Before:

"I told you, Ruewen. I just wanted to check on you. You're cute when you're pushy, though, so thank you for that," Keefe grinned. He instantly regretted the comment when he spared a glance for Fitz, whose eyes were burning lasers into Keefe's brain. His face was scrunched up with anger. Keefe felt, more than saw, Sophie's eye flick to Fitz before she nodded and let him go, smiling as he gave her one last smirk over his shoulder.

But she still called after him, "Hey, hail me later, okay?"

He nodded, not daring to turn and meet her eyes again.

He would not be telling her a thing, not today.

The door slammed behind him.

He ran into Biana, of all people, on the stairs, and only managed to give her a shake of the head before continuing on, the slightest hint of tears burning in his eyes.

The break after midterms ended.

Sophie hadn't seen Keefe for the rest of the six-week break, not since he had come to Havenfield and left without saying a thing. She waited for him to hail her for the rest of the night, before giving up and repeatedly saying his name into her imparter.

He didn't pick up.

She had leaped to school early, scanning the field for a carefully styled head of blond hair, but he wasn't there.

Of course he wasn't there, Sophie tried to reassure herself. Keefe would never show up to school early...

So she trained her eyes on the spot most people were appearing, concentrating so hard that she didn't notice him come up behind her.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist, and she tried to whirl to see who it was, but they were too tight. Panic flared, and she struggled to escape, tearing at the arms until a familiar voice sounded, clearing the fog of fear.

"Hey, Sophie, calm down! It's only me!" Fitz released her and spun her around to face him, rubbing his arms as though her fingernails had done some damage.

Guilt rose up in Sophie's stomach. "Sorry," she mumbled. Why had she gone all crazy, anyway? It wasn't like kidnapping was a thing, and this was her boyfriend. She had no reason to feel nervous or scared.

"It's okay," Fitz promised, although Sophie noticed his smile wasn't as bright as it normally was. "Were you looking for me when you were staring over there?"

Sophie hesitated. Fitz kinda freaked out when it came to Keefe... maybe she shouldn't tell him. But wasn't honesty a large part of dating?

She realized she'd been silent for too long, and panicked. (repanicked?) "Um, Marella!" she blurted, saying the first name that popped into her mind. "I was looking for Marella! I mean... you know, she's going through a lot, and I was just wondering if she was coming to school, even though I don't know if she has great control, and she might want to stay home..." Sophie rambled, before forcing herself to stop talking.

Fitz's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I guess..."

And... the crushing guilt came back, only worse.

Sophie was stressing over boy troubles... again! Marella was going through a monumental event in her life, which hardly anyone had ever gone through before, and Sophie was worrying over whether Fitz liked her or not?

Her issues were minuscule compared to Marella's problems. She shouldn't be anxious, not when so many people were going through worse.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Fitz asked her softly. "Why are you crying?"

She hadn't realized there were tears slipping down her cheeks.

"Nothing, I'm fine," Sophie shook her head, whisking the tears off her cheeks with her fingernails. "I'm fine," she repeated when Fitz didn't look convinced.

But then he shrugged. "Okay..." He lowered his head to brush a kiss to Sophie's lips. "Announcements will be starting soon. Let's head inside." He reached for Sophie's hand. She tried to discreetly wipe it off on her white tunic, but her palms started sweating again as she laced her fingers through his.

Hopefully, he didn't notice.

Although he did untangle their fingers as soon as they entered the building, pressing a soft kiss to Sophie's lips before heading off to his locker.

She stretched out her hand unconsciously, weaving through the growing crowd of prodigies to get to her own locker. Licking the prattles flavored sensor, the door popped open and Sophie started to get her books out...

Only to be forcefully spun to the side before she could take hold of any of them.

"What?" she snapped to the brunette beauty in front of her, before recognizing the worry in Biana's eyes. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked more softly.

"Have you heard from Keefe recently?" Biana ignored her question.

"No..." Sophie answered slowly. "Why? Is he okay?"

"That's the problem, Sophie. I don't know!" Biana grabbed Sophie's arm and started tugging her away.

"Um, school?" Sophie reminded Biana, though she was itching to know what had her so impatient.

Biana shot her an exasperated look. "One day won't hurt. And you won't miss much, I just have to talk to you! Not for long!" She didn't wait for Sophie to respond before yanking her over to a small corridor that Sophie had never even seen before.

"So what? What's wrong with Keefe?" Sophie's eyebrows pressed together with worry.

"I don't know," Biana told her. "Dad told me that something big was going on with his family, and Keefe won't answer any of my hails."

"They're probably just... I don't know. Maybe his imparter broke or something." Sophie tried to quell the growing unease in her stomach. The worry spread like fog, slowly encroaching her body.

"Imparters don't just break. I think something's wrong. This hasn't happened in a very long time. Since..." Biana pressed her fingers to her forehead, trying to remember. "Since the Great Gulon Incident, when Cassius took Keefe's imparter and almost sent him to Exilium."

Sophie shivered, remembering the anxiety and fear that Keefe would be expelled from Foxfire. "But Keefe hasn't done anything that I know of, so why would Cassius punish him?"

"Exactly," Biana's eyes bored into Sophie's. "So what's wrong with him? Why is he not responding? I say we go over to Candleshade after school, and confront him. We need to know what's wrong."

Sophie winced, thinking of Lord Cassius's insincere smile and Lady Gisela's cold eyes. But for Keefe... "Fine. Should I bring Fitz?"

Biana hesitated. "How about... no. Sorry, but I don't think Keefe would want him to be there, with... everything happening."

