The Matchmakers

EIGHTEEN

PAST THE GATE, THROUGH the trees, up the grand staircase and just across the hall from the room she'd come to think of as "hers" over the years, Sophie raised a hand and knocked three times on a thick door.

Fitz's door.

Midterms were over--midterms were over--and that meant she was free from Sir Faro for the next month.

An entire month without her narcissistic--sometimes sadistic--Elvin History mentor. To Sophie, that knowledge sounded like paradise.

Not to mention she'd passed all her classes with ease, including the ever-dreaded Elvin History. After the visualization trick Keefe had taught her, even Sir Faro couldn't critique her projections. Things were finally looking up.

Do you know what else the conclusion of midterms meant? Fitz was out of the Silver Tower on break for the next month!

That was an amazing thought. She had a month with Fitz. An entire month!

Sophie may have been a little bit giddy as she bounced there, in front of her boyfriend's closed bedroom door, imagining all the possibilities for the break.

But only maybe.

"Sophie?"

Sophie turned her head and spotted Biana pausing as she exited her bedroom a few doors down the hall. She broke into a wide smile. "What are you doing here already?" With confused tilt of her head, Biana clarified, "I thought you couldn't come over until tonight?"

Sophie smiled back and knocked on the door again. What was Fitz doing in there? "Grady and Edaline were really impressed with my Elvin History performance--especially since I've been having such a hard time in that class--so they decided to let me out of Hamsterzilla bathtime."

Biana cracked a smile. She knew all about Sophie's complicated relationship with Havenfield's resident purple verminion. "How lucky," she commented dryly.

Sophie rolled her eyes and shook her head, but instead of taking the bait she just knocked on the door again. Seriously, how long did it take to answer a door? It wasn't rocket science.

"Fitz isn't in there," Biana said as she walked closer, the tone of her voice suddenly sounding strange, although Sophie couldn't place it. "He and...Keefe are down at the lake."

Sophie didn't like how Biana's voice had stumbled over Keefe's name, but she was more worried about the fact that the two stupid boys were down at the lake. Again.

Sophie whipped her head around. "Seriously?" Sophie huffed, groaning at Biana's answering nod. "One of these days they're going to get hurt," she groused. "It's the middle of winter. You'd think they'd know better."

Biana rolled her eyes. "You'd think," she agreed. "But Keefe dared Fitz to do something, then Fitz dared him to do something else...it turned into this whole huge thing and they ended up down at the lake."

"And you didn't try to stop them?" Sophie asked, aghast. And completely fed up with her boyfriend's underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. Keefe was hopeless: he was probably never going to grow up. But Fitz was a different story. He was smart, nice, and incredibly handsome. He was supposed to be more mature.

Biana shrugged, and her chocolate hair trickled down her shoulder. "I've known them since I was born. I'm not stupid enough to get pulled into their ego competitions anymore."

Sophie rolled her eyes and hurried toward the stairs. It was cold! Someone could get seriously hurt at the lake!

"Well someone's got to go break it up before one of them ends up dead," she grumbled, millions of disastrous scenarios tumbling through her mind in perfect detail.