by Coco Simon
“Of course, if you want to keep cleaning, we won’t stop you,” Eddie joked.
I broke away from Mom, laughing. “Maybe,” I said. “But if I go back to my old habits, don’t be surprised!”
CHAPTER 14
Olivia Strikes Again
Once I knew that Mom and Eddie weren’t going to get divorced or anything, I felt really happy. I spent the rest of the weekend sketching and listening to music, and when Katie came onto the bus Monday morning, I had in my earbuds and was bopping my head to the song.
Katie started moving her lips, but I couldn’t hear her, so I took out my earbuds.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I said, ‘You’re in a good mood today,’ ” Katie repeated. “And it’s Monday. You hate Mondays.”
“Hey, that’s right,” I said, and then I lowered my voice. “I talked to Mom and Eddie about . . . you know, what I was worried about. But everything’s okay.”
Katie smiled. “That’s nice. They are a pretty cute couple when you think about it.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. “Yeah, and so are your mom and Mr. Green.”
Katie looked around. “Don’t say that so loud!”
“Sorry,” I said. “But everybody knows, anyway, right?”
“Yes, but I’m hoping they’ll forget it,” Katie replied.
Then Katie and I started talking about other stuff besides parents, and I was still in a good mood for the rest of the day—even when Beth came up to me in the hall.
“We’re moving the Fashion Club meeting to Wednesday this week because Olivia can’t make it,” she told me.
“Um, okay,” I replied, thinking quickly. I still felt a little bad about flaking out about the fondant, so I didn’t want to miss another Cupcake Club meeting. “I can’t go. But text me if there’s anything you need me to do.”
“Sure,” Beth said, and as she walked away I got a tiny bit worried. Not that I’m an awesome organizer or anything, but I liked to think I helped out at the meetings by keeping us on track. But I pushed that worry aside. All the important decisions had been made already, so it wouldn’t hurt if I missed the meeting.
On Wednesday we had our Cupcake Club meeting after school at Alexis’s house. Since we weren’t baking anything, we went up to her room, which, as you can probably imagine, is just as organized as she is.
“Okay, so I was hoping we could discuss some new advertising strategies,” Alexis began. “We could use a few more jobs in the next few months, and we need to drum up business.”
“Should we do new flyers?” Emma asked. “We could put them in mailboxes again.”
“I was thinking that,” Alexis said, “but the printing costs can add up. So I looked up the ad rates in the Maple Grove Gazette. We can put in an ad for sixty dollars and reach even more people than we could with the flyers.”
“That’s a good idea,” Katie said.
I nodded. “We’d have to design something that really stands out, so people don’t just turn the page and miss it.”
“Or we could come up with a slogan stands out,” Katie said. “Like, ‘Hey, you! You need a cupcake!’ ”
We all laughed, and suddenly Alexis’s older sister, Dylan, was in the room. She put her hands on the sides of her head.
“Could you all please be quiet,” she said dramatically. “I have a huge headache.”
“You are a huge headache,” Alexis said under her breath.
“I heard that,” Dylan snapped, and then she went back to her room.
“See what I mean?” Alexis said. “She’d better make up with Meredith and Skylar soon. This is driving me crazy.”
We talked about the ad some more. I made some sketches of what the ad could look like, and then Eddie came and picked up Katie and me.
That night I didn’t get a text from Beth about the Fashion Club meeting, and I thought about texting her, except I felt really, really tired for some reason. I went to bed, like, two hours earlier than usual, and when I woke up I had a cold! A totally gross, nose-blowing, sneezing, sore throat cold.
“Well, you are not going to school today,” Mom said as soon as she saw me. “I was planning to work from home today, anyway.”
The whole day Thursday I was miserable. I slept a lot, and Mom made me chicken soup, and finally in the afternoon I felt good enough to go downstairs and watch TV. The next morning I felt tons better, but Mom still wanted me to stay home.
“But I’ve got to go see Dad today,” I protested.
