Sugar and Spice (7 page)

Thanks to the custodial staff's quick cleanup—and help baking—the order was all ready by Saturday morning. Lexi, however, wasn't ready. She'd tossed and turned all night. She had a horrible dream that when she got onstage to sing at the pageant, everyone in the audience booed and hissed. “Wait! Stop! Give me a chance!” she cried in her nightmare. Her mom shook her awake.

“Honey, you're dreaming,” she said. “Wake up.”

Lexi sat up in bed. She felt cold and clammy and out of breath. “It was the worst nightmare I've ever had!” she exclaimed.

“Really? Worse than the one about all your paintbrushes getting sucked up into a flying saucer and taken to outer space?” her mom asked.

“Okay, that one was
really
bad too,” Lexi admitted. “But this was worse. I was the laughingstock of the Miss New England Shooting Starz Pageant!”

“It was just a dream,” her mom said, planting a kiss on Lexi's forehead. “And you know what dreams are, right?”

Lexi sighed. She knew her mom was about to launch into one of her long-winded medical explanations. This is what she got for having a mother who was a veterinarian!

“A dream is just images, sounds, and sensations we experience when we sleep,” her mom said. “Often, they're just our fears and anxieties fighting to be heard.”

“I know that,” Lexi said. “And I know I'm super nervous about making a fool of myself tomorrow—which is why I'm dreaming about it.”

“You mean today,” her mom said, glancing at the clock. “It's 6:00 a.m.”

“What?” Lexi yelped, jumping out of bed. “I have to curl my hair! And polish my nails! And practice my speech! Delaney will be here by seven, and I'm not even up yet!”

She ran past her mom into the bathroom and began setting her hair in hot rollers. When Delaney arrived, Lexi was swiping on mascara and lip gloss and walking around her room in her pj's and pageant heels.

“Is that your evening-gown look?” Delaney teased. “These peace sign pj's are cute, but I think I liked the rainbow unicorns more.”

“You told me to practice walking in my heels—so I'm walking in my heels,” Lexi huffed. “And I've recited my speech about a hundred times.”

“Relax,” Delaney said, flopping down on her friend's bed. “You are more than ready.”

“I don't feel more than ready,” Lexi said, staring in the mirror. “I feel like a disaster.”

“You're going to do great,” her big sister Ava said. She was standing in the doorway. “I brought you something.” She handed Lexi a small velvet box. When she opened it, there was a tiny silver horseshoe necklace inside. “For luck. It helped me win all my spelling bees, debates, class president election…”

“You win everything.” Lexi sighed.

Ava took the necklace out of the box and fastened it around Lexi's neck. “And now you will too.”

• • •

Lexi's mom, dad, and sister drove with her and Delaney to the hotel where the pageant was taking place. “We'll park and meet you inside,” her mom said, planting a kiss on Lexi's cheek. “You'll do great, honey.”

“Break a leg, squirt,” her father added.

“Actually, don't break a leg—that would be embarrassing,” her sister chimed in. “Just win a big prize, like a giant plasma TV.”

“So you can put it in your bedroom?” Lexi teased.

“Exactly!” Ava replied. “But I'll be a really nice sister and let you watch it when I'm not home.”

The girls unloaded the bags from the trunk and went to check in and get the lay of the land. A large crowd was already assembling in the grand ballroom, and girls were pouring into the hotel lobby with their moms, coaches, and enough sparkling evening gowns to stock an entire department store.

“Excuse me,” said a tiny blond carrying a large duffel bag. Lexi noticed she had a Southern twang to her voice. “Do y'all know where we drop off our things for talent?”

Lexi shook her head. “No, I'm sorry. I'm new to this whole pageant thing and totally lost.”

The girl smiled. “Well, why don't you come with me? We'll figure it out together.” She seemed so smart and confident and super friendly. Maybe not everyone was like Meredith, bent on winning no matter what.

