by Coco Simon
“Hi, Mom!” Emma called out. “Did you get off early?”
“I’m working story time tomorrow morning, so I had the afternoon off,” her mom replied. She’s a librarian, and she’s got blond hair just like Emma and all her brothers.
Jake ran up to us. “Are you making cupcakes today?” he asked. “I want a blue one with a dinosaur on it!”
“Sorry, Jake, today we’re just talking about cupcakes,” Emma told him. “But maybe you can help me make some later, okay?”
Jake got a big smile on his face. “Okay!” Then he ran back to the table.
“There’s a pot of hot chocolate on the stove, and some oatmeal bars to go with it,” Mrs. Taylor said.
“Thank you!” all four of us said at once. Then we headed to the kitchen for our meeting.
You can tell from Emma’s kitchen that everyone in her family loves sports. There are sports schedules tacked to the refrigerator, and her brothers’ hockey sticks were leaning up next to the back door. The one thing of Emma’s that stands out is her pink mixer. Besides being gorgeous, it’s great for baking cupcakes.
“Emma, we should use your pink mixer to make our Valentine’s cupcakes,” Katie suggested as we grabbed our cocoa and snacks. “Maybe they’ll add some extra Valentine’s magic or something.”
Alexis opened up her backpack and took out her notebook.
“So, the bookstore wants four dozen cupcakes for their event,” she said, getting right down to business as usual. “And they want them to be Valentine themed. Any ideas?”
“I was thinking we could do a white cupcake,” Emma said. “You know, the kind you make with no egg yolks? They’re fluffy and light as air. I think they’re called angel’s food.”
Katie nodded. “My mom showed me how to make those.” (Katie’s mom is, like, the best cupcake baker in the world.)
“And then we could make some light pink strawberry frosting to go with them,” Emma finished.
We all made an ooh sound.
“That sounds so pretty!” I said. “I had a different kind of idea. I was thinking about something red—maybe a red velvet cupcake, but with red cinnamon frosting and Red Hots candies on the top.”
“Spicy romance!” Katie said, and we all laughed.
And that was exactly when Emma’s brother Sam walked in. How embarrassing!
“Spicy romance?” he repeated. “What are you girls talking about? I thought this was a cupcake meeting.”
Sam is a junior in high school, and his blond hair is wavy and sometimes falls over his eyes. And he’s just as nice as he is cute.
“This is a cupcake meeting,” Emma said with a huff. “We’re trying to invent some Valentine’s cupcakes.”
Emma’s brother Matt walked in just behind Sam. He opened the refrigerator, took out a carton of milk, and drank right from it.
“Valentine’s cupcakes?” he asked. “What, for your boyfriends?”
“We’re too young to have boyfriends!” Katie blurted out. “At least, that’s what my mom says.”
Matt shrugged. “Well, then you can make some for me to give to my girlfriend.”
Next to me, Alexis suddenly got a weird look on her face.
“You don’t have a girlfriend,” Emma said. “And stop drinking from the milk carton or I’ll tell Mom!”
Matt reached over her shoulder and grabbed two oatmeal bars from the plate on the table. “Well, maybe I’ll get one,” he said.
Emma shook her head. “Exactly. You don’t have one.”
Most of the time, Emma is pretty quiet and shy. But when she’s with her brothers, she can totally stand up to them. I think that’s cool.
Alexis’s face was all pink underneath her freckles. I know she used to like Matt (and maybe she still did, a little), so it must be weird to hear him talking about girlfriends.
Sam took the milk from Matt and poured himself a glass.
“There’s too much spicy romance in this room,” he said. “I’m getting out of here.”
Now it was Katie’s turn to blush, only she turned as red as the cupcake I was imagining.
“Can we please get back to our meeting?” Alexis asked impatiently.
“We have two cupcake ideas,” I reminded her. “Fluffy and pink, and red and hot.”
“We should do both,” Katie suggested. “One pink, one red. Sweet and spicy.”
“Good idea,” Alexis said. “Then people will have a choice.”
