by Nancy N. Rue
“You don’t have to be alone,” Sophie said. “They’re not the only girls in the galaxy. You can be my friend.”
Kitty looked at her, and then darted her eyes away. “No offense,” she said. “You’re really nice, but I want to be with the popular girls. I was way popular at my last school. Now I don’t know if I’ll ever be popular again.”
“You don’t have to be popular to have fun,” Sophie said. “I have a lot of fun when I’m with—well, I have fun.”
Kitty didn’t look at her this time. “But everybody thinks you—and Fiona—are weird.” She burst into tears. “I don’t want to be weird!”
Sophie knew that at this point Fiona would be telling Kitty that she was the one who was weird. Sophie actually considered it too, but instead she said, “There are four other girls in our class besides us and the Pops—”
“They’re the soccer players. I can’t—”
“Okay. Well,” Sophie said, “if you ever decide you don’t mind being with weird people, come see me, and I’ll be your friend. But in the meantime, I can still help stop Julia and those other girls from being mean to you. It won’t make them be friends with you, but at least they’ll leave you alone.”
Kitty shook her ponytail sadly. “Nobody can stop them, because everybody thinks they’re wonderful. I told you, even the teachers wouldn’t believe me.”
“They would if they saw them being mean to you.”
“Unh-uh. They never do anything mean when teachers are watching.”
“Leave that to me,” Sophie said. “Just come out to the playground after school.”
“But that’s when they do mean stuff to me!” Kitty said. “They know the teacher on duty doesn’t get out there until way after the bell.”
“Trust me,” Sophie said. “Please. All you have to do is, when they start to do something to you, run over to where I’m playing. They’ll follow you, and I’ll do the rest. Mr. Denton will have seen what he needs to see already. I promise you.”
“I don’t know,” Kitty said. “I can’t even stand it when they start with me!”
Kitty bolted for the girls’ restroom. Sophie watched her for a minute and then trudged the hall to the language arts room. She could almost hear Dr. Peter saying, “You’ve given her an opportunity. Now it’s her choice.”
Fourteen
Scene Two didn’t go the way Sophie hoped it would either. She went up to Mr. Denton at the end of language arts and asked him if he could come out to the playground right after school.
“As soon as the bell rings, if that’s feasible,” she said.
“Actually, I’m not on duty today,” he said. He folded his arms and smiled, something he didn’t do very often. “Too bad too. You’ve got me intrigued.”
Sophie squinted her eyes. “Who ison duty today? Mrs. Utley?”
Mr. Denton shook his head. “Ms. Quelling is the victim today.”
“Oh,” Sophie said.
She could feel herself wilting as she turned away.
“Something I can help you with?”
Sophie looked at Mr. Denton in surprise. He was giving her a kind look. That was why she said, “Do you pray?”
“I’ve been known to,” he said.
“Then please pray for me today. I need it.”
“You are a fascinating child, Sophie LaCroix,” Mr. Denton said. “You have my prayers.”
Sophie felt a little better after that, especially as Scene Three of the plan unfolded. Out on the playground after lunch, she was able to dig a trench—her “redoubt.”
I think the actual ditches the soldiers dug were deeper than this, Sophie thought as she worked. But she really didn’t want anybody to break a leg. She disguised the trench with some branches and then gave a big sigh. This would have been brilliant with Fiona. There would have been so much more to it—they were such a good team.
“Were,” Sophie said to herself.
Before she could start crying, she headed back toward the school building. Near the back door, the Corn Pops were all gathered, watching Anne-Stuart French braid Julia’s hair. Fiona was nowhere to be seen. They stopped their conversation and put on identical freeze-dried smiles as Sophie started to pass.
“Hey,” Julia said.
Sophie had to look twice to realize Julia was talking to her.
“Hey,” Sophie said back. She edged toward the door.
“Are you trying to be friends with Kitty now?” Julia said.
Sophie took a deep breath. Fiona always handled this kind of stuff.
“Does it matter to you?” Sophie said. “You’re not friends with her anymore.”
