A Picture-Perfect Mess (3 page)

“Hey!” Charlotte said at the same time, falling on top of Aly.

“What are you
doing
?” Lily asked, looking over her shoulder.

Aly turned. Of course. It was Suzy Davis.

For the past few weeks, Suzy had pretty much left Aly and her friends alone. Aly figured it was because Suzy was still embarrassed that her mom forced her to intern at the Sparkle Spa even though she didn't want to, which very nearly ended in an enormous disaster. Unfortunately, now it looked like Suzy was done with the “leaving alone” part.

Suzy shrugged. “Just saying hi,” she said.

“Saying hi doesn't have to involve almost throwing a person from a tire swing,” Charlotte said, righting herself.

“Hi,” Aly said, ignoring the fact that she'd almost been tossed to the ground too.

“So, what were you talking about?” Suzy asked.

“None of your business,” Charlotte answered. Aly could tell she was mad about Suzy butting in, as usual.

“I heard you say ‘Picture Day.' Are you doing something totally dorky at the Sparkle Spa for Picture Day?” Suzy asked, rolling her eyes.

Aly felt her blood start to boil. She tried not to be mean to Suzy, but then Suzy went and said something like that, something insulting the Sparkle Spa, and that made it really hard not to be mean right back. Aly closed her eyes like her mom did sometimes when she needed a minute to calm down.

“We do special promotions for all important activities at Auden Elementary,” Aly said when she opened her eyes again.

“Well, just so you know, I'm starting a business now too,” Suzy said, straight to Aly. “And it's going to open on Picture Day, and it's going to be so much better than your spa in the stinky back room of your mom's dumb salon. I bet all you're doing for Picture Day is a lame Special Occasion Manicure.”

“Suzy Davis!” Charlotte yelled.

Charlotte shifted her body to get off the tire swing and face Suzy head-on.

Aly took a deep breath and put her hand on Charlotte's arm. “That's nice, Suzy,” she said. “I hope your business works out.”

Lily looked at Aly and then nodded. “I hope so too,” she said.

Charlotte huffed. “Yeah,” she said.

Before anyone could say anything else, Caleb walked over. He looked from Suzy to his sister and asked, “Is there a problem here?”

Caleb and Charlotte's dad was in charge of security for a major company in town, and Caleb wanted to be just like his dad. Sometimes when the Sparkle Spa had special promotion manicures and pedicures he worked “security.”

“No problem,” Aly said quickly.

And just as quickly, Suzy snapped, “Tire swings are babyish,” and walked away.

Charlotte smiled at her brother. “Thank you,” she said. “That's like the millionth time you've gotten rid of Suzy Davis for us in the past three months!”

“Only the third,” Caleb said, looking down at his sneakers. “Anyway, I was wondering if one of you might want to play basketball. We need another player.”

“And by ‘one of you,' you mean Lily.” Charlotte laughed.

“Well, or you,” her brother said. “You're really good when we shoot hoops at home.”

Charlotte shook her head. “Too many elbows at school,” she said.

Lily was already hopping off the tire swing. “I don't mind the elbows.”

“Cool,” Caleb said and then knocked her with his elbow. She laughed.

“Want to cheer them on?” Charlotte asked Aly.

Aly and Charlotte hopped off the swing. As they walked over to the basketball court, Aly couldn't help but think about the Sparkle Spa. What would be the best thing to have written on the mirrors? And what was Suzy Davis's business going to be? Should they do something even more special at the Sparkle Spa for Picture Day so it was sure to be better than whatever Suzy had planned? And did anyone else think Special Occasion Manicures were lame? Aly certainly hoped not. She'd have to talk to Brooke later.

Why oh why did Suzy Davis always have to pop up so unexpectedly?

A
fter school that day Aly and Brooke went to True Colors. Some days Aly had swimming lessons and Brooke had art class, but even when it was a non–Sparkle Spa day, they still tried to help their mom in her busy salon.

As Aly and Brooke walked through the front door, the bell jingled. Everyone looked up. All the manicurists waved, and some of the customers said hello too. A lot of them had been going to the salon for years—from as far back as Aly could remember—and had known the sisters since they were babies.

“Hi, girls,” Mom said from manicure station number one, where she was giving Miss Nina a manicure. In addition to working at the pet store, Miss Nina was a True Colors regular who loved getting rhinestones on her pinkies. Just like the Picture-Perfect Pinkies manicure.

