The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe
Page 34
“I hate those two. They are so evil!” Emma exclaimed. “They said Callie’s sister, Jenna, had ‘lost’ her precious cell phone, so they had to deliver it to her. They didn’t want to look out of place, so they dressed up.”
I looked at Sydney and Callie, slowly making their way to the door. “I wonder how it got ‘lost’ in the first place if it was so precious?”
“Exactly! So I told them to go,” said Emma.
Matt was still laughing. “The drama with all you girls!” he said. “I can’t believe it. It’s so dumb!”
“Believe it, mister,” said Emma as she took our drinks from him.
“Thank you,” I said to Matt. But as I took a sip, I saw my mother talking to Sydney and Callie at the door. She seemed to be guiding them toward the refreshments instead of the door! What was she doing?
Now Sydney and Callie headed toward us. That made me madder than ever, and when I am mad, I think the adrenaline makes me do things I would normally be too afraid to do! I looked over at Matt, and he was looking at them, then at Emma, then at me. And right then he and I both said at the same time, “Wanna dance?”
I couldn’t believe it! I know where my courage came from (the adrenaline from being mad!), but I will never know what made Matt ask me to dance. I don’t know if Emma said something to him before the party, or his mom, or if he decided it himself, but whatever it was, the timing was great.
Matt and I laughed and hit the dance floor just as Sydney and Callie arrived where we’d been standing. Emma winked at me and went off with Mia and Katie to get some hors d’oeuvres.
The truth is, Matt and I didn’t have anything to say to each other. We smiled a lot, and since I am a good dancer, I think I impressed him. He is an okay dancer, but for someone so athletic, he’s not that great. I don’t want to say I fell a little out of love with him right then, but between Emma’s and my friendship being on the line, us having nothing to say to each other, and him being only a so-so dancer, my crush kind of lost a little fizzle that night. And I was okay with that. I was proud to have set a goal, and to have reached it!
As Matt and I danced, I thought about all of my equations and my research. Oh, I was superhappy the whole time I was with Matt, but I decided that when it comes to love, there is no perfect recipe. There are so many ingredients, and things just have to happen naturally. If you need to force them or manipulate them, then they just aren’t meant to be.
There was a lot of crushing going on that night at Dylan’s party: I liked Matt, Callie liked Matt, maybe even Sydney liked Matt, Dylan liked Noah, Sam liked Dylan . . . and I’m sure there were a lot more equations that may not have a solution. All I know is this:
Nothing > friends
I repeat: Nothing is greater than friends!
CHAPTER 15
Later that Night . . .
Dylan’s friends freaked out over the cupcakes. People came up to her all night to rave about them, and in the end, Dylan declared that the s’mores disco gift cupcakes made the party. That and Noah coming. They had a plan to go to the movies the very next night, which just goes to show you that if something is meant to happen, it just does.
For me, what made the party were the dance with Matt, the look on Callie’s and Sydney’s faces when he and I danced, making up with Emma, Dylan loving the cupcakes, and my big moment on the dance floor with Dad. Everyone gathered around and cheered. We were so good! We would have won if it was a contest! At the end he gave me a big hug and said, “Alexis, you are wonderful. Just the way you are!” I looked over and saw Matt smiling at us, and I smiled back.
When we got home that night (along with Meredith and Skylar, who were sleeping over), I opened my locked drawer and took out the Matt notebook. It had been fun doing the research online and reading all the studies and their results, but it had been hard to quantify the results in a real-life setting. I needed data that was more concrete. And real feedback. Like tonight. I had reached my goal, and I could cross it off in my planner. Matt and I had danced together.
I read a quote somewhere that said, “The essence of mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple.” Someone named Gudder said it. I think he or she was right. The whole math thing complicated a simple crush. But on the bright side, I got a great makeover, some good love advice, and a dance with a cute boy. It was all good.
I wasn’t sure what would happen next with Matt, if anything, or if I even wanted anything to. I needed a new goal, whether it was love-related or not, because when it comes down to it, I am all about setting and reaching my goals. Failing to plan is planning to fail. That’s one of my mottoes.
So maybe it was time to focus on business again, instead of love. One thing is for sure: If I’d spent as much time on the Cupcake Club this month as I did on Matt, my friends and I would all be a lot richer!
I ripped the pages out of the Matt notebook. Then I dumped them into the shredder under my desk. It was time for a new goal. I picked up my planner again and on a new goal page I wrote:
SELL MORE CUPCAKES
I sent an e-mail to the Cupcake Club:
Great work! Thanks for putting up with Dylan. And me. Now on to the next assignment!
xoxo,
Alexis
Then I grabbed some SweeTarts and went to see if anyone wanted to watch Dancing with the Stars with me.
Coco Simon always dreamed of opening a cupcake bakery but was afraid she would eat all of the profits. When she’s not daydreaming about cupcakes, Coco edits children’s books and has written close to one hundred books for children, tweens, and young adults, which is a lot less than the number of cupcakes she’s eaten. Cupcake Diaries is the first time Coco has mixed her love of cupcakes with writing.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
Simon & Schuster, New York
Cover illustrations by Abigail Halpin
Cover design by Laura Roode
Ages 8–12
Meet the author,
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2011 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Text by Tracey West. Designed by Laura Roode.
Manufactured in the United States of America
ISBN 978-1-4424-2275-9
ISBN 978-1-4424-2276-6 (eBook)
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2010940448
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2011 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Text by Tracey West. Designed by Laura Roode.
ISBN 978-1-4424-2277-3
ISBN 978-1-4424-2278-0 (eBook)
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2010940484
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2011 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Text by Tracey West. Designed by Laura Roode.
ISBN 978-1-4424-2279-7
ISBN 978-1-4424-2280-3 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number is available from the Library of Congress.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2011 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Text by Elizabeth Doyle Carey. Designed by Laura Roode.
ISBN 978-1-4424-2901-7
ISBN 978-1-4424-2902-4 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number 2011929623