Sophie Under Pressure (9 page)

Sophie tried to remain calm, although she had to clutch the door handle to do it.

“No,” she said. “Dr. Peter helped me with that today.”

Daddy was quiet for a few blocks. Sophie chewed her hair and swung her legs against the seat. Her feet didn't touch the floor in Daddy's truck as it was, and she was feeling smaller by the minute.

“It isn't just about your grades, Soph,” Daddy said. “I told you I didn't want you upsetting your mother.”

“Does she know about this?” Sophie said.

“No. Ms. Quelling called me at work.”

“She interrupted you trying to save the planet to tell you that?”

Sophie thought she saw the corners of Daddy's mouth twitch.

“Yeah,” he said. “And I think she enjoyed it.” He shot Sophie a Daddy-look. “But that doesn't mean you didn't mess up.”

“Am I going to get a punishment?” she said.

“Definitely.”

Sophie felt her heart take a dive. It probably wasn't going to be as bad as banishment from the planet, but still.

“Tonight, after you finish your homework,” Daddy said, “you have to bring a glass of milk and exactly twelve cookies to my study and stay there until they're all gone.”

“I can endure that.”

“Is that a Fiona word?” Daddy said.

“Yes, sir,” Sophie said.

She waited until she got up to her room after supper to really sigh, so Daddy wouldn't think that she thought she was getting off easy. The feeling didn't last long though. Fiona called, puffing like a bull on the other end of the line.

“Huntsville, we have a problem,” she said.

“What is it, Jupiter?” Sophie said.

“I just went up to
Freedom 4
to get my backpack I left up there after we were working today — and the robot arm was totally torn off.”

Sophie gasped. “Did the wind do it?”

“There was no wind today.”

“Didn't we attach it right?”

“It didn't happen by itself,” Fiona said. “Boppa went up there and looked at it. He said somebody tore it off!”

Sophie's tongue went stiff. “Who would do that? Oh — it was Rory and Isabella, huh?”

“No — they were at the library with Kateesha all afternoon.

Besides, I know who did this, and so do you.”

“I do?”

“It was so Maggie. She brought costumes today, by the way — ”

“Are they amazing?”

“They look just like the pictures,” Fiona said. “But that isn't the point.”

Sophie could almost see Fiona's eyes going into Corn Pop slits.

“She was even pretty decent when she and Kitty were up in the space station with me,” Fiona said, “but that was just an act. She's still mad because we didn't do it her way.”

Sophie was shaking her head as if Fiona could see her through the phone. “It doesn't make sense. If she messed it up, it would ruin her grade too.”

“That's just it. She thinks she's going to tell us how to fix it and she'll get her way because our way didn't work, and when we get a good grade she'll say it was all because of her. We could even get taken out of GATE for not doing more work than her.” Fiona gave a hard little laugh. “But I have news for her. Boppa already fixed it. He said it was something we couldn't do and he'll explain it to Mrs. Utley. I'm sure glad Ms. Quelling isn't our science teacher.” Fiona finally took a breath. “So what are you going to do now?”

“Me?”

“You're the captain. You need to have a plan or Maggie is going to keep doing things until she ruins it for all of us. I think you should call a meeting of just you, me, and Luna, and tell us what you want us to do.”

Sophie mumbled something and hung up and closed her eyes. Jesus showed up right away, looking at her with kind eyes.

“Is this your job or mine?” she whispered to him.

He didn't answer of course, but it did make her think of the Bible story Dr. Peter had told her to read. That was supposed to be about the Mama Mission, but she needed some help with this mission or it was going to fall completely apart.

Sophie pulled her Bible out and propped up against her pile of plump pillows. She noted that she and Dr. Peter were both into big cushions. Another reason she liked him so much.

It wasn't hard to find John 6, verses 1 through 13. Since before Christmas, Dr. Peter had her read a Bible story almost every time she saw him and she was getting good at finding her way around.

Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee
, she read,
and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.

Sophie could already imagine herself as one of them. Any minute now he would perform a miraculous sign for her and fix this whole space-station dilemma. She got a picture in her head of herself in a little purple robe and a rope belt and sandals.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him
,
he said to Philip
,
“Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him
,
for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Sophie was glad she hadn't imagined herself as Philip. She didn't know the answer to that question.

Philip answered him
,
“Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Another of his disciples
,
Andrew
,
Simon Peter's brother
,
spoke up. “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish
,
but how far will they go among so many?”

Sophie thought that must be the little kid Dr. Peter had mentioned. She decided it was okay if she made the boy a girl. Quickly she created a picture in her mind of her sandal-footed self, holding up a couple of fish and five very small loaves of bread. She wasn't sure what barley was, but she mentally sprinkled some seeds on top of the loaves and let it go at that. The important thing was the feeling she was already getting in her chest, like her heart was so afraid Jesus wouldn't like what she had to offer. But after all, she was the only one in the whole crowd who had bothered to bring a lunch.

Jesus said
,
“Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place
,
and the men sat down
,
about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves
,
gave thanks
,
and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

Sophie breathed a huge sigh. He liked the lunch, or he wouldn't be giving thanks for it. She took a few seconds to imagine Jesus holding the little rolls up toward heaven and saying, “God is great, God is good. Now we thank you for this food.” The smell of them wafted down to her nose. She was starting to get hungry.

