Author's Note: The rest of this author's note is irrelevant but kinda funny. Sorry I didn't update on Wednesday or Thursday, I was making posters about cheese.
Yes, cheese. It's kind of a long story but basically, there were these ugly posters in my school that the counselors hung up. They said, in big, bold letters, "R U OK"
Kind of strange for counselors to hang up, but okay. I mean, the posters were useless and used trashy texting lingo. I wouldn't mind much, except that the letters were purple, with random white stripes scattered through them in gradient, I guess to give them texture or something. I don't know. Anyway, whenever we walked past these posters, the white stripes made us see the f word instead. Imagine just casually walking down the hallway to your next class when you just see that. As you may guess, we were not very happy about it, because it was just so unnecessarily awkward for no reason at all. So, me and one of my friends decided we should cover them up. There were 22 posters in the hallways (yes, we mapped this out) and we figured a post-it note in the center would be enough to divert people's attention.
Then, there was the question of what to write on the sticky note. We needed a message, something positive but funny. Hence, we came up with several cheese-themed messages. "Join the movement. Join the future. Join the cheese." and "Do cheese not drugs." and "Cheese is the meaning of life." We secretly stuck those on the posters, along with post-its promoting (yes it's a real website, go check it out)
Anyway, we did this several times, and every time the administrators would attempt to pull off all the post-its before people noticed. No one knew it was us. Soon the whole school was talking about these hilarious cheese sticky notes, and we even had the support of some of our teachers, though they had no idea who we were.
One day I was going to lunch and one of the administrators stopped me and my friend in the hallway. She pulled us aside and told us this:
"You two are the ones making the cheese notes. We saw you on the cameras. I've had some teachers freaking out over this and bringing me stacks of your sticky notes. You need to stop with the sticky notes. Make posters instead."
And so our identities were revealed, and we have created posters to hang up. I still can't believe it. We have ADMINISTRATION APPROVAL. They didn't approve of our poster by the principal's office that said "big cheese" but we did that anyway. This is your sign to do something risky and stupid but really fun at the same time.
Since I wrote that endless author's note, I'll give you a (sort of) long chapter as well. This is a Linh POV! Alright well, have fun reading, and please review!
Linh frowned at the stacks of papers scattered around her room. She tried to keep things organized, and technically, they were. However, she didn't have enough space for all these papers. They were maps and plans, printouts of the Watchward Heath cameras and Registry files.
When Sophie and Keefe disappeared, everyone reacted differently. Biana got depressed, Tam stopped talking, Fitz turned to anger, and her and Dex were left to plan stuff with Mr. Forkle. She couldn't afford to be sad or angry, because it was kind of her fault that Sophie and Keefe got taken. After the battle at Gildingham, the Neverseen kidnapped her, and she was held captive while Sophie wiped several people's minds. Including Linh's.
She couldn't remember where she had been taken, only Sophie's panicked face. Linh couldn't recall who exactly had kidnapped her, only the way Keefe clenched and unclenched his jaw nervously.
It was all a blur, and she was tired of it.
They had done a ridiculous amount of searching, and yet it had yielded nothing. Hours of work had brought them no closer to anything but confusion. Dex had been ridiculously sweet, hacking into the Registry and bringing her mallowmelt and helping her plan things that all failed.
Mr. Forkle and the Collective tried to help, but no one could think of anything. It was all starting to seem pointless.
A knock on her door startled her out of her reverie.
"Come in!" she said, running a hand through her hair and straightening her tunic so she looked half-presentable.
Dex walked in, flashing her a pearly smile that looked forced. His strawberry-blond hair was a mess, but it looked good on him. His periwinkle eyes were more dull than usual, the stress taking its toll on him.
"Sorry," he said, "I wanted to come check up on you. Have you eaten lunch yet?"
Linh's stomach growled at the thought. She hadn't eaten anything all day, and she was suddenly hungry.
"I actually haven't. Have you?"
He smiled. "I was planning on eating in Mysterium, there's this really good gnome-run restaurant that I go to often. Wanna come?"
"Yes, I'm starving. Sorry about how I've been acting lately. You've been so sweet and I'm really distant, and-"
"It's fine," Dex said, offering a hand to help her up. "I understand how much this means to you, and we're going to get them back. I promise."
Linh smiled sheepishly, a blush spreading across her cheeks. "Thank you. You're amazing."
Now it was his turn to blush, and the sight made Linh's stomach flutter for some reason.
"We should go," he said, motioning to her door and the Leapmaster that lay behind it.
Linh nodded and he followed her out into the hallway, where they leaped to Mysterium. The city was beautiful in a rough sort of way, still elegant, but more unique than any of the others. She liked how it felt a bit more chaotic, as if all the finery and prestige of the other cities had combined into one mismatched puzzle. Slurps and Burps, Dex's father's apothecary, was located somewhere in this city.
She didn't question where they were going, just followed Dex down the winding streets, making small talk as they pointed at particularly interesting things they saw.
It wasn't long before Dex pushed open the door to a fairly small restaurant, decorated in shades of green and black. The interior reminded Linh of a forest, with some sort of moss lining parts of the wooden walls, and several trees scattered throughout the small tables. There were only a few other customers, so the place was fairly silent.
