Alexis and the Missing Ingredient

by Coco Simon

  “Yeah, I guess so. Pretty much,” admitted Katie. Now that she was the clear winner in the best-friend sweepstakes, she didn’t exactly seem eager to collect her prize.

  “Wow. I mean, I have never even heard of that girl. And she has clearly never even heard of me, which is just . . . shocking, really. And Ava had the nerve to just go on and on and that girl with her weird nicknames and whatever. Aaargh! It’s just so annoying!”

  “Well, maybe she’s just—” I began lamely.

  Mia wheeled on me. “I’ve had enough of your peacemaking! It can’t be sunshine all the time! I’m sorry if you don’t understand because you and Emma get along perfectly and never fight, but what’s going on around here . . . well, it’s just NOT. OKAY.”

  “Hey!” I said indignantly. “That’s not fair! I never said Emma and I get along perfectly. And what do she and I have to do with this, anyway?”

  “What do you have to do with it? Isn’t it obvious? You’re the lucky one in all this! You have your best friend. She’s still in your class at school. She lives around the corner from you. You’ve been together for a million years, and you know each other inside and out. Your parents are best friends, and you’ll probably marry her brother, and then the two of you will be related for real, and it’s all so perfect, can’t you see?

  “But look at Katie! Dumped by her best friend, Callie, she takes me on even though I’m the new loser, and I’ve still got Ava, who’s fighting her to be my official best friend all the time. And how about me? I don’t know where to turn! I’m trying to make everyone happy all the time and show everyone a good time, and I am just so sick and tired of it!” And with that she burst into tears.

  Katie and I stood there with our jaws hanging open. I’d never seen Mia lose her cool before, and I’d rarely, if ever, seen her cry. Katie and I looked at each other briefly, and then we went to Mia’s side to hug her and pat her back.

  “I’m sorry,” Mia said through her tears. “It’s just too much for me all the time. It’s exhausting.”

  Suddenly, Ava appeared behind Mia. “Hey! I found you!” she said.

  Katie and I looked at her, trying to send her a message to back off, but she didn’t get it.

  You could see the surprise on Ava’s face when she realized Mia was upset.

  “Who was that crazy girl?” demanded Mia.

  “Um . . . what? We’re . . . She’s just a friend of mine. From school. She’s new this year. . . .” stammered Ava, shocked by Mia’s outburst.

  “What, and suddenly you’re best friends even though you’ve only just met?” accused Mia.

  Ouch. I didn’t dare glance at Katie to see how this comment went over. It had to have hurt a lot.

  “So what if she is? Can’t I make some new friends too, or do I just have to hang around and wait for you to come back? Anyway, you’re importing friends now, so what do you really need me for, anyway?” asked Ava, and tears began to fill her eyes.

  Oh boy. It was definitely time to be the peacemaker. “Okay, people,” I said firmly. “Let’s sum this all up, and then we can see what is going on. Mia, you’re hurt because Ava has a great new friend—”

  “That I’ve never even heard of!” Mia interrupted impatiently.

  “Right. That you’ve never heard of. And, Ava, you’re upset because Mia has new friends—”

  “That I hear about all the time!” complained Ava.

  “Right. And Katie’s feelings are hurt, because she doesn’t know where she stands with Mia. In Maple Grove she’s Mia’s best friend, but here . . . Ava is.” I couldn’t believe I’d said that out loud, but at least now it was out there. “And I talk about Emma too much. And”—I decided to go for it—“I don’t really know where I stand with you two, Mia and Katie, because you’re kind of a pair, and Emma and I are a pair. And also Mia and Ava are a pair. And this whole thing is just really awkward!”

  We all stood there in silence for a minute, thinking. Then Mia said quietly, “It’s just really hard.”

  “You know, I think we all just have too many friends,” I said.

  We laughed weakly.

  I tried again. “Look, it’s Taylor Swift!” And everyone laughed again, this time a little more. Better, but still not great.

  I gave it one last try. “Um, not to make this all about me, but do you really think I’m going to marry Matt Taylor?”

  And then everyone was laughing hysterically, and things were definitely on their way to being better.

  CHAPTER 9

  I Dylan’s Candy Bar!

