Hugs and Sprinkles Read online

  Also by Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk

  The Cupcake Club Series

  Peace, Love, and Cupcakes

  Recipe for Trouble

  Winner Bakes All

  Icing on the Cake

  Baby Cakes

  Royal Icing

  Sugar and Spice

  Sweet Victory

  Bakers on Board

  Vote for Cupcakes!

  Fashion Academy Series

  Fashion Academy

  Runway Ready

  Designer Drama

  Model Madness

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  Copyright © 2017 by Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk

  Cover and internal design © 2017 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Series design by Rose Audette

  Cover illustration © Kristi Valiant

  Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  1. Shall We Dance?

  2. Cupcake Calculations

  3. Guess Who

  4. I Spy

  5. Friendly Feud

  6. Robot Romance

  7. BFF Reboot

  8. Battle of the Bots

  9. Clean Up Your Act

  10. The Icing on the Dress

  11. “Eye” Like You

  12. Boys Can Bake

  Cotton Candy Cupcakes

  Strawberry Cupcakes with Goat Cheese Frosting

  Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

  Carrie’s Cupcake Crafts: Cupcake Liner Corsages

  Acknowledgments

  About the Authors

  Back Cover

  “So what do you think?” Lexi Poole asked, holding up a page in a department store catalog. On it was a photo of a girl wearing a big, pale-blue, billowy ball gown—complete with a rhinestone tiara. It was supposed to be a weekly meeting of Peace, Love, and Cupcakes, but she couldn’t help asking her friends and fellow club members for their opinion. The Blakely Elementary School spring dance was just four weeks away, and since her lifelong crush, Jeremy Saperstone, had already asked her to go with him, she had to start planning.

  “I think this is the one. The dress,” she said.

  “I think it’s a little royal for a fifth-grade dance, don’t you?” Jenna Medina replied, rolling her eyes. “And poofy. Really, really poofy. Is that a train in the back?”

  Delaney Noonan giggled. “You’ll look like a giant cupcake.”

  Lexi raised an eyebrow. “And what’s wrong with that?”

  Sadie Harris nodded her head. “Maybe it’s just a little over the top, Lex? And definitely too frilly for my taste.”

  Lexi groaned. “That’s because you’ll probably go to the dance in your basketball uniform!”

  “Nuh-uh!” Sadie insisted. “I already went with my mom to the mall, and I have a really pretty turquoise romper to wear. Lucas, the captain of the boys’ basketball team, asked me to go with him—and he’s wearing a varsity sweater to match.”

  “Mi madre is making my dress,” Jenna chimed in. “Hot-pink chiffon with pearls around the waist.”

  “Jack Yu said he asked you,” Sadie gossiped. “And that you promised him a dozen mint–chocolate chip cupcakes.”

  “He brings the corsage; I’ll bring the cupcakes,” Jenna said. “Besides, he’s really cute.”

  “It’s so not fair that Blakely has a fifth-grade dance and my school doesn’t,” Delaney complained. “Weber Day has a trip to a dude ranch instead. I don’t get to wear a pretty dress, and I’m gonna smell like horse for days!”

  “What are you wearing to the dance?” Lexi asked Kylie Carson. Their club president had been very quiet during the whole dress discussion. Lexi noticed that Kylie wasn’t smiling or teasing her like the other girls. She kept her head buried in her business binder.

  “I’m, I’m…” Kylie hesitated. “I’m not going.”

  “What?” Lexi gasped. “Why not?”

  Kylie held up a stack of papers. “We have so many orders to fill before then,” she explained. “We’re up to our eyeballs in cupcakes, and someone has to handle it all.”

  “And don’t forget this order.” Jenna read aloud from an email. “Principal Fontina wants twenty dozen cupcakes for the dance—‘baked, decorated, and delivered promptly.’ I quote!”

  “You see? Someone needs to make sure the cupcakes get to the dance. You guys go without me, and I’ll take care of it,” Kylie added.

  “What? No way!” Lexi protested. “We’ll figure out how to get the cupcakes and ourselves to the dance.”

  “We’ll all pitch in,” Delaney said. “That’s what we do. Teamwork!”

  “Right!” Lexi continued. “There’s no need for Kylie to miss the big fifth-grade dance. Unless…” She paused to consider. “Unless you don’t want to go?”

  Lexi had a sixth sense when it came to people—maybe because she had been shy for so many years and did a lot of watching and listening instead of talking. PLC had helped bring her out of her shell and given her confidence, but she was still really good at reading what someone wasn’t saying. Kylie was always enthusiastic, always the first person to rally their club and convince them that anything was possible if they worked together. It wasn’t like her to simply back out of a good time unless she had a good reason.

  “Don’t be silly,” Kylie said. “Of course I want to go. It’s just that I can’t. I’m PLC’s president, and I have to hold down the fort. So you all go and don’t worry about a thing. My dad said he’ll help me with all the deliveries.”

