Case Reopened

Finding Understanding

"You aren't going to ask why I'm hiding on the second story of the library?" Zander said.

"I don't see how that's any of my business," Sophia said.

"Even when you're letting me hold your hand?"

"You asked if you could and I offered it. What more is there to be said?"

Raising his head, Zander stared at her. Sophia stared back waiting for his response. But his intense gaze seemed to be all he had to give for the moment. Since that was the case, she returned to reading the book synopsis.

"You're very comforting to be around," Zander said.

"I think only my hand is comforting at this moment. I'm not doing anything." 

"You're sitting with me."

"Yes, but that's because you're currently attached to my hand."

Zander laughed and then let out a long breath. Something about that action made Sophia forget her book. It was simple but she understand that need to bottle something up and let it out with her breath.  Her mother taught her that was a way to let strong emotions escape so they weren't trapped inside her.

"At boarding school," Zander said, dropping his head back against the bookshelf. "I knew everyone there. When my dad became President they were excited but it didn't change anything. But since my parents wanted me closer and I got transferred here... It's different. Everyone expects me to be... something. And I don't even know what that is."

"I relate to that," Sophia said, surprised that she could share something with this weird boy.

"You do?"

Sophia nodded. "Until this year I went to a school for gifted children. I knew how the world worked there. People made sense there. I had friends there. But since my mother wanted me to have more interactions with... average people they transferred me here. Here people look at me and seem to think I should be a certain way but I don't know what way to be other than the way I am."

Zander jerked up and twisted his body to face her, crossing his legs but still managing to keep hold of her hand. The sobriety he'd displayed a moment ago seemed washed away, his eyes bright again.

"You get it! I didn't think anyone would because well, no one else is the First Son except me. How do you deal with all the things people say about you? That doesn't seem to bother you."

"What do people say about me?"

The girl from earlier implied she was cold but Sophia didn't know if the girl was simply lashing out at Sophia because Sophia hadn't given her what she wanted.

"They say you're stand-offish, cold, rude, and snobbish."

Stand-offish. Was she? She didn't talk to people besides her cousin and Kennedy but that was because she'd known them all her life and understood them. She felt comfortable around them.

Cold? She knew she didn't smile or laugh as much as other people. Maybe others perceived this as coldness. With her parents she smiled and laughed. If something was humorous to her she laughed but a vast majority of the things others seemed to find funny she didn't.

Rude? She didn't know if that were true. When she spoke at times people seemed to be offended but she'd never meant offense. In those instances she'd spoken to point out flaws or help improve something that lacked. Was that rudeness to want to help?

Snobbish? She didn't understand the bases for that. A snob elevated themselves above others with their position in society or belittled others for being lesser. Sophia didn't know her position in society. She'd known her place in her old school but here she didn't understand the structure of the school and did her best to remove herself from it.