by Simon, Coco
I glanced over at Jake. Gooey banana was smeared on his face. At that moment the thought of eating a banana cupcake didn’t sound too appetizing.
“How about lemon?” I asked. “Lemon is nice.”
Alexis started writing in her notebook. “I’ll have to check on the price of lemons and add that to our cost. How many will we need, Katie?”
Katie shrugged. “I’ll have to look at the recipe.”
“And what about the icing?” Alexis asked. “Should we make the icing green and yellow too?”
“I don’t know about the green,” Katie said thoughtfully. “It’s a fun color for Easter, or to make monster cupcakes. But it might not be good for a baby shower.”
“Yellow is pretty,” Emma said.
Jake tugged on her shirt. “Color with me!”
“Sorry he’s so loud,” Emma said apologetically, and she picked up a crayon to color with her brother.
“Hey, he’s way quieter than Dan, and Dan is sixteen,” I said.
“Thanks,” Emma said with a smile. “I sometimes feel like an alien or something around all these boys. Like I never fit in . . .”
“Tell me about it,” I said. “Living with boys is hard!”
Katie shrugged; she was an only child. And Alexis had an older sister who had really nice clothes, so that had to be good for her.
“It’s not easy,” said Emma. She smiled at me. Maybe Emma could help me learn to deal with Dan.
“So, I googled baby shower themes last night,” I said, pulling out pictures from my backpack. “I printed out some pictures.”
I put my favorite picture on the table. It showed a green and yellow baby shower. Everything was set up on a white table sprinkled with real yellow flowers. There were no cupcakes, but in the center was a white layer cake decorated with yellow flowers and green leaves.
“Ooh, that’s so pretty!” Emma said, and Alexis and Katie nodded in agreement.
“So maybe we could use white icing, and decorate it with flowers and leaves on top,” I suggested.
Katie looked closely at the picture. “Cream cheese icing would be nice with the lemon. But how would we make the flowers?”
“I did some research,” I said. Decorating the cupcakes is my favorite part. “There are so many amazing websites that sell cupcake decorations. I saw some pretty flower molds. You melt chocolate in any color you want, and then you get a little candy flower. Or we could get flowers made out of sparkly sugar. Those could be pretty.”
Jake put down his crayon. “I want a cupcake!” he cried. Emma ignored him and kept coloring.
“Mia, you can be in charge of the flowers,” Alexis said. “And Katie, can you shop for the ingredients? Your mom’s going to lend us the money, right?”
Katie nodded. “She said it’s no problem. She said it’s okay to bake at our house, too, if we want. We should probably do it next Friday night so the cupcakes are fresh on Saturday.”
“We could bake at my house this time if you want,” I suggested. “We have one of those double ovens in our kitchen. We might be able to fit all four cupcake pans in at once. Then it won’t take so long.”
“Awesome!” Katie said.
“Mia, will you be home next Friday, or will you be at your dad’s?” Alexis asked.
“I’m going to my dad’s this weekend,” I replied, “so I’ll be here.” I thought about it for a second; yep, that was right. Sometimes even I can’t keep track of my own schedule.
Katie got a weird look on her face. She always does whenever I mention I’m seeing my dad. I know her parents are divorced, because Alexis told me once. But Katie never gets to see her dad like I do, though I’m not sure why. When I heard that, I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I didn’t get to see my dad every other weekend. It’d really hurt.
“It looks like we have a plan, then,” Alexis said, scribbling some more in her notebook.
Then a squishy piece of banana flew through the air. It landed right on the notebook page!
“Jake!” Emma scolded.
“Sorry, Lexi,” Jake apologized. “It’s slippery!”
Everyone laughed—even Alexis. I told you that kid was cute!
CHAPTER 5
A Surprise at the Mall
We hung out at Emma’s house for a little while, playing dinosaurs with Jake. Then I got a text from my mom.
Be there in 5. Ready for a girls’ night out?
I texted back.
Always ready.
