“You said you wouldn’t do that again!” Sophie cries.
“Sorry! I forgot that my Seeking would get a boost with the reset too.” I try to explain. Then the pain catches up with me. I wince, and try to carefully lean back agains my pillows.
“Maybe try a warning that we can actually understand next time?” Elwin says.
“Sorry, I was a little rushed.”
“Don’t be next time. Actually, don’t let there be a next time.” Sophie says.
“I know. I’ll be more careful.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” Dex leaps in.
“WHATHAPPENEDISSHEOK?!” He shouts.
“I’m ok. Well, mostly ok.”
“What happened?”
“I sort of accidentally went Seeking at your house.”
“Is that why I heard you shout ‘Don’t’ after Elwin hailed me?”
“It’s… a long story since you guys don’t know anything about Seeking. So something I completely forgot about since I normally odn’t do it is that you’re not supposed to talk while you’re Seeking. But if you were about to start doing stuff to me, that could be a disaster. So I shouted don’t before I could think about it. And that like cuts the energy you have for it in half, for just one word. And so I had to come back. And I almost ran out of energy-”
“So you used some of it to transmit to me?” Sophie asks.
“Yeah.”
“Wait, she transmitted to you?” Elwin asks Sophie. “Is that why you started enhancing?”
“Yeah. I just heard her voice in my head, really quiet, telling me to enhance, so I did.”
“It gave me the last boost I needed to get back. And I consider it a total win that I was able to transmit while I was about 20 seconds away from death by mental beast.”
“You were able to transmit!” Dex says.
“I was!” I hadn’t even realized that I couldn’t have done that before the reset, since it was so normal for me.
“Try inflicting!” Sophie says. “Just use positive emotions.” It doesn’t take long to make her burst out laughing.
“It worked!” I say, laughing. “I’m finally back to normal.” Dex gives me a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Does this mean you can come back to school?” He asks.
“Well, her vitals look fine, and if everything really is back to normal, then yes.” Elwin says.
“I’ll hail everyone to meet us at Havenfield in an hour.” Sophie says. “We’re going to have a party to celebrate.”
oOo
Plannig parties is not really Sophie’s strong suit, but she manages it. Edaline is in the kitchen making butterblasts, while Grady is helping Sophie put up decorations. I try to help, but everyone keeps insisting that I rest.
“Why though? I’m fine now. I can help with stuff.” I protest when Edaline tries to drag me to bed for the hundredth time.
“Why don’t you invite Dex over earlier than everyone else? He can talk with you in your room.”
“Fine.” A few minutes later, I’m in my bed, and Dex is next to me.
“I’m glad you’re back.” He says.
“You should probably know that while I was Seeking at your house, I saw your diary.”
“Oh. Uh…” He turns super red. “I didn’t think you would see that.”
“It’s ok.” I laugh. “I love you too.” That manages to make him go even redder, which I didn’t think was possible.
“Oh, you saw that page.”
“Yeah. What were you thinking I saw?”
“The pages from when you first came here…”
“Well now I’m curious.”
“It was basically just me ranting about how beautiful you are. How you always matched your makeup to your outfit, and how your hair was always flawless.”
“Aww. That’s so cute.” I lean in and kiss him.
“Well, now you’re fixed, so I won’t have to worry about you as much, right?”
“Right. I make no promises, but I really will try.”
“I gess that’s the best I’ll ever get with the Neverseen still out there, huh?”
“Yeah. But no matter how hard it gets, I’ll keep fighting, and I’ll keep surviving.”
“You’d better. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You would keep fighting for the causes I believed in. I know you would.”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what I would do.” He smiles. Someone leaps in, and when we go to investigate, we liarn that it’s Fitz and Biana. Fitz disappears to talk to Keefe almost as soon as he steps in the door, while Biana joins me and Dex.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were up?” Biana asks.
“Sorry, it was just a lot happening at once. I guess I just didn’t think about telling everyone else.”
“Just tell me next time. Or even better, don’t let there be a next time.”
“I will try. And that’s about all I’m saying at the moment.” She sighs and smiles.
“Always something with you. I’m just glad to have you back.”
“Yeah, I’m gald to be back.” Soon, everyone else gets here. The boys didn’t really want to stick around for too long, so they all went to do who knows what in Keefe’s room. Dex went too, since he had already talked to me earlier.
“So what do you guys want to do?” Linh asks.
“I don’t know. I didn’t really have a plan for this part.” Sophie admits.
“How about we play a game?” Marella suggests.
“Sure. What do we have?” I ask.
“Well, first let’s choose if we want to play a human or elvin game.” Sophie says.
“Human game.” Everyone says.
“Ok. Should we do one that we did at the sleepover, or find a new one?” I ask.
“Why don’t we do a new one?” Stina says.
“I’ll grab my iPod.” Sophie says. “Dex hooked it up to the human internet, so I can Google stuff on it.” She explains when I look confused. A minute lare, we’re all crowded around Sophie’s tiny iPod screen while she scrolls through various game ideas.
“Wait, scroll back up.” Biana says. “We’re doing that one.” I look at the game idea at the top of the screen. It’s called spin the nail polish bottle. You get a bunch of brightly colored nail polishes and put them in a basket. Everyone takes a turn choosing a color, and you spin the one they choose. Whoever it lands on has to paint one nail in that color, and then pick another to spin again. At the end of the game, once we all have ten nails painted, it looks like a rainbow threw up all over our nails. In no specific order, I have two in blue, one in orange, one in red, one in purple, one in green, and the other four were in various shades of pink. We talk for a while longer, then Edaline says the food is ready, summoning the boys. They all take a confused look at our nails, but don’t say anything. The food is amazing, as always, and it’s nice to be celebrating. I can think of specific memories, and watch them all the way through, all my abilities work again, some even better than they did before, and there wasn’t a trace of a headache in my mind. Other people stop by at certain times to say they’re glad to have me back, and overall it’s just a wonderful time. I need to do this more often.