Katie Starting from Scratch

by Coco Simon

  “What was that about?” Mia asked when Emily had gone.

  “Nothing,” I said. “It was a normal question, that’s all.”

  “But you sounded so angry,” Mia said. “And I think maybe you made Emily feel really bad.”

  I sighed. “Forget it.”

  “Seriously, is something bothering you?” Mia pressed.

  Normally, I would tell Mia anything. But I was still mad at her. It was like she was taking Emily’s side.

  “No, I’m fine,” I snapped. “Let’s just finish the meeting, okay?”

  So we finished the meeting, and Emily came back in, and things went back to normal. Well, maybe on the outside they were normal. On the inside, I didn’t feel normal at all.

  CHAPTER 9

  Thank Goodness for Mr. Cheddar!

  After the meeting, Alexis’s mom picked up Alexis, Emma, and Mia.

  “Emily and I should be getting back home,” Jeff said. I was relieved. Finally!

  “Katie, we need to talk to you first,” Mom said. “Emily’s mom is going to be out of the country all next week. She’s been going to Haiti to help out the people there.”

  “Oh, she’s a doctor, right?” I said. “That’s nice.”

  “The thing is, I have basketball tryouts after school most of this week,” Jeff said.

  “So I suggested Emily come here after school,” Mom chimed in. “With you. Otherwise she’d have to hang out in the gym for hours, waiting for Jeff.”

  “Yeah, and it can be pretty sweaty and smelly in there,” Jeff said with a laugh.

  I let this sink in. “So, Emily would be taking the bus back with me?”

  Mom nodded. “Then you two could hang out until I get home, and Jeff will pick up Emily when he’s done.”

  I couldn’t believe it. After spending this whole weekend with Emily, I was going to be stuck with her for another week! But what was I supposed to say?

  “Sure, whatever,” I said.

  “Great!” Jeff said. “Emily will meet you by the bus tomorrow. How does that sound, Emily?”

  “That’s fine,” Emily said, but her voice sounded kind of small. She didn’t seem thrilled either.

  “Then it’s settled,” Mom said. She gave Jeff a kiss. “I’ll check in with you tomorrow. Have a nice night, Emily.”

  “Thank you,” Emily said, and then she and Jeff left.

  “Well, that was a lovely weekend, wasn’t it?” Mom asked. “I know we’re filled up with chicken salad, so I’ll make something light for dinner. Maybe I’ll just heat up some soup.”

  “Sure, whatever,” I repeated, and then I went up to my room. No one cared what I thought anymore anyway.

  On Monday morning, I was in a pretty bad mood on the bus. Mia was talking to me about something Dan did, but I was barely listening.

  Then I heard this squeaky voice.

  “Good morning, Katie. Got any cheese?”

  I looked up and saw a mouse puppet peering over the back of my chair.

  “George! What are you doing?” I asked, looking over the back of the seat.

  “It’s my new act,” he said. “This is my puppet, Mr. Cheddar.” He held up the puppet. “How do you save a drowning mouse?” he asked in his squeaky voice.

  “I don’t know. How?”

  “With mouse-to-mouse resuscitation!” the puppet replied, and then George started cracking up.

  I was laughing too, not because it was funny, but because George is so ridiculous sometimes. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but he couldn’t use Mr. Cheddar in the talent show. He just couldn’t. People would be laughing at him, not with him.

  “You need to go back to your balancing act,” I said. “Seriously. This is awful.”

  “Really?” George asked. “Rats!”

  “No rats! No mice! No puppets!” I said. “Or I might be embarassed to be seen with you.”

  “What? That’s not fair!” George cried.

  “I’m serious! And didn’t you try out already?”

  “I did,” George said. “But I thought I should jazz up my act. My little brothers love this thing.”

  “Then save it for them,” I said. “Trust me!”

  George held up Mr. Cheddar again. “That stinks worse than Limberger cheese!”

  I looked at Mia and shook my head, and we both laughed. Leave it to George to get me out of my bad mood.

