“Do you like everyone you’ve met so far?” I asked.
“It’s hard to tell,” he said. “It hasn’t really been that long, but the guys on the team seem great. And the girls are really nice.”
Emily slipped when he said that, and Logan shot out an arm and grabbed her by the elbow, steadying her. “Careful!” he said.
Hmmm. Physical contact. I took that as a sign. I was going to be bold. “Do you have any guesses about who your secret match might be?”
“Secret match?” Alivia asked.
“Yeah,” Logan told her. “I filled out one of Clara’s questionnaires, and she’s going to find me the perfect girl.” Logan bent forward and looked at me around Emily. “I might have a guess who she is,” he told me. “I think I’m walking with her right now, actually.”
“Oh,” Alivia said. “Cool.” Her voice didn’t sound like she thought it was that cool, though. She slowed her steps and soon was walking with the group behind us. I wondered if she was upset that I’d kept my plans a secret. Cupid Clara was supposed to be confidential, but maybe I could give her a few hints when I found matches for Kacy and Danielle.
But first I had to match Emily. I secretly reached down and squeezed Emily’s hand again. She squeezed back.
“I can’t say yes or no,” I told Logan, “but if she was walking with you right now, would that be a good thing?”
Logan smiled wide. He waggled his eyebrows. “It would be a very good thing.”
I squeezed Emily’s hand even harder.
Not that I was keeping score or anything—after all, this wasn’t a basketball game, or even a Mathletes tournament—but Cupid Clara was one for one.
I was a matchmaking genius.
The opening day of the Austen Business Challenge was crazy busy. The seventh graders could arrive at school as early as 7:00 a.m. to set up their “storefronts,” and they could open for business at 7:45 a.m. When Emily and I arrived at 7:15, more than half the tables in the front lobby of the school were already being set up.
Kacy’s table was covered with a strip of Astroturf, and a soccer ball rested on an orange pylon next to a sign that read:
“Your store looks awesome, Kace,” I told her as Emily and I shuffled past awkwardly, carrying boxes and bags of all our stuff.
“Thanks!” she called after us. “I hope you guys will both sign up.”
“After we get set up,” I called back.
I looked around for the table with our names on it. We trudged past a dog walker, a temporary tattoo artist, a candy shop that made my mouth water, and a Go Green helper. Finally we found our table, at the far end of the lobby, right by the entrance to the main hallway of the school.
“Great location, right?” Alivia asked from the table right next to ours. She and Danielle were arranging dozens of cookies and mini muffins on different platters and tiered stands. She had all four of the cookies she had shown us last Monday at lunch, plus two kinds of muffins. “At first, Mr. Bersand had me all the way at the other end of the lobby by the trophy case. I mean, who ever goes by the trophy case? But I just told that kid in my Spanish class I needed to switch tables with his group.”
I plunked my box down on the chair behind my table. “And they just switched with you? Didn’t they want the good location?”
Alivia shrugged and straightened the thick black-and-white-striped cloth draped over her table. The front panel was embroidered with pink thread that spelled out Sweet Alivia’s. On the corner of the table sat a stack of printed menus.
Both Danielle and Alivia wore black-and-white-striped aprons and had a pink cloth draped over each arm. They must have bought all their decorations. They looked pretty fancy. I wondered how Alivia had money for that in her budget. But I figured the pastry business must be a lot different from the matchmaking business.
Alivia waved her arm in the air as she answered me. “I don’t think they even realized this was a good location. They were all too busy playing on their phones. They invented some dumb game. Their table didn’t even have any decorations.”
“That’s so cool that they created their own game!” Emily set her box on the floor and opened it. She pulled out a plastic red-and-white polka-dot tablecloth and spread it over our table. “Do you know what the game is?”
Alivia rolled her eyes. “Do I look like I know? Or care?”
Emily and I raised our eyebrows at each other. Alivia was in a really bad mood about something.
