by Coco Simon
“No, it’s a great idea!” Katie said, her eyes shining. “You would design the most adorable aprons! I bet we could sell millions.”
“You know, I bet we could design our own aprons now if we wanted,” Alexis said, making that face she always does when she’s deep in thought. “There are lots of places online where you can do stuff like that.”
I sat down on a chair. “Please, can I just get through this contest first before we start on the next thing? I’m exhausted!”
“Ooh, that’s right. How’s the dress going?” Emma asked.
“I finally feel like I can finish it,” I said. “I’m pretty sure I can bring it to the party tomorrow for the fitting.”
Emma clapped her hands together. “I can’t wait!”
Then Alexis started talking in her let’s-get-down-to-business voice. “So, we have four dozen cupcakes to decorate. We’ll meet at the Riccos’ house tomorrow at one to set up. Mia, I knew you were busy, so I got a Halloween tablecloth and some cobwebby stuff to put around our display.”
I nodded. “Thanks. If I can think of anything fun to add, I will.”
“So, I asked Mrs. Ricco if I could try on the dress tomorrow, and she said okay,” Emma said. “She was hoping that we would stay and help with the kids and serving the food. She’s going to pay extra, and it’s only for, like, an hour or so. She says she has all the games and stuff.”
Alexis opened her notebook. “I’ll add it to her invoice. You told her our rates?”
Emma nodded. “Yes. She was cool with it.”
“Excellent!” Alexis said. “We’ll be over our earnings projections for next month.”
“I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds good,” said Katie.
Alexis smiled. “It is.”
Emma spooned a big glob of orange icing from the mixer and put it in a bowl. “I think we can start decorating now.”
“Yay!” Katie cried, picking up a tube of icing gel.
“So, we’re doing a dozen monsters, a dozen spiders, a dozen tombstones, and a dozen jack-o’-lantern cupcakes,” Alexis said.
“Let’s ice the cupcakes for each batch and then put them on a pan, so we don’t get confused,” Emma suggested.
Katie nodded. “Then we can all do some of each kind.”
With our plan in place, we began decorating the cupcakes. Jake became very interested.
“I want a monster!” he said after Katie made a monster cupcake.
“We’ll see if we have extras at the end,” Emma promised him. “And then you can make your own monster. How would you like that?”
Jake nodded. “With sharp fangs. And lots of eyes.”
Jake is superadorable. I almost had a little stepbrother once. His name was Ethan, and his mom, Lynne, was dating my dad. Then they broke up, and I haven’t seen them since. It was kind of weird. Ethan was annoying, but at times like these, I miss him a little.
I was thinking about this as I carefully poked spider legs into a cupcake when Emma’s brother Matt came into the kitchen. He was wearing shorts and a basketball T-shirt, and his blond hair was all messed up, like he had just gotten out of bed. Which he had.
“Breakfast!” he cried, grabbing for a cupcake on the table.
Emma slapped his hand away. “No way! Wait until we’re done, and if we have extra, then maybe you’ll get one.”
“Fine,” Matt said. “I’ll just have some cereal.”
“That’s probably a healthier breakfast for you, anyway,” Alexis pointed out.
Matt turned to her. “So, what time are we going tonight?”
“Seven thirty,” Alexis replied, and I looked at her, with my eyebrows raised.
“What?” she whispered. “I asked George if I could bring somebody, and he said okay.”
“Oh . . . sure,” I said. That was a pretty bold move on Alexis’s part, but she made it sound like it wasn’t such a big deal.
“I guess you’re not going with Chris?” Emma asked me.
“Chris Howard?” Matt asked, and I nodded. “I was talking to him yesterday. He said he wanted to ask you to go with him, but you were blowing him off.”
I jumped out of my chair. “What? He said what?”
“He said you blew him off or something,” Matt said with a shrug. He reached into the fridge and took out a carton of milk. “That’s all I know.”
“Maybe it has something to do with what happened in the cafeteria the other day,” Katie carefully suggested.