  She glanced at the clock on the wall of the teachers’ lounge. “Where’s Herbie?” Their club adviser wasn’t particularly punctual—he was always busy with his robotics class—but it wasn’t like him to be thirty minutes late to a meeting.

  “Oh! I forgot! I ran into Herbie in the hallway. He said he would be a little late. He had a robotics emergency,” Sadie recalled.

  “A little late?” Kylie sighed. “We only have the teachers’ lounge for fifteen more minutes!”

  “I’ll go find him,” Lexi said, flipping to a page in the magazine with a gold sequined gown on it. “You focus on dresses and the dance, and I’ll be right back.”

  Before Kylie could protest, Lexi jumped out of her seat and raced down the hall to the robotics lab. She knocked on the door, but no one answered.

  “Hello?” she s
aid, opening the door a crack. “Herbie?”

  A boy with dark curly hair and glasses was seated at a laptop. Lexi had seen him in one of her art classes, but he’d never said a word to her—just grunted.

  “Mr. Dubois had to go get something,” he said without ever looking up from the screen.

  “Well, he’s late for our cupcake club meeting, and I didn’t see him in the hall,” Lexi said. “Do you know where he might be?”

  The boy shook his head. “Nope. And I’m stuck trying to reprogram Connie with no power until he comes back.”

  “What’s Connie?” Lexi asked.

  The boy took off his glasses and rubbed his temples. “Not what. Who. Connie is a state-of-the-art robot.”

  “You name your robots?” Lexi tried not to laugh.

  “Well, of course. Doesn’t everyone?” the boy replied.

  Just then, Herbie came charging in. “I found it! I found the piece that we needed.”

  He brushed past Lexi and began tinkering with a mess of wires inside a metal box.

  “What is that?” Lexi asked, leaning over Herbie’s shoulder.

  “That is Connie’s brain,” the boy answered. “And this takes a lot of concentration, so you might want to leave…” He pointed to the door.

  He went back to what he was doing and handed Herbie a complicated sketch of the robot’s circuitry.

  “Wow! Did you draw that?” Lexi continued. “You’re a talented artist!”

  “And Lexi would know,” Herbie said. “She’s the one who makes all of PLC’s cupcakes look beautiful.”

  “Cupcakes have nothing to do with robots.” The boy waved her off again. “You should leave. Now. Before you break something.”

  Herbie mopped his brow with the back of his sleeve. “I think we’re all good for the moment—no more short circuit. So I’ll leave you in charge here, Arnold, while I go join the cupcake club for our meeting.”

  “Whatever.” Arnold sniffed.

  As they walked down the hall, Herbie apologized. “Arnold can be a little intense,” he said. “He’s all about robots, kind of like how you guys are all about cupcakes.”

  Lexi nodded. “I get it. Temperamental artist. When I’m painting or drawing, I don’t like to be interrupted either. It distracts my creativity.”

  “Exactly. But it’s no excuse for rudeness,” Herbie replied. “I’m trying to work with him on his manners. He’s better with robots than he is with people.”

  “Speaking of people…” Lexi said, stopping him before they entered the teachers’ lounge. “Kylie’s kind of acting weird.”

  “Weird? How weird?”

  “Well, not herself. I can’t really explain it. She’s just not smiley Kylie, and I don’t know why.”

  “We all have our bad days,” Herbie assured Lexi. “Like today, when our robot started smoking and short-circuited, and Principal Fontina screamed at me for setting off the second-floor fire alarms…”

  “I get it. I get it,” Lexi said. “Maybe something’s bugging Kylie.”

  “Precisely,” Herbie said. “And luckily, people don’t short-circuit like robots. Because that was one big mess to fix.”

  Lexi secretly wished she could fix Kylie as easily as Herbie and Arnold had fixed Connie. But she suspected it would be a much more delicate operation.

  When Lexi and Herbie finally got to the teachers’ lounge, Kylie had already been through most of the agenda: several birthday parties, one retirement dinner, a baby shower, and her dad’s accounting firm’s annual dinner.

  “We’re thinking something with numbers,” Sadie said, handing Lexi the order form. “’Cause ya know accountants deal with math. Yuck.”

  “It isn’t yuck,” Jenna insisted. “Pre-algebra is my best subject.”

  “Well, it’s my worst,” Sadie said. “Sometimes my dyslexia turns the numbers around.”

  “It must be very difficult,” Herbie said, patting her on the back.

  “I’m not dyslexic, and I still get my math homework wrong,” Delaney said. “Like, all the time.”

  “So we should really make this order a math lesson,” Herbie suggested. “If we need six hundred cupcakes by next Friday, and it takes an hour to bake and decorate five dozen at a time, how much time do we need to get it done?”

  Sadie scratched her head. “Well, six hundred cupcakes is fifty dozen. And fifty divided by five is ten…”

  “Ten hours,” Kylie said. “We need ten hours to get the order done.”

  “Then I’d suggest you schedule two work sessions, five hours each, toward the middle of the week,” Herbie said.

  “It says here your dad wants devil’s food and French vanilla,” Sadie added. “We’re pros at those.”

  “We could do a little calculator made of fondant on top of each cupcake,” Lexi suggested. “How cute will that be? With little white tapes coming out of them.”

  “I like it.” Kylie nodded. “I think my dad would too. All in favor, say ‘Frosting!’”

  “Frosting!” the girls shouted in unison.

  “Then this meeting of PLC is officially adjourned,” Kylie said.

  “Not so fast.” Jenna stopped her. “We didn’t talk about the fifth-grade dance order. What are we doing for that?”

  “Oh, the dance,” Kylie said. “I thought we were done talking about it.”

  “It’s four weeks away, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to plan,” Herbie reminded her.

  “You see?” Lexi whispered in his ear. “Weird!”

  “Flavors,” Jenna said, pulling out a sheet of paper. “Talk to me about flavors.” As the club’s taste tester, the ingredients and flavors were her biggest concern.

  “Maybe cotton candy cupcakes for the dance?” Delaney suggested. “With little puffs of real cotton candy on top?”

  “Oooh, love that!” Lexi said. “I’ve always wanted to work with spun sugar.”

  “And chocolate–peanut butter cup—always a crowd pleaser,” Sadie added. “With peanut-butter filling in the middle.”

  “Delicioso!” Jenna replied. “Smooth, not chunky, of course. We need one more flavor, and we’re perfecto.”

  The girls looked to Kylie, who was staring at a blank page in her binder. So Jenna elbowed her. “Qué pasa? Why the long face? This whole dance thing has really gotten your goat.”

  “I don’t have a goat,” Kylie replied. “But that’s actually not a bad idea. Maybe a strawberry cupcake with goat cheese frosting.”

  “Done and done!” Jenna said. “I’ll make up a list of ingredients, and we can shop next week.”

  As the girls packed up, Lexi continued to notice that Kylie didn’t seem like herself. Anytime anyone mentioned the dance, she got quiet and sad.

  “You hate my dress—just say it,” Lexi said to her. “That must be it. You don’t want to tell me and hurt my feelings.”

  “What? No. Your dress is beautiful. Big and fluffy like our cotton candy cupcakes, but beautiful.”

  “Then what is it?” Lexi pressed her. “You can tell me, Kylie. I’m your BFF, remember?”

  Kylie took a deep breath and blurted out, “I don’t have anyone to go with. No one asked me. No one likes me.”

  “Kylie, you know that isn’t true!” Lexi told her.

  “I don’t mean you or the girls in our club. I mean boys.”

  “Herbie’s a boy…” Lexi tried to argue.

  “I mean a fifth-grade boy, not our club adviser. You have Jeremy, and Sadie and Jenna both have dates. I can’t go to the dance alone. It would be too humiliating.”

  “Well, it’s not too late to get a date. You have almost a month.”

  Kylie frowned. “Even if I had a year, I couldn’t get a boy to like me.”

  Lexi put her arm around her friend. “Kylie, you’re an amazing person. You just need a
little confidence. Trust me, I know. Remember when I would practically faint every time a teacher called on me to talk in front of the class?”

  “This isn’t about being shy,” Kylie insisted. “It’s about someone liking me for who I am: a cupcake-baking, monster-movie-loving, not-all-that-coordinated person.”

  “So you trip sometimes. And you can’t really dance or roller-skate or ride a hoverboard. So what?”

  “Lexi, I appreciate your pep talk…I think,” Kylie said. “But it won’t change the facts. There is not a single boy in Blakely Elementary who finds me appealing.”

  She gathered her backpack and left the room, slamming the door behind her.

  Lexi felt just awful! Why had she brought up the dance and her dress? Why had she rubbed it in Kylie’s face? There had to be some way to make her best friend feel better! Someone would surely like Kylie if they got to know her. But there was no easy recipe for cheering her up, no magical mixture that would put a smile on her face and make her feel like going to the dance.

  Unless…

  Kylie opened the door to her locker, and a small pink envelope tumbled out. On it was the phrase “From Your SA” with a heart drawn around it. Sadie and Jenna snuck up and peered over her shoulder. “Whatcha got there?” Jenna asked.

  “What’s an SA?” Kylie said, picking up the envelope.

  Jenna scratched her head. “Spirit Animal? Step-Aunt? Slimy Anteater?”

  Kylie wrinkled her nose. “An anteater? Really? I’m not even sure they’re slimy.”

  “They eat bugs, don’t they?” Sadie pointed out. “It doesn’t get slimier than that. What’s up with the initials?”

  Kylie held up the envelope. “This was in my locker.”

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Open it!” Jenna said excitedly.

  Kylie gently tore open the flap and pulled out the note card. It read:

  Dear Kylie,

  Roses are red,

  Cupcakes are sweet,

  Being your boyfriend would be such a treat!

  Love,

  Your SA

  “Duh! SA! Secret Admirer,” Jenna said, slapping her on the back. “Kylie, that’s awesome. Someone likes you.”