by Sheryl Berk
“Come on, Delaney,” Lexi fretted. “Put it back before we get in trouble.”
“Not until you try it on,” Delaney insisted. She placed the crown on Lexi’s head and stepped back to admire it.
“Whoa! Lex, you look como una reina—like a queen,” Jenna said, whistling through her teeth.
“I feel silly,” Lexi replied, snatching it off. “I’m not a pageant queen.”
“But you could be,” said a voice entering the room. It was Laura, the pageant director. “All you need is the confidence to be a star.”
Lexi’s cheeks flushed bright red. “I’m so sorry!” she apologized, handing the crown back to Laura. “We were just trying it on for size.”
“No worries!” the director replied. “This was my crown from when I was Miss New England Shooting Starz twenty years ago. I was Ultimate Grand Supreme.”
“Is that, like, the best?” Delaney asked.
“Well, it’s the top prize,” Laura explained. “But there are lots of other categories as well, like prettiest smile, best personality, ultimate talent…”
It was easy to see why Laura had won. She had warm, brown eyes; silky, brown hair that fell in loose ringlets around her shoulders; and perfect, white teeth. And unlike Hershey, she was dressed to the nines in a pale-blue suit and high heels.
“Is there a category for most baskets in a single game?” Sadie asked. “I’d win that for sure.”
“Afraid not,” Laura said, smiling. “But there is a fitness category where you can show off your sports skill.”
“You could dribble your ball onstage,” Delaney teased, elbowing Sadie. “Or do an ollie on your skateboard.”
“Well, if there was a category for best cupcake, PLC would win it,” Kylie said, motioning for Lexi to bring over the samples. “I hope you like what we created for your pageant.”
“Did I hear the word ‘cupcake’?” A bubbly, blond woman suddenly bounced into the room. She was dressed head to toe in pink, from her fuchsia beanie with “STAR” on it to her pink sweater, leggings, and bubble-gum pink patent-leather boots. She was carrying several sequined gowns, draped over both arms.
“I’m Fitzy. And you are?”
“Speechless,” Delaney replied. “Those are the most gorgeous dresses I’ve ever seen!”
“Ya think?” Fitzy asked. “I can’t decide if this is fab or drab.” She held up an emerald-green dress with fringe on the bottom.
Delaney gasped. “OMG! It’s amazing!”
“I agree—if you’re a leprechaun,” Laura sniffed.
“Or a pistachio nut,” Jenna spoke up. “Just sayin’.”
Laura looked up from her clipboard. “I like this girl. She’s got style.”
Jenna looked down at her gray sweatshirt, jeans, and black high-top sneakers. “Really? ’Cause these are just my sisters’ hand-me-downs.”
“Style isn’t just what you wear on the outside. It’s what you project from the inside,” Fitzy explained. “Confidence is your best accessory.”
“Phew,” Jenna said, mopping her brow. “That’s a relief.”
“That’s what our pageant’s all about,” Laura added. “Celebrating girls who are beautiful inside and out. Do you think you could come up with a cupcake that embodies that?”
Lexi held open the box. “We made these sparkling spun-sugar crown toppers.”
Fitzy handed Sadie her pile of clothes. “Hold this. I need a closer taste—I mean, look.”
Both directors examined the cupcakes. They looked them over from every angle and sampled the cake and the frosting individually, then together.
“They are certainly works of art,” Laura commented.
Fitzy licked her fingertips. “And scrumptious!” she said with her mouth full.
“Yummo with a capital Y,” Hershey weighed in.
Laura tapped a high-heeled pump on the floor. “They really are very good…”
“Good? They’re great!” Jenna insisted. “We’re talking the finest Belgian chocolate, Madagascar vanilla, and French butter.”
“That sounds very worldly,” Laura continued. “It’s just…”
Lexi sensed there was something that the Starz director was hesitating to tell them.
“We’re not hired, are we?” she said quietly.
“I’m sorry,” Laura finally answered. “They’re just not exactly what we were looking for.”
“We can fix it!” Kylie insisted. “You have to give us another crack at it!”
