She didn't speak up.She just kept the receipts.
Sophie Parker never liked noise.
Not the kind in classrooms. Not the kind in hallways. Definitely not the kind people made when they thought they were being quiet in group chats.
She scrolled through the school's unofficial feed: blurry photos of Ethan and Claire walking together. A post tagged #EngagedButNotReally?. Some student even made a poll:Vote: Who's Winning—Ice Queen or Childhood Sweetheart?
Sophie didn't vote.
She archived it.
Then went back to editing this week's digital paper.
Click. Cut. Paste. Format.All while her phone buzzed with secondhand drama and indirect whispers. Isabella had skipped her usual afternoon coffee. Claire had smiled more in one day than in the last three years. Ethan... well, he looked tired.
She paused.
Rewound the video clip someone posted of the debate tryouts.
There it was—Ethan, listening to Lena with that polite, neutral expression.But then Claire appeared behind him. His eyes changed, just a flicker.
Sophie leaned back in her chair.
"So you're not neutral after all," she murmured.
Her screen was cluttered now: one window for layout design, one for the gossip board, one for her private journal.
She tapped open the last one.
Untitled Draft – Not For Publishing
They noticed him after the dare made him visible.I was watching when he was still invisible.
Her fingers hovered.
She deleted the last line.Too much.
Instead, she typed:
Some people fall in love on stage.Others backstage, behind the curtain, where no one's looking.
She didn't post it. Just saved it.
Someone knocked on the media room door. Sophie minimized the screen, pulled up a spreadsheet.
"Come in."
A club member peeked in. "Meeting's in ten. You coming?"
"Yeah," she said. "Just wrapping up."
As the door closed again, she looked once more at her draft.
Then whispered to no one:
"I'm not trying to compete. But maybe I already started caring before I noticed."
Not every player wants the spotlight.Some just want to be seen in the dark.