Bitter Sweet
Sophie sat in the silent, boring class after school and noticed a small bowl of candy on a brown desk at the opposite side of the room. Of course this bowl was tiny because this particular teacher was an especially stingy person. One day, in the second grade she had to stay in after-care, the miserable time from when you are dismissed to when your parents pick you up. Sitting at the end of the room, the teacher graded papers with a frustrated look on her face. This teacher angrily wrote “F” on every paper she looked at. Sophie did not see this teacher every day; she was merely the woman who watched over the after-care children. She was a tiny, cranky woman, who somewhat reminded Sophie of an oompa-loompa, for even her skin glowed with a strange orange hue. Sophie wanted a piece of candy, so she rose from her uncomfortable chair and walked to the teacher’s desk. She asked in her most adorable, sweet voice, “May I have a piece of candy?”
The after-care wench replied, “Not now,” and kept grading her pile of papers.
It frustrated Sophie that the teacher was so rude with her abrupt reply. As a matter of fact, her answer stunned Sophie, for she could not believe that her cuteness didn’t make the teacher melt. Suddenly, the miserly teacher got up and announced that she had to make copies of some papers for lessons the next day. As soon as she left the room, two rotten boys rose from their seats, darted to the bowl, and grabbed handfuls of candy. Sophie recognized these boys; their names were Cooper and Carter Jones. They were the most vile, disgusting boys in the entire universe. Why should THEY have the benefit of free candy? Were they more deserving than she? She thought not. She began to wonder whether it would be okay to merely borrow a piece of candy because the boys had already stolen handfuls, when suddenly, a petite crimson man appeared on her shoulder. The leathered imp snickered softly, “Sophie, take the candy! You might get caught, and you might not. The candy will be worth the risk!”
Sophie thought she smelt a whiff of sulfur pass by her nose as his hot breath hissed out commands. More than anything she wanted to cave to his tempting request. He continued to hiss commands into her ear as he whipped his lengthy tail against her head. “No, I can’t do it,” Sophie thought, “I will get caught!”
Sophie desperately wanted some of the candy. She had been craving Jolly Ranchers for the last week, and she began to ponder the forked-tailed man’s idea. All at once, she scooted her chair back and walked across the room to take a piece. As the young eight year old meandered over to the desk, other children poked their heads up from their work to see who was disturbing the silence. She heard the “pitter-patter” of pencils drumming on desks. At the bowl, Sophie studied the types of candy and wondered which one was the tastiest, but finally decided upon her original choice of a Green Apple Jolly Rancher. She turned and crossed the silent room with the candy in hand, careful not to make too much noise (as if no one noticed her to begin with). She sat down at her desk and secretly unraveled the plastic covering on the Green Apple Jolly Rancher. The plastic crinkled in her hands as loud as the unwrapping of gifts on Christmas morning, and Sophie’s eyes darted around the room to check if anyone noticed. In one quick move, she shoved the sticky-sweet goodness into her mouth quickly, trying not to be seen or heard, and winced at the surprising tartness of the candy. As soon as the delicious taste was finally off her tongue, she dreadfully went back to homework. Sophie never did things that she would get in trouble for… usually. As soon as the teacher walked back into the room, the other candy thieves screamed out, “Sophie took your candy!”
The devil poked his fiery head out of her pencil box. “Go ahead and blame it on those two eggheads! They won’t know what hit them! Just bat your eyes and show her some teeth! There is no way she will believe them over you!”
Was she really going to pull the “cute act” once again, even after the teacher denied her the first time? She wondered if she would be foolish enough to fall for his dangerous enticements. She was shocked, stunned for a moment, but then replied, “They took your candy too!” (It was the best she could come up with. Hey, she was only eight.)
Suddenly, Sophie’s mother walked through the door of the classroom to pick her up. The teacher immediately started in, telling her Mom what had occurred. Sophie only caught a glimpse of her Mother’s face, but she definitely was not cheery, more like cherry! Her mother’s once beautiful, sweet, large brown eyes now looked whittled down to slits. They burned into her with a look that said, “Sophie, I am surprised and disappointed you would do this.” It was almost as if her mother’s curly hair wound tighter with anger, as horns sprouted out through her ringlets. She feared facing the wrath of her mother after leaving the classroom. In the car on the way home, her mother said, “That one piece of candy sure is going to be bittersweet.”

She snickered out loud, as the car filled with the malodorous scent of sulfur, and her mother’s talons dug deeply into the steering wheel.