“We could make one for True Colors,” Brooke offered.
Mom laughed. “Thanks, Brookie, I’ll let you know. What time is your party starting?”
Aly looked at her watch: 11:03. “Um,” she said, “three minutes ago? I wonder where everyone is.”
“There might be traffic,” Mom said reassuringly. “But where’s Carolyn’s daughter? Isn’t today her last day with you girls?”
“We’re not sure,” Aly told her mom. “We were just going to call her.”
“Well, have a super party. I’ll send the pizza back when it arrives.” Mom smiled and left.
“It’s kind of weird that no one’s here yet, right?” Lily wondered.
Brooke said, “Jenica’s always early. Maybe Mom’s right about a traffic jam.”
Aly paced back and forth. “There’s a problem about calling Suzy. I don’t know her number.”
“I bet she’s in our records. Don’t forget, she and Heather have been customers here,” Charlotte reminded them. She walked over to the desk.
But when she opened the bottom drawer, she gasped. “Our records are gone!”
Brooke ran over. “What?” she squealed. “It’s empty! The whole drawer’s empty! Who would take our records?”
All at once, everyone knew exactly who would take their records.
Suzy Davis.
Aly picked up the portable phone from True Colors that her mother let the girls keep in the spa and closed her eyes. “Jenica got a cell phone for her birthday this year. I’m trying to remember her number. . . .”
She wasn’t sure if she was dialing correctly, but after a couple of rings Jenica picked up.
“Hey, Aly!” she said. Aly could hear chattering and laughter in the background. “Where are you guys? Suzy said you were coming, but you’re late. And guess what? We won yesterday.”
Aly felt the blood drain out of her face. “Uh . . . um . . . Congratulations, Jenica! That’s awesome. But, wait, you’re where?” she asked.
“At Suzy’s,” Jenica answered. “She called everyone last night and explained that the party was being moved to her house—that the big surprise was that it was going to be a combination pool party and spa party. So we’re all here!”
Aly swallowed hard. She couldn’t let Jenica or any other customer know that there was a problem at the Sparkle Spa. A pretty big one. “Sorry,” she said. “We, um, got a little lost. Can you tell me the address again?”
Jenica gave her the information, and Aly hung up the phone, fighting back tears. Suzy had not only stolen their customer files, but she’d hijacked their soccer spa party!
Aly took a deep breath. “So . . . ,” she told everyone, “they’re all at Suzy Davis’s house.”
“What?!” Brooke screamed. “Are you kidding?”
“She is the absolute worst,” Lily added, plopping down onto a pillow. “What are we going to do? We have a whole party set up here and no one’s coming to it.”
Aly tried to stay calm. That’s what you had to do when you were in charge. No matter what, you had to come up with a plan. What could they do? They couldn’t get the party to come back to the spa—not at this point.
But maybe, just maybe . . .
Turning to the girls, Aly stood up tall and announced, “This is what we’re going to do. I got Suzy’s address from Jenica. Charlotte, call the pizza place and have them deliver our order to Suzy’s instead. Lily, pack up the cookies. Brooke, you and I will pack up all of the nail supplies and roll up the photo backdrops. If we can’t have the party here, we’re going to take the party to Suzy’s. Suzy didn’t tell the team that she’d hijacked the party, so we can just pretend like this was the plan all along.”
“What about my streamers?” Brooke asked. “With all the soccer balls on them?”
“Well take those, too,” Aly said. “And the beads and the string also. Quick, let’s go.”
The girls were collecting all the supplies in bags and boxes when Mom poked her head back in the Sparkle Spa. “What’s happening in here?” she asked.
“Suzy Davis stole our party!” Brooke told her. “And our customer records! And we’re going to get them back!”
“What?” Mom said, stepping into the spa.
“We can’t be one hundred percent sure about the customer files, but the whole soccer team is at her house,” Aly informed her mom. “So we’re moving the party to Suzy’s. Can you take us?”
