Recipe for Trouble (3 page)

Thanks to her aunt, Lexi got to see parts of NYC she didn't even know existed: the Lower East Side (Aunt Dee's fave place to buy pickle chips), the South Street Seaport, Randall's Island. They rode the rickety Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island and sipped Earl Grey tea at Tea & Sympathy in the Village. Aunt Dee knew all the best places and filled every day with surprises.

“What about clotted cream frosting?” her aunt asked, smearing cream and jelly on a warm-from-the-oven cinnamon scone. “You could make a recipe for it on a vanilla cupcake.”

“That could be delicious,” Lexi said, noting it in her notebook. “And I could do an Earl Gray tea-infused frosting too. It would go great on a dark chocolate cupcake.”

“Mmmm.” Dee nodded. “Don't forget to add the marshmallows on top.”

• • •

Lexi couldn't wait to share her cupcake ideas with her friends! In all the activity of the past four weeks, she'd almost forgotten how much she'd missed them. Now she'd miss Aunt Dee.

“You'll call me with weekly updates, right?” Dee asked, hugging her on the Metro North platform.

“I will!” Lexi said. “Thank you for the most amazing summer I've ever had.”

“And you won't forget everything I taught you: hot sauce on hot dogs and escargot cupcakes.”

Lexi laughed. “You taught me a lot more than that!”

Her aunt handed her a little package, bundled in comic book pages. Even the wrapping made Lexi smile. “For you! A souvenir,” Dee said.

Lexi tore it open. Inside was a T-shirt with I
i
NY on it.

“I love it!” Lexi said. “I'll wear it my first day of fifth grade.” She climbed on the train and waved good-bye as it pulled out of the station, chugging her back home to New Fairfield.

• • •

When she got to her stop, her parents and her big sister, Ava, were all waiting for her. Lexi breathed a sigh of relief. Though she loved the city, it was “s'wonderful” to be back where she belonged. Plus, it was her first time riding a train alone! Amazingly, she hadn't been scared. She felt like a real New Yorker who could handle just about anything!

“Thought we'd have a picnic tonight by Candlewood Lake,” her dad suggested.

“I'd rather just hang out at home,” Lexi replied. What she really wanted to do was check her email and see if any of her PLC mates had come home yet.

Her room seemed smaller somehow—maybe she'd grown? Or maybe everything in New Fairfield looked tiny when compared to the huge city?

“I swear, I didn't touch any of your stuff,” her sister, Ava, said, flopping down on her bed. “How was Aunt Dee? How was New York?”

“Great!” Lexi replied. “I learned so much. How was camp?”

Ava launched into a whole, long-winded account of how she'd starred in the camp musical (she'd played Glinda in
Wicked
) and scored the winning soccer goal for her bunk. Was there anything Ava couldn't do expertly, Lexi wondered. It all came so easily to her.

Plus, there was a boy! A seventh grader in the neighboring boys camp named Grayson. “He gave me his email and we're going to FaceTime on our iPads,” Ava rambled on. “He told me I was pretty!”

Ava
was
pretty. And smart. And confident. Ugh.

“Well, I guess you wanna be alone to unpack,” Ava said. “Glad to have you home, sis!” She shut Lexi's bedroom door and left her alone. Lexi's dog, Poochie, hopped up on her bed and planted a wet, welcome-home kiss on her nose. She was scratching his tummy when she noticed something on her desk: letters! Her friends had finally answered! Lexi's face lit up and she tore into them.

“They made me point guard this week!” Sadie wrote. “I'm learning so much about basketball. This is the best place ever!”

“My
abuela
is teaching me to knit,” wrote Jenna. “You should see the cool scarf I'm making!”

Jenna and Sadie sounded so busy—and so happy to be away. Their letters were way too short. But it was Kylie's postcard that was the most upsetting: “Camp rocks! I wish I never had to leave Camp Chicopee!”

Lexi gulped. What if Kylie forgot all about their cupcake club? What if she didn't want to do it again in fifth grade? What if all her friends abandoned her come September? What if PLC was history?

The ding of her computer shook her out of this horrible thought and brought her back to reality. She checked the message and her spirits soared when she saw the address: [email protected]. She clicked to open it:

Hey, PLC-ers! Guess who just got home from camp? R U ready to bake some cupcakes? XO, Kylie

Lexi emailed back from [email protected]:

Welcome home! I missed u! Can't wait! XO, Lexi

She beamed when she hit the Send button. Everything was fine. Their Cupcake Club was fine. Nothing had changed over the summer. And in no time, Peace, Love, and Cupcakes would be sweetly in swing again!

“Kylie!” Lexi exclaimed as her friend opened the front door to her house. She hugged her so tightly, Kylie could barely breathe.

“Lexi! I'm so glad to see you too! But I'm not a pastry bag—don't squeeze so hard,” she laughed.

“I'm sorry,” Lexi apologized. “I'm just so happy to see you.”

Kylie looked different: she was tan, and her hair, once a deep, dark brown, now shimmered with honey-colored highlights from being in the sun. Her nose and cheeks were speckled with freckles, and she wore tiny gold studs in her ears.

