by Coco Simon
Then I went to get dressed, and I planned to wear my new neon yellow top and some leggings. The outfit looked great and didn’t clash with my invisible braces at all. But then I remembered my glasses. I tried on my classic pair, and the copper didn’t look that great with the yellow. Then I put on the fuchsia glasses, which might have looked good with, say, a light, lemony yellow, but they looked just awful with the new top. I sighed and got undressed. Normally, I pick out my outfit the night before, but I didn’t last night and I didn’t have a backup plan.
I put on a short denim skirt with a blue top, but then I couldn’t find my blue ballet flats to go with it. I tried on my black flats, but they didn’t go with the outfit at all. So I dug through my closet until I found a short-sleeved, black top with ruffled sleeves and tried that on. It looked good with the skirt and the flats. Then I tried my classic glasses, and they looked okay. But that was a lot of work.
So much for “Come as You Are,” I thought glumly.
Then I reviewed my plan in my head: Nobody knew about the braces except my friends. When I opened my mouth, it was hard to tell I was wearing braces, even though I still felt like I was chewing on a shoe. So nobody had to know I was wearing braces, just as long as I was cool about it.
“Okay. You can do this,” I told my reflection.
By the time I got downstairs, Mom was standing by the front door, holding her car keys and looking annoyed. I missed the bus.
“I’ll have to drive you,” she said. “So please get in the car right now, because I have a conference call in a half hour.”
I grabbed my backpack and followed her outside without saying a word. The whole way to school she was lecturing me about being on time.
“I understand this is a new routine for you, Mia, so maybe you need extra time in the morning,” she said. “I can wake you up fifteen minutes earlier. Maybe your bedtime should be earlier, too.”
“But that’s not fair!” I argued.
“Mia, it’s not up for discussion,” Mom said firmly.
I sulked the whole way to school. Not only did I have to wear glasses and braces, but I now also had to go to bed earlier. What else could go wrong?
When I got to school, I found Katie on the steps, talking with Sophie and Lucy. Katie looked relieved to see me and came running up.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “I thought maybe you were staying home because your mouth hurts from your braces.”
“Shhh,” I said, leading her away by the arm. “I don’t want anybody to know, okay?”
Katie shrugged. “Okay. I don’t see what the big deal is, though. Lots of kids have braces, and most of them have the metal ones that you can see.”
“Well, it’s a big deal to me,” I replied.
“Okay, okay!” Katie said. She pretended to lock her mouth with a key. “My lips are sealed.”
“How can they be sealed if you just said that?” I teased, and we started laughing. I quickly covered up my mouth with my hand, and Katie rolled her eyes.
“Mia, you can’t tell, I swear!” Katie insisted.
“Well, I’m not taking any chances,” I replied.
My plan went pretty well that morning. I made sure not to smile or open my mouth wide, and nobody noticed I had in my braces, not even my teachers. I was playing it cool with my glasses, too. I kept them in my backpack until I absolutely needed to look at the board. Then I quickly slipped them on and took them off again when I was done.
That’s what I did in math, and I caught Katie giving me a weird look. She just didn’t understand my plan.
Right now, you might be agreeing with Katie. I mean, my braces were invisible, and I only had to wear my glasses sometimes. No big deal, right? But to me, it really was. I can’t explain it. I just felt like if I didn’t look perfect all the time, everybody would stare at me or make fun of me. And it wasn’t even about looking perfect. It was about looking like me. I was used to looking a certain way. Now all of a sudden I was wearing glasses and my teeth were covered in brace stuff, and I just don’t look the same. It was a lot to get used to all at once.
When it came time for lunch, I opened my lunch bag. Mom had packed me some yogurt and a container with some nice, soft pasta salad in it. I was about to start eating when I remembered that I had to take out my braces, but I didn’t have a plan for that. Wouldn’t everyone see me? I thought about going into the restroom, but it was always crowded at lunchtime.
