Sophie the Zillionaire (2 page)

T
he next day at school, Sophie had some questions for her classmates.

“How much money do you have?” she asked Mia and Eve. They were hanging up their jackets. Sophie tried very hard not to smile too big.

“I don’t know,” Eve said, shrugging.

“Me neither,” Mia said. “Maybe twenty dollars?”

“Oh,” Sophie said. Now her smile was
very
big. “Well, guess what? I have sixty-nine dollars!”

“Really?” Eve said.

Sophie nodded. “And thirty cents!” she added. “I am very, very rich!”

Then Sydney and Grace walked up to the row of cubbies.

“How much money do
you
have?” Sophie asked them.

Grace frowned. “My dad says it’s not polite to ask that.”

“Oh, you can tell
me
. We’re friends,” Sophie said.

Grace shrugged. “I’m not sure. Why do you want to know?” she asked.

Sophie stood up a little straighter. “I am glad you asked! It’s just that I found fifty dollars yesterday, and I’m pretty sure that makes me the richest kid in the class! Maybe the whole school!” she said.

“How do you know?” Mia asked.

Sophie shrugged. “Well, I know we don’t have any princes or princesses here,” she said. “Who else has that much money?”

“Hang on,” Grace said. She held up her hand to stop Sophie. “You found fifty dollars?” She looked like maybe she did not believe her.

Sophie stuck her lip out and nodded hard. “I did! Really!” Then she turned to Kate, who was taking homework out of her backpack. “Tell her, Kate. Didn’t I?”

Kate looked up. “Yep, she did.” She crossed her heart. “Right there on the sidewalk. Fifty whole bucks.”

Sophie grinned. Thank goodness for Kate. “See!” she told everyone.

“Wow. You really are rich,” Eve said. She sounded even more impressed than Hayley had been.

“I know!” Sophie did not mean to be a show-off. But she guessed that when you were very rich, you couldn’t help showing off sometimes. “Just call me Sophie the Zillionaire from now on!” she said.

Sophie took a deep breath. She looked at her friends and waited for her great new name to sink in.

“But I thought you wanted us to call you Sophie the Honest,” Sydney said after a minute.

“How about Sophie the Hero? What about that?” Mia asked.

Oh, right. Those other names. She had almost forgotten about them. Yes, Sophie had thought they would be good. But that was before — before she had $69.30!

Sophie waved her hand. “Forget about that. Besides, zillionaires can change their minds,” she told them.

That was when Sophie A. walked up. She was the other Sophie in room 10. “You know that a zillion isn’t a real number, right?” she asked.

Sophie wanted to answer, “It is real enough.” But then snooty Mindy VonBoffmann walked up, too, before Sophie could say anything.

Mindy was with Lily Lemley, her best friend. Mindy handed her jacket to Lily. Lily hung it up on Mindy’s hook.

“What are you all talking about?” Mindy asked them.

“Yeah. What are you talking about?” Lily echoed. She fixed her headband. It matched Mindy’s exactly. It always did.

“Sophie found fifty dollars!” Mia told them.

“She’s not honest anymore. She’s rich!” Sydney added.

Sophie smiled and took a deep breath. She let the good feeling inside her spread. At last! She was special.

She almost said, “Actually, I’m Sophie the Zillionaire.”

But just then, Mindy wrinkled her nose and curled her lip. “
Fifty
dollars?”

Sophie’s good feeling bubbled up. This was getting even better! Mindy VonBoffmann was jealous! Of her! How cool was that?

Mindy looked at Lily. She raised her eyebrow and they both laughed.

“Fifty dollars is nothing. My grandmother just gave me a hundred dollars for college,” Mindy said. Then she fluffed her curly blond hair.
“Don’t tell my grandmother, but I’m going to buy a cell phone with it instead.”

The bubbles inside Sophie popped and fizzed away.

She could not believe it.
A hundred dollars?
There was just one thing to say.

Sophie put her hands on her hips. “I don’t believe it.”

She knew that everyone was looking at her. But she didn’t care.

(Well, okay, she kind of did.)

“Fine,” Mindy said. She shrugged. “Lily, hand me my backpack.”

Lily took Mindy’s backpack off her own shoulder. She unzipped it and passed it to her. Mindy reached into it and moved her hand around. Then she reached in deeper and frowned.

Aha!
Sophie thought. Mindy did not have a hundred dollars. She knew it. All along.

But Mindy did not stop looking in her backpack. Instead, she started to pull things out.

Things like an extra headband, and a hairbrush, and some little white cards.

“Here. Take one,” Mindy told the girls.

“What are they?” Mia asked.

