by Dan Cash
Whilst Sofia felt that fate had finally decided, she was not sure that Anne-Alicia would agree.
There were more important things to worry about now though, namely what would meet her when she crossed the threshold. Taking a sharp breath inwards, she turned the door handle and entered her house. Her mother was standing with her fists clenched on her hips. Waiting.
“Mum, listen. I’m really sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. See, there’s this boy and…” she began to explain, barely pausing to breathe. Her mother shook her head, but not in her usual disappointed way. This time it was different.
“What’s the matter?” Sofia asked, curiously.
“Honestly, I have absolutely no bloody idea,” her mum replied. “Your brother comes in and goes straight to his room, five minutes later your dad comes home and does the same. Then, I receive a phone call from your school to say both of my children decided their education is less important than who knows what else!” Marie Vassallo sounded exasperated. “This house drives me crazy!”
Sofia had only truly listened to one part of what her mother had said. She looked past her mum, who seemed to understand. “Yes, go! Please! At least one of us will know what’s going on!”
Sofia had already reached the staircase so did not hear her mother’s usual rant that tended to conclude with, ‘sometimes I want to pack my bags and leave the lot of you, see how you’d manage then!’
Arriving at her brother’s bedroom door, she knocked their secret knock that they had invented over ten years ago. She had not used it since they were children, but Sofia felt it was necessary now; Freddie was not one to lock himself in his room after a day at school. Usually he would come home, go to the fridge, and eat until his mother warned him that if he did not finish his dinner, he would wear it instead.
A red-eyed Freddie came to the door and Sofia noticed a bluish tint to his usually blond hair. Before she could ask him why he had been crying, he put his arms around his sister and sobbed into her shoulder. Sofia hugged him back not saying a word. She felt completely useless not knowing what was making her brother cry, although she knew how much she was helping simply by being there.
It was unusual for Freddie to cry, especially now he was sixteen and a man, but Sofia had always been the one to comfort him when tears came. The twins stood there for almost five minutes before his sobs subsided and Freddie relaxed his arms, taking a step back. Their matching emerald green eyes met each other and Sofia knew.
“You and Lornea broke up.” It was not a question.
Freddie nodded and his lower lip trembled, daring him to cry once more. He fought back the tears and instead went back inside his room to sit on his bed. Sofia waited outside until he motioned her to come in.
“You always wait,” he said, almost smiling in spite of himself.
“Well, it’s forbidden to enter a man’s bedroom without permission, you know that,” she stated, simply.
“You’re my twin sister, Sofia, you don’t need permission to come into my bedroom. We did share a womb for nine months, remember?”
With a slight smile, she entered his bedroom and perched next to him on the edge of his large mattress. Freddie’s room was a lot grander than Sofia’s, boasting a king-sized bed with soft cotton linen.
His wardrobe could hold three times as many clothes as the still-growing man owned, which is what Sofia envied most - she owned so many skirts, dresses, tops, shoes… that her carpet had become what her mother called a ‘floordrobe’. To her deep resentment, Sofia’s parents refused to buy her any new garments unless she donated some to charity first.
Freddie also had a spacious desk at which he could work in peace, a television that perched on the wall opposite his bed, and a small fish tank. Sofia had the smallest bedroom in the house and she had sacrificed whatever floor space that was not covered by clothes for a double-bed. The computer in her mother’s study was where she did school work and she had neither a television nor a fish tank in her bedroom, although she could live without the fish, she supposed – she struggled to find space for even herself in her room, such luxuries were certainly out of the question.
Sofia had never truly questioned why she had the smaller room, she simply accepted that Freddie was a man and men needed more space to grow. Besides, Sofia knew she was always welcome to watch Freddie’s television, feed his fish, or work on his computer, just so long as she asked first and Lornea was not there.
The redhead looked up at the side of her brother’s face and noted how he was beginning to grow facial hair. It made her feel sad, somehow. He was becoming a true adult while most of the time she still felt like a child.
