Icing on the Cake Read online

  “Why, thank you for the compliment!” Leo winked at her. “I’m no CeeLo, but I try.”

  Jenna groaned and gritted her teeth as he continued to serenade her while preparing dinner. He popped it in the oven, forgetting to set the timer for fifty minutes.

  “I think your mother will be surprised that I decided to cook, don’t you?” he asked her.

  Jenna shrugged. “I guess.”

  “She works very hard. I’d like to make her life easier and happier. I don’t know anyone who deserves it more.”

  •••

  Now that she thought about it, Leo hadn’t just been talking about lasagna last Friday. He was hinting that he wanted to marry her mother. Why hadn’t she realized it a week ago? Maybe she could have stopped him. Maybe she could have talked her mami out of it.

  She wished her sisters were on her side—but they seemed just as smitten with Leo as her mom was.

  “Did he surprise you? Did he hide the ring?” Marisol demanded.

  Her mother beamed. “Oh, it was so romántico: wine, candlelight, my favorite Portuguese tapas restaurant in New York City…” She and Leo locked lips yet again.

  “Ugh! Spare me!” Jenna grumbled. She’d had enough. “I’m starving! Can we please eat breakfast?”

  Her mother looked hurt. “Mija, aren’t you happy for us? I thought you’d love to be a bridesmaid.”

  Jenna shook her head. “Bridesmaid dresses are ugly.”

  “Not when your mother makes them,” Leo insisted. “What color dresses will you make, mi amor?”

  Gabby’s hand shot up. “Ooh! How about emerald green? That’s my color. It looks great with my auburn hair. Strapless with a short, puffy skirt.”

  “No, no…white…with a long, mermaid skirt,” Marisol corrected her.

  “Actually, I was thinking metallic gold,” Jenna’s mom insisted. “Perfecto for a Las Vegas wedding, don’t you think?’

  “Vegas!” Gabby and Marisol started jumping up and down.

  “What’s Vegas?” Ricky asked.

  “It’s tacky…” Jenna protested. “And loud and crazy.”

  Ricky and Manny both liked the sound of that. “Vegas! Vegas!” they chanted.

  “It’s a place in Nevada where we can have a huge fiesta and invite all our family and friends,” Leo explained. “I have a sales conference at a hotel there in a month, and we thought it would be the perfect place to tie the knot.”

  “Sí, on your spring break from school. We’ll all fly out and have the wedding and a vacation,” Jenna’s mother added.

  Spring break? Her mother was planning on getting married in four weeks? Jenna’s head was spinning! She had to do something!

  “I can’t…we can’t,” she stammered. “Easter is one of our busiest seasons for Peace, Love, and Cupcakes. We already have orders for dozens of ‘Somebunny Loves Me’ carrot cupcakes and I cannot cancel!”

  “Can’t your friends carry on without you?” Leo suggested.

  “Carry on? Without me?” Jenna gasped. Clearly Leo had no idea how important a role she played in the cupcake club’s business.

  “Since this is such a special occasion, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind,” he said.

  “But I do!” Jenna shouted.

  “I do! I do!” Gabby teased her. “That’s what Mami is going to say!”

  Jenna was never one to let her emotions show—she was able to keep a stone face even when bullies at school called her “fatty” or “bubble butt” or “thunder thighs.” But this was too much to take. She felt like everyone was ganging up on her, ignoring her opinion. When it came to cupcakes, her thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the flavor of batter or frosting was always the final word. When Kylie suggested a peppermint-stick cupcake for Christmas and Jenna vetoed it (“The icing tastes like toothpaste!”), her friends respected her decision. But no one in her house cared what she thought or felt.

  “I don’t want a stupid wedding!” Jenna blurted out. Then she glared at Leo. “And I don’t want a new papi!”

  •••

  Kylie Carson had never heard her friend so upset. She tried to calm her down on the phone, but thought it was best to let Jenna get things off her chest.

  “Can you believe it? They’re getting married, and they didn’t even ask what I thought! How could my madre do this to me?”

  “I don’t think she did it to you,” Kylie tried to reassure her. “I think she’s in love. Which is kind of nice…don’t you think?”

  “It’s gross,” Jenna protested. “You should see how mushy they are around each other…”

  “When’s the wedding?” Kylie asked.