“My parents’ business cards,” Mindy said. Sophie could tell she was trying to sound grown-up and important as she handed them out.

Sophie read one:

Then Mindy pulled out a picture of a pretty lady. She had a big smile and a sash that read “Miss America.” And a very, very tall crown. A fancy name was signed across the bottom. Plus lots of
X
s and
O
s.

Mindy handed the picture to Lily. “Be careful with that,” she said.

Lily took it very gently with both hands. “I will,” she said.

Sophie rolled her eyes.

Then Mindy pulled out a little blue notebook. Her name was written on the front in gold. She smiled a tight Mindy smile. “Here it is!”

“That’s not a hundred dollars,” Sophie said. She crossed her arms.

This time, Mindy rolled her eyes. “Of course it’s not. I keep my money in the bank. This is my passbook,” she said.

Oh
… Sophie did not know what a passbook was. So she was happy when Mia asked.

“It’s how I keep track of my money, of course,” Mindy explained, as if everyone should know that.

Then she opened the book and pointed to the number one hundred. It was typed in, along with a period and two zeros. Sophie knew that those stood for cents.

Mindy grinned. Her eyes got squinty. “Need more proof? I can have my grandmother write me a note, if you want,” she said.

Sophie sighed. “That’s okay.” She shook her head.

She was very glad that the lights flashed three times right then.

“Hang up those coats, class,” Ms. Moffly, their teacher, called. “It’s time to get to work.”

Sophie walked over and slumped in her seat. Ms. Moffly was right: Sophie did have to get to work. She could not call herself Sophie the Zillionaire when Mindy had more money than she did.

Still, that did not mean she couldn’t be a zillionaire. Not if she really, really tried….

Somehow, Sophie had to turn $69.30 into more than a hundred. And fast!

“
I
’m so excited! Aren’t you?” Kate said to Sophie as they walked home from the bus stop. Sophie shrugged. “Not really.”

She was staring at the sidewalk, hoping to find fifty more dollars. Or twenty. Or ten. Or even five.

But all she’d found so far was an old, rusty barrette.

“What do you mean ‘not really’? I thought riding horses was your lifelong dream,” Kate said.

Sophie stopped. She looked up at Kate. “Oh, that! Of course!” she said.

She had been thinking so hard about money she’d almost forgotten their big plans. The next day they were going to ride horses!

“Yes! I am super-excited about that,” Sophie said. She had been waiting for that day for almost a week now.

Still, Sophie could not help sighing.

“I just wish I could be Sophie the Zillionaire, too,” she said.

“Why can’t you?” Kate asked.

Sophie frowned. “Because Mindy has a hundred
whole dollars. And I have less.” That was the truth.

Kate thought hard. “Why don’t you just ask your grandparents to give you money? Like Mindy’s did,” she suggested.

Sophie stopped for a second. Her grandparents were great. But they thought eight dollars for her eighth birthday was a lot.

(If only she were turning thirty. But that was forever away!)

Sophie shook her head. “Even if my grandparents won the lottery, they would never give me that much,” she said.

Hang on!
Sophie thought. What had she just said?

She grabbed Kate’s hand. “That’s it! I know what I’ll do! I’ll make money the old-fashioned way!” she said.

“How?” Kate asked. Her eyes were big.

Sophie swung her hand high in the air. “I’ll win the lottery!”

W
hen Sophie got home, she ran to her room. She got down her horse bank and counted her money again. There was still $69.30. She poked her finger around inside, just in case some money was stuck. She even peeked in with a flashlight. But no. There was no extra money. Oh, well.

Sophie started to put the bank back on her shelf. Then she stopped.

There was a lot of money in that bank. Not a hundred dollars (
yet
). But it was all the money she had in the world. And anyone could get it off her shelf. Her family never really messed with her
stuff. She wasn’t worried about them. But what about robbers?!

Sure, they might not know the horse was a bank. It was a good disguise. But it was so pretty they might take it, anyway.

Sophie needed to find a safer place for her bank. But where?

Maybe under her bed? Yes! It was perfect! There was so much dust and old junk no robber would ever look there.

Sophie got down on her knees. She lifted the bed skirt. Then she slid the bank underneath.

There! Her money already seemed safer. She patted her polka-dot bedspread and grinned.

Of course, Sophie bet that when she won the lottery, her money would not all fit in her horse bank. It might not all even fit under her bed. She would probably have to take it to a real bank, like Mindy did. She would miss it then.

Sophie decided to tell her parents about her great lottery idea that night at dinner. She was ready as soon as they sat down. Dinner was
always pretty quick, because Max did not stay in his high chair for long.

