by Simon, Coco
“We’re going to Monica’s next,” Sydney said. Then she marched off toward the store without waiting to hear if anyone else liked the idea. We all followed right behind her. For a second I got an image in my mind of Sydney in an army general’s uniform, leading the troops.
Monica’s is this store that sells accessories, like jewelry, hair bands and barrettes, bags, and stuff like that. I was actually happy we were there because I could get some ideas for the fashion show.
I found this cute red beret and clipped a rhinestone pin to it. I gave it to Callie.
“Here, put this on. I want to take a picture.”
Callie put it on. “Hold on. I’ll give you my supermodel look.”
She tilted her head and got this totally fierce look on her face, just like a model in a magazine. I laughed.
“Perfect!” I snapped some photos with my cell phone.
I started looking at the necklaces next. I saw some cool-looking chokers and some really long chains with different stones linked in. I started wondering how the chokers and the long chains would look together, so I ran up to Maggie and draped them around her neck.
“Ooh, that’s pretty!” Maggie said.
“Okay, hold still,” I told her. Maggie smiled as I snapped a few more pictures.
I was really having fun. I was looking through the handbags when Sydney spoke up in a loud voice.
“I am so done here. Let’s go to Basic Blue.”
“Could we stay a little bit longer?” I asked.
Sydney was firm. “Maggie’s mom is picking us up at five, remember? I don’t want to spend all our time in one place.”
But it’s only been fifteen minutes! I wanted to say. And you spent, like, an hour in Forever Young! But somehow I knew it was useless to argue with Sydney.
So we all went to Blue Basics, and I was bored because I was just there on Saturday. This time, Callie and I hung out and talked while Maggie and Bella oohed and ahhed over Sydney’s outfits. I found out that she has an older brother in college and that she became friends with the PGC when she went to summer camp. I told her all about Ava and my dad’s apartment in New York. She’s really easy to talk to.
Then Sydney appeared in front of us. “We’re going to Sal’s Smoothies,” she informed us.
Sal’s Smoothies is pretty popular in this town—there’s a store downtown and one in the mall, too. We got in line to place our orders.
“We will have five ginger peach smoothies,” Sydney told the girl at the counter.
Five? “Can you make mine a mango and passion fruit instead, please?” I asked the counter girl.
Sydney looked at me. “We always order ginger peach.”
“I like ginger on my sushi,” I said. “But not in my smoothie. It’s weird.”
“So, four ginger peach and one mango passion?” the girl asked.
Sydney didn’t answer.
“Yes,” I said.
I was kind of quiet when we sat down to drink our smoothies. To be honest, Sydney’s bossiness was really getting to me.
I started thinking about my other friends in the Cupcake Club. Alexis can be a bit bossy, I guess, but she’s just trying to organize complicated things, like schedules and budgets. And she’s never mean. Then there’s Katie. When it comes to recipes and stuff, she’s usually the one to come up with ideas first. So she’s like a leader in that way. But she’s always interested in hearing everyone else’s ideas too.
I tried to imagine Katie in a general’s uniform, ordering everyone around the kitchen—“Crack those eggs now! Measure that milk! Sift that flour!”—but I couldn’t.
Sydney, on the other hand . . . well, that was how she was. Mom always says that you can’t expect people to change. You either accept how they are or stay away.
I wasn’t sure how I was feeling, exactly. I liked hanging out with the PGC, especially Callie, and trying on clothes and talking about fashion. I absolutely didn’t like Sydney’s bossiness. Why do things always have to be so complicated?
CHAPTER 14
A Spicy Afternoon
The next day after school I had a completely different experience. I got off the bus with Katie for the Cupcake Club meeting. Katie lives in a small white house. There are orange flowers planted in pots on either side of the front door. When we got inside, Katie’s mom called to us from the kitchen.
“Hello!” she said cheerfully. “How was school today?”
“Good,” Katie answered. “Unless you count Mrs. Moore’s daily quiz of death.”
