Cupcakes Are Forever

by Sheryl Berk

  • • •

  “Why the long face?” Sadie asked, catching up to Kylie in the hallway. “I thought you were the only one around here who wasn’t sad. Wait. Did Principal Fontina yell at you for rolling your eyes during her presentation?”

  “Nuh-uh,” Kylie replied. “Worse.”

  “Worse?” Sadie asked. “Is she calling your parents? Writing a note on your permanent record?”

  Kylie shook her head. “Even worse than that. She’s making me start a new cupcake club with a bunch of munchkins!”

  Sadie scratched her head. “Okay, that makes no sense. First off, it’s our business, and second, munchkins are imaginary little people from Oz, right?”

  “Right! I mean wrong!” Kylie was getting exasperated. “She wants us to start a junior PLC here at Blakely so they can learn from us. We’re supposed to take a bunch of kids under our wing.”

  Sadie considered for a moment. “Well, is that really such a bad thing? I mean, think of how much being a member of the club meant for each of us. It changed our lives.”

  “Yes, our lives,” Kylie insisted. “PLC belongs to us.”

  “Think of it as branching out,” Sadie said. “Inspiring the youth of tomorrow.”

  Kylie groaned. “Okay, now you sound like Principal Fontina.”

  “It’s like when I’m running track and I pass the baton to one of my teammates,” Sadie tried to explain. “Couldn’t we pass the baton to a few kids who need some cupcakes and confidence in their lives?”

  Kylie sighed. Now Sadie was making her feel guilty. “You’re saying we pick a few kids who need PLC in their lives.”

  “Exactly! Think of how shy Lexi was, how left out Jenna felt, how unsure I was, how alone you were. But together, as a club, we became an unstoppable force!”

  Kylie smiled recalling the day in fourth grade they had all met for PLC’s first meeting. Each of them was an outsider, a misfit, a loner in her own way. And their first bake had been a total disaster, with flour flying and cupcakes hard as hockey pucks. But once they took their time and learned to work together, Sadie was right—they were a force to be reckoned with.

  “Do you think there are kids at Blakely who need PLC as badly as we did?” Kylie asked.

  “Of course! We won’t have any trouble finding them,” Sadie said. “Who wouldn’t want to join the coolest club at Blakely?” Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a little girl strolling down the hall, juggling bright-yellow tennis balls. As she walked past the lockers, other students pointed, laughed, and whispered. “Don’t look now, but I think I see our first potential member.”

  Kylie studied the girl. She was small with two red pigtails that stuck out just above her ears. She reminded Kylie of Juliette, PLC’s first adviser and Blakely’s former drama teacher. When Kylie was feeling picked on by Meredith and her posse, Juliette had confided in her that she had also been bullied when she was a kid—for having hair the color of red velvet cupcakes. She inspired Kylie to start the club. Without Juliette, there would be no PLC. And Kylie knew exactly what Juliette would advise her to do if she were still here…

  “Fine, you win,” she told Sadie. “Let’s go recruit her.”

  The girl had three balls in the air when Kylie called to her. “Hey, you!”

  The juggler was so startled that she nearly dropped two of the balls. “Me?” The girl looked around. Why would a fifth grader be speaking to her, a measly third grader? Unless they were going to pick on her, like almost everyone else did? She did an about-face and began to walk quickly away.

  “Wait!” Sadie shouted. “We want to talk to you! We think you’ve got some serious skills.”

  The girl stopped in her tracks. “Skills? I’m not really very good at anything.”

  “Really? You could have fooled me. You’re an amazing juggler!” Kylie said.

  “Oh, that,” the girl replied. “I know it’s silly…”

  “No! It’s awesome,” Sadie insisted. “Why would you think it’s silly?”

  “Because everyone in third grade thinks it is,” she said. “They think I’m a weirdo. They call me Clementine the Clown. But I’ll show them. One day, I’m gonna win America’s Got Talent or break the world record for most balls juggled.”

  “Well, we don’t think you’re a weirdo,” Kylie said, putting an arm around her. “You’re just different, and that’s what makes you special.”

