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 Why didn t she want to keep in touch with me or you?
Sophie demanded, trying desperately to make sense of the
thoughts flooding her brain like a monsoon. Her body felt
at once both tingly and numb, and she had that pukey, sweaty
feeling like she d drank one too many cappuccinos at lunch.
She stared uncomprehendingly at the TV as Jay-Z moved
around a preening Beyonc�, throwing his hands in the air.
 She got busy with her career, her mother said quietly.
 And we all agreed it would be best for you to have a . . . fresh
start.
 You agreed, Sophie said woodenly,  without even asking
me. It was a statement, not a question, and as she sat there
trying desperately to focus on what her parents were telling
her, despite her obvious confusion, Sophie was aware of the
fact that suddenly, all her past feelings of incompleteness made
perfect sense. Her life was exactly like one of those stupid opti-
cal illusion paintings they sold in mall in the suburbs not that
Sophie had ever been to the suburbs, much less walked the
hideous confines of a mall where a series of squiggly lines
suddenly became a glowing silver dolphin if you looked at it
the right way. And once you knew the hidden image was there,
it was impossible to view the picture the same way ever again.
Sophie stood up, her body shaking with rage, her fists
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clenched at her sides. Her whole life up until now had been
nothing more than one enormous lie.
With his usual impeccable timing, Jared sauntered into the
room bare-chested, shoving the last of her personal stash of
chocolate-chocolate chip H�agen-Dazs she d hidden in the
back of the freezer last week into his open mouth.
 What s going on? Jared scraped the bottom of the carton
with a spoon, and flopped down on the couch, grabbing the
remote.
 We re talking to Sophie, dear, Phyllis said, standing up
and running a hand through her dark, chin- length bob.  And
shouldn t you be working on your college applications?
 Uh, yeah, Jared said, his mouth full.  That s a great idea,
Mom. You know considering I just got kicked out of Exeter
and everything. I m sure Ivy League schools will be lining
up to admit me.
 Jared, her father began, his voice like steel,  you have got
to get serious. You can t go surfing through life as if there
aren t any consequences. When I was your age . . .
From somewhere far away, Sophie could hear her father
droning on about  responsibility and  choices, as she
watched her brother put his dirty feet up on the couch and lean
back, scraping the last dregs of chocolate ice cream from the
now-empty carton while she just stood there, being totally
ignored. Couldn t this moment be about her for once? She d
just received the most potentially life-changing information in
all of her almost-sixteen years and now all anyone wanted to
talk about was Jared s dumbass college applications, as if any
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THE ELI TE
university in its right mind would ever accept him anyway.
Sophie tightened her fists, digging her nails into her palms and
wondered how long she could stand there, feeling invisible. If
she didn t say something soon, smoke would start pouring out
of her ears like in the cartoons she still watched on random
Saturday mornings.
 How could you lie to me? she screamed at her parents,
tears falling from her green eyes and streaming down her face,
smearing the Urban Decay bronzer she d applied that morning
into ugly brown streaks.
 Oh, Sophie, her mother said, her face falling.  It s more
complicated than that, honey. We just 
 You just what? Sophie screamed, tears running down her
face.  You just decided that it would be more convenient to lie
to me for my entire life until now? Is that it? Her parents just
stood there silently even Jared stopped licking the ice-cream
carton and just sat there, mouth open. Sophie could feel her
nose snotting all over her upper lip, and she wiped it away with
the back of her hand, not caring how gross it was as she ran
out of the room and down the long hallway, slamming her
bedroom door behind her and sinking to her knees on the
plush carpet.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw her pink razor lying on
the counter of her white-and-turquoise tiled bathroom. She
wanted more than anything to pop the blade from the casing
and draw it roughly across her skin until she couldn t feel much
of anything at all. But she knew that it wouldn t solve any of
her problems. She d feel better for the moment, sure, but to-
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morrow morning she d feel just as bad and the cycle would start
all over again. And maybe she was looking at this all the wrong
way. Okay, so her biological mother may have given her up,
and her parents may have lied to her, but now, at least, she
knew the truth and that meant she had options.
Sophie stood up and then sat at her desk in front of her
titanium MacBook. She pulled up Google and plugged in her
own name, but all she got was a passing mention in an online
society rag, and some weird girl s blog talking about how hot
Jared was. Gross.
Jared had always teased her about being adopted, but it had
never seriously crossed her mind that it really might be true. So-
phie sat back in her chair and crossed her bare legs beneath her,
Indian style, her eyes drawn to the framed photograph on her
desk of her family at Jared s lacrosse game last year, her blond
hair shining brightly out of the picture like a beacon or a sig-
nal to pay attention. Why had she never really considered it?
And would having a brand-new family be so bad? It s not like
she got along so well with her own anyway. And her real mom
could be anyone. Hadn t Phyllis said that her mother had been
an actress? Maybe her real mom was someone truly fabulous
even though she obviously needed her head examined for giv-
ing up a daughter as amazing as Sophie. Whatever the reason,
Sophie knew that she wanted to find out. And maybe, just
maybe, for the first time ever she just might end up somewhere
she really belonged . . .
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back
to
basics
Drew sat in his room, staring at the blank white screen
of his laptop and nursing an imported Dutch beer. Why were
girls so weird? He thought that he and Casey were getting
along pretty well before she d practically attacked him in
French class. By the time lunch had rolled around, he could
barely look at her, and he d prayed that she d get the hint and
stay on the other end of the Dining Hall with Mad, Phoebe,
and Sophie where she belonged. Still, each time he d looked
up and caught her staring at him with that sad, mournful look,
he d felt kind of bad. Tomorrow, he was definitely going out
for some Ray s sausage and mushroom pizza his favorite
and avoiding all the potential drama.
Drew exhaled heavily and took another swallow of beer. It
JENNI FER BANASH
kind of sucked he d had this whole Woody Allen type fan-
tasy of showing Casey around the city, maybe taking her at
sunset to that spot where Woody and Diane Keaton had their
first almost-date, sitting on the bench overlooking the Man-
hattan Bridge, watching the sunrise. As they d stood there in
the Dining Hall talking so effortlessly, he could almost see her
curly hair resting lightly on his shoulder as they looked into the
changing sky, the lights coming on across the bridge like a
strand of Christmas lights . . .
Too bad it was never going to happen girls who hung all
over him were always a turnoff. No matter how pretty she was,
or how into her he might be, when girls started throwing
themselves at him it always just seemed kind of desperate.
And, to be honest, it made him kind of nervous, too. What
was he supposed to do when some girl ran her hand up and
down his arm in front of the whole class? Kiss her? Throw her
to the floor and rip off her clothes? Actually, that wasn t
sounding like such a bad idea all of a sudden. . .
Drew drained the last dregs of beer from the amber bottle
and tossed it in the trash as a Gchat message flashed across the
blank screen.
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