Cupcakes and Wedding Bells

by Coco Simon

  Alexis looked over at the mystery meat on Emma’s plate. “Do you want half of my sandwich?”

  “No, thanks,” Emma said. “The mashed potatoes are good. And if you chop the meat up into tiny pieces and mix it in, it’s not so bad.”

  “Hey, I was just wondering what our schedule is this weekend,” I said. “I mean, I know I should know, but my brain is spaghetti these days.”

  “Oh, Katie! Your brain is always spaghetti!” Mia said, laughing. “You love spaghetti.”

  “This is very true,” I admitted. “But you know what I mean. All I can think about is the wedding.”

  “We’ve got to bake two dozen cupcakes for the Delgado birthday party at three p.m. Saturday,” Alexis said, without even having to look it up. “Baking and decorating is scheduled for my house at ten a.m.”

  “I’ll be at my dad’s,” Mia said.

  Mia’s parents are divorced, just like mine. The difference is that Mia’s dad isn’t a Dessert Dad, like Marc Daniel Brown. Mia has spent every other weekend with him since the divorce, and she spends a bunch of weeks with him in the summer. I guess you could say he is more like a Brunch Dad. And you get a lot more food at brunch than you do at dessert. Mia and her dad are really close.

  “But you’re getting me the materials for the decorations, right?” Alexis asked.

  “I can drop them off tomorrow night,” Mia responded.

  “Great,” Alexis said. “My dad said he’d bring me to the party to drop off the finished cupcakes. It’s only two dozen, so I can handle the setup.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “What about doing a test batch of some of the wedding flavors this weekend? Maybe Sunday?”

  “We’re going to visit my grandma,” Alexis replied. “Maybe we should do it the following week, when all four of us are around?”

  “Sounds good to me,” I said. “I’ll see if Emily can come.” And I made a mental note to tell George that I could play basketball with him on Sunday.

  Alexis reached into her backpack and pulled out her planner. “We should really try to get this done soon because I’m sure you’ll be really busy as the wedding gets closer.”

  “Well, mostly busy with the cupcakes,” I said. “I don’t have to do much else to plan.”

  “But what about moving?” Alexis asked.

  “What do you mean?” I replied. “We’re not moving.”

  “You’re not?” Alexis asked. “I just assumed that you were. Your house only has those two bedrooms. Will you be sharing a bedroom with Emily when she visits Mr. Green on the weekends?”

  I know it sounds weird, but I had never thought this through before Alexis mentioned it. I guess it was in the back of my mind, but I’d kept it there, not wanting to think about what this marriage really meant.

  “I—I don’t know,” I admitted. “Mom told me a while ago that Jeff and Emily would be living with us if they got married, so I don’t think we’re moving. I’m not sure what she was thinking about Emily. Maybe she could sleep on the couch? It’s not like Emily will be living with us full-time.”

  “I don’t think your mom and Mr. Green would want Emily to sleep on a couch,” Mia said gently. “Maybe she can sleep in your room.”

  “You mean like a sleepover?” I asked.

  “More like a roommate,” Alexis said. “Maybe they’ll put up bunk beds for you two.”

  The thought of sharing my bedroom with someone, even someone nice like Emily, made my blood run cold. I put down the string cheese I’d been about to eat. My stomach felt heavy.

  Mia put her hand on my arm. “Don’t worry about it, Katie. I’m sure your mom has a solution.”

  “Yeah,” I said weakly.

  “And you and your mom are so close,” Emma added. “Like best friends. If you don’t want to share a room with Emily, I’m sure she’d understand.”

  So close. The words echoed in my head. Would we still be close after she married Jeff? With Emily hanging around all the time?

  I’d resented Emily when Mom and Jeff first began dating because Emily started joining in everything I did—even my basketball games with George. I had grown to really like her, but did I want her to be my sister?

