Katie Sprinkles and Surprises (5 page)

A
ll week during school I tried to avoid Mr. Green. It was kind of easy, because I don't have him for a teacher. But he had lunchroom duty on Friday again, and he came over to our table. I tried to act natural, but my palms were all sweaty.

“Hello, Cupcake Club,” he said in that friendly way of his.

Alexis held up a paper holder with a cupcake in it. “I brought in an extra one for you,” she said.

Mr. Green's eyes lit up. “Why, thank you, Alexis,” he said. Then he took a bite right in front of us. “Mmm, so good!”

Fortunately, a table of boys started getting really loud across the room, so Mr. Green had to go.

“Why did you bring him an extra cupcake?” I
asked Alexis when Mr. Green was out of earshot. I wasn't accusing her; I was just curious.

“I bet she has a crush on him,” Emma said with a giggle.

“Of course not!” Alexis said. “I just wanted to see what Olivia's reaction would be. And it's priceless.”

She made a slight nod to the Best Friends Club table, and sure enough, Olivia was glaring at us with narrowed eyes.

“Just as I thought,” Alexis said, pleased. “She's jealous!”

“That's just silly,” I said. To be honest, I didn't like all the attention Mr. Green was getting. Besides making me nervous, it was just weird, considering he was dating my mom. So I quickly changed the subject. (I've been getting good at that, if you haven't noticed.)

“So my mom says she'll drive us to the museum tomorrow morning,” I said. “Around ten?”

“Sounds good,” Alexis said, immediately typing the info into her phone.

“Sounds early,” Mia said with a little groan.

“Let me know what happens,” Emma joined in.

I was kind of glad we had the museum appointment on Saturday, because it took my mind off Callie's party on Sunday, when the whole Mr.
Green secret was going to blow wide open.

As Alexis and Mia and I rode to the museum the next day, I thought about telling them, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. For one thing, my mom was in the car, and it would have been awkward. But, also, I was kind of hoping I could still keep the secret. Callie was always good at keeping secrets when we were little. But mostly I guess I just didn't want to deal with it.

Anyway, I forgot all about Mr. Green–Jeff when we pulled up to the museum. It had only been open for a couple of years, so I was sort of too old to go when it opened. But secretly I thought it looked like a lot of fun. The museum is in an old building downtown that used to be a bank or something, I think. On the front of the building, the words
MAPLE GROVE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
were spelled out in these colorful 3-D letters. In the front window there was a display with this big, purple cardboard monster with a huge wide-open mouth, and a cardboard kid was throwing bottles and cans into it. A sign underneath read,
TAME THE GARBAGE MONSTER! COME SEE OUR RECYCLING EXHIBIT!

We stepped inside the doorway, and the place was filled with screaming kids. To be fair, there were also a lot of them quietly exploring the museum. In
the front room there was this whole cool display about the water cycle, and across the room was this tube where you could talk on one end and someone could hear your voice all the way on the other end. But a lot of the kids were just running around and acting crazy.

“Is this where the space exhibit is going to be?” Mia wondered.

“I wish we were in space now,” I said. “I bet it would be easier dealing with evil aliens than dealing with all these kids.”

“I don't know. I think those two kids are kind of cute.”

Now, you might think Alexis or Mia or even my mom said that. But it wasn't any of them. I turned around, and to my surprise I saw George Martinez, standing behind me. I have known George since elementary school, and we both like each other—you know,
like
each other. If there's a school dance, George dances with me, and sometimes he invites me to hang out after school with him and some of our other classmates. But he's not my boyfriend or anything.

“Oh, hi, George,” I said, and then I noticed the two little boys he was pointing at. They were about four years old, but they looked like mini versions
of George. Then it hit me: Those were the twins George's mom used to push in a stroller when she picked up George from elementary school. They were George's brothers—and I had just insulted them!

“Your brothers are definitely cute,” I said, mortified, and then I scrambled to explain myself. “It's just there's a ton of kids here, and they're, like, crazy, you know? But not your brothers. They're not crazy.”

Then George's brothers ran past us, screaming loudly, and George laughed.

“It's okay,” he said. “Sometimes I wish they were aliens too.”

I laughed, relieved, and then I saw a woman with short dark hair approaching us. She wore jeans, a red sweater, and a colorful beaded necklace. I recognized her right away. It was George's mom. I figured Mrs. Martinez and George were there with the twins, having fun, but I was wrong.

Alexis walked right up and shook her hand. “Hello, Mrs. Martinez,” she said. “I'm Alexis Becker. We spoke on the phone.”

“Alexis, very nice to meet you,” Mrs. Martinez said. Then she nodded to me and Mia. “And you must be the other members of the Cupcake Club.
Of course I know you, Katie. George talks about you all the time. How is your mom?”

“She's here, actually, looking around,” I told her. “She's driving us here—I mean, she drove us here.”

I was mixing up my words because I was nervous. First, because I had just figured out George's mom was the director of the children's museum, the person who had hired us. Second, because she said George talked about me all the time. What did he say? And why was she smiling at me like that?

“I'll be sure to say hi to her before you leave,” said George's mom. “Let's meet in my office, where it's quieter. George, please watch your brothers.”

