Royal Icing (2 page)

By the time their club advisor arrived, they had reached the part in the movie where Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl, and Henry Higgins, the language teacher, were waltzing around his study singing “The Rain in Spain.”

“This is the best movie I've ever seen,” Lexi exclaimed.

“I know!” Delaney chimed in, jumping on the couch and singing along. “Who knew the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain?”

“I'm so glad you feel that way,” Juliette said, taking off her coat. “It's pretty magical, isn't it?”

Kylie rolled her eyes. “I don't get what's so great about it. He teaches her how to pronounce her words with some silly rain-plain-Spain tongue twister. Big deal. It's not like he killed any vampires or zombies!”

Juliette chuckled. “I don't think Henry Higgins would make a very good vampire slayer,” she told Kylie. “I suppose Rodney will be relieved to hear that.”

Kylie wondered why Juliette's fiancé would even care—aside from the fact that his last name was Higgins too. Mr. Higgins was always swept up in teaching Shakespeare to kids at Blakely Elementary. He was a trained actor, just like Juliette, and he loved catching his audience off guard. He had, after all, planted Juliette's engagement ring in a cupcake! Maybe he was behind all this. “Does this have to do with your surprise?” she asked Juliette.

“It does.” Juliette paused the DVD and cleared her throat. “Rodney is going to be playing Henry Higgins in a new revival of
Pygmalion
in the West End.”

“Awesome!” Delaney cheered. “Can we go see his opening night in the city? I've always wanted to walk the red carpet.”

“The West End isn't in New York City,” Juliette explained. “It's in London.”

“London, as in England?” Jenna gasped.

“Yes, London, England,” their advisor replied. “And opening night happens to be during your spring break. Which means it's the perfect time for you to come with me. I spoke to all of your parents and asked their permission for PLC to cater cupcakes for the opening-night party. Everyone said yes.”

“We're going to London!” Lexi squealed as she jumped up and down on the couch. Kylie had never seen her so excited.

Juliette nodded. “If it's okay with all of you.”

“Okay? It's amazing!” Delaney cheered. “Do you think we can meet the Queen?”

“I've always wanted to check out a football game in England—that's what they call soccer over there,” Sadie said. “Do you think we can find a match?”

“I've heard the Queen has Prestat chocolates delivered to Buckingham Palace,” Jenna added. “I've been dying to try their red velvet truffles!”

Kylie was quiet as the rest of the girls chattered away about the trip.

“Is there a problem, Kylie?” Juliette asked her. “You don't seem excited.”

“I think it's great that Rodney is starring in a play and that you asked us to go with you,” Kylie said.

“Then what's wrong?” Juliette asked. “I thought you of all people would be doing the happy dance.”

Kylie shrugged. “It's just that we usually talk about our orders ahead of time and vote on any big decisions.”

Juliette nodded. “You're right, Kylie. I should have consulted you first. We should consider it carefully and put it to a vote. It will be a lot of work: the producers of the show want two hundred cupcakes for opening night and a fun display.”

“Kyles, are you crazy?” Delaney said, shaking Kylie by the shoulders. “This is awesome. We're going to London! We're going to an opening-night party filled with all sorts of celebrities. OMG! What if One Direction comes?”

Juliette reached into her purse and pulled out a pamphlet that the travel agent had given her. “I thought this might be of some interest to you, Kylie,” she said, handing it to her. It read “The London Tombs.”

Kylie's eyes grew wide. “Tombs? Real tombs?”

“I understand you walk through the plague pits,” Juliette said. “And there's a London ghost tour, and an amazing monster exhibit at Madame Tussauds wax museum.” She pulled out several more brochures. “Plus London has lots of wonderful cupcakes to sample. Rodney tells me the Harrods Food Halls are just filled with them.”

Juliette had just said the two magic words: “monster” and “cupcake.” Still Kylie hesitated. No matter how great the trip sounded, it felt a little like she was losing control of her club. All the girls were swarming around Juliette, pressing her for details of the trip. They hadn't even asked Kylie
her
opinion.

Before she could say another word, Juliette called for a vote: “All in favor of a PLC going to London say, ‘Cupcake!'”

“Cupcake!” Jenna, Sadie, Lexi, and Delaney all shouted in unison.

Kylie forced a smile and tried to remind herself of all the great things the trip had to offer—even if it hadn't been her idea in the first place.