I groaned. “You’re probably right. I did kind of blow him off. And I never answered that text he sent me.” I put my head in my hands. “Oh no. Now what do I do?”
“Text him right now!” Alexis suggested, and I did just that.
Hey, sorry I never got back to you, I typed quickly. Been really busy. How r u? R U going to George’s party?
I hit send. Then I waited, hoping to get an instant response, but my phone was silent.
“He’ll text you back,” Katie said. “Just give him some time. Maybe he’s still asleep or something.”
“Yeah, he probably is,” I agreed, and I went back to decorating cupcakes. Every time I finished a cupcake, I checked my phone. Nothing.
Pretty soon we had four dozen perfectly decorated cupcakes, six backups in case any got smooshed at the party, and six extras.
“One for each of us,” Alexis said, handing them out. “And, Jake, you can make your own monster.”
I checked my phone one last time. There was a message! I quickly grabbed it.
What time do I need to pick you up?
It was from Mom. I sighed.
“Look, a monster!” Jake held up his cupcake, which he had loaded with a mound of jelly beans, candy eyes, and candy corn.
Emma laughed. “That’s more like a monster tummy ache,” she said.
Come get me now? I typed back to Mom. It was only eleven thirty, and I still had plenty of time to sew.
I couldn’t worry about Chris Howard right now. I had a dress to finish!
CHAPTER 9
Awkward with a Capital ‘A’
I went home, ate a quick sandwich, and got to work sewing. I was having a hard time with the seams on the bottom of the dress, and I had to take out the stitches and start again.
I was concentrating so hard on trying to finish the dress that I totally lost track of time. The next thing I knew, Mom was calling upstairs.
“Mia, Katie’s here!”
“She’s what?” I looked up from my machine and saw the red numbers on the digital clock: 6:30. “No!”
My heart started to pound. It couldn’t be this late. Katie had texted me that she would come a little early so we could take pictures of our costumes. . . .
A costume! I had totally forgotten to get a costume. I might have gone into a total panic if I hadn’t been so tired. I sighed and turned off the machine.
“Send her up!” I called back.
Seconds later Katie bounded into my room.
“Ta-da!” she yelled.
She was wearing white chef’s pants and a matching chef’s jacket. Two brown braids stuck out from under a white chef’s hat. In one hand she held a rubber chicken.
“Katie, you look adorable!” I cried, getting up to hug her.
“Thanks,” she said, grinning. “It’s so me, right?” Then she held up the rubber chicken. “And rubber chickens are always hilarious. I don’t know why, but they just are.”
“Totally!” I agreed. “I wish I had thought of a cool costume like that. I didn’t even get one.”
Katie held up a drawstring bag. “I thought maybe you were too busy to get a costume. So I brought mine from last year. It should fit you.”
“You’re so sweet!” I said, taking the bag from her. “What is it?”
“Just look,” Katie said.
I opened the bag—and saw a bunch of white satin with big yellow, red, and blue polka dots.
“It’s my clown costume, remember?” Katie asked. “It even comes with the red floppy
shoes.”
I pulled the costume out of the bag. The satin polka-dot pattern was a one-piece jumpsuit, with ruffles on the ends of the sleeves and pants. The long, floppy shoes were three times as big as my feet. I also pulled out a bright red nose made out of soft foam, and one of those Halloween makeup kits with white, red, and black stuff that you could put on your face.
“It’s . . . wow,” I said, searching for the right words. A fashion nightmare? Ridiculous? Hideous?
“I know it’s not what you’d normally wear,” Katie said. “But it’s Halloween! It should be fun. And it’s better than no costume at all, right?”
I had to think about it. What would be worse? Going to George’s costume party with no costume or going in a horrible clown costume?
“George will crack up when he sees you,” Katie prodded, and that helped me make up my mind. George is sweet and funny and nice, and I knew the party would be more fun if I wore a costume.
“Okay,” I said. “But I am not wearing the nose.”
