About ten minutes after Barbie finished, Foster woke up. And in the entire time of the movie, I had been thinking about what she said. In turn, I was also thinking about what Elwin said.

We had just gotten to the hospital the day after the accident, waiting for the all clear to see Sophie. Elwin was the one to come get us, because he's everywhere.

He stopped us before we could go in.

"Real quick, I just need you all to know she's gonna be pretty loopy when she wakes up. With her allergy to limbium, we had to give her different pain meds. These ones have quite the effect on her filter, so basically she's gonna be spouting the truth and real secrets of hers. So you probably need to tell her not to tell any secrets, also just try not to provoke it in any way."

He opened the door and let us in. We stood in the corner of the room by the door, just talking and waiting for her to wake up. I felt really bad for the way I handled everything the day before, so I was hoping she wasn't too loopy, to the point where I could still talk to her seriously.

"Keefe." I heard a very familiar and groggy voice, followed by giggles. I spun around way too quickly, I was about to sprint to her side, but decided just to walk. I mean, Bangs Boy was there, he would make some jokes about how whipped I am and whatever.

When I got to her side, her eyes were slightly crossing and her head was tilting. Her smile was wide though, but almost to the point where it was too wide and just unnatural.

"You've gotta stop being so clumsy, you're falling!" That's when I knew she was way more out of it than we thought. I laughed and put my hands on the sides of her heads, tilting it upright.

"No, Foster, you're just tilting your head." I watched as she started tilting her head from side to side, giggling and completely in her own world. Eventually I straightened her head again, worried she would get hurt. What? No, I didn't say I was worried. I-I-I said scurried! Yeah! You know, because Lord Hunkyhair doesn't get worried.

"You've gotta be careful, Foster. They put you on pain meds so you're a little loopy." I remembered what Elwin said, and quickly added more. "Just make sure you don't go sharing any secrets you don't want to." She gasped and clutched her chest, acting offended. It was really cute.

"I am not loopy! I'm fine. You're loopy. Also I don't think I have many secrets that you don't know about." She crossed her arms, which was yet again cute. She was so delusional but it was adorable. "Oh!" Oh crap, she thought of something. Her voice lowered into a whisper. "I'm Moonlark."

At first I had thought she must've made that up, but Elwin told us the pain meds were basically truth serum. So, what if she was telling the truth?

I knew that Moonlark and Techno had never even been close to Eternalia, then when Sophie moved, and we talked with her nearby about concerts not being close enough, Moonlark brought a concert directly to Eternalia. It would be a major coincidence. Maybe too big of a coincidence. Also, she performed a new song at that concert, saying it was about loved ones she's lost (her family), and her friend who recently lost someone, which was right after Stina's dad passed away.

Foster turned to me, her eyes cleared. Tam and Linh had left with Biana, and Dex was still fast asleep.

"Hi." She whispered, her voice also no longer slurred.

"Hi." I repeated, smiling down at where she was laying on my chest. After she had fallen asleep, she moved over to lean on me instead of Linh.

"I feel weird." She closed her eyes again, cuddling closer to me.

"Probably the meds, you were pretty loopy earlier." I took a deep breath. "You actually said something, and it kinda makes sense." Her head tilted up towards mine, giving me her full attention. "Are you Moonlark?" Her eyes widened in horror, only for a half a second, before she looked humorous.

"Ha! No, of course not! Isn't that silly? Where'd you get that idea? Who told you? Was it Dex? You can never listen to a thing he says, always yap yap yapping." She laughed again, sounding more stressed than carefree.

"You told me, like I said before. When you were loopy. And that stuff's supposed to work like truth serum." She looked worried again. "It's okay if you are, I promise I won't tell anyone. You know you can trust me." She nodded.

"Okay, okay yeah. I mean, it's not like I can convince you I'm not at this point, right? So yeah. Mhm. Yep." She looked and sounded really nervous so I wrapped my arms around her, rubbing her shoulder and putting my chin over her head.

"It's okay. I'm still here and I won't tell anyone, I won't leave." I pressed a kiss into the top of her head. "Oh, I won't use you for money or fame either, I've already got that." She laughed a little, making me smile. Not that she could see it of course.

Dex coughed a little, and I quickly turned to the chair he was in. Thankfully, he was still fast asleep and just shifting positions. I turned back to Sophie, who was looking at him trying to hold in a laugh.

"Wait, does that make Dex Techno?"

"Yeah. You know, we started doing this whole thing not long after I got adopted. We both liked to sing, so we made YouTube videos. We honestly weren't expecting to get big, we were just thinking it was gonna be fun."

"How'd you come up with the names?" It was one of the questions never answered in interviews, and I was really curious where Foster came up with Moonlark.

"Well Dex really likes technology and hacking and all that, so he wanted a name relating to it. And for me, it was a little nickname my parents called me. I'm pretty sure it came from a children's book or nursery rhyme or something. No one knows about it except for my family and our manager, and now you, so I knew it wouldn't give away who I am." She was smiling while talking about it, about the memory of her parents.