Then I had an idea. I took my social studies book out of my backpack and propped it up on the table in front of me. I opened it up, so that it was sort of shielding my face on all sides. Then I quickly slipped out the braces, put them in the container, and then lowered the book.
That’s when I noticed Katie, Alexis, and Emma staring at me.
“Uh, hi,” I said awkwardly.
“What was that all about?” Alexis asked.
“I have to take out my braces when I eat,” I explained. “But I don’t want anybody to see me.”
“Why not?” Emma asked.
Katie answered for me. “She doesn’t want anyone to know she has braces.”
“But they’re invisible,” Alexis pointed out.
“Not entirely,” I argued. “They’re shiny and big. See?”
I smiled, and then quickly closed my mouth. “Listen, it’s not just about the braces. It’s braces and glasses at the same time. Ugh!”
“But the braces are temporary, and besides, nobody cares what you look like,” Katie said. “And even if you care what you look like, you look great. Like the same old Mia.”
“Right,” agreed Emma. “You look terrific.”
“Spectacular,” Alexis added.
“Thanks, guys,” I said. My friends were being so nice that it was hard to stay in a bad mood. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“So maybe you can just relax a little,” Katie suggested.
“I’ll try,” I promised. “But if anybody makes fun of me, it’s on you guys!”
CHAPTER 14
We Finally Have a Theme!
For the next few days I mostly took my friends’ advice. I put my glasses on when I got to class, and nobody said anything. And I kept quiet about my braces, and nobody said anything about them either. I stopped hiding a book in front of me when I took them out at lunch. I just acted normal, and that seemed to work out pretty well.
At lunch on Thursday we were talking about our Cupcake Club meeting.
“So, are we all walking to your house after school, Alexis?” I asked.
“If it’s okay with you, can we have the meeting at four?” Alexis asked. “I have to, um, do something after school.”
That was a little bit weird, because most times we met right after school. Now I’d have to take the bus all the way home and then find somebody to drive me to Alexis’s house. I looked at Katie.
“Can I go to your house from the bus, so we can go together?” I asked.
Katie and Alexis exchanged a strange look, and then Katie said, “Um, no, my mom doesn’t want me to have anybody over when she’s not there.”
That didn’t make sense. “But we’ve done that before,” I pointed out.
Katie shrugged. “I don’t know. She must be going through a ‘strict’ phase. You know how she can get.”
Katie’s mom did have some unusual rules, so I didn’t think too much of it. Plus, Mom is usually home in the afternoon, so I knew she could drive me.
So at four o’clock Mom dropped me off at Alexis’s house. The outside of the house is just as neat as it is on the inside. The bushes by the front door are always trimmed into perfect globe shapes, and I swear the lawn never looks like it grows—the grass is always the same height.
When I knocked on the door, Alexis answered from inside.
“Just come in!”
I obeyed and followed the sound of her voice to the kitchen. Alexis, Emma, and Katie were all sitting around the kitchen table, and each one of them was wearing glasses!
I
started laughing. “Oh my gosh! What did you guys do?”
“We’re supporting you!” Emma said.
“If you’re going to be Four Eyes, then we’re all Four Eyes!” Alexis added proudly.
“Don’t we look great?” Katie asked. “We got reading glasses at the dollar store and took the lenses out.”
I was really touched. And more than that, I was amazed by how cute my friends looked. They didn’t look dorky or weird at all.
“You guys are the best,” I said, sitting down with them. “And you all look amazing too!”
“So do you when you wear your glasses,” Katie said. “I hope you believe us now.”
“I do,” I said, although I wasn’t sure if I believed it 100 percent yet. “But, hey, don’t we have a cupcake job to plan? We only have, like, a week before we start baking.”
“You sound like me,” Alexis joked. “And you’re right. We need a plan, like, right now. I baked some cupcakes last night. Plus, Katie brought all the leftover supplies from our last few jobs.”
