by Coco Simon
I agreed. “I’m up for anything. I think Mrs. Barnett is too. Lex?”
“Hmmm?” She was texting away madly.
“I had a thought. . . .”
Mia and Katie looked at me as we turned onto Katie’s street.
“Lex?” I asked again quietly.
She looked up at me.
“What if we didn’t charge?”
Alexis blinked, not comprehending. “What?” she said finally.
I glanced at the other two Cupcakers. They understood what I was getting at. Mia’s eyebrows were raised in surprise, but a smile was forming on Katie’s face.
“What if we made the cupcakes a donation?” I pressed.
Alexis sighed a huge sigh. I could see her running the numbers in her head. . . . Well, sixty cupcakes . . . and at a unit cost of seventy-five cents per . . . plus transport time . . .
“Just think about it, okay?” I asked.
Mia and Katie nodded from the back row.
“Okay. I’ll think about it. I just don’t want to set a bad precedent. Lots of our clients are nonprofits,” said Alexis.
“I know. But those poor doggies. . . .”
“We’ve never done that before,” continued Alexis. “Not charged.”
“What about a deep discount?” offered Mia.
Alexis started to nod.
“Don’t decide now, Lex. You look into it, and we’ll discuss it at the weekly meeting on Wednesday, okay?” I felt good, though. I could tell I was going to win this one. I smiled to myself.
“By the way,” added Katie, “we should do something as a thank-you to Diego Diaz for the referral, don’t you think?”
“Good call!” I agreed heartily. A smile spread across my face, and I could feel a blush coming on. Katie looked at me, and I am sure she noticed my reaction to hearing Diego’s name, but she was kind enough to not say anything.
“Yeah. Maybe let’s bake a few extra for him, and we can drop them off. Emma can drop them off,” Mia teased. So now I was really blushing. I gestured to my dad driving, and they got my drift and quieted down quickly, thank goodness.
We pulled into Katie’s driveway, which was a welcome distraction from the topic at hand.
“Okay, Katie! Hope to see you soon!” joked my dad. My friends come over all the time.
“Thanks, Mr. Taylor,” she said, sliding open the door and hopping out onto the blacktop.
“So four o’clock at the movies?” she asked.
We agreed. We’d meet after we finished our weekend homework, and then we’d see the new Liam Carey movie and have a quick bite at the mall.
Our next stop was Mia’s, and of course, what I was dreading most, happened. Her cousin Sebastian, who I thought was really cute when he moved here a while ago, was hanging out with her stepbrother, Dan, on the front stoop. I’d had a crush on Sebastian, but things got all mixed up and he asked out Katie, and now I just really never want to see him again. Even if he is still pretty cute.
Mia saw them and glanced quickly at me. “Thanks, Mr. Taylor. I can get out right here. . . .” We were still a house away, and my dad was obviously aiming to pull into her driveway. Then there’d be no avoiding Sebastian.
“Oh, it’s no problem,” said my dad.
“Dad,” I said sharply. “Please don’t pull in.” I sank low in my seat in hopes the boys wouldn’t see me through the tinted window.
He gave me a weird look in the rearview mirror, but luckily, he did as we asked. Mia slid open the door on the street side so she wouldn’t have to climb over me.
“Careful, honey!” said my dad as a car inched by on that side.
I squeezed Mia’s hand before she left. She knew I was thanking her for her consideration in not exposing me to Sebastian again. She squeezed back.
“Thanks, Mr. Taylor. See you girls at the mall!” She hopped out and pushed the close button on the door so fast, it nearly caught her as she exited. “Oops!” She laughed.
My dad was shaking his head. “You girls are going to be the death of me,” he said. “Always some kind of mystery agenda going on . . .” He eased his way back onto the road and continued until we dropped off Alexis.
As we drove home from her house, I could feel my dad checking on me in the rearview mirror again. “Everything okay, lovebug?” he asked.
I nodded and looked out the window. The Sebastian and Katie thing had been embarrassing, and I was only just feeling like I was over it, but now it was all back again. I was new to the whole boy thing, and I wasn’t sure I liked this kind of drama.
“Who’s Diego?” Dad asked with a smile.
Oh, well, Diego was another story. Not much of a story, actually. Yet. Maybe. A smiled bloomed on my face, anyway. “A guy in Matt’s class at school.”
My dad smiled again at me, clearly waiting for more. But I just continued to look out the window. There truly wasn’t any more to say right now. So after a pause, during which my dad realized he wasn’t getting any info out of me, he reached over and turned up the radio, which was playing some dorky eighties song from his youth. Then he bopped his head and patted the steering wheel in time to the beat for the final part of our trip home. It was majorly embarrassing.
Coco Simon always dreamed of opening a cupcake bakery but was afraid she would eat all of the profits. When she’s not daydreaming about cupcakes, Coco edits children’s books and has written close to one hundred books for children, tweens, and young adults, which is a lot less than the number of cupcakes she’s eaten. Cupcake Diaries is the first time Coco has mixed her love of cupcakes with writing.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
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First Simon Spotlight hardcover edition October 2015
Copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Text by Tracey West
Chapter header illustrations by Brittany Naundorff. Design by Laura Roode.
Jacket design by Laura Roode
Jacket illustrated by Abigail Halpin
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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ISBN 978-1-4814-4167-4 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-4168-1 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-4169-8 (eBook)
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2015947031
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