Snowflake Boy?

Sophie and Keefe stared at each other across the classroom as Ms. Galvin introduced him to the rest of the class. Sophie only took a brief moment to wonder why he wouldn't tell her his last name the day before at the ice rink before going back to complete and utter disbelief.

Of all places to start at a new school, Snowflake Boy chose here? Sophie slunk down in her seat.

She tried her hardest to keep her rink life and school life separate, and Keefe's arrival might just be the thing that would change that.

Under no circumstances could Grady and Edaline know that she still skated. After the accident, they had forbidden her from skating, but watching the sad way they gazed at Jolie's skates and competition medals, Sophie suspected it had less to do with the "danger" excuse they had given her and more to do with the painful memories associated with the rink. Just like the parties they used to throw, they had locked away everything that had a connection to Jolie and threw away the key, like it had never existed.

The problem was, Sophie couldn't let go of skating. No matter how much it hurt, it was the only thing that could bring her true peace, the only thing that could break through the cage of her mind and soothe her racing her heart. Panic clawed its way up her throat at the idea of it all being ruined.

No one, not even Dex and Biana, knew that she still skated. Only Mr. Forkle did, and he didn't even know that she was technically forbidden.

This could ruin everything.

"Mr. Sencen," Mrs. Galvin called, and Sophie refocused on her teacher. "You can sit next to..."

Sophie prayed to all the gods of the various religions she knew, hoping one would notice and take pity on her.

"...Miss Sophie Foster." Mrs. Galvin's voice was hard as she said the name, and Sophie debated banging her head on the table and escaped by the nurse's.

"Sure," Keefe said, and half of the girls and quite a few of the boys in the class turned to watch him intently with flushed faces as he walked to where Sophie sat. He had a confident swagger that was noticeably missing at the ice rink, and Sophie wondered where it came from.

He plunked down in the seat next to her, throwing her a wide smirk. She had never seen him grin like that before. Normally, he would smirk at her softly, but this expression had hardened edges and masked emotions behind it.

She found she hated it, before realizing she was comparing rink Snowflake Boy and school Snowflake Boy, when what she should be doing was panicking over the fact that her life could go to pieces at any moment, and it all rested on him.

Mrs. Galvin started the explanation for the experiment of the day, but Sophie was hardly paying attention. She couldn't stop putting rink Keefe and school Keefe next to each other and pointing out the differences.

Here, he smirked widely, he joked loudly, and he walked with a confidence she never would have pegged him for. He just seemed... different.

"Ouch," Keefe hissed, and Sophie's eyes darted to him.

He was cradling his hand, but his eyes were unfocused, as though remembering something.  She leaned over, touching his shoulder.

"Keefe? Are you okay?" She asked frantically, the metallic scent of blood making her dizzy as she leaned closer. She pulled back his hand when he stayed silent, and felt herself pale. It was a long gash down his palm, and it was bleeding heavily with no sign of stopping.

"It's fine," he murmured before she could say anything, keeping his voice low so as not to call attention to them. "I deserve it anyway."

"What are you talking about? No, you need to go to the nurse," Sophie said firmly. "And if this is a phobia of doctors thing, trust me, I get that, but Elwin is—"

"Sophie," he said, chuckling under his breath. "If I go, will you stop rambling about me?"

"Yes!" She huffed. "Anything to get you some help, which you need."

"Oh? Anything?"

Sophie looked away before she could blush too much at his smirk, matching up to Mrs. Galvin's desk and announcing that Keefe was injured.

She raised her eyes form the papers she was grading furiously, sighing and waving a hand. "Go on, take the boy. You know the nurse's office well, yes?"

Sophie ignored the jab at her frequent injuries and nodded, thanking the teacher before grabbing Keefe's not-injured hand and dragging him out of the classroom, feeling their classmates' stares on her back.

"Calm down, Sophie," he said, though there was laughter laced through his voice.

"That's a big cut, not to mention deep!" Sophie muttered. "How could you not want to go to the nurse?"

"I have a bad habit of messing up." Keefe shrugged. "It's nothing new."

"Oh, I definitely know how that feels," Sophie muttered. "But still, at least get that bandaged up!"

"I thought you agreed to stop rambling, since that is what you're dragging me to do, right?"

Sophie flushed. "Well, I'm sorry for caring so much," she snapped.

"It's much appreciated," he said quietly. He looked up, and an oddly soft emotion was brimming in his eyes. "Really."

Sophie looked away, flustered and not knowing what to say. They arrived at the Healing Center in silence, and Sophie flung the door open.

"Elwin!" She said, catching sight of the man with crazy hair in his office. "I need you to work your healing magic."

"It's not magic, it's science," he chuckled, making his way out of the office. "I already told you. Now what did you do this time?"

Keefe shot her a curious glance at "this time", but she ignored him.

"Surprisingly, not me." She gestured to Keefe. "Him."

Elwin grinned and motioning at one of the cots lined up against the wall. Keefe plopped down on the closest one, giving her a very is-this-what-you-wanted look.

"Did Sophie rope you into something?" Elwin asked, winking at Sophie teasingly.

"'No, he—" she paused. "How did you injure yourself? I just realized I didn't ask."

Keefe's eyes went down to his feet, his confident manner disappearing now that they were nearly alone. Sophie noted this and filed it away for later. Cracking the case of Snowflake Boy hadn't proved to be easier now that he was at school.