“Isn't that what I always do?” George asked. Then he waved to me as my friends and I followed Mrs. Martinez through the museum.

George's mom gave us a tour as we walked. “On the second floor is our music center,” she said. “And our playroom is back here, next to the party room. That's where you'll be setting up the cupcakes.”

The playroom was supercool, with a tiny little grocery store, fire station, and school.  And it opened up to a sunny room with bright yellow walls and a big long table with chairs around it.

“This is the room we usually use for birthday parties,” Mrs. Martinez explained. “You can push
that table against the wall for your display, and we'll put the chairs away for the event, so people will have room to walk around.”

Mia started sketching the room on her pad. “Then you'll need a really big display, so people can see the cupcakes through the crowd.”

“That would be nice,” Mrs. Martinez said. “Did you have any ideas yet?”

“We were hoping to learn more about the space exhibit first,” Alexis replied.

Mrs. Martinez nodded. “I have lots of pictures. Follow me.”

She led us through a door marked
STAFF
and into a narrow hallway, then into her office. I noticed a nice picture of George and his brothers on her desk, and on the wall was a cool poster of outer space, and it said,
SHOOT FOR THE MOON. EVEN IF YOU MISS, YOU'LL LAND AMONG THE STARS
.

Mrs. Martinez sat at her desk and swung her monitor toward us so we could see. There was a picture of a room with models of the planets hanging from the ceiling, and a rocket ship that kids could climb around in.

“We're modeling the exhibit on this one,” she said, “but we'll be adding some things too.”

“It's very science-y,” Mia remarked. “Do you
want the cupcakes to be science-y too? Or can we do alien faces and stuff like that?”

“I think it's okay to get a little fantastic with the cupcakes,” Mrs. Martinez replied. “But maybe it would be nice if the cupcake display could reflect the exhibit somehow too.”

Mia nodded and wrote down some notes in her sketchbook. She and Alexis are always prepared like that. I was starting to get some ideas, but I had no place to put them.

“What about flavors?” I asked. “Do you want us to come up with some space themed ones?”

“I think maybe it's safest to stick with vanilla and chocolate,” she replied. “But if you girls come up with something special, feel free to pass it by me.”

“We'll e-mail you,” Alexis said, and then she handed Mrs. Martinez a piece of paper. “Here's a copy of your order. Please look it over and sign it if you approve.”

“My, you girls are professional,” Mrs. Martinez said with a smile that showed she was pleased and not annoyed by that fact. She put on a pair of glasses to read it, and a minute later she signed it.

“I'll send you a copy,” Alexis said.

Mrs. Martinez stood. “Thank you so much for
coming, girls. It's a relief to know the refreshments will be in good hands.”

“You won't be disappointed,” Alexis promised, and I hoped she was right. It's one thing to disappoint a client, but I really didn't want to disappoint George's mom!

G
ood morning, Katie. Good morning, Sharon.”

Mr. Green–Jeff (I guess I'll call him Jeff when it's not school) picked up Mom and me the next day at noon. It was warm out, so he was wearing shorts and a green collared shirt and loafers. It's weird seeing a teacher in shorts. You just don't expect it.

“Good morning,” I said.

Jeff looked at his watch. “Actually, it's 12:01, so I guess I should say ‘Good afternoon.' ”

Mom kissed him. “It's good to see you, no matter what time it is.”

Gross! Now I knew how Mia felt when her mom and Eddie got all sappy with each other.

Then we walked to Jeff's car and loaded the food we had made, and I got in the backseat. The
backseat! Whenever I go somewhere with Mom, I always sit in the front with her. Of course I've sat in backseats before, but it was weird to be in the back with Mom and Jeff in the front. Like we were a family or something. In fact, anyone looking into our car would probably think Jeff and Mom were my parents and I was their kid. Weird!

Callie doesn't live far away, so luckily it was a short ride, because I didn't feel like talking. Mom must have tipped off Jeff that I was worried about the party, because he kept joking around to lighten the mood.

“Cheer up, Katie!” he said, looking at me in the rearview mirror. “It's a party, not detention!”

I managed a weak smile, but that's about all I could do. After Jeff stopped the car in the driveway, Mom put a hand on his arm.

“They're going to love you,” she said, and Jeff smiled at her.

Oh boy, is this how it's going to be?
I wondered. But I still had another worry: Callie.

After we unloaded the car, we walked through the opened white gate into Callie's backyard, where the air already smelled like grilled hamburgers. Some of Callie's aunts and uncles were milling around, and Callie and her mom were
standing by the gate, anxiously waiting to meet Jeff. When Callie saw him, her whole face was a big “oh” of surprise and shock. I wonder if that's how I looked when I first saw Mr. Green in my kitchen.

“Mr. Green!” Callie blurted out. Then she hastily added, “I already did my math homework from the extra-help class!”

Jeff laughed. “Don't worry, I promise I'm not here to talk about math,” he said. Then he turned to Mrs. Wilson and shook her hand. “Barbara, it's so nice to meet you. Happy birthday!”

“It's my pleasure,” she replied. “Sharon has told us so much about you.”

I could see Callie's blue eyes practically burning through me with curiosity, so I walked up to her dad, who was working the grill.