Bad News Nails (8 page)

Aly tried to stay calm. That's what you had to do when you were in charge. No matter what, you had to come up with a plan. What
could
they do? They couldn't get the party to come back to the spa—not at this point.

But maybe, just maybe . . .

Turning to the girls, Aly stood up tall and announced, “This is what we're going to do. I got Suzy's address from Jenica. Charlotte, call the pizza place and have them deliver our order to Suzy's instead. Lily, pack up the cookies. Brooke, you and I will pack up all of the nail supplies and roll up the
photo backdrops. If we can't have the party here, we're going to take the party to Suzy's. Suzy didn't tell the team that she'd hijacked the party, so we can just pretend like this was the plan all along.”

“What about my streamers?” Brooke asked. “With all the soccer balls on them?”

“Well take those, too,” Aly said. “And the beads and the string also. Quick, let's go.”

The girls were collecting all the supplies in bags and boxes when Mom poked her head back in the Sparkle Spa. “What's happening in here?” she asked.

“Suzy Davis stole our party!” Brooke told her. “And our customer records! And we're going to get them back!”

“What?”
Mom said, stepping into the spa.

“We can't be one hundred percent sure about the customer files, but the whole soccer team is at her
house,” Aly informed her mom. “So we're moving the party to Suzy's. Can you take us?”

“Suzy came here to learn how to run a business and then tried to take over yours?” Mom did not look happy. “Oh, I can take you, all right,” she said. “And I'm going to have a talk with Suzy's mother when we get there.”

The girls marched out of the salon with Mrs. Tanner leading the way. “Joan, I need you to rearrange the schedule so my next two appointments are taken care of,” she said. “The girls and I have some important business to attend to right away.”

“Is everything okay?” Joan asked.

“It will be,” Mom said. “Let's go, girls.”

They all squished into Mom's car with cookies and streamers and backdrops on their laps.

Suzy Davis had totally taken the Sparkle Spa by surprise.

Now it was time to surprise Suzy.

M
om parked the car in the Davises' driveway and headed straight for the front door.

“Whoa,” Brooke said. “This house is enormous.”

Aly stopped to look.
Wow.
It
was
huge. Aly counted three floors. To the side of the house, it looked like there was a tennis court with the pool behind that.

“They're here!” Aly heard Jenica call from the backyard, and then Maxie and Joelle came running around the side of the house to greet them.

“What color polishes did you bring? Did you remember Under the Sea?” Maxie asked excitedly.

“We want the most partyish polishes you have,” Joelle added.

“We brought a bunch,” Aly said. “But we need to get set up first. Where's Suzy?”

“In the kitchen, I think,” Joelle said. “The pizza came just before you did.”

“Thanks,” Aly said. “We'll let you know when everything's ready.”

Aly headed into the house with Brooke, Charlotte, and Lily behind her. The door was open, so she walked right in and found her mom having a conversation with Suzy's mom in the front hall.

“I had no idea,” Suzy's mom was saying. “I'm so sorry. I'll talk to her.”

“I'd appreciate that, Carolyn. You know how hard it is for women in business. We're supposed to stick
together, not undermine each other. I've taught my girls about teamwork.”

“I'll talk to her,” Suzy's mom said again.

“I'm so tempted to take my daughters and their friends—and their customers—back to the salon,” Mrs. Tanner continued, “but they seem to be having fun here, so I'll let them stay. But if Suzy doesn't hand over their customer files today, I don't think I want her back at the salon. At least not for a while.”

Mom turned around then and saw the girls standing there. “I'll be back for you in a few hours,” she said. “Make this party great.”

An embarrassed look crossed Suzy's mom's face. “The kitchen's that way,” she said to the girls, pointing. “Please tell Suzy I need to see her out here.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Washington,” Aly answered. “We will.”

Suzy squealed when Brooke and Aly entered the
kitchen. “Isn't this great? Everyone's having the best time! Thanks for sending over the pizza. I had to pay for it from my allowance, so if you have the money . . .”

“Your mom wants to see you out there,” Brooke said, pointing a thumb toward the hallway.

Suzy's smile turned to a frown. “What did you say to her?” she asked.

“
We
didn't say anything,” Aly told her. “Our mom did.”

Suzy closed her eyes for a second. Then her face looked like it usually did: bored. “Whatever,” she said. “I see you brought stuff. The soccer girls probably won't want to do whatever it is anyway, since a pool is cooler than any of that.” And then she walked out of the kitchen into the hallway.

“I don't like this,” Lily said.

“Me neither,” Aly said, “but we have a job to do. So let's get going.”

Blue cereal bowls, rolls of paper towels, the round kitchen table, four chairs, the granite counters—the girls used everything they could to set up a makeshift salon.

While they were setting up, they tried to ignore the conversation going on in the hallway. But it was hard to ignore. Suzy's mom was speaking firmly: “I bought this for you so that you could learn how to run a business with kids your own age. What happened?”

The girls weren't sure, but they thought they heard Suzy crying.

Aly felt her stomach sink, as if
she
were the one getting in trouble. That was the worst feeling, disappointing your parents—especially when it wasn't on purpose.

“Maybe Sophie was right,” Brooke said quietly. “Maybe we should've tried harder to be friends with Suzy.”

A few minutes later Suzy came into the kitchen with their records folder. She was still crying a little, and she wasn't even trying to hide it. “I was going to give your files back,” she said. “And once everyone was here, I was going to call you. I just . . . It's just . . . everyone liked the idea of a pool party, and you wouldn't listen, so I . . . I did it myself.”

“Thanks,” Aly said, taking the folder. “It
was
a good idea, Suzy. But when you're working somewhere, you can't just do whatever you want and take whatever you want. And you definitely can't keep secrets from the people who are running the business.”

“You kept the extra surprise for the soccer party a secret from me,” Suzy said. “And you acted like I wasn't even a real part of your salon.”

Yikes,
that hurt. But Aly thought about what Suzy said. She wasn't entirely wrong.

“You're right,” Aly told her. “I'm sorry about that.
But you have to learn how to be on a team if you want people to trust you. Anyway, let's get through this party, and then it won't even matter, because after today your internship is over.”

“I know that, Aly,” Suzy said. And for a second, Aly thought Suzy sounded sorry that her time at the Sparkle Spa was over.

After the last Angels player got out of the pool, Brooke announced: “The exciting parts of the party are officially starting! We have pizza, Unicorn Treat cookies, polka-dot manicures and pedicures, bracelet-making supplies, and . . . a surprise photo booth!”

“Photos? Cool! Are you going to e-mail them to us later?” Mia asked.

Brooke shook her head. “It's magic! You get to see them right after they're taken.”

“Awesome!” Mia said. “I want to go first.”

The photo booth was the most popular part of the party, and the soccer girls took a ton of pictures wearing Celegrape Good Times on their fingernails with Not Number Blue polka dots. They liked that color combination the best. And they liked the Unicorn Treat cookies, too.

“I can't believe we can eat glitter,” Giovanna, who played defense, said as she took a second cookie.

“Isn't that the best?” Brooke agreed as she took a second cookie herself.

Before the team left, Jenica took Aly aside. “Great party, Aly. It totally made us feel like champions.”

Aly smiled. And she even smiled a little at Suzy. Because Suzy Davis did have good ideas. Aly didn't think she'd ever get to hear any more of them, and she was kind of okay with that, but still, she had to give Suzy the credit she deserved.