Just Grace and the Trouble with Cupcakes Read online

  While everyone was crowding around Miss Lois and Mr. Clausen, I ran over to Mom. “Oh, I was just going to buy you a cupcake,” said Mom. “You did great. It was so much fun to watch.” “Can you buy me eight?” I asked. Mom looked at me like I was crazy. “You’re not going to eat eight cupcakes,” she said. I patted my stomach and said, “But I’m soooo hungry.” Mom didn’t get my joke. “Mom! They’re not all for me,” I said. “I want to give them to my friends. “That’s a lot of friends,” said Mom. “Are you sure they all deserve one?” “Definitely!” I said. “And I want you to buy the cupcakes I made.” Mom sighed and made me stand beside her so I could help carry them.

  WHAT IS A LITTLE STRANGE

  Buying your own cupcakes. Even though I made them, I still had to pay to get them.

  CUPCAKES THINKING THEY BELONG TO ME

  WHAT IS FUN

  Watching people take a bite of something that you know they are going to love. “This is amazing,” said Ruth. Robert Walters nodded. Even though he didn’t say anything, I could tell that he loved it too. Owen 1 was in the bathroom, so I couldn’t give him his yet. I ate my cupcake while I watched Miss Lois make the announcement about the winning team. It was exciting to see Mimi, Sammy, Max, and Sunni standing up in front of everybody. Mimi and Sunni put on the crowns Miss Lois had made, but Sammy and Max just held them. I looked at Miss Lois to see if she was upset about that, but she didn’t seem to care. After she took their photo, I gave them their cupcakes. Of course they loved them!

  I was kind of hoping I could get Mom to buy me another cupcake, but when I went over to the cupcake table to look for her, I saw that all my cupcakes were gone. When something is a good thing, people find out about it fast. There were other cupcakes there, but I didn’t want one of those. Once your tongue has tasted amazing, it can’t go back to regular.

  WHAT IS NOT EASY

  To hold a delicious cupcake and not eat it.

  A HUGE SURPRISE

  When Owen 1 came back from the bathroom, he handed me a card. Even though he made a big excuse about it, it was still really nice. My whole team had signed it.

  “He kind of wrecked it,” said Ruth, and she pointed to the front of the card. “That wasn’t my fault!” complained Owen 1. “Both you and Robert were talking to me at the same time and telling me different things to write.” “I said to write fun,” said Robert. “And I said to write nice,” said Ruth. “Nobody said fice,” said Robert.

  I looked over at Owen 1. He was getting mad. His face was scrunched up. He was about to say something that was going to wreck the moment and make everybody upset. I could tell.

  “Here!” I said. I shoved his cupcake into his hand. For a second he was confused. His brain was probably deciding which to do: say what he was going to say, or eat the cupcake. A cupcake is a hard thing to ignore, especially if it is in your hand. Owen 1 took a huge bite. I smiled. “I like fice!” I said. “It’s perfect.” And the funny thing is I was 100 percent telling the truth.

  FUN + NICE = FICE

  Owen 1 just nodded and chewed. He couldn’t say a thing. Not with Grandma’s perfect cupcake in his mouth. And even though Grandma was all the way in France, she’d done what she thought she couldn’t do—help me at the fair.

  WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT

  Mom said I could walk home with Mimi, Sammy, and Max. As soon as we started walking, both Sammy and Max put their crowns on. When we got to my house, they ordered me to make more cupcakes. “You’re not the kings of me,” I said, but secretly I was thinking like them. More cupcakes sounded like a good idea.

  After they left, Mimi and I went inside, and there right on the table by the door was a postcard from Grandma. It was a picture of the Eiffel Tower.

  “I wish I could go there,” I said. “Me too,” said Mimi. “Let’s go one day together,” said Mimi. It was a great idea. Mimi and me on top of the Eiffel Tower. That would be perfect! “Pinky swear?” I asked. Mimi looked at me for a second, and then held out her pinky. It was a pinky swear I was 100 percent sure I would never break.

  AMAZING

  “France is amazing!” I said. “I know something more amazing than France,” said Mimi. I looked at her and shrugged. “What?” I asked. “That you’re friends with Owen 1,” said Mimi, and she laughed. “We’re not friends,” I said. “It’s something different.” But she was sort of right. Now Owen 1 wasn’t only just annoying. Now he was sometimes okay.

  ANNOYING + OKAY = ANNOKAY

  Nothing cures shock like sharing a surprise cupcake, even if it is kind of squished.

  And I found another superpower that the guessing ball doesn’t know about.

  Cupcake Recipe

  CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

  Makes 16 standard cupcakes or 12 standard and 12 mini cupcakes

  1¾ cups all-purpose flour

  ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

  ¾ teaspoon baking soda

  ½ teaspoon baking powder

  ½ teaspoon salt

  1½ sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

  ¾ cup lightly packed brown sugar

  2 large eggs

  2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

  1 cup buttermilk

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the muffin cups with paper liners.

  Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, with an electric mixer on high, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the melted chocolate. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating just until blended. Stir in the vanilla.

  Spoon half of the batter into a ziplock bag. Snip a ¼-inch corner from the bag and fill the paper liners two-thirds full. Repeat with the remaining batter. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the baking pan, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool completely.

