Sophie Under Pressure (5 page)

“Are you filming with your eyes closed?” Maggie said.

Sophie popped her eyes open. Oh, yeah. The before movie. No matter how much she loved this tree house as it was, it was soon going to be transformed.

“We have agreed on an experiment, Captain,” Fiona said.

“We didn't vote on it,” Maggie said.

“So we'll vote already,” Fiona said between clenched teeth. “Who wants to make building the space station the experiment, and we tell how it's different from building it in outer space?”

She, Kitty, and Maggie all raised their hands.

“Why did we just do that?” Fiona said.

Sophie gave a hurried nod. “Then it's decided. Now I want to film each of you stating your name and what your job is.”

Of course, Sophie had to turn off the camera immediately and help everybody figure out a name and a job, and make sure Fiona didn't get sick of Maggie and haul off and smack her. If that happened, there would be more screaming than they were hearing from down below. It sounded like somebody had somebody tied up. Sophie was afraid to look. She hoped it wasn't that pretty Kateesha lady.

It was decided that Sophie definitely would be Captain Stella Stratos, the head of the space station. Maggie pointed out that Fiona actually knew more about space stations than Sophie did, but Kitty and Fiona overruled her.

Fiona was to be called Jupiter. She was in charge of the experiment itself. Maggie couldn't argue with that, since she'd already said Fiona was better for the job. Besides, Fiona needed to do more because of GATE.

The name they gave Kitty was Luna, after the moon. She kept repeating it like she was afraid she would forget it. Fiona said Kitty should be her assistant.

By the time they got to Maggie, she had picked out her own name: Nimbus. She told them it was a type of cloud.

“I know,” Fiona said. “A very DARK cloud.”

Kitty nodded. “She does have black hair. I wish I had hair like yours, Maggie.”

Maggie looked all around the tree house like she didn't know where to put a compliment.

“I think I should keep all the records of the results of the experiment,” Maggie said finally. “I'm the only one of us who's really good at that.”

“Hello! Rude!” Fiona said.

“Who always gets hundreds in spelling and handwriting?”

“I get ninety-seven's.”

“So I'm better at it than you.”

“You're the record keeper, Nimbus,” Sophie said. She was suddenly so tired, she wanted to crawl into her wooden box. Or maybe put Maggie in hers.

Captain Stella Stratos knew she was going to have to figure out how to handle crew members who always acted like they wanted to throw each other into the ozone layer.

Just then the loudest scream yet pierced the air from the ground right up to the space station. The Corn Flakes all scrambled to the railing, just in time to see Zeke flying off the deck, frantically flapping his little arms, which were clad in a pair of flowered pillowcases. As Sophie watched in horror, her little brother hit the ground like a crashing plane, pillowcases crumpled on either side.

And then he just stayed there, and he didn't move at all.

Five

B
y the time Sophie got to Zeke, Boppa and Kateesha were already there. Isabella and Rory were nowhere in sight.

“Is he dead?” Sophie said. She slid in on her knees and peered, terrified, at Zeke.

“No, he's not dead,” Kateesha said. “But I know two other kids who are going to be when I get a hold of them.”

“You go take care of them,” Boppa said to her. “Just try not to break any bones.”

Kateesha hurried off, and Zeke started to cry. That definitely meant he wasn't dead.

“Where do you hurt, little buddy?” Boppa said.

“Everywhere!” Zeke wailed.

“Is his whole body broken?” Sophie said. “Should we call nine-one-one?”

“Let's take a look here,” Boppa said. His voice was as soft and calm as always.

He went over Zeke limb by limb. Everything seemed to be in working order. The ice-cream sandwich Kateesha brought him and the apologies from Isabella and Rory got him smiling again. Personally, Sophie didn't think he should forgive those two little monsters. They didn't seem all that sincere to her.

“Why did you jump off the deck in the first place?” Mama asked Zeke later on the way home.

“I didn't jump,” Zeke said. “Izzy and Rory pushed me.”

“Why did they push you?”

“They wanted to see if I could fly with those wings we made.”

Mama glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “Let me tell you something, Z,” she said. “You cannot fly. Period. So don't try it again.”

“Sophie and them's gonna fly,” he said. His bee sting of a mouth was going into a pout.

“No, we're not!” Sophie said. “We're just building a space station.”

Mama lowered her voice and leaned a little toward Sophie. “Just to be on the safe side, don't ever take him up into that tree house.”

Sophie gave her a somber nod. And then she let out a long breath of relieved air. At least Mama didn't say Sophie couldn't go over to Fiona's and take Zeke from then on. From the serious way she'd seen Mama talking to Boppa before they started for home, Sophie suspected Mama was going to have more sessions with Dr. Peter.

For the next week, the astronauts worked every minute they had setting up the space station. They decided to call it
Freedom 4
. “Freedom” because it was going to save the world, although Captain Stella Stratos hadn't yet figured out how that was going to work. And “Four” sounded the best with “Freedom.” When they got to the space station the day after they named it, there was a painted sign up there that read, “Welcome to
Freedom 4
,” and all the names on the boxes had been switched to the girls' astronaut names.

