Emma on Thin Icing Page 9

  “I have your dress all ready for you,” Mona continued, as if she hadn’t heard me at all. “We’ll just have you try it on and then we can fit it.”

  “But you don’t understand. . . . I can’t afford it,” I said. “I’m sorry I let it go on so long. I didn’t know how to tell you. Any of you,” I said, turning to look at the Cupcakers.

  “Oh, Emma!” cried Mia, and she ran over and hugged me. Alexis and Katie piled on.

  “I know you all hate me. I’m so sorry,” I said. “I couldn’t go to the meetings because I was trying to make extra money dog walking. And I had to babysit. And . . . and . . . well, I guess I just couldn’t do it all.” I didn’t even mention the order for Mrs. Mellgard.

  “We don’t hate you!” said Mia.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” said Katie. “We could have helped you.”

  “They did help you!” interjected Mona. “These girls came down here today to negotiate a reduced rate for your dress. And we’ve struck a deal!”

  Alexis smiled. “Mona is knocking ninety-nine dollars off of the dress in exchange for four weeks of mini cupcakes!” said Alexis.

  “This one drives a hard bargain,” said Mona, gesturing at Alexis. “She’s coming to work for me one day.”

  Alexis beamed.

  “But how did you know I was . . . that I couldn’t afford it?” I asked.

  “I e-mailed your brother last night,” said Alexis. “When I didn’t hear back from you, I knew something was really wrong, and well, I knew about your mom’s job. I asked Matt if he knew about the dress, and he put two and two together.”

  I remembered Sam was there, and I turned around to look at him. He smiled and shrugged.

  “Matt e-mailed me and told me that he and Sam wanted to chip in for the dress for you, but we still didn’t have enough,” said Alexis. “So I decided to see if we could work out a deal for you. And, well, I told Katie and Mia. Please don’t be mad. I just wanted them to know the real reason you hadn’t been around.”

  “You should have told us!” said Mia. “I just thought you didn’t care about the wedding and didn’t want to be in the club! We could have helped you figure it out. Or I wouldn’t have cared if you wore an old dress!”

  “I don’t know what to say,” I said. I really didn’t. So many people helped me: Alexis, Mia, Katie, Sam, even Matt.

  “Well, instead of saying anything, let’s go get that dress on,” said Mona. “We need to make sure it fits you perfectly.”

  “Wait! That’s my dress!” shrieked Sydney.

  We turned to look—we had completely forgotten about her.

  “Now, dear, we have a lot to discuss,” said Mona smoothly, and she steered Sydney away from us as she cast a strong look at Patricia to manage the rest of the situation.

  I was on cloud nine as I stumbled into the dressing room, and once the dress was on, I felt even better. I still couldn’t believe my brothers had done this. I mean, Matt? And my friends. It was amazing. I thought for a second about how much heartache I would have saved myself if I had just told them from the start. Live and learn, as Dad always says.

  I smiled in the mirror. The dress really was gorgeous.

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Come in,” I said.

  Jake stuck his head around the corner. “Wow, Emmy! You look like a princess fairy!” he said breathlessly.

  I laughed. “Thanks, Jakey.”

  The door opened wider. And there was Mom. “Oh, honey,” she said, and she burst into tears. “I saw Sam when I was leaving work, and I was so confused. . . . You look beautiful!”

  I laughed as Alexis handed Mom a Kleenex from one of three nearby boxes.

  “Doesn’t she look divine?” asked Alexis, and all of us started giggling.

  CHAPTER 13

  Sweet Endings

  That night all of us (minus Jake, who was asleep in his bed) sat in the kitchen, a plate of bacon cupcakes on the table. It was late and everyone was tired but very, very happy.

  Mom was happy because the director of the library had called to say that the new grant funding would cover reinstating her job, and that she’d be back on board as of the first of the month, which was in only eight days.

  Matt was happy because the bacon cupcakes had been a huge hit at his team dinner; his coach had even implied that someone with the great idea of bringing such delicious cupcakes to a team dinner ought to be captain next year. Matt was thrilled.

