by Coco Simon
“Hey, maybe we should do a sports theme,” Katie suggested.
“I don’t know,” I said. “A sports theme seems kind of elementary school, doesn’t it? Maybe there’s a way to make it older. You know, sporty but suave.”
Katie put down her spoon and looked at me. “Did you actually say ‘sporty but suave’? What the heck does that mean?”
She started giggling, and Alexis and Emma joined in.
“You know, suave. Like, sophisticated,” I said, but I was starting to giggle too. It did sound pretty silly.
“There is nothing suave about my brothers and their friends, trust me,” Emma said.
“How about sporty but sweaty?” Katie suggested, and my friends collapsed into giggles again.
“Okay, okay!” I said. “But, seriously, hear me out. We don’t want them to look like little kiddie cupcakes.”
“Honestly, those boys won’t care what they look like,” Emma pointed out. “We could do a bunch of Plain Janes and they would be happy.”
In the cupcake world, a Plain Jane is a vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing. They’re very popular and very delicious, but not terribly exciting, either.
Alexis shook her head. “Every job we have is a business opportunity. We have to make our cupcakes stand out. There will be a lot of kids there, and if they remember our cupcakes, they might go home and tell their parents about them. We need to drum up more business.”
“Definitely!” I agreed. “I need to make some extra money if I want that great pair of Kara Karen shoes I saw.”
Now it was Katie’s turn to roll her eyes. “Oh boy. Here she goes.”
I took out my phone and called up my favorite picture of the shoes.
“Aren’t they gorgeous?” I gushed, holding the phone out so Emma and Alexis could see.
“Ooh, they’re pretty!” Emma agreed.
“Dylan would love those,” said Alexis. Her older sister is totally into fashion. “But they don’t look very comfortable.”
“That’s exactly what I said!” Katie chimed in.
“Sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort for fashion,” I told them, which is something my mom says. I sighed and put my phone away. I love my Cupcake Club friends, but they definitely do not care about fashion the way that I do. “Anyway, they’re way expensive. I’m trying to save up for them, but it’s going to take forever!”
“You know, I have a few more dogs than I can really handle this weekend,” Emma said. Besides the Cupcake Club, she has her own dog-walking business. “Why don’t you help me? I’ll split the fee with you. It isn’t much, but it will help.”
“That would be great!” I replied, and then I remembered. “But I’m going to be with my dad all weekend.”
“Maybe the weekend after that, then,” Emma said.
“That would be very awesome,” I said. I wished I could earn the money right then, but I guessed I would just have to wait a little longer for my shoes.
“So, we still need a plan for these cupcakes,” Alexis prompted, bringing us back on track.
I pushed my empty soup bowl aside and took out my sketchbook. I always have one on me.
“Give me a second,” I said, and I closed my eyes and started envisioning what I thought the cupcakes should look like. In a few seconds my pencil was quickly moving over the paper.
“So, for the basketball team it’s kind of obvious to decorate the round cupcakes to look like basketballs,” I said. “But we don’t have to go with orange icing and piped on laces. Maybe we could have a ball sticking on top of each cupcake.”
“Ooh, we could make chocolate basketballs with a mold and use those,” Katie suggested.
I picked up a blue pencil and kept sketching. “Then maybe for the swim team we could do blue icing and pipe waves onto it or something.”
“I like how there’s a different cupcake for each team,” Alexis said.
Emma nodded. “My brothers will like that, because there’s a special one for each of them.”
“So what about flavors?” Alexis asked.
“Let me ask Matt and Sam what they want,” Emma said.
Alexis looked satisfied. “Sounds like we have a plan.”
“And it might not be suave, but I definitely think this is sporty chic,” I said.
Katie shook her head. “Again, what does that even mean?”
I grinned. “It means that these cupcakes will be fabulous!”
“As always,” Alexis added.
“So we’re not doing sweaty cupcakes?” Katie asked, and we all started laughing again.
I love my Cupcake friends!