  “It’s completely ridiculous! They want to get married in a month in Vegas, right in the middle of Easter. What about all our orders? How inconsiderate is that?”

  “It’ll be tough, but we’ll be okay,” Kylie reassured her. “We’ll just have to start planning a lot earlier than we thought, maybe freeze some of the cupcakes, and finish them up without you.”

  “No way!” Jenna interrupted her. She knew Kylie was trying to be practical, but this was not what she needed to hear. “You are not doing all those Easter orders without me!”

  “Jenna, it’s your mom’s wedding. You need to be there,” Kylie said gently.

  “Says who?” Jenna shot back. “I can stay over at your house. I hate Leo, and I don’t want to see my mother ruin her life by marrying him!”

  Just then, she noticed her mother standing in the doorway of her bedroom. There were tears in her eyes.

  “Mami,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.”

  Her mother shook her head. “I thought you’d be happy. A real family, Jenna. A papi who cares about you and loves you.”

  Jenna didn’t know what to say. She knew her mother’s feelings were hurt, but she was hurt too.

  “I was coming up to ask if you and the girls would make a cupcake wedding cake,” her mother said.

  “Yes! Yes!” Jenna heard Kylie yelling on the other end of the phone.

  “I don’t know,” Jenna replied. “We’re very busy.”

  “We’ll do it!” Kylie continued to shout. “Jenna, it’ll be amazing!”

  “I’ll think about it,” Jenna said, hiding the receiver under her pillow so her mother couldn’t hear Kylie pleading.

  Her mom’s face lit up. “Sí? Leo will be so happy! I am so happy!” She handed Jenna a recipe for tres leches cake. “Mi favorita,” she said. “Your grandma’s secret recipe.” She hugged Jenna tight.

  “I didn’t say yes,” Jenna tried to explain. “I said maybe.” But her mom was already out the door. She spoke English fluently, but sometimes—when she didn’t want to hear the word no—she pretended not to.

  “Hello? Hello?” Jenna heard a muffled voice from under her pillow. She’d almost forgotten about Kylie!

  “I’m here,” Jenna replied. “She wants us to make tres leches cupcakes.”

  “Awesome!” Kylie said, getting down to business. “We’ll meet tomorrow after school, and Lexi can sketch out a design for the tower.”

  “I don’t know who’s worse: you or my mom.” Jenna sighed. “We can’t ship a huge cupcake tower to Las Vegas, which means we’ll have to bake and assemble it there.”

  “Jenna, this is amazing!” Kylie squealed. “I can’t wait to tell the girls.”

  Every meeting of the cupcake club began the same way. Juliette Dubois, the club’s advisor, tapped her wooden spoon on the countertop of the teachers’ lounge kitchen at Blakely Elementary. “Settle down, ladies! I call this meeting of Peace, Love, and Cupcakes to order!” Once they were all quiet, she handed the spoon to Kylie who carefully went over old and new business. Since Kylie was the first to join the club—and recruit the others—she was the one who led it.

  “Okay, let’s start with accounting.” Kylie flipped to t
he chart in her notebook that kept track of how much they were making versus how much they were spending. “Lexi, we spent $150 on shredded coconut this month?”

  “I’m stocking up for Easter,” Lexi explained. “Coconut makes adorable bunny fur on cupcakes.” Lexi was always thinking of ways to “push the envelope” on their cupcake decorations. She thought cupcakes were not just delicious treats; they were works of art.

  “And, Jenna, you ordered $100 worth of jelly beans?” Kylie continued. She pointed to several jars of rainbow-colored candies on the shelf that Jenna had labeled according to brand and flavor. Jenna would never settle for merely an ordinary bean or a humdrum hunk of chocolate. Every ingredient had to taste the very best—her sophisticated palate demanded it and PLC’s clients demanded it.

  “I wasn’t sure which ones were the yummiest: Jelly Belly, Teenee Beanee, or Starburst,” she explained. “It was a close one.”

  “Do we get to do a taste test too? I love jelly beans!” Sadie piped up.

  Jenna got a mischievous look in her eye. “Sure!” she said. “See for yourself. These are my faves.”

