The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe

by Simon, Coco

  “Yes, Alexis?” asked Mr. Nichols.

  “Oh, you forgot to assign the homework,” I said, and it didn’t take long for Eddie to react. His head snapped around and he glared at me. I gave him a closed-mouth smile and shrugged. That’s what you get, Mr. Rude, I thought. Teachers are people too!

  “Ah, thank you, Alexis,” said Mr. Nichols distractedly. “I almost forgot . . .”

  On autopilot, I copied down the homework and then packed up my bag. Eddie had already sprung out of the room and down the hall. From the back row I could hear Sydney Whitman and Callie Wilson restart their almost incessant chatter. The day was one long gossipfest for them, about movie stars, kids they went to camp with, kids from school, boys—anyone and anything. And it all sounded so utterly mindless and unproductive.

  “Good catch on the homework, Alexis!” said Callie brightly. I looked up at her to see if she was making fun of me. She didn’t seem to be.

  “Yeah,” sneered Sydney. “I’d hate to get out of here without something to keep our skills sharp at home.”

  Well, Sydney’s response wasn’t surprising. I ignored her and kept stuffing my books into my bag. My cheeks felt hot, but I willed myself not to blush.

  Then she started laughing hysterically as she sauntered out of the classroom with Callie. The next class shuffled in, and I was going to be late. I had no choice but to fall into step right behind Callie and Sydney. I had worn a skirt today as part of Project M. T., and its unfamiliar swish against my legs made me feel insecure. I had worn my hair up, as usual, as a control, so I could isolate the effect of the skirt.

  I wondered if I’d even see Matt, after all this strategizing.

  Just ahead of me Sydney said to Callie teasingly, “I wonder if we’ll see Mr. Hottie today?”

  “Oh, I almost hope not! I look terrible!” moaned Callie, who couldn’t have looked more perfect.

  “When was the last time you saw him?” asked Sydney.

  Callie made a sad face. “Last week. And I used to see him every day at camp! It’s so unfair!” she wailed.

  “Well, maybe you need to get your hands on a copy of his schedule and just make sure you’re putting yourself in the right place at the right time!” said Sydney. “I mean, what are we here for, right?”

  Wow, scary! I thought. Is that what we’re here for? To get boys to notice us? But then I realized Sydney had a point. And if so, maybe I should be listening to these two. They did certainly know how to attract boys’ attention.

  Suddenly Sydney squealed. “Oh my God! Two o’clock! Two o’clock!”

  What? What was happening at two o’clock?

  Callie flipped her hair and I could see her straighten her clothes. She grabbed Sydney’s arm and linked her hand through it, squeezing tightly. I hate when girls walk together like that—it’s so annoying! Anyway, I watched to see what was happening.

  And just then, I spotted Matt! My stomach felt like it dropped to the floor, and I was hot and cold all over. I’m pretty sure I had an insta-blush. I looked down at the linoleum tiles, then at the lockers on either side of me, the ceiling, anywhere but toward Matt, who was ahead and to my right, walking with a friend toward me. Should I say hi? What was my plan? Suddenly I couldn’t remember what I had planned to do! Why didn’t I have my strategy book with me? I stared—past my skirt—at my toes.

  “Hey, guys!” Sydney called in a loud, high-pitched voice that was sickeningly sweet in a very fake way.

  I looked up to see who she was talking to, and it was Matt and his friend!

  Callie was pink and she was grinning from ear to ear. What was going on? In confusion, I looked back and forth between the two pairs of friends.

  Matt and his friend smiled at Callie and Sydney and nodded in greeting. Matt’s friend said something quietly to Matt and Matt nodded again, laughing.

  I opened my mouth to say hi to Matt, but thought better of it. I snapped it shut and put my head back down. I couldn’t tell if he had seen me. I wondered if either of the boys was the one that Callie liked from camp, and crossed my fingers that it wasn’t Matt. Talk about variables! I definitely didn’t factor that into my experiment!

  Okay, calm down, I told myself. Deep breaths, Alexis. This was excellent data to collect. I didn’t say hi first and he didn’t say hi either. But if I said hi first, he certainly would have said hi back. And, maybe next time, he would say hi first. I mean, maybe he didn’t even see me, right? And if he didn’t see me, how would he know I was wearing a skirt?

