The Foxfire Chronicles- Comrades and Classmates

Chapter 35-- Match Packets

            "Ugh, my leg looks like  a marshmallow." Marella whined, jabbing a hand in the direction of the huge cast that encased her leg. It turned out that her leg had been broken by the fall, but luckily it was only a tiny fracture and was supposed to heal fairly quickly. "No one's even going to want to take me to prom!" 

            "Of course they will." Linh soothed, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Besides. You don't look like a marshmallow." Sophie nodded enthusiastically, showing her agreement. Marella pouted, still glowering in the direction of her leg. 

             All the sudden, Biana barreled into the room, screaming and waving her bedazzled phone around like a crazy person. "THEY'RE IN!!!" Linh, Marella and Sophie jumped, and then almost got knocked over as Biana leaped onto her big pink bed to join them. "I didn't know it would be so soon. I've been waiting FOREVER, and trying, and trying to get someone to tell me when-"

            Marella  sat up, grinning wickedly at Biana's phone. "Oh, the matchmaking packets? I could've told you that." Sophie paled. Oh. No. She'd forgotten about this. A group made up of student council members and a few teachers (Sophie would have bet money that Ms. Lexx, the schools biggest gossip aside from Marella, was going to be a part of this) created packets for winter prom. In those packets was a huge questionnaire that you were supposed to answer, and when you did, the group would pair you up with some prom . . . dates. Sophie gulped, but before she could start panicking too much, her attention was ripped back to Biana as she glared at Marella.

         "What do you mean you could've told me?" She exclaimed placing a perfectly manicured hand on her hip.

          Marella smiled, clearly pleased with herself. "I'm on the student council, so I kinda helped plan this."

          Linh's words echoed Sophie's reaction, "You're on the student council? Since when?"

        Marella shrugged. "Since always. But I don't really do anything for it. Other than this . . . why do you think I joined?" This brought a laugh from all of them, and Biana must have decided that she had forgiven Marella for not telling her, because she started frantically typing. She glanced up at the other girls who were staring.

        "Well?" She asked, waving a hand at them. "What are you waiting for? Fill yours out!" Marella complied, but Sophie and Linh turned to look at each other.

        "Hold on." Sophie said, cheeks pink. "This is an optional thing. There's no way I'd go to prom with some random-"

        "Sophie. Linh." Marella cut her off. "You guys have to do this. All you need to do is fill out a few questions. Besides, once you get your list, its not like you can't just decide to go with someone else." Or just not go with anyone. Sophie thought with satisfaction.

       "She's right." Biana pressed. "You can always select cancel after you get your results, but if you go with one of your matches, it just means they'd likely be a date you'd get along with! You know, similar interests and all?"

         Sophie and Linh met eyes once more. Sophie could practically see Linh's resolve crumbling, something that was confirmed as she spoke.

         "Okay. I'll do it if Sophie does. We could always cancel if we really don't like the results."

          Sophie sighed as all three girls pleaded and grinned ear to ear, waiting expectantly. "Fine." she said finally, with a big sigh. "But I'm not going with anyone anyway, so it doesn't really matter." 

           Biana and Marella shared a knowing glance that Sophie did not like. "Well." Biana said, looking supremely smug. "What are you waiting for?" Sophie gulped, and pulled out her phone, somehow very scared of the small screen.

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

      Finally. The girls finished their packets about twenty minutes later, and Sophie sighed in relief to have completed it. She had answered questions about everything from what she wanted her future career to be(she had literally no idea), to what her ideal date looked like (when had she ever gone on a real date?), to her favorite food (Mallowmelt, of course). 

    After sharing the girls' different answers with each other, they had collapsed into a heap on Biana's bed. Biana had begged Marella to tell them the results once she found out, but Marella disappointingly reported that she only helped with creating questions and  passing out results. She wouldn't actually know what those results were until it was all over. 

    Suddenly, Sophie's phone pinged. She looked down at it, and her heart flew out of her chest when she saw that it was a text from Fitz. It read; hey. you down for some line practice tomorrow?  She grinned, and her smile must have been more obvious than she'd care to admit, because her friends all laughed. 

    "How's Fitz doing, Sophie?" Biana asked, smirking. 

    "I thought you would know, I mean he is your  brother." Sophie replied staunchly, but the blush in her cheeks gave away her line. 

   "Oh, please." Marella rolled her eyes, grinning. Suddenly, Linh leapt up off of the bed. 

   "Oh my gosh!" she said grabbing her backpack and slipping on her shoes. "I'll see you guys later! I totally forgot that I told Dex I'd study with him today!" Before the girls could even say goodbye, she had dashed out the door. Linh hanging out with Dex? Well that was new. Come to think of it, there were a lot of new things going on between match packets, prom, the play . . . Whether they'd turn out for good or for bad . . . well, Sophie supposed time would tell.