Katie Just Desserts

by Coco Simon

  “Don’t forget to get a cupcake,” Mia said. “You can do us a favor and take one of our green cupcakes. They’re a little . . . sad.”

  Eddie picked up one along with a small plate. “They don’t look sad to me!”

  “Ix-nay on the ad-say,” said Alexis. “We want people to think all our cupcakes are fabulous!”

  Mia’s parents (all three of them) went off to get food, and we got to work handing out cupcakes. Alexis was talking a mile a minute.

  “Our Green with Envy cupcake is delicious and healthy,” she would say to anyone who passed by. “And our Classic Vanilla is simply timeless.”

  Some people made a face when they saw the green cupcake, and picked the vanilla. But just as many were excited about the green cupcake.

  “I love this idea,” one woman said, taking a bite. “It’s got fiber, healthy fats—and even chocolate!”

  “Tell your friends about us,” Alexis said, giving her a business card.

  We were busy giving out cupcakes for about an hour. When things slowed down, Mia took me aside.

  “This has been a crazy day for you, hasn’t it?” she asked. “I feel so bad that you got stitches.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, it didn’t hurt as much as I thought,” I said. “It was just weird because my dad didn’t take me to the hospital. And then he was supposed to come tonight, but he bailed.”

  “Oh, Katie! That stinks,” Mia said.

  “Kind of,” I said, but then I spotted Jeff across the room. He and Mom were talking and laughing. “It was okay, though. Jeff took me.”

  “Yeah, stepfathers can be pretty nice,” said Mia. “I’m lucky, I guess. I don’t get to see my dad every day, but I know Eddie is always there for me.”

  I thought about how Jeff had held my hand in the emergency room that day. “I guess I’m pretty lucky too,” I said, and then I remembered something. “Now all Mom has to do is say yes tomorrow!”

  CHAPTER 14

  Will You Marry Me?

  The next morning I woke up with a tingling feeling, and it wasn’t in my finger. I was so excited to find out how Jeff was going to propose to Mom and what she would say!

  I got a clue when I went down to the kitchen. Mom was dressed and drinking coffee.

  “You’re up early,” she remarked.

  “Yeah, it’s a nice day out,” I said.

  “Jeff asked if we wanted to go on a run with him and Emily later this morning,” Mom said. “I told him okay. Is that okay with you? You can stay here if you want.”

  “No, I’ll go!” I said, and looked at the clock. It was only eight o’clock. “I’ll make some scrambled eggs. Protein for the run.”

  “Sounds good,” Mom said.

  So I cooked breakfast, and then I folded laundry, and then I read a chapter of the book we’re reading for English. The morning seemed to go on forever. Finally, Mom said it was time to meet Jeff and Emily at the park.

  We ran there, like we always do, and we found Jeff and Emily by the park entrance. Emily had a big smile on her face.

  “Morning, sunshines,” Jeff said. “Let’s keep moving. It’s a beautiful day!”

  He was right. The morning air was chilly, but it was the good kind of chilly, the kind that makes you feel alive and keeps you awake. The sky was blue, and the green grass was littered with orange leaves.

  Jeff stayed in the lead as we jogged down the path. After a few minutes we came to the park gazebo, where people can have picnics overlooking the pond.

  “Hey, let’s check out the gazebo,” Jeff said suddenly, and he veered off the path and ran on the grass toward it.

  “Jeff, where are you going?” Mom called out, and Emily and I looked at each other and grinned. We both had an idea what was happening.

  Jeff stopped in front of a picnic table under the gazebo that was decorated with a pretty white tablecloth with green flowers. The table was set with four plates and four napkins that matched the tablecloth, and it was topped with a grilled vegetable platter, a tray of mini sandwiches, and a bowl of colorful fruit salad. There was also a clear pitcher of pink lemonade and four plastic cups shaped like wineglasses.

  “Looks like it’s lunchtime,” Jeff said. “Come on—sit down.”

  “Jeff, what’s going on?” Mom asked as she took her seat. “Who did this?”

  I had an idea. I looked around the park for Mia, Emma, and Alexis, but I couldn’t see them.

  “Let’s eat,” Jeff said.

