On the Back Burner (12 page)

“One of my favorite parts of Chinese New Year is the lantern festival,” Ah-mah said through Mrs. Cheng. This happens on the last day of the celebration. People hang beautiful lanterns everywhere and they carry them on poles in an evening parade under the light of the full moon. I loved to see that as a child and I love it still. And during the lantern festival there is always a dragon dance. The dragon is a big, colorful puppet that is sometimes one hundred feet long. Young men carry it along on poles as they dance through the streets. The dragon dancers light fireworks, too, to scare away evil spirits from the shop owners, who reward them with
ly-cee—just
like the lion dancers.”

Peichi switched off the camera. “Thanks. That was great!”

“You’re welcome,” her mother said. “Now, are you ready to eat some real Chinese food? Ah-mah’s cooking tonight.”

“Definitely. Could I film you cooking it?” Peichi asked her grandmother.

Ah-mah shrugged. “Why not?” she asked with a smile. “I always wanted to be a movie star!”

When the girls returned to school on Monday, Amanda was hoping to talk with Shawn at lunch. Amanda had been a little surprised that Shawn hadn’t called her on Sunday to apologize, but Amanda figured that Shawn just didn’t know what to say. But, to Amanda’s surprise, Shawn didn’t sit with the Chef Girls at lunch. She didn’t say anything to Amanda, and she didn’t even look at her. By the end of the day it was clear to everybody that Shawn wasn’t speaking to Amanda. She treated Amanda like she was invisible.

This was
not
how Amanda had wanted things to go. In her mind, she thought Shawn would receive her e-mail and suddenly realize how terribly she’d been treating her other friends.

“I can’t believe she’s not speaking to me,” Amanda said sadly on Tuesday afternoon as Molly checked their e-mail.

“Well, she’s speaking now,” Molly said. “Writing, anyway.”

She hurried to the chair and wriggled in beside her sister. “What does she say?”

“Read it yourself,” Molly replied.

To:
mooretimes2

From: qtpie490

Re:
your last message

Amanda was stunned. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest, and a flush crept over her face. She was surprised when she realized what she was feeling-shame.
That’s crazy,
she thought.
Why should I feel ashamed? Everything I wrote to Shawn was true. I can’t believe she is trying to twist this around and make me the bad guy!
Amanda tried to take a deep breath, but it caught in her throat. Molly sighed.

Mrs. Moore walked up behind them. “You two look pretty unhappy,” she noticed. “Bad news on the Internet?”

“Kind of, yeah,” Amanda replied slowly. She explained to Mom what had been happening with Shawn.
Mom will
know how
to fix this,
she thought with some relief. “Here’s the message I sent her,” she said, clicking on Old Mail and bringing up the message.

Mom read it. At first, she said nothing. “That’s some message,” she finally said. “I guess you were pretty mad.”

“Mad is not the word,” Molly said. “Furious is more like it.”

“There’s a rule about writing angry letters,” Mom said gently. “Wait three days before mailing them. You can write it and let off steam. But reread it again in three days to make sure you really want to send it, because once it’s gone, you can’t get it back.”

Amanda exhaled sharply. “You know, she says I said terrible things about her, but I didn’t. I said terrible things about Angie, which are all
true!”
she cried.

“You implied that she was just the same as Angie,” Mom pointed out.

“What am I supposed to do?” Amanda asked. “I can’t just stand around and not say how I feel! It really hurts my feelings that Shawn doesn’t stop Angie from being so mean to me.”

“There are constructive ways to express how you feel,” Mrs. Moore said, “and there are ways that are destructive. But if you stick to expressing only how you feel, it’s easier to make your point without making things worse.”

Molly put her arm around Amanda to comfort her. She wanted to say something helpful, but she couldn’t think of anything. Ever since middle school began, she also felt terrible about what was happening with Shawn. For some reason, though, Amanda seemed even more upset by it.

“I know you don’t want to hear this, Amanda.” Mom continued, “but I’m going to say it anyway. Sometimes people grow apart. This doesn’t just happen with kids, it happens to adults, too. It might be time to start pursuing other friendships.”

Molly and Amanda looked at each other with surprised expressions. The idea seemed so extreme. Replace Shawn with other friends? Could Mom be serious?

