The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe (4 page)

• Had English with Mia, Alexis, and Emma. Good. But left my summer reading report in my locker. Bad!

• Had art as my special class for seventh period. Found out that there’s cooking, but I can’t take that until January. Rats!

• Spanish is my last class of the day. Then it’s
adios
!

• No Callie in
any
of my classes.

When the last bell rang, I stuffed all of my books into my backpack and went outside to look for Joanne’s car.

Joanne works in my mom’s office. When I was in elementary school, I went to an after-school program until Mom got off of work. But there’s no after-school program for middle school. Mom doesn’t think I’m old enough to go home by myself. So her plan was for me to hang out at the office every day. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Anyway, she told me Joanne had a small red car, so I started looking around for it. Then I heard Sydney’s voice behind me.

“Looking for your former friend?”

I turned and saw Sydney, with Maggie and Brenda laughing behind her. At least Callie wasn’t with them. I turned around without answering.

Then I heard a beep. Joanne was waving out of a car window down by the parking lot. I ran to meet her.

“Hey, Katie. How was your first day of middle school? Was it awesome?” Joanne asked.

“Sure,” I said, sliding into the front seat.

I like Joanne a lot. She’s really tall and has lots of blond hair that she piles on top of her head. She always talks to me like I’m a person, not a little kid. Not all adults know how to do that.

“Hmm. You don’t sound so sure,” Joanne said.

“It was fine,” I told her.

I really didn’t feel like talking about it. Not just now, anyway. Sydney had put me in a really bad mood.

Joanne seemed to understand.

“Cool,” she said. “Your mom’s been talking about you all day. She can’t wait to see you.”

When we got to the office, my mom was busy with a patient. Joanne set me up in my mom’s personal office, where she has a desk and a phone and all of her books about dentist stuff.

“Gotta go,” Joanne said. “Yell if you need me. But not too loud. Don’t want to scare the patients.”

“Thanks!” I told her.

Then I took out my cell phone and called Callie. The phone rang three times before she picked up.

“Hello?”

“Cal, it’s Katie. Can you talk?” I asked.

“Of course,” Callie answered, and for a second I wondered if the whole day had been some kind of weird dream. Callie sounded like she always did.

“Why didn’t you tell me we weren’t taking the bus together?” I blurted out.

“Listen, Katie, I’m sorry,” Callie said, and she sounded like she meant it. “I became good friends with Sydney, Maggie, and Bella at camp. And they asked me to join their club. I wanted to tell you, but we never got together.”

“Okay, but—wait, Bella? I thought her name was Brenda?” I asked.

“It was, but she changed it to Bella,” Callie explained.

“Oh,” I said. I’d never known anyone who actually changed his or her name before. But that wasn’t important right now. “You could have called me. Or texted me,” I said.

“I know, I know, but I was really busy when I got back. Honest,” Callie said. “Please don’t be upset.”

“Are we still friends?” I asked. There was a lump in my throat when I said the word.

“Of course!” Callie assured me. “You’re my best friend.”

“But you won’t walk to school with me or have lunch with me,” I pointed out. I knew I sounded like a baby, and I really was about to cry. I was just so confused.

“It’s not like that,” Callie protested. “Katie, we’re
in middle school now. Middle school is bigger than just the two of us. We’re going to make lots of new friends. Both of us.”

I thought briefly about Mia, Alexis, and Emma. Callie had a point—but I was too angry and hurt to admit it.

“Sure—right,” I said lamely.

“And I’ll see you this weekend,” Callie said. “For the annual Labor Day barbecue.”

“Okay,” I said with a sigh.

“Hey, did you notice I got contact lenses?” Callie asked. “No more glasses for me!” So that explained why she wasn’t wearing glasses today.

“Well, I already have homework to do. Plus I need to figure out what I’m going to wear tomorrow!” Callie said, and then we hung up.

