Truth Without the Trimmings

by Diane Muldrow

  Amanda hit SEND, then sighed again as she turned off the computer. Even though it was late at night, she was wide awake. She didn’t think she’d be able to sleep at all. Every time she closed her eyes, she remembered the looks on her friends’ faces when they saw her at Connor’s party—first surprised, then confused, then mad. Amanda went into the kitchen to make herself some hot chocolate, and then she curled up on the couch with a blanket. Maybe she’d be able to fall asleep if she watched some TV. At the very least, it might take her mind off of the terrible evening she’d had.

  chapter 12

  “Hi Molly! Hi Amanda! Oh, it’s so great to see you!” said Carmen Piccolo. Her reddish-blond hair was swept up into a messy bun, and she was already wearing her apron. “Come in! Come in!”

  Molly and Amanda smiled at her. It was good to be back in the kitchen of Park Terrace Cookware. They’d had so much fun learning to cook there. They sat at one of the long tables—the one next to the sink.

  Amanda was surprised that Carmen even recognized her. She couldn’t possibly look like her usual self—not after the terrible night she’d had. Amanda felt like she had barely gotten any sleep the night before. She had watched an old movie called It’s a Wonderful Life and then fell asleep on the couch.

  This morning she’d slept until nearly 9:45 until Molly shook her awake. Then she’d bolted out the door in an old, faded sweatshirt and jeans that already had flour spilled on them from cooking for Ms. Barlow’s party. She hadn’t even had time to shower or brush her hair, so she’d just thrown it into a loose ponytail. The ends were sticking out at all angles. I must look like such a mess, Amanda thought. But she just wasn’t in the mood to care.

  Shawn and Peichi came in, laughing about something. Their smiles faded when they spotted Amanda. But then their expressions softened and they waved.

  Amanda felt a rush of hopefulness. Maybe they’d read her e-mail. Maybe they’d forgiven her. She crossed her fingers and hoped so.

  Peichi and Shawn sat at the same table as the twins. They both sat closer to Molly than to Amanda. It was as if they needed to warm up slowly to the idea of being friendly with Amanda again.

  “Hello everybody!” said a young man with a twinkle in his dark eyes. Freddie Gonzalez was Carmen’s assistant. “Are you ready to make some swee-ee-eet gingerbread houses?”

  “Only if we can gobble’em up,” said Omar as he came into the room with Connor behind him. Another boy followed them in, too.

  “Justin!” Amanda whispered to Molly. What was he doing there? She looked awful!

  Connor introduced Justin to Carmen. “Hey, Carmen, this is our buddy Justin. We told him about getting to eat all the awesome things that we make in class and he wanted to come. Is that okay?”

  “I always welcome a new chef. Hi, Justin,” Carmen greeted him.

  Natasha was the last to come in. She sat beside Peichi, but smiled at Molly and Amanda.

  Soon the class was busy making the gingerbread dough. They combined flour, baking powder, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt in a huge bowl. Then they beat in butter and brown sugar with the electric mixer.

  It was hard for the Chef Girls to stay angry with Amanda when they were all laughing and covered in flour.

  Next came eggs, molasses, and water. Dough splattered all of them when Omar turned on the electric mixer before he put it into the bowl. Amanda forgot all about her looks as she giggled and ducked the spray.

  “Eww!” Peichi squealed. “Watch it, Omar!”

  “Eww!” Omar imitated Peichi.

  “Clean-up time!” Carmen sang out when the dough mixture was done. “We have to let it set a while. We won’t be bored, though. After we wash up, I’ll show you how to map out your house pieces on grid paper and make a pattern.”

  “Is it like sewing a dress?” Natasha asked.

  “A lot like that, yes,” Carmen replied.

  This session of the class was much quieter than the last one had been. It required serious thought and planning. Shawn watched Molly, Amanda, Natasha, and Peichi trace out their pieces. She couldn’t imagine Angie and her crew giving any project this much attention. The two groups sure were very different.

  “Lunch!” Carmen announced at noon.

  “You’re in for a treat,” Freddie told them. “I have prepared my special Pastelon de Carne.” He opened the oven door and slid out a tray.

