All That Glitters (4 page)

Aly scribbled a little bit to get the ink flowing again, then said, “Go for it. What else?”

“Well,” Brooke said, “we can experiment on the other kids to see how new colors look, so I don't have to be the only tester. And we can host polish parties, like the one for the Sweet Sixteen girl today, but for younger kids. And we could polish little kids' nails while their moms are getting manicures—kind of like babysitting—so they don't get bored from waiting.”

Aly wrote very quickly. When she finished, she put down her pen. “Those are great ideas, Brooke. You should be a professional idea person.”

Brooke smiled. “That would be a fun job. Except
I think I might want to be an organizer instead. And also a manicurist. And an artist.”

Aly thought Brooke would be good at all those.

“Okay,” Aly said, “I have our list. I think we should wait until we get home to give it to Mom, when she's more relaxed, you know?”

Brooke peeked out the door of the back room. There were tons of people in the salon. “I think so too,” she said. “Come on. It looks like Carla and Joan could use our help.”

Over the next two hours Aly cleaned up two broken bottles of nail polish (Green with Envy and Really Rosie), took out the trash three times (it was overflowing with the soft twisty paper that went between people's toes for pedicures), and went to the bank once to get one hundred dollars' worth of one-dollar bills so her mom could give people change.

In the meantime, Brooke ordered pizza for the
staff, fixed the nail polish display four times, and read
Big Dog, Little Dog
to Mrs. Fornari's two-year-old son. Three times in a row. Mrs. Fornari was a jewelry maker, and to thank Brooke, she gave her a box of extra beads and some leftover string that she had in her pocketbook.

“Aly!” Mom almost shouted when Aly came through the door with the money. “Thank goodness you're back! I need you to take over the phones.”

Aly took her seat behind the desk and looked at the people still waiting. One was Jenica's friend Bethany, whom Aly recognized from school. Bethany walked over.

“Hello,” Aly said, trying to be professional. “Do you want a magazine?”

“You're Aly, right?” Bethany said, ignoring the question.

Aly nodded. “Right.”

“That's what I thought,” Bethany said. “So instead of me waiting on this line, can you just give me a pedicure? At our game this morning Jenica said you're awesome at it, as long as your hair isn't in your eyes. And that you're really fast.”

“I, um, I . . . ,” Aly said, not really sure what to say. “You have to ask my mom?” is what she finally ended up with. It was kind of a babyish answer, but also a true one.

“Okay,” Bethany said. “Which one's your mom?”

Whew.
Bethany wasn't acting like Aly's answer was babyish.

“She's over there,” Aly said, pointing. “The one with the same hair as me. In the blue shirt.”

Bethany returned to the waiting area and spoke to a grown-up—probably her own mom. Then the woman went over to Aly's mom. And then Aly's mom got up from her station and walked over to Aly.

“Did you tell Bethany's mom to ask me if you could do her toes?” Mom asked. Aly could tell she wasn't happy.

“I didn't know what else to say,” Aly answered, which was the total and complete truth. “She's a sixth grader,” Aly added.

Aly's mom chewed on her lip for a moment, then sighed. “I know I keep breaking my own rules, but do you think you could give Bethany a pedicure? And Jenica's other friend should be here in fifteen minutes. Could you do her, too? Her name is Mia.”

Aly couldn't believe it. She got to do two more pedicures and she hadn't gotten in trouble. Maybe it would be easier than she thought to convince Mom about the kid salon later.

Aly took Bethany to the back room, and Brooke followed with all the sparkle polishes.

“Thanks, Brooke,” Aly said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Bethany added.

Aly slipped a hair elastic off her wrist and pulled back the top half of her hair. She got down to cleaning and filing and polishing, and Brooke got down to chatting with Bethany. Aly was paying so much attention to Brooke's conversation about Sadie the dog and how famous she was that she almost spilled the bottle of Under Watermelon polish on Bethany's flip-flop. Luckily, she caught it just in time and Bethany didn't notice, and Aly quickly finished.

Brooke glanced into the main salon. “No free dryers,” she reported. “But don't worry, I'll fan you.”

She picked up two magazines and waved them back and forth over Bethany's toes.

“Thanks, you two,” Bethany said. “Jenica was right—this was awesome.”

Just then Mia appeared in the doorway.

“Hey,” she said, cracking her gum. “Aly, right? Your mom said I should come back here.”

“Mia!” Bethany squealed. “I didn't know you were coming too!”

Mia sat down next to Bethany. “Jenica's toes looked so cool. I think the whole soccer team should get them. Even though you can't see the sparkles with our socks and cleats on, we'll all know we have sparkle power underneath.”

“Some other girls called today,” Aly told them. “But we were booked.”

“Overbooked is more like it,” Mia said. “Did you see the crowd out there? I'm so glad I don't have to wait on that line.”

Aly got to work while Mia and Bethany chatted. Brooke was still fanning, which made it hard for her to talk. Then Aly accidentally dipped the Orange You Pretty brush in the Strawberry Sunday bottle.

“Aly!” Brooke panted, her eyes huge. “Did you just . . .”

Aly blinked her eyes extremely hard, the Secret Sister Eye Message for
I know, but don't say it out loud!
Then she quickly wiped off the brush.

Brooke touched one of Bethany's toes carefully and pronounced her dry. Then she slid next to Aly. “Do you want me to open and close the polish bottles?” she whispered.

A polish assistant! Just what Aly needed. Sometimes having a sister really was the best thing in the world. Aly and Brooke worked together to finish the pedicure. Then both sisters took up fanning Mia's toes.

“We need some dryers back here,” Brooke whispered. “My arms are getting tired.”

