Dear Reader,
This is a story about a young girl named Sophia.
At least, everyone thought her name was Sophia. They didn't know who told them-they simply knew. Like how adults know that 2+2 is 4. A fact of a life, if there is one.
Take a good look at her, and she's about 13 years old. No one really knows her age. Some say that she's 11 but a bit gangly and tall. Some claim her petite but nearly 15. Her eyes were always permanently focused on the darkest object in the room, until someone spoke of something mild interest to her.
No one could focus on her eyes for very long, and her hair was as white as snow, although most would say it's pale blonde. Sophia lived in a town that would not show up on a map. When a passerby asked the name of this town, the answer was never heard. Then they left and couldn't find the town again. The oldest villagers would say soon everyone alive on earth would find this town, but only once, until it was erased from existence.
Mrs. Salem said that Jared Pensburg was the oldest in the town, but Mr. Roland was sure it was Maria Ellenson and would not be convinced otherwise, unless someone brought him an absurd amount of chocolate cake, and he'll always take some but have your mothers make it and now run along children the bell's rung. (This was to the school children, who sat outside Mr. Roland's porch every morning and listened to his stories, until the school bell rang, and then they would take off running. Oddly enough, the school had no bell. But when they heard, the children ran off to the school building, and all the teachers were there behind their desks, waiting for the children to pay their morning respects.)
I personally think the oldest person in town was grumpy old Jose
Fortolange, who never left his house except to leave dandelions on Sophia's porch. Sophia lived with her mother, like all the other children in the town. All the men were either 1-17, or as old as the day was long.
Mrs. Catley was always expecting a baby, Samson Jackerby was always waiting for his $20 from mowing Mr. Tally's lawn, and Andrew Corlando and Emerson Niles were always just about to have their bar mitzvahs, which were two and a half days apart. Everything in this town stayed the same. Whenever the children moved grades, they went back to school next year moving up to the same grade level they were in before.
Although, to be fair, the one school in the whole town didn't have grades. They might have been split by ages, or last name, or how far they could shoot a rubber band (Mrs. Solomen's class had some very long distances).
But no one could be quite sure.
No one could be quite sure of anything in this town
Especially Sophia.
Sohpia's mother didn't quite know what to do with her. She urged her to play with the neighborhood children, but Sophia would ignore her and continue feeding the chickens. Sophia went out 7 times a day to feed the chickens, giving each one more and more food. Even so, the chickens were rather pale and skinny, much like Sophia herself.
One day, while Sophia was riding to school, Alex Silvia popped his head over her seat and frowned at her. She was sitting completely still as always, and was in a single seat that seemed to appear whenever she stepped on the bus. She was staring at a shadowy corner.
Alex poked her, and was rather annoyed when she didn't react. Most schoolboys didn't like her-she was too pale and thin and quiet.
"Why don't you just say something," he grumbled. Then he got an idea and grabbed her backpack, and dumped the contents on the seat he shared with Duncan Gray and Jake Torres. Alex soon found her homework paper tucked into her binder, filled out neatly.
