The Winnowing Gala – Tam's POV

Hey! Sorry this took so long! But it was the end of the school year, and school is annoying. (Okay, I probably like school a lot more than I should. I'm a dork.) Here is Tam's POV of the Winnowing Gala! Get ready for lots, and lots of drama! Honestly, I feel bad for Fitz and Keefe, but they deserved it! This must be done! And beside, aren't you all sick of the same old Fitz and Keefe ships? (as much as I know we love reading them) We gotta shake things up!

"Sophie!" By the time I screamed her name, she was already on the ground; unconscious, bleeding, soaked with punch, and surrounded by glass shards. I turned on Fitz. "What did you do?!"

He stood pale, his eyes fixed on Sophie. "I...I...she fell..."

I rushed over and lifted her head off the ground, then brushed her wet, red-stained hair from her face. Fitz burst into motion, and reached out his arms to take her. I grabbed one of his wrists.

"Don't touch her." He yanked his hand away. I lifted Sophie up myself, and started across the dance floor. The other elves made a wide path for us, all of them silent and staring.

I looked down at her, wishing for those beautiful brown eyes to open back up and tell me everything is okay. But it's not like I would listen to her, I guess. She'd still be going to Elwin, no matter how much she likes to fight her doctor visits.

"SOPHIE!"

"SOPHIE! WHAT HAPPENED?"

Edaline and Grady came rushing out, their eyes filled with terror as they saw their unconscious daughter.

"She fell on the food table," I said quickly. "A glass bowl of punch fell on hr ehad. We need Elwin."

"Of course, of course," Edaline said, wringing her hands. "Let's take her inside." She walked next to me, feeling Sophie's head and holding her hand. "My baby, my baby. You need to stop doing this to yourself." She chocked and little and tears filled her hands.

"Lay her on the couch." Grady instructed, pointing a bright white couch in their spacious living room.

"I'll get something to clean her up," Edaline said and wandered out of the room, looking green, and Grady went down to hold Sophie's hand. He looked at me and smiled in a sad, broken-hearted way.

"I love Sophie, but she... has so many accidents." He took a deep, shaky breath. "You think me and Edaline would be used to it..." He laughed dryly. "But it renders us useless every time."

"She'll be okay," I said in a small voice, "She's always okay."

"She sure is a fighter."

"Oh my God! Sophie!" Biana came rushing into the room, followed by Elwin and the rest of the gang.

"She's unconscious right now," I said, my eyes fixed back on her. "She got hit pretty hard."

"Sophie, Sophie, Sophie," Elwin muttered to himself. "It's always Sophie!" He sighed. "It won't be incredibly long, but long enough. Those rings you made Dex worked incredibly well. I would advice to, um, keep it on the down-low where's she's concerned."

Dex smiled slightly. "Yeah."

Elwin was referring to the rings we all had hung around a chain on out neck. Each one of them directly signaled Elwin. If Sophie ever found out about it, we might be able to convince her that it was for all of us, in case one of us was ever hurt. Really, it was basically the "Sophie accident alarm."

Anyway, because we really hand nothing else to do beside wait for Sophie to wake up, we went to clean up the party mess outside. All the guests had left already after Grady gave a general apology. The mess was pretty epic, considering it was a teenage party, but it made for a nice distraction.

I noticed Keefe and Fitz cleaning up as far away from us, and each other, as much as they could. I could tell how increasingly irritated Biana was getting by the deepening redness of her face.

Eventually, when her face had gone rose red and she had started angrily shoving trash into a bag with occasional growls, she spun around and marched over to Keefe.

"Are you going to tell us what happened," she yelled, "Or are you both just going to be idiots?" The rest of us slowly drifted closer, so we could hear.

Keefe rolled his eyes. "There's nothing to tell."

"It wasn't 'nothing' and you know that perfectly well. You two made her upset, and I just want to the know why."

"Do we really have to talk about this?" Fitz asked, his eyes to the ground. "It's not a big deal. Just a little argument."

"Sophie is bleeding and unconscious!" I yelled. They both flinched.

"She tripped..." Fitz whispered.

"You grabbed her arm!"