Alexis had neatly set up everything on the kitchen counter. I looked over and saw a tray of vanilla cupcakes, along with sprinkles, edible glitter, chocolate chips, gummy worms, coconut, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
“I was thinking,” Katie said. “Maybe we don’t need all that stuff. If this is supposed to be ‘Come as You Are,’ then maybe our cupcakes should be, like, naked. No frosting, no decorations. Just plain.”
We all started giggling at that. “Naked cupcakes? Principal LaCosta would throw us out of the carnival if we did that,” I said.
“Plus, they wouldn’t be yummy,” Emma said.
“And they might be boring,” Alexis added.
Katie got up and brought the tray of “naked” cupcakes to the table. Then she picked one up and started talking in the voice of a cupcake (which was sort of high-pitched, which I guess is how Katie thinks a cupcake would sound if it could talk).
“I’m not boring! I’m naked! I’m ready for summer sunbathing!” Katie said.
We were all cracking up now. Emma picked one up that had puffed up higher on one side than the other. “Look at me! I’m lopsided!”
I grabbed one that was smaller than the others. “I’m tiny, but I’m still delicious!” I said in my best impersonation of Katie’s cupcake voice.
“See?” Katie said. “Not boring at all.”
“That’s only if we do cupcake voices for the whole carnival,” Alexis pointed out. “And I’m not sure I have that in me.”
“But it’s cool the way all the cupcakes are different and unique,” I said, finally figuring it out. “So maybe that’s what we do. We have to make about a hundred cupcakes, right? So let’s do them in a bunch of different flavors. Then each one could have a different icing and topping. I mean, like mixing them up. Just so each one is unique.”
“I love that!” Emma cried. “That will be so much fun!”
“Yay!” Katie agreed. “But we’ll have to narrow down how many flavors and icings we do, so we don’t go crazy. And I think we have enough extra toppings that we won’t have to buy new stuff, so that’s good for our budget, right?”
Alexis nodded. “That’s great for our budget. This is a terrific idea.”
I grabbed a cupcake. “Let’s play around with the dozen we have here to see how they could look. Is there any icing?”
“I made a batch of vanilla,” Alexis said. “And we could always add food coloring to it.”
“Perfect!” I said. “Let’s decorate some and see how they look.”
We brought the icing and the toppings onto the kitchen table and started decorating our practice cupcakes. I used a paper cup to make a small batch of pale orange frosting for one cupcake. I used a black icing tube to draw hair that sort of looked like mine. Then I made a mouth with big teeth out of tiny white candies.
“Alexis, do you have any cereal?” I asked.
“In the cabinet to the right of the sink.”
I found a box of round cereal with a hole in the middle of each piece, which was just what I needed. I added them as the eyes of the cupcake. Then I added some more details with the icing tube. When I was done, I held it up.
“Look!” I said. “It’s me with glasses and braces!”
That made everyone laugh. I made another one with glitter and jelly beans, and for my third one I designed an intricate pattern with a red icing tube over purple icing. It looked pretty cool.
When we were done, we put our twelve cupcakes together. Katie had made glitter rainbows on hers. Emma’s had pink hearts all over them. Alexis made cool geometric designs with candy. They all looked different, but still worked great together as a group.
“This is awesome,” Alexis said, standing back to admire them. “What I love about this is that there will be something for everyone at the carnival.”
“People can find their cupcake soul mate,” Katie said.
“It might take us a long time to do one hundred,” I realized. “We might want to simplify our designs a little bit.”
“We can bake on Thursday and decorate on Friday,” Alexis suggested.
“Let’s do it at my house this time,” Katie offered. “We have lots of extra decorating stuff in our closets, and Mom won’t mind if we use it.”
Alexis held up a cupcake. “Here’s to our not-naked cupcakes!” she cried, and we all clinked together our cupcakes.
CHAPTER 15
Two Surprising Comments
Thanks to my friends, I was finally starting to feel better about my glasses. Then something happened at school the next day that really surprised me.
