Katie Starting from Scratch (8 page)

I was starting to feel nervous. “Alexis, it's going to be crazy that night. Are you sure you can't be there?”

She nodded. “You know, that business club thing.”

“That's weird,” Emma said. She had a twinkle in her eyes, like she knew something was up. “Ron DeMillo is in band with me, and he's in business club too, and he said he's going to be in the talent show. So I asked him how he was getting out of the business club thing, but he didn't know anything about it.”

“Yeah, that is weird,” Alexis said, keeping a straight face.

“Wait, Alexis, are you
lying
?” Mia asked—not in an angry way, but in a curious way. “Because you've been acting really strange about this whole talent show thing.”

Alexis turned bright red. “I'm not lying. It is a business club thing—like, a special project I'm doing. You guys will be fine without me.”

“You know,” Emma said. “I was thinking that we could ask Emily to help us sell that night.”

“That's a great idea,” Mia agreed. “We could really use the help.”

Something snapped inside me. “Seriously?” I said, my voice rising. “You know what? I don't know if I can help at the talent show either. And Emily's so great, you probably won't even realize I'm gone.”

Then I got up, left the lunchroom, and walked outside.

O
utside, kids were hanging out at the tables or playing basketball on the court. I felt silly as soon as the fresh air hit my face.

What did I do that for?
I asked myself. I wasn't even sure. I just felt so twisted up inside. I wasn't usually a jealous or mean person, but something about this whole Emily situation was bringing out the worst in me. And I usually could tell my friends anything, but I was having a really hard time talking about this with them. Maybe because deep down I knew it was wrong to feel the way I was feeling. And I was ashamed to admit it.

My friends came running after me.

“Katie, are you okay?” Mia asked.

My eyes felt hot, like I was going to cry, but I
tried to hold it in. “It's nothing. No big deal. I'm sorry.”

“No,
I'm
sorry,” Alexis said. “I don't want you guys to think I'm deserting the Cupcake Club that night. That's not it. It's just . . .” She took a deep breath. “I'm going to be in the talent show!”

“What?” Mia shrieked.

“I knew it!” Emma cried.

I was too stunned to say anything. Alexis in the talent show? This was big news.

“Details!” Mia demanded.

We all sat down at one of the tables. Alexis took another deep breath.

“Well,” she said. “Mr. Donnelly from the business club was giving this talk about confidence and how it's an important tool for any business owner. And that's been kind of an issue for me lately.”

I nodded. Alexis had gotten really tall recently—it was like it happened overnight. I knew she felt self-conscious about it. She always looked a little uncomfortable when somebody commented on her height. I thought she was gorgeous. I would love to be that tall! Then I could always reach the chocolate chips at the grocery store. They always keep them up high for some reason. And I'd never have to worry about who was standing in front
of me during a parade. And I'd be better at some sports—like basketball! I could go on and on with reasons it would be great to be tall, but for some reason, Alexis wasn't feeling that way right then.

“So, anyway, Mr. Donnelly challenged us to do something to build our confidence—to try something we've never tried before,” Alexis said. “And so I thought, well, I could audition for the talent show. I didn't even think I'd get in.”

“That's so amazing!” Emma said. She looked at Alexis, her eyes shining. “I'm so proud of you!”

Alexis blushed. “I'm really nervous about it. That's why I didn't tell you guys. I'm sorry. I just—it's hard for me to talk about.”

“So what are you doing?” I asked. “Dancing? Baton twirling? Oh, I know! You can do that thing where people give you math problems and you solve them superfast—like a human computer.”

“I kind of want to keep it a secret if that's okay,” Alexis said. “I just—I'm afraid of what you guys will say, and I don't want anything to stop me, you know? I just have to jump in and do it, like jumping into a pool without putting your toes in first.”

“Aw, can't you just tell us?” I asked. I hated secrets.

Alexis shook her head. “I promised myself I'd stick to the plan.”

I had to laugh. Good old Alexis and her plans.

“Well, can't you at least tell us what you're wearing?” Mia asked.

“I'm not sure yet,” Alexis replied. “Dylan said she's going to help me.”

Dylan is Alexis's older sister. She's in high school and really popular.

“You'll look gorgeous, no matter what, and I know whatever you do you'll be fantastic,” Emma said.

“I hope so,” Alexis said. “I mean, you should have seen some of the people who tried out. They're amazing!”

“Did you see Olivia try out?” Mia asked.

Alexis nodded. “Yeah, she was actually pretty good,” she replied. “She's got a nice voice.”

“Wait!” I cried, feeling like a detective. “That means the people who saw you audition know what you did. So now you have to tell us.”

Alexis grinned. “I made sure I was the last one to try out on my day, so nobody saw me. You'll just have to wait and see like everybody else.”

“No fair!” I wailed, but I was mostly fooling around. I was pretty excited for Alexis. I would
never have had the guts to get up on that stage.

Then she turned to me. “I'd help out if I could, honest. It's just that I need to concentrate on what I'm doing that night.”

