Fashion Disaster (6 page)

As the Tanner girls racewalked to True Colors after school with Sophie, Charlotte, and Lily, Brooke asked Aly, “Do you think Mom made a doctor's appointment for Sparkly yet? I've been thinking about him all day.”

“Me too,” Aly said. “But I'm not sure. Sometimes animal doctors are like people doctors. Unless it's an emergency, it can be hard to get a last-minute appointment.”

“I've been thinking about Sparkly too,” said Lily. “Maybe he just has a cold.”

Aly had filled her friends in on the Sparkly situation at lunch. Aly hoped that's all it was.

When they reached the salon, Brooke and Aly hurried over to their mom, who was sitting at the reception desk. “How's Sparkly?” they both asked at the same time.

Mom smiled. “Well,” she said, “we didn't need to go to the vet. Sparkly's fine.”

“But—” Aly started to say.

“Carla, would you like to explain it to the girls, or should I?” Mom asked. Carla had just finished up a manicure for Mr. Andrews at manicure station three. He always like to have his nails polished with Right as Rain, which was clear with extra shine. Carla walked over to the reception desk.

“I'm so sorry, girls,” she said. “I was trying to be nice to Sparkly, but apparently, two dog cookies a day is too many for a dog that tiny.”

“You
were giving him
two
dog cookies a day?” Brooke asked. “When? How come? Where did you get them?”

Carla ran her fingers through her bangs. “Delish Doggie Treats were on sale. I thought he might like to eat them while he waited for you girls in his corner during the school day. And he
loved
them, so I started giving him a couple every day. When your mom mentioned needing to take time off to bring Sparkly to the vet, I told her about the cookies,” she said, leaning against the counter.

“We called the vet, and he's sure that's why Sparkly's been acting so strange,” Mom added.

“So no more cookies,” Carla said. “I promise. And I'm so sorry I made you worry—and made Sparkly feel ill.”

Aly knew that the manicurists played with Sparkly while she and Brooke were at school, but
she had no idea they were feeding him too.

“It's okay,” Aly said. “We're just relieved he's not really sick.”

Brooke started to say something, but she instead headed back to the Sparkle Spa. The rest of the girls followed.

“Well, that turned out well,” Lily said. “No cold or anything.”

Brooke plopped down on the floor to do her homework. “All I'm going to say,” she said, “is that a person shouldn't give another person's dog a cookie without permission.”

Aly laughed. “I agree,” she said. She pulled Sparkly into her lap, scratched him behind his ears, and worked on her homework as quickly as she could while he licked the crease of her elbow.

Now that she knew Sparkly was fine, she could focus on getting through the rush today at the Sparkle
Spa and then look forward to Saturday's fund-raiser. Of all the different Sparkle Spa events, Aly felt sure that this one for Loving Locks was just about the most important. It
had
to be a success.

A
ly didn't sleep well Friday night. She tossed and turned for over an hour, flipping her pillow over and over to find a cool spot, counting hundreds of kittens and puppies, worrying about making enough money for Loving Locks, and wondering if she could function on barely any sleep.

She and Brooke arrived at the Sparkle Spa super early on Saturday, and Charlotte walked in two minutes later. She'd made really cute and colorful signs about the prices of the special occasion manicure and the barrettes, and she set to work taping them around the salon.

“Are we limiting the barrette purchasing?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Brooke said. She was creating a pretty display for the barrettes on a pillowcase the color of Purple You May Know.

“Well,” Charlotte said, “we only have twenty-eight barrettes to sell, meaning fourteen pairs. So only fourteen people can buy a set of barrettes. And practically
everyone
at school said they want to buy them. So should we limit them to only one per person?”

Aly was straightening up the polish wall. “But what if it was all talk?” she said. “What if only four people want to actually buy them?”

Charlotte scratched her head. “Well,” she suggested, “how about we say one pair per person at first? And if we start selling a lot them, we can always limit it to one barrette per person later.”

Aly sent Brooke a Secret Sister Eye Message:
Okay?
Brooke sent her answer right back:
Okay.

“Sounds good to me,” Aly told Charlotte.

The Sparkle Spa was supposed to open at 10:00 a.m., but by 9:30, Daisy, Violet, Maxie, Joelle, Uma, Annie, and Clementine were already waiting in line outside the door to buy barrettes.

“That's almost half our entire inventory,” Brooke whispered to Aly.

