Katie, Batter Up!

by Coco Simon

  A lot of surprising things had happened in the last few weeks. I had made the softball team. I learned that Grandma Carole and I were more alike than I thought. And then another surprising thing happened, right there at lunch.

  Maggie walked up to me as I went to throw out my garbage—and she wasn’t following Sydney or the other PGC girls.

  “I heard you quit the team,” she said. “Why? You were good.”

  I nodded. “It’s kind of hard to explain, but mostly I just wasn’t having fun.”

  Maggie shook her head. “Are you serious? Because I think it’s really fun,” she said.

  I felt my neck get stiff. “Well it wasn’t for me,” I said a little defensively.

  “My mom says there’s enough stuff you have to do that you don’t like, and that when you can choose, you should always choose the things you love,” said Maggie. “So I get that.”

  I smiled. “Thanks,” I said. Maybe I should be giving Maggie more of a break. What she just said sounded like something my mom would say.

  “Anyway, I came to thank you. Coach Kendall gave me your spot on the team. I’m so excited. I’m sorry you didn’t like it, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch as well as you.”

  I was happy then. Maggie deserved it.

  Then she leaned close to me. “And I don’t care what Sydney thinks!” she whispered.

  I laughed as Maggie walked away. Alexis raised an eyebrow.

  “What was that all about?” she asked.

  “Maggie’s on the team now,” I said. “I’m happy for her.”

  “But doesn’t she torture you in gym?” Emma asked.

  I shrugged. “Sometimes. But she’s not so bad, especially when she’s away from Sydney.”

  That reminded me of my only lasting problem: Sydney. More exactly, Sydney in gym class. We had been playing flag football for a few weeks, and I hadn’t gotten any better. Although ever since I gave George that cupcake, he had kept his promise and stopped calling me Silly Arms.

  “If only we were done with flag football,” I said with a sigh. “I guess I am doomed to be a flag-football spaz forever.”

  “I’m sorry,” Emma said. “But lately Sydney seems more interested in bumping into the boys than bothering you, anyway.”

  “Good point,” I agreed. “Maybe I can practice turning invisible in gym. I heard if you concentrate long enough, it can happen.”

  “That can’t be true,” Alexis said.

  “Of course not, but I can try,” I said.

  When I got to gym class later, Ms. Chen had an announcement to make after we did our warm-up exercises.

  “The state physical fitness tests are next month,” she said. “We’re going to start training today. Let’s start with some running. Ten times around the gym. Let’s move it!”

  I can handle that, I thought with relief. Maybe my worry-free gym class was starting sooner than I thought. But as soon as I started running, Sydney started in on me.

  “Be careful, Katie, or you’ll trip over your own feet!” she said. Then her voice got louder. “Hey, everybody, watch out for Katie! She might crash into you.” She smirked and tossed her long, perfect, shiny hair.

  This time Sydney’s teasing didn’t bother me much—maybe because I knew how wrong she was.

  “I think I’ll be just fine,” I told her, and then I ran right past her. I pretended I was in the park with the birds and started flying around the gym, getting ahead of everybody—even the boys.

  “Nice hustle, Katie!” Ms. Chen called out. “Sydney, look alive out there! This isn’t a funeral march!”

  I looked back and saw that Sydney was one of the last runners, and she actually looked a little bit sweaty. I smiled.

  “Go, Silly Legs!” called George. “The girl can run!” I have to start bringing him more cupcakes, I thought, and sprinted toward the finish.

  In a couple of months we’d be playing basketball or volleyball or whatever, and I’d be back to being a spaz again. But for now, all I had to do was run.

  CHAPTER 18

  I Don’t Mean to Brag, but I Am Pretty Talented After All!

  The rest of the week went by very fast. It was nice having Grandma Carole there early, because I didn’t have to go to Mom’s office after school. She helped me with my homework, and we made dinner together.

  Then Thursday was pretty crazy. After school I met Alexis and Emma at Mia’s house, and we started on the cupcake cake. Mia’s mom was nice and got us Chinese food to eat while the cupcakes cooled down. Then we decorated them with fondant flowers, leaves, and birds in shades of yellow, pink, green, violet, and blue. When we were all done, we boxed them up. Tomorrow, at the party, we would put them on their stands.

  Mom picked me up at eight thirty. She had been decorating the house while we made the cupcakes. Grandma was staying at Uncle Jimmy’s tonight. “Everything looks great,” she said. “Barbara helped me set it all up. It looks so beautiful.”

  Barbara is Callie’s mom. I knew Callie and her family would be at the party tomorrow, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I was still pretty mad at Callie for not sticking up for me.

  But I didn’t tell my mom that. “I can’t wait to see it,” I said.

  Mom was right about the decorations. The whole house looked like a spring garden, with light green tablecloths and a pretty flower arrangement on each table. The streamers on the ceiling were green and yellow and robin’s-egg blue, a perfect match for our cupcake cake.