A gnome walked up to them and smiled brightly. "Dex!" she said. "You brought a friend!"
Dex embraced the gnome. "Yeah, this is Linh. Linh, this is my friend, Sumire."
The gnome hugged Linh as if they were old friends, and somehow, it wasn't even the slightest bit uncomfortable.
"Linh!" Sumire grinned. "Dex talks a lot about you."
"No, I don't," he protested.
Sumire smiled knowingly and led them to a small table in a corner. After Linh let Dex pick her meal, Sumire left, mentioning that their food would be out shortly. Dex waved at several of the other gnomes from across the restaurant, and Linh had to admire how well he knew them.
"You seem very close with them," Linh said to him.
Dex shrugged. "I come here at least once a week, and they're really great people. Helps that they make amazing food, too."
Linh giggled, playing with the water in her glass. She did that a lot when she was nervous, used her ability for useless things like making sculptures of people or fire or even random objects. Lately it had become a sort of fidget toy, or a relaxation technique.
"That one's really cool," Dex said, pointing to the few gears she'd created, spinning in midair.
Linh smiled. When she was around him, her ability had a mind of its own, as if it was trying to impress him.
She added a few more gears, making them more detailed and giving them smoother movements. She could do this for hours at this point, since she'd been training a lot with her ability. Linh couldn't believe she used to fear it, when now she saw it as something beautiful.
Dex instructed her on what to add, like he'd started doing over the past few weeks.
"Gear here. Make this one smaller. Tiny hand —a bit longer— yes, perfect. Add another gear. These two overlap, like. . . yeah, like that."
Linh smiled at their creation, all spinning gears and circular rings. "What is it?" she asked.
Dex grinned. "A human watch. You know how ours are all digital? Theirs have this in it, except smaller. All of this fits into a tiny circle the size of a provisberry."
"Wow," Linh breathed.
She scaled down their model as much as she could without changing the overall shape, awed at the idea that humans could make something so small and intricate. Elves acted like they were better than everyone, but really, many of their inventions were based on human ideas. Elves had greater power, superior abilities, but humans were creative. They thought outside of the parameters given to them, explored further than others before them had gone. They tested the limits of reality, and though elves could defeat them easily, it was hard to not be amazed by them.
That was one of the things that made Sophie so special.
The water plopped back into Linh's glass.
It appeared Dex's mind had gone to the same place, because his smile morphed into a frown, and his eyes turned downcast.
"We can't have any normal conversations anymore, can we?" Linh asked.
Dex shook his head, fingers twisting a wire around his thumb. "I guess not. This sucks. How about we agree, no more Black Swan talk for the rest of the day. We're going to eat this delicious food, go find somewhere to hang out, and we're going to relax. You cool with that?"
Linh nodded. "That sounds great."
"Thank goodness," Dex sighed, smiling at her. "I was worried I'd have to drag you somewhere to get you to cooperate."
Their food arrived, steaming hot, and Linh's mouth watered at the sight. Sumire lingered by their table to see what Linh thought. When she took a bite, it was delicious, one of the best things she'd ever tasted.
"This," she told Sumire and Dex, "is what heaven tastes like."
Sumire giggled, clapping her green-thumbed hands together. "I'm glad you like it, Linh. Well, you two enjoy your date, I'll be back if you need me!"
Linh paused, keeping her eyes firmly focused on the food. Date. She didn't mind, didn't bother to correct the gnome. She actually sort of liked the idea, for some reason. But still she waited to see if Dex would say something about it. He was silent, so she glanced up at him.
A mistake. Periwinkle eyes met hers, glimmering with an unspoken question. She wasn't sure how to respond, not certain of what needed to be said.
"Um," she said eloquently, hoping a topic change would present itself.
"Nice weather we're having," Dex offered.
Linh laughed, even though it was a bad joke. The elven cities were climate-controlled, so there was no chance of bad weather. That was why he'd said it, she supposed.
"Yes, very nice weather," Linh agreed. "That is, of course, if you define this weather as nice."
"True, true. 'Nice' is an opinion, and those vary from person to person."
Linh sighed, stuffing another forkful of perfection into her mouth.
"I've been wondering," Dex said, taking a bite. "How did you locate Tam that one time? When he was with the Neverseen, I mean. I know that you and Sophie did something, I'm just wondering what."
"She enhanced me, and I used water droplets in the air to locate Tam," Linh said. "Why?"
Dex shrugged. "No reason, just curiosity."
Their heads snapped up at the same time an idea striking both of them.
"Sophie and Keefe!" Dex said.
"Water!" Linh replied.
"I'm so stupid!" Dex said, dropping his fork and standing up.
Linh stood up too, taking two steps around the table to reach him. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and kissed him. Once, quickly, the kiss far too short for her liking.
"You're brilliant!" she replied, before pulling out her home crystal and leaping them back to her house.
"Tam!" Linh yelled once they arrived. She dashed towards his room, needing to tell him her plan.
Sophie and Keefe were coming home at last.