“If you want a second chance, you’ll need to be back here with a new batch by 2:00 p.m.,” Laura said. “That’s when we’re expecting Connecticut Cupcakes as well, and we need to make a decision.”
Lexi’s heart sank. The last time they’d gone head-to-head with the Connecticut Cupcakes sisters, things hadn’t turned out well. They had been out-baked, out-decorated, and out-displayed—and had lost the Battle of the Bakers in front of millions of TV viewers. She shuddered at the thought.
Jenna was more concerned about time. “Um, Kylie, that gives us just three hours to come up with a new recipe, test it, bake it, and decorate. No es posible!”
Kylie pushed her toward the door and motioned for the other girls to follow. “Thanks!” she said, waving to the directors. “We’ll be back in a jiffy.”
“A jiffy? Did you actually say we’d be back in a jiffy?” Lexi groaned as they started hunting through the cabinets in Kylie’s kitchen. “I have no idea how we’re going to bake and decorate these cupcakes. This could take us days to come up with—not a jiffy!”
“I’m not even sure how long a jiffy is,” Delaney admitted.
“It doesn’t matter. We just need to focus,” Kylie replied. “Somebody toss out some ideas.”
“The pageant lady said it’s just as important to be beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside,” Delaney suggested. “So maybe that’s what our cupcake needs to be.”
Kylie raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I like where you’re going with this.”
“Where are you going with this?” Sadie asked.
“I’m just saying it would be cool if we could stuff the cupcakes with something pretty,” Delaney explained.
Lexi’s eyes lit up. “Like a cupcake inside a cupcake!”
“That’s brilliant!” Kylie shouted. “We could bake a mini cake and put it inside the cupcake. So when you bite in…”
“It’s beautiful. Oh, I love it,” Lexi said.
“Talk to me about flavors, Jenna,” Kylie said. “Something special. Something different…”
“Something pink,” Delaney weighed in. “Like that pink outfit Fitzy had on.”
Jenna tapped a finger to her chin. “We could do a pink velvet and bake a mini white cake inside. Maybe in a star shape for Miss New England Shooting Starz.”
“How do we do that?” Sadie asked. “We’ve never done a shape inside a cupcake before.”
“Easy-peasy,” Kylie said, flipping through her recipe collection. “I saw something like this before and wanted to try it.” She held up a page. “We bake the white cake first and use a mini cookie cutter to make the stars. Then we put them in the pink velvet batter and they bake right inside the cupcakes.”
“What do we think of white chocolate buttercream?” Jenna asked, smacking her lips together. She did her best Fitzy impression: “Is it fab…or drab? Yum…or hum-drum?”
“Yum!” the girls shouted unanimously.
“Let’s keep it simple on top,” Lexi added. “Gold-fondant stars sprinkled with luster dust. Beautiful and elegant, just like a pageant queen.”
“I think we’ve got a plan,” Kylie said, climbing a step stool to retrieve the food coloring from the top shelf of the cupboard.
“I bet Connecticut Cupcakes has a plan too,” Delaney reminded them. “And a good one.”
“No
t as good as ours,” Kylie insisted. “Laura and Fitzy are gonna love this.” She opened the fridge and handed a dozen eggs to Sadie.
“I can take a hint,” Sadie said, tying an apron around her waist. “It’s time to get cracking!”
• • •
When Kylie’s mom dropped the girls off at the pageant office, a big, pink truck with the letters CC on it was already parked in front.
“Connecticut Cupcakes,” Kylie said with a sigh. “They beat us to it.”
“Of course they did,” Sadie grumped. “And they always have to make an entrance.” She pointed to a large box on wheels that two bakery assistants were rolling up the walkway.
“What do you suppose is in there?” Lexi asked. “I hate surprises. I’d rather know what we’re going up against.”
“A ten-ton cupcake?” Delaney guessed.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Jenna said. “Follow my lead, guys…”
She ran up to the two men dressed in white aprons. They were trying desperately to roll the box over the curb.
“Hola!” Jenna said sweetly. “Habla usted español?”
