Katie Starting from Scratch (12 page)

“See? You can't even get ice cream without being recognized!” I yelled.

I was still laughing when Emily and I got into the backseat of Mom's car. The plan was to drop her and Jeff back at school, where Jeff's car was parked.

Mom turned on the radio, and the rock station I'd been listening to came on. Mom looked into the rearview mirror.

“What's that station you like again, Emily?” she asked.

“Ninety-four point one, but you don't have to change it,” she said, giving me a nervous look, but I gave her a look back to show that I was okay with it.

“No, it's my pleasure,” Mom said. “That's the one I like too.” It was not the one I liked, but it was fine.

I leaned back in my seat.
I guess this is how life is going to be from now on,
I thought.
Filled with compromises.

Alexis and Emma complained about this kind of thing all the time, and even Mia complained about Dan. I had never understood it before. I guess I was in kind of a bubble, being an only child. I'd never even had to share my mom with anyone.

And it looked like Jeff and Emily weren't going anywhere anytime soon. There was a good chance that this change was going to be permanent. So I was definitely starting from scratch.

I remembered what Alexis said about baking from scratch—about how we do it because our cupcakes taste so much better that way. Whatever this new life held, I guessed we were starting from scratch too. And while I knew it wouldn't be totally smooth, I had a feeling it might just be as sweet as the icing on one of our cupcakes.

I
had worked things out with my friends. I had even worked things out with Emily. But there was one person left I needed to talk to: my mom. So I was glad when we dropped Jeff and Emily off and headed home. I didn't even have to bring up the topic, because Mom gave me the perfect opening.

“So, you and Emily are getting along really well,” Mom said.

“Yeah,” I replied. “But, um, I was kind of jealous for a while. You act like she's perfect all the time. I was starting to think that you wanted me to be more like her or something.”

“Oh, Katie!” Mom said, and her eyes got sad. “Let me concentrate on driving, but I promise you we'll finish this conversation.”

I could tell that Mom was thinking hard on the whole ride home. When she pulled into our driveway, she shut the engine off and turned to look at me.

“Katie, you are my daughter, the love of my life, and I love you exactly as you are,” Mom said. “Of course there are some habits that I would like you to improve, but that's my job as a parent.”

I nodded. “Just maybe don't compare me to Emily when you do that.”

Mom was shaking her head. “I never realized I was doing it, but now that you say it, you are so right. I'm sorry, Katie. I never wanted to make you feel bad about yourself.”

“It's okay,” I said. Boy, was it a relief to talk about stuff! And there was still one thing that was really bugging me. “Mom, if you marry Jeff—”

Mom interrupted me. “Katie, I am not sure if that will ever happen.”

“I know, but I'm just saying, if you guys get married, I don't want to be the only Brown in the family,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Mom asked.

“Well, if you take his name, you'd be Dr. Green,” I pointed out. “And if you hyphenated your name, you'll be Dr. Brown-Green. And Emily would
still be Emily Green, but I'd be Katie Brown. That would be sad.”

Mom smiled. “Katie, that is a promise I can make. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said, and I smiled back.

On Monday, everybody at school was talking about the talent show. At lunch George was juggling apples at his table, impressing all his friends.

“I heard that Olivia Allen is jealous of you,” Emma reported to Alexis, “because everyone says you're a better singer.”

Alexis shrugged. “I actually think she was really good. Anyway, people will stop talking about it soon.”

“Well, Channel Eight aired their report last night,” Mia said. “Did you see it?”

Alexis groaned. “My dad has played it, like, a million times. And they showed me for only two seconds.”

“Two superstar seconds!” I teased.

“That reminds me,” Alexis said. “Mary Chang e-mailed me and said they're going to air the Cupcake Club story on tomorrow's news. Mom said we could have pizza at our house and all watch it. I can't believe we're all going to be on TV!”

“Emily's in it, so I'll see if she can come too,” I suggested, and everyone nodded.

The next day, we all got to Alexis's house at five. The news started at five thirty, and we wanted to make sure we didn't miss the Cupcake Club segment. Mrs. Becker had these little TV trays set up in the living room so we could eat our pizza without making a mess. We each had a huge stack of napkins, too.

At five thirty, the news came on. There was a story about the school budget and a store that got robbed. Then we saw Mary Chang's face on the screen.

“Coming up, hear about a group of girls who turned a love of cupcakes into a thriving business!” she said.

We all clapped and cheered. The commercials seemed to take forever. The show came back on, and the anchorman did a story about a new exhibit at the zoo. Then he turned things over to Mary Chang.

Suddenly, there we were on the screen—me, Mia, Emma, and Emily, setting up the cupcake table.

“Look at us!” Mia cried, and we all squealed. It was so weird seeing myself on TV. But I guess we looked pretty cool, since we all had our Cupcake shirts on.

Mary Chang started doing a voiceover.

“This might look like a typical school bake sale. But it's anything but,” she was saying. “These girls have turned cupcakes into a booming business.”

Emma's face appeared on the screen. “It started on our first day of middle school, when Katie brought a cupcake to lunch,” she said.

Then the camera was right on me. “Lunch. School. Cupcake,” I said.

“Oh no!” the non-TV me wailed. “Emma, I thought you said they were going to cut that out!”

“Shh!” Alexis said.

The rest of it was pretty normal, just like I'd remembered, with Emma and Mia talking. Then the camera turned to Mary Chang.

“One member, Alexis Becker, was too busy wowing the crowd in the talent show to be interviewed,” she said. “Alexis is the business brain of the club, and she wanted me to make sure I gave out the club's website info. So check out the bottom of your screen if you want to give their cupcakes a try.”

“Yes!” Alexis said, pumping her fist in the air.

The last shot they showed was a cute little kid biting into one of our cupcakes, and then the story was over. Everyone started talking at once.

“You guys looked so good!” Emily said.

“Alexis, you should have been in it,” Emma said with a frown.

“It's okay,” Alexis said. “I'm already a superstar, remember?”

“Excuse me, but did anybody hear what I dork I was?” I asked. “Why would she leave that in? It's like I forgot how to use the English language.”

“It went by really fast,” Mia assured me. “I'm sure nobody will notice.”

Alexis's phone starting buzzing, and she looked at it. “No way! I already have a message about a possible birthday party order. Awesome!”

“Getting on the show was a brilliant idea,” Emma told her.

Then my phone started to buzz. I looked at the screen. There was a text from George.

Lunch. School. Cupcake.

“Oh no!” I wailed.

“What is it?” Mia asked.

I handed her my phone, and she started cracking up. Then everyone gathered around to look.

Emily started to giggle, and Mia and Emma were laughing really hard. Alexis had one of those “brilliant idea” looks that she gets.

“This could be great,” she said. “We can isolate the clip and put it online. I bet we'd get a lot of hits. Then we could link to our Cupcake website.”

“Absolutely not!” I shrieked. “If you do that, then I will post your singing clip on every website out there. You will be discovered and they'll make you go on tour and you won't be able to go to any more business club meetings.”

Alexis frowned. “You wouldn't.”

“I would!” I promised.

She sighed. “But it would be really good for business.”

“I think we'll get enough business from the news report,” I said.

“And if that doesn't work, we can add singing cupcake telegrams to our flyer,” Emma said, looking at Alexis.

We all started laughing again. I looked around the room, and then I knew for sure—I might be starting from scratch, but I'd always have my friends around me to help me make sure everything came out perfect.

W
ant another sweet cupcake?

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

Cupcake
Diaries

series:

mia's

recipe for disaster