A New Horizon- Chapter 8- Trouble and Teamwork
Disclaimer: I do not own any old HG characters. But I do own all the new ones.
In this chapter: Your answer to why Sophie reacts to her father like she did. Jeff gets hurt. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH We find out also one reason why Sophie started using drugs.
Introduced in this chapter are:
-Jill, the mail lady and Jeff's wife
-Mark Becker- Sophie's older brother
-Paul Becker- Sophie's father
-Elaina- Sophie's grandmother
Peter walked down the hall to his office. It had been a busy day. The pipes were leaking in the Ridge Runners dorm and water had gone all over the place. He and some of the other male staff workers had fixed it. But it had been tiring work and all Peter wanted to do was go to his office and fall asleep. As he got closer he heard crying.
Peter opened his office door. The plaee had been trashed. Pillows and Papers were all over the floor. Peter looked at the mess and around the room. He saw Sophie crying on the couch and went over to her.
"Sophie are you okay?" he asked.
"He had the nerve to come here." Sophie said. "After all that he comes here."
"Who came here Soph, who's here?" Peter asked confused.
"My father Peter. My father is here." Sophie said bitterly.
"I thought you said he was dead?"
"He is in my mind."
FLASHBACK
Young Sophie Becker sat on the porch of her family's country house. She was only 8 years old. With her hair in pigtails and wearing overalls she stood with her brother Mark. Mark was older than she was, he was 12. He was holding her hand. Mark always watched out for Sophie. They were really close.
Paul Becker, Sophie and Marks father, got into a black car.
"Bye Daddy." Sophie yelled to her father. "I love you."
There wa no response from the older man and the young girl started to cry. Tears running down her dirty face. Elaina Becker, the children's grandmother came out.
"Hush Child." The kind woman said as she bent down to hug Sophie. Mark stayed away.
"I hate him." Mark said.
END FLASHBACK
"He left when I was 8 Peter. My mother died and he left shortly afterwards. Mark, my brother hated him for it. Until he died he hated him." Sophie said.
"So why do you think he came now?" Peter asked, he strangely wanted to meet his father-in-law.
"Mark committed suicide 19 years ago today." Sophie said softly.
19 years ago.
Mark's life had been slipping down hill ever since Grandma Elaina had died. She was the only thing Mark had left. Other than Sophie, that is. Mark loved his little sister with all his heart and soul. She meant the world to him. She had since their father had left to live with another woman when Mark was 13. Mark had never told Sophie the reason why their father had left. It would have crushed her.
Mark looked at the gun on the table. Since last week when he got a letter from his father he had been contimplating suicide. In the letter his father showed no remorse for what he had done to either of his children, bus said that he didn't class them as his children anymore, that they would not be mentioned in his will or anything.
Mark knew he shouldn't have let his father push those buttons. But mostly it was for Sophie. He knew she always held to the hope that their father would come back. That everything would be okay and that they would be a family again.
He wrote the letter to Sophie.
"Dear Sis,
You know I live you with all my heart and soul. You have been my life for many years now. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you. But I can't live like this any longer. I know I've hurt you by lying to you all these years. And hurting you is the worst thing I could ever thing of doing in my life. I know it will hurt you when you find this letter. But it's something that I need to do for myself. Paul, our father is a... well words can't explain what I feel about him.
I will miss you Sophie, I will miss you more than anything in the world. I hope you know that. But I've lied to you to protect you all these years. Dad left for another woman. I didn't have the heart to tell you. I'm sorry, and I hope you forgive me for what I'm doing. Well I need to end this before I decide otherwise.
Love, Your Bother
Mark
P.S. Sophie make the best of your life, I don't want you to lose your way. Get back on track for me will ya?"
END FLASHBACK
OUTSIDE
Katherine looked over the group of Cliffhangers. It would be her first quest alone with them. Of course Jeff was with her, but you know Jeff. He can get hurt tying his shoelaces.
"Does everyone have there stuff packed?" Katherine asked.
The group was ready. They started walking and were about 30 minutes from camp when the complaining started.
'Do we have to do this Kat?" Alley whined. "Jamie doesn't so why should we?"
"Jamie's been in the hospital for a week Alley. Show some sympathy." Andy said.
