Vote for Cupcakes! by Sheryl Berk Page B

an over-the-top invention. And while they all appreciated his enthusiasm and creativity, he didn’t have the best track record.
    â€œMaybe we should just leave it to the pros,” she suggested. “Sadie’s dad will know how to build it, no problem.”
    â€œBut I could do it bigger and better—no offense to Sadie’s dad.”
    Sadie shrugged. “None taken. Let’s hear it, Herbie.” Sadie was a real team player, a skill she’d picked up from competing expertly in every sport Blakely offered. “What are you thinking?”
    Herbie borrowed Lexi’s sketchbook to jot down a few calculations.
    â€œI’m thinking of how they make snow at ski resorts back home in Canada,” he explained. “They force water and pressured air through a ‘snow cannon’ of sorts.”
    Now it was Jenna’s turn to speak up. “ Un momento, por favor ,” she said. “You’re saying you want to make a ski slope inside the Blakely gymnasium?”
    Herbie scratched his head. “There must be a way to keep the snow contained so it only snows over the cupcakes.”
    â€œBut won’t the cupcakes get wet and soggy from the snow?” Kylie pointed out.
    â€œGood point,” Herbie said. “Let me think about it.”
    â€œHere,” Lexi said, drawing a circle over his snow-making machine sketch. “We can make it like a giant snow globe so at least we won’t get wet and soggy.”
    â€œOh, that’s awesome!” Kylie exclaimed. “Principal Fontina will flip out!”
    â€œAnd that’s a good thing?” Herbie asked her.
    â€œI mean she’ll love it,” Kylie insisted. “Seriously, this could be our greatest display yet. Are we all in agreement?”
    Sadie, Lexi, Jenna, and Herbie all nodded—but Delaney’s mind was elsewhere. As the girls all packed up, she sat staring into space.
    â€œLaney?” Kylie poked her friend gently in the arm. “You awake in there? You didn’t say a peep the entire meeting. Usually I can’t get you to stop gabbing.”
    â€œDo you like being president?” Delaney suddenly blurted out.
    Kylie had been the first to start the cupcake club at Blakely, and with the help of Jenna, Sadie, and Lexi had turned it into a booming baking business. When Delaney and Kylie met at sleepaway camp, Kylie had asked her to join the club—and now she was a full-fledged member of the team.
    â€œUm, are you asking to take over my job?” Kylie replied nervously. “Did I do something wrong?”
    â€œNo, no, no!” Delaney reassured her. “You’re a great president. I’m just asking if it’s fun.”
    â€œWell, of course,” Kylie said. “But it takes a lot of hard work and organization, and sometimes it’s kinda stressful. Like when we have three orders due on the same day and I have to figure out how to get them baked, decorated, and delivered. Or when we have to come up with an idea that’s never been done before.”
    She opened her binder to the recipe for Lemonade Laffy Taffy Cupcakes that PLC had made for Delaney’s mom’s baby shower.
    â€œRemember these?” Kylie chuckled. “How we filled them with both blue and pink frosting to reveal your mom was having both a boy and a girl?”
    Delaney sighed. “How could I forget? I passed out at the party! I was in shock!”
    â€œOr these?” Kylie pointed to a recipe for applesauce mini cupcakes that they’d used to decorate a ball-gown skirt for a Cinderella-themed birthday party. “Remember how we had to roll you in wearing it?”
    â€œI was the clumsiest fairy godmother,” Delaney recalled. “I landed facedown on the floor in a puddle of purple frosting!”
    â€œBut the kids loved it,” Kylie reminded her. “You sure know how to make an entrance!”
    â€œI guess we’ve come up with a lot of