"No... definitely the gold." Aaina decided. "It sets off your eyes."
"Are you sure?" Sophie held the dress against her shoulders, trying to imagine wearing it.
"Oh, I see. You don't trust my judgment." The spectral mirror wrenched her head to the side dramatically.
"No, I do! I do," Sophie promised, laughing. "I'll wear the gold one!" She changed, and when she was dressed, she had to agree. The gold made her turquoise eyes glow, and when she lined them with gold-flecked eyeliner and applied lip gloss, she was ready.
The sleepover was tonight.
The day before had been a tired blur, starting with being woken up after not enough sleep, to endless amounts to clean up. Sophie didn't understand why Edaline or Jolie couldn't just snap their fingers and conjure everything away, but apparently, everything had to be sorted because they had only rented some things instead of buying them, like the tables. Sophie sort of understood why- what else would they be used for- but it added a lot of extra work.
She packed a bag full of stuff and slung it over her shoulder, ready to head over to Everglen.
After leaping in front of the gates, she waited to be let in, and when they opened she glimpsed a familiar teal-eyed figure waiting for her. But the hair was different...
Sophie choked on a laugh when she saw Fitz's green, spiky hair.
"I thought you had to wear it to school," She commented, grinning. "You have to have it like that for two days now instead of one..."
"Yeah, I figured if I didn't do it myself, Keefe or Dex would sneak it into one of my meals tonight," Fitz flashed his movie star smile.
"True," Sophie agreed, following him in Everglen. When she reached the house, she headed toward the room she had stayed in before, but Biana blocked her path.
"No, we're all sleeping in the same room," she told her.
"Um, WHAT?" Sophie asked apprehensively.
"Yup! In the reception hall," Dex confirmed, coming up behind Biana.
"It's gonna be one big slumber party!" Keefe added, his smirk in place as usual.
"Come on!" Biana tugged her toward the reception hall, where Sophie had never been. "Yeah, I know, it's big. But it is for Winnowing Galas, so..."
Sophie tried to block out the images that appeared when Biana said "Winnowing Galas," and focused on the room around her. And it definitely helped distract her.
Big... was an understatement.
Gigantic would have been better. Or humungous. And the beauty of the room (along with the giant portraits of the Vackers) had Sophie turning around slowly, taking it all in.
"We've set up the sleeping bags here," Biana pointed to where all the sleeping bags were set up in a star-shaped pattern, including, somehow, Sophie's. She didn't even want to know how they had taken that from her hand without her noticing. Or how they had set it up so fast. "Now we're only waiting for Maruca, the twins, and maybe Marella!" Biana was almost squealing with excitement.
Sophie laughed, dropping her bag on the ground next to everyone else's, including Fitz and Biana's, for some reason. But it was a pretty far distance from here to their rooms, and she totally got why they might not want to make a trip anytime they wanted to get something.
Just then, a bell rang, startling Sophie. But the others didn't even flinch.
"That was for the gate. Someone else is here," Dex explained, heading after Biana, who was already rushing out the door. Sophie followed, trailed by Fitz and Keefe. But before they were halfway, Dex and Biana reappeared, escorting Linh, Tam, Maruca, and Marella, saving them a trip.
Once everyone was settled and set up, Fitz said,
"So what do we do now?"
"I have a few ideas," Keefe tapped his hands together, an evil smile forming on his face.
"So do I," Maruca interrupted before Keefe could explain. "Watch this!" She snapped her fingers, and a glowing force field appeared around her.
"You manifested!" Linh gasped, and rushed to hug her as soon as Maruca made the forcefield disappear. Marella watched with a smile, but her fingers tapped on the ground, probably nervous at being a part of the group.
"Yup!" Maruca said proudly. "I'm a Psionpath!"
"Yay! Now everyone's manifested!" Biana cheered, her eyes sparkling.
"Except me," Marella pointed out. "Did you forget?"
"Oh! I'm sorry," Biana apologized, guilt showing on her perfect face.
Marella waved her hand. "It's okay. I'm not part of your friend group anyway. Why should you include me?"
An uncomfortable silence followed.
"Anyway, how 'bout base quest?" Keefe broke the silence. "Maybe Fitzy will finally beat me." He elbowed his friend, and Fitz shoved him.
"I've totally beaten you before," Fitz protested.
"Only by cheating!" Keefe challenged.
"Right, because you never cheat," Tam flipped his bangs out of his face.
"Right! I win with pure skill," Keefe tossed his hair, imitating Tam.
"Just come on," Sophie laughed, pulling him toward the lawn by his hand. Everyone else followed, and once there, they divided into teams.
"We'll quest first. Our base will be by the lake," Biana decided, gesturing toward her team of Tam, Dex, Marella, and Linh. "Special abilities can be used."
Sophie looked at her team in determination. "Okay, our base is gonna be the tree right there." She pointed to a tree that was striped red, and the rest of her team nodded behind her. Maruca, Fitz, and Keefe were all good players, and although they had one less player, they could beat Biana's team easily. Or, semi easily, since special abilities were allowed.
