by Coco Simon
Julia raised her hand. “Do you have zebra stripes?” she asked. She happened to be wearing zebra leggings and a black T-shirt, with a zebra headband in her hair.
Nikki laughed. “Lots. Go ahead and look around.”
Julia ran straight for a rack of animal print clothes, and everyone started to walk around, looking. Like I mentioned before, this isn’t exactly my favorite store in the mall, although to be fair, I hadn’t really explored it much. The loud music and pink lights were kind of a turnoff. But Nikki looked cool, and salespeople usually wear clothes from the store they work in, so I had hope.
I was rummaging through a rack of too-short skirts when Olivia came up next to me. She pulled out a neon yellow skirt and held it up to her waist. It came down about six inches above her knees.
“This would look amazing with that fuschia blazer over there, wouldn’t it?” she asked.
Now, Olivia does have amazing fashion sense, but I think she was off on this one. “I don’t know. It’s a little short, isn’t it? Maybe if you paired it with leggings?”
Olivia rolled her eyes and walked off. I abandoned the skirts and went to a rack of dresses. There were mostly bright colors and loud prints, and a lot of the dresses had big ruffles in weird places that I didn’t love. But then I found something pretty decent: an emerald green party dress with short sleeves and a little collar, and it flared out a little bit from the waist. It was vintage inspired but still really cute, and I started to think of a dozen ways I could accessorize it.
Beth and Libby were looking through the rack next to me, so I held it up to show them.
“This is really nice. What do you guys think?” I asked.
“I totally love that,” Beth agreed. “You could pretty it up with heels, or punk it out with boots and it would still look good.”
Olivia must have overheard, because she walked right over.
“Oh, Mia, I saw that dress last week,” she said, reaching out for it. “I was going to wear that.”
I couldn’t believe it! No way did I believe that Olivia had claims on that dress. She just wanted it because she saw how awesome it was.
I nodded toward the three dresses she held in her right hand. “Oh really? What about those?”
“Those are for the other models we’re recruiting,” Olivia countered. “We’re supposed to be looking for dresses for them, too.”
Helplessly, I looked to Beth and Libby. Thankfully, Beth jumped in and saved the day for me, although I don’t even think she realized she was doing that.
“What about that flower print dress you found last week, Olivia?” she asked. “I thought that looked gorgeous on you.”
Flattered, Olivia blushed a little. “Oh yeah, that one. Do you really think it’s nicer than this one?”
“I just remember it looked perfect on you,” Beth responded. “You should try it on again.”
Olivia nodded and then ran to find the flowered dress.
“Thanks,” I said. “I should try this on.”
“It’s going to look great with your coloring,” Libby said, and I gave her a grateful smile.
After that, things were kind of fun. Everyone found an outfit they liked, and we picked out six more outfits for the other models to wear. Julia found a whole crazy look with zebra print leggings and a top. The flower print dress Olivia tried on really did look nice; it was kind of vintage inspired, like mine.
But Olivia got her way and picked some of the really short skirts for the models, and Jasmine loved the dresses with the weird ruffles, so I was a little worried about how awesome our fashion show would ultimately be. Maybe we can save it with styling, I thought. Mom says you can save any outfit if it’s styled right.
“We should take pictures of everything, so we can think about how to style the outfits,” I suggested. “We can also figure out the order of how the outfits come out. You want to start out with something strong and then end with your strongest piece.”
“I love your dress,” Julia gushed. “You should go last.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Olivia scowl. It wasn’t my fault I was able to pick out the best dress in the place. It’s like she can’t stand it unless she gets all the attention for herself!
“I think we should decide the order of the outfits as a group,” Olivia said.
“Sure. Whatever,” Beth agreed. “We can do it at our next meeting.”
Olivia looked pleased. “So, hey, we should go to Smoothie Paradise now.”
That actually sounded nice. I liked the other girls in the Fashion Club, especially Julia, and it would have been fun to hang out with them. But I was kind of needing an Olivia break.