I felt better after the call—not much, but just a little. I was glad Callie was still my friend. But the whole thing was weird. Callie was basically saying, “I’m sorry, but I’m still going to ignore you at lunch tomorrow.”

I’ve heard “I’m sorry—but . . .” a lot in my life. Mostly from my dad. As in, “I’m sorry, Katie, but I can’t come visit you this summer….”

It doesn’t feel good.

I took out my math assignment—my only homework
assignment for tonight—and started working on the problems. Just as I was finishing, Mom opened the door.

“There you are!” she said, crushing me in a hug. She smelled like mint toothpaste. “I’ll be ready to go in just a few minutes, okay?”

As you can probably guess, Mom was full of questions on the car ride home.

“Are your teachers nice?”

“Did you get any homework?”

“Did you find the bus stop okay?”

“Did you like your cupcake?”

“Is Callie in any of your classes?”

That one was the hardest to answer. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Mom everything that had happened with Callie. How could I, when
I
wasn’t even sure what was happening?

“We only have lunch together,” I replied.

“Oh, that’s too bad!” Mom said with a frown. “At least you get to sit together.”

I just nodded and looked out the window.

“You must be tired,” Mom said. “You’ve had a big day today. Try to relax when we get home. I’ll call you when it’s time to set the table.”

Because it was the first day of school, Mom made my favorite food for dinner: Chinese-style chicken
and broccoli with rice. (Yes, I’m a weirdo who likes broccoli.) It smelled so good!

“Would you like to do anything after dinner?” Mom asked. “It’s nice out. We could walk over to Callie’s.”

Not
a good idea! But I didn’t tell Mom that.

“I was thinking,” I said. “Can we make some pineapple upside-down cupcakes?”

Mom got a knowing look on her face. “Ah. So you need a cupcake cure?”

Once, when I was seven, I fell off of my bike and messed up my knee really bad. Mom made me pineapple upside-down cupcakes and gave them to me with a note: “Turn your frown upside down.” Hey, I’ve been telling you she’s corny. Since then, we make pineapple upside-down cupcakes together whenever one of us is feeling sad. We call it the “cupcake cure.” It’s hard to not feel better when you eat a cupcake.

I nodded. As we took out the ingredients and started measuring, I started talking—not about Callie, but about everything else. My evil locker. Being late for class all the time. Scary Mrs. Moore.

Mom listened while I talked. When I was done, she had a bunch of suggestions for how to make things better. Mom lives to solve all of my problems.
Unfortunately, I didn’t tell her about my biggest problem.

Pineapple upside-down cupcakes are not that hard to make. The trick is that you don’t use cupcake liners. You spray the cupcake tins with that nonstick stuff. Then you fill the bottom of each cup with a mix of canned pineapple and some spices. You pour the batter on top and then you bake them.

When the cupcakes are done, you take them out of the pan and turn them upside down. Each cupcake has a beautiful golden pineapple on the top. To make them extra nice you can add a candied cherry on top like we do.

Mom and I each ate one with a glass of milk. They were still warm. So yummy!

As Mom packed one for me in my cupcake holder, I remembered what I’d told the girls at lunch.

“Can I bring in three more?” I asked. “For the girls at my lunch table.”

“Of course,” Mom said. “I have a small box we can use.”

I found myself looking forward to tomorrow’s lunch—even without Callie.

B
y lunchtime the next day, I was sure of one thing.

My locker is an evil robot in disguise, sent here to Earth to prevent me from finishing middle school. Or maybe it’s from the future; I’m not sure.

But I’m sure its mission is to ruin my middle school career. Maybe one day I’ll become president of the United States and save the Earth from the alien or robot invasion. But if I never finish middle school, I can’t become president, and the robots will rule forever.

My mom had written my combination on an orange rubber band for me to wear around my wrist so I wouldn’t forget. But even with the right combination the locker wouldn’t open on the first try, or even the second try! How could that be?

