by Coco Simon
It seemed like it was an easy enough plan. Jeff came up to me during lunch again, just to go over it. He really wanted everything to be perfect.
“So, remember, Katie,” he said. “When your mom goes inside to get the glasses, just tell her you want to come in with her, okay?”
“Got it,” I said.
He smiled. “Thanks so much for keeping the secret. You’re the best.”
As he walked away, Mia said, “You know, my dad gave my mom a surprise party once, back when we lived in the apartment. He had everyone come over while she was at the gym. She was furious! She locked herself in the bedroom and didn’t come out until she was showered and dressed up.”
“Well, Mom won’t be coming from the gym,” I said.
“But I’m just thinking, she might be dressed casually if she thinks you’re going to the Chinese takeout place. She might feel out of place at Mezza Luna. It’s pretty fancy there,” Mia pointed out.
“Do you think that would bother her?” I asked.
“It might,” Emma chimed in.
I sighed. “Well, it’s too late for another plan now. I can’t just tell her to get dressed up.”
“I know,” offered Alexis. “Why don’t you get all dressed up, and then your mom will get dressed up to match you.”
“If I got dressed up, my mom would think I was delirious from fever and send me to bed,” I reminded them.
“That’s a good idea, Alexis,” Mia said. “Just tell her you’re doing it for fun.”
“Well, maybe it won’t come to that,” I said hopefully.
But when I got home from school, Mom was already home from work and dressed in jeans and a Wizard of Oz T-shirt. I imagined her wearing that in Mezza Luna, and I knew Mia was right.
“Great shirt!” I said.
Mom grinned. “I knew you’d like it.”
“But I was, um, kind of thinking it might be fun to get dressed up tonight,” I said.
Mom raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, I hardly ever get dressed up, so why not?”
Mom seemed pleased. “That’s true. You never want to dress up. Okay, let’s do it, then! It’ll be fun. I can always change back into my T-shirt later. What are you wearing, Katie?”
I hadn’t really thought that out. “My purple dress, I guess,” I replied. It has short sleeves and it’s pretty plain, but it’s comfortable. It was warm enough out that I could just wear it with flats and not worry about stockings.
“Perfect,” she said. Then she looked at her watch. “We have plenty of time to change. We need to leave around six, because I have to make a quick stop on the way.”
I knew the “quick stop” was actually Mezza Luna and her surprise party. So Jeff’s plan was in effect. I went to my room and changed into my purple dress and then brushed my hair and put a headband on. Mom put on a black skirt and a cream-colored blouse and black heels.
She looked really nice, and I was glad my friends had thought of the whole dressing-up thing.
Maybe tonight is not going to be so bad, I thought. At six, Mom and I headed out to Golden Palace, and then she made a turn to stop at Mezza Luna.
“Jeff left his glasses here, and he asked me to pick them up,” she said as she parked the car. “I’ll just be a minute.”
“I’ll go with you,” I offered.
“That’s okay, Katie,” Mom said. Uh-oh. I hadn’t thought that she’d tell me not to go with her.
But I was already out the door. “But it’s your birthday. You, um, shouldn’t go in alone. And I have to go to the bathroom.”
Mom gave me a strange look, but she didn’t argue. Inside the restaurant, Mom walked up to the host guy at the front.
“I’m here to pick up some glasses for Jeff Green,” she said.
“Right this way, miss,” the host said, and he led us through the dining room to a private room at the back. Mom looked puzzled until she stepped through the doorway.
“Surprise!”
I peeked around Mom. The room had a big long table in it, with candles and flowers. There was a pile of presents on a small table in the corner. Everybody was standing up: Jeff and Emily; Mia’s mom, Sara, and stepdad, Eddie; the Vallanys, a couple from Jeff’s running club; and Mr. K., my math teacher (I guessed that he and Jeff were friends), and his wife. It was a nice-size crowd.
“Oh my gosh!” Mom cried, laughing. “Jeff, you didn’t!”