CHAPTER 6
I’m Not Sure What to Think
On Thursday morning I went to my locker before homeroom as usual to put in the books I didn’t need and make sure I had the ones I did. And, as usual, Olivia was already there, looking in the mirror.
“Hi, Mia!” she said. “I just can’t get this headband right. What do you think?”
She had on a blue headband, and as always, her hair looked perfect. There wasn’t a strand out of place.
“Perfect!” I told her. Then I made a move to put my books in my locker.
But Olivia just turned back to the mirror. “How can you say that? I look terrible!” And then she started messing with her hair again.
“Well, the bell’s going to ring soon,” I told her.
“I know! It’s so unfair. I can’t go to class looking like this!” she wailed.
She had not taken my hint at all. I stood right next to her as she fussed some more. Then, finally, the bell rang.
I sighed. Now I’d have to rush to get to my locker between homeroom and first period. I hated doing that. But I guess I could understand. I know what it’s like to have a bad hair day. Like, sometimes I swear I look like a monster, and Mom tells me I look beautiful.
Anyway, I couldn’t wait until lunch because I had done some new, improved sketches of the basketball and swim-team cupcakes, and I was eager to show my friends. The morning crawled by and then, finally, it was lunchtime. I waited until we were done eating so the drawings wouldn’t get messed up, and then I took out my sketchbook.
“Hey, so last night I—” I began, but Olivia interrupted me.
“Oh my gosh, the funniest thing happened in math class!” she said. “I totally forgot to tell you guys. You know Pat Delaney, right? So, Mr. Rodriguez called her to the board and she took like, two steps and then she totally tripped on her shoelaces! And then she tried to stop herself from falling and she was, like, waving her arms all over the place. It was hilarious!”
“That doesn’t sound hilarious to me,” Katie said. “I like Pat. She’s really cool.”
“Was she hurt?” Emma asked.
Olivia shrugged. “I guess not. Anyway, it was just funny. She’s, like, a total spaz.”
“If you ever saw her play softball, you wouldn’t say that,” Alexis pointed out.
“Yeah,” I joined in. “Pat is awesome. It’s not cool to make fun of her like that.”
Olivia held up both hands in protest. “Whoa, chill out! It’s, like, classic comedy, right? You’re supposed to laugh when someone falls down.”
I saw Alexis shoot a look to Katie and Emma, a kind of raised-eyebrow look. At that moment, I started feeling bad for Olivia all over again. Maybe in her old school that kind of thing was funny.
I also noticed that when Katie and I took the bus, we never talked about Olivia, not since that first day. A couple of times I tried to bring Olivia up, but Katie would always change the subject. So after a while, I just stopped mentioning her.
“I can’t believe you have to go to your dad’s this weekend,” Katie said. “That movie about the polar bears is opening.”
“I know,” I answered. “But I promise I won’t see it without you. Maybe we can go next week.”
“Then I promise not to see it either,” Katie said. “It’ll be more fun if we go together.”
That night, after soccer practice, hom
ework, and dinner, I remembered I had volunteered to bring in the Friday cupcakes.
“Mom, what should I do? I totally forgot,” I told her.
“I can help you,” she said. “Anyway, you can make cupcakes in your sleep by now, can’t you?”
I wanted to make something special for Olivia’s first cupcake, but my best thing is decorating, so we went with chocolate cupcakes and chocolate frosting. Then I rolled out some light blue fondant, which is this creamy sugar paste that you can sculpt, or roll out and cut shapes from it. When you see flowers on fancy wedding cakes, they’re usually made of fondant.
Anyway, I’ve been trying to perfect my fondant flowers, and this was a good chance to practice. I cut the flattened fondant into circles and then rolled them up, so they looked like little roses. Then I cut out some tiny green leaves.
The finished cupcakes looked beautiful—shiny chocolate icing topped with perfect blue roses.
“Mia, they’re beautiful!” Mom said when we were done. “You are becoming such a professional!”
I hugged her. “I couldn’t have done them without you. Thanks!”