I started sketching a big heart entirely made of cupcakes. All the pink ones were in the middle, and the border was made with the spicy red cupcakes. “Here’s a fun way to display them,” I said. I held up my sketch.
“I love it, Mia!” Emma squealed. Nothing like a big pink heart to make a girlie girl happy.
“That’s awesome,” Alexis said. “Now we have two cupcake ideas and even a cool way to display them. This was a very productive meeting.” She nodded approvingly.
“That was easy!” Katie said, leaning back.
Alexis stood up. “I’d love to stay longer, but I think I should go home,” she said.
“Already?” Katie asked.
She nodded. “Tons of homework.”
“I think teachers get bored in the winter and give us extra homework so they have something to do at night,” Katie mused. “It seems like it’s double lately.”
Suddenly I remembered the extra homework Señora Delgado had given me.
“I should go soon too,” I said. “Let me text Eddie.”
“My mom can give you a ride,” Katie said.
“That’s okay,” I told her. “He’s expecting me to text him to pick me up.”
My stepdad, Eddie, is a pretty nice guy. I don’t have too many complaints about him, even though it’s superweird that my parents are divorced and I have a stepdad in the first place. But one thing that bugs me is that he’s way more strict than my dad, and Mom goes along with it.
For example, Mom works at home on her business, but she’s out at meetings a lot. And she and Eddie have a rule that I can’t be home alone. So if Mom’s not home, then Eddie leaves his office, which is here in Maple Grove, and hangs out with me until Mom comes home.
Can you believe that? I mean, I’m in middle school! Emma’s mom lets her stay home alone, and she even watches Jake. It’s so not fair. When I’m in Manhattan with my dad, sometimes he’ll run out to the store or something and he lets me stay in the apartment by myself. But not Eddie. And I know Mom’s only going along with it because that’s what Eddie wants.
I hung out with the Cupcake Club for about fifteen more minutes, and then Eddie called my phone. He doesn’t believe in beeping the horn. He says it “disturbs the peace.”
I said good-bye to my friends and headed outside. Eddie’s car was nice and warm.
“Hi, Mia,” he said cheerfully. “How did the cupcake meeting go?”
“Good,” I replied. Eddie always wants to have these long, chatty conversations, but sometimes I’m not in the mood.
“Do you have a lot of homework tonight?” he asked as we began the drive home.
“Um, some,” I said. There was absolutely no way I was going to tell him what happened in Señora Delgado’s class.
“You can start that while I start dinner then,” he said. “And don’t forget to text your mom as soon as we get home.”
“Why do I always have to do that?” I asked. “You know I’m home! Why do I have to tell both of you?”
Eddie laughed. “Because your mom likes to hear from you.”
I rolled my eyes and stared out the window. Back when Mom and Dad were still together, I had a babysitter who picked me up from school when they were both working late. Her name was Natalie, and she was really nice. She would make me mac and cheese for dinner, and I was usually in bed when Mom came home and kissed me good night. Mom never made me text her then.
But there was no use arguing with Eddie. I texted Mom as soon as I got home, and she said she’d be home by six thirty. Then I decided to tex
t my dad to see if he wanted to Skype. Thinking about those old days in the city was making me miss him really bad.
In a meeting. We’ll Skype after dinner, OK? he texted back.
K, I answered, feeling a little sad.
“Guess it’s just me and Eddie,” I muttered.
There was nothing to do but start my homework. I did my math first and then my vocabulary, and then I started on my Spanish.
Soon a delicious smell filled the air, and I realized that Eddie was making his famous spinach lasagna for dinner. Yum!
When I heard the door slam, I knew Dan was home. A little while later, my mom pulled into the driveway.
“I hope I’m not late!” Mom called out.
I ran down the stairs, remembering I should have set the table by now. But when I got into the dining room, Dan was already setting it.
“Hey, thanks,” I said.
Dan shrugged. “Dad said you were doing homework.”
Eddie walked into the dining room carrying a steaming pan of lasagna. He was wearing my mom’s oven mitts with the big red roses on them, and he looked pretty silly.