“Suzy came here to learn how to run a business and then tried to take over yours?” Mom did not look happy. “Oh, I can take you, all right,” she said. “And I’m going to have a talk with Suzy’s mother when we get there.”
The girls marched out of the salon with Mrs. Tanner leading the way. “Joan, I need you to rearrange the schedule so my next two appointments are taken care of,” she said. “The girls and I have some important business to attend to right away.”
“Is everything okay?” Joan asked.
“It will be,” Mom said. “Let’s go, girls.”
They all squished into Mom’s car with cookies and streamers and backdrops on their laps.
Suzy Davis had totally taken the Sparkle Spa by surprise.
Now it was time to surprise Suzy.
ten
Celegrape Good Times
Mom parked the car in the Davises’ driveway and headed straight for the front door.
“Whoa,” Brooke said. “This house is enormous.”
Aly stopped to look. Wow. It was huge. Aly counted three floors. To the side of the house, it looked like there was a tennis court with the pool behind that.
“They’re here!” Aly heard Jenica call from the backyard, and then Maxie and Joelle came running around the side of the house to greet them.
“What color polishes did you bring? Did you remember Under the Sea?” Maxie asked excitedly.
“We want the most partyish polishes you have,” Joelle added.
“We brought a bunch,” Aly said. “But we need to get set up first. Where’s Suzy?”
“In the kitchen, I think,” Joelle said. “The pizza came just before you did.”
“Thanks,” Aly said. “We’ll let you know when everything’s ready.”
Aly headed into the house with Brooke, Charlotte, and Lily behind her. The door was open, so she walked right in and found her mom having a conversation with Suzy’s mom in the front hall.
“I had no idea,” Suzy’s mom was saying. “I’m so sorry. I’ll talk to her.”
“I’d appreciate that, Carolyn. You know how hard it is for women in business. We’re supposed to stick together, not undermine each other. I’ve taught my girls about teamwork.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Suzy’s mom said again.
“I’m so tempted to take my daughters and their friends—and their customers—back to the salon,” Mrs. Tanner continued, “but they seem to be having fun here, so I’ll let them stay. But if Suzy doesn’t hand over their customer files today, I don’t think I want her back at the salon. At least not for a while.”
Mom turned around then and saw the girls standing there. “I’ll be back for you in a few hours,” she said. “Make this party great.”
An embarrassed look crossed Suzy’s mom’s face. “The kitchen’s that way,” she said to the girls, pointing. “Please tell Suzy I need to see her out here.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Washington,” Aly answered. “We will.”
Suzy squealed when Brooke and Aly entered the kitchen. “Isn’t this great? Everyone’s having the best time! Thanks for sending over the pizza. I had to pay for it from my allowance, so if you have the money . . .”
“Your mom wants to see you out there,” Brooke said, pointing a thumb toward the hallway.
Suzy’s smile turned to a frown. “What did you say to her?” she asked.
“We didn’t say anything,” Aly told her. “Our mom did.”
Suzy closed her eyes for a second. Then her face looked like it usually did: bored. “Whatever,” she said. “I see yo
u brought stuff. The soccer girls probably won’t want to do whatever it is anyway, since a pool is cooler than any of that.” And then she walked out of the kitchen into the hallway.
“I don’t like this,” Lily said.
“Me neither,” Aly said, “but we have a job to do. So let’s get going.”
Blue cereal bowls, rolls of paper towels, the round kitchen table, four chairs, the granite counters—the girls used everything they could to set up a makeshift salon.
While they were setting up, they tried to ignore the conversation going on in the hallway. But it was hard to ignore. Suzy’s mom was speaking firmly: “I bought this for you so that you could learn how to run a business with kids your own age. What happened?”
The girls weren’t sure, but they thought they heard Suzy crying.
Aly felt her stomach sink, as if she were the one getting in trouble. That was the worst feeling, disappointing your parents—especially when it wasn’t on purpose.
