Sophie the Awesome (5 page)

T
he next thing Sophie knew, school was over. And she was glad. It had been a long day! She didn’t know what had stopped Toby from making fun of her name in class, but it worried her. He could still change his mind and ruin everything. Any minute!

And if he didn’t? What then? Did Sophie really have to thank him?

Ugh! That might be worse.

Sophie grabbed her backpack. She just wanted to get on the bus as soon as possible. Then she could start making plans with Kate for the
next day—the day when she’d finally prove her awesomeness!

On the bus, Sophie pulled Kate to their favorite seat in the back row. Then she scrunched down, hoping that Ella wouldn’t see her.

Ella Fitzgibbon was in kindergarten. She lived next door to Sophie … and she never left Sophie alone.

“
SOOOO
-PHIE!”

Her squeaky voice was getting closer.

“There you are!” Ella plopped down in the seat across from Kate and Sophie. Then she scrunched down, just like them. “Who are we hiding from?” she asked.

“No one.” Sophie sighed. But Kate giggled. For some reason, she seemed to think Ella was cute. Sophie wondered if Kate would feel the same if Ella stuck to
her
like glue.

“Hey, what’s in the box?” Kate asked.

Ella held up a boot-sized shoe box with crayon writing on it. Sophie read the scribbly letters. They spelled:
ELLAS SLINKYS.
Huh?

“It’s my Slinky collection!” said Ella as the bus pulled away from the school. “I brought it in for show-and-tell. I have twenty. And a half. Want to see?” she asked.

“Sure,” said Kate. “Cool!”

“Kate!” Sophie whispered before Ella’s box was opened. “We have things to discuss.” She turned Kate’s shoulders toward her. “Ella, you’ll have to excuse us,” she said.

But Kate looked puzzled. “What do we have to discuss?”

Sophie sighed. “‘Sophie the Awesome.’ Remember?” she whispered.

“Oh, right,” Kate said. “But I thought you were just going to jump rope tomorrow.”

“Yes,” said Sophie. “But I was thinking, if we go out to the yard in the morning, I could try then, before school even begins. Then I can
start
the day as Sophie the Awesome!”
Before Toby can say anything to anybody,
she added silently to herself.

Kate thought for a second. Then she nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Sounds good to me, too!” said Ella. She was leaning across the aisle, grinning. “What are you talking about, anyway?”

“Nothing,” grumbled Sophie.

“What do you mean, ‘nothing’?” Kate said. “We’re talking about breaking the all-time jump-rope record! That’s something, isn’t it?”

Sophie had to admit that Kate had a point.

“Wow! That’s awesome!” Ella said. “What’s the record?”

Sophie got very serious. “One hundred and thirty-four,” she said.

“Wow!” exclaimed Ella. “ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR!”

Everyone on the bus turned around.

“No yelling on the bus!” called Mrs. Blatt, the driver.

“Wow!” Ella whispered loudly. “That is a lot!”

Maybe Ella wasn’t so bad after all.

That was when Sophie’s big sister, Hayley, spoke up.

Hayley didn’t speak to Sophie all that much.
She was in fifth grade and usually too busy doing something else.

On the bus, she was usually whispering with her friend Kim.

In school, she was usually following the boy she liked, Sam.

After school, she was usually at ballet class or at Kim’s house.

And at home, she was usually on the computer or on the phone talking to Kim about Sam … or ballet … or … that was about it.

That left Sophie to keep Max, their two-year-old brother, out of trouble. But that was a whole other story!

“What’s ‘one hundred and thirty-four,’ Ella?” Hayley asked, turning around in her seat a few rows up.

“It’s the all-time jump-rope record!” said Ella proudly. “Sophie’s going to break it. And I’m going to help her! Isn’t that awesome?”

Sophie couldn’t help it: She patted Ella on the
head. Ella was a pest, but she sure knew what to say.

Hayley, meanwhile, turned to Kim. They shared a we-know-everything-and-they-know-nothing look. Sophie knew it very well.

“That’s not the record,” Hayley said.

Sophie felt her heart skip. “It’s not?” she asked.

“No!” said Kim. “Jenny Brown, in our class, has gone way over a thousand. She sets a new record, like, every day.”

