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  Sadie tried her best not to wobble in the four-inch heels Mitchell had put her in, and when she got to the end of the runway, she winked at her PLC mates.

  “Go, Sadie!” Kylie shouted. “Work it!”

  Harold handed the camera to Marisol. “Go on. You take the photos of your friend in the finale.”

  “Me? I couldn’t!” she insisted. “I mean, I’m not as good as you.”

  “And you won’t be…unless you get more practice.”

  Marisol took Lucy and peered through the lens. She snapped shot after shot of Sadie strutting on the runway.

  “Did you get it?” Harold asked her.

  “I think so. It’s hard to know for sure.”

  Harold shook his head. “You feel it in your bones,” he replied. “When you get the shot, you know it.”

  Marisol took one last picture, just as Sadie pivoted on her heel and looked back over her shoulder at the audience, giving them a huge smile and wave.

  “Got it!” Marisol said. “That’s the one.”

  “Then that,” Harold said, “is a wrap.”

  The next morning, when the ship pulled into port in Florida, all the guests piled off the ship—all except for the cupcake club.

  “The excursions are leaving,” Delaney complained, peering out a porthole. She was wearing sunglasses with her baking apron. “I could be in Cinderella’s castle by now.”

  “If we work straight through the day, we’ll be ready for the pirate party tonight,” Kylie assured her. “And then you can soak in the rays all day tomorrow in the Bahamas.”

  “Fine,” Delaney sniffed. “But I’m not happy about missing the Magic Kingdom.”

  Once all the cupcakes were baked and decorated, all that was left was to build the raft.

  “I know we did this once at Camp Chicopee,” Kylie said, scratching her head. “It was a team raft-building contest during Color War. Delaney, do you remember how we tied the logs together?”

  “With rope…duh,” Delaney snapped, still annoyed with having to miss a whole day of sun and fun.

  Sadie, Kylie, and Jenna worked together, laying the logs on the floor and lacing rope between them while Lexi and Delaney put the finishing touches on the decorations for the remaining cupcakes.

  “Are you sure it will float?” Jenna asked when they were done. “It looks a little flimsy.” She tested it with her foot and a log rolled. “And slippery.”

  “It was strong enough to hold a pair of campers,” Kylie insisted.

  “Before it unraveled and we both fell in the lake,” Delaney recalled.

  Kylie had forgotten that part. “Well, we’ll just make sure the knots are supertight and don’t slip,” she said.

  They built a makeshift sail out of some wooden spoons and a baking apron, and Lexi drew a peace sign, heart, and cupcake on it to symbolize PLC.

  “How many cupcakes do you think we can pile on?” Lexi asked.

  Kylie held one in her hand. “There’s only one way to find out.”

  They crammed more than five hundred cupcakes onto the raft. When Kylie checked the clock on the wall, it was nearly four p.m.—an hour before the ship was scheduled to pull out of port.

  “We have just enough time to go get into our pirate outfits for the party,” she said. “Phew! That was a close one.”

  Jenna wiped some dark chocolate from her hands on her apron. “Wait till you see the red silk blouse Mami made me. It’ll go perfect with my eye patch, bandanna, and fake gold tooth.”

  “I don’t care what I wear—as long as it’s not another evening gown,” Sadie vowed. “That gown last night weighed a ton! I’m wearing shorts for the rest of the cruise.”

  “Meet everyone on the Lido deck at seventeen hundred hours,” Kylie said. “That’s five p.m. in ship-speak.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain Kylie,” Jenna teased. “I can’t wait till our cupcakes set sail.”

  • • •

  When the girls arrived on the pool deck, all the guests and crew were dressed for the costume party—with everything from peg legs and fake parrots on their shoulders to high buckle boots and tricornered black hats. There were evil pirates; silly pirates; swashbuckling pirates; pirates with beards and mustaches; pirates with feathered caps and knives in their teeth.

  “This is crazy!” Lexi said. “People really got pirated up!” She had chosen to be a lady buccaneer in a red ruffled skirt, black boots, and a white blouse.