"Why should I, it was her fault she was stupid enough to cut herself. Why should I give her any sympathy?" Alley said bitterly.
"Hey." Jacob said stopping abruptly. 'That's my sister your talking about you know."
"So. What should I care." Alley said.
"I don't know what your problem is Alley but please stop it or you'll be on restriction the minute we get back to Horizon." Katherine said irritated with the high strung emotions of the groups within the first few minutes of the trip.
"This is gonna be a long weekend." Aiken said under his breath.
The group started walking again.
FOREST CLEARING
The group had been walking for a couple of hours now. Finally Katherine decided to set up camp.
"Okay everyone, you can start unpacking. Guys in one tent, Girls in the other. I hope you brought warm clothes, it's going to be a cold night."
"Oh shucks, there goes my mini skirt and tank top idea." Alley said sarcastically.
Katherine shrugged off the comment but Aiken gave her a cold, "you better shut up now" stare.
Alley went back to unpacking. No one was talking to each other. The whole atmosphere was tense. Jeff had gone to get fresh water from the river about 5 minutes away. Through the whole thing no one noticed he was gone.
The group was shocked out of their silence by a scream.
"Oh my god that's Jeff!" Katherine shouted to the Cliffhangers.
The group started to run to the river.
MEANWHILE BACK IN PETER'S OFFICE
"So you think your father caused your brother to kill himself." Peter asked.
"You're darn right I do. Mark even said it in his letter that Paul, or dad was what caused him to contemplate and carry out his suicide." Sophie said.
"I was a bit rowdy after Grandma Elaina died. That's when I started running Peter." Sophie said. "But I knew that Mark would always be there to welcome me back with open arms, I always had him there. But when he died I couldn't help myself any more. I got depressed and that's when I turned to the drugs." Sophie said sadly.
"Don't you think you should give your father a chance to explain? About why he's here and what he did? Maybe he wants to apologize." Peter said.
"I guess I should give him a chance shouldn't I?" Sophie said. "I mean what example would I be setting for the kids if I didn't face my own problem when we expect them to face theirs?"
With these words of self discovery Sophie got up and went outside. She was surprised to see her father standing there.
"Sophie, we need to talk." Were his first words to her in over 35 years.
THE DINNING HALL
Sophie and her father sat down over a cup of coffee. Sophie hadn't seen or heard from him since she was 8 years old.
"Sophie do you know why I came here?" Paul asked.
'To ruin my life again?' Sophie thought, but bit back the words. "No why?" she said instead.
"I'm dying Sophie. I'm sick. I've had cancer for a little over a year now. I'm not expected to live much longer." He said.
"And you came here for that. Am I suppose to be sympathetic?" Sophie asked bitterly. "I don't even think of you as my father. In my mind you were dead 35 years ago."
Mr. Becker's face showed the signs of his illness, and also the blunt of her words. He knew they were true. "I don't want sympathy or forgiveness from you Sophie." Paul said. "I know you can never forgive me for what I've done."
"Your right about that one." Sophie said through her teeth.
"I've been looking back on my mistakes over the years Sophie. I know there are a lot of them. But what I did to you and your brother was wrong. I know that. And I'm sorry. And I know you blame me for Marks death. Maybe I am responsible. But I acknowledge that Sophie. And I know that I couldn't die peacefully without saying that to you." Paul said and stood up.
"Well it's been good seeing you. I should be going." The old man said as he headed towards the door.
"It was good seeing you to." Sophie said, knowing that would make things better, it wasn't forgiveness but it was close enough.
The old man smiled as he walked away.
THE RIVER
Andy was the fastest runner and got to the river bank first. Jeff was there holding his arm. Blood was gushing out of it and the water near him was tinting Red.
"Oh My God." Rylan said, she looked like she was going to throw up.
"Jeff what happened?" Katherine asked hurridly.
"I fell down the bank and broke my arm." Jeff said. "The bone popped out."
"Let me see your arm." Katherine said.
Rylan made the mistake of looking at his arm. She turn around and threw up.
Alley took action because Katherine was shocked too.
"Jacob, take care of Rylan." Alley ordered. "Aiken and Andy get the Radio and the First aid kit. NOW."
The 3 guys did as they were told.
"Here." Aiken said thrusting the First aid kit at her.