  The next day we got up really early. Mia and her stepdad arrived not long after. Eddie was carrying the cupcake boxes, and Mia had the stands.

  “Over there,” Mom instructed, pointing to a little round table in a corner of the room. “I can’t wait to see them!”

  Emma and Alexis arrived next, so all four of us were able to set up the cupcake cake. We started with the green flower cupcakes on the bottom, and the top two tiers were blue with birds on them, just like in Mia’s drawing.

  “Oh, it’s absolutely beautiful!”

  Grandma Carole walked in, wearing a blue dress that almost matched the cupcakes. Grandpa Chuck was there too, and he wore a robin’s-egg-blue tie with his gray suit.

  Grandma walked around the cupcake table, admiring it from every angle.

  “This is absolutely perfect!” she cried. “Robin’s-egg blue! I love it!”

  “And the cupcakes are blueberry, too,” I said.

  “My favorite!” Grandma said. “You girls are very talented. Your business must be doing very well.”

  “Our profits are rising every month,” Alexis reported proudly.

  Then the party guests started streaming in, and Joanne from Mom’s office started playing songs from her iPod on a speaker. It really felt like a party.

  Then Callie came in with her older sister, Jenna, and her mom and dad. Mr. Wilson gave me a big hug when he saw me.

  “Hey there, Katie-did,” he said. “My gosh, you must have grown a foot since I last saw you!”

  “Not a foot,” I said. “But maybe a little.”

  Then Callie’s parents walked off to say hi to my grandparents, and Callie and I were just standing there, looking at each other. Callie looked kind of embarrassed.

  “So, I just wanted to say that I felt kind of bad about the way Sydney’s been talking to you,” she said. “I wanted to stick up for you, but Sydney …”

  “It’s okay,” I said, thinking of gym the other day. “I can take care of myself. Besides, I don’t really care what Sydney thinks, anyway.”

  I didn’t believe it until I said it out loud, but it was true. Sydney could say whatever she wanted, but as long as it didn’t matter to me, it couldn’t hurt me, right?

  Callie looked a little surprised. “Um, that’s cool, then.”

  That’s when Mia ran up and grabbed me by the arm. “Katie, I looooove this song. Let’s dance!”

  We all danced and ate a bunch of food, and Mom showed a slideshow of photos of Grandma from when she was a little girl.
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  “Wow, Katie, you look just like your grandma,” Emma remarked.

  “I know,” I said proudly.

  Then Grandpa Chuck walked up to me. “Katie, I hear you’re a fine softball player. How about a game outside?”

  I hesitated, but then he said, “Just for fun. We won’t even keep score.”

  Then I relaxed. “Sure,” I said.

  So some of us went outside and played softball for a while, and it was fun. And something amazing even happened. I hit a home run!

  The ball went way into the outfield, and Alexis ran for it, but couldn’t catch it. So I ran around the bases as fast as I could.

  “Go, Katie-kins!” Grandma Carole cheered as I crossed home plate. My heart was pounding and I was very sweaty, but not because I was nervous—I was excited.

  Finally it was time for cupcakes. After Grandma Carole blew out her candles, everyone dug in.

  “Katie, these cupcakes are delicious!” Grandma said. “You could be a professional baker.”

  “We all made them,” I said, blushing.

  “Yes, but Katie figured out the frosting,” Mia pointed out.

  Mom hugged me. “You know what you’re great at besides baking cupcakes?” she asked me.

  “No, what?”

  “You’re a good friend,” Mom said. “And a wonderful running partner.”

  “And a pretty good batter,” Grandpa added.

  “And the best granddaughter ever!” Grandma Carole said, joining me and Mom in a group hug.

  I counted in my head—that was one, two, three, four, five talents! Not bad, don’t you think? I smiled at everyone around me as they happily ate delicious cupcakes.

  Then I remembered to save a cupcake for George. I’d need it—pretty soon in gym we’d be starting basketball!

  I’ll Definitely Finish It Tomorrow

  Mi nombre es Mia, y me gusta cocinar pastelitos.

  That means “My name is Mia, and I like to bake cupcakes” in Spanish. A few months ago, I could never have read that sentence or even written it. Maybe that doesn’t sound like a big deal. But for me, it totally was.

  Here’s the thing: I’m good at a bunch of things, like playing soccer and drawing and decorating cupcakes. Nobody ever expected me to be good at them. I just was.

  But everyone expected me to be good at Spanish. My whole family is Latino, and my mom and dad both speak Spanish. I’ve been hearing it since I was a baby, and I can understand a lot of it and speak it pretty well—enough to get my point across. But reading and writing Spanish? That’s a whole other thing. And the fact that I was bad at it got me into a big mess.

