-Sophie Foster bit her lip nervously. She can't believe that she had actually gathered enough courage to ask Fitz Vacker to come over after school. Yes, they were cognates. Yes, they had known one another for years now. Yes, he knew her better than anyone else in the world... but that didn't mean that she wasn't nervous about inviting him over. Sophie had had a mega crush on Fitz ever since he brought her to the Lost Cities, and that was a few years ago.

She suddenly realized that her room was a mess from her last inflicting practice. Sophie had been tasked to try and make plants grow with positive energy. At first, it only made the plants explode, but eventually did work. Possibilities on what to do swam through her head until she settled on one idea. Not to disappoint, but it wasn't a big elaborate plan or anything.

Sophie was just going to run to the leapmasters, leave ahead of Fitz, transmit him a lame excuse, pray he walked slowly, and clean her room as fast as she could. Nothing special or dramatic, but sometimes the simplest plan was the most effective.

When the bell rang, Sophie sprinted as fast as she could, dodging people swiftly. Along the way, she transmitted to Fitz: 'I have to leave now. Don't worry, everything is fine, I just need to take care of something. See you soon.'

He replied with a very confused, 'what?'

She was almost there and couldn't have any distractions, so Sophie hastily transmitted, 'tell you later, leaping now- BYE!"

Sophie stood on a leap master and shouted, "Havenfield!" With that, she was at home in seconds and sprinted up the stairs to her room.

"Sophie? Is everything okay?" Her mom, Edaline, called.

"Can't talk- must clean! Fitz will be here any second!" Sophie stumbled into her room and hastily started to straighten things up.

"Didn't I tell you to clean I yesterday after you practiced?"

"I practiced so late that I fell asleep mid-vegetable." Sophie called down to her mom, who laughed in response as she entered the room.

"Need some help? I could conjure all the puréed bits into the verminian pen. It'll be a great treat for them."

"Please!" Sophie begged, and straightened her covers frantically.

Edaline chuckled and said something under her breath that Sophie couldn't catch. She then snapped her fingers, and all the veggie-guts disappeared. "There, how's that for clean?"

Sophie looked around in awe at her mom's work for a moment before tackling her in a hug. "Thank you so much, mom!"

"Of course, but I suggest you change out of your school uniform, because it smells like crisped vegetable sludge." Edaline informed her, clearly amused, and let her go run to her closet.

As Edaline stepped out of the room, Sophie pulled out a pastel pink blouse and beige pants that flared slightly at he bottom. She pulled on the clothes quickly as her mom called up that Fitz had arrived. She was about to leave, walking through Vertina's range to get to the door as she pulled her hair into a pony tail, when the holo-helper stopped her with an obnoxious "uh-uh."

"Not now Vertina, Fitz is here." Sophie said, exasperated, "what do you want?"

"Oh, it's not about what I want," Vertina said rudely. "I was just stopping you to ask if you wanted Fitz to see your bra through that blouse. It's pastel, aka, see-through."

Sophie gasped and looked down. She was right. "Oh no! What do I do-"

Edaline cut her off by yelling up to her, "I'm sending him up."

Sophie paled and Vertina waved her off, "just wear the cranberry apron-style vest over it." With that, Sophie brightened and thanked the snooty mirror before running to her closet, pulling it out, and throwing it on.

It was basically a simple vest, but backwards so the opening was in the back and not be front. The neckline was a simple and modest swoop and slimly fit at the top, but stopped at the waist, where it belled out elegantly. The vest was skirted in a high-low fashion and came down to the back of her knees at the lowest point.  The shoulder straps were made of satin ribbon of the same color as the fabric, and that matched the ribbon that would lace it up.

It was beautiful and she loved it, but there was one problem, she couldn't lace it herself. Sophie was about to ask Vertina for help, but Fitz walked in. "Hey- oh." He flushed a deep red, "I'm sorry, I should have knocked, I'll wait outside."

Her cognate turned to leave, but she grabbed his forearm, her cheeks pink.  "It's okay, I'm decent, could you help me lace up, please?"

He nodded and she handed him the ribbon, turning around. Sophie's heart thumped loudly in her chest as she felt his hands brushed against her back softly. His hands fumbled with the ribbon and it took a while for him to get the ribbon through the eyelets. They were silent for exactly 83 seconds before Fitz asked, "why did you have to get home so fast- and can you help me tie the bow? I don't know how."

