Queen Sophie Hartley

by Stephanie Greene

  “I wasn’t worried,” said Thad, without looking up from his comic book.

  “Me, neither,” said John.

  Sophie knew he would have said anything Thad said. Ever since their workout in the garage, John had been following Thad around like a puppy.

  “Well, the rest of us were, and we’ve had enough.” This was from Mr. Hartley, who had just come home. He kicked off his shoes and dropped slowly into his armchair with a groan. “Can anyone get a drink for a tired man?”

  “Thaddeus, go and get your father a soda,” said Mrs. Hartley. She put Maura down on the rug next to Sophie and settled herself on the couch with the newspaper. Mr. Hartley turned on the television. Thad and John flopped down on the floor at his feet when they came back with his drink, and they all watched the news.

  Sophie pulled Maura into her lap to stop her from crawling all over the picture she was drawing of a queen and ruining it. She hadn’t seen Nora yet. Even before her mother warned her that it might not be a good idea to go up to her room right now, Sophie had decided to stay downstairs. As curious as she was to see what Nora looked like when she cried, she wasn’t in a rush to actually watch Nora do it. The very idea made her nervous.

  At first, she felt a bit nervous even waiting for Nora to come down, but everyone else was carrying on so normally, she finally relaxed. Maura kept trying to grab her colored pencils, so Sophie gave her one of her own and a piece of paper, too. She was drawing away happily when she suddenly heard faint footsteps in the hall, and turned to see Nora slip quietly into the room and perch on the arm of the couch. Sophie looked around to see if anyone else had noticed, but no one had. Nora didn’t look at her, but sat staring straight ahead. Then Mr. Hartley raised his arms above his head in a great stretch and moved his head around in a slow circle to work his tired neck muscles the way he always did at the end of the day, and saw her. He immediately turned off the TV.

  “Let’s hear a round of applause for Nora Hartley, Chief Chickadee!” he said in a loud voice like an announcer. When he started clapping enthusiastically, everyone else did, too. Even Maura.

  “Oh, Dad, we’re not chickadees, we’re mourning doves,” Nora protested, but she was laughing. Sophie was very relieved to see that Nora’s eyes had only the slightest bit of red around the rim. And that the red on her cheeks was from blushing. “And I’m not the chief. I just get to do more of the dancing than the other three,” said Nora.

  “You’ll be wearing a wreath of feathers and a beautiful gray-and-white costume, won’t you?” said her father.

  Sophie thought gray and white sounded dull. If it were her, she would have wanted to be a cardinal, and wear bright red. But Nora only blushed and said, “It really is beautiful.”

  “Mourning dove . . . chickadee . . . you’ll always be the chief to me,” her father said grandly. He held out his arms. “Come give me a hug and no more tears, that’s a girl.”

  Nora didn’t even seem to mind that he was treating her as if she were a little kid. She jumped up and looked happy to be enveloped in his huge hug. She hugged her mother, too, but when she turned toward Thad and John, they both cried, “Who-o-o-oa!” at the top of their lungs and scrambled away from her as fast as they could on their bottoms, which made everybody laugh.

  Next Nora looked at Sophie. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a rat,” she said quickly.

  “That’s okay,” Sophie said. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the part.”

  “You’ll never guess who did.”

  “Lauren?”

  “No. A girl named Hilary. They brought her in from another school.” Nora smiled a mean smile. “She’s younger than Lauren, too.”

  Nora wasn’t being kind, but Sophie couldn’t help feeling a rush of satisfaction on her behalf. “Serves her right,” she said.

  Nora pulled something out from behind a pillow in the corner of the couch and held it out. “This is for you,” she said.

  It was a tiara. A real tiara.

  Sophie was transfixed. “For me?” she said.

  “It was in the box of old props,” said Nora. “They used it in a production last Christmas. Mrs. Ogilvy said I could have it.”

  Still, Sophie didn’t move. She couldn’t believe it was a tiara. Or that Nora was giving it to her.

  “But why me?” she said.

  Nora shoved it at her. “For heaven’s sake, put it on,” she said with a touch of her old impatience. “You’ve wanted it long enough.”