Whenever we can, my mom and I go out to dinner—just the two of us. Eddie and Dan do not get to come. Tonight Mom suggested we go to the mall and then eat at the Italian restaurant there. Of course, I was happy to agree.
Mom texted me when she pulled up out front, and I said good-bye to Emma, Katie, and Alexis. Then I ran outside and climbed into the front seat.
“It smells good in here,” I said.
“New perfume,” Mom told me. “One of my clients gave it to me. It’s called Blue Mystery. What do you think?”
“It smells better than Eddie’s mystery meat loaf,” I replied.
“Oh, no. Did he make that for you Monday night?”
I nodded.
“Then you definitely deserve dinner out tonight,” Mom said. “You poor thing!”
I can’t figure Mom out sometimes. She agrees with me that Eddie’s cooking is sometimes terrible, and so are his jokes. But she still wants to marry him. What’s up with that? I mean, she could have stayed with my dad, who tells good jokes and makes really good chicken in tomato sauce.
When we got to the Westgrove Mall, Mom looked at her watch. “We have an hour until dinner,” she said. “I was thinking we could stop in the candle shop first.”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Mom, you have every flavor of candle that place makes.”
“You mean scent, not flavor,” Mom corrected me. “And you’re wrong. They just released their Midnight Jasmine collection.”
I sighed. “Do we have to? All those scents make me dizzy.”
“Isn’t that clothing store you like a few doors down?” Mom asked. “Why don’t you go there, and I’ll catch up with you.”
“Yes!” I cheered.
We rode the escalator up to the second floor. Katie says the mall is like a big maze, but it didn’t take me long to figure out how to get around. My favorite clothing store, Icon, is three doors down from the candle shop, right between the Japanese pottery shop and the place that sells skater clothes.
My mom dropped me off by the entrance, and I walked inside. Before I got a chance to look around, I heard a familiar voice.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, this sweater is soooooooo cute!”
It was Maggie Rodriguez, one of the girls in the Popular Girls Club. I don’t know Maggie that well, but it’s easy to see that she has a lot of energy. She’s always rushing around the hallways, late for class, and her frizzy brown hair is always flying around her face.
Maggie was holding up a really cute sweater. It was red, but not a bright red, more like a muted red, which was really nice. There were white designs on it, so it looked kind of like a ski sweater, but it wasn’t big and bulky, like a sweatshirt. Plus it had a cool zipper down the front.
She was showing the sweater to Bella, another girl in the PGC. Bella is into the whole vampire thing. I think she uses a straightener on her auburn hair, and she wears pale makeup and a lot of dark colors. Katie told me her name used to be Brenda, but she changed it to Bella like the girl in that vampire movie. I think she made a good choice—Bella is a great name.
I walked up to them. “Hey, that’s a really cute sweater,” I said.
Maggie whirled around. “Isn’t it? I can’t believe they have the winter clothes out now. I haven’t even started planning my winter wardrobe yet. This is terrible! I have to start, like, right now!”
Callie stepped out from behind a clothing rack. “Calm down, Maggie. There’s plenty of time,” she said with a smile.
Now I could
see that Sydney was nearby, looking through the jeans stacked against the wall. It’s hard to miss Sydney—she’s tall, has blond hair that’s perfectly straight and glossy, and teeth so sparkling white, she could star in a toothpaste commercial. She must have seen me, too, but she didn’t say anything just then.
“Where’d you find the sweater?” I asked Maggie. “That would look so good with these jeans I’m dying to get.”
“Over here,” Maggie said, rushing off. I followed her, and Bella and Callie came with us.
“Does it come in black?” Bella asked.
“I think so,” Maggie said.
I pulled one of the sweaters off of the rack and held it up to me. “So cute,” I said. “Last week I saw a spread in Teen Style that had tons of sweaters like this. It’s the must-have for winter. They showed how you can wear it all these different ways, like even with flowy skirts. It was really amazing.”
“I saw that too.” It was Sydney. “With big furry boots, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s the one!”
