the prom queen

chapter eight

s o p h i e   f o s t e r

"WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?!" grady yelled. oh shit. shit shit shit shit shit. sophie cursed in her head. she bolted off of keefe and stood up straight. this was not good. at all. grady, her foster dad, was very overprotective. the first time she mentioned how hot a guy was that she'd past by on the street one day, grady had given her a whole talk about the importance of choosing the right guy. which was no guy in his book.
"nothing. nothing. keefe was just helping me with...my paper for english. the one i was telling you about yesterday." sophie blurted as keefe took his sweet time to get up from the ground. grady shifted his squinting eyes from sophie to keefe as he crossed his arms. she realized how suspicious this looked...and sounded.
"you were working on your paper on the floor?"
"mr. foster, i can assure you that's all we were doing. it was easier to type on my computer on the coffee table from the carpet than the couch. the reach was just a little far." keefe lied. boy was he good at it. that's what scared sophie. how easy and believable lying was for him.
grady stood still for a few minutes and then finally nodded. "it's ruewen." then he walked off to the kitchen. sophie let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and turned to keefe. the smirk on his face made it easy for her to hate him again.
"oh so you thought that was funny, didn't you?" sophie questioned with a glare.
"i mean, it wasn't not funny. you have to admit the look on his face was priceless." keefe clapped his hands together and fell onto the couch.
"whatever this was." she started, pointing her finger between the two of them. "is never going to happen again. understood?"
"foster we both know you should be telling that to yourself. admit it, you can't resist the keefester."
sophie balled up her fists and sat down beside him. glaring his way, she opened back up his computer. "come on we need to finish this."
keefe looked down at his phone and frowned. she couldn't help but look over at the millions of texts he was getting. "no time. we need to leave now if we want to get to school on time." sophie flushed when he caught her looking at his texts but he thankfully didn't bring it up.
she nodded when she saw the time, it was already 8. they walked to the kitchen together and she couldn't help but feel a little nervous when she saw edaline and grady talking. was he telling her about what happened in the living room a few minutes ago? edaline smiled when she saw them come in and handed them each a small container, which sophie assumed had a piece of mallowmelt in it.
"thanks mrs. ruewen." keefe grinned. "we were about to head to school. just wanted to say goodbye." he said politely. he knew how to work parents, she gave him points for that. they went through the living room to grab their bags and then walked towards the foyer.
"so we got nothing done." sophie stated as they walked out the door. it was a bright sunny day but it was still chilly outside. the sun often deceived the temperature of the outdoors. even if the whole state was lit up by the sun it could be snowing and below 5 degrees. luckily sophie was wearing a hoodie, but by the end of the day it would start to warm up so she had shorts and a t-shirt underneath.
"who's fault was that? you're the one who smacked me with a pillow. multiple times." keefe complained.
sophie rolled her eyes and shifted her backpack before responding. "okay well you started it. and you couldn't have expected me to let you get away with hitting me over the face with my pillow."
keefe watched as she skipped down the steps and he followed suit mimicking her. sophie scowled at him as he continued to imitate her. keefe did a little hair flip and pranced down the sidewalk. "i'm sophie and i just love messing with keefe! he's so hot, if i didn't have to act like i hated him we'd be getting married!" he squealed in a high pitch voice.
"i'm gonna kill you!" she threatened as she chased him down the block.
"you're just mad because it's true!" he called back. gosh was he fast. she knew he did track but keefe was much quicker than expected. sophie was already out of breath after two minutes of running, which was kind of sad but she wasn't big on running. she promised herself she would take up a sport when she went to college.
thankfully keefe started to slow down and she was able to catch up. "if. i..wasn't...so...tired...i...would...murder...you." sophie panted in between words. keefe patted her on the back and chuckled at how worn out she'd gotten. he didn't even seem the smallest bit weary and with his smug smile she could tell he was very proud about it.
"stop smiling. it's annoying."
his grin only grew wider. "why? does my happiness bother you?"
"yes. yes i think it does."
they came to a stop when she realized they'd already made it to school. when she checked her phone it was only 8:07. it had taken them five minutes to get there. that had to beat some record. "what's your first class?" keefe asked.
"math. keefe i'm in your class. did you really not- of course you didn't know." she really was dumb to assume that he noticed her in any of his classes. sophie knew keefe was in three of her five classes. she'd like to think he wasn't very observant but they had been partners for projects in each of the classes they had together. so it wasn't that he wasn't observant. he was just a little- no very- self absorbed.
"psshhh of course i know we're in the same class. gosh take a joke." something about how he said it wasn't very convincing. he wrapped and arm around sophie's shoulders and they sauntered in together. everyone's attention immediately averted to the two and whispers started along every hallway.
sophie hated all the attention and wanted nothing more than for it all to go away. when they reached her locker keefe leaned up against the one next to hers and patiently waited for her to get out her math books. she looked side to side at everybody staring at them. searching for a way to get rid of the attention she quickly thought of ways to get keefe away from her. "um don't you have to get your stuff for class?" she asked.
"nah i left my books there last class." darn it. there went that idea. she covered her head with her hoodie and pulled on the strings to hide her face. keefe seemed to be used to all the attention but she definitely wasn't, everyone watching her made her a little uncomfortable.
they got to math early and she took her seat in the middle of the classroom. although there was free seating, no one had switched seats from the beginning of the school year and it was kind of an unspoken rule not to move desks.
keefe, deciding he was going to draw more attention to sophie, sat down right behind her. she twisted around to face him with a confused look. "why are you sitting there? shouldn't you be waiting for vacker one and two up front?"
"last time i checked there weren't assigned seats. so if it's not too distracting to have me sit behind you i'm gonna stay put. unless you'll admit that my presence makes you want to attack me." he smirked.
why she hated that smirk. sophie rolled her eyes and focused back up front as people started coming in. she opened her notebook and doodled before she heard the clacking of biana vackers high heels. which stopped right in front of her desk.
sophie looked up at her only to see biana glaring back. her eyes were on sophie but her words were for keefe. "what are you doing up here?" she hissed.
the "popular" kids sat in the back so they could talk without getting caught by the teacher. "my grades are slipping. need to pay more attention or i'm off the football team." sophie wasn't sure if this was true but judging by what he said last night about having perfect grades, she decided it wasn't.
sophie couldn't help but smile as biana strutted to the back of the classroom. fitz followed behind his sister and grinned at sophie before nodding at keefe. she couldn't stop the butterflies fluttering in her stomach from the movie star worthy smile he had given her. she seriously needed to stop. fitz, and keefe for the matter, were playboys and she had to stop herself from catching feelings before she got hurt.
as the class began, keefe leaned into her cheek before whispering in her ear "better not be crushing on fitz. or i'm gonna have to make sure every guy here knows you're mine." sophie's breath caught in her throat wondering exactly what he meant by that.