Emma's Not-So-Sweet Dilemma (6 page)

BOOK: Emma's Not-So-Sweet Dilemma
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Maybe I should put the money in my plastic surgery fund.

Meanwhile, it was time for some tea bags.

Thursday, Katie brought in a treat. She'd been tinkering at home, she said, playing around with some flavors and things she had on hand, and she'd come up with a couple of cupcake recipes and ideas that she'd brought in for us to try.

Now, nothing cheers me up like a good cupcake (that's how this whole thing got started, anyway), and I was happy to be a guinea pig today, especially since there was no sign of Olivia around to comment on letting my figure go too.

“Okay, this first one is called a Snowball Express,” said Katie, handing them around.

It was a dense white cake with a Hershey's kiss baked into the center of it and heaps of fluffy white marshmallow frosting on top. It was so good; it was insane, as my brother Matt would say.

“Next up, Cinnamon Swirl: yellow cake studded with Red Hots baked throughout, and a pink cinnamon-spiced frosting.” Katie doled them out and smiled as we tried those, too.

“Delicious!” I exclaimed. Mia and Alexis agreed.

Finally, Katie had made a red velvet cake with green cream cheese frosting on top. “Okay, this is not a new recipe but a revamp, with a sweet, seasonal design,” said Katie. “Tell me which one you like best.”

“It's impossible to pick!” I complained loudly. The cupcakes had made me slightly wild what with all that sugar.

Mia said, “I think the red and green ones are the prettiest.”

Alexis asked sensibly, “Which one has the least expensive ingredients?”

Katie smiled again. “I'm glad you like them. Just remember, looks aren't everything. We can make any of them look pretty. Which do you think kids at the hospital will like the best?”

“The Snowball Express!” we all said in unison, and then we laughed.

“Okay, then Snowball Express it is! And they're the most expensive, Alexis!” Katie said.

“Ack!” said Alexis, grinning.

“We'll make these all for the kids instead of two types,” said Katie. “So tomorrow: It's a date! My house, right after school.”

I had a sudden idea. “I'll buy the supplies tonight, if you tell me what we need. It's on me.”

“No, you don't need to do that!” the others began to protest, but I shushed them.

“I want to. Some unexpected money came my way, but I'm not happy about it.” I grinned. “Let me put it to good use.”

Friday was dark and freezing cold again. My mom said that it would probably be snowing by the time I got out of school, so she insisted I wear my boots and warmest coat, and pack mittens and a hat. I felt like such a dork. But when I got to school, I was relieved to see that the other Cupcakers had dressed the same.

Luckily, my mom had agreed to drop the cupcake supplies off immediately at Katie's the night before, on our way home from the grocery store. I would not have been able to lug them to school and then on to Katie's, that was for sure.

At school, everyone was buzzing about the snow, which had not yet started.

“I heard there's going to be a blizzard,” said George.

“Two feet, I heard,” said Kristen Durkin.

Jeanie Parker reported in English that it had started falling, and we all ran to the window to look, even the teacher. It was coming down fast, and patches of the ground already looked whitish. At noon, the principal came on the PA system.

“Attention! Attention, students and teachers! Due to the worsening and extreme weather conditions, by order of the superintendent, school will be
dismissed immediately. Please proceed in an orderly fashion. . . .”

But he was drowned out by cheers and screams and kids throwing books in the air, even! The teachers looked relieved; some of them had to drive from pretty far away, and with it being a Friday, traffic would be bad, anyway. I ran to my locker, so excited, and got my things together. We'd have less homework, too, since I was missing four classes and those teachers were big assigners. Suddenly, life was looking really good.

I was pretty sure we'd be heading straight to Katie's, so I bundled up to go search for the other Cupcakers, but when I slammed my locker door, who was standing right behind it but Olivia Allen.

Ugh!

“Hey, Em,” she said, all saccharine sweet. “Just seeing what you're up to this weekend.”

I pulled my hat lower on my forehead and lifted my scarf higher up my face, so that only about an inch of me was showing (granted, it was the bad inch). Olivia winced dramatically as she looked at my face.

“Oooh, Emma, it's got to just hurt so much!” she said.

“Not anymore. Don't know what I'm up to,” I
mumbled through my outerwear, and I started to pass by her.

“Okay, because I'll be at the salon tomorrow and just wondered if you need anything from there? Should I put in a good word for you? Like, for when you're all better . . . after the operation?”

I wheeled around. That was it!

“Listen, Olivia! There will not be any operation. And furthermore, the only reason you got that job was because I told Mona to call you. I am still her number-one girl and she told me so, word for word, when I called her this week to thank her for paying me
double
for the work I did with Harry Rosner. Get it? So don't even mention my name to Mona or I'll . . . I'll . . . send
you
to Dr. Kaminow!” I shouted. And then I stormed off, leaving Olivia staring after me with her jaw open in exaggerated shock, shaking her head and trying to catch the eye of any passersby who might sympathize with her. In my last glance back, there were no takers.

