Authors: Coco Simon
Tags: #Emotions & Feelings, #Juvenile Fiction, #Friendship, #Social Issues, #Adolescence
The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe (37 page)
The Special Day
I
couldn’t wait to put on the dress. Mom buttoned me up and helped brush out my hair. She got a little teary again. Then I went downstairs, where Dad, Sam, Matt, and Jake were all waiting.
“Wow!” said Dad.
“You look so pretty,” said Jake.
I blushed a little bit. I wasn’t used to everyone looking at me.
“You do look good,” said Sam.
Matt nodded.
Dad snapped a few pictures, then we picked up Alexis and Katie and got to Mia’s house right on time. Mia opened the door in her matching dress.
Behind her, Ms. Vélaz came floating down the
stairs, and we all just stared at her. I’d never seen anyone look more beautiful.
“Come on, my beautiful bridesmaids,” she said. “We’re off to get married!” We all giggled and followed her outside to the limousine, which would take us to the ceremony. We had never been in one before, and we were all excited.
I tried to take in everything, but it all went so fast. First we posed for pictures, and then we lined up to go down the aisle. I was a little nervous, but I did it slowly like Mom had practiced with me and I smiled, just like Mia’s mom told us. We stood under the canopy and I was looking around and then—bam—it was over and we had to walk back up the aisle.
The party got underway, and we all sat together at a table with lots of pink roses. We were having such a good time. I had never been to a fancy party like this before. Then the band started playing, and we all jumped up to dance.
The cupcakes were a big hit. Everyone loved them, and everyone really chowed down on the bacon cupcakes. “Oh,” a woman said, stuffing a few in her purse, “these are divine.”
“Did she say ‘divine’?” Alexis shrieked, and we all burst into giggles.
“What can I say,” said Alexis. “You were right about the bacon!”
“Hey, in a house with three brothers, I know bacon!” I said.
“Emma,” said Mia. “You have to promise us something.”
I looked up, a little worried by her tone. Katie and Alexis were looking at me too.
“You have to promise us that whatever it is, good or bad, you won’t keep secrets from us. Friends tell one another everything, and they help out. I want you to promise that you won’t be embarrassed about anything and feel like you can’t talk to us.”
“I know,” I said, hanging my head. I still couldn’t believe all that they did for me. I looked down at my beautiful dress. “I’m really sorry. I won’t keep anything from you again.”
“Honey, this is for you.” Mia’s mom was at my side. She handed me a white envelope. “It’s just a little something I’m giving to each of you as a traditional bridesmaid gift. Thank you for helping to make this such a special day.”
“Oh, Ms. Vélaz . . . I mean Mrs. Valdes!”
“I know!” said Mia’s mom, rolling her eyes. “I went from Vélaz to Valdes! It’s going to confuse everyone.”
“I don’t know what to say!” I blushed. I hadn’t expected a gift.
Mia’s mom planted a kiss on top of my head. “Don’t say a word,” she said. “Just get yourself something you’ve really wanted.” Then she winked at me. She handed a box to Alexis and one to Katie before gliding off.
I looked down at the envelope. I put it on my lap, not wanting to appear greedy, but I was really curious.
“Open them!” said Mia.
Alexis opened a beautiful set of stationery, a journal, and notepads. “So good for making lists!” she said.
Katie opened three new cookbooks.
I slid open the envelope with my finger. Inside was a gift card.
The gift card was for Williams-Sonoma. And it was for fifty dollars!
I looked up and caught Alexis’s eye, then Katie’s, then Mia’s. They all grinned. “But . . . ,” I asked, confused. “How did she know . . . ?”
Alexis blushed. “Well, some secrets you do keep from friends. But just for a little while!” And we all laughed. I tucked the envelope into the purse Mom had let me borrow, and I smiled.
The wedding was going by so fast but so had the past few weeks. A lot of things had been burned, rushed, worried over, and hidden. All bad. I looked around at Mia’s beautiful mom, all the pretty pink flowers, and saw how happy everyone was. Now everything was pretty good. I had my friends. I had people who loved me. I had brothers who weren’t half bad most of the time.
“A toast!” I cried, lifting up my glass of lemonade.
Alexis, Katie, and Mia held up their glasses too.
“To friends!” I said.
“Here, here!” cried Mia.
“To no more secrets!” said Katie.
“To helping each other out always!” said Alexis.
“And,” I said with a little bit of a giggle, “to the divine pink mixer that will soon be mine!”