“You got your ears pierced!” Lexi exclaimed. “Awesome!”

“My mom promised I could for the beginning of fifth grade,” Kylie said. “I want cupcake earrings for Hanukkah this year. Maybe little dangly red velvets?”

“You look so cool!” Lexi said. She threw her arms around her friend again. “I just missed you so much! It feels like summer vacation went on forever and ever.”

“Really? I thought it flew by,” Kylie said. “One day I was checking into my bunk at Camp Chicopee, and the next day the bus was driving me back home. I passed my deepwater test, rode horses, and roasted marshmallows over a campfire! And I made so many new friends!”

“You did?” Lexi asked. It felt strange to think of her BFF sharing secrets with anyone but her, Jenna, and Sadie.

“Tons! And guess what? One of them, Delaney, is crazy about vampires, just like I am! We talked about
Twilight
and
Dracula
for hours and scared everyone around the campfire with bloody, creepy stories.”

“Wow. That's great,” Lexi said. She felt a pang of jealousy. She didn't want Kylie to have tons of other friends. Where would that leave her?

“And Delaney even lives in Danbury, which is really close by. I told her maybe she could stop in on the weekends and help us bake cupcakes.”

Lexi's eyes grew wide. “You told her she could join PLC?”

“Well, not exactly,” continued Kylie. “But that's not a bad idea. We could probably use another pair of hands, especially when the orders start rolling in again. And Delaney is amazingly cool. She knows
every
Lady Gaga song by heart!”

Lexi bit her lip. She wanted to scream at Kylie, “I don't care if she's cool! I don't care if you liked her in camp! I don't care if she can sing ‘Born This Way'
backward
! PLC is
our
club!” But instead, she shrugged and headed for the kitchen.

Jenna was already nibbling chocolate chips out of the bag.

“
Amiga!
” she squealed, picking up Lexi and swinging her around.

Lexi smiled, but she was still upset from her talk with Kylie. She tried to shake it off and be bright and cheery. “Jenna, you look great! You cut your hair!” Jenna's waist-long braid was now replaced with bouncy, shoulder-length waves. Her hair was dark and shiny and reminded Lexi of a rich chocolate ganache.

“You like it? My cousins thought it made me look more ‘sophisticated.' More like a fifth grader. And check out this awesome scarf I knitted!” She rested a hand on her hip and struck a pose.

“I think you look awesome, Jenna,” said Kylie, grabbing her purple apron and tying it around her waist. “Did you have fun in Ecuador with your family?”

“It was
fantástico
!” Jenna enthused. “My
abuela
is the most amazing cook, and she taught me all her secrets. I can make the best
arroz
con
pollo
now. And I got to swim in the sea with dolphins and turtles and bike around a volcano!”

“Wow! A volcano?” Kylie gasped. “With lava and smoke and everything? That tops my zip-lining for sure.”

Zip-lining? Swimming with dolphins? Volcanoes?
Lexi's summer in the city couldn't compare to her friends' adventures. And even worse, Kylie and Jenna looked and seemed so much more grown-up.

“We're just waiting for Sadie, and we can get down to business,” Kylie said. “I think we should start putting up some Back-to-School Cupcake flyers and emailing our clients…”

“I thought the same thing!” said Lexi, opening to a page in her sketchbook. She had drawn a cupcake with a book and ruler on top. Across the page she wrote “A is for Awesome! B is for Best! C is for Cupcakes! Happy Back to School from Peace, Love, and Cupcakes!”

“Wow, you come prepared!” said Jenna. “That's really clever.”

Kylie nodded. “I love it. Just one thing I would change: the frosting should probably be another color, not yellow.”

Lexi winced. “Well, yellow is the color of a school bus. That's why I chose it,” she said quietly.

“I get it,” said Kylie. “But yellow makes me think of sour lemons. And people want to start the school year off sweet, not sour, right?”

Lexi stared down at her sneakers. “Um, I guess so. But I really think the yellow pops…”

“Maybe bright pink or purple?” Kylie continued.

“How about tie-dye—always a crowd-pleaser?” suggested Jenna.

Lexi wished she could really say what she was thinking. Her Aunt Dee would. She would never let anyone drown out her opinions. She would simply stand up, shoulders back, head held high, and announce what she thought. But if I do that, thought Lexi, my friends might be angry with me. Then again, I'm an important member of this club. They can't do beautiful, artistic cupcakes without me!

Lexi took a deep breath and declared loudly, “The cupcakes should be yellow!”

Kylie and Jenna looked stunned. They had never seen Lexi take a stand so strongly. In fact, they'd never heard her raise her voice at all!

“Yellow? Really?” said Kylie. “I don't know…”

“I
do
know,” replied Lexi. “I've spent the whole summer studying art, and yellow is a bright, happy color. It's the color of Van Gogh's
Sunflowers
.”

“But I really think white would be better—a delicious vanilla bean frosting,” Kylie persisted.

Lexi stood her ground: “Yellow!”

“Hey, cupcakers!” called Sadie, knocking on the front door. “Anybody home?”

“In here!” shouted Jenna. She was relieved that Sadie had arrived to help referee. Sadie hugged and high-fived all the girls.