  She got a few out of the jars and handed a blue jelly bean to Sadie, an orange and brown one to Lexi, a green one to Delaney, and a dark brown one to Kylie.

  “Close your eyes and guess the flavor,” she instructed them.

  Sadie popped the candy in her mouth and made a face. “Eww. This is really minty. Like toothpaste!”

  “Ding! Ding! Ding!” Jenna said, laughing. “That’s exactly it! It’s toothpaste flavor. Don’t you feel like you’re brushing your teeth?”

  “Mine tastes kind of plain,” Delaney said, taking a nibble. “Is it earwax? Someone played a joke on me in camp and gave me that one.”

  “Close,” Jenna replied. “It’s booger flavor.”

  “Eww!” Delaney screamed, spitting it out. “That’s disgusting!”

  “You’re next, Lex,” Jenna said, taunting her friend to take a taste.

  Lexi looked at her orangey bean from every angle. “What is it supposed to taste like? Red pepper? Salsa? I know this is going to be gross…”

  “We all bit…your turn!” Sadie egged her on.

  Lexi took a teeny, tiny bite and made a face. “It tastes like dirt.”

  “Earthworm to be exact.” Jenna giggled as Lexi wiped her lips on a paper towel.

  “Now you, Kylie. I saved the best for last!”

  “It looks like milk chocolate,” Kylie said, examining the candy.

  “Oh, no. Do they make a poop flavor?” Sadie whispered to Delaney.

  “Not that I’ve heard of,” Delaney replied. “Vomit, rotten egg, and sardine, but no poop.”

  Kylie bravely tossed the bean in her mouth and swallowed it whole.

  “Well?” Sadie asked. “What did it taste like?”

  “Not that bad. Kind of savory.”

  “Care to take a guess on what you just gulped down?” Jenna teased.

  “Well, it’s not chocolate pudding. Is it cola? Cardboard? Pencil shavings?”

  Jenna shook her head. “Not even close! You’re barking up the wrong tree…”

  Kylie got the hint: “Oh, no! Is it dog food?”

  “Yay, Kylie’s top dog!” Jenna cracked up. “I had to have some fun with you.”

  Kylie took a big gulp of water to wash the taste out of her mouth. “I hope the jelly beans you got for our Easter cupcakes taste better than those,” she said. “Please tell me you got normal flavors.”

  “Relax,” Jenna said. “I got the best ones ever: juicy pear, red apple, tutti-frutti, caramel corn, and toasted marshmallow.”

  “Great. Then we will have plenty to decorate our ‘egg-citing’ cupcakes with.” Kylie made a check in her notebook. “Lex, you’ll pipe green grass frosting and we’ll put the jelly beans on top.”

  Lexi nodded. “I thought I could also use them for our bunny cupcakes—the pink bubble gum ones would make a great nose and the blue ones would be perfect for eyes. As long as they’re blueberry and not dead fish flavor?”

  Jenna crossed her heart and raised her hand. “I promise every bean on our cupcakes will be delicioso.” She popped a bright green one in her mouth. “But you guys really should try these spinach ones…they’re tasty!”

  Kylie put down her notebook. “As long as we’re all set for our Easter orders, that brings us to new business. Jenna, would you like to fill the club in on our special order for your mom?”

  “Your mom wants us to bake her cupcakes? What for?” Delaney asked. “Is it her birthday?” Delaney was always up for a party!

  Jenna pouted. “No, I wish it were that easy.” She handed out copies of her grandma’s tres leches recipe. “My mom wants us to make these for her wedding.”

  “Her wedding? How? When?” Sadie asked excitedly. “That’s great news!” She noticed Jenna’s frown. “Isn’t it?”

  “The most important question is where,” Kylie pointed out. “Jenna’s mom is getting married in a month…in Las Vegas!”

  “Oh, cool!” Lexi exclaimed. “I saw this episode of Cake Boss once where he made a giant slot machine out of cake. How cool would it be to have a slot machine that spits our cupcakes out when you win?”

  “Maybe they could have different coins made of gold and silver fondant on top?” Delaney suggested.

  Jenna looked annoyed. “I’m glad you guys all think this is fun. I’m freaking out! My whole life is crazy!”

  “It sounds crazy wonderful,” Sadie pointed out. “We all met Leo when he picked you up at Kylie’s house a few weeks ago, and he seems like a great guy.”

