Mia's Boiling Point

by Coco Simon

  I looked at myself in the mirror one last time. Then I took off the shoes. I took a gazillion pictures of them with my phone camera. Then I sadly gave them back to the saleswoman.

  “Good-bye,” I whispered, gazing longingly at the shoes as we left the shop.

  Yes, I was definitely in the middle of a shoe obsession!

  CHAPTER 3

  The New Girl

  I couldn’t stop thinking about shoes. The next morning I showed Katie my phone’s pictures on the bus.

  “They’re nice,” she said. “But they look hard to walk in.”

  She quickly got bored with my shoe talk, so I spent the rest of the ride trying to calculate how long it would take me to earn my half of the shoes. I was pretty fixated on this until I got to homeroom, when something happened to distract me.

  A girl I had never seen before was standing inside the room by the front door. Her nervous expression was the first thing I noticed about her. The second thing I noticed, of course, was her outfit.

  She was about as tall as me, with green eyes and thick brown hair that touched her shoulders and chunky bangs across her forehead. She was wearing skinny jeans, short black boots with heels, a gray ruffled tank top, and this cute, short, long-sleeve blue jacket. Hanging from her neck was a brass necklace with a key dangling from the end.

  I walked up to her. “I like your outfit,” I said, and she smiled.

  “Oh, thanks!”

  I would have said more, but the bell rang and our homeroom teacher, Ms. Chandar, entered. She’s the science teacher, and she’s always dressed very neatly, in a pressed button-down shirt, simple A-line skirt, and sensible shoes. She looks like the kind of person whose house doesn’t have a speck of dust in it.

  “You must be Olivia,” Ms. Chandar said, approaching the new girl. “Please find a seat.”

  “There’s an empty one next to me,” I told Olivia, and she smiled gratefully and followed me to the back of the room.

  After we said the Pledge of Allegiance and listened to the day’s announcements by Principal LaCosta, Ms. Chandar explained that the new girl was Olivia Allen, and she had just moved to Maple Grove. Right away I felt totally protective of her, because I know how weird it feels to be the new girl. I got lucky, because I met Katie, Emma, and Alexis on my first day of school.

  So when the homeroom bell rang, I turned to Olivia.

  “I’m Mia,” I said. “If you want, you can sit with me and my friends at lunch. I’ll wait for you by the cafeteria door.”

  Olivia smiled. “Thanks, that would be cool.”

  I didn’t think that Katie, Emma, or Alexis would mind one bit. After all, we weren’t some exclusive club like the Best Friends Club used to be when Sydney Whitman was the leader and it was called the Popular Girls Club. Anyway, I had a chance to tell them during third period, because it turned out Olivia was in gym with us. Because she was new, Olivia didn’t have any gym clothes with her, so she was sitting on the bleachers.

  “Who’s the new girl?” Alexis asked, nodding toward her as we came out of the locker room.

  “She’s in my homeroom. Her name’s Olivia. I invited her to sit with us at lunch,” I said.

  “That’s cool,” Katie said.

  “Is she nice?” Emma asked.

  I shrugged. “I guess. She just looked kind of sad, and I remember what it feels like to be new, you know?”

  Then Ms. Chen, our gym teacher, blew her whistle and made us do a bunch of jumping jacks and sit-ups. Then she kept us busy playing flag football, so we didn’t have much of a chance to talk again until lunch.

  Olivia was already waiting by the cafeteria door when I got there. She looked pretty relieved to see me.

  “Come on, I’ll introduce you to my friends,” I said.

  “Are those the girls you were hanging out with in gym?” Olivia asked.

  “Yes,” I replied. “They’re totally nice. I guarantee that you will love them.”

  I led her to our table in the back of the lunchroom, where Katie was unpacking her lunch bag. Emma and Alexis were waiting on the hot-lunch line, like they always do.

  “Olivia, this is Katie,” I said.

  Katie smiled. “Hey. So where are you from?”

  Olivia sat down between me and Katie. “Jersey City, right across from Manhattan,” she said, sighing. “I used to be able to take a train there whenever I wanted. But now we’re, like, in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing to do out here.”