"Aiken, do you know how to set a bone? Didn't Peter teach you?" she asked
"Yeah let me do it." Aiken said helping Alley.
"Andy, call Horizon. Ask for Jill or Peter or someone. Tell them we need medical help now."
Aiken was setting and wrapping Jeff's arm.
"Tell them to hurry Andy. He's lost a lot of blood and he's slipping out of consciousness." Katherine said trying to regain some composer.
Andy called the school and the group sat down to wait.
15 MINUTES LATER
"You guys that's the helicopter." Rylan said hearing the chopping of the blades.
Jeff was unconscious by now. The med team rushed over to him
"How long has he been like this?" one of them, a woman, asked.
"About 10 minutes." Katherine said. "Is he going to be okay?"
"We can't tell until we know how much blood he's lost. Do you want us to take you to the hospital with us?" the other, a man, asked.
Katherine looked at the group. "Aiken, Alley, you two are in charge. I want you to get back to horizon as quickly as possible. Take the ridge path. It'll take about 45 minutes to get back from here using that route." Katherine told them getting in.
"Got it." Alley and Aiken said at the same time as they got the rest of the Cliffhangers in order.
WHEN THE GROUP ARRIVES AT HORIZON
Jill ran up to the group as soon as they got there. "Jeff, is he okay? Where is he?" she asked hysterically.
"They took him to the hospital. They can't tell how bad he is until he gets there. He lost a lot of blood." Aiken explained to her and Peter.
"Come on Jill I'll take you there." Peter said taking the arm of the now hysterical wife of Jeff.
A FEW DAYS LATER
Jeff was discharged from the hospital. He had lost a lot of blood but after 2 transfusions he was ready to go back. He only had a broken arm now. The group was there waiting for him as he came back.
"Thanks guys. You probably saved my life." Jeff said.
"No problem man." Aiken said.
"Yeah it was actually kind of fun." Andy said.
"Sorry I missed it." Jamie said sheepishly.
"I found it a very learning experience. " Alley said laughing.
"Blood and bones don't mix." Rylan said to everyone.
"And watch where you step next time." Jacob said laughin.
THE END
Disclaimer: I do not own any old HG characters. But I do own all the new ones.
In this chapter: Your answer to why Sophie reacts to her father like she did. Jeff gets hurt. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH We find out also one reason why Sophie started using drugs.
Introduced in this chapter are:
-Jill, the mail lady and Jeff's wife
-Mark Becker- Sophie's older brother
-Paul Becker- Sophie's father
-Elaina- Sophie's grandmother
Peter walked down the hall to his office. It had been a busy day. The pipes were leaking in the Ridge Runners dorm and water had gone all over the place. He and some of the other male staff workers had fixed it. But it had been tiring work and all Peter wanted to do was go to his office and fall asleep. As he got closer he heard crying.
Peter opened his office door. The plaee had been trashed. Pillows and Papers were all over the floor. Peter looked at the mess and around the room. He saw Sophie crying on the couch and went over to her.
"Sophie are you okay?" he asked.
"He had the nerve to come here." Sophie said. "After all that he comes here."
"Who came here Soph, who's here?" Peter asked confused.
"My father Peter. My father is here." Sophie said bitterly.
"I thought you said he was dead?"
"He is in my mind."
FLASHBACK
Young Sophie Becker sat on the porch of her family's country house. She was only 8 years old. With her hair in pigtails and wearing overalls she stood with her brother Mark. Mark was older than she was, he was 12. He was holding her hand. Mark always watched out for Sophie. They were really close.
Paul Becker, Sophie and Marks father, got into a black car.
"Bye Daddy." Sophie yelled to her father. "I love you."
There wa no response from the older man and the young girl started to cry. Tears running down her dirty face. Elaina Becker, the children's grandmother came out.
"Hush Child." The kind woman said as she bent down to hug Sophie. Mark stayed away.
"I hate him." Mark said.
END FLASHBACK
"He left when I was 8 Peter. My mother died and he left shortly afterwards. Mark, my brother hated him for it. Until he died he hated him." Sophie said.
"So why do you think he came now?" Peter asked, he strangely wanted to meet his father-in-law.
"Mark committed suicide 19 years ago today." Sophie said softly.
