Author's Note: Sorry, Mrshortman, for doing this to a favorite character of yours in yet another chapter, but if it helps, she's kind of just looking out for Sofia in her own special way. If this story was from her POV and not Cedric's, he would come off looking way worse, and she would be practically heroic. It's all about perspective.
Also, Sofia was originally drinking Lucozade, but I rewrote it as just a sports drink. Dunno why I still wanted to point it out, but thought I'd mention it here.
Also, thanks to everyone who has liked and commented, it means so very much to me!
"A group date?" Sofia repeated what her cousin had just said, grappling with the concept behind the words. Amber nodded eagerly, flashing her a wide grin from across their pushed-together desks.
"That's right. You, me, and Hildy. I met this guy, Des... He goes to that all boys' school across town. Anyways, he'll bring along two people, and we'll all hang out." Amber was so excited that she seemed to completely miss Sofia's total lack of enthusiasm.
"I don't know, Amber..." Sofia nibbled a corner of her sandwich thoughtfully, memories of the incident with Hugo still fresh in her mind. Besides, why should she go on a date with anyone else if she already had someone she wanted to be with.
'Let's pretend that never happened. Okay?' That's right, it was because Cedric could never return her feelings, and even if he somehow could, she was unsure of where that would leave them. Still, it didn't change the fact that she loved him, and wasn't remotely interested in dating anyone else.
"Geeze, Sofia! I'm not asking you to marry anyone. Just come out and play skeeball, maybe have some ice cream together... You don't have to think of it as a 'date' if you don't want to." Well, when she put it like that it didn't seem so bad. "Pretty please? You'd be doing me a huge favor." Sofia glanced over to where her twin was eating alone, wearing earbuds to block out the noise in the classroom.
"Let me ask Cedric what he thinks." Sofia relented, but Amber scrunched up her face in distaste.
"Why? You don't need your brother's permission to go out, you know." She scoffed at Sofia as she opened her packet of apple slices.
"I know, it's just that..." Sofia paused, not sure of a good way to explain that she was actually hoping he wouldn't want her to go. Instead of trying, she stood and marched over to his desk, yanking out one of his earbuds to get his attention.
"What the hell, Sofia?!" He demanded, grabbing it out of her hand and staring up at her in annoyance. Sofia sucked in a deep breath, steeling herself for the announcement she was about to make, and whatever reaction might follow it.
"Amber invited me on a group date." She explained, mentally willing him to protest. "Today, after school."
"So? That has nothing to do with me." He shrugged, replacing the earbud and staring straight ahead. Sofia stormed back to her desk, feeling her cheeks grow hot. He could have at least pretended to care. Especially after what almost happened last time.
"Well?" Amber prodded, sounding out the word for much longer than was necessary as Sofia dropped back into her seat.
"Okay, I'll go." Sofia answered, trying and failing to unscrew the lid of her sports drink. Amber snatched it from her hands and twisted the top off, then passed it back. Cedric normally opens them for me. Sofia pouted, glancing back in his direction as she mumbled a 'thank you' to her cousin.
...
"Papers to the center, then pass them to the front." Mr Mervin announced, signalling that their pop quiz was coming to an end. Sofia finished the last question, then passed her paper to Cedric so he could send it up. Amber poked her in the back of the neck, and she peeked over her shoulder to see what the blonde wanted.
"Hey, James just texted me. He wants to know if we can do movie night at your house after the date." She whispered. Sofia hesitated to answer. She'd been sneaking into Cedric's room every night since the thunderstorm, and so far he was allowing it. The last time James stayed they were nearly caught, and if both of their cousins ended up staying over, which was often the case when they came to the house, he might make her stay in her own room from then on. Sofia was hesitant to agree to any plans that might rob her of that little scrap of connection.
"Sofia and Cedric, come see me after class!" Mr Mervin called out angrily, effectively preventing Sofia from continuing the conversation. Amber quirked an eyebrow at her, but Sofia shook her head, unable to think of anything she could have done wrong.
...
"You got detention?" Amber demanded, much too loudly for Sofia's liking. "For what?"
"Someone drew a rude picture of Mr Mervin on my paper, and I couldn't convince him that it wasn't me." Sofia blurted out, frustration overtaking her. She never got in trouble in school, and the whole thing was extremely upsetting.
"Yeah, I wonder who could have done that..." Amber muttered quietly, glaring at Cedric, who was in the front of the room erasing the blackboard at the request of the teacher.
"What was that?" Sofia asked, busy packing up her things for the day. Amber waved her hand dismissively.
"Is Cedric staying after, too?" She questioned instead of repeating herself. Sofia stopped what she was doing to look at her brother in confusion.
"Yeah, it's really strange. He's normally so good at math, but he only answered one question on the quiz, and it was wrong." Sofia frowned, wondering what was up with him today. He even tutors me when I'm having trouble. Amber stared down at Sofia in disbelief as she returned to straightening her desk, then stomped to the front of the classroom, stopping only when she was face-to-face with her other cousin.
"You did this on purpose!" Amber accused him, pointing a perfectly manicured finger in his face. Cedric chuckled, swatting her hand away as he turned his full attention to Amber.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." He denied her claim innocently, grinning down at his cousin.
"Right, the boy who always comes first in math fails his quiz, and the class goody-two-shoes gets in trouble. On the same day." Cedric shrugged his shoulders casually, still playing dumb. "And it just happens to be the day Sofia has a date." She pressed.
"I told Sofia, I don't care about-" He began, but Amber was having none of that. She stuck her finger back in his face, narrowing her eyes as she seethed at him.
