Lara Bergen: Sophie the Sweetheart

The next day was Friday — the Big Teacher-Date Day. At last! But that wasn’t all Sophie was thinking about. She had some more important Sophie the Sweetheart work to do.

“Guess what! My sister came home from the hospital!” cried Ella, running up to her at the bus stop. “And guess what! She brought my mom!”

“Are they making you wash your hands a lot?” Sophie asked her.

Ella nodded hard. “Uh-huh!”

“So … where’s your shirt?” asked Sophie.

Ella looked down and opened her coat. “Right here on my tummy, silly.” She grinned. “Same place as yours.”

“I mean, where’s your official big sister shirt?” Sophie crossed her arms and watched as Ella’s eyes got very big.

“I don’t know!” Ella said. “Where do you get them?”

That was when Sophie uncrossed her arms, unzipped her bag, and reached inside. She pulled out the shirt she’d made for Hayley and held it up. “Ta-da!”

“Oh!” Ella gasped. “It’s beautiful! Is it for me ?”

“Are you the World’s Number One Big Sister?” asked Sophie.

Ella nodded eagerly. She quickly slipped off her jacket and put the shirt on over her regular clothes. It came almost down to her knees. But Ella didn’t mind at all.

“I love it!” Ella cried. She began to twirl around. “Thank you, Sophie! I’m never, ever, ever going to take it off!”

A feeling wrapped up Sophie — as if invisible arms were hugging her, tight. She laughed. It had to be the sweetest feeling in the world!

But then Sophie noticed Hayley, around the corner with her friends. She was looking at Sophie and Ella … and smiling at them. Sophie was wrong, she suddenly realized. There was a sweeter feeling. And she was feeling it right then.

The sweet feeling lasted through the whole bus ride, all the way to school.

And then it was time for Sophie to do Sweet Thing Number Two.

“Move it,” said Sophie, walking up behind Toby in the classroom. “Do you mind? You’re in my way.”

“Huh?” Toby was putting his homework in the Homework Basket. He spun around to look at Sophie in surprise. “Er … sorry. Okay.”

He stepped aside, and Sophie rolled her eyes. “You should be,” she said. “Sheesh!”

Then she peeked over her shoulder to make sure that Archie had seen.

He had. And he was staring. So was everybody else.

Even Kate’s mouth had dropped open. She grabbed Sophie’s hand and pulled her close. “What happened to being a sweetheart ?” she whispered.

Sophie just shrugged and squeezed her hand. If she could have winked, she would have done that to Kate, as well.

Because she was being a sweetheart — even though it didn’t look like that. It was all part of her super-sweet Help-Cheer-Up-Toby Plan.

After all, she had a feeling that Toby wanted to make up with Archie but didn’t know how. And the sweetest thing Sophie could do was try to help him out. All she had to do, she figured, was start a nice, big fight — and hope that Archie would butt in and take Toby’s side.

But how should she start it? Sophie looked around.

She could punch him, she guessed.

But no. That was too mean. (And what if he punched her back?)

Wait! I know! she thought suddenly. It came to her in a flash. She grabbed a piece of paper, ran to her table, and wrote something down fast.

After a minute, Sophie leaned back and looked at her work. A masterpiece!

She wrote her name and dotted the i with a great big heart.

There! All done!

She ran up to Dean and gave him the paper. “Here,” she said. “Pass this around. Before the bell rings.”

Dean read it.

The cowboys are the warst team in the world!!!!

Sophie the Sweetheart

XXXOOO

“Really?” he asked.

Sophie grinned. “Go ahead!” She pointed to Toby, who was just sitting down. “In fact, why don’t you start with him?”

Not a minute later, Toby ran up to her desk. He held the paper in front of her nose. “Did you really write this, Sophie?” he snapped.

“That’s my signature, all right,” she said.

Toby frowned a big frown. “Well, you’d better take it back!”

Sophie smiled sweetly. “I will not.”

That was when Archie stomped up, fuming. “Does that say what I think it does?” He read the note over Toby’s shoulder. “You are so asking for it!” he growled at Sophie.

“I know! Right?” Toby glared.

Then Toby turned to Archie. And Archie turned to him. “The Cowboys rule!” they said together. They bumped fists and shared a smile.

Yes! Sophie’s plan had worked. Toby and Archie weren’t in a fight anymore! Inside, she patted herself on the back.

Then both boys turned back to her. They weren’t smiling anymore.

Uh-oh.

Sophie stepped back. She hadn’t planned this far. What exactly was she going to do now?

Lucky for her — Brrriiinnnng!!!! — the bell rang.

Phew!

She had never been so happy for school to start.

Sophie’s plan worked! By lunchtime, Toby and Archie were sitting together again, flicking peas with their spoons. She just wished they weren’t flicking every pea at her.

Still, she felt as sweet as ever. By being mean to Toby, she had clearly helped him a lot. And wasn’t that really, deep down, what being a sweetheart was all about?

Plus Kate was happy, too. “I’m glad it’s just us again,” she said at lunch. She picked a pea out of Sophie’s hair. “For you!” She held it out.

“Thanks.” Sophie squished it between her fingers. “And yeah. I know what you mean.” She wrinkled her nose and nodded to Toby. “Trust me, when I decided to be sweet, I never planned on eating with him.”

Of course, now she had another problem. People weren’t calling her a sweetheart anymore. (At least, not the Cowboys fans. Who knew there were so many in school?)

Oh, well. Sophie would worry about that later. She had bigger things to think about now. It was finally Friday, Ms. Moffly and Mr. Bloom’s Big Date Night! Very soon they’d be in love. And then, thanks to Sophie, they’d be sweethearts. And Sophie wouldn’t be surprised if when they got married they made her Flower Girl Number One!

Everything was perfect. Sophie was so excited when she got home from school! She had run ahead of Hayley, who was walking slowly with her friends.

Mmm! Her mom was making lasagna. Sophie could tell by the warm, happy smell.

And the house looked so neat! Where had her mom hidden all their junk?

Sophie found her mom in the kitchen and gave her a big sweetheart hug. Then she ran up to her room to hurry to change clothes.

She and Kate had already decided to dress up for dinner. They had to wear something that said “special date.” And “Wouldn’t I make a great flower girl?”

Unfortunately, Sophie didn’t have anything that said exactly that. In fact, the only thing her dresses said was “Handmade by Grandma Hamm.”

At last, she picked out the red one. Red was the color of love, after all. But it needed something more. Accessories!