Aly counted the number of girls. “Actually, if we sell the barrettes in pairs, that's exactly half,” she said. “I think we may need to start a waiting list and then buy materials to make more this week.”

Charlotte held up her clipboard. “I was thinking the same thing,” she said, showing them a piece of paper with numbers written down the side. “I was just going to show you the form I'm making.”

“Great minds think alike,” Brooke told her. “And ours are super great.”

A few minutes later Sophie and Lily showed up. Lily planted herself near the donations table, and Sophie took her spot at her manicure station.

At exactly 10:00, according to Aly's purple polka-dot watch, they opened for business.

First, the Sparkle Spa team started selling barrettes. There were nine people in line by then who all wanted a pair, so eighteen of the twenty-eight barrettes were gone within ten minutes.

Next, the manicures started.

And then they ran out of barrettes.

“What do you mean there aren't any left?” Eliza Perez asked when she walked into the salon an hour after they opened. Her dark wavy hair hung down to her waist.

“You can be the first person on our waiting list,” Charlotte said. “You'll get the first set of barrettes as
soon as Aly and Brooke make more.”

Eliza didn't seem thrilled, but then she said, “Actually, that should be fine, because I'm not getting my hair cut until next week.”

Brooke couldn't be happier. “You're cutting your hair too?”

Eliza nodded. “Just like yours,” she said. “So I can donate my hair to Loving Locks and then wear those cool barrettes.”

“I decided I'm going to cut mine like Sophie's,” Annie said.

Brooke looked at Aly like she couldn't believe it. “Wow,” she said. “I never thought that letting Suzy cut my hair would get so many other people to cut theirs too!”

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. At five o'clock the girls flopped on the couch and pillows in the waiting area as Lily counted their money. “Fifty-six dollars
from barrettes,” she said, “and between regular manicures and our special of the day, two hundred seventy-three dollars and seventeen cents. Uma even gave us the extra change in her pocket. Our grand total is three hundred and twenty-nine dollars and seventeen cents!”

“Whoa!” Brooke said.

“Yes!” Charlotte cheered.

Aly smiled. “That's really awesome, guys.”

As they started cleaning up, Mrs. Rosenberg poked her head in.

“Hi, girls,” she said. “I was having my nails done at your mom's salon, and she told me what you were all doing today. You have no idea what your donation will mean to people. I'm going to add one hundred dollars to however much you raised today.”

Lily gasped.

“Thank you!” Aly said.

“Yes, thank you!” Brooke and Sophie and Charlotte echoed.

“No, thank
you,
” Mrs. Rosenberg said. “There are lots of things that are pretty awful about being sick, and one of them is how . . . well . . .
non
sparkly you feel. Having a beautiful wig really does help sometimes.”

Mrs. Rosenberg gave each girl a hug, then left.

“Do you think everyone feels that way?” Brooke asked. “Because that makes me think we should offer manicures at the hospital.”

“That, Brooke Tanner,” Aly said, “is a very interesting and inspiring idea.” Aly decided she'd look into it. It really was true that feeling sparkly on the outside sometimes made people feel sparkly on the inside—and the opposite was true as well. Aly had learned that just last week when Brooke didn't like her haircut.

It was amazing, Aly thought to herself, how much good a little sparkle could do.

I
love this new ribbon,” Brooke said. “It's the same color as Sunvisor. It goes so nicely with the bright red and orange we bought last week.”

It was a Saturday morning a few weeks later, and Aly and Brooke were sitting together in their living room making barrettes. Sparkly was jumping around and barking, like he was offering advice on which colors to use.

Since the barrettes were such a hit, the girls kept making them—and kept donating all the proceeds to Loving Locks.

Mid-braid, Aly heard a car pull into the driveway. Sparkly went crazy, racing for the front door.

“Dad?” Brooke asked.

Aly grinned.

The girls went racing for the front door too.

Dad walked in smelling like an airplane, with his briefcase strap slung over his shoulder, his suitcase rolling behind him, and a stack of letters in one hand. “Did you ladies forget to get the mail?” he asked.

Mom had come up next to the girls. “Oops,” she said, and leaned over to give Dad a kiss.

“Sorry, Dad,” Aly said, taking the mail from him. Even though all the Tanner women were CEOs, going to the mailbox while Dad was gone was not their best skill.

Aly scanned through all the envelopes, pulling out one addressed to Brooke. “Brookester, you've got mail,” she said, handing over the letter.