Bad News Nails by Jill Santopolo

“But where’s Carolyn’s daughter? Isn’t today her last day with you girls?”
    â€œWe’re not sure,” Aly told her mom. “We were just going to call her.”
    â€œWell, have a super party. I’ll send the pizza back when it arrives.” Mom smiled and left.
    â€œIt’s kind of weird that no one’s here yet, right?” Lily wondered.
    Brooke said, “Jenica’s always early. Maybe Mom’s right about a traffic jam.”
    Aly paced back and forth. “There’s a problem about calling Suzy. I don’t know her number.”
    â€œI bet she’s in our records. Don’t forget, sheand Heather have been customers here,” Charlotte reminded them. She walked over to the desk.
    But when she opened the bottom drawer, she gasped. “Our records are gone!”
    Brooke ran over. “What?” she squealed. “It’s empty! The whole drawer’s empty! Who would take our records?”
    All at once, everyone knew exactly who would take their records.
    Suzy Davis.
    Aly picked up the portable phone from True Colors that her mother let the girls keep in the spa and closed her eyes. “Jenica got a cell phone for her birthday this year. I’m trying to remember her number. . . .”
    She wasn’t sure if she was dialing correctly, but after a couple of rings Jenica picked up.
    â€œHey, Aly!” she said. Aly could hear chattering and laughter in the background. “Where are youguys? Suzy said you were coming, but you’re late. And guess what? We won yesterday.”
    Aly felt the blood drain out of her face. “Uh . . . um . . . Congratulations, Jenica! That’s awesome. But, wait, you’re where ?” she asked.
    â€œAt Suzy’s,” Jenica answered. “She called everyone last night and explained that the party was being moved to her house—that the big surprise was that it was going to be a combination pool party and spa party. So we’re all here!”
    Aly swallowed hard. She couldn’t let Jenica or any other customer know that there was a problem at the Sparkle Spa. A pretty big one. “Sorry,” she said. “We, um, got a little lost. Can you tell me the address again?”
    Jenica gave her the information, and Aly hung up the phone, fighting back tears. Suzy had not only stolen their customer files, but she’d hijacked their soccer spa party!
    Aly took a deep breath. “So . . . ,” she told everyone, “they’re all at Suzy Davis’s house.”
    â€œWhat?!” Brooke screamed. “Are you kidding?”
    â€œShe is the absolute worst,” Lily added, plopping down onto a pillow. “What are we going to do? We have a whole party set up here and no one’s coming to it.”
    Aly tried to stay calm. That’s what you had to do when you were in charge. No matter what, you had to come up with a plan. What could they do? They couldn’t get the party to come back to the spa—not at this point.
    But maybe, just maybe . . .
    Turning to the girls, Aly stood up tall and announced, “This is what we’re going to do. I got Suzy’s address from Jenica. Charlotte, call the pizza place and have them deliver our order to Suzy’s instead. Lily, pack up the cookies. Brooke, you and I will pack up all of the nail supplies and roll up thephoto backdrops. If we can’t have the party here, we’re going to take the party to Suzy’s. Suzy didn’t tell the team that she’d hijacked the party, so we can just pretend like this was the plan all along.”
    â€œWhat about my streamers?” Brooke asked. “With all the soccer balls on them?”
    â€œWell take those, too,” Aly said. “And the beads and the string also. Quick, let’s go.”

    The girls were collecting all the supplies in bags and boxes when Mom poked her head back in the