I straightened up my fabric and then put on a shirt and shorts to wear under the costume. Then I thought of Millicent and put my hair in, like, eight crazy ponytails.
“That is awesome,” Katie said. “But I still think you should wear the nose.”
“I have another idea,” I said. I opened up the makeup kit. The makeup came in tiny little plastic disks and was kind of thick, but I could make it work. “I can do kind of an artistic clown face, like a Harlequin.”
Katie watched as I carefully applied a layer of white makeup all over my face. I patted that down with a tissue and then used the black on my lips and around my eyes. I painted big, exaggerated eyelashes coming down from the bottom of each eye, and then added a tiny black heart on my right cheek.
“Whoa, that is so cool,” Katie said.
I leaned closer to the mirror. “Not bad,” I agreed. “Now let me get on my floppy shoes so we can get out of here.”
When we got downstairs, Katie’s mom was sitting at the kitchen table with Mom and Eddie, talking. Mom let out a big gasp when she saw me.
“Mia! You look so cute!”
“It’s thanks to Katie,” I said. “She saved me with her clown costume.”
Eddie jumped up. “You girls look wonderful! Let me take some pictures!”
We went into the living room, and Katie and I goofed around and did some funny poses with the rubber chicken—me pretending to kick it with my big shoe, Katie pretending to beat me over the head with it—and then Katie’s mom drove us to the party.
It was easy to tell which house the party was at because Halloween music was blaring from speakers on the lawn. Fake tombstones rose up from the grass like jagged teeth, each one painted with a funny saying or name.
“Look, ‘Barry M. Deep,’ ” Katie said, pointing, when we got out of the car. “And there’s a baking one! ‘Here Lies John Yeast. He’ll Rise No More.’ Ha! Get it?”
I shook my head, laughing. “I bet George did that one just for you.”
We walked down the path to the front door, which was lined with glowing jack-o’-lanterns. It was a warm fall night, and the front door was wide open. George’s living room was already packed with kids in costume. The lights were dimmed, and a green strobe light was flashing.
“Oh man, this is crazy!” Katie said happily as we stepped inside.
George pushed his way past a kid dressed as a mummy and walked up to us. He was dressed like a hot dog: he wore a big stuffed hot dog in a bun, with mustard, over his shirt. On the bottom he wore jeans and sneakers.
“Katie! You’re a chef! You can cook me!” he cried.
Katie waved the rubber chicken at him. “Hot dogs and chicken, mmm.”
Then he looked at me. “Wow, is that you, Mia? Awesome. But where’s your big red nose?”
“I told her she should wear it,” Katie said.
“Hey, I’m in costume, right?” I pointed out. “And I don’t see any other clowns here.”
Most of the boys had opted for gory zombie costumes, with gross, bloody faces and torn clothes. And most of the girls wore cute costumes from the party store, with short, frilly skirts.
“Well, I’ll ketchup to you later,” George joked, pushing off into the crowd again.
“But you’re wearing mustard!” Katie called after him, laughing.
“Oh my gosh, Mia!”
I spun around to see Alexis, Matt, and Emma standing there. Alexis had on a cute black dress and a black witch hat. Matt was dressed like a basketball player (which he is in real life). And Emma was an adorable fairy in a pink dress with a fluffy organza skirt, glittery white wings, and a fairy wand with an aluminum foil star at the top.
“You look amazing!” Emma said. “I love your makeup.”
“Thanks!” I said. “Katie hooked me up with a costume at the last minute. I know it’s goofy, but—”
“It’s supercute,” Emma interrupted. “And nobody else here is wearing anything like it. But there are a dozen fairies here.”
“You could start a fairy baseball team,” Katie joked.
“And, anyway, your dress is really beautiful,” I said.
Emma nodded. “Mona lent it to me,” she said. Mona is a Cupcake customer who owns The Special Day bridal shop, where Emma models part-time. “It was a special-order bridesmaid’s dress, and then the order was canceled. I got the cheapest wings at the costume store and put glitter on them, and Jake helped me make the wand.”
