Lara Bergen: Sophie the Awesome

Sophie stretched out a smile. “Awesome,” she said.

“Whatever,” Mindy scoffed. “We’ll give you a break, Sophie. ’Cause we know Ms. Moffly’s not going to.” Then she giggled, and Lily chimed in.

Sophie turned to Kate. She suddenly wasn’t feeling as awesome anymore. “Am I in really big trouble?” she whispered.

Kate bit her lip and shrugged. “Actually, we all are,” she whispered back. “Ms. Moffly says no hall privileges for the whole class for the rest of the week.”

Sophie sighed. That was too bad, and not just because she liked hall privileges. It was too bad because it made being awesome even harder.

Kate kindly handed Sophie a tray. “Hey, knock-knock!” she said brightly.

“Who’s there?” Sophie said.

“Kenya,” Kate said.

“Kenya who?” said Sophie.

“Kenya hand me one of those milks, please?” Kate laughed.

Sophie smiled a little again. She was glad she had a friend like Kate to cheer her up.

“Keep it moving!” shouted Grace from the back of the line.

Sophie handed Kate a carton of milk and slid her tray to where the lunch lady stood, waiting. She offered Sophie a plate full of fish sticks and French fries.

Sophie’s smile quickly faded. Fish sticks? How could something so blah have smelled so yum? It was probably the most unawesome lunch she could think of.

She set the plate down on her tray, then took a roll and a dish of carrots.

Then, suddenly, an idea hit her — and it was awesome!

“Hey, give me your tray!” she told Kate. Sophie grabbed it before Kate could stop her. “Sydney, give me yours, too!”

“Huh?” said Sydney. She was just about to walk out to the tables.

“I mean, won’t you please let me carry your tray out for you?” said Sophie. She smiled a big and helpful-looking smile. “You too, Sophie A.”

“Why?” the girls asked together.

“Because,” said Sophie, “I just want to be helpful. Plus, carrying four trays would be pretty awesome, don’t you think?”

She grinned at Kate. If she could have winked, she would have. It was too bad that it looked like something was stuck in her eye whenever she tried.

“Are you sure you can do it?” asked Sydney.

“No problem!” said Sophie. She moved Kate’s tray to her left arm and balanced it just above her elbow. Then she took Sydney’s tray in her left hand and Sophie A.’s in her right.

Ugh. She tried not to groan. The trays were much heavier than she’d expected.

“Uh … put my tray right here, will you?” she asked Kate.

“Like this?” said Kate. She balanced the tray in the crook of Sophie’s right arm.

“Perfect,” said Sophie.

“Are you sure you can do this?” Sydney asked one more time.

I hope, Sophie thought. “I am sure,” she said.

In fact, maybe she could carry five trays. One on her head! Like that lady carrying water in the desert on TV.

But then she looked around. The nearest tray was Mindy’s.

Four trays would be awesome enough.

“Okay! Let’s go!” Sophie said.

Sophie led her short line of trayless friends toward the girls’ usual table. Her arms were starting to shake. But she held her head high.

She waited for the whole cafeteria to notice her. To stop midchew and stare. To yell, “That is awesome!”

But no one did.

Sophie guessed they needed prodding.

“Coming through!” she began to holler. “Hot fish sticks! Look out!” Suddenly, Dean scooted his chair out in front of her. “Seriously, look out!” she cried.

Dean scooted his chair back in. “No, you look out,” he said.

“What are you doing?” asked Jack, who was sitting beside him.

Sophie reached her table at last and smiled. “I,” she said, “am carrying four — count them — four trays!”

She wanted to bow, but of course she couldn’t. So Sophie decided to set the trays down. But she couldn’t do that, either.

The minute she leaned forward, the plates started sliding. The silverware started rolling. And all four trays started moving on their own!

“Help me, Kate!” Sophie cried.

Kate quickly slipped her hand under Sydney’s tray and set it down. Sophie A. and Sydney hurried to grab the others — just in time!

Sophie waited for her heart to start beating normally again. Then she held up her arms. “Ta-da!” she called. She looked at all the kids around her. “What do you think? Wasn’t that … awesome?”

She thought there would be cheering or clapping. But there was not.

“You almost dropped them all,” said Sophie A.

“You spilled my carrots,” said Sydney.

“What’s so awesome about carrying four trays, anyway?” asked Mindy. She had just walked up behind them, carrying her own tray. “You know, I went to a restaurant last night where the waiter carried all five plates out at one time. It was for my grandmother’s birthday and it was very fancy.” Mindy turned and flashed Sophie one of her squinty, no-teeth smiles. “And he set the dessert on fire!”

“Really?” said Kate. “On real fire?”

Sophie nudged Kate with her elbow.

“Sorry,” said Kate, shrugging. “But that does sound pretty awesome.”

“I’ll tell you what else is awesome,” Toby piped up suddenly. He was sitting at the boys’ table and holding up a handful of fries. “Look at this!”

He opened his mouth as wide as it could go. (Yuck! thought Sophie.) Then, one by one, he began to shove in French fries.

“One … two … three …,” Archie counted.

Soon the whole boys’ table had joined in, soft enough so that no lunch monitor would hear.

“… twenty-one … twenty-two … twenty-three!”

Toby pumped his arms. That was about all he could do with a big mouthful of fries.

“Twenty-three!” cheered Archie.

“That’s a record!” said Jack.

“That is gross,” said Mindy.

“No, that’s awesome!” said Dean.

Toby, of course, said nothing. He looked happy. But uncomfortable, too. He couldn’t even chew.

Awesome? Toby? Sophie didn’t think so!

She sat down and grabbed her own fries. And Kate’s. And she began to stuff them into her mouth.

“Count,” she mumbled to Kate.

“Uh, one … two … three …” Kate began.

Soon all the girls were joining in.

“… eleven … twelve … thirteen …”

Then the boys were counting, too.

“… eighteen … nineteen … twenty …”

Sophie took another fry and put it into her mouth. She really wanted to chew. But she was so close — she couldn’t stop now! If this was what it took to be awesome, then this was what she would do.

“… twenty-one … twenty-two …” The voices were getting louder.

Sophie picked up another French fry. So what if her jaw was burning? She was going to break Toby’s record.

She was going to be awesome!

She wanted to smile. But she couldn’t. So she wiggled French fry number twenty-three instead.

“Hey! That one doesn’t count!” shouted Toby. By then, he had emptied his own mouth. “It’s too small!”

“Way too small!” agreed Archie.

Sophie wanted to frown. But she couldn’t. So she glared at Toby and Archie instead.

Then she quickly picked up another fry and began to shove it into her mouth.

“… twenty-thr-”

Suddenly, the voices around her stopped. It was like someone had hit the “mute” button, or — Or!

There was something else that could make the lunchroom get quiet.

Sophie slowly turned.