The Cupcake Diaries Collection: Katie and the Cupcake Cure; Mia in the Mix; Emma on Thin Icing; Alexis and the Perfect Recipe by Coco Simon

checked out our table.
    “Not bad,” I said.
    “It’s a little flat,” Mia said, turning her head sideways. “Maybe next time we could put the platters on pillars or something so that some are high and some are low.”
    Mom walked up behind us and put her arm around me.
    “Well, I think it looks perfect!” she said. “Why don’t you girls go stand in front of the table? I’ll take a picture.”
    We quickly lined up: me, Mia, Alexis, and then Emma.
    “Say ‘cupcake’!” Mom called out.
    “Cupcake!” we shouted.
    Alexis glanced at her watch. “We still have fifteen minutes. Let’s check out the competition.”
    “Good idea,” I agreed.
    We walked around. There must have been about a dozen tables besides ours. The basketball team was still setting up their dunking booth at the end of the parking lot. The girls’ soccer team had a booth where they would take your picture, print it out, and put it in a frame. Then you could decorate the frame with shapes like stars and soccer balls. Then we walked past the Chess Club’s table.
    “Oh, no!” Emma cried. “A bake sale!”
    The table was covered with paper plates topped with cookies, brownies, and yes—cupcakes.
    “I think our table stands out more,” Mia whispered to us. “And they don’t have special Park Street Middle School cupcakes, either.”
    “Besides, they have mostly cookies,” Alexis pointed out. “And they’re only charging fifty cents each for those.”
    Mia and Alexis made me feel better. I think Emma felt better too.
    Then we heard loud music coming from the other side of the parking lot. It was dance music, just like I’d heard in the clothing store the night before. We all turned our heads at the same time.
    The PGC had set up their booth!
    “Let’s get a closer look,” Mia suggested.
    We walked across the parking lot. I hated to admit it, but the PGC booth looked really cool. The table was covered with a black cloth with silver stars dangling from it. There were glittery makeup cases all over the table. They had a banner (the printed kind you order from the store) tied to the canopy up above. It read PGC’S MAKEOVER MAGIC .
    “What exactly are they doing?” I wondered out loud.
    We walked even closer. Sydney and Bella were busy spreading out makeup and brushes and stuff on the table. Bella had a small sign on the table in front of her that said, GOTH MAKEOVERS ARE MY SPECIALITY . She was wearing a black dress with a poufy skirt. Her reddish-brown hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail, and her face looked kind of pale. Smudgy dark makeup ringed her eyes.
    Next to her, Sydney wore her long blond hair straight and sleek. She was wearing a long white T-shirt over a gray tank with black leggings andboots. It reminded me of an outfit that Mia might wear.
    Callie was sitting at a tiny round table set up next to them with a cash box behind her. I noticed that she was dressed exactly the same as Sydney.
    So was Maggie. She looked as perfect as Sydney and Callie, except that a long lock of frizzy brown hair was hanging over her eyes. She darted through the crowd, handing out “Makeover Magic” flyers.
    “Flyers! Why didn’t we think of that?” Alexis said with a frown.
    “We don’t need flyers to sell cupcakes,” Mia said. “Cupcakes sell themselves.”
    The PGC booth worried me. I mean, it looked really good, a lot better than our table with its cardboard sign. Maybe Sydney had been right all along—they were going to win the contest with their secret weapon.
    “Speaking of selling cupcakes, we should get back to the booth,” Alexis said.
    That’s when Maggie bumped into us.
    “Oh, hi,” she said, shoving a flyer into my hand. “When things get slow at your cupcake stand, stop by for a makeover.”
    “We’ll try, but I don’t think things are going to get slow,” I said.
    We walked away, determined more than ever to sell every last one of our cupcakes.
    “The PGC might have music and flyers and glitter, but we