  I put a tiny egg salad sandwich on my plate, along with some vegetables and fruit.

  “This is all from Schreiber’s Deli,” Mom said. “I love their food.”

  “I know,” said Jeff, with a twinkle in his eyes.

  Nobody talked much as we ate. Emily and I knew what was going to happen, and Mom was suspicious, taking it all in. When we finished lunch, Jeff started talking in a loud voice.

  “That was a great lunch,” he said. His voice got even louder. “This would be a great time for some dessert!”

  A few seconds later, Mia, Alexis, and Emma came walking up, holding a big white box. They placed it in front of Mom.

  “Open it,” Jeff said.

  Mom gave Jeff an almost frightened look. She slowly opened up the box lid. Emily and I both jumped up and ran next to her so we could see.

  Inside the box were rows of cupcakes spelling out “Will You Marry Me?” The extra cupcakes were decorated with tiny pink and brown flowers, green leaves, and winding stems. My friends had done an amazing job!

  “ ‘Will you marry me?’ ” Mom whispered.

  Jeff got down on one knee. He took a box from his pocket. Then he opened it. A ring with a heart-shaped diamond glittered inside.

  “Will you, Sharon?” he asked.

  I held my breath. I was pretty sure Mom was going to say yes, but I wasn’t sure. Her first marriage had been pretty bad after all, and—

  “Yes!” Mom cried, and she fell into Jeff’s arms.

  Suddenly, me and my friends and Emily were all jumping up and down and squealing and hugging one another.

  After we calmed down, Mom turned to me. “Did you know about this?” she asked, wiping a tear from her eye.

  “Most of it,” I said.

  Then Mom’s eyes got wide. “Oh, Katie, I shouldn’t have said yes without talking to you first. I mean, this will affect your life too, and—”

  I stopped her. “Mom, it’s okay! I say yes too.”

  “And me too!” said Emily, and she was so sweet when she said that that I had to hug her.

  Jeff stood up and looked at Emily and me. “I have something for you both, as well,” he said.

  Emily and I exchanged curious glances. Jeff held out a small box to each of us. We took them and opened them at the same time.

  Inside my box was a necklace with a silver chain and a pendant with the outline of a heart, embedded with little sparkly purple gems. I looked at Emily’s. Her necklace was the same, except the gems on her heart were sky blue.

  “I just want you both to know that you are special to me,” Jeff said. “When I marry Sharon, we’ll become a family. And I’m really excited about that.”

  Mom started to cry. I felt my eyes tear up too. I hugged Jeff.

  “Thanks,” I said. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Purple is still your favorite color, right?” Jeff asked, and I nodded. “And, Emily, I know you love sky blue.”

  Emily put on her necklace. “Katie, put yours on!” she said. “We’ll match.”

  “That’s so cute!” Emma said. “You two are like sisters.”

  “Wow, it’s, like, raining sisters lately,” I joked. I still wasn’t sure how to feel about not being an only child anymore—but so far, it felt pretty nice.

  “We have so many ideas for the wedding,” Alexis said. “So let us know as soon as you have a date.”

  Mom sat back down at the table. “A wedding date! My head is spinning. I need a cupcake. We all need a cupcake!”

  “Pictures first!
” said Mia, and she took photos of Mom and Jeff behind the cupcakes, and one of Mom and Jeff with Emily and me around the cupcakes too.

  Then we all sat down and started eating cupcakes.

  “Wow, this mocha is delicious,” I said.

  Just then I got a text. It was Marc Donald Brown: Hey, Katie. How u doing?

  Good, I texted back. I was actually much better than good, but I couldn’t tell him why.

  Melissa and I are hoping you can come again Saturday. We can make it a regular thing, he wrote.

  I didn’t text back right away. I knew I liked working in the restaurant. And I definitely liked Melissa. But working at the restaurant would mean that Marc Donald Brown would definitely be part of my life. I had to think about that.

  You can see him as much or as little as you want, Mom had told me. I looked at the cupcakes, and then it hit me—my dad was like a cupcake.

  I know that sounds weird, but see—Marc Donald Brown would never be a breakfast-lunch-and-dinner dad. He wasn’t even a meat-and-potato dad. He was a dessert dad. You don’t have dessert every day, but when you do, it’s nice.

