Aly looked at the mirror. Charlotte had a point.
“How about . . . ‘Sparkle at the Sparkle Spa!’ on top?” Lily suggested.
“And then ‘Call for your appointment’ with the phone number on the bottom?” Charlotte added. “If you leave off the information about school pictures, then you can use these mirrors for a long time.”
“I wonder—” Aly started to say, but before she had a chance, someone pulled on the chain between Aly and Charlotte—the one that attached that side of the tire to the playground equipment.
“Whoa!” Aly said, quickly grabbing it.
“Hey!” Charlotte said at the same time, falling on top of Aly.
“What are you doing?” Lily asked, looking over her shoulder.
Aly turned. Of course. It was Suzy Davis.
For the past few weeks, Suzy had pretty much left Aly and her friends alone. Aly figured it was because Suzy was still embarrassed that her mom forced her to intern at the Sparkle Spa even though she didn’t want to, which very nearly ended in an enormous disaster. Unfortunately, now it looked like Suzy was done with the “leaving alone” part.
Suzy shrugged. “Just saying hi,” she said.
“Saying hi doesn’t have to involve almost throwing a person from a tire swing,” Charlotte said, righting herself.
“Hi,” Aly said, ignoring the fact that she’d almost been tossed to the ground too.
“So, what were you talking about?” Suzy asked.
“None of your business,” Charlotte answered. Aly could tell she was mad about Suzy butting in, as usual.
“I heard you say ‘Picture Day.’ Are you doing something totally dorky at the Sparkle Spa for Picture Day?” Suzy asked, rolling her eyes.
Aly felt her blood start to boil. She tried not to be mean to Suzy, but then Suzy went and said something like that, something insulting the Sparkle Spa, and that made it really hard not to be mean right back. Aly closed her eyes like her mom did sometimes when she needed a minute to calm down.
“We do special promotions for all important activities at Auden Elementary,” Aly said when she opened her eyes again.
“Well, just so you know, I’m starting a business now too,” Suzy said, straight to Aly. “And it’s going to open on Picture Day, and it’s going to be so much better than your spa in the stinky back room of your mom’s dumb salon. I bet all you’re doing for Picture Day is a lame Special Occasion Manicure.”
“Suzy Davis!” Charlotte yelled.
Charlotte shifted her body to get off the tire swing and face Suzy head-on.
Aly took a deep breath and put her hand on Charlotte’s arm. “That’s nice, Suzy,” she said. “I hope your business works out.”
Lily looked at Aly and then nodded. “I hope so too,” she said.
Charlotte huffed. “Yeah,” she said.
Before anyone could say anything else, Caleb walked over. He looked from Suzy to his sister and asked, “Is there a problem here?”
Caleb and Charlotte’s dad was in charge of security for a major company in town, and Caleb wanted to be just like his dad. Sometimes when the Sparkle Spa had special promotion manicures and pedicures he worked “security.”
“No problem,” Aly said quickly.
And just as quickly, Suzy snapped, “Tire swings are babyish,” and walked away.
Charlotte smiled at her brother. “Thank you,” she said. “That’s like the millionth time you’ve gotten rid of Suzy Davis for us in the past three months!”
“Only the third,” Caleb said, looking down at his sneakers. “Anyway, I was wondering if one of you might want to play basketball. We need another player.”
“And by ‘one of you,’ you mean Lily.” Charlotte laughed.
“Well, or you,” her brother said. “You’re really good when we shoot hoops at home.”
Charlotte shook her head. “Too many elbows at school,” she said.
Lily was already hopping off the tire swing. “I don’t mind the elbows.”
“Cool,” Caleb said and then knocked her with his elbow. She laughed.
“Want to cheer them on?” Charlotte asked Aly.
Aly and Charlotte hopped off the swing. As they walked over to the basketball court, Aly couldn’t help but think about the Sparkle Spa. What would be the best thing to have written on the mirrors? And what was Suzy Davis’s business going to be? Should they do something even more special at the Sparkle Spa for Picture Day so it was sure to be better than whatever Suzy had planned? And did anyone else think Special Occasion Manicures were lame? Aly certainly hoped not. She’d have to talk to Brooke later.