  Sam was happy because he could have his Friday nights back once Mom went back to work at the library. He had been missing out on the best shift at the movie theater and hanging out with his friends afterward.

  Dad was happy because Mom was going back to work and because his kids were happy.

  And I was happiest of all. I had amazing friends, generous brothers, a dad who had revoked my punishment once he heard the reasons why I was so overworked, and a mom who was going back to a normal work schedule. I also had a gorgeous dress that was being altered to fit me and permission to run the dog-walking business one weekday and one weekend day each week for two hours. Plus, Mrs. Mellgard had just called to place a very large order and was referring the Cupcake Club to all her friends. I had come clean about that order earlier. No one was angry, and Alexis was really happy we had another client.

  “This has been a crazy few weeks,” said Mom.

  “Tell me about it,” I said.

  “Honey, I’m so sorry that Dad and I were so out of touch with what was going on in your life. I just feel awful about it,” Mom said.

  “That’s okay,” I said. “After all, I can always handle . . .” And I trailed off.

  Dad looked at me.

  “Emma, you know we’re always here for you. Please don’t let things get that out of control again without asking one of us for help or at least filling us in on what’s going on, okay? You’re lucky you have such great brothers, kiddo.” He nodded toward Matt and Sam.

  “The greatest,” I said.

  “Just don’t stop baking, even if all else fails,” said Matt, laughing as he peeled the wrapper from a cupcake he’d just snagged.

  “Yes, cupcakes should be the last thing to go, after schoolwork and flute,” agreed Sam through a mouthful of cupcake.

  “I just can’t wait until the wedding,” I said dreamily.

  “Speaking of weddings, who was that cute girl in the bridal salon? The blonde?” asked Sam.

  “Aaargh!” I groaned. Maybe Sam wasn’t the greatest brother ever!

  On the day of Mia’s mom’s wedding the Cupcake Club, minus Mia, was meeting at my house to put the final touches on the bridal cupcakes and the groom’s cake, which was the bacon cupcakes, of course. I now thought of them as my lucky recipe.

  Mia’s mom had decided to go with the sheet of minis in the shape of a heart for her wedding dessert. She had sampled some at Mona’s during her final fitting and found them irresistible. The club decided to do them just like Mona’s: angel food cake, white fondant frosting, and white sugar flowers as decoration. There would be a heart made of raspberry cupcakes with pink frosting in the center of the sheet of cupcakes on the buffet.

  At eight thirty that Saturday morning, I heard a quiet knock on the back door. It was Alexis. She had already been to The Special Day and dropped off Mona’s cupcakes that we’d made the night before. Now she was ready to work some more.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  “Hi,” I whispered back. “We don’t have to whisper. There’s no one here.”

  “Where is everyone?” whispered Alexis.

  “Practice,” I said in a normal voice. We both laughed.

  There was another knock on the door. It was Katie.

  “Hey,” she whispered.

  “No whispering,” whispered Alexis. We started laughing really hard. Katie gave us a look that said she thought we were cuckoo, and she came in.

  We each ate a big bowl of cereal and then got down to business. I was making the bacon, and Katie was mak
ing the fondant frosting for the white minis; she would set aside a bit of my buttercream frosting and tint it pink with raspberry jam for the pink cupcakes. Alexis was working on the edible sugar flower decorations, which were kind of hard, but Alexis did them perfectly, of course.

  “Anyone talked to Mia yet?” I asked.

  “I e-mailed her this morning to say good luck,” said Katie.

  “I think they were going to a spa this morning with her aunts and cousins,” said Alexis. “Group rate, I bet. Probably a wedding package.”

  I rolled my eyes at Katie, and we both giggled. Oh, Alexis.

  The bacon was done, nice and crispy. I set it on paper towels to dry and turned to make the buttercream. We were tripling the recipe, which meant three boxes of confectioners’ sugar, six sticks of softened butter, three teaspoons of vanilla, and almost a half a cup of milk. The hand mixer groaned and strained against the ingredients and gave off a light smell of burning plastic. This was nothing new, but it was all part of the reason I still wanted that new pink mixer.