“Mmm! This looks good,” her dad said.

They were having spaghetti with meat sauce. Sophie liked meatballs better, but Max thought all balls were for throwing. They would probably never have meatballs again.

“Thank you!” Sophie’s mom said. She put a plate in front of Max. Then she sat down quickly and turned to Hayley. “How’s the penny drive coming?” she asked.

Hayley was sprinkling parmesan cheese all over her plate. “Great! We have six pounds already,” she said.

Six pounds? Really? Sophie did not know you could count money that way.
How many pounds do I have?
she wondered.

She also wondered when Hayley would be done with the cheese.

“Hey,” Sophie said. “Save some for me.”

Her mom gave her a look.

Sophie smiled at her sister. “
Please
.”

Hayley slid the cheese over.

There was not a lot left. But that was okay, Sophie guessed. When she won the lottery, she would buy at least six pounds of it.

Oh, right. The lottery!

“Hey, Dad. I have a question,” Sophie said. “Can you take me to get a lottery ticket? Tonight?
Please?
”

Her dad chuckled and shook his head. “Sorry, Sophie. You have to be eighteen to buy a lottery ticket, I’m afraid,” he said.

“You do?” Sophie said.

That was no fair! Why were grown-ups the only ones who could get rich easily?

“Why do you want a lottery ticket, anyway?” Hayley asked, twirling some spaghetti on her fork.

“I need to make more money. Fast,” Sophie said. She turned back to her dad and shrugged. “I guess you’ll have to buy one for me.”

Sophie’s mom gave her a look. Again.

“
Please!
” Sophie grinned.

But her mom just shook her head. “We are not buying you a lottery ticket, Sophie,” she said. She sounded very sure. And a little grumpy. “Do you know what your chances of winning are?”

“No,” Sophie said. She did not.

“About one in a zillion,” her mom said.

“You know, a zillion is not a real number,” Hayley chimed in.

Sophie rolled her eyes. “All
I
know is that you have to play to win,” she said.

Sophie’s mom reached over to Max. She pulled a noodle out of his nose. Then she turned back to Sophie. “What gave you
that
idea?” she asked.

Sophie shrugged. She pointed to her dad.

His mouth was full. So he made a “who, me?” face. Then he swallowed.

“Who, me?” he said.

“Yes, you. You always say that when we win the lottery, we’ll buy a new TV. Or a new car. And every time Mom says, ‘In your dreams,’ you say, ‘You have to play to win!’” Sophie said.

“No, I do not,” said her dad.

Hayley nodded. “Yes, you do,” she told him.

Now Sophie’s mom rolled her eyes. “That’s just the way Daddy talks. We both know that the lottery is a much better way to lose money than to make it, right?” She looked at him.

“Um, yes,” he said.

But he didn’t sound like he meant it. Not to Sophie, anyway.

Sophie’s mom turned back to her. “Do you know what the best way to get money is?” she asked.

Sophie could think of only one other way. “Find it?”

Her mom sighed. “No. Earn it.”

Earn it?
Hmm.
That sounded more like the
hard
way than the best way to Sophie.

“Maybe it’s time to start giving you an allowance, like Hayley,” Sophie’s mom went on. “That means you have to do chores around the house, of course.”

“Okay,” Sophie said.

“You could help do the dishes,” Sophie’s mom
continued. “And take out the trash. Or — oh!” She looked down at the pile of noodles under Max’s chair. “You could clean up after Max!”

Sophie looked down, too.
Yuck!
“How much would you pay me?” she asked.

“Let’s see. How about four dollars a week?” her mom said.

Four dollars? A week?

“That’s
it
?” Sophie frowned.

Just then, Max tossed his dish onto the floor. Sophie’s mom looked down at the mess.

She turned back to Sophie. “Okay. Five dollars,” she said.

Sophie nodded. It was better than nothing, she guessed. But five dollars a week was not going to make her a zillionaire fast. She still needed to make more money some other way, too.

She tried to think of how … but the idea did not come to her right then.

And it did not come while she was scooping Max’s dinner into a dustpan, either.
Gross!

(What came to her then was this: When Sophie
was a zillionaire, the first thing she would do was pay someone else to clean up after Max!)

But the idea
did
come to her later, when her mom put out dessert: cupcakes from a bake sale at the high school where Sophie’s dad had fixed computers that day.

“The seniors were raising money to help pay for a trip to New York City,” her dad said.

Right away, Sophie was paying attention.

“How much did they make?” she asked. She tried to sound casual.

Her dad shrugged. “I don’t know…. A lot.”

A lot?
That was how much Sophie needed. Exactly!

That was it — she would have a bake sale!