She Will Be Remembered

Chapter 2

"...If the world was ending you'd come over, right?" Sophie sang as her parents drove her home from Cross Country tryouts. They had the radio turned up as loud as their ears would allow because Sophie insisted. She had been singing along to "If the World Was Ending" by JP Saxe and Julia Michaels. It was one of Sophie's favorite songs. She loved it because there were so many cool chords and harmonies that it gave her chills.

Whenever Sophie finished a race she liked to listen to depressing songs. Something about them relaxed every muscle in her body and made her feel refreshed. She also loved to sing, even though her singing sounded like a Chihuahua lost it's voice.

Sophie lost her train of thought when she heard the radio start playing her favorite song by her favorite singer, K. Sean. His singing was amazing. Every time she listened to one of his songs it felt like time stopped. Every other sound erased and it was just Sophie and the music.

This particular song was about how K. Sean felt like he was missing something, or someone. He said that he felt empty. He had verbally abusive parents that had never once said the three words that he had yearned to hear his whole life, "I love you." He had to hide his whole career and love for music from them because he was afraid they would take away the only thing that ever made him happy. He felt like the real him wasn't enough for anyone.

Sophie connected to his feelings so much. She had to hide that she was part of a gang from everyone she knew, even her parents. This made Sophie feel completely empty, she sometimes thought that nobody knew the real Sophie. Not even herself. Each day that she kept her involvement in the Black Swan a secret, the more she started to drift away from everything and anyone. She knew that she had to tell someone soon or else she might drift away from her true self forever.

The only problem was, she didn't know what the Black Swan would do if she told someone. Sophie was terrified that they would put her through the same horrors they put the Neverseen through.

     The song ended and Sophie's mind drifted back to reality. She looked out the window and saw that they had almost arrived back at her house. It was only 15 minutes away from the school, by car.

     They pulled into her driveway and Sophie got out of the car with a bounce in her step, forgetting about all her saddening thoughts, she had made the Cross Country team! She couldn't wait for her first practice tomorrow.

     Sophie walked through the garage door and into her bedroom.

     Her bedroom took up the whole 3rd floor of the gigantic house she called home. Her room had huge windows and a big canopy bed. Sophie loved nature, so she got a carpet woven with beautiful wildflowers. One side of her room was lined with tall wooden bookshelves that held her MANY books. It was homey, but also lacked any personal touches. Sophie had never had the time to decorate her room.

     Sophie plopped down on her bed and took out her phone to text her only real friend, Dex, that she could go to training tonight. After dinner she just had to tell her adoptive parents, Grady and Edaline, that she was tired from her race and wanted to go to bed early. Then voilá, she could sneak out without anyone noticing. It worked every time.

     When she texted Dex, she used the code phrase they made up when they were 6. Yes, it was extremely weird, but they would always "forget" any other phrase they came up with. So she typed: can I get a cheese pizza please?

     He responded with: Yup, I'll deliver it.

     Sophie was extremely glad that she wouldn't be alone at training tonight. Dex couldn't usually sneak out to train because he had 3 younger siblings. His mom would help him sneak out occasionally, because she was in the Black Swan, but his siblings provided a big challenge. The triplets had a knack for getting into trouble and staying up past their bedtime, so Dex and his mom, Juline, had occasionally been caught and throughly questioned. They had barely gotten out of there without revealing their secrets multiple times.