“Sophie!” Ms. Moffly cut in.
“Much,” Sophie said.
She breathed in. Then out. She looked around the classroom.
“Get on with it!” Archie yelled.
“Archie,” Ms. Moffly said sharply. Then she turned back to Sophie. “It’s okay to be nervous, Sophie. That’s not usually like you,” she added. “But please, just relax and go on.”
Relax. Right. Sophie would do that. She would relax. And go slow.
“Okay … sooooo … I interviewed Toby. Toby Myers. You all know Toby, right?”
“Yes!” the class yelled.
Sophie cleared her throat again. “Okay. Sooooo … I interviewed Toby. Aaaand …”
Sophie carefully studied her paper. Then she picked at some green paint on the back of her hand.
“Yes?” said Ms. Moffly.
Sophie looked at the teacher. “And I found out what his favorite color is.”
“Yes?” said Ms. Moffly again.
Sophie cleared her throat one more time. “Toby Myers’ favorite color is … not blue,” she said.
Giggles popped up all around the room. But Sophie didn’t care. The longer it took for her to give her report, the better.
It was two forty-five. She just had to make her report last fifteen more minutes.
“That’s enough, class,” said Ms. Moffly. “Sophie, please go ahead.”
“Toby … Myers’ … favorite … color … iisssssss …” Sophie put a long pause between each word.
“Red!” Toby yelled.
The whole class clapped and cheered.
“And my favorite ice cream is chocolate! And I have two cats! And I want to be a reporter or a baseball player!” he added.
“Toby!” said Ms. Moffly.
“Sorry.” He shrugged. “She was just going so slow. I was trying to help.”
Help? Sophie glared at Toby harder than she’d ever glared before. She could feel laser beams shoot from her eyes. Well, almost. If they really had, that would have been awesome!
“I’m very sorry you were interrupted, Sophie,” said Ms. Moffly. “Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?”
There sure was! Sophie wanted to tell everybody that Toby Myers was a big, giant pain in the neck! She wanted to tell them not to listen to anything else he had to say. She wanted to tell them that no matter how hard he and the whole class laughed at her that day, the next day she would earn her awesome new name.
But she didn’t. She just said, “No,” sat back down, and waited for Toby to ruin her life.
“I interviewed her,” Toby said. He pointed a thumb in Sophie’s direction.
“The name’s Sophie Miller,” Sophie muttered.
Everyone laughed.
Toby snuck Sophie a teasing look. He was thinking about her nickname. She just knew it. He was thinking about how he should say it, to make it sound as silly as he could.
Sophie put her head down on her desk.
Why did Toby have to be her partner?
And why did she have to tell him, of all people, her awesome new name?
Why couldn’t she have kept her big mouth shut until the next day?
She did not feel like Sophie the Awesome. She felt like Sophie the Dumbest Girl in the Whole World.
“Anyway,” Toby went on. “I found out that she says her favorite baseball and football teams are the Giants. But she probably doesn’t have a clue, because that’s just really weird.”
“It’s crazy!” yelled Archie.
“Archie! Toby!” Ms. Moffly said.
“Well, it is,” Toby said. “And she says her favorite basketball player is a giant. I mean, they’re tall. But giants? Come on.”
He laughed, and a bunch of the boys joined him.
“That’s enough,” said Ms. Moffly. “And remember, Toby, your job as a reporter is to stick to the facts. Are there any other facts you’d like to add?”
Toby looked at Sophie.
Her face felt red. She could only imagine what it looked like. She waited for him to say her new name, and for the whole class to laugh. Again.
But Toby just shrugged and went back to his seat. “Nah. Nothin’ else. She’s way too boring,” he said.
Of course, everyone started giggling. Everyone except Sophie. She had never been so happy to be called boring in her whole life!
Had Toby really just finished his report without making fun of the name Sophie the Awesome at all?
Sophie pinched herself. Ouch! Okay, she wasn’t dreaming.
She didn’t look at Toby, just in case it might remind him. But she silently thanked him. Who would have thought that Toby could do something so … awesome?
Chapter 10
The next thing Sophie knew, school was over. And she was glad. It had been a long day! She didn’t know what had stopped Toby from making fun of her name in class, but it worried her. He could still change his mind and ruin everything. Any minute!
And if he didn’t? What then? Did Sophie really have to thank him?
Ugh! That might be worse.
Sophie grabbed her backpack. She just wanted to get on the bus as soon as possible. Then she could start making plans with Kate for the next day — the day when she’d finally prove her awesomeness!
On the bus, Sophie pulled Kate to their favorite seat in the back row. Then she scrunched down, hoping that Ella wouldn’t see her.
Ella Fitzgibbon was in kindergarten. She lived next door to Sophie … and she never left Sophie alone.
“SOOOO-PHIE!”
Her squeaky voice was getting closer.
“There you are!” Ella plopped down in the seat across from Kate and Sophie. Then she scrunched down, just like them. “Who are we hiding from?” she asked.
“No one.” Sophie sighed. But Kate giggled. For some reason, she seemed to think Ella was cute. Sophie wondered if Kate would feel the same if Ella stuck to her like glue.
“Hey, what’s in the box?” Kate asked.
Ella held up a boot-sized shoe box with crayon writing on it. Sophie read the scribbly letters. They spelled: ELLAS SLINKYS. Huh?
“It’s my Slinky collection!” said Ella as the bus pulled away from the school. “I brought it in for show-and-tell. I have twenty. And a half. Want to see?” she asked.
“Sure,” said Kate. “Cool!”
“Kate!” Sophie whispered before Ella’s box was opened. “We have things to discuss.” She turned Kate’s shoulders toward her. “Ella, you’ll have to excuse us,” she said.
But Kate looked puzzled. “What do we have to discuss?”
Sophie sighed. “‘Sophie the Awesome.’ Remember?” she whispered.
“Oh, right,” Kate said. “But I thought you were just going to jump rope tomorrow.”
“Yes,” said Sophie. “But I was thinking, if we go out to the yard in the morning, I could try then, before school even begins. Then I can start the day as Sophie the Awesome!” Before Toby can say anything to anybody, she added silently to herself.
Kate thought for a second. Then she nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
“Sounds good to me, too!” said Ella. She was leaning across the aisle, grinning. “What are you talking about, anyway?”
“Nothing,” grumbled Sophie.
“What do you mean, ‘nothing’?” Kate said. “We’re talking about breaking the all-time jump-rope record! That’s something, isn’t it?”
Sophie had to admit that Kate had a point.
“Wow! That’s awesome!” Ella said. “What’s the record?”
Sophie got very serious. “One hundred and thirty-four,” she said.
“Wow!” exclaimed Ella. “ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR!”