Why oh why did Suzy Davis always have to pop up so unexpectedly?
four
Lemon Aid
After school that day Aly and Brooke went to True Colors. Some days Aly had swimming lessons and Brooke had art class, but even when it was a non–Sparkle Spa day, they still tried to help their mom in her busy salon.
As Aly and Brooke walked through the front door, the bell jingled. Everyone looked up. All the manicurists waved, and some of the customers said hello too. A lot of them had been going to the salon for years—from as far back as Aly could remember—and had known the sisters since they were babies.
“Hi, girls,” Mom said from manicure station number one, where she was giving Miss Nina a manicure. In addition to working at the pet store, Miss Nina was a True Colors regular who loved getting rhinestones on her pinkies. Just like the Picture-Perfect Pinkies manicure.
“Hi, Mom,” Brooke answered. “I can’t wait to tell you about the sculpture we’re doing in art class. It’s called a storyteller, and it has really long arms, and then there’s people on—”
“But we know you have a customer right now, so we’ll save the rest of the story for later. Right, Brooke?” Aly said, grabbing her sister’s hand and pulling her toward the polish wall.
At least twice a day the polish wall in True Colors needed reorganizing. Customers never seemed to put the colors back in the right spots, so the Deep Blue Sea ended up next to Lemon Aid, and Ruby Red Slippers ended up next to Plum Delicious. The same thing happened in the Sparkle Spa.
Once the polish wall looked like a beautiful rainbow, the girls headed to the back. Joan—their favorite manicurist, Mom’s best friend, and the best baker in town—told the girls, “There are oatmeal craisin cookies in the mini-fridge.”
“Yum and thanks!” Brooke and Aly said together.
Spread out on the pillows in the Sparkle Spa and munching on Joan’s cookies, Aly took out the mirror sketch. “No one liked our design, but we need to order the mirrors today, because it takes at least ten days for them to get here. That will give us time to hand them out before Picture Day.”
Brooke took the paper and then pushed her yellow glasses back up her nose. She had three different pairs of glasses in three different colors. Brooke loved the idea of being able to choose either pink, yellow, or blue so they’d match her outfits. “I thought our design was really good,” she said, then sighed. “Oh well. Back to the drawing board.”
Brooke ripped out a piece of paper from her math notebook and started sketching. Two minutes later she handed it to Aly.
Sparkle at the Sparkle Spa!
Call for a Picture Day appointment!
“I like it, Brooke,” Aly said. “We’ll order them tonight.”
Brooke eyed Aly. “Why are you in such a rush? What’s going on?”
Aly wasn’t good at keeping anything from her sister.
“Two words: Suzy Davis. She came over to the tire swing today at recess and told us she’s starting a business for Picture Day. And she said our Special Occasion Manicures are lame.”
Even though Aly didn’t want to believe it, once again Suzy was interfering with the Sparkle Spa. She sighed.
But Brooke wasn’t sad. “Forget Suzy, Aly. We’ll do something even more special than Picture-Perfect Pinkies and the mirrors. Just to make sure our business is better.”
Brooke began: “Glitt
er hair bows? Sparkle strings that you can loop into people’s hair?”
Aly shook her head.
“Temporary tattoos? Feathers?”
Aly shook her head.
“Daisy clips? Headbands?”
Aly shook her head again and then looked over at the beads and bracelet-making materials tucked away next to the floor pillows. “Maybe this is boring,” she said, “but what about bracelets?”
“Definitely boring,” Brooke said.
“Well . . . how about beaded necklaces with different charms? Like soccer balls or cleats or toe shoes for dancers or musical instruments and books and basketballs! Paintbrushes! And nail polish bottles!”
“That’s so cool!” Brooke said. “But can we afford to buy charms and mirrors? We might have to choose.”
Aly ducked into True Colors and borrowed Mom’s phone to search on the Internet.
The sisters searched and searched and finally found gold and silver charms that weren’t that expensive. The charms clipped right onto any type of necklace.
But there was one problem: The charms wouldn’t arrive until two days before Picture Day.
