Little bit of a filler/transition chapter here. There'll be more substance next time.
"Sophie!" Her door banged open. "Sophie get up!"
"Ugh. How early is it?"
"Late. Get out of bed, lazybones."
"Good morning to you too Amy. And I'm going." Sophie pulled herself out of the nest of covers she'd made. "What time is it?"
"It's like ten. Aunt Edaline said you stayed up late working on homework."
"Did you just call her 'Aunt' Edaline?"
"Yeah. I thought it fit. Should I not?"
"Ask her. I don't care." She yawned. "Leave me alone so I can get dressed."
Amy sat down on her bed. "You have a giant walk-in closet, remember?"
"Yeah." Sophie stumbled out of bed and over to her closet. "So what are you doing here?"
"I have obtained all the Ranger's Apprentice books, along with Brotherband, The Early Years, and Royal Ranger on audiobook. I wanted to drop them off. Also, is Fitz your boyfriend now?"
Sophie paused, pulling her shirt on slowly. "Why do you ask?"
"Cause there's a thing of flowers sitting on your desk with a note. It says it's from him."
She finished getting dressed quickly and went to see what Amy had found. There was indeed a vase of flowers on her desk with a card stuck to the ribbon fastened around the container. A tulip fell out and Sophie wedged it back in between an iris and hydrangea.
The note read 'I heard you like the language of flowers. Hope this says something nice. Love, Fitz.'
Amy tried to read the card over Sophie's shoulder. "What did he say?"
"Well, the real message is in the flowers. I was obsessed with the Victorian language of flowers for a few months. I was talking to Biana about it and he must have found out."
"Oh yeah, I remember now. You spent a ton of time at the florist. So what's it say?"
Sophie bit her lip. "Well there's tulips, which are 'declaration of love', irises are 'my compliments, hydrangeas are 'heartfelt', there's actually a pretty good mix in here. The purple and white roses on the edges are super sweet. Roses themselves are love but purple is also 'love at first sight' and white is 'purity and innocence'."
"What's this one?" Amy pointed to a red and white flower with pointed petals.
"That's an amaryllis. They mean 'splendid beauty' I think. The stem at the top is gladiolus, which is 'strength of character'."
"Why is he giving you these? I mean, the message is clear, but you put so much effort into making it clear to me that Sophie Foster is very much a single Pringle." Amy grinned. "So, what's the tea?"
"What are you talking about? What tea?"
"It's Internet slang. It's a thing now."
"No it's not."
"Sophie, you're sixteen now right? You left when you were twelve. The Internet has changed a lot. I'm asking for the juicy details."
"Which you are not getting. I'm dressed, I'm assuming you have the audiobooks, so let's go."
Amy sighed. "Are you just going to leave the flowers here? They look like they need more water."
"Fine. We'll water the flowers and then we'll go." Sophie sighed and picked up the vase. "It is a pretty bouquet. Fitz did a good job. I wonder where he got the flowers."
"Are you guys dating now?"
"I said I'm not telling you."
"Who am I going to tell?"
"You have the ability to tell anyone you want. I'll probably tell Keefe depending on how he feels, because the only person he can tell is a Telepath, which is currently me and Fitz."
"So you are dating?"
Sophie sighed. "Fine. Yes. Fitz and I are technically dating. Our first date is next Saturday. And before you ask, you are not getting any more information than that."
Amy pouted. "Fine. But I'm still super excited."
Sophie rolled her eyes, following her sister downstairs. Grady was looking through the audiobooks on the counter. He looked up when they came down.
"That shirt is a little low-cut for in public, Sophie."
She looked down. "Dad, this is half an inch lower than the one I was wearing the other day that you were fine with. Like, an eighth of a inch of cleavage. It is not too low."
"Yes it is."
"Besides, I'm not going out in public. I'm going to drop the audiobooks off with Amy and to Everglen to thank Fitz for the flowers. That's it.
Edaline poked her head around the wall from the kitchen. "Grady, that is not too low. If you were fine with Jolie wearing a sleeveless dress at sixteen, then what Sophie is wearing is fine. You see more because you're taller than her."
"So is Fitz."
"Grady."
"Fine."
Sophie brought the vase into the kitchen. "Mom, Fitz brought these flowers for me. Aren't they pretty?"
