Lara Bergen: Sophie the Daredevil

“Uh … to the bathroom,” Sophie said.

Kate nodded to Sophie’s plate. “Aren’t you going to finish that?” she asked.

Sophie slid her piece of cake toward Kate. “No, you can have it.” She grinned. Then she walked toward the gift table, making a plan as she did.

Kate’s gift was still on the table, between Sophie’s tote bag and the door. All Sophie had to do was get her bag, walk by the table, and let the gift fall in. Then she’d walk out and into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she’d return. She’d put the gift back on the table. And the dare would be done.

Sophie picked up her tote bag and walked slowly past the gifts. She got to the silver present, held her tote open and nudged it in.

Yes! She’d done it! But had Mindy seen? Sophie quickly checked. Oh, yeah! Mindy’s eyes were locked on her. She’d definitely seen.

Nobody else was watching. Phew! Not even Kate. She was way too busy licking Sophie’s baseball plate. And Mia’s parents were busy taking pictures. It was all going just great!

Well, all except one thing: Sophie’s heart was beating pretty fast. She even felt a little sweaty. She hadn’t planned on that.

So she hurried to the bathroom. She hoped she’d feel better when she got there. And she did, a little. Until she peeked into her bag. Then her heart started to thump. Like on the high dive, only worse!

She knew she’d had to take Mia’s gift. Mindy had dared her, and daredevils had to do things they didn’t want to sometimes … right? Right!

Still, it felt really weird. It didn’t feel right at all. Where were all those daring tingles? Why wasn’t this dare fun?

She needed to get that gift back on the table as fast as she could. She washed her hands and her face with cold water and headed back to the party room.

She got to the door and reached for the doorknob of the party room. But before she could turn it, the door opened in. Mia’s mom smiled down at her. “Oh, Sophie!” she said. “There you are!” She held out a goody bag. “I hope you had fun.” Then she called over her shoulder, “Mia, come thank your guests as they go!”

Hold on. The party was over ?

Sophie peered into the room and saw the kids gathering their stuff. Mia’s dad was by the gift table … packing all the presents up.

How could she put Kate’s gift back now?

The answer was: She could not!

“Here, let me carry your tote bag for you,” Sophie’s dad said as they walked out to the car.

“No!” Sophie said quickly. “I’ve got it!” She held her bag close.

As Sophie walked across the rec center parking lot, her legs felt heavy and slow. At the same time, she couldn’t wait to get home.

Ugh! A big part of Sophie wished she’d just put the gift back. But how could she have done that? In front of everyone? There was no way. Sophie was a daredevil. But she was not crazy.

She had thought keeping the gift would be easier, so it was still in her bag. But maybe she had thought wrong.

“So how was the party?” her dad asked. “How was the new pool? And did I hear something about a high dive? That must be pretty cool!”

Sophie shrugged. “It was fine,” she said. She knew her dad was waiting for her to go on. But she couldn’t. It was like her words were stuck in her tote bag with Mia’s gift, deep under her towel.

“What’s in the goody bag?” her dad asked as they got to the car. He nodded toward the sack in her other hand. “Any good loot?”

Goody bag? Oh, yeah. Sophie had almost forgotten about that.

She shrugged again and said, “Don’t know. I’ll look when I get home.”

“Really?” Her dad’s eyebrows went crooked. “That’s not like the Sophie Miller I know.”

He opened the car door for Sophie. “Is something wrong?” he asked. “I hope it’s not your hair. Looks like all that blue stuff washed out.”

“No.” Sophie shook her head. That wasn’t it at all. She kept her eyes down as she fastened her seat belt. “I’m just ready to go home.”

Getting home wouldn’t fix things. But at least at home she could hide that dumb present somewhere … until she figured out what to do next.

That was why what her dad said then almost made her groan.

“Well, guess what. I have a whole list of errands I have to do. And I thought we could do them together. A little Sophie-and-Daddy time, finally! Won’t that be fun?”

He gave her a huge smile. Sophie knew he was waiting for an extra-large “Yes!” So she tried to give him one. But it came out more like a medium “Yeah.”

Her dad went on. “I need to get a haircut, and I know how you love going with me to do that. And then I thought we could go to the library to take back some books, and the post office. Then some ice cream. Unless you’re too full of cake, of course!” He laughed at that.

Then he climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car. At the same time, Sophie slunk down in her own seat as far as she could go.

She let her tote bag slide to the floor. She tried to cover it with her feet. But she could almost hear the present in it taunting her: “You never should have taken me!”

“But I had to,” Sophie wanted to tell it. “It wasn’t my idea. It was a dare!”

Still, something told her that the present didn’t care.

Sophie’s dad was right. She did love going with him to the barbershop — most of the time.

Most of the time she liked seeing the barbers, Mr. Charlie and Mr. Luis. They gave her lollipops and let her twirl around in their barber chairs. Sometimes they even gave her a broom so she could sweep up hair!

But today all Sophie could think was, There are way too many mirrors in this place!

Everywhere she looked, she saw a mirror. And in every mirror, she saw herself. And that would have been just fine … if it had been a daring self.

But it wasn’t daring. It was guilty. Guilty and sad and quiet and worried and even almost scared.

“So? How do I look?” Sophie’s dad asked her, as always, when Mr. Charlie was done.

“Great, Dad,” she told him, as always (even though his hair always looked the same to her).

And as always, Mr. Charlie took a mug of lollipops down off his shelf.

As always, he held it out to her. “Take as many as you want!” he said.

But for the first time, Sophie kept her hand down. For some reason, it didn’t seem right. Treats were for girls who deserved them. And Sophie wasn’t sure that she did.

Mr. Charlie turned to the other barber. “Who is this shy girl, Luis?” he asked.

Mr. Luis, who was shorter and rounder, held up his short, round hands. “It can’t be our Sophie, Charlie,” he told him. “She hasn’t even asked to sweep!”

Who was she? Good question. Sophie was starting to wonder the same thing. She had thought she was Sophie the Daredevil. But now that didn’t seem like quite the right name.

Right now, she felt a lot more like Sophie the Girl with Mia’s Gift in Her Bag in the Car.

Or Sophie the Girl Who Didn’t Know How to Give It Back to Her.

Or maybe just plain old Sophie the Miserable.

And the nicer anyone was to her, the more miserable she felt!

Still, Sophie didn’t want to be rude. So she picked out a brown lollipop. Yuck. Root beer, her least favorite flavor. She guessed she deserved that.

Next Sophie and her dad walked to the library. Most of the time, Sophie loved going there, too. No matter how many books she took home to read, she could always go back and find something new.