  “Yeah, we all started out with people thinking we were weird,” Sadie added. “And look at us now.”

  Clementine looked her up, then down. “You’re really tall,” she told Sadie. “Like a giant.”

  Kylie giggled. “A giant with a giant talent. Nobody cracks eggs like Sadie. She’s a master cupcake baker.”

  Clementine’s eyes grew wide. “Wait. Are you those cupcake girls?” she asked.

  Kylie smiled proudly. “That would be us: Peace, Love, and Cupcakes.”

  “Well, just so you know, I have lots of food allergies, and my mom said I can’t have your cupcakes because you bake with nuts.”

  “Oh,” Kylie said. “So you’re allergic to all those things?”

  Clementine nodded. “My face gets all red and blotchy, and my lips swell up like balloons. I have to sit at the allergy table at lunch.”

  “Wow,” Sadie remarked. “That’s not fun.”

  “No, it isn’t,” Clementine said in a huff. “So please keep your cupcakes far away from me.” Once again, she turned and walked away.

  “So that went well,” Kylie said sarcastically. “And you thought this would be easy?”

  “Patience is a virtue. At least that’s what my mom always says,” Sadie reminded her. “And I’m not giving up on Clementine just yet. If you recall, you had to do a lot of convincing to get all of us to join PLC.”

  Kylie did remember handing out flyers and putting up posters—even approaching Jenna in the schoolyard and presenting her with her best sales pitch.

  “Fine, I’ll give it to the end of the week,” she replied.

  “And I’ll get Jenna, Lexi, and Delaney onboard to help us find members,” Sadie said. “Just think, before long we’ll have a whole new cupcake club starting up!”

  Kylie did think about it…and it gave her a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  “Let me get this straight,” Jenna said, taking a bite out of her burger at the lunch table. “I’m supposed to find a clone of myself?”

  “Sorta.” Sadie tried to explain. “Someone you feel has PLC potential and might be able to do what you do.”

  “No es posible,” Jenna said, heaping a pile of onions, ketchup, relish, and mustard on her burger.

  “You see?” Kylie jumped in. “Jenna thinks it’s a bad idea too.”

  “I didn’t say that.” Jenna corrected her. “I said it was impossible. I’m one of a kind. No one can live up to this fabulosity!”

  Sadie laughed. “True, but maybe you can find a close second.”

  “Maybe,” Jenna agreed. “After I get some pickles. A burger without a pickle is like a cupcake without frosting.”

  She reached for a pickle on Lexi’s plate, but Lexi slapped her hand.

  “Hey! Get your own!” she said.

  “Fine, fine,” Jenna said, getting up from her seat and heading for the toppings bar. She saw another girl she didn’t know picking at the platter of pickle chips.

  “Hey,” Jenna warned her. “Save some of those for the rest of the fifth grade, por favor.”

  “I’m in the fourth grade,” the girl replied. “I was here first. You snooze, you lose.” She grabbed the last two chips and popped them in her mouth.

  “Thanks,” Jenna shot back. “You just ruined my lunch.”

  “Adiós!” the girl said, racing off before Jenna could say another word.

  Jenna returned to the table empty-handed.
r />   “Where are your pickles?” Lexi asked her.

  “Stolen…by some mouthy fourth grader,” Jenna said, sighing. “She’s got some nerve.”

  “Nerve?” Sadie said, raising an eyebrow. “And mouthy. Sound like anyone you know?”

  Jenna looked across the cafeteria. The girl was sitting by herself at a back table—just like she used to do before she met her PLC besties. Jenna reached across the table and grabbed some pickles off Lexi’s plate.

  “Those are mine!” Lexi protested.

  “I know, but I need them,” Jenna told her. And with that, she took her tray and walked over to join the girl at her table.

  “Great, so now you’re going to yell at me?” the girl asked her.

  “I’m not going to yell,” Jenna said, handing her the stash she had taken from Lexi. “I come bearing a pickle peace offering.”

  “Oh,” the girl said.

  “That’s it? Just ‘oh’? The term is ‘de nada’ or ‘thank you.’”