“Maybe Sophie was right,” Brooke said quietly. “Maybe we should’ve tried harder to be friends with Suzy.”
A few minutes later Suzy came into the kitchen with their records folder. She was still crying a little, and she wasn’t even trying to hide it. “I was going to give your files back,” she said. “And once everyone was here, I was going to call you. I just . . . It’s just . . . everyone liked the idea of a pool party, and you wouldn’t listen, so I . . . I did it myself.”
“Thanks,” Aly said, taking the folder. “It was a good idea, Suzy. But when you’re working somewhere, you can’t just do whatever you want and take whatever you want. And you definitely can’t keep secrets from the people who are running the business.”
“You kept the extra surprise for the soccer party a secret from me,” Suzy said. “And you acted like I wasn’t even a real part of your salon.”
Yikes, that hurt. But Aly thought about what Suzy said. She wasn’t entirely wrong.
“You’re right,” Aly told her. “I’m sorry about that. But you have to learn how to be on a team if you want people to trust you. Anyway, let’s get through this party, and then it won’t even matter, because after today your internship is over.”
“I know that, Aly,” Suzy said. And for a second, Aly thought Suzy sounded sorry that her time at the Sparkle Spa was over.
After the last Angels player got out of the pool, Brooke announced: “The exciting parts of the party are officially starting! We have pizza, Unicorn Treat cookies, polka-dot manicures and pedicures, bracelet-making supplies, and . . . a surprise photo booth!”
“Photos? Cool! Are you going to e-mail them to us later?” Mia asked.
Brooke shook her head. “It’s magic! You get to see them right after they’re taken.”
“Awesome!” Mia said. “I want to go first.”
The photo booth was the most popular part of the party, and the soccer girls took a ton of pictures wearing Celegrape Good Times on their fingernails with Not Number Blue polka dots. They liked that color combination the best. And they liked the Unicorn Treat cookies, too.
“I can’t believe we can eat glitter,” Giovanna, who played defense, said as she took a second cookie.
“Isn’t that the best?” Brooke agreed as she took a second cookie herself.
Before the team left, Jenica took Aly aside. “Great party, Aly. It totally made us feel like champions.”
Aly smiled. And she even smiled a little at Suzy. Because Suzy Davis did have good ideas. Aly didn’t think she’d ever get to hear any more of them, and she was kind of okay with that, but still, she had to give Suzy the credit she deserved.
That night, it felt so good to be in bed. Brooke told Aly she didn’t even have to brush and braid her hair. Both girls just wanted to go to sleep.
But then Mom and Sparkly came in. Sparkly jumped up on Brooke’s bed, and Mom sat on the end of Aly’s.
Ever since the girls had arrived home, Aly had been thinking about Suzy and her mom. She figured all Suzy had been trying to do was make her mom proud of her. But she just didn’t do it in quite the right way.
“Mom,” Aly began, “if we didn’t run the Sparkle Spa anymore, would you still love us?”
“What kind of question is that?” Mom asked. “Of course I would.”
“But . . . would you still be proud of us?”
“You two are sweet and kind and funny and smart, and I’m proud to be your mom every day. I think it’s great that you have your own business, but that’s not why I’m proud of you. I’m proud of the people you are, not the things you do.”
“We’re proud of the people you are too, Mom,” Brooke said. “Right, Aly?”
Aly laughed. And then she thought about their mom sticking up for them with Mrs. Washington. “I’m really glad you’re our mom,” she said.
“Me too,” Brooke said.
And for the first time ever, Aly thought about how glad she was to be herself.
How to Give Yourself (or a Friend!) a Polka-Dot Pedicure
By Aly (and Brooke!)
What you need:
Paper towels
Polish remover
Cotton balls
(or you can just use more paper towels)
Clear polish
One base color polish
(We recommend a darker polish for the base.)
