“Higher!” Mindy ordered.
“I’m trying,” Sophie told her. And really, she was. But her arm was so heavy and sore now, she could hardly lift it up. It was really starting to burn, like a thousand tiny dragons were inside, breathing fire.
Finally, Mindy jumped in.
“Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,” everyone started to sing.
But before they got any further, the rope tripped Mindy — “Ooph!” — and she fell to her knees.
“You did that on purpose!” shouted Mindy.
“But I didn’t!” Sophie said. She couldn’t let her name be ruined by an accident like this! “My arm just got so tired,” she explained. “I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean to. I swear!”
Kate spoke up. “Sophie would never do that on purpose.”
Sophie A. joined her. “It was just an accident, Mindy. Relax.”
Sophie gave them both a grateful smile. But Mindy still looked very mad. In fact, her face was as red as a rubber kickball — the kind that came zooming in just then!
“Look out!” called Dean from across the blacktop.
But it was too late. The ball hit Mindy — smack! — in her pinchy, sour face. It must have hit her hard, too. Dean had kicked the ball, and he was the biggest kid in their grade.
Mindy went flying back instantly as the ball bounced off her nose and hopped happily away.
“Ah!” Mindy yelled, covering her face.
“Sorry!” Dean called.
The other kickball players, meanwhile, had started to laugh. Soon the basketball players and tag players were laughing, too. Only the jump-ropers weren’t. They were standing with their hands over their big, round mouths. Sophie bet if they took their hands away too fast, their own laughs would spill out.
But Sophie decided something: Sweethearts didn’t laugh; they helped. Besides, Mindy had been kneeling there because of her. And it looked like she was really hurt!
“Are you okay?” Sophie asked Mindy. She bent down and gently helped her sit up.
Mindy’s shoulders trembled. Her head shook from side to side. Slowly, she let her hands down. Her face was all different colors of red now. And her eyes were wet. Stuff was even starting to spill out! Wait. Was Mindy crying?
Sophie had seen Mindy cry before. Everybody had. But it was always pretty … well, fake. There were never any real tears.
“Where does it hurt?” Sophie asked her.
Mindy sniffled and held up her hand. There was a tiny scrape on her palm. That must hurt a lot more than it looks like it does, Sophie thought. Or maybe, she realized suddenly, something else hurts even more.
By then, Ms. Moffly was outside with them. Recess was over. It was time to go in.
“What happened?” she asked, hurrying over.
“Mindy tripped on the jump rope. Accidentally,” said Sophie. “And then Dean went and hit her in the head.”
“Dean what?” Ms. Moffly gasped.
“With the ball, I mean,” Sophie said. “And it was probably an accident, too. Don’t worry. Nobody can aim a kickball that well.”
“Do you need to go to the nurse, Mindy?” Ms. Moffly asked. She knelt so they were nose-to-nose.
Mindy sniffled — twice this time — and nodded.
“Oh, I can take her,” Sophie offered. “I know the way by heart.”
Ms. Moffly smiled. “Yes, I guess you do by now. That’s very sweet, Sophie. Thank you.”
Wow! Sophie didn’t know what was sweeter — her or the way she felt!
She took Mindy’s hand and led her inside, up the stairs. “Does it hurt a lot?” Sophie asked. “I just want to warn you, it’ll hurt even more when Mrs. Frost rubs that sting-y stuff on it.”
Mindy stopped and turned to Sophie. Her tears were finally drying up. She still looked sad, but not so splotchy. And not snooty at all. For once. “I hate that sting-y stuff!” She gulped.
“I know.” Sophie nodded. “Me too. But sometimes it helps to hold someone’s hand when she puts it on. If you want, you can hold mine.”
“That would help a lot,” Mindy said.
Then she sniffed again and made a face Sophie wasn’t used to (on Mindy, at least). A smile. “You really didn’t trip me?”
“No way!” Sophie said.
“I thought maybe you were still mad at me … about that dare. You know, taking Mia’s present at her party. I’m sorry about that.”
Mindy was sorry? Without an I’m-not-really-sorry face? That surprised Sophie, too!
“Uh … it’s okay. I got over it,” said Sophie.
“You know, nobody but Lily is ever this nice to me,” Mindy confessed. “It’s kind of nice to have another friend.”
Mindy’s friend? Sophie heard the word, but it took a minute to sink in. Was that really what she was now? That hadn’t been her plan. And yet here they were, sharing smiles and holding hands.
Before she could say or do anything else, the nurse’s door opened wide.
“Well, well, well, Sophie Miller,” said the nurse, Mrs. Frost. “What in the world have you done to yourself now?”
“Oh, it’s not me, Mrs. Frost,” Sophie said quickly. “It’s Mindy, here. My friend.”
Chapter 6
Sophie couldn’t believe it. Being sweet to Mindy had gone so well! In fact, she didn’t even have to try to be sweet anymore that day. It just happened. By itself.
Mindy smiled at Sophie when it was time to go home. And the next morning, when they got to school, she waved and said hello.
“Hi!” Sophie said back, giving Mindy a big smile. “So, how’s your hand?”
“It’s okay.” Mindy showed off a big pink bandage. It was sparkly!
Cool!
“Where did you get that?” Sophie asked. “On the Internet,” Mindy explained. “I’ll have my mom order some for you.”
Suddenly, Lily ran up and hugged Mindy. “I’m back! I was sick, but I’m all better now!” Then she turned to Sophie. “What are you doing here?” her eyes asked.
Lily started to say something. Probably “Get lost,” Sophie guessed.
