Lara Bergen: Sophie the Hero

Then Sophie jumped up, ran across the room, and grabbed Ms. Bart’s ankles.

“Don’t worry, Ms. Bart, I’ve got you! You’re safe!” she said.

“Oh, Sophie, no!” Ms. Bart cried, grabbing the paint shelf. “Look out!”

The good news was: All the paint on the shelf did not fall on the art teacher.

The bad news was: It fell on Sophie. Every drop.

Sophie was covered with paint from head to toe. And she did not feel like a hero. She felt like a papier-mâché blob.

Still, she was not as upset as Mindy.

“That blue paint was perfect!” Mindy wailed. “And now it’s all gone!”

Sophie was very happy that Ms. Bart let her go clean up in the bathroom. And that she let Kate, Sophie’s sidekick, go, too. Mindy’s whining hurt her paint-covered ears a lot.

“Hey, cheer up,” Kate told Sophie in the bathroom. “You might have really saved Ms. Bart. Who knows?”

“Yeah,” Sophie said, sighing. But she was not sure Ms. Bart thought so.

“And on the bright side,” Kate went on, “now you look more like a hero!”

“I do?” Sophie asked.

“Yeah!” Kate nodded. “Totally — Peacock Girl!”

Sophie rolled her eyes. Then she opened the zip-top bag that held her set of Emergency Clothes.

Sophie always thought Emergency Clothes were for kids who couldn’t make it to the bathroom. (Like her. In kindergarten. When she drank three milks at lunch.) And since she had learned her lesson (one milk at the most!), she thought she would never need them.

No such luck.

Sophie guessed that her Emergency Clothes were better than a paint-covered shirt and skirt. But not much. The pants were too short. And the shirt was the one that Sophie hated most. The pink one that said “Kiss me, I’m a princess!”

Yuck!

Kate looked at her. “Ooh! You could call yourself—” she began.

But Sophie held up her hand. “Don’t even say it.”

She could not wait to get home and change and start being a hero again!

When she and Kate finally got to Sophie’s house, Sophie closed the door behind them with a sigh.

Phew! It was great to be Ella’s hero, but two days of it was enough. Sophie hoped the next person she saved did not hang on her so much.

“Why didn’t you let Ella come in?” Kate asked her. “She’s so cute. And she carried your backpack all the way home.”

“Because I’m sore from Ella hugging me,” Sophie said, rubbing her sides. “And because we need to talk about important hero stuff.”

Sophie dropped her backpack on the floor. Then she froze as the door opened again.

Oh, no. Not Ella!

But it was just Sophie’s big sister, Hayley, and her best friend, Kim. They were giggling about something — probably boys. As usual.

All of a sudden — BANG! — there was a loud sound from the kitchen.

Sophie and Hayley looked at each other. They both knew what had made the noise: Max, their little brother.

For a long time, Max had been their baby brother. But now that he was two, he was not a baby anymore. Now he could run. And climb. And kick. And almost jump.

And he did. All the time.

There was one thing Max did not do, though. And that was talk.

Sophie thought this was a big problem. All the other two-year-olds she saw could talk. And talk. And talk. But Sophie’s parents said that Max would talk when he was ready. Sophie was not sure about that. But she hoped so.

In the meantime, Max made a lot of other noises.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Then Sophie heard another noise. Meow, meow, meow!

A gray ball of fur dashed toward them. Sophie bent down and scooped it up.

“It’s okay, Tiptoe. I’ve got you,” Sophie said. She gently rubbed it with her nose.

Tiptoe was Sophie’s brand-new kitten. She and Hayley had picked her out at a shelter two weeks before.

There had been so many kittens, Sophie had thought it would be hard to pick just one. But Tiptoe was hanging on the door of her cage by her tiny claws. Sophie knew right away that the kitten wanted them to take her home.

Of course, the kitten did not know there was a Max waiting at home.

Poor Tiptoe.

Sophie cuddled her tightly. Then she went into the kitchen with Hayley, Kim, and Kate.

Every cabinet was open. The floor was covered with pots and pans.

That was how the kitchen always looked when Max was there.

“Hi, girls,” said Sophie’s mom. She was pulling Max down from the counter. “Okay, Max. Game over. Time to put everything away,” she said.

Max shook his head and grabbed a spoon.

Then he looked at Sophie and started to laugh.

“Sophie!” her mom gasped. She was not laughing. “What happened to you? Your hair is all blue!”

Sophie shrugged. “Just trying to be a hero,” she said.

Hayley rolled her eyes at Kim. “Third graders,” she groaned.

“What happened?” Sophie’s mom asked again. “I see you had to change clothes. Oh, I love that shirt so much!”

Sophie sighed, but she did not feel like explaining. Especially not with Hayley and Kim there, too.

Hayley was not a bad sister. In fact, she was great … when it was just the two of them. But she was not always that great when she was with her fifth-grade friends. With them, she acted like she was grown-up and super-cool.

Too cool for Sophie.

“So?” Sophie’s mom said.

Sophie had to change the subject. She pointed at her brother. “Look out,” she said. “Max is going for the cat food.”

Sophie’s mother chased after Max, while Hayley grabbed the last two apples out of the fruit bowl. She took a bite of one and handed the other to Kim.

Sophie sighed. The apples were the green kind, her favorite. She would have liked one just then.

“Hey, guess what, Mom,” Hayley said. She took another juicy bite and chewed it. “Mr. Bloom brought in a pet for our classroom. Guess what it is!”

“A hamster?” asked Kate. Sophie knew she loved those. She had five … no, six … no, eight?

“No.” Hayley shook her head. “A snake. A corn snake, actually. And guess what we named him?” She shared a smile with Kim. “You never will.”

“Rumplesnakeskin,” Sophie said.

Hayley stared at her. “How did you know?”

Sophie shared her own smile with Kate. “Just smart, I guess.”

(That and she had heard Hayley talking about it on the bus home.)

Their mom came back with Max. “How wonderful!” she said. She got a big smile on her face. “You know, I used to love catching snakes when I was your age.”

Kate’s eyes got big. But Sophie was not surprised at all. Her dad hated creepy-crawly things, but Sophie’s mom did not mind them. Spiders. Crickets. Bats. If any critter ever snuck into the house, she was always the one who caught it.

Sophie thought that must be why she was so good at catching Max.

“I hope you got to hold the snake. Did you?” Sophie’s mom asked Hayley.

Hayley and Kim nodded.

“Was it gross?” Kate asked.

“No,” said Hayley. “It was great. Rumplesnakeskin’s not gross at all, or slimy. He’s soft and smooth. But snakes can still have germs. So you have to wash your hands after you touch one.”