19 years ago.
Mark's life had been slipping down hill ever since Grandma Elaina had died. She was the only thing Mark had left. Other than Sophie, that is. Mark loved his little sister with all his heart and soul. She meant the world to him. She had since their father had left to live with another woman when Mark was 13. Mark had never told Sophie the reason why their father had left. It would have crushed her.
Mark looked at the gun on the table. Since last week when he got a letter from his father he had been contimplating suicide. In the letter his father showed no remorse for what he had done to either of his children, bus said that he didn't class them as his children anymore, that they would not be mentioned in his will or anything.
Mark knew he shouldn't have let his father push those buttons. But mostly it was for Sophie. He knew she always held to the hope that their father would come back. That everything would be okay and that they would be a family again.
He wrote the letter to Sophie.
"Dear Sis,
You know I live you with all my heart and soul. You have been my life for many years now. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you. But I can't live like this any longer. I know I've hurt you by lying to you all these years. And hurting you is the worst thing I could ever thing of doing in my life. I know it will hurt you when you find this letter. But it's something that I need to do for myself. Paul, our father is a... well words can't explain what I feel about him.
I will miss you Sophie, I will miss you more than anything in the world. I hope you know that. But I've lied to you to protect you all these years. Dad left for another woman. I didn't have the heart to tell you. I'm sorry, and I hope you forgive me for what I'm doing. Well I need to end this before I decide otherwise.
Love, Your Bother
Mark
P.S. Sophie make the best of your life, I don't want you to lose your way. Get back on track for me will ya?"
END FLASHBACK
OUTSIDE
Katherine looked over the group of Cliffhangers. It would be her first quest alone with them. Of course Jeff was with her, but you know Jeff. He can get hurt tying his shoelaces.
"Does everyone have there stuff packed?" Katherine asked.
The group was ready. They started walking and were about 30 minutes from camp when the complaining started.
'Do we have to do this Kat?" Alley whined. "Jamie doesn't so why should we?"
"Jamie's been in the hospital for a week Alley. Show some sympathy." Andy said.
"Why should I, it was her fault she was stupid enough to cut herself. Why should I give her any sympathy?" Alley said bitterly.
"Hey." Jacob said stopping abruptly. 'That's my sister your talking about you know."
"So. What should I care." Alley said.
"I don't know what your problem is Alley but please stop it or you'll be on restriction the minute we get back to Horizon." Katherine said irritated with the high strung emotions of the groups within the first few minutes of the trip.
"This is gonna be a long weekend." Aiken said under his breath.
The group started walking again.
FOREST CLEARING
The group had been walking for a couple of hours now. Finally Katherine decided to set up camp.
"Okay everyone, you can start unpacking. Guys in one tent, Girls in the other. I hope you brought warm clothes, it's going to be a cold night."
"Oh shucks, there goes my mini skirt and tank top idea." Alley said sarcastically.
Katherine shrugged off the comment but Aiken gave her a cold, "you better shut up now" stare.
Alley went back to unpacking. No one was talking to each other. The whole atmosphere was tense. Jeff had gone to get fresh water from the river about 5 minutes away. Through the whole thing no one noticed he was gone.
The group was shocked out of their silence by a scream.
"Oh my god that's Jeff!" Katherine shouted to the Cliffhangers.
The group started to run to the river.
MEANWHILE BACK IN PETER'S OFFICE
"So you think your father caused your brother to kill himself." Peter asked.
"You're darn right I do. Mark even said it in his letter that Paul, or dad was what caused him to contemplate and carry out his suicide." Sophie said.
"I was a bit rowdy after Grandma Elaina died. That's when I started running Peter." Sophie said. "But I knew that Mark would always be there to welcome me back with open arms, I always had him there. But when he died I couldn't help myself any more. I got depressed and that's when I turned to the drugs." Sophie said sadly.
"Don't you think you should give your father a chance to explain? About why he's here and what he did? Maybe he wants to apologize." Peter said.
"I guess I should give him a chance shouldn't I?" Sophie said. "I mean what example would I be setting for the kids if I didn't face my own problem when we expect them to face theirs?"
With these words of self discovery Sophie got up and went outside. She was surprised to see her father standing there.
