Nick Next Door

CHAPTER 5: The Birth of Babycakes

My mom, Roo, and I spend the next two hours huddled in the kitchen trying new concoctions of vanilla, chocolate, and peanut butter.

We create batches of dough while chatting and tasting as many cupcakes as humanly possible.

"I feel really lucky to have you as a best friend, E," Roo says between mouthfuls of cake as we sit on the barstools at the kitchen island.

"And not just because I have an endless supply of desserts," Roo continues and picks up a vanilla cupcake that has cooled to admire it.

"I'm lucky, too." I lean forward in my barstool to grab a fresh cupcake.

"Thanks you two. I'm glad you like them." My mom smiles as she changes the settings on her mixer then looks at Roo and I. "You two remind me so much of me and my best friend when I was your age. Nancy and I did everything together. We had so much fun...sleepovers, dances, school...a teeny bit of mischief..." she trails off.

"Did you just censor your answer?" I accuse my mom.

"I'll save those stories for another time." She grabs a batter spoon and stirs peanut butter into a new batch of buttercream. "But I will tell you one thing - anything seems possible when you've got a best friend. The world just seems better, you know?"

"I agree." Roo slides me a cupcake she's been secretly working on near the left side of the kitchen island.

It's a cupcake with two simple smiley faces on it. The word "Me," is written under one face, and "U," is written under the other. And each face has whiskers.

Are those cat faces?

"To the best bestie," Roo says and smiles.

The cat smiley faces look like they were drawn by a kid wearing a blindfold after drinking a tequila shot, but I don't care. To me, this hot mess of a cupcake is perfection.

"Me and U. Get it?" Roo asks. "If you say it fast, it sounds like meow. Me. U. Meu. Meow!"

I laugh while staring at the cat-faced cupcake.

"Team Emma-Roo!" she jokes.

My heart warms beyond measure, and for a moment I don't know what to say. Roo really is the best best friend a girl could ever have. "Thanks and—"

There's a loud knock on the door.

I look at my mom, surprised. "You expecting anyone?"

She wipes her hands on a dish towel as she heads to the front door. "Yes, yes. The Rangioni's are picking up some boxes to take to Goodwill."

The Rangioni's?
Here?
Now?
And my mom didn't warn us?

Roo and I exchange horrified glances.

I still look like I rolled out of bed. But not just any bed. More like a bed that's been marooned on an island for 10 years.

Like I've been living without basic human necessities and have given up on life. And Roo has her own problems including flour in her hair and a dirty shirt that may have doubled as her pajamas last night.

"You've got to be kidding me." I check my reflection on the side of a metal mixing bowl. It's worse than I thought.

Roo is frantically straightening flyaway strands of her hair. "Well, we don't know which brother is coming over, if any. Or maybe it's just their parents?"