by Coco Simon
I forgot who Eddie was for a minute until I realized Mia was talking about her almost-stepdad. I have never called an adult by their first name before, except for Joanne at my mom’s office, but she’s not like a real adult anyway. I tried to imagine calling my mom by her first name, Sharon. Weird!
Mia pushed aside some clothes on the bed and opened up her laptop. “You want to check out Teen Style?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“It’s pretty fun,” Mia said as she typed away. “They have a whole section of celebrities, and you can rate the outfits they’re wearing.”
She clicked a few times, and a photo of a thin, blond actress came on the screen. She was wearing a red dress with feathers on the bottom.
“What do you think?” Mia asked me.
I shrugged. “It’s nice, I guess. I mean, if she likes it, then what’s the difference?”
“I think it’s too long,” Mia said. “Take a few inches off of it and it would be perfect.” She clicked on the number “7” and then a new picture popped up.
I really didn’t get it. I had no idea why one outfit was better than another. But Mia had a definite opinion about everything.
We did that for a while, and then Mia clicked on another page. “This is really fun,” she said. “You create an avatar of yourself and then you get to try on different outfits to see how they would look.”
Mia made my avatar: skinny, medium height, wavy brown hair, brown eyes. Then she started clicking on clothes, and they appeared on my avatar’s body.
I couldn’t tell what was wrong with other people’s clothes, but it was cool to experiment and see what different stuff looked good on computer me. I had to admit that part was pretty fun. Well, for a while. Then it got a little boring. After I tried on a leather skirt, flowered dress, and five different pairs of boots, Mia looked at me.
“Want to play with the dogs?” she asked.
“Yes!” I answered gratefully.
The dogs were completely adorable. Mia said they were Maltese dogs. They could both roll over and sit. Then Mia did this trick where she sneezed and the one called Tiki ran to the tissue box and took a tissue out of it.
“That is truly amazing,” I said.
Before I knew it, Mom came to pick me up. On the drive home, she asked me the usual questions about how things went. Then she sneezed.
“That’s odd,” she said. “My allergies usually don’t bug me this time of year.”
I knew the dog hair on my clothes was probably making her sneeze, but I didn’t say anything.
I wanted to be sure I could go back to Mia’s.
CHAPTER 10
The Best Club Ever
The next night I made a batch of cupcakes for Cupcake Friday. I remembered that I hadn’t made chocolate cupcakes in a while. They’re one of my favorites, and I don’t even need Mom to help me make them.
I thought I knew the recipe by heart, but while I was adding the ingredients to the big mixing bowl, I realized that I didn’t know how much baking powder to add. So I took the big binder of cupcake recipes from the kitchen shelf and looked up the chocolate cupcakes.
Recipes amaze me. If you follow the directions exactly, you can make something completely awesome.
There should be a recipe for middle school, I thought. Follow the steps, one by one, and you’d have a perfect middle school experience.
So far, my middle school experience had been kind of a mess. If I had been following a recipe, it probably would look something like this:
Mix together:
1 evil locker
1 confusing best friend
3 mean girls
1 strict math teacher
2 silly arms
Bake until it hardens. If you overbake, go directly to detention.
Luckily, the recipe for the chocolate cupcakes is much better. Soon the whole house smelled like chocolate. After the cupcakes baked and cooled, I spread chocolate icing on them. Then I used a white icing tube to write a name on each cupcake: Katie, Mia, Emma, and Alexis.
Mom came into the kitchen as I was icing.
“Are these the girls you eat lunch with?” she asked.
I nodded.
“You forgot one,” Mom said.
I counted again. “No,” I said, and then I realized where she was headed.
I froze. Was she going to start asking me about Callie again?
Mom picked up the icing tube and started writing on one of the cupcakes: M-O-M. I relaxed.
“This is going in my lunch bag tomorrow,” she said. “Hey, would it be okay if I decorated some for everyone who works in the office?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll help. We can both do Cupcake Fridays.”
That’s one of the best things about cupcakes. When you make them, there’s always a lot to share.
At lunch the next day, I hadn’t even sat down yet when everyone started asking about cupcakes.
“So, did you bring them?” Mia asked.
“What kind are they?” asked Alexis.
“I bet they’re delicious,” added Emma.
“I went for the classic chocolate today,” I announced. I opened the lid, and everyone started to ooh and aah.
“We should save them for after lunch,” Alexis said.
“Are you kidding? I can’t wait!” Mia took hers out of the box.
“I’ll wait,” Emma said. “I like to save the best for last—especially in this case. They smell delicious though.”
Mia bit into her cupcake. A slow smile came across her face. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Alexis and Emma headed to the lunch line. When they got back, Alexis looked agitated.
“You will not believe what those so-called popular girls just did!” she said, fuming. “Emma and I were waiting in line, and Marcus Ridgely was standing in front of us, and that girl Sydney came up with those other girls, and Sydney was like, ‘Hey, Marcus, we’re behind you, okay?’ and then they cut right in front of us!”
“Right in front of us,” Emma echoed.
“Did you say anything?” Mia asked.
