Sophia was always similar to Arthur. Daring, stubborn, never scared of people, never scared of consequences. Hearing them call us that, she became furious. Without hesitation, she took a pair of scissors from her bag. I still do not know why she had them that day. Silently, she walked behind the girl and cut off a fistful of her hair. Then she dropped the pile on the girl's lap.
When the girl saw the cut hair fall across her skirt, she screamed and burst into tears. Her friends jumped up, trying to attack Sophia, but I stepped between them. They swung blindly and hit my shoulder. It did not hurt much, but it knocked me off balance, and I tripped over the bench beside us.
Sophia saw me fall.
She lost her temper.
She punched one girl so hard on the nose that the blood spurted instantly. She swung a lunch box at another girl, and its metal edge cut her lips. Chaos erupted around us. Other students backed away. Some shouted. Some gasped. Some laughed nervously.
I was terrified, not only for her sake but for the others as well. If I left her there, I feared she would seriously injure someone or someone would try to hurt her back. So I grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room, dragging her all the way to Arthur's class.
Arthur looked at us from head to toe. Then he stepped forward. He took Sophia's hands and stared at the small scratch on her knuckles from punching the girl.
His face darkened in anger.
"What happened?" he demanded.
Sophia opened her mouth, but I panicked, imagining her description making him furious. I quickly tried to speak first, but Arthur cut me off.
"Did anyone fight with her?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.
I had no chance against the siblings in anything, and that moment proved it. Just looking at his expression, my fear took over. I nodded.
Arthur grabbed both our hands and marched us toward her class. But by then, the three girls were already walking in the hallway. One held her bleeding nose, another covered her torn lips, and the third clutched the pile of her cut hair.
Arthur glanced at them. Then he asked us, "Did you do that?"
Sophia nodded proudly.
I do not know what Arthur misunderstood, but he suddenly burst into loud laughter. He hugged both of us tightly, squeezing our heads between his arms like he was celebrating a victory.
Fortunately, he didn't do anything I was afraid of and i hoped the incident ended there.
Instead the issue grew serious. The girls' parents came to the school. The principal was called. There were long conversations filled with accusations and explanations. But the principal kept looking at Sophia's innocent face, and something in him decided to believe us instead of them. He resolved the matter quickly.
Once the problem ended, we realized the worst news of all.We had spent the last of our savings. Nothing remained.
To escape starvation, we skipped school for an entire week and searched desperately for jobs. In the meantime, to quiet our empty stomachs, we scavenged food thrown behind restaurants. We ate leftovers people had tossed out, cold food wrapped in paper, pieces of bread, wilted vegetables. Anything.
We survived like that. Together. Clinging to each other. Sharing the shame and hunger as if they were normal parts of our daily routine.
On the last day of that week, we finally lost all hope. We seriously considered breaking our rule about working together or letting Sophia take one of those advertising jobs we hated so much. Just before we gave in, we decided to try one last place, the newly built shopping mall near our house. We knew there was almost no chance. Everyone said the mall did not hire children.
To our surprise, they hired the three of us the moment we applied.
Our busy days returned, but this time something felt different. Arthur threw himself into work as if his life depended on it. He looked constantly worried, his mind always far from us. He even forgot Sophia's eleventh birthday, something he had never done before.
It did not take me long to discover why.
The house we were living in, the Goodman's house, was on a lease under Arthur's name which the goodman transferred to him before leaving. It would expire the next year. He kept this secret from us. And while I was trying to understand the weight he carried, Arthur, who had always been one of the top students in school, slowly began failing every exam. In some subjects, he got marks equal to Sophia's, and in others, he scored even lower. Everyone was shocked. Sophia was famous not only as one of the prettiest girls in the school, but also for consistently scoring in single digits on every test.
Arthur eventually failed the final exams and left school, telling everyone he no longer cared about studying. But I knew exactly what he was doing. If all three of us continued school, we could never afford it, not while also paying rent and surviving. He sacrificed his future so ours could continue.
His strange behavior made Sophia suspicious too. One night, she woke me in the middle of my sleep and dragged me outside into the cold air. She looked straight into my eyes and asked for the truth.
No man with any sense would lie to a beautiful girl he has loved for years when she looks at him like that. I told her everything. She did not look surprised, nor sad. She looked as if she had known from the beginning. Then she made me promise to keep it a secret from Arthur.
After I promised, she simply stood there, watching my face turn red. A moment later, she kissed me on the forehead, smiled softly, and went back inside to sleep beside Arthur as if nothing had happened.
That night, I slept more peacefully than I ever had in my life. I slept so deeply that I did not wake until the following evening. At first it felt strange, because I always imagined that the day Sophia kissed me, I would be too excited to sleep or eat. But later, it made perfect sense to me. That kiss came with a warm certainty. I was lucky. I had a friend who would sacrifice everything for us, and the girl I loved understood me more than anyone ever had.