“Let Family Time begin!” he announced in a goofy voice.
A few minutes later I was eating delicious lasagna and salad and garlic bread, and Mom was telling me about her new client, and then Dan told this story about this guy in his chemistry class who made something explode, and we were all laughing. It was definitely better than eating mac and cheese with Natalie. In fact, it was pretty nice.
But you know what would be even better than that? Having “Family Time” with me and Mom and Dad all together. It doesn’t really feel like “Family Time” to me completely without my dad here eating dinner with us. But that’s never going to happen again.
And sometimes knowing that really hurts.
CHAPTER 4
Thank Goodness for Cupcakes
I felt a little better after I Skyped with my dad; I always do. And I definitely didn’t want to disappoint Señora Delgado again, so I made sure to finish all my homework. They were both worksheets, so I ended up guessing a lot. But at least I finished!
Anyway, tomorrow is Friday, which is my favorite day of the week. For one thing, it’s the last day before the weekend, and the best things always happen on weekends. But for the Cupcake Club, it’s also Cupcake Friday.
We started Cupcake Friday when school started and we all met. I definitely wouldn’t mind eating cupcakes every day, but that’s not exactly healthy, you know? So every Friday one of us brings in cupcakes to share. Since we started our business, a lot of times the cupcakes are test runs of the cupcakes we’re going to make for an order.
The next day in the cafeteria, we all waited eagerly for Emma to arrive. Last night Emma texted everyone and told us she was going to bake the white cupcakes with strawberry frosting. She came to the table with a pink cardboard box and lifted the lid.
“They’re a little messy, because I let Jake help me,” she said apologetically. “So I added some coconut flakes to cover up the dents in the icing.”
“That looks like snow!” I said. I took my sketchbook out of my bag and started sketching with a pink pencil. “I like how it looks on top, but maybe we could test out some other decorations too. Like some white heart-shaped sprinkles, maybe?” I held up my sketch.
Emma’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, I like that idea!”
Katie picked up a cupcake. “They look sooo good, Emma,” she said, peeling off the wrapper.
We hadn’t even eaten our lunch yet, but none of us could resist trying one. I unwrapped one and took a bite. The white cake was superlight and fluffy, and the strawberry icing was perfect—not too sweet.
“It’s almost like eating a cloud,” Katie remarked, finishing her cupcake in one big bite.
“It is delicious,” I agreed.
“It’s perfect,” Alexis added. “Now we just need to test the spicy ones. Mia, can we do that at the meeting on Sunday?”
“Oh, I almost forgot!” I said. “My friend Ava is coming out to visit this weekend. Is it okay if she’s at the meeting?”
“She’s nice,” Katie said. “Besides, since we’re making cupcakes for her birthday party, she can tell us what she wants.”
“She’s the one we met at your mom’s fashion show and wedding, right?” Alexis asked, and I nodded.
“Of course she can be there,” Alexis said. She looked down at her notebook. “Oh yeah, I forgot something. I meant to mention this yesterday.”
I smiled. “Yeah, it looked like you were a little distracted.”
Alexis blushed. “I told you, I don’t like Matt anymore! Besides, you and Katie turn bright red whenever Sam walks into the room.”
“Ew! You guys are talking about my brothers, remember?” Emma pointed out.
“Sorry,” I said. “So what’s up, Alexis?”
“The question should really be, ‘What’s down?’” Alexis said. “And the answer to that would be ‘our sales.’ They’ve dropped twelve percent since the fall. We had a little bump during the holidays, but still, we need to pick up business.”
“Maybe we can start promoting the business again,” Emma suggested. “Remember when we handed out those flyers? They really worked.”
Alexis nodded thoughtfully. “True. We haven’t done those in a while. But maybe we could put a coupon on them or something. You know, like a special deal.”
“We could do a baker’s dozen!” Katie said.
“What’s that?” Alexis asked.