“Have you done this before? Pageants, I mean?” Lexi asked as they followed the signs pointing to the dressing rooms.

“Oh yes! I'm Miss Preteen Atlanta Dreams,” the girl said sweetly. “It's no biggie.”

“You won?” Lexi gasped. “You won a whole pageant?”

“A bunch, actually,” the girl replied. “I love competing—it's kinda my thing. Along with silks.” She pulled two long strips of fabric out of her duffel bag.

“What do you do with those?” Lexi asked. She'd never seen anything like them.

“Well, we hang 'em from the ceiling, and I do this kind of upside-down aerial dance.”

“Wow,” Lexi exclaimed. “That is so cool. Way cooler than what I do.”

“What do you do?” the girl asked.

“I sing. Just sing.”

“Well, I think that's amazing,” the pageant pro replied. “I can't sing worth a lick. My mom says I sound like a cat getting her tail pulled.”

Lexi giggled. “I'm Lexi Poole.”

“And I'm Harleigh Park.” She smiled brightly. “Poole and Park. We could be a great song-and-dance act. If you promise to do all the singing!”

Just then, the girls noticed a commotion coming from outside the hotel entrance.

“Move it!” shouted a woman dressed in a red suit and large sunglasses. She was bossing around a bellboy as he struggled to unload stuff from her car onto a luggage rack. There were dozens of garment bags, shoe boxes, and something that vaguely resembled a giant silver crescent moon.

“Who does she think she is?” Harleigh asked. “They haven't crowned a queen yet.”

Lexi didn't even have to look to know who was trailing behind the woman in red. “She's kind of the queen bee at my school,” she explained. “Her name is Meredith Mitchell.”

“You know her?” Harleigh asked. “Are you friends?”

“Oh no!” Lexi laughed. “She hates my guts.”

Meredith was also wearing a pair of large sunglasses, but that didn't stop Lexi from sensing her cold stare. “She was mean to me, and I kinda said I was going to beat her today,” Lexi added. “Stupid, huh?”

“Nuh-uh!” Harleigh insisted. “I'm rooting for you. Besides, good always conquers evil.”

Lexi grinned. “Funny, that's what my friend Kylie always says. But she's usually talking about monster movies.”

“Well, she's right,” Harleigh said. Her very blond mom was waving at her from across the floor. “I gotta go. But I'll catch up with you later. K?”

“K,” Lexi answered. It was probably a good idea to find out where Delaney had wandered off to. Lexi found her friend chatting up the pageant host, a jovial man in a tuxedo named Mr. Jim.

“So, here's the scoop,” Delaney whispered to Lexi when they were out of the host's earshot. “You need to win as many of the categories as possible if you want to qualify for one of the supreme titles.”

“Meaning?” Lexi asked.

“Meaning you have to place top in interview, talent, and fitness,” Delaney explained.

“I might as well go home now,” Lexi fretted. There was no way she was going to win all of those categories—much less even one of them!

“You can do it. I believe in you,” Delaney said.

“We do too!” Kylie suddenly appeared behind her. The other girls had dropped off the cupcakes in the ballroom and were waiting for Sadie's dad to assemble the display he'd built.

“We brought a whole cheering section,
chica
,” Jenna said. She pointed to Kylie's mom, Jenna's mom, and Herbie, who were all purchasing wristbands to attend the pageant.

“Save me a seat,” Delaney reminded them. “We've gotta go get ready for gowns.” She pulled poor Lexi along with her. “Remember everything I told you: shoulders back, head up, walk slowly…”

It was so much to think about! Lexi's head was spinning as Delaney led her to the dressing room and helped her into her long gown. There was lots of noise, along with endless racks of clothes, and dozens of girls were getting primped and prepped for the pageant.

“What if I forget which way to go?” Lexi asked her friend. “What if I suddenly go left when I'm supposed to go right?”

Delaney zipped up the back of Lexi's dress. “You'll be fine. Smile and sparkle.”

