by Simon, Coco
We put the cupcakes on a rack to cool. Normally, we talk a lot when we’re waiting for cupcakes to cool off. But that day we stared at our cupcakes, like we were going to cool them off with the amazing power of our minds alone.
Finally Mia blurted out, “Maybe we should try them without icing. You know, to get a true sense of how they taste.”
“That sounds very logical to me,” I said.
We each picked up a cupcake. They were warm, but cool enough to handle. I unwrapped the paper and took a bite. A hot, gooey mess of chocolate and marshmallow exploded in my mouth.
“Mmmmmm,” was all I could say.
Alexis had a weird look on her face. “It’s too sweet!”
“There’s no such thing as too sweet,” I told her, and Emma nodded in agreement.
Mia had another complaint. “They’re kind of messy,” she said, wiping her hand on a napkin.
“Let’s see what my mom thinks,” Alexis said.
She left the kitchen and returned with both parents. Mr. Becker was tall and skinny with curly hair and glasses like his wife.
“I think you girls have a great fund-raising idea,” he said. “Everybody loves cupcakes!”
Alexis handed one to each parent. “They’re not iced yet,” she said. “They might taste different when they’re iced.”
We held our breath as Mr. and Mrs. Becker bit into their cupcakes. Mrs. Becker made the same weird face that Alexis had.
“My, they’re very sweet!” she said.
“They’re tasty,” said Mr. Becker. “But I’ll tell you something. I’m not a big fan of marshmallows. Never liked them. You know what makes me happy? A plain vanilla cupcake. Mmm.”
I thought of Callie’s dad. “I think that’s a parent thing. Parents like vanilla cupcakes.”
“And don’t forget, parents are a big part of our sales,” Alexis reminded us.
I was starting to feel discouraged. “But plain vanilla cupcakes are boring! We need our cupcakes to be extra special so everyone wants them.”
“Well, maybe they could look special,” Mia said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, this is a school fund-raiser, right? Maybe they could be in the school colors or something,” she said.
I immediately knew what she was talking about. “Mrs. Becker, can we have another bowl, please?”
I scooped half of the vanilla frosting we had made into the new bowl. Then I put a few drops of blue food coloring into one bowl, and a few drops of yellow into the other. Emma helped me stir them up.
“Make that one bluer,” Mia said, pointing.
After a couple of more drops, we had the perfect blue and yellow—the official colors of Park Street Middle School.
“Mia, do your magic,” I told her.
Mia expertly iced one cupcake with blue frosting and another cupcake with yellow frosting. Then she used an icing tube to write “PS” in yellow on the blue cupcake, and “PS” in blue on the yellow cupcake.
“Just imagine there are plain vanilla cupcakes inside,” Mia said, holding them out to us.
“They’re just right!” said Mrs. Becker.
“I bet you’ll sell a hundred of those,” agreed Mr. Becker.
“Two hundred,” Alexis cheered.
“We will,” I said confidently. “We are definitely going to win this contest. We just have to do one thing.”
“What?” Alexis asked.
“We have to bake two hundred cupcakes!”
CHAPTER 15
How to Bake Two Hundred Cupcakes
Even though I was disappointed that we were making plain vanilla cupcakes, I loved Mia’s cupcake design. And the next Cupcake Friday, Emma brought in cupcakes for us that she made herself.
When I bit into one, I tasted chocolate chips and sprinkles!
“I left out the marshmallows, so they wouldn’t be too sweet or too sticky,” she said. “What do you think?”
“I think they’re amazing,” I said.
Emma blushed a little. “Well, I really did like our mixed-up cupcakes.”
That made me feel better. At least Emma liked them!
As we ate our cupcakes, we went over our plan for the next week. Our parents had agreed to let us bake cupcakes once a day for four days before the contest. We would start baking on Tuesday and finish baking on Friday night. Then Saturday morning, we would ice and decorate every single one. We had to promise to get all of our homework done right after school.
