“‘No one understands me here,’ Sophie said, looking at her hands. ‘But you do. You see who I am. That’s why I kept coming back. You’re not my good deed anymore, Agatha.’ Sophie gazed up at her. ‘You’re my friend.’”

Sophie just admitted to Agatha that she became friends with her as a good deed. Here, she reveals that her motivations were impure at first, but now Sophie truly counts Agatha as a friend because Agatha sees her. This is the foundation of their friendship, which will be tested in their School for Good and Evil journey.

“‘Fine. So I’m a little different,’ Agatha glared. ‘So what?’

Sophie hesitated. ‘Well, it’s just that in fairy tales, different usually turns out, um [. . .] evil.’”

The reason people think Agatha is a witch is that she’s different. She doesn’t fit into the mold of what people think of as good, so they think she’s evil. This view of Agatha ties in to the theme of the ideas of good and evil. Sophie ties beauty to goodness; people who don’t fit the mold, like Agatha, are considered evil. This idea will be challenged throughout the narrative.

“‘Because I can’t live here,’ Sophie said, voice catching. ‘I can’t live an ordinary life.’

‘Funny,’ said Agatha. ‘That’s why I like you.’

Sophie smiled. ‘Because you can’t either?’

‘Because you make me feel ordinary,’ Agatha said. ‘And that’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted.’”

This exchange shows Sophie and Agatha’s different motives. Sophie doesn’t want to be ordinary; she wants to be extraordinary, and all her actions are motivated by this ambition. Sophie’s believes that she is better than anyone else and deserves a prince and a happy ending; this drives her for the rest of the novel.