Secret Wolf

SOPHIE

A hot wind was tickling my back as I stooped to pick up a box. It was so hot that day that you almost couldn’t even breathe. With the last moving box in my hands, I turned around to take one last look at my old room.

What used to be a cozy and warm room was now an empty shell. Only the purple and blue walls were a silent witness of my presence.

I’d had great times in this room. I remembered the many sleepovers with my friends, the talks about school, and of course, boys.

I also remembered the nightmares and strange dreams I’d had since my sixteenth birthday.

As I thought back to it, I felt tears prickling in my eyes, and with a quick motion, I wiped the tears off my face with the back of my hand.

“Are you coming, Sophie?” my mother yelled from downstairs.

“Yes, Mom, I’m almost done,” I shouted back.

Moving had always been a part of my life. But the older I got—I was now eighteen—the harder it was.

But this move was a little different: my parents weren’t moving with me. I’d be going to university, a big step in my life.

I wanted to become a psychologist, and to achieve that goal, I had enrolled myself in the university. I’d always been one of the best students of my year back in high school, so university was the logical next step.

I turned around and closed my bedroom door. This was not the time to become all sad and depressed. No, it was time to move on once more and be positive and happy.

With that thought, I walked down the stairs. My parents were already outside. My father’s van was already stuffed from top to bottom with all my things.

“Ah, there you are, darling,” my father said. “Do you have everything you need?”

I looked at my father. His gray curls, which used to be black, were short but still covered his head. His light-blue eyes lay deep in their sockets. His wide nose and thin lips were separated by a gray mustache.

His mouth was pulled up in a wide smile. His slim body was covered in old working clothes. His looks matched the job he was doing—moving me.

My mother, on the other hand, who stood next to him, looked like she was going out.

Her long blonde curls were held in place at the back of her head with a golden pin. She wore minimal makeup to accentuate her blue eyes and high cheekbones.

Her nose was small. Her full lips were painted a bright red. She wore a short black dress with high heels. But although she wasn’t clothed for the job, she’d worked just as hard as my father and me to get the job done.

I didn’t look like my parents at all. But that was no surprise because I’d been adopted by them.

I had no idea who my real parents were. If I tried to remember them, it was as if I was looking into this big, thick black cloud.

So I was just grateful for the man and woman I called my parents, who’d raised me as if I’d been their own daughter. But sometimes I wondered who my real parents were and if I looked anything like them.

I was tall, about five foot seven. My dark-brown wavy hair fell to my shoulders. My big forest-green irises had a deep blue circle around them. My nose was a little bit upturned.

My lips were not too big and not too small. I was slim but had a bit of a belly and wide hips.

My mother told me that I was a beautiful curvy woman; I just thought I was a bit chubby. Not that I minded.

My dad gave me an expectant look. He raised his eyebrows.

“Are you having a conversation with yourself again?” he asked.

Oh, right, he’d asked me something.

“I’m sorry, Dad, I trailed off a bit.”

My father shook his head and chuckled.

“But yes, this is the last box. My room is completely empty now.”

“Oh, great,” my mother joked. “Now we can turn your room into a spa.”

I rolled my eyes at her comment but couldn’t help the smile on my face. “If it makes you happy, I’m not going to stop you.”

My mother laughed and took the box from my hands to put it in the already-very-full van.

“Well, I guess it’s time to go, then,” my father said. He got in the van and my mother followed.

My mother opened the window a bit and yelled, “Drive carefully, sweetheart. We’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

I nodded and waved. My dad drove off, leaving me behind in a cloud of dust.

I coughed a couple of times and walked back to my car. It was time to pick up my best friend in the world, Bonnie, or Bee, as I usually called her.

Bonnie had been my best friend since the time I moved here about three years ago. We had similar interests and personalities.

I got in my anthracite-colored SUV and drove a couple of miles outside town to pick her up by her parents’ house. I stopped in front of the house and pressed my horn. The front door flew open, and Bonnie ran to my car.

She had her short blonde hair up tight in a ponytail. Her brown eyes sparkled as always, her full lips stretched in a big grin.

Bonnie was very muscular—if you didn’t know any better, you’d think she was a fitness freak. But believe me, she never went to the gym. I was a bit jealous of her fabulous body.

She wore a pair of blue jeans just like me, and we had a matching pair of light-blue blouses on. As soon as she got in my car, she looked me up and down and burst out laughing.

“Oh my Goddess, Soof, we look like twins,” she squealed.

I laughed and shrugged my shoulders.

I never understood why she always said “Goddess” instead of “God” like most people did. I’d asked her once, but she’d mumbled something about emancipation and that was it.

Well, I never thought anything else of it, so it was fine by me.

“So, Bee, are you as excited as I am?” I asked her.

“You bet I am,” she responded. “My parents just left half an hour ago, so I guess, with your driving style, that we’ll be there at the same time.” She winked at me.

I had a bit of a reputation when it came to my driving style. I was a spicy driver. The faster, the better. But I always drove safely, so it wasn’t like I was some sort of a maniac.

Bonnie never minded this. She didn’t drive too often. She thought it was boring.

The ride to our new home went fast. Before we knew it, I’d parked in front of our new apartment.

Bonnie and I were renting an apartment off campus. The rent was very low because the apartment belonged to Bonnie’s uncle.

I grabbed my bag and looked around. There was no sign of our parents yet.

Bonnie and I already had our keys, so we went into the building. We took the stairs to the second floor and opened the door with the number 9 on it.

We entered the apartment and our eyes almost popped out of our heads.

The room we were standing in was huge.

A big black leather sofa sat in the center of the room. In front of it on the wall hung an enormous flat-screen TV. We walked farther into the living room.

On the left was a modern kitchen. It was large enough to make dinner for a whole orphanage. In the middle of the kitchen stood a bar with six barstools around it.

On the right of the living room were three doors.

Bonnie opened the last door and discovered a bedroom with a king-sized bed in the middle of it. On one side of the bedroom was a wide closet with enough space to hang all our clothes and more.

Bonnie claimed this bedroom for herself.

So I went to the first door. Behind the door was an exact copy of Bonnie’s bedroom. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Wasn’t a student supposed to live in a tiny bed-slash-living-slash-everything room? My lips curled up in a big smile. I certainly could get used to this.

Suddenly I heard a scream coming from the room in between our bedrooms. I ran toward Bonnie’s scream.

As soon as I entered the room she was in, it was immediately clear that this was the biggest bathroom I’d ever seen.

Bonnie’s hands covered her mouth. As soon as she saw me, she spread her arms and hugged me.

“Oh my Goddess, Soof, look at this beautiful bathroom. I think I never want to leave this place again!”

I looked around as Bonnie held me tightly. There was a twin sink on the left with a mirror wall behind it. The rest of the walls were painted a warm terra-cotta color.

In the back of the bathroom stood a big round bathtub. On the right was a huge walk-in shower.

I looked at Bonnie and pecked her on the cheek. “Your uncle is the bomb, Bee. We should really thank him for this great apartment.”

Bonnie smiled at me. “Well, that shouldn’t be a problem,” she said, “because we were invited next weekend to have dinner with him, my aunt, and my cousins.”

“That’s great,” I told her. “We should get them a gift to show our appreciation.”

“I already beat you to it, Soof,” she said. “My mother went shopping and bought gifts for both my uncle and my aunt, so we don’t need to worry about that!”

I turned around and walked into the living room. I was so lucky! My best friend and I were going to have the best times of our lives together in this magnificent apartment. Life couldn’t get any better.