The Outcast

by Nancy Rue

A whistle screeched as Sophie LaCroix and the Corn Flakes (see “Corny Friends” below) hurried into the gym.

Sophie readied herself for Coach Yates' eardrum- popping yell.

“Up in the bleachers!”

Sophie started walking up the stairs when somebody shoved her. She almost tumbled into the lap of Julia Cummings, Corn Pop “queen.”

“Sorry,” Sophie said to the ultrapopular (and snobby) Julia as she turned to see who had pushed her.

It was the new girl, Brooke Singletary. She did a lot of shoving and pushing, among other things. Brooke stood on the bleachers, forearms rolled in her T-shirt, showing her belly.

“She acts like she's in third grade, not sixth,” Willoughby said as Sophie slid into the Flakes' usual row.

Sophie gave her a Corn Flake look.

“Oops,” Willoughby said. “I'm breaking the code, huh?”

“Never put anybody down,” Maggie recited.

“I always mess that up,” Fiona said.

“Especially when it's somebody like Brooke.” Kitty let out a nervous giggle.

“Just ignore her,” Darbie grunted. “If you can.”

That would be hard. Brooke had stretched out on the bench, scooting herself toward the Corn Pops. Julia stopped filing her nails and said, “Do you smell something, Cassie?”

Cassie sniffed noisily. “Yeah. Do you, Anne?”

“Definitely,” Anne-Stuart said.

“Is it garbage?” Cassie said.

Anne-Stuart shook her head. “That's armpit if I ever smelled it.”

“They're so mean,” Sophie whispered. “Brooke can hear.”

All the Corn Flakes nodded with Corn Pop disgust. But Brooke scrambled up and sniffed like a bloodhound.

“I smell it, too,” she said in her boom-box-loud voice. “Want me to find out who it is for ya?”

“Would you?” Julia said. “I'd like to know—“

“—so we can help the poor, smelly person,” Anne- Stuart finished.

Brooke charged down the bleachers, stopping to nuzzle people with her nose, while the Corn Pops smothered their laughter.

Sophie could feel herself turning red.

Coach Yates blew the whistle and froze the whole gym. “What in the world are you doing, Singletary?”

Brooke thrust a finger toward Julia. “She said she smelled somebody, so I was just—“

“Just what?” Coach Yates yelled. “Giving everybody a sniff test?”

Coach Yates parked Brooke on the bottom row and blew another shrill blast on her whistle. “Time to review the rules for tomorrow's written volleyball test,” she yelled.

Coach's Challenge

Sophie's thoughts went around like a hamster wheel, and they had nothing to do with volleyball. They were about the Corn Flake Code.

The Corn Flakes didn't put down Brooke, and they didn't give in to the bullies and join in. So why, Sophie wondered, does it seem like we're doing something wrong? The whistle blasted. Fiona pulled Sophie by the arm. “Come on,” she said. “We can talk in the locker room.”

“I have peanut M&M's for us,” Kitty said.

Sophie looked back at Brooke, who was coloring the sole of her sneaker with a fluorescent green marker. When Willoughby let out one of her poodle-like laughs, Brooke looked up. She had a green dot on the end of her nose.

Sophie decided there was nothing the Corn Flakes could do for Brooke. She's bringing it on herself, Sophie thought. Who in sixth grade can't control a Magic Marker?

Sophie hurried toward the locker room, but Coach Yates yelled, “LaCroix!”

Sophie walked back to her gym teacher.

“LaCroix,” Coach said. “You were a little different when you first moved here. You didn't fit in with any friends.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Sophie said.

“I don't know how, but you changed. Maybe you could tell Brooke how you made some good friends.”

Sophie felt her eyes bulge behind her glasses. “Me?”

She wanted to run to the locker room, but it wasn't a good idea to blow off Coach Yates. Sophie stiffened her neck and walked slowly toward Brooke.

“Hi,” Sophie said. “You want to walk to class with me?”

Brooke looked Sophie over. Please say no, Sophie thought.

“OK,” Brooke said and took off for the locker room. The rest of the Corn Flakes were waiting there, faces full of “What are you doing, Sophie?”

Brooke stopped suddenly, pulled Sophie's glasses off her face and put them on. Sophie quickly grabbed them back as Brooke vanished around a bank of lockers.

“Here you go,” Kitty said. She held out a yellow bag for Sophie.

“M&M's! Sweet!” Brooke said, running up.

She snatched the open bag out of Kitty's hand and M& M's scattered like marbles. Brooke tilted back her head and began to pour what was left into her mouth.

The Flakes glared at Sophie as if she'd tossed the candy on the ground herself.

And that wasn't the end of it. Brooke dug through Willoughby's bag and used her brush without asking. Then she accidentally tipped over Fiona's backpack and stepped on her math homework.

