Katie and the Cupcake War by Coco Simon Page A

new-fangled bionic knees. But that won’t happen until your grandma is back on her feet.”
    â€œThat won’t take long at all,” Grandma promised.
    â€œGrandma, I have something for you,” I said. I reached into my overnight bag and got out the get-well card that Mia had made and we all signed.
    â€œOh, how beautiful!” Grandma said, and her eyes got teary (maybe that’s where I get it from).
    Normally, when we visit my grandparents, we go out and do stuff. We drive to the beach and then walk around, or play tennis, or go to the driving range to hit golf balls. But I guess Grandma wasn’t supposed to do that stuff, because all morning, Mom and Grandma Carole were doing paperwork, and Grandpa Chuck and I were watching TV. It was kind of boring.
    Then I helped Mom make lunch, and I got an idea.
    â€œMom, do you think Grandma would make cupcakes with us?” I asked. “Maybe we could bring them to the nurses at her doctor’s office.”
    â€œThat’s a lovely idea,” Mom said. “But we’ve got to do all the dishes, okay?”
    â€œOf course!” I said.
    So for the rest of the afternoon we looked through Grandma’s old recipe book and picked out a recipe for banana cinnamon cupcakes. Then we made them, and Grandpa Chuck put on his favorite country music CD. We sang and joked around, and I didn’t worry about Grandma Carole one bit.
    That’s the good thing about making cupcakes. While you’re doing it, it’s hard to worry about other stuff. And at the end you get something delicious to eat. Maybe if everyone baked more cupcakes, the world would be a happier place.

CHAPTER 10
A Bad Day
    I ended up having fun visiting Grandma Carole and Grandpa Chuck, but I was glad when we got home on Sunday. I had lots of homework to do, and by Monday morning I was really eager to see my friends.
    Since I knew I had to focus on work, I decided I had to ignore Callie as much as possible. Mostly, it was easy to do because Callie didn’t seem interested in talking to me (or even looking at me), either. Sometimes it was harder to do, especially because we had a few classes together. But Mia being in the same classes too made it okay.
    Then, when I needed her most, Mia had to leave school, because she had a bad toothache. She left in the middle of social studies. I felt bad forher, but since Mia’s dentist is my mom, I knew she would be okay.
    The next class was science with Ms. Chandar. That day, we were doing a lab where we had to mix some chemicals together in a beaker and then watch the reaction. Normally I’m pretty good at this kind of thing, because it’s sort of like baking. Plus, with Mia as my lab partner, it would’ve been easy.
    But without Mia, I was on my own.
    â€œIt is a simple experiment, Katie,” Ms. Chandar said. “You can do it without a partner.”
    We went to get our ingredients for the experiment, which was a container of blue stuff and a container of clear stuff. I listened carefully as Ms. Chandar told us how to measure out the blue stuff and then pour it into the clear stuff. I carefully began to pour—and then I sneezed.
    I don’t know where it came from. It was one of those random sneezes. It took me by surprise, and I dropped the beaker. The blue stuff spilled all over the lab table in front of me.
    Ms. Chandar didn’t notice, so I had to raise my hand.
    â€œI had an accident,” I told her, which is a pretty embarrassing thing to have to say in front of the whole class.
    Ms. Chandar sighed. “The towels are in the cabinet at the back of the room.”
    As I headed for the towels, I noticed that my hands were bright blue. And, of course, I had to walk right past Maggie and Bella’s table to get to the towels.
    â€œWay to go, Katie,” Maggie said, giggling.
    â€œIs that how you make your cupcakes, too?” Bella asked.
    I ignored them and got the towels. Then I had