"I didn't mean..."

"But what was she yelling about?" Linh asked quietly, looking at Fitz with big eyes. "What did you guys say to her?"

"Nothing..."

"You know, we do have ears," Biana said venomously, crossing her arms. "And I remember her saying something about me and Linh."

"Well, then why don't you go and figure it out yourself," Keefe said angrily, "Since you hear everything already."

"So you're just going to let this go on forever?" I said, and everyone turned to me. "I won't. You already hurt Sophie, and I'm not going to let you hurt Biana and my sister by letting you drag this out." I turned to the girls. "They both think-"

Keefe yanked my arm. "Shut up, Bangs Boy."

I glared back at him. "Why don't you make me, Sencen?"

He scowled, but backed off.

"They don't think your relationships are working out."

Biana blinked a few times. "Wha- what?"

Linh looked at Fitz with tears in her eyes. "You don't think it's working out?"

"I-I," he went back to staring at the ground, apparently his favorite pastime. "Yes."

"And you, Keefe?" Biana asked, her voice unsteady.

He looked anywhere but at her. "No...maybe...yes."

"And that whole thing with Sophie?" The boys stayed quiet. "Okay, I'll guess myself." She pushed Keefe in the chest with her finger; hard. "You decided to go running to Sophie with all these 'relationship problems' hmm? Or, better." She pushed him farther and her voice rose. "This whole Gala got you both jealous, and you all of sudden decided that you were way better off with Sophie than your actual girlfriends."

"But what you didn't realize," she continued, "Is that Sophie is a lot more decent that you ever were. You told her, messed with our feelings, and now Sophie is injured."

"Sophie getting injured wasn't our fault!" Keefe yelled defensively.

"But I'm guessing the rest was pretty accurate?" He fell silent.

"Don't ever talk to me again. You get what you want. We're done." She turned to Fitz. "And you. You may be my brother, but you are one heck of a jerk. Linh?"

My sister sniffled a little. "We're over."

"And I think I speak for Sophie when I say never talk to her again."

They're faces paled, and they both ran to the leapmaster, and were gone within a few seconds.

"Um..." I started, but Biana held up her hand.

"Don't say anything. I'm not mad at you, but I can't take anything right now."

I nodded. "Okay."

"This is tearing us apart," Dex whispered.

"It was their fault. We can be a perfectly fine group of friends without Keefe and Fitz."

Just then, Grady opened the door and yelled down to us. "Sophie is awake!" Biana and Linh raced to the house. Me, Dex, and Marella walked a bit slower.

"I don't know about this..." Marella said with concern. "I know a thing or two about fights with your friends. You saw how long it took me and Sophie to make things right again. Honestly, we're still working on it. If we let this fight sit for too long, it will take a really long time to fix it up."

"They hurt Biana, my sister, and Sophie. I think they deserve the silent treatment for a little while."

"Look Tam, I've never been a big fan of Wonderboy and our good 'ole vain blond idiot, but Marella is right. They're our friends."

"They lost that right," I spat, and we continued up the house to see Sophie.

lovelunalovegood: Thank you! Sorry I made you wait a while.

TEAM SOPHIE: I've heard a little bit. It's so sad!

Mysterious M: Lol, thank you. Well, not all the way up to her room, but to the couch. XD Yeah, I know what you mean. We can only take so much Keefe and Fitz gooshy-ness, no matter who we ship. I hope you enjoyed it! You're gonna have to wait and see. MWA HA HA!

Sophitz4life: Yep! Heh...sorry for another harsh chapter. I hope it was still a good chapter.

Glittery-Icecream: Good! Glad you liked it!

TinyAlicorn: Yeah! Sophie is not the kind of girl that goes and falls into boys arms, and that's why I love Shannon's books so much! She has such a strong female character. Sophie's just an amazing role model for girls.

Jilveny: Thank you! I'm trying my best!

Guest: Glad you do!

Aria Ren Blair: Yeah, me neither, but I hope it's still enjoyable! It sure is fun to write!

AnnabethValdez: Love the name, fellow Percy Jackson fan. And our poor Sophie. She may be a great role model, but no girl should have that many near death experiences.