  Sounds good, I texted him back. I knew I could work at the restaurant without feeling weird. Because for me and Marc Donald Brown—my dad—for now, it would be just desserts.

  Want another sweet cupcake?

  Here’s a sneak peek of the next book in the

  series:

  Mia

  measures

  up

  Life Happens!

  I shouldn’t have eaten that third corn dog,” my friend Katie Brown moaned. We were strapped inside a round blue chair on an amusement park ride, and we just kept spinning . . . spinning . . . and spinning. . . .

  I looked over at her. Her brown ponytail was whipping back and forth, and her skin looked positively green. (Although that may have been caused by the flashing lights on the ride.)

  “Don’t puke on me! I just got these sneakers!” I warned her, laughing, and I saw Katie’s knuckles tightly grip the bar in front of us.

  “Don’t say that word!” Katie yelled.

  Luckily for both of us, the ride slowed to a stop. Katie and I climbed off. My legs felt wobbly.

  “That was a close one,” Katie said, leaning against a tree. “Whew!”

  I looked at my phone. “It’s almost five. We should get back to the table.”

  Katie nodded. “Right.”

  It was a beautiful twilight, and Katie and I were with our friends Alexis Becker and Emma Taylor at the Maple Grove Carnival. The four of us own a business together, the Cupcake Club. A few weeks ago Alexis had submitted a vendor application to the carnival so that we could sell our cupcakes there, and they’d accepted us!

  “I like that we’re taking shifts,” Katie said as we walked past a bouncy house with little kids going crazy inside. “I’m glad I had a chance to go on the rides.”

  “Even the Whirling Twirler?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Katie insisted. “In fact, I could go for another corn dog about now.” She started looking around.

  “Absolutely not!” I said. I grabbed her by the arm and started running toward our cupcake booth.

  “But I love corn dogs!” Katie yelled behind me. “I would marry one if I could!”

  We were both laughing so hard that I bumped right into someone. Luckily, it was someone we knew—it was our friend George Martinez.

  “Hey! The bumper cars are over there,” George said, pointing.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  Katie bumped into him too. “My turn!”

  “Ouch! You’re jabbing me with your pointy elbows!” George teased.

  Katie and George are friends—the kind of friends who would be boyfriend and girlfriend if they were old enough to go on dates. So they’re not boyfriend and girlfriend, but they do hang out together sometimes.

  “Anyway, I’m doing serious business here,” George said, nodding to the booth in front of us. “I need to buy my ticket to win the tickets to the La Vida Pasa concert before they do the drawing.”

  I nodded. “I bought mine earlier! So you might as well not bother buying your ticket, because I’m going to win.”

  “Wait, La Vida Pasa?” Katie asked. “What does that mean? ‘Life passes’?”

  “More like the saying, ‘life happens,’ ” I replied. “Come on, you’ve heard me play them before. They’re so good!”

  “Oh, yeah,” Katie said. “They sing all in Spanish, right?”

  “Sí, amiga,” George answered. “And they are muy bueno.”

  He pulled some cash out of his pocket. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to buy the winning ticket.”

  “And we’d better get back to the table,” Katie said.

  “Good luck!” I called to George as we left. “You’re going to need it.”

  Normally, I’m not a person who teases, but George teases everybody all the time (well, mostly Katie), so I thought I should dish it back to him for once.

  Our little booth wasn’t far away. My stepdad, Eddie, had set up a tent for us, and the park had provided everyone with tables. Our table had a pink tablecloth with our cupcake logo on the front.

  Emma was handing a cupcake to a customer, and Alexis was putting change into our cashbox.

  “How are we doing?” Katie asked after the customer walked away.

  “We sold sixteen more while you were gone!” Emma announced. “I think we’ll sell out before this ends at six.”

  “We’ll sell the last hour, if you two want to go do the rides,” I said.

  Emma looked at Alexis, and they both nodded.

  “Whatever you do, don’t eat three corn dogs before you go on the Whirling Twirler,” Katie warned them.

  Alexis’s green eyes got wide. “Did you really do that?”

