Mia's Baker's Dozen (3 page)

I know what you're probably thinking right now. Why didn't I just tell my parents the truth? That I shouldn't be in Advanced Spanish.

Well, I just felt like I couldn't. What would they think? The truth was that their only child,
Mia Vélaz-Cruz, the daughter of proud Spanish-speaking parents, couldn't read or write the language. I didn't think they could handle the truth. It would have to be my secret. Hopefully they would never find out.

Sweet and Spicy

A
t least I didn't have to face Mom right after school because we had an official Cupcake Club meeting. Emma lives close to the school, on the same street as Alexis, so the four of us walked to her house. It was cold out, and there was still some snow on the lawns from a storm the week before. My red winter jacket kept me nice and warm, though, and for once I didn't mind its general puffiness.

When we got inside, Mrs. Taylor was sitting at the dining room table with Emma's little brother, Jake. He was taking the books out of his backpack.

“Hi, Mom!” Emma called out. “Did you get off early?”

“I'm
working story time tomorrow morning, so I had the afternoon off,” her mom replied. She's a librarian, and she's got blond hair just like Emma and all her brothers.

Jake ran up to us. “Are you making cupcakes today?” he asked. “I want a blue one with a dinosaur on it!”

“Sorry, Jake, today we're just talking about cupcakes,” Emma told him. “But maybe you can help me make some later, okay?”

Jake got a big smile on his face. “Okay!” Then he ran back to the table.

“There's a pot of hot chocolate on the stove, and some oatmeal bars to go with it,” Mrs. Taylor said.

“Thank you!” all four of us said at once. Then we headed to the kitchen for our meeting.

You can tell from Emma's kitchen that everyone in her family loves sports. There are sports schedules tacked to the refrigerator, and her brothers' hockey sticks were leaning up next to the back door. The one thing of Emma's that stands out is her pink mixer. Besides being gorgeous, it's great for baking cupcakes.

“Emma, we should use your pink mixer to make our Valentine's cupcakes,” Katie suggested
as we grabbed our cocoa and snacks. “Maybe they'll add some extra Valentine's magic or something.”

Alexis opened up her backpack and took out her notebook.

“So, the bookstore wants four dozen cupcakes for their event,” she said, getting right down to business as usual. “And they want them to be Valentine themed. Any ideas?”

“I was thinking we could do a white cupcake,” Emma said. “You know, the kind you make with no egg yolks? They're fluffy and light as air. I think they're called angel's food.”

Katie nodded. “My mom showed me how to make those.” (Katie's mom is, like, the best cupcake baker in the world.)

“And then we could make some light pink strawberry frosting to go with them,” Emma finished.

We all made an
ooh
sound.

“That sounds so pretty!” I said. “I had a different kind of idea. I was thinking about something red—maybe a red velvet cupcake, but with red cinnamon frosting and Red Hots candies on the top.”

“Spicy romance!” Katie said, and we all laughed.

And that was exactly when Emma's brother Sam walked in. How embarrassing!

“Spicy romance?” he repeated. “What are you girls talking about? I thought this was a cupcake meeting.”

Sam is a junior in high school, and his blond hair is wavy and sometimes falls over his eyes. And he's just as nice as he is cute.

“This
is
a cupcake meeting,” Emma said with a huff. “We're trying to invent some Valentine's cupcakes.”

Emma's brother Matt walked in just behind Sam. He opened the refrigerator, took out a carton of milk, and drank right from it.

“Valentine's cupcakes?” he asked. “What, for your boyfriends?”

“We're too young to have boyfriends!” Katie blurted out. “At least, that's what my mom says.”

Matt shrugged. “Well, then you can make some for me to give to my girlfriend.”

Next to me, Alexis suddenly got a weird look on her face.

“You don't
have
a girlfriend,” Emma said. “And stop drinking from the milk carton or I'll tell Mom!”

Matt reached over her shoulder and grabbed
two oatmeal bars from the plate on the table. “Well, maybe I'll get one,” he said.

Emma shook her head. “Exactly. You don't have one.”

Most of the time, Emma is pretty quiet and shy. But when she's with her brothers, she can totally stand up to them. I think that's cool.

Alexis's face was all pink underneath her freckles. I know she used to like Matt (and maybe she still did, a little), so it must be weird to hear him talking about girlfriends.

Sam took the milk from Matt and poured himself a glass.

“There's too much spicy romance in this room,” he said. “I'm getting out of here.”

Now it was Katie's turn to blush, only she turned as red as the cupcake I was imagining.

“Can we please get back to our meeting?” Alexis asked impatiently.

“We have two cupcake ideas,” I reminded her. “Fluffy and pink, and red and hot.”