“We’d better get our table set up,” I said to Emily before Alivia’s words had too much time to sting. I pulled out the wooden heart sign I’d collaged, and I set it above an arrow sign I’d made that read: THE CUPID IS IN. On the other side of the table, Emily set out a big bowl of Hershey’s Kisses. Her idea was that chocolate would lure people to our table, and Kisses fit in with the Cupid theme.
I set out the tray of Cupid Clara questionnaires next to the bowl of Kisses, and then hung a little sign on the bowl: Fill out a questionnaire and get two Kisses for FREE. Even if all our questionnaires didn’t turn into paying customers, they could still become someone else’s potential match. We needed as many questionnaires as we could get.
Finally I pulled out my last decoration. It took me a long time to figure out how to make it, but I knew it was going to be worth it. Our “store” would really stand out. I bought a bunch of PVC pipe and connectors, the kind that plumbers use, and I painted them red. Emily and I assembled them together so they made a big square arch above our table.
Across the top of the arch I hung a banner I’d painted that read: Find Your Match. And dangling underneath it were cardboard cutout drawings of a mug of hot chocolate, a notebook and pencil, a video game controller, a dog, all the things people might have in common with their match. I also hung a bunch of Claragrams, with a scoreboard. It read: Total Matches So Far: 1. It was almost true. If anyone asked for the details, I’d just tell them the couple wasn’t ready to go public yet.
When we finished, Emily and I walked to the opposite side of the lobby to check out our store. It definitely had the wow factor. I was going to be flooded with customers. Okay, okay, maybe I was getting ahead of myself. I still had a lot of work to do before that happened. Starting with client number one.
I nudged Emily with my elbow and leaned in close so I could speak in a low voice. “When should we tell Logan that you are his match?”
Emily shrugged, then pointed at our table. “Do you think we need a bigger sign for the Hershey’s Kisses?”
“Stop changing the subject,” I said. “He already knows anyway. And he told us he’s super happy about it. The only thing left to do is make it official.”
Emily shook her head and wrapped her arms around her body. “I know,” she said, “but I just can’t imagine actually saying it out loud. To his face. Every time I think about it, I get a huge stomachache. I’m not sure if I like him.”
“Of course you like him.” I patted Emily on the shoulder. She just needed some confidence. And once she was actually dating Logan, maybe she’d start to have some. “This sounds like the perfect time for another Claragram. I’ll put one on his locker. This time it could say, To meet your perfect match, go stand by the mural of the Austen Archer after school. Then all you have to do is stand there. He’ll know when he sees you. You won’t have to say anything!”
Emily bit her lip and wrapped her arms tighter around her stomach. “Are you sure?”
I nodded, then grabbed her arm and led her back to our store. “Of course I’m sure. Trust me.”
Even though it was a little before eight o’clock, the lobby was starting to fill up with students and teachers and even a few parents browsing all the tables. Alivia had a big crowd of kids standing around her table, and I could hear her taking order after order.
Emily and I took our seats behind the Cupid Clara table and waited. At first, a lot of kids walked by our table and looked at everything, but no one stopped to fill out a questionnaire.
“Maybe they�
�re embarrassed?” Emily suggested.
I pressed a knuckle to my lips. I hadn’t thought about that. I guess it was sort of embarrassing to fill out a questionnaire in front of a million people. I grabbed a piece of leftover poster board from one of the boxes I’d shoved under the table and quickly wrote a new sign in bubble letters.
I put the sign behind the tray of questionnaires, just as a big group of sixth-grade girls approached our table.
“Take a chocolate and a questionnaire, you guys,” I said. “You might find the perfect guy to dance with at the Hot Chocolate Social.”
All the girls took one of each.
“Where do we put the questionnaires when we’re done?” one of them asked.
I pointed to a red-and-white-striped box with a slit cut in the top. “In here,” I told her. “Your questionnaire will be kept totally confidential and private. We are the only people who will ever see it.”
The girls nodded and walked away.