When I got to school the next morning, Olivia was happy with her hair and her lip gloss, so I had plenty of time to get into my locker before homeroom. I had the cupcakes with me in a small plastic cupcake box, and I carefully placed it on top of my books.
After first period I realized that I had forgotten to take out my English notebook for second period, so I quickly ran to my locker. When I opened it up, I saw some of Olivia’s books piled on my shelf again, on top of the cupcake box.
I shook my head. It’s a good thing I hadn’t used a cardboard box, or the cupcakes would have been ruined. I moved Olivia’s books to the bottom shelf and then went to grab my English notebook—only it wasn’t there.
“Oh, come on!” I said, frustrated. I know my notebook was in there. I had a feeling I knew what had happened—Olivia must have taken it by mistake.
I was about to be late for class, so there was nothing I could do but go to class without my notebook. Friday is the day that our teacher, Ms. Harmeyer, checks to make sure we’ve written journal entries.
When I got to class, Ms. Harmeyer told us to read chapter twelve in the novels we were working on and to pass up our notebooks. I hated not having something to pass up. After a few minutes, I heard her call out, “Ms. Vélaz-Cruz. No notebook today?”
“Well, I’m sharing my locker with Olivia Allen, and I think she took it by mistake,” I said.
The teacher shook her head. “You girls simply have to get more organized,” she said in a frustrated voice, and I could feel myself blush. It wasn’t fair! After all, I was just trying to help out one of my fellow classmates.
I didn’t mention anything to Olivia during gym, but I did bring it up at lunch, as soon as we sat down. Katie was the only other person at the table.
“Olivia, did you take my English notebook by mistake?” I asked. “It’s a red composition book.”
“Oh, that? Yeah, it looks just like my science book,” she said. “Oops!”
“Well, maybe that’s why we should keep our books on separate shelves,” I said, trying to be as tactful as possible. “Then this kind of thing wouldn’t happen.”
“Mmm hmm,” Olivia said, but she wasn’t even really listening to me. She was gazing over at the BFC table. “Wow, that is a great jacket Callie is wearing, isn’t it?”
I am so easily distracted by fashion! I looked over and saw that Callie was wearing a really cool black jacket with no buttons and sort of puffy shoulders.
“Very cute,” I agreed.
Emma and Alexis came to the table with trays of burgers and carrot sticks. Emma eyed the plastic cupcake box.
“Ooh, what did you make, Mia? I bet they’re beautiful!” she said.
I opened the box and gently took out a cupcake.
“I’m practicing my fondant flowers. What do you think?” I asked.
Olivia answered right away. “Oh my gosh, Mia, that is gorgeous!” she squealed. “You are, like, soooo talented! I bet you could go on one of those cupcake competition shows and win, like, a million dollars.”
“Well, I couldn’t go on without the Cupcake Club,” I said. “We’re a team.”
“But I bet nobody but you can do flowers like these,” Olivia gushed. “They’re fabulous! You are probably the best cupcake maker in America—no, change that—the best cupcake maker in the entire world!” I blushed at the praise. I was pleased but also a little embarrassed.
“Do we want to talk about flavors?” Emma asked. “I got some suggestions from my brothers about the kind of cupcakes they like. Maybe we could go over them after we eat.”
Alexis gave Emma a look again, and I saw Katie give kind of a nod.
“Actually, we all have a lot of studying to do right now,” Alexis said. “We can do it at our next meeting.”
Emma nodded without a word, and I was left feeling weird. I didn’t know what to make of the secret looks my friends were giving one another. I felt kind of excluded. On the other hand, I wasn’t really sure what to make of Olivia either. All this locker stuff was starting to get on my nerves.
Believe me, when your new friend and your old friends are starting to bug you, it doesn’t feel good!
CHAPTER 7
Katie Vents
Katie and I tell each other everything, so on the bus ride home, I told her about Olivia and the locker.