“We’ll be the fastest charm clippers ever. And Lily, Sophie, and Charlotte can help. And whatever Suzy has planned, our necklaces will be better. Let’s start stringing the beads right away.”
“Right away? Picture Day’s not for another two and a half weeks!” Aly said.
“You can never be prepared with too many necklaces,” Brooke said very seriously.
Aly bit her lip to keep from laughing. “You’re right, Brookie,” she said. “Okay, let’s get stringing.”
As the girls started sliding beads onto fishing wire, Aly thought that School Picture Day might be their biggest Sparkle Spa promotion yet. Well, as long as the girls actually were the fastest charm clippers ever.
five
I Love Blue, Too
Hey, wait!” Lily called to Aly and Brooke. “The rest of us can’t keep up!”
Aly and Brooke were racewalking to the Sparkle Spa from Auden Elementary, pumping their arms so quickly that they were short of breath.
“We’ll meet you there!” Brooke called over her shoulder. “It’s mirror delivery day. Arnold should be there any minute. Right, Aly?”
Aly checked her watch: 3:14. “One minute until Arnold!” she said.
Arnold was the deliveryman for True Colors. He usually dropped off boxes of nail polish and supplies, and he always made it to the salon at exactly 3:15. Before the Sparkle Spa started, Aly used to sign for almost all the deliveries, but now she wasn’t always around when a package arrived.
“How many did we get again?” Brooke asked. True Colors was in sight now, just a few stores away.
“One hundred!” Aly said.
“I see him!” Charlotte yelled from down the block.
Arnold’s truck drove down the street and stopped in front of True Colors just as Aly and Brooke arrived. Aly took a moment to wipe the sweat off her forehead. Racewalking was hard work.
“Hi there, girls.”
Arnold climbed out of his truck. “I have a delivery today for you two.”
Aly signed for the package—because, according to their mom, Brooke wasn’t allowed to until she could write her name in neat script—and handed the box to Brooke.
Lily, Charlotte, and Sophie finally made it to True Colors as Arnold pulled away.
“Can we see?” Sophie asked.
Aly sent Brooke a Secret Sister Eye Message: Inside? And Brooke sent Aly one back: Yes.
“Follow us,” Brooke said.
On the way back to the Sparkle Spa, Aly quickly poured some water into Sparkly’s bowl and picked up a pair of scissors from the front desk. With her friends sitting around, Aly slid the scissors across the tape on the top of the box.
Brooke pulled open the flaps and lifted up the mounds of packing peanuts. Then she let out a breath. “They’re beautiful.”
Aly leaned over. They were beautiful. The mirrors were shiny with bright blue writing and pink rhinestones.
“Wow,” Lily added. “Those came out really nice. This is such a great way to advertise the salon.”
Sophie picked one up and turned it over in her hands. Then she looked at herself in the mirror. “I think these mirrors make people look especially good,” she said. “I look better in this mirror than I do in the one in my room at home.”
Brooke laughed. “You’re a nut, Sophie,” she said.
“No, I’m serious!” Sophie answered, handing over the mirror. “Take a look!”
Brooke looked at her reflection. “Hey! I think she’s right!”
“Oh my gosh, she is right,” Charlotte said.
Aly wasn’t totally sure she agreed, though maybe her eyes did look a little greener than usual.
“It’s like these are magical mirrors,” Lily said. “We should tell that to everyone. That they’re magical. Then one hundred won’t be nearly enough.”
Aly looked at her watch. 3:21! “The Sparkle Spa opens in nine minutes and we haven’t finished our homework yet!”
The girls raced to get their notebooks out of their backpacks. Luckily, it was a Friday, so they didn’t have much to do. Sophie and Brooke worked together on their science worksheet about leaves. Aly, Charlotte, and Lily started on their weekend reading.
According to Mom’s rules, the girls were supposed to finish all their homework before the salon opened, but Aly knew she’d have to do some more reading tomorrow. No way could she finish a whole chapter of The War with Grandpa in nine minutes. Charlotte and Lily were in different reading groups—Chocolate Fever and Jelly Belly. The class was doing a Robert Kimmel Smith unit.
