Confectionately Yours #2: Taking the Cake! (7 page)

“I
s that going to be enough?” Annie asks, eyeing my sandwich. “Do you want some chips or something?”

“Okay. Thank you.” Annie hands me a bag, and we exchange awkward smiles. We’re being extra polite to each other after my dressing-room outburst.

Dad pays for everything, and we head out into the food court with our trays.

My sandwich looks a little sad, sitting there on my plate. The top piece of bread is askew and some lettuce is spilling out. I could have made a better-looking sandwich in my own kitchen. But it doesn’t taste bad.

Annie and I are quiet as we eat, but Chloe and Dad are talking about a movie they both want to see. Chloe and Dad both love action comedies. So do I. Chloe says, “Should we
see it? It’s playing in an hour.” The movie theaters are next to the food court. Why not?

“Sure,” I say, trying hard to sound excited. The red dress is in a bag at my feet, and I wonder how I’m ever going to get myself to wear it.

Chloe reaches for one of my potato chips, and when she pulls her hand back, she manages to knock over her own drink. Apple juice sloshes all over the table and onto Annie’s feet.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Chloe cries.

Annie’s first reflex is to go for the bags. She grabs them off the floor and holds them aloft as Chloe dabs the table with her flimsy napkin. It’s about as useful as a Kleenex would be for mopping up a tsunami.

“I’ll get more.” I dash to the counter, and just as I’m heading back with a huge brick of napkins, I spot my mom.

Happiness flashes through me, and I’m about to call out, when I realize where I am and who I’m with. It would be a complete horrorburger if Mom came over to our table. In an instant, I visualize Dad introducing Mom to Annie. I can hear Annie’s nervous giggles and see Mom’s brave smile.

Must. Not. Happen.

I turn my back on my mother and scoot back to our table.

“Quick,” Dad says, grabbing the napkins from my hands.

Annie dabs at her shoes, which are suede, and I’m wondering how many pairs we will manage to ruin before she decides that it’s not worth hanging out with us anymore.

I wipe off my side of the table, and sneak a glance over at Mom’s table. Someone sits down across from her.

Oh.

Em.

Gee.

It’s Police Officer Ramon! This is … what is this? Is she on a
date
?

Make me disappear,
I beg silently, just as Mom looks up at me. I see her face register the situation — Chloe apologizing profusely as Dad and Annie scramble to dry the table.

The wet napkins are heavy in my hand and I feel this moment driving us both forward…. Now Mom will meet Dad’s girlfriend; Dad will meet Mom’s date….

And then Mom looks away.

She looks away, like she didn’t even see me.
Maybe she didn’t,
I think. But I know she did.

My mother can’t deal with this situation. Neither one of us can, and — for some reason — I’m angry with her, but also relieved and disappointed in her all at once.

“Hayley, more napkins?” Dad asks, and I snap back to the moment. “Here,” I say, handing him some. We get the
table cleaned up, and Dad offers to buy Chloe a new sandwich (hers drowned in the apple-juice flood) but she says she was finished, anyway.

“So, should we head to the movie?” Chloe asks.

For a moment, I’m afraid that maybe Mom will turn up in the same movie. But when I look over at her table, I realize that she and Officer Ramon have disappeared.

I wonder what she told him.

I
don’t want Mom to meet Annie. The truth is, I don’t even want Mom to
see
Annie. Like, ever.

That’s because I don’t want Mom to realize that she’s seen Annie before.

She came to our house once, back when we used to live in a house, before we moved in with Gran.

About a year before Dad moved out, he dumped his low-paying job at the DA’s office to work for a glamorous law firm. Annie is a paralegal at the firm. She was a paralegal back then, too.

I remember coming home to find Dad and a beautiful young woman sitting at the dining table. Both were drinking from mugs and laughing over something one of them had said. I walked in, and the moment I saw Annie, my
stomach dropped. I didn’t know why. I’d never had that reaction to a stranger before.

Dad introduced me to Annie. She tried to be friendly, but I made an excuse and left. I guess they were working on a case. I never asked.

Over a year later, Dad introduced me to his new girlfriend, Annie.

I never mentioned that we had already met.

Maybe Dad has forgotten that Annie came over. Maybe Annie forgot, too. But I think that they’re just hoping that
I’ve
forgotten. After all, it was just for a couple of minutes more than a year ago.

I don’t even know if Mom would remember Annie. I guess I just never wanted to take that chance. I don’t know what she would think of it.

I don’t know what
I
think of it.

But I do know one thing: Mom saw me at a table with Dad, Chloe, and Annie, and Mom didn’t say hello. She left.

I’m not sure what to make of that, either.

“C
hlo,” I whisper into the darkness. “I’m sorry I snapped at you today.”

