Baby Cakes

by Sheryl Berk

  For you, maybe! Delaney thought to herself. Sadie had half-a-dozen skateboarding trophies on her shelf at home!

  “Too late to change your mind,” Kylie said, poking her. “I think we’re here.”

  The truck pulled up in front of Ms. Roveen’s house. A path of balloons lead up to the door, and little Milly—in a pale blue Cinderella gown—was jumping up and down on the front steps.

  “Don’t let her see me!” Delaney said, ducking down in the backseat. “I want this to be a surprise.”

  “No prob, Your Godmotherness,” Sadie teased. “We’ll make sure all the kids are inside before we roll you out.”

  Sadie and Kylie greeted Ms. Roveen and ushered the birthday girl back into the house.

  “Okay, Delaney,” Mr. Harris said, rolling the cupcake-covered skirt down a ramp off the back of the truck. “Up ya go!”

  He linked his hands together making a step to boost her up. “You’ll feel the platform under your feet when you get down inside. There’s a hole in the bottom so you can kick-start yourself in any direction you want to go. Like a skateboard—with about three hundred cupcakes on top of it!”

  Delaney wiggled into the waist of the skirt. It was both stiff and sticky at the same time.

  “Wait! Wait!” Lexi cried. They had just arrived in Jenna’s stepdad’s car and pulled up behind the truck. “You’re mushing my piping!” She and Jenna jumped out and held her under the arms for support. “Easy…easy…”

  Delaney felt the wooden platform below her. “Okay, I think I’m in.” She tried to inch forward or even roll side to side, but the skirt wouldn’t budge.

  “It’s too heavy with me in it,” she sighed. “Now what?”

  Mr. Harris got down on the ground and examined the wheels on the platform. “It’ll be fine on a smooth surface. Let’s just get you off the lawn and into the house.”

  It took all three of them to lift her gently up the two front steps. “I’ll get the front, you get the back,” Mr. Harris instructed the girls. “I’ll lift from below and you give a push.”

  It took about a dozen tries—and they lost a few cupcakes—but Delaney was finally at the front door. Lexi did a quick touchup, refastening the cupcakes and piping them with a bag of purple frosting she had tossed in her purse (“just in case!”).

  “You look like the little plastic figure topper on a huge wedding cake,” Kylie said, giggling. Delaney wished she had a mirror to see what she looked like. She felt pretty ridiculous, but hoped she didn’t look that way. Mr. Harris flipped a switch on a tiny remote and the skirt lit up with white twinkly lights.

  Ms. Roveen opened the door and gasped. “Wow! That is really something!” she whispered. “The kids are going to go nuts!”

  “You ready?” Kylie asked Delaney. “It’s showtime!”

  Delaney stared at the entrance way. “I’m not sure I’m going to fit!”

  Mr. Harris whipped out the tape measure in his tool belt to measure the opening and the width of the godmother skirt. “It’ll be close. I think we should take off some cupcakes to make room.”

  Lexi groaned. “I’ll have to pipe them all over again!” But Kylie was already handing her, Ms. Roveen, Jenna, and Sadie handfuls. “Sorry, Delaney—your dress needs to go on a diet…”

  With a gentle push, she made it through the door frame with not an inch to spare.

  “Okay, hand me the cupcakes and I’ll put them back on…again!” Lexi said. She toothpicked and piped ’til the skirt was whole again.

  “You’re good to go, Laney,” Kylie said. Thankfully, the hallway and living room were wide open.

  Delaney closed her eyes and tried to get into character. “Okay, hit it!” she announced.

  Sadie pushed a button on her MP3 player. Music filled the air, and all the children rushed into the center of the living room to see what was going on. Delaney flung her arms up in the air and pushed off with her toes, willing the skirt to roll forward. Like magic, it did!

  “Salagadoola, mechicka boola,” she began to belt.

  “Oooh!” Milly squealed with delight. “Bibbi Boo!”

  Delaney continued rolling down the hallway and into the foyer, waving her arms as she sang. This is pretty easy! she praised herself. Who knew I could rock and roll…literally?

  Then, all of a sudden, just before she reached the living room and the cheering kids, she felt the skirt hit a bump. It tilted back—taking her with it.