Two days later, Kylie called an official meeting of PLC to discuss their next few months of business. “Shall we get started?” Juliette asked her, glancing at the clock. “Mrs. Rogner and the math team need the teachers' lounge at four forty-five…”

“Yeah, and I've got b-ball practice at four thirty,” Sadie added.

“Oh! I have a science test to study for,” Lexi said. “The food chain isn't my strongest topic.”

“A chain of food sounds pretty awesome to me,” Jenna said. “I'm starving. Anybody bring a snack?” She looked through the bag of groceries Kylie had brought and found a bag of mini bittersweet chocolate chips.

“That's our stock for our weekend bake,” Delaney reminded her.

“I'm the official taste tester. So I'm tasting!” Jenna said with a wink.

Kylie looked annoyed. No one was listening to her. They were too busy chattering and passing around the bag of chocolate chips. She cleared her throat and tapped a wooden spoon on the kitchen countertop. Everyone grew silent.

“I hereby call this meeting of Peace, Love, and Cupcakes to order,” she announced.

Most of what they needed to discuss was business as usual: a dozen cupcakes for a seventh birthday party Thursday, and a dozen more for an anniversary dinner Friday night.

“I think we should divide and conquer,” Kylie suggested. “Jenna and Lexi, you come to my house tomorrow and we'll do the birthday boy's NASCAR-themed cupcakes, and Laney and Sadie, you guys handle the anniversary couple's double mocha fudge chip.”

Lexi cut her off: “Can we talk about the design of the opening-night
Pygmalion
cupcakes?” She pulled out her sketchbook and passed it around the group. “I've been working on it since your monster-movie sleepover, and I really think this is it.”

Delaney turned the notebook upside down, then right side up. “I don't get it,” she said. “It's an umbrella, a floppy hat, and an airplane.”

“That floppy hat is a sombrero,” Jenna corrected her. “It's a Mexican hat. But Delaney's right, Lex. I don't get it either.”

Lexi snapped her fingers in the air. “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plane! Remember? It's the best song in the whole movie!”

Juliette chuckled. “It's the
plain
—as in a flat land. Not an airplane, Lexi. It's not really supposed to make sense. It's a speech exercise.”

“Oh,” Lexi said, blushing. “I thought it was kinda strange that it would rain inside an airplane…but it looks so good in the sketch!”

“It does!” Delaney nodded. “I like Lexi's version better.”

“We have plenty of time to talk about London.” Kylie tried to steer them back to the pressing business at hand. “The trip's not for three weeks.”

“I know! But it's so exciting!” Lexi said. “Who can think about race car cupcakes when we're about to see Big Ben and the London Bridge up close and personal?”

“I had this dream last night,” Sadie interjected. “I was kicking around a soccer ball with David Beckham, and he told me that since he'd retired, he needed someone to take his place. So I became a champion English footballer!”

Kylie sighed. “Can we please focus?”

“Do you know,” added Jenna, “that Banoffee Pie is an English dessert made with bananas, cream, and toffee? How cool is that?”

Kylie looked at Delaney. “Aren't you going to say something about London too?” Delaney just stared, glassy eyed.

“Hello? Earth to Delaney?” Kylie said, poking her.

“Oh! Sorry! I was just imagining myself arm in arm with Daniel Radcliffe at the
Pygmalion
opening-night party. Do you think I should wear my Hogwarts scarf—or is that too much?”

Juliette smiled. “I'm really glad you girls are so excited about the trip,” she said. “And I don't think it hurts to plan ahead. Do you, Kylie?”

Kylie shrugged. “I guess.”

“I like where Lexi was going with the
My
Fair
Lady
cupcake idea,” Juliette added. “What else from the movie inspires us?”

“Flowers!” Delaney suddenly shouted. “What if we make the cupcakes in flower flavors?”

Sadie looked puzzled. “Are you supposed to eat flowers? I thought you just looked at them and smelled them.”

“Nuh-uh,” Jenna insisted. “I saw an episode of
Battle
of
the
Bakers
where the contestants had to do cupcakes for the Tournament of Roses parade. All the flavors were flowery, like hibiscus and orange blossom.”

Kylie tried once more to take charge. “Maybe we should do some research first and regroup another day for a taste test. In the meantime, there's the order for the Amateur Art Show that we still need to discuss.”