“My mom’s here,” I said, taking out my phone. “So I can’t stay. Maybe next time.”
I quickly texted my mom and told her I was done. To my relief, she was just a few stores away.
“See you Tuesday,” I said, waving, and then I headed out to catch up with Mom.
“How did it go?” Mom asked when we found each other.
“Okay,” I said. “I don’t love that store, but we found some nice stuff.”
“I’m sure it’ll be great,” Mom assured me. “And I’m glad you’re done. Eddie’s making his famous spaghetti, and he wants us to get home soon.”
“Mmm, spaghetti,” I said, and I felt great. Every time a little problem cropped up, it worked out just fine. I am a much happier person when things are nice and smooth.
CHAPTER 10
What a Disaster!
I told my friends about the Trendz incident when we had lunch on Monday.
“Oh my gosh! You mean Olivia actually tried to take the dress you wanted?” Katie asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, but luckily Beth convinced her to wear another dress.”
“She sounds like a pretty diplomatic leader,” Alexis remarked.
I shrugged. “I guess. I’m not exactly sure if she did it on purpose or not, you know? She just kind of goes with the flow.”
“Well, at least everything worked out,” Alexis said. “You guys sound like you’re a lot more organized than you were before.”
“Hey, guys,” Emma said, motioning with her head toward Beth, who was walking right toward us.
“Hey,” Beth greeted us, nodding as she came up to the table. “Mia, I wanted to show you the posters I made. I worked on them all last night, practically.”
“Cool,” I said, and Katie scooted into an empty seat so that Beth could sit between us. She had a small cardboard box that held what looked like a hundred flyers.
“I used up, like, two color cartridges printing them out,” Beth said. “What do you think?”
“They’re gorgeous!” I exclaimed, and I meant it. Her design was bold and really, well, fashiony at the same time. The main feature was this sort of abstract ink drawing of a girl in a dress, and Beth had accented everything in purple and turquoise, which was really attention-getting. She even added a nice mention of the Cupcake Club, thanking us for donating cupcakes.
“I love the colors,” Katie added, looking over Beth’s shoulder at the poster.
“Did you do the illustration?” I asked Beth.
She nodded. “Yeah, is it okay?”
“It’s really chic,” Emma said from behind me. “You’re an awesome artist.”
Beth blushed a little. “Thanks.”
Alexis held out her hand. “Can I see? I want to get the date and time into my calendar.”
I passed her one across the table, and after she studied it for a minute she frowned.
“That’s weird,” she said. “I’m pretty sure the chess club has the auditorium that night.”
“The chess club?” I asked.
“I think they reserved the auditorium for a chess tournament,” Alexis explained. “Did you guys get the date approved in the office?”
I was starting to get a bad feeling about everything. Beth looked kind of confused.
“What do you mean?” Beth asked.
“Well, you c
an’t just say you’re going to do something in the auditorium without checking with the office first,” Alexis explained patiently. “First, they make sure the date is free, and then they have to approve the event. So I’m guessing you didn’t do that?”
Beth shook her head.
Alexis typed into her smartphone. “See? The date’s taken,” she said, holding up the phone so we could see. “So is every date for the next five weeks.”
“Oh man, that stinks,” Beth said, and I couldn’t believe how calm she sounded. “After I made all these posters and everything.”
What a disaster! I thought. But I didn’t say it, because I didn’t want to upset Beth.
“So, what do we do?” I worried out loud. “Do we cancel the show?”
“You’ll have to find another venue, unless you want to put it off for five weeks,” Alexis informed us. She looked at her phone again and shook her head, frowning.
“Maybe we can find another place,” I said, thinking. “I could ask my mom about the Women’s Club’s space.”
“That would be cool,” Beth said. Then she looked down at the posters. “Printing out new posters is going to stink, though. Those ink cartridges are expensive.”
I took another look at the poster. “Well, if we just change the place, we could just print out this one line to save paper and ink, and then cut it out and glue it on.”
