Character Analysis
Sophie Barker is Annabel's former best friend. They were essentially inseparable for four years, but now Sophie has turned on Annabel and is making her life miserable. She believes that something happened between Annabel and her prized boyfriend, Will Cash, and will stop at nothing to let Annabel just how not cool she thinks that is.
With a Friend Like That, Who Needs Enemies?
Even though Sophie and Annabel were technically best friends, Sophie has always had a mean streak. When they first meet in the sixth grade, Sophie was incredibly rude to Annabel:
Then the girl said, as if clarifying, "You want me to hang out. With you."
She made it sound so ridiculous I immediately began backtracking. "I mean, you don't have to," I told her. "It was just—"
"No," she cut me off flatly. Then she tilted her head back and laughed. "No way." (1.81-83)
It's only when Kristen rejects Sophie's attempt to infiltrate her friend group that Sophie settles on being friends with Annabel. She convinces Annabel to ditch her old best friend, Clarke, and for the next four years Annabel stands by idly as Sophie goes around being cruel to people, including Annabel:
There was stuff about her that bothered me, too. Like how she sometimes snapped at me and acted like I was stupid, and often wasn't nice to other people unless she had a reason to be—and sometimes, not even then. (6.6)
Annabel is by no means exempt from her mean streak, but Sophie doesn't really turn on her until she finds Annabel in a room with Will Cash. And when she finds them, she doesn't wait for Annabel's explanation or question her own boyfriend—nope, she turns on Annabel right away. Sophie says:
"You're a goddamn whore." Her voice was rising now, still shaky but gaining strength. "I can't believe you." (13.143)
Sophie is cruel and refuses to believe any of her friends, even when the evidence is staring at her face. She repeats this cycle later on in the book when Emily goes to the cops after she's raped by Will as well. Instead of standing by her friends or apologizing, Sophie just continues to bully them and spew venom.
Social Climber
Sophie's the kind of girl who values people more for what they can provide her with—she doesn't seem to enjoy her friends or confide in them. Even when they were best friends, Annabel wasn't that close to her emotionally because she was still a little scared of Sophie. Sophie knows that she wants to be popular and envied, and this is a trait that she's carried with her for a long time. When Annabel first meets Sophie, she's trailing Kristen and trying as hard as she can to infiltrate her group:
For the next few days, I watched as the new girl kept up her stubborn efforts to infiltrate my sister's group. What began as just taking a chair escalated, by day three, to following them to the snack bar. The next afternoon, she got in the water seconds after they did, staying just about a foot down the wall as they bobbed and talked, splashing one another. By the weekend, she was trailing behind them constantly, a living shadow. (1.39)
Sophie only gives up and settles on being friends with Annabel after Kristen chews her out for being mean to her little sister. Later on Sophie seems to gravitate toward Will Cash for the same reason—she doesn't like him because he's an interesting guy, or because he treats her particularly well. No, she likes him because she knows that all the other girls want him and that they're the envied couple:
"Will could have any girl he wanted," she sad, slowing down a bit as we approached a row of houses on the left. "But he chose me. He's with me. And I will be damned if I let some b**** decide she's going to change that." (6.71)
Being with Will elevates Sophie's social standing, so she fiercely protects the relationship (even at the expense of her friendships) and refuses to believe that he's done anything wrong when he cheats on her and assaults other girls. She values what he can give her far more than she values her longstanding friendships.