Sofia Abbas

Earlier this year I rediscovered a copy of my first ever book — a heartwarming (albeit very poorly illustrated) story about a family of wolves who discover a secret door in their den. I wrote the book when I was about seven or eight and, until the masterpiece about a lonely dustball who was white instead of dark grey like all the other dustballs that I wrote for my English class in eighth grade, it was to be my only attempt at writing a novel until I began two when I was fourteen.

Since this website/blog is a new project, I thought I’d begin it by harkening back to those two stories that never got beyond the first two pages. Reading them is like entering a time capsule, a very weird one where I’m far more sassy and self-confident than I remember being at that age and somehow thought that every story had to begin with the absolute destruction of my entire family in order to give me the freedom to embark on the Grand Adventures a YA fantasy novel required. In retrospect, this wasn’t exactly realistic — I think my mom actually wished I would spend more time dating and partying to get the Teenage Experience, so she probably would have sent me off to save the world with way too much home-cooked food to carry and a proud smile.

Anyways, the story that follows below was written by fourteen-year-old me in all of my teenage glory (although I’ll confess I did fix a few apostrophes because they were driving me crazy). In this one you can clearly see my overly-optimistic naïveté about the U.S. Constitution and the influence Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series had on me. I apologize in advance for the semi-cliffhanger ending and weird dialogue, and I hope you enjoy this blast from the past!

Chapter 1

Wednesday minimum days are honestly the best idea the school board ever came up with. One nice, mostly free day in the middle of an otherwise stressful and hurried jam-packed week. What’s not to like? And besides, all of my most life-changing incidents have happened on Wednesdays. And, ok, I’ve only really had 2 life-changing days in my life (besides the day I was born which sooo doesn’t count), but they were both on a Wednesday. 

On the first life-changing Wednesday, I was walking my dog, Sierra, down our usual route through the sunny streets when I noticed a highly suspicious young teenage boy tailing me. My first reaction was woah he’s cute!! Sadly, this was soon outweighed by my second and third reactions which were, respectively, why on earth is he wearing a bedsheet? and OMIGOD IS THAT A GUN? As you may have noticed, I’m known for my priorities being in order. 

Anyways, even if you put those last two observations aside, which I sooo did not, he was still pretty suspicious. I mean, what self-respecting (although I suppose he didn’t have much in that department, seeing as he was wearing a bedsheet) young guy is going to trail an Indian girl around a respectable Northern Californian suburb? Please. 

So, I did what I had conditioned myself to do in any suspicious situation. I dialed my best friend, Alex(andra), to give the impression that not only was I way too busy to have a heart-to-heart with suspicious gun-carrying, bed-sheet-wearing young hooligans, but I also had a backup to report me missing, just in case. Luckily, Alex answered, or I would have been forced to carry on a highly undignified convo all by my lonesome.

“Hey. Watsup?” She asked, sounding totally relieved to have me rescue her from her SAT prep homework. I clucked sympathetically.

“Aww how’s Philly doing?” Her tutor, Philip, was famously-freaky, and routinely gave 13-page assignments of college level math, along with the comforting, 8-word pep talk;

‘I am going to make your life miserable.’

Really. Pinky-swear. Alex had gravely informed me of this fact multiple times a day, generally accompanying it with a long rant, not unlike the one she was giving me now. I made all the appropriate aww-ing sounds while tapping my foot nervously and resisting the urge to look behind me while Sierra took wayy too long to sniff in the bushes. She took so long that Alex had finished her rant with time to spare. 

“Wait, so why’d you call?” she asked, slightly out of breath. 

“Remember the 911 drill I told you about? Well, I’m being stalked by this extremely attractive guy down Center Road, so I thought we could do the drill, but this time actually call 911 when I tell you, k?”

“OMG hot guy?? Describe!” I smiled to myself. Of course. I risked another glance behind me to get a proper profile of the guy. He was looking right at me. I quickly turned away, tugging fruitlessly at my submerged dog.

“Okay,” I said, giving up on Sierra. “Ummm… darkish blonde hair, really really short, like army cut, green eyes, oval face, long-ish nose, medium-full lips, like 18ish, probs like 6’1” or so, wearing a toga-ish bedsheet, umm…” 

“Woah…I lost you at like, Army. Wanna repeat?” I rolled my eyes. 

“Think Alex Smith, but younger.” She squealed. “And, with a gun.” I added, risking another glance. He was still staring, but as I watched he pulled out a walkie talkie and started talking into it.

“Aww I totally want a pic!” Alex continued. “He must be sooo hot! And you two would be perfect together! I mean, you have black curly hair, he has blond straight-ish, he’s athletic and so are you, he’s pretty tall, you’re….not, he has green eyes, you have brown- it’s so perf! I totally wanna be your bridesmaid!” 

“Umm…Alex? That’s a cool fantasy and all, but that’s like ten years into the future, at least. Could we please focus on the present time in which a creepy dude with a gun is pointing at me and talking into a walkie talkie? It’s kinda freaking me out.” 

“And my proposition isn’t freaking you out? Jeesh, you must be scared!”

“I AM scared!” I yelled.