Beth nodded. “That would be cool. Just let me know what your mom says.”
“I’m surprised Mrs. Carr didn’t tell you about reserving the auditorium,” Alexis remarked. “Isn’t she your adviser?”
“She said we could meet in her room, but I don’t know,” Beth said. “I didn’t think we needed a teacher telling us what to do, you know?”
She glanced at me. “Talk to you soon,” she said, and then she packed up the box and walked back to her table. Alexis rolled her eyes as she walked away. I kind of thought that was a little mean on Alexis’s part, but I got it. Beth wasn’t exactly on top of things; that was obvious. The Fashion Club would be a lot more organized if we had our very own Alexis.
“Well, it sounds like things will work out,” Katie said helpfully.
“I hope so,” I said, and Alexis gave Emma a look, like a What is she, kidding? look. But I ignored that too, because the last thing I needed was stress within the Cupcake Club, since that was the only area of my life going smoothly.
I knew I had to figure out this fashion show problem right away, so when I got home from school, I made sure Mom would be in a good mood so I could ask her a favor. I set the dining room table for dinner, and then I did my homework on the kitchen table. That’s how Mom found me when she came into the house. Our little white dogs, Tiki and Milkshake, ran to the door, yipping and yapping to greet her.
“Why, hello, Mia,” she said. “You’re doing your homework already? How smart of you.”
“Yeah, that’s me,” I said. “I’m smart.”
After Mom hung up her coat, she went into the dining room, and a minute later she stuck her head into the kitchen.
“Thank you for setting the dinner table,” she said. “Unless that was Dan.”
“Right. Because an alien took over Dan’s brain,” I said. “Of course it was me!”
Mom smiled. “I guess I knew that. You’ve been doing a lot of nice things lately, Mia.”
I shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I can help you make dinner if you want. I’m almost done with my math.”
“I’ve got dinner,” Mom said, “but thank you.”
“Well, if I’m done early, I’ll walk Tiki and Milkshake,” I promised.
By the time we all sat down to dinner, Mom was looking at me a little suspiciously. I knew she was wondering why I was being such a perfect child. It was kind of a good thing I had already started to do the angelic act a week ago, because now I knew Mom would help me find a new place for the fashion show.
“So, Mia,” she said. “How was your day?”
“Well,” I said, putting down my fork. “There’s kind of a little problem with the fashion show we’re planning. Beth never reserved the auditorium with the office, and now the date is taken. So we were hoping maybe we could have the show in the Women’s Club’s space?”
“Oh,” Mom said, like she was surprised I hadn’t revealed something much worse. “I’m sure we could do that. What date is it?”
“The sixteenth,” I said.
Mom nodded. “I’ll call Mrs. Barrows after dinner.”
For the rest of dinner I noticed Mom and Eddie were laughing and joking like normal (and Dan was quietly stuffing his face like normal). So I guessed my perfect child thing had worked, although I figured I should keep it up for a while. I didn’t want to take any chances.
Later, I was up in the room when Mom came up to deliver the good news: The Fashion Club could use the Women’s Club’s space for our fashion show on the sixteenth. I felt really relieved—and I hoped this was the last thing that would go wrong with the fashion show. I didn’t need Alexis rolling her eyes at us anymore!
CHAPTER 11
Bold Moves
The next afternoon I was excited to tell everyone in the Fashion Club that my mom had saved the day. So I kind of pulled an Olivia and started talking as soon as the meeting started.
“So, you know how the auditorium was booked by the chess club on the sixteenth?” I began. Beth’s friends Libby and Jasmine nodded, but the other girls looked confused—even Olivia.
“But that’s the night of our fashion show,” Olivia protested.
“Well, it still can be the night of our fashion show,” I said. “The auditorium is not available, but my mom belongs to the Women’s Club in town, and they’ll let us use their space for free.”
