by Coco Simon
“He even says he’ll pick you up so we can go together,” Mia added.
“Then we should bake at my house on Friday,” I suggested. “That way we won’t have to move the cupcakes around too much.”
“Sounds good to me,” Alexis said, typing on her tablet. “And, Mia, you’ve got the decorations handled?”
Mia nodded. “I’ve got everything we need.”
The event at the library was a celebration for the kids in the reading club. We have learned that for events for kids, it’s always safest to go with chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. No crazy flavors. But we do go crazy with the decorations.
It was Emma’s idea to do fairy-tale–themed cupcakes, and we all loved it. Mia sketched out some ideas, and we picked four: a cupcake with a princess crown, a cupcake with a cute pig face on it, a cupcake that looked like a toadstool, and a cupcake with a bear face on it. Besides food coloring, we would need marshmallows for the pigs; fondant for the crowns; and small, round candies for the bears.
“Then we’re on for Friday night,” Alexis said. “And sorry about Saturday. I’ve got that party for my cousin.”
“And I’ve got a modeling job that day,” Emma reminded us.
“That’s okay,” I said. “Mia and I will handle it just fine.”
The next morning, Mia and her dad picked me up at ten thirty. I had to rush home from practice to get changed, but it didn’t take me too long to get ready.
“Nice to see you, Katie,” said Mr. Cruz when I got in the car. Mia’s mom is very glamorous-looking, and I guess her dad is the male version of glamorous, whatever that is. He has this perfect black hair, and he was wearing these sunglasses that made him look like a movie star. I used to wonder why he and Mia’s mom got divorced, because they’re so much alike, but Mia says that was part of the problem. It’s too bad. They seemed like a great couple.
“They can both be stubborn, and so they didn’t like to compromise,” Mia had told me in that way of hers that makes her seem so much more sophisticated than anyone else in Maple Grove. Sometimes I still can’t believe we’re best friends, but maybe the reason it works is because we are so different.
Anyway, Mia and I looked somewhat alike today, because we both wore our pink Cupcake Club T-shirts, which had the cupcake logo that Mia designed. We had our hair pulled back into ponytails, because there’s nothing worse for business than a hair in a cupcake.
When we got to the library, Mr. Cruz helped us carry the cupcake carriers inside. Ms. Reyes, the children’s librarian, greeted us by the inner entrance.
“Hello, Cupcake Club!” she said warmly. “I’m so excited to see what you made today.”
We followed her into the children’s library, a bright sunny room filled with shelves of books. She led us to a table draped with a green tablecloth.
“Is this okay?” she asked.
“Perfect,” I said, and we put down the carriers.
“Hi, I’m Alex, Mia’s dad,” Mr. Cruz said, holding out his hand.
Ms. Reyes’s cheeks turned pink. “Nice to meet you. I’m Maricel.”
Mia and I looked at each other and tried not to giggle. This happened to her dad a lot. Women got all flustered around him.
“I’ll leave you girls to it,” Mr. Cruz said. “But I’ll be right here. I’ve got a good book to finish, and what better place to read than a library, right?”
“Right!” Ms. Reyes agreed, laughing and giving him a little wave as he walked away.
“So let’s show you what we did,” Mia said excitedly, taking the lids off the cupcake carriers.
Ms. Reyes gasped. “Oh, how adorable!”
The cupcakes looked fantastic. The vanilla princess cupcakes had white icing and yellow crowns cut out of fondant, a sort of paste that is made of sugar that you can roll out like dough. Then we decorated the ends of the crowns with glitter gel.
The pig cupcakes were vanilla, too. We did the frosting in pink and made pig faces with decorating gel. A marshmallow cut in half made an excellent snout for each pig.
The toadstool cupcakes were the easiest. We made chocolate cake and then used vanilla frosting that we’d dyed red for the tops. Then we piped dots of white icing to make them look like fairytale mushrooms.
Finally, there were the bears (for the three little bears). We used chocolate cake and frosting, of course. Little round chocolate candies were perfectly cute eyes and ears, and we used decorating gel to give eyes and a mouth to each bear.