It was one of those all-you-can-eat things, Sophie thought. All Daddy could eat was enough for about three people. If there were five thousand like him, that was a lot of food. Sophie closed her eyes and saw it all, steaming loaves being passed to the ones in the back who thought they wouldn't get even a crumb. Herself running up and down the rows, grass tickling her stuck-out toes as she handed out basket after basket of fish until everyone was groaning because they'd completely pigged out.

Opening her eyes, she continued.
When they had all had enough to eat
,
he said to his disciples
,
“Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them —
with Sophie helping —
and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

Sophie closed the Bible on her lap, but she kept her eyes open. The story was as clear as if it had happened right down at Buckroe Beach, but she knew her forehead was wrinkled into about five thousand folds.

What's that got to do with Mama — or the
Freedom 4
— or any other problem I have?
she thought.
I don't get it.

She wished Dr. Peter were there so he could explain it to her. With Fiona and Kitty expecting a plan tomorrow morning, she didn't have time to wait two weeks for her next appointment. She ran her finger down the wrinkles in her forehead as she tried to imagine his voice, coaching her. All that came were the words he'd already said to her that afternoon.

Pay attention to what the little kid does and what Jesus does with that.

Sophie went back to her imagination. The little kid was her. What had she done?

“I gave up my lunch,” she said out loud. “It wasn't that much, but it was all Mama had packed for me. That must have been the Bible-days version of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

She dived back in. What had Jesus done with it?

Du-uh
, she thought.
He fed
,
like
,
a bazillion people. He put his hands up with the bread and the fish in them and he gave thanks. And whammo — it was enough for a feast.

Sophie gnawed at her hair. Was she supposed to take lunch for the Corn Flakes tomorrow? No, that couldn't be it. What else had Dr. Peter said about God?

What do you say we let him do his job and you do yours?

“Okay, so I bring one sandwich and he makes it enough for the whole cafeteria. No — la-ame.”

Sophie devoured several split ends before she gave up and went downstairs to take the twelve cookies and one glass of milk to Daddy. She was tempted to ask him what he would do, but she decided that wasn't the best move. She wasn't supposed to try to fix Mama, but she didn't want to make her worse. If Mama found out there was trouble among the Corn Flakes and they might fail their science project if they didn't make it better, she would definitely be upset.

On the way down the steps, Sophie switched back to Jesus.
I guess I'm back to “you show me my job and I'll do it
,
and I'll let you do yours.”

And could you please hurry up?

The next morning Sophie got a ride with Daddy instead of taking the bus so she could get to school way early. The sun wasn't shining except for a blur in the gray clouds, struggling to seep through, and there was frost on everything. Sophie found Kitty and Fiona backstage in the cafeteria, where they always met in bad weather, sitting in the middle of some old set pieces that they had pulled together to make a closed-off place.

Kitty jumped like somebody had popped a balloon when Sophie said, “Hi!” and she banged her head on a wooden tree. Fiona put her finger up to her lips.

“We're trying to keep a low profile,” she whispered.

“We're also being very quiet,” Kitty said.

Sophie nodded solemnly and slipped in between them. She wasn't even worried about floor dust getting on her khakis. This was serious stuff, and so far Jesus hadn't given her so much as a hint of a plan.

“So what are we going to do?” Fiona said, voice low.

“We don't even know if it was really Maggie who broke the robot arm,” Sophie said.

“I know,” Fiona said.

“Can we prove it?”

Fiona's dark eyebrows squeezed together over her nose. “You mean, like, fingerprints or something?”

“We have to be scientific about it,” Sophie said. “Besides, if we accuse her and it turns out she didn't do it, we could get into big trouble.”

Fiona folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. “I still say it's Maggie. It has her name all over it. And how are we going to protect our project with her still involved in it?”

Sophie nibbled at the ends of her braids.

“The only way is to get rid of her,” Fiona said.

“Like throw her over the side of the tree house?” Kitty said. Her eyes were bulging like a terrified bullfrog's.

“Hello! No!” Fiona put her hand over her mouth and looked toward the opening in the curtain.

“What?” Sophie said.

“I just don't want Maggie to hear us. You know she'll be looking for us any minute.” She leaned in, and so did Kitty and Sophie. “I mean, we have to prove she did it and then Mrs. Utley will take her off the project.”

Sophie knew what to say now. “It's not our job to prove Maggie did it. Our job is to show how microgravity is different.”

“And how are we going to make sure it doesn't get sabotaged?” Fiona said.

“Does that mean ‘torn up'?” Kitty said.

Fiona had barely nodded when Sophie heard a voice thudding from the direction of the cafeteria door.

“Sophie? Fiona? You guys in here?”

“So what's the plan?” Fiona whispered.

“I'll get back to you,” Sophie squeaked back.

“But we can't talk about it with her around,” Fiona said.

“We could pass notes,” Kitty said. “We used to do it all the time when I was a Corn Pop.”

“I would get caught,” Sophie said. “I can't do anything without getting caught. It's a curse.”

“You guys?” Maggie's voice was getting louder and closer. According to Sophie's calculations, she would be on the stage in five seconds.

“I'll take that job,” Fiona whispered. “If you get any ideas, just write them down and stick them in my pocket between classes. Then I'll put together a list.”

Four, three, two, one —

“In here, Nimbus!” Sophie called out.

Maggie stuck her head through the opening in the curtain. Sophie hoped they didn't all look as guilty as she felt.

Nine