  But all day I kept thinking about how Emily was going to come home with me and how weird that was. At the end of the day, she was waiting by the bus. She looked pretty relieved when she saw me, and for a second I felt bad for not wanting to hang out with her. After all, her mom was off in Haiti, and now she had to take a bus to our house instead of going home. It probably felt weird.

  “Hey,” I said.

  Emily smiled. “Hi.”

  We got on the bus, and I immediately realized we had a problem: I always sit with Mia.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll find another seat,” Mia said, figuring things out at the same time I did.

  I gave her an I’m sorry look as she headed for the back of the bus, but Mia just smiled at me. She’s so nice. Emily and I sat down on my usual two-seater. George stuck his head over the back of our seats.

  “Mia! You shrunk!” he said, looking at Emily.

  “Very funny,” I said. “George, this is Emily.”

  “You’re Mr. Green’s daughter, right?” he asked, and Emily nodded. “He’s a pretty cool teacher. Everybody likes him.”

  “Yeah, thanks. I hear that a lot,” Emily said.

  And then George just kept talking the whole ride home. I’m not sure why he did it, but I was glad that he did. It saved me from trying to make awkward conversation with Emily.

  After the bus dropped us off, we headed into the house.

  “George is really funny,” Emily said. “Is he your boyfriend?”

  I could feel myself blush. “Not exactly,” I said. “Kind of. Maybe. I don’t know.”

  Emily didn’t press it, which was nice. When we got inside, I went straight to the kitchen, like I always do. There was a note from Mom on the table.

  Hi, Katie:

  Please make sure that Emily knows she can have a snack. We have fruit and cheese and crackers. Get started on your homework right away. I’ll be home at 5:30, and Jeff will be there around the same time to take Emily home.

  Love,

  Mom

  “Are you hungry?” I asked Emily.

  “A little,” she replied.

  I got two plates and put some cheese, crackers, and grapes on each one.

  “You can do your homework anywhere,” I said. “I’m going upstairs.”

  “Oh, okay,” Emily said.

  I picked up my plate and my backpack, went up to my room, and closed my door behind me. I did everything Mom told me to, right?

  But, of course, that wasn’t enough. . . .

  CHAPTER 10

  I Lose It

  Katie, I don’t understand your attitude,” Mom was saying.

  Jeff had picked up Emily, and they’d left. Mom and I were eating dinner.

  I sighed. “What do you mean?”

  “When I came home, you were in your room with your door closed, and poor Emily was down here by herself,” Mom replied.

  “We were both doing homework,” I argued. “What am I supposed to do, look over her shoulder while she does it?”

  “That’s not what I mean.” Mom sounded frustrated. “I thought you and Emily were getting along so well. And then all of a sudden your attitude changed. You’re not talkative, you hide out in your room, and you’re not being especially friendly.”

  This was one of those conversations where deep down I knew Mom was right, but I didn’t want to admit it.

  Shouldn’t she know why my attitude has changed? I thought. Do I really have to explain it to her?

  So I shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know.”

  Mom hates when I do that. “Katie, can’t we talk about this? Or are you going to say �
�I don’t know’ every time I ask you something?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. Honestly, the words just slipped out.

  Mom put down her fork. I could see she was getting a little teary-eyed. “I just really want things to work out,” she said. “I like Jeff so much, and I was so happy to see you and Emily getting along so well. . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  Then I felt kind of bad. “Listen, I gave her a snack. I did what you said. What’s the big deal?”

  “Just promise me you can try to be nice, Katie,” Mom said. “You don’t have to like Emily. Just be nice, okay?”

  “I am being nice!” I protested, my voice getting louder. “Name one mean thing I’ve done to Emily. One mean thing.”

  Mom shook her head. “Never mind.” Mom didn’t say anything more, but in my head I came up with my own list. Leaving her alone when she was a guest in my house was kind of mean. Saying the Cupcake Club should take a vote on whether she got to help out qualified as mean in my book too. But I didn’t say a word.