“Well, no,” Alexis admitted. “But what’s the point? It’s not like they were going to move. They think because they’re in some club, that gives them special privileges or something. It’s annoying. I can’t stand them!”
I looked down at my sandwich. I totally understood why Alexis was upset. But still—she was talking about Callie.
“Alexis, Katie’s friend is one of them,” Emma said quietly.
Alexis’s face turned red. “I know. I’m sorry. I mean, I’m sure your friend is nice. Maybe you get brainwashed or something when you join the Popular Girls Club.”
“Not all clubs are bad,” Mia said. “At my old school we had a Fashion Club. And a club for kids who like movies. Stuff like that.”
“Well, that makes sense,” Alexis said. “Those clubs are about something real. Not something made-up, like being popular.”
I picked up my cupcake. “You know what would be the coolest club ever? A Cupcake Club!” I was mostly kidding around. “You don’t have to be popular to join. You just have to like cupcakes.”
Alexis grinned. “Now that is a club I could like!”
“The Cupcake Club,” Emma repeated. “It sounds like fun.”
“We should totally do it,” Mia said.
“Really?” I asked.
She nodded. “Why not? This school needs more clubs.”
I was getting into the idea. “We could have our meetings every Friday at lunch. That’s when I bring cupcakes in anyway.”
“I like to make cupcakes too,” said Emma. “I could bring them in sometimes.”
“Maybe we should take turns,” Alexis suggested. “I could make up a schedule for all of us.”
“Good idea, except I’ve never made a cupcake before in my life,” Mia told us.
“Not even from a mix?” I asked.
Mia shook her head. “We always got them from the bakery down
the street. They were soooo good.”
“But ours will be better,” Alexis said confidently. “Although I don’t have a lot of cupcake-making experience either. I know mine won’t be as good as yours, Katie.”
“It’s easy,” I assured her. “You just have to follow a recipe.”
Then I thought about the first few times I made cupcakes by myself. Mom was always there to help me. She taught me some tricks that weren’t in any recipe. “You guys should come to my house this weekend,” I blurted out. “We can have a cupcake-making session.”
“A cupcake lesson,” said Mia. “That sounds like fun.”
“I just need to ask my mom,” I said. “I’ll call everyone tonight, okay?”
I was really excited about the Cupcake Club. Still, I found myself looking over at Callie. Callie loved to make cupcakes as much as I did. It was weird to think of being in a Cupcake Club without Callie.
Would Callie leave the Popular Girls Club to become a member of the Cupcake Club?
Somehow, I didn’t think so.
CHAPTER 11
It’s Time to Make Some Cupcakes!
So, how many girls are in the club?” my mom asked me as we ate our pizza that night.
“Four,” I said. “Me, Mia, Emma, and Alexis.”
Mom nodded. “Did you invite Callie to join?”
“I was thinking about it,” I said honestly. “I just don’t . . . I don’t know if she wants to. She kind of made other friends this year.”
There, I said it. It was the first time I’d told my mom about what happened with Callie. I felt relieved.
“That happens sometimes,” Mom said gently. “People grow up, and they change sometimes. It happened to me in fifth grade. A new girl came to our school, and my best friend, Sally, suddenly became best friends with the new girl instead. I was really, really sad. But then I met new friends.”
It was hard to imagine my mom as a little girl. I pictured her going to school in her dentist coat. But I knew what she meant.
“Callie and I said we’d still hang out sometimes,” I told my mom. “I think I’m going to text her.”
I sent the text after dinner.
Hey Cal. Making cupcakes tomorrow at 2. Wanna come?
Callie texted me back.
Sounds like fun! Wish I could go but I’m going to the mall. Maybe next time?
I texted back.
Sure.
I was a little disappointed, but not too much. I knew tomorrow was going to be fun, even without Callie.
“Callie’s not coming,” I told my mom. “Can we call the other girls now?”
“Of course,” Mom replied. “I was thinking we could do simple cupcakes—vanilla with chocolate icing. I think we’re out of sugar, but we can shop in the morning.”
“Let’s do something different on top,” I suggested. “What about those little chocolate candies covered with white candy dots? That would be cool with a vanilla and chocolate cupcake.”
Mom grinned. “Perfect!”
“And, um, Mom?” I said. “We might, you know, need some help, but I’m thinking that if we’re going to be a Cupcake Club, we should learn to make them on our own.”
“Oh!” Mom said, and I was afraid I hurt her feelings. “Well, I’ll have to be home, of course, but that sounds right to me. You can just yell if you need me.”
Sometimes Mom surprises me. For someone so corny, she can sometimes be very cool.
By two o’clock the next day, we were ready for the first official meeting of the Cupcake Club to begin. I helped Mom wash the yellow tiles on the floor and scrub the kitchen table until there wasn’t a crumb on it. We got out our cupcake tins, the flour sifter, Mom’s big red mixer, the glass measuring cup, and the little cup with the bird on it that holds the measuring spoons.
Finally, the doorbell rang. Mia was standing there.
“Hi,” she said when I opened the door.
Then a blue minivan pulled up in front of the house, and Emma and Alexis got out, along with the woman driving the van. She was short, with blond hair that she wore in a ponytail. She was wearing a sweatshirt with a hummingbird on it, jeans, and sneakers.
