Free Bling It On! by Jill Santopolo Page B

Spa booth too, and knew it would never work without her and Sophie polishing.
    â€œGood question, Brooke.” Mr. Amari turned to Principal Rogers. “What do you think?” he asked her.
    Principal Rogers took the microphone. “I think if our fifth and sixth graders want children from the younger grades to help, that’s perfectly fine with me. If you need more workers, feel free to ask the kindergarteners through fourth graders. Good luck, everyone.”
    â€œYes!” Brooke cheered, and sat down. Then shepopped up. “Thank you!” she squeaked, and sat down once more.
    â€œBrooke and Sophie can help,” Charlotte said, clapping. “That’s perfect. Then our booth will have three manicurists, just like the salon.”
    Since Aly and Brooke were co-CEOs of the Sparkle Spa—initials that stood for chief executive officer and meant they were in charge of their business together—Aly figured Brooke would probably want to be co-CEO of the carnival booth, even if she wasn’t a fifth or sixth grader. And Aly thought that was okay.
    But would a Sparkle Spa booth actually make enough money for the carnival, especially since such a great prize—and Charlotte’s cookie bet—was on the line? And then, just like that, Aly had a worse worry: What if their proposal for a Sparkle Spa booth wasn’t chosen? What would they do then to win the prize?

two
Red-y, Set, Go
    A ly and Brooke’s mom had lots of rules for the Sparkle Spa:
    1. It could be open three days a week (Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays—unless a special event was scheduled).
    2. They could offer four services to their customers (manicures, pedicures, hair braiding, bracelet making, but no makeup or tattoos).
    And the most important one to Mom:
    3. The girls had to finish homework before polishing nails.
    Since it was Tuesday, the girls headed over to the Sparkle Spa after school.
    Tuesday was the sisters’ favorite day at the salon. That was when every single girl on the Auden Elementary soccer team—the Auden Angels—came to the spa. Jenica Posner, the captain of the team and also the coolest sixth grader, had really been the reason Aly and Brooke started the Sparkle Spa in the first place.
    A few months ago when all the True Colors manicurists were busy, Mom allowed Aly to give Jenica a rainbow sparkle pedicure, and then Jenica played really well in her soccer game. After that, the entire soccer team wanted rainbow sparkle pedicures everyweek—they were sure it gave them sparkle power. Their sparkle power took them all the way to the state finals, where they won!
    Now the Angels were playing indoor soccer for the winter season and wanted to keep up their sparkle power, which meant pedicures every Tuesday.
    â€œSo,” Jenica said as she climbed into one of the two pedicure chairs. “Are you going to have a Sparkle Spa booth at the carnival?”
    Aly and Brooke had talked about it on the walk from school to the salon. Aly still wasn’t convinced it was the best idea. And she hadn’t mentioned a word about the Cameron and Charlotte Cookie Bet. Aly had made Charlotte promise not to say anything to anyone, just in case it somehow got back to her mother and Joan that they’d promised a batch of Joan’s cookies without asking her first.
    â€œMaybe,” Brooke said. She turned on the faucetin the pedicure basin, filling it with soapy water to soak Jenica’s feet. “I think it’s a good idea. Aly sort of does. But she’s a little worried we won’t make enough money at the carnival because of how long it takes us to do manicures.”
    â€œRight,” Aly said. She was giving Anjuli Jones, the Angels’ goalie, a pedicure. Anjuli always had her fingers polished as well as her toes. She switched up her colors each week, and this time she handed Aly a bottle of Red-y, Set, Go for her nails.
    Brooke took a towel to dry off