Swan Song

Chapter Eight

Hello, children! You may rejoice! Gone are your days and days of endless pain, just waiting for your favorite author ever to-

Wait, have I done this intro already? I think I've done this intro already.

Or maybe it was one that I used for a prewritten chapter.

Idk. The perils of being disorganized.

Woah, fast update! Probably because I received a death threat. *Shrugs* Whatever works.

Oh, I think I forgot to ask before- how do you guys like the new cover?

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Eventually, Sophie's friends left her house one by one. First Marella and Linh decided to go get ice cream in Atlantis together (which brought a lot of fangirl squealing from Biana), then Tam left with Glimmer for "no particular reason," meaning, to stalk the new couple (dubbed Marellinh by Dex on Keefe's behalf) out of overprotective-brotherly obligations. Biana and Fitz left pretty soon after that. Biana's explanation was "Mom and Dad want us back," and Fitz's explanation was "She's going to write fanfiction about Marella and Linh." By then, Dex was the only one left.

"Want to go up to my room?" Sophie asked.

Dex shrugged and agreed.

The two friends made their way up the staircase to Sophie's bedroom.

"Keep the door open!" Grady called as they passed him.

"Grady!" Edaline scolded, but she was laughing. "You know Dex and Sophie are only friends. Besides, Sophie likes K-"

"MOM!" Sophie shrieked, her face burning like Fintan's everblaze. "DAD! STOP! PLEASE!"

Dex laughed as well, his face a little pink from Grady's comment but he seemed to enjoy watching Sophie's embarrassment. Offering her a kind-of-sympathetic-but-mostly-amused smile, he told her "That's how you know your parents love you; They tease you endlessly about crushes and stuff. And-" He nudged her shoulder as Sophie rolled her eyes at her annoying parents and they continued up the stairs, "-At least you don't live with the triplets like I do. That's like dealing with a million Uncle Gradys, a few hundred Aunt Edalines, and we'll throw in a few Sandors."

Sophie's slightly cooler face grinned at her best friend. "Oh, you poor thing. What have they done to you now?"

"Besides the usual embarrassing comments, stealing my stuff, trying to read all my journals, et cetera? Last week they dyed my Foxfire uniforms bright pink. And whatever I do to try and change it back doesn't work!" Dex wailed melodramatically. He heaved a long sigh. "It's going to be awful once Foxfire reopens."

Sophie gave a little laugh, but tried to act like she was being sympathetic. By then, the two had reached Sophie's bedroom and sat down on Sophie's bed.

"Custard burst?" she offered, grabbing her Very Secret Elvin Sweets Stash out from under her bed and holding it out to Dex.

"Didn't you just have, like, fifteen pieces of mallowmelt?" Dex asked incredulously.

Sophie shrugged. "Something like that, so?"

"How do you... like... eat all that? That should be almost impossible." Despite his incredulity over Sophie's enormous appetite for Elvin desserts, Dex did take a few and shove them in his mouth. Over on the other side of the room, Iggy let out a loud burp.

Dex studied Iggy, head tilted to the side. "Ice blue, huh? When did you dye him? Ooh, and was it because you're in lo-"

"Um, a while ago." Sophie interrupted loudly, refusing to acknowledge what she knew Dex was implying- because she wasn't even the one who dyed Iggy! Desperate to make that clear to Dex, she acted like her face wasn't bright red when she told him "And actually, Ro dyed him not me. Something about how she was going to use teal because of Fitz, but her teal dye elixirs have flesh eating bacteria, while her ice blue elixirs were perfect for dyeing imps."