~Sophie~


Luck happens to everybody. Whether you don’t get it until you’re 86, you’ll still get it. But what I thought was when luck was being placed in people’s lives, they passed right over mine. Nothing right has happened to me yet. Trouble finds me somehow and its point is to torture me for the rest of my life until I can’t take it anymore. I was born probably the tallest and skinniest baby alive and that’s how I stayed. I’m more than the average person. Weirder I guess.
The only thing that bothered me were my eyes. They don’t belong to me. They had to be someone else’s. My eyes were the most beautiful yet the strangest thing on me. They’re the color of the sun on the horizon and had the most crystal shine you have ever seen. My eyelashes are dark and they are thick, framing my eyes making them stand out.
So what if I was weird-looking, I always thought. But it wasn’t until this one summer, that I finally understood. Here, let me tell you the story.
I looked down as I felt the dough soften under my hands. I was in my cooking class at Camp Withrow on June 29. The girl on my right was gabbing away to her other friends. I kind of just wanted her to shut up. I looked up and reached for the roller. Powder and flour ran up my arms and apron. I felt some on my nose but didn’t bother to wipe it off. I grabbed the roller and smoothed the dough out.

“That looks more like lump of crap than a smooth circle, Chambers.” The voice surprised me so I gave out a soft yelp. I turned around and found Anthony Carswell standing there with a roller in his hand and a wicked smile on his face. My face felt hot as I watched some eyes in the room turn towards the commotion. I sneered and looked over at his.
“At least mine doesn’t look like your mom’s face.” I whacked the roller I had on top of his head and added, “Better smooth out those creases, Carswell oh and better work on that dough too.” His ears turned pink as he muttered and walked back to his place at the second table.
My friend Andrea Lundquist was trying to smother a giggle. But my other friend, Adinna Carter, poked me hard in the gut. Oh yeah. She has a thing for Tony (He really doesn’t like to be called Anthony. That’s brought to my advantage.) I rolled my eyes and shuddered. Andrea cracked up. Adinna blushed. I dug my hands into the dough and rolled it up into a ball. Andrea huffed while she rolled hers out into a perfect circle. Adinna quietly began putting her circle in the pan next to her. I looked back at my dough. “Oh this is useless.” I muttered under my breath.
A voice behind me asked, “You doing okay, Sophie?” Startled, I dropped the soft dough from my hands and swiveled around. Andrew Cartwright stood there with his ready-to-bake pizza in hand and a cute sloppy grin on his face. I was completely dazed. Andrew leaned over and waved a hand in my face. I blinked twice before turning to face him. I exclaimed nervously, “Oh h-hi Andrew. Oh well, yes, I’m doing p-perfectly fine.” I laughed a little too loudly, “O-ho! Yes! Everything’s fine! Just fine!” I could feel my cheeks flaming up. Gosh, I was acting like such a jerk.
I watched as Andrew laughed uneasily and raised his eyebrows while walking back to his place at the table. I quickly made my circle and smoothed it out. I placed it in the circular pan next to me and rolled in the crust. Andrea watched me unsteadily. As I began thrusting cheese onto the uncooked pizza with a shaky hand, Adinna gripped my arm and said, “Girl, Sophie, relax.”
Andrea nodded silently and said, “Yeah, Sophia. It’s not the end of the world. Believe me; I can act even worse in front of a guy I like.”
I shook my head rapidly and pushed the pepperoni into the cheese. Adinna shouted, “Cool it! You’re messing up your flippin pizza!” I looked down and saw an almost mushy looking pizza. I sighed. I always get tensed up whenever Andrew’s around. I do have to cool it. I relaxed and began rearranging my pizza until it looked normal. Everybody was almost finished with cleaning up and putting their pizzas on the counter. Andrea waited next to me. Adinna had to go to another class before tennis, which Andrea and I had to go to now. I slapped the pan on the counter, washed up and left with Andrea right behind me. I was definitely late. Somebody was not going to be happy.