  “How did you know?” Sophie said, taking it from Nora and staring at it wonderingly. She felt as if she were in a trance. To think that Nora was giving her a tiara; that her own sister had been able to see deep into her heart and read what was there. It was almost more amazing than the tiara itself.

  “The pictures in your drawer, you idiot,” Nora said. “How do you think?”

  Sophie blinked. “You looked in my drawer?”

  “Of course I did. You looked in mine, didn’t you?”

  “And mine,” said Thad.

  “And mine,” said John. “I put a hair across it.”

  “Oh, Sophie,” said Mrs. Hartley. “I’m not even going to ask if you looked in mine.”

  “If we kept our drawers as messy as you keep yours, we’d be in big trouble,” Sophie said indignantly.

  That made them all laugh again. Even Mrs. Hartley.

  “Go ahead, put it on, Sophie,” Mr. Hartley told her. “Let’s see how you look.”

  She felt a little self-conscious, but very pleased, as she went and stood in front of the TV so they could all see her. She stood very straight and put her shoulders back and pulled in her stomach just the tiniest bit. After all her curtsy practicing, she found she felt taller and a little more dignified like that. Then she lowered the tiara ceremoniously onto her head and looked to see in their faces how it fit.

  It must have fit perfectly, because they all applauded and smiled.

  “Princess Sophie Hartley,” her father said. “What did I tell you?”

  “Queen Sophie Hartley, please,” Sophie said, to which Mr. Hartley replied, “Excuse me, Your Highness,” and bowed.

  That meant Sophie had to curtsy, so she did. It was a slow and graceful curtsy, with just the tiniest dip of her head at the end. She knew it was one of her best.

  She would have liked it if everyone kept clapping for a while longer, but everyone else wanted to get in on the act. Nora jumped in front of her and executed a graceful demi-plié and then did several quick leaps in the air. It sounded to Sophie as if everyone applauded even louder for Nora than they had for her. Then John yelled, “Oh, yeah? Well, watch this!” and executed a series of karate kicks at the television screen while shouting, “Hi-yah! Hi-yah!” until Mrs. Hartley made him sit down. At which point, Thad stood up, crooked one leg in the air in front of him, and held his arms out to the sides so that he looked like a heron, the way he did when he was preparing for a flying kick in soccer. With the muscles in his long legs standing out and the very still way he was able to stand there, it looked very impressive.

  It was one of those times when Sophie was glad to be part of a large family, even if it meant she didn’t get to be the center of attention for very long. If her mother hadn’t finally told them all to settle down, someone would have probably ended up crying. Someone always did. It might have been Sophie, too, if it weren’t for her tiara. She reached up and felt it carefully, pushing it more firmly onto her head. She couldn’t imagine how anyone could cry when they were wearing a tiara. Unless it was from happiness, like Miss America.

  Sophie blinked a few times to see whether she could raise any happy tears, but she couldn’t. No one was watching her anymore, anyway, so what was the point? Mr. Hartley had turned the TV back on so they could watch the sports news.

  “Good heavens,” said Mrs. Hartley, looking at her watch. “I haven’t even started dinner.”

  “What’re we having?” said Thad.

  “It’s too late to make anything new,” his mother said, knit
ting her brow. “I suppose there’s always that leftover liver....”

  “Liver?” They all moaned, even Mr. Hartley. There were a lot of gagging noises and clutching of necks and stomachs from Thad and John, who rolled around on the floor for a bit. Then the phone rang, and Nora ran to get it.

  “Liver isn’t much of a celebration dinner, is it?” said Sophie, and Thad said, “It’s an even worse consolation dinner.”

  “You’re right,” said Mrs. Hartley. “Somehow, liver doesn’t fit the festive mood here tonight. Sophie, run and get the phone book, that’s a good girl. We’ll order pizza. Delivered.”

  That got the loudest applause of the entire evening. They were all yelling out orders when Nora came back into the room and said, “Sophie, it’s for you.”

  “For me?” said Sophie. It was never for her. “Who is it?”