"So?" Elwin questioned, taking Keefe's hand out from under his other gently and inspecting it, a slight frown crossing his face.

"I... accidentally cut myself. On a broken breaker." He smiled at Sophie, though it looked weak. "Your teacher needs to get better at managing her so-called safe equipment."

"Cut yourself, hm?" Elwin said, raising an eyebrow as he started to clean and bandage the cut.

"...yeah." Keefe muttered.

Elwin didn't pry further, and the only sound was Keefe sucking in a breath as he cleaned the wound.

"So any interesting injuries of the week?" Elwin asked Sophie, changing the subject.

"None so far." She grinned at him triumphantly.

Elwin shook his head, getting up from the chair he'd pulled in front of Keefe and putting away everything, the cut bandaged. Keefe flexed his hand with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I still say that clumsiness of yours will be dangerous some day."

"Clumsy?" Keefe jumped in. "You would never guess that seeing how she is on the ice."

Elwin paused, popping his head out of his office to look at them. Sophie felt dread creeping up, begging Keefe with her eyes not to say anything.

"Ice?" The nurse cocked his head.

"Well, you know how she is. Skating amazingly and making me look like a total—"

Sophie slapped a hand over Keefe's mouth in horror, and his eyes widened, stunned at being silenced. Elwin's gaze went between them suspiciously, a dark eyebrow quirked over one of his blue eyes.

"Yeah, we were at the free skate session because Keefe just loves to skate, so I figured that I should one-up him." Sophie laughed nervously.

For someone who had a "talent" for reading people, Keefe sure didn't know how to catch a hint. He brought a hand up and pulled her palm away from his mouth, shooting her a confused glance.

"Yeah... we, uh, had so much fun." For good measure, he stood up and slung his arm around her shoulder like they were best buddies. "Having fun, that's Foster and I."

Sophie took a moment to wonder about the new nickname before switching back to nervously glancing at the school nurse. Elwin's face had gone from suspicious to completely disbelieving, but he didn't question further, only throwing them odd looks as they left.

"So, what was that about?" Keefe whispered the moment they turned the corner and were out of earshot.

Sophie groaned and put her face in her hands. "This is exactly why I wish you didn't come here."

"Ouch, I'm wounded."

"No, I didn't mean it like that, I just..." Sophie trailed off as they turned another corner. She had no idea where Keefe was going but couldn't be bothered to steer him in the right direction, what with much more pressing matters concerning her at the moment.

"It's just?" Keefe prodded.

"Well... I don't want anyone to know that I skate," Sophie rushed out, bracing herself for the inevitable question that would surely lead to her talking about her sister's death. But they didn't come.

"Hmm," Keefe said curiously. "Do your parents know?"

"Uh..." Sophie stuttered, caught off guard by the shockingly tame question. "No."

"Good to know. If I ever come over, I'm not allowed to gush about your amazing skating. Got it." He winked cheekily for good measure, and Sophie had to laugh at his attempt to make her feel better.

For reasons unknown to her, her cheeks warmed at the words, "if I ever come over". She hoped Keefe didn't notice. Right as he started to poke her cheek, having unfortunately noticed her blush, they turned around another corner, almost running right into Fitz Vacker.

Her crush, Fitz Vacker.

Sophie's cheeks, which had been warm before, felt like they were on fire as she watched Fitz's eyes trace over Keefe's casual arm around her shoulders, an emotion she couldn't interpret flitting across his features.

Keefe's eyes darted back and forth between her flaming face and Fitz's guarded expression, before quietly dropping his arm from Sophie. She could still feel lingering warmth from where he had just been, and the now-exposed area of the back of her neck felt cold without him there.

"Hi, Fitz!" Sophie said, cringing at the enthusiasm in her voice.

"Hello, Sophie."  He noticeably didn't acknowledge Keefe, but Sophie chalked it up to not having been introduced before.

She tugged on Keefe's sleeve, pulling him forward. Somehow, he had managed to shrink behind her. His once open expression was now replaced with a crooked smirk that made him look like he was going to prank someone at any minute.

"This is Keefe Sencen."

"I know," Fitz said quietly. Keefe's eyes went to the floor, smirk disappearing, and both of them shifted their feet awkwardly. Sophie stared at them. Bad history, maybe? "I should... probably let you get to your classes."

"Yeah... see you again soon?" Sophie asked hopefully. He flashed another one of his movie star smiles just for her, and then brushed past them.

Sophie stared at his back until he turned the corner, wondering if she'd ever stand a chance. Surely there were more beautiful, or popular, or smarter girls that he was more interested in. Certainly not his little sister's best friend, of all people.

"Come on, Foster,' Keefe said, nudging her and breaking her out of her thoughts. "From what I gather, we do not want to be at the receiving end of Mrs. Galvin's screeching."

A/N: WOOOOO UPDATE

Think of this as my Happy Thanksgiving gift to you all

Don't be expecting anything for Christmas >:((

I'm curious: what's your favorite disney/pixar movie??

Mine is probably Hercules, or maybe the Princess and the Frog for Disney, and Coco for Pixar(I literally can't pick just one). I could rant for days about these movies istggg especially Coco🥺

OH AND TANGLED I ADORE TANGLED

AND ZOOTOPIA AAAAAA

okay okay, I'll stop now XD happy thanksgiving everyone!