  “Shiver me timbers, are those my fellow PLCers?” Delaney called, finding them in the crowd. She was dressed in a white puffy shirt and black jeans and wore a red ribbon tied across her forehead.

  “Arrr!” Jenna growled back at her. Mami’s red silk blouse was the perfect pirate attire, especially when she paired it with a black skirt and an eye patch. She grinned and flashed the girls her fake gold tooth. “Me name’s Mad Medina,” she said. “Queen of the High Seas.”

  “There’s only one ruler of the high seas—and that’s me,” Kylie insisted. She had on a jacket with gold buttons and black boots and carried a sack of “pirate loot” slung over her back.

  “What’s in there?” Lexi teased her. “Gold doubloons?”

  Kylie dug in the bag and pulled out a prop head, dripping fake blood and guts. “Me latest victim—someone who dared to challenge Cap’n Kylie!”

  “Eww!” Lexi ducked behind Sadie, whose costume paled in comparison. She was in a simple pair of black shorts and a white tank top, with a bandanna around her hair.

  “That’s awesome!” Delaney said enthusiastically. “How’d ya get the eyeballs to dangle like that?”

  “Old horror-movie makeup trick,” Kylie explained. “I’ll show you sometime.”

  Mitchell pushed through all the guests to find them. “We’re ready for you. The crew is carrying the cupcake raft to the pool, and Mr. Warren is super excited to see what you’ve done.”

  “Great!” Kylie said. “Cue the fog and the wind machine.”

  “And the spooky pirate music,” Delaney reminded him.

  “Anything else?” Mitchell seemed a tad annoyed to be taking orders yet again.

  “Yeah,” Kylie added. “Don’t forget to announce us: ‘the ghost ship Peace, Love, and Cupcakes, the terror of the seas!’”

  Mitchell saluted her. “Whatever you say.”

  The girls readied themselves at the edge of the pool as the crew gently placed the raft on the top steps leading into it. The cupcakes had all survived the long walk up from the galley with not a bit of frosting out of place. “It’s a miracle,” Lexi said, relieved. “They look perfect.” She glanced over and saw Mr. Warren—dressed as Captain Hook—giving them a thumbs-up.

  Mitchell made the announcement over the loudspeaker. “Please turn your gaze to the giant Victory pool center deck for an amazing display…”

  “Okay,” Lexi instructed the girls. “On the count of three, we give it a gentle push into the pool.”

  “One…” Kylie said.

  “Two…” Jenna continued.

  “Three!” they all yelled in unison.

  With a light push, the raft began to float from the steps into the shallow end of the pool.

  “Steady…steady…” Sadie said, crossing her fingers.

  It continued floating out into four feet, then six, then nine.

  The crowd applauded enthusiastically. But that wasn’t the end of the show. On Kylie’s nod, the crew fired a confetti cannon that exploded over the onlookers in a burst of gold and silver.

  “We did it!” Delaney exclaimed. “We actually did it.”

  Just then, a gust of wind rolled across the deck. Then another. Then another.

  “Uh-oh,” Kylie said, looking up. “Do those clouds look a little gray to you?”

  “Never mind the weather report.” Sadie pointed to the raft. “Our ship is about to ti
p!”

  The wind had caused ripples in the pool, and the raft now rocked up and down uncontrollably.

  “My cupcakes! My beautiful cupcakes!” Lexi moaned as a few toppled into the pool.

  A few drops of rain landed on the deck.

  “It’s nothing,” Mitchell assured the crowd. “Just a little sun shower.”

  With that, a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky and the winds began to kick up. Cupcakes were sliding off the raft and into the pool at an alarming rate.

  “We have to do something,” Kylie said, panicking. “We have to get the raft back to the shallow end and pull it out before all the cupcakes drown!”

  “A captain always goes down with her ship,” Jenna said, kicking off her black sandals. With that, she dove into the pool and tried to keep the raft steady.

  “Swim it back to the steps!” Kylie called to her.

  But the more Jenna tried to kick behind the raft and move it, the more the cupcakes tipped and toppled.