“It looked really great!” said Sydney. “Only the furry boots looked a little like a big gorilla or something.”
I laughed. “They totally did!”
Maggie whipped out her smart phone and started frantically searching for the article online. “Seriously! Nobody tells me anything!”
“I saw some layered skirts back there,” Callie said.
“Thanks,” I told her. “I have got to check this out.”
I grabbed the sweater and headed to the back of the room to find a skirt that would match.
Maggie started freaking out. “Oh wow, that is so supercute! You have to try it on!”
I didn’t argue. I went into a dressing room and started trying on the outfit. As I was zipping up the sweater, it hit me.
I was having fun—with the Popular Girls Club!
Back in Manhattan, Ava and I would go into stores and try on clothes all the time. We didn’t always buy something, but it was just fun to try on different styles. Sometimes we went into really fancy stores for inspiration. We would look at the displays and see what different designers were doing for each season. Then we’d go home and try to figure out how we could create the same look with the stuff we already had. Some of the stuff we came up with was pretty crazy and looked ridiculous, but sometimes we came up with something really cool.
I stepped out of the dressing room with the outfit on.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I really like it,” Callie said.
“It looks just like the magazine,” Sydney said. “Without the gorilla part.”
Bella nodded. “Just like the magazine,” she echoed.
That’s when my mom walked in, carrying a bag from the candle shop.
“Nice outfit,” she said.
“Mom, this is Callie, Sydney, Maggie, and Bella,” I said.
“Nice to meet you,” Mom said.
Maggie ran over to Mom’s bag and started sniffing the air. “Is that the new Midnight Jasmine collection? I have been dying to smell that.”
“I’d better go change,” I said. “Mom, isn’t this the perfect outfit for winter?”
Okay, so I was hinting big-time. Mom doesn’t always give in. But it was worth a try.
“Hmm, I saw something like that recently in a Damien Francis show,” Mom said. “I wonder if I could get some samples from him. He owes me one. Who knows, maybe he has your size?” she said with a wink.
In the fashion industry, designers make samples of their clothes that they can show to shoppers for the big stores that want to buy them. Sometimes they sell them really cheap at things called sample sales, and sometimes they give them to friends—like my mom. Okay, so it wasn’t a total yes or definite about the outfit, but I’ll take it!
“No way. You know Damien Francis?” Maggie asked.
“He’s an old friend of mine. I’ve worked with him a lot,” Mom replied.
“That is sooo completely awesome!” Maggie gushed.
“When you worked at Flair?” Callie asked. I was kind of surprised she remembered.
“Yep,” said Mom. “But I work with him a lot now that I’m a stylist, too.”
Sydney didn’t say anything, but I could tell from the look on her face that she was impressed. I was impressed too. Sometimes I forget that my mom knows famous designers.
“Okay, Mia,” said Mom. “It’s time for dinner.”
I quickly got changed. When I got out, the PGC girls were still looking at clothes.
“See you around,” I said, waving good-bye.
Mom and I left, and I felt a tiny bit guilty for having fun with Sydney and the girls from the PGC. I knew Katie, Alexis, and probably even Emma would think it was weird. But why should that matter? I could be friends with anyone I wanted to, couldn’t I? It was all pretty confusing.
CHAPTER 6
The Same, Only Different
The next day at lunch, I didn’t mention to Katie, Alexis, and Emma that I had run into the PGC girls at the mall. It wasn’t like I was hiding anything. I just didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.
Other than that, Thursday and Friday went by seriously slow, maybe because I knew that I’d be seeing my dad on Friday. I couldn’t wait, and when I’m really excited about something, it feels like it takes forever to happen.
My mom picked me up at school and drove me to the train station. She always insists on parking the car and waiting with me on the platform until the train comes.
“Mom, I know how to get on a train,” I told her. I say the same thing every time.
“Of course you do,” Mom replied. “But I’m your mom, and I get to stay with you if I want to. That’s one of the perks.”