Mom frowned. “I don’t know, Mia. You’re still coughing, and I don’t want you traveling if you’re sick. You don’t want to get your father sick, either.”
I started to tear up a little, probably because I didn’t feel good. “But I haven’t seen him in two weeks.”
Mom sighed. “I’ll discuss it with him. Let’s see how you are later.”
I showered and got dressed and tried to feel better—and I did, mostly. Katie stopped by after school with my homework (but Mom wouldn’t let me go near her) and then at four o’clock I heard the bell ring while I was on the couch watching TV.
I heard Mom answer the door, and then Dad walked into the living room.
“Dad!” I cried, running up to give him a hug.
He smiled. “You look better than I thought you would, mija.”
“Thanks,” I said. “But what are you doing here?”
“I drove in to pick you up for the weekend,” he replied. Dad has a car that he keeps in a garage and uses for business trips and sometimes to come see me play soccer. But the train is faster and easier, so mostly I take the train. “Your mom doesn’t want you on the train. She will let you come as long as you promise to stay in the apartment and do your homework.”
“I promise!” I said. “Let me go get ready.”
Maybe I was antsy from being in the house for two days, but I really wanted to go with Dad. I quickly packed my bags, kissed Mom good-bye (on the cheek, so she wouldn’t get sick), and Dad and I headed out.
Since we couldn’t go out for sushi, Dad ordered for delivery some sushi, along with a nice big container of miso soup. Saturday I felt better, but I stayed in and did homework, and then Dad and I did a Lord of the Rings movie marathon, which was really fun. I love the costumes in those movies, and I sketched the whole time. We ordered in turkey sandwiches and matzo ball soup for lunch, and for dinner we had Indian food delivered (which I like because it’s spicy). That’s one of the great things about Manhattan—you can practically get anything in the world delivered right to your door.
By the time Dad drove me home on Sunday I felt loads better. As I unpacked in my bedroom, I suddenly remembered that I still hadn’t heard from Beth. I shot her a quick text.
How did the meeting go? Need me 2 do anything?
I expected Beth to text back, but instead she gave me a call.
“Hey, Mia,” she said. “I heard you were sick.”
“Just a cold,” I replied.
“Oh, good,” Beth said. “So, I was going to text you, but it’s kind of a whole long thing. We decided to do a new theme for the show.”
I thought I must be hearing wrong. “You what?”
“Yeah,” Beth replied. “ ‘Fun and Flirty.’ ”
Of course—that was the theme Olivia had suggested before we decided on “Bold Moves.” “But I thought we decided the clothes we picked didn’t go with the theme.”
“Well, yeah,” Beth said. “So we went back to the mall and picked out all new clothes. Olivia found a new dress for you. It’s pretty nice. I’ll text you the picture.”
My head was spinning. “Are you serious?” I asked, my voice getting loud. “The fashion show is less than a week away. This is kind of a bad time to change everything around, isn’t it? And I told the Cupcake Club about the bold theme, and we made test cupcakes already and everything.”
“Yeah, well, like, Chelsea and Jasmine thought it was a bad idea to change, but Olivia kind of overruled everyone, you
know?” Beth asked.
I sighed. “Yes, I know.”
“And, anyway, hopefully the cupcakes aren’t a big deal, right? I mean, they’re just cupcakes,” Beth said.
It was no use explaining to Beth about my spicy cupcakes or how it takes time and money to do a test batch. I just wanted to get off the phone.
“Yeah, well, bye then,” I said, and I hung up.
I was fuming by now. I stormed downstairs into the kitchen, where Mom was cutting up carrots for dinner.
“You are not going to believe this!” I said, and then I told Mom what had happened. “This is ridiculous. I am so quitting this stupid fashion show. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Take a deep breath now, Mia,” Mom said. She nodded to the chair next to her. “Come on. Sit down.”
I did what she said, mostly because ranting about everything had calmed me down a little bit.
