Katie Starting from Scratch (11 page)

“Thanks,” Emily said.

Mary turned to her camerawoman. “Let's figure out the best way to shoot this talent show,” she said, and the two of them went into the auditorium.

“I can't believe I was so nervous!” I cried, shaking my head. “ ‘Lunch. School. Cupcake.'? What was wrong with me? You guys were great.”

Emma laughed. “Don't worry. They'll probably edit most of it out, anyway,” she said.

I sighed. “I hope so.”

Then people started coming in to take their
seats for the talent show. Emma picked up the cash box that Alexis had prepared for us. It held lots of fives and singles for change.

“Here we go,” Mia said with a grin.

It got busy right away. Our colorful stand got a lot of attention, and people walked right up to it. Mia and Emma took orders and money, and Emily and I handed people their cupcakes. The best part was when people bit into them and then saw the two different colors.

“This is so clever!” one woman said. “I'd love to get some like these for my sister's baby shower next month. Do you girls do parties?”

“Of course we do,” I said, channeling my inner Alexis. I handed her a flyer. “You can contact us by phone or through our website.”

After about a half hour of chaos, things got quiet, and it came time for the show to begin.

“I just thought of something,” I said. “If we have to watch the table, we'll miss the show! We won't see Alexis!”

“Well, there won't be much business while the show is on,” Mia reasoned. “So we can watch the show through the doors.”

“Perfect!” I said, and we all huddled by one of the doors to watch.

Principal LaCosta walked up to the microphone onstage.

“I'd like to welcome all of you to the Park Street Middle School Talent Show,” she said. “There are some wonderful acts in store, and these students have worked very hard. So make sure you give all of them lots of applause.”

Everyone clapped like crazy, and then the curtains parted. Music started playing over the speakers—the kind of music you'd hear at a circus—and then George came onstage. He was wearing a tuxedo. Seriously—a tuxedo! Behind him was a table with a bunch of stuff on it. There was a chair behind it.

I was expecting George to say something, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he picked up a feather duster from the table. He tilted his head back, put the handle part on his nose, and then let go.

I started to giggle, and some people clapped. Balancing the feather duster was pretty cool. But that was just the beginning. Next he balanced a really tall broom on his nose! That got a lot of applause. Third he did a little wooden chair. That looked really hard. And then he balanced a Wiffle ball bat, and he picked up three oranges and started to juggle them. He didn't drop the oranges or the bat.

George ended by letting the oranges fall to the ground and catching the bat in his hand. He gave a bow, and everyone clapped and cheered.

“He is, like, the perfect boyfriend for you,” Mia whispered to me, and I knew I blushed. But she had a point. I mean, I could really appreciate a talent like that.

Next up was Olivia Allen. She was wearing a sparkly, short, silver dress and silver heels. She sang along to a recording of a popular song, and I had to admit she sounded pretty good for most of it. It was one of those songs where the singer really belts it out. Olivia had trouble hitting some of the notes at the end, but she got a lot of applause, anyway.

Then two girls came out and did this dance with scarves, and this boy did a pretty cool tap dance. Next, Wes Kinney came out and started telling jokes. I thought they were pretty lame, but his friends were all laughing really hard and yelling out stuff.

Then a boy came out carrying a stool and a guitar. He sat down on the stool and started to strum. He looked like a high school boy, and I was wondering what he was doing in a middle school talent show.

But he wasn't the act. A tall, beautiful redhead
wearing a simple black dress walked onstage, holding a microphone. It took me a few seconds to realize who it was.

It was
Alexis
! Mia grabbed my arm real tight, and we tried hard not to scream. Alexis looked amazing!

And then she began to sing. . . .

I
had to stop myself from screaming and cheering because I wanted to hear Alexis sing. The whole audience got quiet; Alexis had this really sweet, pretty voice. I was shocked. I had never heard Alexis sing before. Okay, maybe I'd heard her sing “Happy Birthday” or I'd heard her sing when we played the radio in the car, but not really sing by herself. I didn't even know she
liked
to sing!

The song sounded familiar, but it wasn't one of those popular, belt-it-out-loud songs like the one Olivia sang. It was soft and pretty and had a nice melody.

“She's so good!” Emma whispered to me, and I nodded in agreement.

The crowd thought so too, because when Alexis
finished, she got more applause than anybody else had gotten, I swore. She blushed a little, took a bow, and then left the stage.

Emma, Mia, Emily, and I ran back to the cupcake table.

“Oh my gosh!” I whispered loudly. (The auditorium doors were still open.) “I can't believe it!”

“She is such a good singer,” Emily said.

“I have got to talk to her,” Emma said. “Do you guys mind watching the table while I go backstage?”

“Go!” Mia said, giving her a push.

A few minutes later people started coming out of the auditorium—it was intermission. We were busy selling cupcakes when Emma came up with Alexis.

“Sorry, I'm late!” Emma said, sliding behind the table. “It took forever to get to Alexis. She was surrounded by hordes of admirers.”

Alexis laughed. “Yeah, right.” She looked down at her dress. “Sorry, I can't help, but if I get frosting on this, Dylan will kill me.”

Up close, I could see what a fabulous dress it was. The black dress came just to her knees and had short sleeves and a sparkly band around the waist. She had on shoes with heels that weren't
superhigh but that still made her look even taller. She wore glittery earrings, and her beautiful red hair was blown out straight and shiny and styled like a supermodel's.

“You are way too glamorous to be selling cupcakes,” I said. “But don't worry. We've got Emily helping us, so we'll be fine.”