  How utterly humiliating.

  Later, at lunch, I tried to casually grill Emma for information on Matt. I wanted to see if I could piece together whether Callie liked him, or the friend he was with in the hall. But I had to do all this without making Emma suspicious—and that was not easy.

  I peeled off the top of my yogurt container and as casually as I could, I asked, “What are you guys thinking of for next summer?”

  Mia sighed. “I’d really like to do a fashion design camp in the city,” she said. “It’s almost like summer school. The only problem is that it’s expensive and my mom’s also not wild about me sitting indoors under fluorescent lights all summer. I think I have Eddie on my side though, so we’ll see.” Eddie is her stepfather, and he is awesome.

  “I think I might go to the camp that my mom went to when she was a girl,” Katie said. “You know, the one she went to with Callie’s mom?”

  Bingo! “Oh,” I said. “Is that the camp where Callie went last summer?”

  Katie nodded as she unwrapped her sandwich. “It’s supposed to be really fun.”

  “Right, I was at the same camp,” I reminded her. “It was fun. You got to try all different kinds of sports and activities.”

  Emma nodded, swallowing a gulp of chocolate milk. “Matt went last year too, and he loved it. He was a lifeguard so it was, like, half-price.”

  What? Matt was at the same camp as me last summer? Why didn’t I remember this? I sputtered and almost choked.

  “Whoa! Hands up in the air!” said Mia, patting my back.

  Mortified, I looked around the lunchroom to make sure no one else had seen me. I coughed and cleared my throat.

  “That’s cool,” I said in a froggy voice. “Did he . . . ahem!” I cleared my throat again. “Did he go with friends?” I asked as innocently as possible.

  Emma looked quizzically at me, then slowly said, “Why, yes. He went with Joe Fraser.”

  “Oh!” I nodded and quickly looked down, pretending to scrape the bottom of my yogurt cup. So there was hope! Maybe that guy today was Joe Fraser! “Anyway, maybe you’ll be in my bunk,” I suggested to Katie.

  “That would be great!” said Katie enthusiastically.

  Emma was still looking at me, so I shrugged and added, “Or maybe I’ll go to math camp . . . or this cool business camp I read about.”

  Katie looked puzzled, but didn’t say anything.

  “Oh, Alexis!” said Mia playfully. “Leave it to you to find a business camp for kids!”

  “Speaking of which, are we meeting today?” Emma asked, finally turning her attention away from me. Whew! There would be no more fishing for information about Matt today. Emma was definitely suspicious, and I knew in my heart of hearts that it would not be a good thing for Emma to find out that I had—yes, I had to admit it to myself after today’s noninteraction in the hall—a major crush on her brother.

  “Oh! It’s supposed to be at my house, but my mom asked if we could move it because she’s having a dinner party tonight,” said Mia. “She doesn’t want the kitchen all messed up. I’m so sorry!”

  Katie spoke up. “We can’t do it at my house either because my grandma is visiting and she will, like, take over if we have it there. I love her, but it’s just a little annoying.”

  Here was an opportunity! I had to think fast. “Oh, bummer! I think Dylan has her study group at our house on Tuesdays . . .” I started to say. Didn’t she? Yikes. I’d better check or risk getting caught in a lie. We all loo
ked hopefully at Emma.

  Emma sighed. “Fine, we can do it at my house again,” she said. “I just think it’s so boring and gross. I’d so much rather be at someone else’s house where it’s quiet and clean and private! Anyway, Jake might be there.”

  Jake was Emma’s little brother, and he could be a bit of a bother.

  “Thanks, Emma!” I said. I think I sounded a little too gushing, because she gave me another funny look.

  “Okay, not a big deal,” she said.

  “Right!” I agreed, trying to stop myself from smiling too broadly. Tonight I might have another Matt encounter.

  And then my heart stopped as I spotted Matt walk into the cafeteria with a group of guys. I could feel my face growing warm, so I quickly looked down at my lunch tray, hoping no one noticed. There was no way he’d come over here, I told myself. But if he did . . .