“So, what happened between you two?” she asked.
Freddie sighed heavily before explaining about Lornea’s father’s new job and how they had to move to Salmont, pausing only to take deep breaths and refrain from crying again.
When they had left school, Freddie and Lornea walked to Klop, a neighbouring village where they would be unknown and not run the risk of being caught by one of the several nosy inhabitants of Pipton.
Klop was a cosy village a short walk away from Pipton, if you knew your way. If you were not familiar with the journey, you would almost certainly become lost.
It was a scenic stroll through the yellow meadow, across the river, through the field of flowers, along the mouth of the woods until you reached the Stone Circle. Then, you knew to enter the woods and follow the muddy tracks through the trees. That was the only way of knowing if you were going in the right direction and would leave the woods in Klop.
Children, adults, and elders alike had made their way to the Stone Circle only to spend hours searching the woods for the right path. Some would eventually find themselves in Klop, but the majority ended up back in the field of flowers.
There had been tales of people entering the forest only never to return again. These tales always had the same conclusion: they had been sought by Naegis.
Such rumours were no longer believed, of course, and if someone entered the woods only to never return, they were presumed missing and eventually dead. Only three people still held the previous belief: Max and Harvey Myers, and Mary Harding.
Freddie and Lornea had journeyed to Klop many times before this so had no worries of getting lost or suddenly finding themselves in a mythical land. The couple walked hand in hand, talking normally as if nothing was different. As Freddie helped Lornea across the river, ignoring the bridge that lay just a few metres away, she looked at him sadly. Silently, they began to amble across the field of flowers, until Lornea broke the silence.
Freddie looked up at Sofia, who was regarding him sadly.
“She told me she didn’t know whether it would be better to finish things then or to wait for two weeks,’ he told his sister. “She said that the next two weeks wouldn’t be the same and that we’d just be preoccupied with our thoughts. I didn’t know what to say. I just…” He sighed sadly and looked at his lap. “I just let her speak and when she said she thought it’d be best to end things there and then, I let it happen. I didn’t even fight for her. What kind of man does that make me? I let the woman I love walk out of my life.”
Sofia gently chewed on her bottom lip while she tried to find the right words that might help her brother. She could think of nothing, but spoke anyway.
“Fred, I think Lornea’s right. I mean, maybe it is best that it ended while it was good, rather than spend two weeks together being miserable. At least now you can get used to being friends and besides, you can still scribble and call each other when she’s gone. You won’t lose her for ever.”
Freddie’s gaze remained fixed on the patch of cream carpet visible between his legs.
“I know. But then we got to Klop and just walked through the village and I bought her lunch. It was really nice, y’know. It felt like nothing had changed. And then when we got back, I walked her home but…” He paused, remembering the moment was clearly painful. “I went to kiss her goodbye but she
put her arm between us and just shook her head. That was it. After over a year together we’re suddenly meant to be just friends.”
Sofia noticed the change in his voice. It had become less sad and angrier instead. Sofia saw a red streak flash briefly through his hair. She hoped that it was not just a trick of the light. She hoped that they had not been in Hurburt for so long that they had lost the will to fight. Freddie rose from his bed and looked down at Sofia.
“You know what?” he began, loudly. “Lornea doesn’t get to make this decision on her own. I don’t care what’s sensible. I’m going to waste as much time with the girl I love, because I might never see her again.”
This time Sofia was sure she was seeing correctly as his hair flashed angrily from his natural bright blond colour to fiery red, matching her own.
She smiled. “Good. But Freddie, before you go, just one thing…”
“What?” he asked, curiously.
“You have a visitor.” She looked towards the doorway and Freddie’s eyes followed. There, in his doorway, stood Lornea, her face red and puffy from crying.
“I love you,” he whispered, unable to talk for fear of crying once more.
