The next morning,
I brought most of the cupcakes to school
on a plastic plate, all covered in foil.
For Pearl.
"They're pretty salty," I told her,
handing her the plate.
"But they're not terrible."
We were standing at our desks,
waiting for the first bell to ring.
"Thanks," she said.
Then she asked, "How's Antoine?
Did he throw up?"
"Yes!" I told her. "Right before I went to bed!
All over my mom's favorite rug!
She was not happy."
"But vomiting was good for him!" Pearl said.
"He was getting bad things out of his system."
"I told my mom that," I said.
"She said, 'I'm very glad they're out of his system.
But do they have to be on my rug?'"
Somebody behind us started making
yucky vomiting noises then.
I didn't even turn around.
I knew who it was.
"Stop listening to our conversations, Nicholas!"
I said.
"And stop being disgusting!"
"I'm getting bad things out of my system," he said.
At that moment, the new girl, Ainsley, walked in.
She looked very sparkly and colorful,
just like the day before.
And she had on another big bow.
"Hey, Ainsley!" Pearl and I both said
as Ainsley walked to her desk.
"Hey," she said back.
She seemed a little shy.
"Want a cupcake?" Pearl asked her,
holding up the foil-covered plate.
"They're salty!" Nicholas called out from behind us.
"Stop listening to our conversations!"
I told Nicholas again.
"They are a little salty," Pearl told Ainsley.
"It's okay," Ainsley said. "I'm not really hungry.
Thanks, though."
I don't know what Pearl said next,
because Nicholas distracted me
by throwing a wadded-up piece of paper at my arm.
"Ow!" I said, when it hit me,
even though it didn't hurt at all.
Then I picked that ball of paper up off the floor
and smoothed it out.
It was a picture of me,
with chocolate all over my face,
eating a giant cupcake.
I folded that picture
and put it on top of my Nicholas picture pile
and thanked him,
the way I always did.
Then I heard Ainsley say to Pearl,
"They're so good, they're crazy.
You should come bake them at my house with me!"
I frowned a little.
I didn't love
Ainsley inviting Pearl to her house
to bake crazy-delicious things.
But
the very next moment,
Ainsley turned to me and said,
super-nicely,
"You should come, too!
We'll all make them together."
"Make what?" I asked.
"Brookie cupcakes!" she said.
"They're brownies and chocolate chip cookies
mixed together,
inside cupcakes."
My mouth fell open.
I had to admit,
I had never dreamed of anything as good
as brownies and chocolate chip cookies
inside cupcakes.
"Is there frosting?" I asked Ainsley.
"Chocolate frosting," she said.
"We'll definitely make them with you,"
Pearl told Ainsley.
"Right, Eleanor?"
"Of course!" I said.
I really meant that, too.
And not just because I wanted to taste those things.
I thought Natalie would take me and Pearl
over to Ainsley's
on a Monday or a Wednesday.
And we'd all have fun together.
Then,
Pearl and I—
best friends for our whole lives—
would go back to our Mondays and Wednesdays
together.
Just the two of us.
I was sure that was how it would happen.
But
it turned out, I had no idea
about anything.
