Sophie

Dinner came all too soon.

Sophie wanted to be mad with her parents, but she really wasn't. She understood what they thought they were doing, and she got it. She knew that Sophie getting a good education was important to them, and they'd do anything in the world they needed to in order to help her.

Maybe she needed to do the same-try as hard as she could to get along with Mrs. Wilson, and maybe things would change.

So Sophie ate her dinner, helped with the dishes, got her shower, put on her pajamas, and went to bed. She knew that her parents wanted her to go on to sleep and not stay up reading, but she couldn't help it. She needed something to focus on that would take her mind off of everything, something to help her escape her current troubles. Just when she was almost exactly halfway through finding out the answer to the mystery inside her book, there was a knock at the door. Checking her clock, Sophie saw she'd been up for nearly an hour. She considered pretending to be asleep, but before she could make a decision, her door opened.

"Oh. Sorry, honey, we thought you were asleep."

"It's okay, Mama. I was just reading."

"Daddy and I want to talk."

Sophie nodded. She put her book down and sat up. "Okay."

Abeline and Bonham walked inside, each taking a seat on either side of Sophie's bed. The silence was awkward at first, with Abeline and Bonham taking glances at each other and seeming to have a whole conversation without saying anything. As an adult, her parents silent conversations would make Sophie laugh, but as a nervous twelve-year-old, they just made her more anxious. Abeline smiled gently, nodded, and finally turned to Sophie.

"Daddy and I have been talking. We were a little hard on you earlier. We didn't really listen to you and we're sorry."

Sophie, not sure what to think about her mother's confession, said nothing.

"So we want you to tell us what's going on." Bonham said.

Sophie had to resist the urge to shrug. She didn't know what to say. Mrs. Wilson was mean? She was crazy? Everything she came up with to say right away sounded like she was putting all the blame onto Mrs. Wilson. She knew her parents expected her to take some sort of responsibility for what was going on, or else they wouldn't really listen to her. So she took a breath and gave them a version of the story that they'd believe. Mrs. Wilson was just a hard teacher, with expectations that Sophie at first thought were just too hard but that she realized now she just needed to work harder on.

Her parents ate it up. They nodded their approval, and then came the ultimate surprise.

"We decided to give you another chance instead of grounding you."

Sophie was certain she was hallucinating. Her father was reversing his decision on a punishment? Surely it was impossible.

"What?"

Bonham chuckled. "We're not grounding you. But we're gonna be watching you like a hawk."

"You've always been responsible enough to take care of your school stuff mostly on your own. But until your grades come back up, we're gonna keep an eye on you. We're gonna ask Mrs. Wilson for notes at the end of every week about how you're doing."

Sophie's eyes bulged. Surely this wasn't happening. It was bad enough that her parents were upset she was doing so badly in Mrs. Wilson's class, but that was while they didn't have much contact with her. What would happen if Mrs. Wilson had to send notes home every week? Her mother and father's good mood would probably vanish so fast it would cause a whirlwind. But how much choice did she have?

"I understand."

"I knew you would." Abeline said. "You're a good girl, kiddo."

"I second that." Bonham agreed.

"Thanks." Sophie said, hoping she didn't sound too awkward. "I promise I'll try harder."

"We trust you. But that's enough about school." Abeline said. "Daddy and I are having trouble sleeping. We were thinking about…"

Sophie smiled and interrupted. "Late night ride?"

"You up for it?" Bonham asked.

"Can we race? You and Mama against me and Liam?"

"Not at night." Bonham said. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Okay. Let's go."

Liam

Something was wrong with Sophie, and Liam knew it. No matter what she said, she was not okay.

Sophie had never dreaded going to school before. She had always loved it. She struggled a bit with math sometimes, but with Liam's help she could catch on quickly. One of Liam's favorite times of day was when Sophie would go over something with him that she'd learned in school.

Liam was often teased, at times even by his brother and parents, over how protective he was of Sophie. Even though he knew his parents were just as, if not more, protective of the baby of the family, Liam had felt a connection to Sophie even before she was born. He'd somehow known before Sophie's birth that she'd be small and frail, and he worried that she wouldn't do well living on the ranch. As much as he might be teased about it, there were times that Liam's connection to Sophie had served them well-at least in terms of understanding how to help her.

The first time that Liam remembered calming Sophie when no one else could was at three months old. Sophie had been born premature, stuck in the hospital for what seemed to six-year- old Liam to be forever, until the day that she'd finally been allowed to come see her new home. Liam had been waiting on the front porch of the house for his parents to drive back. His grandmother, Abeline's mother, had tried over and over to get Liam to come back into the house, but Liam refused. He would be the first to welcome Sophie home. His grandmother had given up, eventually bringing Liam his lunch out on the porch.

