It's Not Easy Being Bad (20 page)

“Half the profits.”

“Because you said you could make fifty dollars a gross, didn't you?”

“That was with cost rounded up, and selling for fifty cents apiece. I plan to charge a dollar. At a dollar a cookie, I figure, we'd make $122.40 a gross. In profits. Half for each of us.”

“For California,” Margalo said. This was math she could do in her head, dividing the price of the plane
ticket—$407, she remembered that—by $60 a sale—maybe less but maybe more. “That's, like, only seven sales. That's, like, the dance and there are more than six home games in the spring sports season and I can buy my own plane ticket.”

“That's what I figure,” Mikey said. She didn't need Margalo saying “thank you.”

“I signed up for the baby-sitting course, but it doesn't start until January,” Margalo told Mikey. She didn't have to say it out loud: “You were right, there are things I can do.” Mikey could figure that out without being told.

They bounced along, until Mikey said, “I thought Hadrian might do some advertising posters,” and Margalo said, “What if, instead of trying to make pizzas you did something like—sausages in biscuits? Like Burger King breakfasts, with an electric frying pan?”

“What are you now, the head chef, too?” Mikey demanded. “I'll do the food, and you can take care of the rest.”

“I thought you said partners,” Margalo said. “It was only a suggestion. You don't
have
to do anything just because I suggest it. But if I'm a partner, I might have an idea that you might listen to. Because, otherwise, how can I be good enough to be a partner?”

“Meatballs!” Mikey cried. “Toothpicks!”

It didn't make any sense to Margalo, unless they were new cuss words Mikey was trying out.
Meatballs
was a noncontender, she thought, but
toothpicks
was possible. “I am good enough to be a partner,” she pointed out.

“That's why I asked you,” Mikey said.

“You didn't ask.”

“You know what I mean.”

“You actually
need
me, so you better be nice to me.”

“I'm making you half of my business, aren't I?”

“That's so I can go to California with you.”

“I'm being your friend, aren't I?
Zut!
Margalo.
Alors!
What more do you want?”

Margalo had her answer ready. “I want you to help me with math. So we can both be on high honor roll. And I'll help you with spelling and English.” Then she quickly changed the subject. “Are we going to name the business?”

“Why would we—?” Mikey stopped. Thought. “Do you think we should?”

“I think it would be good publicity. What name do you think? The Booth?” she suggested. “The Cookie Place? M&M's?”

“Mikey's,” Mikey suggested right back.

“Margalo's,” Margalo suggested back again.

“Mikey's and Margalo's,” Mikey said, and Margalo gave that the raspberry. “At least it doesn't sound like some candy,” Mikey pointed out.

“It needs to be something less like what a couple of kids might think of,” Margalo said. “Something like—like a café?”

“Mikey's Café?” That sounded dumb, so she tried the other option. “Margalo's Café?” That sounded just as dumb.

“What about Café Mikey? That's sort of French, and French is good for food. Café Margalo? Or, Chez, Chez something.”

And they got to it together, at exactly the same time. They said it together, right into one another's face, it was so perfect. They shrieked it out, laughing, as if they were ordinary, normal seventh-grade girls. “Chez ME!”

 

Also By Cynthia Voigt

THE BAD GIRLS SERIES

Bad Girls

Bad, Badder, Baddest

Bad Girls in Love

THE TILLERMAN SERIES

Homecoming

Dicey's Song

A Solitary Blue

The Runner

Come a Stranger

Sons from Afar

Seventeen Against the Dealer

THE KINGDOM SERIES

Jackaroo

On Fortune's Wheel

The Wings of a Falcon

Elske

OTHER BOOKS

Building Blocks

The Callendar Papers

David and Jonatban

Izzy, Willy-Nilly

Orfe

A Solitary Blue

Tell Me if the Lovers Are Losers

Tree by Leaf

The Vandemark Mummy

When She Hollers

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

First Aladdin Paperbacks edition August 2002

Copyright © 2000 by Cynthia Voigt

ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster

Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Also available in an Atheneum Books for Young Readers hardcover edition.

Book design by David Caplan

The text of this book was set in Janson Text.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Voigt, Cynthia.

It's not easy being bad / by Cynthia Voigt—1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: Two unpopular girls try to break into the seventh grade clique system, even though they're not really sure they want to be popular at all.

ISBN 0-689-82473-4 (hc.)

[1. Popularity—Fiction. 2. Schools—fiction. 3. Individuality—Fiction. 4. Friendship—

Fiction.] I. Title

PZ7.V874 It 2000

[Fic]—dc21 99-087807

ISBN 978-0689-85115-5 (Aladdin pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-4424-8920-2 (eBook)