Lornea smiled, but she could not talk for she was too stunned and too emotional. Instead, she raised one finger to her eye, moved her hand down to rest over her heart, pointed weakly at the boy she loved, and finally held up two fingers. They walked together and embraced in a passionate kiss. Sofia stood up from Freddie’s bed and made to leave.
“Oh, umm, hi Lornea, how are you?” she said. Freddie, still wrapped around his girlfriend, stretched out one arm and pushed his sister through the door.
Sofia giggled and decided to go downstairs and talk to her mother in the hopes that she would be able to avoid punishment if she made the first move. However, when she heard her mum talking to herself frantically in the kitchen, whatever hope she had quickly evaporated.
Poking her head round the kitchen door, she saw that her mum was cooking, or rather burning, curried vegetables and chickpeas.
“Umm… Mum?” she said tentatively.
“Sofia,” her mum replied, sweetly, taking the saucepans off the hobs and turning to face her daughter. Sofia found it unsettling that her mother was not stone-faced and yelling.
“How’s Freddie?” she asked, kindly.
“He’s fine, I’m sure he’d rather speak to you himself, and I’m not sure how his story finishes. Although, I’m pretty sure I can guess…” She muttered the last part so her mother could not hear.
“Okay, I’ll speak to him later. And how are you?” she asked, smiling.
“Me? Oh, I’m… I’m fine. How are you?” Sofia was taken aback by her mother’s soft tones. Why is she being so nice? Why isn’t she shouting at me? Why is she asking me how I am? Something bad must have happened with dad. As Sofia’s mind reeled, she tried to listen to her mum and ignore her inner voice.
“Oh you know how it is dear, always busy but I’m ok, just a bit tired,” Marie replied.
Sofia’s mum was never busy or tired. Marie Vassallo was always ‘rushed off her feet’, ‘shattered’, and ‘fed up’. Sofia said nothing and let her mother continue the conversation.
“So, what’s new with you?” asked Marie.
What’s new with you? Something must be really wrong.
“Oh, nothing. Same as always, lots of school work and revision for the final exams, but not much else.” She was unsure what she had said to trigger it, but Marie was suddenly crying. “Mum, what’s the matter?”
What’s dad done?
“Nothing, I’m just glad you’re okay,” her mother lied, turning back to the oven.
“Mum, just tell me what’s wrong.”
Maybe it wasn’t dad… maybe mum did something this time.
Sofia looked at her mother until her mother finally looked back. Mrs Vassallo took a deep breath and said, “I saw Jill today and she said she saw with that Myers boy and you were holding hands and then I got a phone call from the school to say you had skipped classes and I don’t even know who you are anymore, Sofia.”
“What?” Sofia exclaimed incredulously.
“Skipping school with a boy you barely know! Did you smoke? Drink? Take drugs? Let me look at your eyes…” Marie made her way over to Sofia, her eyes wide, surveying her daughter.
Sofia laughed for over a minute. At first, Marie appeared to be overwhelmed with worry, but when Sofia eventually managed to deny the claims, both mother and daughter fell into a fit of giggles. Sofia ordered her mum to sit down in the living room while she made them each a hot chocolate topped with marshmallows and whipped cream.
She rested next to her mum on the sofa and talked about her day with Max, the boy who was no longer her mystery.
Max
A week had passed since the day Max and Sofia had escaped school. Max was still in a state of disbelief, as was everyone else. He was unsure how the entire school had learned of his and Sofia’s day together, but he thought he had an idea; Sofia always confided in Anne-Alicia, who could keep nothing to herself.
The rumours about the pair were too accurate to be guesswork. Whispers seemed to follow Max and he swore that more than once he heard the words ‘fire’, ‘window’ and ‘kiss’, although he admitted that it could have been imagining it.
Max did not care much about the rumours, though, nor did he care whether people were impressed, envious, or dubious that he had kissed Sofia.
