Sophie Under Pressure

by Nancy N. Rue

  Boppa was doing a lot to help them, but they were being very careful to do most of the work themselves with Boppa just overseeing. Mrs. Utley said nobody was allowed to have their parents do their science projects for them.

  “These are going to go on display in the science fair for the PTO meeting next month,” she told the class. Her chins were really wiggling, so Sophie knew she meant business. “But if any group turns in a project that was obviously done by an adult, it will not be shown. Period.”

  Sophie heard the Corn Pops whispering to one another like startled bees. As for the Fruit Loops — they were all leaning back in their chairs with their arms folded over their chests. They think they could get away with having a brain surgeon do their whole project, Sophie thought. She wondered how many poor frogs they had tortured already.

  “How are we going to get all this into the cafeteria to put on display?” Maggie said that afternoon when they were up in the space station.

  Sophie looked around at all they’d done so far — the “robot arm” they’d made from an umbrella handle and attached to the basket crank so they could move it up and down; the sets of old headphones from Kitty’s dad on hooks for the astronauts; the big flat wings that hung above them that Boppa had helped them make from sheets of metal off a torn-down shed. Captain Stella had to admit that Nimbus had a point.

  “Simple,” Fiona said. “We’ll get Mrs. Utley to set up a DVD player and a TV to show our film, and we’ll find some really cool way to display our results. You know, a graph or something. That’s your job, Nimbus.”

  Maggie frowned. “But I need information about that micro-gravity thing where everything floats around up in space, so I’ll know how this is different. That’s your job, Jupiter.” Maggie’s voice then gave its final thud: “Are you two doing any work at all?”

  She pointed a stern finger at Kitty and Fiona. Kitty shrank back like she’d been hit with a large stick. Fiona’s nostrils flared.

  Uh-oh, Sophie thought. Here it comes.

  “And what about you?” Fiona said. “I don’t see any costumes yet. Hello!”

  It wasn’t the first time Fiona had gotten furious with Maggie since they’d started working on the space station. And Sophie really couldn’t blame her. Maggie was getting bossier by the second, and even though sometimes she was right, Kitty whined to Sophie privately that she didn’t have to be so mean about it.

  “I got enough of that when I was a Corn Pop,” she told Sophie. “I thought being a Corn Flake meant you were nice to people.”

  When Maggie wasn’t around, Fiona was all for voting her off the crew, but Sophie said no. For one thing, how was Maggie supposed to get a science project done if they kicked her out of the group? Mrs. Utley’s chins would wiggle right off her face.

  “Besides,” Sophie told Fiona the next morning at school before Maggie got there, “we’re Corn Flakes. We’re supposed to help people.”

  “We’re supposed to keep them from being bullied,” Fiona said. “I feel like Nimbus is bullying us.”

  Sophie had noticed that Fiona always referred to Maggie as Nimbus now. She seemed to like the way she could curl her upper lip when she said it. Maggie definitely wasn’t bringing out the best in Fiona.

  “I’ll talk to her,” Sophie said. “That’s my job as captain.”

  “Good,” Fiona said. “Here she comes. You can start right now.”

  Fiona tested a swing and then sat down on it, arms folded. Sophie moved away from her a little and stopped Maggie before she could get too close.

  “Hi, Mags,” Sophie said.

  “You should make up your mind what you want to call me,” Maggie said. “Sometimes I’m Nimbus. Sometimes I’m Maggie. Now I’m Mags.”

  “Giving somebody nicknames means you like them,” Sophie said.

  “Oh,” Maggie said. “My mother just calls me Margarita.”

  Sophie felt her eyes getting big. “Your real name is Margarita?”

  “Yes, like the drink. And don’t tell anybody at this school, or I’ll be laughed at every minute.”

  Sophie made an X mark on her chest with her hand. “I would never do that. No Corn Flake would ever do that.”

  “You guys are always nice,” Maggie said.

