In order to be a wedding expert, you should:
a. have planned at least a hundred fancy weddings.
b. have gone to college for a degree in party planning.
c. at least been a guest at a couple of weddings.
d. once helped your mom frost a wedding cake. (Although you accidentally stuck your elbow in the cake and made a small dent. Very small. It was filled in with frosting.)
My mom’s bakery, Enchanted Sugar, was one of my favorite places in the whole world. The building looks like a giant frosted cake. It’s bright white and all the fancy curlicue wood is painted pink. The wood floors are always shiny and there are four white metal tables with ice-cream parlor chairs so that if you can’t wait to try your cupcake, then you can sit down and have one right then and there.
The front window always had a couple sample cakes so people could think about what they might want. Inside there was a big glass case full of cookies and cupcakes. Even though it looked really good, that was nothing compared to how it smelled! When you walked by you could smell pumpkin, cinnamon, caramel, vanilla, chocolate, and butterscotch. You could see people outside the window stop and sniff. Even if they planned to walk right past, they had to stop and try something.
Friday after school I was helping my mom. I don’t want to brag or anything, but I’m a really good cupcake froster. The secret is in the wrist action, you have to give it a bit of a swirl at the end, and then top it with just a bit of sprinkles. You can’t clump the sprinkles on. No one wants a clumpy cupcake.
I heard the bell above the door, and my mom greeted someone who was looking for a wedding cake. Brides from all over came to Enchanted Sugar for their wedding cakes. They thought they picked us because our cakes were tasty and beautiful. What they didn’t know was that each cake came sprinkled with a bit of happily-ever-after magic. The magic was what made them really special.
“Can you make a cake with pink flowers on top?”
My head snapped up. I knew that voice. It was Miranda from school. I hurried to put all the cupcakes I was working on onto a silver tray. Then I took a finger full of frosting and smeared it on my cheek. I wanted to look like I was working superhard. I carried the cupcakes out to the front of the store.
“Willow?” Miranda was with her cousin, the future bride. I tried to act like I was surprised to see her. I put down my cupcakes and smiled.
“Is this one of your friends from school?” Mom asked. “Why don’t you give her a cupcake, and we’ll be right back.” Mom led the bride-to-be toward the back where she kept a photo album full of the different styles of cakes.
“This is your mom’s bakery?” Miranda sounded impressed, which just goes to show what good taste she has (with the exception of picking Bethany as a best friend).
“Uh-huh.” I handed her one of the red-velvet cupcakes with cream-cheese icing. They were my favorite. I put the rest of the cupcakes on the stand in the display case. I made a big deal of making sure they were arranged perfectly. I would put one down, back up so I could see how it looked, and then move it just a smidge.
“You work here too?” Miranda asked, looking around with her eyes wide. I could understand her being impressed. Most likely I was the only fourth grader with a job.
“Of course.” I wiped my hands on my lime green daisy apron. “I was going to tell you at school that if you have any questions about being a junior bridesmaid you should feel free to ask me. I’ve helped with a lot of weddings, so I’m sort of an expert.” I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.
When I said “a lot of weddings” that might have been stretching the truth. I had helped my mom with a wedding cake once, and over the past couple days I’d been reading all sorts of stuff about humdrum weddings. I’d even found a humdrum TV show all about choosing wedding dresses. I bet if you added up all the time I’d spent lately thinking about weddings, it would be almost a college degree’s worth.
“Wow.” Miranda was looking at me with wide eyes.
“As a bridesmaid you should make sure you have Band-Aids and some safety pins with you.” I had gotten this advice from one of the TV shows I’d seen. “You never know when the bride might get a blister or a small tear in her dress, and then you’re ready to help.”
Miranda nodded. “That’s a good idea.”
“Like I said, I’ve helped with lots of these.”
“What kind of earrings do you think bridesmaids should wear?” Miranda leaned on the counter. “My mom thinks I should wear a small pearl stud.”
I shook my head. “Well, it depends on the dress, but I think something sparkly would be better. It’s hard to say without seeing the dress.”
“Do you want to come over and see it?”
I wanted to dance behind the counter. Miranda, the most popular girl in the entire fourth grade (so popular that the fifth-grade girls talked to her), had invited me to her house!
“I’m having a slumber party tomorrow night. You should come,” Miranda said.
“Who else is going?”
“Bethany and Paula. We’re going to watch movies, and my mom says we can stay up as late as we want. I have all my cousin’s old bridal magazines. We’re going to pick out what we would wear if it were our wedding. You can help since you’re an expert.”
I wasn’t crazy about spending the night with Bethany, but since it was the first time Miranda had asked me over I didn’t think I could tell her who else to invite. “Okay, I’ll ask my mom.”
My mom and the bride-to-be came out from the back room smiling.
“I think you’ve picked a perfect cake.” Mom turned to Miranda, “And you’ll be happy to know it has pink roses on it too.”
“Miranda invited me to a slumber party tomorrow, can I go?” I asked my mom in front of everyone because I knew she would be less likely to say no. She was still nervous about me hanging around with humdrums.
“A sleeping party? I suppose that would be fun. Will you wear hats?”
My face flushed red. “It’s called a slumber party, Mom, and no one wears party hats.”
“Of course. We’ll pack up a box of cupcakes you can take over with you,” Mom offered.
Miranda clapped her hands. I couldn’t tell if she was excited that I got to come to her party or that I was bringing cupcakes.
Miranda pulled on my elbow and leaned into my ear to whisper while my mom and her cousin made arrangements about the cake. “I know you’re friends with Katie, but I can’t invite any more people over. I don’t think you should tell her about the party.”
My happy thoughts came to a sudden stop. I hadn’t thought about Katie. I knew she didn’t have any interest in being friends with Miranda. I agreed with her that Bethany and Paula weren’t very nice, but I could tell Miranda wasn’t like them. I didn’t like the idea of keeping another secret from Katie, but it wasn’t like she would want to go to the slumber party anyway. I chewed on the inside of my lip. It couldn’t be that big of deal to keep a secret about something she wouldn’t even be interested in if she knew.
“Okay. I won’t tell her,” I whispered back to Miranda.
Maybe it was all the frosting I had eaten earlier, or it might be the promise I had made Miranda, but my stomach felt turned upside-down.