  “I used to live in Manhattan,” I told her. “And I used to feel that way too. But Maple Grove is really nice. And it’s not that far from the city. I go there all the time.”

  Olivia’s eyes got wide. “You’re from Manhattan? That’s totally amazing.”

  That’s when Alexis and Emma walked up, and I introduced them both.

  “Hey, so Olivia used to live right by the city,” I said.

  “I always thought it would be exciting to live in Manhattan,” Emma said. “But then I think I’d miss the trees and parks.”

  “Central Park is eight hundred and forty three acres,” Alexis informed her. (She loves facts and figures.) “That’s a lot of trees.”

  “But they’re all in one place,” Katie pointed out. “In Maple Grove, they’re all over.”

  I noticed that while my friends were talking, Olivia wasn’t really listening. She was scanning the cafeteria, checking out everyone at the tables. I didn’t really think that was rude or anything. She was probably just taking everything in.

  Then we started talking Cupcake business.

  “So, Katie, are we meeting at your house on Wednesday?” Alexis asked and took out her laptop to start checking things off. She’s superorganized.

  Katie nodded. “Mom says it’s okay.”

  I turned to Olivia. “We formed a Cupcake Club. It’s a real business now. We make cupcakes and sell them.”

  Olivia didn’t seem to be interested.

  “Every Friday, one of us brings in cupcakes for all of us,” I explained. I looked at Alexis. “I’ll do the cupcakes this Friday. I’ll bring in an extra for Olivia.”

  Alexis raised an eyebrow like she was surprised I said that, which I thought was a little weird, but then she nodded. “Okay. The four of us can talk more at our meeting on Wednesday.”

  I didn’t see Olivia until seventh period, when we had chorus together. She sat next to me again. When school ended we figured out that she took a different bus than Katie and me.

  She took out her phone. “Tell me your number, and I’ll text you mine.”

  We quickly exchanged numbers, and then I ran to catch the bus with Katie.

  “So Olivia seems pretty nice,” I said as we took our seats.

  “Sure,” Katie said. “Only, Alexis was talking to me at the end of lunch when you and Olivia went to the bathroom. She was saying, you know, how the Cupcake Club is a business and everything and how we can’t invite anyone to join the business without voting on it or whatever.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Alexis is such a worrier. I just asked Olivia to sit with us at lunch, that’s all. I hope you guys don’t have a problem with that.”

  “Of course not,” Katie said. “We’re not the PGC or the BFC or whatever. I guess Alexis just wants to keep Olivia separate from the whole Cupcake thing, you know, until we know her.”

  I suddenly felt suspicious. “Did Alexis ask you to talk to me about it?”

  Katie absently twirled a strand of her wavy brown hair around her finger. “Yeah, well, I guess she thought you’d take it better from me.”

  I shook my head. “She’s making a big deal out of nothing. Alexis and Emma made new friends at camp, and it was no big deal, right? We’re always going to meet new people. But we’re the four Musketeers. Nothing will ever break that up.”

  Katie grinned. “You mean, Cupcaketeers. And, anyway, weren’t there only three Musketeers?”

  “Maybe, but we’re Cupcaketeers, and you definitely need four of those,” I said.

 
Katie put her hand over her heart and started to recite dramatically, “Loyal and true, through thick frosting and thin frosting, through runny batter and burned cupcake bottoms! We will stick together!”

  And then we laughed, like we always do.

  CHAPTER 4

  My New “Roommate”

  I have to admit that I was curious to see what Olivia would wear on Tuesday, and I made extrasure that I wore a cool outfit too. I went with a cute floral-print dress in dark reds and purples, which are perfect for fall. The dress has short sleeves and, like, a puffy skirt. I wore a short black cardigan over it, unbuttoned; my black tights; and my go-to black ankle boots. I checked out my reflection in the mirror. Adorable!

  When I spotted Olivia that morning, her outfit didn’t disappoint. She went with skinny jeans again, this time in black, and she had a blue cable-knit sweater underneath an unbuttoned short denim jacket. (She seems to like to layer her outfits, which I think always looks stylish.) What I liked best was her red flats with small black bows, because the unexpected color contrast was fun. She also had a red headband in her glossy hair.