Boppa was doing a lot to help them, but they were being very careful to do most of the work themselves with Boppa just overseeing. Mrs. Utley said nobody was allowed to have their parents do their science projects for them.

“These are going to go on display in the science fair for the PTO meeting next month,” she told the class. Her chins were really wiggling, so Sophie knew she meant business. “But if any group turns in a project that was obviously done by an adult, it will not be shown. Period.”

Sophie heard the Corn Pops whispering to one another like startled bees. As for the Fruit Loops — they were all leaning back in their chairs with their arms folded over their chests.
They think they could get away with having a brain surgeon do their whole project
, Sophie thought. She wondered how many poor frogs they had tortured already.

“How are we going to get all this into the cafeteria to put on display?” Maggie said that afternoon when they were up in the space station.

Sophie looked around at all they'd done so far — the “robot arm” they'd made from an umbrella handle and attached to the basket crank so they could move it up and down; the sets of old headphones from Kitty's dad on hooks for the astronauts; the big flat wings that hung above them that Boppa had helped them make from sheets of metal off a torn-down shed. Captain Stella had to admit that Nimbus had a point.

“Simple,” Fiona said. “We'll get Mrs. Utley to set up a DVD player and a TV to show our film, and we'll find some really cool way to display our results. You know, a graph or something. That's your job, Nimbus.”

Maggie frowned. “But I need information about that micro-gravity thing where everything floats around up in space, so I'll know how this is different. That's your job, Jupiter.” Maggie's voice then gave its final thud: “Are you two doing any work at all?”

She pointed a stern finger at Kitty and Fiona. Kitty shrank back like she'd been hit with a large stick. Fiona's nostrils flared.

Uh-oh
, Sophie thought.
Here it comes.

“And what about you?” Fiona said. “I don't see any costumes yet. Hello!”

It wasn't the first time Fiona had gotten furious with Maggie since they'd started working on the space station. And Sophie really couldn't blame her. Maggie was getting bossier by the second, and even though sometimes she was right, Kitty whined to Sophie privately that she didn't have to be so mean about it.

“I got enough of that when I was a Corn Pop,” she told Sophie. “I thought being a Corn Flake meant you were nice to people.”

When Maggie wasn't around, Fiona was all for voting her off the crew, but Sophie said no. For one thing, how was Maggie supposed to get a science project done if they kicked her out of the group? Mrs. Utley's chins would wiggle right off her face.

“Besides,” Sophie told Fiona the next morning at school before Maggie got there, “we're Corn Flakes. We're supposed to help people.”

“We're supposed to keep them from being bullied,” Fiona said. “I feel like Nimbus is bullying us.”

Sophie had noticed that Fiona always referred to Maggie as Nimbus now. She seemed to like the way she could curl her upper lip when she said it. Maggie definitely wasn't bringing out the best in Fiona.

“I'll talk to her,” Sophie said. “That's my job as captain.”

“Good,” Fiona said. “Here she comes. You can start right now.”

Fiona tested a swing and then sat down on it, arms folded. Sophie moved away from her a little and stopped Maggie before she could get too close.

“Hi, Mags,” Sophie said.

“You should make up your mind what you want to call me,” Maggie said. “Sometimes I'm Nimbus. Sometimes I'm Maggie. Now I'm Mags.”

“Giving somebody nicknames means you like them,” Sophie said.

“Oh,” Maggie said. “My mother just calls me Margarita.”

Sophie felt her eyes getting big. “Your real name is Margarita?”

“Yes, like the drink. And don't tell anybody at this school, or I'll be laughed at every minute.”

Sophie made an X mark on her chest with her hand. “I would never do that. No Corn Flake would ever do that.”

“You guys are always nice,” Maggie said.

“You're a Corn Flake too, remember.” Sophie sucked in some air. “And, Mags, sometimes you aren't all that nice to certain people in the group.”

Maggie's eyes darted in Fiona's direction. “Did SHE tell you that?”

“She didn't have to,” Sophie said. “I can see it for myself.”

“She isn't the nicest person in the whole world either.” Maggie's words were now firing out like bullets.

“What does THAT mean?” Fiona said. The swing was now swaying crazily where she'd lurched out of it.

“It means you've been talking trash about me to Sophie,” Maggie said.

Fiona stopped just inches from Maggie's face. Sophie tried to wedge her way between them.

“I never said anything to Sophie that wasn't true,” Fiona said.

Fiona's nostrils were flaring so wide, Sophie figured Mama could drive their old Suburban through one of them.

“Why didn't you just say it to me?” Maggie said.

“Okay,” Fiona said. “I'll say it straight to your face!”

“Say it, then,” Maggie said.

“Okay.” Fiona narrowed her eyes at Maggie. “I think you are the bossiest person on the face of the earth. You act like you're the president of the United States or somebody! Always telling Kitty and me what to do — ”

“Do not,” Maggie said.

“Do too,” Fiona said.

“Do NOT!”

“Do TOO!”

“STOP!” Sophie cried.

“No — let 'em go for it!”

That came from Colton Messik, who was suddenly standing three feet from them with the other two Fruit Loops.

“Fight!” Eddie shouted, face red. “Fight!”

Maggie turned on them like she was going to throw a punch. Sophie jumped on her back. Fiona got in front of them both and put up her hands.