Katie and the Cupcake War

by Coco Simon

  “The Twilight Zone,” George said. “My dad loves that show. He has them all on DVD. That was a good episode.”

  I shuddered. “That show is supercreepy. I’d rather see a funny show.”

  “Did you see that new cartoon about the chicken that’s trying to rule the world?” George asked.

  I nodded. (Yes, I still watch cartoons sometimes.) “That show is hysterical. Like when he tried to attack the city with that giant omelet?”

  “‘More onions! More onions!’” George yelled, imitating the chicken, and we both started cracking up.

  Then I realized something. George and I were having an actual conversation, just like I would have with Mia or Alexis or Emma. We weren’t just goofing around or teasing each other. It was kind of nice.

  I was laughing so hard that I almost missed getting off at my bus stop.

  “Hey, Katie!” the bus driver yelled. “You’re up.”

  I grabbed my backpack. “See ya,” I told George.

  As the bus drove past, George waved to me through the window. I couldn’t help thinking about what Mia had said on the first day of school.

  I think they both like you!

  It was all so strange. I definitely didn’t know how I felt about Eddie liking me, if he did. But when I thought about George liking me, I decided I didn’t mind so much.

  Aaaaah! My face was getting red just thinking about it.

  CHAPTER 12

  Spectacular!

  Later that night, Alexis, Emma, and I did a test batch of the cupcakes (Mia couldn’t make it after all), and this time the icing came out perfectly. So when Friday rolled around, we were ready for a marathon baking session. First we’d bake our cupcakes for Mona and then work on our contest cupcakes.

  My mom dropped me off at Mia’s at four o’clock. Our car was packed with stuff: my sleeping bag; a big duffel bag full of my clothes; my school backpack; four cupcake pans; four cooling racks; a box of stuff for the booth; and a Crock-Pot filled with veggie chili and a basket of corn bread, because Mom felt bad that Mia’s mom and stepdad had to feed us dinner again.

  “You didn’t have to do this, Sharon,” Mrs. Valdes said as she and Mia helped us unload the car. “I know you’ve got so much to do these days.”

  “I don’t mind,” Mom said. “I wish I could help out more. Thanks so much for hosting the girls tonight and for letting Katie sleep over. Did you get the phone numbers I sent you?”

  Mia’s mom nodded. “We’ll take good care of Katie, we promise. I hope everything works out all right with your mother.”

  Mom smiled. “Me too,” she said with a sigh. “Thanks.”

  After we got everything into Mia’s house, I walked with Mom back to the car.

  “Now, don’t forget. Mrs. Wilson is going to bring you home after the fund-raiser tomorrow,” Mom reminded me.

  “I know,” I said glumly.

  Mom hugged me. “I love you,” she said. “Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”

  I knew Mom was talking about Grandma, and that made me feel good. But Mom still didn’t really understand, or didn’t really care, how I felt about staying with Callie. That definitely did not feel okay.

  I went back inside, and Alexis and Emma showed up a few minutes later. We all gathered in Mia’s kitchen. It’s nice and big, with an island in the middle, so it’s a good space to make a ton of cupcakes.

  “Okay, troops, it’s time for battle!” Alexis announced. “We’ve got a lot to do if we’re going to beat the BFC.”

  I saluted. “What’s the plan, General?”

  “First, we bake,” Alexis said. “While the cupcakes bake, we’ll make the icing. When the cupcakes cool, I was thinking you and Mia could ice them while Emma and I work on the aprons.”

  Emma held up a plain white apron. “I brought some fabric pens, so we can draw peace signs and stuff on them.”

  “Awesome,” I said. “I’ll start loading the cupcake tins.”

  Between the four of us, we had eight cupcake tins. I lined them up on Mia’s kitchen table. Mia came over with a paper bag.

  “Look what I found at that fancy bake shop,” she said. She pulled out two packs of cupcake liners with a tie-dyed pattern.

  “Oh my gosh, they’re perfect!” I cried. “But wait a second. This is a fund-raiser, right? How are we paying for all this?”

  “Well, my mom and dad donated the baking supplies,” Emma said.

