Free Alexis Gets Frosted by Coco Simon Page A

Mom always told me to let things roll off my back.
    Actually, the timing was perfect, because right as they were roaring with laughter, picturing me having a duck meltdown in the hall, Olivia walked into the lunchroom. She looked directly at me and my table of friends, laughing our heads off, and she turned on her heel and left.
    â€œYou just won,” said Katie, who’d been watching the door. “Did you see that?”
    I nodded, but I didn’t feel good about it. “It’s not over.”
    â€œI think you’re wrong,” said Katie, shrugging.
    â€œWe’ll see,” I said.
    We planned a meeting for later that day at Emma’s and then, at my insistence, talked about other stuff for the rest of lunch. But deep down inside I let myself relax a tiny bit. Maybe I hadn’t committed sudden social death.

    â€œOkay, a few things on the agenda today . . .,” I began at Emma’s kitchen table that afternoon.
    â€œQuack!” said Katie, and she giggled.
    â€œQuack, quack!” said Mia.
    â€œAll right, enough!” I cried.
    â€œSorry,” said Mia with a smile.
    I cleared my throat. “On the agenda—”
    â€œQuack!” Emma peeped in a tiny voice.
    â€œStop!” I hollered, but I had to giggle.
    â€œQuack! Quack! Quack!” They all were doing it at the same time.
    I put down my ledger, where I keep track of everything. “Okay, you know what? Fine. Just get it out of your system, okay? We have a business to runhere, and we need to discuss some other important items, so when you are ready to act like mature people and not like idiots . . . ”
    They quacked and laughed for another minute, and then we began for real.
    â€œWe have the shower this weekend, which we’ll need to bake for on Friday, along with Mona’s minis. We also have my mom’s birthday, and I had a great idea. Since she’s turning forty-four, we’ll make forty-four cupcakes, eleven of each kind of the following: pear, something pink and ballerinaish, the strawberry shortcake she requested, plus the bacon ones for my dad. It will be a little cupcake buffet. Okay?”
    Everyone nodded.
    â€œNo duck cupcakes?” asked Mia with a smile.
    â€œNo,” I said sharply. “Next, we have the time capsule project. I made a few notes on this.” I pulled out some spreadsheets and then distributed them. “As you can see, there’s a checklist and then a Q&A section. Everyone needs to fill in their answers to the questions, and everyone should provide one of each of the items on the checklist. Just let me know what you think needs to be added or deleted. It’s only a starting point.”
    Emma was scanning the list. “This is going tohave to be a really big capsule!” she said.
    â€œI know,” I agreed. “I was almost thinking instead of putting the actual items in, we should just take a picture of them . . . ”
    â€œAnd we can put a printout of the pictures and a flash drive with everything on it!” finished Mia.
    â€œExactly,” I said, grinning.
    â€œGreat idea! Then the capsule can be really small!” said Katie.
    â€œAnd we don’t have to part with the things we love,” added Emma.
    â€œRight. So is there anything I should add or remove?”
    Everyone was quiet while they read their sheet. Then Katie said quietly, “The part about sworn enemies . . . Do you think we need that?”
    I bit my lip. “I wasn’t sure, but I thought it would maybe give us a chance to share what we’ve learned with future generations, like how to deal with bullies and mean girls.”
    â€œBy quacking?” teased Emma.
    â€œVery funny,” I said. “Not.”
    Mia was thoughtful. “Maybe it should be a more open-ended question. Like, who was the meanest person you ever dealt with and how did you handle it?”
    â€œAn essay