Makeover Magic (6 page)

Aly clenched her fists. Insulting Sparkle Spa was one thing, but insulting Charlotte was something else altogether. “Charlotte is the best hair braider around,”
Aly said. “I bet she could braid circles around any of the grown-ups at Princess Polish.”

Charlotte and Aly were standing shoulder to shoulder now, staring at Suzy.

“Whatever,” Suzy said. “Sparkle Spa will always be for babies.” Then she marched off in the direction of the poster team.

“She is the pits,” Charlotte said, rubbing the balloon she was holding across her head to make her hair all staticky.

“The absolute pits,” Aly agreed, even though she couldn't help feeling that Suzy was a little bit right.

Aly looked around at the transformed gym. Tomorrow night the sixth graders would be having the best time ever, and hopefully Sparkle Spa would have something to do with that—no matter what Suzy Davis thought.

A
ly felt a thud on her chest and then a lick on her cheek.

“Stop, Sparkly,” she giggled. But Sparkly kept licking until Aly got out of bed.

It was just as well that Sparkly woke Aly up early, though, because today was the day of the Fall Ball.

Aly got dressed quickly and took Sparkly out for a walk. By the time they got back, Brooke was sitting at the kitchen table, ready to go.

“I'm so excited, it's almost like we're going to the ball ourselves,” Brooke said on the drive to True Colors.

But Aly shook her head. “I think it's more like we're the fairy godmothers and all our customers are Cinderella.”

Brooke laughed. But then she got serious. “Remember, I'm not doing boy feet.”

“I don't think we have any boys scheduled for pedicures,” Aly said after swallowing a bite of her granola bar. “Just for cleanings and thumbs-up man-icures.”

“Ew,” Brooke said. “That means their feet will be even grosser. It's a good thing fancy boy shoes cover up their toes.”

Aly and Mom laughed. “Brooke, I don't know where you come up with that stuff,” Mom said. Brooke just shrugged and laughed a little herself.

Once they got to Sparkle Spa, the sisters set out all the fall-themed polishes on a special table. Brooke also drew the shape of a foot on a piece of paper. Then Aly polished the toenails with Brooke's special “caramel-dipped pedicure” so everyone could see what it would look like. And she pulled out the strands of multicolored beads Brooke and Sophie had strung all week. There were dozens of them in at least eight different colors, and Brooke had organized them in rainbow order. They looked beautiful all by themselves, but they were going to look even nicer in people's hair.

By ten thirty, the girls were ready for the big day ahead, and Jenica was the first customer to arrive. She was carrying a royal-blue dress with spaghetti straps and ruffles. “I brought my dress to make sure the polish matched,” she said. “I'd hate to get home and find that the polish clashed with this color.”

Brooke had a very serious expression on her face. “You'd never want that,” she said, tugging on her braid. “What color are your sandals again?”

“Silver,” Jenica answered.

Brooke nodded. “Aly can start on your hair. I'll bring you different color choices for your nails.”

Once Jenica sat down, Aly asked, “Silver beads to go with your shoes? Or blue?”

“Silver!” Brooke called from the polish display.

Aly smiled and raised an eyebrow at Jenica.

“Silver,” Jenica confirmed. “And can you do that kind of braid that goes across my head? Like a crown?”

“Sure,” she said, picking up a strand of silver beads to start.

Meanwhile, Brooke came back holding a bottle of silvery Very Ice Try and a bottle of hot-pink I Like to Mauve It Mauve It. “Here's what I'm thinking,”
she said. “Pink looks really good with bright blue, so I can use mauve on your toenails and then a stripe of silver on your big toes. And then we could do the opposite for your fingernails—silver with a stripe of pink.”

“Will that be too much silver on her toes, since her sandals are silver?” Aly asked as Jenica's silky hair slid through her fingers.

Brooke ran back over to the display. She returned with Good Knight, which was almost the exact color of Jenica's blue dress. “Pink with a blue stripe on her toes. Then silver polish with a pink stripe on her fingers.”

“Love it,” Jenica said, and gave Brooke a high five.

Aly tucked the ends of Jenica's braid underneath the braid itself and lifted up a hand mirror. “What do you think?” she asked.

Jenica breathed out slowly. “Wow, Aly, I hardly
recognize myself. Thank you.” She gave Aly a big smile before she followed Brooke to a pedicure chair.

As soon as Brooke began working on Jenica's toes, the rest of the Auden Angels soccer players started flowing in for their appointments. Just like Jenica, a lot of the sixth graders had brought along their dresses to make sure the polish they picked would look good with their outfits.

• Anjuli's dress was bright purple.

• Giovanna's was light pink.

• Mia was wearing orange.

• Avery, emerald green.

• Aubrey, mint green.

It was so busy for the next few hours that Aly really didn't have time to think about Princess Polish once. Okay, maybe once. All but four of the sixth-grade
team members were there—Bethany, Joelle, Maxie, and Valentina—and Aly tried not to let that bother her, but it was kind of hard.