“Oh my gosh, did you get taller? How could you possibly get any taller?” Jenna teased her friend. “You're going to be ten feet tall by middle school!” Sadie straddled the kitchen stool with her long legs and took off her baseball cap.

“And you cut your hair while mine got longer!” Sadie said. Her once curly short 'do was now a shoulder-length ponytail. “Ya like? My brothers say I look like a girl now. Whatever!”

Kylie gave her the thumbs-up and playfully tugged at her pony. “We need your help with Back-to-School cupcakes, Sadie,” she began, holding up Lexi's sketch. “What do you think?”

Sadie tilted her head one way, than the other, looking at the cupcake drawing from every angle. “I think it's cool.”

Lexi smirked. “Told you, Kylie.”

“But don't you think yellow is the wrong color for the frosting?” Kylie elbowed Sadie.

“Um, I guess?” said Sadie. “Maybe it should be green, like the color of the Blakely basketball uniforms?”

“Ugh!” Lexi cried. “Is everyone going to agree with Kylie? Why does she get to make all the decisions for Peace, Love, and Cupcakes?”

“Well, she
is
the president of our club,” Sadie said, trying to help. “Kind of like the captain of the team. The captain always calls the shots.”

Lexi could feel her temper bubbling up inside her—like the time she was trying to make chocolate ganache and overheated cream on the stove. It suddenly swelled up and exploded over the sides of the pot. Lexi felt the same way. She was going to explode!

“I'm tired of Kylie calling the shots!” she finally yelled. “She's always bossing us around!”

“I'm bossy?” Kylie said. “You're the one who said the cupcakes
have
to be yellow.”

Jenna looked puzzled. “What's going on? Why are you guys fighting like this? I thought everyone would be so happy to see each other!”

“I was,” said Lexi. “Until Kylie told me she's inviting her
new
friends to join PLC.”

“We never talked about letting more people join,” said Sadie. “I'm not great with math, but I know that if we divide up our profits more ways, they'll be less for each of us.”

“Plus, we built PLC from scratch,” Jenna pointed out. “It's our cupcake club—we don't want tons of people getting involved. Too many cooks spoil the cupcake batter.”

“I said
one
friend,” insisted Kylie. “My camp friend, Delaney. I thought she could help if we get really busy.”

Jenna shrugged. “Well, maybe
that
would be okay. Kind of like a baking assistant. Can we make her do the hard stuff, like crack eggs and roll fondant?”

Lexi fumed. “Stop siding with her! We worked so hard last year to make PLC a success, and now we're going to let someone who doesn't know the first thing about cupcakes come in and ruin it?”

Kylie sighed. “Okay, Lexi, if it really means that much to you, I'll tell Delaney she can't help.” She tried to put her arm around her friend, but Lexi pulled away.

“Fine,” she said, then ran out of the kitchen, practically knocking Mrs. Carson over in the process.

“Wow, where was Lexi going in such a hurry?” Kylie's mom asked.

Kylie shrugged. “She just got mad at everything I said. It was weird.”

“Maybe she's nervous about starting fifth grade,” her mom suggested. “It's a big year. Let her cool down. I'm sure once you guys get back to baking, everything will smooth out between you.”

• • •

Lexi bolted out the front door of Kylie's house onto Frisbee Street, hopped on her bicycle, and pedaled straight for her home three blocks away. She was nearly there when she parked her bike, sat down on the curb, and rested her head in her hands. She didn't want her mom to see her like this and ask what was wrong.

Honestly, she didn't know! She had no idea why she was so mad at Kylie or why her talking about other friends or changing the color of frosting made her feel so left out. The tears rolled down her cheeks and landed on the cover of the sketchbook in her lap, turning the markered letters
PLC
into a rainbow-colored puddle.

The entire day had been nothing like how she'd imagined it. Instead of the girls giggling in the kitchen and trying out yummy new cupcake recipes, there was just arguing and hurt feelings. What was wrong with Kylie? Why was she trying to ruin PLC? And why didn't Jenna or Sadie speak up and stop her? The fun they had last year felt a million miles away. Why was everything changing?

“Lexi?” said a voice suddenly.

It was Kylie. She had followed her. “Can I talk to you?”

Lexi wiped the tears away with the back of her hoodie sleeve. “What do you want?”

“I'm sorry.
Really
sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry.”

“Whatever.” Lexi sniffed. She was trying her hardest to sound tough.

“I was just so excited to tell you all about camp. I didn't know it would make you feel bad. I didn't even get to ask you how your summer was.”

Lexi shrugged. “Fine.”

“Please come back to my house. We want to bake a batch of Back-to-School cupcakes—and we can't do it without you.”

“You can't?” Lexi dried her tears.

“Have you seen the way Jenna pipes? She'll use up the entire bag of frosting on one cupcake!”

Lexi managed a weak smile. “She does like a mountain of frosting, doesn't she?”

“
Yellow
frosting. We decided it would catch people's eyes and look great in the Golden Spoon's window. You were right,” replied Kylie. “Please come back.”

Lexi nodded and stood up. “Thanks, Kylie.”

Kylie smiled and linked arms with Lexi for the walk. “What are friends for?”