+Biana was still worried about Sophie, even though she had promised she would be okay. Her face was paler than usual, and her eyes were still a little red. She sniffled, but nevertheless, after they cleaned up, they went to Marella's house. When they arrived in the peaceful, flower meadow, they looked around in awe for a moment. The vivid colors contrasted against the pale white crystal beauty of the mansion in all the right ways, and little woodland creatures like squirrels and gomegos scampered about, while songbirds sang. It was like something out of a human fairy tale. Gently, Sophie rang the hailing bell, and moments later, Marella stepped out.

She knew that something was up, but she didn't want to risk Marella getting upset. Lately, the girl had been wearing darker colors, and more... uh... mature designs. There wasn't anything wrong with that, this was the time for them to start wearing mature designs, but all the time? Worrisome.

"Hey, guys, you ready to go?" Marella smiled, casually tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Totally, we just have to pick up Linh," Sophie smiled back, and Biana could tell that the incident hadn't left her mind. She couldn't blame her, it was pretty intense. She herself was trying not to think of it, trying to get herself caught up in the moment so the heartbreak couldn't touch her. She was shocked that Keefe would do something so... jerk-y, and to Sophie! She wasn't sure that she wanted to like him anymore, especially since he knew that she had a crush on him the whole time.

Marella narrowed her eyes, "Did something happen?"

Sophie shook her head, and cooly said, "no, Edaline asked me to chop some scrumnions for the Harkly's lunch."

"Ulgh, scrumnions!" shuddered Biana. Scrumnions were like human onions, but twenty times more potent, so anyone who prepared them sobbed uncontrollably. "They're only good for when you need a good cry."

"You would know," Marella replied a bit coldly. Biana just brushed the comment off and kept smiling.

"Okay guys, let's go get Linh!" Waving, Sophie changed the subject.

Soon, they were outside of Linh's house. Not the house her parents owned, but the little cottage she shared with Tam. Linh had told them to meet her here, because as part of the deal they made with their parents, they only had to spend afternoons after school, and weekend mornings with them at their house. The twins didn't fully trust their parents, but their parents demanded that they see them, or they'll tell the council they're living without a guardian, and force them to stay at their house full time. Their mom was the real enforcer of it, and was pretty crazy on top of the twins to make sure they arrived immediately after changing into regular clothes, or immediately at eight o'clock every weekend morning. She would call them multiple times a day to remind them that they had to come over, then go into a spiel that they could live with them, move in that day, yada yada. Biana felt bad for Tam and Linh, so she tried to make an effort to get them out of the house and out on the town.

Biana knocked on the door this time, and Tam opened it. "Linh's still getting ready, why don't you come in while you wait."

The cottage was small compared to most elvin houses, but Biana loved how cozy it was. Her gaze traveled over to a collection of maps spread out on the table, and she looked over at them. She could have sworn she saw a black symbol in the corner of one of the maps, maybe an eye or a bird, but Tam closed it up before she could really get a look. She looked over at Marella, who squinted suspiciously at Tam, then at Sophie, who looked skeptical as well, but was trying to hide it.

Biana might have been concerned about Marella knowing something Sophie told her that she hadn't told Biana, but because of their contrasting reactions, she suspected that Marella and Sophie were thinking the same thing, but not together. If Marella and Sophie shared a secret, Sophie would have most definitely told Marella to be discreet about it if something happened. Biana was willing to beat her best shoes that Sophie had only told Fitz, probably to keep everyone safe, but in all honesty, it did sting a little. "Sophie will tell me when she's ready," she thought to herself, and turned her attention to the conversation at hand.

"Yeah, we've been scoping out our area a little more, it's good to know what's out there." Tam nodded, and Linh walked out, wearing purple and black, very typical of her. Her hair was in a bun on the top of her head, save for two strand framing her face, not typical. Biana guessed she was trying to look like she usually did, but that something was up, probably with her wacko parents, or the maps Tam had just rolled up.

"Sorry I took so long, you girls ready to go?" Linh smiled, and Biana noticed the dark circles under her eyes.

"Yeah, we'll see you later Tam," Biana waved with a smile, and he smiled back.

"You girls go have fun."

"We will!" She loved it when Tam was happy, he seemed so sad all the time, but that was just because he's quiet.

When they reached Mysterium, they walked from shop to shop, looking at and trying on dresses. They giggled and chatted cheerfully, though Sophie seemed to force it, and Marella didn't even bother. Biana was worried, and did her best to cheer Sophie up. She tried at first to do the same for Marella, but she only got brushed off icily. Biana decided that to help Marella best, she should focus on Sophie and Linh instead.

Linh picked out her dresses almost right away, choosing purple-ish dresses. Biana helped Sophie pick out a red dress, but they spent the rest of the time searching for a teal and red dress. Biana tried to convince her to just wear another red dress, but Sophie explained the whole matching tie thing, and that she didn't really want to wear only red gowns. Finally, they found one that looked AMAZING on her, and seeing the smile on Sophie's face made her feel like a million (human) bucks. She herself had also found two blue gowns, one two piece, and another that was a mermaid gown with peach sheer fabric. Marella didn't find anything, but promised she would before their Winnowing Galas.

