Sophie Simon Solves Them All by Lisa Graff

Author:Lisa Graff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

The audience began to murmur, and Julia did her best to spell TYRANNICAL DOMINATION in her notebook.

Madame Robespierre glared at Daisy.

“What is zese joke?” she hissed at her.

“It’s not a joke,” Daisy said, firmer this time. “We’re staging a sit-in.”

The other girls nodded.

“By sitting on the stage.”

“A SEET-IN!” Madame hollered. Pound! “Ballerinas do not seet!” Pound! “Zey dance!”

Madame shouted at the orchestra to start playing again. But even as the music swelled around them, the ballerinas refused to dance.

They just sat.

Julia could see the people in the audience shaking their heads and whispering to each other.

“DANCE!” Madame screeched. She tried to lift Daisy to her feet, but Daisy’s body hung like a limp noodle, and she refused to stand up.

Madame tried to lift the other girls, but they made their bodies limp, too.

They didn’t look much like ballerinas, Julia thought.

They looked more like boiled broccoli.

Not one of the dancers was going to dance.

Now this, Julia thought, was a news story.

Julia set down her notebook and picked up her camera. As Madame pounded her stick on the ground, trying to haul her dancers to their feet at the same time, Julia clicked photographs.

Click!

Pound!

Click!

Pound!

Click click click!

POUND!

“YOU ARE ZEE BALLERINAS!” Madame Robespierre bellowed. Her hair was flying from her bun in frightening wisps. “YOU WILL DANCE!”

Julia took another photo.

One by one, parents rose from their seats and climbed to the stage to scoop their pink-tutued daughters into their arms and walk out of the theater.

And as they exited the stage, Julia noticed that each girl handed Sophie Simon what appeared to be a five-dollar bill.

* * *

By the time Mr. and Mrs. Pete got to the stage, Daisy was the last ballerina left.

“Madame Robespierre,” Mr. Pete said. “I think I speak for everyone in this town when I say that my daughter will not be attending your school of dance ever again. I’ll be talking to the school board immediately and asking for your resignation. Your days in this business are over.”

He turned to Daisy then, and held out a hand for her.

Daisy slowly rose to her feet.

She bent carefully at the waist.

She took a long, deep bow.

The audience went wild with applause.

Julia couldn’t help but smile as Madame Robespierre ran off the stage.

She knew for a fact that her story was going to make the paper this time. She even had the perfect headline.

ROBESPIERRE GETS THE AX.

Now, she thought, if only she could figure out a way for her best friend, Owen, to get that rabbit he’d been wanting for his birthday …

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