"It's nice that you chose Moonlark as your stage name. It's like you're honoring your parents with every song." Her grin widened, even with the tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Thanks." It was more of a breath than an actual word, but I could hear the appreciation all the same.

For the rest of the weekend and into school, I hung out with Sophie while she healed. I had to be really careful when hugging her, or even making sure she was careful when moving, so that she wouldn't hurt herself.

Of course, no matter how much I tried to keep her from hurting herself, she still somehow managed. There was one time I was walking right next to her while she was getting a snack from her kitchen, when she ran into the corner of the island in the center of the room. On the side with the fractured ribs. Again, while I was right next to her.

When she was able to go back to school, I was constantly hovering around her, except when we had different classes or places we were going. During all school PE she had to sit out, and she looked really sad but I couldn't help but be happy. It was another way she wouldn't get hurt.

Eventually she was pretty much fine and wasn't feeling any pain, yet I still watched over her. I've only known her for almost five months and I've already seen her get hurt more times than I could count. It always felt so nice when I could protect her, when I helped her. I'd do almost anything for her, not including letting her jump off a bridge, which she wanted to do yet again.

"Please Keefe!" She begged, using her puppy eyes. I melted just a little bit, but didn't give in.

"No, I'm not letting you jump off a bridge! Spring exams start tomorrow, it's your fault you haven't studied at all." She looked thoughtful for a moment before perking up.

"My injury! I can use that as an excuse!"

"Elwin cleared you for PE two days ago." I crossed my arms across my chest while she gave me her puppy eyes again, channeling my inner Bex with the look I gave her.

"I'm failing." She whined and flopped onto her bed, arms sprawled dramatically like a starfish.

"Not if I can help it." I turned around to see Dex jump through the window, rolling, then popping back up into a Spider Man position. He stood up and walked over to Sophie like the main character in an action movie. "You're Sophie Freaking Foster, you can do anything. Remember when you discovered your amazing talent for art?"

"Remember how many tests I've failed in the past?" She retorted.

"Psh no, that's too many to count. I lost track after sixty-eight. But, with my help, you can pass your tests!" She smiled up at him. I loved their cousin and sibling-like bond. It made me really wish I had a sibling. Fitz was probably the closest to it, but we'd grown more and more apart over the years. I felt like he was keeping something from me but I didn't know what. Eventually he just stopped responding to my texts and being super dry when talking to me in person.

"Sorry, Dexipoo, I think it's kinda impossible at this point." He shook his head at her statement.

"Haven't you learned yet? Nothing is impossible when it comes to you." Everyone was silent for a moment before bursting out with laughter.

"Cheesiest thing ever said!" Foster wheezed out. Dex had his grumpy cat face on.

"You know what, let's just get back on topic. I can help you with math and alchemy, Keefe can help with history, with his photographic memory and all, you clearly don't need help for band and spanish, Biana can help with english. Oh, and I'm sure Keefe would also love to help you with health!" A cough burst out of me in surprise, and Foster's eyes bulged out of her head.

"Jesus, Dex!" She grabbed a random flip flop from under her bed and threw it at him. He had about three seconds to dodge, yet somehow it still whacked him straight in the face. He still kept laughing though.

We spent the rest of the night helping Sophie study for the tests she'd have the next day, history and band. Meaning we just studied history with her. Dex also had history, then he and I studied math together, even though we had it at different times. When I got home I just went to bed, having studied a month in advance for english.

The next day I met up with my friends early at school and we all hung out, having to be at class fifteen minutes later than the regular time.

For my math exam, it was just pre-calculus which was pretty easy, again with my photographic memory. During the ten minute passing period, I walked Foster to her class, holding her by her shoulders and having her walk directly in front of me to keep anyone from bumping into her and causing her pain.

"How'd you do?" I asked her once we got to her class. There was still about seven minutes left so I sat down in the seat next to her.

"Pretty well, I think. I had a hard time remembering the dates and titles of wars and all that, but I made 'educated guesses.' But I also knew most of it, thanks to you." She bumped my shoulder with hers. "What about you?"

"I'm fairly certain I aced it." Foster broke my hand in a high five. I tried to hide my squeak-I mean squeal-I mean manly noise of pain, in a cough. "Photographic memory, really no problem." She rolled her eyes, muttering 'Show off' under her breath.

The minute bell rang so I ran off, staring in jealousy at the collection of food on the table in the band room. They were having a 'food exam,' basically just bringing in food and eating and playing games. I was so jealous.

About two hours later Sophie and I were done with exams and eating lunch with the rest of our friends.

"Results for history got posted!" Dex practically shouted to Foster, looking at his phone. "I passed, ninety-eight percent!" Sophie's eyes widened, snatching her phone like a little gremlin. Her face immediately dropped.

"Seventy-one." She swore. I quickly grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face me.

"Hey, that's still passing! You passed!" She looked at me like my optimism was unnecessary and she was already doomed.

"That's still really low, Keefe. I barely passed." I didn't know what to say that would actually help. I just wrapped my arm around her, leaning my head on hers after she put it on my shoulder.

Marella and Biana, who also took the same history exam today, both didn't say their results out loud, but I saw that the former got an eighty-nine and the latter got a ninety-six.

That teacher was always really fast with grading, so it was really only them that had any results already.

After we paid for lunch, I drove Biana over to Sophie and Dex's houses and the four of us hung out for the rest of the day, also studying for our next tests together.

The next day went pretty much the same, hanging out, taking our tests, getting lunch, then helping Foster study. And the day after that, which was our last day of midterms. The next week, during break, we all met up to look at our results together. They had came out staggered so that's why we decided to all look on the same day to see them at the same time, and be together while we did.

Not very shockingly, I got hundreds on everything. The rest did pretty good too, some high and low A's, B's, and a few C's. Sophie did the worst. After getting to know her for a while, I learned that her memory was pretty bad for everything except traumatic memories, or really happy memories. But she couldn't memorize facts for her life.

"I got hundreds in band and Spanish, that's it." She said dejectedly. "I got low eighties in English and health, then seventy-three in math and sixty-four in alchemy." I held her in my arms again. There was nothing I could say to help and I knew it. Even if I reminded her that she passed, she'd just think about how that's the only thing anybody can say, or how everyone did better, or how she barely passed some classes.

"It's alright." She let me know, squeezing me back quickly then letting go.

The plan was to go get ice cream afterwards to celebrate good scores, but I could already tell that Sophie wasn't feeling up for it. Yet, she still plastered on a smile and went with us. We all laughed over shared memories and funny stories from the quarter, and just the year overall.

Around three in the afternoon, I drove Sophie back home. We were just hanging out in her room, laying on her fluffy carpet side by side, when I thought of something that could cheer her up.

"Can I hear some songs?" Without even looking at her, I could feel her emotions becoming happier. Music made her so happy, if anything could cheer her up it'd be singing.

She grabbed her keyboard from the corner of her room, setting it on her desk and sitting down. I pulled her fluffy bean bag over and plopped down next to her, ready to be blown away.

"This one's called Since You Been Gone, but spelled with the letter 'U' rather than the word." I smiled at her specification. "Dex likes it better when it's an upbeat rock song, but I prefer the slower piano version. I'm just gonna play the main part, I don't have all the verses' lyrics figured out yet."

She started playing a soft melody, pressing her long fingers into the keys gently. It was a slower song, I could already tell, but I didn't mind.

"But since you've been gone
I can breathe for the first time
I'm so moving on
Yeah, yeah
Thanks to you
Now I get what I want
Since you've been gone"

She continued playing for a few beats, coming to a slow stop.

"Is that about Noah?" I asked. She nodded.

"Hate that guy." She smirked when I laughed.

"Me too, Foster, me too."

"Do you wanna hear another one?" I perked up immediately, nodding my head rapidly.

She grabbed her guitar, which was right next to where the keyboard was, then went back over to her bed to sit down.

"This one's Belong Together, and it's also a small part because we don't have it fully down yet, but I bet you can guess who inspired it."

She started strumming, then began to sing.

"Blueberries and butterflies, the
Pretty things that greet my eyes
When you call, and I say, "I'm on my way" (one, two!)You and me belong together
Like cold iced tea and warmer weather
Where we lay out late underneath the pines
And we still have fun when the sun won't shine
You and me belong together all the time"

"Is this your way of saying you love me?" I smirked at her cute blush.

"Psh, no, it's called lyricism, songwriting, blah blah blah. Nobody would like it if I said 'You and me might belong together,' that just sounds dumb!"

"It's okay, Foster." I couldn't stop laughing at her mini rant. "I think you and me might belong together—like cold iced tea might belong with warmer weather—too." Her blush deepened.Honestly I didn't even care about the songs much with everything else. Of course, I loved that she wrote a song about me, and it was my new favorite song, but it just made me so happy to see her peaceful smile and closed eyes as she sang, hearing her melodic voice. Moonlark's voice was always good on her pop and upbeat songs, but I've always preferred her slower songs, where she really just focused on her vocals and the amount of power and emotion you could hear behind it. And after that moment, I liked it even more. I liked her even more.

i love sokeefe. also yes i know sophie has photographic memory too, don't come at me. you just gotta trust. i hope you guys liked the chapter, also thanks to Candy_Bar189 for the Since U Been Gone idea, then i also added a cutesy little love song because sokeefe. again hope you guys enjoyed, and i love you all!

oh also next week you're getting a double update! also it's gonna be on sunday instead of monday like this week's, but the schedule will be going back to mondays after that!

Avery, out ->

🫳

🎤