“I just want to quit,” I repeated, calmer this time. “It’s not fair. Olivia did everything behind my back because she knew nobody else would stand up to her. She probably just didn’t want me to wear that dress—the only good dress in the place.”
“What dress does she have you wearing now?” Mom asked.
I looked at my phone. “Let me check.”
Beth had texted the picture of the dress. It was this pale pink flowery print with cap sleeves and ruffles around the waist.
“Gross,” I said, handing Mom the phone.
Mom nodded. “Pale pink is not your best color,” she agreed. “And I don’t love the ruffles, but they’re trending now. It’s a cute shape, though, and with styling we could make it look great on you. Why don’t you tell Beth that you’ll pick out a new dress yourself? I can go with you and find something that’s still great.”
“You should have seen the green dress,” I said. “I looked gorgeous in it.”
Mom nodded again. “Normally, I’d advise you to talk to Olivia and try to restore things to the way they were,” she said, “but there simply isn’t time. I understand if you don’t want to be in the show, but it will be difficult for me to explain to the Women’s Club why my daughter isn’t in it.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t know,” I said. “I am so mad at Olivia right now, I don’t even want to look at her, much less be in a club with her.”
“I get it,” Mom said. “But, you know, that’s just how it is in business too. I have had to work with quite a few people who made my job way more difficult than it had to be or who wanted to control everything themselves. Learning how to deal with those kind of people is good experience.”
“You sound like Alexis,” I said.
“So, what do you think?” Mom asked.
I sighed. “I’ll do it. But I hate this theme.”
“Tell you what,” Mom said. “Tomorrow after school let’s go look at the dresses in person. Then we’ll work out some styling ideas together, okay? I’m sure we can make it work.”
I felt a little better. “I hope so,” I said.
CHAPTER 15
Style Solves Everything
The next day was a typical Monday. When Katie found me on the bus that morning, I was drawing a thunderstorm in my sketchbook instead of bopping around to music. She knew what was up as soon as she looked at me.
“Miserable Monday, huh?” she asked.
“I don’t feel like talking about it,” I said truthfully. I knew I had to break the news to the Cupcake Club that the theme had changed, but I didn’t want to tell the whole thing twice. Luckily, Katie understands that kind of thing. She leaned around the seat and talked to George Martinez the whole time, and I kept on sketching black clouds and lightning bolts.
Maybe I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I have Olivia in a bunch of my classes. She kept looking at me, like she was waiting for me to say something about the new theme, but I didn’t give her the satisfaction. I totally managed to ignore her until lunchtime.
Beth came up to our table as soon as we started eating, and Olivia was staring at us, curious to see what was going on.
“So, Mia, I hope everything’s cool with the new theme,” she said.
“It’s fine,” I said as coolly as I could. “Listen, my mom offered to help us out. She and I are going to Trendz to check out the clothes in person, and she’s going to give us some styling ideas. And she’ll help me pick out a dress that fits the theme.” I was okay with going with the theme, but there was no way I was letting Olivia pick out my dress.
“Awesome,” Beth said. “She’s a professional stylist, right?”
Suddenly Olivia appeared behind her. “Wait a second, shouldn’t we vote on that? We should be styling the clothes ourselves.”
“No way! This is great,” Beth said. “We haven’t even had time to talk about styling, anyway. Thanks, Mia.”
Beth walked away, completely oblivious to how furious Olivia was. Olivia glared at me and then followed her.
And then my friends went crazy.
“She changed the theme?” Alexis asked. “A week before the show?”
“Oh no! And we made those delicious test cupcakes,” Emma remarked.
“I know, I know,” I said. “It’s all Olivia’s fault, and I missed the meeting, and then I got sick and couldn’t stop her.”
“This doesn’t give us much time to come up with new cupcakes,” Alexis said, anxiously tapping her fork against her food tray. “What’s the new theme?”
“ ‘Fun and Flirty,’ but it doesn’t matter,” I replied. “It’s not fair for us to have to redo things on short notice. We just won’t do the cupcakes. We were doing them a favor, anyway.”
