Foxfire High {ON HIATUS}

Sophie- I am Craving Mallowmelt

Sophie skipped her last few classes. She couldn't find her way anyway, even if she could stomach a few hours of confusion and getting lost. 

Instead she curled up in a bathroom stall for the rest of the day.

When the final bell rang, she slowly unfurled herself, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and unlocked the bathroom door. She glanced in the mirror. Oh God, she was a mess. Her blond hair had become tangled, and her eyes were bloodshot. She rummaged through her bag for something that might help, but apparently Other Sophie was just as disorganized as she was.

 That was when she was intercepted by Biana. 

"Hey!" she said, pulling something pink and sparkly out of her schoolbag. "I haven't seen you all day! You weren't in history class," she studied Sophie closely. "Are you alright? You look like you've been crying." her eyes widened "Have you been crying? What's wrong? You know you can tell me anything, ri-"

"Biana, I'm fine, really." Lie, lie, lie. "It's just been a long day." 

Biana nodded skeptically, clearly not believing her, but continued. "I was thinking maybe we could study tonight, since you missed class, and we have that exam next week... and Fitz would probably want to see you! But if you don;t want to see him, it's okay, we can study just the two of us, in the library or at Flori's-"

A thought flew into Sophie's head. Flori's. She was supposed to meet Marella and Linh! 

"Biana, I would love to! But I have to meet Marella and Linh at Flori's today." And I have no idea how I'm going to get out of here.

"Oh. Well, let me walk with you to the school gates at least." Biana said.

An idea popped into Sophie's head. "Actually, Biana, could you walk with me to Flori's? I could use some company..."

*

Flori's turned out to be a sweet bakery/cafe combo, painted beige with lavender accents, with round wooden tables placed outside. 

Sophie opened the half-glass door, jingly ringing coming from the bell above the door. 

Biana had left five minutes earlier, leaving Sophie to stand outside and prepare herself to face Marella and Linh. She had glanced in the glass, checking if her eyes were still bloodshot and how messy her hair looked. Maybe she had stalled a little more than necessary, but right now all she wanted to do was take a nap. A really long one. 

She glanced around the cafe looking for Marella and Linh, her eyes passing over customers and more round tables with flowers sitting in the center of them. 

Marella and Linh were sitting over in the corner over by the window. Linh waved energetically when she spotted Sophie. Sophie wandered over to their table, a white tablecloth draped across it, with lilac flowers in a white vase that matched the tablecloth on top.

Linh was sipping some chocolate-coloured liquid. "Hey," she said, swirling the drink around in her cup as Sophie slid into a chair opposite them. "Marella was explaining your situation to me."

Marella nodded, holding a glass cup of some red-tinted tea "I hope you don't mind." she said, looking at Sophie. "I figured we'd need all the help we can get. Even if it was all a dream and you just have a really weird case of amnesia."

Sophie smiled. With Linh and Marella, her day was slowly starting to get better. 

"I also made a mind map," said Linh, holding up a piece of paper with neat words in bubbles in multicoloured pen dotted around the page. "Of possible causes and solutions to your problem. Also because it's fun." she added, tapping her Bic pen against the table. She slid the paper towards Sophie. "So, possible causes are on this side," she explained, tapping her pen on the paper to demonstrate as she spoke. "Red is for realistic causes, blue is for fantasy-slash-sci-fi causes which I think are cooler but less likely to happen, and  same on the other side, but with green and blue." Linh tilted her head to read her writing. "Most likely is amnesia, right? And that you had a really vivid dream that you remember super well for unknown reasons, in which case the solution is to see Doctor Elwin," She slid her pen across to the 'Solutions' side of the page, where 'Elwin' was printed neatly and underlined in green pen. 

"Or, you have my fanstasy-slash-sci-fi option, where you've been switched bodies with our Sophie, and are from a different dimension. Or a ghost. In which case the answer is..." she tapped her pen on the 'Solutions' side again, where 'Unknown' was written in black pen. 

"Can I have that for a moment?" she asked Linh. 

"Sure," Linh said, passing her the pen and paper. 

Sophie flicked the button for the blue pen, and scrawled Neverseen have put me here on the 'Causes' side of the page. She flicked to the black pen setting and wrote Alvar on the 'Solutions' side. She passed the paper back to Linh, who held it up so she and Marella could read what Sophie had written. It was Sophie's turn to tap the pen on the table and wait for a response. 

"What's 'Neverseen'?" asked Marella, peeping over the top of the page

"It's-" Sophie started, then stopped. How should she explain the Neverseen? She was struggling to find the right words to explain, when a short woman with her hair tied back in a long braid appeared at their table. 

She smiled at them, a big warm smile that made Sophie feel safe. Was this... Flori? 

"Everything alright, girls? Sophie, do you want anything?" She asked, taking a notebook out of her apron. 

"Uhm.." Sophie mumbled, before Linh interrupted: "She'll have a slice of Mallowmelt."

Mallowmelt. The word rang through her head, making her realize how much she'd missed the super-sweet dish. How do humans live without it? She wondered as Maybe-Flori walked away to fetch her order. 

Linh looked at Sophie. "You know what mallowmelt is, right?" she asked.

Sophie sighed. "Yes," she said "What I don't know is how I survived today without it."