Aly agreed. When Mia's nails were dry, both sixth graders stood up.

“Thanks so much,” Bethany said as she was leaving.

“Yeah, thanks,” Mia echoed. “This was a totally awesome pedicure. I'm going to tell the rest of the team that they
have
to come get some sparkle power.”

“You're welcome,” Aly and Brooke said together.

“And that would be great!” Brooke added.

Once they were alone, the sisters fell onto the small couch, exhausted but happy. “That was so much fun,” Brooke said. “Even if my arms feel like noodles from all that fanning.”

“You were right before,” Aly said. “If Mom lets us have our own salon back here, we're going to need dryers—for fingers and for toes.”

All of a sudden, Aly was extra worried about their salon. If Mom had to spend a lot of money to make it work, there was a big chance she'd turn them down.

That's why, a few hours later, after they'd closed
up the salon and were having dinner at Trattoria Spaghetto, Aly found herself unable to swallow her mouthful of meatball.

It didn't matter if Aly was able to talk or not, though. As usual, Brooke's mouth didn't stop going. While she was sucking down spaghetti, Brooke blurted out, “Mom, Aly and I have something important to ask you.”

Aly managed to choke down her food. She pulled the list she and Brooke had made earlier out of the back pocket of her jean shorts.

“We, um,” Aly said, unfolding the paper. “We, um, think that we could really help out at the salon if we, um . . .”

“We want to open our own kid salon!” Brooke said, bouncing up and down in her seat. “In the back room! And we'd do kids' nails and have parties and it would be good for True Colors because, because . . .”

Aly handed the paper to her mom. “It would be good because we could handle all the kids so you could polish even more grown-ups.”

Mom looked at the girls' proposal. She read it over once. Then twice. Maybe even three times.

Brooke grabbed Aly's hand under the table. Aly's legs were jiggling hard. She couldn't stop them.
Say yes, say yes,
she thought.

But Mom sighed.

“This is a terrific idea, girls,” she said. “It would be a big help to me and to the salon. I know I've asked Aly to give a few pedicures these last two days, but I can't agree to this.”

“Why not?” Brooke asked, tears already filling her eyes. Aly felt like she wanted to cry too.

“Because your father and I have spoken about this before. We both agreed that schoolwork and being a kid should always come first for you two. That's why
we both work so hard, why he travels all the time—so you two can focus on being children.”

“But we don't want to be children,” Brooke cried. “We want a salon.”

Aly bit her lip. “What if we could do both?” she asked. “What if we could be children
and
run a salon?”

“I don't think so,” Mom said, finishing the last of her chicken parmesan.

Aly and Brooke looked at each other. They couldn't eat another bite.

“Okay, kids,” Mom said, leaving some money on the table. “It's been a long day. Let's go home.”

On the way home, though, Aly had another idea—one she wouldn't tell Brooke, in case her sister opened her mouth again. She wasn't about to give up on the salon just yet. But she would have to wait until tomorrow to put her plan into action.

B
eep, beep, beep.

Aly opened her eyes to the sound of the alarm on her purple polka-dot watch. It beeped softly from its spot underneath her pillow. She pulled it out and clicked it off: 6:45 a.m., just like she'd planned.

Super quietly, Aly slid out of her bed. She turned the doorknob really slowly so it wouldn't make its normal loud click and tiptoed down the hallway to the kitchen. She wished her parents would let her have a cell phone so she could make calls whenever and
wherever she wanted, but that was another Tanner rule: No cell until middle school.

Right next to the toaster oven was the phone. Aly picked up it up and walked over to the back door—as far away from Mom's bedroom as possible. She dialed.

Ring, ring, ring.

Answer already,
Aly thought anxiously.

“Hello?” a deep voice answered. “Honey? Is everything okay?”

“It's me, Dad,” Aly whispered. “Not Mom. And everything's okay. Except for not exactly everything.”

Aly leaned against the door, resting her head against the pale gray window shade.

“What do you mean?” Dad said, sounding worried.

“I mean—” Aly took a deep breath, and when she let it out, all the words came with it. “I mean that when you get home, you have to talk to Mom because Brooke and I don't care about our childhoods, and the thing
we want to do most is polish other kids' nails at True Colors in the back room, and even if you and Mom don't want us to work, we want to, and also it'll teach us a lot of responsibility for when we're older, plus it'll help Mom out a lot at the salon because it's mega-busy and it's making her tired and also it'll be fun.”

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. “So, you girls asked Mom, and she said no?”

Now there was a pause on Aly's end. “Yes,” she said, in her smallest voice.

Dad sighed. “Let's talk about this when I'm home tonight,” he said. “Okay?”

All of a sudden, Aly got a little excited inside. “You mean there's still hope?”

“There's always hope, Alligator, but I've got a plane to catch. We'll all talk later.”

Her father said, “I love you.” Aly did the same and beeped off. Then she crept back to her room, got
into her bed, and closed her eyes. But she was much too excited to sleep. So she got her favorite purple pen and a piece of frog-shaped paper and started a new list, writing down all the things that she and Brooke would learn from running a salon, like how to be responsible and organized and patient. When Aly heard Mom turning the doorknob, she stuffed the list underneath her pillow and pretended to snore.

“Move George over, Brookie,” Mom said after she'd opened the blinds to let the sun in. Brooke put her stuffed monkey on the night table, and Mom lay down next to her.

“Uh-oh,” Aly said. “What's the matter? Is Dad okay?” She started to worry, even though he had sounded fine when she'd spoken to him earlier.

“Everything is fine, girls,” Mom said. “But how about you don't come with me to the salon today? Aly, why don't you go swimming at the Y with Lily? And,
Brooke, there's an art class there at the same time.”