Mom said we could do all the baking at our house. Each one of us would take turns bringing the ingredients and cupcake liners.
Alexis had the whole thing mapped out on a chart.
“Tuesday night, Katie will provide the supplies,” she said, reading out loud. “I’ll bring them Wednesday, Emma can bring them Thursday, and Mia will do Friday. Then Saturday, we’ll all chip in for the icing. We’ll have to make four dozen cupcakes every night, and do an extra dozen on Friday. Then we’ll have four left over.”
I leaned across the table to get a better look at the chart. Alexis had worked out a whole system with stickers. One cupcake-shaped sticker equaled a dozen cupcakes. It all looked very complicated.
“It looks a lot harder to bake two hundred cupcakes than I thought,” I said.
I heard a laugh. When I turned around, I saw Sydney and Maggie standing by the table.
“I saw the sign-up sheets for the fund-raiser,” Sydney said. “You’re doing a bake sale? Now that’s really original.”
“Bake sales are so boring!” Maggie added.
You know what’s boring and unoriginal? I thought. Following Sydney around and repeating everything she says like a parrot.
I thought it, but I wasn’t brave enough to say it. As usual, though, Mia wasn’t afraid to speak up at all.
“Everybody likes cupcakes,” Mia said. “So, what are you guys doing? On the fund-raising sheet it just says ‘Popular Girls Club.’”
“It’s top secret,” Sydney said. “Nobody has ever done what we’re planning. We’re going to blow everyone away.”
“Not everyone,” said Alexis under her breath.
But Sydney and Maggie didn’t hear her and walked away.
“I wonder what they’re planning?” Emma asked worriedly. “I bet it’s really good.”
“I bet they haven’t even thought of it yet,” I said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be bragging about their idea to everyone.”
Alexis laughed. “You’re probably right.”
After Sydney’s comments, I wanted to win that contest more than ever. We had a recipe. We had a plan.
Now we just had to make it happen.
Our first baking night was the Tuesday night before the fund-raiser. I could tell Mom was really excited too. She even bought extra cupcake pans for us to use.
Mia, Alexis, and Emma all got to my house right at seven o’clock. Mom gave us a little pep talk—and some instructions.
“There are enough pans here for four dozen cupcakes,” she said. “But I wouldn’t make a double batch of batter. Baking is tricky. Make one batch first, put it in the oven, and then start the second batch. Then you’ll end up with perfect cupcakes.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Brown,” Mia said.
“Now, how about a huddle?” Mom asked.
Oh, Mom…. To make her happy, we all put our hands on top of one another’s. Mom led the cheer.
“Goooooooo Cupcake Club!”
Then we got to work. By then, we were getting into a cupcake groove. Emma liked sifting the flour, Alexis liked measuring things, Mia liked mixing things, and I liked cracking the eggs. We had the first batch of two dozen cupcakes done in record time, and then the phone rang.
I wiped off my hands and picked it up. “Hey, Katie.” It was Callie. “I tried texting you. Are you watching Singing Stars? Ryan just advanced to the finals. Can you believe it?”
I realized that I totally forgot it was time for Singing Stars. “Uh, I’m not watching it,” I said. “We’
re making cupcakes for the fund-raiser.”
“Hey, Katie, how many eggs is it again?” Mia called out.
“Oh,” Callie said. “You have company. Sorry to bother you.” There was a little silence. “Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Text me with the results, okay?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said, and then she hung up.
I felt a little sad for a minute. Callie belonged in the Cupcake Club. She could be having so much fun with us if she wanted to.
“Earth to Katie. How many eggs?” Mia asked.
“Oh, sorry. Two,” I replied.
By the time Alexis’s dad came by to pick up everyone, we had four dozen cupcakes in boxes stored safely in our freezer.
“Forty-eight down, one hundred and fifty-two to go,” Mia said as they were leaving.
“Actually, it’s one hundred and fifty-six, since we’re making two hundred and four cupcakes,” Alexis pointed out.
