Overlooked Love

Chapter 47: The Replacement

Sophie trudged on to her locker exhausted. She had barely slept lately because she had been too busy staying up all night to come up with ideas to defeat the Neverseen.

Sadly, she had no luck and couldn't come up with anything. Her friends tried to come up with ideas, but they were just as clueless. The only sort of plan they had was that Wylie would let them know if he figured out any life threatening information from the Neverseen, but that was also useless since the Neverseen mostly left Wylie in the dark about what they did.

Sophie sighed as she lazily grabbed her books for Chemistry.

"Hey Sophie," Dex said as he came up from behind her. When he looked at her in the eyes he said, "woah, you have dark circles under your eyes. Did you even sleep last night?"

"No," Sophie mumbled. She suddenly dropped her books to the ground. She went to bend down to get them, but Dex grabbed them first.

"Man, you really are tired," Dex noted as he handed over her books.

Sophie sighed. "I just can't seem to rest until I solve this mess. It's like it's up to me, since it's my fault."

"Sophie, it is not your fault," Dex assured, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"But my dead parents are playing a big part in what the Neverseen are planning and we don't even know why! It's both my real and adoptive parents actually."

"But Sophie, just because your parents are involved, does not mean that it's your fault. Don't let that guilt destroy you," Dex said sternly.

"I'll try," Sophie said as she shut her locker as started to walk off to Chemistry with Dex.

"So, did you hear the news?" Dex asked, changing the subject.

"What news?" Sophie asked.

"We aren't going to have substitutes for Chemistry anymore! They found a new teacher to be Lady Galvin's replacement and the teacher is starting today."

"Really?" Sophie asked, shocked. She also hadn't realized how long it had been since Lady Galvin had died.

The memories gave her the shivers and made her heart get colder.

The Neverseen will pay.

"Yeah. It's going to be weird though to not have our grumpy Lady Galvin. You know, we all hated her but now that she's gone...I miss her," Dex admitted.

"Yeah, it definitely is weird. It's still so shocking that she died like that."

"Yeah," Dex agreed. They then reached the Chemistry classroom. Dex then opened up the door for her as they walked in.

When they took a seat, the bell rung. Suddenly, an old wrinkly man trudged in the classroom with a briefcase. He placed it on his desk as he looked through some papers for a few seconds.

He then looked up and announced, "hello everyone, I will be your new Chemistry teacher. Please call me Mr. Forkle."

The class all said "hello" as Sophie studied him. He wasn't what she had been expecting. He was very...different.
As she was studying him, she caught him glance her way several times.

Weird.

The class then went on and Sophie zoned out most of it. She was too tired to pay attention. But near the end of class, Mr. Forkle announced that they had midterms in two days. That caught Sophie's attention.

She was not ready.

Dex must have noticed her panicked expression because he leaned towards her and whispered, "if you'd like, you can come by my house after school today and we can study."

"Omg thank you so much! You are a savior!" Sophie exclaimed, wishing she could hug him at that second without being awkward.

"It's nothing," Dex said as he flushed a bright pink.

Before she could respond, Mr. Forkle announced, "alright that concludes today's lesson! Remember to study chapters one through seven for the midterm on Friday. If you have any—"

Suddenly the bell rang, cutting off Mr. Forkle. All the kids in the class, except for Sophie and Dex, ran out without letting Mr. Forkle to dismiss them.

Mr. Forkle sighed as he shook his head. "You kids don't know how to listen and to be patient," he grumbled.

He looked down as he rummaged through his suitcase. "Where is it?" He grumbled. After a few seconds he exclaimed, "here it is!" He held up a little box in his hands with a key hole.

Wait...

THAT'S THE SAME BOX THAT SHE FOUND AT LADY GALVIN'S HOUSE AND THEN GOT IT TAKEN AWAY BY THE NEVERSEEN!

Why and how did he have it?!

Sophie gasped from the realization, causing Mr. Forkle's head to snap up. He seemed to just have noticed Sophie and Dex as he shouted, "you kids shouldn't be here!" He quickly hid the box behind his back.

"Sorry, we were just um...packing up our stuff," Sophie mumbled.

"Well, what are you still doing here? Scram!" Mr. Forkle snapped, shooing her and Dex away.

Sophie pulled Dex out of the classroom and once the door shut, Dex asked, "what was that all about?"

"I'll explain later when I'm at your house," Sophie whispered, looking around to see if anyone saw them or was listening.

"Okay..." Dex said, looking confused.

"We should get to our next class now, before we are late," Sophie said.

"Yeah, I guess," Dex said as they both took one last peak at Mr. Forkle through the window on his classroom's door.

They saw Mr. Forkle still with a grumpy face, stomping his foot as he waited for them to leave. "What are you waiting for?" Mr. Forkle grumbled from inside the classroom.

Sophie and Dex then quickly scrambled to their next class.

On her way, Sophie couldn't stop thinking about how weird Mr. Forkle has acted and how he had that box.

It could have been a different box that looked similar.

But something told Sophie that it was the same box and something was going on with this mysterious Forkle dude.

She would have to figure that out.