  Not to sound like Dr. Phil on TV, but of course the healing happened over cupcakes. For real! After the blowup, I quickly purchased a three-pack of adorable sorbet-colored tank tops that said I BLOOMIE’S on them for Dylan, and then we went down to the new Magnolia Bakery on the Third Avenue side of Bloomingdale’s. (I mean, I wouldn’t have known it was new, but Ava informed me it was, and I was happy to learn that tidbit from a native New Yorker. It was information I could casually throw around at home to make me sound knowledgeable.)

  We each picked out a cupcake, our second of the day, and sat at a little counter by the window.

  “This is delicious. Is anyone taking notes for the PTA meeting menu?” I asked innocently.

  “Oh, Alexis!” Katie groaned.

  “Kidding!” I said. “Sort of!”

  “Always thinking about business.” Mia laughed.

  “Someone has to!” I said. “By the way, I’m thinking cupcake wholesaling is the way to go. Much less overhead.”

  Ava nodded. “Yes, and less liability, less holding of inventory . . .”

  “Oh no, here they go again,” said Katie.

  “Listen, I’d like to propose a toast,” said Mia, holding her cupcake up in the air. “To three of my four best friends, we’re sorry Emma isn’t here, but thank you all for putting up with my craziness. Thank you for being great friends for different reasons. Thank you for understanding me.”

  We all clinked cupcakes. “Here, here,” I said. “And to Mia, the hostess with the mostest!”

  “Yeah, seriously, this has been great,” agreed Katie. “Thank you so much.”

  “I can’t believe how much we’ve done!” I said. “It doesn’t seem like we’ve only been here for”—I looked at my watch—“twenty-six hours!”

  “Is that all?” Katie laughed. “It’s been so smooth, it feels like way less!”

  Mia playfully swatted her with a napkin. “Not funny,” she said, but then she smiled.

  Ava thoughtfully licked off a blob of frosting from her wrapper. “You know, Maple Grove is really nice and pretty,” she said. “If I had to live in the suburbs, it would definitely be there.”

  “Thanks a lot,” I said.

  “No, for real. The people are nice, obviously, and it’s not totally city obsessed, like a lot of suburbs are. It has its own stuff going on, too. And I hear it has great cupcakes.” She grinned.

  “Guys, I’m sorry for all the drama,” Mia began.

  But we waved her off. “We get it,” said Katie. “It’s fine.”

  “But I didn’t mean to be so mean,” said Mia.

  “It’s okay,” I said.

  Mia laughed. “No, that was the part where you were supposed to say, ‘You weren’t that mean.’ ”

  “Oh. Okay,” I said, still not saying it. I grinned evilly.

  Now it was me who Mia swatted with her napkin.

  “We still love you, Mimi,” Ava said sweetly.

  “Hey, why does Caroleena have such a long nickname and mine is so short?” said Mia, nudging Ava with her elbow.

  “Oh, that? I’m just making up for lost time. It doesn’t mean anything. Anyway, yours is short because I need to say it all the time. Hers, not as much.”

  “Thanks . . . I think,” said Mia.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Aha! I knew I’d find you here!” We all jumped at the interruption, but it was Mr. Cruz coming to collect us.

  “Are w
e ready to pack it in?” he asked hopefully.

  But Mia had a glint in her eye. She looked out the big plate-glass window across Third Avenue.

  “Just one more stop,” she promised.

  Okay, you can just forget about cupcakes. Yup. You heard me right. My dream of owning a cupcake business when I grow up is over for good. Because I, my friends, am going into the candy business!

  Dylan’s Candy Bar is the best store I’ve ever been in in my whole life, and that is no joke. It is a marketer’s dream; a perfect union of product and design; and a genius, wild, brilliant, and crazy store filled with glorious items for sale, many of them proprietary (which means the store makes them, so they don’t buy them from a middleman, and therefore, ka-ching! More money for the store!).

  Here’s how it goes: You walk in, and there is candy for sale everywhere. Every kind you have ever heard of and many, many kinds you have never heard of but will love, anyway. It is a place where people will buy and try anything, because what’s the worst thing that could happen? It’s candy!

