Kylie, Sadie, and Jenna all agreed they weren’t ready to give up just yet. They’d take turns the next day at school observing Jeremy’s every move. Sadie took the first shift. Her mission: tail Jeremy during lunch and recess. Kylie suggested all the girls wear disguises—baseball hats and sunglasses—and report any info immediately.
“He had spaghetti and salad for lunch, no dessert,” she briefed the girls. “The pudding parfait looked really good, and he passed.”
“What about chocolate milk?” asked Jenna.
“Negative,” Sadie replied. “Just a bottle of water.”
Jenna was the next shift. Since she had PE with Jeremy, it was easy for her to hide behind the bleachers and eavesdrop on his conversation with Jack.
“You want to come over tomorrow after school? I got the new NBA game for Wii,” he said.
“Can’t. I have a stupid doctor’s appointment,” Jeremy answered. “Maybe this weekend?”
Kylie took the last shift—fifth period. Jeremy was in her art class. In the middle of class, he got up and left the room. “Where’d he go?” she whispered to Abby.
“Nurse,” she replied. “He goes there a lot.”
Kylie knew that Ms. Bayder would excuse her from art class if she pretended to have a paper cut. “It really hurts,” she moaned, sucking on her finger. “Can I please go to the nurse?” She raced out of the room and down the hall to where Lexi was in math. She knocked softly on the door and interrupted Ms. Nuñez’s class.
“I’m sorry. We have an emergency in the teachers’ lounge kitchen. Can I borrow Lexi for five minutes?”
Ms. Nuñez pursed her lips and looked suspicious. “What kind of emergency?”
“A flood…of frosting…everywhere,” Kylie improvised.
“Okay,” the teacher said. “Just make it quick and clean it all up before my free period. I don’t want to be up to my elbows in frosting.”
Kylie yanked Lexi out of the classroom. “How did frosting flood the kitchen?” she asked. “Did Jenna get loose in there again?”
“No, I had to say something so Ms. Nuñez would let you leave. It’s Jeremy. He’s going to the nurse and I need you to come with me now.”
Lexi felt her temper start to boil. “Are you serious? You dragged me out of class to help you spy on him? I told you, I won’t do it anymore, Kylie.”
“Just this once?” she begged her friend. “He looked very serious when he left art, and Abby said he goes to the nurse a lot.”
“What does that prove? Maybe he has a headache.”
“I don’t know. Please just come with me for five minutes?” Lexi knew if she didn’t give in, Kylie would continue to whine and plead with her.
“Fine, five minutes,” she said, following Kylie to the first floor where the nurse’s office was located.
“I’ll pretend I’m hurt or something. You stay at the door and listen in,” Kylie instructed her.
Lexi crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. This was ridiculous. What could they possibly hope to learn? And what if Nurse Finster realized Kylie was lying? They might get sent to Principal Fontina’s office for cutting class! But it was too late. Kylie had already pushed through the door.
“Oh, my stomach,” she moaned. “Ow, ow, ow!”
The nurse rushed over. “Where does it hurt, dear?” she asked.
“Here,” Kylie pointed to her stomach. “No, kind of here.” She pointed to her back. “Well, maybe here.” She pointed to her butt. Lexi laughed and covered her mouth so the nurse wouldn’t hear. “Oh, it just hurts everywhere!”
“When did it start?” Nurse Finster asked, feeling Kylie’s head.
“Um, about a half hour ago.”
“Did you eat anything different?”
“No…just a dozen cupcakes.” The nurse’s mouth dropped open.
“You ate a dozen cupcakes? And that’s normal?” she gasped.
“Well, sometimes I eat two dozen. But I was kind of full from lunch.” Kylie continued moaning and groaning and rubbing her tummy.
“Well, that’s the reason for your bellyache!” the nurse scolded.
“Can I please have a warm compress for my tummy?” Kylie asked sweetly. “Pretty please?”
“Sure. Stay right here.” Nurse Finster went to her supply closet. Lexi kept watching Jeremy. He was just sitting there in a chair, not saying a word.
The nurse came back, handed Kylie a hot water bottle, and read a small instrument on the desk next to Jeremy. “Okay, Jeremy, you can go back to class now. Your sugar seems fine,” the nurse called. He got up and walked out the door just as Lexi ducked out of sight.
Nurse Finster turned to Kylie. “Now, about you…”
“Gee, I feel all better,” Kylie smiled. “I’m good to go.”
Nurse Finster stared. “Really? Are you sure?”
Kylie raced out the door. “Yup! I feel great! Thanks!”
When she came out, Lexi was hiding in an empty office waiting for her.
“Did you hear that? Did you hear what Nurse Finster said?” Kylie grabbed her.
“Something about sugar being fine? What does that mean? And if it’s fine, then why did he hate my sweet cupcake?”
Kylie considered what they’d overheard. “I don’t know. But I know who to ask: your mom.”
