The two weeks that followed had me so busy with schoolwork, especially with midterms coming up, that it was practically impossible to hang out with even Blythe, never mind go back to Eamon's house and have a heart to heart about my abilities. Still, during study hall he would sometimes transmit to me and there was a night where he hailed me on my imparter and we talked until both of us fell asleep. 

It felt weird. Suddenly Eamon Foster wasn't the enemy who I hated growing up, but he was a friend. Three weeks before, if someone told me I wouldn't hate Eamon Foster I'd laugh. If someone had told me I'd think of him as a friend, I'd laugh even harder. I guess life just worked mysteriously. 

Things continued on as normally as they could with my secret abilities on the horizon, until I got home from school on the two week anniversary of my first ever ability training session and both my parents were waiting for me, talking quietly in the living room. 

I was confused, usually at least one of them would always watch over the restaurant. "Hello?" I called out to them when I entered the room and both immediately jumped up. 

My mom waved around a scroll in her hand as if it was a prize. "You were summoned." 

"I was what?" I looked at them with widened eyes. 

"Not like that," my father cut in, rolling his eyes in my mother's direction. Being summoned generally meant being put to trial. "She meant as in your presence was asked for."

"By who?" I asked. 

"Apparently the request we placed when you were much younger to see Councilor Terik was just accepted." He narrowed his eyes. "We're not sure about the sudden change of heart. Apparently you were recommended by Leulla Foster, who was asked to recommend you by her mother." 

"Oh." 

"Since when have you been in contact with Sophie Foster?" My mother looked at me with what could only be described as betrayal. "She's not exactly the type of person we want you idolizing, no matter how much the general public loves her. She got where she has because of genetics, not because of hard work." 

I sighed. I knew how my parents felt. I'd gotten the speech plentiful times. "I'm not in contact with Sophie Foster. She must have said something to Leulla about me after my run in with Eamon and then mentioned something about potential. I don't know." I silently cursed Eamon for making things harder. He had one job. 

"Well, your father is going to take you Friday night." 

"Wait, but that's when Blythe and I were supposed to have our sleepover," I immediately complained. With everything crazy happening in my life we still hadn't gotten around to finally having one, and I finally got to a point where I felt confident I wouldn't accidentally give my powers away to her. 

"You can still have it," my dad assured. "You'll just have to push it back maybe an hour."

I pursed my lips but nodded. "Okay. I'll go call her, and I still need to finish my homework." While I was still planning to keep my ability a secret, I had slowly grown accustomed to having it. It was slowly becoming like a second nature to me, which sounded kind of scary. It felt as if there was never a time before I had the ability. 

My mentor also said that I was a fast learner, and decided to give me some easy assignments to practice at home that focused on controlling myself so I wouldn't accidentally burn my home down to the ground. Well, those were my words. She tried to assure me that I wouldn't be burning anything down anytime soon, that that was a little extreme and while a fast learner I was still new to the art, and big fires were definitely something that took practice. 

When I got to my room I immediately took out my imparter and hailed Blythe, who answered not after a second. "What's up?" she asked. 

"Somehow I got scheduled to see Councilor Terik on Friday, so our sleepover is going to be pushed back an hour at most," I told her, frowning. "I'm really sorry." 

"Well, it's not like you're cancelling on me. An hour won't hurt. Compared to the years we've waited, an hour is measly." She smiled at me, and I was reminded of how understanding of a best friend I somehow lucked out with. 

"You know I love you, right?" I grinned at her. 

"Not as much as I love you," she replied with. "I've still got some stuff to do because I got nothing done in Study Hall, can I take a raincheck on this conversation until tomorrow? Maybe we can hang out."

I looked at her sadly. "I have to help out my parents tomorrow," I informed. "What about Thursday for hanging out?" 

She shook her head. "That's a no go for me. All the parents from our group are meeting up and taking the kids with them. Well, by kids obviously I mean me, Eamon, Serena, and Mika are going to be hanging out while Gia and Fabian stay with our parents."

Generally all of Blythe's cousins were around her age, the oddballs being that Leulla was an adult, Ivan and Celeste were in the elite levels, and Gia and Fabian were children. Blythe still might as well be an oddball being that she never really got along with her cousins. Mika and Serena were at least semi-okay with her, being her biological cousins, but she never seemed to get along with the Fosters. Not only Eamon, but Ivan and Leulla as well just didn't have agreeable personalities with her. 

"So I guess Friday is it," I lamely replied after a second. 

