finished, Keefe finished his sentence, and Fitz said, "Wait here." and stood up.

Keefe saluted. "Where else would I go?"

Fitz smiled and walked over to where Foster was sitting with Dex. Keefe couldn't hear, but Fitz handed Sophie a piece of paper, talked to her for a bit, talked to a scowling Dex, and smiled his "Fancy Fitz'' smile at Foster. Foster beamed. Keefe saw Dex rolling his eyes, and he rolled his eyes along with Dex. Keefe wanted to go there and say hi to her so badly, maybe make fun of Fitz with Dex, but he couldn't interfere.

The look on Foster's face was very serious and terrified when she was reading the paper. When she looked up, Keefe could tell she was relieved, but he couldn't forget the fear on her face as she took the paper from Fitz. What was Fitz there for? But when Fitz walked back, Keefe didn't mention it. He kept talking about tackle bramble strategies.

He couldn't forget how clearly he had been able to guess her emotions- it was almost exactly like READING emotions, but he couldn't do that without contact, could he?

And how had he been able to FEEL the stress, like waves of it were floating off her brain and into his- that was impossible. But by now, he had learned that anything can be possible when it comes to Sophie(And he hasn't even MET her yet).

***************

After a while, Keefe figured that he couldn't go any longer without knowing what in the entire world was written on that piece of paper. It was hard not to remember the seriousness of both Fitz and Foster's face.

"Fitzy!" Keefe called, running up to him and tapping his shoulder.

Fitz turned. "Yeah?"

"You know that paper you gave Foster? What was in it? I could literally feel her stress from that far away."

"Foster?" Fitz asked

Keefe wasn't sure why he called her Foster. It just felt right- or maybe saying Sophie felt wrong, since it was a human name. "Don't ask me questions- answer mine."

"I thought you needed to touch people to know what they're feeling?"

"I was exaggerating, Fitz." Though Keefe wasn't actually so sure. It was like he could literally FEEL Foster's stress radiate off of her. But for everyone else, he could only sense what they were feeling. And even then, he needed physical contact with them to get a reading.

Maybe it was just his awesome observation skills. Probably. Maybe.

Whatever.

"Answer the question, Fitz."

"Fine, if you must know, she stayed with us the first night. I gave her a paper because my father asked me to. It was something about her old life, before she came here."

"Why didn't I know that? Is that why you weren't surprised? Why hide it from me?" Keefe wasn't sure whether to feel betrayed or not. He decided not, because Keefe keeps all kinds of secrets from Fitz too.

"I don't know, Keefe. I'm so sorry. I didn't know if I was supposed to or not. You know how mysterious she is, right? But I guess now everyone knows she used to live with the humans, so it's fine if I tell you that detail."

"She is mysterious, that's for sure. I bet half the school is DYING to know her story. Especially gossipy girls like Marella and Maruca."

Keefe wanted to know as well, so he decided to go say hi at least before the end of the week.

A strange thought hit him. Did other people think of him as a "gossipy" person?

I take what I said last chapter back- The WHOLE six chapters are boring. I should add a little Mommy and Daddy drama........................

~Zara