  “And my dad’s getting the milk,” Alexis reminded them. “We’ll have to pay for the aprons and cupcake liners out of our general fund. But I like to think of it as advertising. We could get a bunch of customers out of this.” Then she frowned. “Rats! I made a flyer for us to hand out, but I forgot to print it. Let me text my mom.”

  Pretty soon we were in our usual cupcake-making groove. We made a batch of batter in Mia’s stand mixer. We filled the tins. Then we made a new batch. We kept baking until we had two hundred and four cupcakes cooling on the table—that’s seventeen dozen!

  That’s when Mia’s mom came in. “I think it’s time you girls had a break,” she said. “Dinner’s ready in the dining room.”

  We washed up and then headed into the dining room, where the table was set for seven: the Cupcake Club; Mrs. Valdes; Eddie; and Mia’s stepbrother, Dan. Besides Mom’s chili and corn bread, there was a big salad on the table.

  “You girls are busy bees in there,” Eddie said, and he started scooping the chili into bowls.

  “We have sooo much left to do,” I lamented.

  “I think you girls are doing great,” said Mia’s mom. “It’s not even seven o’clock yet.”

  “When do we get to taste them?” Eddie asked.

  “Soon,” Mia promised. “We already made one batch of icing. Then Katie’s going to do her swirly tie-dyed magic on the cupcakes.”

  “It’s easy,” I said. “You’ll be able to do it too.”

  Dan didn’t say much—he never does. But maybe that’s because he was busy eating. He ate three bowls of chili and four pieces of corn bread. I glanced at Mia after Dan went for his fourth bowl.

  She shrugged. “He’s working out a lot lately. Getting ready for basketball season.”

  Dan nodded. “Besides, this stuff is awesome.”

  Dan was still eating when we got up, cleared our plates, and got to work on icing the cupcakes. Mia put a smooth coat of vanilla icing on the first cupcake and then handed it to me.

  I was armed with a box of toothpicks and several tubes of gel color. I put a tiny drop of yellow onto the icing and then swirled it with a toothpick. Then I swirled on a drop of green and then a drop of blue.

  “Awesome!” Mia said. “That looks perfect!”

  “See? You can so do it,” I told her.

  Mia nodded. “I’ll ice and you swirl, and then we’ll switch.”

  Mia and I got busy with the icing, and once the dining room table was clear, Alexis and Emma used it as their work space to do the aprons. We had four dozen cupcakes done by the time Emma walked in wearing one of the aprons. It had peace signs and flowers with big round petals all over it.

  “Wow, that’s fantastic!” Mia said.

  “Spectacular!” I agreed. “Our booth is going to look very groovy.”

  Alexis joined us. “You know, we forgot to talk about how we’re displaying them. I guess we can just use our round plastic trays.” The trays are our go-to display method. They’re supercheap to buy, and we can use them again and again. But thanks to Mom, I had something better.

  “I almost forgot!” I said. I put down the cupcake I was icing and went into the front hallway, where I had dumped all my stuff. I came back into the kitchen carrying a box.

  “You know how Mom likes to collect old things?” I asked. “Well, she has these vintage glass cake stands she said we could borrow. They’re kind of sixties looking, right?”

  “They’re perfect!” Alexis said happily.

  “I like how they’re all different heights,” Mia said. “That’ll
look cool when we set up the cupcakes.”

  Hearing that made me feel good, because now I felt like I had contributed something to the booth besides the cupcake design.

  “We’ll be done with the aprons in a little while,” Emma said. “Then we’ll come help you ice the cupcakes.”

  About an hour later, almost all the cupcakes were done and stored away in the plastic containers we use to keep them fresh and to transport them. Eddie and Dan came into the kitchen as we were finishing up.

  “Got any for us to taste?” Eddie asked.

  We actually learned early on that it’s a good idea to taste our cupcakes before we serve them. Sometimes mistakes can happen that you can’t see with your eyes—like not putting in enough sugar or adding too much salt, for example. So it’s always good to have cupcake tasters on hand. For some reason, fathers and brothers seem to be very good at this.

  Mia handed Eddie and Dan one cupcake each. Then we were all quiet as we watched them both take a bite.