The workers stopped and stared. “Um, no, sorry. Only English.”
Jenna continued, “Estoy perdido. Dónde está Holly Lane?”
“I think she’s lost,” one worker said to the other. “Go straight for about two blocks, then take a left. At the stop sign, make a right. Then an immediate left at the Sunoco station. That’s Holly Lane.”
Jenna shrugged. “No comprendo.”
“Well, sorry. We can’t help you. Our bosses are in there having a meeting, and we gotta get this thing inside.”
“Waaaaah!” Delaney suddenly ran up behind Jenna, pretending to cry hysterically. She sobbed on her friend’s shoulder.
“Okay, okay! Don’t cry!” The first worker wiped his brow with a handkerchief. “We’ll help you get where you’re going.”
“Muchas gracias!” Jenna said, shaking his hand.
The workers left the box at the curb and went back to the truck to get a map out of the glove compartment. While Jenna and Delaney distracted them, Kylie, Sadie, and Lexi snuck behind the box. “The sides are all taped shut!” Lexi whispered.
“Sadie, you’re tall. Crack open the lid and peek inside.”
Sadie stood on her tiptoes—the box was almost six feet tall!
“Well? What do you see?” Kylie whispered.
Sadie’s eyes grew wide. “It can’t be.”
“What? What?” Lexi asked frantically. “What is it?”
“It’s a gown,” Sadie replied. “A gown made entirely of mini cupcakes.”
“No way,” Kylie exclaimed. “We made a dozen cupcakes with stars in them, and they made a pageant gown?”
“Worse. It’s bright pink,” Sadie replied. “Fitzy is gonna love it. We don’t stand a chance.” She noticed that Delaney was waving them off.
“Quick! We gotta get out of here,” Sadie said, grabbing Kylie and Lexi and ducking behind a tree.
The workers returned and hoisted the box over the curb, rolling it up to the office entrance.
Jenna studied Kylie, Sadie, and Lexi’s long faces. “That bad?”
“Worse,” Lexi said. “They made a huge presentation—a pageant gown made of cupcakes! We’ll embarrass ourselves if we show Laura and Fitzy what we made.”
“I agree with Lex,” Kylie said. “I don’t think we can go in there.”
Jenna shook her head. “Remember what Laura said: it’s not always appearances that count. I say we do it. We’re here anyway…”
“Okay,” Kylie relented. “But I have an awful feeling about this.”
This time, when Hershey greeted them at the door, she looked a little frazzled. Her hair was tousled, and she seemed out of breath.
“Oh, hi, guys,” she said. “You might want to think twice about coming in right this second…”
Kylie heard shouting from the office and the sound of something crashing. “Is everything okay, Hershey?” she asked.
“Kinda,” Hershey replied. “Well, not really. The Connecticut Cupcakes sisters are having a bit of a brouhaha.”
“What’s a broo-ha-ha?” Delaney asked. “Is that like a party? Can we come?”
“It’s an argument, and I’m not surprised,” Lexi said, recalling how the two had feuded with each other at Battle of the Bakers. “Cece and Chloe really push each other’s buttons.”
“Oh, you know them? Maybe you could come in and help me referee,” Hershey said, taking Lexi by the arm. “I’d appreciate it. They’re scaring me.”
Lexi peeked in the office. There were the two cupcake sisters, chasing each other around the room.
“I told you this was an awful idea,” Chloe said, complaining. “But do you ever listen? Noooooo!”
Cece threw a couch pillow at her sister’s head. “It was a brilliant idea—until you forgot to top the mini cupcakes with edible pearls like we discussed. You ruined my display.”
“I had errands to run,” Chloe insisted. “I thought you would handle it.”
“Ladies! Ladies!” Hershey held up her hand. “I’m sure it’s fine. Laura and Fitzy will be out in a sec if you’ll just take a seat.”
Cece and Chloe ignored her and kept right on fighting.
“Errands? What errands? Honestly, all you think about is shopping,” Cece said, criticizing her younger sister. “You forget we’re running a business.”
“I’m leaving you in charge while I go get the directors,” Hershey told Lexi. “Be careful!”