  The whole situation kind of blew up this winter. You see, when I started middle school in the fall, they placed me in Advanced Spanish with Señora Delgado. At first I did okay, but after a few weeks it was pretty clear to me that I was in over my head. The homework kept getting harder and harder, and my test grades were slipping.

  One night in February, I was trying really hard to do my Spanish homework. Señora asked us to write an essay about something we planned to do this month. I decided to write about going to see my dad, who lives in Manhattan. I visit him every other weekend, and we always go out to eat sushi.

  It sounds simple, but I was having a hard time. I always get mixed up with the verbs, and that was the whole point of the essay—to use future indicative verbs. (Yeah, I’m not sure what those are either.) Anyway, I was trying to write “We will eat sushi,” and I couldn’t get the verb right.

  “Comemos”? Or is it “comeramos”? I wondered aloud with a frown while tapping my pencil on my desk. My head was starting to really hurt, and it wasn’t just because of the homework.

  “Dan, TURN IT DOWN!” I yelled at the wall in front of me. On the other side, Dan, my step-brother, was blasting music, like he always does. He listens to metal or something, and it sounds like a werewolf screaming in a thunderstorm. He couldn’t hear me, so I started banging on the walls.

  The music got a little bit softer, and Dan yelled, “Chill, Mia!”

  “Thanks,” I muttered, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me.

  I looked back down at my paper, which was only half finished. Where was I again? Oh, right. Sushi. At least that word is the same in any language.

  My brain couldn’t take any more. I picked up my smartphone and messaged three of my friends at once.

  Anyone NOT want to do homework right now?

  I asked.

  Alexis replied first. She’s the fastest texter in the Cupcake Club.

  Mine is already done!

  Of course, I should have known. Alexis is one of those people who actually likes doing homework.

  It’s better than babysitting my little brother! came the next reply.

  That’s my friend Emma. I actually think her little brother Jake is kind of cute, but I also know that he can be annoying.

  The last reply came from my friend Katie.

  Let’s go on a homework strike!

  I laughed. Katie is really funny, and she also feels the same way I do about a lot of things (like homework). That’s probably why she’s my best friend here in Maple Grove.

  Where are we meeting tomorrow? I asked.

  I think I mentioned the Cupcake Club already. That’s a business I started with Alexis, Emma, and Katie. We bake cupcakes for parties and other events, and we meet at least once a week.

  We can do it at my house, Emma replied.

  Works for me! Alexis texted back at light-speed.

  She always likes going to Emma’s house, and it’s not just because she and Emma are best friends. She used to have a crush on Emma’s brother Matt. He’s pretty cute, but Emma’s brother Sam is even cuter.

  Alexis texted again.

  Everyone come with ideas for the Valentine’s cupcakes.

  Ugh! I hate that holiday! Emma complained.

  But there’s CANDY! Katie wrote.

  And everything’s pink, I reminded Emma since pink is her favorite color.

  K, you have a point. But still. We have to watch all the “couples” in school make a big deal out of it, Emma replied.

  And watch all the boys go gaga for Sydney,

  Alexis chimed in.

  Sydney is the president of the Popular Girls Club, and Alexis is right—lots of boys like her.

  Any boys who like Sydney have cupcakes for brains, Katie wrote.

  I laughed.

  Got to go! Twelve more math problems left! Emma wrote.

  I have 2 go study, Alexis added.

  I thought you were done? Katie wrote.

  This is just for fun, Alexis wrote back.

  If u want to have fun u can do my homework,

  Katie typed.

  Or mine, I added.

  LOL! CU tom, Alexis typed.

  I said good night to my friends and put down my phone. I stared at my paper for a few seconds and then I picked up my sketchbook.

  My Spanish class isn’t until after lunch, so I figured I could finish the essay then. I couldn’t concentrate now anyway. Besides, I was dying to finish a sketch I had started earlier.

  My mom’s a fashion stylist and she’s always taking the train to New York to meet with designers and boutique owners. I guess I take after her because I am totally obsessed with fashion and I love designing my own clothes. Once in a while, Mom takes me to meetings with her and I get to see all the latest fashions before other people do.

  Lately I’ve been trying to design a winter coat that keeps you warm but isn’t all puffy. I hate puffy coats.

  I opened up my sketchbook, a new one that my dad gave me. It’s got this soft leather cover and really good paper inside that makes my drawings look even better. I picked up a purple pencil and started to finish my sketch of a knee-length wraparound style coat.

  There was a knock on my door, and then Mom stepped in.

  “Hey, sweetie,” she said. She nodded to the sketchbook. “Done with your homework?”

  “Yes,” I lied.


  Mom smiled and walked over to look at my sketch. “Very nice, mija,” she said. “I like the shape of those sleeves.”

  “Thanks!” I replied, and she kissed me on the head and left the room. I started to feel a little guilty about lying about my homework, but I pushed the feeling aside. I was definitely going to finish it tomorrow, so no problem, right?

  Actually, it was a problem … a big one.

  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.