  We didn’t talk anymore during dinner, which was awful. That almost never happened to us—at least, not before Mom started dating Jeff. So this whole thing was Jeff’s fault, I decided.

  But believing that didn’t make me feel any better. Not really.

  Normally, I would be talking to Mia about stuff like this. But for some reason I hadn’t. It was like I had closed off that part of myself. So I was kind of relieved when, the next day at lunch, we had Cupcake business to discuss instead of talking about personal stuff.

  “Well, the Channel Eight reporter is all set up for an interview the night of the talent show,” Alexis told us. “Her name is Mary Chang. She’s going to arrive at six, when you guys are setting up.”

  “Will we have time to do an interview when we’re setting up?” Mia asked.

  “Sure,” Alexis said confidently. “Also, I checked, and there have been one hundred tickets sold for the talent show already. So we should probably make ten dozen cupcakes.”

  I was starting to feel nervous. “Alexis, it’s going to be crazy that night. Are you sure you can’t be there?”

  She nodded. “You know, that business club thing.”

  “That’s weird,” Emma said. She had a twinkle in her eyes, like she knew something was up. “Ron DeMillo is in band with me, and he’s in business club too, and he said he’s going to be in the talent show. So I asked him how he was getting out of the business club thing, but he didn’t know anything about it.”

  “Yeah, that is weird,” Alexis said, keeping a straight face.

  “Wait, Alexis, are you lying?” Mia asked—not in an angry way, but in a curious way. “Because you’ve been acting really strange about this whole talent show thing.”

  Alexis turned bright red. “I’m not lying. It is a business club thing—like, a special project I’m doing. You guys will be fine without me.”

  “You know,” Emma said. “I was thinking that we could ask Emily to help us sell that night.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Mia agreed. “We could really use the help.”

  Something snapped inside me. “Seriously?” I said, my voice rising. “You know what? I don’t know if I can help at the talent show either. And Emily’s so great, you probably won’t even realize I’m gone.”

  Then I got up, left the lunchroom, and walked outside.

  CHAPTER 11

  Alexis’s Secret

  Outside, kids were hanging out at the tables or playing basketball on the court. I felt silly as soon as the fresh air hit my face.

  What did I do that for? I asked myself. I wasn’t even sure. I just felt so twisted up inside. I wasn’t usually a jealous or mean person, but something about this whole Emily situation was bringing out the worst in me. And I usually could tell my friends anything, but I was having a really hard time talking about this with them. Maybe because deep down I knew it was wrong to feel the way I was feeling. And I was ashamed to admit it.

  My friends came running after me.

  “Katie, are you okay?” Mia asked.

  My eyes felt hot, like I was going to cry, but I tried to hold it in. “It’s nothing. No big deal. I’m sorry.”

  “No, I’m sorry,” Alexis said. “I don’t want you guys to think I’m deserting the Cupcake Club that night. That’s not it. It’s just . . .” She took a deep breath. “I’m going to be in the talent show!”

  “What?” Mia shrieked.

  “I knew it!” Emma cried.

  I was too stunned to say anything. Alexis in the talent show? This was big news.

  “Details!” Mia demanded.

  We all sat down at one of the tables. Alexis took another deep breath.

  “Well,” she said. “Mr. Donnelly from the business club was giving this talk about confidence and how it’s an important tool for any business owner. And that’s been kind of an issue for me lately.”

  I nodded. Alexis had gotten really tall recently—it was like it happened overnight. I knew she felt self-conscious about it. She always looked a little uncomfortable when somebody commented on her height. I thought she was gorgeous. I would love to be that tall! Then I could always reach the chocolate chips at the grocery store. They always keep them up high for some reason. And I’d never have to worry about who was standing in front of me during a parade. And I’d be better at some sports—like basketball! I could go on and on with reasons it would be great to be tall, but for some reason, Alexis wasn’t feeling that way right then.

  “So, anyway, Mr. Donnelly challenged us to do something to build our confidence—to try something we’ve never tried before,” Alexis said. “And so I thought, well, I could audition for the talent show. I didn’t even think I’d get in.”

