Dear Diary

Chapter 12

Her mom was obviously religious, but then again, she had never had it as hard as Sophia. It was easy to be religious when things go well, but when it turns south then things like doubt cloud your thoughts and you begin to wonder if there ever was someone looking out for you to begin with. That was how Sophia felt about this whole religious thing. These people must have not gone through enough suffering if they still believe, because she's gone through more than her share and her faith is only getting weaker, never stronger.

Sophia suddenly brought herself back from her thoughts and inclined her head once in greeting. 

"Luke."

Luke turned to look at her father. "And you must be Sophia's dad? Pleasure to meet you, sir," he said and reached out his hand. 

Sophia's dad met his half-way and they shook hands. Sophia noticed that Luke was only an inch shorter than her father and so her height took her just under his chin. She was clearly a mix of her parents' heights, she realised.

"Likewise," her father responded calmly.

"Luke, honey, who's your friend?" came a slightly high-pitched voice and they all turned to see a couple, about her father's age, come towards them.

"Mom, Dad, this is Sophia, a girl I sit next to in history, and her dad," Luke introduced and Sophia sneaked a glance at her father's reaction. 

Nothing. He was as stoic as a stone to the information. It hurt her knowing that her father didn't seem to care what happened in her life.

"Pleasure to meet you," Luke's dad said and the two men shook hands and introductions were made. 

Luke's mom, Claire, was a bubbly, slightly overweight woman with a pixie haircut, bleached blonde hair and large hazel eyes. Her husband, Michael, stood next to her with a friendly smile which made the resemblance between him and his son strikingly apparent. He had brown hair like his son and the same blue eyes. Even the way they stood screamed that they were related.

"Olivia and Mary are in Sunday school at the moment, but we can introduce you to them after the service if you want?" Claire offered and Sophia looked at Luke with a questioning expression.

"My little sisters," he explained. "They're twelve."

"Would you like to sit with us?" Michael asked Sophia's father who agreed and they all walked into the church, sitting in one of the middle pews. The men sat next to each other with Sophia on the edge to her father's right.

The service didn't take too long today and soon enough everyone began filing out of the room. Normally, Sophia and her father would leave as soon as church finished, but the Woods persuaded them to stay for coffee in the adjacent hall. Sophia sat quietly next to Luke and just couldn't get over her luck. She ignored him all week only to get stuck with him in church as well. 

Life really wasn't fair to her.

"You were in luck this week," Luke stated next to her as he took a sip of his coffee. Sophia tried not to laugh at how ironic his words were in comparison to her thoughts.

"How come?" she asked calmly and took a sip of her own beverage. 

The parents were currently talking a little way away from them while she and Luke sat on one of the many couches placed about the room.

"Normally Pastor Thomas preaches hard-core stuff. Today was one of his lighter sermons."

"And you're telling me this why?" Sophia looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Well, I didn't want him scaring you off," he chuckled.

"I don't get scared," Sophia replied curtly and took another sip. 

Not a complete lie, but there was one thing that she was petrified of.

"Oh, that's good ..." he trailed off and looked around and Sophia noticed his eyes brighten. "Hey, there are my sisters!"

Sophia hardly had time to react before she was almost knocked off the couch by two masses that collided with the boy sitting next to her. 

"Hey, girls, easy. I'm holding coffee!" Luke said with a laugh and the two masses, which Sophia realised now as children, settled down on each of Luke's knees. Two girls with light brown hair and hazel eyes beamed happy smiles. They were completely identical and the fact that they wore matching outfits only made it worse.

"Who's this?" the one girl asked and all three siblings turned to look at Sophia.

"Sophia, she sits next to me in history at school," Luke said and smiled at her over the heads of his sisters.

"Oh, she's so pretty! Are you two gonna date?" the other girl asked, causing Sophia to raise an eyebrow while a light pink dusted Luke's cheeks. 

Sophia would've been flattered at the compliment, seeming as though she was never complimented, but the second sentence got to her a little. Maybe because she's never once thought about dating and a twelve year old was.

"Uh, no, Liv, we're not," Luke said and Sophia saw the pink reach his ears.

"Aw, too bad. You two would make such pretty ba-"

"Anyways!" Luke quickly cut his sister off and patted her on the head, "This is Olivia," he patted the other one who quickly swatted away his hand, "and Mary."

"Nice to meet you," Mary, at least that's who Sophia thought, said. She couldn't make heads or tails of who was who, that's how similar they looked.

"Nice to meet you too."

-

Although going to church had been unusual this time, once Sophia and her father arrived home it was as though nothing changed. Immediately her father walked off to his room closing the door behind him and Sophia walked to hers.

She knew that her father would be leaving for the base again shortly and so Sophia closed her bedroom door, it wasn't like he'll say goodbye to her anyway, and collapsed on her bed. Now normally after being around people, she would feel extra lonely when she arrived at the house, but since she arrived in Ridgeview things have been different.

Now there's someone who will not take 'no' for an answer in talking to her (no matter how much she puts out the 'leave me alone' vibe) and she and her father actually socialised at church. But what was the most changing for Sophia was that once she found her mother's diary, she didn't feel nearly as alone. By reading it, it was almost as though her mother was explaining to her face-to-face how her day went and she was finding out more and more about her as a person.

Sophia smiled up at the ceiling before carefully pulling out the yellow book from under her mattress. Her father was hardly ever home, but she didn't want to risk him seeing it lying around either. She didn't know what he had done with the box of her mother's things, that was all it could've possibly been judging by all the books, and he clearly didn't realise that they still had them, but she knew that he would take the book away from her if he ever found out.

Sophia couldn't help but feel that there was a pressing reason as to why her father never told her about her mother. Why was he so secretive? What had happened between them before she died? She always thought it was because he loved her dearly, but now that Sophia thought about it ... She couldn't help but wonder if there was perhaps more to the story than a birth gone wrong.