“We should do both,” Katie suggested. “One pink, one red. Sweet and spicy.”

“Good idea,” Alexis said. “Then people will have a choice.”

I started sketching a big heart entirely made of
cupcakes. All the pink ones were in the middle, and the border was made with the spicy red cupcakes. “Here's a fun way to display them,” I said. I held up my sketch.

“I love it, Mia!” Emma squealed. Nothing like a big pink heart to make a girlie girl happy.

“That's awesome,” Alexis said. “Now we have two cupcake ideas and even a cool way to display them. This was a very productive meeting.” She nodded approvingly.

“That was easy!” Katie said, leaning back.

Alexis stood up. “I'd love to stay longer, but I think I should go home,” she said.

“Already?” Katie asked.

She nodded. “Tons of homework.”

“I think teachers get bored in the winter and give us extra homework so they have something to do at night,” Katie mused. “It seems like it's double lately.”

Suddenly I remembered the extra homework Señora Delgado had given me.

“I should go soon too,” I said. “Let me text Eddie.”

“My mom can give you a ride,” Katie said.

“That's okay,” I told her. “He's expecting me to text him to pick me up.”

My stepdad, Eddie, is a pretty nice guy. I don't have too many complaints about him, even though it's superweird that my parents are divorced and I have a stepdad in the first place. But one thing that bugs me is that he's way more strict than my dad, and Mom goes along with it.

For example, Mom works at home on her business, but she's out at meetings a lot. And she and Eddie have a rule that I can't be home alone. So if Mom's not home, then Eddie leaves his office, which is here in Maple Grove, and hangs out with me until Mom comes home.

Can you believe that? I mean, I'm in middle school! Emma's mom lets her stay home alone, and she even watches Jake. It's so not fair. When I'm in Manhattan with my dad, sometimes he'll run out to the store or something and
he
lets me stay in the apartment by myself. But not Eddie. And I know Mom's only going along with it because that's what Eddie wants.

I hung out with the Cupcake Club for about fifteen more minutes, and then Eddie called my phone. He doesn't believe in beeping the horn. He says it “disturbs the peace.”

I said good-bye to my friends and headed outside. Eddie's car was nice and warm.

“Hi, Mia,” he said cheerfully. “How did the cupcake meeting go?”

“Good,” I replied. Eddie always wants to have these long, chatty conversations, but sometimes I'm not in the mood.

“Do you have a lot of homework tonight?” he asked as we began the drive home.

“Um, some,” I said. There was absolutely no way I was going to tell him what happened in Señora Delgado's class.

“You can start that while I start dinner then,” he said. “And don't forget to text your mom as soon as we get home.”

“Why do I always have to do that?” I asked. “
You
know I'm home! Why do I have to tell both of you?”

Eddie laughed. “Because your mom likes to hear from you.”

I rolled my eyes and stared out the window. Back when Mom and Dad were still together, I had a babysitter who picked me up from school when they were both working late. Her name was Natalie, and she was really nice. She would make me mac and cheese for dinner, and I was usually in bed when Mom came home and kissed me good night. Mom never made me text her then.

But there was no use arguing with Eddie. I texted Mom as soon as I got home, and she said she'd be home by six thirty. Then I decided to text my dad to see if he wanted to Skype. Thinking about those old days in the city was making me miss him really bad.

In a meeting. We'll Skype after dinner, OK?
he texted back.

K,
I answered, feeling a little sad.

“Guess it's just me and Eddie,” I muttered.

There was nothing to do but start my homework. I did my math first and then my vocabulary, and then I started on my Spanish.

Soon a delicious smell filled the air, and I realized that Eddie was making his famous spinach lasagna for dinner.
Yum!

When I heard the door slam, I knew Dan was home. A little while later, my mom pulled into the driveway.

“I hope I'm not late!” Mom called out.

I ran down the stairs, remembering I should have set the table by now. But when I got into the dining room, Dan was already setting it.

“Hey, thanks,” I said.

Dan shrugged. “Dad said you were doing homework.”

Eddie walked into the dining room carrying a steaming pan of lasagna. He was wearing my mom's oven mitts with the big red roses on them, and he looked pretty silly.

“Let Family Time begin!” he announced in a goofy voice.

A few minutes later I was eating delicious lasagna and salad and garlic bread, and Mom was telling me about her new client, and then Dan told this story about this guy in his chemistry class who made something explode, and we were all laughing. It was definitely better than eating mac and cheese with Natalie. In fact, it was pretty nice.

But you know what would be even better than that? Having “Family Time” with me and Mom and Dad all together. It doesn't really feel like “Family Time” to me completely without my dad here eating dinner with us. But that's never going to happen again.

And sometimes knowing that really hurts.

Thank Goodness for Cupcakes