Alexis's Cupcake Cupid (12 page)

Mrs. Brown poured the sauce into a little bowl and handed my mom a tiny clean paintbrush.

“I'm going to practice first,” said my mom. “It's been a while!”

“What are you doing?” I asked, intrigued.

My mom took a thickly folded paper towel, dipped the paintbrush into the chocolate sauce, and then painted a quick series of graceful interconnected lines on the paper towel.

“Pretty!” said Mrs. Brown.

My mom stood back and assessed it. “Huh. Looks pretty good! Now I'll try it on a cupcake.”

“It looks like Chinese writing,” I said, coming around the table to look more closely.

“It is,” my mom said quietly. “It's the Chinese character for ‘love.' The word is
ai
.”

“Cool!” cried Mia, who had arrived back in the kitchen. Katie and Emma arrived too, and we explained it to them.

“That's perfect!” said Emma. “Because it was Valentine's Day, and now it's Chinese New Year, and so it's love and Chinese and . . . How do you know how to do that, Mrs. Becker?”

Duh! I hadn't thought to ask that myself. “Yeah, Mom. How
do
you know how to do that?”

My mom's cheeks turned a little pink, and she laughed. “Oh, well. I learned it a long time ago.”

“Did you study Chinese?” asked Emma.

My mom glanced nervously at me, then she sighed. “The truth is, I had a huge crush in college on a boy who was Chinese. I wanted to make him a card, like a love note, so I learned how to write the character for love in Chinese calligraphy from a friend of mine.”

“That's so romantic!” Mia sighed.

“Did it work?” asked Katie.

My mom shook her head. “Sadly, no. My crush was one-sided.”

“I'm sorry, Mom. That's sad,” I said.

“Well, everything turned out for the best, and I met your dad after all, and he was just right for me! I just wish I hadn't wasted so much time and energy on that boy.” She dipped her brush in the sauce and painted a perfect Chinese symbol on a cupcake. It looked great.

“Well, I, for one, am glad you did, or we wouldn't be able to salvage the rest of these cupcakes!” Mia laughed.

“Yeah!” we all agreed.

But I was watching my mom closely, and she turned and gave me a small smile and a wink. I nodded. I now knew why she was so concerned about me and the time I was spending thinking about Matt. She wanted to protect me, maybe from heartbreak. Besides wanting me to be independent and everything, of course.

I went over and hugged her before she dipped her brush again. “Thanks, Mom,” I whispered. “I
ai
you.”

“Wo ai ni,”
she said. “That's how you say it in Chinese.”

“
Wo ai ni
, then.”

We made it to the skating party only ten minutes late, and who was the first person I ran into but Sasha! After we settled the cupcakes on the buffet and the PTA president paid me, I introduced Sasha to all the Cupcakers, and we chatted for a while before she left for the night.

“Wait until you see Alexis skate tonight!” Sasha said proudly. “She is my star student! Such a fast learner!”

“Oh, well . . . I'm not so sure I will skate tonight,” I said, shrugging. “You know. I'm not ready for prime-time viewing!”

“Don't be silly! You must practice to be good! Now is opportunity, and you can show your friends too!”

I felt bad. Sasha had worked hard with me and was pleased with what she'd accomplished, and I was kind of blowing it off.

“Well, maybe I'll just rent the skates, and then we'll see . . . ,” I said.

“Get skates, come back, and I tie them properly for you. Go now. I wait,” she ordered.

“Okay, okay,” I agreed. I went to stand on the rental line, which was unfortunately very short. I got my skates too fast and was back in a jiffy.

“Sit, sit,” said Sasha. My friends sat too, to put their skates on, and then we were all ready. “Come!” commanded Sasha. She led the way down the ramp. She was even tinier without her skates on.

“Is Matt here already?” I whispered to Emma, frantically scanning the crowd on the ice for any sign of him.

“I'm not sure. I think he had practice, so he was coming late.”

“Phew.” I gave a huge sigh of relief. “So maybe I can get this over with before he gets here.”

“You mean you can warm up, so you're ready
when he arrives!” said Sasha, who'd been eavesdropping.

“Busted!” cried Mia, and we all laughed. We'd reached the door to the ice. Ugh.

“Now go, my little prodigy. Skate and have fun!” Sasha said with a smile.

“Hi, Sasha!” cried someone. Ugh. Olivia Allen, of course—right as I'm about to get on the ice.

I froze. I didn't want to do this.

