Sophie the Chatterbox (6 page)

S
ophie wished she could get off the bus. But it was too late. There was a whole line of kids behind her.

“Find a seat! Keep it moving!” Mrs. Blatt, the bus driver, called out.

Sophie plopped down in the seat across from Hayley. She cleared her throat once. Then she cleared it again.

“Look, Hayley, I know I ruined your life. And I am really, really sorry. But if it makes you feel better, my life is ruined, too,” Sophie said, looking down at her hands.

Then Ella’s head popped up. She had crawled under the seats to Sophie. She wiggled and pulled herself up.

“Hi, Sophie! I found you,” she said.

Great.

Sophie slumped down in her seat and held her head.

“What’s wrong?” Ella asked.

“Yeah, what’s wrong, Sophie? Who said you ruined my life?” Hayley asked.

Sophie looked up at her sister. “Um, you did.”

“Did I?” Hayley turned to Kim and giggled. “Well, then I take it back. Because guess what? When Sam found out I liked him, he decided that he liked me back!”

She waved a piece of paper. It was folded up tight. “It’s all in this note!” she said. “So really, you made my life better. Thanks, Sophie!”

Wow.

That was not something Sophie thought she would hear. Ever. The truth was her sister didn’t
thank her much. And she
never
thanked her in front of Kim.

Sophie got a feeling inside her. It was like when the sky was cloudy and the sun suddenly came out.

Sophie the Honest had made the world better! Her shoulders felt a little lighter. Her eyes didn’t burn so much.

Then Kate climbed onto the bus. She walked by without a word and sat as far away from Sophie as she could.

The bus lurched forward and Sophie’s heart began to pound. She got another feeling, like the clouds had just come back. And now it was raining. Hard.

So what if the world was a better place for Hayley? For Sophie, it was worse. Honestly, it was no fun being Sophie the Honest all alone.

Then again, she wasn’t alone. Ella was beside her.

Ella grabbed Sophie’s arm and tugged it. “Can
you come play again today?” she asked. Sophie sighed. Yes. She could. And as Sophie the Honest, she should say so. But the truth was she just plain didn’t want to.

Then, all of a sudden, a big thought hit Sophie.
Bam!
She had been honest to everyone else … but she had been lying to herself.

The truth was she didn’t really
want
to be Sophie the Honest anymore!

She didn’t want to answer every question. Every time.

She didn’t want to stop pretending. For the rest of her life.

She didn’t want to have to tell secrets. Not when she promised not to, at least.

And she didn’t want to hurt people’s feelings. There was nothing worse than that!

What Sophie really wanted, more than anything else, was to be Kate’s best friend.

“So?” Ella tugged some more. “Can you play? Can you?”

Sophie looked down. She shook her head.

“No. I’m sorry, Ella. I can’t play today,” Sophie said. “I have something important to do.”

And that was not a lie at all. That was the truth.

W
hen the bus reached Sophie’s stop, she got off. But she didn’t head home.

She said good-bye to Ella. And she waved to Hayley and Kim. Then she stood by the curb and waited for Kate.

As soon as Kate saw her, she frowned and walked by without a word. But Sophie was expecting that. She ran to catch her.

“Kate! Wait for me! I have to talk to you,” she called.

Kate stopped and turned around. She crossed her arms. “Go ahead.”

Sophie took a deep breath. She had so much to say she wasn’t sure where to begin.

“I want to say that I’m sorry, Kate. Really, really sorry. And I’m not just saying that because I want to ride a horse. Even though it is my lifelong
dream. But I’m sorry I was such a big mouth. I didn’t mean to make everyone mad or hurt anyone’s feelings. And I won’t let you down again. You can trust me. I promise. You’re my best friend in the whole world! Honest!”

Kate’s mouth had been a straight line. Slowly it curved into a grin.

Yes! Sophie could feel it. They were going to be friends again!

“Cross your heart, Sophie the Honest?” Kate asked.

Sophie smiled and crossed her heart again and again.

Then she reached out her arms. So did Kate. They hugged.

Ouch!

Sophie jumped back. This time her broach really did stick her!