  “Some girl,” Nora said.

  “Hurry up so we can order,” said Thad.

  Sophie got up—carefully, so her tiara wouldn’t fall off—and went into the hall. “Hello?” she said cautiously into the phone.

  “It’s Heather,” said Heather.

  “Oh.” Sophie’s heart sank. “Hi, Heather.”

  “Next week is my birthday, so my mother said I can invite a friend to go out to a restaurant and a movie and then spend the night on Friday,” Heather announced. “Then we’re going to go horseback riding the next morning because I used to take lessons in California and I haven’t been once since we moved here. I know how to jump.”

  “Great,” said Sophie. She reached up and put a firm hand on her tiara as if she could already feel the relentless up-and-down of the horse beneath her.

  “The trouble is,” Heather was saying, “I can only invite one friend. And you and Destiny are tied.”

  “That’s okay,” Sophie said quickly. “I don’t—”

  “So I’ve decided to hold a contest to see which one of you will get to go,” said Heather. “Whoever gives me the surprise I like most at school tomorrow wins.”

  “What kind of surprise?”

  “It has to be something of your own that you really like,” said Heather. “That way, it will mean more. But nothing green or pink. Just something you know I’ll like. Destiny said she knew exactly what to bring.”

  Heather proceeded to give Sophie a list of possible presents. By the time Sophie put down the phone, she was looking very thoughtful. She wasn’t about to give Heather something of her own. Heather didn’t deserve it.

  Sophie walked slowly back into the living room as Thad was saying, “You don’t know you’re talking about. Pepperoni and pineapple is awesome.”

  “Sophie doesn’t want pineapple, either,” Nora said, looking at her. “Do you, Sophie?”

  Sophie actually liked pepperoni and pineapple, but she knew she had to side with Nora. “No,” she said to Thad. Then she looked at her mother. “I want liver.”

  “You do?” said Mrs. Hartley.

  “I love liver,” said Sophie.

  Her mother came over and put her hand on Sophie’s forehead. “Are you sure you’re the real Sophie Hartley?” she said, looking into Sophie’s eyes.

  “Queen Sophie Hartley,” corrected Sophie.

  Sophie crumpled up the piece of paper with her old lists on it and shoved it under her blanket. From now on, she was only going to have one list. She was sick of having two; they kept battling each other in length. Besides, there was no point in adding “Curtsy” to the list of things she was good at when she only had to take off “Being kind.” What she was planning on doing to Heather at school tomorrow definitely wasn’t kind. But it wasn’t unkind, either. There were times when it was more important to stand up for yourself than to be kind, she had decided. And this was one of them.

  She pushed the crumpled list down to the end of her bed with her foot as far as it would go. Now that she knew how sneaky everyone in her family was, this was going to be her new hiding place. It was her job to change her bed once a week when her mother put clean sheets in her room, but since all Sophie did was put the clean sheets back in the linen closet and sleep on the old ones, no one would ever know.

  She took out a new piece of paper and wrote “Things I Want” at the top and then “Ermine cloak” underneath. She remembered that one thing wasn’t a list and chewed on the end of her pencil for a bit while she tried very hard to come up with something else.

  She didn’t have to put “Tiara” anymore. And she was feeling very satisfied about her “Dignity.” There was no point in putting “Throne,” either. It would never fit into her room. But what else did a queen need?

  Then it came to her: Commoners.

  What good was being a queen if there weren’t a lot of commoners around to curtsy to her?

  As she wrote, Sophie made a vow to herself that she would be very kind to her commoners when she got them so they wouldn’t feel so, well, common. She was about to push the new list under the blankets when she stopped. If she hid a list of things she wanted, no one would ever see it. And if no one ever saw it, she’d never get the things she wanted. It would be far better to make a few copies and leave them around the house, she decided. Then maybe someone in the family would buy them for her.

  Sophie knew exactly where to start. The bottom of her mother’s grocery list.

  Chapter Ten

  Heather was looking very pleased with herself as Sophie walked slowly up the sidewalk toward her the next morning. Heather was waiting for her at the front door of the school. Destiny was standing next to her. She looked pleased with herself, too. It made Sophie a little nervous the way they immediately put their heads together and talked the second they spotted her. But she held her head higher and kept walking.