When they were exhausted, they decided to call it a night. Marella and Linh light leaped home separately, while Biana and Sophie went together to Everglen. As they walked through the gates, Biana noticed that Sophie's hands shook slightly as she held them, her wrists against where her ribcage, and her two bags were hanging from one of her forearms. She was practically power walking, and Biana had to scuttle a little to catch up. When they walked inside, Sophie stopped in the foyer, and hugged her.

"Thank you, Biana, for everything. You're such a good friend, Keefe doesn't deserve you."

Softly, she smiled, and hugged back, "of course, that's what friends are for."

"I know, but you're just incredible. You have this magic-like ability to understand what your friends mean when what they say doesn't come out right, or when they do something that might be harmful if taken the wrong way... Not to mention you're so kind and empathetic, and you take care of others before yourself..." Sophie looked her in the eyes, "I hope you think as highly of yourself as I do, as we all do."

Biana started to tear up, hugging her best friend tighter, "thank you. That means a lot, especially coming from you. You're so incredible, that for you to call me incredible is just... well... incredible."

Sophie giggled a little, "oh, Biana. I'm only 'incredible' to people because of all of my abilities. You're just an incredible person over all."

"And you think I don't give myself enough credit."

They started laughing, and walked down to Fitz's room. "Are you going to be okay with the whole Keefe thing?" Sophie asked out of the blue, and the mood dampened.

Cautiously, she nodded, "Yeah, I'm just going to find something to do, to take my mind off things. Maybe Dex needs help with the triplets again, or my mentor suddenly needs for me to do a big project."

"Over the weekend?" Sophie raised an eyebrow, amused.

"Who knows," giggled Biana, "I'll find something, I just know it. Trust me, it doesn't hurt so much since he did such a sleazy thing."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, not sure if she was lying or not, still confused with how she felt about Keefe. "Yeah, I'm sure. Go see your cognate, you guys have lots of stuff to talk about, I'm sure." They stopped in front of her brother's door.

"Okay, hail me if you need anything." Sophie hugged her one last time as Biana promised yet again that she would, before opening the door, and walking into Fitz's room, closing the door behind her.

Before the door closed, she saw Fitz sitting at his desk, and how he looked up when he saw Sophie. Out of curiosity, Biana pressed her ear against the closed door, catching a brief, muffled start to a conversation, before it turned quiet, probably because they switched to their telepathy link. She smiled a little, thinking about how her brother was probably holding her right now, comforting her. How much she wanted someone to do that for her.

She retreated to her own room, sitting on the floor, her back against her bed, knees tucked in. Sighing, she put her face down into her little self cocoon and shut her eyes. "He doesn't even care that he hurt me." The thought made her sick to her stomach. The guy she had liked not only liked her best friend, not only tried to make a sleazy move on her best friend, but knew that he was hurting her by talking to her about liking her best friend, how miserable her brother made him feel, because he got attention from her best friend. Biana felt awful, she felt sick, she felt used. She didn't want to feel that way.

For a while, she stared at the clock for a long while, thinking about who she could talk to, so close to dinner time, about what was going on, or at least, who could distract her from it all. "The Diznees," she thought, "maybe I'll call Dex... or would that be weird? We don't know each other like that..."

Before Biana could act upon her thoughts, her imparter buzzed with a message from Fitz. He could have just walked over to her room to talk to her, but no, he had messaged her. This confused her very much. She grabbed her imparter, and clicked it open to see two TIMs. The first said: 'Thank you for taking care of her.' She smiled, then read the next one. 'I finally got her to calm down, avoid the guilt, and sleep. Could you come get Sophie's imparter and message Grady and Edaline asking if she could sleep over?'

'Alright, no problem.' She stood up, and made her way over to Fitz's room quietly. Tip toeing into the room, she looked around to see Fitz propped up against pillows, with Sophie snuggled on top of him, her knees pulled in. His arms were around her, and he gazed at her lovingly, barely recognizing Biana's presence. When he did look up at her, he pointed to his desk with a finger, mouthing, 'it's over there.'

Biana made her way over to his desk, and picked up her friend's imparter, going into her TIMs. It was mostly unused, except for a few TIM chats, one for each of Sophie's parents and Dex. Smoothly, Biana messaged Grady and Edaline, pretending to be Sophie, asking if she could sleep over. Edaline soon responded with a yes, and promised to inform Grady. She also asked if she should send anything over, but Biana assured her that she had everything she needed in her cognate drawer. When the short conversation was over, she set it back on the desk soundlessly, nodding in response to Fitz's silent 'thank you' before leaving the room.

When she was back in her own territory, she opened up her imparter to see a TIM from Dex. 'Hey, the triplets made dinner, they want to know if you want to join us.'

Biana smiled, feeling like a million human bucks again. Quickly, she responded back, and grabbed her purse, only briefly telling her parents where she was going before she stepped on the leap master and leaped to Dex's house. Her wish had come true, she was going to see with people who always made her happy.

That night, they all had a good time. The food wasn't great, but to be fair, none of the triplets could cook decently except for Lex, but he insisted on putting excess sugar or salt on everything. They laughed and talked together like Biana was part of the family, joking about Rex's ability to kill plants with his terrible gardening skills, Bex gushing over a guy named "Rospaillion", Lex's "sugar rain", Dex staying in his room working all the time, Juline's human movies, Kesler's mad scientist vibe, and Biana's love for imps. She had such a good time, that she hardly thought about Keefe for the rest of the night.

/////////////://///////////://///////

Haha you guys don't get the gala dresses yet! Sorry!

Xoxo

F.M.