The Prankster Team (A Keefex Story) [DISCONTINUED]

Detentions and Parenting

Remember Lady Belva? That mentor, an adult who crushes on Keefe? (Holy crap, why did Shannon write that in? And as far as I know, no canon queer characters. (no unlocked spoilers pls)). Anyways, she's here and it's ugh but I'm calling her out, but like, a warning I guess?

Dex sighed as he walked into detention. Unfortunately, he wasn't even able to see if the pranks worked or not. Keefe sat next to him as they ate their lunches in silence. Keefe was jittery- his leg bouncing to relieve some of that pent up energy he had but couldn't utilize by talking.

The mentor supervising them was Lady Galvin. Strict as she was, as long as you ironed her caps efficiently, she wouldn't yell at you. And after a few years at Foxfire, you got used to it.

Lunch ended uneventfully, and on his way to his next class, Dex ran into Sophie.

"Where were you two? Were you..." her eyes had a sly glint to them, and she smirked.

Unfortunately, Dex knew exactly what she was referring to. "N-no! We already both agreed that we're not making- I- what happened to you being innocent!?"

She shrugged casually. "I was a telepath who could read the minds of dozens of teenagers way too often. Innocence was never an option. But I was just joking around, was it detention?"

"How'd you know?"

"Fitz is shorter than me."

Dex snorted. He didn't know how effective the elixir was supposed to be, but the image of a Fitz Vacker who was shorter than Sophie- who was already short- was hilarious.

"You both keep pranking the two of them, how come?"

He remembered the original reasons that the pranking started in the first place.

Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you what happened. You don't need to know that we did it because they dated our previous crushes. Wait, why are we still doing that? We've both moved on. It's just petty at this point. But... it's pretty funny though.

Instead of saying any of that, he just shrugged. Then he went to his next class, which was completely ordinary. The end of the school day came, and Dex sighed, remembering that he had to go to detention.

I wonder who the mentor is this time...

He walked in and saw Lady Belva.

Uh, that's the one who makes us dance, right? He shivered. But I guess it's fine, I have Keefe with me.

Or, that's what he'd thought. The mentor had ordered for everyone to go into pairs. Dex had only managed to lock eyes with Keefe before the blond had arms wrap around his waist before pulling him backwards.

"Lady Belva, I-" Keefe's eyes were wide, his posture tense.

"Nonsense Keefe," she said, her tone saccharine sweet. "You'll always be my partner... boyfriend or not."

There was venom in her words, and it was enough to make both boys flinch. While his friends and some of his mentors showed support, Dex forgot that they were merely a minority. That others saw them as something other.

That even though the way he loved was natural, others saw it as something abnormal. He likely would have sulked and thought over that statement, but all thoughts vanished from his mind as Keefe managed to look even more tense.

His shoulders were stiff, his back rigidly straight, and his eyes were downcast, as if trying to hide his fear from the world. It was the closest he could get to asking for help without outright saying anything.