True Colors (6 page)

Lily would be the CFO; Charlotte, the COO; Caleb, the chief of security; and Sophie, a manicurist.

Aly was delighted with her new Sparkle Spa team. She knew Brooke would be too. At least she hoped so.

A
ly didn't have to wait long to find out how Brooke felt.

She arrived home to two surprises: a happy Dad, who had managed to return one day earlier and . . . a furious Brooke, who had just gotten off the phone with Sophie.

“Sophie is a Sparkle Spa manicurist? And she polished nails today instead of me? And you let Charlotte pick the Color of the Week? Who made you the boss of the world?” Brooke shouted. She
stomped up the stairs and slammed the bedroom door.

Sparkly started yapping and whimpering.

Mom and Dad exchanged looks.

Aly felt her face turning the color of Ruby Red Slippers nail polish. It wasn't exactly the response she was expecting.

“Aly, sit down,” Mom said firmly. “And, Mark, why don't you go check on Brooke?”

Sparkly followed Dad upstairs while Aly and her mother sat across from each other at the kitchen table.

“Is what Brooke said true?” Mom asked.

“I had no choice, Mom,” Aly said. “Remember how you said that the CEO has to jump in and make decisions and take care of emergencies? Without Brooke and you around, I had to make sure the Sparkle Spa customers were taken care of.”

Mom didn't answer, so Aly continued. “Isn't that what the leader of a business does, Mom?”

Her mother smiled. It was a small one, but it was a smile.

“You're right, Aly. That is what the person in charge has to do. But I think you may have forgotten that your sister is your partner. She works with you, not for you. She shouldn't have heard the news from Sophie. In fact, she should have been part of the decision.”

Aly felt her stomach drop a little. She couldn't argue. Mom was right, and Aly had overlooked that point, but still, she thought her decisions were pretty good ones. “Everything happened so quickly,” she started to explain. “And I didn't want Brooke to worry about not being around to help during such a busy week. I just wanted to do what was best—for our customers and for Sophie and Brooke and everyone.
Charlotte and Lily and Caleb helped out too. If they hadn't, it would've been a disaster at the Sparkle Spa, and we've worked so hard to build it. I didn't want it to fall apart just because of Brooke's arm.”

Mom looked at Aly for a long moment. Then she got up and gave Aly a hug from behind, resting her chin on Aly's head. For a second Aly kind of wanted to cry. “Why don't you wait until Dad comes downstairs, and then you can apologize to your sister,” Mom finally said.

“I will,” Aly told her. She knew she had to. She knew it was the right thing to do—plus, she hated it when Brooke was mad at her. But she knew that in addition to apologizing, she was going to have to tell her sister about giving the other kids jobs at the Sparkle Spa too. If Brooke was already upset about them working there for a day, she was
not
going to be happy about the longer-term arrangement. “First, I'm
going to make a peace offering, though.” Aly thought making Brooke's favorite snack might help out a little. It was worth a try.

As Aly made a heart-shaped cream cheese and jelly sandwich for Brooke, she and her mom talked about the new Presto Change-o colors that had arrived while Mom was home with Brooke—how some shades looked muddy, but how the metallics, like Silversmith, seemed popular.

When Dad came back into the kitchen, Aly quickly took the sandwich and a glass of chocolate milk upstairs. “Brooke?” she called, knocking on their bedroom door. “Brookester?”

“I'm not talking to you,” Brooke answered.

“You just did,” Aly said. “And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. And I'm leaving you a present.”

Then Aly went to the office—she figured it would take Brooke a little while to come around, and she
still had some reading to do for her Lewis and Clark project. Once she was finished sticking flags on the book Ms. Abbott had given her about Sacagawea, noting that Lewis and Clark would probably have gotten lost and not been very good explorers without Sacagawea's help, Aly sat down at the computer. After clicking around for a bit, she found the new business card Mom had made for Joan. She copied it and pasted it into a new document over and over, then started typing new wording into each little rectangle. In just a few minutes she'd made Sparkle Spa business cards for everyone on the team—Sophie, Lily, Charlotte, Caleb, and herself—so she could give them out tomorrow at school. She pressed print and watched the pages pile up.

She'd have to cut the thick paper to the right size, but the cards looked pretty good. She especially liked the purple star she'd added in place of the polish
bottle Mom had on Joan's card. It had little lines around it to make it look like it really was sparkling. Once Brooke was talking to her again for real, she'd make one for Brooke, too.

Aly picked up the sheets of paper.

“What are those?” Brooke said, standing at the door.

Aly jumped and the pages went flying. “You scared me!” she said. Aly bent down to pick up the papers. “They're Sparkle Spa business cards.”

