The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe (8 page)

“Don’t you use a mix?” Alexis asked.

“Mom says it’s just as easy to do it from scratch, and at least you know what’s going in it,” I said.

I got two eggs out of the refrigerator and picked up the butter that had been softening on the counter.

“That should do it for now.” I nodded to the sink. “Before we start, we should all wash our hands.”

“Wow, you are a strict teacher,” Mia joked.

I laughed. “Can you imagine if Mrs. Moore taught us how to make cupcakes?” I did my best to imitate her voice, which was kind of deep and a little bit musical. “Concentration is the key to succeeding in this class, students! Without concentration, you won’t be able to make your cupcakes.”

Alexis and Emma started giggling like crazy.

“That is too perfect,” Alexis said. “Can you do Ms. Biddle?”

I thought for a minute. Ms. Biddle had an upbeat
voice, like a cheerleader. And she always made everything about science.

“Who wants to make a hypothesis about how these cupcakes will taste?” I asked.

Mia raised her hand. “Delicious!”

“Wait, I can do Ms. Chen,” Alexis said. She made her back really straight. “Look alive, people! It’s time to make some cupcakes!”

By then I was cracking up so hard, my stomach hurt. That’s when Mom walked in.

“I never knew cupcakes were so funny,” she said.

I went back into my Mrs. Moore voice. “You are late, Mrs. Brown! Detention!”

That just made everyone laugh even harder. Mom shook her head and smiled.

“Emma, your mom will be back for you and Alexis at four,” she told us. “So, girls, get started. I’ll be in the den if you need me.”

I kind of led the cupcake demonstration. First we mixed the eggs, butter, and sugar together in the mixer. We added the vanilla. Then we sifted the dry ingredients together in another bowl: the flour, baking powder, and salt. Everybody took turns measuring. When it was Alexis’s turn to sift the flour, it puffed up like a cloud and settled on her face like powder.

“No flour in this classroom! Detention!” I cried out in my Mrs. Moore voice, and we all laughed again.

Then we slowly mixed the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together using the mixer. When it was all done, Mom popped in to check on us and showed us how to use an ice-cream scoop to put the perfect amount of batter into each cupcake cup, which is good because I always forget that part and they kind of get big and explode. Then we had to wait while the cupcakes baked. That was okay, because we had to clean up the whole mess we made. When the cupcakes were cooling, we used the mixer again to make chocolate icing.

I’ve always thought that icing the cupcakes is the hardest part. Mom got us special flat knives to use, but it’s still kind of hard.

Alexis and Emma were struggling with the icing, just like me. But when Mia put it on, it was smooth and perfect.

“I thought you never did this before?” I asked.

“I haven’t,” Mia said. She looked really happy. “I guess I have a hidden talent for icing cupcakes.”

“Mine looks like a very sad cupcake,” Emma said, holding hers up.

“I know what will make it happy,” I told her. I
took out the bag of chocolate candies Mom and I had bought and put one right in the middle. “See? Perfect!”

“It does look better,” Emma agreed.

Everyone dug into the bag and we decorated the top of each cupcake. Emma, Alexis, and I put a single candy in the middle of each one. Mia got really creative. On one, she put the candies all around the edge of the cupcake. It looked really cool. She also made some look like flowers.

“You’re a natural,” I told her.

Mia beamed. “Can I try making the cupcakes for lunch next Friday? I really think I can do it.”

“Sure,” I said. “You can always call if you need help.”

Before we knew it, it was four o’clock. Mom had small boxes for everyone so they could take some cupcakes home. Emma took home the most: one for each of her parents and her brothers.

There was some stuff to clean up after the girls left, but I didn’t mind. Mom helped.

“It looks like the Cupcake Club got off to a good start,” she remarked.

I smiled at her. “I think you’re right!”

S
omething happened after we formed the Cupcake Club: Middle school got a little bit easier.

Honest! For example, my locker started opening up on the first try. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Alexis says I probably just loosened up the insides of the lock so it opens more easily, but I don’t believe it. I’d rather think that the superpowers of the Cupcake Club defeated my evil alien locker.

Now, take math class. I wish I could say that Mrs. Moore was suddenly nicer, but I can’t. What happens now is that every time Mrs. Moore says something serious, or threatens to give us all detention, I write down what she says so I can use it the next time I do an impression of her. She’s not so scary anymore.

Not that everything is perfect. Take gym class. On Tuesday we were picking teams for flag football, and Sydney said, “Don’t pick Katie unless you want to lose!” She said it really loudly, and a bunch of kids laughed. Sometimes I feel like saying something, but I don’t. I keep waiting for the time when we have races outside on the track. I’ve been a faster runner than Sydney ever since third grade.

Then something happened in English class on Wednesday. It didn’t happen to me, exactly, but to another member of the Cupcake Club: Alexis.

Here’s what happened. At the beginning of class Mrs. Castillo told us she was giving us a vocabulary worksheet for homework. But she didn’t hand it out. Then, right before the bell rang, Alexis raised her hand.

“Mrs. Castillo, what about the vocab worksheet?” she asked.

Everyone groaned. Everyone except for me, Mia, and Emma.

We know that Alexis is just like that. She likes to do things exactly the way you’re supposed to. She especially likes to make teachers happy.

As you can guess, nobody was happy with Alexis.

“Thanks a lot, Alexis,” Eddie Rossi said from the back of the room.