Amanda sighed deeply. “I hate this,” she said. “But I guess whatever is going to happen will happen. There’s no sense fighting it.”

“You sound like Sonia,” Molly said, smiling.

“Sonia was the one who said I’d feel like I was losing my best friend,” Amanda reminded her. “Boy, was she right.” Amanda looked to Mom. “Would you help me write a better message to Shawn?” she requested. “If this friendship is going to end, I don’t want to be the one who ended it.”

“Sure,” Mom agreed. “I’ll help you do it right now.”

Amanda thought a moment about what Mom had said about forming new friendships. “After we’re done with the letter, I’m going to call Tessa, that girl I met when I was in the play last fall. Maybe we can go to a movie next weekend or something.”

After about thirty minutes, Mom and Amanda had an e-mail ready to send to Shawn.

 

To
: qtpie490

From:
mooretimes2

Re:
sorry

“Should I wait three days before sending this?” Amanda asked. “I really don’t want to. I want to get things back on track with Shawn as soon as I can.”

Mom smiled at her. “Go ahead and send it, honey. I think you did a good job.”

“
No
,
we did,” said Amanda. “Thanks, Mom.”

On Saturday afternoon, Molly sat at the kitchen table and stared down at the menu they’d created for their big job for the Kramers. Everything about it was great. There was now only one problem—a really major problem.
Where are we ever gonna get the money to pay for this?
she wondered.

Back when they’d first started Dish, Peichi’s mom had talked to them about investing their earnings into the business. That meant they should take some of the money they earned and buy the things they needed to run Dish instead of spending all the money on themselves. This had turned out to be a good idea and, for the most part, they’d calculated how much money they’d need pretty well. But now they had a bigger job than they’d ever had before, and there just wasn’t enough money in their treasury to pay for it.

Mr. Moore came into the kitchen with Matthew. He opened the refrigerator and stared into it, running his fingers through his graying black hair. “You girls haven’t been cooking lately,” he noted. “I don’t see the usual selection of wonderful things to snack on in here.”

“Yeah, no brownies, no chocolate chip cookies.” Matthew added. “What’s up with that?”

“We’ll be real busy soon,” she told them. “Dad, could I talk to you about a little business loan?” She explained to him the situation with the Kramers. “I don’t think we should make everything ahead, she said. ”We don’t have enough room in the freezer to store it all. But we do want to make two meals ahead of time and freeze them. That way, as soon as we get the call that Mrs. Kramer’s sister has had the baby, we’ll only have three dinners to cook. We’ll be under a lot less pressure. And we can pay back the loan completely as soon as we deliver the food to the Kramers.”

“I’m impressed, Molly,” her dad said. “You’re thinking like a real businesswoman.”

“Thanks,” Molly said. “You know we paid Shawn’s Grandma Ruthie back the money she lent us for the refrigerator. We paid her right away out of the first money we made.”

“You have good references and a solid business plan,” he commented. His blue eyes twinkled behind his glasses. “Throw in a free batch of brownies and you’ve got yourself a loan.”

“Thanks, Dad! Oh, and could you drive me down to Choice Foods this afternoon?” He gave her a thumbs-up. Molly smiled at him. “One batch of deep-dish brownies coming up.

She made Matthew and Dad the brownies they wanted. While they were baking, she phoned Natasha. “I was thinking we should begin shopping for the Kramer job,” she explained when she got Natasha on the phone. “Do you want to go food shopping with me today? Dad will drive us to the supermarket.”

“Is everyone going?” Natasha asked.

“No, I don’t think Shawn and Amanda should be together right now. Amanda sent Shawn an e-mail apologizing for the first e-mail she wrote, but Shawn hasn’t responded and they’re still not talking. Amanda is over at Tessa’s, and if we invite Shawn and Amanda’s not doing the work, it will make Shawn even madder. And Peichi is still grounded, which leaves just you and me.”

“Okay” Natasha agreed. “I’ll shop with you.”

At Choice Foods, Mr. Moore helped by pushing the cart while Molly and Natasha ran around the large supermarket. Molly didn’t mind all the walking. It was all the thinking that started to tire her out. Comparing prices to get the best value, thinking about what they needed for each dish, reading labels, making sure to stay within their budget—it was a lot of work.

“I’m exhausted,” she said as Mr. Moore paid for all the food