“My mom is a veterinarian—an animal doctor, not a people doctor,” Lexi said.
“But she studied medicine, right? We have a lot of clues. We just need her to help us piece them all together.”
• • •
After school, Lexi, Kylie, Sadie, and Jenna laid out all the facts for Dr. Poole in her home office while she tended to a cocker spaniel with a splinter in his paw.
“So Jeremy snacks on nuts, doesn’t eat any sweets, goes to the nurse a lot, and Nurse Finster told him his sugar was fine?” Lexi’s mom repeated the clues back to them.
“That’s right,” said Lexi. “Does it make sense?”
“It makes perfect sense,” said her mom. “It sounds to me like Jeremy may have juvenile diabetes.”
Lexi’s face grew pale. “What does that mean? He’s sick?”
Her mother put the dog back in his carrier and took Lexi’s hand. “Well, honey, it’s complicated,” she began. “Everybody has some amount of sugar, or glucose, in their blood. We couldn’t live without it, and glucose comes from the food we eat. But when someone has diabetes, his body has trouble controlling the level of glucose in his blood.”
“That sounds really scary,” gulped Lexi.
“I’m sure it’s hard for Jeremy,” Dr. Poole said. “Along with all the things you guys learn in school, he’s also had to learn to manage his diabetes.”
“And that means not eating a sugary cupcake, right?” asked Kylie.
“Probably,” said Dr. Poole. “It certainly would explain why Jeremy doesn’t usually eat dessert…or even the best cupcakes in New Fairfield.”
Jenna sighed. “I just can’t imagine a world without cupcakes! Poor Jeremy!”
“If you want, you can find out more about it,” Dr. Poole suggested. She went over to her laptop and called up a website for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
For over an hour, the girls pored over the site, reading all the FAQs and stories about kids who were diagnosed with diabetes. “So his body probably can’t process sugar,” Lexi said.
“And we made him the sweetest cupcake on the planet…major mess up!” groaned Sadie. “No wonder he got rid of it so fast. We’re lucky he threw it in the trash and not at us!”
Lexi paged through the site and pondered, “What if we made Jeremy a cupcake he could eat?”
“You just said sugar was a no-no,” Kylie reminded her.
“‘But a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’” Lexi quoted Romeo and Juliet.
“Okay, you lost me,” Jenna complained. “Now you want to give him roses?”
“I’m just saying a cupcake by any other name—” Lexi began.
“Is still a cupcake!” Kylie finished her thought. “It doesn’t have to be a sugary cupcake. It can be something savory, like the bakers make with crazy ingredients all the time on that TV show Cupcake Wars.”
Jenna made a face. “Yuck. They made a tuna cupcake with wasabi cream frosting last week!”
“Spaghetti and meatballs!” Sadie suddenly shouted. “Jeremy gets it anytime it’s on the menu for hot lunch. Could we make him a spaghetti and meatball cupcake?”
Lexi pulled her sketchbook and pencils out of her desk drawer. “I don’t see why not!” She sketched a cupcake filled with wiggly spaghetti strands, topped with tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, and a mini meatball.
“Wow!” exclaimed Kylie. “That’s amazing, Lex. That’s the most creative cupcake I’ve ever seen!”
Lexi beamed. It was pretty good. She especially liked how the tiny meatball looked like a cherry on top! “And we’ll use whole wheat spaghetti, like the American Diabetes Association site recommends.” She felt pretty confident that Jeremy wouldn’t toss this cupcake in the trash.
• • •
It took the girls several hours to perfect a recipe. They decided to bake it right in the pan without cupcake liners, and the first version stuck and got burned on the bottom. Plus, the meatballs were a little raw in the center. Lexi’s mom offered to help. “You know I make a mean marinara,” she laughed, stirring the pot of sauce. The girls rolled the meatballs and let them simmer in the sauce. The aroma of garlic and basil filled the kitchen.
Dr. Poole suggested they coat the muffin pan with non-stick spray, just in case the cheese melted around the edges. This way, the spaghetti slipped out beautifully and formed a neat little cup. The sauce and cheese made a bubbly crust and the meatball was cooked to perfection.
“This is really pastalicious,” Sadie said. “Did I say that right?”
Lexi laughed. “Yes. I think we can heat it up in the teachers’ lounge and give it to Jeremy at lunchtime.”
“You sure? You don’t want to sneak it to him again?” asked Jenna. “I can always leave it on the bleachers next to him at PE.”
Lexi popped a meatball in her mouth. “Nope. I learned my lesson the first time—no more secret admirers. I’m going to make this delivery in person.” She sounded sure and confident.
“That’s great, Lexi. Good for you!” said Sadie.
Lexi smiled. “Thanks. But maybe you guys can just back me up…in case I chicken out?”
“You mean in case you meatball out?” Jenna teased.
“We’ll all be right behind you,” Kylie said, hugging her. “Always.”