by Coco Simon
To be honest, I thought Emma had a point. But I was so preoccupied with the whole new-family thing that I wasn’t too invested in the cupcakes.
“I’ll get the ingredients for the baking session,” I said. “Six dozen, right?”
Alexis nodded. “Yes. This is going to be great. We’re going to get lots of exposure.”
“I just hope it’s good,” Emma muttered softly.
The rest of the day went by quickly, and I almost jumped when the final bell rang. When I got outside, Mom was waiting for me. As I got into the car, I realized that she was probably taking off work to do this for me. In fact, she had been doing that a lot lately. I climbed into the seat and gave her an awkward hug over her seat belt.
“What’s that for?” Mom asked.
“Thanks for taking me,” I said.
We arrived at Chez Donald a few minutes later, and this time we had to knock on the door to be let in. Marc Donald Brown unlocked it for us.
“Katie, Sharon, come in,” he said.
His wife and three daughters were sitting around one of the tables, drinking what looked like cocoa out of the restaurant mugs. The littlest blond girl was sitting in her mother’s lap, playing with Jasmine’s blond braid.
Mom put her arm around me, and I was glad, because right now things felt super extra weird. Those little blond girls were my sisters!
Mom walked with me to the table.
“You must be Jasmine,” she said to MDB’s wife. “I’m Sharon. And this is Katie, of course.”
Jasmine smiled nervously and shifted her daughter so she could shake Mom’s hand. I noticed that her blond hair was coming loose from her braid, and she wasn’t wearing makeup. She didn’t look like a supergirlie exotic “Jasmine” like I was expecting. More like a . . . I don’t know. A Sarah or a Becca.
“Nice to meet you,” she said. “This one on my lap is Riley,” she said. “And my oldest over there is Cecile; next to her is Ella.”
“Hi, Katie!” Cecile said, practically shouting, while Ella squirmed and ducked under the table.
Mom looked at me. “I’ll be close by. Text me when you’re done.”
I nodded, and as she left, I got a lump in my throat. I was alone in a room of strangers! But they were my family. It was so confusing.
“Have a seat, Katie,” MDB said. When I did, he put a mug in front of me. “I made us some cocoa. And Melissa made us some cookies.”
“Thanks,” I said. I gripped the mug and inhaled the scent of warm chocolate. They say that chocolate can activate parts of your brain that make you feel happy or something like that. I hoped it would work.
I wasn’t really sure what to say—but Cecile solved that problem for me.
“Katie, my dad says you go to school in Maple Grove,” she said. “Is it nice there? Are your teachers nice? My teacher this year is Ms. Ross, and she’s really nice, which is good because last year I had Ms. O’Brien, and she wasn’t nice. She yelled all the time for no reason.”
I smiled. Cecile was talking really fast and practically bouncing in her seat. And she was loud, too, and she had spilled cocoa on her shirt—nothing like the perfect, neat little blond sister I had imagined.
“The middle school teachers are all really nice,” I told her.
Ella emerged from under the table. “I like your sneakers,” she said.
“Thanks,” I replied. Then I took a look at her sneakers. She had on pink ones, the kind that light up when you take a step. “I like yours too.”
Riley stopped squirming and thrust her foot out at me so I could admire her sneaker next.
“Hey, yours is purple, just like mine,” I told her. “But yours is sparkly. Cool.”
Riley smiled and then buried her face in her mom’s hair.
I had to admit—all three of them were pretty cute.
“Katie, it’s so nice that you came to meet us,” Jasmine said. “The girls have been so excited to meet their big sister.”
“Yeah, and I don’t even mind not being the big sister anymore because I can still be a big sister to Ella and Riley, but then I can have you as a big sister too,” Cecile said, all in one breath.
“Well, that’s good,” I said. “Maybe you can give me some tips about being a big sister. Because I’ve never been one until now.”
“Oh, I can give you lots of tips,” Cecile said. Then she stopped to take a breath, and her mom jumped in.
