Sprinkles and Secrets (2 page)

“I have a surprise for you,” she says, her face now literally beaming.

I swallow my mouthful of ice cream. Thoughts of a tearfest disappear at the mention of the word “surprise.” I totally forgot that's another one on my list of pick-me-ups! Except, it's sort of hard to make a surprise happen by myself.

I wait, my spoon frozen in midair.

She brings her hand around from behind her back, and she's holding three tickets. I lean in, my eyes squinting, trying to read the small words.

My spoon makes a loud clanking noise as I drop it on to the counter and grab the tickets from her hand.

I can't believe it.

Wicked,
the musical.

We're going to see
Wicked!

Chapter 2

I
squeal, jump off my stool, and grab my mom so hard that I'm afraid for a second I might have broken her rib or something.

I let go. “Sorry, are you okay?”

She laughs. “Yes. Are you?”

“Mom, how did you get these? When—?”

“One of my customers has a sister with some
connections to Broadway Across America. Good ones, obviously. When I heard
Wicked
was coming to Portland, I asked if she could help me get some tickets. And so she did.”

I can't believe it. Other kids at school have seen the show when they've traveled to places like New York City, San Francisco, and Miami, and they always come back raving about it. The story, the songs, the performances—all of it is supposed to be spectacular to watch. I've read it's the story of how the Wicked Witch of the West in
The Wizard of Oz
came to be wicked.

“When is it?” I ask.

“Tomorrow night.”

“There are three tickets here,” I say, grabbing the rapidly melting ice cream and sticking it back in the freezer. “Who else is going with us?”

“I thought you might want to ask a friend to come along. If not, Hayden might like to see it.”

Ugh. Hayden. Okay, my eight-year-old brother is definitely not on my list of pick-me-ups. In fact, he just might have the ability to totally ruin what could turn out to be one of the best nights of my entire life.

My brain goes through my list of friends from
the theater camps I've attended the last few years. Choosing one of them makes sense because I know they would love a live musical production as much as I would.

“Lily!” I decide. “I'll ask Lily. She's perfect. I hope she can go.”

“Better call her right away,” Mom says. “If she's free, tell her we'll pick her up at four tomorrow. We'll stop and get a bite to eat on the way. The play starts at seven. We'll be home really late, so maybe ask if she can spend the night with us.”

“Okay.” I give my mom another hug, a much gentler one this time. “Thanks, Mom. You are now officially on my pick-me-up list.”

She smiles. “That's a good thing, right?”

“You're on there with chocolate! Yes, it's a good thing.”

As I'm heading to the phone, Hayden comes in carrying what looks to be a spaceship made out of toilet-paper tubes. He's obsessed with all things outer space.

“Hayden,” Mom asks with a funny look on her face. “Where did you get those?”

“Mom, don't worry,” he says. “I got them out without unrolling all the paper. Well, except for one. And I folded the paper up really neatly. Anyway, with most of them, you can hardly tell the tubes are gone!”

I grab the phone and take it to my room, and leave Mom alone to handle that situation.

Lily is really excited. Her parents give her permission to come with us and spend the night so I give her all the details. After I hang up, I lie on my bed, thinking of all the fun times we had together at theater camps and missing them.

Last summer, the only camp I went to was the two-week overnight camp my parents have sent me to the last few years. It wasn't nearly as fun as theater camp, although two good things did happen. One, I met this cute guy named Kyle who was really nice. Well, I thought he was nice. He never wrote to me or called me like he promised. Okay, scratch that. One good thing happened. One of the camp counselors, Marcella, recorded everyone's talent show performances. She said she was so impressed by my performance, she planned on showing it to her mom. I thought that was a strange thing to do until she explained that
her mom is an agent, and she's always looking for talented young people to star in commercials and TV shows. Of course, here it is November, a long way from July, and Marcella hasn't gotten in touch with me.

That does it. Overnight camp was a complete bomb. Which is why I'm going to do everything possible so I don't have to go next year and can go back to theater camp here in Willow instead. I just need to figure out a way to make some money for lessons. Otherwise, I'm afraid they'll give me the role of a tree or something else equally humiliating. I'm so much more than a tree, I know I am!

When I leave my room to tell Mom that Lily is going with us to the play, I hear Hayden talking in the bathroom. “But, Mom, why is the tube so important? The toilet paper will still get the job done, right?”

On Saturday, Mom and I spend almost the whole day getting ready for our big evening. Mom gives us both manicures after we eat lunch, and then we go through all of our clothes before we settle on what dresses we're going to wear. I decide to wear a
pale-green dress I wore to a wedding last year that still fits. Mom chooses a simple black dress she said she's had forever, because it's the kind of dress that never goes out of style.

After that, I curl my shoulder-length blond hair and put in two small, sparkly barrettes to dress it up a little. When we finally head out to the family room to say good-bye to Dad and Hayden, Dad whistles at us.

“Who are you and what have you done with my wife and daughter?”

We laugh and then Hayden says, “Eh, Sophie, you look better in your purple pajamas.”

I give him a swat with the small handbag Mom lent me.