Sophie was weirdly quiet when Mama and Daddy had brought her home. She was looking around, and seemed at first to be okay, but Liam could tell she was scared. She clung to Mama and Daddy the way that Liam hung onto his parents when he was scared. Why his parents couldn't tell, Liam didn't know, but when a tired Abeline and Bonham put Sophie down so they could take a rest, Liam took his chance.

He sat next to Sophie's crib and played quietly with his teddy bear as she took a nap. She slept for a few minutes before she woke up again and started to fuss. At the first sign of Sophie becoming uncomfortable, Liam was next to her crib, reaching in between the bars and taking Sophie's hand. Sophie calmed after a few moments and turned to the sound of Liam's voice, cooing every time he stopped talking and giving a tiny smile whenever he did.

Liam was in love from that day forward.

As of late, though, even though the two were nowhere near not getting along, Liam could feel them growing apart. With his college search looming and his thoughts turned towards his future for the last few months, Liam had stopped spending as much time with his sister as he had before. He knew he didn't talk to her anymore about her day, and he started to feel guilty. He wondered if Sophie thought that she couldn't come to him anymore.

He decided to come up with a plan for the following weekend. He'd ask his parents if he could take Sophie camping on the edge of the property, as the three of them had done before when Cordell lived at home. It had been years, and Liam wondered if Sophie even remembered their mini 'camping trips', but it was worth a try.

When Monday morning came, Liam got up an hour early for school. With permission from his mother to miss his and Sophie's first period classes, he put Sophie in his car and took a drive to the same bakery where he'd gotten the cupcakes the Friday before.

"Why are we doing this?" Sophie asked. "It's a school day."

"I thought we could both use a break." Liam explained.

Sophie relaxed, and Liam talked a little about what school was like for him. Sophie relaxed and listened carefully, not sure how to feel about how happy Liam seemed to be to be leaving the next year. But Liam's distraction seemed to be working, so he decided to finally ask the question.

"So when are you gonna tell me what's really going on at school?"

Sophie, who'd been about to eat the last bite of the pastry she'd gotten, immediately stopped and tensed. Liam took notice, though he pretended not to, Sophie's reaction confirming for him that something was happening to her she didn't want anyone to know about. He waited patiently for Sophie to answer him, the silence growing thicker between them as each moment passed.

"I already told you what's going on."

"But did you tell me everything?" Liam asked. "It's okay if you didn't. You're not in trouble. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm okay. I promise."

Liam nodded. "Okay. We better get to school. Just promise me something. You need help…"

"I'll tell you. I promise." Sophie said.

"Come on. Let's go. I'll walk you to class."

Mrs. Wilson

Sandra Wilson had something to prove.

She wasn't a brand new teacher. She'd been teaching for close to ten years now, but each of the two times that she'd been transferred to a new school, she had to prove herself all over again. She had a reputation as a tough teacher, perhaps too tough, but she always churned out the highest performing students. But she had a secret way of doing it.

Every year, she would talk to other teachers about the students that were coming into her class. She would get from them the sense of who was the best student in the upcoming class. The best student, she knew, was not necessarily the one who performed the best academically. Often those were the students who were arrogant and stuffy and wouldn't take well to her treatment. No, the best students were the ones who were just behind the best performing ones, the ones the other teachers claimed were 'so sweet' and 'worked so hard' and were 'going to go places in life'.

Those were the students that Sandra chose to make an example of.

It was those students who were usually quiet, hanging out in the background and soaking up what was going on around them. They were the ones that were usually so well behaved that they tended to be overlooked by their teachers. Sandra would pick out those students in each class and be tougher on them than anyone. It worked every single year. The other students would think that if this student couldn't get away with anything, they wouldn't be able to either, so why should they even try?

Sandra had the best statistics of any teacher in the school. The highest grades, the fewest behavioral write-ups, and the most popularity with the parents of the school. It was a good life.

But something told her that Sophie Walker would be a different story.

At first, Sophie said nothing about the way she was treated. She seemed to take it and take it well. But after a while, Sophie started to get angry. She didn't show any outward sign of anger, of course, but it was easy to tell. And it was just so funny to Sandra that she kept pushing. Over and over again, she pushed. She knew that the pushing would likely cause Sophie to snap, but she kept going anyway.

Then came the moment Sandra had been waiting for.

There was a phone message for her that Monday morning from Abeline Walker. She was requesting a note Sandra at the end of each week, reporting on Sophie's behavior. The note made Sandra smile. For the rest of the day, she was in a better mood than she'd been in weeks.

Now she had permission from Sophie's parents to go even harder on her. It was a great day.