Burying Eva Flores by Jennifer Alsever

Author:Jennifer Alsever [Alsever, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sawatch Publishing
Published: 2022-07-07T16:00:00+00:00

27

Sophia

BETTING BIG

Then: April 25

Everything that Sophia had written was starting to play out. Eva’s family would fund the Paonia Wilderness Escape in two weeks. They’d stay at the haunted grand lodge at the base of Kebler Pass. As written, Eva had mooched items from adoring fans, and they had expressed their adoration. She was about to be humiliated in front of her biggest fans in a forest that had long been rumored to be cursed.

Everyone in school simply understood it as a great opportunity to create great social content, and it was the chance to be TikTok-famous alongside Eva. Sophia, Morgan, and Ethan put their names in the hat for the lottery, knowing they would be among the few picked for the weekend.

And … of course, when Eva announced the winning names over the loudspeaker that morning at school, Ethan, Sophia, and Morgan traded sly smiles. While Eva felt like the queen, Sophia sat with the private knowledge that it was really she who wore the crown. And if Eva were smart, she wouldn’t want to give an angry girl like Sophia such a sharp crown. But she didn’t have a choice, did she?

After school, Sophia snuggled on the sunken couch and spent her time writing in her magic leather notebook. She leaned over it, scribbling so fast the words ran together. Her hand smudged some of the blue ink, and for a moment she panicked that it might ruin the magic of it all.

“Whatcha doing, sis?” Dylan asked as he passed through the living room.

“Writing a story for school,” she said.

“You seem mad. Is it a bad story?” He stood with the posture of an eight-year-old.

She realized her brow was stitched together. “No,” she said, pausing. “I don’t think so. The bad guy loses.”

“Well, that’s good then,” Dylan said. “Can I read it?”

“Not yet,” she said, closing up the journal. She tucked it under her arm, feeling as if her story wouldn’t come true if someone else touched her book, let alone read it.

“Will you write me into your story?” he asked.

She didn’t answer and kept writing.

“Morgan said that book is magic.”

She looked at him and frowned but still didn’t answer. She didn’t want to delude him into thinking the world was magic, but yet here she was, writing something that foretold the future. That was magic.

“She said you can make stuff happen.”

“Not really,” she said and then continued to write in the journal. “It’s just all imagination.”

“I like imaginary stuff. Can you make good stuff for me? I’d be a good character, I think,” he said, tapping his foot on the end of the couch and scratching his ear.

“Sure, you’d be.”

Normally, she’d tell him how he was a good character in her life already. Normally, she’d put down her journal and talk to him, tell him about what was going on in her life.

But at that moment, she just wanted him to go away. He wouldn’t understand. Wouldn’t understand that this was for him, for all of them, what she was doing.

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