by Coco Simon
“Call me if you need anything, okay? Otherwise I’ll see you at the train station tomorrow.”
“Okay, Mom,” Ava replied.
When Mrs. Monroe left, Eddie said, “Mia, why don’t you give your friend a tour of the house?”
“Um, sure,” I said. I felt a little awkward. I’d never had to give Ava a “tour” of anything. But everything was different now.
“I’ll take you on the grand tour!” I said dramatically, and we both started giggling. “Follow me, madam.”
So I showed Ava the kitchen and the dining room, and she kept saying, “Wow! You have so much space!” It’s true, I guess. In Manhattan, almost everyone I know has a pretty small apartment.
When we got to the living room, Dan was setting up his video game system.
“Oh, hey, guys,” he said, nodding to Ava. “You were at the wedding, right?”
“Right,” Ava said, and I saw her cheeks turn pink.
“Ava, you remember my stepbrother, Dan,” I said.
Dan nodded and settled down in front of the TV. Then I led Ava upstairs.
“Your brother is so cute!” she whispered when we got to the top.
“He’s not cute! He’s just . . . regular,” I said. Suddenly I knew how Emma must feel with everyone crushing on Matt and Sam. “Besides, he’s not my brother. He’s my stepbrother.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Ava said as I opened the door to my room. Then she gasped. “Wow, look at all this space!”
I had been nervous about showing Ava my bedroom. My room in Manhattan has this cool Parisian theme, and it’s light pink and black and white. But I haven’t decorated my room in this house yet. Right now it has ugly flowered wallpaper on it, but Eddie promised to scrape all that off for me. I still haven’t figured out what color to paint it, and none of the furniture matches.
But Ava didn’t seem to notice. She went straight for my closet and threw open the door. “Oh wow! This is HUGE!” she exclaimed. “You could fit a whole store in here, Mia!”
My closet isn’t really that big, but compared to my old one in the city, it definitely is huge. Then Ava frowned.
“Wait! I can’t find anything!” she cried. “Where’s my favorite top? The one with the butterfly? It used to be next to the red dress!”
“I reorganized it,” I told her. “Mom showed me how to do it by color. Look in the blue section.”
Ava searched and then pulled out the shirt. She held it in front of her. “You have to let me borrow this again! When it gets warmer, I mean.”
“Or you could layer it,” I said. I rummaged through the clothes and pulled out a slim-fitting, long-sleeved knit top with purple-and-blue stripes. “See?”
“Cool!” Ava said, grabbing it from me. “Can I borrow them both? I’ll give them back next time I see you.”
“Of course!” I told her. “You don’t even have to ask.”
Ava flopped backward on my bed. “Sorry if it was weird that I said Dan was cute. He seems really nice,” she said. “It must be fun having an older brother instead of a younger one. Christopher is always getting into my stuff and bugging me!”
“Well, Dan is pretty nice,” I admitted. “But wait until you hear the loud music he plays. That’s really annoying.”
Ava sat up. “So you must like living here, right?”
I shrugged. “It’s okay. But I miss not seeing my dad every day. And you and everyone else.”
“But you still get to see us,” Ava said. “It’s kind of like you have the best of both worlds.”
“Maybe,” I said, a little unsure. “Sometimes I think about what it would be like if things had never changed with my parents. Most of the time I think I would like that. But I’d miss some of this new stuff, like some of my new friends.”
“I guess I would be sad if I couldn’t see my dad every day,” Ava said thoughtfully.
That’s what I love about Ava. She gets me, you know?
“So listen to this,” I said. “I am failing Spanish class!”
Ava looked surprised, and then she said the same thing everyone else always said: “But don’t you speak Spanish?”
“Sí,” I replied, and then I explained the situation like I had to Katie and my cupcake friends. Ava nodded.
“It’s the same with me,” she said. “My dad’s a doctor, and I almost failed science! He was mad at first, but then when he was helping me with my homework, he saw how hard it was, so I had a tutor. It really helped.”
I imagined Eddie and Mom sitting in Señora Delgado’s class and smiled. “I wonder if Mom and Eddie could even do my homework. It’s hard!”
