Winner Bakes All

by Sheryl Berk

  “Uh, are you forgetting something? Our cupcake deliveries?” Sadie pointed to the boxes piled high on the dining-room table. “No deliveries, no money.”

  “I’m sure they’ll plow the roads by midday, and your brothers will be able to drive them over,” Lexi said.

  “I need more popcorn for Round 2,” Jenna said, waving the empty bowl. “Would ya mind, Sadie?”

  Sadie took the bowl and was about to barge into the kitchen when the sound of low, angry voices stopped her. She put her ear against the door and heard her parents. They were at it again.

  “I worked all day for nothing!” her father snapped.

  “Well, that’s not my fault!” her mother barked back.

  Sadie couldn’t stand it anymore. Why were they always bickering? Why couldn’t they get along?

  “Hey, Sadie…where’s that popcorn? Commercial’s over!” Jenna called.

  Kylie was the one who noticed Sadie frozen at the kitchen door, clutching the bowl to her chest and eavesdropping. “You okay, Sadie?” she called.

  Just then, the tears welled in the corners of her eyes and Sadie couldn’t stop them from spilling down her cheeks. She didn’t want her friends to think she was a baby, but she couldn’t help crying. She felt like her heart was breaking in two.

  “No, I’m not okay!” she sobbed, flinging the empty bowl to the floor. “My parents are getting a divorce!”

  Sadie’s friends tried to calm her down, but it was no use. She was inconsolable.

  “I think you should talk to your parents and tell them how worried you are,” Kylie told her.

  No way! The last thing she needed tonight was more family drama. She was grateful when her mom went upstairs and slammed the door to her bedroom while her father retreated to his home office. Neither of them noticed how upset she was or suspected she had overheard.

  “Even if your parents do split up, it’ll be okay,” Jenna insisted. “My mom does a great job raising us all by herself.”

  “I don’t want my parents to split up,” Sadie sniffled. “I want us to be the same happy family we were before!”

  “Maybe you will be.” Lexi put an arm around her. “Maybe things will get better.”

  “Or maybe they’ll get worse…just like the snowstorm!” Sadie replied.

  It was after midnight before she finally fell asleep. The girls were all joking and complaining about Jenna’s loud snoring, but Sadie found it soothing—kind of like the sound of an electric mixer on low speed. At least it took her mind off her problems.

  •••

  The next morning, the gray storm clouds rolled away to reveal a bright blue sky. Sadie woke up and rubbed her eyes. They felt sore and swollen from crying. She noticed that it was 10 a.m. and she was the only one still in bed. School was closed! The girls were already dressed and in the kitchen, making phone calls and trying to convince Tyler and Corey to drive their cupcakes around the neighborhood. She hoped everyone would be too busy to bring up last night. She wanted to pretend it never happened.

  “My car will never make it in two feet of snow,” Tyler replied, taking a swig of orange juice from a container in the fridge. “I don’t even think Dad’s truck could plow through that.”

  “You’re gonna have to wait ’til the roads thaw out,” Corey added. He was a freshman in high school and thought he knew everything.

  “When will that be?” Kylie asked.

  “Oh, I dunno. Maybe May or June?” He chuckled.

  “Not funny,” Sadie said, shuffling into the kitchen. “We have to get the cupcakes delivered.”

  Kylie nodded. “Your sis has spoken. Morning, Sadie!”

  As Kylie had predicted, school was closed until the roads could reopen. “We’re kinda trapped here for a few hours,” Lexi filled her in. “Nothing can go out or come in.”

  “Which means we have the perfect opportunity to make a video for Battle of the Bakers,” Kylie suggested. “We have it all planned out already—Jenna kept us up with her snoring!”

  “I can’t help it.” Jenna shrugged. “My sister says I sound like a lawn mower.”

  Sadie interrupted: “Electric mixer, actually. Your snoring put me to sleep.”

  “Not me!” Lexi complained. “I tried putting the pillow over my head, even putting on my earphones, but she was just too loud!”

  “At least we got some great video ideas cooked up!” Kylie pointed out. She handed Corey her cell phone. “You can film us.”

  Corey protested: “Do I look like Steven Spielberg to you?”

