Sophie the Awesome Read Online Free Page A

him.
    Sophie reached her table at last and smiled. “I,” she said, “am carrying four—count them—four trays!”
    She wanted to bow, but of course she couldn’t. So Sophie decided to set the trays down. But she couldn’t do that, either.
    The minute she leaned forward, the plates started sliding. The silverware started rolling. And all four trays started moving on their own!
    “Help me, Kate!” Sophie cried.
    Kate quickly slipped her hand under Sydney’s tray and set it down. Sophie A. and Sydney hurried to grab the others—just in time!
    Sophie waited for her heart to start beatingnormally again. Then she held up her arms. “Ta-da!” she called. She looked at all the kids around her. “What do you think? Wasn’t that … awesome?”
    She thought there would be cheering or clapping. But there was not.
    “You almost dropped them all,” said Sophie A.
    “You spilled my carrots,” said Sydney.
    “What’s so awesome about carrying four trays, anyway?” asked Mindy. She had just walked up behind them, carrying her own tray. “You know, I went to a restaurant last night where the waiter carried all five plates out at one time. It was for my grandmother’s birthday and it was very fancy.” Mindy turned and flashed Sophie one of her squinty, no-teeth smiles.
“And
he set the dessert on fire!”
    “Really?” said Kate. “On real fire?”
    Sophie nudged Kate with her elbow.
    “Sorry,” said Kate, shrugging. “But that does sound pretty awesome.”
    “I’ll tell you what else is awesome,” Toby pipedup suddenly. He was sitting at the boys’ table and holding up a handful of fries. “Look at this!”
    He opened his mouth as wide as it could go.
(Yuck!
thought Sophie.) Then, one by one, he began to shove in French fries.
    “One … two … three …,” Archie counted.
    Soon the whole boys’ table had joined in, soft enough so that no lunch monitor would hear.
    “… twenty-one … twenty-two … twenty-three!”
    Toby pumped his arms. That was about all he could do with a big mouthful of fries.
    “Twenty-three!” cheered Archie.
    “That’s a record!” said Jack.
    “That is gross,” said Mindy.
    “No, that’s awesome!” said Dean.
    Toby, of course, said nothing. He looked happy. But uncomfortable, too. He couldn’t even chew.
    Awesome? Toby?
Sophie didn’t think so!
    She sat down and grabbed her own fries. And Kate’s. And she began to stuff them into her mouth.
    “Count,” she mumbled to Kate.
    “Uh, one … two … three …” Kate began.
    Soon all the girls were joining in.
    “… eleven … twelve … thirteen …”
    Then the boys were counting, too.
    “… eighteen … nineteen … twenty …”
    Sophie took another fry and put it into her mouth. She really wanted to chew. But she was so close — she couldn’t stop now! If this was what it took to be awesome, then this was what she would do.
    “… twenty-one … twenty-two …” The voices were getting louder.
    Sophie picked up another French fry. So what if her jaw was burning? She was going to break Toby’s record.
    She was going to be awesome!
    She wanted to smile. But she couldn’t. So she wiggled French fry number twenty-three instead.
    “Hey! That one doesn’t count!” shouted Toby. By then, he had emptied his own mouth. “It’s too small!”

    “Way too small!” agreed Archie.
    Sophie wanted to frown. But she couldn’t. So she glared at Toby and Archie instead.
    Then she quickly picked up another fry and began to shove it into her mouth.
    “… twenty-thr —”
    Suddenly, the voices around her stopped. It was like someone had hit the “mute” button, or — Or!
    There was something else that could make the lunchroom get quiet.
    Sophie slowly turned.
    Sure enough, it was Principal Tate.
    Uh-oh …

“M iss Miller,” said the principal. He was looking down his long nose at Sophie. His eyes were very serious. “Do I need to remind you of the importance of table manners?”
    Sophie looked up at him