Memories

④

Sophie didn't know how long she sat under the pine tree before realizing that the sun was setting and that Rachel and Kevin, her "parents", were going to kill her.

She sprang up and swung her backpack over her shoulder. Her phone had died while she was still at school. Sophie wasn't used to having to charge something in order for it to work. 

Sophie ran out of the park and slowed down slightly when she reached a road. When there were no cars, she sped up again and ran towards the neighborhood that she had lived in for the past three weeks.

She had to squint, because the stupid sun was shining in her face. This led her to crashing into someone standing on a street corner. It was Marella.

Sophie had to stop herself from giving Marella a hug. "Sorry! I didn't see you."

"Obviously," Marella said, "Hey, do you know anyone who's going to the football game tomorrow? My friends don't want to go with me. They're ditching me to go see some romance movie."

"Uh, no, but I'm not doing anything then. I'm Sophie."

"I'm Marella. No nicknames. Not Mare, not Ella, just Marella."

Sophie grinned. She had said nearly the exact same thing when they had first met at Foxfire. "See you around, just Marella." Sophie waved to Marella as she walked away. 

Sophie's house was just around the corner. She ran up the driveway and burst through the garage door. Rachel walked up to her.

"Sophie Grace Andrews, what are you doing home so late?"

Sophie winced a little bit at being called by her fake last name. "I- uh- I was at the park and I lost track of time. My phone died."

"And why were you at the park?"

"I was meeting a friend."

"You seem to be around this 'friend' a lot, Sophie. What's their name?"

Sophie froze. Technically, she was with Dex, but she didn't know if he was considered her friend anymore. She could say Marella, but they had just met, and Sophie didn't know if she would cover for her. "Uh, his name is Dex, but I don't think we're really friends anymore."

Rachel's face softened a little bit. "Why? Do you want to talk about it?"

Sophie shook her head violently. "No. It's fine."

"You're still grounded, but just for a week."

"A week?! Mom, that's so long! And I just made plans to go to the football game tomorrow!" It still felt weird calling Rachel her mom.

Rachel shook her head. "I'll talk to your father when he gets home, but for now, you're still grounded."

Sophie rolled her eyes when Rachel turned around. She went up the stairs, annoyed. Eli was standing at the top, grinning. 

"Looks like someone won't be able to see their-"

Sophie cut him off. "Shut up, Eli." 

She went into her room and shut the door behind her.  About an hour later, she heard the garage door squeak open. Sophie knew it was her "dad." Maybe he would convince Rachel to let her go to the football game. Normally, Sophie wouldn't care about a sports game, but if she went, she had a pretty good chance of finding all of her friends.

Sophie couldn't sleep. She laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling, for an hour and thirty seven minutes before standing up and sneaking downstairs to the kitchen. She had watched Edaline make ripplepuffs enough times to know that it could probably be done with ingredients in a human kitchen.

———

Sophie woke up the next morning when Kevin, her "dad", knocked on her door.

She rubbed her eyes, tired from all the baking. "What?"

"Good news! I convinced your mom to let you go to the football game on Friday."

"Thanks," Sophie said, a little less enthusiastically than she was going for.

Kevin didn't seem to pick up on it. He left Sophie's room.

Sophie sat down at her desk. She was going to come up with a plan that would get her and her friends home. 

———

Later that day, Sophie decided to eat lunch in the library. She didn't want to explain anything to Dex until she could actually explain it to all of her friends.

There was nobody in the library except for a nice looking librarian who didn't complain when Sophie sat down at one of the tables to eat her lunch. She had half formed a plan. That Friday, Sophie would find all of her friends and somehow get them to believe her. She hadn't gotten much farther than that.

Sophie heard a familiar voice from over her shoulder.

"Mind if I sit here?" Marella asked with a grin, "My friends have abandoned me again, surprise surprise."

"Sure," Sophie said, smiling back.

Marella slid into the seat across from Sophie.

They ate in silence, the door occasionally opening. Sophie looked up every time, half expecting it to be one of her other friends.

Soon, lunch was over, and Sophie said bye to Marella and headed to her classes. 

A couple of hours later, Sophie was back at the school for a football game. She rubbed her forehead. Blocking out all of the human's thoughts was surprisingly exhausting.

Marella glanced over. "You ok?"

Sophie quickly straightened up and adjusted her bag on her shoulders. "Yeah, I'm fine."

The girls quickly found their way towards the top of the bleachers, where the sat themselves next to a group of kids who were excitedly chatting about a party or something. Sophie didn't really catch much of the conversation.

"Hey, do you think you could help me find these people?" Sophie dug the crumpled and slightly faded list of names out of her pocket. 

Marella looked at her and shrugged, taking the list from Sophie's hand. "Sure. Why?"

Sophie froze. "Uh, it's a secret. Just tell them to meet by the door to the pool."

"Will do," Marella nodded and hopped up. Sophie hoped that Marella would actually help her instead of being weirded out like Dex was.

A/N: hey guys!! I'm so so sorry for taking like two months to update. I'm gonna try to finish the next chapter pretty soon (this is not a promise but I will try not to make you wait two months)

Anyways Marella has been included (finally!!!) and yeah that's about it

Happy reading!

<3 Ivy