KEEFER Of The Lost Cities

CHAPTER TEN

The next morning, Keefe woke up late.

Having a photographic memory doesn't mean you're always on time! Especially if you stayed up late and only slept four hours!

Helia shook Keefe awake. "Keefe! Keefe, hurry, hurry, you're late! Get up please, Keefe, it's 8:15, get up!"

Keefe bolted upright. "WHAT?" He rubbed his eyes. There's no way it could be that late... he woke up half an hour after when he was supposed to.

Helia sighed. "I'm in the kitchen. Breakfast is ready. If you hurry, you'll only be 5 minutes late."

This was actually the worst. Now he didn't have time for his hair!

Keefe ran around his room, rushing. He got to the kitchen on record time, though his hair was hung flat against his head.

"Good Keefe." Helia said when she saw him. She stuffed mallowmelt in his mouth. "You were asleep so long I had time to make mallowmelt! I didn't even notice you weren't here until after I finished. Now GO! What are you waiting for?"

***************

Keefe got to school successfully 7 minutes late. That was fine, since Dame Alina wasn't done yet. In fact, she barely even started her announcements. But as soon as Keefe got there, he heard one word immediately, one he was dreading.

"...midterms. For those of you worried you won't be able to score the required seventy-five percent to pass, I recommend seeing Lady Nissa in the Tutoring Center."

Keefe wasn't worried he couldn't score the required 75, since he was great at everything. That did NOT mean he liked midterms at all.

"Hey." He said, catching up to Fitz.

"Oh, you are here. I couldn't find you anywhere. Where were you? And.. you look different." His eyes widened. "What happened to your hair?"

"Don't push it in, meanie. I woke up late.." Keefe said. "I'm pretty sure you could tell."

Fitz grinned. "Wow, Keefe with sad, flat hair and dark circles around his eyes? Who are you and what have you done with the real Keefe?"

"I'm just a shell of the person I was yesterday. I'm haunted by my past, histories of sleepless nights and unstyled hair. I'm not the same Keefe I was before."

"Good riddance, I never liked that kid anyway." They grinned at each other and burst out laughing.

Today's locker "flavor" was reekrod. Of course it was. Elwin had figured out it was Keefe who had done that, and when it was his turn to choose, he had obviously chosen reekrod just for him. Wasn't Keefe special?

Fitz tentatively licked his locker the teensiest bit, then gagged (Oh that's a funny word) and then coughed for a seemingly endless 15 seconds.

"Keefe.." He wheezed. "Why...why did you have to do that?" He coughed again.

"Alina deserved that. I would do it a thousand times again, even if we had to deal with reekrod flavored lockers for the rest of my school life."

"Speak for yourself. There is absolutely NO WAY I am dealing with this everyday." Fitz said, after taking a sip of water.

"I would definitely do it to see your reaction to the locker again. Your face was priceless. No one else is dying like that after taking the tiniest lick."

"Yeah, because everyone decided not to open their locker." He gestured to kids still holding their bags. "Plus, you haven't even opened your locker."

"You actually think I'm going to do that. No way." He took his bag and started walking away.