On Tuesday afternoon at four o’clock, Heather Davis and her partyers appeared.
Heather’s babysitter sat down for her manicure with Lisa, and the three party girls started dancing around the salon, talking and laughing and coming dangerously close to knocking things over. As Aly had suspected, her mom was already not very happy that they’d agreed to host a birthday party without talking to her first.
“You have to keep them under control,” Mom said quietly to Aly. “I said you could have your own salon, but you have to remember that this is a business. My business. And your salon can’t cause problems for my customers.”
Aly gulped. “I promise, Mom. Brooke and I can handle it.” Really, they had no other choice. Otherwise, their salon was doomed.
“Okay, birthday-party people,” Aly said. “If you want your nails polished, follow Brooke through that door!”
The three girls started marching behind Brooke. After grabbing a handful of nail polish colors, Aly joined them in the back room. Brooke was in front of the pedicure basins, turning on the water.
“Who wants to choose a polish color?” Aly asked.
The girls came running.
Aly held out the colors she’d grabbed: Red-Hot Pepper, Silver Celebration, Orange You Pretty, and Pinkie Swear.
“I want the red!” the girl with the headband said.
“No, I want red!” the other girl said.
“You can both have the same color,” Aly told them.
“But I want red! Just me,” Heather said, her voice starting to wobble. “And I’m the birthday girl.”
Brooke walked over to Heather’s two guests. “You know what I think would be perfect on you guys?” She picked up the sparkly silver bottle. “Silver Celebration. Look how glittery it is! And today’s Heather’s birthday celebration, so even the name is perfect. What do you think, Tali?” she asked the girl with the headband.
Tali examined it. “I like sparkles,” she said.
“Jayden?” Brooke asked the other girl.
“I like sparkles too,” Jayden said.
“Great!” Brooke said. “And, Heather, you can have Red-Hot Pepper.”
Heather smiled. It was the kind of smile that changed her whole face. “Me first.”
Aly let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Maybe they could do this after all. “Actually, I think we can do all three of you together. Tali and Jayden will just have to share a chair.”
Aly led the three girls to the chairs and told them to climb on. But she forgot to tell them to take off their shoes first, and Heather’s flip-flop fell right into the water.
“Oh no!” Heather said, and promptly jumped off the chair into the water to get it. Now both of her flip-flops were wet! It was a good thing she was wearing shorts or her pants would’ve gotten soaked.
Aly helped Heather back into the chair and wrapped her flip-flops in towels so they’d dry faster. If she and Brooke had their own toe dryers back here, she would’ve stuck them in there. But for now, towels were the best she could manage.
“So I’ll do you,” Aly told Heather, “and Brooke will do Tali.”
“Who’s going to do me?” Jayden asked.
“Both of us,” Brooke told her.
Jayden seemed intrigued by that.
Aly kneeled down next to the pedicure basin to get to work, but it turned out that first graders are much squirmier than sixth graders.
“That tickles!” Heather squealed when Aly rubbed soap on her feet. But she didn’t just say it, she also kicked water on Aly’s shirt.
Brooke took a break from working on Tali to explain the bite-your-tongue-so-you-won’t-feel-the-tickle trick, which made things a little better, but Heather was still pretty wiggly. Aly had to hold on to her feet super tightly to keep the polish in the right place.
“Hey, you got it on my skin!” Aly heard Tali say to Brooke as she wiggled in the chair.
Brooke cleaned off the polish and told her, “You’ve got to try to stay still, or that’s going to keep happening.”
“I can’t help it!” Tali said. “It’s hard to sit still.”
“Is it my turn yet?” Jayden asked.
Aly looked around to find something for Jayden to do. Her eyes fell on the box of beads and the string that Mrs. Fornari had given Brooke.
She quickly opened the box of beads and handed it to Jayden. “While you’re waiting to get your nails done, you get to make a bracelet. You can use any color beads you want,” she said.
“Wait!” said Brooke. “I just had a better idea. Everyone can make bracelets. Ankle bracelets, actually, since they’re bigger. That way, you’ll have something to do in the chair to help you stop jiggling.”
Brooke quickly cut three lengths of string and gave one to each girl, telling them to knot one end so the beads wouldn’t slip off. The girls all starting beading. And they finally sat still! And Heather bit her tongue so she wasn’t ticklish. This party was turning out okay after all.
Aly finished up Heather’s Red-Hot Pepper toes just as Brooke finished up Tali’s Silver Celebration pedi. “One foot each?” Brooke said, handing a second bottle of Silver Celebration to Aly.
“Great idea.” Aly smiled.