The only thought that had worried Max was if Sofia would be bothered by the rumours and whispers and would decide she did not want to see Max again. Sofia was the most beautiful woman in Pipton and Max knew that he was not the most handsome boy. He was not even a man yet, but his sixteenth birthday was in one week and only then he would perhaps start to feel more worthy.
Max was especially excited about his sixteenth birthday because Light on the Landing had announced that their tour date in Pipton was to be on that same day. He could not believe his luck when Matthew told him the news.
The day after he skipped school with Sofia, his two best friends shocked him by arriving at his house ten minutes early. The insecure boy had assumed it was because they wanted to know where Max had been the day before, but that was only partially true. Light on the Landing had scribbled their announcement early in the morning and the two friends could not wait to tell Max.
People had only hoped that they would return to Pipton, fully aware that the boyband were en route to becoming the biggest celebrities in The South. For Max, as well as every Hurburtan teenager, it was a dream come true. To add to his excitement, Jimmie’s parents lived next door to the Myers family so Max was positive that he would be able to meet at least one of his idols again.
Russell had not said much during Matthew and Max’s conversation, but when Matthew asked about Sofia he became much more alert. Max began to confide in his friends, hoping they were still friends enough to keep secrets.
“We jumped out of the window and she kissed me,” he began, evoking grins from each of his friends. So they’re happy for me, that’s something, he thought. “We sneaked around the school towards the yellow meadow so nobody saw us and we sat behind a tree until we knew classes had started again. We just chatted really, about anything and everything. It was strange because even though it felt like I kind of knew her, I knew nothing about her. She told me about when she lived in Terexe and what it’s like there. Apparently her family used to live near the Fiery Mountains and got to use their magic all the time. But then they moved to Hurburt because her dad got a job here,” he finished.
The last part was not exactly true, in fact Sofia and Freddie’s dad had broken the law and was forbidden to practise magic in Terexe. Thus, he was banished and forced to move to a non-magical land. Hurburt was the only non-magical land in The South. Although Sofia had divulged these details to Max quite freely, he did not feel that she would want others to know.
“What did you do afterwards?” asked Matthew, eagerly.
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br /> “We went to my house, because my folks were at work. I made us lunch and we just chilled in front of the telly,” Max told his friends. He could see their disappointment. “We just talked a lot.”
Russell broke his silence, “Did you kiss again?”
“Yeah, we kissed quite a lot, too, actually,” replied Max, honestly. “It was really weird.”
“The kissing?” wondered Matthew.
“No, like, whenever we kissed, her hair got brighter and sometimes it was like her hair was on fire. I guess it must be a Terexian thing. I ran my hands through it a few times but the flames didn’t burn at all!” Matthew and Russell shared Max’s bewildered expression, before exchanging looks of approval.
Max had forgotten how his hair had also changed, although he would have kept this from his friends even if he had remembered. While flames had risen from Sofia’s hair, drops of water had surfaced from his head. He had not felt any wetness on his head, just as Sofia’s flames were not hot to touch, but as their kissing became more passionate, the water extinguished Sofia’s flames.
He had assumed it was because of Sofia’s Terexian magic and did not think much more of it. When he next recalled the moment, it would make much more sense.
“That’s so cool!” Matthew exclaimed. “Hurburtan girls are so boring, their hair is just hair.” Russell and Max both laughed.
“Yeah, but Hurburtan women are much more intelligent than Terexians,” Russell told him.
“Who wants a clever woman when you can have a sexy Terexian with fiery hair?” Matthew said, making the boys laugh again.
Max did not totally agree with his friends. While it was true that Sofia and Freddie seemed to be more attractive than their Hurburtan classmates, Max was sure that it all boiled down to confidence. Besides, they were equally as intelligent as anyone else in Hurburt. In fact, Max was certain that Sofia and Freddie could have been the top of every class if they wanted to be.
“Anyway, tell us what else you did.” demanded Russell.