Sophie nodded, even though she didn't fully understand what Biana was saying. What was up with Fitz and Keefe?

The question almost haunted her through the day, along with worrying about Keefe and wondering whether Marella was okay. By the end of the day, Sophie was fidgeting and restless, aching to get out of school and meet up with Biana. She tapped her foot endlessly on the ground, twisting her fingers in the waist of her tunic.

Lunch flew by, but classes dragged on, until it was finally study hall. Sophie read the same sentence in her textbook over and over again, not taking in a word of it. She noticed that Biana was doing the same, not turning the page of a book she was reading.

Finally, (finally!) study hall ended and Sophie ran to Biana and gripped her arm.

"Come on," Biana hissed, guiding her into an enclosed space. "We'll use your home crystal because our gates take too long to open. Then we'll leap from there to Candleshade."

Sophie nodded, praying that her parents weren't home, weren't home, weren't home... and held her crystal up to the light, leaping Biana with her.

Home.

Blessing of blessings, Edaline and Grady weren't there to see Sophie and Biana run to the Leapmaster, halting underneath the crystals.

Biana opened her mouth to instruct the crystals, but Sophie squeezed her arm, stopping her. "Keefe... doesn't like having friends over. I've never even been inside his house. How do you know that he won't get mad at us for going there? Maybe we're overreacting. Maybe he just stayed home and he... I don't know... lost his imparter?"

Biana shook her head. "No, I think he's really upset. Something happened that was disappointing to him, in the middle of break. The day I came over, in fact. The day you and Fitz got back together."

The knowing glance Biana threw Sophie felt accusatory, for some reason. "Is that why he came over? But- I told him to hail me later so we could talk, and he didn't! So it can't be my fault... can it?"

Biana shrugged. "How would I know? But come on, we should go now, before your parents come home."

"Wait, I have a better idea," Sophie told her friend, turning to the leapmaster. "Keefe usually doesn't go to his house after school, he goes..." She called out the name of the meadow she had gone to see Keefe in before, and the leapmaster twisted to let light reflect off the correct facet.

"Wow, you know Keefe really well, don't you," Biana commented, a small, mysterious smile curving her lips. "Come on!" She pulled Sophie into the light, leaping both of them.

Sophie let the warm feathers take her to a familiar meadow, the bright green grass bent down in the center of the clearing.

But while there was a Keefe-sized imprint in the grass, there was no handsome, blond elf stretched out in the middle of the clearing. Sophie turned a slow circle, hoping that she had missed some detail. But he still wasn't there.

"Ugh, I guess we should try Candleshade, then," Sophie sighed. "I really thought he'd be here."

There was a slight thump from the side of the meadow, and Sophie and Biana spun around to find Keefe standing there, staring at the two girls in shock. His shirt was rumpled, his pants crinkled, and, the horror of horrors, his Hair was hanging limply over his forehead, unstyled, not even mussed. There were purple circles under his eyes, and the notebook dangling from his hand, another on the ground, which was the thump they'd heard.

The notebook she'd gotten him, Sophie noted, was the one in his hand. The other was a plain, gray notebook that she'd never seen before.

"What-" Keefe cleared his throat, straightening his shirt. "What are you doing here?"

"We were worried about you," Sophie said softly, debating whether or not to cross the grass to move next to him.

"You- shouldn't be," Keefe said jerkily, not at all in the smooth way Sophie was used to. "I- everything's fine."

Biana raised an eyebrow. "Mhmm. I'm sure you are. That's why you didn't answer any of our hails, or come to school."

Keefe swore softly. "School... yeah. I just-"

"Right." Sophie made up her mind, crossing the meadow to him until she was standing right in front of him. He lowered his head, closing his eyes a beat too long before opening them wide and taking a step back. Away from her.

Sophie tried not to let the hurt show, even though it sliced through her like a knife. "What's wrong?"

"Should I be asking you the same thing?" Keefe eyed her. Of course, he'd felt her emotions.

Empaths.

"No, I am completely okay. Don't even try the whole, answering a question with a question thing, cause you KNOW it doesn't work on me." Sophie crossed her arms, waiting for his answer.

Keefe shifted on his feet. He kept his mouth closed.

"Seriously?" Biana demanded when the silence continued for too long. "Just tell her- us," She corrected herself.

Sophie cut a suspicious glance her way, before deciding it wasn't worth it and focusing again on Keefe.

"Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with that," Keefe snapped at Biana, his gaze turning angry. "My life doesn't revolve around... that."

"Around what?" Sophie asked.

"Nothing," Biana and Keefe responded in unison. Sophie swallowed her growl of frustration and fixed her gaze on Keefe's ice-blue eyes.

There was a jolt of... something... in her stomach, but she ignored it. She could figure out what THAT meant later. "We're waiting," Sophie reminded him, her foot tapping with impatience. A small smile curved Keefe's lips (why was she looking at his lips?) before collapsing into a frown.

"The thing is..." Keefe trailed off. "Wait, don't you already know?" He frowned at Biana. "Your dad knows, so didn't he tell you?"

"He told me something was going on, but not what. Tell us!" Biana narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure it's not... you know?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Keefe swore under his breath again. "I guess I have to tell you, don't I."

It wasn't a question.

"Fine." Keefe hesitated for a long second... two... and then let it out in one big breath, almost too quietly to hear. "My parents are applying for a match-fail."

pLoT tWiSt

Bet you thought this had something to do with Sophie-

I wanted to make it so Keefe's life didn't revolve around her-