Katie Starting from Scratch (7 page)

“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say. “If her dad says it's okay.”

Emily got up. “I'll go, um, ask him.” But I could tell she was leaving because she felt uncomfortable.

“What was that about?” Mia asked when Emily had gone.

“Nothing,” I said. “It was a normal question, that's all.”

“But you sounded so angry,” Mia said. “And I think maybe you made Emily feel really bad.”

I sighed. “Forget it.”

“Seriously, is something bothering you?” Mia pressed.

Normally, I would tell Mia anything. But I was still mad at her. It was like she was taking Emily's side.

“No, I'm fine,” I snapped. “Let's just finish the meeting, okay?”

So we finished the meeting, and Emily came back in, and things went back to normal. Well, maybe on the outside they were normal. On the inside, I didn't feel normal at all.

A
fter the meeting, Alexis's mom picked up Alexis, Emma, and Mia.

“Emily and I should be getting back home,” Jeff said. I was relieved. Finally!

“Katie, we need to talk to you first,” Mom said. “Emily's mom is going to be out of the country all next week. She's been going to Haiti to help out the people there.”

“Oh, she's a doctor, right?” I said. “That's nice.”

“The thing is, I have basketball tryouts after school most of this week,” Jeff said.

“So I suggested Emily come here after school,” Mom chimed in. “With you. Otherwise she'd have to hang out in the gym for hours, waiting for Jeff.”

“Yeah, and it can be pretty sweaty and smelly in there,” Jeff said with a laugh.

I let this sink in. “So, Emily would be taking the bus back with me?”

Mom nodded. “Then you two could hang out until I get home, and Jeff will pick up Emily when he's done.”

I couldn't believe it. After spending this whole weekend with Emily, I was going to be stuck with her for another week! But what was I supposed to say?

“Sure, whatever,” I said.

“Great!” Jeff said. “Emily will meet you by the bus tomorrow. How does that sound, Emily?”

“That's fine,” Emily said, but her voice sounded kind of small. She didn't seem thrilled either.

“Then it's settled,” Mom said. She gave Jeff a kiss. “I'll check in with you tomorrow. Have a nice night, Emily.”

“Thank you,” Emily said, and then she and Jeff left.

“Well, that was a lovely weekend, wasn't it?” Mom asked. “I know we're filled up with chicken salad, so I'll make something light for dinner. Maybe I'll just heat up some soup.”

“Sure, whatever,” I repeated, and then I went
up to my room. No one cared what I thought anymore anyway.

On Monday morning, I was in a pretty bad mood on the bus. Mia was talking to me about something Dan did, but I was barely listening.

Then I heard this squeaky voice.

“Good morning, Katie. Got any cheese?”

I looked up and saw a mouse puppet peering over the back of my chair.

“George! What are you doing?” I asked, looking over the back of the seat.

“It's my new act,” he said. “This is my puppet, Mr. Cheddar.” He held up the puppet. “How do you save a drowning mouse?” he asked in his squeaky voice.

“I don't know. How?”

“With mouse-to-mouse resuscitation!” the puppet replied, and then George started cracking up.

I was laughing too, not because it was funny, but because George is so ridiculous sometimes. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but he couldn't use Mr. Cheddar in the talent show. He just couldn't. People would be laughing
at
him, not
with
him.

“You need to go back to your balancing act,” I said. “Seriously. This is awful.”

“Really?” George asked. “Rats!”

“No rats! No mice! No puppets!” I said. “Or I might be embarassed to be seen with you.”

“What? That's not fair!” George cried.

“I'm serious! And didn't you try out already?”

“I did,” George said. “But I thought I should jazz up my act. My little brothers love this thing.”

“Then save it for them,” I said. “Trust me!”

George held up Mr. Cheddar again. “That stinks worse than Limberger cheese!”

I looked at Mia and shook my head, and we both laughed. Leave it to George to get me out of my bad mood.

But all day I kept thinking about how Emily was going to come home with me and how weird that was. At the end of the day, she was waiting by the bus. She looked pretty relieved when she saw me, and for a second I felt bad for not wanting to hang out with her. After all, her mom was off in Haiti, and now she had to take a bus to our house instead of going home. It probably felt weird.

“Hey,” I said.

Emily smiled. “Hi.”

We got on the bus, and I immediately realized we had a problem: I always sit with Mia.