“Drive safely,” Dad says as he kisses Mom on the cheek. “And enjoy the show.” Then he leans in and kisses me on the forehead. His breath smells like peanuts.

“It's going to be so awesome,” I say.

“Oh, wait a second!” Dad hustles into the kitchen and pulls out a bag of chocolate-covered peanuts. “Here, take these along. They'll have snacks during
the intermission, but they'll cost almost as much as the tickets to the show.”

Mom sticks them in her purse and then we say good-bye.

As I put my seat belt on, I turn and look at my beautiful mom. “I'm not dreaming, am I? We're really doing this?”

“I promise, you are wide-awake.” And then she starts singing, “We're off to see the wizard . . .”

And I burst out laughing.

Chapter 3

T
he play is incredible.

Brilliant.

Dazzling!

I laugh. I cry. I cheer! We all do. When it's over and the actors take the stage for their bows, I applaud as hard as I can, wishing there was another performance
so we could, experience the magic all over again.

“I'm pretty sure that was the most amazing thing I've ever seen,” Lily says as we stand in line waiting to buy a CD. We want to listen to it on the way home. I look at her and realize she's glowing, and it's not because of the sparkly coral dress she's wearing.

“Me too!” I say.

We get our CD and head outside. The night is cold and clear. I look up, but the tall buildings of downtown Portland prevent me from seeing the moon or very many stars. We rush to the parking garage, shivering the whole way. When we get in the car, Mom turns it on and cranks up the heat.

I lean in toward the front seat. “Just so you know, I'm now more determined than ever to find a way to pay for some singing and acting lessons.”

“You need to help me come up with the hottest look in doggy fashion,” she says as she puts the car in reverse. “We could make millions. Then you'd be set.”

I turn and look at Lily, who has a puzzled look on her face. “My mom designs and sews clothes for dogs. Her company is called The Pampered Pooch.”

“That's, um, different,” she says, trying to be nice.

Both Mom and I laugh.

“Do you have a dog, Lily?” Mom asks her.

“No. Just a big yellow cat.”

“So you probably don't get the whole doggy-fashion thing.”

“Not really,” she says. “I mean, don't they already have fur coats?”

I reach over and tap Mom's shoulder. “See? Isn't that exactly what I said when you told me you were going to start the business?”

“Well, if you ever have a good idea for a new doggy look, Lily, be sure and let me know. Sophie's acting career may depend on it.”

I pop open our new CD and hand it to Mom to put into the car's player. And just like that, we're back in the magical world of Galinda, Elphaba, and Fiyero once again.

The next morning, Lily and I make chocolate-chip pancakes. Hayden comes in, jumps up and down, and tells us that last night he finally convinced Dad to let him watch
Star Wars.
They have a movie date
next Friday night, and lucky me, I'm invited too.

“I've waited my whole life to see
Star Wars,”
he tells us. “I didn't think I could go on a minute longer. Out of all my friends, I'm the only one who hasn't seen any of the movies. But now it's finally going to happen.”

For once, I can actually relate to my annoying little brother. “That's how I felt about
Wicked.
I'm happy for you, Little Brother Man. So why does Dad think you're suddenly ready?”

“I told him it wasn't fair that you got to see
Wicked
on stage. So I told him to give me one good reason why I couldn't finally see
Star Wars.”

“What'd he say?”

Hayden takes a big piece of pancake, dips it in the syrup, and shoves it in his mouth. “He couldn't think of anything, Soph. Not one reason! So he looked at me and said, ‘Okay, Hayden. Next weekend.
Star Wars,
here we come.'”

He's done eating in about two minutes flat, thank goodness. “Catch you girls later. I've got a top-secret project I have to finish.”

“Don't touch the toilet paper!” I yell.

“Funny kid,” Lily says. “He reminds me of that one boy Henry, at theater camp. Do you remember him?”

“Oh, the supersmart kid who memorized every single president of the United States, including their dates of birth? Yeah, I remember.”

We're quiet for a second, both of us lost in the memories.

“Lily, the last time we talked, you said you were thinking about taking voice lessons. Did you sign up?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Do you like them? I mean, are they fun?”

She shrugs and takes another bite of pancake. “I don't know if fun is the right word. My teacher really pushes me. But yeah, I like them.”

Envy tugs at my heart. “You have such a beautiful voice,” I tell her. “I bet you'll be on a stage someday, singing and acting.”

She blushes, and tucks her straight brown hair behind her ear. “I don't know. I hope so. It's what I want more than anything.”

“Yeah. Me too,” I say as we put our dishes in the dishwasher. “So what do you want to do now?”

“I've been dying to see your friend's cupcake shop. Could we walk over there?” She checks the clock on the microwave. “My mom won't be here for another couple of hours.”

Lily lives on the other side of Willow and is in eighth grade at the other middle school in town. I'm surprised she hasn't made a trip to the cupcake shop yet. When she mentions it, I think of Isabel and the baking contest. Maybe Isabel's grandma, who's running the shop while Isabel and her mom are out of town, will know who won the contest. I'd love to find out!