  Eddie grinned. “These are very good.”

  “Just very good?” Alexis asked. “Would you say they were award-winning cupcakes?”

  “They’re excellent!” Eddie said.

  “Excellent isn’t good enough,” Mia said. “We need them to be spectacular.”

  “Well, they taste excellent and they look spectacular,” Eddie said.

  That seemed to satisfy everyone but Alexis, who turned to Dan.

  “What do you think?” she asked him.

  Dan shrugged. “What Dad said.”

  “Then I think we’re good,” I said. “Come on, let’s finish up these last ones.”

  It was almost ten o’clock when we finally had everything cleaned up. Alexis’s mom came to pick up Alexis and Emma. Alexis was furiously checking her to-do list as she was heading out the door.

  “Cupcakes. Aprons. Milk. Straws. Tablecloth. Sign . . . sign!” she cried. “Oh no! We forgot to make a sign for the booth.”

  “Katie and I will do it,” Mia promised.

  Alexis sighed. “I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

  She and Emma left, and I yawned. “We have to get up so early!”

  “The sign won’t take long,” Mia reassured me. “I have all the stuff.”

  We changed into pj’s and brushed our teeth, and then I dragged my sleeping bag up to Mia’s room. Mia put a big piece of poster board on the floor and then brought out a shoe box filled with markers. I let Mia do all the drawing, because she’s awesome at that, and then I helped color in all the bubble letters and flowers.

  “Do you think we’ll beat Callie and the BFC?” I asked, yawning.

  “I don’t know,” Mia replied. “But we’ve done all we can. We’ll have to wait and see.”

  I thought about what it would feel like to lose—and then have to go home with Callie after that.

  “I really hope we win,” I said.

  I fell asleep in my sleeping bag on the floor, surrounded by a rainbow of markers.

  CHAPTER 13

  Some Very Suspicious School Spirit

  The fund-raiser officially started at noon, but we decided we wanted to get to the school by ten thirty, so that we would have plenty of time to set up. Eddie made Mia and me a breakfast of omelets and toast. (“Because you worked so hard on those spectacular cupcakes,” he told us.) Then Emma’s mom drove up in their minivan at ten, with Emma and Alexis, and we loaded everything into the back.

  There was no sign of Callie, Maggie, or Bella when we got to the fund-raiser. It was held in the school parking lot, and there were blue canopy tents, with tables underneath them, set up all over the lot. Each table was labeled with the name of a club, and we found the Cupcake Club table pretty quickly.

  “We’re near the front again,” Alexis remarked. “That’s good for business.”

  We got to work getting the booth ready right away. Mia’s tie-dyed tablecloth looked fabulous on the table. I arranged Mom’s cake platters, and Mia was right—the different heights looked cool. We put on our aprons and then worked together to carefully place the cupcakes on the stands. It’s hard to do without getting icing on your fingers, and it’s even harder to do without licking your fingers, which wouldn’t be very hygienic.

  Mr. Becker showed up around eleven thirty, wheeling a big cooler filled with milk bottles.

  “Your table looks very nice, girls,” he said.

  “Thanks for getting the milk for us,” I told him.

  “I’m happy to support you guys,” Alexis’s dad replied. “You’re all very ambitious. I have some other things for you too.”

  He unstrapped a cord that was wrapped around the cooler and gave Alexis a cardboard box.

  “I had those flyers copied for you this morning,” he said.

  Alexis hugged him. “You’re the best,” she said. “When I’m CEO of my own company, you can be my assistant.”

  Mr. Becker laughed. “I don’t think I would want that job. I have a feeling it wouldn’t be easy.”

  After he left, we all took a look at the flyers Alexis had made.

  Having a Party or Special Event?

  Serve Your Guests the Best Cupcakes in Town

  Made Especially for You

  by the Cupcake Club!

  We have lots of different flavors and designs!

  Underneath the words, there were pictures of some of the cupcakes we’ve made, and Alexis’s cell phone number and the e-mail address we use for the club.

  “This is great,” I proclaimed. “We’ll definitely get new business from this.”