Working as a team, the sisters finished Jayden’s toes in no time. All three girls worked on their bracelets as their nails dried.
“So,” Aly asked, “how do you like your toes?”
“Mine are beautiful,” Jayden said, wiggling them and watching them sparkle.
“Mine too,” Tali agreed, glancing down at her feet.
“I”—Heather sniffled—“I hate mine! Red-Hot Pepper is the worst color ever!” And she burst into tears.
Aly looked at Brooke in a panic. Brooke was looking panicked too.
“Um,” Aly said. “Wait—we can redo it. Do you want Silver Celebration like your friends?”
Heather shook her head. “I want a sp-special birthday c-color.”
“How about . . . Under Watermelon? Or Strawberry Sunday? Those are both really sparkly,” Brooke said.
“Not red or pink,” Heather said, wiping her eyes. “Something even more special.”
“My favorite’s Purple People Eater,” Aly offered. “How about that one?”
“That’s a scary name,” Heather said. “I don’t want one with a scary name.”
Brooke’s favorite was Pinkie Swear, which didn’t have a scary name but wouldn’t work anyway, because Heather didn’t want pink.
Brooke’s eyes opened wide. “Hold on,” she said.
She ran out into the main salon and came back with two bottles of Lemon Aid, bright yellow and super sparkly.
Heather stopped crying.
Since teamwork had worked so well with Jayden, Aly and Brooke did it again.
“What do you think now?” Brooke asked when they’d finished.
“I think they’re beautiful!” Heather couldn’t stop staring at her feet. “They’re the brightest, sparkliest toes I’ve ever seen.”
Brooke gathered up the cotton balls and nail polish bottles. “We did it,” she whispered to Aly.
Aly opened the pedicure basin drains. “Nice job,” she whispered back.
Then there was a knock at the door. “Okay, girls, party’s over,” Aly said, heading over to let in Heather’s babysitter.
But when she opened the door, it was Suzy Davis.
“You have a silver splotch on your leg,” Suzy said.
Aly looked down. Sure enough, there was silver nail polish there, in the shape of a very small banana.
“Oh,” she said. “Thanks.”
“I came to get my sister and her friends,” Suzy said. “But before we go, I want a pedicure too.”
Was Aly really going to have to polish Suzy’s toes? Heather’s birthday party had been hard enough. And now this?
“I’d like a rainbow,” Suzy said. “With . . . with hearts painted on each toe. In opposite colors.”
Opposite colors? What did that even mean?
“It’s the first day of our salon,” Brooke said from behind Aly. “We’re closed now. This was just a test run. Our grand opening is set for another day. You can come back then.”
Sometimes Aly had no idea where Brooke came up with this stuff.
“Who are you?” Suzy said.
“Aly’s sister Brooke,” Brooke answered. “Who are you?”
Aly looked over at Heather and her friends. They were still admiring their feet.
“I’m Heather’s sister, and I want a rainbow pedicure. Aly’s going to give me one.”
“No,” said Brooke, “she isn’t. If you want a rainbow pedicure, please make an appointment in the main salon with one of those manicurists. I said we’re closed.” Her hands were on her hips now.
Brooke looked at Aly and gave her a Secret Sister Eye Message. Aly gave her one back: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“What if I tell your mom that you won’t give me a pedicure?” Suzy’s hands were on her hips now too.
“This is our salon,” Aly said, finally finding her voice and stepping forward. “You can try telling our mom that, but it won’t make a difference. We have our own rules here.”
Suzy looked hard at Aly. She looked at Brooke. And back at Aly.
Then she looked around the back room. “Everyone at school was saying how great this place is. But it’s kind of gross. I’m going to tell everyone it’s a dump. And that they should go to the place across the street when it opens. This place is fine for first graders, but no one else would ever step foot in here.” Suzy walked over to her sister and her sister’s two friends. “Come on, let’s go,” she said.
Next thing Aly knew, Suzy, Heather, and the rest of the girls were leaving the back room. As they walked out, Aly heard them talking.
“This was the coolest birthday party ever!” Tali said to Jayden. “I want it for my birthday. It’s February first. Can you come?”
Aly smiled. Well, at least Tali had had a good time.
And then she heard Suzy say to Heather. “Hey, your toes look pretty. Nice color.”
Well, that was interesting. Aly hadn’t expected Suzy to say anything nice about the salon.
But then Aly remembered the other things Suzy had said. And as she looked around the back room, Aly realized Suzy was right. It was a bit of a dump, filled with boxes and water bottles and mismatched everything. If this place was going to be a hit, they’d need to do some redecorating. Otherwise, like Suzy said, their only customers would be first graders.