Sophie POV

She picked up her pace, abandoning all plans of waiting until the bus arrived. She turned the left corner, and screeched to a stop when the door to a candy shop flung open, and two familiar figures stepped out.

Both the ice blue eyed boy and the strawberry haired boy whipped their heads around towards Sophie, their eyes wide before they gained composure once again.

"Hey, Sophie! Nice to see you again..." Dex trailed off after seeing her panicked expression, and it seemed like Keefe didn't even need to look at her. "Sophie? You don't look okay," Keefe admitted. 

The sound of loud footsteps startled Sophie out of her trance as she turned to look behind her. The two boys next to her eyes' flitted up to the man in the dark hoodie, who's eyes held no sort of emotion other than surprise.

The man from Juniors' eye's narrowed at Keefe, until he cleared his throat. Dex pulled Sophie behind him, him and Keefe acting like a barricade between her and the strange man.

"Since when do you two live in the Forbidden Cities?" His voice was scratchy, and his crooked nose twitched when he grinned. It was a terrible grin. One Sophie didn't want to see again.

"Forbidden Cities?" Sophie cocked her head to the side, was he talking about New York City? Last time she had checked, New York City was just another city.

Keefe gritted his teeth, his fists clenched beside him. "Last time I checked, neither did you, Gethen." Gethen continued his over-creepy smile, and replied.

"Oh, I'm just on a trip..." Suddenly it all clicked. Well, not really, but that's what it felt like to Sophie. Yesterday, Sophie literally bumped into these random girls, who were acting suspicious already. Then, the next day, once again, the same girls see her in a random park early in the morning, bringing more friends. They all seemed to be acting pretty skiddish, all with odd accents and a bad cover story. Now this creepy guy starts following Sophie, when all she wanted was her Junior's along with a non-hangry Maylee, and she meets Keefe and Dex, once again, randomly  when she just happens to be getting followed by a creepy waiter man. All three of them seem to know each other, and don't seem to like each other very much. And, might she add, they all had blue eyes. But that's not creepy at all. 

Oh, and of course, Sophie betted that "trip" had something—probably everything—to do with her. She wasn't sure why, but something about this felt oddly familiar. That probably wasn't good.

While Sophie was lost in her theories, the three men had continued the argument. Keefe looked ready to start a brawl, Dex looked ready to grab Sophie and run at a moment's notice, and Gethen's creepy "smile" had gone away.

Sophie wanted out.

"Listen, kid, just because your Gisela's son doesn't mean your worth anything to the rest of us," Gethen snarled, Keefe's face darkened at the mention of this "Gisela". The boys seemed to be having an ultimate three-way staring match, until Dex broke his gaze.

Gethen stepped away, pulling out some kind of crystal on a stick and raised it until it caught the sunlight. The beam of light wavered in place, but Gethen did not exit without one last remark. 

"Wait until they find out you're here."

The passerby scurried by and continued their everyday life, seemingly not noticing the face off that had just gone down. Keefe, Dex, and Sophie stayed silent for a few moments until they regained composure.

"What was that?" Sophie practically yelled, Keefe and Dex both shushing her as a group of young women glared at them from the small candy shop door.

Keefe and Dex shared a look. They were hiding something. Well, that was obvious, but something important, very, very important. Something Sophie needed to know.

"Well? You clearly know the guy, and it seems like he knows you, so no sense in lying now that I've seen it." The pair seemed nervous and fidgety, like something was forbidding them to tell her.

"I think we should go find the rest of our friends," was all Dex said. "Oh, and I suppose they know creepy Gethen too?" Dex averted his gaze.

Sophie pursed her lips and stood with her one arm propped on the side of her left hip. "Well. My food is getting awfully cold and I really don't feel like dealing with a hangry Maylee this afternoon, so unless you have something to tell me," she held her hands out, waiting for them to spill, "I'll be on my way."

They all knew what Sophie meant, but Keefe clearly decided to take it the wrong way.

"Okay then, I know a thing or two about moody friends, so hopefully that's not what Maylee is this afternoon!" Dex snickered as Keefe waved a royal wave and strolled off down the street.

Sophie sighed, turning to wait at the bus stop. Maylee wouldn't be happy that she was holding her food out in the rain.

"Mmmm," Maylee licked her lips. "This is pretty good!"

"Pretty good? I got rained on and got stalked by some creep, it should be better than, 'pretty good'." Maylee stopped chewing.

"What do you mean you got stalked?" Sophie finished swallowing her potato pancake before replying.

"Some creepy blonde guy who worked at Juniors' followed me to the bus stop," she explained nonchalantly, Maylee's eyes growing wide. Sophie waved her expression away, "It's fine. I met Keefe and Dex at the candy shop right outside it. They got him to leave."

Maylee's expression changed completely. "Oh? Pretty boys protecting you, now?" Sophie's face flushed a deep red and hastily defended herself.

"No! I mean, they are pretty, but," Maylee smirked, knowing Sophie wouldn't be able to handle a conversation like this without embarrassing herself. "I mean, ugh! You know what I mean!" Maylee laughed, standing up and taking her garbage to the trash.

"So," she started, "it's movie night, what are we watching?" Sophie thought for a moment. Even though they had just watched Frozen II, she couldn't pass up movie night, it was a tradition.

"Well, are we thinking Christmas, or not?" Maylee pursed her lips, her face twisting into thought over the hard decision.

"Marvel." She nodded as if she was proud of her answer. "I'm thinking Captain America: Civil War."

After several minutes of changing into pajamas and setting up the couch into movie mode, Sophie had on her deep red Black Widow sweatshirt and some grey sweatpants.

Maylee sat beside her in all her Marvel Glory; a white cropped sleep shirt with the classic Marvel logo printed on it, matched with some red shorts and fluffy white slippers.

They had piles of blankets and pillows covering every inch of the small sofa, drinks on the short coffee table in front of them, microwaved popcorn in their hands, and finally pressed the play button.

The girls watched the movie intently, although they had seen it many times before, each butting in with a comment every few scenes.

"See, I still don't know why Natasha Romanoff was on Tony Stark's side," Maylee interjected. Sophie just shrugged as they watched the rest of the movie.

As soon as the 'Tony Stank' Stan Lee cameo had Maylee practically cackling, Sophie started to unbundle the blankets and sit up from the movie comfortable position.

"Who's side do you think you'd be on?" Maylee wondered, popping the last few popcorn kernels into her mouth.

"Um, obviously Captain America's," Sophie replied. "He's fighting to keep the Avengers away from the government, he's not trying to split them up."

"I guess I would probably be on his side too," Maylee decided, "I mean, have you seen Bucky Barnes?"

That's it for chapter 5! I've decided from now on I'll update more but the chapters will be a little shorter!

~bubblekissed