At school on Monday, Aly sat with Charlotte at their lunch table. Lily was a buyer that day instead of a bringer, so she was on the lunch line, waiting to get chicken fingers with french fries and applesauce. Mom had packed Aly’s lunch—a cheese sandwich, a pear, pretzels, a little bottle of water, and a chocolate kiss—and Charlotte had lunch from home too. Her mom had different ideas about food than Aly’s mom, so Charlotte’s lunch had cookies, along with a sandwich made out of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff that was the exact color of White Out nail polish. There were some raisins too, but Aly suspected Charlotte wasn’t going to eat those, and a fruit punch juice box.
When Lily sat down, Suzy Davis followed her, dropping into the empty seat across from Aly. Aly and Suzy Davis had a long history of not liking each other, but recently they’d started becoming friendlier—because of two things: (1) Aly and Brooke’s favorite manicurist, Joan, married Suzy’s uncle, and (2) Suzy helped the girls win a carnival competition by adding her makeup business, Suzy’s Spectacular Makeup, to their Sparkle Spa booth. The thing about Suzy was that she was basically a good person, and was really smart, too, but sometimes the way she said things or the way she acted made people upset with her. Aly tried to see past that. Charlotte had a little more trouble. Lily too, but not as much as Charlotte.
“So did your mom find a new place for True Colors?” Lily asked as she opened up her carton of milk.
Aly swallowed a bite of her cheese sandwich. “She found a place, but then someone else rented it to open a coffee shop.”
“I hate coffee shops!” Charlotte declared.
Suzy looked at her. “Why?” she asked.
Charlotte’s eyes shot daggers at Suzy. “Because they took over the space Aly’s mom wanted for True Colors,” she said. “Duh.”
“That’s a dumb reason to hate coffee shops,” Suzy said. “That was just one coffee shop, not, like, every coffee shop on earth.”
“She’s being supportive,” Lily said, picking up a chicken nugget. “You should try it sometime.”
Aly shook her head. As always, Suzy wasn’t wrong, she just didn’t say what she was thinking in the very nicest way possible. But Lily sounded kind of mean too.
“Anyway,” Aly said, “there was another space that was really cool. Brooke and I liked it even better. It was huge and beautiful and used to be a hair salon, but it was too expensive. It’s too bad, because the Sparkle Spa could’ve gotten a window.”
“A window?” Charlotte squealed. “For our own signs and stuff?”
Aly shrugged. “Probably. But it’s not going to happen.” Still, Aly couldn’t help dreaming about how cool the Sparkle Spa would look with its very own window.
“I think your mom should get the bigger space so that I can have room there for my makeup business,” Suzy said. “People liked it so much at the carnival. And it’s not fair, because my mom’s company is only online, so I can’t have a part of her shop like you and Brooke do with your mom’s.”
“What did you just say?” Aly asked. Ideas were already starting to spin like a Ferris wheel in Aly’s brain.
“People liked my business?” Suzy said.
“No, the other part.” Aly put down the pretzel she was about to eat.
“That I should be allowed to have my makeup business in True Colors?” Suzy asked.
“Yes!” Aly answered. “What if another business helps my mom pay her rent? Then she could afford the larger space, and divide some of it with the other business!”
“And still have a window for the Sparkle Spa!” Lily added, punctuating her sentence by stabbing a french fry in the air.
“Exactly!” Aly said. “That’s a great idea, Suzy.”
“That wasn’t her idea,” Charlotte said through a mouthful of cookie.
“It actually wasn’t,” Suzy agreed. “I just wanted a place where I could have Suzy’s Spectacular Makeup.”
“Okay, fine,” Aly said. “It wasn’t totally your idea, but it helped give me that idea. I can’t wait to tell my mom. I think it’ll change everything!”
That night, at dinner, Aly spoke to her mom about the idea.
Mom leaned back in her seat. “That’s actually kind of brilliant.”
Aly smiled. It was really nice when her mom thought she was smart about something, mostly because Aly thought her mom was the smartest woman she knew.
Brooke was shoveling stir-fry into her mouth, then stopped with a forkful of vegetables halfway to her lips. “Joan’s cookies!” she said. “Joan could have a place for her cookie business!”
Joan, in addition to being the girls’ favorite manicurist, Suzy Davis’s aunt by marriage, and their mom’s best friend, was also the best cookie baker the girls knew. Sometimes people asked her to make cookies for parties, and she often made cookies for fun to bring into the salon. She always saved some for Aly and Brooke and their friends, and asked them to give her a report on how they tasted. She even taught the girls how to make sparkly rainbow-colored cookies called Unicorn Treats. Well, originally they were called Unicorn Poop, but Aly thought that was gross, so they changed the name.
“I think Joan is happy running her side business out of her house,” Mom said. “But there are a lot of companies that might fit nicely with True Colors. Maybe someone who wants to sell hair accessories or jewelry, or maybe even a little juice counter. I should send an e-mail to the women in the Businesswomen Unite group, to see if they know anyone. I wonder how much space a jewelry shop or a juice counter would need.”
“Not too much,” Brooke said, after taking a swallow of water. “Because we still need room for the Sparkle Spa.”
Mom nodded, but didn’t say anything. Aly worried. What if her idea meant that Mom had changed her mind from the other day and there wouldn’t be room for the Sparkle Spa anymore?
She sent a Secret Sister Eye Message to Brooke: Did I just mess up?
Brooke sent one back: I hope not.
Aly hoped not too.