  “Hey,” I said as I slid into my seat. “Love the red shoes and headband.”

  “Thanks,” she said, but she didn’t sound happy. In fact, she looked pretty sad again. She made a big sigh, and I could sort of tell that she wanted me to ask what was wrong. So I did.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked.

  “It’s awful!” she replied. “Principal LaCosta says there aren’t any open lockers. I’m going to have to carry all my books everywhere! My arms are going to fall off!”

  “Why don’t you share mine?” I suggested. I definitely felt sorry for her. I couldn’t imagine carrying around six classes’ worth of books everywhere.

  Olivia immediately perked up. “Really?”

  I nodded. “Sure.”

  The bell hadn’t rung yet, so I walked up to Ms. Chandar’s desk. “Olivia doesn’t have a locker, so I’m going to let her share mine,” I said. “Would it be okay if we put her stuff in now?”

  Ms. Chandar looked up from her planner. “That’s very nice of you, Mia. Of course!”

  I motioned to Olivia, who quickly got up. She grabbed her black-and-white leopard print backpack, which looked totally stuffed, and lugged it out of the room.

  My locker was just down the hallway.

  “Get out your phone, and I’ll give you the combination,” I told her. When she was ready, I said the numbers out loud as I opened the lock. “Thirteen, twenty-six, nine.”

  “Got it!” Olivia said, and then her eyes got wide when I opened the door.

  “Oh my gosh, Mia, this is the coolest locker ever!” she cried.

  I guess I forgot to mention that as soon as school began I started designing my locker for fun. Over the summer, I sketched out the design I wanted and then shopped for the perfect materials. On the inside of the front door, I put this stick-on wallpaper with a groovy sixties design in purple, orange, and green. Then I went to a carpet store, and they gave me these free carpet scraps—purple shag—that were just perfect. I put the carpet on the floor of the locker and on top of the shelf. Dangling from the shelf is this superadorable mini-chandelier that sparkles when I turn on the little battery-operated light that I stuck under the shelf.

  “Thanks,” I told Olivia. “Just because it’s a school locker doesn’t mean it can’t be fabulous, right?”

  “It’s so nice, I’m afraid to put anything in here,” Olivia said.

  “Well, I can fit all my books on the top shelf,” I said. “I hardly put anything on the bottom anyway. So you can fit all your books there.”

  Olivia opened up her backpack and gave one of those big sighs I was starting to get used to. “I don’t even know where to start!”

  “Here, it’s easy,” I said. I started taking books out of her backpack and piling them in. “Just make sure you have what you need for your next class.”

  After the books were stacked, Olivia opened up the front pocket of her backpack. “In my old locker I could always have a mirror, so I could check my hair and stuff,” she said, pulling out a round mirror. “There are stickers on the back. We could just stick it to the door.”

  All I could think of was my gorgeous wallpaper being ruined. “Hey, why don’t we get one of those hooks that you can put on a wall and it doesn’t ruin it,” I suggested. “I can bring one in tomorrow.”

  Olivia shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”

  Then she pulled out this pink plastic makeup box and stuck it on top of her book pile. The pink didn’t exactly go with my design, but I wanted to be nice. So I didn’t say anything.

  Olivia opened the box, and I saw that it was filled with different shades of lip gloss.

  “Hey, is that ETX lip gloss?” I asked. “They have such cool colors.”

  “I got a whole set for my birthday,” she said. “I’ll bring you one tomorrow.”

  “Thanks!” I replied.

  Then the homeroom bell rang, so we closed the locker.

  “Yay! This is fun. It’s like having a roommate,” I said.

  Olivia gave me a hug. “Thanks, Mia!” she said. “I honestly don’t know what I would do without you.”

  I was feeling pretty good as I headed to my next class, and it wasn’t just because I had helped out Olivia. I was sure I had made a new friend.

  CHAPTER 5

  Sporty but Suave?

  The next morning I went to my locker before homeroom, and I found Olivia putting on lip gloss while looking in her mirror, which was hung on the inside door of my locker.