“You must be Katie,” she said, holding out her hand to shake mine. “I’m Wendy Taylor, Emma’s mom. I was hoping I could meet your mom.”
My mom magically appeared in the doorway. “Wendy, nice to meet you in person. I’m Sharon. Please come inside.”
The moms walked in ahead of us, and Emma gave me an apologetic look.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “My mom is really over-protective.”
I smiled. “I know how you feel. My mom’s the same way.”
I led the girls into the kitchen.
“Whoa. It’s like cupcake central,” Mia remarked.
“We bake a lot of cupcakes,” I admitted. “So we’ve got all the stuff.”
We have a big closet in our kitchen that Mom calls the pantry. One whole shelf has all the stuff we need to bake cupcakes, cakes, and cookies: icing tubes, sprinkles, plastic decorations like balloons and flowers that you can stick into the top of a cupcake—stuff like that.
I opened the door to show the girls. “Everything we need is in here,” I said. I started grabbing things and handing them to everyone. “Flour. Baking powder. Sugar. Vanilla.”
“Don’t you use a mix?” Alexis asked.
“Mom says it’s just as easy to do it from scratch, and at least you know what’s going in it,” I said.
I got two eggs out of the refrigerator and picked up the butter that had been softening on the counter.
“That should do it for now.” I nodded to the sink. “Before we start, we should all wash our hands.”
“Wow, you are a strict teacher,” Mia joked.
I laughed. “Can you imagine if Mrs. Moore taught us how to make cupcakes?” I did my best to imitate her voice, which was kind of deep and a little bit musical. “Concentration is the key to succeeding in this class, students! Without concentration, you won’t be able to make your cupcakes.”
Alexis and Emma started giggling like crazy.
“That is too perfect,” Alexis said. “Can you do Ms. Biddle?”
I thought for a minute. Ms. Biddle had an upbeat voice, like a cheerleader. And she always made everything about science.
“Who wants to make a hypothesis about how these cupcakes will taste?” I asked.
Mia raised her hand. “Delicious!”
“Wait, I can do Ms. Chen,” Alexis said. She made her back really straight. “Look alive, people! It’s time to make some cupcakes!”
By then I was cracking up so hard, my stomach hurt. That’s when Mom walked in.
“I never knew cupcakes were so funny,” she said.
I went back into my Mrs. Moore voice. “You are late, Mrs. Brown! Detention!”
That just made everyone laugh even harder. Mom shook her head and smiled.
“Emma, your mom will be back for you and Alexis at four,” she told us. “So, girls, get started. I’ll be in the den if you need me.”
I kind of led the cupcake demonstration. First we mixed the eggs, butter, and sugar together in the mixer. We added the vanilla. Then we sifted the dry ingredients together in another bowl: the flour, baking powder, and salt. Everybody took turns measuring. When it was Alexis’s turn to sift the flour, it puffed up like a cloud and settled on her face like powder.
“No flour in this classroom! Detention!” I cried out in my Mrs. Moore voice, and we all laughed again.
Then we slowly mixed the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together using the mixer. When it was all done, Mom popped in to check on us and showed us how to use an ice-cream scoop to put the perfect amount of batter into each cupcake cup, which is good because I always forget that part and they kind of get big and explode. Then we had to wait while the cupcakes baked. That was okay, because we had to clean up the whole mess we made. When the cupcakes were cooling, we used the mixer again to make chocolate icing.
I’
ve always thought that icing the cupcakes is the hardest part. Mom got us special flat knives to use, but it’s still kind of hard.
Alexis and Emma were struggling with the icing, just like me. But when Mia put it on, it was smooth and perfect.
“I thought you never did this before?” I asked.
“I haven’t,” Mia said. She looked really happy. “I guess I have a hidden talent for icing cupcakes.”
“Mine looks like a very sad cupcake,” Emma said, holding hers up.
“I know what will make it happy,” I told her. I took out the bag of chocolate candies Mom and I had bought and put one right in the middle. “See? Perfect!”
“It does look better,” Emma agreed.
Everyone dug into the bag and we decorated the top of each cupcake. Emma, Alexis, and I put a single candy in the middle of each one. Mia got really creative. On one, she put the candies all around the edge of the cupcake. It looked really cool. She also made some look like flowers.
“You’re a natural,” I told her.
Mia beamed. “Can I try making the cupcakes for lunch next Friday? I really think I can do it.”
“Sure,” I said. “You can always call if you need help.”
Before we knew it, it was four o’clock. Mom had small boxes for everyone so they could take some cupcakes home. Emma took home the most: one for each of her parents and her brothers.
There was some stuff to clean up after the girls left, but I didn’t mind. Mom helped.
“It looks like the Cupcake Club got off to a good start,” she remarked.
I smiled at her. “I think you’re right!”
CHAPTER 12
Middle School Roller Coaster
Something happened after we formed the Cupcake Club: Middle school got a little bit easier.
Honest! For example, my locker started opening up on the first try. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Alexis says I probably just loosened up the insides of the lock so it opens more easily, but I don’t believe it. I’d rather think that the superpowers of the Cupcake Club defeated my evil alien locker.