  “You’re a Corn Flake too, remember.” Sophie sucked in some air. “And, Mags, sometimes you aren’t all that nice to certain people in the group.”

  Maggie’s eyes darted in Fiona’s direction. “Did SHE tell you that?”

  “She didn’t have to,” Sophie said. “I can see it for myself.”

  “She isn’t the nicest person in the whole world either.” Maggie’s words were now firing out like bullets.

  “What does THAT mean?” Fiona said. The swing was now swaying crazily where she’d lurched out of it.

  “It means you’ve been talking trash about me to Sophie,” Maggie said.

  Fiona stopped just inches from Maggie’s face. Sophie tried to wedge her way between them.

  “I never said anything to Sophie that wasn’t true,” Fiona said.

  Fiona’s nostrils were flaring so wide, Sophie figured Mama could drive their old Suburban through one of them.

  “Why didn’t you just say it to me?” Maggie said.

  “Okay,” Fiona said. “I’ll say it straight to your face!”

  “Say it, then,” Maggie said.

  “Okay.” Fiona narrowed her eyes at Maggie. “I think you are the bossiest person on the face of the earth. You act like you’re the president of the United States or somebody! Always telling Kitty and me what to do — ”

  “Do not,” Maggie said.

  “Do too,” Fiona said.

  “Do NOT!”

  “Do TOO!”

  “STOP!” Sophie cried.

  “No — let ’em go for it!”

  That came from Colton Messik, who was suddenly standing three feet from them with the other two Fruit Loops.

  “Fight!” Eddie shouted, face red. “Fight!”

  Maggie turned on them like she was going to throw a punch. Sophie jumped on her back. Fiona got in front of them both and put up her hands.

  “There isn’t gonna be a fight, morons!” she said. “Go crawl back under your rock.”

  “She’s dissin’ you, man,” Colton said to Tod. “You gonna let her get away with that?”

  “She won’t get away with it,” Tod said. He turned like a basketball player doing a pivot, snapped his fingers in the air, and sauntered off toward the building with Colton and Eddie trailing him.

  Colton walked backward and called to the Corn Flakes, “You heard him. He isn’t kidding.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Fiona shouted back to him.

  “Imbeciles,” Maggie said.

  “Definitely,” Fiona said.

  Sophie let all the air go out of her. At least they agreed on something. And for the moment, they seemed to have forgotten what it was they’d been about to fight about.

  “So is it true you guys tried to kill each other in the hall this morning?” Harley said at the lunch table.

  “Right in front of the office?” Gill said.

  Nikki and Vette looked like they were totally convinced that it was the gospel truth and were prepared to take flight at the first sign of face scratching and hair pulling.

  “It was out on the playground,” Maggie said.

  “Then you DID get in a fight?” Harley said.

  “No, we almost did,” Fiona said. She glared at Maggie.

  Sophie groaned inside. So much for them forgetting why they were mad at each other.

  Kitty smothered a gasp with her hand.

  “What?” Fiona said. “Why are you freaking out?”

  Kitty pointed toward the Corn Pops’ table.

  The Fruit Loops were sitting with them, talking and waving their arms all around like they were running for office.

  No boys ever sat with girls. But the Fruit Loops looked like they were right at home.

  Why not? Sophie thought. They�
�re all rich and popular and mean.

  Still, with the seven of them teaming up, it couldn’t be good.

  It couldn’t be good at all.

  That night after Zeke was tucked in, Mama went out to her Loom Room over the garage. When Sophie went downstairs to check out the flight food in the space kitchen, Daddy was in front of his computer again. Sophie wondered what could possibly be so interesting on there for hours on end.

  When she came out of the kitchen with a neat stack of Mama’s double-fudge brownies and a glass of milk, Daddy called from his study, “Hey, Soph. What are you up to?”

  “Just having a little snack,” Sophie said. She headed for the stairs.

  “Come in here a minute.”

  Sophie turned reluctantly toward the study. Maybe she shouldn’t have helped herself to quite so many brownies.