“I did,” Jeff said. He pulled out a chair at the head of the table. “Happy birthday, Sharon!”
Mom hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then she turned and hugged me. “Katie, did you know about this?”
I nodded.
“No wonder you made me get dressed up!” Mom said. “Now it makes sense.”
The last empty seat was between Emily and Mia’s mom, so I sat there.
“Hi,” I said to Emily.
“Hi, Katie,” Emily said. “I am so glad you guys are here! My dad was going crazy.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I could tell he was excited about it. He mentioned it every time he saw me.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it’s all he’s been talking about for weeks,” she said. “No offense. Your mom’s great, but I mean . . .”
“I get it,” I said. “Totally.”
I guess it was a pretty good party. Mom seemed happy, and all the adults were talking and laughing and getting loud. The food was really good—there was a delicious salad to start with, and then pasta, and then we had chicken piccata, Mom’s favorite. (It’s chicken breasts in a kind of lemony sauce. Yum!)
The whole time, though, I was feeling a little sad inside. Salad for an appetizer is just not the same as a pupu platter. And Mom was sitting pretty far from me, and it was nice being next to Emily, although she was mostly texting on her phone under the table. I resisted the urge to take out my own phone, but I knew Mom would freak if she caught me. So mostly I was kind of bored.
Then the waiter came in with a big birthday cake with candles on it, and we all sang “Happy Birthday to You” and Mom blew them out. I thought about the sparklers in the ice-cream sundae at the Twisted Cone and felt a little sad again.
“Presents! Presents! Presents!” Eddie started chanting, and everyone clapped. Jeff got up and started bringing presents to my mom to open. I had left mine at home; I wanted it to be the last one she opened, and I couldn’t wait to see how excited she would be when she got it.
Mom got a gorgeous scarf from Sara and Eddie, special running socks and headbands from the Vallanys, and a gift card to a coffee shop from Mr. K. Then Jeff handed Mom a big, rectangle-shaped package. It was wrapped in shiny paper with a big bow.
“It’s from Emily,” Mom said, reading the card. Then she tore off the wrapping. “How wonderful! It’s just what I wanted!”
I couldn’t see it at first, and then she held it up: Viola’s Vegetables. With a big photo of vegetables on a cutting board on the cover.
I felt sick to my stomach. That was supposed to be my gift to Mom. My one surprise for her—ruined! I could feel tears forming in my eyes, so I quickly got up and ran to the restroom.
Normally, Mom would have noticed that something was wrong and she would have followed me. But I knew she wouldn’t. It wasn’t fair; Emily probably hadn’t even picked out that book by herself. I was sure Jeff had bought it and put her name on it. And then there goes Mom, thinking Emily is so wonderful.
I tried to keep it together. I splashed some cold water on my face, and I thought I could keep myself from crying in front of everyone and totally embarrassing myself.
When I got back to the table, everyone was getting up to leave. It took Mom and Jeff forever to say good-bye, and Mom had this dreamy look on her face as we drove home.
“What a lovely party,” Mom said. “I had no idea, Katie. Jeff says you knew about the surprise. Thanks for keeping the secret.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, looking out the window.
“And I can’t b
elieve that all of our friends came, and I got such great presents,” Mom went on. “How sweet was it for Emily to get me Viola’s Vegetables?”
I lost it. I just started crying hysterically.
“Katie, what’s wrong?” Mom asked.
I didn’t answer. I just looked out the window. We were home a few minutes later, and I ran right up to my room and flopped down on my bed and kept crying.
In my head, it was like Mom and I had this special thing, and Jeff and Emily had stolen it away. I know they didn’t mean to, but it was still a horrible feeling.
CHAPTER 13
No More Secrets!
Mom knocked on my door.
“Come in,” I said through my tears.
I felt Mom’s hand on my back. “Katie, is this about our birthday tradition?” she asked.
I slowly sat up, nodding. Mom had figured it out pretty fast.
“Did you tell Jeff?” Mom asked. “I’m sure he would have understood.”