  Jenna sighed. “Not you too? Everyone loves Leo. Leo this, Leo that. I hate him!”

  “Maybe you should save the booger beans for him then?” Delaney suggested. “Just sayin’…”

  “But you’re doing this for your mom,” Juliette pointed out. “Focus on that. This will make her very happy on her big day.”

  “Don’t leave out the best part!” Kylie elbowed Jenna. “Leo said if your parents are cool with it, he will fly us all out to Vegas to assemble the wedding cupcake display and to be junior bridesmaids in the wedding.”

  “That is phenom!” Delaney started jumping up and down. “I want to count all the neon lights on the Vegas strip!”

  Kylie laughed. “Before you do that, do you think you can count how many cupcakes we’ll need to build a giant six-tier wedding cake?”

  Lexi was already sketching with her colored pencils. “I’m thinking four dozen on the bottom tier, three dozen on the next two tiers, two dozen on the two tiers above that, and a giant cupcake with their monogram on the top tier.”

  Delaney did some quick math in her head: “That’s 168 cupcakes plus the giant cupcake that can serve at least twenty. Totally doable!”

  Lexi held up a sketch of a giant cupcake piped with white swirled lines, white carnations, and a gold BWL monogram in gold fondant on top. “What do you think?”

  “What’s the W for?” Delaney asked.

  “Leo’s last name,” Sadie explained. “Winters. Hey, Jenna Winters has a nice ring to it!”

  Jenna shuddered. “Winters? Yuck! I hate winter. I hate the cold.”

  “How about Summers, then?” Delaney teased. “That would be hot!”

  Jenna was not amused. “I’m always going to be Jenna Medina.”

  Juliette placed a hand on her shoulder. “I know this is hard for you,” she said. “Change is never easy.”

  Kylie nodded. “I totally get it, Jenna,” she said. “You like things the way they are. I felt that way too.” She reminded her how her family had to leave Jupiter, Florida, just two years ago when her dad’s company relocated them to Connecticut. “But if I hadn’t come to New Fairfield, I wouldn’t have met you.”

  “That’s different,” Jenna insisted. “You didn’t have Le
o the Loser trying to elbow into your life and ruin everything!”

  “Hmmm, I thought you were tougher than that, Jenna.” Juliette raised an eyebrow. “You usually don’t let anyone rattle you.”

  That might have been the case in the school yard or the classroom when dealing with bullies, but not in her own backyard. She felt like she was being attacked by alien invaders and there was nothing she could do about it!

  “If you don’t want to take this order, we’ll pass,” Kylie said, sensing her BFF was very stressed out. “Vegas would be awesome, but you’re more important.”

  “Please, Jenna?” Delaney pleaded. “Pretty please with frosting on top? I’ve always wanted to be a junior bridesmaid.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll bake the cupcakes, but I’m not happy about it.”

  “I knew you wouldn’t let us down,” Kylie said, hugging her. “Or your mom.”

  “Yay!” Delaney, Sadie, and Lexi cheered. “We’re going to Vegas!”

  Jenna’s little brother Ricky had a talent for throwing tantrums just when she was running late to school. Her mom always had to be at her dry-cleaning store by 7 a.m., and Marisol and Gabby drove to high school together. Which left Jenna in charge of her loco little brothers and getting them all out the door for the elementary school bus pickup.

  “You need to put your sneakers on!” she said, chasing Ricky around the living room.

  “I don’t wanna wear shoes,” he cried, as Jenna tried to wrestle his purple high-tops onto his feet. “Ricky, venga ya!” she shouted. “Give me a break!”

  Jenna did her best to double-knot the laces so they stayed put. “Can we please go to school now?” She sighed. “The bus will leave without us!” Ms. Heller had mentioned she was handing out assignments for their community friends project this morning, and Jenna wanted to get a good one.

  “I don’t wanna go to school,” Ricky said, kicking his feet. “It’s not fun.”

  “Kindergarten is tons of fun.” Jenna tried her best to convince him. “There are ABCs and 123s…and Legos to play with.”

  Manny nodded. “I like Legos.” She noticed he was eating Cheerios out of the box and leaving a trail of them on the living room rug. He was messy—but at least he was on time.