“Katie, Don tells me that you and your friends have a cupcake business,” she said. “That sounds like a lot of fun, but also a lot of work, too.”
I nodded. “It gets tough when I run track in the spring,” I said. “But we do a lot on weekends, so that works out.”
“Who are your clients usually?” Jasmine asked.
“Well, friends and family, of course, but we do a lot of advertising, so we get all kinds of jobs,” I said. “Like birthday parties and baby showers. This weekend we’re doing cupcakes for the launch party of Relish New Jersey magazine.”
“I think I got an invitation to that,” said MDB, joining the conversation for the first time.
“You should come!” I blurted out. “Then you’d get to see the Cupcake Club in action.”
“Yes, that would be nice,” Jasmine chimed in, and I swear she gave my dad a look, like a warning look. I wasn’t sure why, though.
“Sure, sure, I’ll go,” my dad said. And yes, I was starting to think of him as my dad. It was getting hard not to. Besides, my dad was going to come see the Cupcake Club! That was pretty cool.
“Daddy, can you take us bowling this weekend?” Cecile asked. “That was so fun when we went last time. Ella made more strikes than anybody, and she didn’t even put her fingers in the ball like you’re supposed to.”
Ella started laughing. “Daddy threw so many gutter balls!”
“Remember when we went to the museum with the big dinosaurs, and Daddy ran away like he was scared?” Cecile asked.
Ella put her arms in front of her and started making dinosaur noises.
Then Riley climbed out of Jasmine’s arms and went to Marc Donald Brown. She held out her arms.
“Daddy!”
MDB picked her up and rocked back and forth in his chair, hugging her.
Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!
That was when my ears starting to ring, and my stomach dropped, and I felt like the whole world around me had frozen. Yes, Marc Donald Brown was my “dad.” But he wasn’t my “daddy.” I had never gone bowling with him. Or to a museum. I didn’t have any funny memories of him. And he had never held me in his arms and rocked me, as far as I could remember.
The girls were all talking and laughing, so I didn’t think anybody noticed how pale and sweaty I was getting. Then Jasmine did.
“Katie, are you okay?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I just . . . I have a lot of homework. I should text my mom.”
Cecile jumped around in her seat to face me. “Ms. Ross is nice, but she gives us too much homework! I have four math pages tonight and two spelling pages.”
“Wow, that’s a lot,” I said, typing my message to Mom.
Come now, please, I wrote.
On my way, she responded.
“What’s your favorite subject, Katie?” Cecile asked. “Mine’s science. Is yours science too?”
“Science is good,” I said. “But I like history more.”
Cecile’s chatter was helping. I could just nod and answer questions and not really think.
Luckily, Mom arrived at the door a minute later. She must have been hovering around, like she’d done last time.
“Gotta go,” I said. “It was, uh, it was good meeting you.”
Then I hurried out of there.
CHAPTER 11
Emotional Avalanche!
When I got into the car, Mom didn’t ask me how things went. She could probably tell from the look on my face that I didn’t feel like talking—she was good at that. She turned on the radio, and I gazed out the window.
After a few minutes the sobs slowed to sniffles, and I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling. I could feel some stray snot trickling out of my nose. Gross!
I was blowing my nose when Mom knocked on the door.
“Come in,” I croaked.
Mom sat down on the bed and put her arm around me. “Poor Katie. This is quite a lot for you, isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“I’m sorry it didn’t go well,” Mom said.
“It was okay,” I said. “I mean, Jasmine was nice and my half sisters are cute. But then they started calling Dad ‘Daddy’ and talking about stuff they did together, and . . . I never did any of those things with him. And he might be my ‘father,’ but he’ll never be my ‘daddy.’ ”
Mom squeezed me hard. “Oh, Katie, that must hurt a lot,” she said.
I started to cry again. “It does,” I said, my voice tight.