  Sadie smirked. “No prob, Core. I guess I’ll just have to tell Mom how we got that big blue stain on the upstairs rug. Do I need to remind you about your science project accident? The blue Jell-O explosion?”

  Her brother winced. “You wouldn’t…”

  “Wouldn’t I?” Sadie batted her eyelashes. She might be the little sister, but she knew how to get her brothers to do what she wanted.

  “Go, Sadie!” Kylie laughed. “She shoots! She scores!” She handed the phone to Corey and showed him how to hit Record.

  “We’re going to start off by introducing ourselves: who we are, and what makes Peace, Love, and Cupcakes so cool,” Kylie suggested. She turned to Corey and gave him his cue. “Action!”

  Tyler snickered. “What are you gonna call your video? The Real Cupcake Bakers of Connecticut? America’s Got Cupcakes? Project Cupcakes?”

  The girls ignored him. “Hi, I’m Kylie…I’m Jenna…I’m Lexi…I’m Sadie…”

  Corey turned the camera to face himself. “And I’m Corey! My sister and her weird friends are shooting this dumb video…”

  “Ignore him.” Sadie frowned. “We can edit that out. Keep going, Kylie…”

  “Together, we are Peace, Love, and Cupcakes—the best cupcake bakers in Connecticut! We’re only in fifth grade, and we have our own cupcake business. Just look what we can do!”

  She pointed to Lexi, who expertly piped a beautiful rose on top of a cupcake. “First I fill the bag, then I squeeze it like this,” she instructed. “Just a little puff of pressure and you’ve got the perfect petal.”

  Next, Kylie signaled Sadie who cracked eggs one-handed. “The trick is to make one, firm tap on the bowl with the egg so it cracks cleanly,” Sadie explained. “Not a shell in sight!”

  Finally, Jenna whipped a flawless lavender buttercream in a mixer. “Always taste your frosting to make sure it’s the perfect sweetness and texture,” she said. She took a lick of frosting off her pinkie. “Perfecto!”

  Then all three of them rolled fondant and stamped out the letters PLC and a peace sign and placed them on top of four cupcakes. They each held a cupcake up to the camera and shouted together, “PLC rocks!” With that, Tyler snuck up behind them and dumped a bag of flour over Sadie’s head.

  “Now that’s a wrap!” Corey laughed, zooming in for a close-up.

  Sadie was about to scream when her mom walked in to see what all the commotion was about.

  “Clean it up,” she said sternly. “And apologize to your sister. Both of you.”

  •••

  Sadie showered and changed and came back downstairs to see the final video Lexi had put together with iMovie on her laptop.

  “It’s so cool, Lex,” Jenna exclaimed. “I love how you put in pics of our best cupcake creations—like the swaying palm tree we made out of mango mini cupcakes. And the giant Ferris wheel that spun rainbow tie-dyed cupcakes. We really look like professional bakers.”

  “We are professional bakers,” Kylie insisted. “Which is why we’re going to get picked for Battle of the Bakers. You’ll see!”

  Sadie wasn’t as convinced, but she liked the sound track Lexi had spliced in: Gwen Stefani’s “The Sweet Escape.” She doubted Granny Annie’s audition sounded this cool!

  “Maybe we can get Mr. Ludwig to say something
on camera for us,” Kylie added. “Something like, ‘Their cupcakes are my best sellers!’”

  Jenna groaned. “He’d probably say, ‘I discovered them! I take all the credit!’ But I guess it’s worth a try.”

  Kylie dialed the number for the Golden Spoon. “That’s strange,” she said. “It says the number’s out of service.”

  “Maybe the storm downed the phone lines in Greenwich,” Mrs. Harris suggested. “The radio says the roads should be open in the next few hours, so maybe Sadie’s dad can take you over there with your delivery.”

  By 3 p.m., the girls were able to pile into Mr. Harris’s truck. They strapped the boxes of cupcakes to the flatbed and crossed their fingers that the truck wouldn’t skid on the icy roads. Everyone was delighted that PLC was able to deliver—especially a five-year-old girl named Dale who’d been crying all morning.

  “I thought my birthday was ruined,” she whimpered. Sadie smiled and opened a box to reveal a dozen Rapunzel cupcakes, each with a long braid of orange licorice “hair” on top.