“No,” Anne-Stuart said. “But—well—” She looked at the rest of the Corn Pops, and they all nodded as if they already knew what she was going to say. “I don’t mean to be talking bad about Kitty,” she went on, “but she whines all the time. She always makes everything look worse than it is because she cries so much.”
“I wonder why?” Sophie said. She knew that her pipsqueak voice didn’t make her sound sarcastic the way Fiona could.
“So,” Julia said, “are you going to be friends with Kitty now?”
“If she wants to be,” Sophie said. “I asked her to come out and play with me today after school.”
“Really?” Anne-Stuart said. “Is she coming?”
Sophie didn’t answer. She was too busy asking Jesus to forgive her if she was pulling Kitty into a trap. But this had to be part of the plan—and the Corn Pops had just made it so easy.
Julia patted her newly braided hair. “It’s nice to know she’ll have someone to playwith, since we don’t play. ” She lowered her voice as if to include Sophie in a little-known fact. “Just be careful. She really is a whiner.”
“Yeah,” Willoughby said, in her usual whine. “We hate that.”
Scene Three closed as the bell rang, and Sophie waited until the Corn Pops were inside before she fell into the line filing through the door.
I think they’ll be there, she thought. Because they don’t want Kitty to have any friends. Or me either. It gave her a chill that went all the way to her backbone.
Kitty was hanging just inside the door when Sophie got there. Her freckled face was a tangle of confusion.
“I saw you talking to them,” she whispered to Sophie.
“I was setting it up,” Sophie whispered back. “You have to just trust me.”
As Sophie continued down the hall, she heard Kitty whimper.
I wouldn’t blame her if she never trusted anybody ever again, Sophie thought.
Just as soon as the bell rang at the end of the school day, Sophie went into high gear to get ready for Scene Four.
She raced to the bathroom and got into costume. The old bedspread from the attic wasn’t one tenth as wonderful as the cloak Maggie’s mother had made for her, but Sophie decided she would just have to be a better actress to make it work—although it was going to be hard enough doing the scene all by herself.
It doesn’t have to be good, she told herself. It just has to do the job.
She looked at her somewhat ragged self in the mirror. I’m Antoinette, and I’m tattered from this long war. But I’m ready to face the British so the final battle can begin!
When she got to her spot by the fence, Sophie cleared off the branches and lay down on the ground, looking over the top of the redoubt. All she could do now was wait for Kitty and the Corn Pops—and hope Ms. Quelling had shown up for duty.
Why does it have to be her and not Mr. Denton? she thought.
And then she had to smile to herself. If this worked, who better to see it all than Ms. Quelling, who thought the Corn Pops were perfect?
A rustling sound behind her interrupted Sophie’s thoughts. Sophie rose up to see, and then she flattened herself again. The Corn Pops were arriving from the other direction.
“Are you ready, Antoinette?” she whispered to herself.
Her heart pounding, Sophie got up and began to deliver her lines down in
to the trench in a stage-loud voice.
“Don’t fret, Private! I’ve bandaged your wound! It should hold until this final battle is over!”
It was pretty convincing, Sophie knew. She definitely wanted to make the Corn Pops think she wasn’t aware they were there. But she couldn’t hear them over her own voice. That was one thing she hadn’t thought of. She knew Fiona would have.
Sophie shook her head under her mobcap and went into pantomime. Beyond her, Kitty’s voice was fragile, but loud—and upset—enough to hear.
“Just leave me alone!” she cried.
“We just want to talk to you,” B.J. said. “Come here!”
“We’re going to give you one more chance.” It was Anne-Stuart this time.
“No!” Kitty said. “You’ll just play a trick on me!”
Their voices were getting closer. Sophie’s heart pounded harder, but she just pantomimed in bigger gestures. It wasn’t time to make her move yet.
Julia’s voice rose over Kitty’s, silky and smooth. “We don’t play tricks. Sometimes we joke around—private jokes. You’re just too sensitive.”