Edaline looked over and set her knife down. "Oh, Sophie, they're gorgeous! I was wondering what he had when he came by earlier this morning."
"He apparently researched the language of flowers, it's a human thing, and this is what he came up with. It's really sweet."
"So what does it say?" She went back to slicing the long thin fruits on her cutting board.
"There's tulips, irises, amaryllis, roses, hydrangeas, and gladiolus. The flowers all individually mean different things. Tulips mean 'declaration of love', irises are 'my compliments' amaryllis is splendid beauty, gladiolus is strength of character, roses are 'love' but they mean different things based on the colour. Purple is 'love at first sight' and white is innocence. And the last one, hydrangeas, mean 'heartfelt."
Edaline smiled. "That is sweet. Be sure to thank him. I'll water these and put them back up in your room for you."
"Thanks Mom!"
"Come on Sophie! Let's go!"
"I'm coming Amy!" She left the kitchen and Amy hauled her outside with her free hand.
"Do the flashy thing!"
Sophie stopped in the middle of pulling out her pathfinder. "The flashy thing?"
"Yeah."
"It's called light leaping Amy." But she complied and leapt both of them to Candleshade.
Linh was sitting on the steps, playing with a ball of water. She looked up when they glittered onto Candleshade's grounds. "Hey!"
"Hey Linh. Is Keefe okay?"
"Yeah. He's fine. I think he's playing on the Switch with Tam. Ro was watching something really bloody, I think she said it was called Deadpool. I'm waiting for her to finish. What's that?"
"This," Amy hefted the stack of cases. "Is all of the Ranger's Apprentice on audiobook. Every single one. Also…" She pulled out two DVD cases. The top one had a suspicious black dragon on it. "This is How To Train Your Dragon 2 AND How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. It just came out on Blu-Ray and I bought the first copy I found. Mom and Dad haven't seen it yet, since they're waiting for it to go to the dollar theaters. I saw it with some friends opening weekend. Also, I'll have to take a second trip for it, but I also have popcorn because what is the completion of the greatest movie trilogy ever imagined and put to the big screen without popcorn?"
Sophie grinned. "They made a third one?"
"Yeah. Toothless gets a girlfriend."
"Ack!" Sophie covered her ears. "No spoilers!"
Amy laughed. "It's in the trailers dork. I'm not spoiling anything."
Linh smiled. "I hope Ro's done with that movie. She said it was rated R for 'Ro'."
"It's actually not, the R stands for 'Restricted'. It means that movie theaters won't let kids in to see it without parents if they're under 17. But it could also stand for Ro, since anything with that rating is something Keefe should not be watching." Sophie stretched out her mind to contact Ro. She wasn't supposed to, but since Keefe was often sleeping or generally out of it, she had learned how to contact Ro instead.
Hey, is the movie over with?
Ro took a few seconds to answer. No, but I'm going to wrap it up and finish it tonight. It's a little too bloody for elves.
Okay. Amy, Linh and I are headed up. Is Fitz there?
Lose your boyfriend again?
Sophie sighed quietly. No. I'm wanting to know if I have to make a second stop or not.
Come up here and find out for yourself.
She shut down the connection. "She's putting it away. Let's head up."
Amy handed her some of the audiobooks. "If we're taking the vortinator, you guys are going to have to hold some of these or they are going to go flying everywhere."
"Okay." Linh took a few of the cases, holding them securely.
Sophie flicked the door open telekinetically and yelled, "Floor 156!" as soon as all three of them were on.
Ro had indeed shut off the movie by the time they got to Keefe's room. She was kneeling in front of the bookcase, trying to figure out where it went. Sophie pulled out Deadpool 2 telekinetically for her to show her where it went.
Keefe was looking much better than he had a few days ago. He was having very little trouble manipulating the buttons and knob on the Switch controller and managing short words and sentences between him and Tam.
"Hey Keefe. You must be feeling better." Sophie sat down on the edge of his bed, hoping the small movement of his body wouldn't hurt too much.
He gave her a shaky thumbs up and pointed to his head. She took the hint and formed a telepathic connection.
I'm feeling way better! Sadly I know it can only get worse from here, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. That's my main mindset right now. Enjoy the good stuff as it happens.
"That's awesome. Amy's here. Are you up for learning a little sign language?"