“Of me?” a deep voice said behind me. 

“Of course.” I muttered

“Excuse me?” both Alex and stalker-dude asked in unison. Keeping my back firmly to the guy, I spoke into the phone.

“Umm, so Alex? The dude is talking to me now, sooo…I’ll call you in five, okay? And if I don’t, you can resort to plan A.”

“Did we ever have a plan B?” She asked.

“Yeah. Me getting married, ‘member?”

“Oh yeah…I still call dibs on bridesmaid!” I rolled my eyes and hung up, turning to face the guy. He smiled at me. 

“Nice timing, Addie.” He said. Wait. How did he know my name?  “Five minutes should just about be sufficient for me to arrest you and get you out of here.” I was totally flabbergasted, but, like a cucumber, I kept my cool. I stuck my hand out.

“See, I thought we’d run into that little snag, you being from out of…um town and all.’ I said sweetly, managing to bat my eyelashes at him. 

“ I don’t see a problem.” He said, warily looking around and dragging me into the shadows of a tall tree. 

“Well, I don’t know if you are aware of this or not,” I said proudly, “but here in America, it goes against the U.S. Constitution to detain someone without telling them why. And since I’m an American citizen, and we are on American soil, I’m afraid we have to follow the constituition’s rules right now.” He totally ignored me, which was sooo not ok. Even while being kidnapped, I have my standards. 

“Umm, excuse me?” I jabbed him in the chest. He looked down at me, brow furrowed, which actually made him look quite ferocious.

“ Did you hear me?” I asked, in the smallest voice I could muster. 

“It would be kind of hard not to.” I opened my mouth to reply, but he held up his hand. 

“And did it ever occur to you that I could drag you all the way across the world to Mount Olympus and back before you could say ‘we the people’?” I looked up at him in awe. 

“Wow!” I said.” I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so young with a mental disorder that has progressed that much!” 

He scowled down at me. “I’m NOT mental!” I smiled.

“Oh yes, you are. ‘Cuz the only way what you’re saying could be possible is if you were a greek god/dess.”

“And why can’t I be a greek god?” He asked in a dangerously low voice.

“Well, if you hadn’t interrupted, I would have told you by now.” He rolled his eyes and said nothing, so I continued.

“Obviously, you can’t be a god because A) no god in their right mind would ever wear a bedsheet in Palo Alto, no matter how fashionable they might have been in the 5th century BC, B) no self-respecting god would use a walkie-talkie to communicate, I mean, please, AND, no self-respecting person would ever wear a toga without some type of ornamentation. Not that you don’t pull it off or anything,” I added, scared I’d offended him or something, “but still.”

He stared at me incredulously, and then he shoved me to the ground. I closed my eyes momentarily at the point of impact. When I opened them, it was raining dust. Gross. 

“Well, that was very gallant of you,” I said standing up. 

“Sorry.” He muttered, looking around frantically. It was only then that I noticed the leash of my dog, which had previously been taut, hanging loosely from my wrist. The end was a few feet away, with no dog attached. 

“Woah. Where’d Sierra go??” I spun around in a circle, but she was nowhere in sight. I looked back up at the dude. “Where?” He bent down.

“Well, this might come as a bit of a shock, but…” He straightened up, holding a handful of dust. I stared.

“A BIT of a shock???” I screamed at him. He winced, stepping back. “What am I supposed to tell my parents??” 

“Ahh..you see that might be a bit of a problem. See, I don’t think you are going to be going home to the parents you know and love.” I glared at him.

“Now is soooo not the time to deliver kidnapping threats.”

“Well, when would you like me to?” I rolled my eyes. I had had enough of this guy. I pivoted neatly and strode towards my house. I was only a block away. I should be able to outrun him if needed, although I wished I had picked a better outfit for escaping potential kidnappers. My cute little sundress and sandals weren’t exactly prime felon-fighting attire. 

“Umm Addie? I don’t really think that’s a great idea…” I ignored him and sped up a little. I could hear him walking behind me, but he didn’t try to stop me, so I let it go.

As I was half-walking half-running up the path to the when the door to my house opened un-assisted. Two things stepped out-mottled and oozing. They were legitly the grossest things I’d ever seen, which is saying A LOT, and they were coming straight at me. 

“Ummm….Stalker dude?” I asked hesitantly, stepping back. It was unnecessary. Before I’d even spoken, he shot past me, waving a glistening sword in a deadly arc. Don’t ask me where that came from. Within seconds, we were (once again) inside a little mini dust storm. When it had cleared, I looked up to see him bearing down on me, looking very scary. 

“Did you just call me… ‘stalker dude’?” I took a step back. 

“Well, to be fair, you were stalking me. And….you’re a dude.” He said nothing. “Or maybe not??” 

“YES!” I flinched. “The name,” he continued, “is Apollo.” My mouth opened and closed a few times. I seemed to spend a lot of time these days looking like a fish…hmmmm. I wasn’t really prepared to dispute his story after the events that had just occurred, so I said nothing. After a while, the silence got unbearable. 

“Well, you’re just as…fiery as they say.” I tried. Apparently, it was the wrong thing to say. 

[End]