  I reached up and pulled the elastic band out of my hair, casually fluffing my hair and rolling the elastic band onto my wrist. If Matt stopped by, he wouldn’t see the skirt, but the hair might be quantifiable.

  I watched as he went through the line, and half listened to Emma’s summer plans. Suddenly Matt gestured to his friends and began making a beeline toward our table! My mind said “Oh no!” and “Oh yes!” at the same time I quickly sat up and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. My stomach started doing flip-flops—and then he was next to me!

  “Hey, guys,” he said.

  “Hi,” I squeaked. He looked down and smiled!

  “Emma,” he continued, “Mom asked me to watch Jake on Thursday night, but I just got assigned a group project due Friday. Any chance you can watch Jake and I’ll owe you?”

  Emma frowned. “I guess so. But it has to be a date of my choice!”

  “Fine. Thanks!” he said, and ruffled her hair before taking off.

  Emma rolled her eyes. “Brothers,” she muttered.

  I was thrilled! He had acknowledged me! He had said hi first (sort of!). I couldn’t wait to get home and log all this info into my notebook: Score one for “hair down,” and none for “skirts.” (Whew!)

  Now I just had to wait and see if Matt would be at home later today.

  CHAPTER 5

  Collecting Data

  We all arrived at Emma’s after school only to find that it was definitely not an option to hold a club meeting there. Emma’s mom was having coffee with a friend, and Jake had three little friends over. They had turned the kitchen into a “goo factory,” where they were experimenting with every kind of oobleck and gunk that could be created from basic household ingredients.

  4 little boys + gooey gunk = total mess

  What was amazing was that Emma’s mom didn’t seem bothered by the mess. My mother would have needed serious CPR if that was going on in her kitchen!

  But Emma wasn’t pleased.

  After I said a quick hi to Emma’s mom, I casually (as casually as I could) walked out to the TV room, but no one was there. I went back to the mudroom to Matt’s locker (the Taylors all had lockers to hold their gear), and I saw that it was empty. I sighed heavily.

  Emma narrowed her eyes at me when I returned. “Did you lose something?” she asked, almost in an accusing tone.

  “What? Oh. No . . . no. What?” I stammered awkwardly. “Hey, uh, we can go to my house instead. It’s okay,” I offered.

  Emma was still staring at me.

  “I thought Dylan had her study group there?” asked Mia. Mia kind of worshipped Dylan so she filed away every tidbit I said about her.

  I shrugged. “Well, maybe they can sit in the den,” I said, then heard Emma mutter something under her breath.

  “What?” I asked. “Is something the matter?”

  Emma looked annoyed. “I don’t know why we didn’t just go there in the first place,” she said.

  Now I felt a little annoyed. “It’s not exactly ideal if Dylan’s there,” I countered. “You know how irritating it is when your siblings are around. It can be really distracting.”

  “My point exactly,” said Emma, looking right at me.

  Wait, did she know? But she couldn’t. I hadn’t done anything to give it away, had I? I shifted uncomfortably and said, “Let’s go.”

  We trudged over to my house. And thankfully (for not making a liar of me) but annoyingly, Dylan was there with her two best friends, Meredith and Skylar.

  “Hey, kids,” Dylan called out, acting super-friendly for the sake of my friends, I supposed.

  “Hi. Are you having your study group here?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she replied. “We’re also working on some new cheer routines.”

  Have I mentioned that Dylan is maniacal about cheerleading? Maybe more manic about it than about anything else! When she decided she wanted to try out for cheerleading, she was still in eighth grade, but she went to all the practices over at the high school a year in advance and videoed them on her Flip. Then she uploaded the videos and studied the routines on her computer and learned them all. She practiced and stretched and ran and did their whole warm-up routine. And when tryouts started freshman year, they signed her right on. It was like she’d already been doing it for a year anyway. Now she’s assistant cheer captain and she’s only in tenth grade! Talk about an overachiever. Rah-rah!

  “Can we use the kitchen to bake?” I asked. “We have one more test recipe to run through for your party proposal.” I knew that if I made it about her, I’d have a better chance at taking over the space.

  “Yay! Do we get free samples?” squealed Meredith, who had a major sweet tooth.

  I smiled and nodded. You had to love a fan.

