Free Like Carrot Juice on a Cupcake by Julie Sternberg Page B

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.

Everything started changing that night after dinner,
    when Pearl called me up on the phone.
    “Eleanor!” she shouted. “It’s Pearl!”
    “Pearl!” I shouted back.

    (That’s how we like to start our calls.)
    “I have news,” she said. “It’s exciting news
    and miserable news, too.
    All blended up.”
    “What are you talking about?” I said.
    “I get to be Ainsley’s buddy!” she said.
    I was quiet for a second.
    Every new kid at our school is assigned a buddy,
    to help with schoolwork and making friends.
    And for that one second, I couldn’t help wondering,
    Why hadn’t Mrs. Ramji picked
me
    to be Ainsley’s buddy?
    Wouldn’t
I
be a good one?
    Then I told myself,

    Stop being stupid
.
    And I said to Pearl, “That’s great!
    Why isn’t it only exciting?”
    “Because of this miserable part,” Pearl said.
    “Ainsley is far behind.
    So her buddy needs to help her with homework
    every Monday and Wednesday, after school.
    Until she catches up.”
    “
Monday
and
Wednesday
?” I said.
    “Yes,” she said. Her voice was sad.
    “No other days work.”
    “But no other days work for us, either,” I said,
    thinking of Pearl’s Hebrew school, and my art classes,
    and Pearl’s weekend house upstate.
    “I know,” she said.
    We were both quiet for a second.
    Then I asked, “When does the homework help start?”
    I hoped she’d at least say, “Monday,”
    so we’d have the next afternoon,
    a Wednesday,
    together.
    Instead, she said, quietly, “Tomorrow.”
    “For how many weeks?” I asked.
    “I don’t know,” she said.
    “I don’t know when she’ll get caught up.”
    “I hope she’s very smart,” I said.
    I stood silently then,
    holding the phone and wondering
    how much time they’d spend studying together
    and baking brookies together
    and eating those crazy-delicious things together
    while I was at home alone,
    missing Pearl.
    And then I almost dropped the