“Just ask for help,” Ava said. “They’ll understand. I’m sure they’d rather help you than have you fail the class.”
“I will,” I told her, but I wasn’t sure if I meant it. After all, things had been pretty crazy the last few months, with the move and the wedding and everything. Maybe I just needed to catch up, I told myself.
Suddenly a loud screeching came through the bedroom wall, followed by the thump, thump, thump of a bass line.
Ava covered her ears. “Oh my gosh! What is that?” she yelled over the music.
I grinned. “I told you!” I shouted back.
“DAN! Turn it DOWN!” I yelled, and banged on the wall. “Not so cute now, is he?” I said, and then we both started laughing.
CHAPTER 6
A Different Kind of Cupcake Meeting
Spending Saturday with Ava was awesome. We went to the mall, and after that Mom made spicy chili for dinner. Then we all watched a movie together (well, except for Dan, who was out with his friends). And Ava and I stayed up way late talking and talking. I love my cupcake friends, but it’s also great to have a friend who knows your history. Someone you don’t see all the time, but every time you reconnect, you can pick up right where you left off. Every time I see Ava it’s like we just hung out the day before.
In the morning we helped Mom make chocolate chip pancakes, and then we got the kitchen ready for the Cupcake Club meeting. Eddie was making a turkey-and-swiss sandwich on a superlong loaf of bread while I got out the baking stuff.
“I ordered the bread special from the bakery,” he told us. “This is a lunch meeting, right? You can’t have a lunch meeting without lunch!”
I hadn’t even thought about that. Eddie’s pretty good that way. I think he likes to take care of people.
To tell the truth, I was a little bit nervous about the meeting. Besides baking the cinnamon-frosted cupcakes, we were also going to talk about the cupcakes we were making for Ava’s birthday party in a few weeks. I was invited to the party, but my cupcake friends weren’t.
Of course, we bake stuff all the time for events we’re not invited to, like that baby shower for our science teacher’s sister. So maybe that wasn’t such a big deal.
I was also worried that Ava wouldn’t get along with my Maple Grove friends. But then I realized that everyone is really nice, so that shouldn’t be a problem. At least, I hoped it wouldn’t be!
Then the bell rang, and Katie, Alexis, and Emma all arrived at once. It took a few minutes for everyone to take off their coats, hats, gloves, and scarves, but soon we were all around the kitchen table and Eddie was cutting up his giant sandwich for us.
“I like your shirts,” Emma said to Ava. She was wearing the striped shirt with the butterfly shirt that she had borrowed from me.
“Thanks! They’re Mia’s,” she replied. “The butterfly one has always been my favorite.”
I noticed that Katie suddenly got kind of a weird look on her face. Was she jealous? No, probably not. Katie’s just insecure, I thought. Her old best friend, Callie, dumped her, so she’s always afraid someone else is going to do the same thing.
Then Ava started to talk really fast about stuff, like she does when she’s excited or nervous.
“You guys live in such a nice town,” she said. “I’m kind of jealous. I sort of wish I had an older brother like Dan too.”
Emma
rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky. They can be so annoying.”
“More annoying than a little brother?” Ava asked. “’Cause I already have one of those.”
Emma nodded. “Worse. At least little brothers do cute things sometimes.”
“I tried to tell you, Ava,” I said.
“At least none of you have an older sister,” Alexis chimed in. “She spends hours and hours in the bathroom every day.”
“Dan showers longer than any of us,” I whispered. “And then he sprays on that cologne for guys that they advertise on TV. Gross!”
I looked at Katie, expecting her to make a joke like she always does, but she was kind of quiet. In fact, she stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting. I decided I’d have to ask her later if everything was okay.
Then Alexis took out her notebook and we got down to business.
“So, Ava, I can show you our most popular cupcake styles,” she said.
Ava took her phone from her jeans pocket. “Actually, I have a list of ideas I’ve been working on,” she said. “Mia says you guys can do anything, right?”
