Lara Bergen: Sophie the Sweetheart

“Not his whole face,” Sophie said, correcting her. Just all those freckles, and that ketchup hair, and those big beaver teeth. “And he doesn’t make me sick, exactly.” Just a little ill sometimes. “If I’m going to be a real sweetheart, I’m going to have to try my best with everyone. Even Toby.”

It was Thursday, which meant they had gym again. And that meant square dancing. Again. But this was a great chance to be sweet to Toby — one that Sophie couldn’t miss!

This time, Mr. Hurley let them pick their own partners if they wanted to.

Sophie raised her hand. She was the only one. “I pick Toby,” she declared.

“You do?!” Toby’s face got red. Even redder than his hair.

“Mmm-hmm.” Sophie smiled sweetly and nodded. But suddenly, what she really wanted to do was run out of the gym.

She should have known better. She should have known Toby would act like he had before: like he’d rather be getting a shot in the arm than square dancing with her.

At first, Sophie tried to ignore him. But she was a sweetheart, not a saint. Then she realized there was another way to be sweet to Toby.

“You know what, Mr. Hurley?” she said loudly. “I think I changed my mind. This seems to make Toby very unhappy, and I would hate to do that. I’d like to pick Ben instead. If that’s okay with you and Ben, of course.”

Ben shrugged and fixed his glasses. “Sure,” he said. “Okay with me.”

Mr. Hurley scratched his head with his whistle. “Uh, yeah. Sounds good, I think.”

Sophie turned to Toby. “Never mind,” she sweetly said.

Toby looked surprised, like he’d gotten the shot and it hadn’t hurt a bit. It wasn’t exactly a look that said, “You’re a sweetheart.” But that’s okay, thought Sophie. She was just warming up.

All day long, Sophie looked for another way to be sweet to Toby. She found her next chance in art class. Ms. Bart, the art teacher, had asked them each to make a flag on a piece of paper. She told them all, “It should represent you!”

Toby made a big blue star on his flag. Of course, Sophie knew why. It was the logo of his favorite football team, the Dallas Cowboys. It would have been very easy for the old Sophie to say something not-so-sweet to him then. Something like “That doesn’t represent you, Toby. It represents a football team.”

But Sophie the Sweetheart would never say that! What she did say was “I like your flag a lot. You did a really good job with your star.”

“Uh, thanks.” Toby looked up. His eyes zipped back and forth. He checked to make sure she was talking about his flag. Yep. It was the only one with a big star.

Sophie went on. “You should keep it, for when you make the team one day.”

Toby checked again to make sure she wasn’t teasing him. So Sophie made her most sincere, no-way-am-I-teasing-you face.

He nodded to the giant red heart on her paper. “Your flag’s nice, too,” he said — so softly she almost didn’t hear.

Sophie grinned. Yes, it was nice. She’d worked hard on it. (Heart shapes were not easy!) But Sophie was smiling for another reason, too. That was the first compliment Toby had given her in a very long time.

“Thanks,” she said back. And this time, she and Toby shared a smile. In fact, Sophie looked at Toby’s face for a whole second before she realized she didn’t feel the teeniest bit ill. It was almost like the old days, when they had looked at each other and felt like friends.

“So, how are your cats doing?” she asked Toby. “You should meet my kitten, Tiptoe, sometime.”

“Cool. Maybe,” said Toby. “When’d you get her? What’s she like?”

Sophie leaned forward. She was just about to tell him how cuddly and sweet Tiptoe was when all of a sudden a hand grabbed the edge of her flag and started to tug.

“Hey! My heart!” Sophie cried. She followed the hand … to the arm … all the way up … to Archie’s face!

He pulled the flag toward him. “So, what’s this? A big valentine?” He was grinning like a shark.

“No!” Sophie said in what she hoped was a sweet voice. “It’s my flag. So please get your hands off!”

She tried to pull her flag back — but that was a mistake. Archie held on tight. And Sophie’s heart began to break.

Rrrriiiip!

“You tore my flag!” cried Sophie.

“Ha!” Archie laughed. “It wasn’t my fault. You’re the one that pulled.” Then he turned to Toby. “You saw her, right?”

Ugh! Sophie looked down and gritted her teeth and waited for Toby to say, “Yeah.” She waited for him to take Archie’s side and laugh — and make everything even worse.

It was going to be very hard to be sweet then. She might even have to give up her name.

But Toby didn’t say, “Yeah,” at all. He said something else.

“Why did you do that?” he asked Archie. “She wasn’t bothering you.”

“What do you care?” said Archie. “Is she your girlfriend now? Oooh!”

“No!” Toby shot back.

Sophie sighed. Here it comes. Now he’ll turn on me for sure , she thought.

But to her surprise, Toby didn’t. What he did do was make his eyes very small. “You’re such a jerk-face, Archie!” he said.

Jerk-face?

Sweet! Sophie thought.

Nobody could believe it. Especially Sophie.

Toby and Archie were in a fight! They weren’t talking. They weren’t even looking at each other. Room 10 had never been as quiet as it was after art.

“I have to commend you on your behavior,” Ms. Moffly said happily as she sent the class to lunch. “You all might just earn extra free time this week, if you keep up the good work.”

Sophie was still mad about her heart flag, of course. She hadn’t had time to make another one. Ms. Bart had helped her tape it instead. At the same time, some good things had come out of her broken heart.

“I can’t believe you were so sweet about the whole thing,” lots of kids had said.

“What can I say?” Sophie had told them. “Just call me Sophie the Sweetheart!”

It helped a lot to know that Toby had taken her side. (And that Archie would be cleaning paintbrushes for the rest of his life!)

Sophie walked out of the lunch line with Kate, feeling just about as sweet as could be.

“Hi, Sophie.” Mindy waved to her. “Do you want to sit with us?”

Sophie turned to Kate, who shrugged. But then another table caught her eye. It was the far one, where Toby was sitting by himself.

Poor Toby. He looked like he’d lost his best friend — which he kind of had.

“Sorry, Mindy. I can’t. But thanks a lot,” she said. Then she nodded for Kate to follow her.

“We’re sitting with Toby? Really?” Kate’s mouth dropped open.

“I have to,” Sophie whispered. “I’m Sophie the Sweetheart. And remember, he stood up for me in art.”

“Hi, Toby. Mind if we sit here?” Sophie plunked down her tray.

Toby stared at her. Sophie tried to read his face. It kind of said, “What are you doing here?” But it didn’t say, “Go away.”

So she took the seat next to Toby. Kate took the one next to her.

This is even weirder than lunch with Mindy , Sophie thought.

“So.” Sophie sighed happily. She smiled at Toby, then at Kate. “What should we talk about? Ms. Moffly and Mr. Bloom’s big date?”