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Greetings. Welcome. Today we speak about Miss. Fos-Boss’s adventures. Miss. Sophie Foster is a very special little lady. This is for many reasons. One of which because she absolutely loves Blizzards. Specifically the Mint Oreo flavor. Or the Royal Cheesecake. Or the brownie batter. Well basically anything they have at Dairy Queen. In fact, she tells Elwin, her medical advisor, of there mysterious deliciousness almost daily. Now on with the story.
She falls out of her bed foaming at the mouth, “Need. McFlurry.” Now one thing I forgot to mention. While she is in this nice little hospital bed. That has a nice picture of herself in a furry Mastodon suit. In this fancy little healing center. She forgets the name of many things. Such as: Keefe, the name Blizzards (she still remembers what they are), and play-doh. After hearing her chant a few times Elwin looks up from Fitz and sighs.
“I do apologize, but we do not have any McFlurry’s at hand. We do have some strawberry smoothies if you desire so.” After shaking her head excessively he shrugs, “Your loss then.” He returns to checking on her fellow hospital mate.
Now it is time for Ella to make an appearance. Sophie blinks repeatedly after being abruptly awoken. She glares at the culprit. A small man with twig arms and messy blonde hair that complimented his ice blue eyes perfectly is standing across the room from her with his arm outstretched in a throwing position. Well he was. Now he is rolling on the floor, crying from laughter. A small blue elephant is still resting on top of her head. She pulls the leg down and squeezes the elephant to her chest.
“Who are you?” she tries to sound intimidating, but anyone clutching a bright blue elephant wearing a Hawaiian shirt wouldn’t do too well at that. Her failed attempt at intimidation just made the strange figure laugh even harder.
“Alrighty Keefe, I didn't let you in here to cause further distress to my patients,” Elwin rolls his eyes. To this so called Keefe guy’s credit he did manage to stand up fairly quickly but the second his eyes flicked back to Sophie he snorted. What made her look so amusing? Oh boy I wonder what it is, definitely not the pink substance smeared all over your face Sophie, definitely not. Elwin turns to threaten to kick Keefe out again but when he sees her he doubles over. Ok now this is just getting annoying. Who is this strange guy and why is he laughing at her? Why is Elwin laughing with him?! They had both seen Ella before. Oh Sophie if only you looked at yourself. Then you would know.
After a few minutes Elwin shoves a handheld mirror into her hands. She immediately drops the mirror and hides under the blankets effectively covering her face completely.
“Why didn’t you say anything!” she calls out from her hiding spot, mortified. Her entire face was pink! And that mysterious guy laughed at her because of it!
“Well maybe because you seemed rather adamant about not getting the smoothie I offered!” Elwin barely manages to squeak out between bursts of laughter. Yeah Sophie. I thought you didn’t want any smoothie. Smoothie. What smoothie? Her confusion must have been obvious because the Keefe guy’s laughs quickly turned into silent wheezes. The poor guy was rolling on the tiled floor, he’ll probably be sore tomorrow.
“I never had a smoothie!” She was beginning to peak her head back out from under the blankets making her view of the room a bit better. I bet.
“Sure looks like ya did,” Elwin says placing down a damp towel on the bed next to her. She grabs it and begins to scrub at her face instantly. While the smoothie residue was off her face the pink coloring didn’t leave. No one was answering her silent question. Who was this guy and why hadn’t Elwin kicked him out yet? It’s like her brain was moving too slow. She saw all the pieces but they weren’t fitting together.
“Uh- so who are you?” Sophie asks the guy after a few minutes of awkward silence and him staring anywhere but her. Very direct. His head instantly drops. Just great Sophie now he probably hates you. Yeah, right.
“Oh so it is true. I mean, yeah. I knew it was true but like didn’t-” he suddenly clamps his mouth shut, “I’m Keefe. Brought a game with me.” He holds up a big box that Sophie hadn’t noticed before.
“Sorry?” Sophie reads off the box.
“Yeah, I thought it would be fun to play. We might need some more people to play though. I could hail Dex if you want? Actually he’s probably sitting waiting to join at a moments notice,” Keefe seems to be thinking aloud, “If you’re comfortable of course!” Sophie’s just happy to hear the familiar name.
“Dex can come,” Elwin says before Sophie can respond, “She needs to do something other than sit here and eat all my smoothies.” Keefe looks at Sophie for confirmation and she nods.