My heart was racing, and my breath was coming so fast, I had to get out of there. I stomped down the stairs, bashed open the doors, and ran outside. A row of school buses was idling and all was pandemonium as some kids raced to make their buses
while others scraped the rapidly accumulating snow into any kind of missile they could form and then launched them at one another. I wished I could throw one right in Olivia Allen's face!

I ducked under the overhang to get out of the snow, and then I pulled out my phone and sent a group text to the Cupcakers that I would meet them at Katie's. Tucking my phone snugly back into my pocket, I began trudging to Katie's on my own. I had to keep moving, because if I saw Olivia again, who knew what I might say.

It wasn't long before my adrenaline began to fade and I began to feel really cold, and then regret crept in. Had I really just threatened to basically break Olivia Allen's face? Wow. I'd been living with boys for too long.
They
were the ones who settled things with fists, not girls! Still, I had to smile, thinking of how proud they would have been if they had seen me standing up for myself. I can only be patient for so long before I totally lose it. It's not a great quality.

Lost in thought, I kicked the snow along the sidewalk as I walked, and I didn't hear the feet coming up behind me until the last minute.

“Hey, snow girl!”

The Cupcakers had sneaked up behind me and
were now jumping on me and grabbing me and joking around.

“Why'd you ditch us?” asked Alexis.

I explained what had happened with Olivia and told them how ashamed I was of my behavior.

“Ashamed? Are you kidding? She had that coming! I was wondering how much longer you were going to let it go on!” said Mia.

“Yeah, I was thinking of stepping in myself!” said Katie, flexing her arm muscle inside her parka.

“You don't think I overdid it?” I asked nervously. I couldn't stop feeling like such a jerk.

“No way. Not at all,” said Alexis. “Olivia is one of those people who you have to literally bash over the head to make anything clear. She's totally alone in her own world.”

“But people listen to her. She tells everyone everything!” I protested.

“Yeah, but no one
really
listens,” said Mia, shaking her head. “People think Olivia is a pest. They just put up with her.”

“Really?” I pressed.

“Really!” the others answered in unison.

“Come on, take a deep breath. You'll feel better,” said Alexis.

“Yeah, you did the right thing,” agreed Mia.

“Now, let's go get some tea bags on what's left of those bruises!” ordered Katie, giving me a sideways squeeze. “And a snack!”

“Count me in!” I cried.

CHAPTER 7
Snowy Sleepover!

T
here is nothing as cozy as a blizzard! Especially when it turns into a sleepover!

When it became clear that the snow was just going to pile up, Katie got permission from her mom to have us sleep over, and we all called our homes to have our parents drop off supplies when they got back from work. One by one the bags arrived, and we settled in for the long haul.

We spent the start of the afternoon by eating grilled cheese and tomato soup, and then we began baking. We owed Mona her regular order of white-on-white mini cupcakes for tomorrow, plus the two kinds for the holiday boutique and the prebaking of the Snowball Express cupcakes for Sunday. We worked like a well-oiled machine and
somehow got into one of our silly cupcake games as we worked. In this one, which we call Make It Their Own, someone calls out a person's name and we all have to come up with a cupcake that sounds like them.

For example, Katie called “Mrs. Wexler!,” who is our school nurse. She is supercalm, supersoothing, but a little dull.

I replied, “I'll take this! Okay, definitely thinking vanilla. Definitely something with graham crackers. Kind of dry. Mild. How about white cupcakes with vanilla pudding in the center, and vanilla frosting, with graham cracker crumble on top?”

Everyone laughed, but Katie said, “Guess what? It was a trick question! Mr. Green told me at dinner the other night that Mrs. Wexler plays in a rock band on the weekends! I keep forgetting to tell you guys!”

“No way!” we yelled.

We had a huge laugh imagining Mrs. Wexler rocking out, and I changed my vanilla pudding center to spicy cinnamon syrup (because she has a wild private life under that plain exterior), which made us all laugh even harder.

I went next. “Okay, here's mine. Olivia Allen!”

“Ooooh!” said Mia. “How about something
hideous like pineapple upside-down cake with chunky pumpkin frosting, and some kind of little seed sprinkled on it that gets stuck in your teeth and annoys you for the rest of the day?”

“That's awesome,” I said. “Totally annoying—like Olivia!”

“What about Matt Taylor?” asked Alexis, with a smile.

“Oh no! I can't hear this one!” I said, covering my ears with my hands like earmuffs.

“No, it will be good,” said Katie. “Don't worry.”

“Well, it should really be bacon cupcakes, since those are his favorites, like they're Emma's,” said Mia.

“Maybe blueberries in a corn muffin cupcake, like his blue eyes and blond hair . . . ,” said Alexis dreamily.

“Oh gag!” I said. I rolled my eyes.

BOOK: Emma's Not-So-Sweet Dilemma
2.89Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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