“Hi, Mom,” Brooke answered. “I can't wait to tell you about the sculpture we're doing in art class. It's called a storyteller, and it has really long arms, and then there's people on—”

“But we know you have a customer right now, so we'll save the rest of the story for later. Right, Brooke?” Aly said, grabbing her sister's hand and pulling her toward the polish wall.

At least twice a day the polish wall in True Colors needed reorganizing. Customers never seemed to put the colors back in the right spots, so the Deep Blue Sea ended up next to Lemon Aid, and Ruby Red Slippers ended up next to Plum Delicious. The same thing happened in the Sparkle Spa.

Once the polish wall looked like a beautiful rainbow, the girls headed to the back. Joan—their favorite manicurist, Mom's best friend, and the best baker in town—told the girls, “There are oatmeal craisin cookies in the mini-fridge.”

“Yum and thanks!” Brooke and Aly said together.

Spread out on the pillows in the Sparkle Spa and munching on Joan's cookies, Aly took out the mirror sketch. “No one liked our design, but we need to order the mirrors today, because it takes at least ten days for them to get here. That will give us time to hand them out before Picture Day.”

Brooke took the paper and then pushed her yellow glasses back up her nose. She had three different pairs of glasses in three different colors. Brooke loved the idea of being able to choose either pink, yellow, or blue so they'd match her outfits. “I thought our design was really good,” she said, then sighed. “Oh well. Back to the drawing board.”

Brooke ripped out a piece of paper from her math notebook and started sketching. Two minutes later she handed it to Aly.

“I like it, Brooke,” Aly said. “We'll order them tonight.”

Brooke eyed Aly. “Why are you in such a rush? What's going on?”

Aly wasn't good at keeping anything from her sister.

“Two words: Suzy Davis. She came over to the tire swing today at recess and told us
she's
starting a business for Picture Day. And she said our Special Occasion Manicures are lame.”

Even though Aly didn't want to believe it, once again Suzy was interfering with the Sparkle Spa. She sighed.

But Brooke wasn't sad. “Forget Suzy, Aly. We'll do something even more special than Picture-Perfect Pinkies and the mirrors. Just to make sure our business is better.”

Brooke began: “Glitter hair bows? Sparkle strings that you can loop into people's hair?”

Aly shook her head.

“Temporary tattoos? Feathers?”

Aly shook her head.

“Daisy clips? Headbands?”

Aly shook her head again and then looked over at the beads and bracelet-making materials tucked away next to the floor pillows. “Maybe this is boring,” she said, “but what about bracelets?”

“Definitely boring,” Brooke said.

“Well . . . how about beaded necklaces with different charms? Like soccer balls or cleats or toe shoes for dancers or musical instruments and books and basketballs! Paintbrushes! And nail polish bottles!”

“That's so cool!” Brooke said. “But can we afford to buy charms
and
mirrors? We might have to choose.”

Aly ducked into True Colors and borrowed Mom's phone to search on the Internet.

The sisters searched and searched and finally found gold and silver charms that weren't that expensive. The charms clipped right onto any type of necklace.

But there was one problem: The charms wouldn't arrive until two days before Picture Day.

“We'll be the fastest charm clippers ever. And Lily, Sophie, and Charlotte can help. And whatever Suzy has planned, our necklaces will be better. Let's start stringing the beads right away.”

“Right away? Picture Day's not for another two and a half weeks!” Aly said.

“You can never be prepared with too many necklaces,” Brooke said very seriously.

Aly bit her lip to keep from laughing. “You're right, Brookie,” she said. “Okay, let's get stringing.”

As the girls started sliding beads onto fishing wire, Aly thought that School Picture Day might be their biggest Sparkle Spa promotion yet. Well, as long as the girls actually
were
the fastest charm clippers ever.

H
ey, wait!” Lily called to Aly and Brooke. “The rest of us can't keep up!”

Aly and Brooke were racewalking to the Sparkle Spa from Auden Elementary, pumping their arms so quickly that they were short of breath.

“We'll meet you there!” Brooke called over her shoulder. “It's mirror delivery day. Arnold should be there any minute. Right, Aly?”

Aly checked her watch: 3:14. “One minute until Arnold!” she said.

Arnold was the deliveryman for True Colors. He usually dropped off boxes of nail polish and supplies, and he always made it to the salon at exactly 3:15. Before the Sparkle Spa started, Aly used to sign for almost all the deliveries, but now she wasn't always around when a package arrived.

“How many did we get again?” Brooke asked. True Colors was in sight now, just a few stores away.