just wanna mention i just almost accidentally wrote a sophie dying scene. wrong book. i need sleep. and to stop listening to he is we before writing a happy book. 

Chapter Four 

Sophie sat on her bed filling out a form when Grady knocked on the door frame. She looked up at her dad standing in the open doorway and smiled at him. "Hey, is there something you need? I'm trying to finish this before I go back to work tomorrow so that I can go out tomorrow night." 

"Well, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about." He moved to the edge of her bed and sat down after she moved some papers out of his way. 

"Sorry about the mess, you'd think I'd be more organized," she said, shuffling some of the worksheets together. "What did you say you wanted to talk about?" 

"Well, I just wanted to know what's up. I've noticed you've been swamping yourself a lot more with paperwork." He frowned. 

She smiled. "Oh, no, I always do this much paperwork. I just usually space it out more, but spacing it out means having no time to go out with people and I've been feeling kind of lonely lately. If I spend my entire weekend doing this that means for the weekdays after work I'm free. Honestly, though, if it wasn't for my memory I would be incapable of all of this."

Grady nodded. "Well, just know that I'm always home working with the animals so if you ever need help with any of this paperwork you're always free to call me over." 

Sophie grinned. "Thank you so much for the offer, but really I've been doing all this paperwork since I got the job, and I'll be able to continue it perfectly fine." She looked down at the papers. "Besides, a lot of it is in different languages so you most likely couldn't help too much." 

Grady frowned and let his eyes trail over the papers. "Wow, what language is that?" He asked, pointing to a certain paragraph. 

Sophie frowned at it, searching her mind for where the language came from but figured she was never told. "I have no idea, but I can read it," she told him. "And if I want to make it to my date on time tomorrow I'm going to have to finish reading it, so is there anything else you need?"

"Date?" Grady frowned. "I thought you were going out." 

Sophie nodded. "Yeah. With Keefe, my boyfriend. He's taking me out on date." A frown etched its way onto her features. "I mean, you haven't really said anything since I told you we were together. You're okay with it, right?" 

Grady nodded. "Oh- yeah, definitely. It's just weird hearing you say the words you're going on a date. You've never really talked about boyfriends so openly before, and I know you've had them." 

Sophie looked down at her lap and tried to avoid the blush that was attempting to make its way onto her cheeks. "Yeah, well I guess I haven't really thought of them as major keepers before." She smiled to herself before looking up. "Can I get back to my work now before I have to cancel on him?" 

Grady nodded and patted her knee before he stood up. "Don't waste away doing that," he said before walking away. After he exited the room Sophie noticed that someone was calling her imparter. 

"Sophie!" Dex greeted once she answered. "Hey, are you busy tomorrow night?" 

"Dex, I told you me and her are going out tomorrow night," she heard Keefe's voice in the background. 

"Did I say tomorrow? I meant Tuesday. Are you busy Tuesday night?" Dex corrected. 

Sophie looked at the papers on her bed and almost burst into tears at the thought of doing them all that day, but she knew she'd need them done by Wednesday morning. "I'm probably going to be busy Tuesday night, but can you do Wednesday night?" She asked. She took our her planner, something she all but relied on, and looked to see if she could bubble that in. 

"Well, I wanted to go on a double date," Dex explained, "with you and Keefe." 

"Wait, who's the girl coming?" Sophie asked, frowning. 

Dex smiled. "Guess you'll have to see Wednesday night," he stated mischievously. "Wait, Keefe you're good for Wednesday, right?" 

"Well, duh, I'm free every night. I'm in charge of my own job."

Sophie rolled her eyes and said, "Well, if you really do want to go out, I'll have to go now. Bye guys." She hung up and looked back down at the stack of papers, and although she loved her job she couldn't help but wish she had something less demanding. 

But, she knew her friends were doing just as demanding jobs. Fitz had found himself a job as an Emissary for the council, Biana was now running her own jewelry store in Atlantis, Dex had taken over Slurps and Burps with his dad, and the twins were working with the Black Swan on specific cases that Sophie refused to be a part of now that she was older. 

Even the friends without demanding jobs managed to keep busy. Wylie was now married and was helping Prentice with everything he needed, Marella was taking care of her mom and would help Biana in her shop on busy days, and Keefe was working on his drawing and paintings, and sometimes he would even join the twins on one of their small missions for the Black Swan if they wanted backup. 

Sophie stared at the paperwork and thinking of her friends and how busy they were helped give her the little boost to get herself busy and soon enough she found herself more than halfway through, and everything left was little enough that she could complete it Tuesday night. 

"Hey, did you finish?" Grady asked as Sophie made her way downstairs to the kitchen. 

"No, but I'll be able to finish it Tuesday night. That way I can go out tomorrow and Wednesday. Of course Thursday and Friday, plus possibly Saturday, I'll be swamped once more but it's worth it. It feels like forever since I've gone out." She gave a quick thanks to Edaline, who had placed a bowl of food in front of her, and took a bite, letting the savory taste stay in her mouth for a moment. She'd never get over how good Elvin food tasted. 

"You just went out yesterday, I do believe," Edaline stated, smiling as she grabbed a bowl for herself and took the seat next to Grady, who was sitting across from Sophie. 

"Yeah, I went with Marella to buy something from Biana's store as an excuse to see her since she's been busy with that. It's weird, none of us have really talked to Biana lately and usually she's the one who makes sure we all get together." Sophie took another bite as Grady started to agree with her statement. 

"Yes, but I'm not surprised with how busy she is. Everything she sells is just absolutely breathtaking to look at, and almost everything there is an amazing present. I know Kristine bought something from her the other day to give to her daughter." Edaline frowned at Sophie. "You know Helia, right?"

Sophie nodded, even though she had never heard these names before in her life. Instead of thinking too hard, she instead smiled at the though Edaline was getting out more and getting in touch with old friends. When she first came there Edaline was very closed off from everyone and the world, but now she was out going to places and socializing. Sophie felt a sense of pride in her mother, she knew how hard it was for her to do this stuff originally. 

"So, I hear you're going out on Wednesday as well, now?" Grady looked at her. 

Sophie smiled, nodding. "Apparently I'm now going on a double date." 

"Double date?" Edaline looked at Sophie in confusion. "Who's the other couple?" 

"Dex and whoever he brings," Sophie stated. "I have no idea who he's bringing though." 

"You know, that boy deserves to have a girl in his life. I'm excited to find out who she is," Edaline commented, smiling about the news on her nephew. "I'll have to ask Juline if she knows."

"I doubt she knows," Sophie commented. "Dex doesn't tell anything about his love life, he's way too shy about it. Especially with his mom."

Edaline let out a small laugh. "Yeah, well we'll just have to dig it out of him." 

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OKAY GUYS SO THE EXTERNAL LINK WILL BE TO A POLL WHERE YOU CAN VOTE FOR WHO YOU WANT DEX'S DATE TO BE 

if the external link won't work here u go http://www.strawpoll.me/14735465

okay so now chapter questions

1. what's a good netflix suggestion? 

2. i'm going to be posting a video on my yt channel about my 2017 and the hell that it's been, i'm wondering if you're interested in seeing more content from me besides writing because idk i think it's important to have that relationship with an author and i want to get to know you guys more so ig this question is if you guys wanted to get to know me more?

3. what's something you're looking forward to in 2018? I'm personally excited to meet two of my internet friends as well as colleen ballinger. also i'm going to see a professional production of les mis (my favorite musical, and if you know me you know i'm a huge theatre nerd) so like idk i'm looking forward to 2018. 

yikes this authors note is so long i'm s o r r y i tried