Sophie waved to her. “Morning!” she called.
“Morning, Sophie,” Sydney said.
“So, did you bring in the dollar?” Sophie asked.
Sydney cocked her head. “Huh?”
Sophie held up her IOU.
“Oh, right!” Sydney nodded. Then she reached into her backpack and pulled out a dollar. She handed it over. “Here you go.”
Sophie took the dollar and grinned. Her first dollar of the day!
“Thanks!” she said. Then she reached into her pocket and handed Sydney one of her cards. “Call me if you need anything else done for you!”
Sydney read the card. “I didn’t know you could fix computers,” she said.
Sophie groaned. She should have crossed her dad’s side out, she guessed.
She almost took the card back to do it. But more kids were coming in. She would have to fix her cards later. Right now she had more IOUs to collect.
Soon she had a whole pile of dollars.
Only one person so far forgot. Jack.
Then there was Grace. She did not forget. She just wouldn’t pay.
She showed Sophie her vocabulary list. “I can’t read your writing, Sophie!” she said.
Grace had a point. Sophie could not read it, either.
“Sorry,” Sophie said. She must have been tired by the time she copied Grace’s list.
After that, there was just one more kid to collect from — Dean.
Sophie took out his IOU. Then she walked up to him.
Dean held out a five-dollar bill. He looked a little sad. “This is all I have. I didn’t want to spend it. But I guess I have to,” he said.
“Don’t worry. I have plenty of change,” Sophie said.
She took the five-dollar bill and counted four dollars to give back.
Then she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
“What is going on here?” Ms. Moffly asked.
Chapter 9
Sophie turned to see her teacher. Ms. Moffly was staring at her. And she looked surprised.
“Hi, Ms. Moffly! Not too much is going on. I’m just getting money from Dean,” Sophie said.
“Excuse me?” said Ms. Moffly. She still looked surprised. But now she looked confused, too. “You can’t take money from other students, Sophie. Especially not in school.”
Huh?
“Oh … no!” Sophie got it. Ms. Moffly did not understand. “I’m not taking money. I earned it!” she explained.
Sophie reached into her pocket. She pulled out one of her cards, turned it Sophie — side up, and handed it to Ms. Moffly.
“I have a business,” she went on. “I’m going to make lots of money! I wanted to win the lottery, but my mom thinks that earning money is a better idea. So let me know if you need something done. I have deals for kids and grown-ups!”
Ms. Moffly’s eyes went back and forth from Sophie’s card to Sophie.
At last, her eyes moved to Dean. “Would you excuse us, please?” she asked. Then Ms. Moffly held her hand out toward the door. “Let’s have a talk in the hall, Sophie.”
A talk. In the hall. Sophie’s knees suddenly felt shaky.
She’d had talks in the hall before. For two different reasons.
One was in first grade when her teacher, Mrs. Smart, told Sophie that her mom had a new baby. The baby was Max. But that was before he had a name.
The other reason for talks in the hall was that Sophie was in big trouble. That had happened in lots of grades. Not just the first.
This day Sophie was pretty sure her mom was not having a baby. But how could she be in big trouble? She had not done anything bad. She had only copied vocabulary words.
Out in the hall, Ms. Moffly knelt down. She and Sophie were nose to nose. “First, Sophie, I want you to know that I admire your entrepreneurial spirit,” she said.
Sophie stood very still. She did not know what that meant. But at least it did not sound like she was in big trouble. Yet.
“But I’m afraid that school is just not the place for it,” Ms. Moffly said then. “You cannot ask other students for money. Those are the rules.”
Hang on. Those were the rules? That did not seem right to Sophie.
“But what about the penny drive?” she asked Ms. Moffly. “My sister’s whole class is asking for money from everyone in the school!”
Ms. Moffly shrugged. “Well, that’s different,” she said.
Sophie shrugged back. “How?”
“How?” Ms. Moffly repeated. She put her fingertips together. Her pink nail polish was so pretty. Sophie decided she would have to buy some, too, when she was a zillionaire.
“Well …,” Ms. Moffly went on. “Because the fifth grade is asking for money to help other people. Less fortunate people. Not themselves.”
“Oh …,” Sophie said. That was a little different. Or maybe even a lot different.
She looked down at the money — the five-dollar bill and the five ones — still in her hand. She let out a little sigh.
“And you know, you’ll have to return the money you took today,” Ms. Moffly said.
Sophie sucked her sigh back in. “I do?!”
Ms. Moffly nodded. “You do,” she said.
Sophie hung her head. She still was not sure if she was in big trouble. But she might as well have been.
Sophie knew that giving the money back would be hard. And it was. At first. One thing was for sure: Subtracting was not as fun as adding. At all!
Plus Sophie had worked hard to earn that money. Her hand was still sore. And now twelve — well, eleven — people had vocabulary lists for free. That did not seem very fair to her.
But then a funny thing happened. Giving the money back got easy. Mostly because it made everyone so happy. And that made Sophie happy, too.
“Really?” Sydney said when Sophie gave back her dollar. “So you wrote my list for free? Wow. That’s so nice. Thank you!”
“Thanks, Sophie. I can use the dollar for the book fair now!” Mia told her.
Dean was even happier. When Sophie gave back his five-dollar bill, he looked like he’d found an old friend.
“It’s the first five dollars I ever got. Thank you, Sophie!” he said.
Sophie felt kind of cozy inside. Like she and Dean had shared a hug. But they had not. Thank goodness! Dean was so big she might get crushed.
By the time she’d given all the money back, Sophie almost didn’t miss it. In fact, she almost wanted to give more of it out….
A thought was hitting Sophie. Not hard and fast, like a snowball. But slow and gentle, like a bath.
It felt good to get money. But it felt good to give it, too.
And then another thought hit Sophie. This time like a snowball. Exactly!
Maybe she shouldn’t be Sophie the Zillionaire. Maybe she should be Sophie the Giver instead!
But what about all the things she wanted to buy? She guessed she really did not need them.
And who knew? Even if Sophie made more money than Mindy, Mindy’s grandma could always give her more.
Sophie might never be richer than Mindy. But she could give more than her, for sure! What a great thing to be known for!
Suddenly, Sophie couldn’t wait to get home. To get her bank and dump the money out. To change all her dollars into pennies. And to give it all to Hayley’s class!
Or at least, a lot of it. Maybe she would keep a little. She could sure use some new rain boots. And some pink nail polish, too.
The day seemed to go on forever. Even art and gym and recess seemed slow. Finally, the bell rang and the bus took Sophie home.
She hugged Kate and said good-bye. Then Sophie ran home and up to her room. She bent down, reached under her bed, and pulled out …