Contents
Chapter 1: My Sister Takes the Cake
Chapter 7: My Sister Really Takes the Cake!
Chapter 9: The Beckers Try Harder
Chapter 10: Is She Really My Sister?
Chapter 14: Nothing > Friends!
Chapter 15: Later that Night . . .
My Sister Takes the Cake
M
y name is Alexis Becker, and I’m the business mind (ha-ha) of the Cupcake Club. The club is a for-profit group that my best friends—Mia, Katie, and Emma—and I started, and we make money baking delicious cupcakes!
I love figuring out how to run a business and putting together the different building blocks—math, organization, planning—that’s why the girls can
count
on me for this kind of stuff. Plus, as you can tell, I love math-related puns! My friends are more creative with the cupcakes, so they come up with the designs and other artistic stuff. My one specialty, though, is fondant. I am very good at making little flowers and designs out of that firm frosting. Otherwise, I’m mostly crunching numbers
and wondering how to make money. Mmm . . . money!
If the Cupcake Club was an equation, it would look like this:
(4 girls + supplies) x clients = $$$$
Or really, more like this:
(Profit - supplies) / 4 = $
We actually have lots of fun doing it. Most of our clients are really nice people, which is much more than I can say for our latest client: my sister, Dylan. I can practically still hear her fuming.
“It is
my
party,
I
am the one turning sixteen, and I have budgeted
everything
down to the last party favor. I know
exactly
what I’m doing!” She was talking to our mom behind closed doors, but I heard every word since I was right outside her bedroom!
Dylan never gets out-of-control mad; she’s always in total control. Except that ever since she’d started planning her sweet sixteen party (which was now four and a half weeks away), she’d been cranky
a lot
. But she never raises her voice when she gets mad. She lowers it to a whisper, and you can hear the chill in it as if actual icicles were hanging from the words. I had to put my ear to her bedroom door to hear everything that was being said. Knowledge is power; that’s one of my mottoes, and I need all the information I can get. About everything.
My mother was sounding kind of amused by the fight, which was about two things: the guest list for the party and the cake. I had an interest in the outcome of both, since I wanted to be able to invite my best friends, and
we
wanted to bake the dessert for the party. (It wasn’t about the money as we wouldn’t charge a lot; it’s just that it would be great exposure for our business!)
I could picture Mom trying not to smile and to take Dylan seriously. “Darling, I know how careful you are, and I am impressed, as always, by your work,” she said. “I admire your attention to detail on these spreadsheets. However, not everything will be according to
your
plan, as your father and I also have a say in what works best for this family. Now let’s take a look at this guest list again.”
I grinned. Mom was on
my
side.
There were some muffled comments and I strained to hear them. Maybe I’d hear better if I put
a glass against the wall like I’d seen people do on TV. Or maybe I should lie down and listen through the crack under the door. I pulled my hair into a ponytail, and then lay on the hall rug outside the door.
“The Taylors!
Mom!
The whole family? That wasn’t in my head count!” The Ice Princess was losing her cool, but I didn’t focus on that. All I could think of was that Emma’s whole family might come. And
that
was very interesting.
Emma has three brothers. They’ve always all been in the background of things—rummaging around their mudroom looking for a lost cleat or watching TV in the living room. They’re kind of like furniture. When we talk to them at all, it’s just stuff like “Please pass the ketchup” or “Hey! We were watching that!”
Jake is much younger, so he’s cute but not exactly a pal of mine, and Matt and Sam are older, so we don’t really pay attention to them, and they don’t pay much attention to us.
Until recently, that is.
What changed everything was that I had a little direct contact with Matt. He’s eighteen months older, but only one school year ahead (he’s in eighth grade at Park Street Middle School). Usually I am
with Emma when her brothers are around, so I guess I see them from her point of view.
But this time I had to call Matt for help with something for Emma, and it wasn’t until he said “Hello” on the phone that in one strange, sudden moment,
everything
changed.
So what happened? First off, I am very efficient. When something needs doing, I just do it. When someone needs calling, I just pick up the phone and dial. And that was what I had done, without even thinking about it.
But Matt’s voice sounds much deeper on the phone than it does in person, and when I heard it, it threw me off and I panicked, like,
Who is this person I am talking to?
and
Why did I call him, exactly?
I kind of had an out-of-body experience. I suddenly realized I’d called a boy, and I almost dropped the phone!