  Daddy took one look at her plate and said, “A little snack?

  Were you planning to share that with Lacie?”

  “No,” Sophie said.

  Daddy grinned. “I love that honesty. Lacie wouldn’t eat those anyway. She’s now decided that boys don’t like her because she’s fat.”

  “She’s not fat.”

  “I know that, and you know that, but you can’t convince her of that.” Daddy nodded toward the recliner next to his desk. “Let’s have at those brownies.”

  Sophie climbed into the big chair and tucked her feet up under her. She put the milk on Daddy’s desk so they could both dunk.

  “How’s that science project coming along?” Daddy said. “You need any more info?”

  Daddy had been as good as Boppa about helping the astronauts, only instead of showing them how to make things, he taught Maggie how to set up a system for keeping track of their data — that’s what he called their results — on the computer. He even gave Kitty an official NASA clipboard so she’d feel more scientific when she was following Fiona around the space station, writing down what Fiona told her to.

  “I do have a question for you,” Sophie said.

  Daddy churned a brownie around in the milk and said, “Shoot.”

  “Do you ever have people on your crew disagreeing with each other?”

  “Are you kidding? That’s how we get to the truth of things, by debating. That’s the way scientists work.”

  Sophie nodded in her most scientific way. “Are they ever mean to each other?”

  “Some people might say that. Tempers can get pretty hot.”

  “What do you do then?”

  Daddy chewed thoughtfully on another mouthful. So far he’d eaten three brownies to Sophie’s one. They were going to need a milk refill soon.

  “I tell people to go cool off,” he said finally. “Then I get them back together and we look at the ideas again.” Daddy grinned. “Sometimes I take a batch of your mother’s cookies in with me. That almost never fails.”

  “Do you ever take a vote?” Sophie said.

  “We vote on things like where to have lunch. Most of our decisions are made scientifically though. It’s whatever is best for the project we’re working on. You want some more milk?”

  Sophie nodded, and Daddy headed for the kitchen. He was whistling.

  That was a scathingly brilliant conversation, Sophie thought.

  “I put a little chocolate syrup in it,” Daddy said as he set the glass down between them again.

  Sophie was glad he hadn’t brought two different glasses. Sharing was — well, it wasn’t scientific, but it felt good.

  “So what else you got on your mind?” he said.

  “Well.” Sophie formed her words carefully as she watched Daddy consume another brownie. He’d also brought another stack of those from the kitchen.

  “Deep subject,” Daddy said.

  “I just would like to know — if — everything is okay with you and Mama.”

  Daddy stopped with a brownie soaking in the milk. He held it in there so long Sophie was surprised it didn’t fall apart.

  “You don’t need to worry about that, Soph,” he said.

  “Then everything IS okay.”

  “It isn’t perfect. But it’s going to be okay, and you don’t need to worry about it.”

  But from the look on Daddy’s face, Sophie was more convinced than ever that she did need to worry about it. His cheeks looked like they were pinching toward his ears as he set the brownie on the plate, where it wilted in a puddle of milk.

  “Soph,” he said, “Mama is upset. But if you keep doing what you’re doing, staying in the GATE program and making those good grades and not getting in trouble, she’ll feel better. Deal?”

  “Deal,” Sophie said. But she didn’t feel like eating any more brownies. “I think I should go to bed now,” she told Daddy.

  “Mama will come kiss you good-night when she comes in.”

  Sophie hurried to her room and curled into her pillows and squeezed her eyes shut and wished she’d never asked Daddy that question. Because whatever wasn’t “perfect” between Mama and him was because of her.

  Captain Stella Stratos buried her face in her hands, but only for a moment. This was tragic, yes, but she had a space station to run, and a world to save. She had to sacrifice worrying about her personal problems for the good of the planet.

  When that didn’t do much to uncurl Sophie from her pillows, she closed her eyes again and imagined Jesus. She saw his kind eyes that understood stuff she didn’t even get. His soft smile that was like Boppa’s only even more pure. And his broad chest, like Daddy’s, where the answers were hidden, was just a prayer away.

