Sophie sat on the edge of her bed, her notebook on her lap . The page was blank and Sophie tried in desperation to think of something to write, something that would help her. She was so deep in thought that when the phone rang, she jumped as it were a loud alarm. She waited. Nobody else picked it up. With a sigh she reached out and answered.
“Hello,”
“Hey Sophie,” A voice on the other end said.
“Callisto!” Said Sophie.
“Hey, do you want to come over today?’’ Asks Callisto excitedly.
“Sure!!!” Sophie replies, then hesitates, “Let me ask.”
“MOM!” Sophie calls. There is no answer. Sophie tries again. Setting the phone on her bed, sophie runs down the stairs to the kitchen.
“Mom,” Sophie says as she sees her mother standing over the stove. “Can I go to Callisto’s house?”
“Have you done everything?” Her mother asks her.
“Yes,” Sophie replies dutifully.
“Ok,” Her mother says.
“Thanks!” sophie grins and runs up the stairs to relay the news to Callisto.
“We’ll be over in 10 min,” Callisto says hanging up.

Sophie packed quickly and ten minutes later she was ready, bounding down the stairs to open the door. Callisto stoud at threshold with a boy beside her. The boy, sophie regoginezed, was from her class, olive skinned with short, fly away brown hair.
“Sophie, this is Kyros my younger brother,” Callisto announced.
Sophie frowned. “He is in our class,” she said this statement as though it were a question.
Kyros smiled shyly and said, “Yes, I skipped a grade.”
“Wow!” Sophie was impressed.
“Well we should be going,” Callisto said and the three of them set off down the steps towards the market.
The three soon entered the caotic market and began weaving their way through stalls and people calling out the magnificenous of their goods, until they came to a stall draped in what looked like hundreds of brightly colored dresses. Callisto and Sophie dove into the pile pulling out dress after dress admiring and placing back on the stall. Finally, Callisto pulled out a short, hot pink dress and thrust it at sophie.
“You have to try this on,” Callisto announced. Sophie shied back away from the dress almost crashing into Kyros who stood behind her.
“N..” Sophie started to protest, but then changed as she spotted something in the pile of dresses and began to smile slyly. “Ok. I will try it on if you try that dress on,” She pointed to a skimpy blue dress, low cut and extremely short.
Callisto hesitated and then said, “Fine.’’
They spent an hour, laughing at the monstrosity of some dresses while giggling with horror at others, but soon they became tired and went in search of coffee. Kyros had gone off but Sophie and Callisto were quite content to sip the strong coffee by themselves. The chatted for a while, but soon their talk turned serious, dreamy even.
“What do you want to do when you grow up?” Callisto asked Sophie.
Sophie smiled and replied, “I always had this dream of going to Oxford University and studying literature. What about you?”
“I don’t really know yet. I want to have kids though,’’ Callisto said thoughtfully.
Sophie smiled. “I can imagine it.
This time is was Callisto’s turn to smile. “Yes, I can see it too,” then she added wistfully, “I want it.”
Sophie opened her mouth to reply, but instead felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find Kyros standing there. “We were supposed to be home half an hour ago!” he said. Callisto scrambled up and Sophie followed. They began to run, weaving through the stalls. Sophie screamed slightly as she narrowly avoided aa fruit seller. Faster,faster they went. Crash! Sophie was thrown back onto the ground. The smell of fish was suddenly exctremly strong and something wet and slimy touched Sophie’ hand. She screamed and scambled up and out of the way. They had collided with a fish seller.
Kyros and Calliso were on the other side of the fish seller, but he didn’t notice them. The fish seller ‘s head looked down at her, his face red with anger. She backed away. The fish seller reached down and took a fish firmly in his hand. He reached out and swiped at Sophie with the fish. She ran. He ran after her, chasing her through the crowded market. She ran on and on, twisting, weaving. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Callisto and Kyros running along with her in the colum of stalls beside her. She gasped , feeling the air leave her lungs and she struggled , trying to force air in. Then, finally she was out. She looked at Kyros and Callisto, runnig her hand through her hair and sighing.
“lets go,” she said.
They nodded.