The group split up, Biana's team heading over to the lake, Sophie's team going to the tree, waiting for Biana's signal that they were ready. While they were waiting, they split up their team too, Maruca to guard the base, and Fitz, Sophie, and Keefe to tag out the questers.
A geyser exploded out of the lake. Linh's signal.
Sophie, Keefe, and Fitz separated and plunged into the undergrowth. Sophie closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to find Biana's thoughts. No one could isolate thoughts exactly, but she was able to find the general area, and soon she took off running. She knew that Fitz was doing the same to find Tam, even though he couldn't narrow it down as much as she could. Biana and Tam could hide and get past everyone to the base, but Sophie and Fitz could still sense their general direction. And if anyone got past, they would find Maruca with her forcefield around the tree.
Biana's thoughts were closer to the tree than Sophie had estimated, and she altered her course, trying to head the other way. Channeling all her extra energy to her legs, she pumped her limbs hard to pick up speed. Then she saw the branches crackling and the leaves and grass being flattened without anyone touching them. She grinned, following the footprints appearing ahead, and leaping forward, stretched out her hand as far as she could, and...
Tripped.
Her feet caught on a root, and she pitched forward. But as she fell she just managed to graze Biana's shoulder... and tag her out.
"Dang it!" Biana frowned, turning to see who had tagged her. She saw Sophie faceplanted on the ground, covered in dirt, and Biana's scowl turned to giggles as she helped her friend up, brushing away the worst of the soil.
"I think I'm gonna have to change," Sophie sighed, looking down at her dirty clothes.
"Yeah," Biana agreed. "But wait until the game is over."
They emerged into the clearing with the tree just in time to see Fitz hot in pursuit after Tam, only to change direction as Linh appeared on the opposite side. Maruca's forcefield was still in place though, making sure that it would be impossible to touch the base.
"Hang on!" Biana shouted. "I call for a time out!"
Everyone stopped running, skidding to a halt, although by the sound of it, Keefe was still chasing Marella.
"It's not fair that you can make a forcefield and stop us from having any chance to win," Biana told Maruca.
"You said abilities were allowed," Maruca pointed out, hand on her hip.
"But this way, there's no way we can win," Biana crossed her arms. "So how about we just make it no force fields? Marella doesn't have an ability, and she's doing just fine."
Biana was right. Keefe STILL hadn't tagged Marella, judging by the squawks and crashes coming from the trees, despite Marella's legs being way shorter. He obviously wasn't as good at base quest as he said he was.
"That seems fair," Sophie decided, looking at Fitz until he nodded his acceptance.
Maruca sighed. "Fine. Whatever."
"Okay, resume!" Biana clapped her hands, and Tam and Linh started zigzagging all over the place. Then Dex showed up too, prompting Sophie and Maruca to join Fitz in tagging them. Then Marella leaped into the clearing, still untagged, and Keefe arrived after her. Even without Biana, the clearing was so crowded and confusing, Sophie gave up and randomly started waving her arms around, hoping to catch one of the other teams. She saw a head of blond hair and leaped forward, grabbing Marella's shoulder.
But it wasn't Marella.
Keefe turned, smirking, and said, "Just can't keep your hands off me, can you?"
Sophie blushed, and started running again so she didn't have to respond.
Ten very tiring minutes later, Linh, Tam, and Dex were sitting with Biana on the side, cheering for Marella as she dipped and weaved and somehow not only avoided Fitz, Maruca, Keefe, AND Sophie, but caused them to crash into each other as they tried to catch her. Now Sophie understood why Keefe had struggled to catch her. And since Maruca couldn't use her ability, none of them had an ability that could help catch the petite elf. Telepaths, Empaths, and Polyglots weren't exactly made for catching people.
Now that Sophie thought about it, Biana had chosen all of the elves except Maruca who could actually use their abilities to win. And Sophie was pretty sure Biana had always planned on making sure Maruca couldn't use her ability. She had to give her credit. That was a pretty smart move, not that it had done her any good. Marella was the one person on the team who didn't have any cool gadgets or abilities to use, and she was the only one left. Sophie and her team would tag her soon enough.
Marella suddenly changed direction from the place she had been going, heading straight to the tree. Sophie, Fitz, and Keefe rushed to follow her, pouring on more and more speed, while Maruca circled around to cut her off. Marella jumped up- and she must have levitated because there was no way someone could jump that far or high- and slapped her palm against the tree.
"YES! We win!" Biana crowed, leaping up from where she had been sitting.
"Great job!" Linh told Marella, giving her a hug, then quickly pulling away, a hint of pink coloring her cheeks.
"Dang it!" Fitz fumed, plopping down. Keefe dropped beside him, and nudged his shoulder before suggesting,
"Hey, how 'bout a rematch?"
"NO!" Everyone else shouted at the same time.
"How about we go inside and have dinner?" Biana suggested.
"Right, so you can gloat all the way there," Fitz snorted.
"Aw, you know me so well! Let's go!" Biana lived up to her promise, bragging about her team's victory all the way back into the house.
Yes, I did make an entire chapter about base quest. I just felt like it. And it turned out longer than I'd anticipated so-