"Here," Sophie reached back and set her fingers on top of his. Gingerly, she helped him tie the bow, while possible excuses racing through her head. When they finished, she turned around, blushing still.

"Well? Is everything okay?" Fitz asked, the corners of his lips turning down ever so slightly like they always did when he was worried. Sophie had always found it cute.

"Yeah, just some... uh..." Sophie looked away for a second before brilliantly answering, "vegetable problems."

Fitz raised a disbelieving eyebrow, "vegetable problems?"

"You better believe it. Her room still smells like smoked stuckleroot." Edaline said from behind them, mock- gagging for effect. "I brought up an air freshener to clear the air, and some custard bursts to clear the baking tray."

Sophie smiled and hugged her mom, "awesome! Thanks!" She took the air freshener and set it in the middle of the room, turning it on, while Fitz took the custard bursts, thanking Edaline as well.

"Let me know if you need anything or if you're going somewhere. I'm going to feed Verdi her dinner." Sophie's mom called as she walked back down the stairs.

"Thanks, Edaline," Fitz smiled, and turned his attention back to Sophie. "How did you manage to have your room smell like stuckleroot?"

"Inflicting practice on vegetables. Half of them burst all over my room." She explained, embarrassed.

He threw back his head and laughed, "only you, Sophie. Only you." Sophie stuffed a custard burst in his mouth to get him to shut up, before eating one herself. They sat down on her bed, and one custard burst lead to another, then another, then another, until they were all gone.

She laid back happily with her hands on her stomach. "Those were sooooo good."

He laid next to her with a laugh, "yeah, Edaline is an awesome cook."

Sophie nodded in agreement, "indeed."

"I like your vest by the way, it's pretty."

"Thanks, did you stop at Everglen before coming here?"

"Yeah, mind if I change quickly? This sweater is so stuffy."

Sophie shook her head, "go ahead, be my guest. You know where the bathroom is." He nodded and stood, grabbing his bag and heading into the bathroom.

Fitz came out a few minutes later, and sat next to her. "Hey, I had an idea. We go to each other's houses after school a lot nowadays, and it's kind of annoying having to stop at home to pick up normal clothes. So... what if we kept some clothes at each other's houses? That would be faster and easier."

Sophie smiled widely, "I have an empty dresser drawer, what about you?"

"I do too! We could have cognate drawers!" He grinned like a little kid, clearly proud of making that name.

Sophie laughed, "perfect! We could keep a set or two of normal clothes, a set of pajamas, and some toiletries in our cognate drawers." Suddenly, an idea came to Sophie. She got up and ran to her desk. She pulled out some paper and markers, bringing them back with a huge smile. "We can each make a sign for our drawer so it's not mistaken, and because I'm totally going to draw a picture of Mr. Snuggles on mine."

"Then I get to draw Ella on mine!" Fitz countered, grabbing a piece of paper and some markers.

"Deal."

They got to work, drawing happily like five year olds with new crayons. Grady came up at one point, and looked at the pair in confusion. "What's going on? Are you drawing?"

Sophie looked up from her paper with a  hue grin, "for our cognate drawers. It'll make coming over after school easier from now on."

Grady laughed, "so what are you guys drawing for your 'cognate drawers'?"

"I'm drawing Ella with human style- race cars and bramble balls." Fitz held up his masterpiece up for Grady to see, and his cognate did the same.

"And I'm drawing Mr. Snuggles with sparkles, alicorns and rainbows."

Grady chuckled, "you guys have fun, I'm going to sneak some custard bursts away from Edaline."

"Good luck," Fitz called to him genuinely. "Edaline makes incredible custard bursts."

"That she does, Fitz. I'll see you guys later."

"Bye dad!" Sophie waved goodbye to Grady.

After they cleaned up the markets and such, Sophie rummaged through her dresser to find that empty drawer. Fitz pulled a roll of tape out of her desk and they set up his cognate drawer with the stuff they could. So basically, just the picture Fitz had just drawn.

When they finished, they decided to get the stuff for each drawer after they practiced the mind belaying. Sophie volunteered to have her mind explored so Fitz could practice making the positive energy rope. 

They sat criss-cross applesauce on the bed, holding hands. Sophie's stomach fluttered a bit with nerves as Fitz entered her mind. That's when things started to get even more interesting.

___________    ___________    ___________

Hey! Hope you enjoyed it. I'll update again soon. If you want to send me a cover replacement, you're more than welcome to, just send me a web link or a title of wattpad story of yours that you just threw the photo on please. Thanks!