  “What if you get under it?” Sadie shouted. “Like a turtle with a shell on its back?”

  Jenna nodded and ducked beneath the raft. Slowly, the PLC pirate ship “swam” its way back to the shallow end where the girls could reach it.

  “Whoa, you can hold your breath a really long time,” Delaney acknowledged as Jenna finally popped up and out of the water. “Impressive!”

  The guests didn’t even seem to mind that the rain was now coming down harder and faster—they were mesmerized by Jenna’s heroic show.

  “All hail Mad Medina!” Delaney yelled.

  Jenna climbed out of the pool, soaked to the bone. “It was nothing,” she said.

  “Oh, it was something!” Marisol interrupted her. “And I got lots of pictures to prove it.”

  Jenna’s curls were all matted and stuck to her face. Her eye patch was hanging around her neck, and the beautiful blouse Mami had made her was a sopping wet. “Great,” she said. “Next time, could you at least tell me to say cheese?”

  Marisol held up her camera. “Say queso!” she teased her little sister.

  Once the party moved to the grand ballroom along with the remaining cupcakes, the girls were able to finally relax.

  “I wouldn’t call it a total disaster,” Kylie said. She dug into a Jolly Roger raspberry and savored every bite. “At least most of the cupcakes stayed dry.”

  “Even if I didn’t,” Jenna said, bundling herself in a towel.

  “I wouldn’t call it a disaster at all.” Mr. Warren suddenly appeared behind them. “Everyone is talking about that thrilling pirate show in the pool,” he told them. “You made quite a splash, ladies.”

  Leo and Mitchell breathed a huge sigh of relief that their boss was pleased. “Pass me a cupcake,” Mitchell told Kylie. “After all that drama, I need one.” He popped three in his mouth, one after the other.

  “Dark chocolate ganache,” he said, licking his fingers. “My favorite.”

  “So what are your plans for the rest of the cruise—now that you’re off duty?” Leo asked the club.

  “Sun and fun,” Delaney said. “Finally!”

  “About that…” Mitchell interrupted her. “The forecast is calling for rain tomorrow.”

  Delaney rolled her eyes. “I give up. I just give up.”

  “We’ll still have plenty of time in the Bahamas, and the captain promised me he’d make a special stop in Florida on the way home since some of our VIPs missed their excursion to Disney World.”

  “Yes!” Delaney pumped her fist in the air. “Magic Kingdom, here I come!”

  Jenna made a face. “Do you think we could maybe skip the Pirates of the Caribbean ride?” she asked her friends. “I think I’ve had enough adventure on the high seas for one trip.”

  Meanwhile, Harold had a chance to flip through the images Marisol had taken with his camera.

  “These are excellent,” he told her. “You truly have an eye.”

  Marisol shrugged. “Ya think?”

  “I do,” he replied. “And I have a surprise for you. Be at the lobby tomorrow morning and you’ll see.”

  Marisol had no idea what Harold was planning—but she realized she couldn’t lie to him anymore.

  “Mr. Hammond,” she began. “About Lucy…”

  “You got her wet,” he said. “I saw some condensation inside the lens while I was shooting.”

  “I’m so sorry. It was stupid and irresponsible, and I wouldn’t blame you for never trusting me with your equipment again.”

  “Well, that would be a problem,” he replied. “You see, I’ve decided to come out of retirement, and I’ll be needing an assistant to help me this summer. I was hoping you’d be interested—and I’ll pay you for whatever shoots you come along on.”

  Marisol’s face lit up. “You mean it? That would be amazing!”

  “Of course,” he reminded her, “you’ll need to get your parents’ permission.”

  Marisol sighed. “That means telling my mom that I’m not going to be a doctor.”

  “I think she’d rather hear the truth from you than lies,” Harold said. “I know I would. And after tomorrow, I think you’ll have an easier way to tell her.”

  • • •

  Immediately after breakfast, Marisol, Maggie, Jenna, and the rest of PLC filed into the ship’s lobby. There were chairs set around a stage.

