Free Emma: Lights! Camera! Cupcakes! by Coco Simon Page A

Olivia and the Cupcakers and I walked home to my house. I was surprised to see that Mia also had a garment bag, and even Katie and Alexis were toting small bags with outfits and supplies for the premiere.
    â€œGuys, I just want to remind you, we are not a key part of this premiere. Romaine asked for the cupcakes kind of as a favor to, you know, include me. And there are going to be a lot of serious, real people there, working. It’s Romaine’s big day. Not the Cupcake Club’s!”
    â€œOh, Emma, don’t be such a stick in the mud! You never know who we’ll meet along the delivery route!” Olivia laughed. I winced.
    â€œSpeaking of big days, when is Romaine getting married , Emma?” asked Katie. No one had asked me that point-blank since I’d found out, so I hadn’t had to lie. Until now.
    â€œOh . . .” I searched for the right thing to say that wouldn’t be a lie. “Soon. It’s a secret, so . . . you know, they don’t want the press to get wind of anything and ruin it. Mum’s the word!” Phew. I hadn’t lied.
    Out of the corner of my eyes, I could feelOlivia looking at me, and I could tell she thought I had no idea but was bluffing to make it look like I was involved. I took a deep breath. I’d have to let this one go, because I wasn’t about to blow Romaine’s whole cover just to make myself look good in front of Olivia Allen (no matter how tempted I was!).
    Mia was thoughtful. “If I were Romaine, I’d just do it now. Like, here , while everyone’s in town. No one would ever suspect it.”
    My stomach dropped. I didn’t say anything.
    â€œAre you nuts? Why would a glamorous celebrity like Romaine Ford get married in this little town when she could go anywhere on Earth?” asked Olivia, shaking her head in dismay of Mia’s lack of imagination.
    â€œI guess,” said Mia, considering Olivia’s point. “It depends on what kind of girl she really is.”
    Alexis looked at me. “Is she a hometown girl, Em, or a glamourpuss?”
    â€œOh, she’s . . . a little bit of both,” I conceded. Well, it was true! I changed the subject. “Like, I wonder what she’ll wear tonight?”
    â€œShe’s been wearing a lot of Ralph Lauren lately . . .,” said Mia knowledgably, and then they were off—Olivia and Mia, mainly—discussingsome of the many fab outfits Romaine had recently sported.
    Phew!
    We reached my house, and the boys had beaten us home. Matt was there with George and his friend Charlie, and they were hungrily eyeing the cupcakes in the dining room.
    â€œNot so fast!” I yelled. “Rejects only!” Silently, I hoped we wouldn’t have as many rejects as I suspected.
    I set to work getting everyone organized. Naturally, I paired Katie with George to begin piping the frosting, and of course Matt and Alexis were a team to bake tomorrow’s cupcakes. I put Charlie with both Mia and Olivia (they could fight to the death to see who won him!) for the wrapping and taping of the popcorn papers; I kind of floated and tried to oversee everyone. Unfortunately, I got a little bogged down with Katie and George and the frosting, because when I went back to see how Mia and Olivia and Charlie were doing, it was not going well at all.
    Olivia was mostly chatting, Charlie was all thumbs, with no standard of how to make the wrappers look good, and Mia was nearly in tears of frustration.
    More than half of the cupcakes they’d wrapped looked terrible—the papers were crinkled, and some even a little ripped, like they’d been handled too roughly.
    â€œWhoa, whoa, people! These look bad!” I exclaimed.
    Charlie looked up at me in surprise. “What? I think they look great!”
    Olivia was caught clearly not paying attention. “What do you mean?” she asked, only just looking down at what she was