Sophie could feel every drop of awesomeness in her body draining away.

“I didn’t know that,” she whispered to Kate. “Did you?”

Kate shook her head.

“It’s probably because you’re just in the third grade,” said Hayley. “But it’s true. That’s the all-time record. I mean, I guess you could try to break it.” She laughed. “But no one has ever even come close.”

Then Hayley and Kim turned around and started whispering again.

Sophie leaned against the seat in front of her. “A thousand jumps? I can never beat that!” she moaned.

“Sure you can!” said Ella. She grinned at her. “You can do anything, Sophie!”

But Sophie wasn’t sure. Being awesome was turning out to be a lot harder than she’d thought!

“Hey, knock-knock,” said Kate.

“Not now,” sighed Sophie.

“Who’s there?” Ella said.

“Yukon,” said Kate.

“Yukon who?” asked Ella.

“Yukon do it, Sophie!” Kate said. She gave Sophie a quick hug. “Here’s our stop!”

The bus breaks hissed and the door folded open. The kids from Sophie’s stop began to unload.

“Come on, Soph,” said Kate. “How about you come over to my house and we make a new plan?”

Sophie nodded. “Okay,” she said glumly.

“Can I come, too?” asked Ella, climbing down the steps behind them.

“I don’t think so, Ella,” Sophie said. Making big plans like this was no job for kindergartners. “This is too important.”

The bus roared away, and Sophie and Kate started up the hill to Kate’s house. Sophie could hear Ella behind them.

“Wait for me!” Ella cried. “It’s hard to run with all these — Oh, no!
My Slinkys!”

Sophie whirled around to see Ella standing on the sidewalk. She was holding an empty box. And she was watching with wide, wide eyes as all twenty and a half Slinkys slinked down the street.

“My Slinkys!” Ella cried again. And she started running … right toward the road!

Sophie didn’t even stop to think.

“No, Ella!” she cried. “Stay out of the street!”

She ran as fast as she could after her. Then she lunged for Ella’s backpack and caught it by the
strap. She gave it a hard yank. But Ella’s backpack slipped right off her shoulders!

“Ella!” Sophie cried again.

She reached out and grabbed Ella’s shirt. And this time, she pulled even harder.

And this time, Ella stopped, her toes right at the edge of the curb.

The very next second, a car whizzed past them.

“Whoa!” said Ella.

“Wow!” said all the other kids from their bus stop, who had run up. “That was close!”

Sophie took a deep breath. Yes, it was!

Suddenly, Ella turned around and hugged Sophie’s stomach. Hard!

“Sophie, you’re my hero!” she exclaimed.

Sophie looked down at Ella’s sandy-colored head. She winced as Ella squeezed even harder.

“Easy, Ella!” gasped Sophie. “That hurts. Besides, I didn’t really do anything.”

She tried to pry Ella off. But the kindergartner wasn’t budging.

“Yes, you did!” said Ella. “You saved my life!”

“You really did,” said Kate.

Slowly, Ella turned her head to peer down the street. “It’s just too bad you couldn’t save my Slinkys….”

Sophie looked down the street, too. She watched the Slinkys tumble on. They looked like an army of wild, rainbow-colored macaronis.

Then the car that had driven by them stopped at the bottom of the hill. The door opened, and their neighbor, old Mrs. Dixon, jumped out. She began to scoop up all the Slinkys.

“Yay, Mrs. Dixon!” shouted Ella. “Don’t forget the pink one!”

Ella finally let go of Sophie. Whew. Sophie could breathe again. But she still had a tight, warm feeling in her stomach. Sophie could not help but grin. It was a good feeling!

“You know what this means?” said Kate. She grabbed Sophie’s hands and swung them. “It means … knock-knock!”

“Who’s there?” said Sophie.

“Sophie the,” said Kate.

“Sophie the who?” said Sophie.

“Sophie the Awesome!” said Kate.

Sophie had to laugh. But then she shook her head.

“No?” said Kate.

“No,” said Sophie.

Saving Ella’s life was definitely name-worthy. But Sophie had an even more awesome name than “Awesome” now. A name that, she hoped, was a little easier to prove, too.

She put her hands on her hips and stuck out her chin. “It’s Sophie the
Hero,
that’s who!”