Memories

③

Sophie barely ate anything at dinner. Her "dad" had made tomato soup and garlic bread, which was supposedly Sophie's favorite, but it just tasted really bland compared to elvin food.

Sophie wished that this were all some strange dream and she would wake up in the healing center and be told that she almost died. Normally, that would be exactly the kind of thing Sophie would try to avoid, but anything familiar would be better than this. 

"How was school today?" asked her "mom", who had been called Rachel by her husband.

Eli shrugged. "There was a new kid in my math class. Ruby's been going crazy trying to find him on Instagram and stuff, but she can't find him. It's weird." 

Sophie wasn't much of a relationship expert, but she had figured out that Ruby was Eli's best friend, except Eli liked her. Then again, Sophie probably shouldn't be saying anything, because it had taken her three years to figure out Keefe liked her, and she didn't even figure it out by herself.

"How was your day, Soph?" asked Rachel.

Sophie stayed quiet for a few seconds, unsure of what to say. "It was fine, I guess."

The family seemed to be satisfied by her answer, and they went back to talking about whatever humans talked about these days.

After dinner, Sophie quickly put her dishes in the sink and practically ran up to the room that wasn't hers and shut the door. She changed into a pair of red and white striped pajama pants and a yellow shirt that read "Grey Lake Summer Camp, 2018" in faded brown letters. Sophie slid the navy blue hoodie back on. She had to admit that human clothes were a lot more comfortable than the capes and dresses and tunics that elves wore, but she would rather dress like Biana for the rest of her life than stay in the human world.

Sophie sat down against the door. She needed to get her friends to believe her, accept the fact that they were really elves, get their memories back, and go back to the Lost Cities. She ran through anything that could help her. Nothing would work. 

———

As much as she hated to admit it, Sophie settled into a routine over the next three weeks. Get up, get ready, go to school, come home from school, pretend that she was some she wasn't, spend five hours trying to think of a way to get her and her friends home.

She hadn't had much luck. Every time Sophie saw Keefe, Madison pulled him into the opposite direction, she had only seen Wylie once, at the park, and Biana had barely said two words to her when they were paired up for a group project. The only one of her friends who she had a shot at getting home was Dex.

Dex snapped in front of Sophie's face. "You there?"

Sophie snapped her eyes up, startled. "Uh, yeah. What's up?"

Dex sighed, clearly annoyed. "I asked if you were gonna eat your cookie." He pointed at Sophie's chocolate chip cookie that had been sitting on her tray for all of lunch.

"No, you can have it." She pushed her tray towards Dex. 

"Thanks!"

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Hey, can I tell you something?" Sophie asked. No going back now.

"Yup. In case you haven't noticed, I don't exactly have anyone to tell."

Sophie opened her mouth to tell Dex everything just as the bell rang. She groaned. "Uh, meet me at the park after school, by that really big pine tree."

Dex looked even more confused than he had when Sophie had first found him. "What? Why?"

"Just do it, and if you can get them to come with you, try and get some of the others to come with you."

"What others? What's going on?"

Sophie sighed in frustration and dug through her hoodie pocket for the crumpled sticky note with all of her friend's names. She shoved it at Dex, who continued to look extremely confused.

"See you later!" Sophie said, trying to sound perfectly normal.

She wiggled her way through the crowd of people who were leaving the cafeteria and walked quickly towards her locker.

———

At 3:06 that afternoon, a very nervous Sophie was walking back and forth in front of a pine tree. Dex hadn't shown up yet, leaving her to wonder if he was actually going to come or if he had just thought she was being weird.

Sophie saw someone walking towards her. It was Dex. She sighed in relief and waved at him. 

"Ok, now will you tell me what's going on? I don't know any of the people on this list and apparently one of them doesn't even go to our school." Dex handed the crumpled paper back to Sophie.

She took a deep breath and looked at the few people that were walking around the park, hoping that another one of her friends would be there. No such luck.

"Do you remember when we met?"

"Yeah. You thought I was your friend even though I had never seen you before in my life. How does this have anything to do with what you want to tell me?"

"Because we had met before that. We met when we were twelve."

Dex shook his head. "Nope, no we didn't. I lived in Kansas when I was twelve, and I would probably remember meeting you."

Sophie sighed. This was going to be harder than she thought. "Dex, you're not who you think you are. You have three siblings, Lex, Bex, and Rex. They're triplets. You have met all the people on that list. We're all friends. I'm your cousin and your best friend."

Dex just stared at Sophie like she was crazy. "Yes, you're my best friend, but none of the other things are true. Neither of my parents have any siblings and you're like the second girl I've ever been friends with."

"You don't remember any of it, because the Neverseen altered your memories. They altered everyone's memories. I don't know why it didn't affect me."

"Hold on, who are the Neverseen? I think you need some rest. You don't seem normal."

"I'm not! And neither are you. And neither is anyone on that list. You know why?"

"Why?" Dex sounded concerned. He thought she was crazy.

"Because we're elves."

"Ok, seriously Sophie, this isn't funny. You made me come all the way out here just to make up some elaborate story? I'm leaving."

"No, wait!" Sophie grabbed Dex's arm. He twisted it away.

"Look, I think that you need to go home. So do I."

He quickly walked away, leaving Sophie standing alone in the middle of the park. 

Sophie sat down against the pine tree. She had blown her only chance to get Dex to believe her.

And now, she had no idea what to do next.

A/N: helloooo! Please don't kill me for that ending. I'm probably gonna update like tomorrow bc I'm in a writing mood.

Anyways, I have a better general idea of where this story is going, so stay tuned! 

There's not much else to say (other than to vote if you like the chapter and also comment bc comments make me so happy), so happy reading!

<3 Ivy