Alexis looked flustered—she’s used to being the one in charge, and Ava was kind of taking over.
“Well, sure, but sometimes it helps if—”
“Let’s hear your idea, Ava!” Emma said, smoothing things over.
“I have a few,” Ava replied. “But winter is totally my favorite season, and it almost always snows on my birthday, so I was hoping you could do a snowy cupcake.”
Alexis started flipping through her notebook. “Snowy. Hmm, I’m not sure exactly how we’d do that.”
All of us were quiet for a minute. A snowy cupcake? That was tough. Then Katie came through, as usual.
“Remember Emma’s cupcake from yesterday?” she blurted out. “What if we do coconut flakes on top of vanilla icing? Mia said the coconut looked just like snow.”
I nodded. “That could work.”
I jumped out of my seat and ran to the kitchen cabinet where I keep all my cupcake supplies. Eddie had cleared out a shelf just for me.
I came back with a big jar of glittery sugar sprinkles.
“How about white icing, coconut flakes, and then some edible glitter, like this?” I suggested. “We could do a silver wrapper.”
“That sounds nice,” Ava said. “But do I get to see it first?”
“We’ll take a photo and send it to you for approval,” Alexis said. “But first you need to tell us what flavor of cake you want.”
“Would chocolate be okay?” Ava asked. “The brown cake won’t show through the vanilla frosting, will it?”
“No way,” I said. “Especially if Katie’s doing the frosting. She’s the best.”
“You guys are all just as good,” Katie said, smiling a little for the first time.
“We’ll do a test run at our next meeting, after we get the ingredients,” Alexis said. “Today we’ve got to do a test batch of Mia’s spicy cupcakes.”
“I’ve got the red food coloring and the cinnamon and the Red Hots,” I said.
Katie held up the canvas shopping bag she had brought with her. “I was talking to my mom about them, and she thought some other flavors might go nice with the cinnamon frosting instead of the red velvet. Like dark chocolate, maybe, or apple.”
“Wow, they both sound good,” Ava said.
“I thought we could try a batch of each,” Katie suggested. “I brought the dark chocolate, and some applesauce and some extra spices, like ginger and cloves.” Everyone agreed to try the two different kinds, and we quickly got to work measuring out the flour and other ingredients for the batter.
“Don’t you use a recipe?” Ava asked.
“Sometimes,” I said. “But mostly we know how to make a basic batter and then add extra flavors to it.”
“Ooh, extra spices! Muy caliente, right, Mia?” Emma said, and everybody laughed. But that got me thinking about my Spanish class again. How was I ever going to tell my mom and dad and Eddie that I was failing Spanish? Ava was right. They would make sure I got the extra help I needed. And the longer I avoided telling them, the worse it was going to be. But still, the thought of telling them made my stomach feel queasy. Even though I knew it was crazy, I kept hoping that if I avoided the problem, somehow it would magically disappear.
“Earth to Mia!” said Katie, waving something under my nose. She held up an index card. “Mom gave me her recipe for the dark chocolate ones. The measurements are always a little different when there’s chocolate,” she explained to Ava.
Chocolate. Now that should have caught my attention. But I couldn’t get my mind off my Spanish class. This was awful. Baking cupcakes with the Cupcake Club was one of my favorite things to do in the entire world, and now I couldn’t even enjoy that. I kept throwing ingredients into the batter and stirring, stirring, stirring, wishing I could make my problems disappear the way the spices were disappearing into the chocolate batter.
Wait—spices in the chocolate batter? I tasted a little bit. Whoa. Intense. And not in a good way.
“Um, sorry, guys,” I said. “I think I mixed up the two batters. I added the spices to the dark chocolate batter by accident.” Alexis frowned at the waste of ingredients, but everyone else was really nice. We’ve all ruined or burned batches of cupcakes at one time or another, so everyone was pretty forgiving.
“Maybe you should work on something else right now,” Alexis suggested.
I agreed, and so I said, “Ava and I will do the icing.” Then we made a double batch of vanilla icing dyed red and spiced with cinnamon.