  “I know what ‘de nada’ means,” the girl replied. “My mom teaches Spanish at Bynder Middle School.”

  “Sí?” Jenna asked. “Then I suppose you know what ‘Está ocupada esta silla?’ means.”

  The girl nodded. “Yeah. I mean, no! This seat isn’t taken.” She moved over and made space for Jenna to join her. After all, she had brought more pickles.

  Jenna looked over the other girl’s plate. “You like a lot of stuff on your burger, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Tomato, cheese, onions, lettuce, ketchup, mustard…” the girl replied. “And of course pickles. A burger without pickles is like a cake without frosting.”

  Jenna’s jaw dropped. “That’s exactly how I feel. Why would anyone ever eat a naked cupcake or a naked burger if they could avoid it?”

  The girl nodded. “It makes no sense.”

  Jenna held out her hand. “I’m Jenna Medina. And you are?”

  “Starving,” the girl said. “Can we maybe eat more, talk less? I have to get back to my class library period before they notice I’m missing. I was just so hungry that I couldn’t wait for my class to go to lunch.”

  “I hear ya,” Jenna said. “But maybe we could talk another time…about my club.”

  “Your club?” the girl asked, her mouth full.

  “Peace, Love, and Cupcakes,” Jenna continued. “We’re starting a junior club here at Blakely that will continue after my friends and I graduate. Maybe you could be in it.”

  The girl wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Why?”

  “I dunno,” Jenna said. “Because you remind me of me when I was in fourth grade. I didn’t have a lot of friends, and I felt like an outsider.”

  “Well, for your information, I don’t need friends.”

  Jenna realized the girl was trying to sound tough. She had done the same thing in the past, putting up a wall that no one was able to get through.

  “It’s up to you,” Jenna said. “But in the meantime…” She dug in her jacket pocket and pulled out a snack pack of Oreo cookies. “I carry these with me at all times…in case of a munchy emergency. Ya never know.”

  The girl nodded. “Double Stuf. My favorite.”

  Jenna smiled. “So now you owe me pickles and a pack of Oreos. Whatever your name is.”

  “Roxy,” the girl said. “It’s really Roxanne, but that’s what my mom calls me.”

  “Nice to meet you, Roxy or Roxanne. And PLC meets every Wednesday after school.”

  • • •

  Kylie made sure she put out several extra seats around the kitchen table in the teachers’ lounge—in case a bunch of students showed up for the first meeting of PLC Jr. She’d made colorful flyers and stuffed them into practically every locker in the school. But as the clock ticked close to three thirty, the start time for the meeting, there was no one in the room but her.

  “Let’s get this party started!” Delaney said, bursting through the door. A little girl with bouncy auburn curls and dressed in a pink ruffled dress was trailing behind her.

  “Kylie, meet Whitney,” Delaney announced. “She’s in third grade at Weber Day School…”

  “And I had the lead in the elementary school musical,” Whitney volunteered. “I was Annie in Annie.”

  “Of course you were,” Kylie said, trying to be polite. “And do you like to bake?”

  “No, not really,” Whitney replied.

  “Whit, we discussed this, didn’t we?” Delaney said through gritted teeth. “We are going to act like we like to bake.”

  “Oh right, sorry,” the girl said. She smiled brightly and pulled a frilly apron out of her backpack.

  “She came with a costume… I love it,” Delaney said.

  “And I love to bake!” Whitney chirped. “Was that good? Too much? I could try my line again.”

  Kylie frowned. “This is your candidate for the junior cupcake club?” she whispered to Delaney.

  “You said to find someone I could train, and Whitney has star potential,” Delaney insisted. “She’s an amazing singer and tap dancer.”

  “Great.” Kylie groaned. “Just what we need for a baking club. She can serenade us with show tunes while we mix ingredients.”

  “I do,” Delaney said. “Remember last week? I did the entire score of Hamilton while we made patriotic pistachio cupcakes.”

  “I remember…”

  “I thought my choice for a new PLC member should bring the same energy and enthusiasm to PLC that I do,” Delaney insisted. “Besides, she’s not exactly Miss Popularity at my school. Kids don’t like that she says whatever she’s thinking.”

