Day One

She was the last person he expected to see walking towards him that first day of Junior year. It was as if she had walked directly from his imagination and into the rowdy school hallway. Kids were all around them inserting and removing their books from the dull deep green lockers that lined the walls. She didn’t know him, but he had known her his entire life. Seeing her was familiar. The way his heart skipped a beat and he lost all ability to speak was as natural to him as breathing.

He would have stood there all day lost in the wonder of where she’d been and how she differed from his construction of her if the school secretary hadn’t come on the PA announcing, “William James to the principals office, William James to the principals office.”

Like the girl, this interruption also knotted his stomach and caused his chest to tighten in the way it does when you feel your heart stop, but not because it made him acutely aware he’d probably been staring for too long, but because he was in fact William James and had never before been called into the principals office.

When he arrived, William patiently waited to be called in. When it was his turn, the door opened and he saw a woman sitting facing the principals desk. He walked in and was startled not only by who the woman in the chair was, but by the fact that there were other people also waiting in the room. At the principals request Will closed the door behind him. I can’t tell you exactly what he was told in that meeting. The truth is William himself couldn’t quite grasp it. All I can tell you is exactly what he understood. Things had changed and it was unlikely they would ever be the same again.

Will didn’t see her again until 6th period that day, and truth be told if you asked him, he couldn't remember anything that happened between that morning and this moment. He was heading back to class when he saw her walking towards the front doors. The curiosity that this aroused in him jolted him from his daze, and he found himself following her out. When they got outside he called to her,

“Hey.”

She stopped and turned to look at him. Not saying a word she looked at Will the way you can imagine anyone would look at a stranger who had just addressed them without further exposition. Understandably this sent Will’s mind into a panic because he knew she was waiting for him to finish his thought. However, as you may guess, he hadn’t thought this far a long. Fumbling, the only sentence he could put together was, “You know, school isn’t over yet.” At this, she couldn’t help but be intrigued by the concern her peer had for her clear disregard of school policy. Playfully rolling her eyes she yelled back at him, “Don’t worry. I’m sure I’m not missing much.” As she turned to continue walking away Will yelled, “Do you know where you’re going?”

“No.” she replied.

William asked, “You’re not worried about getting lost?”

Laughing at him a little she cracked a smile. Walking backwards, she said in a tone that proved how effortlessly cooler then him she was,

“Getting lost is half the fun.”

She began to turn but then looked at him once more, still smiling, and said,

“But if you’re so worried why don’t you come along?”

Something I should note, William was your run of the mill star athlete who effortlessly held down honor student status and was poised to be offered a full ride to any school of his choosing. All this to say he had never cut class, and he would especially not have cut class on a day he had practice, a day such as that day. In fact, before today, William would have never believed that the girl walking away from him would have ever cut class either, but there she was. William weighed his options, and looked back at the school. Knowing he wouldn’t regret it, he turned and ran after her. When he caught up to her he remembered he hadn’t introduced himself. He held out his hand and said, “I’m Will.” She looked at him with a smile, took his hand, and said her name,

“Sofia.”

Not really knowing what to say next Will shrugged his shoulders and asked,

“So, now what?”

Sofia told him, “I don’t know. Where’s the best view?”

This time Will didn’t even have to think about it. He knew exactly where to take her. As he directed them they began to get lost in conversation. Despite the butterflies that started up in his stomach every time she laughed, talking to her was easy. It was like catching up with an old friend who’d been away for a long time but it seemed as if no time had passed.

The place they reached was hidden. A secret cliffs side on the outskirts of a bustling park. William told Sofia to close her eyes and he led her through the hanging branches of the old willow tree that guarded this little wonder. When Sofia opened her eyes she was greeted by the site of snow capped mountains standing watch over a small town they held in their center. Just like the mountains kept watch over the lives of the quaint little town far below them, ancient trees made up the walls of this secluded little world. Everything was different here. It was completely untouched, something that you could feel just by standing there and breathing the air.

Sofia reached into her bag and pulled out a camera and as she busied herself capturing the beauty through the lens, William sat in the grass and reveled in the way she was taken with the scenery. William hadn’t been there in quite some time, he began to think about all the memories that had taken place there before today. Memories that he desperately wanted to share but didn’t know how. As if reading his mind, Sofia turned to him and asked,

“How did you find this place?”

He smiled and began to tell her the story. He told her how he had found it one day with his best friend, a girl who had moved into the house next to him and who very quickly captured his heart. They had been playing adventurer one day when they were young and just stumbled upon it. From that day on, it became their secret oasis. When they had good news, bad news, whenever they just wanted to get away from everything that’s where they would go, and where they knew they could always find each other. Sofia listened intently even though she never stopped capturing the images all around her. William’s story made her feel warm but she didn’t know why. It was a sweet story but somehow it felt like more then that. From the way William talked about this girl, Sofia knew he felt more for her than he was trying to let on. Making her wonder why he would bring her here. Suddenly a little guarded, Sofia asked, “So where is this girl?”

When she turned to look at Will, it seemed like all the light had gone from him. He had trouble meeting her gaze and she realized he was thinking very hard about what to say next. After the small stretch of silence that had passed between them he began to tell her a story. He told her how one day in the summer before freshman year the girls family had just disappeared. No one knew where they had gone. For two years, not a day had passed where he went without thinking about her. Sofia felt for him and made her way to where he was sitting and sat beside him. Will took a deep breath and told her that he didn’t think he would ever know anything about her again until this morning. Sofia looked at him inquisitively. He told her that the girls family had been waiting for him in the principals office. They told him that they had come back because she had been in a car accident. That she was placed in a medically induced coma, but when they woke her up there were complications and they lost her. At this last part of his story Will turned to look at Sofia, who now kept her eyes on the town nestled below. As she moved her hair from her face and behind her ear she gave her condolences, and Will noticed the scar just above her eyebrow. It was small and looked like it had just begun to heal. He had to stop himself from reaching out to touch it. As they sat there in silence taking in the scene of the sun beginning its disappearing act behind the mountains, all Will could do was sit there amazed at how something so small marked Sofia as the ghost of the girl he once knew.