  It felt so good to be with my friends again. But I guess we were talking so much that we kind of lost track of time.

  “Oh no!” cried Alexis as she looked at the clock. “How will we get this done?”

  I started to panic. “I can . . . I will . . .” Then I stopped.

  Mom, Jake, Sam, Dad, and Matt came in.

  I took a deep breath. “Mom!” I cried. “Mom, we need help!”

  Mom smiled. “Okay, whatever it is, we can handle it. Come on, guys,” she said, gesturing to the boys. “Everybody’s in on this one.”

  “We can do this!” said Alexis, and she smiled at me. “Emma and I can figure out a plan.”

  And we did. Mom whipped up the buttercream, Dad began packing frosted minis, Jake crumbled the bacon (“Yes, you can taste it. But only once, or I’ll arrest you!” I said), Matt helped Katie frost the bacon cupcakes as soon as they were ready, and Sam started carrying boxes out to Dad’s station wagon. Alexis and Katie rushed to help him.

  With everyone else running around I suddenly realized I didn’t have much to do. The kitchen was a hive of busy activity, and everyone was doing his or her job well. I went to check my e-mail. Mia had sent all the club members an e-mail asking us to be at her house a shade earlier. I also had an e-mail from Williams-Sonoma, announcing a new version of the stand mixer. It cost $199! A price reduction! I smiled. The day just kept getting better and better. Someday, I thought, you really will be mine!

  CHAPTER 14

  The Special Day

  I couldn’t wait to put on the dress. Mom buttoned me up and helped brush out my hair. She got a little teary again. Then I went downstairs, where Dad, Sam, Matt, and Jake were all waiting.

  “Wow!” said Dad.

  “You look so pretty,” said Jake.

  I blushed a little bit. I wasn’t used to everyone looking at me.

  “You do look good,” said Sam.

  Matt nodded.

  Dad snapped a few pictures, then we picked up Alexis and Katie and got to Mia’s house right on time. Mia opened the door in her matching dress.

  Behind her, Ms. Vélaz came floating down the stairs, and we all just stared at her. I’d never seen anyone look more beautiful.

  “Come on, my beautiful bridesmaids,” she said. “We’re off to get married!” We all giggled and followed her outside to the limousine, which would take us to the ceremony. We had never been in one before, and we were all excited.

  I tried to take in everything, but it all went so fast. First we posed for pictures, and then we lined up to go down the aisle. I was a little nervous, but I did it slowly like Mom had practiced with me and I smiled, just like Mia’s mom told us. We stood under the canopy and I was looking around and then—bam—it was over and we had to walk back up the aisle.

  The party got underway, and we all sat together at a table with lots of pink roses. We were having such a good time. I had never been to a fancy party like this before. Then the band started playing, and we all jumped up to dance.

  The cupcakes were a big hit. Everyone loved them, and everyone really chowed down on the bacon cupcakes. “Oh,” a woman said, stuffing a few in her purse, “these are divine.”

  “Did she say ‘divine’?” Alexis shrieked, and we all burst into giggles.

  “What can I say,” said Alexis. “You were right about the bacon!”

  “Hey, in a house with three brothers, I know bacon!” I said.

  “Emma,” said Mia. “You have to promise us something.”

  I looked up, a little worried by her tone. Katie and Alexis were looking at me too.

  “You have to promise us that whatever it is, good or bad, you won’t keep secrets from us. Friends tell one another everything, and they help out. I want you to promise that you won’t be embarrassed about anything and feel like you can’t talk to us.”

  “I know,” I said, hanging my head. I still couldn’t believe all that they did for me. I looked down at my beautiful dress. “I’m really sorry. I won’t keep anything from you again.”

  “Honey, this is for you.” Mia’s mom was at my side. She handed me a white envelope. “It’s just a little something I’m giving to each of you as a traditional bridesmaid gift. Thank you for helping to make this such a special day.”

  “Oh, Ms. Vélaz . . . I mean Mrs. Valdes!”

  “I know!” said Mia’s mom, rolling her eyes. “I went from Vélaz to Valdes! It’s going to confuse everyone.”