“You dad hasn’t been there for you,” she said. “But he wants to be here for you now. And whatever that looks like is up to you, Katie. You can see him as much or as little as you want. I’ll still love you, and I’ll always be here for you.”
Will you? I wondered, thinking about Jeff’s upcoming proposal. But I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t going to spoil that surprise, no matter how bad I was feeling.
“And it might take time with your dad,” Mom went on. “It’s not easy to build a whole relationship in just a few days. You and I have had a lot longer than that!”
“I guess that makes sense,” I said. “And I mean, I think I would like to see my half sisters again. I just don’t know if I can do it again soon.”
“Take all the time you need,” Mom said, and then she got up. “I’m going to go start dinner.”
I flopped back down again and stared at my ceiling for a long time. After a while my thoughts drifted to cupcakes. I’d have to make a shopping list for both the magazine launch cupcakes and the proposal cupcakes, and I’d have to get Mom to take me shopping before Friday. . . .
I sat up, went to my desk, and started writing in the notebook that I use for Cupcake stuff. (It has a cupcake on the cover, of course.) My throat was scratchy, but at least I wasn’t crying anymore.
As I worked on the shopping list, I had a thought that I’d had many times before: Thank goodness for the Cupcake Club!
I only heard from Marc Donald Brown once more that week, asking me if I wanted to work at the restaurant on Saturday morning. I knew it was going to be a busy day because we had the magazine launch in the afternoon, but since we were baking the night before, I thought I could do it, so I said yes. I was looking forward to working with Melissa again, even if I was still feeling weird about my dad.
Mom took me out shopping on Thursday night, and on Friday after school, I started getting ready. I chopped up veggies for a vegetarian chili, and Mom helped me cook it when she got back from work. Since we had a lot of baking to do, Emma and Alexis were going to come over on the early side, around six. We could eat chili with cheese and corn chips while we baked. Sometimes we would get pizza, but lately, I had been craving some chili.
The finished pot of chili was simmering on the stove when Alexis and Emma came to the door. The bowls, spoons, and extras were set up on the counter. On the kitchen table, I had put out our ingredients, measuring cups, measuring spoons, cupcake tins, and everything else we needed.
“Mmm, I smell chili,” Emma said as she came into the kitchen.
“Spicy?” Alexis asked.
“Hot sauce is on the side,” I promised her. “We can eat now if you want.”
“Let’s get the batter started,” Alexis suggested. “We’ve got a lot of cupcakes to bake. And then we have to try to get a perfect R logo on each cupcake without Mia here.”
“It’s just one letter,” Emma said. “I think we can handle it.”
Alexis leaned in and whispered to me. “Where’s your mom?”
“Upstairs, I think,” I whispered back. “Why?”
“I need the supplies for the proposal cupcakes,” she said. “Emma and I are going to bake them tomorrow morning, so we won’t have much to do after the magazine launch tomorrow night.”
I nodded. “Right.” Alexis had mentioned that at lunch yesterday. I had the bag stashed away in the pantry off the kitchen, and I brought it out.
“Perfect,” she said, and her eyes were twinkling.
“So, you know what Jeff is planning?” I asked.
“We do, and it’s soooo incredibly sweet!” Emma chimed in.
“No fair!” I said. “You guys know and I don’t.”
“It’s better if you’re surprised,” Alexis said. “Trust me!”
I sighed. I knew Alexis wasn’t going to spill the beans, and Emma wouldn’t do it if Alexis was around. I would just have to wait until tomorrow to find out what would happen.
“I’ll grate the zucchini,” I said, launching into cupcake mode.
“I’ll mix the wet ingredients,” said Emma.
“And I’ll get the dry ones going,” added Alexis.
We got to work then, and quickly put together batter for two dozen zucchini cupcakes.
“One of these days we’ll be able to afford a commercial mixer,” Alexis said as we prepared to start all over for the next two dozen.
“And a commercial kitchen, with a cupcake shop attached,” I added.
“With pale pink walls, and little tables for people to sit at and eat their cupcakes, with stools that look like cupcakes,” said Emma.