But Mindy stopped her. “It’s okay.” Lily turned back to see if she’d heard right. “It is?”
Mindy nodded. “Sure. We’re all friends.” Sophie watched the idea hit Lily. She seemed as surprised as Sophie had been.
“But you can still hang up my coat, Lily,” Mindy told her. She slipped her jacket off. “Here.”
She waved to Sophie as they walked off. Sophie waved back to her and grinned.
Then — “Ooph!” — Sophie suddenly stumbled forward.
Hey! What was that?
“Out of my way!” Toby said, shoving past.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” Sophie began to shout.
But then she stopped. Sophie the Sweetheart couldn’t say that.
“Excuse me!” she called instead, sweetly. “I’m so sorry if I was in your way!”
Then a thought hit her — whomp! — in the very front of her brain.
Being a sweetheart to Mindy had gone way better than planned. But Mindy wasn’t the only hard-to-be-sweet-to kid in her class. Sophie could almost hear the other kids saying, “Wow! Can you believe how sweet Sophie is to Mindy? And Toby, too?”
And better yet, if she listened hard, she could almost hear Toby saying something, as well. Something like “I forgot how nice you were, Sophie. Do you want to be friends again?”
She couldn’t wait to tell Kate her latest and greatest idea!
But when she did, Kate just looked worried. “Are you sure you can do this, Sophie?” she asked. “I mean, I know you said Mindy might have some good qualities. But Toby? I don’t know. Plus, how sweet can you be to him when his face makes you sick?”
“Not his whole face,” Sophie said, correcting her. Just all those freckles, and that ketchup hair, and those big beaver teeth. “And he doesn’t make me sick, exactly.” Just a little ill sometimes. “If I’m going to be a real sweetheart, I’m going to have to try my best with everyone. Even Toby.”
It was Thursday, which meant they had gym again. And that meant square dancing. Again. But this was a great chance to be sweet to Toby — one that Sophie couldn’t miss!
This time, Mr. Hurley let them pick their own partners if they wanted to.
Sophie raised her hand. She was the only one. “I pick Toby,” she declared.
“You do?!” Toby’s face got red. Even redder than his hair.
“Mmm-hmm.” Sophie smiled sweetly and nodded. But suddenly, what she really wanted to do was run out of the gym.
She should have known better. She should have known Toby would act like he had before: like he’d rather be getting a shot in the arm than square dancing with her.
At first, Sophie tried to ignore him. But she was a sweetheart, not a saint. Then she realized there was another way to be sweet to Toby.
“You know what, Mr. Hurley?” she said loudly. “I think I changed my mind. This seems to make Toby very unhappy, and I would hate to do that. I’d like to pick Ben instead. If that’s okay with you and Ben, of course.”
Ben shrugged and fixed his glasses. “Sure,” he said. “Okay with me.”
Mr. Hurley scratched his head with his whistle. “Uh, yeah. Sounds good, I think.”
Sophie turned to Toby. “Never mind,” she sweetly said.
Toby looked surprised, like he’d gotten the shot and it hadn’t hurt a bit. It wasn’t exactly a look that said, “You’re a sweetheart.” But that’s okay, thought Sophie. She was just warming up.
All day long, Sophie looked for another way to be sweet to Toby. She found her next chance in art class. Ms. Bart, the art teacher, had asked them each to make a flag on a piece of paper. She told them all, “It should represent you!”
Toby made a big blue star on his flag. Of course, Sophie knew why. It was the logo of his favorite football team, the Dallas Cowboys. It would have been very easy for the old Sophie to say something not-so-sweet to him then. Something like “That doesn’t represent you, Toby. It represents a football team.”
But Sophie the Sweetheart would never say that! What she did say was “I like your flag a lot. You did a really good job with your star.”
“Uh, thanks.” Toby looked up. His eyes zipped back and forth. He checked to make sure she was talking about his flag. Yep. It was the only one with a big star.
Sophie went on. “You should keep it, for when you make the team one day.”
Toby checked again to make sure she wasn’t teasing him. So Sophie made her most sincere, no-way-am-I-teasing-you face.
He nodded to the giant red heart on her paper. “Your flag’s nice, too,” he said — so softly she almost didn’t hear.
Sophie grinned. Yes, it was nice. She’d worked hard on it. (Heart shapes were not easy!) But Sophie was smiling for another reason, too. That was the first compliment Toby had given her in a very long time.
“Thanks,” she said back. And this time, she and Toby shared a smile. In fact, Sophie looked at Toby’s face for a whole second before she realized she didn’t feel the teeniest bit ill. It was almost like the old days, when they had looked at each other and felt like friends.
“So, how are your cats doing?” she asked Toby. “You should meet my kitten, Tiptoe, sometime.”
“Cool. Maybe,” said Toby. “When’d you get her? What’s she like?”
Sophie leaned forward. She was just about to tell him how cuddly and sweet Tiptoe was when all of a sudden a hand grabbed the edge of her flag and started to tug.
“Hey! My heart!” Sophie cried. She followed the hand … to the arm … all the way up … to Archie’s face!
He pulled the flag toward him. “So, what’s this? A big valentine?” He was grinning like a shark.
“No!” Sophie said in what she hoped was a sweet voice. “It’s my flag. So please get your hands off!”
She tried to pull her flag back — but that was a mistake. Archie held on tight. And Sophie’s heart began to break.
Rrrriiiip!
“You tore my flag!” cried Sophie.
“Ha!” Archie laughed. “It wasn’t my fault. You’re the one that pulled.” Then he turned to Toby. “You saw her, right?”