Lara Bergen: Sophie the Awesome

And for the first time, Sophie smiled at Mindy.

“No,” she said pleasantly. “I didn’t want it at all.” Then she reached up and pulled down Awesome Animals You Can Draw.

And the point goes to me! Sophie thought as she headed for the door. She gave herself a bonus point when Miss Elaine said, “It is so nice that you’re not fighting over books this week.” Whoo-hoo! Way to go!

Back in the classroom, Sophie’s day got even better. Usually, that was when Ms. Moffly made them write about something boring in their journals. Things like what they did over the weekend. Or what they liked best about third grade. Blah!

Sophie sometimes wished her teacher would let them write about a dream. Or about what they wished they’d done that weekend instead of going to their sister’s super-boring ballet recital and cleaning their whole room. Or anything but third grade.

Sophie had tried to write about something else once. But somehow, Ms. Moffly had known it wasn’t true.

“I like your imagination, Sophie,” Ms. Moffly had written at the end of the page. “I hope one day you do get to travel into space. But from now on, let’s stick to the facts. Real life can be very interesting, too!”

Oh, yeah?

There was just one word for Sophie’s life: boring. There was nothing special or interesting about it at all.

Her height was average. Her weight was average. Even her hair was average. It wasn’t straight. And it wasn’t curly. It wasn’t long. And it wasn’t short. It wasn’t blond. And it wasn’t brown.

No matter how you sliced it, Sophie came out somewhere in the middle. Alphabetically by first name. Alphabetically by last name. By birthday. By shoe size. In every running race, or reading group, or spelling bee. Medium. Boring.

For a few years, Sophie had been the youngest in her family. But since her two-year-old brother, Max, had been born, she’d been in the middle there, too.

She even lived in a town called Ordinary, Virginia! Ugh.

But Sophie tried to erase all that from her mind as Ms. Moffly stood and addressed the room.

“I’m afraid that I didn’t get to finish reading your journals this weekend,” Ms. Moffly explained.

There was an “ Ooh! ” and a “ Ms. Moffly’s in trouble!” from Archie and Toby’s corner of the room.

Sophie rolled her eyes.

“That’s enough,” the teacher said, smiling. “And, boys, please sit down. Now, as you all know, my sister got married and, well, there just wasn’t enough time. So,” Ms. Moffly went on, “I don’t have the journals ready to give back to you. That means that for the next fifteen minutes, you are free to read your new library books, or start your math homework, or quietly play a board game.”

The whole class cheered. Sophie, too. She knew exactly what she was going to do!

Kate pulled out her book, 101 Knock-Knock Jokes. Grace and Sydney left their desks to play Mastermind on the floor. And Sophie got up to find a sheet of paper and the sharpest pencil in the pencil jar. Then she sat back down and practiced writing her new name.

Sophie the Awesome needed an awesome signature, after all!

Sophie the Awesome

Sophie the Awesome!

The Awesome Sophie!

Sophie studied the page. She always did like a good exclamation point!

Then she felt Kate tug on her shirtsleeve.

“Knock-knock,” said Kate.

Sophie sighed. She was eager to get on to other Sophie the Awesome business. Like relabeling all her folders. But she guessed she had time for one joke.

“Who’s there?” she asked.

“Cows go,” said Kate.

“Cows go who?” said Sophie.

“No, cows go moo !” Kate doubled over, laughing.

“Good one,” said Sophie, trying to sound official. “It has the approval of Sophie the Awesome.”

Kate’s eyes got wide. “Is that your ‘the’ name? Really?” she asked.

“Really!” said Sophie.

“Oh.” Kate twisted her mouth to the side. Sophie knew that this meant she was thinking hard. “Are you sure?” Kate said after a minute.

“Sure I’m sure,” said Sophie.

“But what’s so awesome about you?” asked Kate.

Sophie stared at her. She was shocked! Appalled! “What do you mean?” she said. “I thought you were my best friend, Kate!”

“I am !” Kate told her. She laid her arm across Sophie’s shoulders. “And you are for sure the most awesome best friend in the whole world. Except when you make me listen to you sing.”

Kate giggled, but stopped when she saw that Sophie wasn’t smiling.

“You could definitely call yourself Sophie the Awesome Friend, if you wanted,” Kate added quickly.

Sophie thought about it for a second. “No.” She shook her head. “I think just ‘Sophie the Awesome’ is better.”

But Kate looked doubtful. “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It’s just, when you say that someone is plain awesome, you expect them to really be awesome … in every way.”

Sophie shrugged. “Maybe I am awesome in every way,” she said. She turned to the back of the room and pointed to Toby and Archie. They were bombing chessmen with dice and colored dominos. “I know I am, compared to them!”

Then Sophie reached for her library book. “And how about this ?” she said. “I can draw awesome animals. Check it out!”

She opened the book to a page about horses and drew carefully, step by step. Then she showed Kate the awesome finished product.

“Ta-da! A horse!” she said.

Kate frowned. “It looks more like a cat.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Sophie said. She had to agree. “I guess I better practice.”

“All I’m saying,” Kate went on, “is that if you want people to call you awesome — especially people like them — you’re going to have to prove it.” She pointed her thumbs in two directions. One toward Toby and Archie, and the other toward Mindy and Lily Lemley, Mindy’s copycat friend.

Sophie looked in one direction, then the other. Kate was right. Sophie could totally see Toby and Archie making fun of her new name, unless she had proof of her awesomeness to back it up.

As for Mindy, anyone sneaky enough to steal a library book was sneaky enough to try to steal an awesome name, too. Sophie had to make her name her own. It was true.

Sophie looked back down at her writing. She guessed it would take more than words on paper to get “Sophie the Awesome” to stick.

Just then, Ms. Moffly clapped her hands. “Time for music,” she called.

Sophie stood up, took a deep breath, and looked hard into Kate’s eyes. “Okay,” she said solemnly. “If I need to prove I’m awesome, then that’s exactly what I’ll do!”

As third graders, Sophie’s class got to walk through the halls alone. This was a “privilege,” Ms. Moffly told them. It made Sophie feel very grown up, and a little less boring. But only a little.

Sophie especially liked being Line Leader. Too bad it was Jack’s turn that week. She really could have been awesome at leading the line. Plus Jack could be so slow. And Sophie could not wait to get to music and be awesome at that. It was all she could do not to say, “Hurry up! Hurry up!”

Sophie knew that it would not be easy to be awesome at music, mostly because of one thing. A thing called “mouthing the words.”