“It’s when you buy a dozen of something and you get an extra for free,” Katie explained. “Like they do at the bagel shop. They give you thirteen bagels for the price of twelve, and they call it a baker’s dozen.”
“I like it!” Alexis said. “Except for one thing. Our cupcake boxes fit twelve cupcakes exactly. Where would we put the extra one?”
Everyone was quiet for a minute. “Maybe we could wrap the extra one in a clear bag with a ribbon,” I said. “Then they’d definitely see that they’re getting an extra one.”
“So cute!” Emma agreed.
“They also make special boxes that fit exactly one cupcake,” Katie said. “I’ve seen them at the store. But they might be too expensive. I can check.”
“Either one of those ideas could work,” Alexis said. “And you know, maybe we don’t have to do flyers. I was doing some research on advertising, and it costs only ten dollars to put an ad on the school’s website for parents. Since we need some new customers, we could offer a baker’s dozen to everyone who orders for the first time.”
“Sounds like a plan!” Katie said.
“I can write something up and show it to you guys on Sunday,” Alexis said.
“And I’ll get the ingredients together for the cinnamon cupcakes,” I added.
And then I realized that I had spent the whole lunch period without even thinking about Spanish class. That’s another reason I love being in the Cupcake Club!
CHAPTER 5
Some Advice from Ava
Why exactly do I have to sweep the basement?” I complained. “Nobody ever goes down there!”
“Would you take a bath and not wash your feet?” Eddie replied. “A truly clean house is clean all over. And we want things to be nice for your friend.”
“But she’s not even going to see the basement!” I pointed out.
That was when Mom stepped into the kitchen. “Mia, please don’t argue with Eddie. It will only take a few minutes to sweep the basement.”
I glared at my mom, but I knew I wasn’t going to win this argument. So I grabbed the broom from Eddie and went down the stairs.
“No stomping!” Mom called after me.
“I am not stomping!” I called back. (Although to be honest, I was stepping pretty hard.)
I couldn’t help it. I was feeling pretty cranky. Ava was due any minute, and I was thinking of changing out of my skinny jeans and black sweater into something different. But no—I had to clean the basement.
When we lived in an apartment, we didn’t have a basement. In fact, I don’t remember cleaning our apartment. I had to keep my room clean, but the kitchen and living room were always neat. I never thought much about how that happened.
But now I lived in a house, and Eddie believes that “a clean house is a happy house.” So every Saturday we wake up at the crack of dawn (which to me is any time before ten o’clock) and clean the house, unless I have a soccer game or a cupcake job. It’s just one more way that my new life is worse than my old life.
Even though I hate to admit it, Mom was right about the basement. There’s not much down there except Dan’s and my sports equipment and a metal shelf with some pots and pans and cans of food. The floor is concrete, and it didn’t take long to sweep at all.
But by the time I got back upstairs, the doorbell was ringing. My heart started to beat extra fast. Ava was here!
Ava and I have known each other since preschool. She was my only best friend in the world until I met Katie. I miss Ava so much! I usually visit her when I spend the weekend with my dad, but she’s never been to Eddie’s house before—I mean, my house. Our house.
I ran to the door and opened it. Ava was there with her mom, Mrs. Monroe. A blast of cold air swept into the room.
“Come in, fast!” I said. “It’s cold out there.”
Then Mom and Eddie came up, and everybody hugged one another. Ava took off her coat, and I saw she was wearing skinny jeans and a black sweater—just like me.
We pointed at each other and laughed.
“Nice outfit,” I said.
“You too,” Ava replied.
I’ve always thought that Ava and I look kind of alike, even though I’m Latina and she’s part Korean and part Scottish. We’re both the same height, and we both have brown eyes and straight black hair. Oh, and we both have first names that are three letters long. How cool is that?
Eddie took Ava’s purple duffel bag from Mrs. Monroe and brought it over to the stairs.
“Ellie, can you stay for coffee?” my mom asked Ava’s mom.
“I wish I could, but I’ve got to get back for Christopher’s hockey game,” Mrs. Monroe replied. She hugged Ava and kissed her on the forehead.
