PERIWINKLE POV

Chapter Three: Foxfire

Sophie laughs as I enter her room. "And I thought my uniform was bad." She wrinkles her nose, and I grin. I'm used to it, considering I've always thought wearing the Foxfire uniform was a privilege, but she has a fresh pair of eyes. It does look pretty ridiculous. For the top, she's wearing a shirt-vest-cape combo. I'm wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with a blue lace up jerkin over it. She's wearing black leggings and a blue pleated skirt. I'm wearing blue slacks with pockets at the ankles. The capes... Sophie explained to me yesterday that they made people look like dress-up superheroes. "What's with the capes?"

"I know, they're stupid, right?" I say, tugging at it. I always thought the capes looked strange - but not because they made us look ridiculous. They're so flimsy and whenever you run or try do anything athletic, they end up flying behind you and the cape pin ends up digging into your neck. "But they're a sign of status, so we have to wear them." I roll my eyes.

"Capes?" Sophie says in disbelief, looking at me with her eyes wide. I smile. Is it that hard to believe?

"Yeah, haven't you noticed that only the nobility have them?" Sophie shakes her head. Right, she's very new to all this. "Foxfire is the only noble school - meaning you have to go there in order to be in the nobility - so we wear half capes to demonstrate that. At least next year we get rid of the wimpy halcyon." I pull at the dark blue jeweled bird that clasps my cape against my neck, rolling my eyes. I can't wait until we get rid of the stupid mascot and move onto something else. "We'll me mastodons." I must say this a little too wishfully, because Sophie looks at me, her eyebrows bushed together, a look of complete concern for me on her face.

I laugh as her concern turns into confusion. "Each grade has a mascot. Level Two is a halcyon, these dumb birds that can sense when a storm is coming. But Level Three is a mastodon, so at the opening ceremonies on the first day of school we get to dress in these cool elephant costumes. Be glad you missed wearing the halcyon costumes. We looked like idiots." And the year before that was even worse, when Stina placed a gullon stink bomb in my costume. But I don't want to tell Sophie that. She looks doubtful, though, as she tugs on the halcyon clasp, looking unsure. "Hey, you're wearing the Ruewen crest," I say, pointing to the triangle patch that's sewn on her cape, right over her heart. "We wear our family crest on our uniform. If Grady and Edaline are letting you wear theirs, they must be serious. Are they adopting you?"

If they are, then I'm happy for Sophie. For one, my mother keeps wanting to see Edaline, which will mean I get to see her a lot, and two, Grady and Edaline are really nice. But Sophie looks doubtful. "I don't know." She bites on her lip and I can tell that she's drowning in questions.

"Where are they, by the way?" I ask, changing the subject for her. I look around, and in fact, I haven't seen them. Sophie was the one who let me in, not Grady or Edaline.

Sophie lets out a smile as she recalls it. " A gnome ran in during breakfast and yelled something about a manticore stinging a stegosaurus, and they both ran off." She shakes her head. I grin - I'm betting she didn't know that those species existed when she was with humans, and now they are becoming her life.

I whistle. "And people say my parents are weird." I hear the rumors, even though I pretend not to. Bad match. Parents of triplets. 

"It's pretty crazy here," Sophie says, studying the house once again. "But they seem nice enough."

"Grady and Edaline? Oh yeah, they're great," I say, and I mean it. But I decide to tell her the rest of it, too. "They keep to themselves a lot after what happened to Jolie. I never knew them before it happened, but my mom said they used to throw these huge parties everyone looked forward to all year. Now they never leave the house. So weird." I shake my head. I don't understand how anyone can just change their behavior completely just because of one death.