  The music they play is all about candy. The floors are made with floating candy in intricate patterns. There are candy mosaics on the walls and huge plastic lollipops and enormous decorative peppermints and giant chocolate things in foil wrappers that are as tall as I am, and a chocolate fondue fountain and an ice-cream bar and a bathtub—a whole bathtub!—filled with bubblegum balls! It’s like a fantasy. Everywhere you look there are beautiful rainbows on clothing, bags, cosmetics—you name it. It’s like a color explosion, a feast for the senses, filled with things you really don’t need but must have immediately, because they are so yummy or cute.

  I couldn’t stop looking everywhere. Luckily for me I was not hungry for any more sweets, so I wasn’t spending my money on one-pound bags of candy the way most of the customers were. I did buy a little coin purse for my sister, because, after all, it said DYLAN’S on it, and then I bought one for myself, because it really was cute. But other than that I just admired the way the store had created a place where I wanted everything, though I needed nothing.

  It was sort of like what I’d observed at Madame Khalil’s. The best things in life take the basics and make them better. Basically, this was just a place to buy sugar, something you can already get pretty much anywhere, something everyone understands and wants. It wasn’t that different from the Maple Grove Candy Counter. In theory, anyway. But this store took it to a level no one had ever dreamed of before. They made it beautiful and glorious. I wanted to do that too, someday. I knew there was money in it, of course, but the genius of it was that you didn’t even think about money while you were here. That, my friends, is a great business!

  While I was waiting for the others to make their purchases, I leaned against the stair railing and watched the shoppers. This one blond girl had a big basket filled with things—big stuff, fun stuff. Not just one-pound bags of candy, but a big pillow made to look like a pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and fun pj’s in candy patterns and giant lollipops in rainbow swirls. I was admiring her loot when she turned, and we looked right at each other. Oh! OMG! My jaw dropped, and the girl smiled at me and gave a little wave as she knew I was realizing who she was.

  It was Taylor Swift!

  Right there shopping at Dylan’s Candy Bar!

  “Oh!” Quickly, I looked all around for my friends, but they were at the register downstairs on the basement level. No! This couldn’t be happening! I was dying to ask for an autograph, but I had no pen! I wanted to run and get my friends, but I worried Taylor Swift would be gone by the time I got back. I was frozen in place, staring as she picked up a couple of final items and turned, smiling, to give her overstuffed basket to a salesperson who’d arrived to help her.

  She reached into her purse to get out her credit card, and I searched wildly through the stairwell to the floor below for my friends, but I was out of luck. I couldn’t see them.

  “Please don’t leave!” I begged quietly.

  I dashed down the stairs two at a time, my shiny black Dylan’s shopping bag swinging wildly.

  Scanning the room, I quickly located Ava, Katie, and Mia on a long line to pay.

  “Guys!” I shouted. Everyone in the store turned to look up at me, but I didn’t care. I gestured wildly to the floor above me, mouthing the words Taylor Swift!

  What? Mia mouthed back at me.

  “Taylor Swift!” I stage-whispered.

  Katie put her hand to her ear, miming that she couldn’t hear me.

  Exasperated, I took the last few stairs in a leap and ran across the floor to them.

  Breathless, I called, “It’s Taylor Swift!”

  They all turned away, annoyed. “Ha-ha,” said Katie.

  “That’s getting old, Alexis,” said Mia.

  “No! For real! I swear!”

  “Come on!” said Ava. “At least think up a new one.”

  Now I was annoyed. “You know what? Fine. I’ll hold your place in line, and you can go up and see who it is!”

  Ava and the others rolled their eyes at one another.

  “Go! For real! Hurry!” I said, jumping into place.

  Finally, Ava sighed heavily. “Fine. But you guys owe me.” She stomped off and climbed the stairs, not quickly enough as far as I was concerned. Her legs disappeared from sight for a second, then two, then five. What is taking her so long?

  “Come on!” I muttered, willing her to reappear.

  And suddenly she was back. “It’s her!” Ava cried from the stairs. “It’s really her!”

  Katie and Mia looked at each other, dumbfounded.

  I smirked. “See?”

  Then they took off, and I wound up chasing them up the stairs.