“Yeah, what, are you in love with homework?” added Devin Jaworski.

“Please settle down,” ordered Mrs. Castillo. “You’re lucky Alexis reminded me. Otherwise you’d have double homework tomorrow night.”

But of course that didn’t make anyone feel better. When the bell rang and we poured into the hallway, a lot of the boys were still giving Alexis a hard time.

“Teacher’s pet!”

“Thanks for the homework!”

Alexis started to look like she might cry. I felt bad for her.

“Leave her alone,” Mia said bravely, and we all hurried off to our lockers.

That was pretty much the worst thing that happened all week—until Cupcake Friday.

Mia came into the cafeteria carrying a really pretty pink bakery box. She opened the lid to reveal four perfect cupcakes with chocolate icing dotted with chocolate candies.

“They’re so pretty,” Emma said.

“I hope they taste good,” Mia said with a small frown. “We didn’t have any vanilla. And I lost count when I was putting in the teaspoons of salt. I might have put in an extra amount.”

Alexis pounded her fist on the table. “Let the second meeting of the Cupcake Club begin!”

That’s when Sydney and Brenda—I mean, Bella—walked by. Sydney stopped cold.

“Cupcake Club?” she asked. “Are you serious? What is this, third grade?”

“Yeah, that’s so lame!” Bella added, making a big deal out of rolling her eyes.

“Not as lame as a Popular Girls Club,” Alexis said under her breath.

Sydney raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me? Did you say something?”

Alexis, Emma, and I were all kind of afraid of Sydney. But not Mia.

“Maybe I’ll bring some next time for you to try,” she said coolly.

Sydney snorted. “No thanks,” she said, and then she and Bella walked away.

“Well, that was fun,” I said.

“Who wants a cupcake?” Mia asked.

We all reached for one, but I had a little knot in my stomach. I watched Bella and Sydney slide into their table with Callie. They were all reading some magazine. I tried not to look.

The cupcakes were good. They tasted a tiny bit weird because of the extra salt, but not too weird.
Plus the icing was especially delicious.

“Nice job,” I told Mia, and she smiled at me. I could tell she was proud.

That same day, when the eighth-period bell rang, I was walking to my locker and I saw Mia talking to a bunch of girls from her class. They were all laughing.

For a second I got a strange feeling. Then it hit me. Not that I care about how “cool” people are or anything, but Mia is a lot cooler than me. What if she got bored with the Cupcake Club? What if she found other friends, like Callie had?

“There’s no use in worrying about what might happen,” Mom always says. “Concentrate on how things are right now.”

I remember a lot of stuff Mom tells me, usually because she says it over and over again. Also, it’s just me and her most of the time, so I guess she’s a pretty big part of my life.

Anyway, I’m glad I remembered that. Because right now, Mia was my friend. She rode the bus with me every day and ate lunch with me every day. She invited me to her house and baked cupcakes for the Cupcake Club.

Maybe in the future that would change, just like things had changed with Callie over the summer.
But for now, everything with Mia was all right.

Mia saw me standing there and waved.

“Hey, Katie! See you on the bus!”

See? Sometimes Mom is right.

I
did see Callie a few times over the next
few weeks. One night my mom invited the Wilsons over for Italian food night. It’s
kind of a tradition between our families, like the Labor Day barbecue. My mom makes tons
of pasta and salad. She lights candles on our dining-room table, puts out a
red-and-white-checkered tablecloth, and goes all out, of course. But it’s actually
usually a pretty fun night.

Then another night Callie called and invited me to come over and watch the
first episode of
Singing Stars
on TV. It’s our favorite
show. I had a good time, even though Callie kept getting texts on her cell phone the
whole time.

Mostly I hung out with the Cupcake Club. Everyone came over one Saturday,
and Mom showed us
how she makes her P-B-and-J cupcakes. And one
night Mia invited me over for dinner. Her mom got takeout food from an Indian
restaurant. I’d never eaten Indian food before, and it was good—and spicy.
Mia’s mom and stepdad were nice, and her stepbrother, Dan, seemed nice too. Which
was kind of a surprise, because Mia is always saying what a beast he is.

Oh, and I got detention from Mrs. Moore. Twice. But the whole class had
it, so it wasn’t so bad.

And the best thing was that I could talk to Mia, Emma, and Alexis about
it. That’s mostly what the Cupcake Club did. We baked cupcakes; we ate cupcakes;
and we talked about stuff.

Things were not perfect, but they were good.

One Monday we were eating lunch, and everyone was talking about the
announcement that Principal LaCosta had made that morning after the Pledge of
Allegiance.

“This morning your homeroom teacher will be distributing permission
slips for the first dance of the year,” she said. “Please hand them in by
next Monday if you’re going to attend. This year’s dance will be bigger than
ever. That afternoon, we’ll be holding a special fund-raising event for the
school. Check your flyer for details.”

Now we were sitting around the lunch table, looking at
the flyers.

“I always heard we had dances in middle school,” Alexis said.
“I just didn’t think it would be so soon.”

“Do you think we actually have to
dance
at
the dance?” I asked. My mom loves the movie
Grease
, and
in that movie the high school kids twirl and throw one another in the air and stuff like
that. I didn’t think I could do that in a million years.

“We had dances at my old school,” Mia informed us.
“Sometimes people danced. Mostly everyone just hung around and talked.”