Adorable

Chapter 5 | Found Out

As they reappeared in the gleaming halls of Foxfire, Sophie had a moment of panic. She had just leaped to school, late, holding Keefe's hand! Good thing there was nobody in the halls- lunch must have just finished. If anyone had seen them...

"We should split up. If anyone asks, I had a headache and you came to see if I was okay."

"Deal. See you soon." And he kissed her again.

"Keefe!" She wiped her finger across his lips- again- to remove the sparkly pink gloss.

They split up, taking different routes to P.E. so that Sophie arrived a few minutes before Keefe. As she walked into the gym, she caught Biana's eye. Biana hurried over.

"What's wrong? Why are you so late? Have you been crying?" she asked, worried.

"I'm fine, Biana. Just a headache. All gone now." And she smiled to prove it, hating herself for the sort-of-lie.

"Okay... come on! We're having an outward channelling tournament!"

Apparently, the rules were that prodigies paired up, each taking a round splotcher. They placed it on the table in front of them, then tried to use outward channelling to explode the other person's paint-filled ball and splatter them with their chosen color. Several prodigies were already splattered, standing off to the side, so the game had apparently begun.

"Miss Foster! Glad to see you decided to join us! The game has already begun, so it wouldn't be fair to enter you now. You may practice with them," said her PE coach, gesturing to the paint-splattered prodigies in the corner.

Sophie moved over, grabbing a pink splotcher from the huge basket in the center of the room. Just them, a voice called out from the door.

"I'll practice with her!" smirked Keefe Sencen.

"Of course you will," replied the coach. "And both of you may explode an extra ball for being late."

"Yes sir," replied Sophie, with a glance at Keefe. That's when she spotted Fitz... splattered? Glancing back and forth between her and Keefe. She moved over to him while Keefe grabbed a splotcher.

"You okay? You're usually pretty good at these things," Sophie asked Fitz, who was staring at Keefe with an edge that bordered on glaring.

He barely noticed her question, simply answering that he couldn't concentrate. Sophie didn't have time to wonder if this was because of their talk this morning before he asked her a different question.

"Why are you late? And why is he late too? Neither of you have been here all day. Were you... together?"

Sophie fumbled for a reply. She should've expected him to be this abrupt, but she hadn't.

"Umm... I just had a little headache- that's why I'm late- and Keefe came to see where I was. Who knows where he was before." Which was believable, since Keefe spent most of his time in school ditching and pranking the principal.

But Fitz obviously knew there was more to the story. He transmitted to her.

Why won't you tell me what happened? That's obviously not it.

Before Sophie could make up an excuse, Keefe saved her by sauntering over and laying his arm across Sophie's shoulders.

"Foster telling you how she begged me to come help her feel better? Too bad I had to miss class to do it..." He winked.

Sophie glared at him, slipping out of his reach- though every part of her wanted to scoot closer and lay her head on his shoulder.

"I did not beg. You were pestering me about where I was, and I told you I had a headache. You did not need to leap over with fifty different elixirs. In fact, I told you not to come."