  “I love them!” the birthday girl said, hugging Sadie tightly around the knees. “Thank you so, so much!”

  “Did you get that for the video?” Sadie winked at Kylie. “Another happy PLC customer!”

  Kylie checked her watch—it was nearly 4 p.m. And they’d promised Mr. Ludwig yesterday his delivery would be there by 8 a.m.!

  “I don’t think our next customer is going to be as happy,” she warned. “Mr. Ludwig hates when we’re late. And this time, we’re super late and couldn’t even reach him.”

  “Hop in, cupcakers,” Mr. Harris called. “Next stop…the Golden Spoon.”

  When Mr. Harris pulled up to the store, there was huge sign out front that read, “Closed for Disaster.”

  “Disaster? What kind of disaster?” Kylie wondered out loud. She knocked on the front door. “Mr. Ludwig? Are you in there?”

  “Go away!” said a meek voice. “Can’t you read the sign?”

  “But we brought you your order!” said Lexi.

  “Didn’t you hear me? I said GO!” the voice shouted.

  “Let’s go, girls,” Mr. Harris said. “He obviously doesn’t want any cupcakes.”

  “Wait!” Sadie shouted. “Mr. Ludwig! It’s us, Peace, Love, and Cupcakes!”

  The lock slowly turned and the door creaked open. There was Mr. Ludwig, bundled in his coat, hat, and scarf. Sadie thought he looked like she had this morning: all red-eyed and puffy. Had he been crying, too?

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. “You look awful!”

  “What’s wrong? Isn’t it obvious?” he replied. “There’s an enormous hole in my roof, and my entire store is buried under snow and water! I’m ruined!”

  Mr. Harris surveyed the huge hole in the roof. “It gave under the weight of the snow,” he said. “It’s pretty bad but probably fixable.” The glass display cases were shattered, all the shelving had fallen off the walls, and the floor was about a foot under water. Mr. Ludwig kept holding his head in his hands, moaning.

  “Fixable? I’ve called everyone in the tristate area, begging them to fix it. No one can get my store open. They’re saying it will take months. But to be closed for months—that would be end of the Golden Spoon for sure.”

  “Does this mean you don’t want your 240 cupcakes?” Jenna asked.

  Sadie elbowed her in the ribs. “We totally understand, Mr. Ludwig,” she replied. “But I know someone who can fix it.”

  “You do? Who?” Mr. Ludwig’s face brightened.

  Sadie grabbed her dad’s hand and pulled him forward. “Him. My dad. Harris Contracting. He’s a great builder.”

  Mr. Harris looked shocked. “I, um, well, I…” he began. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, honey, but I don’t know if I can fix it.”

  “Of course you can!” Sadie insisted. “You can fix anything! Remember when PLC built that Statue of Liberty out of key lime cupcakes and her head kept falling off? You totally stuck it on with Gorilla Glue.”

  “Honey, that was a cupcake sculpture. This is a roof that’s been totaled. I can’t use Gorilla Glue. I don’t even know where to begin.”

  “Please, Dad,” Sadie pleaded. “I’m sure Mr. Ludwig would pay you to fix it fast.”

  “Oh, yes. If you can get it fixed in a few weeks and I can open my store, I would be so grateful!” Mr. Ludwig begged.

  “Pretty please with frosting on top?” Sadie threw in. She knew that a quick paycheck was just what her dad needed—and that might put an end to all the arguing at home.

  “I’ll have to think about,” Mr. Harris said. “I’ll let you know tonight.”

  •••

  After Mr. Harris dropped Jenna, Lexi, and Kylie off at their homes, Sadie cranked up the car radio and stared out the window. Selena Gomez was singing “Falling Down,” and that’s exactly how she felt—like the world was falling down around her. She was furious at her father for blowing this “Golden” opportunity. What was wrong with him?

  “I know you’re angry,” he said. Sadie pretended not to hear. “Ignoring me isn’t helping.”

  “Well, you’re not helping either!” she fired back. “You and Mom say we have no money. You’re always fighting over it. Why wouldn’t you take that job?”

