All That Glitters (8 page)

“There wasn't enough money. I needed to get a job and couldn't concentrate on my classes after that. So I left.”

Wow. That was too bad. And sad. And maybe it was part of the reason why Mom was so serious about the girls paying attention to school and not working when they were kids.

“
I
want to go to art school,” Brooke said. “And make strawberries like this.”

“Maybe you can,” Mom said, putting the cookie jar down in a safe corner of the attic. “But that's a long way away. Let's keep hunting. What else do you girls need?”

“Floor pillows,” Aly said, remembering the list in her head. “And cushions. Oh, and paintings for the walls, too.” As they started looking around some more, Aly realized that the attic wasn't as much of a mess as it first appeared. She got into the treasure-hunting spirit with Brooke, peeking underneath sheets and inside boxes.

After about twenty minutes, Aly, Brooke, and Mom had found four striped floor pillows, one set of shelves, two polka-dot seat cushions, and four paintings Mom had made in art school—two of the sun, one of the moon, and one of a rainbow.

“Mom, these are beautiful,” Aly said. “Can we hang them in our salon?”

“They're one hundred percent perfect, Mom! Please?” Brooke pleaded.

Mom nodded. “Of course,” she said, blushing. “I'm glad you like them.”

“Maybe you should paint some more,” Aly suggested. “It doesn't matter that you're not in art school.”

Mom shrugged. “I don't know about that,” she said. “I'm busy enough as it is.”

Aly made a note in her brain that maybe she and Brooke should get Mom some paint and art canvases for her birthday.

As the Tanner women continued their hunt. Brooke kept coming up with salon names. Nonstop, as usual. Aly found some of Mom's old art supplies—some heavy sketch paper and pastels. They weren't in great shape anymore, but they'd do perfectly well for making signs.

“One more name,” Brooke said. “How about the Glitter Girls' Salon?”

Even Mom wrinkled her nose at that one.

But everything else seemed like it was falling into
place. And Mom and the girls agreed that the grand opening would be this Saturday.

School moved slower than a baby snail on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Even dodgeball, Aly's favorite gym game, seemed to take forever. And Brooke said that recess felt like it lasted a million hours.

But kids did keep coming up to Aly and Brooke, asking all about their salon and when it would be open for business.

Every afternoon for those three days, Brooke met Aly at 3:00 on the dot. They hurried over to True Colors, finished their homework, and then worked on the salon redecoration.

On Wednesday they hung Mom's four pictures on the walls—with some help from Joan and Carla. And they found ways to hide all the boxes of supplies as
best they could, piled under tables and stacked in out-of-the-way corners of the room.

On Thursday they set up a drying area near the couch, with magazines stored in a crate they'd found and pillows and a table for a jewelry-making station. Then they created a polish display with the shelves from the attic.

On Friday they made a bunch of signs and taped them in all the right spots around them. Well, all the signs except for the one with the salon's name on it. They still hadn't settled on that. So while they worked, Brooke kept making suggestions, like Project Polish and Pretty Nails and Finger Fun. Also, Mermaid Manicures and Rainbow Polish and Tip-Top Nails. And Perfect Ten and Polish Palace and Happy Feet. Nothing seemed quite right, though.

As a finishing touch, they put the sparkly cookie jar on its own special table right next to the nail
polish display. That way, no one would miss it.

“I can't believe how great this place looks,” Brooke told Aly on Friday at closing time, as they stood in the doorframe admiring their work. “Now all we need to do is figure out a name!”

“And get some customers,” Aly added.

And hope that know-it-all Suzy Davis wasn't right again.

S
hould we put out all the colors for the rainbow pedicures?” Brooke asked. She was pulling on her braid so hard that Aly wondered how it wasn't hurting her.

“Sure,” Aly said. “Let's put out two sets.”

It was Saturday morning, the day of their grand opening. Aly was nervous too—she kept checking her polka-dot watch over and over. Jenica's entire soccer team was supposed to be coming in three minutes so they could all get rainbow pedicures before their afternoon game.

“Do you think the jewelry station looks okay?” Brooke asked. She'd spent the last fifteen minutes moving things around, changing the angle of the table and which pillow went where.

“I think it looks fine,” Aly told her, checking her watch again. One minute. She went through the salon's preparation list in her head one last time. Everything was all set and ready to go. Well, except for the name. Brooke had been mad when Aly rejected Glimmering Good Salon and Magical Manicures earlier that morning, but Mom said that they shouldn't rush it, that the perfect name would come to them in time. Aly really hoped it would come soon.

She was looking at her watch when there was a knock on the door. Aly opened it. Nine girls stood in front of her, with Jenica at the front of the pack.

“Welcome,” Aly tried to say, but it came out more like a swallow. She tried again. “Welcome to our
salon.” Then she stepped aside to let everyone walk in.

“Looks nice in here,” Jenica said. “Much better than last time.”

“Totally better,” said Bethany.