"Sophie, we need to talk." Were his first words to her in over 35 years.
THE DINNING HALL
Sophie and her father sat down over a cup of coffee. Sophie hadn't seen or heard from him since she was 8 years old.
"Sophie do you know why I came here?" Paul asked.
'To ruin my life again?' Sophie thought, but bit back the words. "No why?" she said instead.
"I'm dying Sophie. I'm sick. I've had cancer for a little over a year now. I'm not expected to live much longer." He said.
"And you came here for that. Am I suppose to be sympathetic?" Sophie asked bitterly. "I don't even think of you as my father. In my mind you were dead 35 years ago."
Mr. Becker's face showed the signs of his illness, and also the blunt of her words. He knew they were true. "I don't want sympathy or forgiveness from you Sophie." Paul said. "I know you can never forgive me for what I've done."
"Your right about that one." Sophie said through her teeth.
"I've been looking back on my mistakes over the years Sophie. I know there are a lot of them. But what I did to you and your brother was wrong. I know that. And I'm sorry. And I know you blame me for Marks death. Maybe I am responsible. But I acknowledge that Sophie. And I know that I couldn't die peacefully without saying that to you." Paul said and stood up.
"Well it's been good seeing you. I should be going." The old man said as he headed towards the door.
"It was good seeing you to." Sophie said, knowing that would make things better, it wasn't forgiveness but it was close enough.
The old man smiled as he walked away.
THE RIVER
Andy was the fastest runner and got to the river bank first. Jeff was there holding his arm. Blood was gushing out of it and the water near him was tinting Red.
"Oh My God." Rylan said, she looked like she was going to throw up.
"Jeff what happened?" Katherine asked hurridly.
"I fell down the bank and broke my arm." Jeff said. "The bone popped out."
"Let me see your arm." Katherine said.
Rylan made the mistake of looking at his arm. She turn around and threw up.
Alley took action because Katherine was shocked too.
"Jacob, take care of Rylan." Alley ordered. "Aiken and Andy get the Radio and the First aid kit. NOW."
The 3 guys did as they were told.
"Here." Aiken said thrusting the First aid kit at her.
"Aiken, do you know how to set a bone? Didn't Peter teach you?" she asked
"Yeah let me do it." Aiken said helping Alley.
"Andy, call Horizon. Ask for Jill or Peter or someone. Tell them we need medical help now."
Aiken was setting and wrapping Jeff's arm.
"Tell them to hurry Andy. He's lost a lot of blood and he's slipping out of consciousness." Katherine said trying to regain some composer.
Andy called the school and the group sat down to wait.
15 MINUTES LATER
"You guys that's the helicopter." Rylan said hearing the chopping of the blades.
Jeff was unconscious by now. The med team rushed over to him
"How long has he been like this?" one of them, a woman, asked.
"About 10 minutes." Katherine said. "Is he going to be okay?"
"We can't tell until we know how much blood he's lost. Do you want us to take you to the hospital with us?" the other, a man, asked.
Katherine looked at the group. "Aiken, Alley, you two are in charge. I want you to get back to horizon as quickly as possible. Take the ridge path. It'll take about 45 minutes to get back from here using that route." Katherine told them getting in.
"Got it." Alley and Aiken said at the same time as they got the rest of the Cliffhangers in order.
WHEN THE GROUP ARRIVES AT HORIZON
Jill ran up to the group as soon as they got there. "Jeff, is he okay? Where is he?" she asked hysterically.
"They took him to the hospital. They can't tell how bad he is until he gets there. He lost a lot of blood." Aiken explained to her and Peter.
"Come on Jill I'll take you there." Peter said taking the arm of the now hysterical wife of Jeff.
A FEW DAYS LATER
Jeff was discharged from the hospital. He had lost a lot of blood but after 2 transfusions he was ready to go back. He only had a broken arm now. The group was there waiting for him as he came back.
"Thanks guys. You probably saved my life." Jeff said.
"No problem man." Aiken said.
"Yeah it was actually kind of fun." Andy said.
"Sorry I missed it." Jamie said sheepishly.
"I found it a very learning experience. " Alley said laughing.
"Blood and bones don't mix." Rylan said to everyone.
"And watch where you step next time." Jacob said laughin.
THE END