We arrived at the tennis courts and explained why were late to the tennis coach. I felt eyes blazing on my back, glaring at me. The coach, Ms. Cartzola, said, “Okay you guys, I’ll let you go this time but next time you’re late, I’m going to have to sit you out, understood?”
We both nodded and joined our teams. I pulled a cap over my short hair and grabbed a tennis racket. I ran over to a court with Andrea and served. Tony and Mandy Summers were on the opposite team. Andrea hit back most of them and I served them.
At five minutes till the lunch bell rang, Mandy served a hot one. It went up and I almost broke my back trying to get it. I jumped and arched over to reach the ball and heard a loud crack. I released the racket automatically and the ball bounced off it and sailed over to Tony. He was too dazed watching me that the ball flew over his head. Mandy threw down her racket and stomped off the court.
Meanwhile, Andrea raced towards me where I laid on the ground. For some reason the pain which I should’ve felt, did not come. I raised my head a little and opened my mouth to say something when the bell rang. Ms. Cartzola jogged over to me and said that she was taking me to the nurse. Andrea offered to come with me. Adinna also came over from another court and followed. I whispered to Andrea, “Really I’m okay, Andrea. Honest.” Andrea shook her head rapidly and answered wistfully, “No you’re not. You nearly broke your back, Sophie.”
The minutes flew by and Andrea was asked to leave once we arrived at the nurse’s office. Andrea refused and stood her ground. That’s one thing about her that I love. They laid me down on the bed with the white sheets. My spine recoiled painlessly. The nurse, Amanda, treated me and told me that one of my bones had been bent out of place and that she should call the hospital. The pain never came. Andrea studied my face. A crease began to form in the middle of her eyebrows. Her sky blue eyes were now cold and confused. They were icicles pointing out confusion between me and the painless feeling.
I lay on the bed and watched them revolve around me. Nothing was wrong with me, I felt perfectly fine. I closed my eyes and dreamed.
I dreamed of Andrea’s icicle eyes and someone else. It was someone I’ve never met or seen before. She had bright green eyes that were tinted with red. Bloodred. Her hair was as dark as the night sky.
She was astonishingly beautiful.
She smiled at me. It wasn’t warming; it was more like she knew something, a secret that she wasn’t willing to share. I woke up to the touch of someone that had fingers like ice cubes. Frozen. Trembling. The same woman that I had just saw was sitting before me, smiling that same smile as if she saw what was in my dreams. She whispered, “Sophie, you may not know me right now but I’m sure that some time with me and it’ll seem like we’ve known each other for so long.”
I was confused.
“Who are you?” I asked my voice barely hearable. She frowned with her crystal eyes. But she was still smiling. “You’ll know soon enough.” And she disappeared. Andrea walked in then carrying a tray of tea and pain medication. I shook my head and whispered to Andrea, “I don’t need that but…” I thought about seeing someone just disappear right before my eyes, “…maybe I do.”


It was a month from when all of us were going to return home. I stared out the cabin’s window. The rest of the girls were sleeping. I had woken up from a frustrating nightmare. I was walking down a dark alley way and there lay a cat. Its eyes were closed and I didn’t see any movement. I felt sorrow but then I felt scared. Scared that I had killed the cat myself, so I began to run. I ran and kept turning left at every turn. It seemed to go on and on. All I had wanted was to get as far away from the cat as possible. Not possible. As soon as I stopped, the cat was there, lying in that same position, with the same bright green eyes. Bright green eyes?
I had remembered that the cat’s eyes were closed. I took a step closer. They were tinted with red. Bloodred. I then woke up with a silent scream dying in my throat. So I had crawled out of bed tiptoed to the windowsill and snuggled up close to the window.
The sun was barely starting to peep out. The moon shadowed behind it. It was a beautiful sight. I sighed and grabbed the curtains to pull it over the window. “Hey Sophie…” a shrill voice spoke from behind me.
A chill went up my spine. I turned around slowly and gave a sigh of relief when I saw my friend Cassie Fraidenson rolling over on her bed and murmuring other things. I laid my feet on the wooden floor and walked over to my bunk bed. I shared it with Andrea, obviously. Andrea rolled over and rubbed her eyes. She blinked and opened her eyes. I sat down on the cotton bed and watched the other girls mumble in their sleep.
I giggled and that woke up Andrea. She lifted her leg up and slammed it down before pulling herself up. I raced under the fluffed up covers and pretended to be asleep. Andrea raised her head and looked around. She sniffed and climbed down from the top bunk. I pretended to snore quietly. I heard her feet carefully touch the floor and a small creak sounded from it. She winced and turned to look around, making sure she hadn’t stirred anybody.
Once she saw all of us snuggled up to our pillows snoring quietly, she tiptoed across the room and pulled out a long T-shirt and old soccer shorts to wear. I slowly lifted the heavy blankets off my body and laid my feet on the wooden floor.
I tiptoed even quieter that she did and reached to where she was changing in the bathroom. I waited till I heard her reaching for the doorknob, then I jumped in front of the door and said a shadowy boo as she opened the door fully.
She let out a blood curling scream and clutched her chest when she saw it was me. “You Jerk! Scared me half to death!” Andrea scolded.
I smiled a smug smile and looked towards the floor. Half the girls in the room were awakened suddenly by the shouting. When they saw that it was just a harmless trick, they laid their heads back to sleep. Andrea walked over to my bed and sat down. I walked with her. “Sorry, couldn’t help it I guess.” I said while watching her sit down.
She turned the other way. “Well you should be”, Andrea tried to say it angrily but Andrea always laughs at jokes that are being played on her. That’s another thing about her that I admire.
I began laughing and she immediately started to as well. We stopped immediately after what seemed the landing of a rocket right next to our cabin. We both screamed at the top of our lungs along with the rest of the girls who had woken up. I mean, who could sleep through that! My heart skipped and thumped piercingly in my chest. Andrea walked towards the noise, trembling habitually.
I closed my eyes and ran my hands through my hair meticulously. I was in darkness when I heard an excruciating scream. I flashed open my eyes and looked around. Andrea was nowhere to be seen. All the girls looked like they had seen a ghost just walk in and say hi. One of the girls began to cry. Others followed after.
I began to think What the heck happened? I walked over to Cassie. She had big fat tears rolling down her cheeks when I sat down next to her bed. I asked, “What happened, Cassie? Where’s Andrea?” She looked up once and started bawling again. I was so confused. The girl Cassie shared her bunk with piped up groggily with, “You’d never believe it, Sophie. Never. It was so unreal, yet it happened right in front of our eyes.” Her eyes began to water. Finally one of the girls told me.

“Well, you were closing your eyes I assumed. Nobody opening their eyes would’ve missed this. Andrea went over to stand by the window and then all of a sudden a big white blob flows through the window and shatters it. All the pieces fall on Andrea and while she’s bleeding to death, the white blob stares at you with eyes that were large and black with red irises. It started walking over to you; well more like floating over to you, and stretched out its ghostly arms and was about to, I think, pick you up, when Andrea threw a shard of glass at it and it floated over to her and started, I don’t know, like sucking the life from her. It looked like when the dementors sucked the soul from Harry Potter. It was scary.” She ended with a shudder.
“So where’d Andrea go?” I asked with sudden interest.
“The blob took her.”
“Well obviously. But where did the blob take Andrea?”
The girl looked frightened and shook her head. “How should I know? I was too afraid to look.” She said the last part with a little guilt. I nodded and muttered, “That’s okay, yeah it’s all right.”
I lifted my head and stood up leisurely. “Somebody’s gotta save her neck. Even though she was already half dead.” I murmured to myself. I walked over to my drawers and picked out my favorite black T-shirt and skinny jeans. I strode over to my leather short boots and strapped them on. I got out my black leather jacket and turned towards the girls, “I’m leaving. Do not, tell anybody about this. Okay?” All the girls nodded. I was off.

It seemed very strange to me about how and why this could’ve happened. Why was the blob looking at me? Was something wrong? I needed to find out. And I will.


I walked around the place. I walked over to the lake. I walked over to the cafeteria. I walked around the tennis courts and soccer field. I even looked in the dumpster. Yeah I know, gross. Then I noticed something. Nobody was around. The fields and tennis courts were empty. The lake was empty. The cafeteria was empty. I walked back to my cabin but didn’t go in. I then heard rustling behind the cabin.
My heart beat got louder and faster.
There was another rustling.
I grabbed a tennis racket from a can of rackets. “Who goes there?” I raised it. I walked to where the sound came from. My lips were trembling. It suddenly got much colder. I slowly walked. Step by step. Breath by breath. I reached the back and swung the racket. I closed my eyes in the process. I heard a thump.




“Oww! Man that hurt!” Tony was sitting in front of me with his tan hand on his sandy, dark, blonde hair. I just stood there and watched him.
I grumbled, “Aww, shut up. You’re such a baby.” He rubbed his head once more before looking up at me. “Hey, I don’t see you shutting your yap!” I walked over to another seat. We both were in the nurse’s office. It seemed that I actually hit harder than usual.
There was a big red bump popping out of his forehead. Andrew walked in and stood in front of Tony. Boy, did he look dreamy. I sat down on one of the nurse’s green flat chairs and watched Andrew talk to Tony. I first wondered, why is Andrew talking to a low life scum ball like Tony? I frowned then it popped in my head. Of course! I completely forgot! Tony is like, Andrew’s best friend! Andrew’s deep chocolate eyes wavered over me. I could feel myself blushing.
Tony looked over too and stuck his tongue out. I stuck out mine back. What slipped my mind was that Andrew was standing right there and thought that the movement of dislikeness was meant for him. I pulled the baseball cap that I was wearing over my face. What a blowout! The guy you have a total crush on now thinks you dislike him!
I made a face quickly to myself then watched the nurse come in.
Amanda treated Tony and told Andrew and I to go out side while she did some tests. We silently nodded and rushed out of the room. It was still cold outside and was getting colder. It was summer for Pete’s sake! I walked alongside with Andrew then faced him. I blushed and said, “Ummm, sooo how long have you and the mon- I mean, Tony, known each other?” He did his crooked smile which I always fall for and answered, “Well, not as long as you two have. Well, for about…eight years.” I made myself widen my eyes and made eye contact with him. I was scooting a little closer when I felt something small and wet touch the tip of my nose.
I looked up and saw tiny little snow flakes falling. Andrew gasped. I was speechless. I mean, how often in California does it snow in the summer? The snow started to pile on the grass and I got cold under the thin leather jacket. I felt something heave on my shoulders. I turned to see what was so heavy and noticed that Andrew didn’t have his tough thick leather jacket anymore. I then noticed it was on my shoulders. I cuddled and faced Andrew. We smiled at each other, both of us clueless on what was watching behind us.