After that, lots more people stopped by our table. They all took Kisses and questionnaires, but I lost count of how many we’d passed out because Alivia was talking at the top of her lungs and it was hard to tune her out. Either she was telling everyone to try her double chocolate mini muffins, or she was telling Danielle about how her father promised he’d take her to sample all the best pastry shops in Paris if she won the ABC.
I wondered if Alivia really had a shot at having the best business. Joey had said it was hard to have a business where you had to create new product every day. But at 8:15, when the first bell rang and we all started closing up our tables as the lobby cleared out, I heard Danielle say, “Can you believe it? We’re sold out of everything! We made sixty dollars!”
“Shh!” said Alivia, keeping her voice low but loud enough so I could still hear it. “That’s not a good thing, Danielle. We don’t have anything to sell at lunch or after school.”
“Oh,” Danielle whispered loudly. “But still, sixty dollars is awesome!”
Sixty dollars? I looked at my completely empty cash box.
“Don’t worry,” Emily said. “Our business will just take a little longer to get going. Remember we don’t make any money until you make matches. Once the questionnaires start coming back, Cupid Clara is going to take off!”
I nodded at Emily like I totally believed her, but my stomach writhed with doubt. What if no one returned a questionnaire? What if no one wanted a match? What if Cupid Clara set the record for the all-time worst business in Austen Middle School history?
Then I’d get a terrible report card, and Papi would send me away.
The next morning, my dad woke me with the six most beautiful words in Spanglish. “Clara, it’s a día de nieve.”
“A snow day? For real?” I rolled over and rubbed my eyes sleepily. “Yay!” I cheered, my voice still soft and dreamy.
“I turned off your alarm,” he whispered, tapping the clock on my nightstand. “You’re welcome.”
“Yeah, but you woke me anyway.” I propped my arm up on one elbow. “Couldn’t you have let me sleep in?”
“You did sleep in. It’s already seven thirty. But I still have to go to work. I wanted to say good-bye before I left.” He gave me two besos on my forehead. “Your mother called again,” he said. “She said you didn’t call her this week.”
I pulled my comforter over my head. I usually talked to my mom every Sunday, but ever since Papi had told me she wanted me to come live with her, I’d been avoiding her calls.
He pulled the comforter back. “You need to call her today. Okay?”
I closed my eyes and curled into a ball. “Mmm-hmm,” I said, even though I was really thinking about what else I could do today. It would be a good day to watch a couple of movies. Or maybe I’d text Alivia and see if anything was going on.
“Clara?” Papi said.
I opened one eye and looked at him.
“Is everything okay? At school? With your business? With …” He stared at the wall. “With everything?”
“Yeah, everything’s great,” I told him. So it was a little hard to keep up with my schoolwork and run a business. So I hadn’t been able to officially make my first match yet. Papi didn’t need to worry about those things. He didn’t need to know about my problems.
“I have a bunch of stuff to work on today for my business,” I added. Over twenty people had turned in questionnaires at lunchtime and after school, so I could finally make some good matches. I promised Kacy and Danielle they’d be next. “Can I invite some friends over when I’m done?”
Papi gave me a deep stare. “Boys?” he asked.
“Papi!” I wanted to crawl back down under the comforter. Why did he keep thinking I was looking for a boyfriend? I did not want to talk about that with him. “I was going to invite Emily and the girls.”
Papi’s face relaxed. “Okay, that’s fine. But you’ll have to shovel the sidewalk and the driveway when the snow stops. I don’t want anyone slipping. Also, I asked Mrs. Kaufman to come check up on you in a few hours.”
“I’m totally fine staying alone.” I rolled my eyes, but Papi gave me a look. “Fine,” I said, hugging Papi good-bye. Then I got out of bed and got dressed in my coziest leggings and sweatshirt.
Snow days were the best. For breakfast, I made myself a hot chocolate with cinnamon and chili powder, plus a tortilla with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I watched the snow falling as I ate. The house was so quiet and still that it almost felt like I was the last person left on the earth.
I texted Alivia. She didn’t respond.
