Sophie the Chatterbox (5 page)

H
ow could she?

How could she what
this
time?

“How could you tell Sam that I had a crush on him?” Hayley whispered.

Sophie sat back in her seat. She had not known that a whisper could sound so mad.

“But I didn’t!” Sophie said quickly. She had never even talked to Sam!

“Then how did he find out?” asked Hayley.

“I don’t know.” Sophie shrugged. “Maybe Dean told him.”

Oops.

Sophie should have stopped, maybe, after “I don’t know.”

“Did you tell
Dean
?!” Hayley asked her. Sophie tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Two times. But it did not work.

“Yes. I did. But I had to. He asked me,” Sophie said.

Hayley flipped her long hair over one shoulder. “Thanks a lot for ruining my life, Sophie!” she cried, storming off to sit with her best friend, Kim.

“What was that about?” Ella asked, nibbling on her apple.

Sophie sighed and rubbed her eyes. “That was about being honest,” she said. “And don’t eat your shrunken head, Ella. That’s disgusting!”

S
ophie’s bus ride home took fifteen whole minutes. That gave her a lot of time to think about things.

Things like:

If honesty was the best policy, why had everything turned out so bad?

And why did Kate have to ignore her?

And why did Hayley have to give her dirty looks?

And why did Ella have to ask so many questions?

By the time the bus got to Sophie’s stop, she was tired of thinking … and very tired of having to answer Ella’s questions with the truth.

Questions like:

“Why is Kate sitting all the way over there?”

And “Why is she mad at you?”

And “Why did you tell everybody something Kate didn’t want you to?”

And “If Kate’s not talking to you, are you free to play after school?”

And “Yay! Should we play at my house or yours?”

But what could she do? Sophie the Honest had to tell the truth.

“I guess we should play at your house,” Sophie told Ella.

Hayley was so mad. Ella’s house would be safer, Sophie was pretty sure of that.

I
t had been a long time since Sophie had been to Ella’s house. Mostly because Sophie had made up good excuses not to go.

That didn’t keep Ella from coming over to Sophie’s house. But it
did
keep Sophie from having to play Stuffed Animal Beauty Salon in Ella’s bubble-gum pink room. Or worse, Sleeping Beauty. That had been Ella’s favorite game for months, ever since she had seen the movie.

When they reached Ella’s house, Ella opened the back door. “Mom-my!” she called. “I’m home! I have a shrunken head! And Sophie!”

“What a treat,” Ella’s mom called back. “I’ll be there in a sec!”

Ella took Sophie’s hand and dragged her into the kitchen.

A second later, Mrs. Fitzgibbon walked — no,
waddled
— into the room.

“Sophie, how nice to see you!” she said. “My, you have grown!”

Sophie stared. She could not help it. “So have you, Mrs. Fitzgibbon!” she said. It was the truth.

Ella’s mom grabbed her round middle and laughed. Ella laughed, too.

“She’s having a baby, silly!” said Ella.

Oh!

“So, are you girls hungry?” Mrs. Fitzgibbon asked.

“Yes!” Ella answered.

Sophie said yes, too. But she knew what saying yes meant. It meant vegetables for snack. That was another reason Sophie did not love visiting Ella’s house.

Sophie was glad that Ella’s mom had not asked, “How was school?” That was not an honest answer she wanted to give.

Mrs. Fitzgibbon filled a plate with green stuff, and Sophie reached for a celery stick.

“Ah-ah-ah!” Ella’s mom wagged her finger. “Have you washed your hands yet?” she asked.

Sophie almost said yes. That was what she wanted to do. But she still had to be honest, so she shook her head and said no. Then she went to the sink and washed up.

“Girls, why don’t you go play now?” Mrs. Fitzgibbon said after their snack. She held up Ella’s shrunken apple. “I’ll find a place to hang this precious little head!”

Ella grabbed Sophie by the hand. But Sophie knew how to find Ella’s room all on her own. It was the one so pink that it glowed.

Inside, Ella dove for a pile of dress-up clothes. She chose a pink dress and put it on. Then she gave Sophie a sword, a witch hat, and a magic wand.

“Let’s play Sleeping Beauty!” Ella said. “I’ll be Sleeping Beauty. And you pretend to be everyone else. Okay?”

Sophie put down the sword and the witch hat. (She kind of liked the magic wand.) Then she looked at Ella.

“No, it’s not okay. I want to play something else,” Sophie said very honestly. “And besides, I can’t pretend.”

Ella looked confused. “Why not?” she asked.

Sophie crossed her arms. “Pretending is not honest,” she said.

“Oh,” Ella said. She was quiet for a minute. “Okay.” She brightened up. “Let’s play Stuffed Animal Beauty Salon instead!”

“Sorry.” Sophie shook her head. “That’s pretending also.”

Ella’s chin started to tremble. “But there’s nothing else to do!” she cried.

A second later, she was sobbing. Stuff started to leak out of her nose.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll pretend!” Sophie told her.

Ella sniffed. She looked up at Sophie. Her eyes were dry. Her chin was still.

