Sofia the First: The Art of Honesty

A Royal Mess

Pretty soon, Sofia and Hugo were finished with their paintings.

"Well, it looks like we're already done," Sofia said.

"And dirty," giggled Hugo.

It was true—Sofia and Hugo were both covered in paint. "We'd better get cleaned up before this paint stains," Hugo said.

Hugo and Sofia both left to get cleaned up. As soon as Sofia and Hugo were gone, Amber went up to Sofia's painting and was very angry and jealous. Everyone loves Sofia's painting so much that it would even be the best painting in the art show.

"I can't believe it! It's all wrong!" Amber pouted. "I'm the best artist in Royal Prep, but everyone thinks Sofia is a better artist than me!"

Clio and Hildegard felt bad for Amber, but they wished she would calm down before she knocked over any paint.

"Amber, we know you're mad that everyone loves Sofia's painting," Clio assured Amber. "But you really need to calm down."

But Amber was so angry and jealous that she didn't want to listen, and telling her to calm down only made it worse.

"Calm down? I don't want to calm down, Clio!" Amber fumed. "What's the point of calming down? I want my painting to be the best in the art show, not Sofia's!"

Amber was waving her arms around in anger, and she was so angry that she hit a jar of black paint—and the paint splashed onto Sofia's painting. Amber, Hildegard, and Clio were horrified.

"I told you to calm down, Amber," Clio scoffed.

Amber knew she should've listened to Clio, and she wouldn't have splattered paint on Sofia's painting.

"Oh, no! Sofia's painting!" Amber gasped. "It's ruined! Oh, Sofia is going to be so angry." She knew Sofia worked really hard on her painting and will be unhappy if she saw that Amber had ruined her painting.

"Don't worry, Amber," Hildegard said, grabbing a nearby rag. "We'll just clean the paint off, and Sofia will never know it was dirty."

But then Clio remembered one thing. "Hildy, wait!" she cried.

Hildegard tried to wipe the black paint off—but the paint on Sofia's picture was still wet, and it was even more ruined.

"Oh, the paint is still wet!" Amber exclaimed. "If Sofia sees her painting like this, she's going to be really mad at me!"

"What are you going to do, Amber?" Hildegard asked.

"You'll have to tell Sofia what happened," Clio answered. But Amber really didn't like the sound of that.

"Tell Sofia?" Amber gaped. "Do you have any idea how Sofia will react if she knew I ruined her painting? She's going to be really mad at me! I have to hide this mess."

"How are you going to do that?" Hildegard asked.

Amber had an idea. "I'll just paint a new picture!" she beamed. "I'm a really good artist, and Sofia will never know what really happened to her painting."

But Clio didn't think it was a good idea. "Amber, that's really not a good idea," she frowned. "It may be bad enough that Sofia would be angry you ruined her painting—but she'll be even angrier if you lie to her."

"But I don't have a choice, and I don't want to take any chances of my little sister being mad at me," Amber protested. She grabbed a blank canvas and started painting a replica of Sofia's painting.