The Secret Cookie Club by Martha Freeman Page A

could unfold the top. “Ready?” I asked.
    My mom nodded, and I lifted the flap to reveal what looked like a box full of popcorn with several sheets of paper on top. The top paper read Please compost the popcorn in grown-up handwriting, probably Lucy’s mother’s. One of the other papers looked like the cookie recipe, and there were some crayon drawings. I moved them aside and dug down to see the cookies—so many cookies!—each one wrapped in waxed paper.
    â€œWhat kind are they?” my mother asked.
    I pulled one out, unwrapped it, and breathed the delicious smell of chocolate chips, brown sugar, and vanilla.
    â€œMy favorite!” My mother smiled.
    â€œHey!” I said. “The box was addressed to me .”
    â€œI brought you up to be generous,” said my mother.
    â€œWe’ll spoil our dinner,” I said.
    â€œNot with one cookie,” said my mother, “or possibly two. See? It’s a good thing I went out for milk.”
    *  *  *
    The cookies were delicious—just the right amount crisp and chewy. Using maximum willpower, my mother and I each ate only one before dinner and two after. My dad doesn’tlike nuts, poor guy. He didn’t get any.
    It wasn’t till later in my room that I looked at the drawings Lucy had enclosed. The first one wasn’t really a drawing but more of a sign written in marker. It read: These Cookies Are for Vanquishing the Enemy!
    The other three were crayon drawings by the three kids Lucy babysits. One, titled “Shoshi,” was a black scribbled blob with red eyes and pointy claws. Arlo had signed his name to it in careful block letters.
    The second, also labeled “Shoshi,” showed a stick figure with pink lips and orange flames shooting out of its head. It was signed “Mia.”
    The third, signed “Levi,” showed a tiny, many-legged bug that was about to be squashed by a pink shoe. There was an arrow to the bug labeled “Shoshi,” and an arrow to the shoe labeled “Grace.”
    Looking at the two Shoshi monsters and the Shoshi bug gave me a funny feeling. Things had changed since I wrote to Lucy. Shoshi wasn’t my friend exactly, but she didn’t seem so scary anymore either.
    Still, the drawings were funny, and they reminded me of Lucy. There was extra space on my bulletin board now, so I got thumbtacks out of my desk and put the three of them on display.

CHAPTER 17

    Grace
    In a thousand years, I never would have predicted what happened on Monday at lunchtime: Shoshi and her minions asked me to eat with them!
    Before I answered, I did some quick thinking. At Nashoba Elementary, only losers buy lunch in the cafeteria, but sometimes my parents run out of time in the morning and the losers include me. Today I had a lunch from home, so that was okay, but it brought upthe second question. What kind of sandwich was in it? I like tuna, but it’s stinky. You couldn’t eat it sitting with people you didn’t know that well. Then I remembered: Today’s sandwich was turkey.
    â€œOkay,” I told Nell. It was a warm day for October, so we went to eat outside at the picnic tables under the shelter. I felt funny sitting down with them. I was pretty sure other kids were looking over and whispering. What is that runt Grace Xi doing with those other girls? She is not supposed to have any friends.
    But maybe I was imagining that. Maybe all along when I had thought people were talking behind my back, I was imagining it.
    We unpacked our lunches, and the first thing I noticed was no cookies in mine. Mom must have forgotten about them. The next thing I noticed was that Shoshi had a tuna sandwich! With pickles! And nobody even pinched her nostrils to make fun of her, either.
    We talked about the Walden project—Nell and Deirdre were partners. Then we talked about what we were going to be for Halloween.
    â€œI’m too old for trick-or-treat,” Nell