Chapter 29 #2
Suzy walks down the aisle and pauses to check out some hand-embroidered bags. I wave and call her name. “Suzy!”
She smiles when she sees us and hurries over. “Callie, did you make all this?” Suzy’s eyes go enormous, and she reaches for one of the samples we have set out. She takes a brownie square and closes her eyes. “Holy crap.”
“Well, not—" I begin.
“Yes,” Zeke says. “Callie made all of it.”
“Well . . .”
“You are amazing. These are amazing.” Suzy opens her eyes and steps aside for another customer, who Caroline steps forward to help.
“This is it! I’ve got it.” Suzy grins.
“What?” I hand a sample of a unicorn cookie to a little girl after getting a nod from her parents. “What?”
Suzy grabs me by the arm and pulls me to the back of our area, so Zeke takes over, selling the parents three cookies.
“What?” I ask. “Tell me!”
Suzy’s dark eyes light up. “This is how we overtake Brielle in the campaign.”
“What? How?”
“See there?” Suzy steps aside, and I look where she’s gesturing. A few of our fellow Monte Ville High students are drifting through the stalls. “Our classmates love you. They love your treats. It’s so simple! How did I not come up with this before?”
“I have to get back to help Caroline—” I notice that the line is piling up, and anxiety pokes me in the stomach.
“Visualize this,” Suzy says. “We make a bunch of cookies that say, ‘Vote for Callie’ and hand them out at lunch. Brilliant, right?”
I pause. “Will that really work? How is that different from the posters and voting badges we’ve already passed out?”
Suzy punches my arm.
“Ow!” I rub the spot.
“Of course it’s different! People love food. This is how we get them to love you.” Suzy gives me an imploring look with her black eyes. “C’mon, Cal. We need something big to give us an edge. After that article about you—”
“None of that was true!”
“I know, I know. I’m just saying we need to do something if you have any hope of catching back up.”
I sigh. A moment passes while Suzy gives me puppy dog eyes. “It is a good idea.”
“Yes! I’m going to get permission from the school, and you learn how to do that really cool icing.” Suzy glances around. “Like her!” She points at Amanda’s stall.
“Ugh.” I hold back a sigh. “But I hate that—”
“You hate the way it tastes, it’s too hard, blah blah blah.” Suzy levels me with a stare. “Callie. You can do this. Conquer the royal icing! Do it for me.” Her eyes turn pleading. “Please?”
I hold back a laugh. “Okay.”
“Tell me I’m brilliant.”
“You’re brilliant.”
“So who is that?” She gestures back at Amanda. “No . . . Brielle’s here?” We both move forward, and I help to restock the cookies that have been sold.
“Yes,” I say with a grimace. I pause, not wanting to be too mean in front of potential customers. “She wasn’t very nice to Caroline.” I lower my voice. “It would be amazing if we sold more than her.”
Suzy levels her stare at Amanda. “On it.” She raises her phone for a selfie. “Say, ‘Cookies!’”
“Cookies!” I grin at the camera.
Suzy takes a look at the pic. “Perfect.” She heads to the back of our area, fingers tapping away.
I wonder what she’s up to, but I don’t have much time.
We’re kept busy by customer after customer.
I hardly have a moment to notice Zeke, brushing up against me in the tiny space, or how his smile lights up every time we make another sale.
The way he turns that smile on me, and my heart pounds like I’ve done a hundred back handsprings.
The traffic only increases, and soon we’re so busy I can’t even think. What did Suzy do?
People leave Amanda’s stall and flock to ours, and she looks flabbergasted and stunned. Upset, even. I smile.
Suzy joins me and helps me box up a whole dozen chocolate chip cookies. We only have a few left.
“What did you do?” I ask under my breath, handing off the box to a happy family while Caroline swipes their card.
“Oh, I just worked a little social media magic.” Suzy pulls out her phone to show me the post, the pic of us with the caption, “Callie Carter bakes for a church fundraiser. Come support a local church, and Monte Ville High don’t forget to vote for your Homecoming Queen.”
“I love it. Suze, you’re a genius!”
Brielle finally deigns to notice us when her eyes follow the trail of shoppers leaving her mom’s stall and coming to ours.
The glare she gives me sends a chill up and down my spine, but I just smile and wave.
She pulls out her phone for a selfie, and I get the bad feeling that she’s also putting her social media powers into play.
The rest of the afternoon goes by in a blur.
I don’t have much time to pay attention to Amanda and Brielle, so it’s hard to say who drew more of a crowd.
But we sell out of every kind of cookie and the cinnamon rolls, which has me wishing I could’ve made more, but a side hug from Zeke makes it all better.
We’re almost out of the blueberry muffins and the s’mores bars when the time is up and people trickle away.
The gym slowly empties of its crowds, and vendors begin packing up their wares.
An older gentleman wearing jeans, a red collared shirt, and a cowboy hat walks up to the podium at the front of the room.
“This is it!” Caroline says. “Pastor Steve is going to announce who sold the most.”
Zeke and I look at each other, and there’s a burst of hope in his eyes. “Could it be us?”
“I don’t know.” We did well, but so did Amanda and Brielle. I want to beat them so bad I can taste it.
Pastor Steve starts by clapping, and the vendors join in. He speaks into a mic with a gruff voice. “Thanks so much to all of you who have worked so hard and given of your talents to make this fundraiser the best the church has ever had.”
Applause breaks out, and we join in. I shift my weight, just now noticing that my feet are aching from standing so long. We hardly got a break.
It has to be us. It has to.
“Callie,” Caroline says in a low voice as Pastor Steve continues to talk. “You did amazing, darling. Whether we won or not, it doesn’t matter. I’m so, so proud of you.”
Unexpected tears fill my eyes. I don’t have time to process the feeling because Pastor Steve says, “In third place we have . . . Zach Daniels and his daughter, Dahlia Daniels, selling their LEGO minifigures.”
Zeke elbows my side. “I told you those things are popular.”
I grin, watching an adorable little girl in brown pigtails follow her dad up to the podium to receive their prize.
“Congratulations, you two! You’ve won a gift card to our local trampoline park.”
The girl squeals and jumps up and down so hard that one of the pink bows in her hair falls to the ground.
The crowd applauds and then goes silent as Pastor Steve continues. “In second place we have . . . Caroline Harris, Zeke Harris, and Callie Carter, selling delicious homemade baked goods.”
My heart sinks to the floor.
Caroline shrieks and grabs my arm to drag me and Zeke up to the podium with her. I look out over all the people clapping for me and my treats. I should be happy. Second place is really, really good. I take my place at the front next to Zeke and force a smile to my face.
Pastor Steve hands Caroline a gift card to Ivar’s, a nearby seafood restaurant, and then we return to our stall. I hold my breath as Steve announces the first-place winner.
Please don’t be her.
“And in first place for raising the most money for our church, we have Amanda and Brielle Williams!”
Brielle sneers at me on her way up to the podium with her mom.
I swallow, disappointment flooding my system. “How?” I whisper. “How did they sell more than us?”
Suzy frowns, watching them go. She pulls out her phone and begins tapping away.
Zeke is obliviously packing up the boxes. Caroline wraps one arm around my shoulders. “Oh, honey. We were so close. Second place is still a win, and we’re going to celebrate.”
I woodenly clap as Amanda and Brielle receive their prize, graciously thanking Steve and the congregation.
Suzy wordlessly holds up her phone and shows me Brielle’s social media feed. She posted something similar to what we did, showing herself at the church sale and asking for votes. But she has over two hundred more likes than me, and she even posted later than I did.
That’s just depressing.