“My mom is letting me wear lip gloss,” she heard Mia tell Giovanna. “Actually, it's more like tinted ChapStick. But it makes my lips a little pink.”

Giovanna sighed. “I'm not even allowed to wear that. Just clear ChapStick. It's so not fair.”

“But do you get to wear heels?” Brooke asked.

“Little ones,” Giovanna said, showing Brooke the height with her thumb and pointer finger—about half an inch, Aly figured.

Aly had just finished painting Aubrey's fingers Candy Corn on the Cob with a crown of Very Ice Try on the thumbs when she looked up and saw Lucas Grant standing in the doorway, right on time. Her breath caught in her throat.

Cute Lucas! At Sparkle Spa! And she was going
to do his nails! She'd known it was going to happen, but it still caught her off guard. She had to remind herself to breathe. And to talk.

“Come on in, Lucas,” she said. Only her voice sounded more like a croak than real words. His friend Oliver was behind him. “You too, Oliver,” Aly added. They were the first two boys scheduled.

They walked in slowly—like they weren't sure they really wanted to do this—and the minute they entered, all the girls stopped chattering.

It was the quietest Sparkle Spa had ever been.

“Um, hi,” Lucas said.

Every one of the girls—in the manicure chairs, in the pedicure chairs, and at the braiding stations—stared at the boys.

Was this a mistake?
Aly wondered. Were the man-icures a bad idea?

The air seemed so thick that Aly felt like she would
need nail clippers to cut it. She took a deep breath.

“I think it's so neat that you guys are here,” Mia finally said from where Charlotte was braiding her hair. “Right, Giovanna?” she asked.

Giovanna nodded. “Definitely,” she said. “Extra cool.”

Aly saw Oliver smile. Maybe this was going to be okay after all.

Lily looked at the appointment book. “Lucas, you're first,” she said. “You can go over there with Aly. Oliver, you're welcome to wait in the corner on the pillows until he's done. Then Aly will do your nails.”

Oliver plopped himself down next to Aubrey, whose nails were drying. Lucas sat across from Aly.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Aly said back, suddenly very aware that she was touching a boy's fingers. A really cute boy's fingers.

But Lucas didn't seem to notice how awkward she felt. He just smiled so that a dimple appeared on his left cheek.

Aly smiled too. When she was done with his nails, Lucas looked at his fingers and grinned. “My hands look like my dad's now,” he said. “Like, important. Nice job.”

Then he jammed his hands in his jeans pockets and traded seats with Oliver.

As Aly started cleaning Oliver's nails, some more girls came in, and then Garrett and Caleb, even though they weren't going to the dance.

Mom poked her head in and winked at Aly. Aly winked back. It was kind of like a Secret Sister Eye Message, except it was with her mother instead of her sister. The wink clearly meant:
Princess Polish is not going to stop Sparkle Spa!

“Aly,” Garrett shouted across the room. “What's
the best rock star nail polish color for my thumbs-up man-icure?”

“I'll help him, Aly,” Brooke said, walking Giovanna to the drying area.

Brooke pushed her glasses up against her nose. “Well,” she said, “I like Guitar-ange a lot, but you have gray eyes, so you might like Heavy Metal or—”

But before Brooke could finish, Bethany, Maxie, and Joelle raced into Sparkle Spa. “HELP! You have to help! Look at what Princess Polish did to us!”

W
hat happened? Let me see!” Brooke ran over and took Bethany's hand in hers. It was terrible. The polish, which looked like it had started out pink, was turning into a weird orangey yellow at the edges and peeling away from Bethany's fingernails.

Aly could see tears in Bethany's eyes. “We were done about an hour ago,” she sniffed. “And then we all went home, and next thing I knew, I looked at my hands, and
this
had happened. And then I called
Maxie and Joelle and found out their polish was doing the same thing. Valentina's, too, but her mom's trying to fix it at home.”

Maxie held out her hands. Her blue nails were peeling and turning green. Joelle's red nails were peeling and turning orange.

Aly pulled Joelle's hand closer and inspected the polish. “I think it's old,” she said. “Like, really old. Maybe the stuff that makes the polish work like normal went bad.”

“Can you fix it?” Joelle asked. “Please? We never should have gone to Princess Polish, right, guys? We're sorry.”

Bethany nodded.

“We're so,
so
sorry,” Maxie added. “We just . . . we thought it would be neat to go to a grown-up salon. But Sparkle Spa is so much better.”

Aly heard what Maxie said, and she kind of
understood it, but before she could answer, she was distracted by a purple splotch on Maxie's forehead, just under a purple feather that was woven into her hair. She looked at the rest of the purple feathers in Maxie's hair. Every single spot where a feather touched her skin, Maxie had a purple splotch—on her neck, her ears, and her forehead.

“Um,” Aly said, “I think your feathers are turning your skin purple.”

“What?”
Maxie ran to a full-length mirror on the closet door and screamed. She turned back to Aly. “You
have
to fix it. All of it!”