“But he already made the plans and invited everybody before he told me,” I said. “And he was really excited, and he was doing something nice, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”
Mom nodded. “That must have been hard for you. But it’s important not to hold your feelings inside, Katie. Next time something like this happens, please say something. I don’t want you to be sad.” She gave me a big hug.
I went over to my desk and picked up the present I had gotten for Mom. This part was still too hard to talk about, so I wordlessly handed it to her.
Mom opened it up, and her eyes got wide. “Oh, Katie!” she said. “What a lovely gift! I know you must have been saving a lot of Cupcake money for this. And how awful you must have felt when Emily got me the same thing.” I couldn’t speak, so I just nodded.
She hugged me again. “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll take the copy Emily gave me back to the store and exchange it for another cookbook. But I’ll keep the one you gave me. Okay?”
I wiped a tear from under my eye. “Okay.”
“And tomorrow, I was thinking,” Mom said, “how about we go to Golden Palace? And the Twisted Cone?”
“Fine,” I said. “But we are watching The Wizard of Oz tonight!” For a second, I thought Mom might say no because it was pretty late, but she didn’t.
“I’ll go put on my T-shirt,” she said.
I changed into my pj’s, and Mom and I watched the movie together, and the night ended up not being horrible at all. In fact, when I really thought about it, it had mostly been a pretty nice night.
The next morning, I had a track meet. When I got home, Jeff and Mom were sitting on the front steps.
“Hi, Katie,” Jeff said. “I came by to apologize to you.”
“Apologize?” I asked. I was kind of mad at Mom. I mean, I should have said something to Jeff, but now that she said something to him, it felt weird. I kind of just wanted to forget about it.
“Well, I should have asked if you and your mom had any birthday plans,” he said. “In fact, I know she told me about what you guys do every year, but I honestly forgot about it. And then I got all excited with the surprise idea, and I got carried away. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.”
“Thanks,” I said. “They weren’t hurt too bad.”
“And I was thinking, you and your mom need to keep up your tradition,” Jeff said. “She and I can find our own special way to celebrate her birthday on another night. What do you think?”
For a second, I was going to say, “No, don’t worry about it,” but then I remembered what Mom said about being honest with my feelings and not keeping them inside.
“That would be great,” I said, and my mom had a happy, relieved look on her face. Jeff looked pretty happy too, so I figured it was a good solution for everybody.
“Well, I’ve got to pick up Emily from her music lesson,” Jeff said. “Hope you guys have a great day.”
Well, we did have a great day! We went to Golden Palace for dinner, and the pupu platter was amazing: three tiers of sizzling Chinese goodness. Then we went to the Twisted Cone and got massive sundaes, and Mom’s had sparklers in it, and everybody sang, and it was awesome.
But the day wasn’t just great because of all the greasy food and sweet desserts. Mostly it was great because I felt like I had a new philosophy in life: no more secrets! No more holding things in! And I couldn’t wait to test it out.
I had my first chance at the Cupcake Club baking session on Sunday. We had to bake for that first cake pop order that Alexis had received after passing out the flyer. The cake pops were due at the party at five, so we started early, at one o’clock at my house. We wanted to make sure that we would have plenty of time to get the cake pops ready. Mia couldn’t come at one because she was in Manhattan with her dad that weekend, but by the time she got to my house at around three, we were ready to dip the cake pops in the melted chocolate.
This time, I remembered to get the toppings ready so we could dip the pops in them while the chocolate was still warm. Alexis had also purchased two sets of plastic cake pop holders—one set that we could use to let the chocolate set, that we could get messy with chocolate. The other would be used for party setups, and we would keep those as clean as possible.
“Time to dip!” I said, dunking my cake pop into the chocolate. I picked it up, swirling it around, and the chocolate dripped down my wrist. “This is so messy!”
“Imagine, something too messy for Katie,” Mia teased, and I knew she had a point. Normally, messy things don’t bother me so much.
