Sophie Under Pressure Read Online Free PDF Page B

said.
    â€œThat’s so cool,” Kitty said. “I want to work this thing.” She poked a finger at the robotic arm that hung down like a big metal sea serpent.
    â€œWhat does it do?” Maggie said.
    â€œI don’t know,” Kitty said. “I just think it’s cute.”
    â€œScience can’t be cute,” Fiona said. “It can be fascinating, and it can be exciting, and it can be scintillating — ”
    â€œI’ll go with exciting,” Kitty said.
    Sophie crawled over to her box again. “I’m gonna get the camera and take some before pictures.”
    â€œWe should think of what we’re trying to prove for our project,” Maggie said. “I mean …” She wagged her head a little. “Shouldn’t we, Captain? Mrs. Utley said we have to put that in our plan, and it’s due tomorrow.”
    â€œThat’s true,” Fiona said. She looked to Sophie like she would rather have admitted she had rabies than agree with Maggie.
    â€œI trust you all to do that while I film,” Sophie said.
    Fiona, Kitty, and Maggie bent their heads over Fiona’s pages, and she explained the basics of what a space station did. Sophie filmed the storage boxes, the railing, and the hole for the ladder that had its own hinged door that had to be kept closed when they were up there so that nobody would accidentally fall through — Boppa’s rule.
    As she captured the tree house with her camera, Sophie had to admit that it was pretty cool just as it was. It was like being on top of the planet, above even the grown-up world.
    I just want to lie on my back and look up , Sophie thought. She imagined closing her eyes and dreaming up Captain Stella Stratos for hours on end.
    â€œAre 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.
    â€œWe have agreed on an experiment, Captain,” Fiona said.
    â€œWe didn’t vote on it,” Maggie said.
    â€œSo 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.
    â€œWhy 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.
    â€œI 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.
    â€œI think I should keep all the records of the results of the