With a loud roar, the big silver commuter train came to a stop in front of us. I hoisted my purple duffel bag over my shoulder, and Mom gave me a huge hug and a kiss.
“Be good,” she said. “Call me if you need me. I’ll see you Sunday.”
I climbed onto the train. The nice thing about being so far from the city is that I can always get a seat. The closer you get to Manhattan, the more crowded the train gets.
I found a window seat in the middle of the car and settled in, with my duffel bag across my lap. I waited until the conductor came and took my ticket, and then I got out my sketchbook and pushed in my earbuds. I listened to music and sketched for a while, but pretty soon I put down my pencil and just looked out the window. There are a lot of stops between my town and Manhattan, and sometimes I feel like I’ll never get there.
It wasn’t always this way. When my parents got divorced four years ago, their lawyers suggested they go to a judge to figure out who I would live with. They said it was the fairest way to decide. The judge said I should live with my mom full time and my dad every other weekend.
But when I lived in Manhattan, I saw my dad a lot more than that. I could always hop on a bus or a taxi and be at his apartment in less than twenty minutes. My mom used to work late at the magazine a lot, so I ended up hanging out with my dad a few nights a week.
That all changed in June when we moved in with Eddie and Dan. I hardly ever see my dad during the week anymore. The weekends I spend with him fly by. It just doesn’t seem fair.
When the train finally pulled into Grand Central Station, I made sure to put my sketchbook back in my bag (I left one on the train once, which was seriously depressing) and made my way down the crowded car to the exit.
Dad was waiting for me on the platform, as usual. I ran up to him and gave him a big hug.
“Hey there, mija!” Dad said. (In case you didn’t know, mija means “my daughter” in Spanish, and it’s pronounced MEE-ha. Which is actually how I got my nickname, Mia. My full name is Amelia. But Dad kept saying mija, and Mom joked that it sounded like he was saying “Mia.” And then Mia just stuck.)
“Hey,” I said. “Where are we going for dinner tonight?”
“Hmm, I don’t know,” Dad said. “I was thinking . . . su
shi?”
I smiled. Dad and I always have sushi on Friday nights. It’s a good thing we both love it. So we made our way outside and took a cab to our favorite downtown sushi restaurant, Tokyo 16.
I love the taste of sushi—the cool fish, the salty seaweed, the dark taste of the soy sauce, and the spiciness of green wasabi paste, all in one bite. The other thing I like about sushi is that sushi restaurants are always beautiful. When you walk into Tokyo 16, the sounds of the city melt away behind you. There’s a waterfall running on the back wall and the sound is very soothing. I love the shiny black chopsticks and the adorable tiny bowls that hold the soy sauce.
“So you and your friends won that contest last week,” Dad said as we dug into our sushi rolls. “I’m really proud of you.”
“Thanks,” I replied. I dunked a roll of tuna and avocado wrapped in rice into the soy sauce. “We actually made two hundred cupcakes! I’ve never made that many cupcakes in my life.”
“I bet they were really delicious,” Dad said. “You’ll have to bring me one sometime.”
I nodded yes because my mouth was full of sushi.
“I’m glad you’re making new friends,” Dad went on. “What are their names again?”
“Katie, Alexis, and Emma,” I replied. “They’re all nice.” I thought about telling him about the PGC, but it was all kind of new.
“That reminds me,” I said. “Ava invited me to her soccer game tomorrow morning and then out for pizza for lunch. Can I go?”
Dad made a pretend sad face. “You mean you don’t want to spend all day with your dad?”
“You can pick me up in the afternoon,” I told him. “Then we can do something.”
“Actually, I made plans for us,” Dad said. “My friend Alina is having an art opening. I think it would be fun to go.”
I frowned. “Alina? Who is Alina?”
Dad cleared his throat. “We’ve been dating. She’s really nice. You two are a lot alike. She’s an amazing artist. It’ll be fun.”
I popped another piece of sushi into my mouth so I wouldn’t have to say anything just yet. Dad had never talked to me about any of the women he dated before. Why was Alina different?
