Free If the Shoe Fits (Whatever After #2) by Sarah Mlynowski Page B

sniffs at the table. “What are you selling?” she barks.
    “Brownies!” Jonah says.
    “Crownies!” I correct him. “Would you like to buy two? Only one dollar.”
    “What’s a crownie?”
    “It’s a yummy dessert!”
    “No, thanks,” she says, and walks away.
    “You don’t know what you’re missing!” Jonah calls out after her and helps himself to another brownie-crownie.
    Wait a sec. “That’s the problem!”
    “What is?” Jonah asks.
    “They don’t know what a crownie is!” I say.
    “No one knows what a crownie is,” Jonah says. “It’s not a real word.”
    I ignore him. “They don’t know how good crownies are. We need to give them samples. That’s what you did to convince the parriage driver, right? It’ll work here, too!”
    “You want us to give away crownies for free?” Cinderella asks eyes wide.
    I nod. “Except not whole ones. We’ll cut them even smaller. Once people taste them, they’ll buy them! It’ll be like Whole Foods or Costco! I love when they give you samples. Jonah, you’ll go into the crowd and pass them out. Make sure to tell them that we’re selling them right here, okay?”
    He salutes me. “Aye, aye, captain.”
    I break some crownies into pieces, put them on a plate, and hand them to my brother. “And, Jonah —”
    “Yeah?”
    “No munching!”
     
    We’ve given away a total of twenty crownies in samples. And we’ve sold ten crownies at fifty cents each. Meaning, we’ve made five dollars. Except we’re out ten dollars in merchandise.
    “It’s better than nothing,” Cinderella says.
    “True,” I say. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
    “What’s Rome?” she asks.
    “You really need to get out more,” I say.
    “I’m out of samples,” Jonah says, coming back to our booth.
    “We definitely have more of those,” I say. “Wanna switch?”
    “Sure,” he says.
    I cut up the crownies into even smaller pieces and start walking down the rows. There’s a butcher selling meat. A couple selling silver necklaces that have a dangling green eye on them. A little bit creepy. Oh! A woman with red hair is selling seriously cute dresses for ten dollars! I wish I had money so I could get one. Right now I’m wearing one of Cinderella’s drab gray dresses. It’s kind of itchy. And about two sizes too big.
    “Crownies!” I chant. “Come have a free crownie! A brand-new dessert like you’ve never had before! It’s a mix between a cookie and a cake! The chocolate will melt in your mouth! Goes great with a glass of milk!”
    A few people take samples and I remind them to come by our booth.
    “I’ll try one,” says a little freckled boy.
    I hand him one and watch as his eyes widen with joy. “Delicious!” he says.
    “Excuse me, would you like a tasty treat?” I offer a pregnant woman. “We’re selling them for fifty cents at our booth!”
    “Absolutely,” she says. “Hey, these are amazing!”
    I give her an extra one since she’s tasting for two.
    “Excuse me, would you like to taste Cinderella’s Crownies?” I say to the back of a young woman’s head. “They’re delicious! They’re homemade! Come meet the baker!”
    She turns around.
    Her hair isn’t blond or brunette. It’s in the middle. And frizzy. Her eyes aren’t blue or green or sparkly or really big. They’re average. And her lips are kind of thin.
    My jaw drops.
    Her jaw drops.
    It’s Kayla.

A GHHHH!
    The first thing I think is: RUN, ABBY, RUN!
    So I run.
    I run past the redheaded dressmaker and the butcher.
    Maybe she’ll think she imagined me? I run and duck and stop and hide behind a group of teenagers and then run some more. I don’t want to return to Cinderella’s Crownies in case Kayla is following me. I can’t lead her to the evidence!
    I crouch to the ground behind a cookie booth to catch my breath. She’s probably not following me. She probably didn’teven see me. And I ran really far. I definitely lost her. I’m a really good spy.
    I stand up