"You're so full of shit, Cedric! One of these days, Sofia will see it, too!" With that, she stormed out of the classroom, leaving Cedric to consider her words. Sofia would never suspect me, she trusts me too much. He tried to reassure himself, stealing a peek in his sister's direction.
"Hey." He said, slipping into the desk beside Sofia's. She peeked over at her brother, who opened his workbook but sat staring at it blankly. With a sigh, she scooted her desk against his.
"You really don't get this?" Sofia queried. Cedric shook his head, doing his best to feign embarrassment. "It's so easy, watch." She scrawled the letters P.E.M.D.A.S. at the top of his page, bending across his seat as she went. Cedric took the opportunity to lean forward, closing his eyes and taking a whiff of Sofia's hair while she was distracted. Of course, he knew how to do the questions, this was his best subject, but failing the quiz got him exactly what he wanted, and having her play study buddy was an unexpected bonus.
"What's that stand for?" He wrapped his arm around his twins' shoulder as she sat back in her chair.
"The P is for Parenthesis, so you solve the numbers inside first, and..." Cedric tangled a coil of copper hair around his finger, ignoring her instructions until Sofia playfully whacked his shoulder. "Are you even listening?"
"Look at how long those problems are, it's like sorcery." He complained, discreetly bringing the lock of hair to his lips.
"If it was sorcery, you'd be great at it." Sofia couldn't help but comment, hiding a small smirk.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her odd comment.
"Nothing... What are you doing back there?" She twisted her head to look back at him, yanking her hair free of his hand.
"There was a bug in your hair." He replied coldly, tearing his hand away and pretending to focus on his work. What am I thinking? And in school, of all places. He scolded himself. Ever since he had kissed her on impulse, it felt as though a flood gate had opened. Where he was once nearly afraid to touch her, he now found himself unable to keep from coming up with small ways to make contact whenever she was near. I'm just her brother. Came a whispered reminder from the back of his mind. "Are you sad... that you didn't get to go on that date?" He was afraid to hear the answer, but needed to know all at the same time.
"No, I was only going as a favor to Amber." Sofia said, leaning over his desk to give him some more pointers. Cedric suppressed a sigh of relief. "So after you do all of the parts in the parenthesis, you go back through P.E.M.D.A.S again. So the next one would be exponents."
"Sofia, you may leave now." Mr Mervin poked his head into the classroom to dismiss her. She looked back and forth between the teacher and her brother.
"Would it be alright if I stayed until he fini-" She began her request, but Cedric placed a hand on her arm and shook his head, stopping her before she could finish asking.
"It's fine. You explained it well enough that I can do the rest without you." He reassured her. Besides, if you don't leave I'll never get anything done, and we'll be here all night.
"Okay, I'll wait for you outside, then." She promised, fixing her desk before hurrying out of the room. As soon as she was gone, Cedric flew through the remaining problems.
...
Sofia made her way through the deserted halls, coming to the bank of lockers that included her own. Staring at her combination lock, she reached her hand out only to pause before touching it, losing herself in thought. The school day had seemed nearly surreal, and both her twin and her cousin were acting strangely. She's even seen them quarreling over something just before class let out, though she had no idea what the topic might have been. This was not at all how she had envisioned middle school would be. When she'd found out that both of them were going to be in class with her, she was ecstatic, imagining them hanging out together, eating lunch in a group, maybe even studying together, though she knew Amber wasn't much for cracking a book outside of the classroom. Footsteps on the tiled floor distracted her, and she glanced in the direction of the sound, expecting to find Cedric ready to walk home.
"Amber? I figured you'd be on your date by now." Sofia called out in surprise as the blonde approached her locker.
"It was cancelled. We couldn't find another girl to go last minute." Amber fumed, dropping her backpack to the ground with a thud and leaning against the wall. "You know that Cedric sabatoged you, right?" She side-eyed Sofia as she spoke.
"What are you talking about?" Sofia questioned, standing on her tiptoes to reach the top shelf of her locker. She grabbed her heavy science textbook and bent down to stick it in her own backpack.
"Sofia, wake up!" Amber shouted, kicking her bag with a grunt. "The drawing, the fight with Hugo... and that's not even all of it, he-" Before the girls knew what had happened, Cedric was standing between them, shutting Sofia's locker door with a loud, metallic slam.
"Come on, Sofia. We don't have to stay here and listen to this shit." He insisted. Picking up her bag and taking her hand in his, he started to pull her away from their cousin. Amber let out a stream of protests as they retreated down the hall, but he managed to keep Sofia from stopping to acknowledge her.
"That was rude, Cedric." Sofia scolded him while they made their way to the front gate. Cedric paused to look her over, aware that he may have actually gone too far this time.
"I have something I have to tell you, but I'd rather wait until we got home." He confessed, rubbing his thumb idly across the back of her hand.
"Does it have to do with why you were a huge a-hole to Amber just now?" Cedric failed to hold back his laughter at her poor attempt at swearing, and Sofia shot him a dirty look.
"Sorry, I'm sorry, just-" He regained his composure and tugged gently at her, urging her to follow him. "You're much too innocent to cuss, Sofia."
"I'm being serious." She pouted up at him.
"So am I." He paused to let out a deep sigh, training his eyes on the sidewalk. "Yes, it has to do with Amber, and the note from Tuesday, and even sort of with Hugo."
"If I listen to you, you have to apologize to her tomorrow." Sofia compromised. As distasteful as that sounded, Cedric recognized it for the good deal that it was, so he reluctantly agreed.