When I was finished eating, I got out the questionnaires and inputted all the answers in the special document Emily set up for me in Excel. I had forms from sixteen girls and six boys, which meant I needed to get more boys to fill out the questionnaire. But I was still able to make a bunch of matches. Kacy and Ryan were both soccer fanatics who liked watching superhero movies. Danielle and Connor both liked hanging out with friends, listening to dance music, and playing Monopoly. I had a feeling they’d be couples in no time.
I texted Emily.
While I waited for her response, I pulled out my collage box and got to work on the Claragrams. I made one for Logan telling him it was time to meet his match, and I made a bunch more for my other couples telling them that I’d found their matches. When I was finished, I left them on the dining room table to dry and looked at the clock. It was only nine-thirty. I checked my phone. No one had texted me back yet. I sighed. This was going to be a long day.
I went into the living room to see if there were any good movies on TV, and finally, my phone buzzed. It was Emily.
I replied.
Before I could text Emily more, I heard a scraping noise. I looked up and saw Joey, outside, shoveling our driveway. The snow hadn’t stopped yet, but it was much lighter. It was probably smart to shovel now before the snow got any deeper. I put on my snow pants, boots, and coat and went into the garage to grab a shovel. After all, the driveway belonged to both of us, and it wasn’t like I had anything else to do.
I pushed the button on the garage door opener, then stood behind the door, holding the shovel like a microphone, as the panels slowly raised in front of me like a curtain.
“Clara Martinez is in the house!” I said, striking a pose when the door was finally raised all the way. “I’m here to help!”
Joey’s eyes scanned the driveway, which was about eighty percent cleared already. “Good timing,” he said. “Arrive to help when the work’s almost done.”
“You should have called me,” I said, stepping out into the snow. “I didn’t even realize you were out here until a few minutes ago.”
Joey shrugged. “You were busy doing your art. I didn’t want to interrupt you. You looked so focused.”
“How did you— you were peeking through my windows! Joey!” I raised my shovel in front of me like a sword. “I can’t believe you were spying on me!”
Joey shook his head, and I thought his cheeks looked a little redder, thou
gh they were already pretty red from the cold and the shoveling. “I wasn’t peeking in your windows. I went to ring your doorbell, and I saw you through the front.” He pointed at the bay window next to the porch. It gave a perfect view of the dining room table.
“Oh,” I said, lowering my shovel. I climbed up onto my front stoop and started shoveling off the top. “Well, thanks, then. I was working on Cupid Clara stuff.”
Joey got back to work on the driveway, his shovel making rhythmic scrapes against the asphalt as he cleared shovelful after shovelful easily. My own shovel kept catching on chunks of ice, or maybe I just didn’t know how to do it as well as Joey because my shovel scrapes sounded ragged and uneven.
“So how’s your business going?” he asked, tossing some snow on my front lawn.
I tried to toss my shovelful of snow on the lawn as well, but most of it landed on the bottom two steps of the porch. I’d have to shovel it all again when I got down there. “Pretty good,” I told him. “My first couple is almost official, and I made a bunch of new matches today.”
“Who’s your first couple?” he asked.
I arched an eyebrow at him. “I can’t tell you that. It’s confidential. But I have a feeling you’ll find out soon. I don’t think the guy will wait until the Hot Chocolate Social. I think he’s going to ask Em—I mean, I think he’s going to ask the girl to go out with him. Like, officially.”
“Wait a minute.” Joey stopped working and rested his elbow on the handle of his shovel. “Please tell me your first couple is not Emily and Logan.”
My breath caught a little bit, but I kept shoveling and acted like his words meant nothing to me. “I told you. It’s confidential. I can’t say.” I cleared the last bit of snow from the top of the porch and started on the first step. “Why?”
“It is them, isn’t it?” Joey pushed his shovel through the last strip of snow on the driveway, then started shoveling my sidewalk.
I kept my lips pressed tightly together, mostly because I didn’t want to say anything, but a little because I was starting to be annoyed. What did Joey know about fixing people up?
Playing Cupid Page 6
