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"Why are you smiling like that?"
Keefe’s grin widened in a way that did not reassure her. “Just because I’m looking at my girlfriend,” he said smoothly, “which always makes me smile.”
“That’s not your ‘I’m-in-love-with-you’ smile,” Sophie accused, flushing as she realized she’d admitted she could recognize the absolutely smitten smile he sometimes gave her while they were on dates that warmed her to the tips of her toes. “That’s your ‘I’m-plotting-something-devastating’ smile.”
“The only devastating thing here is my devilish good looks,” he said, and now he threw her the smirk that he knew made her blush. The amount of different types of blushing this boy could make her do was not even fair.
But she wasn’t going to let him distract her. “When whatever you’re plotting comes to life,” she told him, “I’m saying I told you so.”
“Don’t you have a session to attend?” Keefe pointed out, indicating the time.
That didn’t ease her suspicion at all. “Don’t you?”
“I’m not the one who cares about missing my sessions, Foster,” Keefe remarked. Sophie rolled her eyes, but she really did have to go to class.
She listened carefully in the hallways, though, for any whisper of something wrong or off or different. Any sign of a rumor that someone had discovered something that pointed to Keefe’s master plan. Because when he was wearing that kind of smile, it meant whatever he was planning was big. So big the entire school would know.
But for the rest of the day, she didn’t hear a single word.
In fact, for the rest of the week, no one seemed to notice anything amiss. But Keefe kept that stupid grin on his face, and Sophie knew him well enough to not be deterred. Just because he hadn’t set his plan in motion yet didn’t mean there wasn’t going to be one.
Or maybe his plan was driving her insane with the suspense.
March 31st was the worst of all the days. She’d never seen him look so devious, which was very impressive considering how often he was plotting something. She even checked behind a few corners to make sure there weren’t any gulons hiding there. But nothing was wrong. He was grinning like the devil and nothing was wrong. She listened for rumors, wondering if anyone had found anything anywhere—maybe in the room of a mentor she didn’t have, or in their lockers—but nothing was wrong.
And it was driving her crazy.
She was beginning to think that really was the entire plan when the next day in the silver tower it became abundantly clear that Keefe’s plan had been set in motion.
Small bowls of water lined the hallways, each one with an adorable little murcat inside. All the students whispered as they opened their lockers, finding murcats in fishbowls in there as well. Sophie opened her locker, and sure enough, there was a murcat.
This was absolutely the work of Keefe Sencen.
When Sophie closed the locker door, Keefe was leaning on the locker beside hers, his famous smirk setting off butterflies in her stomach.
He needed to stop being so attractive when he was being a troublemaker. This was not supposed to be her taste in guys, and yet, she was so in love with him it was almost embarrassing.
“Happy April fools day, Foster,” he said in a low voice that sent shivers down her spine. This was a prank on the entire silver tower, and yet the way he said those words made her feel like this was a surprise just for her.
Sophie couldn’t help herself. She leaned up to press her mouth to his, just for a few moments, despite the strict rules in the silver tower about public displays of affection. He kissed her back immediately, and she sighed contentedly, allowing herself just a few moments of enjoying the feeling. She regrettably pulled back quickly, not wanting to push their luck. Keefe was about to be in enough trouble as it was, and Sophie had a very good record this year (impressive considering the amount of time she spent hanging around her boyfriend, the master troublemaker at Foxfire).
"Did you see Magnate Leto today, by any chance?" he asked, and the smirk he had on his face as he said it spelt out T-R-O-U-B-L-E in capital letters.
She sighed, but couldn't contain her smile. "What did you do to our principal?”
"Well, let's just say I got creative."
" Keefe. "
"You love me."
" You are so getting expelled one of these days."
“They have no proof of my involvement, I assure you,” Keefe told her confidently. “I had nothing to do with any of this, as far as administration is concerned.” He didn’t say it out loud, but his smirk was reminding her that he’d still never been punished for the mysterious happenings of the Great Gulon Incident. “As far as they know, murcats have suddenly learned to teleport, and the silver tower smells like murcat food.”
“You are ridiculous.”
"Ridiculously awesome, you mean." Maybe if he’d stop with that stupid smirk, she could get the butterflies to stop fluttering all over the place in her stomach, but she never seemed to have control of her feelings around him.
She laughed. "That, too. And also ridiculously conceited."
"Can't lie to an Empath, Foster, I know you don't mean that.”
“Oh, I do. I just can’t stop loving you for it,” Sophie said with a dramatic sigh, “which is almost definitely a character flaw.”
“I love giving you character flaws,” Keefe whispered, giving her another quick kiss.
“Keefe, stop it,” she giggled, but seeing as he could feel her emotions, she knew he’d know she didn’t mean it. “You’re going to get us in trouble.”
“Think of all the humans in the world currently wreaking havoc all over their schools and offices,” Keefe said wistfully. “I can’t believe they have a whole day dedicated to causing trouble. Those are my kind of people.”
Sophie laughed incredulously. “They are quite literally not your kind of people.”
“And yet they have a day called April Fool’s,” Keefe reminded her.
“Perhaps it feels like such an important day to you because you’re a fool,” Sophie countered, though surely he could hear the fondness in her tone. And if he couldn't hear it, well, her emotions spoke for themselves.
"Only a fool for you, Foster," Keefe murmured, and his tone made her stomach flip-flop again. He grinned, probably feeling her emotional response to his words.
The moment was ruined by Magnate Leto stalking down the hallway, pausing right in front of the two of them, a stern expression on his face as he looked at Keefe. “Keefe Sencen,” he began firmly, “do you have an explanation for the kiddie pool of murcats in my office—” Sophie stifled a laugh at her boyfriend’s “creativity” finally spelled out for her “—and the fact that every single sink in this school is filled with water and murcats?”
"A kiddie pool?" Keefe exclaimed, the perfect picture of innocence. "That's certainly a great idea! I wish I could've come up with something like that."
Magnate Leto obviously didn't believe a word he said, but like Keefe had assured her earlier, he had no proof. “I’m onto you, Sencen,” he warned.
Keefe shrugged, his smirk finding its way onto his face. “I’m intrigued by the idea of murcats in all the school sinks. Perhaps I’ll have to pull that prank sometime.” The twinkle in his eye as he said the words all but gave him away, and Sophie suspected Keefe did it on purpose, because Magnate Leto would never be able to use it as evidence.
Sophie turned back to her locker, grabbing her necessary textbooks. She knelt down, looking at the tiny murcat at the bottom of her locker, swimming around in his little fishbowl. “It’s adorable,” she cooed.
“It’s yours, if you want it,” Keefe said behind her. “That one has to be the cutest of all of them. I saved him just for you.”
“I want it,” Sophie decided. “I’m going to name him Skittles.”
“I sure hope he gets along with Iggy,” Keefe laughed.
“If not, I’ll make sure to keep the troublemaking sibling pets apart,” Sophie promised, grabbing the bowl with Skittles in it to carry with her before closing her locker. “Now we should get to session before we get ourselves in trouble for a different reason.”
“I think I’ll go today,” he said with a smirk. “I want to see the mentors’ reactions to today’s events that were most certainly not a direct result of my actions.”
"They'll think it was you," Sophie promised him, laughing. "You have too much of a reputation."
“That reputation is hard-earned, Foster,” Keefe told her, flashing her the blush-inducing smile again. “I want them to suspect. But they’ll never know.” He winked before turning to walk away, stealing one last glance at her before they parted ways, walking quickly to their mentor’s rooms.
Sophie smiled, flicking the glass bowl. "Happy April Fool's Day, Skittles.”