The Notebook

Avoiding

Sophie trudged back up the stairs, knowing full well the teasing that she was about to be bombarded with. Sure enough, when she opened her bedroom door, Keefe was lying on her bed with a huge grin. Despite the embarrassment left over from downstairs, She smiled a bit.

"Grady still hates me huh?" he sat up as he said it, and patted the bed next to him.

Sophie sat down, shaking up a cloud of dust left over from Edaline's office. Both of them coughed before letting the room fall into silence. Sophie fiddled with her tunic, pulling on a loose string. She was perfectly content to watch her sleeve unravel in awkward silence, but Keefe had other ideas.

"So, even with your parents around, we can still have fun!" He stood up, and offered Sophie a hand, "Let's go poke the Verminion or something, get everything with Alvar off our mind"

Her heart dropped. When Grady and Edaline came home, she completely forgot about Alvar. Sophie felt horrible, but decided to take his offer. Maybe they needed to do something fun.

"Let's just hope Grady doesn't push you into the pen," She told him before pulling him out across the landing to the top of the stairs. She wanted to keep holding his hand, but she could hear Grady and Edaline talking in the kitchen.

"Grady will slaughter us," She told him when he raised his eyebrows at her, "I would prefer to keep you alive, especially because if you die today, I'll be alone in detention room for the rest of my month long sentence," Keefe sniggered just as they reached the bottom step.

They had almost made it to the front door before Grady cleared his throat just loudly enough for it to be intentional. Sophie stopped, but didn't turn around until Grady called her name,

"Where are you two headed off to? Alone." He questioned, "Just the two of you," he added and Edaline slapped him not so discreetly.

Sophie looked at Keefe, who seemed to be getting a real kick out of this situation until she told Grady, "I was just walking him back to the Leapmaster so he could go home. Last minute homework, you know," Keefe looked at her like he was tempted to protest.

"Why doesn't he just use his home crystal?" Grady questioned.

"Maybe he isn't going home," Sophie replied.

"Why would he not be going home?" Grady flicked his eyes over to Keefe.

"It's a partner project for Multispecial Studies," Keefe offered up, "Fitz said we could work at his house cause his dad could help too. Being an emissary and all,"

Sophie cringed. Grady had to know that the Vackers were in no state to have guests over, but hopefully he would believe Fitz was just that good of a student. Grady looked incredulously at Keefe, who smiled. Not sure what to make of that, Grady waved his hand and turned around with one last pointed look at Sophie, who also smiled wide and pulled Keefe out the door.

"I hope you know I am actually sending you home," She told Keefe once they were alone on the front step. Keefe clutched his chest in mock offense.

"Are you telling me your father makes you want to not mess with the verminion with me anymore?" He cried, "Because I still think that would be fun," Sophie just pushed him toward the Leapmaster.

"Foster! Hey, I thought we were having fun!" He yelled.

She snorted, "Grady doesn't do fun when it's me and you," She gave him a small smile.

He looked down at her hand, which was conveniently still holding his from when she was dragging him down the steps, "Yeah, do you want to talk about why Grady is so-"

"Not right now!" She told him, "I'll see you in detention! Bye Keefe!"

She kicked herself mentally as she watched him glitter away in her front lawn. He looked confused, and she was going to have to deal with it tomorrow.

The next day, Sophie made an effort to stay away from Keefe, and by extension, every other one of her friends. When the lunch chimes rang, Sophie filled up her lunch tray as fast as possible and rushed to the detention room. She sat down between two people she didn't know, but she didn't care who they were as long as neither of them were Keefe.

Deep down she knew she was complicating her life to the max. And she knew that she should just talk to Keefe about everything she had been avoiding since she first got sentenced to detention for that stupid drawing. She wished she could just talk to him, but that sounded hard, and she didn't feel like doing anything hard at the moment.

But, just like usual, Keefe had different ideas. He walked up to Sophie's desk and argued with the girl sitting next to her. One smile from him and the girl was willing to move seats. Sophie could really sympathize with that.

"Foster!" Keefe slung his feet up onto the desk, "What's up? Nobody's seen you all morning," Sophie felt her heart speed up, and knew Keefe would be able to tell. And sure enough, he raised an eyebrow at her. When she wouldn't look him in the eyes, he put his feet down to turn towards her.

"Okay, we're gonna cut all the talk." Keefe leaned in, "You need to tell me what's going on with you."