A voice suddenly boomed over the loudspeaker. “Ladies, this is Fitzy. Please line up backstage according to your contestant number. Ten minutes till pageant time!”

Lexi felt her heart leap out of her chest. “Oh my gosh! Ten minutes!”

Harleigh found her and gave her hand a squeeze. “You look beautiful,” she said. “Purple is definitely your color.” Lexi saw that Harleigh was wearing a white gown with a sweetheart neckline and intricate rhinestone beading on the bodice.

“You look beautiful too,” Lexi said.

“And look, I'm number sixteen and you're number fifteen. So we get to stand next to each other!”

Having Harleigh at her side made Lexi feel a tiny bit better, but then she spied Meredith making her way down the hall in a billowing, red-sequin ball gown.

“She looks like that evil queen from
Alice
in
Wonderland
,” Delaney whispered. “You know—the one who shouts, ‘Off with her head!'”

Lexi reached for her neck. “Not helping, Laney,” she said, secretly wishing there was a rabbit hole she could duck down.

“You'll be fine,” Harleigh assured her. “If you need help, I'll be right there beside you.”

Then Lexi saw something that made her stomach do a sickening flip-flop. Meredith was wearing a ribbon that read “14,” which meant Lexi would be standing right next to her as well!

“Go, go!” Delaney said, smoothing Lexi's skirt and pushing her toward the ballroom. “Five minutes.”

When they got backstage, Lexi tried not to bump into Meredith. She hoped she wouldn't notice that they were standing next to each other, but no such luck. Miss Jen pushed Meredith into the line. Meredith's face fell.

“
You
!
” she screamed. “Why are
you
next to me?”

Lexi shrugged. “Lucky, I guess.”

“Don't talk to her,” Miss Jen instructed Meredith. “Focus! Be fierce. When you get up there on the runway, look the judges dead in the eye and own this pageant.”

Thankfully, Meredith turned her back on Lexi so she could get “in the zone,” as her coach called it. Lexi breathed a sigh of relief. A cold shoulder she could handle; it was better than a fistfight.

Hershey was racing around backstage, checking names and numbers on a clipboard, and making sure everyone was in place and ready to go. She stopped to straighten Lexi's ribbon.

“Good luck!” she said, smiling.

Lexi took several deep breaths, trying to calm the feeling of terror rising in her chest. What was she thinking? How could she possibly enter a pageant, much less beat Meredith Mitchell?

But it was too late to run—Laura and Fitzy were onstage welcoming the audience, and Mr. Jim was already announcing the contestants. As each girl walked out, she took the microphone and introduced herself. Each had a catchy two-minute speech outlining who they were, where they were from, what they loved to do, and what they wanted to be. There were lots of future doctors, fashion designers, Broadway stars, Presidents of the United States—even a pig farmer. But Meredith's intro was definitely the most memorable!

“Meredith Mitchell, that's my name!” she rapped, right there in her long gown.

“I don't want money; I don't want fame!”

“She doesn't?” Kylie asked. She was seated in the audience with the rest of the PLC entourage. “Are we talking about the same Meredith Mitchell?”

“Gonna make the world better—one step at a time

And tell you 'bout myself in rhythm and rhyme.

Be kind to people, generous and true.

A message of compassion from me to you!”

The judges beamed and the audience applauded wildly.

“How am I supposed to follow that?” Lexi asked Harleigh.

“Just speak from the heart,” she replied. “Anyone can see that girl is as phony as a three-dollar bill!”

Lexi took a deep breath, touched the lucky horseshoe pendant around her neck, and stepped out onto the stage.
Here
goes
nothing!

Mr. Jim handed her the mic.

“Hello,” she said softly into it.

“Speak up!” Mr. Jim reminded her.

“Hello!” she tried again. “My name is Lexi Poole, and I'm twelve years old and a proud member of Peace, Love, and Cupcakes, the best cupcake-baking business in Connecticut.”