“I just don’t know when you’re joking. It seems mean to me.”
Uh-oh, Sophie thought. It sounded like Kitty might be giving in.
“We’re not joking right now,” Julia said. Her voice was like pancake syrup.
“In fact,” Anne-Stuart said, “we’re all going to swear a friendship oath and we want you to do it too.”
By now it was obvious that they had stopped moving. Don’t listen to them, Kitty! Sophie wanted to call to her. She bit down on her lip and pretended to watch anxiously for Lafayette over the horizon. She was careful not to look straight at the group.
“Why do you need an oath?” Kitty said.
“Well,” Julia said. “Some people have been telling our group’s secrets.”
Sophie recognized Anne-Stuart’s sniffle. “You know, like about our private jokes.”
“We don’t know who it is,” Julia went on, “so we’re allgoing to swear an oath.”
“We’re not going to cut ourselves or anything,” B.J. said.
“Gro-oss!” Sophie was sure that was Willoughby.
“Then what, Julia?” Kitty said.
“We are all going to cut our hair reallyshort.”
“No, you’re not!”
“Yes, we are,” said Anne-Stuart. “We’ll all help each other do it.”
“I don’t think I want to do that. I look awful with short hair!”
“Kitty!” Julia’s voice almost sounded genuinely hurt. “Do you think I would make you look ugly? We’re all still going to be cute.”
“You’ll be adorable,” Anne-Stuart said. “And everybody else will start wearing theirs the same way.”
Sophie heard the snap snapping of something metal.
“I’ve got the scissors,” B.J. said. “They’re exactly the kind stylists use.”
“If you don’t trust me, Kitty—” Julia sounded as if she were purring, “I guess I’ll understand. You can do your own then. I’ll hold your ponytail for you, and you can just—”
“No!”
Sophie went down on one knee. Kitty was coming closer again, and fast, and Sophie didn’t want to mess things up now.
“If you can’t take the oath with the rest of us,” Julia said, “then maybe you’re the one who told our secrets to somebody.”
Her voice was coming closer too, but Sophie kept on acting and didn’t look.
“Nooo!” Kitty said, closer still.
“Then what’s the problem?” Anne-Stuart said. She was obviously right on Kitty’s heels.
“Here, you want the scissors?” B.J. said.
There was an awful pause.
“Give them to me then,” Julia said.
“Nooo!”
That’s it, Sophie thought.
And then it was no longer just a plan. It was real, and it was happening.
Sophie sprang up, sweeping her bedspread cloak out to her sides, and shrieked “Kitty! Over here!”
Kitty ran the few steps it took to get to her, and Sophie folded her into the cloak and pushed the whole bundle behind her.
The Corn Pops were running too fast to stop. All four of them stumbled over the redoubt. Julia sprawled headlong, scissors flying from her hand.
Sophie scooped them up and held them over her head.
“Forfeit your recognizance, Redcoats!” she shouted. “We have got you handsomely in a pudding bag!”
B.J. still managed to say, “What?”
“You’ve been evil to Kitty for the last time,” Sophie told them. She could feel Kitty shivering against her back, still cocooned inside the bedspread. “I know your secret. Your power is lost. The war is over!”
“What’s going on over here?”
Sophie had never been so glad to see a teacher, even if it was Ms. Quelling.
“She’s trying to attack us with scissors!” Julia cried. She pointed up at Sophie, who was still holding them up out of reach.
“Don’t even try it, Julia,” Sophie said. Her voice sounded like somebody else’s, coming out of her own mouth. “She saw you go after Kitty with them.”
“I didn’t see anything except these girls all huddled together like they always are,” Ms. Quelling said.
“You didn’t see them threatening to cut off all of Kitty’s hair?” Sophie said.
“No—where is Kitty?”
Sophie slowly stepped aside, her heart diving for the pit of her stomach. Kitty clung to her like a baby koala.
“I was trying to protect her,” Sophie said.
“From whom?”
“From them!” Sophie pointed with the scissors at the Corn Pops.
