Free Flower Feud by Catherine R. Daly Page B

sat down at a table nearby. Idly, I glanced at a group of older girls sitting at a table in front of the Wok and Roll. They were laughing loudly, drinking sodas, and sharing one order of French fries. I took a closer look at one of the girls. It was Amber, Amy’s big sister!
    She was very pretty, with long, thick, reddish brown hair the same color as Amy’s. When she spoke, the other girls seemed to hang on her every word. They laughed at all her jokes. I noticed that she was wearing a pair of black motorcycle boots and had a bandanna pulled throughher jeans loops like a belt. Then I took a closer look. At least three of the girls in her group were sporting the exact same look.
Interesting,
I thought. It reminded me of the time that Ashley Edwards had accidentally spilled orange paint all over her black shirt in art class, and the next day three girls showed up with deliberately paint-splattered clothes.
    That’s when it hit me: Popular girls set trends. Sometimes even accidentally! And just as suddenly, I knew exactly what I needed to do.
    “I’ll be right back,” I said to Poppy. “I’m going to talk to that girl over there. To convince her to come to Petal Pushers.”
    Poppy shrugged and put a huge handful of popcorn into her mouth. Now that she had her snack, she didn’t care about anything else.
    I was a little nervous. I took a deep breath and marched over to Amber and her friends. They didn’t look up.
    “Um, hi, Amber,” I said.
    No response. I licked my lips and tried again.
    I cleared my throat. “Um, Amber …” I said.
    A silence fell over the chattering girls. And then they swiveled around and stared at me. Yikes.
    “Hey, Amber,” I said. “Remember me? I’m friends with your sister, Amy….” my voice trailed off.
    Amber looked up at me. “Are you kidding me? No middle school kids allowed,” she said. “Get lost.”
    As I stood there, wanting to melt into the floor, the rest of the girls all burst out laughing.

Chapter Nine
    My face fell. Complete and total humiliation!
    Just then Amber jumped up. She reached out to put a hand on my arm. “Oh, Del, I’m just kidding!” She laughed, and then so did the rest of the girls. “I’m so sorry,” she added. “I just couldn’t resist.”
    “Um … okay,” I replied, not sure what to say. Was that supposed to be funny? Because it so totally was not.
    “Are you looking for Amy?” Amber asked, smiling warmly. “She’s at home.”
    “Actually, I wanted to talk to you,” I said. “Do you have a minute?”
    She gave me a funny look, then shrugged. “Sure,” she said. We walked over to the fountain and sat on the edge. I could keep my eye on Poppy, who was still scarfing down handfuls of popcorn. I looked down and saw athick carpet of pennies and nickels that shoppers had thrown into the fountain.
That’s an awful lot of wishes,
I thought.
    Amber stared at me expectantly. “So what’s up?” she asked.
    “It’s about the prom,” I said. “You know my family owns a flower shop, right?” I asked.
    “Right,” said Amber. “Your grandparents did my bat mitzvah flowers. They were really nice.”
    “That’s great.” I took a deep breath. “I need to ask you a favor.”
    “Oh yeah?” said Amber warily.
    I soldiered on. “I know that the high school kids aren’t getting corsages this year for the prom,” I said.
    “That’s right,” Amber said. “Nobody wants those lame orchid wrist corsages.” She made a face. “So grandma, you know?”
    “I know,” I said. “That’s why we’ve created this line of cool prom flowers.”
    Amber looked skeptical. I reached into my bag and pulled out my phone. I flipped it open and pressed a bunch of buttons until I found my photos.
    “This is a gerbera-daisy-and-feather-snap-bracelet corsage,” I said. Amber leaned in closely, then took the phone from my hand.
    She looked up at me. “Wow,” she said. “That
is
really beautiful.”
    The next picture was of Rose’s