“They picked me!” Piper blurted out, unable to keep her secret a moment longer. She had been waiting all day to share her huge news with the other four members of the Daring Dreamers Club. Now that their Tuesday advisory group meeting was officially in session, Piper bounced around Ms. Bancroft’s classroom waving a piece of paper in the air. “I’m in! I’m going to be on The Future of Food!”

She held the sheet of paper in front of her nose and announced, “We got an email this morning that says, ‘Congratulations, Piper Andelman!’ That’s me! ‘Based on the quality and creativity of your audition video, we would like to invite you to participate in an upcoming episode of The Future of Food!’ ” Piper twisted a lock of her hair and looked around. “Then it goes on and on with a whole bunch of details about dates and times, where I go for filming, and stuff like that. Can you believe it?”

“This is so exciting!” Milla Bannister-Cook said, squeezing her best friend tight. Sweet, adventure-loving Milla had been friends with Piper for years, so she knew just how much an opportunity like this meant to her. “When do they film the episode?”

“In less than three weeks,” Piper told her friends and Ms. Bancroft. “I have a zillion things to do to get ready. I’m going to be cooking so much the next few weeks!”

“We’ll help you!” Ruby Fawcett said, speaking on behalf of everyone. Ruby was the smallest member of the Daring Dreamers Club, but she had the biggest voice. In fact, Ruby and her twin brother, Henry, were two of the most outspoken—and sporty—members of the fifth-grade class at Walter Roy Elementary. Loyal, clever, tell-it-like-it-is Ruby was the kind of person everyone wanted on their team. “What can we do to make sure you’re ready to win?”

“I can be a taste tester or a sous-chef, if you want,” Mariana Sanchez offered with a shy smile. Though Mari was quiet, she was also one of the most fearless people Piper had ever met. She loved trying new things, and she was good at almost everything she tried. “I’m not a picky eater, and I’m pretty good at chopping. My abuela loves to cook, and she’s taught me stuff. She makes the most amazing chicken mole you’ve ever eaten.”

“You know Chip will happily eat any scraps that aren’t fit for human consumption,” Milla said, laughing. Chocolate Chip was Milla’s pet pig, and he loved snacking on Piper’s creations—even the yucky, failed experiments. “I probably won’t be much help with tasting, but I’d be happy to help with cleanup duties.” Milla was allergic to nuts and dairy, so she had to be careful about what she ate.

“Can I help you figure out your outfit for the show?” Zahra Sharif asked. Hardworking, independent Zahra loved designing clothes, as well as making mosaics and painting, in her free time. She was the most artistic member of the Daring Dreamers Club. “We have to find something for you to wear that’s going to really pop on TV. And I would love to help you come up with some fun ideas for plating your food. Your dishes need to look creative and appealing if you want to win, right?”

The offers of help were shouted out, voices layering on top of voices, as everyone grew more and more excited about Piper’s television debut. The Daring Dreamers Club had only been around since the first week of fifth grade, when the five girls were assigned to the same fifth-grade advisory group at school. But in that short time, Piper, Milla, Ruby, Zahra, and Mariana had already grown very close.

Their school’s principal had started the advisory groups to help fifth graders prepare for the independence of middle school. Every fifth grader was put in a small group made up of peers and a teacher-advisor. During their twice-weekly meetings, these groups talked about issues and challenges, goals and dreams.

Piper’s group had been lucky enough to get Ms. Bancroft, the school’s new music teacher, as their advisor. Ms. B was one of the most unique and inspiring women any of them had ever met. She loved encouraging her group to dream big and reach for the stars—which is why the girls had named themselves the Daring Dreamers Club.

Piper couldn’t quite believe one of her big dreams was already coming true—and to make the dream even sweeter, she was going to win! “Guess what?” she said, smiling wider. “I get enough visitor passes that all of you will be able to come watch the show being filmed!” Everyone cheered.

Ms. Bancroft spoke for the first time that meeting. “I think I must be a little out of the loop…,” she said. “What exactly is The Future of Food? Some sort of television show, I’m assuming?”

Ruby’s mouth gaped open. “You haven’t seen it, Ms. B?”

Ms. Bancroft shrugged. “I’m more of a movie buff. And frankly, cooking isn’t my strong suit. I’m a canned-soup-and-takeout kind of chef.”

Piper groaned. “Whoa, whoa, whoa…You can’t cook?”

“I didn’t say I can’t,” Ms. Bancroft said, laughing. “I just prefer not to. My kitchen experiments never end well.”

“Okay, this could be a problem,” Piper said. One of the things that made The Future of Food fun was that the host—who called herself the Kitchen Wizard—loved surprise challenges. Contestants never got to just cook. There was always some sort of twist.

Piper had watched every episode of The Future of Food and knew that the Kitchen Wizard sometimes even made contestants work with a friend or family member to create their dish. Piper wanted to be prepared for anything the show’s host might throw at her, so she had to make sure her audience members were ready, too! What if they were called up to cook with her?