  “Meat pies!” Omar cried. “Yum.”

  As the others ate, Molly took Amanda aside. “We should return Natasha’s journal to her,” she said. Amanda nodded. Neither of them was looking forward to this. Natasha might suspect they’d read it—and she’d be right. Even though they’d only read one page, they still felt guilty about it. Actually, they felt both guilty and worried. What was the terrible secret Natasha was hiding? And how could they try to help her with it if she wouldn’t tell them?

  “Natasha,” Molly called. “Can you come here a sec?”

  As Natasha walked over, Molly fished the journal from her bag. “You left this at our house last night,” Molly said, handing her the journal.

  Natasha’s eyes widened, and her neck turned red.

  “How did you know it was mine?” she asked.

  Molly and Amanda exchanged a quick, nervous glance. “Your name is on the front,” Amanda said.

  “No, it isn’t,” Natasha said, staring down at the journal.

  Molly laughed uncomfortably. “Oh, it was easy to figure out that it belonged to you. It wasn’t mine and it didn’t belong to Amanda, and you were the only other person in the upstairs bathroom that day. So…we just figured it had to be yours.”

  Way to go, Molls! Amanda thought.

  “That makes sense. Thanks,” Natasha said. “I was going crazy looking for it this morning!” Natasha carefully tucked the journal into her backpack.

  “No problem,” Molly said.

  Amanda grabbed Molly’s wrist and gave it a little squeeze. “Thank goodness that’s over,” she said.

  “Definitely.”

  After lunch, they rolled the dough flat and sprinkled it with flour. Then they laid out their pattern pieces. Carmen and Freddie helped them cut the pieces using sharp knives. Carmen collected the scraps of dough and put them in a big silver bowl. “We can make gingerbread cookies with these,” she explained.

  “All right!” Omar and Connor cheered.

  It took only fifteen minutes until the house pieces were baked to a golden brown. While the pieces were cooling, Carmen helped them make icing. “Make a lot,” she instructed. “The icing is for decorating and for gluing the pieces together.”

  They spent the rest of the class building the houses. It was tricky. The houses wouldn’t always stand up straight. Luckily, Carmen and Freddie had lots of tricks for making them stand the way they were supposed to. The best part was after all the houses were constructed. Carmen and Freddie brought out huge bags of candy for the kids to use to decorate their gingerbread houses. Candy canes, peppermint drops, chocolate candies, peanut butter cups, gumdrops…it looked like Halloween!

  “Hey man, slow down!” said Freddie with a laugh as Omar pretended to pounce on the candy. “Make sure everyone gets enough candy to decorate their houses before you eat any ‘extra’ pieces!”

  By about four o’clock, the class stood among a town of beautifully decorated gingerbread houses. “Awesome,” Omar said. “These look way too good to eat, though.”

  “Not to worry!” Carmen said. “I whipped these together while you guys were busy decorating your houses.” She lifted a tray of gingerbread girls and boys. Each had a name written on it in icing. “One for each of you,” she said. “There’s milk and juice in the fridge.”

  Molly and Amanda laughed with delight when they saw that their two cookies were alike—except Molly’s wore a high ponytail and Amanda’s wore her hair in a flip. In fact, each cookie had a small detail in the decoration that was like the person it was intended for.

  The girls sat and ate their
gingerbread cookies. The fun of the day had brought them back together again. They were all feeling tired but happy. “Tomorrow night is the first night of Hanukkah,” Natasha reminded them. “Are all you guys still coming?”

  “Of course!” Amanda said quickly. “I mean…I am, if I’m still invited.”

  “You are,” said Natasha with a little smile. Everyone else told her they were coming, too.

  “That’s great. You don’t have to get all dressed up, but just sort of look…neat,” Natasha said happily.

  “I can do neat,” Shawn said.

  “Definitely,” Peichi agreed.

  “If we’re all going to be busy tomorrow night, we’d better get going on our science project. It’s due this Wednesday,” Molly reminded them. “We still have to finish our poster.”

  Shawn sighed.

  “What’s wrong?” Amanda asked her.

