Book Two: KOTLC One-shots and More

Truth or Dare (Keefe POV)

A/N: @SKAT_J requested this pre-Keeper chapter depicting the ill-fated game of truth or dare that is mentioned by both Fitz and Keefe in the books.

It was with relief that Keefe walked toward the Leapmasters with Fitz after study hall.

It was the weekend, and he was spending it at Everglen. The school year would be over soon, and his dad was spending half his time--the half that he bothered noticing his son at all--going on and on about how he expected Keefe to finally prove he was worth something.

And of course, there was a hefty dose of "if you don't do better I'll just ship you off to Exillium" just to try to keep Keefe scared enough to comply.

And Keefe really did try to do well at school. He just didn't try very hard.

Mostly because he didn't have to. His photographic memory helped a lot with that. With every subject but his empathy training, which he was taking seriously because he'd believed his mentor when she told him how hard life could be for an empath if they didn't work hard to gain control of their ability. Plus, she was impressed with his skill and how strong his empathy was, and it was nice to impress somebody.

So Keefe was really grateful that the Vackers had invited him to spend the weekend with them.

He was also relieved to see that Maruca was leaping there with Biana.

Maybe she'd distract Biana from trying to flirt with him too much.

As he and Fitz went to drop their school things in Fitz's room, Keefe asked if Maruca was staying for the weekend too.

"I don't think so," Fitz answered. "But I don't really know. Why?"

Keefe shrugged. "Just wondering."

Fitz flashed him a smug grin. "Wondering how much Biana you'll have to put up with?" He asked slyly.

Keefe sighed. "Don't put it like that. I like Biana, you know I do, but..."

Fitz just laughed. "But not the way she likes you? I know. It's pretty obvious. She's not exactly subtle."

Keefe cringed. He cracked a lot of jokes about how girls found him irresistible thanks to his incredible good looks, but when it came to Biana, it really wasn't funny.

She liked him. But she was his best friend's sister, and he cared about her, but he was not interested, and he was afraid to hurt her.

He was also way too much of a coward to have an outright conversation with her about it.

Before anything else could be said, the girls were knocking on Fitz's door.

"Wanna play Base Quest?" Biana asked when her brother opened the door.

Fitz looked at Keefe, who plastered a smirk onto his face and said, "sure, if you girls think you can handle it. I'd hate for Maruca to mess up those awesome braids of hers."

It was a hard balance to strike. He was trying to flirt with other girls--something he believed himself to be pretty good at doing--in front of Biana so she'd quietly take the hint that he wasn't interested in her, but not flirting so hard that Biana would get too jealous and cut those people out of her life.

He also didn't want any girls taking him too seriously. Thankfully, he'd flirted enough that they all seemed to know it was just Keefe and didn't mean anything.

But so far, Biana wasn't taking the hint.

There were more than a few pretty girls at Foxfire, but he'd seen too much of the way they all stared at Fitz--and at himself too--to be very interested in any of them.