Misfit |KotLC AU|

Chapter 19 |bramble bramble|

draft sitting here for about a year, but suddenly

a hoard of comments from a few people reminded me of it.

::

The grass felt cool against the bare skin of her arms and legs, tickling the back of her neck. The air smelled so fresh, the sky above her the softest of blues, clouds that looked like skid marks traveling slowly across it. Breezes pulled hair into her eyes, rustling the deep green leaves of the trees that were scattered about the rolling hills of the park.

Sophie saw Keefe sit up abruptly out of the corner of her eye.

"I just had a vision."

Fitz said nothing. His eyes remained closed, but his lips twitched. Sophie sat up.

"Someone's going to get hurt." A hand flew to his face, a finger poised over his temple. "And Fitz will buy me lunch."

Fitz remained still.

"From the new café by the bookstore."

Fitz sat up. He turned to Keefe. He gave him a thumbs up. "The barista from last time was totally flirting with me."

"Whatever gets you there, Fitzy." Keefe smirked. "But she was flirting with me."

Sophie dropped back into the grass. It felt like a large bubble was swelling in her chest. It was light and weightless, but it pressed against her heart painfully.

She troubled herself in trying to place the emotion that was overwhelming her.

By the time she did, Fitz and Keefe were standing in front of her, their shadows falling over her. They smiled down at her, and the feeling disappeared.

Keefe held out his hand, pulling her to her feet when she placed hers in his. "Time to play, Foster."

She furrowed her brow. "Play what?"

"You didn't think we just came to roll around in the grass, did you?" Fitz asked as Keefe laughed.

"Well, Keefe did tackle us."

"That was a warm up," Keefe said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He stopped and held out a hand to Fitz, his face becoming hard and stern. "The ball, Fitzroy."

Fitz reached into his backpack, a black bag that had gone flying when Keefe had knocked them both to the ground, and pulled out a football, placing it in Keefe's outstretched hand with one of its points facing directly to the sky.

Sophie groaned. "Football?"

"That's what you call it," Fitz said. He began to walk backwards, his eyes not straying from Keefe, who was smiling darkly and walking in the opposite direction, turning the ball over and over in his hands.

A large space was left in between them when Fitz stopped, almost half of what a normal football field was in length. Sophie found herself right in the middle. She could feel the hotness of their glares, meeting and exploding right in front of her.

Sophie took a few steps back.

"Ready?" Keefe called, pulling his arm back, leaning his entire body on his right knee.

"Yeah," Fitz said. He bent his legs, thrusting his hands out in front of him.

"Okay."

The ball flew past her without her seeing it. She felt it zip by, a small gust of wind blowing her hair into her face as it passed like a torpedo.

Sophie blinked quickly and the ball was already in Fitz's hands.

He threw it back just as fast.

"Why...How are you throwing it so hard?" Sophie asked, trying to follow the ball as they passed it to each other.

"Practice," Fitz said.

"This is how Foxfire becomes the college football champion," Keefe said, grinning. He raised his arm and threw the ball at her, slow enough for her to be able to catch it, but hard enough that it still kind of stung her hands.

Fitz held his hands out to her and Sophie passed it to him. It didn't spin like it was supposed to, but it made it to him and that was enough to make her feel better about it.

"So you guys are both on the team?" Sophie asked.

They both grinned. "I play quarterback," Fitz said, sounding proud of himself.

"That's amazing," she said, honestly impressed. She didn't know Foxfire even participated in college sports, but that was mainly because she wasn't interested in it.

She felt like that might have to change.

"Hey, Keefe," Fitz said, throwing the ball to him. "You gonna try out again this year?"

"As long Foster promises to join the cheerleading squad." Keefe smiled wickedly as Sophie blushed, fumbling as he threw the ball to her.

It fell into the grass and rolled awkwardly away from her.

"Oh, yeah!" Fitz said, smiling like it was the best idea in the world. "You should do it, Sophie. Biana's going to join too."

Sophie laughed, shaking her head and trying her best to cool herself down. "I can't! I'm too...ah...I'm too clums—"

A drop of water hit her forehead.

Sophie looked up, noticing the dark gray clouds that had appeared above their heads and the fierce wind that shook the trees, the loud noise of the rattling branches loud enough to overwhelm the sound of their voices.

Water fell on her nose. Another drop hit her right in the eye, making it sting like a first degree burn.

"Rain?" Sophie said, holding a hand over her head.

Keefe and Fitz had walked over and were standing next to her, Fitz holding his backpack.

"There was a massive thunderstorm last night," Fitz informed. "It's not that surprising."

"But it was sunny just a few minutes ago."

Fitz shrugged. "Did you at least bring an umbrella?" she asked, and he shook his head.

Keefe laughed, spreading his arms and opening his mouth to catch the water. It fell down his cheeks like tears. "C'mon, it's not so bad, Foster." He looked at her for a second then reached out and pushed her a little. "You're it."

Then he ran. She and Fitz stayed put. He turned around after a few seconds.

"C'MON, WE'RE PLAYING TAG."

"Seriously...?" Sophie said but Fitz laughed and began to run away from her. Sophie watched them as they got farther away. "Wait...WAIT, I SAID WAIT." She chased after them, not even close to being fast enough to catch them but laughing every time they ducked out of reach.

This is insane.

This is amazing, something inside of her corrected and she laughed even harder, pushing her legs to run even though they wanted to collapse, laughing till her lungs burned and her stomach hurt.

It was amazing.

Until.