  I tried to imagine Emily in the room with me, giggling and sharing secrets, but I couldn’t. I am not a giggling-and-sharing-secrets kind of girl. I am a throw-my-dirty-socks-on-the-floor-and-dance-with-headphones-on kind of girl. An eat-ice-cream-in-bed-and-then-burp-really-loud kind of girl. And I couldn’t do those things if I shared a space with Emily.

  I suddenly got weirdly possessive of everything in my room. I imagined Emily going through my books, through my clothes, trying everything on. It was silly because Emily wasn’t like that at all. She was very sweet and respectful. But still, I couldn’t stop these crazy thoughts from running through my head.

  Emily won’t be there all the time, I thought, but then I remembered something: Jeff would be there all the time. Every breakfast. Every dinner. What would happen to my Friday night tradition with Mom, when we got into our pajamas and ate takeout food? Would Jeff join us in flannel pj’s with math symbols all over them? Ugh!

  And what about breakfast for dinner? Jeff always teased us about that tradition and said that if breakfast for dinner made sense, then people should also eat dinner for breakfast, too. And when I argued that cold pizza makes a great breakfast, he made a face. Would breakfast for dinner be forever over with?

  I sat there, thoughts spinning in my head, while my friends changed the subject and talked about some teen star who does makeup tutorials. When the bell rang, I stood up, left my uneaten lunch on the table (sorry, lunch monitors!) and darted straight into the hallway.

  “Katie, where’s the fire?”

  I had almost bumped into Jeff, my future stepdad, known as Mr. Green to the rest of the kids in my school.

  “Oh, um, s-sorry,” I stammered. “Just, um, late to … locker … hall …”

  I darted away.

  Mom was the one marrying Jeff, but the weird thing was that I was going to be spending more time with him than she was. I was going to see him every day at school. And every night for dinner. Boring, bland, basic dinner, perfect for a math teacher.

  Tears stung my eyes, but I held them back. I had four more classes to get through. But all I wanted to do was get home—my home, with just Mom and me—and enjoy it while it lasted.

  CHAPTER 3 Save the Date

  On the bus ride home from school, Mia was texting her friend Ava from Manhattan while I stared out the window, biting my lip. Since lunch, I hadn’t stopped worrying about how different my life was going to be once Mom married Jeff.

  The bus stopped at the end of my street, and I said good-bye to Mia and hurried off. As I walked toward my house, I named all the other homes on the street in my head. There was where Mrs. Yashioka lived, the nice lady who brought us bouquets of flowers from her garden in the summer. Then there were the Pilieres, a nice young couple who’d just had the cutest baby. Then there was Jim, who worked for the gas company and helped Mom fix our front railings when they got loose. And across the street was Mrs. Bach, who crocheted me a little orange pumpkin every Halloween.

  I stopped in front of my house. It was the smallest house on the block, with white shingles that were peeling here and there and flowerpots on each side of the green front door. Dandelions were starting to sprout on the front lawn, and Mom and I never tried to kill them or pull them out. We thought they were pretty.

  Does Jeff think dandelions are pretty? I wondered, and I realized I didn’t know. Tears started to well up in my eyes again, and after I let myself in, I dropped my backpack in the hallway, ran upstairs, and threw myself onto my bed. Then I began to sob.

  How could I have forgotten all the changes that were coming? Would I ever be able to cry in my room again, or would I have Emily staring at me while I did it? What was it going to be like having Jeff around all the time?

  “All the time!” I wailed, and then I buried my face in my pillow again
.

  I cried and cried until I ran out of tears. Then I grabbed one of the stuffed animals on my bed, curled up, and fell asleep.

  * * *

  I woke to Mom shaking my shoulder. “Katie, are you okay? Are you feeling sick?”

  “No,” I said, sitting up.

  “Didn’t you see the note I left about heating up the lasagna?” she asked. “Jeff and Emily will be here for dinner soon.”

  Of course, I thought. But I didn’t say it out loud. It was already starting. I couldn’t even get in a good cry in my room without my new stepdad and step-sister interfering.

  “Do you want me to heat up the lasagna now?” I asked.

