Sophie felt a hand on her back and turned around to see the short, mousy Eve Hoffman standing before her.
It was bad enough that Eve Hoffman even felt she could talk to her in the first place, but for her to touch Sophie? That was over the line. Who did she think she was?
Sophie had learned a long time ago, on the rare times her dad came to stay with them and was super upset with her or Bella for something, that silence could be more powerful than yelling. So she just glared.
Two enormous brown eyes looked back up at her.
“This was—was on your—your…” Eve Hoffman made a motion toward Sophie’s back.
Eve Hoffman held a Post-it reading #2.
Sophie snatched the paper out of her hands and crumpled it up.
“I’m so sorry. Someone must’ve…” Eve Hoffman didn’t seem to have the ability to finish a sentence.
Eve’s hair was a disaster. Bits of it peeked out from every corner of her skull, covered in a light layer of frizz. She wore some kind of navy blue sports shirt and black jeans, the colors clashing. Even while dressed in a glorified bag, Sophie could see that she had what Brody called “a body.” He always talked about celebrities and said some had “a body,” or sometimes he’d say, “Ugh. She doesn’t even have a body.” Sometimes when he said this, Sophie thought, “Brody, we all have bodies. It’s called … existing.” But she kept this to herself.
Eve Hoffman clearly wanted to add something, but once again it came out in disjointed stammers.
Actually, on second thought, maybe Eve Hoffman wasn’t so mousy. Her eyes were Disney-princess big. Her face had that Snow White quality about it, all fresh and super pale, but in the creamy way, not the vampire way. Her mouth and cheeks had a natural reddish blush to them. Was she not even wearing any makeup? She just … glowed?
And in an instant, in a sudden shift that so often happened to her, Sophie hated herself with intensity. She hated her own limp, straight hair that needed a curling iron, her tired complexion that needed a makeup base to look good, hated how her upper lip was so skinny that it disappeared when she smiled. She hated her muscular body, how her shoulders, arms, and legs looked like a boy’s from behind. She had a body, sure, but not “a body.” She was too tough-looking. And much too flat.
She was no Eve. No number one. The list was right.
Sophie clenched her fist around the Post-it. Her nails dug into her palm. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything to dismiss Eve Hoffman, Brody walked by.
Sophie allowed her frown to transform into a broad smile, though she tried to push her top lip out as she did so, to make sure it wouldn’t fade into her teeth.
“Hey!” She lifted her hand to give him their typical high-five greeting. He usually smacked her hand, then put an arm around her shoulder and strode down the hall with her that way until a hall monitor yelled “No touching!”
Brody smacked her hand, but he didn’t put an arm around her. Instead, he turned to Eve Hoffman.
“There you are, Eve. Eve Hoffman.” He grinned.
Eve’s mouth remained open, words still not coming out. She looked exactly as spacey as Hayley had reported.
Brody put his hand on Eve’s arm and guided her toward the side of the hall, leaving Sophie behind. Sophie scrambled to hear what they were saying. She put an earphone in one ear to muffle the hallway chaos and leaned her other ear in their direction.
Sophie caught Brody saying: “Would you think about…?”
Then she heard nothing except a gaggle of theater kids running by her, singing some obnoxious song.
In the quiet that came after, she made out: “It’ll be fun.”
And it dawned on her what she was witnessing.
“Okay, I’ll wait. Just let me know.” Brody winked as he walked away from Eve. He gave Sophie a light pat on the back and said, “See ya, Soph.”
As Sophie fully took in that Brody had just asked Eve Hoffman to the Halloween dance, she knew with an immediate certainty that Eve wanted to take her place. She’d probably written the list herself. She’d been trying to put that Post-it on Sophie’s back. It had all been a plot to get Brody’s attention.
And as Eve slunk away and out of her sight, Sophie stared at her hard enough to let her know that she would never, ever get away with it.