  “Oh, nothing,” she said. “My group still has a lot of work to do on our project.” She didn’t want to tell them the whole truth. The whole truth was that she had a lot of work to do, since she was the only one doing any work in her group. “I’d better get going,” Shawn said, popping the rest of her cookie into her mouth.

  “Why? No one else is leaving yet. Stay a couple more minutes!” Amanda encouraged. But Shawn just shook her head.

  “No, I can’t. I have a lot of stuff going on,” Shawn said. She waved good-bye to her friends and went to say good-bye to Carmen and Freddie.

  Amanda sat back and sighed. It seemed clear to her that Shawn didn’t want to spend any more time with her than she had to. Was Molly right? Had she really been so selfish that she had driven Shawn away?

  chapter 13

  “What are you baking?” Molly asked Amanda. She’d just gotten home from her tutoring session with Athena, and something in the kitchen smelled wonderful.

  “Mandelbrodt,” Amanda replied.

  “Mandel what?” Molly said.

  “It’s a dessert. Like a cookie. It reminds me of the Italian cookie called biscotti. I found a recipe for mandelbrodt on the Internet. It’s for us to bring to Natasha’s tonight. From all the Chef Girls.”

  Molly sat at the kitchen table. “I can’t stop thinking about Natasha’s diary.”

  “Me neither,” Amanda agreed. “When we go there tonight, maybe we’ll be able to figure out what her problem could be. We could get Peichi and Shawn to look around, too.”

  “I’m not sure we should tell them about it,” Molly said. “After all, we’re not even supposed to know.”

  “But it’s for Natasha’s own good, so we can help her,” Amanda said. “Just like how you wanted me to read the diary, too.”

  “I know, but it doesn’t feel right to me,” Molly insisted.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Amanda finally agreed. “We’ll keep it between you and me. Secrets are so weird,” she continued with a sigh. “Most of the time they just cause trouble, but sometimes you just have to keep secrets.”

  “Why is everything so complicated?” Molly asked.

  “I don’t know. I guess it just is,” Amanda replied.

  The timer on top of the oven rang. “It’s done!” Amanda said excitedly. She pulled out the cookie sheet.

  “It smells great!” Molly said.

  “I hope it tastes as good as it smells,” said Amanda.

  Molly looked at the loaves that Amanda had just taken out of the oven. “Those look more like cakes than cookies,” Molly commented.

  “Well, as soon as it cools a little, I’m going to slice it up,” Amanda told her.

  “Was it hard to make?” Molly said, taking a whiff of the mandelbrodt.

  Amanda shook her head. “It was simple. I just mixed some flour, eggs, sugar, shortening, baking powder, a bit of salt, and some vanilla together. The recipe said you could add either chopped nuts or chocolate chips.”

  “And let me guess,” Molly said with a laugh. “You added the chips!”

  “Exactly!” Amanda replied.

  Amanda sliced up the mandelbrodt and then pulled a colorful cookie tin with snowflakes on it from a bag. “I bought this at Park Terrace Cookware this afternoon. Isn’t it cute? I’m going to put the mandelbrodt into it. The recipe said it will keep a really long time if you put it in a tin.”

  “Hmmm,” Molly murmured. “There are eight days of Hanukkah. We can add mandelbrodt to our menu for this week if we get any last-minute orders.”

  Amanda gave her a high five.

  “Oh, we’d better get going,” Molly said, looking at her watch. “We’re supposed to be there by sundown. These days the sun is setting by five o’clock.”

  The girls ran upstairs to change. “Do I look neat enough?” Molly asked. She had re-done her ponytail and put on her nicest blue turtleneck. She’d even put on a pair of black flared pants instead of her usual jeans.

  “Very neat,” Amanda said. She looked a bit dressier, wearing a short blue pleated skirt and a long black ribbed sweater. She twirled once. “Am I okay?”

  “Mrs. Ross will probably think your skirt is too short,” Molly said.

  Amanda put her hands on her hips. “Well, I’m not going out in public looking all out of style just because Mrs. Ross might not approve,” she said. But then she remembered how Molly had scolded her for being selfish and only caring about clothing. “Oh, whatever,” she said with a sigh. She pulled a long skirt from her closet. “This is just as good, I suppose,” she grumbled. “And it will look cool with my new boots.”