  “Oh cool, I guess you found the special hook,” I said. “I brought one too.”

  Olivia kept her eyes on the mirror. “Oh, I just stuck it on with the sticky pads on the back. It’s just easier that way, right?”

  For a second my heart sank as I imagined the holes left in my wallpaper once Olivia got her own locker. I figured she didn’t understand what I had meant about the special hook that doesn’t damage walls. So I didn’t say anything.

  “Nice color,” I complimented her. The lip gloss she was applying was a shimmery pinkish-tan color. I could tell she was going for a kind of neutral look today, with a tan boyfriend jacket and a white blouse underneath.

  “Thanks,” she said, smacking her lips one last time. Then she turned to me and smiled. “Come on, let’s get to homeroom.”

  She put the lip gloss back in the plastic box, and for a second I remembered her promise—that she would bring me an ETX lip gloss today. But Olivia didn’t mention it as we closed and locked the locker. I didn’t think this was a really big deal either. She had probably just forgotten about it.

  Then after second period I went to my locker before gym, and I noticed that Olivia had stuffed some of her books on my shelf. I had to put them back down on the bottom so I could fit my stuff.

  She’s probably just getting used to everything, I thought.

  And right now most people would probably be thinking, Wow, Mia’s making a lot of excuses for Olivia. Which I was. But she was new, and well, none of it seemed like a big deal.

  That night, we had a Cupcake Club meeting at Katie’s house. Katie doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, and she lives with just her mom, who’s a dentist. Like Katie, Mrs. Brown also loves to cook and bake things, which seems kind of weird for a dentist to like to do, but once you meet her, it’s totally not weird at all. It’s just who she is.

  At six o’clock, Katie, Alexis, Emma, and I were all sitting around Katie’s kitchen table. When we meet together on a school night, we sometimes have dinner, so it doesn’t interfere with homework.

  Mrs. Brown came to the table carrying a steaming pot of soup. She was wearing a red checkered apron that read #1 CHEF on the front.

  “Black bean soup,” she said, putting the pot on the table. “And Katie made some quesadillas for us.”

  “Katie, you are going to turn into a taco if you keep eating all this Mexican food,” I teased her. She went to cook
ing camp over the summer, and she’s been on a Mexican food kick ever since.

  “Could I turn into a burrito instead?” she asked. “’Cause I like those better.”

  Katie’s mom ladled some soup into our bowls, and we dug in, blowing on the soup to cool it off. I put some sour cream and some chopped green onions on mine.

  “Okay, so we’ve got the big birthday party coming up,” Alexis said, sprinkling some shredded cheese on her soup. She always likes to get right down to business. “Emma, what’s the deal?”

  “So, you guys know it’s for Matt’s and Sam’s birthdays,” Emma said. “All their friends are coming, so it’s going to be really big.”

  “I keep forgetting. Why are they having their party together?” Katie asked.

  “Even though they’re a few years apart, their birthdays are only two days apart,” Emma explained. “For a long time we had to have two separate parties, but this year Sam said it would be cool if they did it together, and Matt agreed.”

  “Sam’s so nice,” Katie said.

  Emma rolled her eyes. “Listen, if you guys start drooling over my brothers, I am going to barf this delicious soup all over your table.”

  “Ewwww!” Katie, Alexis, and I squealed. But I sort of can’t blame Emma. Her little brother, Jake, is six, and he’s totally adorable. Sam, the oldest, is in high school, and Katie and I both think he’s superdreamy. Plus, he’s amazingly nice, too. Then there’s Matt, who’s one grade above us. He’s cute too, and Alexis has a crush on him, even though she swears she’s over him.

  “Before you barf, could you please tell me exactly how many people are going to be at this party?” Alexis asked.

  Emma shrugged. “I’m not sure. Matt’s inviting a bunch of guys from the basketball team, and Sam’s swim team is coming. Plus our grandparents, I guess.”

  Alexis did some mental calculations. “So let’s say forty people. Three dozen might not be enough, but four dozen might be perfect. Ask your mom, okay?”

  “The way my brothers eat cupcakes, she’ll probably want five dozen,” Emma said.