About forty-five minutes later we were staring at two plates of cupcakes with red frosting and dotted with Red Hots candies. They looked great, and both looked the same—although inside, they were both really different.
“Tasting time!” Alexis announced, and we cut some of the cupcakes in half so we each ate half of one. Everyone got quiet for a few minutes while we ate. Cupcake tasting is fun, but it’s also serious business.
“They are both so good,” Emma said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “But I think I like the dark chocolate ones best.”
“Me too,” I agreed.
Alexis shook her head. “I like the spices in the apple cupcakes.”
“I vote for apple too,” Katie said.
Alexis frowned. “It’s a tie.”
“Ava can break the tie,” I said. “What do you think, Ava?”
“You know me. I love chocolate!” she replied.
I turned to my friends. “What do you think? Should we do the dark chocolate?”
Katie and Alexis looked at each other and shrugged.
“Fine,” Alexis said. “Studies show that chocolate is one of the most popular cupcake flavors, anyway. Maybe we’ll get some new customers from it.”
“And they’re Valentine’s Day cupcakes,” Emma said. “And you know how everybody goes gaga over chocolate on Valentine’s Day.”
Katie put her arms around the plate of apple cupcakes. “Then I guess I’ll be taking these home,” she joked, and we all laughed.
It felt really good to have all my friends together in one place. But I knew it wouldn’t last. In a little while, Ava would have to go back to the city. My cupcake friends would be in Maple Grove. And I would still be stuck with Spanish wherever I went.
CHAPTER 7
Tiny Plates and Tiny Lies
After our meeting was over and the kitchen was clean, Ava and I had to hurry and pack up her things. We had a half hour to get to the train station.
Even though Ava was leaving, there was one good thing about that day. You see, I was supposed to see my dad this weekend, but he had to go on a business trip. He was coming back Sunday afternoon, and Mom had to go to the city to style a client for a party, so she and I were going to take the train in with Ava. Mom would go to work, Ava would go home, and I’d get to have a special dinner with my dad.
It sounds complicated, right? Welcome to my life!
Eddie drove us to
the train station and dropped us off. He gave Mom a big hug and a kiss. I looked at Ava and winced.
“He’s acting like she’s going away for a year or something,” I said. “We’ll be back in a few hours.”
Ava laughed. “I don’t know. I think it’s kind of sweet.”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?”
Then the train pulled up, and Mom and Ava and I climbed on. It wasn’t as crowded as it usually is when I leave on Friday, so we all found a seat near one another. I don’t really love the train, though. The seats are an ugly color, and it always smells like stale bread in there. But it’s fast and it gets me to my dad, so I don’t mind so much.
Mom shopped for accessories on her tablet on the way to Manhattan, and Ava and I talked about her upcoming birthday party. The snowy cupcakes had inspired her.
“I could get silver and white decorations,” she was saying. “And sprinkle silver glitter on the cake table, maybe.”
I whipped out my sketchbook. “We could put the cupcakes at different heights, like this,” I said, quickly drawing my vision for her.
“I love it!” Ava exclaimed.
“And of course you’ll need the perfect dress,” I said.
I flipped the page and started sketching Ava in a snowy dress—a sleeveless top attached to a flowing, white knee-length skirt.
“The top could be silver,” I said, pointing. “But I’m not sure. It kind of looks like an ice skater’s outfit.”
“No, it’s awesome,” Ava said sincerely. “You are such a good designer, Mia! You’re going to be famous someday.”
I blushed a little bit, and Mom leaned over to see my sketch. She smiled. Being a famous fashion designer would be so cool. But I know that takes a lot of hard work, and a lot of luck, too.
Finally the train pulled into Penn Station. It’s always crazy when everyone gets off the train, with people running in every direction, but Dad always waits in the same spot for me, by this big pillar by the ticket counter.
When the doors opened up and we walked to the concourse level, I saw him standing there. Dad always looks like a movie star to me. He had on a warm black coat that wasn’t puffy at all, and shiny black shoes and an olive green scarf around his neck. Dad wears glasses with black rims, but on him they don’t look old-fashioned, they look smart.