“Don't worry, I'll find another seat,” Mia said,
figuring things out at the same time I did.

I gave her an
I'm sorry
look as she headed for the back of the bus, but Mia just smiled at me. She's so nice. Emily and I sat down on my usual two-seater. George stuck his head over the back of our seats.

“Mia! You shrunk!” he said, looking at Emily.

“Very funny,” I said. “George, this is Emily.”

“You're Mr. Green's daughter, right?” he asked, and Emily nodded. “He's a pretty cool teacher. Everybody likes him.”

“Yeah, thanks. I hear that a lot,” Emily said.

And then George just kept talking the whole ride home. I'm not sure why he did it, but I was glad that he did. It saved me from trying to make awkward conversation with Emily.

After the bus dropped us off, we headed into the house.

“George is really funny,” Emily said. “Is he your boyfriend?”

I could feel myself blush. “Not exactly,” I said. “Kind of. Maybe. I don't know.”

Emily didn't press it, which was nice. When we got inside, I went straight to the kitchen, like I always do. There was a note from Mom on the table.

Hi, Katie:

Please make sure that Emily knows she can have a snack. We have fruit and cheese and crackers. Get started on your homework right away. I'll be home at 5:30, and Jeff will be there around the same time to take Emily home.

Love,

Mom

“Are you hungry?” I asked Emily.

“A little,” she replied.

I got two plates and put some cheese, crackers, and grapes on each one.

“You can do your homework anywhere,” I said. “I'm going upstairs.”

“Oh, okay,” Emily said.

I picked up my plate and my backpack, went up to my room, and closed my door behind me. I did everything Mom told me to, right?

But, of course, that wasn't enough. . . .

K
atie, I don't understand your attitude,” Mom was saying.

Jeff had picked up Emily, and they'd left. Mom and I were eating dinner.

I sighed. “What do you mean?”

“When I came home, you were in your room with your door closed, and poor Emily was down here by herself,” Mom replied.

“We were both doing homework,” I argued. “What am I supposed to do, look over her shoulder while she does it?”

“That's not what I mean.” Mom sounded frustrated. “I thought you and Emily were getting along so well. And then all of a sudden your attitude changed. You're not talkative, you hide out in your
room, and you're not being especially friendly.”

This was one of those conversations where deep down I knew Mom was right, but I didn't want to admit it.

Shouldn't she know why my attitude has changed?
I thought. Do I really have to explain it to her?

So I shrugged. “I guess. I don't know.”

Mom hates when I do that. “Katie, can't we talk about this? Or are you going to say ‘I don't know' every time I ask you something?”

“I don't know,” I said. Honestly, the words just slipped out.

Mom put down her fork. I could see she was getting a little teary-eyed. “I just really want things to work out,” she said. “I like Jeff so much, and I was so happy to see you and Emily getting along so well. . . .” Her voice trailed off.

Then I felt kind of bad. “Listen, I gave her a snack. I did what you said. What's the big deal?”

“Just promise me you can try to be nice, Katie,” Mom said. “You don't have to like Emily. Just be nice, okay?”

“I am being nice!” I protested, my voice getting louder. “Name one mean thing I've done to Emily. One mean thing.”

Mom shook her head. “Never mind.” Mom
didn't say anything more, but in my head I came up with my own list. Leaving her alone when she was a guest in my house was kind of mean. Saying the Cupcake Club should take a vote on whether she got to help out qualified as mean in my book too. But I didn't say a word.

We didn't talk anymore during dinner, which was awful. That almost never happened to us—at least, not before Mom started dating Jeff. So this whole thing was Jeff's fault, I decided.

But believing that didn't make me feel any better. Not really.

Normally, I would be talking to Mia about stuff like this. But for some reason I hadn't. It was like I had closed off that part of myself. So I was kind of relieved when, the next day at lunch, we had Cupcake business to discuss instead of talking about personal stuff.

“Well, the Channel Eight reporter is all set up for an interview the night of the talent show,” Alexis told us. “Her name is Mary Chang. She's going to arrive at six, when you guys are setting up.”

“Will we have time to do an interview when we're setting up?” Mia asked.

“Sure,” Alexis said confidently. “Also, I checked,
and there have been one hundred tickets sold for the talent show already. So we should probably make ten dozen cupcakes.”