Alexis raised an eyebrow. “ ‘Them’? Does that mean you’re not in the club anymore?”
“I’m doing the fashion show, but I don’t know if I’ll stay after that,” I admitted. “You guys were right. It’s a terrible club.”
“We never said it was terrible,” Emma protested. “And, anyway, you guys are just getting started. We messed things up all the time when we first began our business.”
“We still do,” Katie said, and we all laughed.
“Anyway, just forget about it, please?” I asked. “Olivia’s right. Cupcakes and fashion don’t mix.”
Alexis shot one of her looks at Katie and Emma, but I ignored it. I mean, everybody was at least nice about it. Alexis had every right to start insulting the Fashion Club, but she didn’t do that, and I appreciated that.
Mom kept her promise and we went to the mall that night after dinner. She got a funny look on her face as we entered the store, with its colored lights pulsing and music blasting outside.
“Interesting choice,” she said.
“Olivia’s choice,” I reminded her.
Luckily we found Nikki working by the register again.
“Oh hi,” she said, recognizing me right away. “You’re one of those fashion girls, right?”
“Um, yeah,” I said. “This is my mom. We were hoping to take a look at the new clothes the other girls picked out.”
“That was kind of crazy, right?” Nikki said. “They came in over the weekend with that one bossy girl and picked out all new stuff.”
She led us to a rack of clothes by the dressing room with a sign that read ON HOLD taped to it. I couldn’t help noticing that Nikki was looking pretty stylish again. She had on a dress with a print of little green flowers, topped with a cropped black sweater. Then I noticed the ruffles around the waist and realized something.
“Hey, that looks like the pink dress Olivia picked out for me,” I said. I moved to the rack and quickly found the pale pink flowered dress. “So it comes in other colors?”
Nikki nodded. “This green, and, like, an electric blue. I can show you.”
“The green would be nicer with your coloring,” Mom suggested.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I said, and I followed Nikki back over to a rack of dresses. She pulled out a green one in my size.
“Would it be okay if I switched the
pink dress with this one?” I asked.
Nikki shrugged. “Sure.”
I took the dress back to the rack, where Mom was busy looking through the clothes and making notes in a little notepad.
“I’ll take pictures of everything,” I told her.
“Mia, I think this could be a really cute collection,” she said. “It just needs a little finessing, that’s all.”
“So, um, when were you guys going to pick these up and bring them back?” Nikki asked. “I asked that other girl, and she said she would call me, but she didn’t.”
I looked at Mom helplessly. Things were such a total mess!
“We’ll come by on Saturday morning when you open and get them back to you on Sunday,” she said.
Nikki nodded. “Cool.”
Then I thought of something. “You should come to the show. It’s free,” I told Nikki. “You’ve been really nice about everything.”
“Aw, that’s so cute of you guys,” Nikki said. “Where is it supposed to be?”
I gave her the info, and Mom and I finished up taking pictures and stuff.
“We should probably go,” Mom said. “It’s a school night, after all.” She said it right in front of Nikki, which was totally embarrassing, but Nikki didn’t laugh or anything.
“Cool. See you Saturday,” she said.
As Mom and I drove home, I realized how lucky I was to have her as a mom.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said. “Any time something goes wrong, you always make it better.”
“You’re that way too, Mia,” she said, smiling at me. “You’re a very caring girl.”
“I am?”
Mom nodded. “Of course. Like when you thought Eddie and I were having trouble and you tried to fix it. You’re that way with your friends, too. But, you know, sometimes it’s okay to ask for help. You don’t have to fix everything by yourself.”
I had never really thought about it much, but Mom was right. Like, when things were tough between Katie and her ex–best friend, Callie, I helped to smooth things out. And even when I forgot the fondant, I made sure to fix it so that we still had fairy cupcakes.
“Thanks,” I said. “Between us, we will probably need both of our superhelpful powers to make this fashion show work.”
