The Lost Cities had been peaceful for almost a year now. The Neverseen had been defeated and imprisoned to a meticulous extent, Lady Gisela locked up deep below the ground in Exile, and Vespera somewhere in a hellish afterlife. Sophie Foster finally felt like a regular teenager - surrounded by a caring circle of friends, getting dragged on shopping trips to Atlantis, and stressing for midterms instead of saving the world.
That's exactly what she was doing right now, in fact. Her imagination was spiraling out of control, picturing the absolute worst possible scenarios for Elementalism.
"She's gonna fail me," Sophie moaned.
"Lady Llewyn won't fail you," Biana soothed. "I mean, she might give you a really low score and then… you know what? She won't fail you."
They were seated in the cafeteria for lunch, waiting for the rest of their friends before eating.
"But she's evil," Sophie insisted.
"She can't be," Biana said, being the considerate friend she was. "Hey, we can ask Keefe," she added as the blond boy slid onto the bench of their table. His hair was immaculately styled as usual in its carefully disheveled style, his ice colored eyes sparkling with humor.
"Why the long face, Foster?" he asked with a trademark smirk. "Someone make you smell curdleroots?"
"She's scared Lady Llewyn's going to fail her," Biana explained.
"Lady Llewyn?" Keefe made a face. " I had her last year. She's evil."
"That's exactly what I said!" Sophie exclaimed, sliding lower in her chair. "See Biana?"
Biana shot Keefe a disdainful look. "You're supposed to make her feel better, not the other way around."
"Alright then, what do you need, Foster?" Keefe slung an arm around her shoulders. "A joke? A hug? A kiss from the boyfriend?"
'The boyfriend', accompanied by Dex and Linh joined them at the table. Fitz looked flawless (as always), his hair the perfect mix of tousled and done up, teal eyes glittering, and splendid smile reserved just for Sophie.
The annoying flutter of her heart kicked into action on cue. It still hadn't faded, even after all these years.
"What's this I hear about a kiss?" Fitz asked, sitting down on Sophie's left as Keefe pulled his arm back.
"Sophie's stressing about exams," Biana told her brother. "Maybe you can do a better job of making her feel better."
"Is it the Mentor or the class?" Fitz sounded adorably concerned.
"Mentor," Sophie said.
"Lady Llewyn, you know how she is," Keefe said.
Fitz looked like he wanted to say something about the Elementalism Mentor, but opted for wrapping his arm around Sophie's shoulders.
Seriously, what was it with boys' arms and her shoulders?
"You've passed Elementalism four times," Fitz said into her ear. He smelled good, so she leaned her head against his. "You're Sophie Foster. You can do anything you want."
It was the "I know you can" he added that somewhat convinced her.
Against her will, Sophie's brain jumped immediately to the other thing gnawing at her. It felt like the glowing words on the screen back in the Matchmakers' were imprinted on her eyeballs.
Unmatchable.
Unmatchable.
Unmatchable.
Issues with the Neverseen had been too pressing at the time, what with stellarlune and 'legacies' and Tam's disappearance, so she'd told only Grady, Edaline and Sandor. It felt selfish to add her own personal problems to the ever-growing list of their group's, so she kept the secret to the people she trusted most. She and Fitz had stayed together, confirming boyfriend and girlfriend. But Fitz was seventeen now, completely eligible for picking up his match lists, and Sophie would have to tell him sooner or later.
"Get a room, Fitzphie." Tam's voice cut through Sophie's thoughts as he sat down next to Linh.
"This might be the only thing I'll ever agree with you on, Bangs Boy," Keefe said as Sophie and Fitz snapped apart.
"Dude, how about we have a conversation about you and Sophie?" Dex asked with a grin.
"Dude, how about we have a conversation about you and Biana?" Keefe mimicked with a smile to rival, which shut Dex up pretty fast.
"Sir Doughan's gonna fail me," Tam groaned in the following quiet.
"See?" Sophie said. "Everyone's worrying about midterms!"
"Why, though?' Keefe wondered. "Just cheat. Or wing it!"
"Cheat?" Linh looked scandalized. "Okay, number one, that's unethical, and number two, what if you got caught?"
"Chill, Linh," Keefe reassured her. "That was a joke."
"But what about the 'wing it' part?" Biana pointed out.
"That sure as heck wasn't a joke," Keefe clarified.
"How have you managed to get such good scores when winging it?" Fitz asked him.
Keefe winked. "That, my good friend, is all in the looks."
"No, but really," Dex said. "Don't stress so much Sophie. All of us have done way too much of that for an elven lifetime."
There was a heavy silence that settled over them after that, not because they all knew it was true, but because they were remembering.
Suddenly, Biana squealed. "I know what we can do!"
"What do you mean?" Dex asked.
"Let's have a sleepover!"
"A sleepover?" Tam repeated.
"Yeah! To relax, the day before the day before midterms."
"At Everglen tomorrow," Fitz said. "Why not?"
"I'm down," Keefe said.
"Me too," Sophie added.
"Me too," said Dex.
"Tam and I can come too," Linh decided.
"Wha-? I-" Tam started.
"Stop sulking and have some fun," Linh told her twin.
Tam did exactly what she'd told him not to and sulked. "Fine."
Biana spent the rest of lunch monopolizing the conversation, loudly listing all the things they could do.