Sophie took it off, dropped it into her backpack, and let out a big sigh. A happy one this time. Then she bit her lip. “Honestly, Kate, I don’t know if Sophie the Honest is
me
,” she said.

Kate put her finger to her chin. “Well, there’s always Sophie the Chatterbox,” she teased.

Sophie rolled her eyes. “Thanks, but no thanks!” she said.

“Then what?” Kate asked.

Sophie shrugged. She wanted a great name, but she didn’t know what yet. Oh, well. She would think of something. What mattered more right then was that she had her best friend back.

(
And
that she didn’t have to tell a grown-up every single thing she did at school ever again!)

But what about Kate?
Sophie wondered. Were the other girls still mad at her?

Then Kate told Sophie something that made her feel even better. She had talked to Mrs. Belle. She was going to ask her daughter if Kate could bring more friends to the horse farm.

Hopefully, everyone could go. Including Sophie!

(And hopefully everyone would forget the not-so-great things she had said.)

Sophie was feeling so much better. She kicked

a rock and watched it bounce away. And that was when she saw …

There in the grass. Was it a dollar?

Sophie looked a little closer.

Yes! It was!

Or … no. It had a number five on it.

It was a five-dollar bill! Sophie had never found one of those before!

She bent down and picked it up. And then she saw the zero. A five
and
a zero!

“Look, Kate!” She held it up. “A fifty! I’m rich!”

Then Sophie looked at Kate. And Kate looked at her.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sophie asked.

“I think so!” Kate said.

Sophie the Rich! Now that was a good name!

No, wait—Sophie the
Zillionaire!

Yes! That was even better!

So maybe SOPHIE hasn’t found the perfect name … but she isn’t giving up yet!

Take a peek at Sophie’s next adventure….

S
ophie stared at the thing in her hand. She turned it over carefully. It was paper and green, and it had the number fifty all over it.

That was because it was fifty whole dollars!

Sophie could not believe it.

“I can’t believe it!” she said to Kate Barry, who was standing beside her. Kate was Sophie’s very best friend. “It’s fifty whole dollars!”

Sophie looked down at the grass next to the sidewalk. That was where she had picked up the fifty-dollar bill. She hoped that there was even more money there! But there was not.

Still. She had fifty whole dollars. She was probably the richest girl in the whole world!

(Well … maybe she wasn’t richer than a
princess. But she was richer than any ordinary girl in Ordinary, Virginia, she bet!)

Sophie wanted so badly to be special. Now she really was! And to think, all she had to do was look down as she walked home from the bus stop.

“Where do you think it came from?” Kate asked her, as they started to walk.

Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Then she got a feeling. It was not so good. For Sophie to find money, someone else must have lost it first. But there was no one else around.

Sophie started to feel better. There wasn’t anybody to ask. Plus didn’t her big sister, Hayley, always say, “Finders keepers, losers sweepers”?

Sophie wasn’t sure why losers had to sweep. But that was their problem. The fifty dollars was hers!

“So what are you going to do with it?” Kate asked. She grinned and licked her lips. “I think you should buy lots of gum!”

Sophie knew that Kate liked gum. A lot. This was mostly because her mom did not buy it—not since Kate chewed some, then put it behind her ear to keep it. It worked for a girl in a movie they saw. But it did not work for Kate. It got stuck in her hair, and her mom had to cut a bunch of it off. Kate looked funny for a while. But she still liked gum just as much, after all that.

Sophie thought about gum for a minute, then shook her head. “I’m going to keep the money. And tomorrow at school I’m going to tell everyone about it,” she said.

Sophie could picture the kids in her class. They would be amazed that she was so rich. They would never call her just plain Sophie … or Sophie M…. or even Sophie Miller again!

Finding the right name isn’t easy!

See what else Sophie tries out….

Just like Sophie,
LARA BERGEN
would love to find a name that describes her perfectly … but for now she’ll settle with being
the
author of this great series and many other books for children — and, before that,
the
proud editor of many more. She lives in
the
Big Apple, New York City, with
the
best husband and two children in the world.

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Text copyright © 2010 by Lara Bergen.
Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Scholastic Inc.
Cover art by Laura Tallardy
Cover design by Tim Hall
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.
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First printing, October 2010

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eISBN: 978-0-545-41523-1