  “Jesus, please,” Sophie whispered. “I need to know how to keep Mama and Daddy from getting a divorce because I’m their problem child. And I have to keep the Corn Flakes from splitting up because of Maggie and Fiona — and ruining our whole science project and getting me kicked out of GATE. If I wait really patiently and listen for you to answer, will you tell me what to do to change everybody’s mind? I figure you’ll help me, because you always do.”

  Then she started to cry, straight into the pillows. When she heard Mama coming up the stairs, she pretended to be asleep. Seeing Sophie bawling would only upset her some more. She didn’t want to imagine what would happen then.

  Six

  Astronaut Stella Stratos orbited through Sophie’s thoughts almost all the next day at school. Fiona had to give her the cough signal twice in Ms. Quelling’s social studies class — not a good place to be caught staring into the atmosphere and grabbing onto her chair so microgravity wouldn’t send her floating up to the ceiling.

  But at least by the time the astronauts gathered in the space station that afternoon, Stella — and Sophie — had a plan.

  She announced that they were having a crew meeting.

  “Why?” Maggie said.

  “Because she’s the captain, Nimbus,” Fiona said. “She can call a crew meeting any time she wants to.”

  “You ready for a snack, space travelers?” said a voice from below.

  Sophie leaned over the railing to see Kateesha on the ground, hooking a plastic bag over the crook in the robot-arm cane.

  “Beam it up,” Sophie called down.

  “Roger, Freedom 4,” Kateesha said.

  Kitty giggled. “That’s so cool.”

  “Thank you, Huntsville,” Sophie said.

  “Why did you call her ‘Huntsville’?” Maggie said. “Her name’s Kateesha.”

  “Our home base is in Huntsville,” Sophie told her. “That’s who we communicate with while we’re in outer space.”

  They helped themselves to cookies shaped like moons and stars and rockets. Kitty giggled every time she popped one into her mouth.

  “Do they eat these in space?” Maggie said.

  “They do now,” Fiona said.

  “If I could have your attention,” Captain Stella said. “Now that our space station is almost completed, we must come to a decision about comparing gravity to microgravity. I would like for each one of you to present your reasons why you want it
done one way or the other and then we will vote on which idea sounds the best.

  “We’ll start with you, Nimbus. Please tell us your idea — ”

  The words instantly began to thud from Astronaut Nimbus’s mouth. “I think we need something besides just building the space station to compare. The only difference is that things don’t stay put in microgravity and they do here.” She furrowed her forehead. “That means there’s nothing for me to write down. I say we add some plants and see how they grow here and how they grow in space. I’ll do that. I know about gardening. My mom and I — ”

  “It sounds like it’s all about you,” Astronaut Jupiter said.

  “I can’t help it if I came up with the best idea.”

  “What about yours, Luna?” Sophie said.

  There was silence.

  “Kitty,” Sophie whispered.

  “Oh — yeah — I’m Luna, huh?” Kitty giggled. “I’m Fiona’s assistant, so I’m going to vote for whatever she says.”

  “Not fair,” Maggie said.

  “It is too fair,” Fiona said. “She’s taking her job very seriously.”

  “So what is your idea?” Captain Stella said to Jupiter.

  Fiona pushed the hair out of her face. “If we try to grow plants out here, they’ll freeze at night. I say we just stick with the space station.”

  “But then I don’t get to be the record keeper,” Maggie said. “It’s not fair.”

  “It isn’t about what’s fair,” Sophie said. “It’s about what’s best for the project.”

  “Then let’s vote,” Fiona said.

  “All for Maggie’s idea, raise your hand,” Sophie said.

  Maggie’s arm went straight up in the air.

  “All for Fiona’s idea?”

  Kitty and Fiona raised their hands, and Kitty grabbed Fiona’s, the way Sophie had seen people running for president do with their wives on TV.