“OMG! The art show!” Lexi cried. She'd almost forgotten they had an order for thirty dozen cupcakes due this weekend, not to mention her art entry.

“I'm almost finished with my painting, so all that's left is to make a mini version on the cupcakes,” she said.

Delaney scratched her head. “You're gonna paint cupcakes?”

“Kinda,” Lexi replied. “I thought we could paint little fondant canvases with food coloring and frame them with a gold border.”

Jenna smacked her lips together. “Talk to me about flavors.”

“We need to think artsy and colorful,” Lexi replied.

“How about vanilla rainbow tie-dye cupcakes?” Kylie asked. “That's as colorful as it gets.” She flipped through her binder of recipes. “I've always wanted to try this. Basically, once you make the batter, you divide it into smaller bowls and dye each one a different color—red, yellow, blue, green, purple. Then you drizzle the different colors into each cupcake liner and give 'em a swirl with a toothpick.”

Jenna studied the recipe closely. “With all this color going on, the frosting has to look clean and simple but taste delicious. How about a white fluffy marshmallow buttercream?”

“Love it,” Kylie replied. “I think we've got a plan.”

• • •

When they met to bake the order two days later, Lexi came prepared. “I wanted to get us all in the mood for our assignment today,” she said, digging into her tote bag. She pulled out five tie-dyed aprons. “I did them myself. Cool, huh?”

“Amazing!” Delaney said, tying one around her waist.

“These are great,” Sadie added. “My old apron was getting really tired.”

“It's very pretty, Lexi,” Kylie told her. “It's just not our ‘official' PLC apron.”

“Yeah? So?” Lexi said. “Everything doesn't have to be so ‘by the books,' Kylie.”

Kylie took a deep breath. “It does! That's how baking cupcakes works,” she insisted. “You follow the recipe word for word, or something is bound to go wrong. Do you remember the time Sadie accidentally swapped strawberry syrup for strawberry preserves in our shortcake cupcakes?”

Sadie shook her head. “Yeah, that was a disaster. Those cupcakes came out like soup. My bad!”

“Which is exactly why we have to always go by the book,” Kylie added.

“I think it's fun to push the envelope,” Lexi insisted. “Great artists always try new things.”

“Our tie-dye cupcake recipe is new,” Kylie pointed out. But she was getting nowhere. All the girls loved their new aprons. She put on her old purple PLC one, like the others she'd made for the club when they first went into business. It was covered with stains and fraying at the edges, but it had a lot of great memories.

“Whatever,” she shrugged, and gathered ingredients. “Jenna, what kind of vanilla are we using?”

“That was a tough one,” Jenna replied. “I was torn between my two favorites, Mexican and Tahitian.”

“And?” Sadie asked. “What's the verdict?”

“Neither! Let's mix it up this time and go for this!” She held up a bottle labeled “Genuine Hawaiian Vanilla Extract.”

“Cool!” Delaney said. “Does it taste different?”

Jenna put a tiny amount on her fingertip. “A little. It's sweeter and has a really nice aroma.”

She held the bottle under Kylie's nose. “Don't ya think?”

Kylie took a sniff. “I guess. Are you sure you don't want to use our usual vanilla? I mean our vanilla cupcakes are delicious. Why tamper with perfection?”

“I dunno. I thought it would be fun to try something a little different,” Jenna replied. “Like Lexi said, we should push the envelope.”

“The envelope doesn't need pushing! It's fine where it is!” Kylie shouted.

“Kylie, are you okay?” Delaney asked her gently. “We're just trying to have some fun.”

“Yeah, you seem a little stressed,” Jenna added. “Ever since Juliette mentioned the London trip, you've been kinda grumpy.”

“I'm not grumpy about London. Or the new aprons. Or the new vanilla. Or changing my monster movie night into watching a musical. I just feel like you guys don't need me anymore!” Kylie blurted out.

“That's loco,
chica
!” Jenna said, putting her arm around her friend. “You're our club president and BFF. Of course we need you!”

“Why? You obviously don't need me to help you make decisions for PLC!” She stormed out of the teachers' lounge kitchen, slamming the door behind her. She knew she was overreacting—the girls and Juliette all meant well—but she couldn't help it. She felt like PLC was slipping through her fingertips and she was helpless to stop it.