  “Because I don’t make promises I can’t keep,” her father explained. “Would you take an order for 10,000 cupcakes in two hours if you knew it was impossible to deliver?”

  “It’s not the same thing,” Sadie sniffed.

  “No, it’s not. Fixing a roof is a major job, honey. What Mr. Ludwig is asking may be impossible. We’re not talking a little leak or a few broken shingles. We’re talking a giant hole and major water damage. The Golden Spoon is totaled.”

  “But won’t you just try?” Sadie insisted. “How do you know if it’s impossible unless you try?”

  “I said I’ll think about it. I need to take some measurements and get some estimates on the materials.”

  At least, Sadie thought, he wasn’t completely giving up. That was a relief! But she didn’t feel much better when her mom told her the roads were open and school would be in session tomorrow. “Everything is back to normal,” Mrs. Harris said.

  Sadie wished that was true. She used to think her parents were so romantic and “mushy.” They held hands at the movies and kissed each other hello and good-bye.

  “When I met your father, it was like a bolt of lightning struck me,” her mom had confided in her once. “He was handsome, strong, charming. He absolutely swept me off my feet.”

  What happened between them? Sadie wondered. She looked at their wedding picture on the mantel. Her mom wore an elegant, strapless, white lace gown and veil, and her dad was in a top hat and tails. They looked so in love! When had things started to fall apart?

  Sadie suddenly remembered what her dad had told her on the car ride home: “Sometimes you can try and try, but something is just too broken to be fixed.”

  She gulped. Was he talking about the Golden Spoon’s roof.…or her parents’ marriage? Was that too broken to fix as well? Had he and her mom decided they were done trying?

  When Friday arrived, Sadie almost forgot about her pop quiz in math. She’d been so worried about her parents, and so angry over the Golden Spoon job, that she hadn’t had time to panic over it. Ms. Erikka handed her the test sheet and smiled. “I know you can do it, Sadie,” she said. “Just take your time, check your work, and breathe.”

  Sadie remembered how Kylie had told her to picture things instead of numbers. “Make the equation real to you,” she’d advised. So when the question asked how many cars were needed to drive forty-five students on a class trip, Sadie pictured her dad driving her and her three friends to the Golden Spoon on Thursday. One driver and four people could fit in each car…that meant they would need nine cars. She got it!

  “How do you think
you did?” Kylie pulled her aside as the class bell rang.

  “Okay,” Sadie shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I passed.”

  “Yay!” Kylie hugged her. “And I have some more good news. Principal Fontina said we could set up a table in the cafeteria with the 240 cupcakes the Golden Spoon couldn’t use and sell them—as long as we donated half the money to the Blakely Eco Center.”

  “Cool,” Sadie replied. “So at least we’ll make back some money to cover the cost of those ingredients.”

  “Now on to our next problem,” Jenna said, sneaking up behind them in the hall. “What are we going to do without the Golden Spoon’s weekly order?”

  Sadie hadn’t even considered the impact the Golden Spoon closing would have on PLC. Kylie was right: Mr. Ludwig was their biggest customer—and a steady paycheck. Without his business, they’d have to scale back for sure. And that was not what any of them wanted. PLC was going to be even bigger and better this year…they’d promised themselves!

  “You have to convince your dad to repair the roof,” Jenna said.

  “I tried. He won’t listen to me.” Sadie sighed. “He says it’s impossible. He’s taking some measurements, but he’s convinced it’s not going to work.”

  “Nothing is impossible,” Kylie insisted. “I used to think having a cupcake club was impossible. You used to think learning math was impossible. We’ve proved everyone wrong, right?”

  Sadie thought about it. She had to make her dad see things her way.

  “I have an idea,” she told Kylie and Jenna. “Meet me at the basketball game tonight—and bring Lexi! We need all the help we can get!”

  When she got home, her father was at his desk in the den, crunching numbers on his calculator. He was surrounded by a stack of bills, and Sadie knew he was stressed out. So she treaded lightly.

  “Hey, Dad, you coming to my basketball game tonight at the gym?” she asked.

  Mr. Harris looked up, happy that Sadie was speaking to him. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, hon.” He smiled.

  “I hear the North Canaan Cougars are a tough team to beat.”