  Frosting Recipe

  ALMOST-HOMEMADE VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

  Makes 3 ½ cups

  1 container (16 ounces) Marshmallow Fluff

  3 sticks (¾ pound) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, plus additional sugar if necessary

  Spoon the Marshmallow Fluff into a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low. Gradually add the butter pieces, beating well after each addition, until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and the ½ cup confectioners’ sugar. Scrape the bowl well to incorporate. Add more confectioners’ sugar, if necessary, to adjust the texture.

  What Grace Will Be Thinking About in Her Next Book

  THINGS THAT ARE UNUSUAL ABOUT ME

  At school my teacher calls me Just Grace instead of Grace. This kind of thing can happen if your teacher is not paying attention when you say, Please call me just Grace.

  My best friend lives right next door to me, and I can see her bedroom window from my bedroom window.

  I have a flight attendant living in the apartment in my basement. Her name is Augustine Dupre, and she lives there with her husband, Luke. Augustine Dupre is super nice and her apartment is amazing and beautiful.

  I have a dog that is a girl dog, but she has a boy-dog name. Her name is Mr. Scruffers. When I adopted her I tried to change her name, but it was too hard. She loves being called Mr. Scruffers.

  I have a teeny-tiny superpower. It’s empathy power, and every time someone is sad or unhappy it starts working, and I have to help them feel better. Empathy power is not an easy superpower to live with—sometimes it can get you into trouble, but if I’m lucky it works out just fine.

  HOW MY EMPATHY POWER WORKS

  WHAT IS STRANGE

  Sometimes even if you know that something is true, you can stil
l have trouble believing it. That’s how I felt when Miss Lois was showing us the globe of the world, and talking about the earth spinning. I should have been listening, but it’s hard to do two things at once, especially if one of those things is trying to figure out if you might be hanging upside down.

  Miss Lois is good at noticing stuff, because even though I was being careful and only moving when she was looking away, she still saw me. This was unlucky, because Miss Lois is not the kind of teacher who just nods and gives you a silent I-need-you-to-pay-attention look. She’s loud. If you get caught doing something wrong in her class, everyone is going to know about it. That’s why as soon as she stopped talking and looked at me, I knew I was in trouble. Miss Lois pointed her finger and said, “Just Grace, stop fidgeting in your seat and pay attention.” As soon as she said that, everyone in the whole class turned around and looked at me. This kind of attention is not the same as getting attention when you are on stage.

  I put my head down and stared at the eraser on my desk until my face felt normal, and not hot and red anymore. When I looked up, everyone was back to looking at Miss Lois, except for one person, but that was okay, because I was expecting it. I looked across the room and found Mimi. She nodded her head and gave me a big you’ll-be-okay smile. Instantly I started to feel better. It was the exact right thing for a best friend to do.

  Owen 1 says that the reason that Miss Lois is good at noticing stuff is because she has fly eyes. Of course that’s 100 percent crazy and not true, but when Owen 1 says weird stuff, it’s better to pretend you didn’t hear him. Arguing with Owen 1 is not a good idea. He’s a bad loser.

  Sometimes when I am mad or upset I like to draw comics. I don’t know why it works, but it usually helps me feel better. I did that the last time Owen 1 was a bad loser, and when I was done I felt almost 100 percent better, plus it was fun to draw him saying he was sorry. Even if something doesn’t happen in real life, it can help you feel better just imagining it.

  Of course the fantasy ending didn’t really happen—instead what really happened was that Owen 1 just looked at me with a mean face and then walked away. I knew he wasn’t one bit sorry.

  I was thinking about that comic when suddenly someone poked me in the back with a pencil. That kind of thing is impossible to ignore, especially when you know who the someone is and they are not one of your favorite people. Owen 1 sits right behind me, and every time he doesn’t understand something, wants to tell me a stupid joke, or is bored, he pokes me. I’ve told Miss Lois about it a million times, but it doesn’t make a difference.

  CIRCLE OF NOTHING HAPPENING

  After a while, instead of Owen 1 stopping poking me, it was me who did the stopping. I stopped complaining.

  RULE OF COMPLAINING

  If you complain about someone a lot, the person who you are complaining to will start to get annoyed by all your complaining, and suddenly you might be the one who is getting into trouble instead of the person who is doing the thing that you are complaining about. Sometimes when something sounds complicated a drawing can make it easier to understand.

  DRAWING THAT EXPLAINS THE RULE OF COMPLAINING

  These kinds of rules are not fair, but sometimes in life, unfair things happen.

  Buy the Book

  Visit www.hmhco.com or your favorite retailer to purchase the book in its entirety.

  Visit www.hmhco.com to find all of the books in the Just Grace series.

  About the Author

  CHARISE MERICLE HARPER is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the Just Grace series. In a starred review, Booklist called Just Grace “Hilarious,” and said, “The kids come alive in the story, and Harper enhances the comical goings-on with sparkling cartoon sketches. Give this to . . . anyone looking for a funny book.” Charise lives in Westchester County, New York. Visit her website at www.chariseharper.com and visit Just Grace’s website at www.justgracebooks.com, where you’ll find all sorts of fun things, including videos, quizzes, and information about all the Just Grace books.