“When?”

“In the dressing room.” Sheesh, has she already forgotten? That’s so Chloe.

“It’s okay,” my little sister says. The room is quiet for a few moments. Chloe and I share a bedroom. We usually lie in our beds and chat for a while before we fall asleep. Suddenly, Chloe asks, “How come you don’t like Annie?”

The question lingers between us for a few moments while I try to come up with an answer. Right now, I can’t see her face. I wonder what she thinks I’ll say. Obviously, I’m not about to tell her that I think Annie may be part of the reason
our parents broke up. Or that I think she’s Dad’s prettier replacement for Mom.

“Why don’t you like her?” Chloe repeats.

“I’m asleep,” I say at last.

“Come on, Hayley. She’s really nice.”

“Do I have to like her just because she’s nice?”

“Rupert says that you don’t like her because you don’t want to share our time with Dad.”

“Is Rupert my therapist now?” Seriously, I’m starting to think that Chloe’s best friend is a little too smart for his own good. Did someone ask his opinion? He’s in third grade! What does he know?

“But don’t you think that Dad is more fun with Annie around?”

“Not really.”

“So Rupert has a point?”

“I don’t know.”

Chloe sighs, and I stare at the shadowy curtains that turn the red neon from the tattoo place across the street into a rosy pink.

“I like Annie,” Chloe whispers.

I breathe in. I breathe out.

The truth is, I like Annie, too. I mean, she isn’t someone
I would ever choose as my new best friend. But she is nice. And she means well. And she smells good.

But I still don’t want her around all the time.

Now I’m mad at Rupert.

Why does he have to be right?

T
he last bell of the day has rung and I’m on my way to watch Devon. I mean watch
rehearsal
. Of the school musical. Which Devon happens to be in.

Totally different.

Anyway, as I walk down the hall, I notice that people are smiling and chatting — there’s a weird energy in the hallway. I can practically feel the place buzzing, like a giant beehive.

“Silver paper,” I overhear Ayesha Miller say.

Alexis Toomey nods and grins. “But who —?”

A certain pink-haired friend of mine is standing beside the double doors to the auditorium. She’s grinning and rubbing her hands together, like an evil genius whose plan is starting to fall into place.

“Stop grinning,” I tell her.

“I can’t!”

“What did you do?”

She grabs my arm and whispers, “I covered Ben’s locker in silver foil!” She giggles and adds, “And stuck red hearts all over it.”

“Subtle,” I say.

“He nearly fainted when he saw it,” Meghan says.

“I’ll bet. Does he know it was you?”

“Of course not! Don’t be crazy. I just happened to be tying my shoe nearby, so I got to see his reaction.”

I look down at her ankle boots. “Those have zippers,” I point out.

“Like he was paying attention to my shoes!” Meghan lifts one eyebrow, giving me a
You are so loony
look. “He was too busy trying to pull the hearts off.”

“He didn’t want people to see it?” That doesn’t sound good.

“Of course not — guys get embarrassed about that stuff.”

“So — don’t you worry that you’re going overboard?”

“Overboard is where it’s at! Which is where you come in.”

“Oh, boy.”
This is just like the pumpkin,
I think.
She’s trying to talk me into another one of her insane schemes
.

“Don’t make that face! Just listen — I want you to make me a special cupcake for Ben. Something that says, ‘I’m crazy about you.’”

“How about something that just says, ‘I’m crazy’?” I suggest.

Meghan laughs, then gets serious. “I know you think I’m nuts.” She puts her palm to her forehead. “Maybe this is all a mistake. Am I nuts?”

I bite my lip. “Not in a bad way. I just … I don’t know how Ben will take all of this. He seems kind of shy.”

“He is…. But everyone likes to know that someone thinks they’re cool, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Wouldn’t you love it if someone decorated your locker and sent you secret notes?”

I think this over. “I probably would. But I’m not Ben.”

Meghan looks hurt. “You’re not going to help me?”

“Meg — what if this doesn’t turn out the way you want it to? I mean, he’s bound to find out who the secret admirer is eventually. What if he doesn’t feel the same way about you?”

Meghan takes a deep breath. She peers down the hall, which has started to clear. “I guess I’ll be publicly humiliated.” Her finger twirls a strand of her orange hair. “But I still want to do it.” She looks at me with those blue eyes.

“Are you sure?”

She smiles and gives a one-shoulder shrug. “Well, I’ve come this far.”

I reach out and take her hand. “Okay,” I say at last. “Okay, Meg, I’ll make the cupcake.”

Meghan squeezes my hand, and she’s so happy that I know for sure that I’ve made the right decision. This isn’t like the pumpkin at all.

It may be a bad idea … but what good is a friend if she won’t get behind your bad ideas?