Lara Bergen: Sophie the Zillionaire

But Ben frowned at her. “You never said anything about having to pay.”

Oops. Sophie had forgotten that part. But why else did Ben think she would hang up his coat?

“Sorry,” she said. “You’re my first customer.”

But Ben took back his coat. “I don’t think so,” he said, shaking his head.

Sophie sighed. She watched Ben walk off. But she wasn’t going to give up. Zillionaires never gave up!

So she went over to Sophie A.

And Eve.

And Dean.

And Mia.

And Jack.

But they did not want to pay her to hang up their coats, either.

Or shake out their umbrellas.

Or tie their wet shoelaces.

Or pull out their chairs.

Or sharpen their pencils.

Sophie could not believe it!

There was only one person who offered to pay her. That person was Toby Myers.

“I’ll give you a dollar to pick Archie’s nose,” he said.

Sophie shot him a look.

“No way! I like to pick my own nose!” Archie declared.

Boys! Gross!

Still, Sophie kept trying.

“I’ll pick out a book for you. For a dollar,” she said to Sydney later in the library.

Sydney frowned. She shook her head.

“Fifty cents?” Sophie said.

Sydney’s head kept shaking.

“How about a quarter?” Sophie asked. She tried to look super-helpful, like a great book-picker-outer.

“Why would I pay you to do something that I like to do myself?” Sydney finally asked.

Hmm. Sydney had a point. Maybe Sophie had a better chance of making money if she offered to do things that people hated doing.

Sophie picked out her own library book and thought about that a little more.

She was still thinking back in room 10 as Ms. Moffly wrote on the board. The teacher was writing vocabulary words for the class to copy later.

They were supposed to write in their journals first. But Sophie’s journal page was still blank. She leaned on her hand. Sure, she had things to write about. But all she could think about was being Sophie the Zillionaire.

“Has anybody paid you yet?” Kate whispered, leaning over.

“No. Not yet,” Sophie told her. “But if I could just think of something that nobody wants to do …”

Kate pointed to the blackboard. Ms. Moffly had made a looong list. “Like copying vocabulary words,” Kate groaned.

“Hey!” Sophie suddenly said.

“Hay is for horses!” Kate said back.

“No! Hey is for ‘That’s what I can do to make money!’” Sophie said.

It was perfect! The class had the rest of the day to copy their vocabulary words. That meant Sophie had plenty of time to put her plan into action!

She started by asking Grace and Sydney. It was easy. They sat at her table.

“Hey, Grace. Hey, Sydney,” she whispered. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll write down your vocabulary words … for a small fee.” That sounded very professional, she knew. She’d heard it on a real commercial.

“You want us to pay you?” Grace stared at Sophie. It was like Sophie had asked to cut off her head.

But Sydney slowly rubbed her chin. “How much?” she asked.

Good question , Sophie thought.

She looked back at the vocabulary list. Twenty-five words. Ugh. That was a lot!

She wanted to say, “Fifty dollars.” But she guessed that was too much.

“Five dollars,” she told Sydney.

“Five dollars!” Sydney said. Now it was like Sophie had asked to cut off her head. “How about fifty cents?”

“Four dollars?” Sophie asked, trying again.

“Seventy-five cents,” Sydney said. She crossed her arms.

Sophie sighed. Sydney drove a hard bargain.

“Okay. A dollar. But that’s my final offer,” Sophie said.

Sydney held out her hand. “Deal.”

They shook on it. Yes!

Then Sophie turned to Kate and smiled. If she could have winked, she would have. Maybe when she was a zillionaire, she would get that fixed.

But for now, she had a paying customer!

“Oh, okay. I’ll do it, too. For a dollar,” Grace said.

Oh, boy! Sophie had two paying customers. The money was starting to roll in!

“There’s just one problem,” Sydney said then. “I don’t have any money with me.”

“Me neither,” Grace added.

Sophie frowned. So she had customers. But they were not paying. Now what?

Then Sydney did something interesting. She wrote three letters on the top of a piece of paper.

I O U

$1

Sydney

“What’s this?” Sophie asked.

“It’s an IOU,” Sydney said. “It means I owe you a dollar. I’ll give you this today and bring the money tomorrow.”

“Me too!” Grace said.

Hmm …

Sophie guessed that was okay. And it turned out that Sydney and Grace were not the only ones who said they would hire Sophie. ( Hooray! ) And they were not the only ones who could not pay her that day. ( Oh, well. )

By lunchtime, Sophie had twelve orders for vocabulary lists. And twelve IOUs.

She had hoped for a lot more. But there were some kids — like Sophie A. — who liked copying their own lists. And there were some kids — like Toby and Archie — who she’d rather not work for. They could copy their own lists. (And pick their own noses, for that matter.)

And then there was Mindy. She did not need a list copied, either. That was because Lily had already copied one for her. For free.

By the end of lunch, though, Sophie had decided that twelve lists was plenty. In fact, she was a little worried. What if it was too much? She had copied and copied all through lunch. Now it was time for recess, and she only had six lists done.

Sophie was a very, very fast reader. But she was a very, very slow writer.

She shook out her hand. It was sore. Her pencil was dull. And worse than that, her stomach was empty. She had not stopped to eat at all.

“Come on,” said Kate. “Let’s play. Haven’t you written enough?”

Sophie gave a big sigh and held up a stack of blank paper. “No,” she said. “I’m only half done.”

So instead of playing in the gym during recess (since it was still raining), Sophie sat on the bleachers and copied more words.

Sophie wished she had picked something else to help her earn money. Something quick. Like cleaning out cubbies. She could have done twelve of those in no time. Oh, well. She could do that the next day. If her hand still worked.

Before Sophie knew it, recess was over. She still had three more lists to go. And that wasn’t the worst part. Sophie had been so busy writing that she had missed seeing Dean’s bloody nose!

“I can’t believe you didn’t see that!” Ben said. “He ran right into the goalpost!”

Sophie could not believe it, either. It was not every day she got to see a good bloody nose! It was all anyone could talk about.

And when Ms. Moffly said the class could play charades at the end of the day, Sophie could not believe that, either.

“ If you don’t still have to copy your vocabulary list,” the teacher added.

Sophie plopped her head into her hands — for two reasons.

One was that she was the only person who still had a list to copy. And the other was that she loved charades. And she really hated to miss it.