Mrs. Brown was shaking her head when we walked into the kitchen. “She can’t be that bad, can she?”
“Oh yes, she can,” Katie said. “Right, Mia?”
“True,” I agreed. “But she did buy a cupcake from us at the fund-raiser, so maybe she’s not all bad.”
Katie sighed. “Maybe not.”
“So I picked up all the ingredients for your first test run,” said Mrs. Brown. She kind of looks like Katie. They have the same big brown eyes and brown hair, only Katie’s is long and Mrs. Brown’s is shoulder length. Mrs. Brown is always either wearing her dental smock or an apron. So trying to guess what she’s into isn’t that hard. “I like your idea of doing spiced cupcakes. Very clever,” she said.
Katie’s kitchen table was loaded with everything we needed to make the cupcakes. Her kitchen looks really fun all the time. The walls are yellow, and there’s this really cute cookie jar shaped like an apple and salt and pepper shakers that look like two blue birds in a nest.
The doorbell rang, and Katie ran to get it. She came back in followed by Alexis and Emma.
“Wow, we have a lot to do,” Alexis said, looking at all the ingredients. “I still need to work out the budget for everything, and we need to think of a display.”
“You can do the budget while we mix,” Katie suggested. “And we can talk about the display while the cupcakes are cooling.”
“That sounds good!” Alexis agreed. She sat down at the table and opened up her notebook.
Katie, Emma, and I got to work on the applesauce spice cupcakes, which we’d decided to test first. We used applesauce, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the batter, and the kitchen quickly began to smell fabulous. Alexis had finished her budget by the time the cupcakes were in the oven, so we had a chance to talk while we did the dishes and worked on the frosting.
“Mia, do you think you can decorate the cupcakes for twenty-five cents apiece?” Alexis asked me.
“Sure,” I said. “I’ve been looking at a bunch of different things online, and they’re all cheaper than the sugar flowers.”
“Great,” Alexis said. “Then we should make a profit this time.”
I winced a little bit and looked at Alexis, but she was scribbling numbers. Did she mean that as a jab at my last mess up?
“Cool,” Katie said. “Now we just have to figure out how to display them.”
“I was thinking about that,” I said. “It might be cool to have something that’s raised above the table, so people can really see them from a distance. They’ll be easier to pick up, too.”
I walked over to the table. “Alexis, can I borrow a page in your notebook?”
Alexis nodded, and I started to sketch my idea: a pole with a round plate on the bottom, another plate about ten inches above that one, and a third plate about another foot higher.
Katie, Alexis, and Emma gathered around while I sketched.
“Very cool,” Katie said. “I bet we’d need two of them to hold all eight dozen cupcakes.”
“They are cool,” Alexis agreed. “But how will we make them?”
“My dad and I make stuff all the time,” Emma spoke up. “He’s got lots of spare wood in the garage, and I know we have wooden poles we could use.”
“That would be awesome!” I said. “I was thinking we could paint them red, but I’ll check with my mom tonight and let you know at lunch tomorrow.”
“That reminds me,” Alexis said. “I never asked how your lunch went with the P
GC. Did Sydney spend the whole time insulting everyone in school?”
I thought about what Sydney had said about Sophie. “Well, not everyone,” I replied. “But mostly we talked about normal stuff. Like Mrs. Moore’s math quizzes. And brothers and sisters. It wasn’t so different from stuff we talk about.”
“Right. Because we are so much alike,” Alexis said sarcastically. “I’ll believe that when Emma comes to school dressed like a vampire, and Katie dyes her hair blond.”
“Now you’re starting to sound like Sydney,” Emma said.
Alexis blushed. “Sorry. Those girls bug me, that’s all. I survived three years of their torture at summer camp. It’s hard to get over.”
“I don’t think being blond is Sydney’s problem.” I added.
“Right. Your hair color has nothing to do with your personality,” said blond-haired Emma.
“All right, all right, I’ll drop it,” Alexis said. “Isn’t it time to frost these cupcakes now?”