  She looked down and saw the problem: she had completely forgotten about the two steps that led into the sunken living room. As she bumped over the first, then the second, she and the mountain of cupcakes began to topple backward.

  “Help! Where are the brakes?” she screamed. “I can’t stop!”

  “Wait! No!” Kylie ran after her, trying to catch her from falling. She and Jenna held out their arms and braced themselves. As the skirt and Delaney rocked backward, they caught it and pushed hard the other way. They were covered in cupcakes, but at least Delaney was still standing.

  “Phew! That was close!” Lexi said, uncovering her eyes. But she spoke too soon. Now, Delaney was tipping forward, about to fall right into the crowd of unsuspecting toddlers.

  Delaney tried to lean back, but it was no use. The skirt was too tall, too wide, and too heavy. “Outta the way! Outta the way!” she screamed, but the kids continued watching her in awe. She looked like a human seesaw, and they thought it was part of the show!

  “Everybody over here!” Ms. Roveen shouted. She and the other moms managed to herd them all back to a corner of the room before Delaney completely tipped over. She landed facedown with a splat on the carpet, in a puddle of cake and purple frosting.

  “Oh my gosh, Laney, are you okay?” Kylie kneeled over her.

  “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” Delaney whispered. “This is so embarrassing!” Her face was smooshed into the carpet, and her arms were pinned to her sides.

  The girls and Mr. Harris managed to pull her back upright, but most of the cupcakes were totaled. “Oh, no,” Lexi said. She was practically in tears. “Our beautiful cupcakes!”

  Mr. Harris helped Delaney climb out of the skirt. Her white hair was now covered in purple frosting, and the cape looked crazy with her cutoffs and high-tops.

  “Nice outfit,” Sadie teased. “What do you call it? Funky Fairy Godmother?”

  Delaney couldn’t worry about how ridiculous she looked. She had to find Milly! She hoped she wasn’t crying or scared by the whole Fairy Godmother fiasco.

  She spotted the little girl in her mother’s arms—but she wasn’t crying. In fact, she was cracking up!

  “Dee-lay-nee go boom! Dee-lay-nee go boom!” she said over and over.

  Delaney wiped some frosting off her cheek and dotted it on Milly’s nose. “Did you like my silly Fairy Godmother fall?” she asked the little girl. “Was that wobbly or what?”

  Milly clapped enthusiastically. None of the other kids looked too disturbed either—they were rolling around in the frosting on the floor, making snow angels in it.

  “I never did like that white carpeting,” Ms. Roveen said, surveying the chaos. “I guess it’ll now be purple polka dot.”

  “I am so, so sorry!” Delaney said. “I didn’t mean to ruin Milly’s party—or your rug.”

  “It’s fine. The kids are having a great time,” Ms. Roveen replied. “Right, Milly?” Milly was too busy licking the sticky frosting from her fingers to pay any attention.

  Lexi appeared with a tray of cupcakes. “I managed to pull some of these off the sides of the skirt and fix the frosting,” she said. “Who wants cupcakes?”

  “Me!” screamed all the party guests, rushing her.

  “I did warn you that I was bad on wheels,” Delaney told Kylie.

  Kylie shrugged. “Yeah, but you certainly gave Milly a birthday she’ll never forget.”
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br />   Delaney looked over at the birthday girl. She was already on her second cupcake and smiling from ear to ear.

  “Oh! I almost forgot!” Delaney said, taking off her Cheerio necklace and looping it around Milly’s neck. “Your princess necklace!”

  Milly looked at the gift thoughtfully. Then she flung her arms around Delaney’s waist. “Love you!” she shouted, before racing back to her friends and the frosting Slip ’n Slide on the carpet.

  For a moment, Delaney was speechless. No matter how much she had messed things up, Milly still loved her. Her heart felt so full, she thought it might burst.

  “And that is what being a big sister is all about,” Ms. Roveen told her. “In your brother’s or sister’s eyes, you’ll always be awesome.”

  “You’re pretty awesome in our eyes too,” Kylie said, mopping frosting out of her friend’s hair with a pink paper napkin.