Yeah! Let me finish this race. My dexterity isn't great, which is why I've been losing, but hey, I have minor movement back, at least for now.
"I wouldn't expect it to be up to your normal standards. This is the first time you've been able to move them. I mean, without screaming."
Ha HA! Take that! I just blueshelled Tam.
Tam groaned. "What'd you do that for? I'm in last place now."
Keefe held up a single finger and then pointed to himself.
"Yeah. I know you're in first. I can see it on the screen."
One of the computer controlled players knocked Keefe off the track and he respawned in fifth place. He pouted.
Amy reached over and tugged Sophie's sleeve. "Hand me those audiobooks so I can put them away."
Sophie handed her the stack.
Are those new audiobooks for me?
"Yeah. Ranger's Apprentice."
Awesome, I was almost out. Fitz has been borrowing some of your books, the Ranger's Apprentice ones, and reading them aloud to me, but his English reading isn't great and sometimes he mistranslates and it doesn't make sense.
Tam stuck the tip of his tongue out of the corner of his mouth, squinting at the Switch's screen. "Almost...Ha! First place!"
Again. Keefe gave Tam a thumbs down.
"Sore loser." Tam slid the controllers back onto the side of the Switch and put it away. "Hey Sophie."
"Hey Tam. How are things going?"
"Pretty good. We have Glimmer sorted."
Amy plopped down on the edge of Keefe's bed on the opposite side from Sophie. "You can hear me right?"
He gave her a thumbs up.
"Okay. If you're up for it, I can teach you a bit of basic sign language."
Another thumbs up.
"Great. Sophie told me you use basically the same alphabet, so I'll start with that."
Sophie left them to their conversation and walked over to Tam, who was looking through the small stack of games for the Switch.
"Sophie, what's Legend of Zelda?" He held up Breath of the Wild.
"Honestly, I have no idea. I've heard of it, but I've never played it. I think Amy enjoys it."
"Okay. I might have her show me later if she has time. Do you know much about these games?"
Sophie shook her head. "I didn't play them. I was kind of the boring kid. I didn't like playing with other kids, because their thoughts hurt too much. I didn't like TV shows or movies or video games or any YouTubers. People left me alone and I left them alone."
He nodded, voice dropping almost too quiet to hear. "Can we talk telepathically? I have a question I'm too nervous to ask if Keefe might overhear."
"Okay." Sophie lowered her voice out of respect. "But you really don't have to worry. He might act callous toward you, but he's actually really careful not to hurt anyone. On purpose anyway." She reached out and formed the telepathic connection, being careful to keep away from reading the thoughts he didn't send her. But we can still talk telepathically.
Thank you. His mind was surprisingly shadow-free for a Shade. This is kind of awkward for me, but I figured you're the person I should talk to. I would normally talk to Linh, but… this is different.
You don't have to explain yourself to me. Just say what you need to say and I'll listen.
He smiled, carefully stacking the games he'd been looking at and putting them back on the shelf. It has to do with Glimmer.
Okay. Sophie forced her emotions to remain neutral and not show on her face.
Well, I caught her will her hood off by accident and… He paused to gather his thoughts. Well, we already knew she has long black hair, but… I didn't expect her to be pretty.
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but are you saying what I think you're saying?
He gave her a look out of the corner of his eye. No. I do not have a crush on Glimmer. I just did not expect her to be that pretty. I'm not going to show you her face, out of respect for her privacy.
Don't worry, I wasn't going to ask.
Okay. I know marriage and kids aren't for me, much to Linh's dismay. She wants nieces or nephews. But Glimmer's actually a really pretty young woman. And I'm not sure how I feel anymore.
Sophie squashed the little trail of thought in her mind before it could gather any ground. Give it time. Most likely, it'll work itself out.
And if it doesn't?
Well… if it doesn't, Linh might get her wish anyway. But I don't think that'll happen.
Okay. Thank you. Tam gave her a small smile. PLEASE, please don't tell anyone. I don't want anyone else to know.
Promise. Anything else?
No. Thank you.
Don't worry about it. Anytime. She broke the connection and continued answering his questions about the games and movies in front of them while Amy behind them taught Linh, Keefe and Ro sign language. It was more peaceful that she appreciated it being.
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Shine brightly!
Ruby