“One hundred and fifty-six?” I cried. We had worked really hard tonight. Yet it didn’t seem like we’d done much, after all.
After my friends left I flopped on the couch—for about five seconds.
“Time to jump in the shower, Katie,” Mom told me. “I don’t want you getting to bed late.”
I rolled over onto the floor. “You’ll have to drag me.”
“Hmm,” Mom said. “Maybe all this cupcake baking is too much for you.”
I jumped to my feet. Mom always knows how to get me.
“Nope. I’m fine!” I told her. Then I ran to the bathroom.
As I drifted off to sleep that night, I thought about what the instructions would look like for someone making two hundred cupcakes.
How to Make 200 Cupcakes:
1. Do homework in a dentist office.
2. Eat dinner.
3. Clean up after dinner.
4. Make four dozen cupcakes.
5. Clean up after making four dozen cupcakes.
6. Shower.
7. Rinse.
8. Sleep.
9. Repeat.
10. Repeat.
11. Repeat.
CHAPTER 16
The Purple Dress
Two hundred one, two hundred two, two hundred three, two hundred four!”
We counted together as the last cupcake—the last of seventeen dozen exactly—went into its box.
“We did it! Woo-hoo!” I cheered. Everyone kind of jumped around.
“You know, it’s funny that there are exactly four cupcakes left over,” Alexis pointed out. “One for each of us.”
“I think that’s a sign,” Mia said. “We need to eat those four to make it an even two hundred.”
“But four cupcakes equals eight dollars,” Alexis reminded us.
“I know,” I chimed in. “But maybe it’s, like, a good luck thing.”
That satisfied Alexis. “Good point. We should probably taste them anyway, to make sure they’re okay.”
The vanilla cupcakes were delicious, even without the icing.
“So we’ll meet here tomorrow at eight to ice them,” I reminded everyone. “The fund-raiser starts at noon.”
The doorbell rang, and Alexis’s mom came to pick up her and Emma. Then Mia’s stepbrother beeped his horn outside.
“Mom and I will pick you up after dinner,” Mia told me.
“Okay. I’ll be ready,” I said.
I forgot to mention that on Friday we baked the cupcakes right after school because we didn’t have to do our homework right away. The night before, Mia had had an idea about how we should spend Friday night.
“What is everybody wearing to the dance?” she wanted to know.
Alexis shrugged. “I don’t know. What I always wear.”
“I was thinking about wearing my favorite dress,” Emma said. “The one with the pink flowers.”
“I didn’t even think about it,” I admitted. “Do we have to get dressed up to go to the dance?”
“Well, no,” Mia admitted. “You don’t have to. But it’s fun. I was thinking that tomorrow night we should all go to the mall and look for dresses to wear.”
“I can’t,” Alexis said. “We’re going to my aunt’s for dinner.”
“I’ll probably just wear the dress I have,” Emma said.
Mia looked at me. “Come on, Katie. What do you say?”
“I have to ask my mom,” I said. Honestly, I don’t like shopping at all. But I think Mia could make anything fun. “But yeah, why not?”
My mom agreed (after talking to Mia’s mom, of course), and so Ms. Vélaz and Mia picked me up at seven.
The Westgrove Mall is really big, with a lot of buildings all connected together. It reminds me of a big maze. When we walked through the doors, Ms. Vélaz turned to us.
“What store are we going to first?” she asked.
Mia looked horrified. “Mom, seriously?”
“Of course! This is a big mall,” her mom pointed out. “Besides, I promised Mrs. Brown that I’d stick with you girls.”
I felt like sinking into the floor. My mom sticks to me like glue when we go to the mall. She used to make me wear one of those kid leashes until I was five. Here I was, in middle school, and I could still feel the invisible leash tugging at me.
Ms. Vélaz must have seen the look on my face. “You know, you girls are lucky to have an expert fashion consultant accompanying you!”
Mia grabbed me by the arm. “Come on. There’s a supercute store right around the corner.”
