Sofia’s Puppy Love
A Second Chance
The next morning, the doorbell rings bright and early, breaking the morning quiet. Sofia hurries to answer it so it doesn’t disrupt Mom. She opens the door to see Jasmine in her old jeans and blue bandanna. Keiko has on paint-splattered overalls, and Madison has on gray sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt. Keiko’s holding a bag full of smocks, paintbrushes, and cleaning supplies. They’ve come to help Sofia paint.
Sofia is surprised by this act of kindness, though a flicker of worry follows right behind it. She doubts Dad will let her help with the painting again. Just then, Sofia hears Dad’s voice behind her. Apparently, her friends already reached out and asked Dad if they could help. He decided the more helping hands, the better.
Sofia changes into a pair of old jeans and a t-shirt. When she comes into the spare room, Dad is pouring paint into four plastic trays. He gets a long roller to help him reach the top parts of the walls. Together, they all start to paint, rollers swishing across the walls. It’s hard work, but also fun. Most of the paint ends up on the walls, but they all get some on themselves, too.
In just a few hours, they’re done! Sofia smiles at the freshly painted walls, relief washing over her. With her friends’ help, she’d managed to fix her painting mistake. But she knew that fixing the walls wasn’t enough on its own.
The next day at school, Sofia heads straight to Ms. Chen’s desk instead of lunch with her friends. She’s nervous, her heart pounding, but her friends stand in the doorway giving her encouraging thumbs-up signs. Sofia tells Ms. Chen that she knows the deadline was missed, but she’d really like to enter the science fair, if that’s okay.
Ms. Chen leans back in her chair thoughtfully. She’s not sure, and says the teachers have already started arranging the gym for all the projects. She gently asks Sofia what she has in mind.
Sofia says she still doesn’t have an idea, but she can come up with one super quick. After the longest three seconds of Sofia’s life, Ms. Chen says that she’s willing to give Sofia a second chance. But Sofia must come up with an idea over lunch period.
Sofia practically skips out of the classroom, clutching a new form for the science fair tightly in her hand. Now, she just has to come up with the best idea for the science fair ever.