Sickly Sweet

About Her

Sophia Vanquez Alonso was a ten year old fifth grade girl whose life was a montage of sunshine and rainbows. Her family lived in sunny Southern California with her two older sisters, Deandra and Briel. Deandra was 12 and Briel was 16. Since their foster mother had decided that childbirth wouldn't be something she could handle, they were all adopted at three years old.

Sophia went to Vierdere Elementary, where she was in her last year and would soon move to Drandser Middle School. She had always been a little different from everyone else. She didn't like making friends and enjoyed writing stories during recess and right before bedtime, causing her to be friendless and bullied. Sophia never fought back. She only smiled and continued writing, whether they were throwing things at her or taunting her mercilessly.

In that way, she was her own superhero; invulnerable to the teasing.

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When Sophie opened her eyes to start the gloomy Saturday morning,her deep brown eyes stared into two crystal blue ones.

"Wake up, Sophie-Wophie. Mom's making pancakes to celebrate your play."

Briel then jumped off her bed and headed back to her own room. Sophie stood, stretched, and went to the bathroom to get ready for her play.

After brushing her teeth and dressing for the special occasion, Sophie ran downstairs and gobbled up pancakes. Her outfit was simple: a black tank top and white leggings. This was what she was supposed to wear since she wanted to change into her costume without having to take off her clothes in the dressing room.

Sophia had a very happy life, living with the Alonsos. Her two sisters were relatively nice to her, though Deandra would occasionally go into PMS mode and have random mood swings, sometimes even lashing out at Sophie. Her foster parents were very kind, and they all fit together just like a real family. But out of all the members of the Alonso household, Sophie was easily the weirdest.

She had certain breakfast days at home, such as Tuesday being French Toast Day and Friday being Waffle Day while her sisters ate yogurt and bran cereal. She never wore makeup, didn't care about fashion, and considered boys as 'just friends' while Briel and Deandra were eyeliner and lipstick freaks with the key to friends, fashion, and flirting. She ran away frequently and for very odd reasons. Once she slept at the park for two days simply because she thought that she should 'spend more time with nature' and 'value the earth while she still could.'

But the weirdest thing of all was that every Sunday Sophie would wake up in their neighbor's barn, holding a rolling pin and a pack of spearmint gum. Every single Sunday.

This first happened at age five, and they thought that she had merely sleepwalked and it was a unique occurrence. But then it happened the next week. And the next. And the next. The neighbors were very kind people but still didn't love the idea of a strangle little girl waking up in their barn every Sunday. They tried setting up security systems but nothing worked. Somehow Sophie still got through the alarm system and completed her weekly visit to Barney the horse and Polka the cow.

Besides these small differences, Sophia was a relatively average child. Her grades were average, her clothes were average, even her name was average. She had sparkling brown eyes and cornflower hair, but these features were masked by the fact that she kept her head down. Her skin was fair with small brown freckles splattered across her nose. Her smile was dazzling when she smiled, which was a routine occasion. Not that anyone noticed. If only people could look past her differences, they would find that she was really a beautiful little girl with a beautiful personality.