I Know Now━ 𝐊𝐎𝐓𝐋𝐂

Chapter Three

"Maybe... we could play base quest," Sophie answered.

"Great idea, Foster!" Keefe said, nudging Sophie, making her blush.

They all, except Tam, who was still cleaning the goo off of him, filed outside, near the lake.

"Okay, who's gonna be on who's team?" Biana asked.

Immediately Keefe raised his hand and jumped up and down, saying, "I call Foster! I call Foster!"

Sophie rolled her eyes. Biana crossed her arms, and said, "Why not we play boys against girls, it's even, since Tam is still inside. See? Me, Sophie, and Linh on a team, and Fitz, Keefe, and Dex on a team."

They all agreed that it was fair, and split up into teams. Keefe looked genuinely disappointed that Sophie wasn't on his team. Sophie wondered why he always wanted her on his team. It's probably because of my abilities and tracking skills, she thought.

"We call being the questers!" Biana said.

"All right," Fitz said. "Our base will be... by that big Pure over there." He pointed to a large tree near the lake. It was so gigantic that the top branches rose high above the tops of the other trees.

"Okay. Let's go, girls! We're gonna beat you so good this time, boys. Just you wait and see," Biana claimed. 

The boys just shook their heads, and Fitz said, "No, we're gonna beat you! You'll be so easy to tag. I can track your thoughts."

"Oh, whatever. You can't track our location as well as Sophie can. We'll be able to avoid you guys SO easily," Biana retorted. "Plus, I can turn invisible."

"Whatever. We'll see," Fitz said. The boys headed to their base to start the game.

When they got to their base, Fitz called,

"All right! Game starts in 3,2,1, go!" Biana, Linh, and Sophie sprinted through the trees, trying to avoid Keefe, Fitz and Dex while also trying to make it to their base.

"Sophie, that tracking thing would be kinda helpful right now!" Biana whisper-yelled, trying to at least be a little quiet so the boys wouldn't catch them. "I'm going to turn invisible anyway, but it would be nice to know where they are."

"Oh, right. Okay," Sophie said. They stopped, and Biana grabbed Linh and Sophie's arms to turn them invisible too. Sophie closed her eyes, and widened her mental area. She quickly picked up on Fitz's thoughts, as his mind was the one she was the most familiar with. He was standing by the lake. "Fitz is near the lake. We'll have to avoid going there," she said. She searched for Keefe's thoughts. She found him in the big Pure. He was probably guarding their base. She then found Dex, wandering nearby the Pure. "Keefe and Dex are by their base," she told them.

"Alright, then, let's go. It'll be easy to avoid Fitz. Dex isn't much to worry about. Keefe might get us, though, since he can feel your emotions so strongly, Sophie," Biana said. "Wait. I have a plan." She grinned evilly.

Sophie soon found herself walking straight into the boy's base, completely visible. Biana had snuck herself, Linh, and Sophie past Fitz and Dex, which was pretty easy since they were invisible. Then Biana and Linh hung back, while Sophie went forward to distract Keefe as Biana and Linh attempted to capture their base.

"Hey, Keefe!" she yelled, getting Keefe's attention. He levitated out of the tree he was sitting in, but his concentration broke and he dropped like a stone, straight towards Sophie. She screamed, and ran to avoid being flattened. Keefe landed roughly, and he groaned in pain.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Sophie asked, rushing towards Keefe.

"Uh, yeah, totally fine, Foster. No need to worry about me," Keefe said, but his voice sounded strained and he still hadn't gotten up yet.

Sophie made it to Keefe and stood over him, checking for any visual injuries.

Keefe noticed her searching and said, "Seriously, Foster, I'm fine. No need for an Elwin visit."

"Oh yeah? Then try getting up," Sophie instructed. Keefe grit his teeth and struggled to get up. Eventually, he made it, but it took a couple minutes, and quite a few audible grunts from Keefe. But he did make it up.

"See? I'm good," Keefe said, smirking. He then reached out to tag Sophie, and he nearly succeeded. But she jumped out of the way just in time.

"Oh, got some tricks up your sleeve, huh, Foster? I'm gonna get you though!" He lunged at her once again, but this time Sophie wasn't fast enough to dodge him. He landed on top of her, and they fell to the ground. They were in a VERY awkward position, with Keefe laying right on top of Sophie. Their faces were inches from each other's. Sophie blushed, her face turning bright red.

"See, told you I was going to get you, Foster," Keefe whispered, as if what he was saying was just their little secret. Sophie blushed even more, if that was possible. He smirked. She resisted the urge to tug out an itchy eyelash. Studying Keefe's gorgeous face, she noticed faint freckles trailing along his nose, and that his eyelashes were much longer than she realized. His bright blue eyes seemed to stay deep into her soul.

"Foster, I think there's something I should tell you," Keefe said quietly.

"What is it, Keefe?" Sophie asked. To be honest, she didn't completely mind the position that they were in. If was kind of... comforting.

"I... I think I... I think I lo-" Keefe was cut off by Biana and Linh singing, "We won! We won!"

Keefe and Sophie scrambled quickly out from their awkward position on the ground. They both blushed about getting caught by Biana and Linh.

Sophie stared at Keefe, wondering about what had just happened. Their strange little 'moment'. What was Keefe was going to say? What could start with lo? Maybe lose? Lost? He could have been saying that he lost the game...right? And there was one other word that could have worked... but that was impossible. They were just friends. And she was boring. No one could possibly like her in THAT way. No way.

A/N

(1036 words)

uhhh i forgot how bad this fic was... hope you liked it anyway. i'm going to start a new kotlc fic that will be better-written and less... whatever this is.

also, i'm choosing not to re-edit most of these chapters and keep them as they originally were.