“Let me have those before somebody puts an eye out,” Ms.
Quelling said.
Sophie handed them over and then put both arms around Kitty so she herself wouldn’t shake.
“Thank you, Ms. Quelling,” Anne-Stuart said breathlessly. She reached down to help Julia up and deposited her into B.J.’s waiting arms. “We were so scared.”
“We were just playing around,” Julia said, “and all of a sudden, Sophia was all grabbing at Kitty and waving those scissors around, saying she was going to cut our hair off.”
Ms. Quelling looked at Sophie. “Is that true?” she said.
The only thing that kept Sophie from retreating back to Antoinette-land was the fact that Ms. Quelling actually looked surprised.
“No, it isn’t true,” Sophie said.
“Yes, it is,” Julia said.
Kitty whimpered.
“Don’t worry,” Sophie said to her.
“You promised me,” Kitty said. And then she really started to cry.
“You know we wouldn’t hurt anybody, Ms. Quelling,” Julia said. “You’ve known us since we were in kindergarten.” She looked at Sophie and then at Kitty. “I don’t mean to be rude, but both of them just moved here in the last six months. We don’t know anything about them.”
“Don’t start talking like a York County aristocrat,” Ms. Quelling said. “I don’t think I can stomach it. At any rate, that doesn’t prove a thing.” She looked at everybody. “I can smell the fear in Kitty. She’s so frightened of somebody that she’s probably terrified to tell me which of you it is.”
Sophie stole a glance at the Corn Pops. They were all openmouthed, as if they couldn’t believe Ms. Quelling wasn’t hauling Sophie off to the office that very second.
“You know what really gets me?” Ms. Quelling said instead. “What really gets me is that any one of you would resort to behave this way toward people who are supposed to be your friends. You are intimidating AND manipulating. Teachers are always complaining about the boys who bully—but at least we can see what they’re doing. Your business is secretive, and it’s nasty—and it’s deplorable. Do you know what that means, girls?”
Sophie was pretty sure she knew. It was heinous.
“I wish I did have proof,” Ms
. Quelling said, “because I suppose that’s the only way we can put a stop to this—by making an example of someone.”
“I have proof,” said a voice.
It was a voice Sophie would have known even if she hadn’t seen the wonderful gray eyes and the hair hanging over one eye. Fiona dropped neatly over the fence and walked past Sophie and Kitty, straight to Ms. Quelling. She was holding something behind her back.
“You were hiding and spying on us?” B.J. said. “That’s not fair!”
“Yes, I was spying,” Fiona said. “And how is that any more not fair than you trying to get Kitty to cut her hair just so you could humiliate her again?” Fiona looked at Ms. Quelling. “That’s what happened. I saw the whole thing.”
“You can’t believe her,” Anne-Stuart said. She was whining worse than Willoughby. “She’s Sophie’s best friend.”
“Yeah, and you can’t trust her,” B.J. said. “She hung out with us all day all pretending to want to be our friend—and now we find out it was just so she could listen to our plans.”
“Shut up !” Julia and Anne-Stuart shouted at her.
Ms. Quelling put both hands up and turned to Fiona. “Can you assure me that you are telling the truth?”
“I can do better than that,” Fiona said. “I can prove it to you.”
From behind her back, she pulled what Sophie now saw was a video camera.
“I’ve got it all right here,” Fiona said. “Want to watch it?”
It really was over after that. By the time they had all watched the mini-screen in the principal’s office, the Corn Pops were all bawling their eyes out. Principal Olinghouse dismissed Kitty, Sophie, and Fiona.
Out in the hallway, Kitty stood alone like a red-eyed baby bird.
“So—do I get to be a Corn Flake?” she said. “I don’t care if it does mean I have to be weird.”
Sophie gave her an Antoinette smile. “You can be anything you want when you’re a Corn Flake. That’s the beauty of it.”
“Do I have to swear an oath or anything?”
“No,” Sophie said. “You just have to let your imagination run free. You can imagine anything.”