“Sophie! Where did you wander off to?” Candace, Sophie’s mother, yelled.
“Right here mother! Wait just a moment!” Sophie called from the deck of the gleaming white ship on.
To Sophie’s little sister’s mind, Lucy, the ship was huge. Ginormous. And it had everything. From a dining area, to a lounge, to reading and writing room. She even heard that there were ten decks. The big ship even burned about 600 tonnes of coal a day. Lucy really liked the trip.
But, to Sophie, this was just another ship. Another big box floating on water that scientists called the Titanic. When Sophie thought about it, the dining hall was pretty big. Yes, the lounge was a nice place to sit and relax. Sure, the reading and writing room had lots of books. It was a nice ship, but it wasn’t what she wanted.
She wanted to be home with her Father, baking scones and having lots of fun while doing it. But, here she was. Stuck on the 269.1 meter long Titanic. Not in her serene kitchen.
She remembered when the ship had gone out to sea. More than 100,000 people had come to see it off. Sophie had felt a mix of emotions today. She cried and smiled as she waved to her father. Waved goodbye.
Sophie’s blonde hair kept reaching its way onto her face, after her many failed attempts of pushing it back behind her ears. The cool April wind wasn’t helping either. The frigid gusts relentlessly propelled into her face, making it numb with a wintry feel.
She climbed down from her very comfortable spot on the deck and went down to her mother. Sophie thought about her life back at home, the weather was nice, and all of her friends were there. She had never been so alone before, and this felt different.
She was always with her siblings or friends. Always with someone to keep her company.  Nowadays, she would spend hours alone on the ship. 
As Sophie made her way down to her mom, she felt the ship lurch. Sophie lost her balance and fell on the hard floor. Pain shot up her leg and she sucked in a breath. She looked down and saw her leg had been cut on one of the legs of the many chairs.
Blood was quickly streaming out of the wound. Sophie felt tears pooling in her eyes. She bit her lip to keep from crying. The pain seared through her leg and bounced on her bones. The wound felt excruciating. She saw her vision going black and her head started to spin.
“Sophie!” She heard her mom call. Sophie saw her mom, or at least, she thought she did. Tears swam in her vision, making it blurry.
She felt a hand on her back as someone picked her up. Sophie sensed them take her down to the bottom deck. After being carried down the bouncy steps, Sophie was laid on a soft bed. She heard people conversing in the back of the room, but she was too tired to listen to what they said. Besides, their voices were muffled. She could see the faint outline of Lucas talking with her mother. Lucas was a nice man who had helped Sophie and her family get onto the ship without her dad’s help. Her father had not been able to make the trip due to work.
Her eyes started to droop and Sophie felt sleep taking over. Only now did she realize ever since she got on the ship she had gotten minimal sleep. She did nothing to fight it.
     ~
Sophie woke up to the sound of running water, followed by shouts. She opened her sleep stained eyes to see water everywhere.
Sophie rubbed her eyes and looked again. It looked like her bathtub. But this wasn’t her bathtub. This was her room. It wasn’t supposed to be submerged in water.
She franticly looked around and saw the source of the water. It was leaking in through her closed door. Sophie quickly pulled the blankets off her and jumped out of bed only to feel a stab of pain.
Sophie sucked in a breath to keep from yelling out. She remembered how she had hurt her leg when the ship had lurched. But she couldn’t think about that now. The water was coming in faster, and her leg didn’t hurt as bad as it had when she had fallen.
Sophie hobbled to the door and opened it. A gush of water came rolling in,filling her room quickly. She became aware of the frigid water pooling around her legs and making her skirt stick to her thighs. The water was getting deeper.
Sophie could see men helping women up the stairs calling to others to help them as the freezing water swirled around their legs.
She made her way up to the deck and saw people jumping into lifeboats. In a moment Sophie knew what was happening. The Titanic was sinking.
Sophie looked around desperately for her mother and sister. She spotted them ready to get onto a lifeboat. Her mom was helping Lucy onto it. Sophie could see her mother looking around frantically, shouting her name. People pushed her onto the boat, yelling at her to hurry up.
She rushed toward them, ignoring the searing pain in her leg. She yelled out to her mother, and Candace looked over to see her daughter scurrying toward her. Candace sobbed with relief.
“Mother!” Sophie called.
“Hurry, come here!” Her mother replied. When Sophie reached her, she could see Lucy’s face stricken with fear. Her mother rushed her into a lifeboat along with Lucy, who was already halfway there.
“Wait!” Sophie called as the men untied the ropes to let the raft go into the water, “Aren’t you coming too?” She noticed that her mom had made no attempt to get onto the small raft.
“There’s not enough room,” Candace answered. “I’ll get on the next one.” She smiled wistfully and told the girls not to worry. As the boat sailed away, Sophie could recognize her somber expression, see tears rolling down her mother cheeks, her shoulders shaking, and Sophie knew. Her mother would be the last one off the ship. She would make sure everyone else was safe before she reached safety herself.
Sophie heard her mother’s words replay in her head, again and again. Images of her shot through her mind. Her beautiful smile that morning when Lucy was trying to figure out how to work the chinese sticks from the dining area, her tinkly laugh whenever she saw Sophie put her dress on backwards, the tears in her eyes as she watched them sail away.
Lucy leaned against Sophie’s chest, bringing her back to the present.
“I’m scared,” Lucy whispered. Sophie’s heart tightened as she admitted the truth to her eight year old sister.
“Me too.”