Free Mia the Magnificent by Eileen Boggess

kitchen stool. “I think you should get going now. It’s almost time for dinner.”
    “Forget dinner!” my mom exclaimed, yanking her hair out of its ponytail and running out of the kitchen. “I just got the perfect idea for my novel!”

    The next Saturday, I woke up to a clear sky and what was, for October, a record-high temperature, making me wonder just how close Cassie’s relationship with the devil really was. It was the perfect day to wear a two-piece swimsuit to a car wash—that is, for anyone whose parents would let her wear one.
    I walked into the kitchen and Chris looked up from his cereal bowl. “Where are you going so early on a Saturday? The circus hire you for the freak show again?”
    “You know,” I said, grabbing a granola bar from the cupboard, “if you were just a little bit smarter, you’d need watering.”
    “Why are you so cranky?” Chris asked. “You look in the mirror?”
    “No,” I replied as I ripped the wrapper off my granola bar. “I’m crabby because I told Lisa I would help her run the car wash, but Mom and Dad are insisting I wear a T- shirt and shorts when every other girl is going to be wearing a bikini. I’m going to look like the Miss Congeniality contestant at a beauty pageant.”
    “Don’t you need a pleasant personality to win Miss Congeniality?”
    I scowled at him and gnawed off a hunk of granola bar. “So, where are Mom and Dad?”
    “Dad went for a run—mumbling something about how turning 40 wasn’t going to slow him down—and I haven’t seen Mom in days. She’s been holed up in her bedroom pounding away on her laptop.Do you think she’s starting to turn mental on us?”
    “Starting to turn mental?” I chewed off another bite. “So, what pointless thing are you doing today?”
    “I’m hanging with Gina at the mall.”
    “Gina?” I asked, surprised. “You actually took my advice and she forgave you?”
    “Like I was ever really going to listen to you,” Chris said, pouring more cereal into his bowl. “No, after you gave me that lame advice, I went to talk to a real expert—Tim.”
    “Oh no,” I said, groaning. “What did he say?”
    “He said to ignore Gina for a day or two, and then she’d come back to me.” Chris smiled. “And he was totally right. Gina called me last night and asked me to go to the mall with her. So, once again, Tim proved he’s the master when it comes to girls. If I keep following his advice, I’ll be just like him when I get to high school.”
    At the thought of Tim playing Dr. Frankenstein with my little brother, I choked on my last bite of granola bar. I had to stop him. Maybe I could place garlic around Chris’s neck or stab Tim through the heart with a stake—oh, wait, that was Count Dracula. OK, I wasn’t really sure how they stopped Frankenstein—we hadn’t gotten to that book in English yet—but I did know it ended badly for Frankenstein’s monster. No way was I was going to let my little brother suffer the same bad results.

    I pulled into the grocery store parking lot where the car wash was going to be held just as Mike finished locking up his bike.
    “Hey, Mia,” he said with a wave. “What are you doing here?”
    “Lisa needed my help,” I said as I climbed off of my bike, “and you know how hard it is to say no to her.”
    “Yeah, I remember. One time, she talked me into seeing a filmthat was entirely in French and didn’t even have subtitles.”
    “Wow, that must have been rough,” I said, placing my bike chain through my front wheel.
    “Actually, it wasn’t too bad.” Mike shrugged. “I kind of liked it, even if I didn’t understand any of it.”
    “Lisa does have a way of making even the most boring things fun,” I said.
    Mike sighed. “Yeah, she definitely isn’t boring.”
    “Are you saying Mandy is?” I asked, hoping to give a ray of hope to Lisa. Maybe Mike wasn’t as into Mandy as Lisa thought he was.
    Mike looked at me. “I didn’t say that.”
    “But I can