“We’ll set everything up,” Mia told Ms. Reyes in a very professional tone. “And you would like us to hand out the cupcakes, right?”
Ms. Reyes nodded. “That would be so helpful. We don’t want things to get messy. The librarians and I will be busy with games and making sure no frosting gets on the books!”
“We’ve got it,” I said, and Ms. Reyes gave us a grateful smile and then rushed off.
As Mia and I were setting up, I got a text on my phone. It was from George: Yogurt Grove at 4? Meet you there.
Yogurt Grove is one of those yogurt places that’s everywhere now. They have frozen yogurt and a million toppings you can choose from and add yourself. I texted Mom to see if it was okay, and she said it was fine.
Sure. CU then, I texted back.
, George wrote.
I liked the smiley face. And he hadn’t said anything about my Medusa hair, which was a relief.
“Who was that?” Mia asked, but before I could answer her, the room suddenly filled with dozens of little kids.
We were busy for a while, handing out a cupcake, a paper plate, and a napkin to every kid who wanted one. The bears and crowns were the most popular, and I made a mental note to mention it at our next meeting—Alexis always loved to keep track of things like that. When things started to slow down, one of the moms came up to the table.
“I’m so impressed with your cupcake club,” she said. “I was thinking of hiring you for a party next month, and now I’m sold. Your cupcakes are adorable, but I’m going to order some of your cake pops, too.”
“Cake pops?” I asked, and Mia and I shared the same puzzled look. “Um, maybe you’re thinking of another cupcake business? We don’t do cake pops.”
“But I’m sure you’re the same Cupcake Club,” she said. She rummaged through her purse. “I picked up this flyer yesterday.”
She handed us the flyer. It was a Cupcake Club flyer all right—the new one that Alexis was in charge of. It had our logo and website and everything on it, and there, in big letters, was the announcement: NEW! TRY OUR DELICIOUS CAKE POPS!
“Oh, of course,” Mia said, forcing a smile. “Yes, we do cake pops. Sorry, we’re just a little flustered with all these cupcakes to give out today.”
“Well, great,” the mom said. “You’ll be hearing from me soon.”
After she walked away, Mia and I turned to each other.
“What the heck is this?” I asked. Besides being surprised, I was a little angry. “Cake pops? We never even talked about that. What is Alexis thinking?”
“I don’t know. But we can find out.” Mia typed into her phone. “I’m not going to upset her or Emma, because they’re doing stuff. But I’m asking for an emergency meeting at my house, tomorrow night.”
I nodded. “Good idea! We need to get to the bottom of this.”
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. The library thing ended at noon, and Mr. Cruz took us out to lunch at Vinnie’s Pizza. Then he and Mia dropped me off at home, and at three thirty, Mom drove me to the Yogurt Grove.
George showed up in his track shirt and shorts.
“Hey!” he said. “Man, practice was rough today. I’m starving.”
“And sweaty,” I teased.
George grinned. “Some yogurt will fix that. Come on.”
We went inside and each grabbed a cup. I got a medium-size cup, and George got the biggest one. I knew just what I wanted: chocolate and vanilla twist with breakfast cereal, bananas, and cherries.
George kind of we
nt crazy. He put chocolate, coffee, coconut, and peanut butter yogurt in his cup. Then he put one of every topping on his yogurt. Sprinkles. Nuts. Fruit. Cereal. Candy. When he went to pay for it, it was, like, fifteen dollars.
“That is insane,” I said, shaking my head.
“Insanely awesome,” George said with a grin.
“How can you eat all that?” I asked.
“Easily,” he said.
“I bet you can’t.”
“Wanna bet me?” George asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Sure,” I said. “If you can’t finish it, you have to walk me home.”
“And if I do finish it, you have to help me with my social studies,” George said.
“Deal,” I said. And then I watched as George dug into his yogurt like a hungry dog and ate every last bite.
“Not even a sprinkle,” he said, showing me his empty cup. He certainly could pack it away.
“I’m impressed,” I said. “So, when do you want me to help you with your homework?”
“How about I walk you home, and then we do it at your house?” he asked.