After Aly read three pages, there was a knock on the Sparkle Spa door frame. Clementine and Tuesday, third graders from Auden, were there for manicures. And a fourth grader named Eliza followed them—she had a Just Peachy pedicure appointment.
Before the girls could even sit down, Brooke grabbed three mirrors from the box and handed them out. “We’re giving a manicure called Picture-Perfect Pinkies for Picture Day. And we’re also going to be making necklaces with different charms on them, which you can buy. But the mirrors are free!”
Charlotte gave Eliza a paper listing all the charms. She’d printed it out on her computer at home. “We can make them to order, if you pick a color and a charm,” she said. She’d come up with this idea when Aly had told her that the charms wouldn’t arrive until two days before Picture Day.
“Thanks. This is really nice,” Eliza said. “Do you have any butterfly charms? I used to have a butterfly necklace, but I lost it at summer camp. I was even thinking about wearing my sparkly yellow butterfly shirt for Picture Day.”
“What color is the butterfly on your shirt?” Brooke asked.
“Blue and pink and purple,” Eliza said. “With gold glitter. And I chose the blue sky background.”
Brooke thought for a second. “How about a gold butterfly with a purple beaded necklace?”
Eliza nodded. “That sounds great.”
Charlotte wrote down Eliza’s choice. “And would you liked to book a nail appointment, too?”
“Sure,” Eliza said. “Maybe I’ll get purple to match my necklace.”
“We have purple glitter polish,” Brooke said. “And we can put gold rhinestones on your pinkies.”
Eliza smiled. “You just made me really excited for Picture Day,” she said. “And extra excited to get a butterfly necklace again.”
Charlotte wrote Eliza’s appointment into the calendar and Brooke started talking to Tuesday about bunny charms on a red necklace. It seemed like their School Picture Day necklace plan was a hit so far.
The afternoon went on uneventfully, with girls coming in for lots of manicures and pedicures, admiring the mirrors, making appointments, and picking charms and necklace colors. Until, that is, Suzy Davis arrived.
“Hi,” she said from the doorway. Sparkly followed her in.
Aly groaned.
> Suzy Davis at the Sparkle Spa never meant anything good.
“Hi,” Aly said. She had just finished Keisha Matthews’ striped Red Rover and White Christmas pedicure.
“Who wants to do something extra cool for Picture Day?” Suzy asked, waving a stack of paper in the air.
“They already are,” Brooke snapped. “They’re coming here for Picture-Perfect Pinkies and getting special-order necklaces with fancy charms. And we’re giving away Sparkle Spa mirrors.”
Suzy was silent. But just for a second.
“I’m talking about cooler than necklaces and nail polish,” she began. “I’m talking about shimmer lip gloss and fairy dust! I’m starting a new company for Picture Day, and it’s going to be in the girls’ bathroom near the cafeteria. I’ll put fairy dust and shimmer lip gloss on anyone who wants before they get their picture taken. It’s five dollars. Who wants to sign up?”
“Makeup in a school bathroom?” Brooke said. “That’s weird.”
Aly sent Brooke a Secret Sister Eye Message that meant: Be nice! But she kind of thought it was weird too.
Brooke rolled her eyes. “Or I guess maybe it’s cool to have your makeup done in a school bathroom.”
Suzy ignored her. “So, who wants to sign up? I have flyers that are also sign-up sheets. You just have to fill out the bottom with your name and your grade and give it to me along with five dollars.”
“I have to ask my mom,” Keisha said.
“I don’t have any extra money right now,” a fourth grader named Zorah added.
Suzy looked like she was about to throw a fit. Aly did not want that to happen in the Sparkle Spa.
“Okay, Suzy. You can leave some of those flyers here,” Aly said. “If our customers want, they can take them home and then bring them to you at school.”
Suzy practically shoved half the papers into Aly’s hands. “Okay,” she said. “Whatever. Here.” And then she stormed out of the door.
“Our necklaces are so much better than makeup in a school bathroom,” Brooke said after Suzy left.
Aly totally agreed. She picked up Sparkly and snuggled him close and whispered in his ear, “Why does Suzy always, always have to try to be better than everybody else?”
A Picture-Perfect Mess Page 2