“That would be amazing!” I said. “I can just picture it.”
“We’d have to think of a name for the shop,” said Alexis. “I don’t think we could call it the Cupcake Club.”
I shook my head. “No, don’t you see? It’s perfect! A club is a cool place where people go to hang out. So the Cupcake Club is where people could go and eat cupcakes.”
Alexis nodded thoughtfully. “And we could have an actual club that you could join if you’re a repeat customer, and everybody could get, like, a membership card or a T-shirt. That would be great marketing. Everyone would want to be a member!”
“Wouldn’t that be so cool if it were real?” Emma asked dreamily.
The timer went off, and I checked on the first batch of cupcakes by inserting a toothpick into one of them. It came out clean.
“First batch done,” I said, using oven mitts to remove the two cupcake tins and put them on cooling racks.
“Two more going in!” Alexis called out.
We kept working until we had a batch of avocado icing in the fridge, four dozen cupcakes cooling, and two dozen more in the oven with a timer on. By then, my stomach was growling.
“Chili break!” I yelled, and we all fixed our chili how we liked it (lots of everything for me; no hot sauce or cheese for Alexis; cheese, chips, and a little bit of hot sauce for Emma). Then we brought our bowls to the kitchen table.
At that moment the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” I heard Mom call out.
She came into the kitchen a minute later, followed by Jeff and Emily.
“Hey there, Cupcake Club,” Jeff said.
“Jeff and Emily were at the middle school football game, and I told them to stop by for some chili,” Mom explained.
“It smells great,” said Jeff. “And so do your cupcakes.”
“Katie, get the extra chairs from the pantry, please,” Mom instructed.
I took the two folding chairs that we use when we have more than four people around our table while Mom helped Jeff and Emily fix their bowls of chili. Soon, we were all sitting around and eating and talking.
Then the timer went off, and Mom helped me take the last two cupcake tins out of the oven. Jeff stood up.
“Sorry, we didn’t mean to interrupt an importan
t baking session,” he said.
“Well, it’s not our most important baking session this weekend,” Emma said, and you could tell she was bursting with the secret of the proposal. Jeff winked at her.
I glanced at Mom. She was talking to Emily and hadn’t heard or noticed. Whew!
We all cleaned up the chili dishes together. Then we said good-bye to Jeff and Emily and got back to work on the cupcakes. We iced them with the avocado buttercream and then started drawing the R logo on them with frosting pens.
Mom came in to see what we were doing, and frowned. “Are you sure that avocado will hold up until tomorrow?”
“There’s tons of lemon juice in the icing, so it should,” I said, but I felt nervous.
“Oh great! We’re going to serve rotten avocado cupcakes,” Emma moaned.
“They’ll be fine,” Alexis said. “We’ll keep them in the refrigerator until tomorrow night. We can use the big one in my basement.”
I looked at the cupcakes. They did look kind of cool, with the bright green and red, but now Mom had me worried. But there was nothing we could do. We packed up the cupcakes into their special carriers, and then Alexis called her mom. It was chilly out, and I shivered as we brought the carriers outside and loaded them carefully into the trunk of Mrs. Becker’s van.
“This is going to be an exciting weekend,” Emma teased as she climbed into the van. Alexis’s mom was going to drop off Emma on the way home.
I shivered again, but not from the cold. Jeff’s proposal was definitely going to happen this weekend. Life was changing so fast that I couldn’t keep up!
CHAPTER 12
Hurting
I fell into bed exhausted that night, and the next morning I woke up groggy when the alarm announced that it was six thirty. I hit the snooze button, but only once. I wasn’t about to be late for my second day of work.
Mom was already awake and drinking coffee when I got to the kitchen. I could tell by the way she was dressed that she was working that day.
“I’ll drop you off, and Jeff and Emily will pick you up at noon, if that’s okay,” Mom said. “I’ve got patients until one o’clock.”
“Sure,” I said.