  “Not my smartest decision,” Katie replied.

  “Well, I was thinking of getting a funnel cake,” Emma said. “But maybe I’ll do that after the rides.”

  “Mmmm, funnel cake,” Katie said, and then she put her arms out in front of her and started to zombie-walk toward the funnel cake stand.

  Once again, I grabbed her. “You’re not going anywhere,” I said. I took a look at the table. “We’ve got two dozen cupcakes left to sell.”

  “We sold out of the vanilla with rainbow sprinkles,” Alexis reported. “But we always do. We need to push the maple walnut ones.”

  “Those are the best ones!” Katie said. “Maple walnut cupcakes for the Maple Grove carnival. People need to be more adventurous with their cupcake choices.”

  “Hey, it’s the Cupcake Sisters!”

  We turned to see my cousin Sebastian and my stepbrother, Dan. Sebastian was the one who had called us the Cupcake Sisters.

  “We’re the Cupcake Club, not Cupcake Sisters,” I told him.

  “But you look like sisters,” he said.

  I shook my head. Katie, Alexis, Emma, and I didn’t look anything alike. I’ve got stick-straight black hair and dark brown eyes. Katie’s got wavy, light brown hair that matches her eyes. Emma is blond haired and blue eyed, and Alexis is a green-eyed redhead.

  “Just because we’re all wearing the same T-shirt and we all have our hair in ponytails doesn’t mean we look like sisters,” I said.

  Sebastian shrugged. “It’s just my opinion.”

  “Yeah, he’s, um, entitled to his opinion,” Emma said awkwardly, and then she blushed a little bit.

  “Come on, Emma. Let’s get to the rides before they close,” Alexis said, stepping out from behind the table. “We’ll be back at six to help clean up!”

  Katie and I got behind the table, and Dan reached for a chocolate cupcake.

  “That’ll be three dollars,” I said.

  “Really?” Dan asked. “I used to be your official cupcake taster, remember? Doesn’t that count for something?”

  “These cupcakes have already passed the taste test,” I said. “Besides, you’ve got all that sweet pizza delivery money. You can afford a cup
cake.”

  Dan rolled his eyes and fished in his pocket for the cash. Katie took it from him.

  “What about me?” asked Sebastian. “I’m too young to deliver pizza.”

  Sebastian is a freshman in high school, and Dan is a senior. Sebastian moved here a little while ago from Puerto Rico, and he and Dan bonded over death metal music, so they hang out all the time now.

  Dan handed Katie another three dollars. “One more cupcake, please.”

  “Get the maple walnut,” Katie said. “It’s the best one.”

  Sebastian smiled. “Sure.” He picked one up and bit into it. “Yeah, that’s good.”

  Then Dan and Sebastian walked off, and Katie started hawking our cupcakes.

  “Homemade cupcakes here! Get your maple walnut cupcakes!” she yelled.

  A couple came over right away, and each of them bought a maple walnut cupcake.

  “Keep going, Katie. It’s working,” I told her.

  Katie moved to the front of the table.

  “Get your cupcakes here!” she sang, and then she busted out some crazy dance moves.

  “Katie, what are you doing?” I asked.

  “This is my happy cupcake dance!” she replied.

  At that moment a group of girls walked past our booth. To be more specific they were the girls in the BFC (the Best Friends Club): Callie Wilson, Maggie Rodriguez, Olivia Allen, and Bella Kovacs.

  “Nice dance, Katie,” Olivia said in the most sarcastic voice possible, and the other girls giggled.

  “Thank you!” Katie replied, still dancing. Most of us had learned to just ignore the behavior of the Best Friends Club.

  Callie broke away from the others. “I’ll have a chocolate cupcake, please,” she said.

  Now, maybe Callie just wanted a cupcake. Or maybe she did it because she and Katie used to be best friends before middle school, and I know that Callie feels bad when the other BFC girls are mean to Katie. Either way, it was nice of her.

  I handed Callie her chocolate cupcake and then checked my phone.

  “It’s almost five thirty,” I told Katie. “They’re going to announce the winner of the concert tickets. I’m just going to get closer to the stage so I can hear, okay?”