Emily smiled at me, and then I looked up at the customers and saw Mom and Jeff standing there with giant goofy grins on their faces. I knew that they had just heard me and were thrilled that Emily and I were getting along. A few days before, I would have been annoyed, but I just smiled back. It didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.

When intermission was over, we still had some cupcakes left—about a dozen.

“I know,” Alexis said. “Let's bring them backstage and see who wants one.”

We followed Alexis “backstage,” which was the school cafeteria, where everybody was either getting ready to go onstage or relaxing after being onstage. George ran up as soon as he saw us.

“Nice tux,” I said. “And I liked your act. Pretty impressive.”

“Was I good enough for a cupcake?” he asked, eyeing the box in my hands.

“Of course,” I said, handing him one. “Just don't try to juggle it.”

It was fun walking around, giving out cupcakes. Olivia was talking to the two scarf dancers.

“I could feel every eye in the audience on me,” she was saying. “They were hanging on my every word. It was so unnerving!”

“You were good,” I told her.

“Oh. Thanks,” Olivia said with a toss of her thick, brown hair. I could tell she was trying to act as if she got millions of compliments every day, but I knew she was secretly thrilled.

“Want a cupcake?” I asked.

“Oh yes! All that singing made me absolutely
famished
!” Then she grabbed one out of the box.

As we walked away, I said to Mia, “Now
that's
a real drama queen. You don't have to worry about me.”

“I know I don't!” Mia said.

Since all the cupcakes were gone, we got to go inside and watch the show. We found a few seats in the last row. It was a lot of fun, and when it was done, we caught up with Mom, Jeff, and Alexis's parents outside.

“We'd like to take everyone out for ice cream,” Mr. Becker said, “to celebrate your fantastic cupcake
sales—and Alexis's big debut. Wasn't she just amazing?”

“Thanks, Dad!” Alexis said, hugging him.

“I got it all on video,” he said. “One day, when you're a big star, you can sell the footage for big bucks.”

Alexis laughed. “I do not want to be a big star. I just did that to see if I could. Now I can cross it off my list.”

“No way! You have to keep singing,” Emma insisted.

“Maybe you can convince her over ice cream,” Alexis's mom said.

We split up and got into our cars to head to Fletcher's, an old-fashioned–style ice-cream parlor. The chairs are black metal with red-and-white–striped cushions, and the people who sell the ice cream wear red-and-white–striped shirts, big white aprons, and those little hats that look like folded triangles. We found a table big enough for all of us, and the parents sat at one end. I was all the way at the other end, between Mia and Emily.

We placed our ice-cream orders (I got a black-and-white ice-cream soda, which means it's vanilla ice cream with chocolate soda), and then everybody started fussing over Alexis.

“Seriously, Alexis, why don't you at least join chorus or something?” I asked her. “You have such a nice voice.”

“I might,” Alexis admitted. “If I can fit it into my schedule.”

Dylan was sitting across from us.

“Dylan, you did a great job styling her,” Mia said. “If my mom ever needs an assistant, I will tell her she should hire you.”

Dylan looked really flattered. “Wow, thanks. But Alexis is easy to style.”

“Because I let you do whatever you want to me?” Alexis asked.

“No, dork, because you're beautiful,” Dylan said.

“I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me,” Alexis said. “Including the dork part.”

I knew Alexis wasn't kidding. Dylan could be really mean to Alexis when she wanted to. Or she just acted like Alexis was the biggest pain in the world—kind of like I had been acting toward Emily.

I turned to Emily. This wasn't going to be easy, but I wanted to say it.

“So . . . I've been meaning to apologize to you,” I told her. “I'm sorry if I was acting mean to you lately. It's just . . . I don't know. I guess I was jealous.
My mom thinks you're so perfect and, well, you kind of are.”

Emily looked surprised. “Seriously? You think that?” she asked. “Because I am
so
not perfect.”

“Yes, you are!” I argued. “Your hair is always shiny and perfect. Your room is superclean. And you don't make a mess when you eat.”

“Well, maybe that last part is true,” Emily admitted. “But the other stuff is hard. I mean, I have to wake up extra early to blow-dry my hair every day. And my room is so clean because my dad makes me clean it, like, every time I'm there. He's like a drill sergeant.”

I looked down the table at Jeff, who was talking and laughing with my mom. Everyone said he was such a laid-back teacher. I had a hard time thinking of him being so strict.

But once I thought about it, it made sense. He was always telling Emily to retie her shoes and put her napkin on her lap when we went out to eat.

“I never thought of it like that,” I said.

Emily nodded. “I was always jealous of
you
,” she said. “Your mom doesn't give you a hard time about your room. And you have awesome friends and they all love you. And you never stress out about your hair and stuff, but you always look really cute.”

I couldn't believe Emily was saying all this. “Really?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, and then she looked down at her hot fudge sundae with extra cherries. “You know, I was nervous that you wouldn't like me.”

I honestly had never thought of that, either. “Well, I hope you're not worried anymore, because I definitely like you.”

Emily looked relieved, and then the two of us started laughing. “It's funny how we were both feeling the same way,” I said. “I feel silly now.”

“Well, you are silly,” said Mia, who had just joined our conversation.

When we were done with our ice cream, there were lots of hugs all around.

“Good-bye, superstar!” I called to Alexis as we left the ice-cream parlor.

“I am not a superstar!” she protested, but then just at that moment, a boy walked past her and stopped.

“Hey, you were in the talent show tonight. You were great,” he said.

“Thanks,” Alexis replied, and I was laughing so hard.