Katie Starting from Scratch (3 page)

Then he walked away, and George couldn't resist teasing me.

“Your mom's
boyfriend
sure is nice,” he said.

I sighed. “Yeah, well, people have boyfriends. It's no big deal.”

“Hmm,” George said. “I wonder what would happen if they got married. Would your mom become Mrs. Brown-Green? That sounds like a new color in a big crayon box.”

He and the other boys started laughing. I probably would have laughed too if George hadn't been talking about my own mom.

“Would you become Katie Brown-Green?”
George asked. “That's kind of long. If you got a job at Burger Hut, you'd need a really big name tag.”

“Hey, Katie, what do you think of Jason White?” Ken asked me. “He's in our science class. If you married him, you'd been Katie Brown-Green White!”

“Yeah, everyone in Katie's family has to marry someone with a color for their last name,” Aziz said. “They'll be known as the Crayons.” All the boys started howling at that.

“Very funny,” I said in a voice that clearly showed I didn't think they were being funny. Normally, I didn't mind George's teasing, but this was hitting a spot that didn't feel good.

Mia must have seen the look on my face. “If you boys will excuse us, we have some girl business to discuss,” she said, looking right at George.

“Ew! Girl business,” Ken said. “We're out of here.”

“Thanks for the cupcakes,” George said, smiling at me, and then the boys went back to their table.

“That was weird,” Mia said.

“Tell me about it,” I said. “I mean, sometimes I wonder what would happen if Mom married Mr. Green, but I never thought about her changing her name. I guess she would, right? But that doesn't mean I would have to.”

“I think that would be up to you,” Mia said.

“Right. So you'd still be Katie Brown,” Alexis chimed in. “Nothing to worry about. And if your mom wants to be Mrs. Brown-Green, there's nothing wrong with that.”

“I guess,” I said, but to be honest, something did feel wrong. Let's say Mom
did
marry Mr. Green. She'd be Mrs. Brown-Green. Emily would be Emily Green. And I would be Katie Brown. The only Brown in the family. Plain old brown. Boring brown. Definitely not the most popular crayon in the box. “I don't know,” I said. “It's all kind of depressing.”

Mia put her arm around me. “Enough about names. Let's talk cupcakes.”

That made me feel a little better. But I knew it was going to be hard to get the name thing completely off my mind.

K
atie, you have my cell phone number,” Mom said, looking back from the passenger seat at me. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

“Of course,” I said. “That's only, like, the seventeenth time you've mentioned it.”

It was Saturday morning, and I was sitting with Emily in the backseat of Jeff's car. Jeff and my mom were dropping us off at Mia's house for the Cupcake Club meeting. I don't sit in the backseat of cars a lot; usually it's just me and my mom, and I sit in the passenger seat next to her. Sitting in the backseat was making me feel like a little kid.

Mom ignored my sarcasm. “We should be back by six, before it gets too late,” she went on. “Mia's mom is giving you guys lunch, and we'll all get
some pizza or something when we get back. If you're hungry when you get home, there are granola bars in the pantry and bananas on the counter. Please don't—”

“Use the oven when you're not there. I know,” I said. I don't know why she has to repeat the same rules every single time she goes out. It's like she doesn't trust me or something.

“Well, I am glad you know the rules so well,” Mom said just as we pulled up in front of Mia's house.

Mom wasn't the only one giving out parental attitude.

“Emily, I expect you to listen to Katie and the Cupcake Club,” Jeff was saying. “And try to be helpful, okay?”

“Yes, Dad,” she said, looking at me and rolling her eyes. I smiled. At least I wasn't the only one.

Emily and I got out of the car, and Jeff popped the trunk. We grabbed the bags of ingredients that I had bought that morning.

“Have a good time!” Mom yelled as we walked up to the house.

“You too!” I shouted back.

Mia lives in one of those old-fashioned–looking houses. It's got white wooden shingles and an open
front porch. When I rang the bell, Mia's dogs immediately started yapping from behind the door.

“That's Tiki and Milkshake, Mia's dogs,” I told Emily. “They sound crazy, but don't be nervous, they're pretty tiny.”

Mia opened the door. “Yay! You're here!” she said, hugging me. Then she smiled at Emily. “Hi. I'm Mia.”

Tiki and Milkshake were jumping up on Emily's ankles. The two dogs have fluffy white fur and black button noses. I can tell them apart because Milkshake always has a pink bow in her hair.

“They're so cute!” Emily said, petting Milkshake's head. “What kind of dogs are they?”

“They're Maltese,” Mia answered. “Wow, they really seem to like you.”

“They jump up on everybody,” I said, and then I felt kind of badly saying it. What was wrong with me? Mia's dogs could like Emily if they wanted to.

“Come on into the kitchen,” Mia said, grabbing one of the bags from me. “Alexis and Emma are here.”

We followed her into the kitchen, where Alexis and Emma were putting paper holders into four cupcake pans.

“So, this is Emily,” I said. “And this is Alexis and Emma.”

“Hi,” Emily said. “Thanks for letting me help today.”

Emma smiled at her. “You picked the perfect day to join us. We need lots of help. We've got to make four dozen cupcakes and they're pretty complicated.”

“It's going to be so worth it, though,” I said. I looked at Emily. “We're making cupcakes for a flower show at the Women's Club tomorrow. So I came up with a really flowery flavor, and Mia knows how to make the best fondant flowers to decorate them with.”

“Fondant—that's the stuff that you can roll out, right? It's made of sugar?” Emily asked.

I nodded. “That's the stuff.” I had to admit I was a little impressed. “How do you know about fondant?” I asked. I was really curious.

“I watch the food channel a lot,” she said. “Especially those cake contests. Those cakes are amazing!”