Lexi just stood there. She had no idea what to do or say to make the pair stop arguing. They reminded her of two little girls squabbling over a toy in the sandbox.
She glanced over at her fellow cupcake clubbers and mouthed the words “Help me.”
“Hey! Escuchen!” Jenna came to her rescue. The sisters stopped and stared. “Listen up! You two need to cool it!”
“Yeah,” Lexi said, trying to calm them down. “Your cupcake gown rocks. You both did an amazing job, so just stop fighting about it.”
Cece looked shocked. “How do you know we made a cupcake gown? It’s all boxed up. You better not have touched it…”
“Um, she means she can imagine how gorgeous it is.” Kylie tried to cover for her friend. “Lexi has a very vivid imagination.”
“But how did you know we made a gown?” Chloe asked. “We never told you that.”
“She’s psychic,” Delaney piped up. “She reads palms and crystal balls and stuff.”
Chloe’s mouth fell open. “Seriously? You see the future?”
“I guess,” Lexi said, blushing. “I mean, sure.”
Chloe stuck her palm under Lexi’s nose. “Can you tell my future? Is my boyfriend finally going to pop the question over dinner tonight?”
Lexi hemmed and hawed. “Well, it might possibly happen definitely.”
“I told you! I told you!” Chloe started jumping up and down. Then she hugged Lexi. “This is the best news! I have to go out and buy a new outfit for the proposal.”
Cece looked even madder. “You are not going shopping. We have a dozen orders due tomorrow.”
Chloe picked up her purse and waved. “Toodles! Misters before sisters!” And just like that, she swept out the door.
“One down, one to go,” Sadie whispered to Lexi. “Good job!”
“Well, who needs her?” Cece sniffed. “I can make the presentation by myself.”
When Laura and Fitzy reappeared, she introduced herself and unveiled her cupcake display. “Impressive, don’t you think?” she asked the directors. “It’s a gown made entirely out of cupcakes!”
Fitzy circled around and around the display, admiring it from every angle. “It’s certainly large. And it really looks like something you’d see on a pageant runway
.”
“I knew you’d love it. So I’ll send you my invoice in the a.m. and we can get working on the real display for your pageant.”
“Just a second!” Kylie protested. “We get a turn to show our cupcakes too. We baked a whole second batch.”
Cece looked down at the small, white box Lexi was holding and snickered. “That’s your presentation? Pullease!”
Lexi opened it and took out a single cupcake. She handed it to Laura. “It represents everything you asked for. It’s beautiful inside and out,” she explained.
Laura took a bite…and beamed. “Is that a star I see? Right inside the cupcake?”
“It is,” Kylie said proudly. Then she shot Cece a look. “Impressive. Don’t you think?”
“I think the cupcake gown will definitely make a statement,” Fitzy said. “Fashion and frosting. How can you go wrong?”
“True,” Laura said. “But Peace, Love, and Cupcakes did listen to what we asked for and gave us exactly what we wanted.”
She turned to Cece. “I’m so sorry, but we’re going to go with them this time around.”
“No!” Cece stomped her foot and pouted. “It’s all Chloe’s fault. This silly cupcake gown was all her idea.”
“I thought it was your idea,” Sadie responded. “Isn’t that what you said?”
This time it was Cece’s turn to grab her purse and bolt out the door.
“I see big disappointment in her future,” Lexi said, pretending to have a vision. “And a big pageant order in ours!”
The girls were piling back into Kylie’s mom’s SUV when a black Cadillac suddenly whizzed by them. It pulled right up to the Miss New England Shooting Starz office. Kylie rolled down the window of the passenger seat to get a better look—and spotted a familiar figure stepping out. Meredith!
She quickly rolled up the window and tried to hide her panic from her friends.
“What’s wrong, honey?” her mom asked, noticing Kylie’s face turn pale. “You look queasy.”
“Um, nah. I’m okay,” Kylie replied, unbuckling her seat belt. “I just realized I left my phone in the pageant office. Be back in a jiffy!” She opened the door and raced back out.
