Flashback ( PDFDrive )

He set three Prattles pins on her tray—a jaculus, a kelpie, and a
sasquatch. “Meet Bitey, Scaley Butt, and The Stink—your new
bandage buddies! We need to figure out the perfect place to put them.
I think Scaley Butt should be near Krakie so it looks like they’re
swimming together. And then Bitey could be close to The Stink so it
looks like he’s trying to chomp him.”
“You’re a very strange person, you know that?” she asked as he
pinned the new creatures in place.
“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘awesome.’ I’m an awesome
person—who stopped you from thinking about how hungry you are
for, like, five minutes.”
“And then reminded me,” Sophie noted with a stomach growl.
“Oops. Well . . . okay, your new hour starts now!”
It was a very long afternoon.
But it was worth it when Keefe gave her the last bite of butterblast,
which was chewy like a doughnut but tasted like pancakes hot off the
griddle and was filled with some sort of thick, maple-y cream. It was
quite possibly the most amazing thing she’d ever put in her mouth—
and that was saying something, considering she lived in a world with
mallowmelt and custard bursts and ripplefluffs and pudding puffs.
“If you want another,” Keefe told her, “you’re going to have to let
Ro carry you with me into the secret cafeteria.”
“Not happening,” Elwin warned.
Keefe smirked. “Keep telling yourself that.”
• • •
The next day was a little easier. Sophie and Keefe both lasted fifteen
minutes in the ice basin before the shivering took over. And Sophie