  “Look what Destiny gave me,” Heather said triumphantly as Sophie came up to them. She stuck out her arm. “Two dangle bracelets. Now I have five.” She shook her wrist back and forth in front of Sophie’s face in case Sophie hadn’t seen them.

  Destiny was staring at Sophie with a funny expression on her face. “Is that real?” she said suspiciously.

  Heather stopped admiring her bracelets and looked at Sophie, too. “Is that my present?” she asked.

  “No.” Sophie held out a brown paper bag. “This is.”

  “It had better be good,” Heather said, snatching it rudely out of Sophie’s hands. “If it’s not,” she said threateningly as she opened it and peered inside, “that means Destiny... Eeeuuuw!” Heather tossed the bag back to Sophie and pinched her nostrils shut. “What is it?” she cried. Destiny jumped back as if the bag harbored something alive.

  “Liver,” Sophie told Heather. “I had it for dinner last night.”

  Actually, she’d had pizza. She had only put the tiniest piece of leftover liver in her mouth before getting into the car this morning, and she had put a bigger piece in the bag. Some of the liver was still stuck in her teeth. She could hardly wait to get rid of Heather and spit it out.

  “I love liver, Heather,” Sophie said, leaning forward so she could breathe in Heather’s face. “I thought you might like it, too, if you tried it. Liver is very good for you and it doesn’t have a face.”

  “That’s it! You lose three points!” Heather’s voice was furious, but it was high and funny, too, because she was still pinching her nose. “I hope you’re proud of yourself! You made it to the bottom of my list! Come on, Destiny.”

  She turned and flounced away. Destiny was right behind her.

  Sophie was spitting the last remnants of liver into the trash when Jenna and Alice came running up to her.

  “What did you do to Heather?” demanded Jenna.

  “Where’d you get the tiara?” said Alice.

  “I gave her a present,” Sophie said to Jenna. “Nora gave it to me,” she said to Alice.

  Alice and Jenna looked at each other and then at Sophie again.

  “Are you still friends with her?” asked Alice.

  “Are you going to wear that in Mrs. Hackle’s class?” said Jenna.


  “No. Yes,” answered Sophie.

  Alice and Jenna exchanged another look.

  “Mrs. Hackle will make you take it off,” Jenna said. “You know how strict she is.”

  “I’ll put it back on at lunch,” Sophie said. The bell rang, and the three girls turned and headed toward the front door.

  “Are those real diamonds?” Alice asked.

  “What do you think, Alice?” Jenna scoffed. “Sophie can’t afford real diamonds. Can you, Sophie?”

  Sophie only smiled.

  “They could be real, Jenna,” Alice said. “You don’t know everything.”

  “Do you want to spend the night at my house tomorrow?” Jenna said to Sophie. “Alice is coming.”

  Sophie stopped and looked at her. “You were mean to me,” she said severely. She turned to Alice. “You were mean to me, too.”

  At first, it made Sophie feel good to see the guilty way Jenna and Alice looked at each other and then down at the ground. But almost immediately, it made her feel terrible. She didn’t want to make them feel bad. They were her friends.

  Alice looked up at her quickly and flashed a tiny smile. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Me, too,” Jenna said grudgingly.

  “I forgive you,” said Sophie.

  “Can I try that on?” Alice asked, looking longingly at Sophie’s tiara.

  “Me, too?” said Jenna.

  “Maybe,” said Sophie. “But you’ll have to start out as commoners until you learn how to curtsy.”

  “Do you know how?” they asked together.

  “Of course.” Sophie had never felt more regal than she did when Jenna’s and Alice’s mouths dropped open in unison as they watched her.

  Only when she was standing upright again did they close.

  “Come, commoners,” she said kindly.

  Then, with shoulders back and stomach in, dignified, kind Queen Sophie Hartley sailed into school with her loyal commoners by her side and her diamond tiara sparkling in the sun, the way it was going to do all day, every day, starting now.