  The last thing we needed to do was to put up our sign. We poked holes in the corners and then used string to hang it from the canopy poles behind the table. Then we stepped back to admire our work.

  PEACE OUT!

  Have a Groovy 50th Anniversary, Park Street!

  Old School Cupcakes $2.00 • Milk $1.00

  The Cupcake Club

  The sign was decorated with flowers and peace signs, just like the aprons, and it looked really great. Then Emma’s mom walked up with Jake.

  “Wow, girls, this is wonderful!” she said. “Let me get a picture!”

  Mia and I stood on one side of the table, and Alexis and Emma stood on the other, so we could make sure the cupcakes got in the picture. Of course, Jake ran over at the last minute, so he could be in it too. But he’s short, so he didn’t block the cupcakes.

  “Okay, great,” Mrs. Taylor said. “You girls had better get behind the table. You’re going to be swamped soon.”

  She was right. People started swarming into the parking lot. Next to us, the Chess Club was charging people to challenge them at chess. On the other side of us, the school band had set up a funny photo booth. There wasn’t any other food nearby, so the hungry people headed right for our cupcakes.

  One of our first customers was Principal LaCosta. Even though it was Saturday, she was still dressed like a principal, in a navy blue suit and a pale yellow blouse. Her wavy brown hair was held in place by lots of hairspray, like it always is.

  “Ah, the Cupcake Club!” she said. “I’m glad to see you girls are still at it. And it’s great to see that you’re celebrating our school anniversary.”

  She bought one cupcake and one cup of milk. Alexis had a big smile on her face as she deposited the money into the cash box.

  Other people liked the theme, too, especially parents.

  “Tie-dyed cupcakes. Very groovy!” said one dad. Lots of people said stuff like that, or they flashed a peace sign at us.

  We were really busy selling cupcakes for a while, and then I thought of something.

  “Hey, we don’t even know what kind of cupcakes the BFC has,” I said, suddenly feeling worried again. They might be doing even better than we were.

  Alexis frowned. “Maybe you and Mia should go check it out. Emma and I can handle this.”

  Mia and I made our way through the crowd. It wasn’t hard to find the BFC booth, because it was the loudest booth in the place. They had a dr
ummer, a trumpet player, and a flute player in front playing football fight songs.

  As we got closer, we saw Maggie and Bella dressed as cheerleaders, waving blue-and-yellow pom-poms outside the booth.

  “Get your school spirit here!” they were yelling.

  Callie was dressed like a cheerleader too, and she was selling the cupcakes behind the BFC table. The cupcakes had white icing and maybe some cinnamon sprinkled on top.

  “They didn’t even do blue and yellow for school spirit,” I remarked to Mia.

  Beth Suzuki was walking by, and she heard me. “That’s not the kind of school spirit they’re talking about.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Some kids are saying the cupcakes taste like they have, you know, spirits in them,” she said. “The kind that makes you drunk.”

  “That’s ridiculous!” I sputtered. “Callie would never do that.”

  Beth shrugged. “Whatever. That’s just what I heard.” She walked away, and then we heard Maggie and Bella talking to Eddie Rossi, Wes Kinney, and some other boys about the cupcakes.

  “Our cupcakes have lots of spirit,” Maggie said, emphasizing the last word, and then she winked.

  “I’ll have ten!” Wes cried, and then he ran to the table.

  Mia looked at me, and her eyes were wide. “I can’t believe they’re doing this!”

  Then it hit me. “Wait, I recognize those cupcakes. Mrs. Wilson makes them for Christmas every year. She calls them rum ball cupcakes, but she uses imitation rum extract. I know because my mom told me. I’ve been eating them since I was little. They taste like rum, but there’s no alcohol in them.”

  “Maybe. But they’re trying to make everyone think there is,” Mia pointed out.

  “We’d better tell Alexis and Emma,” I said, and we made our way back to the booth.

  Emma and Alexis were shocked after we reported what the BFC were doing.

  “So that’s their secret plan,” Alexis said. “They must think they’ll sell tons of cupcakes if everyone thinks there’s alcohol in them.”

  “Well, it’s working,” Emma said, glancing at their booth. “Look!”