Brooke adjusted the strap of the sling on her shoulder. “For us?” she asked, her eyes growing big. “Is that another way besides the sandwich that you're apologizing to me? Because that's so cool!”

“Well, they're Sparkle Spa business cards, but they're not just for us.” Aly swallowed hard. She knew she had to say it, but the words stuck in her throat. “They are for our friends,” she finally continued.
“Sophie wasn't the only one who helped out. Charlotte, Lily, and Caleb worked there today too, so I gave them all jobs at Sparkle Spa.”

Brooke blinked once. Then twice. Aly was afraid Brooke would cry. But she didn't. She yelled. “You did
what
?”

“They're our friends. And I needed help. Fourteen dancers were booked, and there was no way I could give them manicures all by myself.” Aly was trying to defend herself, but it sounded like a bad excuse, even to her.

Tears ran down Brooke's face. “Sparkle Spa is
our
thing, Aly.
Ours.
And you're acting like it's only
yours,
” she sniffed.

“You left me, Brooke!” Aly said. “You left me all alone, and I had to do everything myself. We're lucky our friends offered to help; otherwise, I would've had to cancel everything. All the girls who were counting
on us for manicures for their showcase would've been so upset. That would have been terrible for Sparkle Spa business.”

Brooke crossed her unbroken arm over her broken one. “You could've talked to me about it. It's like you didn't even care I wasn't there. Did you at least give me a good job on my business card?” Brooke asked, her voice quivering.

“I didn't give you one yet,” Aly muttered. “But you can choose your own. Right now Lily's in charge of money, and Charlotte's in charge of the schedules and how things work, and Sophie only wanted to be a manicurist, not in charge of any—”

“What about you?” Brooke asked.

“Um, I'm . . . I'm CEO,” Aly whispered.

“What does that mean?” Brooke demanded.

“Well, it kind of means I'm in charge of everything,” she admitted. But then she quickly added,
“But we can share the title. Or—or you can have it if you want it, and I can be something else.”

Brooke started crying now for real. “You didn't even think about me! I broke my arm, and you forgot all about me and took away the Sparkle Spa. I don't even want to be your sister anymore.” She ran out of the office, down the hall.

And before Brooke slammed the bedroom door for the second time that night, she yelled out, “And don't worry about giving me a job, Aly. I quit.”

F
riday was usually one of Aly Tanner's favorite days of the week: No school for two whole days, Sparkle Spa for one full day each weekend (not just a weekday afternoon), and she and Brooke always polished each other's fingernails first thing on Saturday morning so they would look fancy all weekend long.

But this Friday, Aly floated through the day, barely talking to anyone or noticing anything. She gave Charlotte, Lily, Caleb, and Sophie their new business cards, and she wished the dancers luck for their
showcase that night, and she stopped by True Colors right after school to see if Joan needed any help, but the whole time, she was thinking about Brooke and how she'd quit their whole Sparkle Spa business. No matter how many lists Aly tried to make, she couldn't figure out a way to fix things.

When Aly got home, Brooke was sitting in the overstuffed chair in the kitchen reading
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.
She didn't even look up when Aly walked in.

Mom and Dad were busy preparing dinner and didn't seem to notice that the sisters weren't on speaking terms. Aly knew she could ask her parents for advice, but she wanted to try to fix the problem herself.

After a quiet dinner, Aly went to the office, took out a sparkly pen and a piece of purple paper, and started to write.

Dear Brooke,

Please come back to the Sparkle Spa. It won't be the same without you.

You are my sister, and we started the spa together. I should have thought of that before anything else.

No one can ever take your place.

I'm so, so sorry.

Love, your sorry sister,

Aly

Aly slipped the note under their bedroom door, along with a Sparkle Spa business card that she'd made for Brooke that named her co-CEO. Aly realized that she should have given Brooke that title from the start. The sisters were a team, and she'd never forget that again. If only Brooke would agree to come back to the Sparkle Spa. . . .

Early Saturday morning Aly was awakened by Sparkly's lick, followed by a hug—a hug from Brooke.

“I forgive you, Aly,” Brooke whispered in her sister's ear. “Let's get ready for work.”

Brooke needed help getting her cast through the armhole of her T-shirt. And with the straps on her sandals. And with brushing her hair, too. Aly even put toothpaste on Brooke's toothbrush for her—but she drew the line when Brooke asked if Aly would brush her teeth for her. So Brooke did that herself.

“Broken arms are the pits,” Brooke said, after she spit out her toothpaste.

Aly nodded. “But you'll be better soon.”

“Six weeks!” Brooke answered as she handed her hair elastic to Aly. “That's forever.”

“Not even close to forever,” Aly said.