I was late for science again, but Ms. Biddle didn’t care. I knew that Mrs. Moore was another story, though. So I devised a plan: I would take my math book with me to lunch. Then I would walk to class with Alexis, who seemed to know her way around. That way, I’d be on time.

When I finally got my locker open before lunch, I spotted the white box of cupcakes on my top shelf. I couldn’t forget those! I carefully picked them up by the string, eager to show them off to the girls.

I was a little nervous, of course. What if they all decided to sit somewhere else? But when I got to the table in the back of the room, Mia was already there.

Mia’s eyes got big when she saw the white box.

“Ooh, are those cupcakes?” she asked.

“My mom and I ended up making some last night,” I explained.

“That’s really nice of you,” Mia said.

Alexis and Emma came over and dropped their books on the table.

“We’ve got to get in line before it gets too long,” Alexis said.

“Hurry back,” Mia said. “Katie brought cupcakes.”

Emma flashed me a grateful smile as she and Alexis headed off to the lunch line.

Soon we were all eating lunch together. Mom had packed me some leftover chicken and broccoli, which tastes even better cold.

“I can’t believe it’s Friday already!” Alexis said. “It’s weird, starting school and then having three days off.”

“I think they’re trying to ease us into it—you know, like how you stick only your foot in a pool when it’s really cold, and then slowly put the rest of your body in,” I guessed.

“I always jump right in,” Emma said. “Cold or not.”

Mia shuddered. “You’re brave!”

“I think we’re going to the beach this weekend,” Alexis said. “Last swim of the summer.”

“I’m going to the city this weekend, to see my dad,” Mia chimed in.

“Are your parents divorced?” Alexis asked, like it was no big deal.

Mia nodded. “Four years ago.”

I didn’t say anything about my own parents being divorced. To be honest, I was a little jealous that Mia was going to see her dad. I hadn’t seen mine in years.

“We’re going to my grandma’s house for a picnic,” Emma spoke up.

“We’re going to a barbecue,” I said. “Over at . . . Callie’s.”

I glanced over at the PGC table.

“Isn’t that the friend who dumped you?” Alexis asked.

“She didn’t dump me,” I protested. “We’re still friends. Best friends.”

“Emma is my best friend,” Alexis said. “If she sat at a table with other girls, I’d sit next to her.”

“But I wouldn’t sit at a table with other girls,” Emma said, and then she gave me an apologetic look, like she was worried she’d hurt my feelings.

“Exactly,” said Alexis. They both looked at me.

“Look, it’s kind of complicated,” I said. “They formed this club. The Popular Girls Club. And you can’t sit at the table unless you’re a member. It’s a rule.”

“Are you serious? They actually named themselves the Popular Girls Club?” Alexis asked. “If you’re popular, do you really have to advertise it like that? Plus, what did everyone do—take a vote or something?”

Mia had an amused smile on her face. “It does seem a little desperate,” she admitted. “But I have all
of those girls in a lot of my classes. They seem nice.”

“Callie is nice,” I said. “Really. I’m just not so sure about the others.”

There was a weird silence.

“So, Katie.” Mia nodded to the white box. “When do we get to try those cupcakes?”

“Right now,” I answered. I slipped off the string and opened up the top of the box. The cupcakes looked perfect.

“They’re so pretty!” Emma cooed.

“What is that golden stuff?” Alexis asked.

“It’s pineapple,” I explained. “These are like pineapple upside-down cake, except they’re cupcakes.”

Mia shook her head. “Where do you get all these amazing cupcake ideas?”

“It’s my mom, mostly,” I admitted. “She’s cupcake crazy.”

Mia laughed. “My mom is shopping crazy.”

“You’re lucky,” said Alexis. “My mom is cleaning crazy.”

Emma shrugged. “My mom says me and my brothers make
her
crazy.”

“She has three brothers,” Alexis told us. “They’re all monsters. Emma is the only normal one.”

Emma blushed.

“Less talking, more cupcakes,” I joked, and each of us picked one up.

It was quiet for a second as we took a bite of golden goodness.