One was that she was the only person who still had a list to copy. And the other was that she loved charades. And she really hated to miss it.
At least by the time school was over, she had all the lists done. She passed them out to her friends. They passed their IOUs to her.
She counted them. Twelve. And she felt a little better. No, it wasn’t money. But it was close.
Sophie smiled and climbed onto the bus with Kate. They walked to their favorite seat in the back. Sophie sat down. She shook the rain off her coat and rubbed her sore hand. But she forgot to scrunch down to hide from Ella Fitzgibbon … until it was too late.
“SOOO-PHIE!” called a squeaky voice. It was Ella’s. Of course.
The kindergartener ran down the aisle to them and hugged Sophie. Hard. “My hero!” she said.
Sophie sighed. She couldn’t help it. Ella’s hug was sticky, as usual. But that day it was also drippy wet, from all the rain.
“You know, you don’t have to call me that anymore, Ella,” Sophie told her.
Sure, Sophie had saved Ella’s life the week before. But that seemed so long ago now. Being a hero had been fun — for a while. But it was hard to keep up!
Ella plopped down in the seat across from Sophie. “Aw, but I like it!”
Kate leaned over. “Sophie’s a zillionaire now, Ella,” she said.
“Really?” Ella’s eyes got big. “How much money do you have?”
Sophie sat up straight. She looked down at Ella. “Almost a hundred dollars,” she said.
She waited for Ella to say, “Wow!” Or “Whoa!” Or “Oh, boy!”
But Ella just stared.
“One hundred dollars? Is that all?” she said.
What?
Sophie guessed that Ella had not learned big numbers, like one hundred, yet.
“That’s one hundred. One zero zero. Dollars,” Sophie said.
“I know what a hundred is,” Ella told her. “I can count all the way there. Want to hear? One, two, three, four, five, six, sev —”
“That’s okay,” Sophie said.
Ella shrugged. “I bet I have a hundred hundred dollars!” the kindergartner said.
Sophie turned to Kate and made a “what is Ella talking about?” face.
Then Sophie started to get a feeling. It was cold. And it wasn’t from her wet shoes.
Sophie was so close to having more money than Mindy. She was so close to being the richest girl she knew. But if little Ella had so much more money than Sophie did … then Sophie’s great new name was never going to work!
But no! What was she worried about?
Ella was no zillionaire. Everyone knew that. Plus everyone knew that kindergartners loved to lie. (Back when she was five, Sophie had told some good ones herself.)
Sophie smiled at Kate. Her cold feeling warmed up. (But her shoes didn’t.)
Then she patted Ella’s hand. “Good for you, Ella. I’d love to see all that money sometime,” she said.
Chapter 8
As soon as Sophie got home, she ran to her room. She had some homework to do — like copying her own vocabulary words. Luckily, Kate had loaned Sophie her list. Sophie had been so busy copying others she had forgotten to do her own.
But she had some other important things to do first.
Sophie reached under her bed, grabbed her bank, and dumped out the money. Yep. There was still $81.80.
She added the twelve IOUs. They meant she’d have $93.80 by the next day.
Sophie did not have a hundred dollars — yet. But she was so close! And to think that a few days earlier, she’d had less than twenty dollars. If she kept making money this fast, she’d be richer than even her parents, in no time at all!
Sophie guessed her mom was right. Earning it was a pretty good way to make money. At least until she was old enough to buy a lottery ticket of her own.
And there were all kinds of things Sophie could do to earn money! But how would people know to ask her?
Hmm …
She could make a sign. But where would she hang it?
She could put an ad in the newspaper. But who looked at that?
No, Sophie needed something to give out to people. Something they could keep. Something like … business cards!
Sophie put all her money back into her bank. Then she carefully hid it under her bed again. She pulled some paper out of her desk drawer and started to cut it into little squares.
That was not easy, though. They did not turn out very great.
Suddenly, Sophie got an idea. It was better than cutting out cards. Much!
She went into her parents’ room. She looked in the nightstand. Yes!
There were her dad’s business cards. They were piled up nice and straight. And there were a zillion of them!
Sophie took the whole pile back to her room. Then she got to work.
On all the backs, she wrote her own cards. They sounded good!
SOPHIE THE ZILLIONAIRE-AT YOUR SERVISS!
PAY ME TO DO STUFF SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO!
NEW AND IMPROOVED! MORE” FOR YOUR MONEY!
(I TAKE IOUS)
Then Hayley walked in. She looked down at Sophie, who was sitting on the floor.
“What are you doing now?” Hayley asked.
Sophie smiled at her sister. “Have I got a deal for you!” she said, holding out a card.
Hayley rolled her eyes. She did not make a deal. But that was okay. Sophie was sure she’d make plenty of them the next day.
When Sophie got to the bus stop the next morning, she showed her business cards to Kate.
Sophie was so excited! (And not just because of the money, but also because it had finally stopped raining. Hooray!)
“So?” Sophie grinned. “What do you think?”
Kate read the card. “I didn’t know you could fix computers!” she said.
Huh?
Oh! Kate was reading Sophie’s dad’s side of the business card.
“No, no. Turn it over,” Sophie said.
Kate did. She read the back.
“Very cool! Can I keep it?” she asked.
Sophie smiled. “Of course! You’re my best friend!” Then she thought of something. “But if I run out, I might need it back….”
“No problem,” Kate said, linking arms with Sophie.
The bus came rolling down the street. When it stopped, the kids climbed on.
“Good morning!” said Mrs. Blatt, the bus driver.
“Good morning!” Sophie said. She handed the bus driver one of her cards.
Mrs. Blatt read it carefully. “Well, well, well! Sophie the Zillionaire, is it?” she said.
Sophie nodded. “That’s me!” she said.
She wondered what Mrs. Blatt might need her to do? Pump some gas? Fill up her tires? But before she could ask, a squeaky voice called out, “Sophie! Look what I got!”
Sophie knew who it was without turning around. But she turned, anyway. And that was when she saw it.
Ella was running up to the bus with her hands full … of money!
Sophie could not believe it!
When Ella got to the bus, she was panting. She climbed up the steps. “Hi, Mrs. Blatt! Hey, Sophie! Look!”
And that was when Sophie saw something else.
Ella’s money was not just green. It was lots of colors.
Sophie turned to Kate and they both giggled. And Sophie sighed a little, too.
Ella’s hands were full of Monopoly money.
Phew!
At school, Sophie hurried to hang up her jacket. Then she took out her IOUs. She stood by the door just as Sydney walked into the room.