  “Hurry!” cried Ava. “She’s leaving!”

  By the time we got to the top of the stairs, all they got to see was a flash of blond hair exiting the store, and then a driver at the curb, opening the rear door of a white SUV with a flourish, and the girl—Taylor Swift!—climbing inside with two huge Dylan’s bags.

  “See?” I said.

  “It was really her,” confirmed Ava.

  “Thanks,” I said. I was so relieved to have a witness.

  Mia’s mouth was twisted in a wry smile. “I’m still not sure. It could have been anyone.”

  “So ask someone!” I said.

  Katie looked around and spied an employee in a black Dylan’s Candy Bar T-shirt.

  “Excuse me,” she said, walking over to him. “But was that just Taylor Swift who was in here?”

  The guy grinned. “Yes, it was!”

  “Ha! See!” I crowed.

  Katie smiled at him. “Thanks.”

  Mia grinned now too. “Wow! We saw Taylor Swift!”

  “Humph. Some of us,” I grumped.

  “We all did,” said Ava, glaring at me meaningfully. “Peacemaker.” She wagged her finger at me and laughed.

  “Pretty cool,” I said, burning with happiness.

  “No trip to New York is complete without a celebrity sighting,” Katie said.

  Mr. Cruz appeared with his arms laden with candy. “Who saw a celebrity?”

  “Papi! We just saw Taylor Swift!” cried Mia.

  “You did not! You can’t pull that one on me. I wasn’t born yesterday.” He laughed.

  “Oh boy, here we go again,” I said.

  “Papi, are you buying all that candy?” Mia asked sternly.

  Mr. Cruz looked down at his armload and grinned in embarrassment. “I guess not,” he said, and he gently unloaded it into a basket. Sorry, he mouthed at the salesguy.

  “Ha-ha. Don’t worry. This happens all the time,” the salesguy said with another chuckle.

  As we walked out to catch a subway home, I said, “You know, I liked this place better than anything else.”

  “Even Omen?” cried Katie.

  “Even Omen,” I said solemnly.

  CHAPTER 10

  BFFs—Both Old and New

  We were pooped by the time we got back t
o Mr. Cruz’s apartment. I couldn’t believe how much of the city we’d seen and also how little of the surface we’d scratched. We hadn’t even hit any of the things on my own list, and I knew there were hundreds, maybe thousands, more fun things to do and see here.

  Back at Mr. Cruz’s we all flopped on the sofas in the living room to watch TV while he went out to hit the gym and work off all the cupcakes. Ava stayed for a little while, but then it was time for her to go to her ballet rehearsal. Her mom came to pick her up in their car downstairs.

  Katie and I stood to hug her good-bye and make promises to see one another again soon.

  “Take good care of Mia for me,” cautioned Ava. “Katie, you’re the boss when I’m not around. And, Alexis, keep up the good peacemaking.”

  I laughed. “Will do.”

  “And for goodness’ sake, try to get into the city a little more often, please. Your urban education is really lacking, and I’m just the person to remedy that situation.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “But then you have to promise to come out to Maple Grove very soon. You can always stay with me if Mia’s not being nice, you know.”

  “Me?!” cried Mia, all indignant now.

  Katie rolled her eyes at me and laughed. “Why would you start all this up again, Alexis?”

  “Kidding!” I said.

  “Seriously, thanks, you two, for making me feel so included,” said Ava. “I do sometimes get jealous and feel left out of Mia’s new life and all her new friends.”

  “You aren’t left out!” I said. “We’re your new friends too!”

  “Thanks,” said Ava.

  We gave Ava one more big hug good-bye and promised to Skype one day soon, and then Mia went with her downstairs to say hi to Ava’s mom.

  Katie and I re-flopped, and I asked if she’d mind if we changed the channel to Celebrity Ballroom, which she didn’t. We watched for a while in silence as a minor Olympian and a former talk-show host did the tango. They were pretty great, actually, and when the host interviewed them after, little clips of the dance were replayed to illustrate what he was talking about.

  “The best partners make their partner look great, am I right?” the host asked. He showed a clip of the male partner dipping the female, and she looked light as a feather, even though she was not a small person.