  “I already did it,” Mom replied. “Please set the table while I make a salad. We can always eat it while we’re waiting for the lasagna to be done.”

  Then she felt my head. “You don’t feel warm. But you look flushed.”

  “I’m fine,” I insisted, and then I jumped out of bed and did a twirl. “See?”

  Mom laughed. “All right. I guess you’re just starting to do that teenage thing where you sleep all the time,” she said. “I hope this doesn’t mean you’re staying up late texting. Joanne’s son was up until three in the morning last night!”

  Joanne is a woman who works in my mom’s dental office.

  “Mom, are you really comparing me to Dean?” I asked. “He’s, like, sixteen.”

  Mom ruffled my hair. “You’ll be sixteen before I know it, Katie.”

  We headed downstairs to the kitchen. Our house isn’t big enough for a dining room—Mom and I eat around a small wooden table that can squeeze in four people if you try hard enough. I was just finishing putting down the utensils when the doorbell rang.

  “Can you get that, please?” Mom asked.

  “Sure,” I said, and I walked to the front door.

  “Hi, Katie!” Jeff said. He held a long, skinny loaf of bread in one hand, and Emily stood in front of him.

  “Hey,” I said, and I turned my back on them and walked inside.

  “Emily’s been telling me about some of the flavors you girls have been cooking up,” Jeff said behind me.

  I spun around. “Emily, those ideas are secret until we’re ready to present them,” I said.

  She looked upset. “I’m sorry, Katie. I didn’t know.”

  I hadn’t wanted to make her feel bad, so I tried to lighten things up by joking. “It’s okay, Emily. Just remember, what happens in Cupcake Club stays in Cupcake Club. This is top secret stuff!”

  Emily nodded solemnly. “I promise, Katie.”

  “Everyone, have a seat,” Mom said, placing the salad bowl on the table. “The lasagna’s almost done. Let’s eat our salad first.”

  “I’ll slice the bread,” Jeff offered, and he opened up one of the cabinet doors to find a cutting board.

  “Wrong one,” I told him. “It’s the one on the left.”

  “Thanks, Katie,” he said with a big smile. I’d always appreciated Jeff’s smiley nature, but right then it really bugged me. Was I going to have to deal with his smiles, even when I didn’t feel like smiling?

  Soon we were all sitting around the table, eating our salad and buttering our bread like one big happy family. Mom and Jeff kept staring at each other and smiling. I wanted to ignore them, but I couldn’t help looking at them.

  Finally Jeff nodded to Mom, and she cleared her throat.

  “So … ,” she began. “We have decided on a wedding date.”

  “Is it on October thirty-first?” Emily asked. “Because I saw this Halloween wedding on one of the wedding websites, and it was so cool.”

  Jeff shook his head. “No, actually, we’ve decided to tie the knot sooner than that,” he said. “June twenty-sixth.”

  “You mean, next year?” I asked.

  Mom shook her head. “No, like Jeff said, we want to do it sooner. This June. In about six weeks.”

  “Why so fast?” I blurted out.

  Mom and Jeff looked at each other and started goofy smiling again.

  “We just couldn’t wait to get married any longer,” Mom said, never losing her smile. “So we thought we’d get married right after school lets out. And then he and I will go away to a cabin in upstate New York for a few days.”

  “Cool! I’ll stay with Mom,” Emily said.

  And where will I stay? I wondered. I didn’t have a second parent like Emily did to take care of me when my main parent was away. I had only Dessert Dad.

  I thought quickly. There was no way I could adjust to the idea of my whole new life in just six weeks. Maybe logic would work. Mom was a dentist. Jeff was a math teacher. They both lived for logic!

  “Alexis says it takes a year to plan for a wedding,” I said. “Six weeks has got to be impossible, right?”

  “We’re not planning anything fancy,” Mom said. “And I’m sure if anyone can help us figure out how to make this work, Alexis can.”

  “But won’t it be too hot in June for a wedding?” I tried.

