Once they had leapt back to Havenfield, the group settled in the living room, Grady and Edaline handing them cups of cinnacream and custard bursts.
"So," Biana said, sipping her cup of cinnacream. "Should we open our scrolls?"
"I guess we should," Linh said. "On a count of three?"
"Okay," Sophie agreed.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three!"
Sophie tore open her scroll, shakily reading up the list. She didn't know the final fifty boys, but she started to recognize more names as she read the top fifty.
Jensi was her forty seventh pick.
Wylie was her twenty ninth.
Tam was her eighteenth.
And Fitz... he was her number four. Sophie couldn't help but smile. He would be happy about that. Something felt strange, though. She would have to ask Keefe about it. With his photographic memory, he could look over the list and help her find what was wrong... Keefe! He wasn't on her scroll! Wait. She was sure she had seen him somewhere.
Sophie frantically went back through the scroll, searching for his name. And... there it was...
Number eighty three. Eighty three. He was her eighty three.
How?
Keefe was giving her a strange look. Seeing him point to his head, Sophie transmitted, Where am I on your scroll?
Ninety nine, he thought, shaking his head. You'd think we would be higher on each other's lists. What about me?
Eighty three, Sophie transmitted, shaking her head. This isn't right. We should be higher. We went over our packets together the day after the sleepover to make sure we had matching answers. Theoretically we should be number ones, or at least on each other's top ten. So why'd this happen?
I think I know, Keefe thought. My dad. The matchmaker said that he asked her to give me so called 'quality' matches. My dad's never liked you. So... he probably made it so we were low on each other's lists.
Sophie gasped. That's right! He probably wanted to make us doubt our relationship so you end up with someone 'worthy.'
I really hate him right now.
No kidding. Hey, you wanna see my other matches? Sophie asked.
"Sure. You can look at mine, too," Keefe said out loud, handing his scroll to Sophie.
Unsurprisingly, Biana was his number six. Linh was his fourteen. Marella was thirty one. Sophie didn't know the rest of the people, except, of course, for her. Ninety nine. She still couldn't believe it. Two more spaces and she wouldn't have been in his top tier. That was... mind blowing.
"Fitz is your number four?" Keefe asked.
Sophie blushed. "Yeah."
"Oh."
"Is there something wrong with that?" Sophie asked, frowning. "It's not like I like him or anything. I like you. You know that."
"It's nothing. I'm just wondering how he feels about it," Keefe grumbled.
"You know, green isn't a good color on you," Sophie said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.
"What?" Keefe asked, wrinkling his forehead. "I'm not wearing any green. Anyways, I look good in anything."
"No, you idiot," Sophie said, rolling her eyes. "It means I don't like it when you're jealous."
"I- I'm sorry," Keefe said. He turned to Fitz, who was watching their conversation intently. "That wasn't fair of me. Sorry, Fitz. You're my best friend. You don't even like Sophie like that. And even if you did, I hope that you wouldn't make a move on her. And even if you did, and Sophie liked you back, I'd be fine with that, because Sophie would be happy, and that's all I want. That's all I've ever wanted."
"That's fine. I know that I would feel the same way if it was the other way around," Fitz said. "
"Yeah. Hey, Sophie?" Keefe asked. "Where's Dex?"
"He's..." Sophie started to say as she scrolled down her list. "Not there."
Dex's eyes widened. "I'm-I'm n-not there?"
Sophie shook her head. She knew that even if you hadn't asked for a matchmaker's scroll you could still appear on someone else's scroll. You only had to have filled out a packet. So... why wasn't Dex there? Did their answers not match? No, Sophie had seen Dex checking her packet to see if their answers were similar, and he had seemed pretty happy about the answers. Maybe he was on the next list. If he wasn't, then he probably wouldn't be there at all. But... that meant that that either he was married, the matchmakers thought telepathy and technopathy didn't match, or he was her relative.
That was it! Sophie had never thought of Dex as her cousin, but technically they were related. Edaline, Sophie's adoptive mom, was the sister of Juline, Dex's mom. Because they weren't blood related, Sophie had never thought that they were family, but it was becoming increasingly clear that they were.
"I think I know why," Dex said quietly, breaking the thick silence.
"I do, too," Sophie whispered.
Slowly, carefully, the two said together, "We're related."
Biana smiled. "Well, duh. Did you forget that? Just because you aren't blood family doesn't mean you aren't related. I mean, Sophie, do you still consider your mom your mom even though you're not related by blood?"
"Yeah, I guess," Sophie said.
"So if you think of her like that, then you and Dex are related." Biana rolled her eyes. "Obviously."
"Yeah," Dex said grudgingly. "I guess."
Sophie smiled. She knew that Dex had a crush on her, and accepting that they were cousins would hopefully open his mind to other girls. Maybe Biana... no, not her. She would probably end up with Tam. Maybe Linh. They were both very gentle and kind. Linh seemed to like Fitz, though. But Fitz liked Sophie, and Sophie liked Keefe, and Keefe liked Sophie... And Biana was getting over a crush on Keefe, and Tam liked Biana...
Why did her friends have to be so confusing?