  Dylan looked at me. I hoped she wasn’t going to get all power-trippy on me and say no just for the sake of saying no. Luckily, she simply said, “Just let us finish our drinks, and then we’ll move.” In our house we aren’t allowed to have food or drinks anywhere but the kitchen.

  I nodded. That was fair. Maybe the old Dylan was back. She turned back to her friends, and we began dumping our stuff on the couch near the back door.

  My ears pricked up when I heard Dylan ask, “So what did he say next?” I glanced back at them. Were they talking about boys?

  Meredith smiled shyly in response. “He said he’d like to see me again!”

  It sounded like I might get useful info from listening in. Just as I was turning my head to hear their conversation better, Katie asked, “Want to go watch TV? Maybe I can find a Dancing with the Stars rerun.”

  Besides the fact that I live for TV dancing shows, I normally would have said yes just to get away from Dylan and her posse. But today I really wanted to hear what they were discussing.

  “Um, you guys go ahead,” I said. “I’ll just get some stuff set up in here first so we’re all ready to go when they’re done.” I was determined to get as much info as I could from these veterans of the romance trenches.

  “Do you need help?” Mia asked sweetly. But that was the last thing I wanted right now! Even though it was Mia, I didn’t want to have to make conversation and not be able to pay attention to what Dylan and her friends were saying.

  “No,” I said more forcefully than I meant to. “Thanks,” I corrected myself. “I’m good.”

  I watched as Mia and the others exchanged looks, then shrugged their shoulders before heading to the den.

  I turned back to hear what Dylan and her friends were discussing, only to hear Emma ask me, “Do you have a copy of Jane Eyre here? I’m supposed to read two chapters for homework, but I left my copy at home.”

  Sigh. I love my friends, but they were really bothersome right now! “Sure,” I said without even looking at Emma. “Upstairs on my desk.”

  With my ears tuned to my sister and her friends, I quickly busied myself with measuring out ingredients. The Cupcake Club buys in bulk at a warehouse club and then we divvy up the supplies between our houses. My house, though, holds the bulk of the stuff since I’m in charge of purchasing. I also set out our supplies and preheated the oven.

 
Room-temperatureingredients x 5 minutes of mixing with paddle attachment = light cupcakes

  I made sure everything was neatly aligned on the counter: mixing bowls, measuring spoons and cups, rubber scraper, stand mixer, and timer. I adore the order and mathematics of baking: Add this amount of something plus this amount of something else, cook at this temperature, and you will get this—every time! Now if I could just get the right recipe for Matt + Alexis! I laughed at the thought.

  As I took stuff out of the cupboards, I tried to figure out what Dylan and her friends were talking about. Apparently there was an upperclassman Meredith had met at the library where she worked after school, and things were “getting hot” between them. Usually I would have found this kind of talk really boring and a waste of time, but today I felt differently. It looked like I could get a lot of useful info from them.

  I quietly moved closer to the table, trying not to miss a word.

  “So I wore the sweater you suggested,” Meredith told Skylar.

  Skylar nodded. “Good,” she said. “And?”

  “Well, it looked good, and like you said, it’s very . . . soft and fluffy, and it’s a girlie color. I guess guys really do like that stuff because he did touch my arm when we were talking, like he wanted to feel the material.”

  “And the perfume?” asked Dylan.

  “Yes,” said Meredith. “I did just what you said. I wore that vanilla spice from Bath and Body Works. I felt like a doughnut! But I noticed him kind of sniffing the air—in a good way!—when I bent over to stack some books on the cart.”

  “Well, I told you about the study! Men love vanilla and pumpkin pie above all other scents! It has been tested!” Dylan said, laughing. I was surprised. Boys love Dylan, but I never thought it was something she put any thought or effort into!

  “They’re all just little boys at heart. They want baked goods and fuzzy things!” Dylan added. She sounded so mature saying that, like she had done it all. She did have a lot of boy friends, but Mom and Dad had just started letting her go out on dates this year. I knew Skylar had a boyfriend over the summer, but I didn’t think he was still in the picture. I remembered hearing about some breakup story, but that was way before I was interested in that kind of thing. Like, more than a week ago.