“You did a great job teaching Alexis to skate the other night,” continued Olivia. “It took me months to learn what she did in one night. It was impressive.” Olivia pushed by us and went out on the ice. I glanced at Sasha, and I could tell she was pleased. I was glad Olivia had been nice to Sasha and hoped it had something to do with what I'd said.

“Well,” said Sasha, embarrassed.

“Thanks, Sasha!” I said. Then I walked onto the ice and fell down.

Just kidding!

I stepped gracefully over the threshold, and holding onto the side, I began to skate.

“Push, then glide!” called Sasha from behind me. I knew if I turned, I would fall, so I just waved and kept skating.

Suddenly, someone whooshed up next to me.
I hoped it wasn't Olivia! I turned just the tiniest amount.

Matt.

“Hi!” he said with a grin.

I grinned back. “I heard you were at practice,” I said.

“Canceled because of the party,” he said. “They knew no one would come.” He shrugged. “Want to skate?”

“Oh. I'm sure you're much better than I am, so why don't you just go ahead, and I'll catch—Whoa!” Matt had grabbed my hands like Sasha had and begun skating, strong but not too fast, around the rink. He took me on a loop, and as I passed the entrance, I saw Sasha grinning widely and waving. I wasn't about to let go of his hands, so I just grinned back like an idiot.

The best thing about being a bad skater is having someone hold your hands when they skate with you. Especially someone cute, who you are totally crushing on.

“It's so embarrassing being a bad skater,” I said.

“Well, no one has to be to be great at everything. And you're great at so many other things,” said Matt. “Feeling embarrassed is really a waste of time.”

Then Matt leaned in next to me. “By the way, you looked really pretty with your hair and everything yesterday, but I just wanted you to know you look pretty just all normal like this. Prettier.”

I laughed and blushed. “Thanks. I guess I'm just a normal kind of girl.”

“Alexis Becker, you are way, way above normal,” said Matt. “And don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise.”

And we skated around and around.
Ah,
Mom would love him, too. Wo ai ni
—I thought (but would never say!)—
Wo ai ni.

W
ant another sweet cupcake?

Here's a sneak peek of the next book in the

series:

Katie

sprinkled

secrets

S
ometimes I can't believe how much I've changed since I've started middle school. On the first day of school, my best friend, Callie Wilson, dumped me because she didn't think I was as popular as her new friends. But now I have three best friends: Mia Velaz-Cruz, Alexis Becker, and Emma Taylor, and they are really great.

I used to think boys were just, well, boys. But now I have a sort-of boyfriend named George Martinez.

I used to think it would be really bad if my mom ever got a boyfriend. But now she's dating Jeff—who I have to call Mr. Green sometimes, because he's a teacher at my school—and it's not bad at all.

I used to bake in my spare time. But now
I bake almost all the time, because my friends and I have a real business selling cupcakes—the Cupcake Club.

I also used to be really against the idea of joining a competitive sports team at school. I would just get too nervous about the whole thing, and then I would make all these goofy mistakes. But now, well, things are different.

“Katie, I don't get it,” Emma said during lunch in the cafeteria one day. “Why did you join the track team? I mean, it's great, but I thought you just liked to run for fun.”

“Well, I was really anxious about it,” I admitted. “But Jeff—I mean, Mr. Green—is friends with Coach Goodman, the track coach. And the track team is the one team you don't try out for—anyone can join. So even if I don't run in any races, it might be fun to run with a group of people.”

“And Coach Goodman is so nice!” Mia added. “I have her for Technology. She makes everything seem so easy.”

I nodded. “Yeah, she's supernice. She took me aside in the hall and said she heard I was a good runner. She said I could come to a practice and check it out. She doesn't put a lot of pressure on the team, but everybody tries really hard, anyway,
you know? So it seemed good, and I just thought I should go for it.”

“That's really great,” said Alexis. Her curly red hair bounced on her shoulders as she nodded. “You know, any activities you do will look great on your college application. It's never too early to start.” We all rolled our eyes but laughed because Alexis is always thinking about things like that.

“I think you'll be great,” Emma added, smiling. “You're an awesome runner!”

“Thanks,” I said. “I don't know how I'll do in a real race, though. Coach Goodman says I should do the long-distance races, the 800-meter or the 1,600-meter. And maybe a relay.”

“E-mail me your practice and meet schedule when you get it,” Alexis said. “It's getting harder and harder to schedule our Cupcake Club meetings these days.”