“If you’re going to be in the audience as my guest,” Piper said firmly, “you’re going to need to practice a few cooking basics first. You all probably should. They could call any one of you onto the set, and I need to be sure you know what you’re doing in a kitchen before I can risk having you there with me. They’ve called on audience members during three out of thirty-seven shows, which means there’s an eight percent chance they’ll make me work with one of you during one of my surprise challenges….”

“Does this mean we all get to go to Piper’s Cooking School?” Ruby said, laughing.

“I have a better idea,” Piper said, thinking quickly. “What’s everyone doing after school on Thursday?”

“I have soccer practice at six-thirty,” Ruby said. “But I’m free until then.”

“Same,” Mari echoed. “Swimming at six. But I could maybe skip it. Why?”

Piper explained, “My family volunteers at a place called Helping Hands on the last Thursday of every month. We make meals for people who can’t cook for themselves because they are seriously ill or disabled. Do you guys want to come along? It would be a good place to practice some basics; Helping Hands is where I learned a lot of fundamentals. My brother was a lousy cook until we started volunteering, and now he’s not totally useless in the kitchen.”

Everyone agreed that it was a great idea, so they made a plan to join Piper’s family during their shift at Helping Hands on Thursday. “What about you, Ms. B?” Piper asked. “You wanna come, too?”

“It sounds like a really nice idea,” their advisor said hesitantly.

“Come on, Ms. Bancroft,” Milla urged. “It’ll be fun.”

“Please?” Piper begged. “You’ve got to start somewhere.”

“Okay, I’m in,” Ms. Bancroft said with a smile. “I guess I can’t live on takeout and frozen dinners forever, much as I’d like to dream it’s possible.” She laughed the deep, rumbling laugh that Piper loved and said, “Now that we have that settled, we really need to spend the last few minutes of today’s session discussing your next journal writing assignment.”

Piper groaned inwardly. She loved meetings of the Daring Dreamers Club, but she did not love the journal writing assignments. Unlike Milla, who would spend her day writing if she could, Piper found writing overwhelming and frustrating. It took her a really long time to write a whole page in her journal, and that was time she would much rather spend testing experiments and new recipes. “Aw, Ms. B,” she muttered. “Maybe we could just skip the journal assignment this week? I’ll bake you a batch of homemade cookies if you say yes!”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Ms. Bancroft said kindly. “Journal writing is a required part of advisory. However, I would like to get your input on the next assignment, to make sure we’re all on the same page.” She gestured for the girls to take a seat and then went on. “Remind me what you all thought of the princess project?”

“I loved the princess assignment, Ms. B,” Ruby blurted out. She glanced around at the rest of the group and shrugged. “I know I was a little meh about your journal assignment at first, but I actually had fun finding connections between myself and Mulan. She’s fierce and clever. Like me!”

For the group’s first journal writing assignment, Ms. Bancroft had asked each girl in the club to think about a Disney Princess they connected with or felt inspired by, and explain why. With one quick look around the music classroom, anyone could see that Ms. Bancroft was seriously into princesses. The walls were plastered with pictures of Belle and Cinderella and Snow White and Ariel…along with inspiring quotes from dozens of important people.

During their first meeting, Ms. B had told the group that watching Disney movies had helped her dare to dream big as a kid, which is what inspired her to pick princesses as their first advisory journal theme.

“I liked it, too,” Milla chimed in. “And I definitely felt more comfortable writing about my dreams of adventure when I was also writing about Belle and Beauty and the Beast.”

“I thought it was fun to think about how much I have in common with Ariel,” Mari added. “I rewatched The Little Mermaid with my sisters this weekend, and I haven’t been able to stop singing ‘Part of Your World’ since!”

“What about you, Zahra and Piper?” Ms. Bancroft prompted.

“I enjoyed the assignment,” Zahra said thoughtfully. “I’d actually really like to continue with the princess theme, if we can. I feel like I’ve just started to figure out how I relate to Cinderella, and I think it would be interesting to keep writing about my connection to her in my journal.”

“Me too,” Piper said, nodding. She had always found an easy parallel between herself and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. Surely she would be able to find more things she could write about in her journal if she had her favorite princess as a partner. “Do you think,” Piper began, “that we could keep writing about our princesses all year? I mean, what if we used the same princess for inspiration every week? It could be a sort of theme for our journals.”

There was a murmur of agreement from the other girls. Ms. Bancroft looked around the circle, her smile widening. “Of course,” she said. “There are some great things to explore in the worlds and minds of our princesses, and having a partner on this journey through fifth grade will hopefully help each of you develop new insight into yourselves.”

When Ms. Bancroft said this, Piper and Ruby exchanged small smiles—they both loved Ms. B to pieces, but the way she worded things sometimes made them giggle.

Ms. Bancroft cleared her throat and went on, “If we all agree, then I have your next assignment, Daring Dreamers: At some point, every princess must face a fear or overcome an obstacle standing in her way. Using your princess for inspiration, talk about a time you’ve had to confront a fear or deal with a difficult issue. Sound good?”

Everyone nodded. While Piper shoved her journal into her backpack, she turned to Milla and whispered, “Compared to Tiana’s, my life looks pretty easy. At least I’ve never been turned into a frog!”