  “What do you suppose that is?” Jenna asked her sister. She pointed to what looked like several easels draped in cloths.

  “I don’t know. Harold said it was a surprise.”

  Kylie checked the ship’s daily schedule. “It says 9:00 a.m. art exhibit.”

  Guests began filling up the chairs in anticipation. Leo and Harold walked up on the stage to introduce the event.

  “It gives me great pleasure to introduce one of the finest photographers in the world, Mr. Harold Hammond,” Leo said in the microphone.

  Harold bowed modestly. “This exhibit is not about me,” he told the audience. “It’s about a young talent that I’ve discovered right here on this ship.” He pulled a cloth off one of the easels to reveal one of the shots Marisol had taken of Sadie in the fashion show. Then he yanked off another: this time, it was a photo of Jenna midair diving into the pool to save her cupcakes.

  The crowd oohed and aahed. Each photo he unveiled was Marisol’s.

  “Marisol Medina”—he pointed at her—“please come up here and take a bow.”

  “Go! Go!” Jenna said, giving her a push.

  Leo looked utterly stunned. “Marisol,” he said, admiring the prints. “These are amazing. Your mother is going to be so proud of you.”

  “Really?” Marisol asked. “You don’t think she’ll be mad that I don’t want to be a doctor?”

  Leo gasped. “You mean…you don’t want to go to premed in college?”

  Marisol took a deep breath. “No, not really. I thought I did for the longest time, but it’s not where my heart is. And someone told me I should follow mis sueños.” She looked at Jenna.

  “Well, that’s big news,” Leo said.

  “Do you think Mami will understand?” Marisol asked him.

  He took her hand. “I think she’ll be bursting with pride that her daughter is going to be a famous photographer one day.”

  Marisol smiled. It felt so good not to have to lie anymore.

  “Thank you,” she said, hugging Harold. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say you’ll do me proud,” he told her. “And I owe you a lot too. You reminded me of how sad I’ve been since I put my dreams away on the shelf.”

  • • •

  When the ship finally docked back in New York, Betty, Gabby, and the twins were waiting to greet the rest of their family. The pier was in a state of happy chaos: besides the people waiting and long lines of taxis, there were huge crowd
s of guests piling off the ship with luggage and souvenirs.

  Leo scanned the crowd, searching for his wife.

  “Aquí! Over here!” Betty shouted.

  “I missed you, mi amor,” Leo said, swooping sweeping Betty into his arms and kissing her. “All of you.” He handed each of the twins a plastic pirate sword, and they instantly began fighting with them.

  “Look,” Gabby said, hugging Jenna. “All my polka dots are almost gone.”

  “Mine too!” Ricky said, taking a break from his duel.

  “No more chicken pops!” Manny added.

  Marisol hung back, waiting to greet her mom.

  “Mija!” Betty held her arms out to her. “How was your trip?”

  “Great,” Marisol said. “And I have something for you.”

  She handed Betty a framed photo she had taken of a sunset across the ocean. The vibrant colors practically jumped out of the picture.

  “This is beautiful,” her mother said. “You bought this for me?”

  “I took that photo, Mami,” Marisol said slowly.

  “You? You took this?” Betty held in her hands and stared. “Eres muy talentoso!”

  “She is very talented,” Jenna piped up. “And she’s gonna be a famous photographer one day.”

  “A photographer?” Mami asked, confused.

  Marisol gulped. “Sí, Mami. If it’s okay with you. I want to go to college and study photojournalism.”

  Betty said nothing; she just stared. “A famous photojournalist? In our family? Que maravilloso!”

  “You mean you’re not disappointed I won’t be a doctor?” Marisol asked.

  “Mija, we’re proud of you no matter what you do,” Leo assured her. “And it takes a lot of courage to follow your dreams.”

  “Sí,” Betty added. “As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”

  Jenna gave Marisol a little nudge. “Told ya so.”

  “Marisol, wait!” Harold caught up to her just as they were leaving the terminal. “You forgot something.” He handed her Lucy.

  “Your camera? I can’t! I almost destroyed it!”