Mia’s mom walked slowly behind us as we raced into the store. Loud dance music blared through the speakers. The store was pretty crowded with girls looking through racks of dresses, shirts, skirts, and jeans.
Mia skidded to a stop in front of a black dress with a zipper down the front.
“This is so cute,” she said. “Katie, you should try it on.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s black. Black clothes remind me of vampires.”
Mia looked me up and down. I was wearing a pair of old jeans with a rip in the knee and a red T-shirt with a peace sign on it.
“So you like bright colors,” she said. “What else do you like?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s in style and what’s not. When I go shopping with my mom, we get some jeans and then I pick out whatever shirts I like.”
“So you can do that with a dress, too,” Mia said. “Just look around and see what you like.”
That sounded easy enough. I started looking through the racks of clothes with Mia. At first I was just confused. There were so many dresses! And even though they were different colors and different styles, they kind of all looked the same to me.
Then a splash of purple caught my eye. I walked over to a display with a headless mannequin wearing a purple dress. It was really purple. Grape jelly purple. But I liked it. It had short sleeves and a straight skirt with a black belt around the middle.
I took one off the rack. “I kind of like this,” I told Mia. “It looks good on the mannequin. But she doesn’t have a head, so anything would look good on her, I guess.”
“No, I like it!” Mia said. I could tell she was excited. “Try it on!”
The dressing rooms were lined up on the side wall. A salesperson used a key to open up one of the silver doors for me. I stepped inside and tried on the dress.
I looked at myself in the mirror. “Not bad,” I had to admit.
Then I heard Mia’s voice outside. “Katie, come out! I am dying to see how you look!”
I cautiously stepped outside the dressing room. Mia’s eyes got wide when she saw me.
“Ooh, it’s perfect! Turn around!” she ordered.
I felt like the world’s worst fashion model as I turned in a circle for Mia’s inspection.
“You have got to get it,” she said. “Wear it with some short black boots and it’ll be fabulous.”
“What if I don’t have short black boots?” I asked.
“Then you can borrow mine!”
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I looked at the price tag. It cost less than the money Mom had given me to spend. “I think I’ll get it,” I said. “That was easy!”
Then I heard a familiar loud voice nearby. “That dress is gross, Mags. I wouldn’t wear that to gym class.”
Sydney! I had to get inside that dressing room before she saw me. I turned to run, but it was too late.
“Isn’t it a little too early for Halloween, Katie?”
There she goes, I thought. If I couldn’t escape, I might as well face her.
I spun around. “What do you mean, Sydney?”
“Well, that’s a grape costume, isn’t it?” she asked. “No, wait—you’re that purple dinosaur.”
She made me so angry! I wished I had some great comeback to give her. But as usual, she left me tongue-tied.
“You know, Sydney, violet was a hot runway color this fall,” Mia said in that supercool tone of hers. “I was just reading about it in the color trends column in Fashion Weekly.”
Now it was Sydney’s turn to get tongue-tied. But she managed to recover. “Violet or not, it’s an ugly dress.”
For the first time ever, I thought of something to say to Sydney. And I wasn’t afraid to say it, either. Maybe Mia was rubbing off on me a little.
“I don’t care if you think it’s ugly,” I said. “I like it.”
Then I marched back into my dressing room and out of the corner of my eye I saw Mia smirk. My heart was pounding. Something about that dress made me feel good. Good enough to tell stupid old Sydney to shut up.
And that’s why my purple dress is still my favorite dress to this day. And as it turns out—it’s my lucky one, too.
CHAPTER 17
PGC’s Secret Is Revealed!
Saturday morning was, as the skateboarding dudes in my school say, intense. Mom and I got up super-early and started mixing batches and batches of icing. The girls came over, and Emma’s mom came over to help too.
It took hours, but we got everything done. My mom and Emma’s mom iced the cupcakes with me. Mia wrote the letters on them with her perfect handwriting. Alexis and Emma made a big cardboard sign for the table that saidCUPCAKES $2.00. Then they helped us with the icing.