“Really?” she said. “Goody! I’m Sleeping Beauty. You’re the witch.”

Sophie sighed and nodded. She knew the drill. Ella pricked her finger. Then she fell to the floor.

After a minute, Sophie nudged her. Yep. Ella was really asleep. Same thing every time.

Sophie plopped down on Ella’s pink bedspread. She found a stuffed horse and hugged it tight. She tried to think about something, anything else. Like Tiptoe. Or even her homework.

But it wasn’t any use. All she could think about was Kate.

S
ophie hoped the next day would be better. But it was even worse.

Kate ignored her at the bus stop. And again on the bus to school. And in their classroom, too.

That was even after Ms. Moffly asked, “Who has something they’d like to talk about this morning?”

And after Sophie raised her hand and said the truth: “I do.”

And after Toby snickered and said, “Chatterbox! Of course you do!”

And after Sophie stuck her tongue out at him. Two times.

Then she took a deep breath. “I want to talk about how just because I am honest does not mean I am a bad person,” she said. “And how I am a good friend. Really. And how I am very, very sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings. Oh. And how I am not a chatterbox. Honest! That is all. Thank you.”

Then Mindy raised her hand and said, “How come Sophie gets to talk about herself, Ms. Moffly? The last time I wanted to talk about myself, you said no.”

And Lily said, “That’s a good question.”

And Mia said, “Because you already talked about yourself for five days in a row, Mindy.”

And Mindy said, “That’s not true!”

And Lily said, “Mindy’s right. That’s not true. It was four days. At the most.”

And Archie said, “I want to talk about
me
! I just learned how to burp the national anthem!”

And Dean said, “I want to talk about this show I saw last night. It was awesome.”

And Ms. Moffly said, “You know what, class? I think it’s time to get to work.”

But Sophie did not hear any of that. She only heard one thing. It was Kate muttering, “Whatever.”

Ouch!
It felt like something was poking Sophie’s heart. She looked down to see if it was her broach. It was not.

“Remember your rule,” she told herself. “No crying in school. No matter what.”

But the truth was it was hard not to. Sophie missed Kate so much.

She missed Kate when the class watched a movie about the metric system. Sophie and Kate usually braided each other’s hair during movies. Especially during boring ones like that. But Kate kept every centimeter of her hair to herself.

Sophie missed Kate in gym when they played Partner Is Always It.

“Find a partner!” Mr. Hurley, the gym teacher, hollered.

Sophie looked around. She wasn’t used to picking a partner. She and Kate were always a pair.

Ben was standing next to her. He was the nicest boy in her class. She turned to him and sighed.

“Want to be my partner?” she asked.

“Sure, Sophie,” he said. “But I should warn

you —”

Just then, Mr. Hurley blew his whistle and hollered, “Begin!”

Sophie started to run. “Go, go, go!” she shouted to Ben.

The object of the game was easy: Tag everyone who was not your partner. If you got tagged, you had to sit down. Only your partner could free you by tagging you again.

If both partners got tagged, there was only one way to free each other. You had to look around until you saw each other. Then you both had to give a thumbs-up.

Sophie saw Ben get tagged. But Toby tagged her before she could free him.

She sat down and waved … and waved … and waved … and waved to Ben.

Then Sophie noticed something. Ben wasn’t wearing his glasses.

Sophie sighed. He couldn’t see her, so they couldn’t give each other the thumbs-up! She watched the other kids run around. And she sat for the rest of the half hour.

Then it was time for lunch. Sophie knew she would miss Kate then. And she did.

She even missed Kate back in their classroom. And they were sitting next to each other!

“Sydney, would you please ask Sophie to pass the blue pencil?” Kate said.

They were sitting at their table, using their measurements to make maps of the classroom. This was something surveyors like George Washington did, too.

“Huh?” Sydney looked up at Kate. “Why don’t you ask her?”

“Because I’m not talking to Sophie,” Kate said simply.

“Oh.” Sydney nodded. She shared a look with Grace. “Um, Sophie, Kate says to pass the blue pencil.”

Sophie looked down at the blue pencil in her hand. She honestly couldn’t stand having Kate mad at her like this!

“Tell Kate that if she wants it so bad, she should ask me herself,” Sophie said.

Sydney sighed and turned back to Kate. “Sophie says if you want it so bad, you should ask her yourself.”

Kate rolled her eyes. Then she took a green pencil from the basket.

“Never mind. I don’t need it. Tell Sophie to keep it,” Kate said.

Sydney nodded and looked at Sophie. “Kate said never mind. You can kee —”

Sophie threw her pencil into the basket.

“I heard her!” she said.

B
y the end of the day, Sophie was sure of one thing. This had been the worst day of her whole life. All eight years!

Sophie wished she could call her mom to come and pick her up. Then at least she wouldn’t have to ride the bus home again. Sophie wasn’t sure what was worse: Kate not talking to her for the whole bus ride, or Ella talking too much.

And then there was Hayley. She was already on the bus when Sophie climbed aboard. Sophie tried to sneak by, but Hayley spotted her.

She pointed to Sophie.

“You!”
she cried.

Sophie sighed. Not again!