I grinned. “But then we both win.”
“I know,” George said, and he smiled at me, and I felt warm inside even though I had just eaten freezing cold yogurt.
We walked to my house, and Mom raised an eyebrow when she saw George, but she didn’t say anything embarrassing, thank goodness. We did our social studies homework together, which was nice, because I had to do it, anyway.
When we were finished, George jumped up. “I gotta get home for dinner. Thanks, Katie.”
“No problem,” I said. “Although I don’t know how you can eat dinner after all that yogurt.”
“That was, like, an hour ago,” George said, rubbing his belly. “I’m ready for more!”
I walked him out, past Mom, who was reading a book in the living room.
“Good-bye, Mrs. Brown,” George said. “Thanks for your hospitality.”
“You are very welcome, George,” Mom said. Then George left, and when I turned back to Mom, her eyes were twinkling. I rolled my eyes at her.
“Mom, he’s not my boyfriend. I swear,” I said, expecting her to bring up the “no-boyfriend” rule again.
“I know,” Mom replied. “But if you did have a boyfriend, George would be a good one, I think.”
I went up to my room feeling pretty good. George and I had fun together. Mom liked George.
I really like it when everybody wins!
CHAPTER 7
More Secrets?
So what’s this emergency meeting about?” Alexis asked the next night as we gathered in Mia’s dining room. Mia’s little white dogs, Tiki and Milkshake, were running around underneath the table, sniffing our shoes.
“Did everything go okay at the library?” Emma asked.
“It was fine until we saw this,” Mia said, holding out the flyer.
“Oh, great, the new flyer!” Alexis said. “I meant to give you some to bring to the library with you. How did you get it?”
“One of the moms gave it to us,” Mia replied. “She wants us to do a party and is excited to try out our new cake pops.”
Alexis nodded. “That’s great! More new business.”
Emma looked at her. “Cake pops? When did we start making cake pops?”
“That’s what Katie and I were wondering too,” Mia said dryly.
At this point, I was feeling a little awkward. Mia seemed to be pretty upset about the cake pops. I hoped this wouldn’t turn into an argument or anything.
Alexis seemed surprised by Mia’s tone, and she got a little defensive. “Well, I wanted to bring it up at our last meeting, but Emma was late,” she said.
“Not that late,” Emma muttered.
“And it’s a huge trend,” Alexis went on. “And we all agreed we needed to try something new. And you guys said you trusted me to do the flyer.”
“We did,” Mia said. “But adding the cake pops was a big decision. You should have checked with us. We should have put it to a vote.”
Alexis held up her hands. “Okay, I get it. But what’s the big deal? It’s just cake on a stick, right?”
It was time for me to chime in. “Not exactly. My mom and I have tried making them a few times. There’s two ways to do it. You can make a cake, and then crumble it up, and mix it with frosting, and then roll it into little balls. Or you can buy a special pan to bake the cake balls in, but that’s not exactly the same.”
“It doesn’t sound so hard,” Emma said.
“It’s not hard,” I said. “It just takes a long time. After you make the balls, you put each one on a stick. Then you have to melt chocolate, and then you have to dip each ball in the chocolate, and try to get it even all over. Then you dip the balls in a topping, like sprinkles or something.”
“Honestly, I didn’t know,” Alexis said. “But the flyers are out, and besides that lady at the library, I already got another order for them online. So can’t we just try them?”
Mia sighed. “I would rather not. For me, they’re not as much fun as cupcakes, because you can’t go crazy with the decorating,” she said. “And they also take up a lot of time. If you haven’t noticed, we’re all pretty busy lately. We barely have time to meet and stuff anymore. We shouldn’t be making things harder.”
“Maybe we should take a vote right now,” Emma suggested.
That felt awkward too. We always usually just agreed on everything.
“Or maybe we can just do these two jobs and then do a vote,” I said. “That way we can find out on our own if it’s a good idea or not. We’ll take down the bit about the cake pops from the website, so we don’t get any more orders, and figure out what to say if someone calls to order them if they’ve picked up the new flyer.”
“Good idea, Katie,” Alexis said. “Is everyone okay with that?”