It happened after health class, on the way to lunch. In class, I had put on my glasses as soon as I sat down, because I had pretty much gotten into the habit of doing that. Across the room, I saw Callie of the BFC kind of staring at me, and I felt a little nervous. Was she going to call me Four Eyes too?
I didn’t really think she would, because Callie is the nicest member of the BFC. There was a time when I hung out with them for a little while, and Callie almost never said anything mean about anybody when the girls were gossiping. Sometimes I still hang out with the BFC if I run into them in the mall when I’m clothes shopping (which is a lot, as you can tell). Katie hates clothes shopping, so I don’t feel bad about hanging out with them, and besides, she understands.
But Callie’s staring made me nervous—you never know with those BFC girls. So I tensed up a little bit when she walked up to me after class. I was heading to lunch with Katie, like always.
“Hi, Mia,” she said. “Hi, Katie.”
“Hi,” Katie replied, a little coolly. (Things are still kind of awkward between them, because they’re not best friends anymore.)
“Mia, I wanted to talk to you about your glasses,” Callie said, and I noticed she was looking around, like she didn’t want anyone to hear her. “You look so cool in yours! I wish I could pull them off, but I don’t think glasses would look good on me, so I wear contact lenses.”
“No way,” Katie interrupted. “When did you get those?”
“Last year,” Callie said. “They’re okay, but it creeps me out to take them in and out. I think it would be much easier to wear glasses all the time. Where did you get yours? They look so awesome on you.”
“My mom helped me,” I admitted. “She knows all about what shapes and colors work best for your face and skin tone. We went to this shop in Stonebrook. It’s called Vision.”
“Thanks. Maybe I’ll tell my mom.”
Then I had an idea. “You know, I could go with you if you want. I remember all that stuff my mom told me. And the saleswoman knows a lot too, so she could help.”
“Oh my gosh, that would be so awesome!” Callie said, excited. “Could we go this weekend, maybe?”
“I’m with my dad this weekend,” I replied. “Maybe Monday after school?”
“I’ll ask my mom and text you,” Callie said. “Thank you so much!”
Then she hurried ah
ead to catch up with the BFC.
“That’s amazing,” I said. “Not only did she not call me Four Eyes, but she actually wants to get glasses.”
“It’s really nice of you to help her,” Katie said, and I could tell she wasn’t jealous at all. “You could become a stylist, just like your mom.”
“Or a fashion designer,” I said, because that is one of my goals. “But being a stylist would be cool, too.”
Right then I decided I wasn’t going to be embarrassed about my glasses ever again. It wasn’t just Callie that did it; it was everyone who had helped me. And I realized it was a relief not to care about it anymore!
I brought both pairs of glasses with me to my dad’s for the weekend, so I could coordinate them with my outfits. On Friday night we had our traditional sushi dinner, and I made sure to ask Dad if we were going to see Lynne and Ethan that weekend. He said there was a concert in the park that might be fun, and he thought we could all go together.
That sounded okay to me. But when I woke up Saturday morning, the sky was gray. It was still cloudy when Lynne and Ethan came over that afternoon.
“Are you sure we should go?” Lynne asked worriedly. “It looks like it might rain.”
“The forecast says that the rain is going to hold off until early evening,” Dad reported, and right at the end of his sentence we heard a loud clap of thunder. I walked to the window, and sheets of rain were splashing against the glass.
“Um, I think the forecast is wrong,” I said.
“That’s okay,” Lynne said. “Ethan and I can go home and watch a video.”
“Nonsense! You can’t go out in this,” Dad insisted. “Stay here, and we can rent a movie or something.”
He kneeled down to talk to Ethan. “Would you like that? What movie should we rent?”
“I don’t want to see a movie,” Ethan said, pouting. “I want to play in Mia’s room!”
Dad later told me that the look on my face was like I had seen an alien crashing through the ceiling. I must have looked horrified. Making sure only Dad could see me, I started shaking my head. No way did I want Ethan in my room!