“Woo-hoo!” Julia cheered, clapping, and Chelsea, Beth, Libby, and Jasmine started clapping too. Olivia folded her arms across her chest.
“Shouldn’t we have talked this over as a group?” Olivia asked. “Or are you, like, taking over the whole fashion show?”
I was kind of shocked Olivia would say that. “No, I was just trying to help, that’s all,” I protested, and then I felt a little angry. “You know, if my friend Alexis hadn’t seen the poster, we might never have found out about the mistake. It could have been a total disaster.” I felt a little bad saying that, but Beth had messed up pretty big, and my mom had totally saved the day.
Olivia looked down at her notebook.
“Anyway, it’s all good now,” Beth said.
“Maybe we should go visit the space, so we know how to, like, set it up,” Libby suggested.
I nodded. “That’s a good idea. I’ll ask my mom. But in the meantime I think they have photos on their website we can look at.”
“Before we do that, we need to think of a theme for the show,” Olivia said. Which was a good idea, as I had mentioned before, but I was starting to hate how Olivia had to disagree with everything I said.
Olivia took a poster board from her backpack that was covered with printed-out pictures of dresses and outfits.
“This is the stuff we picked out on Sunday,” she said. “I thought I would make a display so we can see what we’re dealing with. I had some theme ideas. How about, ‘Saturday Night Fever’?”
“Isn’t that some old movie?” Julia asked.
“Well, yes, but that’s not the point,” Olivia replied. “It’s, like, these are all clothes you could wear on a Saturday night, and the ‘fever’ is because they make you look hot.”
“That was a disco movie,” Chelsea said in a tone that showed she clearly did not like disco. “I will not be in a show named after a disco movie.”
Olivia frowned. “Okay, how about this one: ‘Fun and Flirty’?”
“That’s a cute title, but I don’t think these clothes are flirty,” Libby said. “When I think of flirty, I think of pale colors and flowers and stuff. But these colors are more bold.”
Olivia looked totally frustrated. “But—”
“ ‘Bold’ is a r
eally good word,” Julia interrupted. “Maybe the theme could be ‘Bold’ . . . ‘Bold and . . . ’ ”
“ ‘Beautiful’?” Jasmine asked. “Oh wait, isn’t that a TV show?”
“How about ‘Bold Moves’?” I suggested.
“Hey, I like that,” Beth said. “Then we could go with really bold music and decorations and stuff.”
“Yeah, like seventies glam rock or something, or maybe even metal,” Chelsea said, nodding. “I can work on a playlist.”
“And we can do zebra decorations!” Julia cried.
“Or we could pick some of the bold colors that stand out from the outfits we’ve picked, and use some of those,” I suggested, “so that the decorations don’t distract from the clothes.”
Beth pointed to Olivia’s display. “When I was doing the poster, I picked purple and turquoise because those colors popped from the photos we took,” she said. “What about those?”
“I like it,” Chelsea said.
“Could we please have one little zebra balloon?” Julia asked.
We all laughed. “Definitely,” Beth said. “But just one.”
I was starting to feel excited. We had a date, a place, the clothes, and we had ideas for music and decorations. Oh, and cupcakes! While the girls talked about friends they had who could model, I pulled out a sketch pad and started to work on cupcake designs. Bold . . . bold . . . We could dye the icing purple and turquoise. That could be cool. Or should we go with bold flavors instead? I had been wanting to make a dark chocolate cupcake with a kick of jalapeño, but the right event hadn’t come up yet.
I kind of got lost in my sketching, and then I heard Olivia say, “So we’ve got our model list finalized.”
I put down my pencil. “Sorry. The list is all done? ’Cause I was thinking I could ask Emma. She’s, like, a professional.”
“Sorry, but it’s all filled up,” Olivia said. “We’re all modeling except for Chelsea, and I’m getting Callie, Bella, and Maggie, and Julia’s cousin Mikayla is going to do it, and Beth already asked Lucy and Sophie. Twelve outfits, twelve models.”