  “That’s so amazing!” Emma said. She looked at Alexis, her eyes shining. “I’m so proud of you!”

  Alexis blushed. “I’m really nervous about it. That’s why I didn’t tell you guys. I’m sorry. I just—it’s hard for me to talk about.”

  “So what are you doing?” I asked. “Dancing? Baton twirling? Oh, I know! You can do that thing where people give you math problems and you solve them superfast—like a human computer.”

  “I kind of want to keep it a secret if that’s okay,” Alexis said. “I just—I’m afraid of what you guys will say, and I don’t want anything to stop me, you know? I just have to jump in and do it, like jumping into a pool without putting your toes in first.”

  “Aw, can’t you just tell us?” I asked. I hated secrets.

  Alexis shook her head. “I promised myself I’d stick to the plan.”

  I had to laugh. Good old Alexis and her plans.

  “Well, can’t you at least tell us what you’re wearing?” Mia asked.

  “I’m not sure yet,” Alexis replied. “Dylan said she’s going to help me.”

  Dylan is Alexis’s older sister. She’s in high school and really popular.

  “You’ll look gorgeous, no matter what, and I know whatever you do you’ll be fantastic,” Emma said.

  “I hope so,” Alexis said. “I mean, you should have seen some of the people who tried out. They’re amazing!”

  “Did you see Olivia try out?” Mia asked.

  Alexis nodded. “Yeah, she was actually pretty good,” she replied. “She’s got a nice voice.”

  “Wait!” I cried, feeling like a detective. “That means the people who saw you audition know what you did. So now you have to tell us.”

  Alexis grinned. “I made sure I was the last one to try out on my day, so nobody saw me. You’ll just have to wait and see like everybody else.”

  “No fair!” I wailed, but I was mostly fooling around. I was pretty excited for Alexis. I would never have had the guts to get up on that stage.

  Then she turned to me. “I’d help out if I could, honest. It’s just that I need to concentrate on what I’m doing that night.”

  “Of course,” I said. “I wasn’t really upset with you, anyway. It’s just . . .” I wasn’t sure wha
t I wanted to say. “Listen, I’m just in a bad mood lately, that’s all. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I ran out like that.”

  “Just don’t turn into a drama queen on us,” Mia said.

  I made a face. “Ugh! Don’t even say that. I promise I will not become a drama queen.”

  “You could make a lot of money being a drama queen if you had your own reality show,” Alexis pointed out.

  Emma giggled. “Imagine if they did a reality TV show about us? The Cupcake Girls of Maple Grove.”

  “No way!” I laughed. “Can you imagine? We’d have to start fighting and throwing cupcakes and frosting at one another and stuff.”

  Mia shook her head. “That would be so awful!”

  Then the bell rang, which meant we had to get to class. Nobody mentioned my freak-out again, which made me happy. I don’t know if they were just being nice or if everybody forgot after Alexis’s big announcement.

  I will not lose it like that again! I promised myself. But guess what? I broke that promise just a few hours later. Which proves that I was just a total mess! But there was so much going on. It was a lot for anyone to handle, and I hate change and surprises!

  CHAPTER 12

  George to the Rescue

  I was supposed to take Emily back to my house with me after school again. She was waiting out by the bus. Then, as Mia and I were walking to meet her, George ran up to us.

  “Wanna come play basketball at the park?” he asked. He nodded to Mia. “Chris is coming.”

  Chris Howard is who Mia likes and who likes her back. They both bonded when they got braces at the same time, even though Mia’s are the clear kind and Chris has a mouthful of metal. But Mia told me she thinks he’s just as cute, even with the braces.

  Mia turned to me. “We should go,” she said. “I just have to text my mom.”

  I was about to say yes too when I remembered something. “I have to bring her to my house,” I said, nodding over to Emily. “I’m sort of babysitting her.”

  “Why don’t you bring her?” George asked.

  Because I don’t want Emily in every single part of my life, I wanted to say. Especially not the part where I hang out in the park with boys. But of course I didn’t say that.