by Lara Bergen
Now Grace frowned a very big frown. She crossed her arms. “Why not?” she asked.
Sophie took another deep breath. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you,” she said.
Then she turned around. But Grace turned with her. Her hands were on her hips.
“I thought you were Sophie the Honest. Or are you just a chatterbox?” Grace said.
“I am not a chatterbox!” Sophie said.
She was Sophie the Honest! But then she thought about what that meant. It meant telling the truth … no matter what the consequences were.
“Okay,” Sophie said, standing up straight and tall. “The truth is, Kate can only invite two friends. And she’s inviting me and Sydney. She would have picked you, Grace. But you are too bossy sometimes. But don’t feel bad. Mia laughs too loud. And Eve gets scared at sleepovers.”
“Bossy?” Grace repeated when Sophie stopped for air.
Then Ms. Moffly flashed the lights. It was time for lunch. At last!
Some days, Sophie liked school lunch. Like pizza days — those were good. And some days, she did not. Like this day. Chili day. Blech!
“No, thank you,” she told the lunch lady when she offered Sophie a scoop of chili. “To be honest, it reminds me of mud.” Sophie took two rolls instead. And four pats of butter.
Then she turned to see Kate in line behind her. Kate did not look happy at all.
“I know,” Sophie said. “Chili. Blech!”
But Kate didn’t nod or smile. What she did do was shout, “How could you, Sophie?!”
Then she turned and stomped off.
How could she?
How could she what?
How could she take two rolls? But she had done that before.
How could she take four butters? Okay. Maybe that was too much.
Or how could she have gotten into the lunch line without Kate? Maybe that was it. Sophie should have waited. But Kate had gone to the bathroom, so Sophie thought it was okay.
She paid for her lunch, grabbed her tray, and hurried to catch up with Kate. Sophie wasn’t sure where Kate was going. She didn’t even have her lunch yet.
“I’m sorry! Honest! I’ll wait for you next time. I promise!” she said.
But Kate didn’t look any happier. In fact, she looked even more mad. “That’s not what I’m mad about,” she said.
“Then what is it?” Sophie asked.
“I’m mad because you told everyone about my horse-riding sleepover!” Kate cried. “And now they’re all mad at me!”
Oh.
Sophie felt like her feet were starting to sink into the floor.
“I’m sorry, Kate. Really, really sorry! But I didn’t tell everyone!” Sophie crossed her heart. “Honest!”
Kate gave her a look. It was a look she gave to Toby sometimes. “Don’t lie!” she said.
“I’m not lying,” said Sophie. “I only told Grace. But I had to. She made me.”
“How did she make you?” Kate asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“Well … she asked me,” Sophie said.
Kate shook her head. “And did she make you tell her I said she was bossy? And that Mia laughs too loud? And that Eve gets scared?” Kate asked. “Because that’s what they said!”
Oh, no!
Grace isn’t just bossy, thought Sophie. She’s bad at keeping secrets, too!
“I didn’t want to tell Grace all of that. I just had to,” Sophie said to Kate. “I was being honest. That’s who I am! Remember?”
Sophie smiled at Kate. She had to understand. She just had to!
But Kate did not smile back. She crossed her arms instead.
“You know what?” Kate said. “Your name shouldn’t be Sophie the Honest. And it shouldn’t be Sophie the Chatterbox, either.” She glared so hard at Sophie, Sophie had to look away. “It should be Sophie the Big Mouth, if you ask me!”
Ouch! Kate’s words hurt more than any pinch from Toby ever had.
“I’m sorry, Kate,” said Sophie, looking down at her shoes. “Don’t be mad. I’m your best friend.”
Kate shook her head slowly. “Honestly, Sophie, I don’t think you are. I just can’t trust you.”
And with that, Kate walked off to get her own rolls and butter.
Sophie looked around. One whole lunch table was staring at her. But Sophie felt so bad, she didn’t even care.
It was Sophie’s worst lunch. Ever. Worse than the one where she dropped the meatball sandwich in her lap.
For one thing, there was no one to sit with.
Not Kate, of course. She was too mad. She sat with Sydney.
And not Grace or Eve or Mia. They were too mad to sit with Sophie or Kate.
Plus Grace had told more girls about Kate’s horse-riding party. And now they were mad, too.
That left only the boys to sit with. But who wanted to sit with them?
Toby walked up to Sophie as she sat all alone. “Why aren’t you sitting with Kate, Chatterbox?” he asked.
Sophie wanted to say, “Mind your own beeswax!” But she was Sophie the Honest. She had to tell the truth … even to Toby.
She lifted her chin. “Because I don’t think we’re friends anymore,” she said.
She was glad that Toby kept on walking. She was pretty sure that if he had stayed, her “no crying in school” rule would have been broken.
Sophie picked up a roll off her tray.
It had raisins in it. Gross!
The rest of the day went by slowly. (And staying inside for recess — Sophie’s consequence from yesterday—didn’t help.)
Finally, it was three o’clock. But for Sophie, that just meant sitting by herself on the bus home.
Or even worse, sitting next to Ella.
Ella Fitzgibbon was in kindergarten. She lived next door to Sophie. She had always been a pest. But then Sophie had saved her life. She’d stopped Ella from running into the street in front of a car, and had become Ella’s hero. Since then, Ella had been worse than ever!
“Sophie!” Ella squeaked. She pointed to the empty seat next to Sophie. “Is Kate sitting here?”
Sophie looked across the bus. Kate was in a seat already. She had to be honest. “No.”
“Oh, goody!” Ella said. She plopped down.
She smelled like crayons and glue and … rotten fruit? Sophie sniffed. What was that?
“Ooh! I like your bug pin!” Ella said. “Hey! Want to see my shrunken head?”
Before Sophie could say yes or no, Ella held up something small and wrinkly. “I made it with an apple! Do you like it?” she asked.
Sophie looked at it closely. It was shrunken, yeah. But a head? Sophie didn’t think so.
She sighed and turned to the window. Suddenly, a hand was on Sophie’s shoulder. Someone was leaning over the seat.
Kate? Sophie looked up hopefully. Did Kate want to talk to her again?
No.
It was just Sophie’s big sister, Hayley.
“How could you?!” she cried.
How 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!”
Sophie’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.
It 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.
Sophie 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.
By 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.