We carefully worked to make sure each pop was perfect, gently setting it in the stand to set.
“When these are dry, we can attach a cellophane bag over each one,” Alexis said. “And Mrs. Benson wants a purple ribbon around each one.”
Now that we weren’t busy with the cake pops, and Mia was there, I thought I would bring up my new philosophy.
“So, I’ve been thinking,” I said, “about secrets. They’re no good. Like, I should have told Mr. Green that Mom and I have special plans on her birthday. I shouldn’t have kept that inside.”
“Right,” Mia agreed. “And I should not have shared that text about Todd and Julie.”
“So . . . ,” I began, “I just want to be honest and say that I don’t think doing cake pops is a good idea. They take too much time.”
“I see your point,” said Alexis. “I should not have put them on the flyer without talking to you guys. But we’ve spent money on supplies already.”
“Maybe we could charge more for them,” Emma said thoughtfully. “Then it would make up for all the hard work we put into them.”
“I should have thought of that!” said Alexis. “What is wrong with me? I didn’t even cost them out. I’ve been so preoccupied with that math test.”
Math test. That reminded me of Natalie—that was another secret I probably shouldn’t keep. Before I could mention it, Mia spoke up.
“I like the idea of charging more,” Mia said. “We could try it for a while, and if it turns out not to be worth it, we could stop.”
“And maybe by then, we’ll have made back our costs for supplies,” Alexis said. “Sounds like a plan. Does everybody agree?”
We all did. Then I thought of something else. “Alexis, what has been up with you and Mia lately? I swear I’ve seen you giving each other weird looks.”
As if on cue, Mia and Alexis looked at each other, quiet for a minute.
“I’ll tell them,” Mia said. “It’s just . . . Alexis noticed that I haven’t been wearing my glasses in class, like I’m supposed to.”
“Hey, wait,” I said. “I have you in lots of classes, and I never noticed.”
“Because you don’t notice stuff like that,” Mia said. “Alexis does, and she’s right—I should be wearing them. But they’re such a pain, and I have to take them off to read, and put them back on to look at the board, and then sometimes I just leave them in my backpack.”
“Your eyes will only get worse if yo
u don’t wear them,” Alexis scolded.
“I know. Honestly, I do!” Mia insisted. She turned to me. “So, Alexis feels like she should say something to my mom, and I begged her not to, but then I left my glasses in my locker before seventh period the other day.” She sighed.
“I don’t want to tell your mom on you, but I’m worried,” Alexis said. “I’m your friend.”
“So, Mia, just wear your glasses already!” I cried.
She gave me a light punch in the arm. “I know!” Then she turned to Emma. “I know a secret about you, Emma Taylor!”
“Me?” Emma looked surprised.
“The other day, I saw you writing this name over and over in your notebook,” Mia said. “Nicholas Argenti. You like him! And when you saw me looking, you closed your notebook really fast. Why wouldn’t you tell us?”
Emma blushed. “Maybe I like him. I don’t know,” she said. “But I didn’t say anything because Alexis likes him too.”
“What?” I shrieked.
“I do not like him!” Alexis cried. “Oh, wait. I think I know what you’re thinking. Emma, I told you that Nicholas Appleby is cute, not Nicholas Argenti. But I think Matt is cuter.” Matt is Emma’s brother, and Alexis has had a crush on him forever.
“Nicholas Appleby?” Emma asked, and then she started laughing. “No way. All this time I thought I was betraying you because I had a crush on Nick Argenti. And I felt bad for Matt because . . . well, Matt is my brother.”
“So you do like him!” Mia accused.
“Yes. No! I don’t know!” Emma said and then started cracking up again. When she caught her breath, she looked at me. “Katie, I think you are on to something. It feels good to let secrets out.”
“Well, I have one more,” I said. “It’s something I need to tell Alexis.”
“I can take it,” Alexis said.
“It’s about that math test,” I said. “I think I know how Natalie got a hundred on it. I saw an answer key in her backpack.”