One polka-dot color polish
(We recommend a lighter color for the polka dots. But if you pick a light base, then we recommend darker for the polka dots. Basically, the polka dots should contrast with the base. That way you’ll be able to see them better.)
A toothpick
(Actually, you might want a few toothpicks.)
What you do:
1. Put some paper towels on the floor—or wherever you’re polishing—so you don’t have to worry if it drips or spills. (Did you know that if you try to use polish remover on a couch, it sometimes gets rid of the polish you spilled, but it also gets rid of the color in the couch fabric? We didn’t always know that, but now we do. . . .)
2. Take one cotton ball or a piece of paper towel and put some polish remover on it. If you have polish on your toes already, use enough to get it off. If you don’t, just rub the remover over your nails once to remove any dirt that might be on them. This makes the nail polish stick better. (Also, you don’t want dirt to make lumps in your polish!)
3. Rip off two more paper towels. Twist the first one into a long tube and weave it back and forth between your toes to separate them a little bit. Then do the same thing with the second paper towel on your other foot. You might need to tuck the end of the paper towel under your pinkie toe if it pops up and gets in your way while you polish. (Once, I forgot this part and my pinkie polish rubbed off all over my ring toe.)
4. Open up your clear polish and apply a coat on each nail. Then close the clear bottle up tight. (You can do your toenails in any order, but Aly usually starts with my big toes and works her way to my pinkies.)
5. Open the polish you’re going to use as your base. Apply one coat on each toenail. Close the bottle up tight.
6. Repeat step five. Then let the polish dry for about five minutes. (If you know the “Ninety-Nine Bottles of Nail Polish on the Wall” song and sing it from ninety-nine down to sixty, you’re probably dry enough.)
7. Open your polka-dot color and put the brush upside down somewhere on your paper towel where it won’t make a mess. (We put it upside down so that any extra polish drips into the cap and not onto the paper towel.) Then dip a toothpick into the polish and wipe off the extra. Use the polish on the toothpick to make a dot on your nail, and then dip and dot again and again until you have as many polka dots as you’d like. (You’ll probably have a ton more on your big toenail than on your tiny pinkie toenail. Aly can usually get only one or two dots on my pinkie.) When you’re done, close the bottle up tight.
8. Wait a few minutes (if you keep singing, I’d try to get down to thirty nail polishes on the wall), then open your clear polish. Apply a top c
oat of clear polish on all your toes. Close the bottle up tight. (You can go in the same order you did last time!)
9. Now your toes have to dry. You can fan them for a long time, or sit and make a bracelet or read a book or watch TV or talk to your friend (or sister!) until you’re all dry. Usually it takes about twenty minutes, but it could take longer. (I’d start the Nail Polish on the Wall song from ninety-nine again, and then get all the way down to zero. You’ll probably be dry by then, but you should touch your nail very carefully and see if it feels totally dry before you get up to do something else.)
And now, you should have a beautiful Polka-Dot Pedicure! Even after the polish is dry, you probably shouldn’t wear socks and sneaker-type shoes for a while. Bare feet or sandals are better so all your hard work doesn’t get smooshed. (And then you can show everyone your polka dots!)
Happy polishing!
JILL SANTOPOLO is a big fan of sparkles. She’s also a big fan of sisters. And spas. And writing. In addition to the Sparkle Spa books, she’s the author of the Alec Flint Mysteries. You can find her online at www.jillsantopolo.com. Or you can find her in person in New York City, where she likes getting her nails painted with Good as Gold nail polish.
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Read more Sparkle Spa books!
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ALADDIN
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
Meet the author, watch videos, and get extras at
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com
authors.simonandschuster.com/Jill-Santopolo
Also by Jill Santopolo
Book 1: All That Glitters
Book 2: Purple Nails and Puppy Tails
Book 3: Makeover Magic
Book 4: True Colors
Coming Soon
Book 6: A Picture-Perfect Mess
Bad News Nails Page 5