Finally, the bell rang for lunch and the Flakes ran out of the locker room.

Out to Lunch

In the hall, the Flakes were on Sophie like Velcro.

“It's cool you're being nice to her, Soph,” Fiona said. “But—”

“If she hangs out with us, I'm gone.” Darbie tapped her forehead. “She drives me mental.”

“She's too embarrassing,” Kitty whispered. Maggie and Willoughby nodded in agreement.

“Here she comes,” Darbie hissed. “Let's go.”

They all fled except Fiona, who pulled Sophie along with her by the elbow. “Coach Yates is making you be all nice to her, isn't she?”

“Sort of—“

“She can't force us to be friends with her.”

“I'm just supposed to tell her how to fit in. Then she can find her own friends.”

Fiona glanced over her shoulder, but Sophie didn't have to. She could hear Brooke calling, “Hey, you . . . girl.“

“Hurry up and tell her,” Fiona said, backing down the hall. “We'll see you at lunch.”

With a deep breath, Sophie turned.

“What's your name again?” Brooke blared.

“I'm Sophie.”

“Soapy. Weird name. I'm eating lunch with you guys today.”

Brooke followed Sophie down the hall like a puppy, yapping all the way. All Sophie heard was Fiona saying, “Hurry up and tell her”; and the Flakes Code saying, “Go to Jesus with everything”; and Coach Yates saying, “You were a little different when you first moved here.”

Sophie remembered: how she got lost on the class field trip; how she got F's because she always imagined she was someone else; how the Corn Pops teased her for being weird; how Fiona one day asked if she could pretend with Sophie; how they let Maggie in on their science project even though she was obnoxious at first; how Darbie adjusted to her move from Ireland because the Corn Flakes liked her being different; how Kitty and Willoughby left the Pops to be Corn Flakes because the Flakes let them be themselves.

Sophie stood in the doorway of the cafeteria, watching her friends assemble at their special table. Brooke wasn't like them. What had worked for each new Flake wasn't going to work for her.

Brooke arrived at the table the same time Sophie did, plopped her saggy brown bag next to Darbie's lunch box and sat down. The Flakes drilled their eyes into Sophie.

“Coach Yates is mean,” Brooke said. Her mouth was so full of sandwich, she spewed bread and bologna all over Darbie's yogurt.

“She's not really mean—“ Sophie said.

But Brooke reached across the table and picked up Kitty's brownie. “Are you gonna eat this?” She popped it into her already-stuffed mouth.

Sophie bit her lip to keep from telling Brooke to go spit brownie and bologna someplace else.

“Brooke!” said a fake-bright voice. “You've found your own kind!”

It was Julia and the Pops.

“Huh?” Brooke said.

“You know,” Anne-Stuart said. “The other people who smell like you.”

“I don't smell anything.”

“I sure do,” Cassie said, pretending to gag.

Friend to the Friendless

Sophie was surprised Brooke didn't go sniff everyone in the cafeteria. Instead, Sophie watched an I-get-it expression take shape on Brooke's face. Her eyes drooped with hurt.

“You're talking about me, aren't you?” she said to the Pops.

“Du-uh!” Julia said. With a toss of her head, she led the cackling Pops away.

“Do I stink?” Brooke's voice was a tiny version of her usual booming one. She dropped her sandwich and stared at it.

All the Corn Flakes were quiet, but Sophie could see the thoughts turning on in their faces like porch lights.

“Y'know what, Brooke?” Willoughby said. “Don't give in to those bullies. I used to, and I was, like, so miserable.”

“Yeah,” Kitty added. “But don't try to fight them or put them down.“

“Take back the power to be yourself,” Darbie told her.

Maggie grunted. “Even if you are a little—“

“Different,” Fiona said.

Brooke looked from one of them to the other like they were speaking Chinese. Then her gaze rested on Sophie. So did everyone else's.

Maybe you could tell Brooke how you did it, Coach Yates had said.

Sophie leaned toward Brooke. “Different is good,” she said. “In fact, different is the only way you can really be. But there are a couple of things you might want to work on.”

“Yeah,” Maggie said, “like—“

“Right now, though,“ Sophie interrupted. “For now, uh— “

“For now,” Fiona said, “you want my other brownie?”

Sophie let out a long, slow breath. Brooke was annoying. Maybe she had something going on with her that she couldn't help. She probably wasn't going to hit it off with the Corn Flakes. But they could show her how to find out who she really was—inside.

Besides, right now, Brooke was chewing happily with her mouth closed.

Corny Friends

The Corn Flakes: Sophie, Fiona, Maggie, Kitty, Darbie, Willoughby

Their Code:

The Corn Pops: Julia, Anne-Stuart, Cassie

Their Code: