Cupcake Club Read online

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2012 by Sheryl Berk and Carrie Berk

  Cover and internal design © 2012 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

  Cover illustration © Julia Denos

  Cover design by Rose Audette

  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.

  P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

  (630) 961-3900

  Fax: (630) 961-2168

  www.jabberwockykids.com

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

  Source of Production: Versa Press, East Peoria, Illinois, USA

  Date of Production: February 2012

  Run Number: 17727

  Front Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1: A Monstrous Day

  Chapter 2: The Sneaker That Started It All

  Chapter 3: Stagestruck

  Chapter 4:The Show Must Go On

  Chapter 5: Cooking Up a Club

  Chapter 6: Jenna-normous

  Chapter 7: The Invisible Girl

  Chapter 8: Slam Dunk

  Chapter 9: Starting from Scratch

  Chapter 10: The Eco-licious Cupcake

  Chapter 11: Sugar Rush

  Chapter 12: Deck the Halls…with Cupcakes

  Chapter 13: The End of PLC?

  Chapter 14:No Business Like Cupcake Business

  Chapter 15: A Pisa Cake

  Chapter 16: Just Desserts

  Chapter 17: Winner Bakes All

  Juliette’s Red Velvet Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

  Eco-licious Chocolate Cupcakes

  The Sweet Revenge Cannoli Cupcake

  Carrie’s Ten Tips for Perfect Cupcakes

  Acknowledgments

  About the Authors

  Back Cover

  To Grandpa “Gee” Eddie Kahn, who taught

  us to appreciate the sweet things in life.

  We love you always and forever.

  Why does it have to be Monday?

  Kylie Carson pulled the blanket over her head and pretended not to hear her snooze alarm beeping for the third time. And Monday, November 6, no less! Her fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Shottlan, had asked everyone to pick a topic they were an expert on and share ten fabulous facts about it.

  “The idea,” her teacher said, “is to wow us!”

  The big red circle on the calendar had stared at Kylie for two weeks. By this time, most of the kids had already presented their reports. Emily Dutter talked about horseback riding. Jeremy Saperstone explained about football, and Meredith Mitchell? She went on and on about gymnastics—and held up the three gold medals she won at last year’s state championship meet.

  But what had she chosen to talk about? Monster movies! It was truly the only thing Kylie was an expert on. Dracula vs. Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Phantom of the Opera. She saw them all a million times! But now that the day was here and the clock said 7:57, she was having second thoughts.

  She plopped down in her seat at the kitchen table, still in her peace-sign pj’s and fuzzy slippers.

  “Is it Pajama Day at school?” her mom teased. “Or are we just starting a new fashion trend?

  Kylie groaned. “Expert presentation today.”

  “Ah-hah!” said her mom. “And you are an expert at being late to school?”

  “I don’t want to go,” said Kylie. “It’s going to be a colossal disaster!”

  “Colossal disaster, huh? That’s a pretty dramatic way to describe a five-minute report in front of your class. But then again, monster movies are very dramatic—so I suppose it’s appropriate.” Her mom chuckled.

  Kylie rolled her eyes. “What if they laugh at me?” she asked. “Or worse…throw things.”

  “They won’t laugh,” her mother assured her, tossing another pancake onto Kylie’s plate, even though she had barely touched the first one.

  “No, trust me, they will. Gavin Gilligan flicked a grape at Jeremy Saperstone yesterday in the cafeteria—and that was just because Jeremy looked at him funny. One weird look and Jeremy got a grape in his eye! No one in my class likes monster movies. They’ll think I’m stupid!”

  Her mom handed her the maple syrup. “I think it’s a little late to change your mind, don’t you? School starts in twenty minutes.”

  That was it—she was doomed. Doomed like the Wolfman when the sheriff came after him with a gun loaded with silver bullets. The furry fiend knew he was in for an unhappily-ever-after, and Kylie knew the same. She could feel it in her bones. If she could just miss school this one day!

  “You know, my throat’s a little sore,” she said with a cough.

  Her mom felt Kylie’s head. “Nice try,” her mom said. “Cool as a cucumber. Get dressed.”

  Kylie came out of her room five minutes later, dragging her feet—this time in gray high-top sneakers. She’d chosen her black jeans and a black, long-sleeve tee, because the dark color matched her dark mood.

  “Much better,” her mom said. Then she handed Kylie her backpack, her lunch box, and the huge poster board she’d made: a collage of the world’s greatest monsters at their bloodiest, creepiest, scariest best.

  “You’ll be great, honey,” her mom said, planting a kiss on Kylie’s cheek. “It’s normal to feel butterflies when you speak in front of a group of people. I always do.”

  It wasn’t so much the group as it was one particular person Kylie was worried about. And it wasn’t butterflies she felt in her stomach, it was more like vampire bats. But telling her mom that wouldn’t help. Instead she trudged outside and just made the school bus before it pulled away from her corner.

  At 9 a.m. sharp, Ms. Shottlan announced, “Time for our expert reports!” Kylie sank down in her chair, hoping somehow, some way her teacher would forget to call on her. Maybe they’d have a fire drill—or a surprise assembly in the auditorium. Maybe Ms. Shottlan would announce it was a national holiday and school would be closed the rest of the day!

  Crazier things had happened at Blakely Elementary School. One time a mouse got loose from a classroom, and they’d had to evacuate the entire school for two hours while the teachers looked for the escapee. Kylie closed her eyes tightly and willed some kind of harmless catastrophe to happen so she could get out of class. “Please, please, please, let me not have to go today!”

  Ms. Shottlan must have read her mind, because she called on Bella Russell first. Kylie breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  “I did my report on dogs,” Bella said. “Did you know the biggest dog in the world weighed 282 pounds?”

  “Wow!” said Jeremy. “That’s like four of me!”

  Bella went on and on about different breeds of dogs and her adorable cockapoo, Hermione. “She knows how to count to ten barking,” Bella bragged.

  When Bella had taken her seat, Ms. Shottlan glanced at her plan book. “Let’s see,” she said, perching her glas
ses on the tip of her nose. “Whose turn is it next?”

  Kylie held her breath. Maybe if she stayed absolutely still as a statue, Ms. Shottlan would pass right over her.

  “Kylie! You’re up!”

  No such luck. “Um, do I have to go right now?” Kylie asked. “Can Abby go before me?”

  Ms. Shottlan shook her head. “Nope.”

  Kylie’s chair creaked as she pushed it back from her desk. She walked to the front of the room and tried not to look anyone in the eye as she unrolled her poster.

  “Eww!” Meredith shouted. “That is so gross!” She covered her eyes. “I can’t look!”

  Just as Kylie had feared, Meredith was making fun of her presentation—and she hadn’t even said a single word yet! Of course, Emily and Bella followed Meredith’s lead. Bella even pretended to swoon and fall off her chair.

  Kylie gulped. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “My report is about monster movies,” she said quietly. She heard lots of giggles but tried to ignore them.

  “Louder, please,” said Ms. Shottlan. “So everyone in the back of the room can hear you.”

  Kylie cleared her throat and continued, “Did you know that vampires can’t see their reflection in a mirror? And you can’t capture their image in a photo.”

  “That’s not true!” said Gavin. “I saw Twilight three times!”

  “Yeah,” said Meredith. “You’re wrong.”

  “Class!” cried Ms. Shottlan. “Only one student at a time, and it is Kylie’s turn to present. Save your comments for the end.”

  Kylie took a deep breath and continued. “Boris Karloff was an amazing monster-movie actor. He played Frankenstein’s monster. And the Mummy and both Jekyll and Hyde.” She pointed to each character on her poster.

  Meredith yawned. Jeremy pretended to snore. Bella blew a bubble with her gum.

  Five minutes felt like five hours! When Kylie finished, Ms. Shottlan applauded and thanked her. “That was a fascinating presentation,” she said. “Thank you, Kylie, for teaching us all about monsters.”

  Meredith whispered to Emily as Kylie walked by, “Of course she’d know all about monsters. She’s a freak !”

  Kylie bit her lip. She wished she had the courage to put Meredith in her place. If she did, she would have shot back, “Oh yeah? Well, you’re the Bride of Frankenstein!” Instead Kylie hurried back to her seat and kept quiet. There was simply no use responding. Meredith was so popular and everyone would take her side.

  Meredith grinned, then stuck out her tongue. Kylie sighed. She should be used to this by now. It wasn’t the first time Meredith Mitchell had called Kylie a name or made fun of her in front of everyone. In fact, Meredith had been doing it for over a year. Kylie didn’t know why Meredith always singled her out to embarrass.

  But she did know when it had started…back in September of third grade, when Kylie was new to Blakely. That summer, her dad switched jobs and they’d moved from Jupiter, Florida, to New Fairfield, Connecticut. Kylie was excited. She had never seen snow, and her dad promised there would be tons in their new backyard by December. “Enough to go sledding and build a ginormous snowman,” he told her.

  She was sad to say good-bye to her old friends, Jaimie and Victoria, but she was also excited to live in a big house with a backyard and a new bedroom she could decorate any way she liked. She and her mom had had so much fun poring over catalogs and combing the aisles at Home Depot! Kylie chose a bright lavender paint for the walls (she loved the color name: Brave Purple!), a fuzzy white rug, and a warm down comforter in white with purple peace signs sprinkled all over it.

  In the corner of the room, she’d placed a squishy, purple beanbag chair so she could flop on it and read or gaze out the window and daydream. And as a surprise, her mom and dad got her a vintage movie-monster poster—The Mummy’s Curse with Lon Chaney—and framed and hung it over her desk.

  She would miss her apartment in Florida—especially the little wooden playground out back where she used to climb the monkey bars with her friends. But this is pretty awesome, she thought, looking around her new space. Way cooler than the pink, princessy room she’d left behind.

  She’d had only a week to anticipate what third grade would be like in Connecticut. Her parents promised it wouldn’t be much different from her old school: lots of kids, lots of classes, nice teachers.

  “I hear last year they had four snow days,” her dad said over breakfast.

  “What’s a snow day?” Kylie asked, her mouth filled with Cocoa Puffs.

  “It’s a free day to sleep late, go sledding, goof off,” her dad explained. “If the roads get too snowy, they can’t get the school buses through. So you get to stay home.”

  Kylie’s eyes widened. “Really? No school when it snows? That’s amazing!”

  “Let’s hope there aren’t too many snow days this year,” her mom teased.

  The first day of third grade wasn’t bad at all. The kids seemed friendly, and her teacher, Ms. Levenhart, let them decorate frames with their photos to hang on the classroom door. The first week flew by, and Kylie couldn’t believe how much homework she had already—reading, writing, math, and spelling every night!

  “Did you make any friends?” her mom asked, over a plate of milk and cookies after school near the end of that week. While she munched her snack at the kitchen counter, Kylie was already tackling her math worksheet, focused on a hard word problem about Ms. Levenhart having 125 pencils and needing to divide them evenly among the class.

  “Well, these kids have all known each other since kindergarten,” Kylie explained. “But this one girl, Emily, showed me a mistake I made in multiplication.”

  Her mom perched her glasses on the tip of her nose so she could look over the top of them. Kylie knew what that meant: her mom was worried about something and about to lecture her.

  “Honey, your dad and I think it would be a good idea if you signed up for some after-school clubs, got involved…”

  Kylie was too busy calculating: how many times did 18 go into 125? Was it 6 or 7? She counted on her fingers.

  “Kylie? Did you hear what I said?” Her mom sighed.

  “Yeah, after-school club. Got it!” she replied. But she meant she got the solution to the math problem—not what her mom was asking her to do.

  “What about chess club? Or the tennis one? I loved tennis when I was your age.”

  Kylie wrinkled her nose. “Seriously? I don’t know how to play chess. And I’m terrible at tennis. Remember the time I served the ball to Dad and almost broke his nose?”

  Her mom nodded. “Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Well, there must be something fun you can do after school.” She picked up the flyer Kylie had brought home listing all the Blakely Elementary extracurriculars.

  “Hip-hop club! That sounds fun…I mean, way awesome!” her mom enthused. Kylie giggled. It was pretty funny when her mother tried to sound “cool.” She’d toss in words like “awesome” or “all that” or “LOL.” The day before, when Kylie had told her mom she was right about it being chilly and Kylie needing a jacket, her mom replied, “TYS!”—and then had to explain that was short for “Told you so!”

  Kylie thought a minute. How bad could the hip-hop club be? Hip-hop dancing looked so easy in music videos. You just kind of jumped around to the music. You didn’t have to be a particularly graceful dancer—a good thing, in her case!

  “Okay, okay,” she sighed. “I’ll try it.”

  Her mom smiled and kissed Kylie on the top of her head. “That’s my girl!”

  Kylie showed up the next day for auditions in the auditorium. About a dozen kids were trying out.

  But Meredith Mitchell was the one who had everyone’s attention. She was break-dancing, pop-n-locking, and turning perfect cartwheels on the stage. All the kids were in awe.

 
And so was Kylie. Meredith was practically perfect—and everything Kylie wasn’t. She had bright blue eyes and long, shiny blond hair that fell in soft ringlets around her shoulders. Kylie thought her own hair was the color of mud, and she had her dad’s hazel eyes—sometimes brown, sometimes green. It was as if they couldn’t make up their mind!

  Meredith wore a trendy tie-dyed hoodie with a big peace sign studded on the back, designer jeans, and a sparkly barrette that matched her outfit. Kylie was in her cousin Zoe’s hand-me-down jeans and a boring gray tee. And then there was Meredith’s bling—a beautiful, sparkly diamond M charm around her neck that glittered under the spotlight on stage.

  “Kylie Carson?” Ms. Sattin, the dance club adviser, called. It took three times before Kylie heard her name. How would she ever be as amazing as Meredith? She walked to the center of the stage.

  “Show us what you’ve got, Kylie!” said Ms. Sattin.

  The music started and Kylie tried to find her groove to “Evacuate the Dance Floor.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Meredith in the front row of the auditorium, laughing and pointing. I’ll show her, Kylie thought. She made up her own wild moves—a combination of break dancing, the Electric Slide, and the Dougie. She knew her steps were no way as flawless as Meredith’s, but she hoped her grand finale would wow everyone.

  She decided to perform a chorus-line kick, like she had seen the Rockettes do during Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. She pumped her leg higher and higher until it was over her head. Then—like slow motion in a movie—Kylie kicked so hard that her pink Converse sneaker went flying through the air. It landed with a thud in Meredith’s face.

  “My eye!” screamed Meredith. All the kids and Ms. Sattin raced over. Meredith’s eye was red and already swelling.

  Oh no! It was just like the time she’d served the tennis ball right at her dad’s unsuspecting nose. “I’m so sorry!” Kylie pleaded.

  And as they were taking Meredith away to the school nurse, she growled, “I will destroy you, Kylie Carson!” Kylie didn’t think Meredith meant it. She was just hurt and upset, and she had an ugly black eye for a week. Of course, Kylie didn’t make the squad. But ever since that day, Meredith had made it her mission to make Kylie miserable. The mean whispers and nasty names (“Creature! Blob! Ghoul!”) were one thing, but lately Meredith had gone even further.