  “June is the most popular month for weddings, Katie,” Mom replied. “We’ll be following tradition.”

  “I think June is a nice month for a wedding,” Emily said. She didn’t seem upset by the change at all. She smiled at me happily.

  Of course she didn’t, I thought. She gets to have alone time with her mom whenever she wants. I’ll never get alone time with my mom ever again!

  “Well, you’d better call Alexis right away,” I said. “She’s got a ton of questions for you.”

  “I will. I promise!” Mom said.

  Then it was time to eat the lasagna, and the conversation turned to the new sushi place opening up downtown and Emily’s art class. When it was time for Jeff and Emily to leave, Mom and Jeff made a big show of kissing each other right in front of me and Emily.

  “Love you,” Jeff said.

  “Love you, too,” Mom replied, and they kissed each other again. Emily rolled her eyes at me.

  Well, at least we agree on something about this relationship, I thought. Mom and Jeff are too mushy!

  Mom stood on the steps until they drove away and then joined me in the kitchen. We both started cleaning up. My mom was so happy she started dancing around the kitchen. I had been planning to unload all my worries on her, but seeing her so happy, I just couldn’t.

  “You’re in an awfully good mood for a Monday,” I said as I loaded plates into the dishwasher.

  “I’m just so excited, Katie!” she said. “I know it must seem like we’re rushing the wedding, but Jeff and I are just so happy. He’s so kind, Katie, and he’s such a good listener. And he’s always there for me when I need him.”

  I knew Mom was thinking of Dessert Dad when she said that—how he’d left her alone with a little helpless baby (me) and never looked back. And I couldn’t argue that Jeff wasn’t a good guy. He really was great. So I decided to let Mom be happy for the rest of the night.

  After I washed up in the sink, she grabbed my hands.

  “Katie, sit down. There’s something I need to ask you,” she said.

  Uh-oh, I thought. This is where she asks me to share a room with Emily. I immediately started thinking up plans that involved converting the garage into my own separate apartment. But that’s not what Mom wanted to talk about.

  “Katie, I would love you to be my maid of honor,” Mom said.

  That hit me out of nowhere. “Me? Really?”

  “Who else would I ask?” Mom said, and her eyes filled with tears. “Katie, you are everything to me. There is no one in this world I would rather have by my side when I marry Jeff. Will you do it?”

  “Of course!” I said, and I whooped. “Wait, does this mean I have to throw you a bachelorette party where we go into the city in a limo and wear silly matching T-shirts?”

  “Please do not do anything like that,” Mom said. “No, all you have to do is walk down the aisle with me.”

  “I can do that,” I said.

  “Jeff and I are going to ask Emily to
be a bridesmaid,” Mom said. “I want her to be a part of the ceremony too.”

  “Cool!” I said. “Wait, we’ll need dresses, right? Do Emily and I need to dress alike?”

  “I don’t think so,” Mom answered. “It’s not that kind of wedding.”

  “What about colors?” I asked. “Do you know what colors you want?”

  Mom shook her head. “I haven’t thought about it yet.”

  I went into the hallway and pulled my laptop out of my bag. “We need to get on this right away, or I will never hear the end of it from Alexis.”

  I opened up a wedding website on my screen and searched “June wedding ideas.”

  “You can do that?” Mom asked.

  I nodded. “How did you not know about this?” I asked her.

  We spent the next hour scrolling through web pages and giggling, and then we started playing popular wedding songs and dancing around the kitchen. It would have been the perfect night if there hadn’t been a nagging thought in the back of my head: I’d better enjoy this time with Mom while it lasts!

  CHAPTER 4 Dancing with Donny

  They’re doing what?” Mia asked me the next morning on the bus.

  “They’re getting married as soon as school ends,” I repeated.

  Mia shook her head. “Does Alexis know?”

  “I made Mom e-mail her last night,” I replied. “I didn’t want to be the one to do it. She is going to freak out bad enough as it is! I’m hoping the worst will be out of her system by lunchtime.”

  “Don’t count on it,” Mia said.