Mia's Baker's Dozen (7 page)

You have to believe me when I tell you that I studied like crazy. I went straight home after school and studied. I ate dinner and then went right back upstairs and studied. I didn't even sketch! (Okay, I did doodle a pair of boots in the margin of my notes, but I didn't open up my
sketchbook, I swear.) When I went to sleep that night, I dreamed of verbs instead of emerald fairies.

I even studied at lunch on Tuesday before the test. I was feeling pretty good—until Señora handed me my test paper. The questions looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics to me.

So I took the test, and I did my best. But as I handed it in, I knew I hadn't done well.

That night Mom asked me about it as we were cleaning up from dinner.

“So how did you do on your Spanish test?” she asked. “You really studied hard for that one.”

“I think I did okay,” I lied. I thought about spilling everything out, right then and there.
Mom, I think I'm failing Spanish. I know I should have told you sooner. The advanced class is so difficult. I'm still having trouble no matter how hard I try.
I opened my mouth to tell her, but I just couldn't bring myself to say the words. I don't know why it was so hard. Usually I could always talk to Mom about anything.

It was then that I realized that Mom really was a lot happier. She smiled a lot, and she seemed more relaxed than ever, even though she was busy. And she really did seem to love Eddie. Then I wondered
if my dad was as happy as Mom. Was I?

Mom smiled at me and kissed the top of my head. “I'm so proud of you, Mia,” she said.

Ugh. I felt bad about lying, and then something happened that made me feel ten times worse.

“I have a surprise for you,” she said. “Come upstairs with me.”

I followed Mom to her room. “So you know that Annie Chang has a line out for teens, right?”

I nodded. Annie Chang is a popular fashion designer, and I absolutely love her clothes. I was psyched when I read that she was putting out a teen line. But I know they are kind of expensive, too, so I wasn't holding out much hope that I'd convince Mom to buy me anything.

Mom unzipped a garment bag hanging from her closet. “I met Annie at an event the other day, and I told her all about you,” she said. “So today she sent this just for you.”

I gasped. Inside the bag was a totally cool mod-looking sweater dress with gray and black stripes.

“That's from her latest winter line!” I shrieked. “Oh, Mom, it's perfect!”

“Wear it with some black tights—or even a jewel-toned color, for that matter—and black
boots, and you've got a killer outfit,” Mom said.

I slipped the dress off the hanger and ran to my room. “I'm going to try it on!”

I tried the dress with some solid red tights, and it looked awesome. I ran into my mom's room and gave her a big hug.

“Thank you, thank you!” I said.

“You deserve it, with all the hard work you've been doing,” Mom said, and I felt a huge pang of guilt.

You should tell her now,
a little voice inside me said. But just like Dad and dinner, I didn't want to ruin the moment.

I loved the dress so much that I wanted to sleep in it, but I didn't want to ruin it. So I wore it to school the very next day. At lunchtime, I was walking past the PGC table when Callie called out to me.

“Mia? Is that an Annie Chang?” she asked.

I walked over to her. “Yes, she gave it to my mom to give to me,” I said.

“It's really cool,” said Maggie, another one of the popular girls. Maggie's actually pretty nice, but she does everything Sydney tells her to do.

Sydney examined my entire outfit from head to toe. I could tell she was trying to find something
wrong with it, but she couldn't. So she just made one of her mean comments instead. “It's nice of your mom's friends to give you their castoffs,” Sydney said, tossing her perfect blond hair. I knew she was insulting me, but I didn't care.

I smiled sweetly at Sydney. “Yeah, well, Mom says that Annie
is
really nice,” I said. “And it's actually not a castoff. It's a sample. Like the kind they give models to wear. See you.”

Then I walked away.

My Cupcake Club friends liked my dress too, even though they didn't know who Annie Chang was. Then it was time for Spanish class. Oh boy.

Señora Delgado handed out our tests as soon as we sat down. I already knew how I did, but I was still shocked when I saw the big red F on my paper. I've never gotten an F in anything before.

“Class, please turn to page fifty-seven in your workbooks and start that page,” she said in Spanish, as usual. “Ms. Vélaz-Cruz, please come to my desk.”

Uh-oh. This wasn't going to be fun. I walked up to her desk as slowly as I could. What was she going to do? Was she going to yell at me in front of everybody?

Señora Delgado is petite, with short black hair, and she wears big eyeglasses. She looks like a very
wise owl. And I know from science class that owls are predators. They eat cute little chipmunks and mice.

“Mia, I think you might need some extra help in this class,” she said softly, in English. She wasn't mean or angry at all. It seemed like she really wanted to help me. She started to write on a piece of paper. “I know some excellent tutors. Please give this to your parents and tell them to call me if they have any questions.”

“Thank you, Señora,” I said quietly, and then I walked back to my seat. I couldn't keep my secret any longer now. I'd have to give my parents the note. But I didn't have to give it to them right away.