Emma and I nodded.
“I guess,” Mia said. “I just wish you hadn’t kept the cake pops thing a secret, Alexis.”
“I did not keep them a secret,” Alexis snapped. “I just didn’t tell you. And if you want to talk about secrets . . . well, I can spot one of those without needing glasses.”
She looked right at Mia when she said it, and Mia blushed. I had no idea what Alexis was talking about or why Mia was blushing. What was going on with those two?
“So, as long as we’re together, we might as well talk about those other trends and stuff now, right?” Mia asked, and I could tell she wanted to change the subject.
“Sounds good!” I chimed in, and we had a short Cupcake meeting before we had to go home. I told everyone about the article I read about how nostalgic flavors were coming back, like strawberry shortcake. We agreed we could try some old-fashioned recipes at our next test session.
Thankfully, nothing else awkward happened, and Alexis and Mia didn’t seem to be upset or annoyed with each other or anything.
Alexis and Emma left first, and while I waited for my mom to pick me up, I asked Mia, “So, what did Alexis mean about your glasses?”
“Nothing,” Mia said quickly, but she wasn’t looking me in the eye exactly, so I knew something was up. But I didn’t push it.
It looked like the Cupcake Club was baking up a batch of secrets, and that couldn’t be a good thing.
CHAPTER 8
On Your Mark, Get Set . . . Go!
On Tuesday, we had our first track meet after school. I had no idea what to expect. Luckily, it was at our own school, so we didn’t have to take a bus anywhere or anything. We practiced first, and then a bus pulled up, and the girls’ and boys’ teams from Greenlake Middle School got out.
“So how does this all work?” I asked Hana and Natalie after we’d finished warming up.
“Basically, they do one event at a time, and they switch between the boys’ events and the girls’ events,” Hana explained.
Natalie nodded. “Yeah, they announce it over the speakers, so you know when yours is coming up, and your friends know when to ch
eer for you!”
The day before, Coach Goodman had told me she wanted me for the 1,600-meter race, and the 3,200-meter relay. Luckily, Hana was in both events with me.
“We’ll stick together, right?” I asked Hana, and she nodded.
“Of course!” she replied.
Natalie made a sad face. “I’ll miss you guys. I’ll be sprinting. You’ll cheer me on, right?”
I struck a cheerleader pose. “N-A-T-A-L-I-E. Go, Natalie!”
She laughed, and I could feel my nervousness slip away just a little bit. Then George jogged up to us.
“Katie, when did you become a cheerleader?” he asked.
“I cheer on demand only,” I told him.
“So where’s my cheer?” he asked.
I struck another pose. “G-O-E . . . I mean, G-E-O . . .”
George shook his head. “Enough! Stick to track, Katie. And definitely don’t join the spelling team.”
I blushed. “Hey, there is no spelling team. And, anyway, it’s your fault for having such a weirdly spelled name. It’s not like it’s pronounced ‘geeorge.’ ”
“Good-bye, K-A-T-I-E,” he said, walking away with a wave.
“Good luck in your race!” I called after him.
“Good luck, too, Silly Legs!” he called back.
“He is cute,” said Natalie, “but he really likes to tease you, doesn’t he?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, it’s always been like that. I’ve known him forever. But he doesn’t mean it. It’s funny,” I replied, but I wasn’t sure if I believed myself. Why was he still calling me Silly Legs? In volleyball, I get it—I stink at it. But we weren’t doing those silly drills anymore, and I know I’m a good runner. Unless my legs look silly when I run? Or was he talking about how hairy they were? I looked down again—my legs looked pretty smooth, still.
Now I was feeling nervous all over again. Hana sensed it.
“Come on,” she said. “They usually do the hurdles first. Let’s go watch.”
An announcement came over that the events were starting, and as we walked to the first event, I looked up in the stands. Mom had taken off work early to come see me, and Jeff was with her. They both waved and called out my name. I smiled and waved back. It was pretty nice of Jeff to come and watch too, I thought. It was still a little weird at school things like this, since he was a teacher, but no one else seemed to make a big deal about it, so I tried not to either.