  “Ew!” Whitney suddenly interjected. She had found Kylie’s recipe notebook and started flipping through it. “It says we’re baking raspberry cupcakes today. I hate raspberries. Those little seeds get in my teeth.”

  “Me too!” Delaney exclaimed. “And then you’re trying to pick them out with your tongue in the middle of a song, and it’s so annoying!”

  “Well, she is just like you,” Kylie said, teasing Delaney.

  Lexi came in the room next, dragging a boy behind her by the hand. “Come on, Nathaniel,” she urged him, yanking him through the door. “You can do it.”

  The kid’s cheeks were bright red with embarrassment. “Lemme go!” He pleaded with Lexi. “I hate crowds.”

  “But there are only four of us in here,” Kylie told him.

  “That’s four too many!” Nathaniel replied.

  “He’s shy,” Lexi told her clubmates.

  “No kidding.” Delaney giggled. “I never would have guessed.”

  “Oh, do you have stage fright?” Whitney asked him. “I can help you with that. Just look around the room, and picture everyone here in pink polka-dot clown suits with red noses.”

  “You see? They think I’m a clown!” Clementine complained. She had just walked through the door with Sadie by her side.

  “No one thinks you’re a clown,” Sadie insisted.

  “I was telling him to think of all of us as clowns,” Whitney explained. “You don’t have to be one if you don’t want to.”

  Sadie looked confused. “What’s going on?”

  Kylie shook her head. “I have no idea.”

  “We’re not late, are we?” Jenna asked, bounding into the room breathlessly.

  “Who’s we?” Delaney asked her.

  “Ay, dios mío!” Jenna exclaimed. “I swear, she was right behind me a minute ago!”

  She peered outside the teachers’ lounge and spied Roxy putting quarters in a vending machine.

  “Roxy! There’s no time for that!” Jenna called to her.

  A pack of chips fell out of the machine. “There’s always time for a snack!” Roxy insisted. “Sour cream and onion flavor!” She opened the pack and offered one to Jenna.

  “Fine,”
Jenna said, popping a chip in her mouth. “Just get in there.”

  “Okay,” Kylie said, taking a head count. “We have five original members and four junior members present.”

  “Where’s your mini-me?” Sadie asked her.

  Kylie hadn’t given that much thought. “I was so busy putting up flyers that I guess I forgot to find one.”

  The door suddenly creaked open. “Is this the cupcake club meeting?” asked a tiny girl with a brown bob and glasses.

  “Yes, it is,” Lexi replied. “Are you here to join?”

  “Well, maybe… I dunno. I saw your flyer,” the girl answered. “I’m only in first grade, but I’m a really good baker. My mom says so.”

  “Wait! I know you!” Kylie suddenly remembered the first time she had posted a sign-up sheet for PLC a year ago. A kindergartner had come up to her, asking for the sticker on it—but she couldn’t read what the sheet said. “Do you know how to read now?” Kylie asked her.

  “Oh yes!” the girl said. “I’m seven, and I read recipes all the time.” She picked a cookbook up off the table and turned to a random page. “‘Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet, being careful not to overmix…’”

  “Impressive,” Sadie said.

  Delaney agreed. “‘Though she be but little, she is fierce.’”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Roxy asked.

  “It’s a quote from Shakespeare,” Whitney informed them. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I did it in my theater camp.”

  “It means I think we have our junior club,” Kylie said. “Your name is Brynn, right?”

  The first grader beamed. “You remembered!”

  “Do you think you could read this recipe so we can all follow it?” she asked, handing Brynn her binder.

  “Raspberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting,” Brynn read out loud.

  “No nuts, right?” Clementine asked.

  “Positively no nuts. PLC Jr. is a nut-free zone,” Kylie assured her.

  With each of the older girls guiding them, Brynn, Roxy, Whitney, Nathaniel, and Clementine assembled the ingredients, put them into the mixer, poured the batter into the muffin pans, and placed the cupcakes in the oven to bake. When the Junior PLCers took out the muffin pans twenty minutes later, the tops of the cakes were a delicate golden-brown color.