“Alright then, I’ll be right back.” Sophie stares up at the ceiling. It is quite a nice ceiling though she does wish for some more variety. Seeing the same white color everyday does get boring eventually. Sophie doesn’t know how much time has passed when Keefe walks back in, Dex in tow.
“Hey Sophie! How’ve you been doing?” Dex asks, ignoring the elephant in the room. Not Ella. That’s a different elephant.
“Bored- no offense Elwin!” Sophie responds while watching Keefe set up the Sorry board on the edge of her bed.
“None taken! In fact I’d consider that you’re bored a good thing!” Elwin laughs from his office. Well said, I do have to agree.
“Yeah, let’s not have any more extended stays in the healing center anymore,” Keefe nods in agreement with Elwin’s statement. Something about that small action didn’t feel right. Everytime she thinks too hard about it she feels dizzy so she completely ignores it and moves on. You would almost think she would have learned not to do this at this point. The Sorry game board looked set up enough to call colors so grabs the pieces closest to her, red. Second best color to teal. Too bad it isn’t an option.
“Dude!” Dex exclaims grabbing the red and blue disk shaped pieces from Keefe’s hands., “Is this the fire and ice version?!”
“Yeah, I love this version!” Keefe jumps up to take the pieces back from Dex but ends up knocking the board off its perfectly balanced spot on the end of the bed. Sophie barely holds back a laugh at the distraught look on Keefe and Dex’s faces.
“Race you to set it up,” Dex challenges, already getting up off the ground to get the pawns from under the bed next to her.
Keefe, one never able to turn down a challenge, looks up from the game board and says, “Alright, bet.” He springs up from his seat once again only to step on the edge of the board and slip. The board flies across the room and Keefe ends up flat on his back. Now Sophie truly can not hold back her laughter.
Elwin cracks the door open, taking in the disaster that is Keefe flat on his back, Dex hitting his head on the bottom of a bed and Sophie laughing at them from her bed. “Do I want to know- you know what nevermind.” No Elwin. You probably do not.
When Dex finally crawls out from under the bed he is considerably redder than before. After glancing at Keefe, who is still lying on his back, he holds up four blue and green pawns with a big grin,“I think I won.”
“What about yellow?” Keefe asks, still not looking up from the floor.
“Yellow?”
“Yellow.”
“There’s yellow?”
“Well duh there’s yellow, it’s a four person game.”
“It’s a four person game?!?”
“Yes, Dex. It’s a four person game.” Keefe sounds exasperated.
“No it’s not”
“What! Have you never played Sorry before?”
“Well-”
“You’ve never played sorry before!” Keefe’s now looking up at Dex in horror, “I can’t believe this. Why have we never played Sorry together before. This is no longer a friendly game between three friends, this is war.”
“I’ve seen the triplets play before.” Dex attempts to defend himself.
“SEEING IS NOT BELIEVING!”
“THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE!” A loud clattering sound startles the two boys away from each other. When did they stand up? Who knows.
“Hi.” They forgot about Sophie.
“Did you just throw a box at my hair Foster?” Keefe sounds horrified. Not the hair oh no.
What? Why is he calling her Foster? Why does he have that expression on his face? Who is this strange guy? What was his name, Keefe? “What?”
“Uh, I wasn’t the one throwing projectiles at people.”
“Well it wasn’t at you, it was at the wall. Behind you.” Mhm. Yeah sure, that’s what they all say.
“Whatever ya say Lady Fos-Boss.”
“Are we gonna play... or?” Dex had picked up the rest of the yellow pieces.
“YES! Dibs on blue!” He steps back to take them from the bed but as he is reaching backwards, he steps on the board and falls on his back again. Dex fails to hide his snickers.
“Shut up Dex.”
“Hey- why me!”
“Who else would it be?”
“I don’t know maybe the two other people in here?!?”
“One of which is unconscious?”
“Why don’t we just play the game,” Sophie suggests, breaking apart their verbal battle.
“Oh,” both Keefe and Dex echo. Dex extends his arm towards Keefe and yanks him upwards. Keefe then reaches down to pick up the board and place it back on Sophie’s bed. He whips out a deck of cards with the word sorry printed across the back and throws them down at the board. A large majority of them fly pitifully to the floor.
“I didn’t do that,” Sure Keefe. Whatever you say.
“Mhm, alright,” Dex leans over to pick up the cards from the ground.
“WELL SORRY. MY BAD. SIMPLE MISTAKE.” Keefe flashes a card with a very large paragraph marked onto it. “See that Foster?”