“It’s perfect!” Katie said. “How about you, Alexis?”
“Well, I borrowed this dress from Dylan, and I got the hat at the dollar store,” Alexis said.
“Economical and chic,” I told her, laughing.
Then her expression suddenly changed to a look of unhappy surprise.
“Alexis, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“Um, well, Chris is here,” she said.
I turned and followed her gaze to the front door, where Chris was walking in . . . with Talia Robinson. She’s in a couple of my classes, but I don’t really know her. I didn’t think Chris knew her, either, but he obviously did, because it looked like he had come to the party with her.
Chris was dressed like the old-fashioned kind of vampire, with a red bow tie and black cape. Talia looked like a girl vampire with pale makeup, a black T-shirt, a short denim skirt, tights, and boots. Plastic fake fangs stuck out from her red lipstick. She looked totally cute.
I looked down at my polka-dotted clown suit and red, floppy shoes and wished I could sink into the floor. Chris had taken another girl to the party. Another girl! And she wasn’t wearing a ridiculous clown costume, either.
Katie must have read my mind. “Maybe they’re just walking in at the same time,” she said.
But then George walked up to them and started talking to them, and I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they were all laughing, and then Chris kind of put his arm around Talia and led her over to the food table in the dining room.
“Unbelievable,” Alexis said, and she sounded a little bit angry. “What is he doing here with her? He likes you.”
“It’s my fault,” I said miserably. “Matt is right. I totally blew him off, and he took somebody else.”
“He shouldn’t have given up on you,” Emma said. “He wouldn’t have if he really liked you.”
I looked at Matt. “What do you think?”
Matt shrugged. “Maybe Talia asked him, and he figured, why not? He could still like you.”
Then the song “Monster Mash” came on over the speakers. Katie grabbed my hand.
“I love this song! We have to dance,” she commanded.
“Dance? In this clown costume? I will trip over my own feet!” I protested.
“We’ll all dance,” Emma said, and I let Katie drag me into the middle of the room. She started doing this dance, where she waved the rubber chicken over her head, and then George came up and started break-dancing (which was impressive, considering he was wearing a hot dog costume). Then ot
her people started joining us, like my friends Lucy and Sophie, and Eddie Rossi, who is taller than anybody in our grade, but he didn’t look goofy at all when he danced.
Pretty soon I forgot about Chris and started having fun. Everyone was talking and dancing and hanging out. Then I got thirsty.
“I’m going to get some water,” I told my friends, heading toward the dining room.
That’s when my big clown feet bumped right into Chris! He turned around, and for a second he didn’t recognize me. Then I saw him blush underneath his vampire makeup.
“Oh, hi, Mia,” he said.
I looked behind him, but I didn’t see Talia. “I thought you were here with Talia Robinson,” I said, trying to sound like I didn’t care, but I could hear my voice shaking.
“Well, yeah, I am, but uh . . . she’s outside.” Chris shifted back and forth on his feet. This whole situation was Awkward with a capital A.
I took a deep breath. “Listen,” I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you in the cafeteria the other day. I’m entering this big fashion design contest, and it’s kept me busy for every second.”
Chris nodded. “Yeah, okay.” Then he kind of looked away from me. “I guess I thought you were just blowing me off.”
“I didn’t mean to,” I said. I wanted to say, I like you—why would I blow you off? For some reason I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. “Anyway, you could have asked me before you asked Talia.”
“That’s not what happened,” Chris said. “It was— Whatever. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.”
“Me too,” I said, and then there was just awkward silence.
“Okay, then,” I said finally. “Happy Halloween.”
“You too,” Chris said, and I grabbed a bottle of water and got out of there as fast as my floppy feet could carry me.
When I got back to the living room, Katie, Emma, and Alexis were all staring at me.
“What did he say?” Alexis asked.
“He said he was sorry,” I reported. “It was kind of awkward. Can we just forget about it for now?”
“Of course,” Katie said, grabbing my hand again. “George says he’s bobbing for apples on the front lawn. I have got to see this!”