The School for Good and Evil: One Last Tale

4 - Secrets From The Past

Sophia

I've been thinking about how to answer Radley's question and I still can't think of a good answer. I've managed to avoid him for another week but I know it's only a matter of time until I bump into him again and when that happens, I want to be ready. It's hard to try and think of a good answer when he wouldn't take my original answer that I just don't like him in that way. It's not like I can even use another boy to say that he's not the only boy that I talk to. Maybe I could invent some kind of other boy. If only there was another boy, perhaps I wouldn't have to invent one.

"You're quiet," my dad says. My dad was home early from the school which was a bit of a pain. I actually thought I had some more time to think before I would be interrupted. I think I would have preferred it to be mum who was home. She tends to leave me to my own thoughts but my dad definitely doesn't.

"I'm just thinking," I reply. If I was to create a fake boyfriend, what would they be called?

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm sure it won't be interesting for you," I say and I know it won't be.

"You might as well tell me."

I sigh, it seems my dad won't leave me alone until I tell him what I'm thinking about. "Radley asked me to be his girlfriend a few weeks ago and I'm trying to think of a response"

"I thought you liked Radley." I didn't even know that my dad knew who Radley was, yet alone knew what I apparently thought of him. 

"I like Radley as a friend not as a possible boyfriend," I explain. I don't know why just because I'm friends with a boy that I have to automatically see them as a potential boyfriend. Radley and I are good friends and apparently for most people that isn't good enough. I'm not even sure if Radley even likes me or if he's being forced into it.

 "Are you sure?"

"You sound like Radley there. He said I should look at my options and realise that he's the only male in this village that I actually talk to." I mean it's not like that's not true but I still don't see why that's a valid reason why I should throw my whole life away.

"He has a point."

"Merlin, please don't tell me you're serious," I mutter. 

"Sophia as much as you're our little girl, you've grown up and you need to start thinking about the future." Oh yes, the future where I have to be paired off with some boy just so I can have children. That sounds really great.

"Why does that future have to be with Radley or even any male at all? Why can't I just be happy by myself?" It's where Sophie and Agatha's story went wrong. They both thought that their only source of happiness could come from a boy and it lead them to being on the verge of death multiple times. Being by myself means that I can be free, which I can't do with a male involved.

"It's the way things are done. Radley is a good option for you. Being honest Sophia, he's your only option."

"Just because he's the only male that I talk to doesn't mean that he's my only option."

"Yes it does. What other option is there then?"

My whole life has been constricted to this village, to the people within it but there's a whole other world in the woods where perhaps I could find happiness. "Well, I could always find someone from the woods."

"That's not possible Sophia, you know that."

"Why not? Just because I wasn't accepted into the school it means I'm stuck in Gavaldon for the rest of my life." It seems like the stupidest system. Just because I didn't get selected to go to a school means that I'm going to be trapped in Gavaldon for the rest of my life.