“Of course,” I said. “I wasn't really upset with you, anyway. It's just . . .” I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. “Listen, I'm just in a bad mood lately, that's all. I'm sorry. I don't know why I ran out like that.”

“Just don't turn into a drama queen on us,” Mia said.

I made a face. “Ugh! Don't even say that. I promise I will
not
become a drama queen.”

“You could make a lot of money being a drama queen if you had your own reality show,” Alexis pointed out.

Emma giggled. “Imagine if they did a reality TV show about us?
The Cupcake Girls of Maple Grove
.”

“No way!” I laughed. “Can you imagine? We'd have to start fighting and throwing cupcakes and frosting at one another and stuff.”

Mia shook her head. “That would be so awful!”

Then the bell rang, which meant we had to get to class. Nobody mentioned my freak-out again, which made me happy. I don't know if they were just being nice or if everybody forgot after Alexis's big announcement.

I will not lose it like that again!
I promised myself. But guess what? I broke that promise just a few hours later. Which proves that I was just a total mess! But there was so much going on. It was a lot for anyone to handle, and I hate change and surprises!

I
was supposed to take Emily back to my house with me after school again. She was waiting out by the bus. Then, as Mia and I were walking to meet her, George ran up to us.

“Wanna come play basketball at the park?” he asked. He nodded to Mia. “Chris is coming.”

Chris Howard is who Mia likes and who likes her back. They both bonded when they got braces at the same time, even though Mia's are the clear kind and Chris has a mouthful of metal. But Mia told me she thinks he's just as cute, even with the braces.

Mia turned to me. “We should go,” she said. “I just have to text my mom.”

I was about to say yes too when I remembered
something. “I have to bring her to my house,” I said, nodding over to Emily. “I'm sort of babysitting her.”

“Why don't you bring her?” George asked.

Because I don't want Emily in every single part of my life,
I wanted to say.
Especially not the part where I hang out in the park with boys.
But of course I didn't say that.

“I don't know,” I said. “I'm not sure if I'm allowed.”

George turned and yelled to Emily, “Hey, text your dad and see if you can come to the park with us!” Emily looked surprised at first, but then she quickly got out her phone.

George grinned at me. “See how easy that was? Now are you coming or not?”

“Let me see,” I said. I quickly texted my mom.

It's okay with me if Jeff says that Emily can go, she texted back.

Then Emily ran up to us. “My dad says it's okay if Katie's mom says it's okay.”

“That's what she said!” I told her. “I mean, just reversed. So I guess we can go.”

I texted Mom again, and she said she would pick us up at the park on her way home from work.

“We're good,” I told George.

“Cool,” he said. “Chris is going to grab a basketball from his house and then meet us there.”

The park where everyone likes to play basketball is just a few blocks away from the school, so we walked. Besides me, George, Mia, and Emily, a bunch of kids started walking with us. That usually happened when people decided to go to the park. My friends Lucy and Sophie came with us, and Ken and Aziz, and Eddie Rossi, who's the tallest kid in our grade. He's good at basketball, which I guess is lucky, because everyone somehow expects you to be good at basketball when you're tall.

When we got to the park, Chris was already there, bouncing the ball on the court and shooting hoops. When he saw Mia, he smiled really big. I swore the sun glinted off his braces, almost blinding us. I wasn't being mean; those things were just really shiny.

“Okay, let's pick teams,” George said, and then my stomach sank. I had been so psyched about going to the park with George and everybody that I forgot actually playing basketball was involved.

Here's the thing: I am just not great at most sports. It's not like I haven't tried. I even went out for the softball team once and made it. I guess I'm not very competitive, and I get really nervous and
stuff. So then I started running, which I am good at. I'm pretty fast. And I was happy with that.

But when we played games in gym, it was a problem. I always got picked last for a team. In volleyball, I covered my face with my hands when the ball came toward me. And when we played basketball, I didn't think I'd ever made a basket during a game once. Maybe that was because no one ever passed me the ball. But still . . . it was embarrassing.

While I was worrying about all this, George and Chris picked the teams.

“Okay, so, Katie, you're with me, Emily, Eddie, and Sophie,” George said.

I snapped out of my mental vacation. “Aw, Mia's not on our team?”

“Chris picked her first,” George said with a wink. He knew Chris and Mia liked each other. I guess everybody in our middle school did.

Then it hit me—did everybody in school know about me and George, too? They had to. But before I could feel weird about that, we started playing.

Here was what I did in the basketball game: I ran around with my hands in front of me in case somebody threw me the ball. It wasn't very effective.

“Katie, cover Mia!” George yelled. Good. I
needed direction. I ran over to Mia and started hovering in front of her with my hands up in the air.

“I feel like a nervous gorilla!” I cried.

But I guess my nervous gorilla thing worked, because when Chris tried to pass the ball to Mia, she couldn't reach past me to get it. George recovered the ball, and then, to my surprise, he passed it to me. I caught it and hugged it to my body.

“Shoot it, Katie!” he yelled.

I was right by the basket, so I guessed he'd figured I had a good shot. I aimed and threw the ball—and it bounced off the rim and back onto the court.