Brooke still had her hand wrapped tightly around her hair, but she wasn't too nervous to talk. “This is the jewelry-making station,” she said. “While you're waiting for your pedicure or for your polish to dry, you can make an ankle bracelet.”

“We can't wear those,” one of the girls said. “Because of our soccer socks. And shin guards.”

“We can wear jewelry on our wrists, though,” Jenica said, rolling her eyes. “We'll just make regular bracelets. It'll be great.”

“That's right. You can make regular bracelets there too,” Brooke said, smiling a tiny bit.

Aly took a deep breath. It was time to take charge. “Okay,” she said, “let's get started.”

Aly put the girls in groups of two, giving everyone instructions.

“Anjuli can go alone,” Jenica said, pointing to a girl with a French braid longer than Brooke's. “She's our goalie, so she needs to get her fingernails painted too.”

“In a rainbow?” Aly asked. It wasn't a problem—she'd be happy to paint Anjuli's fingers, she just needed to know the plan.

“I think maybe I want something different for my fingers,” Anjuli said.

Brooke was standing in front of the polish display. “Why don't you come over here and pick your favorite color?” she said to Anjuli. “Aly and I can paint any color you want.”

Anjuli walked over and started examining the display, but then she pointed to the strawberry donation jar.

“What's this?” she asked.

“That's our donation jar,” Aly said. “Since no one has to pay in our salon, we're asking for donations instead. Whatever you decide to give, we'll donate to a charity once we have”—Aly did some fast thinking—“one hundred dollars. Every time we get to one hundred, we'll give it to a different charity.”

“That's really cool,” Bethany said.

The other girls nodded and unzipped their backpacks, looking for dollar bills and coins.

“Okay,” Jenica said, “let's get going. We have a game to play this afternoon. We don't want to be here all day.”

But even as she said it, she was smiling at Aly. Like she probably wouldn't mind if they were.

Jenica sat down on the couch and picked up a string and some beads. The other girls followed her to the waiting area, except for Maxie and Joelle, who were going first. The two forwards sat down in the
pedicure chairs, and Aly and Brooke got started.

“Did you know Cute Lucas has a crush on Maria?” Joelle asked Maxie.

“No way!” Maxie answered. “Is he going to ask her to the Halloween dance?”

“Why do you call him Cute Lucas?” Brooke asked.

“Because Maxie thinks he's really handsome,” Joelle answered.

“I do not!” Maxie said. “Okay, fine, I do. But you do, too!”

Maxie and Joelle started laughing. So did Aly and Brooke.

The first two pedicures went pretty smoothly, though there were a few times when Brooke needed to use the wooden stick with polish remover on it.

When Joelle and Maxie moved over to the drying area, Bethany and a girl whose name Aly didn't know took their places in the chairs.

“Hi, I'm Aly,” Aly said while she was filling the basin with fresh water.

“I'm Valentina,” the girl answered.

Valentina, it turned out, was ticklish and needed to hear about the tongue trick.

“You really want me to bite my tongue?” she asked.

“Not hard,” Aly told her.

“It works!” Jenica piped in.

Valentina bit her tongue, and everything went well from there.

As the other girls got polished, Aly and Brooke listened to them chat about their strategy for the soccer game, their Halloween dance costumes, and which teachers gave the hardest sixth-grade math tests. The girls seemed really comfortable, and Aly and Brooke started feeling comfortable too, just like they did when they were hanging out in Mom's salon.

Brooke had just done the first coat of rainbow
polish on Giovanna and was getting ready for round two when Giovanna looked down at her. “I love how this looks,” she said. “Maybe I'll keep coming even after soccer season.”

Brooke looked up. “I didn't even know soccer girls liked sparkles until Jenica came to the salon.”

“Just because we're good athletes doesn't mean we don't like sparkles,” Giovanna said.

“Exactly,” said Jenica.

“Definitely,” said Mia, who was in Aly's chair now. “Girls can be smart, strong,
and
sparkly.”

Aly liked that idea. Smart. And strong. And sparkly. She made a brain note to work on that.

After Giovanna and Mia were done, it was finally Anjuli's turn.

“I can do hands while you do feet,” Brooke said to Aly.

“Fine,” Aly said.

“Which color did you pick for your manicure?” Brooke asked Anjuli.

“Power to the Sparkle,” she said, handing over a bottle.

“The multicolor glitter is really cool,” Aly commented from where she was crouched, painting Anjuli's big toe.

“So,” Anjuli said, “are you guys going to do this for us each week, for luck?”

Aly stopped polishing. “Well, as long as you guys want to keep coming, sure.”

“As long as we keep winning, we keep coming!” Jenica said from the couch.

“Totally!” Bethany said.

“Power to the Sparkle!” Anjuli shouted.

“Power to the Sparkle!” Mia repeated.

Then they all started chanting, “Power to the Sparkle! Power to the Sparkle!”

Aly looked at Brooke and smiled. Brooke was grinning too. They didn't need any Secret Sister Eye Messages to know that their salon was off to a spectacular start.