“And then I didn’t have my English notebook for class, and you should have seen the look that Ms. Harmeyer gave me,” I told Katie. “And the worst thing is, Olivia didn’t even apologize to me.”
“Mia, I’m so glad you said that!” Katie said. “I didn’t want to say anything before, because I didn’t know how you felt, but I just don’t like Olivia. I really wish we didn’t have to eat lunch with her.”
I was surprised. Katie was always polite to Olivia, and I guess I’d always assumed that my friends liked Olivia, just like I did.
“Katie, I’m just a little annoyed with the locker situation,” I said. “But I really like Olivia.”
Now it was Katie’s turn to be surprised. “Oh, I thought you were just being nice to her because she’s new. You mean you really like her? But she can be so mean!”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Like how she thought it was funny when Pat Delaney tripped,” Katie said. “And Alexis has English with her, and she says Olivia makes rude comments about how everyone looks during most of the class. Well, except for Alexis. I think Olivia knows you won’t be friends with her anymore if she does that.”
I shook my head. “Honestly, Katie, I’ve never heard her do that. And as for Pat, I don’t think that’s such a big deal.”
“So you seriously like her?” Katie asked. “I can’t believe it!”
I started to get mad. “We have things in common. Besides, you’ve only known her for, like, a week. We need to give her a chance. When I first came here, it took a while before anybody even talked to me besides you and Alexis and Emma. What am I supposed to say? ‘Sorry, but you can’t eat with us anymore’? What’s she supposed to do then? Sit all by herself?”
Katie held up both hands in protest. “Okay, okay, I get it. I don’t want to hurt her feelings or anything,” she said. “She can still sit with us if she wants to.”
“Of course she wants to,” I said.
“But I don’t think she can be in the Cupcake Club,” Katie said. “At least not now, anyway.”
That sounded fair. “Fine,” I said.
Secretly, I thought Katie was a little jealous. It really hurt her when Callie ditched her to join the Popular Girls Club. So I think she’s worried that I’m going to do the same thing. Sometimes, when I go to the mall with Sophie and Lucy, these two girls I met last year who are pretty cool, Katie does this whole thing where she acts like it doesn’t bother her, but I can tell it really does.
“You know, just because I’m friends with Olivia doesn�
�t mean I’ll stop being friends with you,” I told her.
“I know,” Katie said, but she sounded a little sad.
Then I started to sing this song I learned at summer camp. “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold!”
Katie burst out laughing. “You are crazy,” she told me, and then I knew that everything was okay between us.
Then the bus pulled up at the stop at the end of her block.
“Have a good weekend,” I said.
Katie waved. “Yeah, have fun with your dad!”
A few stops later, I got off the bus, walked down the block, and found Eddie waiting for me by the front door.
“Your mom’s at a meeting, so I’m on train station duty,” he informed me. “She said you packed last night.”
I nodded. “My bag is upstairs. I just have to pick it up and get my toothbrush.”
Since my parents divorced, I have become an expert in packing. If I bring too much stuff, my bag is too heavy to drag through the train station. But I also have to make sure I’m prepared for anything I do over the weekend, from hanging out outside to going to dinner in a nice restaurant. Once, my dad took me shopping, and I got a jacket and some clothes that I keep in my old bedroom, so that helps a lot.
Oh, and I also have to bring my school backpack, which can be extremely heavy. So my clothes suitcase is the kind that’s on wheels, so I can pull it around. The hardest part is going up and down stairs with everything.
Eddie’s really nice, and he helped me carry my stuff to the car and put it in the trunk. I climbed into the passenger seat and then put on my seat belt, and we headed to the train station.
“So what’s new and exciting?” Eddie asked.
“Not much,” I said, but then I found myself launching into the whole Olivia story. “There’s this new girl, Olivia, and we’re sharing a locker because there isn’t one for her. I like her, but the locker thing is getting kind of annoying. She takes forever looking in the mirror when I’m trying to get my stuff. And she’s supposed to keep her stuff on the bottom shelf, but she puts it on the top shelf with mine, and it gets mixed up.”