  “I don’t know what to say!” I blushed. I hadn’t expected a gift.

  Mia’s mom planted a kiss on top of my head. “Don’t say a word,” she said. “Just get yourself something you’ve really wanted.” Then she winked at me. She handed a box to Alexis and one to Katie before gliding off.

  I looked down at the envelope. I put it on my lap, not wanting to appear greedy, but I was really curious.

  “Open them!” said Mia.

  Alexis opened a beautiful set of stationery, a journal, and notepads. “So good for making lists!” she said.

  Katie opened three new cookbooks.

  I slid open the envelope with my finger. Inside was a gift card.

  The gift card was for Williams-Sonoma. And it was for fifty dollars!

  I looked up and caught Alexis’s eye, then Katie’s, then Mia’s. They all grinned. “But . . . ,” I asked, confused. “How did she know . . . ?”

  Alexis blushed. “Well, some secrets you do keep from friends. But just for a little while!” And we all laughed. I tucked the envelope into the purse Mom had let me borrow, and I smiled.

  The wedding was going by so fast but so had the past few weeks. A lot of things had been burned, rushed, worried over, and hidden. All bad. I looked around at Mia’s beautiful mom, all the pretty pink flowers, and saw how happy everyone was. Now everything was pretty good. I had my friends. I had people who loved me. I had brothers who weren’t half bad most of the time.

  “A toast!” I cried, lifting up my glass of lemonade.

  Alexis, Katie, and Mia held up their glasses too.

  “To friends!” I said.

  “Here, here!” cried Mia.

  “To no more secrets!” said Katie.

  “To helping each other out always!” said Alexis.

  “And,” I said with a little bit of a giggle, “to the divine pink mixer that will soon be mine!”

  My Sister Takes the Cake

  My name is Alexis Becker, and I’m the business mind (ha-ha) of the Cupcake Club. The club is a for-profit group that my best friends—Mia, Katie, and Emma—and I started, and we make money baking delicious cupcakes!

  I love figuring out how to run a business and putting together the different building blocks—math, organization, and planning—that’s why the girls can count on me for this kind of stuff. Plus, as you can tell, I love math-related puns! My friends are more creative with the cakes, so they come up with the designs and other artistic stuff. My one specialty, though, is fondant. I am ve
ry good at making little flowers and designs out of that firm frosting. Otherwise, I’m mostly crunching numbers and wondering how to make money. Mmm . . . money!

  If the Cupcake Club was an equation, it would look like this:

  (Four girls + supplies) x clients = $$$$

  Or really, more like this:

  (Profit - supplies) / 4 = $

  We actually have lots of fun doing it. Most of our clients are really nice people, which is much more than I can say for our last client: my sister, Dylan. I can practically still hear her fuming.

  “It is my party, I am the one turning sixteen, and I have budgeted everything down to the last party favor. I know exactly what I’m doing!” She was talking to our mom behind closed doors, but I heard every word since I was right outside her bedroom!

  Dylan never gets out-of-control mad; she’s always in total control. Except that ever since she’d started planning her sweet sixteen party (which was now four and a half weeks away), she’d been cranky a lot. But she never raises her voice when she gets mad. She lowers it to a whisper, and you can hear the chill in it, as if actual icicles were hanging from the words. I had to put my ear to her bedroom door to hear everything that was being said. Knowledge is power; that’s one of my mottoes, and I need all the information I can get. About everything.

  My mother was sounding kind of amused by the fight, which was about two things: the guest list for the party and the cake. I had an interest in the outcome of both, since I wanted to be able to invite my best friends, and we wanted to bake the dessert for the party. (It wasn’t about the money as we wouldn’t charge a lot; it’s just that it would be great exposure for our business!)

  I could picture Mom trying to not smile and to take Dylan seriously. “Darling, I know how careful you are, and I am impressed, as always, by your work,” she said. “I admire your attention to detail on these spreadsheets. However, not everything will be according to your plan, as your father and I also have a say in what works best for this family. Now let’s take a look at this guest list again.”