I'll give it to them,
I told myself,
w
hen the time is right! Because they're all too happy now for me to spoil it.

Sydney Needs My Help. Really?

O
kay, so I tec
h
nically couldn't give my parents the note that night because my dad was in Manhattan and my mom was working late. It was just me and Eddie and Dan, and Eddie is technically my
ste
p
parent, not my parent. So I left the note in my Spanish book.

We had a Cupcake Club meeting at Katie's house the next day after school. Katie's mom was there. Mrs. Brown has curly brown hair and Katie's smile, and she's really nice. She's the one who taught Katie how to make cupcakes.

“Come on in, girls, I've got it all set up for you,” Mrs. Brown said as we went into the kitchen. Katie's kitchen is small, but it's got everything you need to make cupcakes in it. Her mom has every
kitchen gadget you've ever heard of—and some you haven't heard of.

We quickly got to work making a test batch of Ava's snowy cupcakes. Katie and I made the chocolate batter, and Emma and Alexis worked on the extra frosting.

“I want to get it extra fluffy,” Emma said as they put the ingredients in the mixer bowl. “So it looks like snow.”

“Great idea,” I said. I opened up my bag. “Good news! My mom found the silver cupcake liners for us.”

“She's so nice,” Katie said, smiling at me, and I figured that whatever was bothering her wasn't anymore. Maybe she was just uncomfortable around people she didn't know, and that's why she was quiet when Ava was visiting.

As we baked the cupcakes we talked about school and stuff, and then Katie asked me, “So how did you do on that Spanish test?”

I frowned. “I can't bear to say it.” Instead, I used the wooden spoon in my hand to draw an
F
in the bowl of batter.

“You failed? No way!” Katie cried. “But you studied so hard.”

“I know,” I said. “Señora says I need a tutor.”

“
Will your parents get you one?” Emma asked.

I bit my lower lip. “Well, they kind of don't know yet. I'm waiting for the right moment to tell them.”

“That must be so hard,” Katie said sympathetically.

“You should tell them soon,” said Alexis, always the practical one. “They're going to find out eventually. And the sooner you get some help in Spanish, the better. You've put this off long enough. I thought maybe if you studied a little harder, you'd be okay, but things are obviously getting worse instead of better.”

“Just talk to your mom, Mia,” Katie said. “I'm sure once you tell her everything, it will be all right.”

“I know, I know!” I said crossly. “Can we please talk about cupcakes instead of school?”

Nobody said anything for a while after that, and I felt kind of bad for losing it. But soon we were back in our groove again, and I was decorating our first test cupcake.

“It's perfect!” Alexis said, and I had to admit it looked pretty good. The silver liner was really pretty, the icing was nice and fluffy, and the sparkles looked good on top of the coconut.

“Let me take a picture and I'll send it to Ava,” I said.

A minute later Ava texted me back.

It's pretty, but the coconut looks too big or something. Not like snowflakes.

Alexis rolled her eyes. “Great. Another picky client.”

“Hey, she's my friend,” I reminded her. “Besides, she kind of has a point.”

The coconut flakes from the package did look a little big. Luckily for us, Mrs. Brown walked in just then.

“That's beautiful!” she said.

“Except Ava doesn't like it,” Katie said, and then explained about the coconut.

Katie's mom looked thoughtful. “I think I have just the thing,” she said finally.

She opened up the small pantry closet by the back door and came back with a weird-looking device.

“It's a veggie chopper,” she said. “Normally you could use it to chop onions into small pieces. But I bet it will work on the coconut.”

She put a pile of coconut on a cutting board,
put the chopper on top of it, and then pressed down a few times. When she picked up the chopper, the coconut underneath was very finely shredded.

“That looks a lot more like snow,” Katie remarked. “Let's try another one.”

So Katie iced another cupcake, and I sprinkled the coconut flakes and glittery sugar on top.

“Much better,” agreed Mrs. Brown. “I'm sure your friend will like it.”

“Let's see,” I said. I sent another photo to Ava.

This time she was happy. Here was her reply:

“She loves it!” I reported, and we all cheered.

“I think I've got all the details down so we can re-create this for the party,” Alexis said. “Otherwise, we're meeting at my house on Saturday morning to do the Valentine's cupcakes, right?”

“Right,” Emma said.

“My mom said she'd help us drop them off at the bookstore,” I told them.

Alexis shut her notebook. “Just one more thing,” she said. She gave each of us a sheet of paper. “Let
me know what you think, and then I'll get the ad up on the PTA website next week.”

We all read Alexis's ad:

Need a sweet treat for your next party or event? Let us do the baking for you! Click
here
to contact the Cupcake Club. We can do any flavor or amount you want. And we're having a baker's dozen special for all new customers! Buy a dozen cupcakes and get one free!