  Delaney smiled. “Thanks, but next time, let’s make sure my cupcake skirt has training wheels.”

  Sophie’s mom, Lisa, had pulled out all the stops for the baby shower. “You know my mom,” Sophie told Delaney. “She loves to throw a big, over-the-top party.”

  The entire backyard of the Spivac home was decorated with yellow balloons and streamers. There were five tables and chairs—enough for fifty guests—draped in buttercup yellow linens. And at every place setting was a baby bottle filled with yellow jelly beans.

  “What is that?” Delaney asked, pointing to a small kiddie pool inflated in the middle of the main table. Dozens of rubber duckies were floating in it.

  “Oh! It’s a shower game. You pick up a ducky, and it has a question on the bottom about babies. If you answer it right, you win a prize.”

  “Great.” Delaney rolled her eyes. “Is there a prize for the fewest correct answers? ’Cause that would be me.”

  “I think you know a lot more than you realize.” Sophie gave her friend a hug.

  “You’ve come a long way, Laney. You’re going to be a great big sis.”

  “I second that!” Kylie said, arriving in the garden with the rest of the cupcake club. “Are you excited for the big reveal?”

  Truthfully, Delaney had almost forgotten that today was the day she would know if she was getting a little brother or sister. The musical and preparing for Milly’s party had kept her so busy that she’d barely had time to worry these days about the baby situation.

  “I guess.” Delaney tried to sound enthusiastic. She glanced over at her mom and dad who were greeting guests. They looked so happy. Her mom kept rubbing her belly and laughing.

  “What do you want more? A brother or a sister?” Lexi asked her.

  Delaney considered both possibilities. It would be fun to dress up a little sis and teach her how to be her backup dancer onstage. Then again, maybe a brother would be great for singing duets? He could take the bass, and she could take the melody…

  “I dunno. I guess either would be okay.”

  “Well, it looks like you’re going to find out soon. Juliette and Sadie’s dad just arrived with the cupcakes,” Kylie pointed out.

  They rolled in a beautiful white toy box filled with individual cupcake boxes. On the sides of the box, Lexi had painted teddy bears eating cupcakes at a picnic. Delaney’s mom gasped when she saw it.

  “This is our gift to the baby from the cupcake club,” Juliette said, hugging her. “Sadie’s dad built it, and Lexi painted it. And we all made the cupcakes for the party.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” Delaney’s mom replied. There were tears in her eyes. “It’s so beautiful. Thank you, girls.”

  After a lovely luncheon of tea sandwiches, champagne, and lemonade, it was time to hand out the cupcakes.

  “Now, no one open your box and take a bite until we give the signal,” Juliette explained. The girls circled the room, placing a cupcake box at each plate.

  “Pink is a girl, blue is a boy,” Kylie added. “And no one knows what’s inside except Juliette.”

  “Not even Delaney,” Jenna pointed out. “This is going to be una enorme sorpresa—a huge surprise!”

  Juliette nodded. “You can say that again. Delaney, do you want to count down for us?”

  Delaney stood up at her seat and raised her cupcake box in the air. “On the count of three…one, two, three…open!”

  All the guests opened their boxes to find a beautiful lemon cupcake with a fondant rubber ducky on top.

  “Now everyone, take a bite and shout it out!” Kylie called.

  Jenna was the first: “Blue! It’s a boy!”

  The crowd cheered.

  “Wait! I have pink! It’s a girl!” Sadie said.

  “Me too!” said one partygoer.

  “I have blue!” said another.

  “Oh my gosh,” Kylie said, examining her own pink-filled cupcake. “Juliette must have messed up. She accidentally filled the cupcakes with both colors!”

  “It wasn’t an accident,” Juliette said, beaming. “But I’ll let the mother-to-be explain.”

  All the guests stopped eating and turned to Mrs. Noonan to see what she had to say. “I’m having twins,” she said, smiling. “And from the looks of it, it’s a boy and a girl.”

  Delaney was too stunned to speak. One baby was nerve-wracking enough…but two?

  “You okay, Laney?” Sophie asked her. “You look a little pale.”