“Oh my gosh, but have you ever seen when the big cakes fall?” Emma asked. “It's so awful!”

“I know!” Emily squealed. “At first you think it will be funny, but when it happens, you feel so bad for them.”

Emily seemed to be fitting in just fine. I started unpacking the ingredients.

“So, we've got three things to make,” I said. “Vanilla cupcake batter. That's easy. Then the peach filling.”

I held up a bag of peaches. “We'll make it from scratch, like we practiced. And then the lavender icing.”

I held up a little jar with a thick, pale purple liquid in it. “I finally perfected the lavender syrup. Mom helped me last night. We boiled down sugar and water and dried lavender, and then strained out the leaves. It should be thick enough to flavor the icing without making it too runny.”

“Wow, that sounds complicated,” Emily remarked.

“It's not, as long as we take it one step at a time,” Alexis said, taking charge as she normally does. “Emily, why don't you help me with the batter? Emma and Katie, you guys can work on the peach filling. Mia, why don't you get started rolling out the flowers?”

I saluted. “Yes, sir, general!”

Alexis rolled her eyes and grinned. “You know you'd be lost without me.”

I hugged her. “I do! I do!”

Mia cranked some music on her MP3 player, and we started cooking. Making the peach filling isn't so hard; it's just a pain to peel the peaches. After
they're peeled, you chop them up and add them to a small pot with water and sugar, and cook it all down until it gets mushy. By the time Alexis and Emily put the cupcakes in the oven, the peaches were the perfect gooey consistency.

Alexis took off her oven mitts and wiped a strand of wavy red hair away from her face.

“Baking makes my hair get so frizzy!” she complained. She glanced over at Emily's sleek shiny hair. “I wish I had hair like yours, Emily. It's gorgeous.”

“Thanks,” Emily said.

Alexis had a point. Emily's hair is thick and glossy and shiny. Mine isn't wavy or curly like Alexis's, but it's kind of fine, and whenever I'm near a hot oven, it goes limp. But Emily obviously doesn't have that problem.

“So, when the cupcakes come out and cool down, the filling should be cool too,” I said. “Then we can inject the filling and frost the cupcakes.”

“You and Emma should make the icing,” Alexis suggested. “Emily can help Mia with the flowers.”

“Oh, Emily, that would be so great!” Mia said, looking up from the kitchen table. “I've got loads to do.”

“If you guys don't mind, I want to write copy
for the new flyer,” Alexis said. “That way it will be updated for tomorrow.”

“Sure thing,” I said, and then Emma and I got to work on the icing.

The morning flew by as we worked, and just as the oven timer went off, Mia's mom came into the kitchen. She is superstylish, just like Mia, with perfectly straight black hair. Today she was wearing black pants with ballet flats and a crisp-looking white shirt.

“Are you girls ready for a break yet?” she asked. “I've got sandwiches and a big salad for you in the fridge. We can eat in the dining room.”

“This is a great time,” Alexis said. “We're waiting for stuff to cool anyway.”

“And we can take a break from the flowers,” Mia said. “Although there's not much left to do. Emily is amazing at this. Come, look!”

We went over to the table. To make the flowers, Mia and Emily had rolled out fondant in pale purple, pink, yellow, and green. Then they used tiny cutters to cut out flower parts and leaves. Once the shapes were cut, they had to be carefully pressed together and rolled to look like real flowers. I always have a hard time doing it because you need to be really careful and you need to concentrate.

“Look at her roses,” Mia said, pointing. “They're perfect!”

I leaned over for a closer look. Emily had taken the pink fondant shapes and rolled them to look like perfect little rosebuds. Then she'd attached two leaves to each one.

“Emily, are you sure you aren't a professional?” Alexis asked.

Emily blushed. “I swear, I've never done this before!”

“I don't believe it,” Emma said. “These are too good.”

“Hey, we should help Mrs. Valdes get stuff on the table,” I said, heading for the fridge.

Pretty soon we were eating lunch around Mia's table with her mom.

“Where are Eddie and Dan?” I asked. Mia's stepdad and stepbrother were usually around.

“Dan has a basketball game this afternoon, and Eddie's watching,” Mia's mom answered.

Then Mia's mom had a bunch of questions for Emily. Did she do any after-school activities? What kind of books did she like to read? I could tell she was being extra nice to Emily. And of course there was nothing wrong with that, but it was starting to get to me. It was like everybody
was making a big deal about Emily.

Then Emily excused herself to go to the bathroom, and my friends started talking about her.

“Katie, she's really nice,” Emma said.

“And talented,” Mia added.

“And she's very mature for her age,” Alexis said. “I'm impressed. It's not like having an annoying little kid around at all.”

“Hey!” Emma protested, knowing that Alexis was referring to Jake.

“Well, she's not,” Alexis said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, she's perfect,” I said. “So, Mrs. Valdes, have
you
read any good books lately?”

“As a matter of fact . . . ,” she began, and I knew I had succeeded in changing the topic. Mia's mom loves to talk about books.

After lunch, we finished the cupcakes. We used a special injector tool that I have to fill the vanilla cupcakes with the peach filling. Then we iced them with lavender frosting and topped them with the fondant flowers.

“They look like little works of art,” Emma said.

Alexis handed one to Emily. “We always make a few extra to test and make sure they came out okay. Could you please do the honors?”

“Sure,” Emily said. She carefully peeled the
wrapper and bit in, and her eyes got wide. “Oh my gosh, this is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted! You guys are awesome.”

“We couldn't have done it without your help,” Mia said.

Oh, couldn't we?
I wanted to say, but I know that would have sounded mean. I'm just saying—the recipe was totally my idea. But nobody seemed to remember that. This whole “We love Emily” thing was making me kind of grumpy.