  “What new boots?” Molly asked.

  “The ones Mom and Dad got me for Christmas. I found them in the front hall closet.”

  “You can’t wear those!” Molly cried. “It will spoil the surprise for them.”

  Amanda sulked. “They won’t see them.”

  “Manda,” Molly said in a warning tone.

  “Oh, you’re no fun,” Amanda complained. “Sorry, you’re right,” she added quickly. “I’m kidding. All right. I won’t wear them. I can’t wait for Christmas, though. Those boots are really awesome.”

  By 4:45 they were headed for Natasha’s house. The pink light of sunset bounced off the icy sidewalk. They heard the sound of footsteps behind them and turned. Peichi was running to catch up with them.

  “What’s in the tin?” she asked as they walked together.

  “Mandelbrodt,” Amanda told her. “I made it myself. It’s from all of us.”

  “That was really nice of you,” Peichi said.

  Amanda smiled. Peichi had said just the right thing. Amanda had decided she was going to change her image from selfish to sweet and thoughtful. It was more than that, though. She really didn’t want to be selfish. She actually wanted to become sweet and thoughtful—although she wasn’t entirely sure it was in her nature. Still, she figured that if she really tried, she could be a lot more considerate of the people around her.

  When they got to the Rosses’ house, Natasha let them in. Shawn was already there. She smiled and seemed very happy that they’d arrived. Even though Shawn was always cool around adults, it must have been kind of awkward for her to sit and chat with the Rosses in the formal living room.

  Mrs. Ross got up to greet them. “Hello, girls. We’re so glad you could come.”

  Amanda presented her tin. “We made some mandelbrodt. It’s from all the Chef Girls. Happy Hanukkah!”

  Mr. Ross stood and reached for the tin. “Mandelbrodt! My favorite!”

  Mrs. Ross put up her hand to stop him. “Not until after dinner!”

  “Then let’s get started so we can eat!” he said with a smile. He waved them into the living room. “Come!”

  The menorah with its nine candleholders stood on the coffee table. “I thought there were eight candles,” Molly wondered, “for the eight nights of Hanukkah.”

  “There are,” Natasha said. “The ninth candle is called the Shamash. It’s used to light the others.”

  The girls found seats on the couches and chairs around the menorah. “I’d like to start
tonight by reading the story of the Maccabees,” Mr. Ross said.

  He put on his glasses and picked up a book from the table. He read about the Maccabees trying to restore their holy temple, which had been destroyed in a war against the Syrians. They had only a little oil with which to light their lamp, but it lasted for the eight nights that they needed to work. It was a miracle!

  Mrs. Ross got up and took the Shamash candle from the menorah. Mr. Ross lit it. “Natasha,” Mrs. Ross said, “since your friends are here tonight, why don’t you light the first candle?”

  Natasha took the lit candle from her mother and lit the first candle on the menorah. As she did it, she said three prayers in Hebrew.

  When the candle lighting was finished, they all sat at the Rosses’ big dining room table. It was set with the family’s best china dishware and sterling silver forks and knives.

  “I hope you’re all hungry, because I made a big dinner,” Mrs. Ross said as everyone sat down at the table.

  “Oh, we are,” Amanda said. “Very hungry!”

  “Good! I’ve made roast chicken and latkes and all sorts of things.”

  “Latkes?” asked Peichi.

  “They’re potato pancakes,” Natasha explained. “They’re a traditional Hanukkah dish.”

  “What other kinds of food do you eat during Hanukkah?” Shawn asked.

  “A lot of fried food!” Natasha said.

  “Why’s that?” Amanda asked.

  “Well, oil played a big part in the Hanukkah story—with it lasting for eight days instead of just one,” Natasha explained.

  By the end of the meal, everyone was laughing and talking at once. For dessert, they had sufganiyot—jelly filled donuts. And when they thought they couldn’t eat another bite, Mr. Ross gave the girls some Hanukkah gelt—little chocolate coins wrapped in gold paper.

  Natasha sat at the dining room table and looked around at her parents and her friends. This was a perfect way to spend the first night of Hanukkah, she thought. She hoped this feeling would last forever. But deep down, she knew it could not.