We started putting the vanilla cinnamon frosting on the cupcakes. We spread the frosting on with a special knife Mrs. Brown uses. It makes the icing look smooth and shiny.
“You know, I was thinking,” I said. “I’ve seen it in some of Katie’s books—how you put the icing in a pastry bag and then pipe it out onto the top of the cupcake. You can do swirls or little dots, stuff like that.”
“Mom has pastry bags,” Katie said quickly. She ran into her big pantry and came out with plastic bags shaped like triangles and two metal tips. Then she showed us how to slide the tip into the bag so it poked through the hole in the point of the triangle. Then we stuffed the bag with icing.
“So, you kind of push the icing from the top down while you squeeze,” Katie explained. She put some on top of one of the cupcakes in a swirl pattern. It looked really nice.
“Can I try?” I asked.
I tried squeezing some out but I squeezed too hard the first time, and it came out in a big glop.
“Just a little squeeze,” Katie told me, and I tried again.
This time I did it better, and a perfect dollop of white icing came out. I covered the top of the cupcake with icing circles, and that looked really nice too.
“We should definitely do this for the show on Saturday,” Emma said, and everyone agreed.
“But you mean Sunday,” Alexis said.
“Sunday!” Emma cried. “I thought it was Saturday! Sam is in this big basketball tournament on Sunday, and we’re all going out of town to cheer him on.”
“It’s okay, Emma,” I said, thinking Dan would probably be there too. Eddie was going to be at the fashion show though. Who would cheer on Dan?
“Ugh, brothers!” Emma said, shrugging at me. “Promise you’ll take pictures and text me so I know how it goes?”
“Of course,” I said.
“What about the display?” Alexis asked.
“I’ll make sure we finish by Saturday,” Emma said. “We can work on it this weekend.”
Soon we had all the cupcakes finished. Because it was right before dinner, we unwrapped one and cut it into four pieces.
“Mmm, really good,” Alexis said.
“I’m thinking a little more nutmeg?” Katie said.
I nodded. “Definitely. They’re good, but they need a little more kick. Then they’ll be fabulous.”
Right about then, Eddie came by to bring me home for dinner. I had a small box of our test cupcakes with me for dessert later.
“Did you have a nice time?” Eddie asked when I got in the car.
“It was seriously fantastic,” I told him. “The cupcakes came out great, and we’re going to make this fabulous display that Mom will love, and we tried a new icing technique.”
“That’s great,” Eddie said. “I bet you girls are going to have a terrific time at the fashion show.”
Eddie’s remark reminded me—the PGC wanted to go too. I still hadn’t figured out what to do about that, but I knew I couldn’t put things off much longer. I would have to decide soon and hope nobody got hurt.
CHAPTER 15
It’s Complicated
Friday I took the train to see my dad as usual. We went to Tokyo 16 and then watched a movie when we got home.
The next morning Dad made us omelets and toast. We ate sitting on high stools at the counter that separates the kitchen from the living room. Dad’s apartment is big for Manhattan, but the place is pretty small compared to a house in the suburbs. Everything in the kitchen and the living room is either black, silver, or made of glass. My dad’s bedroom is like that too. The only color in the house is the pink in my Parisian bedroom.
“So, what are we doing today, mija?” Dad asked me as we ate. “Are you going to Ava’s soccer game?”
“I’ve got a big social studies project to do,” I replied. I know I haven’t mentioned this yet, but besides shopping at the mall and baking cupcakes, I’ve been doing tons of homework. It seems like there is way more homework now than at my old school. “I don’t know if I’ll get to see Ava this weekend.”
“Why don’t we invite her to dinner tonight?” Dad suggested. “I know she loves my chicken.”
“What about Alina?” I asked. “Do we have plans with her again?”
“I don’t know if I’ll be seeing Alina anymore,” Dad said. “She and I didn’t have as much in common as I thought.”
“Hmm. That’s too bad,” I said. What I really wanted to say was Hooray! No new stepmom for me! And our walls will be safe too! But I didn’t want to hurt Dad’s feelings.