  Her mom and dad came over to hug her. “I’m sorry it was a bit of a shocker,” Mr. Noonan said. “But your mom and I saw how freaked out you were about the news of one sibling. We thought we’d let it all sink in a little before we told you it was two.”

  “It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” her mom asked. “A brother and a sister?”

  Delaney felt frozen to her seat. She felt like everything around her was happening in slow motion. She could hear her parents and Sophie and Kylie all talking, but none of the words made any sense. She saw the cupcakes…the balloons…the rubber duckies…then everything went black.

  The next thing she knew, she was on the floor with a wet burp cloth on her forehead.

  “You passed out, honey,” her mother said. She looked very worried.

  Kylie nodded. “You took a nosedive right into the rubber ducky pool.” That explained why her hair was dripping wet!

  “It was very dramatic,” Sophie said, squeezing her hand. “An award-winning swoon if I ever saw one.”

  “How many fingers am I holding up?” Kylie asked.

  Delaney rubbed her temples. “Two. Really, I’m fine.”

  “Let’s see if your brain is working…” Jenna said. She held up a ducky with a question. “It says, ‘What’s a binky?’”

  Delaney sat up slowly. “A pacifier.” Silly Milly had taught her that.

  Sadie read another duck: “Name three songs with the word ‘baby’ in the title.”

  That was an easy one! “‘Baby One More Time’ by Britney Spears, ‘Always Be My Baby’ by Mariah Carey, and ‘Don’t Worry, Baby’ by The Beach Boys,” Delaney answered.

  Lexi held up a third duck. “Now here’s a tough one: ‘What are the names of Charlotte’s three baby daughters in Charlotte’s Web?’”

  Most of the guests scratched their heads, but Delaney didn’t hesitate. She’d read the book more than a dozen times and memorized the script backward and forward. “Joy, Aranea, and Nellie.”

  “Then this prize must be for you,” Mr. Noonan said, handing Delaney a large box wrapped with a yellow bow.

  She opened it and gently pulled back the tissue paper. Inside was a T-shirt that read, “I’m the Big Sister.”

  “You’re ready,” her mom said, hugging her. “These are the luckiest little babies in the world to have you for their big sister.”

  Delaney could feel tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. She would make a great big sister. She knew that now—ma
ybe she’d known it all along.

  “Step back, give the girl some room to breathe,” Jenna said, helping Delaney to her feet.

  “Do you want some water?” Mrs. Spivac asked, offering her a glass.

  “Nope.” Delaney smiled. “But I could really use a cupcake!”

  Everything in Delaney’s life seemed to be flying by. Before she knew it, the day of the musical was only a week away—and they were still painting sets, sewing costumes, and composing the music.

  “Our finale stinks,” she told Sophie. “It’s the world’s most boring death scene. We’re seriously going to put the audience to sleep!”

  Ms. Kutchen suggested that Charlotte simply fall down dead onstage.

  “I could do it like this…” Sophie demonstrated. She spun around in a circle, toppled backward, then landed on the floor with her legs twitching in the air. She made a strange gurgling sound with her throat. “Then fade to black…how’s that?”

  “Sad…and I don’t mean in a makes-me-want-to-cry way,” Delaney replied. “I mean we can do better.”

  Sophie sat up. “Maybe I could fall headfirst in a kiddie pool of rubber duckies,” she teased. “That certainly got everyone’s attention at the baby shower.”

  Delaney ignored her. She was thinking. “No, it needs to be more dramatic yet touching—a parting of best friends. Like Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked when they sing ‘For Good.’”

  “You mean we should sing a duet?” Sophie asked. “Okay, I’m in. But what do we sing?”

  Delaney considered all the Broadway show tunes she knew, but none of them seemed right. It wasn’t often that you found a musical about a pig and a spider.

  “I think we’re going to have to write our own song,” she said finally. She got out a piece of paper and a pencil, and scratched a title on top of the page. It read: “Saying Good-bye.”

  She began to sing softly. “You and me, me and you. An unusual pair—that’s us two.”

  “Who would have thought that we could be a dynamic duo for eternity?” Sophie continued.

  “Perfect!” Delaney said. “Then I could sing, ‘This is a journey that will never end. I’m so proud to call you friend.’”