She let out a small chuckle. "I miss when we weren't so busy all the time. What's up with that?" 

"I'm not sure," I lied. "But I think we'll get to hanging out again soon." 

"NOVA!" I heard my mom yell from downstairs. "YOU HAVE A VISITOR!" 

I frowned in confusion. "Well, I guess I've got to go," I told Blythe. "Love you, bye." She said similar farewells before I hung up and walked downstairs to find Eamon standing there awkwardly. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked in confusion, sending a worried side glance to my mom. She was standing there with crossed arms, and I immediately knew she was angry. As if I lied about my relationship with the Fosters. Which, to be fair, I did lie, but it hurt she immediately assumed it anyways. 

"I- uh," he looked nervously at my mom. "There's an issue and my mom sent me to get you." 

"Get me for what?" 

"She said that you might be able to help. It's a problem with dinner, she knows you help with your parents restaurant and you could give her assistance. She seems to think we're somehow best friends because we smacked each other in the hallway once."

I looked to my mom wearily, hoping she bought the ending of his small speech, about how we're not truly friends. Hoping she believed it. "Oh," was all I replied to him as I looked to my mom. "Well, it would be mean not to go help, wouldn't it?" 

"Normally I would tell you to stay home, but it is a nice chance for you to showcase your culinary skills," my mom replied, though I could tell it was through gritted teeth. 

"Cool, let's go," I grabbed Eamon's arm and led him to our leapmaster. 

"You don't have that many places on here," he muttered as we reached it. 

"Not everyone has famous parents, now where are you taking me and why?" 

"Some meeting for pyrokinetics," he tried to explain. "My aunt Marella forgot to tell you about it in your session today, and fetched me to go grab you." 

"Meeting for pyrokinetics?" My face was most likely scrunched up. 

"My same reaction," he said with a small laugh. "But she said it might help you with acceptance. There are others who have manifested since the law allowed people to attempt to trigger the ability, and a lot share your views."

"I've said this a thousand times, I don't want anyone to know and I don't want to think about it after I learn to control it." 

"Do you still believe that's possible, though?" He looked at me quizzically. 

"What do you mean?" I questioned, confused. 

"Once you learn to control it, do you think you'll want to no longer use it?" he asked. "And what if you one day get married and have kids. Will you tell your husband? What about your kids? Especially if one of them manifests. I know we're young and you don't think you have to worry about this kind of stuff, but next year you're old enough to apply for your matchmaking scrolls. So obviously you're not as young as you think." Then he frowned. "And what are you going to tell people when all your matches are people with abilities? You're not allowed to lie on those forms, especially about your ability." 

I shuffled my feet slightly. "I don't want to think about this right now." 

He nodded in reply before holding out his hand. "How about we shake on a truce for right now? I don't want to argue with you, especially if it's about your life plans that have nothing to do with me." 

I shook his hand. "I guess I'll try going to the meeting." 

"Great! My aunt said the meeting will be about an hour long. I recommend you tell your mom you might gone for a little bit now that I think about it." I took his advice and left him where he was standing by the leapmaster to find my mom. She was working on a new recipe in the kitchen that she was considering adding to the menus at the restaurant. 

"That was quick," my mom said with a snort. 

I rolled my eyes. "I actually came to warn you that I might be gone for a little over an hour." 

"I figured if you're going over there to cook. Recipes can take a while, take your time. It's good practice, and show those stuffy nobles what you can do." I gave her a small hug good bye and waved to my dad on my way back towards Eamon. 

"Ready to go?" he asked. "It won't be scary, it's only a room full of people who can control fire." 

"Well when you put it like that it almost makes me not want to go." 

"Almost?" He smirked, and for a moment I realized just how much he did inherit from his father despite his face resembling mostly his mother. 

"Let's go," I replied with a lack of enthusiasm. 

---

the new keeper book FLASHBACK comes out on tuesday so i'm hoping i can type out a quick chapter for y'all by monday. bc if i don't have another chapter out by monday y'all are gonna be waiting a hot minute as I read flashback and probably cry over it bc knowing shannon someone's about to die and we're all going to be stressed. 

my biggest fear is that she's going to introduce a new character and all the comments on my book are going to be "where's _____?" bc that's all i get on my old fanfic on my other account since tam and linh didn't exist when i originally wrote it. 

i'm also scared she's going to kill off someone important that appears in these books because 1. she might kill of someone i love and 2. all the comments are going to become spoilers and people will constantly remind me that "hey that person died"