The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe (21 page)

A
fter school I texted Mom and asked if I could go to the mall with Callie and the others. She made me get the number of Maggie’s mom so she could make sure an adult was going with us. But then she said it was okay.

I realized I was a little bit nervous when Maggie’s mom pulled up in her blue minivan. Before, I’d only met the PGC at the mall by accident. But now I was going with them, as part of the group. I’ve never felt nervous about going out with friends before in my life. So why was this different?

We climbed into the van. Maggie sat in front with her mom, Sydney and Bella took the second row, and Callie and I sat in the last row. I didn’t see
a crumb or speck of dirt anywhere, and everything smelled like vanilla.

Maggie’s mom had brown hair, like Maggie, but hers was superstraight. She wore a large pair of sunglasses that were half as big as her face. I know all the celebrities wear those big sunglasses, but whenever I see them on someone it always makes me think of bugs.

“Mia, I spoke to your mother on the phone,” Mrs. Rodriguez said, looking in the rearview mirror so she could see me. “What a lovely woman.”

“Thanks,” I said.

Callie leaned forward. “Mia’s mom is holding a fashion show for her new business! Can you believe it?”

Maggie turned around so fast, I thought her head might fly off. “Oooh, a real fashion show! When is it? Where is it? Will Damien Francis be there?”

“It’s in two weeks, at the banquet hall downtown,” I replied. “I’m not sure who’s going to be there yet. It’s all happening so fast.”

Maggie, Bella, and Callie started chattering with excitement.

“I wonder what kind of clothes the models will be wearing,” Bella wondered.

“And where is she getting the models? From
here in town?” Maggie asked. “Ooh, maybe there’ll be a model competition.”

“I’d love to take photos during the show,” Callie said.

Sydney was the only one who remained cool about it. But when the talking died down, she turned and looked right at me.

“Of course we can go with you, right?”

And of course, I didn’t know what to tell her. “Um, I’m not sure,” I said. “I’m going to be backstage helping Mom, so . . .”

“But she must have extra tickets she can give out.” Sydney wasn’t giving up. “We could go, even if you’re backstage.”

“I have to ask her,” I said honestly. “I don’t know how many tickets she has.”

“Well, it all sounds very exciting,” Maggie’s mom said as we pulled into the mall. “Now, let’s meet back up at five o’clock. Where should we meet?”

“We’ll be at the smoothie place at five,” said Sydney. I thought it was kind of interesting that Sydney was the one who answered, not Maggie.

“We have to go to Forever Young first,” Sydney said as we walked through the door. “I saw some dresses on their website that I just have to try on.”

That sounded good to me. The clothes in Forever
Young are really cute. They blast really loud dance music, though, so it’s hard to have a conversation.

After about twenty minutes in there I was ready to leave. But Sydney tried on dress after dress after dress. I noticed that Maggie and Bella always said the same things each time.

“That one’s fabulous!”

“You look sooooooo cute!”

“You
have
to get that.”

Callie and I were definitely more honest. For example, I thought the blue dress with the bubble skirt was way too short, so I said so.

Sydney looked in the mirror. “Wow, you’re right, Mia.”

“That
is
way too short,” Maggie quickly agreed.

“Definitely,” Bella added.

We finally left Forever Young. Then we went up to the second floor and I saw the sign for Icon, which, as you know, is my favorite store there.

“I think they’ve got new jackets,” I said, heading for the door.

Sydney grabbed my arm. “We can’t go in there. It’s Tuesday.”

I was puzzled. “So?”

“Tuesday is the day that this salesgirl named Denise works there,” Maggie explained for Sydney.
“She is, like, so totally rude. Once Sydney wanted to take ten items into the dressing room, and she was like, ‘Sorry, it’s store policy.’ Can you imagine? Like, what’s the big deal?”

“Oh,” I said. “Okay. Fine.” But it seemed like a silly reason not to go into the store.

“We’re going to Monica’s next,” Sydney said. Then she marched off toward the store without waiting to hear if anyone else liked the idea. We all followed right behind her. For a second I got an image in my mind of Sydney in an army general’s uniform, leading the troops.

Monica’s is this store that sells accessories, like jewelry, hair bands and barrettes, bags, and stuff like that. I was actually happy we were there because I could get some ideas for the fashion show.

I found this cute red beret and clipped a rhinestone pin to it. I gave it to Callie.

“Here, put this on. I want to take a picture.”

Callie put it on. “Hold on. I’ll give you my supermodel look.”

She tilted her head and got this totally fierce look on her face, just like a model in a magazine. I laughed.

“Perfect!” I snapped some photos with my cell phone.

I started looking at the necklaces next. I saw some cool-looking chokers and some really long chains with different stones linked in. I started wondering how the chokers and the long chains would look together, so I ran up to Maggie and draped them around her neck.

“Ooh, that’s pretty!” Maggie said.

“Okay, hold still,” I told her. Maggie smiled as I snapped a few more pictures.

I was really having fun. I was looking through the handbags when Sydney spoke up in a loud voice.

“I am so done here. Let’s go to Basic Blue.”

“Could we stay a little bit longer?” I asked.

Sydney was firm. “Maggie’s mom is picking us up at five, remember? I don’t want to spend all our time in one place.”

But it’s only been fifteen minutes!
I wanted to say.
And you spent, like, an hour in Forever Young!
But somehow I knew it was useless to argue with Sydney.

So we all went to Blue Basics, and I was bored because I was just there on Saturday. This time, Callie and I hung out and talked while Maggie and Bella oohed and ahhed over Sydney’s outfits. I found out that she has an older brother in college and that she became friends with the PGC when
she went to summer camp. I told her all about Ava and my dad’s apartment in New York. She’s really easy to talk to.

Then Sydney appeared in front of us. “We’re going to Sal’s Smoothies,” she informed us.

Sal’s Smoothies is pretty popular in this town—there’s a store downtown and one in the mall, too. We got in line to place our orders.

“We will have five ginger peach smoothies,” Sydney told the girl at the counter.

Five?
“Can you make mine a mango and passion fruit instead, please?” I asked the counter girl.

Sydney looked at me. “We always order ginger peach.”

“I like ginger on my sushi,” I said. “But not in my smoothie. It’s weird.”

“So, four ginger peach and one mango passion?” the girl asked.

Sydney didn’t answer.

“Yes,” I said.

I was kind of quiet when we sat down to drink our smoothies. To be honest, Sydney’s bossiness was really getting to me.

I started thinking about my other friends in the Cupcake Club. Alexis can be a bit bossy, I guess, but she’s just trying to organize complicated things, like
schedules and budgets. And she’s never mean. Then there’s Katie. When it comes to recipes and stuff, she’s usually the one to come up with ideas first. So she’s like a leader in that way. But she’s always interested in hearing everyone else’s ideas too.

I tried to imagine Katie in a general’s uniform, ordering everyone around the kitchen—“Crack those eggs now! Measure that milk! Sift that flour!”—but I couldn’t.

Sydney, on the other hand . . . well, that was how she was. Mom always says that you can’t expect people to change. You either accept how they are or stay away.

I wasn’t sure how I was feeling, exactly. I liked hanging out with the PGC, especially Callie, and trying on clothes and talking about fashion. I absolutely didn’t like Sydney’s bossiness. Why do things always have to be so complicated?

T
he next day after school I had a completely different experience. I got off the bus with Katie for the Cupcake Club meeting. Katie lives in a small white house. There are orange flowers planted in pots on either side of the front door. When we got inside, Katie’s mom called to us from the kitchen.

“Hello!” she said cheerfully. “How was school today?”

“Good,” Katie answered. “Unless you count Mrs. Moore’s daily quiz of death.”

Mrs. Brown was shaking her head when we walked into the kitchen. “She can’t be that bad, can she?”

“Oh yes, she can,” Katie said. “Right, Mia?”

“True,” I agreed. “But she did buy a cupcake from
us at the fund-raiser, so maybe she’s not
all
bad.”

Katie sighed. “Maybe not.”

“So I picked up all the ingredients for your first test run,” said Mrs. Brown. She kind of looks like Katie. They have the same big brown eyes and brown hair, only Katie’s is long and Mrs. Brown’s is shoulder length. Mrs. Brown is always either wearing her dental smock or an apron. So trying to guess what she’s into isn’t that hard. “I like your idea of doing spiced cupcakes. Very clever,” she said.

Katie’s kitchen table was loaded with everything we needed to make the cupcakes. Her kitchen looks really fun all the time. The walls are yellow, and there’s this really cute cookie jar shaped like an apple and salt and pepper shakers that look like two blue birds in a nest.

The doorbell rang, and Katie ran to get it. She came back in followed by Alexis and Emma.

“Wow, we have a lot to do,” Alexis said, looking at all the ingredients. “I still need to work out the budget for everything, and we need to think of a display.”

“You can do the budget while we mix,” Katie suggested. “And we can talk about the display while the cupcakes are cooling.”

“That sounds good!” Alexis agreed. She sat down
at the table and opened up her notebook.

Katie, Emma, and I got to work on the applesauce spice cupcakes, which we’d decided to test first. We used applesauce, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the batter, and the kitchen quickly began to smell fabulous. Alexis had finished her budget by the time the cupcakes were in the oven, so we had a chance to talk while we did the dishes and worked on the frosting.

“Mia, do you think you can decorate the cupcakes for twenty-five cents apiece?” Alexis asked me.

“Sure,” I said. “I’ve been looking at a bunch of different things online, and they’re all cheaper than the sugar flowers.”

“Great,” Alexis said. “Then we should make a profit this time.”

I winced a little bit and looked at Alexis, but she was scribbling numbers. Did she mean that as a jab at my last mess up?

“Cool,” Katie said. “Now we just have to figure out how to display them.”

“I was thinking about that,” I said. “It might be cool to have something that’s raised above the table, so people can really see them from a distance. They’ll be easier to pick up, too.”

I walked over to the table. “Alexis, can I borrow a page in your notebook?”

Alexis nodded, and I started to sketch my idea: a pole with a round plate on the bottom, another plate about ten inches above that one, and a third plate about another foot higher.

Katie, Alexis, and Emma gathered around while I sketched.

“Very cool,” Katie said. “I bet we’d need two of them to hold all eight dozen cupcakes.”

“They are cool,” Alexis agreed. “But how will we make them?”

“My dad and I make stuff all the time,” Emma spoke up. “He’s got lots of spare wood in the garage, and I know we have wooden poles we could use.”

“That would be awesome!” I said. “I was thinking we could paint them red, but I’ll check with my mom tonight and let you know at lunch tomorrow.”

“That reminds me,” Alexis said. “I never asked how your lunch went with the PGC. Did Sydney spend the whole time insulting everyone in school?”