“No, I very much cannot see that. Too much waving it around.” Sophie says, attempting to grab the card from his hand.
“Oh, whoops.” Keefe hands the card to her. Why am I not surprised?
“Ha, ha, very funny,” Sohpie tries to mask her amusement. The card he had been waving around was THE sorry card.
“Alright I got the rest of the cards your dumb face dropped.” Dex says.
“Choosing to ignore that funny comment you left there Dex. Anyways. You. You are the bestest Dex. Now let me show you the master at work.” Keefe grabs the rest of the cards and splits them into two decks. He uses his thumbs to push the cards down into what he wishes was a great shuffle. “Now that, that was what you call a bridge.” Sophie stares at him. How does one become like this?
“I don’t thi-”
“Up next is the Great Keefe Card Trick because I invented it myself.” Sohpie watches as he attempts to mix the cards together.
“Isn’t that the overhand shuffle?” She asks the guy busting out some moves.
“I KNEW IT. I KNEW THERE WAS NO SUCH THING AS THE GREAT KEEFE CARD TRICK!” Dex exclaims.
“Of course the Great Keefe Card Trick is a thing, I invented it myself. I don’t know what this overhand shuffle thing is.” He slides the cards together in a dramatic flourish. “Why don’t you show us, Foster.” Keefe’s smug smile is the only thing that makes Sophie grab the deck of cards and flawlessly shuffle them together. Dex and Keefe both stare in wonder at the cards. Dex starts laughing at Keefe.
“Okay, okay, I got it.” Keefe takes the perfectly placed cards from the center of the board and attempts to do the same move as Sohpie. Who knew. Sophie Foster, card shuffling extraordinaire. The cards fall all over the table. A for effort.
“Yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night,” Sophie snorts at Dex’s blunt statement.
“I take offense to that!” Keefe is now standing in an almost performance-like stance, “I thought we were friends. I thought we were chillin. But now you have betrayed my trust.”
“Uh-huh, are you ready to play now?” During his long speech they had set up the board so it was ready to play.
“Oh, great!” Keefe sits at the open spot next to the blue base. After a few moments of silence Keefe gestures at Sophie to go.
“Oh, am I going first?”
“Duh, you’re the one in the healing center.”
“Well if you want to get technical…”
“You know what I mean,” Keefe rolls his eyes, “You do know how to play right? Unlike someone over here.”
“Yeah, I know how to play.”
“Okay, what are you waiting for then?” Sophie flips a colorful card over to reveal a large one. She moves the first red piece onto the board.
“HAH, okay watch the master at work.” Keefe stretches his hands before taking the next card in the deck. “SEVEN! LET’S GO! BEATING FOSTER FINALLY!”
“No?” Sophie stares at him.
“What? Are you a sore loser? I would say you still have time to beat me but you probably won’t anyway.”
“No? You don’t go?”
“Huh? I thought you said you knew how to play?”
“I know how to play. You clearly do not.”
“Are you insulting my sorry game knowledge!” Keefe is flabbergasted. He jabs an accusing finger in her direction.
“Well it’s all wrong so yes.” Keefe gasps almost as he was stabbed.
“Can’t we just check the rule book?” Dex interjects. He’s watching the two argue with an exasperated face.
There’s a pause as they consider it. Sophie nods once and extends her hand towards the instructions. Keefe beats her to it, snatching the paper with unnerving speed.
“Found it!” He flips the section about the special power ups and scans the page with his fab eyes. “It says I’m right,” he announced. Sophie scowls.
“No way.”
“Yes way.”
Sophie grabs at the instructions and Keefe jerks away. He crumples up the rule book with a gleeful grin.
Keefe throws the wadded up instructions at the trash can in the corner, “Hoops.”
“No!” Sophie glares at him, unable to get out of her bed.
“Ha ha, I call BS.” Dex goes to the trash can and pulls out the balled up instructions, “Where would it be?”
“I already told you. I’m right.”
“Yea I don’t believe that in the slightest.” His eyes brighten as he says, “Found it! And it says that the only way to leave the base area is to get a one or two. So Sophie's right!”
“Whatttttt, you’re making that up.”
“Why don’t we let Sophie decide that?” Dex doesn’t wait for Keefe’s response, but Keefe makes no move to stop him from giving it to her.
“I told you.” Sophie doesn’t need long to look at the paper.
“Okay whatever, maybe you’re right. Just know that I was testing you.”
“Sure you were. Now sit down so I can go.”