I picked up my dish and put it in the dishwasher. “I’ll text Ava about dinner. Then I’ve got to start on my project. I’ve got to make this color-coded map showing the most populated countries in the world. It has to have a map key and everything.”
“Well, that’s right up my alley,” Dad said. He’s an architect who helps design office buildings, mostly. Dad had a big roll of paper I could use for the map, and he even let me use his special set of colored pencils that I always drool over.
It took me all afternoon to finish the map, but when it was done, it looked great. Mr. Insley, my social studies teacher, would have to give me an A, I just knew it.
Things got even better when Ava came over. Dad made his chicken in tomato sauce, like he promised he would, and we talked and laughed all through dinner.
After we ate, Ava and I went to my bedroom to listen to music. We both flopped down on the floor, and Ava grabbed my sketchbook and started looking through it.
“These are really nice, Mia,” Ava said, turning the pages. “I really like the plaid mixed with the flower pattern.”
“Thanks!” Ava’s always been my biggest fan.
My cell phone beeped, and I flipped it open. There was a text from Sydney.
Want to hang out at my house Monday?
“Who’s that?” Ava asked.
“It’s Sydney,” I replied. “She wants me to hang out at her house on Monday.”
“Sydney? I don’t remember you talking about her. Is she in the Cupcake Club?”
“No.” I propped up a fluffy pink floor pillow against the side of the bed and leaned back. “It’s complicated. Sydney formed this club called the Popular Girls Club.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “Seriously?”
“I know, but the girls in that club are basically pretty nice,” I explained. “And they love to go to the mall with me and talk about fashion. None of my friends in the Cupcake Club are into that.”
“So why is it complicated?” Ava asked. “Can’t you just be friends with everybody?”
“It’s not so easy,” I told her. “You see, Katie used to be best friends with Callie, and then Callie dumped Katie to hang out with the PGC. And Alexis kind of hates Sydney, because Sydney’s really mean to her, and Emma . . . I think she doesn’t like them because she sticks up for Alexis.”
“Yeah, things get complicated in middle school.” Ava closed the book and sat up. “Like our friends on the soccer team. I love them, but
I’m also friends with girls from my dance class. It’s not like we all hang out together.”
“But it’s different,” I said. “It’s not like the girls on the soccer team and the girls in your dance class are enemies.”
“Maybe not, but I always feel like I’m splitting my time. So are you going to hang out with Sydney?” Ava asked.
I quickly looked at the schedule I keep on my phone. “It doesn’t matter if I want to or not, ’cause there’s a big math test on Tuesday.”
I texted Sydney back.
Math test on Tuesday. Have to study.
I wasn’t expecting her reply.
We can study together.
Are u sure? I asked. It’s a big test.
Sydney texted back.
Do u want to come or not?
Ava was looking over my shoulder. “Just go. What’s the big deal?”
I sighed.
OK. See u Monday.
“It was so much easier when I lived here,” I said, flopping backward.
“Well, if you think I’ve got it easy here, you’re wrong,” Ava told me. “I have to go halfway across town to get to school. It takes forever. I hardly know anybody. You have, like, a hundred friends already. You’re lucky.”
I thought about it. Ava might be right. I think I’d rather have too many friends than none at all, even though it can get seriously confusing.
But that didn’t make it easier on Monday, when I knew I would see Katie on my way out of school. Katie was waiting for Joanne on the school steps, like she usually was. (I wanted to tell her during lunch, but I just couldn’t do it, somehow.)
“Hey!” Katie said. “Joanne’s running late today. I wish my mom would just let me take the bus with you.”
“Um, I’m not taking the bus today,” I said. “I’m going to Sydney’s house to study.”
Katie looked hurt, but as usual, she tried to act like she wasn’t. Right then, Joanne’s red car pulled up down the street.
“Okay, cool,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I felt kind of bad. Then I heard Sydney calling me.
“Mia!”
Sydney was on the corner with Bella and Callie. I ran over to meet them.
