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But that got me thinking about my Spanish class again. How was I ever going to tell my mom and dad and Eddie that I was failing Spanish? Ava was right. They would make sure I got the extra help I needed. And the longer I avoided telling them, the worse it was going to be. But still, the thought of telling them made my stomach feel queasy. Even though I knew it was crazy, I kept hoping that if I avoided the problem, somehow it would magically disappear.
    â€œEarth to Mia!” said Katie, waving something under my nose. She held up an index card. “Mom gave me her recipe for the dark chocolate ones. The measurements are always a little different when there’s chocolate,” she explained to Ava.
    Chocolate. Now that should have caught my attention. But I couldn’t get my mind off my Spanish class. This was awful. Baking cupcakes with the Cupcake Club was one of my favorite things to do in the entire world, and now I couldn’teven enjoy that. I kept throwing ingredients into the batter and stirring, stirring, stirring, wishing I could make my problems disappear the way the spices were disappearing into the chocolate batter.
    Wait—spices in the chocolate batter? I tasted a little bit. Whoa. Intense. And not in a good way.
    â€œUm, sorry, guys,” I said. “I think I mixed up the two batters. I added the spices to the dark chocolate batter by accident.” Alexis frowned at the waste of ingredients, but everyone else was really nice. We’ve all ruined or burned batches of cupcakes at one time or another, so everyone was pretty forgiving.
    â€œMaybe you should work on something else right now,” Alexis suggested.
    I agreed, and so I said, “Ava and I will do the icing.” Then we made a double batch of vanilla icing dyed red and spiced with cinnamon.
    About forty-five minutes later we were staring at two plates of cupcakes with red frosting and dotted with Red Hots candies. They looked great, and both looked the same—although inside, they were both really different.
    â€œTasting time!” Alexis announced, and we cutsome of the cupcakes in half so we each ate half of one. Everyone got quiet for a few minutes while we ate. Cupcake tasting is fun, but it’s also serious business.
    â€œThey are both so good,” Emma said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “But I think I like the dark chocolate ones best.”
    â€œMe too,” I agreed.
    Alexis shook her head. “I like the spices in the apple cupcakes.”
    â€œI vote for apple too,” Katie said.
    Alexis frowned. “It’s a tie.”
    â€œAva can break the tie,” I said. “What do you think, Ava?”
    â€œYou know me. I love chocolate!” she replied.
    I turned to my friends. “What do you think? Should we do the dark chocolate?”
    Katie and Alexis looked at each other and shrugged.
    â€œFine,” Alexis said. “Studies show that chocolate is one of the most popular cupcake flavors, anyway. Maybe we’ll get some new customers from it.”
    â€œAnd they’re Valentine’s Day cupcakes,” Emma said. “And you know how everybody goes gaga over chocolate on Valentine’s Day.”
    Katie put her arms around the plate of applecupcakes. “Then I guess I’ll be taking these home,” she joked, and we all laughed.
    It felt really good to have all my friends together in one place. But I knew it wouldn’t last. In a little while, Ava would have to go back to the city. My cupcake friends would be in Maple Grove. And I would still be stuck with Spanish wherever I went.

CHAPTER 7
    Tiny Plates and Tiny Lies
    A fter our meeting was over and the kitchen was clean, Ava and I had to hurry and pack up her things. We had a half hour to get to the train station.
    Even though Ava was leaving, there was one good thing about that day. You see, I was supposed to see my dad this weekend, but he had to go on a business trip. He was coming